The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,30
me, did you come of your own free will, or were you brought here by a mysterious force, something beyond the realm of human understanding?’
The same question, but he had asked it differently this time. It’s obvious to Minoo that Nicolaus is hoping she’ll say she came of her own accord.
‘I’m going to kill you if you did this,’ says Vanessa.
Nicolaus is visibly deflated.
‘It happened to me, too,’ Minoo tells Vanessa. ‘It was as if something took control of me.’
At that moment they hear the gravel crunching again.
It’s Anna-Karin. The hem of her flannel nightgown hangs in shreds. Her feet and calves are covered with mud and God knows what else. She’s panting heavily and her cheeks are flushed.
It is indeed Anna-Karin, but there’s something different about her. She looks exhilarated in a way Minoo has never seen before.
Nicolaus’s eyes widen. ‘God help me,’ he mumbles. ‘There are three of them.’
‘Four,’ says Vanessa, pointing at Rebecka Mohlin, who suddenly appears behind Anna-Karin.
Rebecka is wearing her baggy tracksuit trousers and a fleece. She stands there, huddled up, looking at the others.
Something grasps against Minoo’s arm, and she spins around with a pathetic little shriek. Linnéa is standing behind her. She’s still wearing her black hoody. Her eyes are bloodshot and her gaze unsteady. ‘Minoo, what’s going on?’ she asks. ‘Is this really happening?’
‘It looks like it,’ Minoo answers.
‘I’m losing my fucking mind,’ she whispers, glancing at Vanessa and Nicolaus.
‘No, you’re not.’
Linnéa doesn’t listen. Her grip on Minoo’s arm tightens when she catches sight of something behind her.
Minoo turns and sees Ida Holmström walking towards them, her blonde hair cascading over her shoulders and a white lace nightgown fluttering around her. She seems to have stepped out of some black-and-white horror film, with the silver heart at her throat glinting in the moonlight and her eyes staring vacantly like a zombie’s.
Minoo looks at Nicolaus, who mumbles to himself as he runs his fingers through his grizzled wavy hair.
‘There’s only supposed to be one of you!’ he exclaims. ‘As it was written, “The Chosen One shall come to the sacred place in the glow of the blood-red moon.” There I am to meet and guide her …’ His voice drops to a whisper. ‘There can be only one of you. How am I to know which?’
He falls silent. Minoo realises that someone has to start asking the right questions. ‘Was everyone brought here like some kind of radio-controlled robot?’
The resulting silence speaks volumes. Minoo feels an enormous sense of relief. Whatever’s happening, it’s not just happening to her.
‘Okay. That means we’ve all come here “in the glow of the blood-red moon”.’
‘Wait,’ says Nicolaus. He sounds breathless.
Minoo can see that he’s struggling to clear the banks of fog in his head.
Suddenly the words are pouring out: ‘We have been awoken from our torpor for a reason. The Chosen One shall lead the fight against evil, and I shall guide her. The Chosen One possesses enormous powers, and she alone can save us all from destruction.’
Anna-Karin brushes her hair away from her face and looks at Nicolaus. ‘The rest of you can go home,’ she says. ‘I’m the Chosen One.’
Anna-Karin’s heart is pounding so hard that she thinks it’ll explode when everyone looks at her. Even though Nicolaus has mentioned evil and destruction, it’s more frightening for her to speak in front of the girls. But she has to be brave. She knows that what she’s about to say is true. ‘I can make people do things. It happened yesterday and today,’ she says. She’s speaking too quickly – she knows she sounds stupid.
‘Maybe someone should call the psychiatric hospital,’ Ida says, with a cackle. She seems to expect the others to join in, but no one does. No one laughs at Anna-Karin. Just Ida. Vile, despicable Ida.
It happens again. Anna-Karin’s fear melts away, exposing a bedrock of raw hatred, incredibly powerful and hard. She is the Chosen One. And she’s going to show them.
Speak the truth, she commands. Speak the truth about why you read that poem in the auditorium today.
Ida turns pale when her lips start to move. She tries to force them together, to stop the words, but they spew out of her like vomit.
‘I read that poem because I wanted everyone to believe I cared. But I don’t care. I think it’s just as well that people like Elias commit suicide.’
Minoo and Rebecka just manage to grab Linnéa before she hurls herself at Ida.