I apologize in advance for my not-so-perfect English.
It happened in 2018. I knew Vlad since our childhood. He was one year older than me. Usually we met in the backyard of our house. All kids (by word “kids” I mean 10 - 16 years olds) met there. We are the generation born in late 90th - early 00th. There always were almost a dozen of us. We were playing soccer, hide and seek and doing some other stuff that children on the streets do.
Vlad was living in the neighborhood. But in 2014 his family moved few living blocks away. He started to show up less frequent. We (Vlad and I) weren’t friends. Just people who know each other. But we had similar sight on some things. We knew that world is not so bright and perfect as sone of kids of our age thought. It was because of similar problems: loneliness, slight bullying. He was very shy guy. Silent almost every time. Only one time we were chatting when I met him in computer club.
Years passed. We rarely met each other. Usually we just greet each other shaking hand and not even speaking. Vlad did study in the college and I finished high school and went to university.
Than this happened… I was in hurry. Almost running not to get late to my classes. I wasn’t looking around just going ahead. I saw a man in my path. I didn’t look at him. “Don’t you recognize me?” the stranger said. It was Vlad. He was looking really sad almost depressed. His eyes were empty. The man was just looking straight through me. “Oh, sorry, I am just in hurry”. I shook his hand abd quickly proceeded not even thinking about this encounter.
In two days we got a message. I was in the university doing my project when everybody started speaking about something. Everyone were so agitated and worried. There was a mass shooting in the polytechnic college. The homemade bomb went off in the canteen killing more than ten students and hurting even more. Than the man with a semi-auto 12 gage shotgun started roaming the hallways killing everyone in his path. This man was wearing the white shirt with word “HATRED”. The body of the murderer was found in the library. He blew his brains out. Only in the evening we received the confirmation: it was Vladislav Roslyakov. I saw the picture of his body…
Nobody knows where he is burryed. This information was given only to his mother. 19 people he killed are now burryed together. The huge memorial is standing on this place. This memorial shows a shot through book and 19 birds flying into the sky.
Almost every day I remember Vlad. And this quote: “Don’t you recognize me?”. And the eyes staring in the abyss… My girlfriend has a friend who survived this attack. Girl has her foot blown off by the blast. Kind reminder of the person I knew… For more details you can google: “Kerch polytechnic college massage”