The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,112
just following the Council’s orders.’
Minoo realises that was almost an apology. ‘You mean the Council’s wrong?’
‘No,’ the principal responds emphatically. ‘Absolutely not. I just wish I could do more for you. I know you think I’m some kind of ice queen …’ she pauses ‘… but I care about all of you. I care about you, Minoo. The last thing I want is for anything to happen to you. What happened to Elias and Rebecka torments me more than I can say.’
So there is a human being beneath the principal’s cool exterior.
‘You have to promise me to be careful and not take any action on your own,’ she continues. ‘I know it’s difficult, but we have to trust the Council’s judgement. And study the Book of Patterns.’
It’s the first time the principal has said ‘we’ without meaning herself and the Council.
‘I promise,’ Minoo says, and empties her mug before setting it in one of the cup-holders between the seats. ‘I should go home now.’
‘Shall I drive you?’
Minoo shakes her head. ‘It’s okay,’ she says, and climbs out of the car.
‘Remember what I said,’ Adriana urges, before Minoo shuts the door.
Minoo nods obediently to her through the side window and waves.
Once the principal’s car has disappeared around the corner, Minoo takes out her mobile and calls Nicolaus. After a few minutes they decide what has to be done. Everything that the principal said has confirmed what they already suspected. They can’t wait for her and the Council any more. They have to take charge of their own lives. While they still have them.
42
RUBBER SOLES SQUEAKING on the floor, angry shouts and cheers, muffled thuds when a boot connects with a ball. The school’s gym feels completely different when Engelsfors Soccer Club practises there. It’s filled with another kind of energy, more focused, but the smells are the same. Sweat, rubber and stale air.
Vanessa is sitting invisibly in the stands, trying to take an interest in the practice game to make the time pass more quickly. She’s not succeeding. She’s never understood how anyone can be bothered to do something so meaningless as chase after a ball, much less watch other people doing it. There’s at least a billion things she’d rather do than follow Gustaf.
If Gustaf is a serial killer in league with demons, he’s doing a very good job of hiding it. Vanessa wonders if she’s thrown away half her Christmas break for nothing.
Kevin Månsson’s burly father is the coach, and now he blows the whistle. Vanessa looks at the big clock hanging above the wall bars. At last. The guys on the pitch gather in a group, exchange the obligatory backslaps, drink water from plastic bottles, pretend-wrestle and howl. Vanessa sighs impatiently. It’s at moments like these that she remembers why she could never be with a guy her own age.
She tiptoes down from the stands and attaches herself to the boisterous band. She’s learned not to wear scent or wash her hair before she tails Gustaf. She made that mistake the first time she attended a practice game. Kevin Månsson had started shouting that someone smelt like a poof and began sniffing around, like a bloodhound on speed, to find the culprit.
She follows them into the changing room, where they untie their laces and pull off their sweaty shirts. They root around in their bags for towels and shower gel.
It’s like entering a secret parallel universe. She’s seen some of the cutest guys in the school lathering themselves in the shower. On the other hand she’s also seen Kevin, alone, discover a big spot on his upper arm, suck out its contents and spit into the bin. Some things you just don’t want to know about other people. Some images you simply can’t forget, no matter how much you’d like to.
Gustaf isn’t like the others. More low key. As if he doesn’t have a lot to prove. That’s probably why girls have always fallen in love with him.
He’s sitting in the sauna now. His skin is gleaming with sweat. He’s surrounded by the others, and yet isn’t really with them. Vanessa can see that he’s pretending to laugh at their jokes. No one picks up on it, and she wonders if he was like this even before Rebecka died.
Before he killed her.
If it was him. Could it really have been Gustaf?
*
Early this morning everyone except Ida met at Nicolaus’s house. They’ve been there every morning since the attack on Minoo to practise resisting magic.