Chapter 1: The Party

MARCH 18, 1996

It's been almost exactly three months since your brush with the Ugliness and the last encounter with the Prophets.

Not much has changed since then. Järnek is still officially rektor of the school, though you haven't seen him in weeks and you're pretty sure he hasn't been in school for that entire time.
The symptoms of the Ugliness have completely reversed themselves, leading some to speculate that the whole thing was no more than some vain teenagers' exaggeration of some rashes or other milder symptoms. Since then, calm has returned to the Mälaren Islands. Krafta continues their work at the Loop, the school is continuing as usual, even your status as heroes has faded slightly over time. You still get some occasional recognition but most of the time, nobody acknowledges that strange time last December...
A few days ago, the island was shaken by the sudden disappearance of four kids: Sixten, Mette, Jillian and David. They all go to Berggården as well and some of you may have met one or two of them before but you don't really know them. The police still have found no clue of where they might be.
Of course, your thoughts immediately went to the Prophets, but with no clue as to where to begin investigating their disappearances, there wasn't anything you could do about it...

Instead, your efforts were concentrated on preparing for something else: Mikael's 17th birthday!

He has big plans for it, so he has made all of you, as well as Kristina and Kajsa help him get his large, empty house ready for a rave, with dance music, strobe lights, glow sticks, everything...

Along the six of you, he's invited Hare, Jonas, Eric and a few dozen other students. For the last week, his party has been the talk of the school and now the day is finally here.

Tonight Stina's gone leather-crazy. She has a short black skirt and high-heeled ankle boots, with some mean fishnets. Her top is a washed out orange T-shirt with a fully charged battery on it. Over that she wears a light faux-leather jacket dyed in blue, with sleeves rolled up. She has her wild hair in a claw clip behind her head, and wears black eyeliner and a splash of freckle-like glitter over her cheekbones.

She's helped Mikael set up the light system, somebody's got to make that glitter shine. She looks up at her handiwork pleased, then jumps in the crowd, letting the music overwhelm her and move her body.

Henry doesn’t worry too much about dressing up. He didn’t have the luxury of ‘going out’ clothes. And so he arrived to the party in his read turtleneck and brown long jacket. He thought he looked nice. And so did his mother and father, which made him question if he did actually look good or not…

Grandpa had slipped him a few notes on the way out, and he had managed to rustle up a few bottles of vodka and a case of beer for the occasion. He wondered if he might meet a nice girl tonight, so he made sure to slap on some of dad’s aftershave before he ran out the door!

"Now, this is a party!" Mikael shouts over the music. Kristina raises an eyebrow, but gives him the courtesy of a smile. "C'mon," he says, "after everything that happened, we deserve to just relax and let go a little bit!"

He mouth moves as if to form the words, "Yeah, guess, right. Dance?", though he can't hear her over music.

Mikael nods with vigor, takes her hand and move away from the speak, more into the center of the large living room that had been cleared to make a dance floor. Before long, his slim body, bedecked with multi-colored beads and a bright, tie-died tank top, is bouncing to the rhythm of the music, and Kristina is shortly behind joining him in his vigor.

He realizes they're dancing next to Stina and he smiles. Leaning closer, "Dude, Stina, you look awesome!"

Sabine is wearing a black leather jacket over a black and white hypnotic spiral cami top. The jacket is adorned with studs and the back sports a full panel image of the iconic triangle, eye, and stiletto of the movie A Clockwork Orange. Black leggings disappear into knee-high biker's boots. Her basic black and leather is accessorized with glow-in-the-dark bracelets and necklaces.

She makes a last minute check and adjustment to the stage setup and ducks back into the crowd, under the bio-hazard tape banners that the band have draped around the perimeter of their musical equipment and heads toward the bar for a drink; giving Mikael and Kristina a thumb's up on the dance floor.

