High School Murder

Introduction
This is my first piece of non-fiction ever. I've written this piece to be able to cope with the frightening images in my mind. Please be advised that this text contains brutal imagery.
The story takes place in Aalborg, Denmark on the 3rd of march 2006 and reflects the night as I remember it.

1)
We were supposed to meet up at my classmate Niels's place to celebrate his 20th birthday over dinner at 5pm before going to the party. I was fifteen minutes late and was a bit embarrassed but to my suprise I was the first to arrive anyway. I was thinking about how typical that was for our class when Niels came down the stairs and broke my line of thought and I uttered a stupid laugh because of his absolutely ridiculous outfit. He was dressed in an 1980's sportsdress and he looked pretty proud he got the right reaction from me. The doorbell rang and Mathias came in and gave Niels a manly hug wishing him a happy birthday. The party later on was a costume party but I hadn't really managed to figure out something original to wear so I'd just stuffed myself into my best suit and put a lasso over my shoulder. Pretty much just to make people think about what the hell I was supposed to look like. I suddenly remembered the gift in my hand. I'd bought him a bottle of booze because I hadn't been able to think of something else. He gladly accepted and showed me into the living room and and lit a smoke. I lit a smoke too and asked for a corkscrew for the wine I'd brought. I thought I might as well start by getting a little intoxicated as early as possible.
Around ten more of our classmates arrived within the next half hour. We had a laugh about everyone's outfits and suddenly we noticed Mikkel stopping the music and Peter crashing to the floor.

2)
Mikkel pushed the play button and started his slowmotion run. The song he'd just put on was the theme from Baywatch. He was dressed in a white sleeveless white shirt with the words LIFE GUARD printed in red on the front and wearing red shorts. He had black sunglasses on and was holding a red plastic toolbox by his shoulder attached to a belt he was wearing on one of his shoulders. In perfect slow motion he pretended to dive into the floor and then swam across the floor, to Peters rescue.
Everybody burst out laughing and someone helped Mikkel and Peter to their feet.
Dinner was ready and we were seated. We were with tacos and tortillas and enjoyed the meal while talking about the other half of the class standing us up by not showing up. We laughed, we ate and had no idea it would be a night we'd never forget.

3)
After dinner we all went upstairs to Niels's room and sat down in two groups and started chatting about common friends, drugs and whatever came up while pouring booze, beer and wine down our throats.
The other group started a game of "I never..." which consists of someone saying a sentence starting with "I never..." and whoever did do it has to take a sip of their drink. For example I remember one of the girls in the group and Niels drinking to the line "I never had a penis in my mouth".
Our group started a drinking game of our own, a card game for which I really don't remember the details. It makes very good sense as I lost big. Anyway the wine bottle was empty and I'd had half a dozen shots.
I opened my other bottle of wine and had just poured my first glass when everyone started talking about how they were going to get to the school. I tried to change the subject but they were all pretty determined to get a cab right away so I drank down the glass and put the cork back in the bottle and gave it to Niels.
People were getting pretty drunk by then so it took some time for people to find all their stuff and it added a lot to the confusion that half the crowd were yelling "The meter's running" and the other half yelling "Anyone else wanna take the cab". Mikkel joked that he'd take the cab if he didn't have to pay and was fought out of the house by Niels who was the last to leave the house.

4)
At around 8:25pm we arrived at the high school. I'd forgotten to buy a ticket so I managed to sneak by the clerks taking the tickets and made my way into the dance hall without anyone noticing. Someone I couldn't put a name on insisted that I owed him a beer and I was just happy to've gotten in for free so I bought one for myself and one for him without complaint.
I figured I'd go out into the entrance hall to say hello to everyone. There was a great deal of noise and confusion when I got out there but I considered it just to be drunken palaver.
From that time on time got out of sync with reality and reality got out of sync with itself. Noises, screams, laughs and sobs are the only real sounds I actually remember from the rest of the night.

5)
I walked up to the crowd of people who seemed to be gathered in a half circle around something. I made my way through and looked over the floor in front of me.
The first thing I saw was two huge fresh blood stains on the floor in front of me. I didn't think about what I saw at all. I just let itself print itself into my memory.
I continued to let my vision pass along the floor and saw someone lying on the floor soaked in blood. I completely refused to conceptualize who the girl was. My vision floated past the girl and fixed on a girl from my music class.
I'll never get the look on her face out of my mind again. She just stood there screaming and sobbing with blood on her hands for something that seemed an eternity. Suddenly I felt like I completely lost control of my body. I remember trying to make some of the younger studets grasp that it wasn't a show and make people stop laughing.
I turned around to go back to the scene and suddenly saw someone else lying beside her. I knew it was Mikkel lying there in his life guard outfit, I saw he was covered in blood, but I simply refused to accept it at the time. I look back at the girl was given first aid by Peter from my class. Every time he tried to blow some air into her it just resulted in more blood spilling out of her neck. The next thing I remember was someone telling us to gather in the dance hall and a policeman trying to clear the area.

