Anna-Karin’s mother made dinner. Deep-frozen meatballs heated in the microwave and canned fruit salad with mayonnaise dressing. They eat in front of the TV set, as usual. Mom would have liked to do this even when they lived on the farm. It was Grandpa who insisted that they should sit together around the kitchen table.
Anna-Karin and her mom don’t speak to each other, not once. The TV is on some show about a millionaire who pretends to be poor. Later on, the millionaire reveals who he is and gives away tons of money to truly poor people who become so pleased and grateful, they are crying with happiness. The program makes Anna-Karin feel a little nauseated. Or maybe it’s just that salady thing. Once again, she has eaten too much and it wasn’t even tasty.
‘Thanks for the dinner,’ Anna-Karin says and gets up.
‘Sure,’ Mom says absently and lights a cigarette.
Her eyes stay fixed on the TV screen.
Anna-Karin goes to her room, turns on the computer. With Pepper purring in her lap, she starts chasing information about forest death but nothing fits with what she has seen. Instead she drifts away on the Internet, looking up veterinary schools in places far away from Engelsfors. But what matters is doing well enough this high-school year. And the next one. And hope the apocalypse doesn’t get in the way.
She looks at her watch. Time, she realizes, to set out for Nicolaus’s place. She’s told him that she wants a ride to the cemetery, but actually she wants to find out how he reacted to Linnéa’s find.
The TV is still on when Anna-Karin pads through the living room. Mom is lying on her side and snoring a little. Anna-Karin tiptoes over to the sofa, picks up the ashtray and takes it to the kitchen to soak the butts under the tap.
As Anna-Karin leaves their block, she takes a look at the house across the road, the shut-down library. They have been refurbishing it all summer. The large windows are covered in brown paper, but light is seeping out through the gaps.
Anna-Karin wonders who is going to set up shop there and is feeling sorry for the owners already. They’ll do well if they can hang on for a year.
She starts walking through the center of town.
It is Monday night and not a soul is around, as usual. Here and there, the blue light of a TV lights up a window. The August moon is like a fat, bright yellow cheese. The outside air is still warm and Anna-Karin longs for the end of this seemingly endless summer.
She crosses Storvall Square and turns into Gnejsgatan, where she stops in front of the three-story building covered in green-painted render.
The front door slides open after just a slight push. Anna-Karin walks up to the only door on the ground floor and presses the doorbell.
‘Good evening, Anna-Karin,’ Nicolaus says when he opens the door.
She hasn’t seen him for a week and since then, he has tanned a little. His ice-blue eyes seem to glitter more brightly than usual. He is neatly dressed in slacks and shirt, but his gray-streaked hair is long and tousled.
He is quite good-looking.
If only Mom would fall for someone like him, Anna-Karin thinks.
‘Sorry … am I too early?’ she asks.
‘You’re always welcome here,’ Nicolaus says as he ushers her in.
When she enters the living room the first thing she notices is the fern. Apart from the old town map and the beautiful silver crucifix on the wall, Nicolaus’s apartment is completely bare. No rugs, no curtains, nothing to cover up the worn coffee table and no books in the bookshelf. But a fern in a white plastic pot has been placed on the windowsill. It’s heartbreaking to think of Nicolaus going out to get something to brighten his lonely rooms.
‘That’s a nice fern,’ she says.
Nicolaus’s face lights up.
‘Isn’t it? I felt something green was called for. You know, in the middle of this drought.’
Anna-Karin nearly says something about the dieback in the forest, but doesn’t. Nicolaus is surely under enough stress already.
‘You look preoccupied,’ he says.
‘Mostly because I was wondering how you would respond. I mean, to this gravestone thing.’
Nicolaus’s smile seems slightly forced.
‘It has its morbid sides, I must admit.’
The doorbell rings and Nicolaus answers the door.
Minoo’s voice comes floating in from the stairwell.
‘Hi, Nicolaus.’
She looks surprised at finding Anna-Karin in the living room.
‘Are you, too …?’
Anna-Karin ends her sentence for her.
‘Here to hitch a ride? Yes, I am.’
They exchange a glance. The same reason has brought them here. Anna-Karin asks herself if Nicolaus realizes.
Vanessa opens the windows wide even though she knows it’s pointless. Outside, the air is as warm and muggy as in Jonte’s living room. Not improved, of course, by Jonte, Lucky and Wille trying to break some record for being stoned.
But Wille has promised Vanessa that now she’s going back to school, he’ll lay off smoking most of the time and find himself a job. Vanessa has made up her mind to believe him.
Back on the sofa next to Wille, she relaxes. But she must set out for the cemetery soon. Mom thinks that she’s staying the night with Evelina, who naturally agreed straight away to provide an alibi because it would allow Vanessa to be with Wille. Meanwhile, Wille has been told that she has to stay at home. Tomorrow morning, at breakfast, she will have to tell Mom that she came home in the middle of the night because she and Evelina had fallen out about something. In fact, Vanessa is preparing to lie to her mother, her boyfriend and her best friend, all in the same evening. Since she became one of the Chosen Ones, she has had to lie more than ever before in her life. It’s getting hard to keep track of all the fibs.
