Note for Swedish readers: This is the English translation. You can also find the original Swedish version called Att hysa gäster on this site.
This piece of fan fiction is based on John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel Låt den rätte komma in. Features that have been fetched from the novel are his work, however, he is in no way responsible for the work below.
===
Maria Nilsson was freezing. Her outfit was not designed to be warm, it was meant to attract customers. She had not had anything to eat for several days, her last money had gone to the last fix. Which wasn’t even a memory anymore. Her clientele seemed to stay at home. They were anyhow not here, not now at least. She hadn’t even a smoke. Fuck, it’s cold like in a freezer.
“Hello.”
Maria started, looked around. A kid, a girl.
“You're broke. I need somewhere to stay a few days. I’ll pay well.”
“What?”
The girl stood with her head cocked, looking up at Maria. She has even less on than I have. Isn’t she cold?
“I want to stay with you. You’ll get paid. Better than you would here.“
That kid must have escaped from somewhere. Some orphanage, or something. Or from mean parents.
“You’re on the run?”
“In a way. Can I stay with you?”
“Well, I don’t know...”
Maria looked skeptically at the girl. I can’t bring that kid to my place, that’s no place to be for a kid. She ought fucking well see that I can’t have a kid at my place.
“You get a thousand a day.”
Thousand. A day. A few days, she said. Where would she get that kind of money?
“You’re making fun of me. The hell you have a thousand bucks.”
“I do, I’ve got them right here.”
The girl stuck her hand under her sweater and fished out some notes. What do you know. She actually has a lot of money. A bloody fortune, it looks like. Where did she nick those? Maria made a quick decision. Not my problem.
“Ok. You can stay with me, a thousand bucks a night. In advance.”
“Good. Then we’ll go to your place. Now, at once.”
The girl turned down the street, wolf whistled. Another kid, a blonde boy, stuck out his head around the corner.
“My buddy will live with you, too. We sleep together, so he’ll be included in the price.”
They had settled in Maria’s apartment. She had received her money and left again. The apartment was small, a studio apartment with a kitchenette, but it was better furnished than Oskar had expected. Maria looked worn, and he’d thought her place would be like the one where Eli had lived, but here were furniture and carpets and curtains around the windows. Posters on the walls, a small twenty inch TV. The bed was made up. Quite tidy also, no mess in the kitchen.
They would sleep on the couch.
They explored the apartment. There was a dark closet where Eli might stay during the day. They would have to make up some explanation, in case Maria would ask why. They invented names for Eli’s problems with sunlight, one more imaginative than the other.
“Day blues.”
“Light cramp!”
“Sun extrema! You’ve got sun extrema!”
Eli explained Maria's addiction to Oskar. He had read about it, and they had learnt about it in school. Oskar remembered the policeman who had visited the class. Eli had recognised the signs, there also was a smell. The smell of abstinence. Maria had been easy to persuade.
“It's like the infection. One must follow what it says. There’s no way around it.”
So Maria would not ask any questions. She would probably not notice much at all in the next few days.
Maria returned from her shopping expedition. She had bought coffee, milk, bread and spreads. Frozen pizzas. And a fix for herself. The kids were on the couch, they had apparently fallen asleep. The girl was behind the boy, holding her arms about him, as if to protect him. Maria felt a lump in her throat. She'd wanted to rest like that, with someone's arms around her.
She went into the bathroom to fix herself. She did not want to do it in front of kids, even if they were asleep. She felt dirty.
Oskar woke up in a unfamiliar room. It was still dark outside, but there was light from the street lights coming in. He looked at his watch, the time was a little over seven. Eli whispered behind his back:
“Are you awake? Do you feel anything yet?”
Oskar tried to sense his inside, he looked inwards for signs. He had the memory of Eli's transformation to refer to, but he could not be certain that anything changed in him yet.
“I feel nothing yet, I think.”
