Let the right one in by John Ajvide Lindqvist Page A

a door open. Her door. That man was probably her dad. Granted, Oskar had never seen a real life drug addict, but that man looked sick. No wonder she was strange.
    Oskar went down to the playground, sat on the edge of the sandbox, and kept an eye on her window to see if the blinds had been pulled up. Even the bathroom window looked like it had been covered on the inside. The frosted glass was much darker than in other peoples' apartments. He took his Rubik's Cube out from his pocket. It creaked and squeaked as he turned it. A copy. The original was much more supple, but cost five times as much and could only be found in the well-guarded toy store in Vallingby.
    Two sides had been completed, all one color, and on a third side only one little bit was out of place. But he couldn't get it there without destroying the two completed sides. He had saved an article from Expressen that described the various kinds of turns—that was how he had managed to solve two sides, but after that it was much harder. He looked at the Cube, tried to think out the solution instead of just turning. He couldn't. His brain couldn't manage it. He pressed the Cube against his forehead, as if to delve into its interior. No answer. He placed the Cube on a corner of the sandbox half a meter away. Stared at it. Glide, glide, glide.
    Telekenesis, that was the name for it. In the USA they had run experiments. There were people who could do stuff like that. ESP. Extra Sensory Perception. Oskar would have given anything to be able to do something like that.
    And maybe ... maybe he could.
    Today at school hadn't been so bad. Tomas Ahlstedt had tried to pull his chair out in the cafeteria, but he had seen it in time. That was all. He was going to go out into the forest with his knife, to that tree. Make a more serious attempt. Not get all carried away like yesterday. Cut into the tree calmly and methodically, hack it apart and concentrate on Tomas Ahlstedt's face in his mind the whole time. But... there was the whole thing with the murderer. The real murderer who was out there somewhere.
    No, he had to wait with this until the murderer was caught. On the other hand, if there was a normal murderer then the experiment was useless. Os-kar looked at the Cube, imagined a line connecting his eyes to the Cube.
    Glide, glide, glide.
    Nothing happened. Oskar stuffed the Cube into his pocket, got up, brushed some sand from his pants, and looked at her window. The blinds were still drawn.
    He went inside to work on his scrapbook, to cut out and paste the articles about the Vallingby murder. There would probably be a lot of them, in time. Especially if it happened again. He was hoping a little that that would be the case. Hopefully in Blackeberg.
    So the police would come to his school, the teachers would be serious, concerned, that kind of atmosphere. He liked it.

    +

    Never again. No matter what you say."
    "Hakan..."
    "No. It's just—no."
    "I'll die."
    "Then die."
    "Do you mean that?"
    "No. I don't. But you could do it yourself."
    "I'm still too weak."
    "You're not weak."
    "Too weak for—that."
    "Well, then I don't know. But I won't do it again. It's so—horrible, so...
    "I know."
    "You don't know. It's different for you, it is . . ."
    "What do you know about how it is for me?"
    "Nothing, but at least you're . .."
    "Do you think I like it?"
    "I don't know. Do you?"
    "No."
    "No, of course not. Well, anyway ... I'm not doing it again. Maybe you've others who have helped you who have been . . . better at this than me."
    "Have you?" "Yes." I see. "Hakan?" "I love you." "Yes."
    "Do you love me, even one little bit?" "Would you do it again if I said I loved you?" "No."
    "I should love you anyway, you mean." "You only love me to the extent I help you stay alive." "Yes. Isn't that what love is?"
    "If only I thought you would love me even if I didn't do it..." "Yes?"
    ". . . maybe I would do it again." "I love you." "I don't believe you."
    "Hakan. I can manage for a few more days