In a dark bedroom, a teenager stared at the screen of a laptop, crying.


    Zach Howard''s mom was going to arrive in few minutes.


    Under the pictures of his social media profile he saw nasty comments.


    You see, Zach had tried to promise to himself that he wouldn’t look at them, ignore them completely but he had peeked to see just one of the myriad of messages or comments and fallen down the rabbit hole, he ended up reading all them.


    One of the latest ones was by the worst of them all: Sadie.


    Her comment under the one of his pictures read, “Bet those jeans are ripped because he’s on his knees a lot.”


    In the picture, Zach smiled near his cousin - which he went to meet in France bout a month ago. They stood in the road smiling. Nothing particular about the picture, other than the 68 comments, most of them just as mean as Sadie’s.


    They went something like, “That''s his boyfriend…”


    Or “Ladies and gentlemen, this how faggots prepare to fuck…”


    (If I was to list them all, those comments would end up making you cry too…)


    Zach read them all and they made him want to do something horrible.


    At the same time, his mom was about to enter the driveway while waiting for old Mrs Bentley to pass by. Recently the elderly lady had been complaining about her walker that made her walk slowly, very slowly.


    Julia Howard would have screamed at the old man if shoe could but Mrs Bentley turned to her and waved, thus stopping right in the middle of the entrance to her house''s driveway.


    As she walked by Mrs Bentley waved at her and said something which Julia couldn''t hear because of the windows being pulled all the way up. Frankly, Julia had no intention of hearing the old woman ramble on about how her daughter, Tammy, was soon going to get her one of those electric things she sits on and drives - the name of it escaped her mind, later on she would ask Tammy and find out the words she was looking for were “Electric Wheelchair.”


    Julia had to wait what felt like an eternity until Mrs Bentley passed by and went ahead, towards her house down the road.


    Meanwhile, with tears in his eyes, Zach had already made his decision. He stood up from the chair, his eyes still on the comments under that picture.


    His room was pretty small, the only source of light was the small window which he had covered with curtains - which is why the room was so dark. There was nothing much other than his bed, a desk, a wardrobe and a drawer.


    On the ceiling of the room there was a ceiling fan which was about to be used for something completely different from its original function.


    Zach, with some regret and feeling like there was no other option, dragged the chair under the ceiling fan.


    He walked to a 4 drawer chest nearby the desk, in the top drawer, there were belts, among which he sorted, looking for the most sturdy one.


    Zach tried to clean the tears off his face but they wouldn''t stop. He was doing the right thing, they would never stop harassing him.


    Here''s the thing: Zach had tried to tell his mom about the bullying a long time ago and Julia said something in the likes of, ''That''s not ok. Tell your teacher about it, they should stop things like that from happening!'' she said that while cooking in the kitchen. Her back faced him.


    Zach did what his mom told him to do, and told the teacher every thing after class the next day.


    Miss Beverly was a woman in her mid 40s, with a skinny figure, black hair and a deep voice that you wouldn’t expect from someone who looked like her. Miss Beverly wore short skirts, secretary glasses and a golden blonde ponytail - suggesting she was a desperately single woman.


    Zach sat on the opposite side of the teacher’s desk opposite Miss Beverly.


    She crossed her legs and asked calmly, ''What''s the problem?''


    Initially reluctant from talking, Zach found  himself shaking nervously. He looked at the door, ''C-can we do it with the door shut?''


    ''Sure...''


    Zach went there to do so and looked left and right outside the door to make sure there was no one listening in their conversation. He walked back to the chair and the teacher repeated, ''Can you please tell me what happened?''


    ''They''re bullying me...''


    ''Who''s bullying you?''


    Zach glanced at the door - even if closed he just couldn''t shake off the fear they could be listening in, after all, they were the type of assholes to do that kind of stuff.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    ''Sadie, Mike, Moira, Jules, Gerry...'' he started listing names, which the teacher noted on a notepad she took out when Zach had said about 15 names - at that point she asked him to repeat them all from the start.


    ''And what did they do to you?''


    ''Well, it started when I told Jules that I was gay...''


    ''Oh...!'' exclaimed the teacher with an expression of surprise and confusion - one look he had seen in his mother when he told her the same thing. Not knowing how to react to that news, Miss Beverly nodded and said ''... I-I didn''t know...''


    Zach helped her out of the awkward situation but continuing his story, ''When they found out, they started calling me faggot. I used to put earphones in my ears not to hear them but then they started pushing me—''


    ‘Who started pushing you?''


    ''Keiran, Mike, Tony... pretty much most of the boys...''


    She adjusted her glasses and wrote on the notebook again, highlighting the male names on the list.


    ''After that, they started beating me up in the school toilets or in the yard. Now they say bad things about me online every day.''


    ''That''s crazy...! Do you have any visible injuries from these beatings?''


    ''Yesterday, they punched the back of my head. There was a large cut behind my ear...'' Zach turned his head to show her and the teacher moved the glasses closer to her eyes to see, ''I''m sorry, but I don''t see anything here... when did this happen?''


    Zach touched the back of his head, ''It happened yesterday. There was a lot of blood coming out, I swear.''


