An essay by Sam

Fake News

Southfield was an extremely small town, everyone knew each other, no names were unknown, there was nowhere to hide and there was no way to keep secrets.  Life in Southfield was easy if you kept your head down, didn’t start any trouble or could fit in.  However, in Tina’s case this seemed to prove difficulty.

Tina’s family seemed normal from the outside. It was like if a stranger picked up the roof on their house they wouldn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.  Her mom worked with the church, her dad worked a 9 to 5 and her sister Eloise, well, everyone liked her.  The boys wanted to be with her and the girls wanted to be her.  Their life seemed perfect but Tina was hiding an immense secret which she could never bring herself to let her parents know.

She used to be captain of the cheer team, a straight A student, dating THE Chuck Jones and she was quite possibly the happiest teenager around. That was until she started receiving the messages.

*PING*
A shudder went down Tina’s back.  A mixture of dread and nausea began to fill her stomach.  She checked her phone, peering cautiously at the small, illuminated screen.  She knew who it was from before she had even built up the confidence to read the message.
“You think that you are all THAT?! You are worthless. You mean nothing.”
That mixture of dread and nausea had reached the top of her throat.  She wanted to scream but instead only a small quiver left her shaking lips. A single tear slithered down her cheek, racing to leave her tender skin. It dropped onto her phone making the message go all fuzzy.

The message had started 3 months ago, when an unknown number popped up on Tina’s phone. Normally she would have turned a blind eye and ignored it but there was a link attached to it and her curiosity got the best of her.  To her utter disbelief, a picture slid onto her screen of her kissing a guy, a guy who was not her boyfriend.  Big red letters flashed across the screen:
“DO EVERYTHING I SAY OR THIS PHOTO WILL BE UPLOADED TO FACEBOOK FOR EVERYONE TO SEE.”

These were the words that flashed passed her eyes during her nightmares.  Tina knew that the photo wasn’t of her, but in Southfield fake news was just as good as real news.  The women were starving for some juicy gossip so Tina gave in and did everything that the anonymous tormenter asked.

*PING*
“Why are you still even here? You should just kill yourself already.”
*PING*
*PING*

The messages were getting worse and worse as each day passed.  Tina felt as if she was tied to the bottom of a large pool, every message a bucket of water being thrown on her, and right now she was up to her nose in the cold liquid, struggling to stay afloat.

Maybe she should do what the messages say? She felt as though she had lost everything good in her life anyway.  A strange blanket of darkness seemed to replace everything that she lost, no, everything she gave up.  She felt as if she was fighting a battle that she was destined loose.  She felt as if there was no end to the dark tunnel that she was stranded on, walking alone along the black, empty railway lines until it finally registered.  She saw a hint of white light at the end of her dark journey, there was an escape and she ran for it.

***

The headline crossed all news stations that day: TEEN’S BATTLE WITH A FACELESS, NAMELESS MONSTER.  The phone lines were flooded with calls from worried citizens offering to send cheques and support to the nearest Cyberbullying Help Centre.  Schools put up posters and held seminars about cyber safety.  At the end of the day everyone knew of Tina Smith and her battle with her ruthless demons.  The whole world was talking about her bravery and the sacrifice that she made to bring cyberbullying to the world’s attention.

Everyone was talking except for the small town of Southfield.  Not a word left their mourning mouths as they gathered outside Tina’s house with lit candles and flowers.  Tears flooded the streets of the tiny town.  How did no one see it?  Did no one care?  How far did it have to go before people realised that it was too late?

A picture of Tina dressed in her Sunday clothes appeared on the screen.  Her smile illuminated the screen, a complete contrast to the distraught face of the local news reported.  Her gloomy voice spoke echoed through everyone’s speakers:

“Her pale body was found at 7:53pm, nearly 1 hour after her neighbours reported hearing gunshots. We are sending our love and prayers to the Smith family during this very tough time…”

And this time it wasn’t fake news, this time it was real.