Scene 2: The Wake

Friday - April 7, 1995

When the Teenagers arrive at school the next day, the rumors about Mark's death are already everywhere, though of course nobody knows half the details that they know.
General consensus is that some student has died, though beyond that, dozens of different stories are floating around school. Some say it was Mark, some say it was a younger girl named Sonja Forsberg who has the misfortune of simply being home sick today. Many other names also float around, leading to grimly humorous situations where students are trying to convince their classmates to their faces that they are not in fact dead and standing right before you. Most people say it was an accident, that they drowned in the artificial lake of the Stenhamra Quarry, that they ventured out into the vac and got killed and devoured by one of the strange creatures that supposedly live there or that they found a piece of Loop technology and died (in varyingly gruesome ways) because of that. And then, of course, there are more than a few rumors of murder, though nobody really believes those...

The teachers do what they can to keep these rumors under control but with very limited success. As the students are all sitting in their classrooms, waiting for the first class of the day to begin, the school bell rings outside of its normal time slot, followed by an announcement by principal Järnek asking all students to come to the assembly hall for an announcement. He doesn't give any details but pretty much every student in the school already has a clear idea of what it is about and those who don't find out when they enter the audiorium to find not only the school principal on the raised stage in front of the room but with him two police officers. Some of the chairs in the auditorium are taken up by teachers as well as a few people that none of you recognize. Despite the heavy flow of students streaming into the auditorium, the four of you find each other and sit down together in the back, together with Kajsa and Peter, who suddenly popped up behind Yumin and casually pretends to just coincidentally sit down with them.

While the auditorium is filling up quickly and there isn't much room for privacy, there is enough noise of general conversation everywhere to allow for reasonably private conversations.
"Any idea what this is about?", Peter asks in a raised voice, leaning over to address the whole group from where he is sitting at the edge of the group. "You don't really believe that someone has died, right? But then, why is the police here?"

Sabine gives Peter a look and puts a finger to her lips to indicate he should keep it down. "Remember yesterday at lunch?" She answers in a more hushed tone. "Gustavsson’s field?"

"Yeah. So..." She nods in the direction of the stage and the police.

Mikael joins the others in the auditorium and hunkers down in an empty chair.

"Hey guys," he says casually to his friends.

He listens to Peter's exchange with Sabine and when Peter's eyes land on his, he purses his lips and nods in affirmation. "I'm sure we're about to find out," he says.

He leans towards Kajsa and casually strikes up a conversation, making small talk. "I thought this shit would mellow out," he says, "Once the loop went sideways. I mean, this is crazy right? Like when we were little." They reminisce back and forth quietly before Mikael speaks up to the group again.

"Everyone still on for after school today?" he asks, giving Peter a sideways glance that carries the message butt out. He looks at Kajsa, "Are you going to be able to join us today, Kaj?"

Yumin spends the morning trying her best to avoid the conversations. When she does get dragged in, she answers something non-commital about how her mom mentioned something last night, but that’s about it. By the time the bell rings for assembly, Yumin starts to worry that she had gone too much in one direction, and not participating made her stand out. She makes small talk on the way there with some girls from science class, hopeful that it might earn her some cred in everyone’s eyes.

Why were the police here? She had picked up the butt…

Perhaps shoe prints? Were they going to check everyone’s shoe prints?

She is wearing the same shoes she wore yesterday…

Yumin sits in assembly and starts to chew the nail on her thumb, waiting to see what happens next. She wants a cigarette.

"Oh hey, thanks for saving me a chair." Eric looks around the auditorium and notices the police on stage. "Hey Peter. Hey Kaj." He nods towards them then talks to the whole group, "Lets just keep our mouths shut about Mark right? At least until we've figured more of this out."

He looks towards Mikael, "There's no way they know it was us who called right?

"Yeah, I'll see you all after school. We're headed to Marks house right? Anyone know how to get there?"

As the general chatting in the assembly hall continues, principal Järnek steps up to the speaker's desk. He clears his throat and begins speaking. "Students, boys, girls," he says. There is always something sharp in his voice that demands attention so despite the general disquiet and anxious chatter in the hall, most conversation dies down immediately. "I am sorry to inform you of a tragedy that has occured yesterday. One of our friends, a fellow student of this school has had a tragic accident and will not return to the school." He pauses briefly and immediately, conversation flares up again throughout the auditorium. The volume drops again as soon as he continues speaking. "Mark Mäkinen, who I am sure has been a close friend to many of you, has unfortunately passed away." Despite the irony of the statement that Järnek believes Mark, who has never had any friends at the school, to have been this popular, nobody laughs. Nobody needed to be friends with him to be shocked by these news.
"Mark's aunt, Emilia, is here with us today to say a few words as well," Järnek concludes, gesturing towards the first row of the audience. A woman with bright red hair, pinned up into a bun with what looks like paint brushes, wearing loose, tie-dyed clothing stands up and walks up to the podium. Her face, in opposition to her clothes, looks sunken and distraught. She looks over the audience in silence for a few seconds before simply saying: "I sincerely hope my nephew has had some good friends among you. I don't believe I have ever met any of you but it would have meant the world to his poor mother, my little sister, to know her son had a good life here." She takes out a large handkerchief, wipes her eyes and blows her nose, then she continues: "My little Mark's funeral will only be for immediate family, but if you want to express your grief, you are very welcome to visit him at the grave he will be sharing with my little sister soon. Thank you for your understanding that I would prefer to be left alone at this time."
She takes another deep, shaky breath and steps off the stage, sitting back down.

