The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,10

a pair of black boots. There’s someone sitting on the toilet seat.

Minoo stands up so suddenly that she feels faint.

‘What is it?’ asks Linnéa.

‘I think there’s someone in there …’ It occurs to her that it might be some kind of joke. Maybe the whole thing is being filmed and her ridiculous reaction will be put up on the Net. ‘But I’m not sure …’

Linnéa goes into the adjacent cubicle and stands on the toilet seat. She peers over the partition. Minoo waits for a reaction but it doesn’t come. The seconds pass, one by one.

‘What is it?’

Linnéa climbs down from the toilet seat and disappears.

‘What did you see?’

No answer. The open window swings in a sudden gust of wind. Minoo goes over to Linnéa. She is leaning with her back against the wall, staring ahead vacantly.

‘It’s Elias,’ she says finally.

Elias Malmgren? Minoo has seen him in town with Linnéa several times. She must mean him. ‘What’s happened? Is he okay or what?’ Minoo asks even though she knows the answer.

Linnéa drops to her knees and throws up into the toilet bowl. She keeps retching until only thick, clear saliva is left. Minoo stands there, stunned, until Linnéa turns around. Her thick eyeliner has started to run. Their eyes meet and Minoo realises that Linnéa is falling apart. ‘Come on,’ she says, and holds out her hand.

Linnéa grabs it and scrambles to her feet. She looks around wildly.

‘We have to get somebody,’ Minoo says.

Linnéa stares at her. She shakes her head. ‘We can’t leave him.’

‘I’ll stay,’ Minoo says, immediately regretting it.

‘We have to get him out.’

‘We’re going to,’ Minoo says, and wonders how she’s managing to stay so calm.

Linnéa runs out the door and the window slams shut in the cross draught. For a brief moment, Minoo becomes aware of the smell before the window blows open again. It’s a smell she’s never come across before, but she instantly realises what it is. It’s the smell of death. But she can’t think about it. Not now.

She looks towards the cubicle. So much blood.

She feels the panic creeping up inside her when she sees the razor-sharp shards in the sink.

Minoo jumps when the door is thrown open. The school caretaker enters, holding a toolbox. He’s in his forties and has a shock of greying hair. His ice-blue eyes are wide open and staring straight at her. He mumbles something unintelligible, sets down his toolbox, and rummages around in it.

Linnéa returns and goes up to Minoo and takes her hand again, gripping it convulsively. A moment later the principal arrives.

Minoo has seen Adriana Lopez only once before, when the new students were welcomed to the school. She looks between thirty and forty, with a short bob and fringe. She is wearing a knee-length black skirt and a white blouse with all of the buttons done up. Attractive but stern. Not a principal to whom you would take your problems, Minoo senses.

‘Girls, you can’t stay here,’ she says.

‘I’m staying,’ Linnéa says.

The principal meets her gaze. ‘Leave, now,’ she says.

‘We’re staying,’ Minoo says.

The caretaker takes out a screwdriver. It’s easy to open these doors from the outside. Presumably they were designed to be so. Linnéa moves closer to Minoo and squeezes her hand even harder. ‘Don’t look,’ she whispers.

And Minoo wants to shut her eyes. She wants to leave. But instead she stands there wide-eyed as the door swings open.

The caretaker turns away and the principal gasps. Minoo can’t move. The shock is like ice surging through her body.

Elias’s head is pitched back and his eyes are open, staring at the ceiling. His arms are hanging limply at his sides. His right hand is still holding a big shard of the shattered mirror. There is a wide gash in his left arm.

Minoo and Linnéa put their arms around each other. It just happens. Minoo isn’t the type to hug people, and senses that Linnéa isn’t either. Right now, all they need is to feel the closeness of somebody else, someone alive.

Far away, in the real world, she hears sirens approaching.

4

NEARLY ALL THE students are gathered in the playground. They’re crowded together, jostling for space. The conversations are fervent but hushed. No one knows who’s died, but there are rumours floating around that it’s Elias Malmgren. The teachers have sent everyone home, but clearly nobody’s planning to leave until the corpse is carried out.

The corpse. Rebecka shudders. She and Gustaf are standing outside the front entrance. He’s standing behind her with his arms wrapped around