Kajsa has been at the center of organizing the whole evening with Mikael, excited about throwing a party at such a great location. Even now she's flitting around in her black leather leggings, high white boots and colorful crop top, smiling at and chatting with everyone, keeping the snacks and drinks table stocked and making sure everyone's having a great time. Whenever she finds a moment of time, she darts over to Sabine to give her a kiss or dance for a moment. She doesn't drink but has made sure there are plenty of non-alcoholic options available, including a bowl of sweet, red punch that she keeps going back to.

Jonas Hedd is obviously feeling a bit out of place here. He's clearly not been to many parties and doesn't fit quite in, standing in a corner wearing a cheap suit and watching the party while nursing a drink in his hand. He had a quick conversation with Mikael when he arrived but since then, none of you have seen him actually talk to anyone, just bobbing his head to the music in an attempt to not look as uncomfortable as he obviously is.

Hare seems to be the life of the party. She's had enough to drink that the rest of the band is starting to get worried that she might not be up for performing anymore later, but she reassures them that she's played after way more than just a couple of drinks. Whether she's referring to just alcohol or to other drugs as well, she doesn't specify. She's currently on the dance floor, seemingly having the time of her life in the shortest skirt of the party and a flock of guys trying to get her attention.

Sabine has noticed Lars Granfors' eyes on her and Kajsa for long stretches of the evening, particularly whenever they're kissing. He hasn't approached either of them, thankfully, just stared while smoking and throwing back one drink after the other. He seems to be in a kind of foul mood and while he hasn't done anything disruptive yet, his firmly locked jaw and sour expression suggest that that might still come later in the evening. When Sabine approaches the bar, he turns his eyes away and returns to watching Henry, his other main focus for the evening.

Despite their one hook-up with ugly consequences, Kristina and Mia Järnek have stayed friends since December. Mia showed up an hour early to the party, apologized profusely for the mix-up and gone back home, stating she'd be back later. She hasn't returned yet. Kajsa suggested that she might be too embarrassed to return while Kristina mentioned that Mia had intended to come with a date who apparently cancelled on her so maybe that mistake earlier was just the final nail in the coffin.

Mikael gives a thumbs up and a half-cocked smile back to Sabine.

He leans in to Kristina. "Jonas seems pretty uncomfortable! I don't think he's having a good time, maybe I should try and drag him out here?"

Henry meets the gaze of Lars for the third or fourth time tonight. Sometimes it’s like a distant game of chicken. Other times, it’s a quick look to acknowledge that Henry sees him looking.

He moves his way over to Sabine; awkwardly sidestepping the dancers and others that might get in his way on the dance floor!

"What’s his problem?" he says to her, not looking at him this time, but assuming she knew who he was talking about.

Taking a sip from her cup.

"You mean Granfors?" Sabine asks to clarify to whom Henry is referring, though she already knows the answer. She doesn't look toward Lars so as not to make it obvious they are talking about him. "Well, he's been watching Kajsa and me too. But, with us I can hardly expect anything different. Granfors has been rather vocal in his disapproval of same gender intimate relationships. Though, to be honest, I have a feeling with Kajsa and me at least it may be more curiosity...or even jealousy, that he doesn't have someone special in his life."

Sabine looks into Henry's eyes. "My intuition tells me Lars may be in denial of his own feelings. He doesn't have a date, nor is he in a relationship as far as I know."

She pauses and takes another sip.

"Oh. And speaking of relationships and dating—I would be happy to introduce you to someone, if you'd like?"

Sabine glances about the party-goers, as if scoping out potential dance partners for Henry.

Stina's dancing gets a little too enthusiastic, and turning and moving across the room, she bumps into people at the bar. She knocks Lars' drink and in a single glance she realises he is in a bad mood.

She grins comically, then shouts to be heard over the music "Oops! Sorry Lars! Let me get you another one!" she says as a peace offering.

Henry nods along knowingly, as if he had thought all of this true already. He hadn’t. But he acted as if he had!

"Oh!" the offer stops him from even remembering what had been said before!

"Oh. Like… who?"

