John Lindqvist - Let The Right One In aka Let Me In

"Him… the murderer?"

"Yes. It had splattered… over the whole wall. And his face… shit. If I ever have to kill myself it'll be pills. Just think about the guys who do the autopsy. To have to-"

"Henrik."

"Yes?"

"Stop."

Eli was standing in the open door. Oskar was sitting on the step. In one hand he was squeezing the handle of the bag, like he was prepared to leave at any moment. Eli pushed a tendril of hair behind her ear. She looked completely healthy. A little girl, unsure of herself. She looked down at her hands, said in a low voice: "Are you coming?"

"Yes."

Eli nodded almost imperceptibly, fidgeting with her fingers. Oskar was still sitting on the step.

"Can I… come in?"

"Yes."

The devil flew into him. He said: "Say that I can come in."

Eli lifted her head, made an attempt to say something, but didn't. She started to close the door a little, stopped. Shifted her weight between her bare feet, then said:

"You can come in."

She turned and walked into the apartment, Oskar followed, closing the door behind him. He put the bag down in the hall, took off his jacket and hung it on the hat shelf with little hooks underneath where, he noted, nothing else was hanging.

Eli was standing in the door to the living room with her arms limp at her sides. She was wearing panties and a red T-shirt with the words iron maiden on it, over a picture of the skeleton monster they had on their albums. Oskar thought he recognized it. Had seen it in the trash room at some point. Was it the same one?

Eli was studying her dirty feet.

"Why did you say that?"

"You said it."

"Yes. Oskar…"

She hesitated. Oskar stayed in the same position, with his hand on the jacket he had just hung up. He looked at the jacket as he asked:

"Are you a vampire?"

She wrapped her arms around her body, slowly shook her head.

"I… live on blood. But I am not… that."

"What's the difference?"

She looked him in the eyes and said somewhat more forcefully:

"There's a very big difference."

Oskar saw her toes tense, relax, tense. Her naked legs were very thin, where the T-shirt stopped he could see the edge of a pair of white panties. He gestured to her. "Are you kind of… dead?"

She smiled for the first time since he had arrived.

"No. Can't you tell?"

"No, but… I mean… did you die once, a long time ago?"

"No, but I've lived for a long time."

"Are you old?"

"No. I'm only twelve. But I've been that for a long time."

"So you are old, inside. In your head."

"No, I'm not. That's the only thing I still think is strange. I don't understand it. Why I never… in a way… get any older than twelve."

Oskar thought about it, stroking the arm of his jacket.

"Maybe that's just it, though."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… you can't understand why you're only twelve years old, because you are twelve years old."

Eli frowned. "Are you saying I'm stupid?"

"No, just a bit slow. Like kids are."

"I see. How are you doing with the Cube?"

Oskar snorted, met her gaze, and remembered that thing about her pupils. Now they looked normal but they had looked really strange before, hadn't they? But still… it was too much. Couldn't believe it.

"Eli. You're just making all this up, aren't you?"

Eli stroked the skeleton monster on her belly, let her hand stop right over the monster's gaping mouth.

"Do you still want to be blood brothers?"

Oskar took half a step back.

"No."

She looked up at him. Sad, almost accusing.

"Not like that. Don't you understand… that…"

She stopped. Oskar finished her sentence for her.

"That if you had wanted to kill me you would have done it a long time ago."

Eli nodded. Oskar took another half step back. How quickly could he get out the door? Should he leave the bag behind? Eli didn't seem to notice his anxiety, his impulse to flee. Oskar stayed put, his muscles tensed.

"Will I get… infected?"

Still looking down at the monster on her T-shirt, Eli shook her head. "I don't want to infect anyone. Least of all you."

"What is it then? This alliance."

She lifted her head to the point where she thought his face would be, saw that he was no longer there. Hesitated. Then walked up to him, took his head between her hands. Oskar let her do it. Eli looked… blank. Distant. But no hint of that face he had seen in the cellar. Her fingertips

brushed against his ears. A sense of calm welled up quietly inside of his body.

Let it happen.

No matter what.

Eli's face was twenty centimeters from his own. Her breath smelled funny, like the shed where his dad kept metal scraps and parts. Yes. She smelled… rusty. The tip of her finger stroked his ear. She whispered:

"I'm all alone. No one knows. Do you want to?" Yes.

She quickly brought her face up to his, sealed her lips over his upper lip, held it firm with a light, steady pressure. Her lips were warm and dry. Saliva started in his mouth and when he closed his own lips around her lower one it moistened it, softened. They carefully tasted each others' lips, let them glide over each other, and Oskar disappeared into a warm darkness that gradually lightened, became a large room, a large room in a castle with a table in the middle laden with food, and Oskar…

… runs up to the delicacies, starts to eat from the platters with his hands. Around him there are other children, big and small. Everyone eats from the table. At the far end of the table there is a… man?… woman…

… person wearing what has to be a wig. An enormous mane of hair covers the persons head. The person is holding a glass filled with a dark red liquid, comfortably reclining in the chair, sipping from the glass and nodding encouragingly to Oskar.

They eat and eat. Farther away, against a wall, Oskar can see people in poor clothes anxiously following the events at the table. He sees a woman with a brown shawl over her head and her hands clamped tight over her stomach and Oskar thinks, "Mama. "

Then there is the ding of a glass and all attention is directed toward the man at the far end of the table. He stands up. Oskar is afraid of him. His mouth is small, thin, unnaturally red. His face is chalk white. Oskar feels saliva run out the corner of his mouth; a little flap of flesh has loosened from the inside of his cheek towards the front; he runs his tongue over it.

The man is holding up a suede bag. With an elegant motion he opens the hand holding the bag shut and then out roll two large white dice. It echoes in the large room when the two dice roll, come to a stop. The man takes up the dice in his hand, holds them out to Oskar and the other children.

The man opens his mouth to say something hut at that moment the little flap of flesh falls out ofOskar's mouth and. …

Eli's lips left his. She let go of his head, took a step back. Even though it scared him, Oskar tried to hold onto the image of the castle room again, but it was gone. Eli scrutinized him. Oskar rubbed his eyes, nodded.

"It really happened, didn't it?"

"Yes."

They stood there for a while, not saying anything. Then Eli said: "Do you want to come in?"

Oskar didn't reply. Eli pulled on her T-shirt, lifted her hands, let them fall.

"I'm never going to hurt you."

"I know that."

"What are you thinking about?"

"That T-shirt. Is it from the trash room?"

… yes.

"Have you washed it?"

Eli didn't answer.

"You're a little gross, you know that?"

"I can change, if you like."

"Good. Do that."