“The sun’ll soon rise, and I must protect myself. You could probably stay here in the room. The sunshine is not so bad in the beginning. You'll notice if you must take cover. Join me in that case. I'll stay awake.”
Eli got up off the couch, walked over to the closet and shut the door behind himself.
The day had dawned, Oskar stood at the window. A thin layer of snow glistened on the roofs and on the ground. The sky was clear and icy pale blue. The sun shone on the opposite façade, Maria's apartment was apparently to the north. What a luck! The sun would not shine into the room.
He made sandwiches and poured milk for himself. It tasted like so, a bit bland and uninteresting, but he was hungry. Maria was completely knocked out, she lay in her bed.
Oskar spent the day reading magazines that he had found in the apartment, and playing with Eli’s Rubik’s cube. He began to understand the system now, Eli had explained to him. The centre pieces on each side does not move relative to each other, Eli had said. Edge pieces move around them. Oskar remembered how he once had taken his cube apart, it was actually designed that way. Eli had understood it only by turning!
He had thought that he should have lunch, found the pizza in the freezer and heated it, but lost his appetite when it was completed. He had forced down some anyway, but left most of it. It’s the infection, he thought. It was supposed to be like that, you lose the desire for ordinary food. The light that entered through the windows had been too strong, it had strained his eyes a little as he looked out onto the sunlit street, so he had let down the blinds. It’s on its way! He felt a bit like on Christmas Eve, the tension in anticipation of Donald Duck and Santa Claus. But he would rather it went faster. He had stood before the mirror in the bathroom and tried to reshape his teeth, it should be possible. Eli had explained that you thought them sharp, focused and willed. But he could not feel anything when he swept through the mouth with his tongue, and he saw no change in the mirror.
Oskar spoke with Eli a few times during the day, reported on how it evolved, how he was doing. He knocked on the door, then sat and talked softly through the crack in the door frame.
Maria came round in the the afternoon. The blinds were lowered, had she done that yesterday? She didn’t do that usually, she liked to see daylight when she awoke. The boy sat on the couch, and played with one of those colourful cubes that all kids had. He was completely absorbed by it. Maria stayed in bed and looked at the boy. A twinge of regret, the child's concentration on a toy, her craving for the drug. The contrast was painful. She sighed and got out of bed.
“Hello.”
The boy looked up. A little hesitant.
“Hello...”
“I’m Maria. I never heard your name yesterday. What's your name?”
The boy hesitated, one second.
“Erik. My name is Erik.”
“Are you hungry, Erik? Have you got something to eat?”
“I got sandwiches in the morning. Warmed pizza for lunch. But I was not that hungry, so there were leftovers.”
Maria looked toward the kitchenette. Nothing left on the sink. Well-behaved kid. Cleans up his own mess. Used to care for himself.
She turned around to go to the bathroom. The bathroom door was open, no one was in there.
“Your buddy, has she gone out?”
“No, she's in there.” The boy pointed to the closet. She has something wrong with her eyes, can’t stand daylight. She’ll come out later.”
“Huh?”
Can you have that? Not to stand any daylight at all? Maria shook her head. Don’t bother. None of your business. She went into the bathroom and shut the door.
When Maria came out of the bathroom, she was changed. She had washed off all the makeup, you could now see how worn she was, but her expression was softer. Oskar thought it was as if she had taken off a mask. Then she went out shopping, to get food for dinner. She had wondered what they might want to eat. On an impulse Oskar had asked for black pudding. Black pudding, he thought, food for a vampire. Eli laughed when he mentioned it through doorway later.
The short November day was already over when Maria was back with the groceries, and the girl had appeared again. Maria stood and fried black pudding, she thought about the girl. Weird kid, staying stuck in a closet all day. Must be a bit twisted. Maybe they had ran off some psychiatric institution? Seem nice and good anyhow. She turned to the girl:
“So you have crept out now. Dark and cosy in there, huh?”
The boy glanced towards the girl, a smile flashed in the corners of his mouth before he quickly smoothed his face out again. The girl shrugged, said nothing.
