2014
Johanne Kriegman entered her apartment clumsily carrying a load of groceries. She shut the door with her foot and walked to the kitchen and began putting the groceries away. She looked at the clock placed slightly curved on the wall. The time was 1:05 P.M., Gerhard would be home in a few hours.
Life was different yet once again simple for the Kriegman family, their complete lack of appearances to the media left them being unrecognized, they could live a decently simple life, as simple as you can get after that nightmare at Iroquois High School. After the shooting Gerhard and Johanne quickly held a small private funeral for Andre and practically as soon as it was over, the Kriegman's were gone. The two went through hefty fines, lawsuits, legal punishments, but life went on and the two slowly but surely readjusted to normal life.
Johanne went along her daily routine of sitting down and watching the news, waiting for Gerhard to come home from work, and having to cook a meal for him. It wasn't a glamorous life but it was a grounded one.
Mrs. Kriegman made herself comfortable and switched on the television with the remote, the channel on ABC news. She was greeted by the regular news anchor but the words being spoken by the professional women related to Johanne this time.
"... in a very special news report, the mother of one of the Iroquois Massacre Perpetrators, fourteen years ago, Pam Gabriel's son, Calvin Gabriel, and his friend Andre Kriegman murdered twelve people and themselves. Today, Pam is speaking out in her first televised interview..."
There she was, Pam Gabriel, sitting in the hot seat, tears already welling up in her face remembering May 1, 2001. She was much more aged than the last time Johanne spoke to her, which was about ten years ago. Johanne's heart was racing, what would she say about Andre? About Calvin? About her and Gerhard? Both the Gabriel and Kriegman family were mostly silent since 2001, their only media appearances were in the form of writing, sending condolences and apologies to families.
Pam began to speak, "On May 1st..." She sniffled and tried to hold back her tears, unsuccessfully. "I remember hearing about the horrible shooting at the school... I was praying for Calvin to be safe, that he wouldn't be hurt or even worse... I raced to the school and was waiting with the flock of parents, hoping that Calvin would be one of the students evacuating from the building but he never did. Then I found out... he wasn't a victim but he was a murderer. Innocent kids dead and a school resource officer, by the hands of my child. " She looked away from the camera, and couldn't hold back her tears any longer.
A voiceover took control of the audio. "After the shooting at Iroquois, Pam carefully analyzed everything about Calvin's life. Signs she missed, red flags, anything that could have been done to prevent the massacre."
"I thought that Steve and I were good parents. We provided Calvin with unconditional love. He was a sweet child, a little quiet and reserved but he was smart and he could open up to others at times," Pictures of Calvin's youth appeared on the screen. "But as the date came closer to May 1st, he became more distant, even more reserved, he just seemed... out of it. I assumed he was just nervous or stressed for college."
The news anchor's voice once again came back, "Calvin on the outside appeared to be a normal teenager, a good student, had plenty of friends and was looking forward to life after high school. Calvin's only criminal charge was that of marijuana possession in January 1999."
Pam spoke once more, "After his run-in with the law, Cal was very regretful and apologetic about the whole thing and nothing ever came out of it. I thought that would be the last time Calvin would ever be involved in crime."
"Calvin's journals and video diaries told a completely different story, though," The news anchor said. "His writing is plagued with a storm of manic depression, loneliness, and suicidal thoughts," One excerpt from his journal says, 'I hate my life and everything about this world for so many ******** reasons. I don't see a future for myself because it's useless, there's no point. I just want to die, die by my own hands, I'll be away from everything."
Parents across the country should know that millions of teenagers suffer from depression, but it can be treated and suicidal depression doesn't always lead to violence, according to Dr. William Morris, he states that is absolutely necessary for parents to check up on their child's mental health and wellbeing." The screen then cut to a fifty-year-old man sitting down on a chair in his office.
He cleared his throat and began to speak. "In Calvin's journals we see clearly he is suffering from suicidal depression but this doesn't give the explanation of why he turned to homicide. To find the answer we have to look at the other perpetrator, Andre Kriegman," An outdated yearbook picture of Andre from Junior year showed on screen.
Johanne's heart dropped, her mind was racing, a million thoughts a second. What were they going to say?
Morris elaborated further, "Clearly, Andre is the 'leader' of the Andre and Cal 'army' ,as they called it. From what we've seen of his journal entries and witness accounts we see Andre is full of rage. In his journals he doesn't write about suicide or loneliness as Calvin does, instead, he talks about taking revenge on the world, murder, despicable actions. From this, it's apparent that a violent event such as 'Zero Day' was created by Andre and Calvin in a fragile and vulnerable mind was reluctantly reeled into it."
Johanne's heart dropped. She simply couldn't believe anything that was being said. Her mind went back to the week after the shooting when the Essex County Sherriff went to her house to show her the "Zero Day Tapes," the two clearly talked about neither of them being a leader nor follower, they wanted to make that clear. Her mind went back to the horrible shooting, Andre wasn't a saint but Calvin's anger and violence seemed to far outweigh Andre's. She just couldn't believe what she was hearing, to her the report was saying Calvin was an innocent bystander who just happened to be reeled in and Andre was a psychopathic maniac, the sole problem.
She tried desperately to release the Zero Day tapes through an independent filmmaker after fighting tooth and nail in court to get them back in her possession from the media vultures. Her efforts were futile, the movie proved too controversial and eventually, the project was abandoned. Only pieces of the Zero Day tapes were released to the media, such as Andre's 18th birthday but neither the school cameras showing the shooting nor the full tapes were ever released to the public.
Johanne wanted to show that Andre and Calvin were human as well, that they weren't villainous monsters from an outer planet but she never succeeded. Tears began to well up in her eyes. Her son was a monster, there was no doubt about that, she had known that for fourteen years, but Calvin wasn't innocent either. She buried her face in her hands, the television sounds were muffled as she drowned them out with her loud sobs, everything came back to her.
One comment stuck out to her. The expert continued once more, "Clearly, Andre seemed to be the biggest reason to why Calvin joined the massacre," Johanne couldn't stand it anymore, she shut off the television.
Johanne wiped her tears and started reflecting on everything she just heard once more. Maybe they were right about Andre being the biggest reason for Calvin to shoot up Iroquois High School but she believed that Andre would have never done such a thing had he not met Calvin either. It seemed like they made a martyr of Calvin, a warning to parents of what unchecked teenagers, depression and bad friends can do to a child. That wasn't the full story, there was a lot more than just depression, Johanne recalled the horrible comments Calvin yelled towards the students in the libraries. The people he mercilessly killed laughed, taunted, and screamed at. Calvin wasn't a bystander or a victim. He was excited and ready for Zero Day. He was the one that convinced Andre to pull the trigger on himself.
No one would see that, though.
Andre was the psychopathic maniac, the leader. Calvin was the depressed one, the follower.
A/N:
Thank you for reading! It's been almost four years since I've written a story but after a new spark of creativity I've decided to write a Zero Day story. Sorry if it didn't turn out too good and that it was short, would love feedback!