IV. Help and Complicity

Esteban stepped out of the bathroom. He wondered if Eli had come back while he was in the shower; if not, there was still plenty of time before sunrise. He was heading to his room when the front door opened, and Eli walked in without saying a word, closing the door behind him. Esteban saw the dark stains on Eli's shirt and on the corner of his mouth. Who did he kill tonight? Eli was looking down, away from Esteban. A mother, a father? Another child?

Eli looked up. In the electric light, his eyes were no longer slits.

'Yes, I've just eaten. You know I have to do this.'

Esteban said nothing. Yes, maybe you do. But I didn't have to... help you by giving you shelter. I knew already that it made me an accessory to murder, but... maybe I hoped I would just wake up from this nightmare, that none of this was real.

'Don't look at me like that.'

He at least is a child. What's my excuse?

'Esteban, I... tried to buy it, but it didn't go well. Believe me, if I could always take it without killing anyone... You don't know...'

'What it's like? Maybe, but I do know now what it's like to be an accomplice, to have willingly...'

'You know...' said Eli, his eyes flashing in anger, 'what I would have done if you had refused to help us. You yourself said you wanted to live!'

'Perhaps, but there are worse things than dying. Like living the wrong life.'

To Esteban's surprise, the anger in Eli’s eyes was momentarily replaced with fear.

'It's not fair! I didn't ask to be turned into this... thing! You're just like all the others, standing there, accusing me!'

'No. You know perfectly well I don't blame you for choosing to live.'

Esteban was surprised at his own calm. Oskar, dressed in pyjamas, opened the cellar door and went over to Eli. Eli and Esteban stared at each other in silence.

'I heard... Eli, what's wrong?'

Oskar looked at Esteban.

'What happened?'

Esteban hesitated, glancing mechanically at his watch. If I skip breakfast, maybe I'll arrive to work on time. If I live, that is.

'We were having an argument. Sit down, both of you.'

Oskar hesitated, and Eli nodded almost imperceptibly. They sat down on the couch.

'I was telling Eli that I don't blame... that I don't think Eli is guilty for living on blood, because, given the alternative, most people would do the same...' Esteban paused, and then continued, turning towards Eli.

‘If people were kinder, you would just go to the hospital and be treated like any other patient that needs blood. I don't regret that by making you less hungry I can help you stay alive while not killing anyone. Also... That first night, you threatened to kill me, it is true, but not with torture, which you would have done if you were cruel by nature, and it's not as if there were no cruel children.'

He thought of Eli's face when he’d woken him from that nightmare.

'And there are other threats you could have made but didn’t; killing is plainly not the worst that you can do...'

'I'm not guilty of that at least!'

Eli stood up, trembling with rage.

'I told you I break their necks! I do what I can!'

Eli took a step towards Esteban, who stared into his now abnormally large eyes. He looks more inhuman than that first night, when he showed me his claws.

Oskar put a hand on Eli's shoulder.

'He's not accusing you of doing anything because you wanted to.'

Eli shut his eyes tightly and shook his head, as if to drive something away, and sat down. Esteban spoke again.

'I don’t like being... an accomplice to murder. My duty... No, I need to explain properly. You see, a long time ago, in my country, I took part in some student demonstrations. The government sent in the military to end a particularly big one, and they fired on us... We all ran, I ran with no idea of where I was going, just trying to get away from the shooting. There was so much confusion; I wasn’t sure what direction they were shooting from. I was told later that we were shot at by soldiers at street level as well as by sharpshooters in the buildings, and that on some streets there were three rows of soldiers firing into the crowd: one row lying on the floor, one kneeling, and one standing... Anyway, a few of us ran into a narrow street. There was a military van there, the army officer in it told us to get in, and we did...'

'And you got in just like that?' interrupted an astonished Oskar.

