Victims

Anonymity. A blessing and a curse. Hatred flows more easily, confessions thrust from sealed lips.

From behind a screen, a young boy types a threat:

My world is broken. I'll break yours, too.

No one takes it seriously until he's in the school with a gun. A scared little girl calls 9-1-1.

Police arrive: the boy bursts forth, waving an assault rifle that his dad gave him for his 15th birthday. Shots fired. He goes down. They check the body–– no pulse. The gun: unloaded. The press calls it suicide by police.

There are no heroes, no villains. Only victims.