by Stefan Spjut
Fanny had set the boy down on the ground. He was sitting on his bottom, scratching at his bandaged cheek with his sock-wrapped hand. Lennart looked at the child and then looked away.
Kiruna had got it in her head that walking was difficult for Susso and took her task of leading her down to the cabin very seriously.
Diana hadn’t been out in ages, but it was mostly the same. The diminutive red houses, scattered among the pines. The monumental brick firepit, the wagon wheel patio railing. On top of a cable reel her mother had painted lilac was a tin tub crammed full of petunias that trembled feebly in the wind and far below in the valley, the lake could be seen as a bare, grey clearing in the dense forest.
Susso had suggested they go to her dad in Riksgränsen, but Diana had been set on coming here, where she felt at least a little bit at home. She also entertained a flicker of hope that Håkan might be here. That the key was hanging on its secret nail and that the door was locked were, of course, signs to the contrary. She had a look at the neatly made beds in the bedroom and went out to the sauna, but he wasn’t there either. Of course he wasn’t. Even though she knew she was naïve to expect anything else, the sight of the empty guest room, which, like the sauna, was pine from floor to ceiling, filled her with cold unease. The bed where Kiruna had been conceived.
She moved on to the storage shed that housed the generator. She grabbed the recoil cord and pulled. Once the engine was running, she straightened up and contemplated the little machine. Then she went back up to the cabin. Susso was standing by the window, gazing out, her head ducked in under the valance. The squirrel had jumped up on an ancient cooking stove with a curved chimney that was sitting in the middle of the lawn. It looked funny. As though the animal felt it had come across a strange relative made of iron.
‘That generator is bloody loud. It’s all you hear.’
Susso didn’t react.
‘What do you think?’
‘About what?’
‘The generator. Should I turn it off?’
‘I suppose that depends on the food. What did you buy?’
Diana picked up the bag of groceries and looked in it.
‘Let’s see. Ice cream and prawns.’
She didn’t think the joke would get through, but apparently it did, because a small but unmistakeable puff of air escaped Susso’s nostrils.
The little girl came inside and wanted to go on the swing and pulled Susso outside with her. Diana packed the food into the refrigerator with the squeaking of the tyre swing’s chains in her ears, struggling all the while to keep the horrifying thoughts circling her like vultures at bay. There weren’t too many places he could be. If only he’d taken the car. Or packed a bag. She had inventoried his clothes and shoes in the hallway and concluded that he was wearing a blazer and his new suede shoes. His wallet was gone too. But he had left his phone.
When she walked up to the car, she saw Susso standing in front of the little girl, pushing her with both hands. She opened the boot and took out the rifle and ran back to the cabin so the little girl wouldn’t see it.
*
They sat on the patio, eating grilled hotdogs and potato salad, and then Kiruna was given permission to go to bed and watch a film. Shout if you need us, she said, and the little girl nodded without looking up.
Diana opened the door to the pantry and took out the gun and carried it outside along with a stack of blankets. Susso had pulled her feet up on the chair cushion and wrapped her arms around her knees. Diana handed her a blanket and leaned the rifle against the firepit.
‘Your coffee’s getting cold.’
Susso looked at her cup.
‘Sterilised half cream,’ Diana said and pointed with raised eyebrows to the carton on the table.
‘I’m fine, thanks.’
‘I bought it just for you.’
Susso didn’t seem to hear.
‘Remember,’ Diana said, ‘when we came out here with Tobe and whatshisname, Henka Rönnebro’s cousin that Nuddi fooled around with, the ice hockey player.’
‘Fooled around. Haven’t heard that expression in a hundred years.’
‘We watched horror films, Friday the 13th, and we got each other so worked up Nuddi was too afraid to go outside to pee, so she peed in a saucepan, and we hadn’t brought any mixer, so we used instant fruit soup. The day after, there were puddles of, like, blood vomit in the snow. Remember?’
‘Now you’re in a horror film.’
Diana put in a snus, pressed the lid back on and tossed the tin on the table.
‘True, but luckily this is as dark as it gets.’
‘It’s my fault.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘That we’re here. In this horror film.’
‘You didn’t come looking for me.’
‘No, but I could have warned you.’
‘You mean you could have kept me out of it?’
‘It would have been for the best.’
‘Then who would have come for you?’
Susso made no reply, she just gingerly rubbed her face underneath her eye.
‘How is Tobe, how much does he know?’
‘How much does he know?’
Diana pointed to the pine tree where the squirrel was dashing about. Where the sun hit his fur, it shone like copper, but in the shade he was grey and the contrast between the two colours was so marked you might have thought there were two squirrels in the tree.
‘Enough never to set foot in Kiruna again.’
‘Is he in Luleå?’
Susso coughed and then cleared her throat and placed her fingertips on her forehead above her eye.
‘Are you okay?’
‘I have the world’s worst fucking headache. And there’s some transparent crap oozing out of my eye.’
‘That’s called tears. Probably because you miss Tobe.’
Susso giggled.
‘Can I get you anything?’