'Yes, well... Anyway, he drove us away from the carnage, to another part of town, and simply let us go. I am alive today because he chose to disobey his orders, but many others chose to obey... We were naive and that night we thought there would be a revolution the next day, that the government could not possibly remain in power after the massacre, and I hoped that the soldiers would refuse to obey if ordered to fire on their own people again. But none of that happened.'

He gazed at Eli's expressionless face, then looked down.

'Then one day, a friend of mine got caught by the police spray painting graffiti against the government. They could have arrested him; instead they shot him dead. I left the country after that... I lived, others died and... I don't know why I lived, and sometimes I wonder why I did and they didn't. But... it also taught me about the choices people make. That officer that saved us proved that there was a choice, but plenty of perfectly normal people made the easier choice, not the better one. That’s why I don't blame either of you; it wouldn’t be human, because your choices are so hard.'

He looked at Eli again.

'I'm sorry. You've never threatened me with... that. And I do realize you're as merciful as you can be, by not making others like you.'

Esteban read in Oskar's eyes that he was on the verge of crying.

'Oskar, if... if there's a way around this, if there’s a solution, we'll find it, I promise. OK?'

Oskar nodded, looking away.

'I... must go to work now. We will talk more when I get back.'

He took his briefcase and slowly turned towards the door. If he attacks me, I will not resist. But nothing happened, and once he'd left the house and locked the door behind him, he breathed out a sigh of relief. His legs felt weak and barely able to carry him, but Esteban composed himself and walked to the car.

***

In a narrow street at night, a man with a moustache, wearing a large coat, gloves and a hat approached a badly dressed, unwashed man leaning against the wall.

'Excuse me, I'm looking for a certain street, unfortunately I'm not really sure of its name... You see, it's called something like Nykengatan, but I'm not sure exactly...'

The badly dressed man looked at him distrustfully, alert. From the shadows of the rooftops, something fell on him and, before he had time to shout, a mask connected to a gas canister went over his mouth and nose, as the creature's legs held his arms against his body. The man with the moustache simply watched as he ceased to struggle and fell unconscious. The creature landed on its feet, breaking its victim’s fall by holding him by his underarms. The other man took his legs, and the two accomplices quickly and silently moved him away from the light and sat him up against the wall, next to a dumpster, from under which a rat dashed out in the opposite direction.

The man with the moustache took a flask of cheap vodka out of his coat and poured half the contents on the other man's clothes, and then put the bottle in his right hand, while the childlike creature clutched its victim's left arm. Its accomplice picked up the gas canister from where it had been dropped and hid it in his inner coat pocket. He watchfully paced back and forth between the dumpster and the nearest street corner, careful to stagger like a drunken man. A block away, a couple walked past, but did not even glance in his direction.

Keep your end of the bargain, child.

Even as he was putting a Band-Aid on the unconscious man's arm, the child signalled for his accomplice to leave, who then turned towards the wall, away from the light, took off the hat and the fake moustache, and walked away slowly, without looking back, eventually reaching the edge of a park. He went to a car, took the keys out of his pocket and calmly opened the door, got in and unlocked the door on the passenger's side. As he was putting the key in the ignition, Eli stepped out of the park's shadows and climbed into the car.

'Don't worry, he'll be fine. I can smell how nervous you are, you know.'

Esteban nodded and drove in silence at first, but as the minutes passed, he relaxed.

'Put on your coat.' Before Eli could protest, he added: 'In case we're stopped or something.'

Eli did as he was told. Esteban glanced at him, checking again that there was no blood on his face.

'We need to plan more carefully, make better contingency plans, for next time.'

'Come on, Esteban, we even used poor Oskar as a dummy...'

It was true; they had used him to practice moving a body quickly and without making a noise. Esteban laughed; it seemed so silly now.

'You've got a point. Still, better safe than sorry.'

Esteban wondered if he really was overplanning. He had tried to prepare for as many contingencies as possible, for example bringing a large trunk in which Eli could hide if for some reason they were delayed until dawn. He wondered if being less cautious and doing this sooner would have meant one less lethal victim. But if something had gone wrong, then...