6)
When I entered the dance hall I remember looking for my beer and looking around for Mikkel and everyone else in my class. I noticed my beer was still in my hand and saw Mathias sitting on a chair nearby. When I looked back at my hand the cup was empty. I grabbed a random beer from a table nearby and took a huge drink from it. I heard someone asking if it was Mikkel lying on the floor and interrupted them with a repeating studder saying "No. It wasn't him... I wasn't him... It wasn't him..."
Tears started rolling down my face and I sat by and put an arm around Mathias. We sat there sobbing for a while and suddenly I impulsively stood up and grabbed my cell phone.
I tried to get in touch with some of my religious friends. The only thing that went through my head was that someone had to pray that Mikkel would make it. I tried to of my friends but I managed to dial some of their old numbers and didn't manage to get in touch with them, so I called my mother who I hadn't spoken to for a while. I held my breath and told her something terrible had happened. I believe thats all I managed to say without crying into the phone. I just told her to promise me to pray for him. She tried to calm me a bit down, but little did it help. I was absolutely out of control. She also asked me how much I'd had to drink and I just told her. Usually I'd never talk to my mother about anything like that but it alle just spilled out.
I hung up and got back to Mathias who sat there crying and looking blankly into thin air. I sat with him for a while and decided to do something. I tried to find the rest of our class. We just had to be together. I found someone here and there and told them to meet. Then I met some of the girls and sat with them. I remember one of them saying we had to pray for Mikkel. We just sad there holding hands and crying. I don't know how long we sat there but suddenly one of the girls said she'd talked to her father who's a doctor at the hospital. She told us that Mikkel was going to be okay.
I really had some trouble believing he was going to be all right but at that point it didn't matter. I needed to believe it. I went back to Mathias who still hadn't moved and told him the news. I don't know if he said anything but I doubt it. Some time in the middle of it all I received a text message from a friend outside the school. She asked me if I was okay and I went down to the basement under the stage at one end of the dance hall. I hardly remember our conversation but I believe it was important I had someone to talk to exactly at that time.
When I got back up to the dance hall a teacher was informing us what was going to happen. Where I sat I couldn't hear anything but the cries and the occasional screams.
The police had set up a couple of desks outside the dance hall where they took notes from anyone who'd seen what'd happened.
I remember babbling something to an officer and leaving through an emergency exit.

7)
Outside three police cars were parked on the curb and an ambulance at the bus stop. Someone from the press were already there stealing some shots of whatever they could. I don't know if I yelled something at them but I certainly remember someone screaming "fuck off" at them.
I'd appearantly called my best friend in the middle of the chaos inside the school and she called me back and ordered me to come to her place immediately.
I tried to call a cab but couldn't get through but someone's mother asked me if I needed a ride anywhere. Usually I would've declined the offer immediately but that night nothing mattered and I accepted the offer without considering which direction they were supposed to go.

8)
When I got to my friend's house her mother and her brother were still awake and we sat around the dining table and I tried to explain what'd happened.
That was the first time I realized I was still very drunk. I felt pretty clearheaded but talked way too much and repeated myself a couple of times. They offered me a cup of coffee and I accepted even though I knew I had to sleep as soon as possible. I calmed down a bit while drinking the coffee and explained what I knew as quietly I could.
I'd heard a lot of different things about what'd happened but I told what I knew to be the truth at the time.

9)
Some time when we were still in the dance hall I'd had time to conceive who the girl was. Her name was Cecilie and she was a girl from my year who I didn't have any classes with. I hadn't really talked to her since my first year of high school.
She'd been contacted by her 23-year-old ex-boyfriend who'd talked her into coming outside. She been with him for a year and they'd broken up some time in the previous week.
In the middle of the their fight Mikkel arrived as the first from the group who hadn't taken a taxi to the party.
Cecilie had cried to him for help and her 23-year-old ex-boyfriend David had cut her with the knife he'd brought. Mikkel managed to keep David back for a moment and Cecilie ran back into the school. David then stabbed Mikkel in the neck with the knife and ran after Cecilie.
Mikkel just thought he'd been hit in a very unfortunate place by a piece of frozen snow and ran after David into the school. He also just believed Cecilie had just been beaten up. When he opened the door he saw his blood spilling onto the door and his shoes. He was sure that was the last time he would ever enter the school but just wanted to save Cecilie. Mikkel managed to get David off Cecilie before he passed out but she'd already been stabbed too many times in her chest and neck. The janitor managed to hold back David and get him to drop the knife but he managed to get out of the janitors grip and escaped. We were told he'd hung himself in a shed near his house leaving behind a six pages long suicide note for his parents.
Peter tried to revive Cecilie while a girl managed to put her fingers into Mikkels wound and stop the bleeding. After Peter had given up Niels also tried without any luck.
This chapter has been compiled from what various sources have told about the incident.

