Sabine Vass

The record store is pretty much empty at this time. Even though the sun is up longer by now and the biting winter cold is gone, most of Stenhamra’s inhabitants are already in their homes, enjoying dinner or the TV.

Sabine, however, is stuck at her job for a few more minutes – a responsibility that would be far more boring were it not for the only other person currently in the store with her. Her boss is already long gone. He usually only shows up once per shift, checks if everything is in order, collects the profits and leaves again, giving Sabine lots of freedom in how she runs the store.
With no customers having shown up in over half an hour, she has had a lot of time alone with Kajsa, who is lying on the counter of the store, her legs dangling down the side of it as she’s comparing the covers of random CDs within her reach and sorting them into two piles, based on whether they’re cool or not, as Sabine cleans up the store in preparations of closing.

"This job is pretty cool, actually," Kajsa comments. "Over at the Coop, I always have someone watching over my shoulder." She rolls her eyes. "’Kajsa, have you asked this lady about our bonus program?’," she says in a mocking tone. "’Have you made sure to refill the cigarette stand?’ Not a single moment without someone criticizing my every move." She sighs and adds: "But I guess you know that experience from home, right?"

Making a last pass across the inside of the front door's threshold with the push broom, Sabine reaches up, closes, and latches the Hål i Öronmask's shutters on the two large plate glass windows. She turns her head toward her reclining girlfriend and shakes her head slowly and deliberately. "My poor Kajsa. It saddens me to think the management at Coop are anything like the jailer of the tower at Slott Vass. I so cannot wait to get out of there."

She one-hands the broom handle and flicks the deadbolt into place on the front door, before turning the sign to Closed and pulling down the small blinds in the door's window. "As a matter of fact, I might not go at all tonight." She says, hooking a thumb toward the beckoning partially opened door to the stock room, with it's soft light within playing across the pane of the door. "The E was going on about some wonderkin spiritual healer she's seeing on the reg, while I was trying to leave for school this morning. I think it was a trap to suggest I go and experience it for myself."

Sweeping around the counter, Sabine turns the knob and dims the showroom's interior lights, then closes to Kajsa. "A couple minutes early on a Wednesday night isn't going to matter, right?" She drapes one hand onto her beautiful companion's stomach and smiles down at her. "Store closed, Miss. How may I be of further service this evening?" She leans in and taking the striking blonde's chin lightly in hand, kisses Kajsa's lips.

Kajsa smiles and returns Sabine's kiss. "Why, it is late and the sun is already going down," she says. She pulls back and then hooks her arm under Sabine's. "I may need someone to accompany me to the bus stop, for protection. Can you think of someone able and willing?"
As Sabine leads her towards the back door to leave the store, Kajsa asks: "A spirit healer? I'd have thought the wicked witch would try to hire an exorcist for you. Or is that a euphemism?"

"I know the perfect person for that most pleasant task." Sabine replies with a sly grin and raised brow. "Ready. Willing. And able, my love."

Passing into the back room, Sabine closes the stock room door and locks it, then grabs up both of their things. She eagerly returns to Kajsa's side and takes her hand. "Yes. A euphemism, truly." She hesitates then adds, "Do you suppose she'd melt if I happened to splash some water on her...or is that too much to ask for?"

Before her companion can answer, Sabine gives her another kiss at the store's back door. She had to get her kisses when she could.

Kajsa smiles and returns the kiss quickly before Sabine opens the door to let them out. "I don't know. Can't hurt to try," she then says, referring to Sabine's previous question. "I'll give it about a 50/50 chance to melt her."

The two girls step outside and after Sabine is done locking the door, she turns to Kajsa to find her looking curiously at a graffiti on the back wall of the building. Sabine noticed it when she arrived today but didn't pay much attention to it then. Now that she's looking at it, however, she realizes how odd it is.
It's a very crude drawing of a giraffe giving birth, standing on its four legs as the head, neck and two front legs of a smaller giraffe are emerging from its backside, all of it set against the background of a large, red sun. Despite the crudeness of the picture that reminds Sabine of a child's drawing, it includes gratuitous detail, like blood and a pained expression on the mother giraffe's face.

"This is super weird!", Kajsa comments.

Sabine tugs on her hoodie and gives the gross image another glance. "Well. We can't un-see that ever. Glad there's no chance a giraffe is coming out my backside." She says with a straight face, as she looks both ways behind the building.

