As Black as Ebony by Salla Simukka Page A

couldn’t find it in the haze that shrouded her brain. But she knew the voice wasn’t lying now. The lid really was screwed shut.
    “What may surprise you to learn is that a glass coffin screwed shut is completely airtight. So you should be saving your breath. The oxygen won’t last forever. And I’m sure you’d rather stay conscious while I’m telling you everything I know about you.”
    Lumikki lay back down. Relax , she ordered herself. Only breathe as much as you have to. Stay calm. Otherwise you’re never going to survive this.
    You’re never going to survive this.
    Terror crept along Lumikki’s neck as she heard the words echo in her mind. They could easily be true.
    “I’m sure you’ve read all of my letters, so you’re well acquainted with how much I know about you. I’ve been studying you for quite some time. I’ve followed you and watched you, guarded you and protected you, spied on you and followed your steps. I’ve done this because when I met you, a feeling came to me that you and I are the same. There is a darkness that lives in us.”
    Lumikki felt like vomiting. She wasn’t sure whether the nausea was a result of the words or whatever he’d drugged her with. She tried to breathe more evenly. To bring her heart rate closer to resting.
    “You may have balked at all my talk of blood and killing. I’ve seen your expressions once or twice when you were reading my letters. You looked shocked and afraid. Needlessly. I never would have written those things to you if I didn’t know you are a killer too. Actually, of the two of us, only you are a killer. I just enjoy the idea of killing. I suppose it’s unavoidable that eventually I’ll carry out my fantasy. That hasn’t happened yet though. If you had been stupider and told someone about my letters and messages, I would have carried out my threats. It would have given me a reason and a justification. What is your reason and justification, my love? Just the desire to kill? An innate evil? Not to worry, though. Either option is just as stimulating for me.”
    The shadow circled the glass coffin like a predator his prey. Considering how to strike and at what opening. Would he sink his teeth first into the thigh or the arm or the throat?
    “I don’t know whether you’re just a good actor or if you really don’t remember. I suppose that your memories must have begun coming back when you read my letters. Your bloody hands. How you killed your sister, Rosa.”
    Lumikki’s pulse shot up to panic levels. Could this shadow really know something like that? Could it be true? Had she really killed her sister?
    “Oh my dear Lumikki, how pale you look. Perhaps you didn’t remember. How you plunged the sharp knife into your sister’s stomach and stood coldly watching as she bled out. You didn’t call the babysitter to help. By the time she arrived, it was already too late. I’ve read all of the police reports.”
    Lumikki’s clouded thoughts and senses completely lost their hold on the present, but the shadow’s words suddenly made the past snap into focus. Closing her eyes, she was three years old.
    Lumikki was three and Rosa was six. Mom and Dad were away somewhere, probably at the theater, and their babysitter was a bored teenage girl from next door, Jennika. That night,Jennika and her boyfriend were having a fight, which she was thrashing out on the phone, repeatedly calling the boy, her own friends, and the boy’s friends. All Lumikki and Rosa got to eat for dinner was some barely reheated leftover pancakes and strawberry jam.
    “So why do you get to suck face with whoever you want but I’m a whore if I just talk to a guy?” Jennika snapped angrily into the phone.
    “What’s a whore?” Lumikki asked.
    “It’s a girl with lots of boyfriends,” Rosa replied with the assurance of a wise older sister.
    Jennika glanced at them wearily.
    “Take care of your sister,” Jennika told Rosa, pointing at Lumikki. “Try not to kill each other