169

Elin hides in the darkness with a poker in both hands. She is shaking with the adrenaline coursing through her, but she feels remarkably strong.

Daniel slowly steps into the room. Elin can’t see him, but she hears the glass crackling beneath his shoes.

Then there’s a loud buzz and the metal shutters start to open. Light begins to seep into the room. Daniel is standing right inside the doorway and he is waiting until he can see where Elin is. Bit by bit, light pours into the room.

There is nowhere to hide.

He spots her. He stares at her and she backs away, aiming the poker at him.

Daniel has the ax in his right hand. He glances at it and then approaches her.

She hits at him, but misses. He moves away. She’s panting from the strain as she aims at him again. Her foot burns. She’s stepped on a shard of glass. She keeps staring at Daniel.

The ax sways in his hand.

She hits, he dodges the blow.

His eyes are boring into hers.

He slashes the ax down with all his strength. But he hasn’t aimed it at her. Instead, the blade hits the poker. The clang of metal against metal. The poker is knocked out of her hand and thuds to the floor.

She can’t defend herself. She just keeps stepping backward. She realizes with a kind of astonishment that things aren’t going well for her. Fear floods her body but clears her mind. She feels uninvolved, as if she’s merely observing what is happening.

Daniel keeps approaching.

She looks him in the eyes and he looks back. He seems calm, as if none of this has touched his emotions.

Finally she has her back to the large window. Behind her, it is three and a half stories to a stone patio.

Her feet are bleeding and red footprints mark her path over the blond wood floor.

She can’t do anything more. She thinks that she should try to negotiate, promise him anything, just get him to talk.

Daniel is breathing heavily and watches her for a while. Then he swiftly crosses the last few feet while lifting the ax. He strikes as hard as he can. Instinctively, Elin jerks her head to the side. The ax smashes into the window. She feels the thick glass vibrate behind her back and crack. Daniel lifts the ax again but before he can land a blow, Elin leans back. She’s throwing all her weight at the broken window and she can feel it give way. Her stomach churns. Then she’s falling through the air with glass showering down all around her. Elin Frank closes her eyes and does not feel the ground when she hits it.

Daniel steadies himself on the windowsill and looks down. Splinters of glass are still falling from the window as Elin lies on her back down below, a steady stream of blood flowing from her head onto the stones of the patio.

Daniel begins to breathe more calmly. His shirt is stuck to his back from sweat.

He has a spectacular view from this uppermost window. He can see Tyskhuvud close-by but Åreskutan is lost in the clouds. On the road from Åre, the bright blue lights of emergency vehicles are heading this way. The road to Tegefors, however, is completely empty.

Загрузка...