ELLEN

9.50 P.M.

It was almost ten o’clock when she turned into the farmyard. The lamps on the facade and the castle gable were on, but there were no lights on inside. The halls and the kitchen were dark. Likewise on the top floor. There weren’t even any lights on in Margareta’s room.

The front door was open, but that wasn’t that unusual. They almost never locked the kitchen entrance.

Ellen went in and turned the light on in the hall, stood quietly, and listened. Not a sound could be heard.

‘Mum!’ she called.

She’d thought that her mother would be awake when she came home. She was the one who wanted to talk, but Ellen didn’t really know if she could take much more today. The last thing she wanted to do was talk to her mother, and the whole way home, she’d tried to think of what could be so important.

She went into the kitchen and turned on the ceiling light.

On the table was a bottle of gin and a bottle of tonic. Both were half-empty. She must have passed out, thought Ellen, feeling relieved and worried at the same time.

She went upstairs to the corridor of bedrooms and knocked carefully on Margareta’s door. When she didn’t hear anything, she pushed the door open. She didn’t need to turn on the light to see that the bed was empty. She looked around the room and went into the bathroom. No one there, either.

She was seized by fear. ‘Mum!’ she screamed, trying to take a few deep breaths, but it was hard to fill her lungs.

No answer.

The castle was big, but there were only a few rooms they really used.

This wasn’t like her. A thousand different scenarios played out in Ellen’s mind. She snapped her fingers and stamped her feet. It felt as if her legs were falling asleep.

She opened the door to her own room.

A lamp was on and the window was wide open. The curtain and lampshade were completely black with insects, as were the walls and ceiling. Everything from small flies to beetle-like creatures and wasps.

She turned off the lamp and closed the window. There was intense buzzing.

‘Ellen.’

She gasped and turned around.