Note for Swedish readers: This is the English translation. You can also find the original Swedish version called Jägarexamen 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.
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Elias was born in an era when death was much more present than it had become later. He was the youngest among three siblings. The youngest who survived infancy, that is. There had been other siblings, for a while. Then they had disappeared, and the family's grief had been deep every time. It was the same way in every home in Sweden at the time. Playmates had been there, then disappeared.
The basic premise of Eli's life was as it was, it wasn’t to get past. Life against death, that was decided. But with death came grief, and it was Eli who brought grief to people. This was a heavy burden to bear. Almost too heavy. But only almost, because Eli had borne it. Alone, for there was no one to share the burden. Being two would change much.
Then Eli had met Oskar, and doors had been opened to a room that Eli had forgotten. But Oskar would not be able to share Eli's life, if not... Eli had imagined what it would be like, had asked Oskar once, but he had hesitated, had said no. Then something had happened. Oskar had been given a new life, he said, and this had changed everything. So now they were two.
Oskar was euphoric, he was intoxicated by his new power. He had tried to run races with a car. A great joy welled up in him when he was able to keep up with it, and he screamed out his joy. Then he had come to his senses, and plunged into the ditch. But he had seen the driver's gaze in the rearview mirror.
Eli had chided Oskar, they were supposed to avoid attention. Then they had laughed for a long while at the idea of the astonished motorist.
Eli took the two boxes from the storage box inside the station, and they loaded the things they wanted to save into two small backpacks that Eli had bought. They threw the boxes with the rest of the content in a trash container. Someone might become happy. Then they went hunting.
One of the realities of life is that one is less surprised at the unnatural deaths among the outcast than among the more fortunate citizens. The cause of a violent death at society's bottom layer can usually be explained by debt or conflict within this circle. And the willingness to inform the investigating authorities is not great among those who could shed light on the matter. If this a long life in the shadows had Eli taught all there is to know. So now they were looking for someone whose unnatural death would be regarded as natural. They would begin by seeking out Maria's drug dealer, there would certainly be appropriate candidates around him.
Each place has its fragrance, and traces of it remain in the clothes of those who have visited there. Eli had examined Maria's garments carefully, sniffed and smelled. Oskar had also tried, but he had no experience, could not interpret his sensory impressions. Eli could tell that Mary had waked by foot to her dealer, the scents of bus or car were old. Now they were sneaking through the city. At intersections Eli scented, tried at times to go down a bit along the intersecting road and then tried the other direction before continuing.
Oskar felt how it crept along his back of excitement, he felt alive. It’s for real! He remembered his game with the knife in the woods in Blackeberg, how he had been a dangerous killer. But now it's for real!
They had found their target, a street door and a staircase in a residential area. Eli had been inside the stairwell, nodded affirmative, and told how they would proceed. Then they had hid in some bushes nearby, from where they now kept the door under review. Several people had passed, some who looked like Mary, others that looked worn in other ways. Once an expensive car filled with young people had stopped. Eli had shaken his head every time. Customers, junkies, not good.
Another car, this time with two men. They stepped out of the car and walked with self assured steps through the door. Eli's posture changed, like a cat who sees his prey, alert, ready to go.
“Oskar! Those are the right kind!”
Oskar's heart went faster, he looked inquiringly towards Eli, waiting for instructions.
“They're two?”
“Yes, that’s too much. We can handle one together.”
“What will we do then?”
“Don’t know. Come! I'll have a look.”
Eli stood up and walked to the car and pulled a door handle tentatively. The car wasn’t locked.
“Keep guard!”
Eli opened the door and crawled into the car, rummaging about in there. After a while he came back out with something in his hand, and then he closed the door.
“Now we know where we are going.”
Eli waved the thing in his hand. Some sheets of paper.
“Come! Time to get going.”
Eli set off by the road, Oskar dragged at the start but soon caught up. They ran through the streets, turning off at intersections a few times. After a while Oskar thought it was something that was odd. Then it dawned on him. He should have become short of breath, but his breathing was not very tight. Just a little more than usual, in step with his strides. He was able to talk.
“For how long can you run like this?”
