Nikki’s 2001 Neon skidded past a stop sign to a halt on the chilled blacktop.

“You’ve gotta calm down,” Phil said, gripping the arm rest to his left and the handle above the passenger side window to his right.

Nikki checked herself from cursing as the “f” sound left her lips. Then she paused, closed her eyes and calmly said, “This has been a bad day, and all signs point to it getting worse.”

“I understand,” Phil said. “But getting jackknifed at an intersection won’t help.”

Nikki tried to compose herself as the “f” sound escaped again.

“I don’t want to piss you off and judge your driving skills, but we can’t panic,” Phil said. “Plus, you need to update me on what we’re panicking about.”

The car pulled forward past the intersection onto Sheffield Street. Nikki still was feigning patience.

“Some guy ripped off my friend’s face and threw it out a window,” she said. “He posts it on Facebook. I believe he intends to kill more people. Feel like panicking yet?”

“Okay, I understand,” Phil said. “What happened to Sarah was awful, and it truly disturbed me, of course. But why do you think this is a serial killer.”

“Get your phone and go to Facebook,” Nikki instructed.

She watched as Phil retrieved his iPhone from his pocket. He tapped the Facebook icon, and as he waited for the application to load, his eyes returned to the road. Nikki, though, was looking at the iPhone.

“Shit!” Phil screamed.

Continue Reading

Henry “Fritz” Foster hit “publish,” and the latest entry to his blog appeared live on the Web.

“This is the World Wide Web We Live in Now,” was the title, and below it was the picture of Sarah Riley’s severed face, a photo that was now appearing on blogs all over the Internet.

The world always has had sick people, and now they’re on Facebook. Because that’s where everyone else is. They are the hunters and we are the prey. What better trap than Facebook?

A lunatic found Sarah Riley on Facebook. He took pictures of her before she died and posted them on Facebook. Then he did the same after she died. Now that picture is all over the Internet, and now, like we have with so many sickos in the world, we’ve made this guy or woman a star …. using Facebook.

A few months ago, I gave in and opened a Facebook account. It was a mistake. I value my life. Today, I’m going to cancel that account and return to the real world. Where we interact with real people.

After he proof-read the entry at the top of his homepage, Fritz navigated to Facebook to check the account one last time.

Fritz noticed he had been tagged in a photo, something that rarely happened because people rarely took pictures of him. He clicked on the photo for a clearer look.

The photo was dark, because even in the middle of the day, little daylight entered Fritz’s basement. In it, Fritz was sitting at his computer, typing a blog entry. The angle was from behind, and it had been posted less than a minute ago.

“Crap,” he muttered to himself. Then, without turning, he said more loudly, “Hello?”

“You’ve been tagged,” said a man’s voice.

Continue Reading

The shipment of “New Moon” gummy fangs had arrived.

“I bet they’re good,” Jason said, organizing the flavors in the small section of candies at Hot Topic.

“It’s a ‘New Moon’ thing, so it automatically sucks,” Phil said.

The mall hadn’t opened yet, and the gate was still down.

“Gummies are gummies,” Jason said. “Gummies are good.”

“So gummies don’t vary?” Phil asked.

“Do horses vary all that much?” Jason said. “Gummies come from horses, so gummies are pretty much the same.”

“I think both of your points are wrong,” Phil said.

“Look it up,” Jason said. “The main gummy ingredients come from horse feet.”

“You’re gonna be sorry,” Phil said, pulling an iPhone from his pocket. “And, by the way, there are lots of different kinds of horses. I’ll look that up, too.”

“Fine,” Jason said, crossing his arms and smiling. “Look it up on Wikipedia.”

“I bet I can find better sources on the World Wide Web,” Phil laughed, tapping the screen.

Then realization overcame Jason.

“Dude!” he yelled. It echoed out through the mostly empty mall.

Phil looked up from the iPhone. “What the hell?”

“You gotta go to the Facebook!” Jason said. “I bet it’s still up. It’s flippin’ disgusting.”

Continue Reading

Updates streamed in beneath the screensaver.

“Beth Kriser is going to a movie.”

“John took the Why Do You Hate Iran? quiz and the result is Religious Intolerance.”

“Kevin Lobe is listening to the Statler Brothers and wondering why the Beatles got all the glory.”

“Ashton Bellamy is working, blah.”

“Cynthia Cabel is WTF! Soooooooo mad at CW bc Gossip Girl was souposed to be new 2nite and its a repeat and im sooooo pizzed! Txt me!”

One end of a USB cord was plugged in to the computer’s keyboard. The other dangled freely from the desktop.

The bedroom was dark, expect for flashes coming from the screensaver – stars exploding and moving back and forth across the screen.

The house was dark, too, until the front door opened and shut, and as Sarah’s steps moved quickly from the corridor and up the steps, the lights clicked on and followed her, the last illuminating the bedroom as she kicked off her Uggs, bumped the mouse to reveal Facebook on-screen and plugged in her tiny camera.

Continue Reading