The Meeting

'Eli, what's wrong? You're... well, walking like you were drunk.'

'I... think it was that last man's blood, it tasted... strange. I'll be fine in a little while, don't worry... Oskar, we need to get out of the path, in case someone sees me walking like this. You got everything?'

'Yes, I didn't forget anything.'

They made headway slowly alongside the path, hindered by their precaution to advance as stealthily as possible and by Eli's dizziness; she could barely walk at all. Oskar was about to suggest that they sit down and take a break, when they saw someone approaching along the path, from the opposite direction. They darted into the shadows, crouching behind some bushes, staying still, waiting for the passerby to go past. In the faint moonlight, Oskar saw it was probably a male, perhaps a teenager.

From behind a tree, a shadow jumped on him, tackling him, driving its knee into his belly and putting a hand over his mouth. The attacker took something out of his pocket; Oskar could see the glint of a blade. The attacker slowly, calmly moved it closer to his prisoner's face, so that the tip nearly grazed it.

'You and your friends better leave Anna alone, you hear? Anna Johansson.'

It was a man's voice. The boy made muffled sounds.

'Remember, I know where you live, where you go to school, where you hang out.'

'...'

'Oh, I won't kill you if you don't. I will simply hurt you so that no doctor will be able to fix you. Pain, not death. Think about it, I'm pointing my knife at your eye rather than holding it to your throat. Would your friends visit a cripple at the hospital, do you think?'

The man got up, dragging the youth by his collar, then pushed him so that he fell again.

'Now go. Scram!'

He took a step towards the teenager, pointing the knife at his belly. The teenager scrambled to his feet and ran away. The man put away the knife and took off the ski mask he was wearing. Then he walked away, not along the path, but into the bushes, almost running into Oskar and Eli before he saw them. Startled, the man took a step back, squinting in the near-total darkness.

'You saw what happened, right?' the man almost whispered. 'I'm sorry, I wish you hadn't. Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you.'

He took a further step towards them, and Oskar felt Eli both tensing, as if preparing to attack, and trembling.

'I know he's a kid, but now he'll leave my daughter alone, I'd had enough. I'm older and stronger than him but he too is older and stronger than my daughter, that didn't bother him, and I at least confronted him alone.'

His voice sounded hard; then he sighed. Oskar put his hand on Eli's shoulder.

'I'm sorry I scared you.'

'No, it's OK,' answered Oskar.

There was an awkward silence.

'Anyway, are you two alright? It's a bit late for you to be out here on your own. Do you live around here?'

'No - yes, we were just going home. Bye.'

The children turned away from the man, but as they did so, Eli felt an overwhelming dizziness, and had to lean on Oskar for support. Then Eli let go of Oskar, and held on to a tree.

'Are you alright?'

Eli clutched her stomach and bent over as if to vomit, but nothing came out.

'Wait, you're sick!'

Even in her pained state, Eli was struck by the concern in the man's voice.

'I'm sorry, I... Look, let me walk you home. I know you have no reason to trust me, but... Is it me? Is it because I scare you?'

'No, no, it's alright, I was walking her home anyway,' answered Oskar quickly.

'Can't someone pick you two up? I live very close, you can use my phone to call your parents.'

Oskar was desperately trying to think, to make sense of his own confusion, but could not, while Eli was too focused on not collapsing on the ground to pay any attention.

***

The man rang the doorbell, took out his keys and opened the door. A young girl rushed to greet him.

'You're late!'

She hugged him.

'Sorry, I meant to arrive earlier.'

The girl looked at Eli and Oskar with big, curious eyes.

'These are... err...'

'I'm Eli.'

'I'm Per.'

'This is my daughter Anna. I'm Vincent.'

The girl hesitated for a moment, then she went over to Eli and pulled her in by the arm.

'Come in, come in.'

Eli smiled a pained smile.

'Careful, she's not feeling very well. Per, if you want to call, the phone's over there. Eli, can I get you anything?'

'No, it's nothing, I'm feeling much better...'

'Would you mind helping me put Anna to bed?'

'But there's no school tomorrow!'

'Yes, but it's late and it's been a long day. Come on, I'll read you a little once you're in bed.'

Vincent took his daughter's hand, while she took Eli's arm; Eli went along as if in a daze. Oskar went to the phone and pretended to make a call, then carefully hung up when they were out of sight, and tiptoed after them.

***

Vincent motioned Eli to sit in a chair in Anna's room, while he sat at the edge of the bed and began reading to his daughter, who had gotten under the sheets. With a throbbing headache, Eli paid little attention at first, only listening to the occasional phrase: You shall then judge yourself... That's the hardest. It's much harder to judge oneself than judging someone else. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are truly wise..... I can judge myself anywhere. I don't need to live here..... I believe somewhere on my planet there is an old rat. I hear him at night. You can judge this old rat. You will sentence him to death from time to time. This way his life will depend on your justice. But you will pardon him every time to be thifty with him. There's only one. A little later, she listened to a story about a man who drank to forget he was ashamed of drinking. Then, signalling Eli to keep silent, Vincent put the book down and, very slowly, got up and pulled up the covers up to the sleeping girl's shoulders. He motioned Eli to follow him, and as they left the room he switched off the light, careful to make as little noise as possible. They ran into Oskar in the corridor.