"Mind if I tag along on the bus?" She asks Kajsa. "I just got a strange feeling and I'd like to see you home and not just to the bus tonight."

"My, my," Kajsa smirks. "Fröken Vass, you're asking if you can accompany me to my humble abode?" She smirks playfully. "Well, you did say you didn't want to go home to the wicked witch." Her eyes once again fall onto the crude graffiti on the wall and her face turns with disgust. "Ugh, I'm so glad I don't have to worry about anything like that, you know. If there was even the slightest chance I'd let a boy anywhere near here," She gestures towards her crotch. "I'd get myself sterilized first. Or him. Whichever is easier." She points a finger down her throat, mimicking puking. Then she shrugs. "You know my parents don't mind if you stay at my place overnight. And they won't, unless they find out what exactly we are doing in bed together at night. So if you do want to come over, please do. But we do still have school tomorrow. And before you suggest we skip it, I can't. I have a presentation due tomorrow."

"That would be great, min käraste kärlek!" Sabine responds joyfully. "Its nice to know that they welcome me there. I don't want to mess that up for me or you."

The two set off for the bus stop in the cool night air. "I promise to be careful and very discreet, as always. I wouldn't dream of getting you into trouble with your parents or at school."

Its a short walk side by side to the covered bus stop a block north of the store and as they step up to the illuminated overhang, Sabine brushes a hand over the intricate array of her friendship bracelet and circles her fingers around her wrist for a moment.

"Amputation." She says out of no where. "Its what I would say. Amputation—his, if a guy tried to go there."

Only three minutes behind schedule, the bus pulls up to the stop and the two teens board. The familiar face of Old Franz, the bus driver, greets them at the top of the steps. "Evening Franz." Sabine offers in recognition, as they dropped their fare into the coin box, with a ting-ting. The bus is nearly empty this evening and the couple quickly find comfortable seats several rows back.

The ride to Kajsa's house is uneventful. They even have enough space between them and the few other riders to comfortably hold hands through most of the journey. Then, with goodbyes to the driver as they depart at the stop nearest Kajsa's home, they make their final leg of the trip in good time and are safely in the Roos' residence.

Though surprised by Sabine's arrival with their daughter, none-the-less both parents seem genuinely pleased to see their only child's best friend there to sleep over. With assurances that they will not stay up too long and that Kaysa get all her homework done, Mrs. Roos insists on feeding them both before heading off to bed and leaving them to their own devices.

In Kajsa's room, true to her word, Sabine is on her best behavior and occupies herself with changing into the convenient sleep attire she keeps packed away in her backpack for such occurrences, when she decides not to go to the Tower of Slott Vass: A loose-fitting cropped black T-shirt featuring a woman's face skewered with trodes and topped by a stylized logo spelling out the name Asmodina, along with a pair of boy shorts. Dressed for bed, she sits down on the bed cross-legged and doodles in her sketch diary, while listening to the music from the discman's headphones hanging around her neck.

Once Kajsa catches up on everything she needs to get done and dresses for bed too, she closes the door, and dims the lights so that only a small night light glows on he night stand. The couple quietly fools around for a little while. Kissing and cuddling during and after, until they reluctantly part to a platonic distance between them and fall asleep.

END Part 1

As the others start to leave, Sabine asks Mikael to use his phone and then calls Kajsa's house. It's her father picking up. "She's out with her mother," he explains once she asks for Kajsa. "But they should be here soon. If you want, you can come over and wait for her in her room. You're best friends so I know she won't mind."

Following his invitation, Sabine walks from Mikael's to Kajsa's. It's a fair bit of walking but not far enough that it would make sense to wait for the unreliable bus.
Once there, Kajsa's father asks her inside and offers her something to drink, juice or water, before letting her go to his daughter's room.

