Page 21
As fond as Oskar is of Eli, he is not prepared to commit himself to a lifetime of celibacy, especially since, with his newfound popularity, he now entertains the hope that he will some day be able to score with a normal girl. On the other hand, he doesn't dare admit to Eli that he took that sneak peek, let alone that he is shallow enough to break up with her just because she can't do "anything special". And so, when his mother goes to bed he passes up the opportunity to sneak out of his apartment to visit Eli; instead, he goes to bed himself, thinking up plausible excuses for declining any future invitation to hang out with her.
The next morning, a bright and sunny one, he is awakened by a terrified scream. It's Eli!
He rushes out of his door in time to see Lacke, another tenant of the apartment complex, walking away from Eli's open door and carrying a bloody knife. He runs into her apartment. One of the blankets that used to cover the windows has been ripped off and the sun is beaming into the living room. In the doorway to the bathroom, which is dark, he sees the edge of a pool of blood. He screams. From inside the bathroom comes Eli's weak voice: "Oskar! Why didn't you come here last night? If you had, you could have saved me! I thought you cared about me!"
Oskar searches Eli's apartment for a telephone. Finding none, he rushes home and calls for an ambulance. By the time it comes, Eli is dead. Oskar calls the police, reports the murder and identifies the murderer. Lacke is arrested, but when an autopsy reveals that Eli is a vampire, he is released and feted as a hero. Oskar despises himself for his selfishness, but he consoles himself with the thought that he no longer has any reason to fear being murdered. Furthermore, Conny and his friends are unlikely to be bothering him any more, and with his newfound popularity, he expects to begin living a normal life.