‘No, I’m good.’
‘Are you sure?’
She nodded with that white square over her eye.
‘Did you really think they were real? I mean, really real. When you were doing your website and all that.’
‘I don’t know. I wanted to. I think.’
‘We were pretty hard on you.’
‘You were?’
‘You don’t think?’
She shrugged.
Diana wrapped the blanket tighter around her and swatted at a mosquito.
‘I always assumed anyone who discovered something like this would want the whole world to know about it. But that’s not what it’s like. It’s the complete fucking opposite.’
Susso was studying her hands.
‘It’s so unfathomable and astonishingly horrible it utterly grinds you down. I just want to lie down and cry.’
‘It’s a defence mechanism.’
‘Not talking about it?’
Susso pondered that for a moment.
‘They hide inside animals. It’s a disguise. And if you’re unlucky enough to see them naked, so to speak, it’ll cost you. It’s as if they surround themselves with something. And you can’t be involved with them without being affected by it. Whatever it is. You say you don’t want to talk about it, and that’s exactly it. If you get too close, they burn you up. Mentally. There’s no way of telling how that ends. Just look at my sister. She’s like a broken bulb.’
Diana spat her bag of snus into her hand and threw it away.
‘But not you.’
‘Well. He’s special.’
‘When I was at your house, when you were gone, I saw him. Naked, so to speak. At least I think I did. I was asleep in my car and when I woke up, I had a memory of him looking in at me. It was not a pretty sight. He’s certainly cuter with fur than without, put it that way.’
‘Yes, maybe he is.’
‘By the way, I found a gun under your mattress. A revolver.’
There was a thud on the parasol above their heads and before Diana had any tim
e to think about what it might have been, the squirrel had landed in the gravel next to the patio. Its tail twitched and twitched and she was suddenly fearful he might have heard what she had said and taken offence and now she was going to pay for saying he wasn’t a pretty sight.
Susso studied him.
‘Someone’s coming,’ she said.
Diana rose halfway out of her chair and craned her neck to peek out above the firepit. Then she picked up the rifle and stepped off the patio. She stood there, surveying the yard. After a while, she moved up toward the car. She stood dead still, listening and scanning the pines for movements, but could see nothing.
Susso had backed out onto the lawn so she could see the squirrel, who was now sitting on the sauna roof, at the very end of the ridge.
‘What’s up?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘But something is, you’re sure of that?’
While she was waiting for Susso to reply, an enigmatic logogram of sharp light glided across the red façade.
She never had time to feel scared that someone might have got inside the cabin. Because the moment she turned around and noticed the window opening, she saw the little girl. A tiny person in green pyjamas, padding away barefoot through the grass.
Diana called out and then she ran, and that made the child break into a run too, and she was fast. Diana crouched down as she ran to drop the rifle on the ground and raced after the little girl, who was on her way up the slope. Just as she caught her, the girl hurled something away, but Diana didn’t see what it was. She picked her up and turned her to face her. Kiruna resisted, twisting her body and kicking and emitting a growling noise, with the teeth of her lower jaw jutting out like a riled beast. Diana knelt down in the grass and brusquely rocked her in her arms.
Susso was standing next to her with the rifle in her hands. She sank into a squat. They exchanged a look but said nothing.
Diana pushed the tangled hair out of the little girl’s face, took her head in both hands and turned it so she could look into her eyes. She hadn’t expected someone to be in there. But someone was. The little girl stared at her with wide-open pupils.
That made Diana smile, which caused the little girl to snort with mirth. Then she started giggling. It was so unexpected, Diana almost dropped her on the ground. The little girl lay in her lap, giggling, and it was an affected, shrill giggle she had never heard before.
‘Cover her ears!’
Susso had stood up and was resting the butt of the rifle against her shoulder; Diana looked at her uncomprehendingly. Until she heard the click of the safety. Then she cupped her hands over the girl’s ears.
The bang made Diana flinch. Susso reloaded, took a few steps forward and fired again. Diana didn’t know what she was firing at and didn’t want to.
‘We have to go.’
Diana got to her feet, picked up the little girl and ran with her toward the car. The squirrel was already on the car roof. The girl wasn’t giggling any more, but there was a creepy smile on her lips, which she hid behind clenched fists.
‘The key.’
‘Where is it?’
‘In the window. Just inside the door. Get my wallet as well.’
Susso jogged toward the cabin and Diana paced around in a circle, rocking the little girl. Her eyes roved back and forth across the yard and she thought Susso was taking an awfully long time.
Eventually, she came running back with the rifle.
‘I can’t find it. The wallet was there, but not the key.’
‘Did you check the floor?’
‘It’s not there.’
Diana strode off toward the cabin. Then she stopped.
‘Fuck,’ she said and turned around.
‘What?’
‘It’s somewhere behind the cabin.’
Susso frowned.
‘She threw it away. I saw her do it, but I didn’t understand what it was.’
‘Where?’
‘Over there. She threw it that way.’
