The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,103

other is working too hard again. Her father has gone back to the newspaper to check the material that’ll be printed after the holiday.

Minoo gets up and goes into the bathroom. She looks at the old map of Engelsfors where Kärrgruvan has been blotted out since the night of the blood-red moon. She puts up her hair in a ponytail before bending over the sink and lathering her face. She rinses it with ice-cold water and examines herself in the mirror.

A black shadow moves silently through the air behind her and disappears through the bathroom door. It had had no form. It might have been a cloud of black smoke, or those spots you see when you’ve rubbed your eyes too hard.

She opens the door and looks out at the dark landing. Nothing. Just her imagination, she tells herself.

*

‘Merry Christmas, bitches!’ Vanessa shouts. She turns up the volume on the amp connected to the computer and climbs on to the table. Then she helps Evelina and Michelle up. They almost bump into each other as they dance. Vanessa steadies herself with the palm of her hand against the ceiling. Her top rises above her belly-button as she rocks to the music. Her heels dig into the soft, cheap pine of Jonte’s kitchen table.

She and Evelina are dancing close to each other and Michelle sinks to her haunches, shakes her butt and rises again. The boys watch with a horny glint in their eyes, but Vanessa ignores them. She looks at her friends, her two best friends in the world. An old song by Beyoncé and Jay-Z has started to play, and all three squeal with delight. They used to dance to it in Vanessa’s living room when they were little – at her house they could play music at full blast – and her mother had liked it so much that she used to come in and dance with them. Evelina and Michelle thought Vanessa’s mum was the coolest in the whole world, and back then so did Vanessa. Of course that was BN: Before Nicke.

The happy feeling dies a little when she thinks of her mother. This is the first Christmas they haven’t celebrated together.

‘Nessa!’ Evelina shouts over the music. ‘How are you feeling?’

Vanessa meets her drunken gaze. If anyone would understand it’s Evelina. Since her parents were divorced, her mother has dated every arsehole there is in Engelsfors. For a few months in year seven, Evelina had virtually lived at Vanessa’s house. That was when her mum’s latest flame had offered to help Evelina wash certain difficult-to-reach places in the shower, a level of degeneracy to which Nicke had never come close.

Yeah, Evelina would understand. Michelle too, for that matter. But who wants to talk about that shit?

‘Fucking awesome!’ Vanessa screams back, and flashes a blinding smile.

She’s going to forget all this crap and party like there’s no tomorrow. After all, there might not be. May as well take advantage of it. When Michelle hands her a can of beer, she chugalugs it and then hurls it across the room, hitting Lucky in the back.

Her engagement ring catches her eye.

Everything’s going to be fine, she thinks. Everything’s going to work out.

Wille breaks free from the throngs of partiers and stands below her. His eyelids are heavy and he’s got a silly smile on his face. Vanessa squats, wobbles unsteadily, takes his face in her hands and kisses him hard. He tastes of smoke and alcohol, and his tongue is warm and wet in her mouth. She sits on the edge of the table, wraps her legs around Wille’s waist and pulls him closer to her. Then she puts her arms around his neck. A slow song she has never heard before filters out of the speakers.

‘You’re so fucking sexy,’ he whispers.

His warm breath against her ear radiates through her body. She sucks his lower lip and bites it. He laughs.

‘Watch it,’ he whispers, and lets his hands slide down to her butt.

‘Do you want to go somewhere else?’ she says.

Wille doesn’t answer. He lifts her down from the table. They hug each other. The song builds, filling the room, as they hold each other. The music is like a bubble that encapsulates her and Wille, while everyone else fades into the background. The only thing in the world that means anything is right here right now, in the warmth of their bodies pressed together.

‘We should go away,’ Wille whispers, into her ear. ‘Fuck school. Let’s go to Thailand.