Vincent gave him a piercing look.

Oskar anxiously took Eli's hand in his.

'I'm... feeling better. We should be going...'

'Did you call? Are you sure you're going to be alright?' asked Vincent.

'Yes, we... I just called her parents and told them I'm walking her home straight away.'

Vincent sighed.

'What about your parents? Your name is really Oskar Eriksson, isn't it?'

Oskar opened his eyes wide, thinking only of flight and freedom. Vincent put a hand on his shoulder.

'Please, I don't mean you any harm. I recognized your face from the papers, you know, from those terrible killings...'

Eli had positioned herself right behind him, crouching, tensing every muscle in her body.

'Look, I know I can't even imagine what you must've gone through, I guess you were lucky to make it out of that pool alive...'

'Eli saved my life.'

Vincent nodded and turned to Eli, startled to see her.

'Well, it seems Oskar is very lucky to have you as a friend.'

He smiled.

'Anna has taken a liking to you, you know.'

Vincent became serious again, and turned back to Oskar.

'You didn't actually call anyone, did you?'

'No.'

'Are you hiding from... the killer?'

'No, not exactly...'

'Well, in any case, nobody knows you're here. Look, I don't blame you if you're scared of me, but... Well, do you really have a place to stay tonight?'

Oskar thought of the abandoned warehouse towards which they were headed when they ran into Vincent; they kept some of their things there, including their stash of chloroform. Oskar looked into Vincent's eyes, and saw nothing other than genuine concern.

If he knew...

'Yes. Kind of. It's complicated.'

'You can stay here tonight if you want. Look, I... don't know exactly what you're hiding from, but it's obviously from some kind of danger and for all I know you have good reasons to hide, I've no idea. But as I said, nobody knows you're here, and you can stay here tonight, if you like. Are you hungry, by the way? I can heat up something.'

'I just ate,' said Eli, 'and we can't stay.'

'Do you need to be somewhere?'

'No, but... I have to leave before dawn.'

'Is somebody expecting you? Why don't you call, for real this time, or you can wait until morning, I can take you first thing, or call a cab if you don't want me to know where you go.'

'No, I... I have an illness, I'm allergic to sunlight, so I need to be in a dark place by dawn.'

'I have a room that's sunlight-proof.'

'A basement?'

'No. A darkroom. Photography's my hobby.'

The children looked at each other.

Eli stepped forward and took Vincent by the arm. He was surprised by her steely grip.

'Don't call anyone. Not the police, not anyone.'

Vincent didn't answer, and it seemed to him that Eli's eyes had grown bigger and darker, as if a darkness behind them wanted to swallow the whole world. Then she blinked.

'How do we know if we can trust you?'

'Normally I'd say yours is an open-and-shut case; you're runaways, and the police should be called so that social services can deal with you. But what happened at the pool... and the police haven't caught the killer, their latest version of who they're looking for is some madman with power tools who thinks he's a vampire, before that it was some gang the dead kids were involved with. And it's not just the pool, the other stuff that happened in Stockholm, with the Ritual Killer and... I can see why you would be afraid and wouldn't trust the police, they messed up after all. You know more about the perpetrator or whoever you're fleeing from than I do, and it's possible you actually have a good reason for not going home or to the police. But what about your parents? At least let them know you're alive, can you imagine how hard this must be for them?'

'My parents are dead,' replied Eli flatly.

'I'm sorry. What about you, Oskar?'

Oskar didn't reply.

'Eli, did... Were they killed by... whoever killed those boys at the pool?'

'No. I don't know what happened to them. But not... that.'

'So you have no family?'

'No.'

Vincent looked into her eyes, and put his hand on her shoulder. To Eli's surprise, Vincent hugged her.

'I'm sorry I upset you.'

'But...'

'I can tell by your face. I'm sorry, I really am. Eli, I can't just chuck you two out on the street like this. I won't call anyone if you really don't want me to, but you've got to trust me.'

Eli said nothing, but exchanged glances with Oskar.

***

Oskar and Eli lay in Vincent's darkroom, on a mattress taken from the guest room at Vincent's insistence.

'Oskar...'

'Hmmm?'

'So what do you think?'

'You mean about Vincent?

'Yes.'

'I don't know. I think we're safe tonight.'

'Yes. But we must leave tomorrow night.'

'You think he's not to be trusted?'

'It's not that, it's just that... well, he knows who you are, and we can't stay here for long before he discovers what I am. What did you think of her?'

'Of Anna? I didn't really talk to her. She did seem to like you right away. How did it go when you were alone with them?'

Eli elbowed him gently.

'You were spying on us the whole time!'

Eli's voice grew serious.

'Oskar, I know you're fine with me not being a girl, but... do you sometimes think I'm like a fraud? Because I dress like a girl?'

'No. You dress like a girl because you want to, right?'

Eli didn't answer for a long time.

'Yes...'

'Good. So we're both happy with it. Good night, Eli.'

'Good night, Oskar. Sleep well.'

As Oskar fell asleep in her arms, Eli very slowly, bent down to kiss the top of Oskar's head; she never ceased to be amazed at how peacefully he slept, at how he trusted her, without fear or revulsion, despite knowing what she was.