Note for Swedish readers: This is the English translation. You can also find the original Swedish version called Oskars värsta stund 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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“Eli?”
Oskar and Eli had rushed across the fields, but suddenly Eli was no longer there, next to Oskar. He looked back over his shoulder, Eli wasn’t to be seen, so he stopped and turned around. He saw a shape in the distance, a shadow against the night sky.
“Eli!”
Eli stumbled and fell. Oskar rushed there, Eli was lying down, lifeless, thrown onto the ground. Oskar's heart skipped a beat, he knelt and held out a hand.
“Eli, what happened? How are you? Eli!”
Eli did not respond, just lay there, still. Oskar shook him, Eli's body was completely limp.
“Eeeli! Wake up, Eli!”
Oskar's heart sank within him, a hole appeared in his stomach. His eyes stung, he sobbed. He laid himself down on his knees and put his ear against Eli's chest. There was only silence, no heartbeat. Oskar collapsed on top of Eli, his tears flowing.
“Eli...”
A feeling of hopelessness swept over Oskar. His life had ended, his life with Eli. He did not want to live alone, not again. His new life would not be alone, and now Eli was lying here, lifeless. He was lying on the ground, next to Eli, holding his his hand, trying to to recreate the bond between them. Futile. The hand was limp, the life that used to be there had fled.
It shouldn’t be like that, now he was suddenly angry instead, he sat up, shook Eli, tears running out of anger and frustration.
“Eli! You must not! You should be here with me, you hear! You mustn’t be dead! Eli! Damn you!”
Eli did not wake up, there was no life to be found in Eli.
They had practised their now-established routine, had sought out some shady activities and had selected an individual. Then they had followed him, tracked and searched until they found his whereabouts.
The houses were on the plains, the land was open and Oskar and Eli's only protection was the darkness. They had waited there, and then they had attacked the first one to come out. Now Eli was upon him, they had overpowered their victim just behind one of the outhouses, out of sight from the living houses and the courtyard.
Oskar had been waiting for his turn, in the meantime he had been keeping watch. Then a man had appeared at the corner, he had carried a gun. Oskar had only been able to call out a short warning, before he had thrown himself away.
Eli had reacted slowly, the infection had sensed the blood, there had been a second or two before he had looked up. Then he had bolted away, after Oskar. The man had shot at them, several shots. Oskar had felt a burning pain, something had pierced his leg and buttock, but Eli had come up to him, and they had increased their speed off across the stubble field. They had been saved.
Then Eli had fallen.
“It was a fucking werewolf, I say, a bloody fucking werewolf!”
Five men stood looking down at a sixth who was lying on the ground. He lay still, and he had an ugly wound in his neck. A pool of blood beneath him was being sucked down into the grass. The man who spoke had a shotgun in his hand, it was the shots from the gun that had called the others out.
“Werewolf or not, it certainly was something that bit Stiffe’s throat, something with damn sharp teeth.”
The man who had spoken was their leader, he was the one because he could keep himself cool and clear-headed, mostly.
“We’ll put him into the shed for now, we’ll decide later what to do about him.”
So it was decided, and soon it was executed, too.
Oskar had oscillated between despair and frustration for several hours. Eli was still completely lifeless and limp, Oskar had begun to think about ending his life. The sky began to become dark blue instead of black in the east. He would just stay here as he lay on the ground, the sun would soon rise and he would soon be extinguished. He and Eli. They would make their last trip together, being burnt off the Earth by the dawn sun. He stood up, he must take off their clothes so that the sun would be able to reach them, so that it would go quickly. No need to be careful, he tore off his clothes, tore them to pieces and threw them away. Then he undressed Eli, but he felt it was wrong to rip off Eli’s clothes, it would be disrespectful. Instead he worked gently, almost tenderly. When he then saw Eli's naked body, he broke down, he began to cry again, resignedly and silent, and he laid his head upon Eli's chest, his eyes closed, waiting for the sun.
The sky was orange in the east when Oskar heard a noise, a faint thud, almost inaudible. Oskar held his breath, several minutes passed, then he heard it again, a bit stronger now. The sound had come from the below, from inside Eli. Oskar threw himself off the ground, lifted up Eli, tossed him over his shoulders, looked around indecisively. He had not many minutes left, he had to take cover! He rushed across the stubble field to the west, it might give him some extra seconds.
He came to a downslope towards a road, cars drove past on both sides down there in the darkness, the noise of the engines and the lamps flashing by every time a car passed. Oskar crashed down to the road, he would be shaded for a while longer there. He gazed along the road, nearby the surrounding ground fell and the slope was lower. But there was also a culvert, a pipe under the road. They could take shelter there, he rushed in that direction along the ditch. He had to run crouching to avoid the sun, the final meters he was crawling, with Eli under one arm, dragging behind him. He crawled into the culvert, which was dry, they could take shelter there. He continued to the middle and lay there, with his arms around Eli. There was a rumbling noise when cars passed over them, and the light through the openings announced that the day had dawned out there. Then Oskar passed out, the infection turned him off.