Diana carried the girl into the cabin, put her down on the sofa and locked the door. Then she walked over to the window and shut it. How had she managed to get it open? There was no furniture she could have climbed. She must have stepped up onto the frame to reach the top latch. She wondered who had given her that idea. And to take the key too. She shuddered. The little girl had curled up and was lying motionless with her eyes closed, but it was obvious she wasn’t asleep.
She could follow Susso’s movements as she wandered up and down the sloping yard with the rifle in her hands, scanning the grass.
Diana did a lap around the cabin, gathering up their things and throwing them in the suitcase. She patted her stomach and felt the phone through her fleece jacket and was just about to pull it out when a shot rang out outside. Diana ran over to the window but Susso wasn’t there. Moments later, someone yanked the door handle. A hard pounding. Through the window, she could see it was Susso.
Diana let her in and locked the door.
‘It’s impossible,’ Susso said.
‘Did you find it?’
‘There’s too many of them.’
‘Of whom?’
Susso put the rifle down on the table and rubbed her eye.
‘You didn’t see them?’
Diana shook her head.
‘They’re all over the garden. Nasty little brutes. About this size.’
‘Mice?’
‘Something along those lines, yeah.’
Diana walked over to the window to look out but changed her mind and pulled the curtain shut instead.
‘I think I hit one before. But it’s bloody hard. If only we had a shotgun.’
‘Where’s the squirrel?’
‘Up there, I think,’ she said, pointing to the roof. ‘He can take care of himself.’
‘But he can’t help us?’
‘I’m sure he’s doing his best. But we have to get out of here.’
‘We can run next door. There was a car there.’
‘How far is it?’
‘I’m not sure. Maybe five hundred yards.’
‘Five hundred yards is a long way on a night like this.’
‘I’m calling Dad.’
Susso picked up the rifle and took up post by the window, inching the curtain aside.
‘Tell him to hurry.’
Diana was holding her phone. She had punched in her PIN and her thumbs moved confusedly over the icons before she could locate the square with the phone receiver.
‘There’s people out there too,’ Susso said.
‘If it’s that blonde fucking bitch, feel free to shoot her in the face.’
‘Mummy.’
The little girl was watching her and she could tell instantly from her eyes that she was herself. Diana sank into a squat next to the sofa and stroked her little head.
‘I had an accident.’
The call connected. Diana quickly stood up and walked off, toward the kitchen.
‘It’s okay,’ Susso said. ‘It’s happened to me too.’
‘Hello? This is Eva.’
‘Mum. You have to come get us.’
Silence.
‘Who am I speaking to?’
‘It’s me!’
More silence.
‘And who is that?’
‘It’s Diana. Can’t you see it’s me calling?’
‘Diana …’
‘What’s wrong with you?’
‘What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you?’
‘Mum, listen to me.’
‘What time is it anyway? Oh my goodness.’
‘Can I speak to Dad?’
A long silence.
‘He’s not here.’
‘What do you mean, not there? What are you doing?!’
‘Shouldn’t I be asking you that?’
‘Mum. This is serious. You have to come get us.’
Now there was a deep sigh.
‘Where are you?’
‘We’re in the
cabin, you know that. We went out to the cabin!’
‘And what’s happened?’
‘Just come get us!’
‘Don’t raise your voice at me.’
‘But you’re not getting it. You have to come get us!’
‘I hope you haven’t broken anything? Diana. Because I remember that time when you went out there and then a lamp was broken. And several wine glasses, the fancy wine glasses I got for my fortieth birthday, and someone had vomited in the sauna and who had to clean that up, that’s right, me.’
Diana ended the call.
Susso was rummaging through the suitcase and the little girl was standing up, naked from the waist down. Her pyjama bottoms lay in a pile on the floor.
‘They must have got to them. I talked to Mum and she was super weird. It was like she was drunk or fucking demented or something.’
Susso helped the girl step into a fresh pair of knickers.
‘Makes sense, I was wondering how they found us here.’
‘You’re going to have to call Gudrun.’
I picked up my phone from the nightstand with trepidation. This is it, I thought to myself, it’s happened. Hearing Susso’s voice in my ear was a surprise, since it was Diana’s number. She didn’t sound afraid. Serious, rather. She said they were in Diana’s parents’ cabin in Kurravaara and that I had to come pick them up immediately.
‘But what happened?’
‘You have to hurry.’
‘But where is it?! I don’t know where their cabin is!’
‘Tell them to send a pin,’ said Roland, who had already got up and pulled on his trousers and was now fiddling with his watch clasp.
I was getting dressed when the message arrived.
Roland took my phone and looked at it.
‘Are you ready?’ he said.
*
We drove close enough to see Diana’s car and the black tin roofs of the cabins. The sun was at world’s end and the night sky was adorned with a soaring wing of gossamer streaks of ruddy clouds. Everything was so tranquil and normal it was hard to imagine there could be anything threatening in this place. But it had been clear from Susso’s voice that they were in trouble and so I was on high alert. I called and said we were here and Susso said they were coming out.
Roland had killed the engine and taken off his seatbelt.