They are hiding something. Yes, sure, of course that they are hiding something, otherwise they wouldn’t have come to me. They should be home with their parents. Or not, there are too many people who shouldn’t be allowed to have children, but who have. Like my parents.
Maria laid the table for two. The girl had said no thanks, she had been given pizza by Erik before, she said, so she wasn’t hungry. But the boy ate black pudding, though he hardly touched the potatoes and the lingonberry jam. Quiet kids, don’t say much. Probably not used to people like me. Junkie. Whore. Maria felt self contempt grow, she swept away those thoughts quickly and tried to start a conversation:
“So you like black pudding, at least. Vampire food, as my brother used to say. He was fun, my bro.”
The boy and the girl glanced at each other, tittered.
“Here comes Dracula,” he used to say, and then he dived into the black pudding, he ate with his mouth directly from the plate without using cutlery. Yum! Bloood! he’d say”
Maria laughed at the memory.
“Then he smeared lingonberry jam into his face so it ran down his chin!”
The kids tittered again. Then, on an impulse the boy pushed his face into his plate, and then looked up again. Lingonberry blood was running from his mouth onto his chin.
“Like this?”
Maria laughed more.
“Exactly!”
The boy made a serious face, said with a sepulchral voice: “Here comes the blooody vaaaampire. Beware! Grrrr!”
Maria caught on, feigned being scared, whined: ”Help! Mom! A horrible vaaampire! Please, Mr. Vampire, spare me!”
Now all three of them laughed, and one’s laughter reinforced the joy of the others until tears were running.
Oskar helped Maria with the dishes, dried and put away. Maria told more about her brother, how he used to talk about werewolves and vampires and other monsters when he was a child. Oskar latched on, this was an area where he was an expert. Eli sat quietly on the couch, playing with his Rubik’s cube. When the kitchenette had been restored Maria switched on the television to watch the news. Nothing was said about the events in Blackeberg, however. Oskar had worried about that a bit, now he was able to relax. Then they watched a nature program, and a fairly recent American film.
Eli stared fascinated at the tiny screen. He knew about both television and cinema, knew what they were in a theoretical way, but he had no personal experience. He had lived out of the world of people, never been to a cinema. And television is something you watch at home, he had not really been in a home since he left the one of his childhood for the last time. The protectors he hade lived with had mostly been broken and marginalised people, who could not afford such luxuries as a television.
The film touched him. Eli had been with a protector to the theatre a few times a long time ago. He had been an educated man, despite all his faults and shortcomings. He had taught Eli to read and write, had had many books, have given Eli fragments of an education. The film was a kind of play, Eli realised, people who pretend to be other persons than they are. But the movie went so close, you could see emotions play in the actors' faces, small movements and hints that would not be visible from a stage.
When the film was over, Maria went out, she had something to do. They should not sit up and wait for her, she said, she'd probably be late. Oskar turned off the television and sat on the couch next to Eli.
“She's funny, Maria. I wonder what she would say if she had known, when we fussing about vampires.”
Eli giggled. ”Here comes the horrible lingonberry vampire Oskar.”
Oskar was silent a moment, he had come to think of something.
“Maria. She is kind.”
“Yes. She is kind.” Eli looked bleak. ”They tend to be kind.”
“Eli, will you...?«
“What?” Eli realized what Oskar had meant. ”Oh, that... No, not Maria. We will leave Maria alone.”
Eli sat silent for a while. Then he continued, his tone matter-of-fact:
“Anyway, it’s not a good idea, it can be dangerous. Maria is an addict, she has drugs in her blood, you’ll get intoxicated if you drink it. One must avoid drug addicts.”
“How do you do that? How do you know if it is an addict?”
“It's in the smell.” Eli thought for a while. ”Breathe on me!”
Oskar blew air towards Eli, who sniffed.
“It is not very strong yet, but I can smell it. It will probably last another day before we can leave here. Apparently it takes longer this way.”