When Oskar returned to life next evening, it took him a while before he managed to piece together a coherent reality. But now he remembered. He listened to Eli's back, the heart in there now was beating as it used to when they rested. He was alive. The wounds on the back of Eli had closed, but the skin was rough and ragged. Oskar did not know if Eli's remaining resources would be enough to heal him, they had been late feeding themselves. He felt the hopelessness from yesterday beginning to grow again.
He shuddered, shook it off, he physically shook off his despair. He would not give up, not now. But he would have to hunt this night, he was weak, needed to be stronger to take care of Eli. Though he had a problem. He was naked, he could not show himself to people. He would not be able to lure someone to himself, people would be suspicious of a naked child coming walking in the night. And he was so pale that he was almost luminous in the dark. It would be hard to sneak up on anyone. He must find another way. But it would not help him to stay here, here was no food. He crawled towards the opening of the culvert.
He came out into the ditch and sat down in the grass of last year. The cars drove past on the road. He was totally empty of ideas. He rose to his feet and went up onto the road’s shoulder, he walked towards the traffic out of habit. The cars were driving past. They did not see him before they had passed. He continued walking, he couldn’t come up with anything better to do, and just to sit still was no solution.
The day had passed, they had not been able to come up with a way to dispose of Stiffe, so he had had to remain there in the shed. The cops would at least not come here snooping.
Beppe had kept the shotgun close to him ever since he had shot the werewolf, or what it had been. It had had teeth like a wolf, anyway, and it had run like a man. And it had bolted over the high wire fence in one leap. He had hardly dared to go to sleep yesterday, and he had slept restlessly. Now Beppe was sitting in an armchair, staring in front of him. He was tired and scared, his comrades had avoided him all day. He could be dangerous when he was in that mood, but that was one of the reasons that he was with them. Their competitors took care not to penetrate into their territory, he could get crazy and become violent if he thought he had reason.
Beppe started, the door had opened.
“What the hell...”
Stiffe came through the door. He looked like hell, but he smiled.
“Beppe, my old friend!”
Stiffe approached Beppe, who got the shotgun in his hand.
“You always was my best friend. Give me a hug, eh!”
Beppe emptied the magazine into Stiffe’s chest, all of the cartridges. The result was a bloody pulp, nothing living was left there. But Stiffe’s teeth still looked like they did when he had arrived.
“Fucking horrible!”
All agreed, it was the most fucking horrible thing they had ever seen. Stiffe’s mouth was full of long, sharp teeth, some of them protruding straight through his cheeks and lips.
“Fucking, fucking horrible!”
A car had stopped, it had braked with screaming tires just after it had passed by Oskar. He had turned towards it, a woman had got out of the car on the passenger side. She had looked excited, she had stood and held herself to the car for a moment, then she had shouted something and started to walk towards Oskar. He had walked toward her, she cried again.
“Dear child, what are you doing on the road naked in the middle of the night?”
Oskar had no answer, so he said nothing, but he continued to walk. The woman came up to him, her eyes were wide open, her gaze went over him.
“What has happened to you? Do you need help?”
Oskar for a moment considered attacking the woman, but he pushed that aside. There were more people in the car, they would prevent him to finish.
“Yes. Please help me!” Oskar really needed help, he wouldn’t need not dissemble. He was able to pick up a real feeling of need for help. He got tears in his eyes.
“Poor little thing. Come, I'll help you.”
The woman put her arm around Oskar and led him towards the car. Oskar watched over his feelings, he mustn’t lose control, just give away enough to convince. Eli had taught him that. He released a little more, felt his stomach knitting itself into a sob. The woman opened the passenger door and got a blanket out that she swept around Oskar, then she let him sit. When she leaned over him to fasten the seat belt Oskar felt the infection moving. He quickly pushed it back, not now! Then the woman shut the door and stepped into the car, in front of Oskar.
There was only one other person in the car, the woman's husband. He started the car and got up to speed. The woman and the man were speaking, sometimes they asked Oskar questions. He replied, monosyllabic, so that their questions rather than his answers created an explanation of why he had been waking there, naked. But when they started talking about contacting the police, he had to try to avert it. He called up the feeling of loss again, he thought about how he had believed Eli to be dead, and protested crying, shaking.
“Not the police! They’ll send me back! I don’t want be sent back!” He imagined that he was a foster child who had ran away from cruel foster parents. “Don’t do that, please!”
The woman turned around, looked at him over her shoulder.
