Social Media by Christopher DeWan
“one of the masked rapists dangling naked from a hangman’s rope”
Fiction by Christopher DeWan
+++
The first video was posted at 7am, before school started, and by the time the morning bell rang it was up to five hundred views. By second period, everyone in the school knew about it, and had an opinion about it, too: Stacy Fletcher was a drunk whore slut and got what she deserved, was one opinion. Another was that the seven boys in the video—all wearing masks and impossible to identify—were depraved monsters and should be locked up as sociopaths. The two beliefs weren't mutually exclusive. By noon the video had gone viral, and it seemed like everyone in the world was watching the poor drunk roofied girl. By 2pm there were articles about it on Huffington Post and Jezebel and CNN—thoughtful pieces of social commentary about rape culture and the end of ethics and prolonged adolescence and our collective cultural numbness.
But no one, not even the smartest pundits, expected what happened next: the second video, posted to YouTube around 3pm, recorded in our high school locker room and showing one of the masked rapists dangling naked from a hangman's rope, with writing carved into his chest that read "6 to go" and the hashtag, #stacy. The new video is up to four thousand views, and ever since I watched it, I've been wondering how much longer I have, and when they're coming for me….
+ + +
Header image couresy of Martin Carri. To view a gallery of his collages, go here.
Christopher DeWan has published over three dozen stories in journals including A cappella Zoo, Bartleby Snopes, DOGZPLOT, Jersey Devil Press, JMWW, Juked, Necessary Fiction, and wigleaf. His fiction has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. Learn more about him here.