The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,99
sitting next to each other ever since they got here.
‘We often talk about past, present and future,’ the principal says, ‘but the notion of time as being linear, with a start and a finish, is false. The truth is that time is cyclical, a circle without beginning or end.’
Minoo glances at the others, strangely thrilled to be back. Vanessa is listening with her mouth half open as the principal speaks.
‘Sensitive witches with metal as their element can pick up on events from other points along the time circle, events that, according to the normal human understanding of time, have either taken place or haven’t happened yet.’
‘I don’t care.’ Ida glares at her. ‘How do I stop it happening again? There’s no way I want to have, like, another epileptic fit in front of the whole school.’
‘There’s nothing you can do to stop it,’ the principal says, ‘but you can learn to recognise the signs so that you know when you’re about to have a vision. Try to find a calm, secluded place if your mouth starts to feel very dry, for example, or you get a powerful sense of unreality, dizziness or—’
‘It won’t happen again,’ Ida says, mostly to herself. ‘I’m not going to let it.’
‘Your visions seem to be empathetic,’ the principal says.
Linnéa snorts and Minoo has to suppress a smile. She never imagined that ‘Ida’ and ‘empathetic’ would ever be used in the same sentence, at least not without ‘is not remotely’ appearing in between.
‘You see the visions through another person’s eyes and feel what she or he feels,’ the principal says, glaring reproachfully at Linnéa.
‘But how could I experience everything, too, if Ida was the one having the vision?’ Anna-Karin asks, plucking out a lump of wax. Several strands of hair come with it and she winces.
‘You’re connected together,’ the principal says.
Minoo thinks she sounds like a lame self-help guru.
‘I don’t think it was Gustaf,’ Ida says suddenly.
Everyone stares at her.
‘What do you mean?’ the principal asks.
‘He wouldn’t murder anyone. Why would he do such a terrible thing?’
‘There could be all sorts of reasons—’ the principal begins.
‘You don’t know G as well as I do,’ Ida cuts in.
‘You’re not best friends just because you gave him a silly nickname,’ Vanessa says.
‘You seriously believe that G would kill Rebecka? His own girlfriend?’ Ida exclaims.
‘Men kill their girlfriends all the time,’ Linnéa says coldly.
‘I’m not so sure it was Gustaf either,’ says Anna-Karin. ‘It’s hard to explain. It was him. And yet it wasn’t.’
For Ida and Anna-Karin to be in agreement about anything is so shocking to the others that they’re all silent for a long moment.
‘I think we should get rid of him straight away,’ Linnéa says. The blue flame lights her pale face, making her eyes glitter darkly.
‘What do you mean “get rid of him”?’ Minoo asks.
Of course she knows, but she can’t believe Linnéa’s serious.
‘What do you think I mean? What else are we supposed to do? Two of us are already dead.’
‘You mean we should kill G?’ Ida cries out. ‘You’re out of your mind!’
Minoo looks at the principal, but she’s simply watching them. It’s as if she wants to see what they make of this situation. As if it’s some kind of test.
Linnéa looks at Minoo harshly. ‘I suppose you and Rebecka weren’t such good friends after all.’
Linnéa looks like a stranger. Her eyes are filled with hatred. And Minoo understands. She, too, has thought of revenge, fantasised about it, but now, when she sees the same feelings in Linnéa’s face, she realises how wrong it is to choose that path. How dangerous.
‘I mean, you don’t seem to care about punishing the person who did it,’ Linnéa continues.
Anger flares in Minoo, like a rabid dog pulling at its leash, but she keeps it in check. ‘We can’t just murder him,’ she says.
‘He murdered Elias.’
‘I don’t think Elias would have wanted you to kill someone in revenge.’
For a moment she thinks Linnéa is going to hurl herself at her. But Linnéa stays where she is. ‘First, you don’t know a fucking thing about Elias. Second, Gustaf isn’t “people”. He’s not even a human being. He’s a demon!’
‘He certainly isn’t.’
Everyone turns to the principal. She’s staring into the blue flame. ‘At least, I’d say that’s highly unlikely. Demons seldom take on physical form in our world.’
‘I don’t give a shit about your statistics. Now that we know who the murderer is, we can stop