10)
After I'd finished the coffee the time was half past midnight and I'd told as much of the above as I remembered or had heard in the middle of the chaos. My friend and I went downstairs and was ready to go to bed when my sister rang me. I live with my sister and she'd gotten the news from my mother. She was on her way together with a couple of her friends and tried to convince me to come back to my apartment for the night but I refused and told her I'd be fine.
I tried to fall asleep for a long time that night but I just couldn't stop crying but I guess I eventually fell asleep and slept through the night with my friend holding my hand.

11)
The next morning my friend woke me up at 9am and I took a shower and brushed my teeth. Had breakfast with her and her brother. I still had some trouble breathing normally and felt like I simply had no tears left to cry.
There was a gathering at the school at 11am and my sister came by to pick me up at 10:45 and drove with me to the school. I still wore the suit from the party and my sister had to remind me to take off my tie. The press and national TV were everywhere outside the school and tried to get interviews but noone wanted to talk to them. When we entered the school almost all the students were crying and hugging eachother. It was terrible.
The principal held a speech at 11 and mostly told everyone the official facts about the tragedy and told us the practical information about psychological help during the day. Afterwards our class met in our classroom and tried to talk but there weren't many who managed to talk.

12)
The rest of saturday and sunday passed and I felt nothing like myself. I felt better and it helped a lot to sleep more than I usually do. An afternoon nap allowed me to doze away from the dreadful imagery that wouldn't leave my mind. Sunday morning I decided to go for a walk. I went to the nearest 7-eleven to get cigarettes and also ended up buying one of the national tabloids with Cecilies face on the front page. I walked to the harbor and took a few photographs of the fjord and sat there chain-smoking while reading the 3-page article about the tragedy. For once my usual disgust for that particular tabloid was subdued a bit. For once their sensationalistic journalism actually managed to show a bit of respect for the deceased.

13)
On monday morning a momorial was held. Mikkel hadn't been officially released from the hospital but had been allowed an hour or so away from the hospital. He sat in a wheelchair during the memorial. "Hi honey, damn I'm glad to see you" was all I could say. We have our own way of communicating where using words like honey and darling is a regular way of saying hello. I couldn't find words to say anything else and moved along. The principal held a speech followed by a hymn. Malene and another girl managed to say a few words about Cecilie and photographs of her were shown while a song was played. Some cried and some just sat there looking to at the floor or at the photos.

14)
Within the next hour our class met once again and Mikkel joined us and calmly told what he'd experienced. A few of us, including myself, told about what we'd seen and how we felt. A psychologist came by and gave us some papers about the usual reactions after such an unusual experience. He told us we had to talk to eachother about it all and mostly the people who hadn't been to the party were asking the questions. The rest of the day passed with somewhat regular classes but once in a while someone had to leave for a while to get a grip. I remember struggling to only have a single tear in my eye when going through ancient greek burial customs.

15)
After school I got a ride home from one of the teachers who was going in my direction anyway and we talked about how well people were coping with everything. We talked about the different reactions. How some had trouble concentrating, some kept quiet and some didn't seem to be affected by the incident at all.
After I was dropped of near my apartment I went to buy smokes and once again saw the tabloid headlines and Cecilies face on the front pages.
It was just too much. I bought the cigarettes and ran home. I just managed to open the door before the tears came rolling down my face. I crashed on my bet and lay there sprawling on my bed with my head stuffed into my pillow.
After a while I forced myself to get up and fetch the year book. I found Cecilie after flipping through the book and stopped sobbing instantly. I found out exactly how I wanted to remember her. She was smiling sitting with her class which'd chosen an 80's theme for their photo.

16)
The funeral is today and most of the school will be attending. We've all been touched deeply and we'll remember it for the rest of our lives. We'll never forget the frightening things we saw that night but we'll all have our own way of remembering and honoring her and her life.

Goodbye Cecilie. We'll never forget you.