“Several hours, I don’t know exactly. You have to stop before dawn.”
When the town ended and they entered the forest Eli increased their speed. They were running on the left shoulder, the road was rushing by. Oskar realised that he now was running in a different way than he used to do. It was more like a series of leaps with alternating left and right legs than running normally. Like the triple jump in athletics. More than triple, though.
Oskar had been told they were going to a place that Eli knew before. There was an address on the papers Eli had found in the car, the same one on all of them.
“So you've been here before?”
“It feels like I've been everywhere.”
The consequences of Eli's long life and rootless lifestyle suddenly came to Oskar. Then he realised that the same conditions applied to him, now. He hadn’t thought about that. The perspective was breathtaking.
In the few times cars went by they quickly got off the road and hid in the ditch. One of the cars was the one they had seen in Karlstad, they recognised the license plate. Eli nodded grimly when the car drove past.
“There will be people at home. Let's see if we get invited.”
On a few occasions they came through small villages where there was street lighting. Eli then slowed down the pace, said they would try to look as normal as possible. The running style they used the forest looked strange, people would notice them if they were running that way.
“It's not all that normal that two twelve-year olds are out running like this in the middle of the night in any case.”
“No, that's pretty abnormal, isn’t it?” Eli looked knowingly at Oskar, flashed a grin. “But still.”
They arrived to another small village, or rather a cluster of houses. Eli slowed down, stopped at a rack with of mailboxes and checked the papers from the car.
“Here’s the mailbox, but which house would it be?”
The car was nowhere to be seen outside any of the houses closest to the road, but there was a small side road a short distance away. They went there, Eli squatted down and looked searchingly at the road surface, kneeled and sniffed towards the ground.
“I think it’s here, someone has driven here recently. Let’s go and check.”
“How can you see that? That someone’s driven here, that is?”
“It looks a little different.” Eli pointed. “Here.” Oskar looked where Eli indicated, he could see a difference, a slight shade.
“But the scent is more important. It smells a little different, the tires tear up the surface.”
Oskar kneeled and sniffed the ground. He felt it, he understood what Eli was saying.
“You can smell the tires too, when the track is new it smells in a different way than later.”
They followed the road into the woods. There was hardly any snow on the ground between the trees, it had not snowed that much, and most of the snow still remained up in the trees, on the branches. After a few twists a light between the trees appeared, there were some buildings. A house and a few other buildings, one of those had a garage door. The car was parked on the grounds. A light on the dwelling house's exterior wall illuminated the scene.
They sneaked around the house spying upon it, staying among the trees, outside the circle of light from the lamp. It the rooms were lit up, you could hear thumping music. They couldn’t see any people, but the house was built on a basement, so the windows were set high above the ground. If those inside were sitting, they would not be visible from outside.
They had almost completed a full circle around the house without seeing anybody through the windows. Eli stopped and pondered.
“If it is the way I think it is, we’ll probably not be invited, no matter how cute and harmless we look. Let’s try to get them out instead.”
Eli picked up a small stone and threw it hard against the front door. There was a whoosh when the stone swept through the air and when it hit the door, there was a loud crack, almost like a gunshot. Then he threw himself into the brush. Oskar followed the example, and laid down close to Eli. It wasn’t long before the door opened and a man looked out, spying. When he couldn’t see anything, he stepped out through the door and closed it behind him. Then he went down the stairs and crossed the courtyard to one of the other buildings. He opened a door and went inside. After a while he came out again, looking around. He had a lit torch in his hand.
Oskar's body tingled with excitement. Then he felt something waking up. The infection. Must keep it down. He concentrated, pushed it back. Eli whispered:
“That’s good, keep it back a little longer. Ready your teeth. We’ll try to lure him into the woods.”
The man had started to walk towards the entrance road, he would soon turn his back on Eli and Oskar.
“His vision is bad, his eyes are accustomed to the lamplight, so he’ll see only where he aims the torch. That will help us.”
The man had reached the mouth of the entrance road, now he would no longer be visible from the house. Eli stood up, took off his backpack and put it on the ground.
“Now, run as quiet as you can. Come on!”