When Maria returned the kids were asleep on the couch, like the night before. She stood a long moment watching them. How close they are, she thought, as if they have grown together. Nothing can come between them.
When Oskar awoke, he felt uneasy. Something was crawling under his skin. He looked at his wristwatch, it was only five in the morning. He was tired but not sleepy. He whispered:
“Eli. It has begun. I can feel it now.”
Eli already had his arms around Oskar, now he hugged him harder.
“Good. Don’t worry, I'll help you.”
“It's a little exciting.”
“Yes.”
At the first signs of dawn, they stood up and covered the windows. They hung up blankets and other thick fabrics, and closed the curtains. Oskar poured some milk into a glass, but started to gag from it, so he dumped it into the sink. He drank water instead, that was OK. Then they lay talking, whispering. Oskar had many questions, much that he wanted to know. Eli, who no longer had any reason to hide the truth, answered sincerely and without hesitance.
What Eli talked most about was the infection, the Other in the chest. One must master the infection. It is very strong and aggressive, gives enormous power, but it is primitive, it cannot plan or look beyond the most immediate. That is what the infection gets in return, a planning mind to increase the infection’s chances for survival. But the infection is unreliable, it can take control at the wrong time and reveal its host if it isn’t fed. One have to keep the infection satisfied, one have to give it what it requests.
“You have to tame it.”
“How do you do that?”
“You don’t give way. You take command. It is hardest in the beginning.”
“If I can’t, if I give in?”
“You can. You did give in earlier, when those idiots were harassing you. That's why they didn’t stop, because you didn’t give in, you didn’t let them turn you into someone else, deep inside. And I'm here, I'll help you. But you can, I know you can.”
Maria woke up in a dark room. Had she slept all day? She didn’t use to do that, after all. Then she saw that the windows were covered. She heard the kids at the couch, they were whispering to each other, but Maria could not hear what they said. She yawned, stretched himself.
“Good morning. Or what it might be. Sorry that I’m such a sleepyhead.”
The kids moved on the couch.
“It’s dark in here,” she continued, “why have you covered the windows?”
“I can’t stand light. My eyes get sore.” The girl had responded.
“For real? It's not some game, then, or something?”
“No, it's for real. It hurts a lot.” Then she added, as an explanation: ”I thought it was boring to sit in that closet all day.”
“But this is so dark.”
“It's fine to turn on the lamps. I can stand artificial light.”
Maria lit her bedside lamp. For a brief moment she got an impression of an animal sitting by the couch, there was a glimmering pair of eyes. She shook herself, then the impression was gone, there were two children.
“Are you sure you don’t want some?”
Maria had cooked, but the kids had said no thanks. They had eaten earlier in the day, and were not hungry. Weird kids. At that age tend you’re always able to push some more down. Particularly food like macaroni and meat sauce, all kids love that. Homemade meat sauce. And lots of ketchup. She was a little offended, at least her cooking was good enough.
“I will eat, anyway.”
Not every day you get meat sauce with your ketchup and macaroni. Maria squirted a thick layer of ketchup over her plate.
Oskar made a jerk, there was something moving inside his chest, a craving. Eli turned towards him, widened her eyes, grabbed his arm. Blood, he had thought that the ketchup looked like blood. The infection had woken, started clamouring. It's just ketchup! Oskar imagined taming a dog. Sit! Down! The infection receded, Oskar relaxed. Eli let go of his arm.
It's three o'clock at night, Eli and Oskar are laying on the couch, pretending to sleep. They had watched television the night before, the news had reported on a mass murderer who had ravaged the Stockholm suburb Blackeberg, but there had been no inquiry about Oskar. He had pretty good night vision by now, and he was not sleepy, though it was the middle of the night. The transformation had went a long way. He tried again to think his teeth sharp. It should be better to do it himself, Eli had told him. The mouth could become a huge mess if the infection had its way, lots of sharp teeth sprawling in all directions. Moreover, it would hurt less if one controlled it oneself, and it didn’t happen so quick. Ouch! He had felt a snap in his jaw. Oskar investigated with his tongue, the tooth was a bit longer than usual. It works!
