The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,131

from Elias and Rebecka’s graves, milk left to curdle in the moonlight, and spit from Minoo and Vanessa. Now all that’s missing is a dollop of Ida’s saliva.

‘First she spends the entire autumn acting like a diva at school and fucking things up for us,’ Vanessa continues, ‘and now she doesn’t want anything to do with us, and she’s fucking us up again. It’s not as if any of the rest of us volunteered for this.’

‘I know,’ Minoo says. ‘But I think things have been pretty hard for Anna-Karin with everything that’s happened. They’ll have to sell the farm, I heard.’

The fire has attracted a lot of attention. Rumours are rife that Anna-Karin’s mother set fire to the barn to cash in on the insurance.

‘But why is she avoiding us?’ Vanessa asks. ‘All we’ve done is tried to support her.’

Minoo has wondered the same thing. Anna-Karin has ignored all her attempts to get in touch. In the beginning she didn’t think it strange. Anna-Karin had to be in shock. But she’s become increasingly convinced that Anna-Karin is hiding something.

‘I think there’s something fishy about that accident,’ Linnéa says, as she enters the kitchen.

‘Why?’ Minoo asks.

‘I just feel like she’s hiding something.’ Linnéa goes up to the table and glances into the mixing bowl. ‘Ugh, gross,’ she says.

‘Looking forward to doing some finger-painting?’ Vanessa asks Linnéa.

‘One of you can take over now. My arm’s about to fall off,’ Minoo says.

Linnéa takes the bowl and spoon out of Minoo’s hands and starts stirring. Minoo leans back in her chair and watches her.

This is the first ritual they’ll perform, and since Anna-Karin refuses to take part, their chances of success have plummeted. Now it’s up to Linnéa.

The front door opens and slams shut.

‘And here comes Ida,’ Linnéa says, not with hostility but far from enthusiastically.

Ida has dark circles under her eyes and is sniffing. She’s got the flu that’s been going around at school and ought to be at home.

Linnéa hands the bowl to her without a word. Ida coughs and spits into it. Linnéa grimaces and gives it another stir with the spoon.

‘Shit,’ she says.

Minoo looks into the bowl. What had been a grainy gloop just a moment ago has turned into a smooth reddish-brown paste.

‘Well, we’d better get the show on the road,’ Linnéa says.

The few pieces of furniture in Nicolaus’s living room are lined up against the walls. The blinds are drawn. All the lights are switched off. Ida has lit stocky white candles and placed them around the room, four in each corner. For some reason, the ritual cannot be performed either in daylight or with electric lighting.

It looks like something out of a B movie in which the protagonists are about to engage in either a satanic mass or a sex orgy or both, Vanessa thinks.

‘Now remember,’ Ida says, ‘once the ritual has begun, no one is allowed to leave the room or cross the outer circle. If that happens the whole thing’s ruined. If you need to go to the bathroom, do it now. I’ve got to take a painkiller.’

She disappears into the kitchen.

Linnéa is standing in the middle of the room. She’s put her hair into a ponytail and pushed aside her long fringe. Vanessa can see that she’s afraid.

The light from the flickering candles dances across the walls and their faces. The gravity of the moment starts to sink in.

‘Okay.’ Ida coughs as she comes back into the room. ‘Are you ready, Linnéa?’

‘Yes,’ she answers quietly.

Vanessa unscrews the lid of the jar with the rest of the ectoplasm and hands it to Linnéa. She takes it, then grabs Vanessa’s hand. ‘If anything goes wrong …’ she mumbles.

‘It won’t,’ Vanessa answers. ‘You can do this. And we’ll be here all the time.’

Linnéa nods and lets go.

Minoo steps forward and places the mixing bowl with a small empty glass jar on the floor at Linnéa’s feet. If they succeed, the jar should be full of truth serum when the ritual is over. ‘Good luck,’ she says.

‘Thanks.’

‘Good luck,’ Ida mumbles.

Linnéa casts her a glance. ‘Thanks,’ she answers briefly. ‘Here goes.’

Vanessa stands by the wall with Ida and Minoo. Fucking Anna-Karin. She should be here, too. She shouldn’t have let Linnéa do this on her own. For the two of them the burden – and the risk – would have been much less.

‘The circle that binds,’ Ida says.

It has begun.

Linnéa takes a long, deep breath. Then she dips the three middle fingers of her left hand into the jar