Järnek takes the microphone again and announces that police officer Erik Granfors will say a few words next. The officer, a man around thirty with deep circles around his eyes, takes the place by the microphone. Those of you who have gotten in trouble with the law would know him as a serious and grumpy guy rumored to have a serious drinking problem. If you get picked up by the police, it is usually either by him or by his partner. And he is definitely the worse option.
He begins giving a lecture on climbing electric poles and other dangerous behavior and warns the students against that. But while Järnek held the students' attention by his charisma and Emilia did so simply by the tragedy of her situation, nobody listens to Granfors and all the conversations between students immediately flare up again while he gives his speech - not that he really seems to mind. Finally, you're able to continue your own conversation as well.

Sabine looks over to Eric. "I have the address. I found it in the phone book before I left Mikael's last night." Her eyes wander the crowd looking for Mark's aunt. "We're going to need a good story, in case his aunt is home when we get there." She suggests. "Anyone got ideas? We could say were friends come to pay our respects and maybe tell her we were working on a school project together.?"

Mikael pulls his phone out checks to make sure its on silent mode. Mikael rolls his eyes at Eric and nudges his head towards Peter, who's clearly listening to their conversation. "No, buddy, they can't know it was me that called, okay?" he whispers while holding down the power button and letting the device turn off. They can't trace the call, can they? he wonders. He double checks that its turned off. "And yes, sure, Mark's house, but let's keep the details quiet while we're...you know." He circles his index finger in the air to signal there's people around while turning up the volume on the 'butt out' looks he's giving Peter.

He listens quietly and intently to the speakers up until the police officer starts talking.

He rolls his eyes again as Sabine starts discussing their plan in front of Peter. He sighs. "Peter, do you want to come with us? I'll fill you in on our way, but long story short, we don't think Mark died climbing a stupid power pole. We want to get a peek at his house and see if there's anything that might tell us what really happened."

"I like the plan, by the way Sabine. His aunt said pretty clearly that she never met any of his friends from school but sounds like she assumed he had some. We could say we believe he had a portion of the project stashed in his room."

Yumin sits stock still, taking in the assembly. She blows air out her nose in amusement when they are warned against climbing the electricity poles.

As if anyone would do that… Maybe a little kid or something… But a teenager?

She tries to listen in to some of the chatter around her, inconspicuously. Not her own group, she drowns them out. She wants to know what everyone else knows… or thinks they know!

"Oh right yeah... But we can trust Peter and Kaj right?" Eric looks over towards them to make see if they seem trustworthy. He instinctively trusts them, Kaj is his sister, and Yumin seems to like Peter so why wouldn't he trust them?

Yeah, lets just go to... Err... What was his aunt called?... Her house, and say we were great friends with Mark and just want to sit in his room a while to remember him. Or, yeah we could say he was working on a project with us and we need to pick it up else we'll all fail terribly." Eric flashes a large charming grin, "Any y'know, I'm fairly good with parents, nothing a charming smile can't help with!"

Kajsa considers the situation for a while, then she says: "I don't know if I like this whole thing." She pauses and looks deep into Sabine's eyes. "If you need me, I'll be there but I think I'd rather stay out of it for now."

Peter is clearly just as apprehensive about the whole thing. But while Kajsa makes no secret of her worry, he attempts to hide it behind a facade of bravado. "I'll definitely come along," he says, his eyes very obviously focused not on the group as a whole but on Yumin. "I'm usually good with parents as well. They seem to like the brainy type, rather than the dumb brute." His cheeks redden and he looks at Eric, stuttering quickyl: "No offense, man. Like you said, they like you too!"

"Just be useful," Mikael says to Peter, "and I'd be careful if I were you - that dumb brute could kick your ass."

Eric's eyes connect with his questioningly. "I'd help," he mouths by way of support and explanation.

He turns to Kajsa. "I get it, I'm honestly glad for you to put some distance on this, it could be dangerous. Hell, it could be really helpful to have someone not with us actually know what we're doing. In case we get caught or something happens to us, at least you'll know where we went and why."

He gets an idea. "Actually, guys, why don't we have Kajsa hold onto the calculator for now? We can copy the message down if we need, but the original is the only thing that points towards Mark maybe being, you know," he draws his index finger across his throat and sticks his tongue out the corner of his mouth. "I say Kajsa keeps it safe for us, just in case."

"We definitely don’t want to be carrying it around. Especially if we get into trouble and… I don’t know… the police find us with it. They could think that we… you know… Mark."

Yumin would never recover from the trouble her mom would make for her if she got mixed up with the police. Even if they could prove their innocence, well… she brought the police to the front door. That by itself was enough for an earful.

Eric looks over both shoulders, "Who's the brute? Are we taking someone else with us?", then chuckles, partly at the thought of being a brute, and partly at the thought he'd need Mikael's help.

Yeah, so Kaj, if we're not here tomorrow, maybe try to find us. Might be good to have you away, in case things go wrong.

Just remember, we're headed to Marks house, so look there first, maybe we'll visit that cult thing after. Hey, should we like, leave a trail of breadcrumbs like in that story?

"I'm pretty sure that breadcrumb thing didn't work in the fairy tale," Kajsa says. She looks at Mikael. "Might be safer if you just give me your mobile phone number so I can reach you if there's trouble. I don't have a fancy mobile like you but I'm pretty sure Sabine knows my home number."
She frowns and looks forward at Officer Granfors. "I'd tell you to just drop it and give the info you have to the police. But they seem like fucking idiots."

Sabine drops her hand lightly onto Kajsa's and she gives it a caring squeeze, before letting go. "I most certainly do have your number memorized, Kaj." The rocker girl's hand closes against the center of her chest to sign she keeps it close to her heart.

"Idiots is an understatement. Anyone with a few brains cells would not call this an accident." She agrees. "No one else is going to solve this unless we do. I hate to make you worry about us, Kaj. I just don't see another way to keeping us all safe in the long run, if we don't do something."