The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,140

you.

Those words follow Minoo into her sleep.

50

THE SUN IS filtering through the half-open blinds in Nicolaus’s living room. Anna-Karin is sitting on one of the chairs, hunched forward, staring at her feet. She’s wearing red socks. Her left big toe is peeping out.

Now she’s told him everything, without looking him in the eye. She’s told him about her mother. About the boiling water. About Jari. About the ‘accident’. That it was really an attack against her. That she’d tried to play the heroine and it ended in disaster. She’s just finished telling him about Grandpa and now there’s nothing more to say. She’s told him everything and Nicolaus still hasn’t said a word.

Anna-Karin runs her foot across the floor and something sticky attaches itself to her sock. She bends down and plucks at something white, like chewing-gum.

‘Ectoplasm,’ Nicolaus says. ‘They performed a ritual here the other day. You were indirectly involved, from what I understand.’

Anna-Karin looks up. His expression is warm. She’s been expecting a dressing-down. Now she has to fight to hold back the tears. She’s been having regular crying fits ever since she visited Grandpa yesterday. It’s as if all those years of pent-up sadness are coming out.

‘Do you hate me?’ she asks.

‘Of course not.’

‘But the others do, don’t they? They’ve got to.’

‘Nobody hates you, Anna-Karin,’ Nicolaus says calmly. ‘But you should have told us earlier.’

Anna-Karin nods. ‘I was ashamed.’

‘We all do things we’re ashamed of,’ Nicolaus says.

‘But I’ve done so many.’

Nicolaus cocks his head to one side in a way that reminds her a little of Grandpa. ‘Consider my fate for a moment, if you will. I have but one single task: to guide the seven of you. And already two of you are lost. If anyone should feel shame, it’s me.’

‘Do you?’

‘I did,’ he says. ‘But I realised that self-pity had become a place where I hid from the world. A kind of poisoned refuge.’

Anna-Karin says nothing. She picks at the white clump. It feels warm.

‘You’ve made many mistakes. But just as you must learn to forgive your fellow human beings, you must also learn to forgive yourself. Forgiveness is always at hand, Anna-Karin, if you have the courage to accept it.’

Anna-Karin lets Nicolaus’s words sink in. She thinks of Grandpa again.

And I would love you no matter what mistakes you made. Even if you did something wrong, I’d love you, and if someone wanted to hurt you I’d defend you till my last drop of blood.

‘I’m afraid of what the others will say,’ she almost whispers. ‘It’d feel easier if I could tell them one by one … Or, at least, not all at the same time.’

‘Start with the one you feel most comfortable with. Then we’ll call the others together.’

‘I was thinking about something from that night,’ Anna-Karin says. ‘The person who attacked me … Gustaf or his double or whoever it was. He must be like me.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘The voice in my head and how it controlled me. It’s almost like what I can do to others. The one who’s trying to kill us must be an earth witch.’

Gustaf’s family lives on the outskirts of town. The afternoon sun makes the blanket of snow sparkle. The naked birch branches are covered with a thin layer of ice – they look as though they’ve been crafted from delicate glass. Beyond the field, the black water of the canal swirls slowly past. Minoo wonders how many times Rebecka walked along here with Gustaf.

Footprints appear in the snow next to her as she walks. She and Vanessa have claimed to have caught flu to escape today’s practice session at the fairground. The principal swallowed their lie without comment. Minoo doesn’t doubt the woman’s intelligence, but it’s surprisingly easy to lie to her.

They turn down the last street before the edge of the forest. The terrace houses have two floors, with the same dark red wooden panelled façades and black window frames.

They stop in front of Gustaf’s door.

Minoo almost wishes she could have carried out this task on her own. What will Gustaf say when he thinks they’re alone? Will he expose her as someone who goes around locking lips with her dead friend’s murderer? What should she say if he does? How will Vanessa react?

Minoo rings the doorbell. She takes a deep breath and Vanessa gives her hand a squeeze. She doesn’t know if it was meant to say, ‘Let’s do this’, ‘You’ll be fine’ or ‘Pull yourself together, for Christ’s sake. You look like