But she’s already outside, running fast down the hill. And Eirik’s behind her.

74

Kristina

‘Get up,’ says Eirik. His eyes are wild, far away in the recesses of his own mind. I need to find out what he sees there, or I am never going to get out of here alive.

‘I can’t,’ I whisper.

He comes over to me and yanks me hard by the arm. ‘I said get up!’ I move slowly, pulling myself up to an awkward standing position, placing all my weight on my right leg and holding on to the low table in front of me, avoiding his eyes.

‘Eirik—’

‘Shut up!’

Eirik pulls something from his pocket, some kind of little book, and flicks through it before throwing it onto the table in front of me. It’s my diary, the orange leather-bound one that was in my Neverfull bag that Leah stole.

‘You know, I meant what I said. I really didn’t want to have to do this. Can you even begin to fucking imagine what the last few days have been like for me?’

‘For you?’ I scream it out loud, without thinking, and for a long moment, Eirik and I stand staring furiously at each other. I need to defuse the situation here or I’ll end up dead like Leah. Dead like Elisabeth. ‘Eirik, wait. Listen to me. We need to talk, not get all crazy with each other. A lot has happened here. But first, we need to focus on getting out of here. We need to get home.’

‘Home!’ Eirik begins to laugh incredulously. ‘What, you think we’re going to leave here and go home like nothing happened?’

‘Eirik, please help me home. I’m in so much pain.’

‘Soon you won’t be.’

‘What—’

‘Write.’ Eirik fishes a Montblanc pen from his jacket pocket and slams it onto the table in front of me.

‘Write what?’

‘A note.’

I can’t stand up for a moment longer and sink back down onto the sofa, my leg hurting beyond anything I’ve ever felt before, wave after wave of crashing pain, my heart hollering in my chest. I can’t stop the tears that begin to flow, and don’t try to wipe them away; I just keep my eyes trained on my hands folded in my lap. I hear a huge crash and when I look up I realize Eirik has smashed a chair against the timber wall, splintering both the chair and the wall with the force. He lets out a wild cry and bursts into tears. I have never seen Eirik, or anyone for that matter, like this before. He’s muttering to himself, his eyes roaming the room as if trying to find a cue to his next move.