Delusion, madness, disorientation and the misery of existential threats hang over humankind. Not only in misbegotten places of the world where tribalism, perpetual warfare, ethnic hatreds and social disequilibrium lead to unrest leading to the resurrection of ancient grievances to take centre stage, but in societies that fondly consider themselves civil, sane, respecting of others' rights -- that vaunt their culture of equality -- do threats raise their ugly heads.

Mentally compromised misanthropes stalk the corridors of life everywhere. Why it is that lunatics whose unhinged minds appear to focus on the most vulnerable to wreak their venomous hatreds on, is somewhat of a puzzle. Targeting society at large they veer toward the defenceless, the young in society. And so schools become a focal point for forced entry and terror.

"There was this horrible, horrible screaming -- it was just bursts of screams, only stopping so she could breathe. And then she just came running. I've never seen anyone run the way that she did. She was just covered in blood. There was a cut that was going down her face from about her eyes, and she was bleeding from somewhere lower down on her body", recounted a Grade 12 male student of the scene he had heard and witnessed.

So it was yesterday in British Columbia when a deranged 21-year-old drifter entered bare-foot to answer to some forlorn call within his corrupted brain. Unlocked doors at the high school allowed him to enter where he prowled at will at the Abbotsford Senior Secondary school. This drifter from Alberta chose to lunge repeatedly at two young girls, best friends, one 13 years of age the other 14.

Both girls sustained repeated knife wounds, the thirteen-year-old suffered lethal trauma and died, well beyond resuscitation, by those who responded from within the school in hopes of saving the life of the young girl. Her companion is recovering in hospital from the wounds she sustained in the dreadful attack.

School staff responded swiftly, managing to disarm and to hold Gabriel Brandon Klein, 21, for the arrival of police. Both school staff and many students acted swiftly in response to the double stabbing, in attempts to stem the free flow of blood from both girls' wounds.

A child arrived at school yesterday morning on an ordinary fall day, and she will never return home.

The photograph of the murdered girl bears a startling resemblance to a young girl who was once our granddaughter's best friend when both attended elementary school and later high school. She, like the unfortunate young girl whose horrible end the news now elaborates upon, was also a devout church-goer whose family attended a community church like the one that Letisha Reimer's family is involved in, at the evangelical South Abbotsford Church.

One can only hope that their deep faith will serve to aid them through this dreadful loss for which there is no relief possible during their lifetimes.