“No, we'll bring you home to us, we’ll not call the police. Don’t worry, we will not send you back.”
Oskar continued to sob, he felt his tears in the presence of these caring people eased his anxiety about the loss of Eli. He needed it, so he took it.
The couple introduced themselves, the name was Birgitta and Krister. When they asked after Oskar's name, he used his last name, and called himself Erik. Easy to remember.
Eventually the car stopped in a garden in an older residential area. Birgitta and Krister stepped out, and showed Oskar into a brick house from the former half of the 1900s. Then they produced some clothes for him. They had no children, so they used some of Birgitta's clothes since they were the smallest. But they were still too large for the Oskar, so they had to roll up the sleeves and pant legs, and tighten the waistband of his pants some more.
Then Birgitta wanted to give Oskar something to eat, but he declined.
“I'm allergic, I have to have special food. And I'm not hungry anyway.”
“But you could have some tea, couldn’t you?”
Oskar hesitated, could he? He and Eli sometimes drank water in the forest, it might be brown like tea, wouldn’t that be the same?
“I can try some.”
The tea was not good, but the infection did not say flatly no, he did not get sick of it.
“It’s very late, you must be tired. Don’t you want to go to bed?”
Oskar wanted to get away from awkward questions.
“Well, I'm probably a bit tired...”
“Then I make up a bed for you, we have a guest room. Come, I'll show you!”
Soon Oskar was tucked up in bed. He felt pretty good there, it was all nice and soft to lie on a mattress. He realised that he had not slept in a bed in almost ten years, not since he left Blackeberg. He would of course not sleep, but he had no plan for how he would feed himself. He was considering various options, but realised that he could not plan anyway. He did not know how they slept, he did not know the house. So he remained in his bed without thinking, waiting for it to become quiet.
He heard a grandfather clock chime two, he must soon do something. It had been quiet a long time now, the couple slept. He sneaked out of bed, sniffed a bit, made his way up the stairs to the second floor. Someone snored vigorously, the sound came from the room to the left of the stairs. He peeked in, there was a bed, in it Krister lay alone. He snores so hard that she can not sleep in the same room. What luck! Oskar went to the door straight ahead, there was Birgitta. He crept up to her, she looked peaceful, she slept so quietly. He stood looking at her a long while, then he crept into her bed. She moved a bit, but didn’t wake up. He pushed himself up against her, gently put his hands over her face, slowly. Then he locked her in up a quick move, she hadn’t time to react before she was stuck.
Oskar had had an idea. He had emptied the woman, he had never emptied a person before, Eli and he used to share. He hadn’t known it was possible, that he could hold that much. He had noticed that the infection would take all it was given, if it was enticed to. Now he sneaked towards the man's room, the snoring in there was continuing unabated.
When he was finished with the man too, he must decide how he would stop the infection. This brick house might not burn down, he thought, so he had to use to the other method. Then he went down from upstairs, he saw himself in a mirror and pulled up his shirt. Like a mosquito, he thought, I look like a mosquito.
When he returned Eli had awakened. As Oskar had feared, Eli was so weak that the infection did not let go to allow Eli’s mind to take over. But he was also so weak that he could not hunt, so Eli had just kept laying there, fortunately. The infection was not too smart. But now Oskar had a problem, how would he get Eli’s infection on to his idea? He had blood in his face, he put some on a finger and touched Eli's mouth. Eli jerked, the infection woke up.
Oskar was ready, he threw himself over Eli and pressed his mouth over Eli’s, then he tried his idea. He concentrated on his bulging stomach, and imagined how he squeezed it, just a bit. A little came up, it spilled over Eli's face, but some got where it was meant. Oskar waited a moment, Eli's mouth opened a little, he squeezed out some more. Now Eli’s infection had got it, Eli's mouth opened wide. Oskar squeezed again, the blood gushed out of him and into Eli. He continued until he had spewed up almost all he had, then he rolled down from Eli and lay on his side, looking over at Eli, waiting.
Eli’s infection was satisfied, and withdrew. Eli’s mind was allowed to come forward, his eyes blinked. Oskar felt a tremendous joy welling up, he smiled with his whole face towards Eli. Eli turned to him with a questioning look.
“How did you get that idea?”
“Don’t know. It just came to me. But it worked, didn’t it?”
“Well...”
“Didn’t you like the delivery method, perhaps?” Oskar was teasing Eli.
Eli thought about it. No, he had nothing against the delivery method. He just thought he would have, to be fed that way...
“It was okay.”
“Okay, just okay?”
“Quite okay, then. Satisfied?”
“Hmmm...”
“But, Oskar, thanks anyway.”
Then Eli kissed Oskar’s mouth. The delivery method wasn’t all that bad, apparently.