It no longer hurts when 16-year-old Jhonas Aostri laughs. Only if he laughs a lot. The scar on the stomach goes from one side to the other. There is a five centimeter mark on the back. About as wide as the perpetrator's sword.
When he was helped out of the epa in the hospital's parking lot in Fagersta, his first thought was that he had soiled the worn leather seats with blood.
It's been just over a month since the brutal attack on Brinell School and he can't help but smile at his own reaction.
- That I say sorry, sorry and start apologizing to Fredrik for the blood in the car.
Alone in his room, darker thoughts come. What should the body look like with all the scars? When can he do what he loves again, coaching football and wrestling?
- Friends, family and all the support I have received in social media have given me a reason to get out of the hospital. Not to give up, says Jhonas Aostri.
This Sunday afternoon, in the living room at home in his mother's apartment in Fagersta, he meets two schoolmates who probably saved his life.
Mohamed Ali Husein, 20, who is studying to be a nurse, caught him outside the school and pressed a shirt tightly against his bleeding wounds on his back and arm.
Fredrik Ericson, 16 years old, drove them to the hospital in his epa. They got there before the hospital staff even realized that a school attack had taken place.
Also sitting on the couch is Ayad Salah Mohammed, 16 years old, with a crutch leaning against the wall. He and Jhonas have known each other for a long time through their families. The mothers work as care assistants at the same nursing home. They are both present during the interview.
Ayad was also badly injured, from multiple stab wounds, in the attack where another boy suffered minor injuries and a 17-year-old girl died.
Between juice glasses and platters of grapes, biscuits and baklava lies a newly drawn sketch of Brinell School's student hall and corridors.
Jhonas points and shows where he was sitting with his mobile phone - at the far end of a table - with his back to the entrance where the suspected perpetrator Liam Nebel entered: Dressed in black with a mask and helmet, armed with a sword.
It was Friday. First week of the semester after the summer vacation.
Suddenly Jhonas felt a sharp pain in his back, like a blow from a hard stick.
- I thought it was a friend who greeted me from behind and happened to hit me too hard. I reacted and said "what the hell are you doing" but understood when I saw the sword that I had to get out of there.
He faced the black-clad assailant but managed to throw himself to the side, escaping another stab which he believes was aimed at his stomach.
Although his feet slipped under him, he managed to escape.
- I slipped in my own blood and fell half a meter from him. But I got up and ran. I heard screams around me but saw no people. I got tunnel vision.
Jhonas had the perpetrator behind him as he passed through a corridor with student lockers. At one of them stood Ayad, wondering why people were running and screaming.
He has a memory image from that moment that usually shows up extra clearly. In the corridor some distance away, he saw the dead girl fall to the floor.
- When the girl fell, I saw everything.
At first he thought it was a strange game. But when the one dressed with a sword walked towards him in the corridor, then he understood that it was not pretend.
When the attack came, he tried to protect himself with his hands.
- I grabbed the sword with my hand and he turned around.
How did you manage to escape?
- I turned around and ran. Then he stabbed me in the back. The sword went up and down. He pulled it out and drove it into the side. But I managed to run and got out.
Outside of school, he was helped by teachers who pressed items of clothing against his wounds. The wait for an ambulance felt like an eternity, says Ayad.
- I was scared, that was all I thought about. And I thought of my wounds, my hand, my stomach and my chest, everything was bloody.
On the sketch of Brinell School, Fredrik shows where he was when the chaos broke out in the student hall. It was at a table near Jhonas. Mohammed was sitting talking to some classmates a little further away.
Just like everyone else, they ran for their lives. Mohamed saw friends who were close to falling.
Now he carries anxiety that can make it difficult to stay focused in lessons.
He is frightened by the fact that there are more young people in the police investigation who may have planned their own school crimes in contact with suspect Liam Nebel.
- It's scary that people on social media look up to him. That there are more people who think the same.
On the couch, Mohammed tells the others about something that happened to him a few days ago. How he sat in a group room in the school's temporary premises and thought about how he would escape from there if someone entered the room with a weapon.
- Then a teacher opened the door with a jerk, without knocking or anything, and I panicked. This is something we will have to live with for the rest of our lives.
Everyone on the sofa nods and recognizes themselves.
Fredrik has found himself looking for escape routes at school. When Jhonas returned to the classroom two weeks ago, he thought about how easy it would be to open a window, lift a table for cover or throw a chair.
- You think about it even though it's over. The school must take the students' concerns seriously, says Mohammed.
The scars are both inside and outside.
Ayad lifts his shirt and shows a patch that covers his entire stomach. He shows the scars from where the sword went in and out.
Punctured lungs, damage to the heart muscle and liver meant that he needed intensive care and several operations at the Karolinska University Hospital in Solna.
For a while his condition was life-threatening.
Now he gets around short distances with the help of a crutch and dreams of being able to start working out again.
This week he is going back to school.
How do you find the strength to fight on?
- My friends and family tell me I can handle it. They look after me and try to keep me positive.
Jhonas has received care at Västmanland County Hospital in Västerås. One of his kidneys was damaged by the sword, requiring major abdominal surgery.
He is most concerned about damaged nerves, tendons and muscles in his right hand and arm.
When he fled through the corridor, he had the mobile phone in his hand.
- I put it in my pocket and only then did I notice that my right hand was completely cut open. It was like a fist that could fit in the wound.
The friends who came to the hospital with sweets and Fanta exotic mean everything to him, says Jhonas.
What are you most looking forward to right now?
- I long to get back to sports, because I am an active person who likes to move. And I hope the hand will be as before.
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Girl suspected of murder plan - had contact with Liam Nebel