"Told you he'd feel out of place here," Kristina says. "I know he's your friend but he wasn't made for parties." She looks over to Jonas. "But you know, maybe we should talk to him, see if we can help him out." She shrugs and leads Mikael over to him.

Jonas takes another tiny sip of the drink in his hand. When he sees Mikael approach, he puts on a fake smile and shouts: "Cool party!"

Sabine glances around the house, searching for a potential match for her friend when their attention is drawn by Stina bumping into Lars and spilling his drink.
For a moment, they expect Lars to get mad but he doesn't. Instead, he just responds something to Stina they can't understand over the music and Sabine goes back to looking over the guests. As she looks over the dance floor, Sabine notices that Kajsa is wearing a hoodie over her top now that she wasn't wearing a moment ago. It looks like it might be Mikael's.Lars turns to Stina with a frown on his face but at her goofy grin and peace offering, he doesn't seem able to stay mad at her, so he just says: "Whatever. Not like I paid for it, right?"

Stina gets him another drink and puts it down in front of him. Lars looks down at the drink then his glassy eyes focus on Stina, as much as they're still able to focus. "Hey," he asks over the music. "You're friends with Henry, right?"

Stina notes how intoxicated Lars seems to be. "Yeah. Henry's a cool guy," she answers. "We hang out together, with some others too." She gets a drink for herself and sips from it, looking around the room, but studying Lars' reaction at the same time.

"Right, sure," Lars replies, seeming to be in thought. "My dad hates his guts." That draws a quick smile from Lars as he says it.
He then drinks more than half his glass in one go before looking at Stina again. He hesitates for a brief moment before asking: "You know if he's... here with someone?"

She wonders why Lars' father would hate Henry... "Don't think so," she says sincerely.

Sensing something's up with Lars, she tries to steer the conversation towards the party, and making it special for Mikael."He's just here with the rest of us - we're all Mikael's friends, wanted to be here for his big day, y'know..."

"Hey man!" Mikael says, "Thanks!" He holds his palm up. Jonas hesitates a second then gives Mikael weak high-five, slightly off center. "A lot of it was Kajsa and Kristina, but a lot of people came through to make it awesome!" Mikael adds. "What are you drinking?" Mikael asks.

Sabine studies the crowd and lingers a moment on the sight of Kajsa now wearing a hoodie. "Ummm..." She considers, as faces, details, and her knowledge of situations and relationships run through her matchmaking mind. "Well...how about Sonja?" She replies to Henry. "She's talented, attractive, and not seeing anyone at the moment." She pauses and glances over to Stina with Lars. "Unless...you're interested in..." She doesn't finish the sentence, but Henry clearly gets where she's going with it.

She offers Henry her hand. "Your choice..."

"I don't know," Jonas says, looking at his drink. "Something with Cola. Kajsa gave it to me when I got here. I don't really drink alcohol much but I thought, since it's a party..." He shrugs. "So, 17," he then says. "Did you get anything cool for your birthday?"

"I guess," Lars says. "I meant more..." He rubs his eyes with one hand, then glances at his drink but doesn't take another sip. "You know if he's seeing anyone at the moment?" Before Stina can reply, he raises a hand and shakes his head. "You know what, forget I said anything. I'm wasted. I should just head home to my asshole dad and useless mom." He pushes himself to his feet, swaying noticeably and struggling for a second to stay upright. "Anyway, nice talking to you..." He looks to be struggling with her name. "Biker-Girl."

She grins at Biker Girl. Not a bad nickname. "It's Stina," she says.
Then, seeing him so unsteady on his feet she adds, "hey, are you sure you're OK to go home like this? You need a lift, or something?"

Henry wasn’t sure if Sabine meant Stina or Lars, truth be told! He hesitated for a moment. Stina had never seemed interested in Henry, so she must mean Lars.

"Tell me about Sonja!" he whispered in conspiratorial tones! Top secret!

He had often glanced at her, but couldn’t get a read on if she might like him.

"Did she say something? About me?" he gulps the words.