VII. Old News

In an alley, under a street lamp that Eli had taken out with a rock, Esteban was keeping guard and he heard footsteps; a man rapidly walked straight towards them. Esteban tugged at Eli's sleeve, motioning him to leave. Eli seemed momentarily dazed, but dashed into the shadows above them. There's nowhere to hide, and I can't climb away. Esteban turned towards the girl.

'Look at you! You're always getting drunk and embarassing me, and now I'm going to have to carry you home!'

Even as he said it, Esteban saw motion out of the corner of his eye, and jumped away as the man lunged at him with a knife. Esteban stumbled but did not fall. The man attacked again, with surprising agility, but before the blade could pierce Esteban's flesh, Eli jumped on the man, putting his hand over the man's mouth, clamping his arms to his sides with his knees. Esteban seized the hand holding the knife with both hands and twisted it with all his strength. Even as the knife fell, he felt a tremor going through the man's body, and looked up.

He's feeding - there's no going back.

Esteban thought of the advice he had been given long ago in case he was ever tortured: dissociation from reality. He told himself that this was all a nightmare, that it wasn't happening to him. Then he punched the man's belly.

The man fell forwards and Eli landed on top of him. Esteban looked away and soon heard the man's neck being broken.

Esteban tried to think. The legs. Avoiding looking at the upper body, took his legs, and Eli and himself quickly carried the corpse to a dumpster and hid it in there, covering it with garbage bags. Eli opened the man's wallet, took out the cash and threw the empty wallet out of the dumpster.

At least the body won't be found as soon as the girl wakes up. Did she know him? Is that why...?

'Go!' Eli whispered. 'I'll meet you at the car.'

Esteban staggered all the way to the car, and at one point had to lean against a lamp post, fearing his legs would give way. Once in the car, he unlocked and opened the passenger door. Eli dashed into the car, slamming the door behind him.

'If anyone stops us, I'm your niece and you're taking me home from a fancy dress party.'

Esteban looked at Eli's blood-stained face uncomprehendingly.

'Esteban, you need to drive.'

Esteban shut his eyes, feeling on the brink of collapsing from nervous exhaustion.

Eli slapped him. Esteban opened his eyes, hesitated, and switched on the ignition.

They didn't talk on the way home. Esteban tried to understand what had happened, and thought with disgust at how the initial scene must have looked like to an outsider: A middle-aged man holding the bare ankles of an attractive young woman, probably just out of her teens, while a pint-sized accomplice helped him carry her into a dark alley, where the midget did something to her arm while the middle-aged man watched. She'll recover quickly. Poor girl, she'll probably wonder if she was raped as soon as she wakes up. Did she know the man with the knife? If not, the police will have no immediate reason to link the assault and the murder.

Once they arrived home, Esteban tried to open the fron door, but his trembling hands dropped the keys. Eli picked them up without comment and opened the door. As soon as they were inside and the door was shut, Eli hugged Esteban tightly.

'I'm sorry I hit you.'

Esteban hugged him back.

'You saved my life in that alley, I think. And yes, I had to drive.'

The cellar door opened, and Oskar opened his eyes wide when he saw the blood on his girlfriend.

'What happened? Are you alright?'

'We had problems. But we're fine.'

Eli and Oskar hugged. Esteban staggered to the couch and fell on it like a dead weight; he took off his coat and gloves and shut his eyes. He did not sleep but he gradually felt more relaxed, though exhausted. He felt someone sit next to him.

'Are you alright?'

It was Oskar.

'Yes, it's just... don't worry. Where's Eli?'

'He's having a shower.'

Esteban nodded. I need a drink.

'Oskar... sorry to bother you, but would you mind looking in the top cupboards in the kitchen? I think we have a bottle of liquor somewhere... would you mind pouring me a glass?'

Esteban looked at Oskar's face and immediately regretted asking.

'Forget it, I didn't mean to upset you.'

He tried to think.

'We may need to move soon, if...'

'I know.'

Esteban checked his coat.

'OK, so I brought the halothane with me, and I never took off my gloves. I really don't think anyone saw us. With any luck the police won't be coming here just yet. But it's probably just a matter of time...'

'I'm sorry we got you into all this.'

'Well, it's been hard, I won't deny it, but I have no regrets.'

'Honest?'

'Honest.'

Esteban sat up.

'Oskar, we have to think... We'll talk it over with Eli, but you have to think... what you want to do now.'

Esteban looked into Oskar's eyes and saw that he was on the verge of crying.

'What I really want is to cure Eli...'

'So do I. But I don't think there's anything we can do, so we need to find a way to manage. The police...'

He swallowed.

'The police will pay more attention to a dead body than to stories of strange assaults by people who smell of vodka. I don't think they have any way of immediately tracing us here, but I'm sure they'll eventually find enough clues so that it's just a matter of time. We need to prepare to flee, to disappear. The three of us are now wanted by the police, just for different reasons.'

You're the only one not wanted for a crime. You're a missing child, not a fugitive. You could leave for a normal life. And I think you should leave, but I can't make that choice for you.

'If there is a way for the three of us to... to live, we'll find it. We must be ready to leave at a moment's notice. But in any case I think it's Eli that knows the most about these things. What do you think, Oskar?'