'Esteban...'

'Yes?'

'I wanted to ask you, because you're a grown up...'

An old man in a few years. And you'll never grow up.

'Go on.'

‘I'm afraid that as Oskar gets older, he'll want to be with real girls...'

Esteban hesitated. Is Oskar... does he like girls or...? He had been careful to never bring up the subject. And in what sense do you mean 'wanting to be with'?

'I wish I knew what the future holds, but what I can tell you is that maybe only one kid in a million falls in love like Oskar did, like you did. You don't give up your entire life, the world you know, for someone just like that, it has to be something special... I had a girlfriend when I was only slightly older than he is, but it was nothing serious. But you and Oskar... And few couples of any age live together through anything like you two have. I mean, you’ve saved his life and everything. I'm sure he'll always love you even if the exact type of love changes, even if... Well, most boys his age or a little older like teenage girls, but... liking isn't the same as loving.'

'Yes. I know.'

Eli paused.

'I'm also afraid that if Oskar stays with me, that one day he could wish he had drowned in that swimming pool.'

'Don't be silly. No matter how bad things get, no one can rob you two of the happiness you've had together since then. Because you saved him, he’s alive and with the person he loves, never forget that.'

Esteban fell silent, and heard Eli humming a tune. Everything's fine.

'Anyway, your clothes... were they comfortable and everything? When you were climbing?'

Eli was wearing black sweatpants and a dark grey top, which Esteban had bought.

'No, you should've gotten me uniforms made of gold and silk.'

Esteban glanced at a grinning Eli.

'Well, they didn't have any of those in your size, so you'll have to make do with what I got you.'

Much as he'd dreaded it, Esteban had been unable to postpone shopping for clothes for the children, since they had such few things to wear. Oskar was not a problem, but he was unsure if Eli wanted clothes for a boy or a girl or both kinds, and he did not want to ask. Since Eli had arrived dressed as a girl, in the end he had decided to buy clothes as if for a tomboyish girl, figuring that if he wanted to dress as a boy he could borrow Oskar's clothes in the meantime. But Eli had accepted the clothes without comment.

'Esteban, does it disgust you that Oskar is a boy and I'm not a girl?'

'No, it... it just makes me uncomfortable. But that's my fault, not yours. It's just... something I'm not used to.'

'But you're used to someone other than mosquitoes drinking your blood?' asked Eli with a mischievous smile.

'No, but that’s... different.'

There was an uncomfortable silence.

'Have you ever been in love?'

'Yes, many years ago. We met at a language course here in Sweden, one thing led to another and we were very happy for a while.'

'What happened then?'

'We were going to get married and everything, but she became sick and died.'

'Oh. Do you miss her a lot?'

'Yes, but... one must not live in the past.'

Esteban drove in silence for a couple of minutes.

'I've been meaning to ask you, you said sometimes you sleep for weeks, months and when you wake up, you're weak. How weak?'

'Too weak to get food on my own, as weak as a normal kid. And I... become more like a little kid, it's hard to explain. But only at first.'

'Can you... resist it, can you simply not hibernate?'

'I’ve never tried. I used to look forward to it, really.'

'Right. Also... what about summers? How do you manage?'

‘Because I sleep almost all the time, I need very little food. I think feeding from... you would be enough, at least for part of the summer.'

'So... summers aren't like when you hibernate?'

'No, the summer doesn't make me weak. It's like a different kind of sleep.'

When they arrived home, as he parked the car Esteban checked the kitchen window; the light was on. It was the signal they had agreed on if all was well and it was safe to go into the house. Esteban had even made sure Oskar had candles and matches in case of a power failure.

Eli rushed out of the car to the front door, and rang the doorbell: Long, long, long. A pause. Long, short, long. As Esteban was taking the keys out of his pocket, Oskar opened.

'Did everything go well?'