They ran out into the yard, and continued towards the entrance road. In front of them they saw the torch’s light move away between the trees. Oskar heard Eli's voice, it sounded distant.
“Let it loose now, Oskar. I'll help you.”
The infection pressed forward, Oskar's mind receded. He saw and heard everything, but it was as if he was not fully present in his body anymore, as if he observed the events from somewhere far away. Oskar felt himself rushing towards the man in mighty leaps. He was filled with a cold, ruthless aggression which was driving his body forward.
The man heard them coming, but he only managed to turn around half before they came upon him. Oskar was on his back, clinging with arms and legs, jaws pressed against the man's neck, biting and chewing. Eli dove for the man's legs, threw himself at them from behind so that the man's knees gave way and he fell. He had not even reached the ground before Eli was at his head and put his hands over the man’s mouth. The man never reached to make even the slightest sound.
Oskar got the control over his body back after a while, when the infection had taken what it wanted. Still he sucked a little more, he wanted to test what it would feel like when he was fully present. The infection told him that it was good, The Only, but Oskar thought it was rather messy, a little disgusting, to suck like that. Then he moved away, gave way to Eli, who threw himself with a snarling sound. The man squirmed, tried to get out of their embrace, to push himself up off the ground. Oskar took the man’s arms and broke them up against his back. The man wasn’t able to resist, Oskar noticed, although he was pretty muscular. How strong I am! Mr. Avila should see me now, he would’ve been impressed. The man kicked his legs, useless, he moaned panting through his nose. Eli was on his neck, there was a slurping sound when the man writhed and Eli suck air. Eventually the man's movements became weaker. Oskar let go of him and sat down on the ground, cross-legged. He then saw the torch shining a bit away, so he went over and shut it off.
Finally, Eli sat up and turned to Oskar, smiling.
“It went well, didn’t it. You did fine.”
“Thanks.”
Oskar remembered the appearance of some of the older guys in the gym in Blackeberg.
“He was pretty big, huh?”
“Yes, he was big. I wouldn’t have taken him alone this way. A lot of power in him. Will last a long time.”
Eli was silent for a moment, thoughtful. Then he continued:
“It’s good that we are two now. It needn’t to be as often then.”
He searched Oskar's eyes again, exclaimed:
“I’m so grateful that you wanted to come along with me!”
Oskar understood. In Blackeberg he had been Eli's playmate, an infinitely long missed friend. He still was all of that, but now he could also handle some of the sad but necessary craft that was the premise of Eli's life. And Oskar’s life too, now. He had been convinced he wold be able to do it, but now he knew. He had been tried and he had made the grade. He felt no remorse.
Eli turned back towards the man, sighed, and then got a pained expression in his face.
“There's one thing left to do.”
Eli crept up onto the man again, put his legs on the man’s chest and his arms around the head. Then he twisted the man's head round. There was a crack from the neck. Eli switched his grip, and continued twisting in the same way. Soon, the man’s head had been turned around almost a full circle. Eli sat up, hung his head, his eyes closed, seemed to search within himself. The he looked up, mumbling to himself:
“Yes. It’s easier if you don’t know them at all, if you don’t speak with them first.”
Oskar and Eli had begun to drag the body away from the entrance road, they had got it a few yards into the woods. Then they heard someone shouting around the houses, they had apparently started wondering about the man. Oskar and Eli then hurried away from the body, making a turn through the woods and then approaching the house again. There were voices, two men in the courtyard, the door of the house stood open. Eli and Oskar crept closer, to where they had left the backpacks earlier. They heard the men discussing, then one of them went back into the house. After a while he reappeared, carrying a rifle. Then the men walked together toward the entrance road.
“It is time for us to disappear.”
Eli crawled around, grabbed his backpack, and crept away. Oskar followed him. When they had laid a few dozen yards between them and the houses, they rose and went crouching through the woods. Eventually they dared to straighten up completely, allowing them to go full speed.
The men from the house soon found the body. They did not want to have anything to do with the police, so the death never was known by the authorities. For some time the tension between various criminal factions increased, but that this fact would have any relation to Oskar Eriksson's train trip to Karlstad in mid-November was a thought that nobody ever had.