Sabine doesn't have to wait more than twenty minutes before the house door opens again downstairs and voices begin speaking by the front door. Sabine hears her own name and quickly after, steps approach on the stairs and the door swings open.
"Hope you haven't been stealing anything," Kajsa says with a grin when she sees her girlfriend. She closes the door and immediately goes in for a kiss, letting her hands wander over Sabine's body. When she recognizes Sabine's tenseness, she pulls back and asks: "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

Sabine wraps her arms around Kajsa and kisses her deeply, as her hands rest firmly on her girlfriend's pert derrière. She has been careful to mix her drink from Mikael's parents' liquor cabinet with vodka, as it was easier to hide on the breath than most hard liquors and followed it with a shot of cinnamon schnapps before departing for Kajsa's house, but her lover can readily discern the presence of alcohol in the press of lips and tongues. She hopes her ruse has not been so easily sensed by the other Roos in the household, when she arrived with a cinnamon candy in her mouth.

"Waiting to steal all your kisses when you got home." She whispers in Kajsa's ear, as their immediate kiss concludes. She reluctantly lets her hands slide off the cheerleader's bottom when there is the sudden parting and lingering question. "First—How are you my love? Any more of those dreadful headaches? I've missed you."

Sabine pauses dramatically for the response and then takes Kajsa's hand and leads her over to the bed. "Let's sit down. I'm fine. Mikael, Eric, and Yumin are fine too. But, something has happened..."

"...That odd bundle we spotted out in the field. It was Mark. He's dead and it looks like someone or something murdered him by electrocution and tried to make it look like he climbed the power pole and got fired on accident. The police are probably there now recovering his body." She says calmly holding Kajsa's hands gently in her own as they sit together at the side of the bed.

"I haven't had any anymore today," Kajsa replies about the headaches. "But my mom almost threw up earlier. She said she was feeling sick all of a sudden. I don't know, it's strange. Maybe some kind of flu going around. You still haven't noticed anything?"

When Sabine tells her about the body, Kajsa's eyes widen. "Mark Mäkinen?", she asks. "That poor kid. First his mother and now... Shit." She thinks for a moment. "You think someone killed him? Who? And why? Sure, he was a bit of a weirdo, but I don't think he had any enemies. Even the school bullies left him alone for the most part."

She shakes her head of those questions and then asks: "Are you okay? That must have been traumatizing. You were drinking before you got here. Because of that?"

"Not with me personally, no. I haven't noticed any odd pains or sensations." Sabine assures her girl.

"Yeah. I had a couple at Mikael's once I noticed their stock. Is it that obvious? Helped to take the sting off of the situation. I honestly not sure which I found more troubling, finding him there or realizing how similar our living situations were." She shares with Kajsa. "Dead mom. Living with an aunt. Being kind of different from everyone around us."

She makes sure her voice is quiet before going on. "We found notes on his calculator. He was following some people he called the Totem Clan, who he noted had kidnapped a doctor from the Therapy Center near his house. There may be photos, if we can find his camera. He wrote that he dropped it trying to escape."

"If his living situation is anything like yours, I'd suggest that the police should investigate his aunt. That's what I'll tell them when you turn up dead one day," Kajsa says with a sarcastic laugh. Then she frowns. "Sorry, that was a shit thing to say."

She listens to Sabine's recounting of what they found and then says: "I've never heard of a Totem Clan but if he dropped his camera while escaping from them, they probably have it. Might be hard to get a hold of." She gently puts a hand on Sabine's cheek. "I know I couldn't stop you from looking into this even if I wanted to. But promise me you'll be really careful. If this Totem Clan already killed him, I don't want you or any of the others to put yourselves in danger."

Sabine leans in and hugs Kajsa to comfort her...well, them both actually.

"I will be as careful as is possible, given the situation." She promises her girlfriend. "If we don't unravel this mystery, who will? Mark's death, could only be the beginning of something that will threaten the whole town. Maybe it already is."

With a kiss that starts at Kajsa's cheek and roam to her lips, the rocker girl says quietly, "You got any clothes to wash, Kaj? Maybe I could slip a couple of my things into the load?" She asks hopeful. "I haven't been to see Wicked E in a few days and my couple changes of clothes are none too clean."

Kajsa stifles a giggle and sniffs the black cloth of Sabine's shirt, at the near shoulder teasingly. "Sure. You can wear one of my house coats until they're done and dry."

"You could use a shower too" She says, playfully holding her nose.

Sabine raises a brow, then smiles and nods. She pulls the few garments from her backpack, then stands and casually disrobes. Kajsa opens her closet and tugs out a small basket of her own clothing in wadded disarray. She turns to see Sabine already in her birthday suit. They both smile, as a light robe is tossed to Sabine and they gather all the clothes to be washed together.

