I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t even belong in here. Lying here, on the stone cold floors in my tiny cell, hearing nothing but thoughts going over and over again made me feel so powerless. Every time I thought about being in here, I have this sorrow feeling begin to swell up inside me.

“Come on hurry up! Just do it, they’ll never know it was you.” Carter, my best friend, said with eagerness. I hesitated at first, but what’s the harm in a little bit of fun?

-Send-

The picture of Megan at my mate’s party spread like wild fire. Who would’ve thought that a girl kissing a pig would be so famous? I leaned back on my chair and took in all the praises Carter could think of. It was as though he was worshipping me. I forgot about the picture and just felt proud.

Coming back to school on a cold winter morning made it impossible to get out of bed. But coming back from holidays made me excited to go to school. I switched on the television and began to make some toast.

“High school student Megan Sparkz…” As soon as I heard that name my head jolted over my shoulders and focused on the news reporter. “… and in anger she reported to police officers of her upsetting ordeal on Facebook, an online social network. The photo shows Megan getting tricked into kissing a barn animal over the holidays at a house party. Police are warning the anonymous user to remove the photo or else they will be tracked and arraigned.” I stopped moving for about 5 seconds after hearing that, and as soon as I was able to regain my consciousness I quickly got Facebook open on my phone and began to delete the photo. But it was too late, the photo had over 10,000 likes and there were memes and other spoofs of this photo. I couldn’t believe it; I dropped the phone and slowly collapsed to my knees. Was this the end? Was I going to go to jail? No, it couldn’t... it was just... Just one photo. It’s not that bad, right?

Walking to school that day caused a panic in each step as I drew closer to the school. I reached the front gate and stopped for a second thinking if it’s better if I should just run, I didn’t want to face Megan after hurting her so bad. But I sucked in my gut, stood up straight, walked through the gates and began walking towards the locker bay. I saw Megan running towards me and I just sank. Did she know? Did Carter tell her? No he didn’t because she had tears pouring from her red eyes and just ran straight pass me. I jogged to where she was coming from and saw all her classmates laughing and wearing pig snouts. Some of them were oinking but most were laughing hysterically.

I tried to turn around but a hand slapped me on the back and Carter appeared. “HAHAHA! Did you see that? It’s gone viral! Everyone knows about it, isn’t it awesome?”

I looked over at her locker to see drawings of a pig and responded with soft mutter, “Yeah, sure is…”

That day and the next, Megan was absent, I began to worry and my mind started conjuring up all sorts of wild things that may have happened to Megan. Two days later principal Lynn came to my class in period 2 and asked me to come with her to her office. When I got out of the classroom, principal Lynn immediately began walking. I walked a couple of paces behind her, too afraid to say anything. She opened her office door gesturing me to come in. I hesitated but stepped in. Sitting there, all in blue, I felt a thousand needles stabbing my heart and sending chills all over my shaking body.

“This is Officer Charlie, he wants to talk to you.” said Principal Lynn, she then walked out and shut the door behind her.

“Come take a seat.” Said the man in blue. But I flinched when he directed me to the chair; I stared at his hand for a second and began shuffling back. He noticed me moving further back and began talking. “I’m Officer Charlie, but please, call me Charles.” I stared at him bluntly and he took a notepad and pen out of his pocket, he opened it with a flick of his wrist and began talking again. “Are you familiar with the name Megan Sparkz?” I could feel myself going pale and tried to stop myself from falling.

“Yeh, she’s... um… she’s in my class, I uh… haven’t seen her in a couple of days though…” he stared at me and started scribbling some notes down, making sure I couldn’t see what it was.

“Uh huh, so, did you see her at all over the holidays?” I felt myself growing weaker and weaker with every question.

“Yeh, I did. I… uh… was at like… a party…yeh…” I began moving to the seat he pointed to earlier. Walking towards the seat made me feel so useless and queasy. I noticed he was looking at me, then turned his head and began jotting down more notes. I now felt even emptier, a shallow body lost in a world of quilt.

“And were you aware of the incident about her at the party?”

“Err... yeh… I did… about the pig?”

“Yes, yes. Apparently you were the one who posted the photo, am I correct?” My head started spinning; it felt like I just got hit with an anvil on the head. But I realised, does he actually know I did it? Is he testing me or just questioning?

“Well… actually it wasn’t….”

“Don’t lie to me boy! Kids like you disgust me!” I was wrong; it felt more like a grand piano then an anvil. I just didn’t know what to say anymore. I just wanted to crawl up in a corner and cry. I rested my face into my palms and began to whimper. “I expect you to come to this place on Saturday.” The door opened and slammed shut. I raised my head and saw an address. It was a district court in the city.

I was at the district court waiting with anticipation for when I get called. A minute felt like an hour, 10 minutes felt like 15 hours and 15 minutes felt like days. I had to wait for half an hour. Walking up to the judge felt like a slow march to the edge of a cliff. You never know what’s down there. Will it be a long drop to a deathly pit? Or will I have a small fall onto a sturdy ledge? Luckily for me, I fell on a ledge. I was let off with a fine, but all ledges have to eventually be chipped away and dropped.