    ''It’s fine, I’ve heard enough. Look at me, Zach, we won’t let this slide.''


    She dropped the notebook back in her bag on the floor nearby the chair, ''I''ll take this to the principal right now and we''ll deal with this as soon as tomorrow.''


    Zach’s smiled had never been so wide, ''Will you really?''


    ''Yes, this is extremely serious stuff. It''s unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable.''


    Both her and Zach rose to their feet, he was dancing with excitement, ''C-can I hug you?''


    Miss Beverly smiled, ''Sure you can…’ and almost regret doing so - Zach hugged her so hard, she feared her internal organs would be squeezed out of her body.


    The next day, as they all sat in class waiting for the teacher to come in, Sadie and the others were looking at Zach. This time he didn''t look away like he usually did, he smirked at them, they would soon get what they deserved…


    Miss Beverly walked in, looking with disdain at the bullies Zach had listed to her which consisted in a quarter of the class.


    She dropped her hand bag on the teacher''s desk and pulled out the list of names from it. She looked at it as she listed their names, ''Sadie Jones, Mike Hadley, Gerry Torres...'' when done she concluded in saying, ''You are all required to go to the principal’s office right now.''


    ''Why?''


    ''You''ll find out when you get there...''


    Sadie stared at Zach as she walked out with the others. He smirked at her, justice served... kind of...


    Their parents were called and they were suspended for three days, which were the best Zach had ever had… until they came back: more violent this time and they made sure to do nothing to him within school property, but outside and online, they had no mercy.


    To go back home, Zach could have walked through the short-cut in the nearby forest but usually took the longer route - the other route made him take over an hour to get home compared to the 20 it would have taken him to get home through the forest short-cut.


    He took the longer route because, Sadie and Mike spent almost every afternoon after school there in the forest, kissing and smoking weed behind tree leaves.


    Mike was this 6 foot 3 tower of a teenager who played rugby in the local junior team - a mountain compared to frail Zach with his 5 foot 6 figure.


    Ok, enough with the backstory…


    Zach was wrapping the belt around the ceiling fan, making sure it was tight and wouldn''t break on his own weight.


    Meanwhile, his mom Julia, had parked and was taking out the groceries'' from the car''s trunk.


    She carried two heavy bags towards the door and had to grab the keys to open the door, which revealed to be another mission because the keys were in her handbag, hung on her shoulder - struggles of a single mother...


    Julia dropped one shopping bags and reached in the handbag to find the key and finally open the door.


    ''I''m home!'' She yelled. Zach couldn''t hear Julia from his room upstairs.


    He was just wrapping the belt around his neck, tears rolling down his cheeks - he thought, mom will probably be happier without a dumbass gay kid to take care of.


    With the belt secured, the next step was kicking off the chair. Zach did it, without countdowns or anything, they just make things harder. The chair fell on the floor.


    From the kitchen right under Zach''s room, Julia heard the chair hit the floor.


    ''Zach, what are you doing? I know, it''s late to prepare dinner, we can order some pizza.''


    She heard no response, which worried her, so she went up the stairs, ''Zach, did you ear me?''


    She got to his door, and knocked.


    ''Zach?''


    Julia opened the door...


    A scream erupted out of her as she fell to her knees.


    Mrs Bentley''s hearing was not that great but even she heard the scream from down the road.


    Zach hung from the fan on the ceiling, his body limp, his arms loose, feet pointing towards the floor, lifeless.


    ''What have you done?!'' Julia couldn’t bare to look any longer. She moved away from the door and laid her back on the wall in between the door to Zach''s room and the door to hers. All this she did screaming, in disbelief.


    ''Mom?''


    Julia thought she was having auditory locations, hearing her son''s voice.


    ''Mom, is that you?''


    Grief can make people crazy, Julia knew that well from when she lost Zach''s dad, back then she would have sworn to still feel his touch when she slept in bed.


    ''Mom, can you help me...''


    Julia dared to peek in, to be sure he was... dead?


    Zach held himself with his arms on the ceiling fan, so he wouldn''t fall down and get choked again.


    ''Can you hand me those scissors on the desk...''


    Julia ran to him, with such fury, and looked around his desk, to find scissors. She passed him the scissors, still unable to believe her eyes.


    Cleaning the tears from her eyes, Julia asked, ''Hold on… was that a prank?''


    As he cut the belt''s leather strap, not even Zach understood what was going on.


    He looked at his mom''s face seeing true terror in them and glimpse of hope that was she saw wasn''t real, that it all had to be a prank.


    He nodded, ''... yes...'' and smiled.


    When he came down, Julia slapped behind his head so hard, he could have died again.


    ''You made me...'' she was still cleaning the tears off her face, ''... it doesn''t matter. Don''t make a prank like that on me ever again. It wasn''t funny.'' Julia walked out of the room, looking away from him with that look of terror still on her face.


    As soon as she left the room, Zach looked at the ceiling fan, trying to remember what happened - to him, it all felt like when you wake up after a dream with a vague idea of what you were dreaming about and the more time passes from when you woke up, the less you remember it.


    Julia and him didn''t talk any more than night, she stayed in her room, even when he knocked to ask if she was alright.