Making sure she is decent, Sabine and Kajsa together head down to the laundry room and after starting their load proceed to the kitchen for a bite to eat. They find some leftovers, which Mrs. Roos tells them they can have, if they want, before she heads off to bed.

Afterwards, Sabine hops in the shower. She is glad to feel the soap and warm water washing over her, as she scrubs the day's filth off her skin and perhaps the lingering dust of death too. She is so lost in her thoughts, Sabine doesn't even hear someone enter the bathroom, until she feels Kajsa's hands and a wash cloth on her back and shoulders.

She opens her eyes and glances back over one shoulder with a grin, but says not a word. Sounds in a bathroom have a way of being amplified between the water and porcelain. That's why singing in the shower always sounds better to those listening.

Sharing the shower, the two lovers get very clean and then, switching the laundry to the dryer, head back to Kajsa's room for some quality alone time. I certainly seems as if Kajsa's parents are doing the same, if the subtle but telling sounds coming from the master bedroom down the hall are any indication.

Somewhere south of midnight they finally fall asleep.

END Part 2

Early the next day, Sabine heads to her voice coach. Angelika Gullikson has a little music room in her private home where she instructs Sabine as well as some other kids from Stenhamra.
Just on time, Sabine arrives at the small house that's not unlike the one Liv Himmelshöjd's Primal Force practice was in up in Sånga-Säby.

She rings the doorbell and after a minute, the door opens and the attractive thirty-year-old woman greets her. She looks tired, rubbing her ringed eyes, but smiles at the teenager. "Sabine," she says softly, stifling a yawn. "Come in. Is it already time for your lesson?"

"God morgon, fröken Gullikson. I mean—Angelika." Sabine greets her mentor and confidante; pulling her headset down from her ears and unzipping her hoodie to reveal the basic black shirt beneath. The notes and vocals of Pantera's 'I'm Broken' resonant from the ear pieces, as the young rocker enters at her teacher's beckoning. "Quite so." She confirms for the pretty blonde woman before her. "I have been waiting all week for our next session."

Angelika closes the door behind Sabine and then sits down in one of her chairs. "You're right, of course. Sorry, I haven't been sleeping well," she says. Taking a deep breath, she rights herself in her seat and clears her throat.
"You shouldn't be listening to such loud music on your headphones. You will ruin your ears," she says with a faint smile, knowing that she won't be able to ge tthrough to Sabine on this matter anyway. "How have you been?", she then asks. Her expression goes serious as she thinks about Mark. "It has been a difficult week, hasn't it?"

Sabine rolls her eyes at the thought of ruining her hearing through listening to music.

"I hear a lot of people are having problems sleeping of late. Mostly nightmares, from my understanding. Are you having bad dreams Angelika?"

"Things are always bad. I haven't been home since Wednesday morning. I just don't want to deal with my aunt." She shares the usual new of her troubles. "It doesn't help matters since the whole weird deal with Mark either."

"Its so frustrating. I just want to sing and find a way for Kajsa and me to get our own place."

Angelika nods. "Yes, nightmares. Even waking ones. Blood, claustrophobia... You haven't experienced any of it, have you?"

She listens to Sabine sharing about her trouble. Despite how tired she looks, Sabine has the feeling that she's really paying attention to her concerns. "Mark, he's that boy that had the accident, is he?", she asks. "I read about him in the paper. Such a horrible thing. Did you know him?"

"You're almost eighteen," she then adds. "Maybe you can make that wish come true soon. Have you asked Kajsa if she wants to move in with you as well? If so, I'm sure you two could find a small place together. If not here, maybe in Stockholm. Those vertical cities they built there in the '60s aren't very pretty but they're cheap. Cheap enough for two college students to afford a place there."

"Yes. That's the one. I did know him." Sabine confirms for her mentor. "Kaysa and I have talked about it—a lot actually. Once I get my license, I am going to purchase an auto with some of my account's savings, so we can drive back and forth. Stockholm would give the both of us better opportunities, but there are a few people and places we'd not want to lose touch with here." She smiles with the last bit, obviously referring to her present company in that number.

Sabine pulls off her hoodie and turns off her discman; placing them on a table. "I can't help but empathize with Mark's situation prior to his unfortunate passing. Our home situations are not that dissimilar in some ways. Both of us wer—are living with an aunt."