“Bravo.” Eli had also heard the snap. ”Keep on!”
Dawn. Oskar begins to feel absent. Something is pulling him away. He shook himself, it was quite uncomfortable. Not like falling asleep, rather like being turned off.
“Let it come.” Eli whispered. ”It’s not dangerous, and it’s better you save your strength. I’ll keep myself awake. I’ll wake you up later.”
“But you've been awake for several days in a row now. Is that good? Don’t you get tired?”
“Not tired. But it consumes power, you get less time before you have to feed again. You’ll be weaker. It becomes harder to control the infection.”
Oskar had not realised that it would cost Eli to stay awake all the time to keep watch over him. He turned around. Eli looked worn, there were white hairs.
“You won’t wait too long, will you?”
“No, don’t worry, I can do a few more days. Now rest.”
Oskar let go, and his mind went out, room after room.
For once, Maria woke up before midday. She felt rested. She turned her head sideways on the pillow. The sofa could be seen as a shadow, the girl was sitting with the boy’s head in her lap. She traced his face with her fingers, followed the convolutions of his ear. Round and round. I would also like to lay like that, or be the one sitting. Why cannot I? Maria turned her head back, looked up into the ceiling, lay there a long time without thinking. Then she lit the bed lamp, got up, whispered to the girl:
“Good morning. Already awake?”
The girl nodded, smiled.
“You want breakfast?”
The girl shook her head. ”No thanks, I’m fine.”
Maria was struck by a thought. She hadn’t seen the girl eating anything for all the time. Just one pizza had disappeared from the freezer, and more than half of it now was in the refrigerator. Most of the bread had still been there when Maria had checked last time.
“You don’t eat.”
“I do, when you sleep.”
“Don’t try fooling me, all the food is still left. You haven’t eaten anything. Why don’t you eat?”
The girl looked towards Maria, she seemed to think over what she would say. She made a decision.
“Because I do not need to eat.”
She is starving herself. Anorexic. She needs help! Maria walked over to the couch, knelt beside the girl, stroked her hair. She looks worn, even has white hairs.
“Little friend, you must eat. You will get ill otherwise.”
The girl looked down to her knees, thinking. Then she lifted her head, looked into Maria's eyes. A very old woman’s gaze.
“It’s not the way you think.”
The girl's gaze frightened Maria, she withdrew her hand.
“How is it then?”
“You don’t want to know.”
A cold shiver went down Maria's back. Her knees gave in, she sat her down on her heels. She lowered her gaze, saw the boy. He lay there and slept in the girl's legs. No. He's not breathing! Maria's heart jumped. She looked up at the girl again.
“It’s as it should be.” The girl's voice was calm, wanted to convince. ”He is resting. It’s meant to be like that. Do not be afraid.”
Maria suddenly found herself on the edge of an chasm. She got goosebumps, wrapped her arms around herself and cowered.
“We’ll travel in the evening. It's finished now. We will not hurt you.”
“Who... what... are you?”
“A human being like you. Someone to help. You have helped us much. Can I do anything for you?”
Maria relaxed. The girl was sincere. She wanted to help, without ulterior motives, without prejudice.
“You probably cannot help me.”
“I understand. No, you're right, I can not help you with your addiction, only you can do that. But I can give you an opportunity, a respite.”
“A respite?”
“Yes. You will understand.”
Maria went out shopping. Eli had woken Oskar while Maria was out, she said it was safer that way. The infection wakes up first, she said, and if there is a suitable pray nearby, one's consciousness may not wake up until afterwards. Especially if one is weak. Oskar remembered the bum in the bathroom in Eli’s apartment, now he understood what had happened.
When Maria returned she was excited, she had purchased several tabloids. She held up one of them, there was a big picture of Oskar, the headline in large black letters: MURDERED?