‘Wow … it’s so fucking nice.’ Lucky is moaning with pleasure as he stuffs his face with lemon curd biscuits.
Crumbs spray from his lips in a fine shower. Lucky’s insatiable hunger after smoking weed reminds Vanessa of what it used to be like when the Chosen Ones had been practicing magic and simply had to gobble food and sweets afterwards.
‘Nessa, have a beer at least,’ Wille says, enveloping her in a cloud of sweet smoke. ‘It makes me tense when you just sit around.’
‘Don’t be uptight,’ Lucky says and jabs her arm. ‘You’re missing out on having a good time. You should’ve come along to Götis last Saturday. Totally sick night.’
‘I can live with missing one night at Götis.’
‘Just as well. I mean, it’s not like you’ve much choice.’
He looks very full of himself because, for once, he has the upper hand. After the end of the school year, Vanessa and Evelina had managed to get banned from Götvändaren, the only hotel and hanging-out venue in town. A broken toilet and extensive water damage were part of the picture. The owners would definitely have pressed charges if they hadn’t been underage and shouldn’t have been admitted to the nightclub in the first place.
‘You should’ve seen Wille—’ Lucky goes on, but Jonte interrupts him.
‘Shut it.’
It silences Lucky instantly. He starts fiddling with a new joint.
‘Nessa …’ Wille says, putting his head to the side in an attempt to look cute and succeeding very nicely. ‘Why don’t you want to party with us?’
‘Because tonight, I turn into a superhero with a secret mission,’ she tells him gravely. ‘Sooo sorry.’
Wille just laughs, oblivious to any subtexts.
Vanessa catches Jonte watching her with his dark, intense eyes. At times, she feels that he knows too much about what is going on. Or, at least, that he’s somehow more aware than he should be.
The ugly cuckoo clock starts calling the hour. Vanessa has to leave.
‘You’re so lovely,’ Wille says. ‘Out-of-this-world lovely. You know that, don’t you? The best fiancée a man could hope for. The best in the entire world. Too good for me.’
Vanessa looks at him. Maybe his unruly blonde hair needs a cut, but Vanessa likes the way he looks. She kisses him before getting up from the sofa, a lingering kiss.
‘I’m off home now,’ she says and turns to Jonte. ‘OK if I borrow your bike?’
He nods, tugs at his cap. Jonte can’t refuse her anything. Vanessa knows too much about him. Things that he wants to stay secret and fears that she will give away to Wille. Like: Jonte has slept with Linnéa, Wille’s ex. And Linnéa pocketed Jonte’s handgun. And that was the gun found this winter in the dining area, next to Max.
Vanessa zooms along the road with soft air rushing past her bare legs. It feels good but is nowhere near enough to cool her. More than anything she’d like to lie down in a deep freeze, hands crossed on her breast, like a vampire in a coffin.
The bike is just as useless as its owner. The handlebars are wonky and pull to the left, and the whole thing rattles alarmingly at the slightest hole in the road. Vanessa is positive she hears lots of little tinkling noises, as if she’s leaving a trail of lost bits like screws and nuts.
The white, rendered stone wall around the cemetery glows spookily in the strong moonlight. The others are already there, waiting by the gate.
They all look tense.
Vanessa, on the other hand, feels almost relieved. At last, something is happening. They will have something to worry about, other than when the demons will strike next.
The bike bumps on something and wobbles. Vanessa is nearly catapulted off before she manages to swing it around and skid to a halt in front of the others. Fucking bike from hell! She kicks it as she jumps off. She feels a sharp pain in her big toe and swears some more under her breath.
Vanessa doesn’t even have to look at Linnéa to know that she’s grinning. She longs achingly for the old days when she would have shared the joke with her.
Linnéa has promised them that she no longer reads their thoughts. Explained that she only kept her power a secret because she didn’t want them to be scared of her. But nothing she can say will ever heal the wound. Vanessa now questions every good moment they have spent together. Did Linnéa read her mind all the time? Was that why she always seemed to know what to say? After the dining hall fight against Max the two of them had become so close. Or had their friendship started even earlier?
Vanessa often thinks of the Saturday night when she had turned up in Linnéa’s apartment. They had been laughing together at everything sick and bizarre that had happened in their lives. She only realized how much that memory meant when it was ruined for her.
At first, she had been furious with Linnéa and that made ignoring her much easier. Later, it became harder and harder. Vanessa is amazed at how much she misses her. But as soon as she considers forgiving her, what Linnéa did comes back to her and the old anger erupts again.
It’s all so awful. To be without Linnéa is as impossible as to forgive her.
‘Now what? Are we supposed to stand around here all night?’ Ida asks.
Nicolaus looks stern.
