The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,125

comes from outside.

Anna-Karin gets up, sweat pouring off her. She goes to the window. The barn door is wide open, like a gaping mouth in the red-painted wall. She has the feeling that whatever had tried to take control of her body is playing with her.

She goes out into the hall, pulls on a pair of fur-lined shoes and her thickest winter jacket, then opens the door.

It’s strangely quiet outside and there’s no wind. All the windows are dark in Grandpa’s house. She knows she should call the other Chosen Ones. She knows she shouldn’t do this alone. She knows it could be a trap – it’s likely that it is. But she’s tired of running away, tired of being afraid.

She feels as if she could face down anyone. She’ll bring the killer to his knees and force the truth out of him. And then she’ll call the others. After the threat has been neutralised. Then perhaps she’ll have atoned her crimes. Even in the eyes of the Council.

She stops at the barn door. A familiar smell wafts towards her. She can hear the cows moving in their stalls.

‘Show yourself,’ Anna-Karin says.

A cow moos softly. Another snorts. Anna-Karin takes a step inside and switches on the light.

All she sees are rows of cows looking at her with their big brown eyes. Anna-Karin walks further inside.

The crash comes so suddenly that she screams. She spins around. The barn door is closed. As if it had blown shut. On a windless night.

She goes to the door and pulls at it. It’s locked. Bolted from the outside. And that’s when she smells the smoke.

‘No!’ she shouts. ‘No! Let me out!’

The cows moo and kick in their stalls. They’ve also smelt the smoke and know what it means.

The smoke grows thicker with every second. A loud crackling rises quickly to a deafening roar.

Fire.

Anna-Karin looks for something to smash down the door. The smoke stings her eyes. She realises the fire is spreading faster than should be possible. It’s coming from every direction. It becomes unbearably hot.

‘Anna-Karin!’

Grandpa has managed to get in and is rushing forward as fast as his old legs can carry him. When he reaches her he shoves her towards the door.

‘Run!’ he shouts.

But she can’t leave him. He hurries along the row of stalls, opening them. The cows race out in a wild panic, pushing and bunching together, mooing loudly in their desperate flight. A few jostle past Anna-Karin and she falls headlong on to the concrete floor. Her ankle twists beneath her. All around her the heavy bodies gallop past in a frenzy and she shields her head with her arms.

But she doesn’t have time to call for help before Grandpa is at her side. He’s there with his rough, powerful hands and helps her up, letting her lean on him. They’re only a few metres from the door now, a few steps from safety. Anna-Karin doesn’t see the falling beam until it hits him. He crumples to the floor.

‘Grandpa!’

She doesn’t feel her own pain now. She has to get Grandpa out. She pulls and drags at him and suddenly they’re in the snow, but Anna-Karin keeps going, moving away from the barn until she can go no further.

The fire engulfs the old wooden building with a roar. She hears her mother scream inside their house. But Anna-Karin has eyes only for Grandpa. He looks at her. Grandpa, dear, sweet Grandpa.

‘Anna-Karin …’ he says faintly. ‘I should …’

And then his words give out.

IV

46

THE CRYSTAL CAVE’S sign is midnight blue set with gold curlicue lettering and a sprinkling of little stars and half-moons. Vanessa had hoped that Mona Moonbeam’s shop would be closed. Yet another forgotten victim of the City Mall, a.k.a. the final resting place of failed businesses. But she had caught a whiff of cigarettes and incense as soon as she’d opened the door to the mall. And now she can see through the shop window that three people are waiting to be served in the Crystal Cave. Mona is wearing the same denim outfit as last time, and is receiving a wad of banknotes from an old man who looks to be somewhere between eighty and death.

Vanessa spits out her chewing gum so violently that it bounces against the floor.

Why was she so stupid as to bring up the Crystal Cave? Why had she let herself be talked into coming here?

She knows the answer, of course. They’re desperate.

The Book of Patterns has shown them they need ectoplasm but,