I was happy to be back at school and with a normal life again. However, my parents were disappointed in me and Megan just seemed to hate me. Every time I walked past her in the hallway she would stare into my soul and set it on fire with her hate filled eyes. Class with her was no different, I was never able to look directly into her eyes, and there was something about it that bounced away every glance. I still feel bad for what I did. Everybody still bullies her, but what can I do? Carter didn’t make it easier either; it was hard trying to oppose your best friend. Every time I told him to stop, he would make me choose either him or her. The choice was pretty obvious of course.

Spring came and all the flowers blossomed into golden clusters. Every student had colour coming back into their pale winter skins. All the pretty girls with their rosy cheeks. Everyone looked lively and happy, everyone, but Megan. She looked different from the start of the year. She now eats alone, stays alone, works alone. She’s isolated, stranded in a nightmare never to wake up, showing no sign of happiness and not letting anyone in, but I couldn’t possibly know that, no one’s even tried to talk to her. All her friends left her, all too ashamed to even be seen with her. And that’s when I think she cracked it.

All the year 11 and 12's were out that day, they had these excursions out of school to universities and other strange new places we’ve never been before. This meant that my class has all the ‘A’ buildings to ourselves. I started to care less about what I’ve done to Megan. I didn’t see any point in trying to help her anymore. If she didn’t even appreciate me trying, I might as well give up. My first class today was with Megan, walking in class today, I didn’t even bother to see if she was there, I had my head held high and eyes sealed tightly.

-Bam!-

The door was slammed shut; I turned around and noticed Megan. In her hands was a wooden club, it was a hard and thick, covered in a crimson glow. My eyes twisted in agony and felt like throwing up. I quickly turned and crouched to my knees, my hands covering my mouth and I saw it, the ground had been painted with my classmates. I slowly looked around, raising my head. Bodies of those I cared for had been thrown around and laying all over the place. Their faces, depicting the fear they last wore before they’ve been beaten to death.

-Whack!-

The wooden club spun around dropping me to the ground. I grabbed my right leg and screamed.

“It’s all your fault!” Megan shouted. She took another swing and hit my other leg, I screamed again and this time even louder. I began begging and tried moving away.

“Please, please, I’m sorry! It wasn’t meant to go this far.” At this point I had tears overflowing from my eyes and dripping everywhere. Megan raised the club again and I tried to defend myself with my arms. But she hit both hands, making me turn and fly to my right.

“You ruined my life and I’m going to make you pay! You’re a worthless piece of shit and deserve everything you get! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!” She too was crying now. She dropped the club, I felt a little more relieved until she took a pair of scissors and walked towards me.

“ARGHHHHHHHHH!” She let out a pitchy scream. I couldn’t believe it. She stabbed herself in the leg with the pair of scissors. I stared at her, wide eyed and speechless. She raised her arms and threw a fist to my face. The contact of the hand sent mixed messages of fear and confusion all over my body. I turned my head a bit to see Carter unconscious and pulverised in the corner of the room. Megan collapsed to her knees, head down and hand covering her wound, she spoke just loudly enough for me to hear before I passed out.

“You’re gonna pay you son of’ a bitch.”

-Bam Bam Bam-

The judge’s gavel silenced the courtroom of angry parents. I couldn’t look up or turn my head. I couldn’t do anything but looked back. I thought about the interrogations at the police station. The officers yelled at me and kept asking me why I killed all those children in my class. I told them I didn’t do it. But they didn’t believe me, every time I said it, they punched me, knocking me and the chair over and asked me again and again. I was being tortured.

The Judge began talking and I slightly raised my head, unable to look at him.

“You were here a couple of months ago for cyber bullying, and now I see you again? But you’ve gone too far! I cannot tolerate massacre from anybody! Regardless of age. Nothing you say will ever change anyone’s decision. I sentence you, to a lifetime in prison!” The cheering of the court room roared as I stood in despair. My knees dropped, I turned to my parents, my mother was crying in my father’s arms, and he just turned and escorted her out.

“But… It wasn’t me.” Tears started to fall from my eyes as I saw my mom leave the room. The wave of parents from the gallery jumped over and ran towards me, they started attacking and kicking me. Nobody cared about me or tried to stop them. It was clear to me now that I was all alone and no one was going to be there for me to hold anymore.

I’m lost now, lost in my thoughts and my own prison I’ve managed to conjure up in these prison walls. The people here are worse then super villains. Heroes don’t exist; they’re just stories to help kids sleep at night. If they did exist, I wouldn’t be lying on the cold stone floors in this evil cell. It's freezing cold during the night, and boiling hot during the day. You can’t see anything at all when the lights go out. When the lights do go out, a prisoner would disappear. There were no windows or clocks. It was all just a matter of time before we become insane. And when the time comes, like a farmer and his injured horse, he’ll take you to the back of the shed and shoot you between the eyes. Sadly for me, I was an injured horse.