“It is you, huh?”
Oskar looked at the picture, then at Maria.
“Yes, that's me. Have you told anybody anything?” He looked hostile.
“No, no, I do not snitch. But why? Why are you hiding? What have you done?”
Oskar looked at the floor, thinking.
“It is hard to explain. But I got, like, a new life.” He looked up, defiant. “And that life is mine, I will let no one take it away from me! No one!”
Maria dropped her arm, the newspaper fluttered to the floor.
“I think I can understand. Would you tell me?”
“I want to see what is in the newspapers first.”
Maria took the papers up from the floor and handed them to Oskar, who sat on the couch to read. Eli looked anxiously at Oskar, seemed nervous. There were several pages of articles and pictures. Oskar read and turned up new spreads. When he had read for a while on the third spread he paused, looked up at the Eli, and opened his mouth as if to say something. Then he lowered his eyes again and continued reading.
Oskar finished reading the magazine he started with, flipped through the others. Then he got up, walked over and embraced Eli, hugged him tight. Eli shook little, said with a small voice:
“I was so angry.”
Maria looked at them, picked up the newspaper and read. A boy, Oskar Eriksson, had disappeared. But three other boys had been murdered. Brutally murdered, it said. The killer was still on the run, the police asked for information from the public.
“I am not a monster!”
“No, you just got mad. You’re not a monster. “Oskar loosened his embrace a little, took a short step back, searched Eli's eyes. Whispered: “It was because you care about me. Thank you.”
Oskar told his tale.
“I had a life where I wasn’t allowed to be myself. Some guys at school were mean. I wasn’t the way they wanted, and they wouldn’t allow that. Nobody wanted to be my friend. The others dared not for those mean guys.”
Oskar stopped, searched for words.
“Dad wanted me to listen to him when he was drunk and angry. I did not want to hear that. Mom didn’t get it what it was like in school, she didn’t want to get it.”
“Then Eli came and we were together. But Eli had to go away again.”
“Then I died from that life.”
“I almost drowned, the boys they write about in the newspaper held me under water.”
“But I got a new life. Eli came back and rescued me. The boys died instead.”
“In the new life I'll decide for myself. And I've decided that I will be with Eli.”
“So I have to disappear, otherwise I can not have my new life as I want.”
“That's why we're here.”
“Now we’ll leave. You have let us stay here so I could become like Eli. It was nice of you.”
“Now I have become like Eli, and no one can decide for me anymore.”
Oskar looked up at Maria, looked deep into her eyes.
“Don’t tell anyone about us. Not ever.”
Maria felt helpless, she looked at Oskar and Eli. They were sitting on on the couch, their hands intertwined, Maria sat on a chair across the coffee table. What a story! It took less than a minute to tell, but contained a life. Two lives, even. Oskar really meant that he got a new life, the old bad one had been thrown on the scrapheap. You can get a new life! A hope was lit.
“Take this. It can give you the respite I told you about.”
Eli had put a small box on the table, it was a little bigger than a matchbox. It was patterned on all sides, full of meandering ornamentation. It was almost entirely black, only the highest parts of the pattern was shiny. Silver, looked ancient.
“It is very valuable. But you need a certificate that you own it to sell it. Here is what you should do and whom to meet in order to obtain the certificate.”
Eli handed over a handwritten note. The letters were elaborate, looked old. As people used to write in the past. But Maria recognised the paper from a notebook she had, and the writing was made with a ballpoint pen.
Oskar and Eli got up, walked towards the door.
“Wait! Let me know!”
They stopped.
“Oskar, you said that you did become like Eli, what did you mean by that? What’s about you two?“
They looked at each other, Oskar raised his eyebrows questioningly. Eli nodded affirmatively, smiled a bit. They focused, wrinkled their brows, ran their tongues inside their lips. Now they turned to Maria, smiling broadly. Then they went through the door and disappeared.