Page 98 of Revive
“Jan? Are you sure about this? You realise no one has been over there since she died. It’s all locked up.”
He knew that. “I kind of need to.”
“Then let me come.”
“You’ve guests, and” —he gave her a hug— “I need to do this alone.”
“Are you running off and leaving me, Spook Mortensen?” Alle asked, from where she stood alongside them.
Part of him wished she would stay here and allow him to go off demon hunting alone, but she slid her hand into his, and squeezed his fingers in a way that made him feel loved. And he was doing his darndest to let her in.
“It’ll make me happier to know you’re not out there alone,” Elin insisted, which proved to be the final word on the matter.
“Where are we going?” Alle asked as she fastened the seat belt in the car he’d hired for the duration of their two week trip. After visiting his family, they had a fortnight stay at his lake home planned. Just the two of them, with no one else around. Before it was back to the grind of being a professional musician.
“My grandmother’s house.”
“Where you grew up?”
He nodded. “I’ve not been back since that night.”
And after tonight, he didn’t intend to go back again.
-34-
Spook
“I can’t believe you’ve brought me here, and now I’m confined to the car.” Alle had been craning her head the whole drive, like she could figure him out and know the whole of him simply from digesting the landscape around them. He understood her desire. Why she’d wish to nose into his past, but he’d come here to let go and that would be so much harder with her beside him.
“I need to do this alone, Alle. I’m sorry. Stay here. I really won’t be long.”
Having parked up at the end of the long tree-lined track that led up to the house, Spook got out of the car. The roof of his grandmother’s traditional, red-painted farmhouse was just visible in the distance. Insects were buzzing all around, and fields stretched away to both the right and left.
Alle wound down the passenger-side window. “How long? Minutes? Hours?”
He gave a shrug. “I don’t know yet. It could be either, but not too long.” He leaned through the window and kissed her lips. “Do you have something to keep you occupied?”
She waved her phone at him. “Signal’s pretty good. I can do some doom scrolling. Go on then, get yourself gone.”
“You’re not going to watch that Live, are you?”
The twist of her lips said it all. “I thought I’d trawl the comments to see what the tally is on me being the lucky bitch who got you versus the lucky bitch that got you.”
He kissed her again, “You’ve got me. You don’t need that sort of validation. Nor do you need to watch.”
“No, but I want to, and I do get a kick out of knowing you’re my boyfriend, and not anybody else’s. I love you, Spook. I can’t think of a single good reason why I wouldn’t watch, unless you’re asking me not to. Are you?”
He thought for a moment. “No. We agreed. No more secrets. You can watch, just no commenting.”
***
Honeysuckle had engulfed the gate post, so that he had to climb over to reach the yard around the farmhouse. Everything was utterly the same and entirely different. His grandmother’s farm had always been neat and well-maintained. Now the house lay in darkness, cobwebs clung to the shutters and window frames, and the once shorn grass had gone to seed. Wildflowers had grown up between the cracks in the paving stones and the barbs of the rabbit enclosure lay collapsed on the grass as if a visiting Norwegian troll had accidentally stepped on it.
While Spook had the keys Elin had given him, he eschewed them in favour of wriggling his fingers into the space beneath the stone sculpture of Jormugand hisfarmorhad been so proud of that sat beside the front door. Beneath it, the old key he’d used every day on his return from school sat precisely where he’d left it. Time, it seemed, didn’t change some things.
Having used the key to unlock the front door, he set foot inside only long enough to disable the alarm. Then he locked up again and returned the old brass key to Jormungund’s care.
Spook was pleased to find his agility hadn’t been overly diminished by the years. His hands and feet found the ridges between the stone and wood with ease, allowing him to climb first onto the sloped roof, and from there, after a brief scramble, up to what had once been his bedroom window.