‘You’re right, Miss Holmström. Let’s get this over and done with.’
They enter the cemetery. Their shoes make crunching noises on the gravel. Vanessa is staring straight ahead when Linnéa comes alongside her.
‘Hi. How are you?’ Linnéa says.
‘Fine.’ Vanessa makes the short word sound dismissive.
If only Linnéa would stop looking at her like that. Vanessa repeats Melvin’s favorite tune as a mantra to prevent herself from accidental thoughts that Linnéa might listen in on.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are! Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky!
After a sidelong glance at Vanessa, Linnéa moves on to the front of the group. She waves to the others, a signal that they are to follow her into the old part of the cemetery.
A narrow path runs between crumbling blocks of stone and heavy cast-iron crosses. For several hundred years now, no one has known what the people buried here looked like while they were alive, or what kind of people they were. It is a strangely fascinating, dizzying thought.
‘Here it is,’ Linnéa says.
She stops at a gravestone that looks unimpressive compared with the grander memorials. She lights a torch and directs the beam at Nicolaus’s name.
Minoo observes Nicolaus. He stands absolutely still, like one of those ghastly mime characters at festivals who pretend to be statues. She wonders what he’s feeling.
Ida breaks the silence.
‘So, Nicolaus had an ancestor with the same name. What I don’t get is, why do we check out a graveyard in the middle of the night? Does Cat want us to take up genealogy? Or what?’
Ida’s tone of voice makes Minoo cringe.
‘Memento mori,’ she says, fighting to control her voice. ‘Remember you must die. It said so in the letter Nicolaus wrote to himself. We have been wondering about it all this time. Now, maybe, we’ll find out.’
Ida raises her eyebrows and looks at Nicolaus, who still hasn’t said a word.
‘Fine. You’d better tell us then,’ she says. ‘What is so special about this grave?’
He simply shakes his head.
Minoo realizes that she’s being unfair but, at this moment, he is so frustrating. She had no idea what she’d expected from him when he confronted the grave. But something, at least.
‘What do you think, maybe we should carry out a ritual?’ Anna-Karin asks.
Everyone looks at Minoo and she can’t help wondering why it has come to this. Why is she supposed to have the answers, she who can’t read the Book of Patterns and doesn’t even have her own element?
‘I don’t know. We could seek guidance from the book …’
‘I’ve tried already and didn’t find anything useful,’ Linnéa says. ‘Besides, what we have to do is perfectly obvious.’
She pauses, looks at the others.
‘We have to start digging.’
It has occurred to Minoo, too, but she has dismissed the idea. They have done quite a few bizarre things together. Conducted magic rituals, fought demons – but to dig up a grave …
Still, she can’t come up with an alternative.
‘That’s simply disgusting,’ Ida says. ‘Do you want us to start clawing at the ground here and now?’
‘You will absolutely not break the peace of the grave,’ Nicolaus says suddenly.
Minoo glances at him. His face has taken on a determined, authoritarian look. A look that won’t allow you to argue. This is a side of Nicolaus that she hasn’t seen before.
‘What do you suggest we do?’ Minoo asks feebly.
‘Nothing. You do nothing. It is a mystery, I concede that. So it should remain. This is consecrated ground.’
‘But …’
‘No ifs, no buts!’
‘What is your problem?’ Linnéa asks. ‘It was your familiar that led us to this grave. It was you who wrote that letter to yourself, complete with the clue memento mori. Therefore, you made us come here. Back when you still remembered things, this was exactly what you wanted us to do. So why hold us back now?’
Nicolaus just looks at her. Then he turns away and leaves.
Anna-Karin runs after Nicolaus as he crosses the cemetery.
He takes such long strides it’s hard to catch up with him. Finally, she can reach out and put her hand on his shoulder. He stops instantly.
‘Wait!’ she says.
He turns to face her.
‘Please don’t go. We’ve got to talk about this.’
‘There’s nothing to discuss. Anna-Karin, I beg you. You must stop the others.’
His eyes plead, almost in desperation. And she wants to be on his side.
If Nicolaus doesn’t want them to dig up the grave, why should they do it? He is their guide. And, besides, he is her …
Her what? Her friend?
Can she call him that? She likes him. At times, she has felt more strongly than that. She might even love him, as the father she was never allowed to know.
‘But what are we supposed to do then?’ she asks. ‘We can’t drop the whole thing. It might mean something. Cat seems to think so anyway.’
Nicolaus shakes his head and starts walking again. She wants to call out after him, but it would be stupid to go off like a bullhorn when you’re sneaking around a cemetery in the middle of the night.
When she returns to the graveside, everybody is still there, standing around and talking.
‘He’s right, it’s totally sick to dig up a grave,’ Ida announces irritably to no one in particular. ‘They could put you in prison for doing it.’
But none of the Chosen Ones cares to listen to Ida, as usual. Instead they decide to meet up here tomorrow night. And start discussing who can bring spades.