'When we fled from Blackeberg it didn't go that well, I guess Eli was used to fleeing with... adults. But now we know the forest well, from all the walks we've gone on together, there are some places where maybe we could hide...'

Eli and Oskar had often went for walks in the forest together; Esteban had at first been apprehensive about it, but Eli had matter-of-factly told him that they were unlikely to meet anything more dangerous than himself, and that in any case Eli could easily detect anyone
approaching.

'They might search the forest around here, we need to go further.'

Eli came out of the bathroom, wearing pyjamas.

'Oskar and I were saying that not that there's a dead body, involved, we need to plan to move relatively soon.'

'Yes.'

'Maybe we can start by planning what we will do exactly if the police come here, or if I hear from them...'

***

The next evening, Esteban was sitting at the dining room table, shuffling some photocopies of news articles. The photographs in them had come out badly, but the text was what really mattered. He began putting them in chronological order.

The world went dark.

'Hello, Eli.'

He reached up, but Eli was faster and took his hands off Esteban's face before he could grab his wrists.

'What are you doing?'

Esteban handed him the photocopies. Eli seemed puzzled.

'But what for?'

'I wanted to show them to you two. I realize you know what happened better than the journalists do, but you might still be curious...'

Eli shrugged.

'Is there anything new?'

'No, in fact I didn't find anything recent, it's all from fairly shortly after Oskar disappeared. They talk mostly about the killings, especially the early ones. There isn't much on Oskar, but some of the earlier ones mention a troubled boy gone missing, it's only later that the police concluded that he had been kidnapped by the killer, which is probably why he wasn't recongnized when you were leaving Stockholm.'

Esteban wondered if these descriptions would anger Eli, but he seemed mildly curious instead.

'Uh-huh.'

'There's only one that says that a source that spoke on condition of anonimity that said "a young woman with dark hair" was thought to be connected with both the pool killings and an earlier assault on a middle-aged woman. Anyway, I wanted to show them to Oskar too, he might be interested.'

Eli cocked his head.

'Did you know that Oskar used to collect news clippings about murders?'

'No, I didn't. Anyway, you two might want to read them to see if there's anything I missed about how much the police actually know, that could be useful.'

'Sure.'

'As far as I can tell, the police is looking for a psycho who thinks he is a vampire, and a young woman.'

'I'll tell Oskar you said I'm a psycho and he looks like a woman with dark hair,' said Eli laughing. Esteban gently poked his ribs with his elbow.

'Anyway, be good and show them to Oskar; I'm going to bed, I'm tired.'

'Good night.'

'Good night.'

Esteban went to his room and got into bed after undressing in the dark.

Eli sneaking up to me like that should be terrifying, but it's not. This is the same creature that threatened to kill me when we first met and that, whenever I feed him, could simply keep going until he drains me, and killing is not the worst he can do. But I'm not afraid of him; I look at him and see the loving, mistreated, clever, orphaned child. The Eli that covered my eyes was a child afflicted with a disease, not the disease.

Eli has killed again already; for Oskar to cast his lot with him is to become one day at least an accomplice to murder, and not just a single one, but many. Eli is beyond help, but Oskar is not. He can have a normal life, but only if he leaves Eli. If Oskar decided to go back, to reconcile himself with the world, would Eli let him go? Would he love him enough? Eli worries about Oskar lusting after women, and rightly so; perhaps he hasn't considered that Oskar might also one day want children of his own but, above all, Oskar might want a life without killing. He is barely a teenager, and no doubt doesn't think of his old age, but if he stays with Eli what will become of him? What will all those years of killing, hiding, fleeing turn him into? I want Oskar to read for himself that he is thought to have been kidnapped by the killer, that nobody thinks him guilty of anything, that he can go back, that he can just say he was indeed kidnapped at the pool, and that he remembers nothing else. Even for Eli, Oskar right now may well make Eli's life worth living, but for how long? He'll keep getting older, with all that implies, unless... But that would be the worst, and Oskar doesn't have the right to choose that, Eli doesn't have the right to offer it. To be cut off from humanity, to be feared and hated, to give up the very possibility of a wife and children, or any of the better attributes of a normal life, all of these Oskar could sacrifice freely. But to willingly sentence countless strangers to death... Eli is now a victim, but such a choice would make both monsters.

Eli's condition, whatever else it may be, is like a curse on mankind, like a plague that exists not for its own survival, but solely to afflict the world. An infection that grants immortality only so that the suffering will not end, unless the patient dies at the hands of his fellow human beings or takes his own life. If humanity were more compassionate, Eli would be no more dangerous to the world than if he had cancer. But a cure for Eli would be less miraculous than such an improvement in human nature. Without either miracle, Eli will continue to kill, and live, or he will die.

Thou shall not kill! I would much rather have Eli face a swift and bitter end at the hands of a lynch mob than fall in the hands of the police or the military. Killing him to spare him such a fate would be an act of kindness, an act of love. Does Eli himself realize that as time passes, the risk of a fate much worse than lynching grows? And what will become of Oskar, if they knew the whole truth and had him in their power? If they knew he loves Eli, knowing everything that Eli is? Would they lock him up in a psychiatric ward and throw away the key?