So before I begin, perhaps a bit of background information would help you understand my story.

I'm a now 20 year old male living in the Netherlands and I've been a geek all of my life. Games in particular have always played a major role in my life, starting when I got my first playstation when I was five years old. Something about gaming just always got me, be it mechanically or in terms of storytelling I could always find something to love about it.

As I grew older I got more and more into RPGs, and eventually found my way onto World of Warcraft. As I got more involved in the game, I started joining Raiding guilds (For those of you who don't know, it's basically a group of players who intent on facing the game hardest content as a team.)

The second guild I joined was the greatest bloody team of people I had met thus far. One of these people was a Swedish girl who was around my age called Maggie. We got along quite nicely, as it turned out her mom (Who was also in this guild) was actually living in The Netherlands, so often we'd end up in conversations where she asked me to teach her some dutch and she'd teach me some swedish in return. It was all good fun.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2013. The aforementioned guild had fallen apart a while back and I had joined a new one. I had stayed in touch with some people in the old guild, but Maggie really hadn't been online all that much. When she did get back online we quickly caught up: It turned out that she actually moved in with her mother and had spent the last couple of months improving her dutch and attending a high school. She also started dating this guy called William, who was actually part of the same guild I had met Maggie in. He always struck me as a nice guy. Other guildmembers always thought he was a bit direct and perhaps rude, but being dutch I understood that's just simply how our culture works so I was always okay with it.

June comes around. Me and Maggie recently finished our final exams and were waiting for the results to come back in. One afternoon while we were playing online, I suggested a meetup between the two of us. I really didn't have much to do, and given that she had voiced her concerns about finding her footing in dutch social circles I figured this was a nice opportunity to take her first babysteps into the country. She excitedly agreed and asked if she could bring William as well. Obviously I said yes, seeing as he was her boyfriend, meetups are safer when you arrive as a couple and meeting former guildmembers was something I was looking forward to anyway.

A couple of days later I met both of them in Rotterdam and had a great day. I showed them around the city since I knew it best, had some nice conversations, a few laughs and we ended the day by taking a trip to the Euromast. Before leaving, Maggie had to go to the bathroom so me and William were waiting outside. Striking conversation, I said to him "You two make for a nice couple!" "Thanks!" He replied "I friggin' love her y'know. Honestly wouldn't know what I would do without her at this stage." Back then, I didn't think much of that statement. It's just a thing people say when they are in love, so kudo's to him right? Maggie got out of the restroom, we said our goodbyes and we parted ways.

A few weeks later we got our examscores back. I had passed highschool with flying colours, but Maggie wasn't so lucky; She had failed most of her exams. She told me she going to be studying for the rest of the summer in order to properly prepare for the her rerun of the last year of highschool. I told her that if she needed any help that I was willing to see what I could do, even when I was going to college. She was very thankful and assured me that she'd let me know if she needed any help.

Fast forward again to September. After our last conversation Maggie had practically dissapeared of the internet. She hadn't logged into World of Warcraft, she was never on Skype and wasn't even online on Facebook anymore. I had asked William in mid-August how she was doing and he assured me she was fine, so I thought nothing of it. I even admired her focus on her education.

However, during my second week in college, all of that changed.

I got into the metro and picked up a free newspaper in the seat next to me to pass the time. I vividly remeber turning to the 4th page to read a headline saying "Swedish Woman (19) from City stabbed in own backyard" It took me a few seconds to even realise that she lived in that city now, and that she was 19. Even though the article didn't mention a name, I grew very concerned. I quickly sent her a text message (As we exchanged phone numbers when we met up) asking her if she was okay. The rest of the day went by, and I heard nothing from Maggie. I eventually figured that if anything had happened to her, people would've most likely started posting things on her facebook page. Concerned and scared of what I was going to find, I started typing her name into the search bar of Facebook.

Sure enough, it was already filling up with messages from people who had heard she passed away from her injuries. After inquiring with some other former guildmembers, it turned out William had stabbed her. She had broken up with him after she got her horrendous test results back and he wasn't all too pleased with that. In the aftermath of the incident, me and some other dutch guildmemebers went to her city to meet up with her friends from school, attend the memorial set up in her school and to put some flowers at the scene of the crime on behalf of everyone she had played the game with.

When we met up with Maggie's schoolfriends, we found out William hadn't been half as nice as we thought he was. During the relationship, he had been very controlling of Maggie, and after the breakup he began stalking her and sending her threatening text messages. She even went to the police to report it, but they told her they couldn't do anything for her at that stage. After that, she met a different guy and started dating him. William found out and, well.. Took matters into his own hands.

Thinking back at this, the worst part of this all just came to mind: When we put flowers at the scene of the crime, we stood around for a few minutes, comtemplating whether of not we should knock on the door and personally give her mother our condolences, given that we kind of knew her as well. We decided against it, given that we might unintentionally remind her mother that Maggie's online connections ultimately cost her her life. As soon as we got back to our car, we saw Maggie's front door open. Out of the door came her mother with Maggie's younger sister. I knew at the time that Maggie had a younger sister, but I didn't know that she was only six or seven. I fucking lost it when I saw her little head hanging down while grabbing hold of her mother, scared to go around the corner to face all the drawings and flowers people had left there.

In writing this post, I found a very recent article that said William is most likely going to prison for twenty years. Honestly William, I fucking hope you never make it out of there.

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