Viral Spiral

Long ago, I signed up to an internet community and got dogpiled when one of the community members got his friends to join in when he targeted me. Names and details have been fictionalised for entertainment purposes.

Viral Spiral

In cyberspace, they like nothing better than to hear you scream. People who thrive on conflict and drama lurk in its shadowy corners, waiting to pounce on vulnerable people and play with them until they grow bored and cast them aside like broken toys. Knowing this, Abigail Hampton refused to use her real name on her Chattr account, choosing instead to call herself 'xUserxFriendlyx.' She had always considered herself to be internet savvy, so the avalanche of emails she came home to one day surprised her.

She only had about twenty friends who shared her interest in crochet, knitting and fantasy films. What had prompted all of this? There was only one way to find out.

“You disgust me, xUserxFriendlyx! How could you do such a thing?” ranted one.

“Get off the internet, Bitch!” screamed another.

“You conniving little man-stealing whore!” accused a third.

The others were pretty much the same. Everyone on her friends list had apparently deserted her – the ones who hadn't joined in the accusations had de-friended her.

Abbi's heart thumped and she sat, shocked, staring at the computer, wondering if she had fallen into a parallel world.

When Toby, her fat ginger tomcat, jumped onto her lap, it barely registered. Absently, she ran her hand along his back while he purred, occasionally rubbing his head against her tubby tummy. His attempts to comfort her failed. She burst into tears. Then, when she had composed herself, Abbi methodically cleared out her emails. When she had deleted the last one, another tsunami arrived and swamped her again. She went to her Chattr account and checked her friends page. The third post down revealed the source of the problem.

A few months before, Abbi had met a man in real life and bragged about it on her Chattr account without naming him. Michael was everything she had dreamed of: thoughtful, kind, and not bothered by the fact that, to be honest, she could stand to lose a few pounds. He even got along well with Toby.

Her Chattr friends were quick to congratulate her, particularly Deborah Barker, who went by 'Debbsy1972' there. For weeks, Abbi and Debbsy had exchanged gleeful messages in which they fantasised about the possibility of the budding romance turning into something more meaningful. Somewhere along the line, Abbi had forgotten her own rule about not taking internet relationships too seriously and exchanged personal details with her.

Somehow, Debbsy had become confused and began thinking of Michael as her man. When that started, Abbi became alarmed and stopped responding to her messages. When Debbsy called her, Abbi had her number barred. Now, instead of taking the hint, Debbsy had decided to exact revenge by posting a notice that vilified Abbi, topped by a picture of herself with Michael.

Warning: This woman is a whore. How innocent she looks, cuddled up with my man! I trusted her, and like a fool I exchanged my personal details with her. I let this woman into my life and into my heart. She was my friend, but when she saw I had a man, she got her claws into him and seduced him. She's only interested in other women's men. She sees them as a challenge or something – she's an evil, sick bitch. She has done this before.

Warn the other women here on Chattr: don't trust Abigail Hampton, better known as xUserxFriendlyx. She will pretend to be your friend, then break up your marriage. I'm pregnant, damn it! Copy this post and send it to your friends. Don't let this happen to anyone else. I've been spotting and I might lose the baby. If I do, we all know who to blame.

It just didn't make sense. Abbi's friends all knew what the truth was, so why had they just left    instead of backing her up? They were probably afraid of being targeted themselves. Abbi was on her own with this, it seemed.

Although it was now almost eight o'clock, and her monitor provided the only light, Abbi wasn't hungry. Toby was, though. He jumped down and meowed, twining around her legs until she got up, lurched like a zombie into the kitchen, and opened a tin of cat food for him. While he ate, purring away, Abbi considered what to do. There were a few people who knew about her Chattr account in real life, though she had kept Michael out of the loop, for obvious reasons. Nothing was more likely to send a man running than the thought of his lady planning their wedding when he'd made no commitment. The trouble was, her real name was out there. How long till her number got out there, too? Debbsy knew where she lived – they had arranged to meet up a few weeks before – but in a public place. Abbi hadn't got around to letting Debbsy know her home address, thank goodness. What if someone she knew put the pieces together: Abbi Hampton, Buxton, Derbyshire? Someone had to put a stop to this.   

The first thing she did when she got back to her computer, fortified with a shot of neat vodka, was to contact Chattr administration and tell them about the offensive post.

They advised her to block Debbsy and set her profile to private.

“That's all?” she cried aloud, not caring whether the neighbours could hear her or not. “That's it? My life could be utterly destroyed and that's all they'll do for me? Charming!”

Thoughts of revenge trickled into her mind. Debbsy deserved to be on the receiving end of this, not her. But how? Her inbox kept filling up with hate mail and...

“Oh, yes!” It really would be that easy.

She had Debbsy's email address and other details, didn't she? One bad turn deserved another. Oh, yes! It would serve her bloody well right and her wannabe rival would know – yes, she would know – exactly how it felt to become a pariah living in fear. Not having hacking skills didn't matter – all Abbi had to do was make a few changes to her email account. A grin thinned her lips, clenching her cheeks as she imagined the scene at Debbsy's house. Oh, it would serve her right!

Filled with glee, she went into her email account and set up a filter to send all emails from Chattr to a folder and send them on to Debbsy. Then, suddenly hungry, she went to the freezer, pulled out a shepherd's pie and microwaved it. Vengeance needed a bit of flavour, though. The bottle of red wine she had put aside to share with Michael came out for the occasion. When she had almost finished it, Abbi stumbled back to her computer with the bottle in her hand.

The emails had finally stopped pouring into her inbox. She cleared it again, then went back to Chattr to see what had happened. When she went to Debbsy's page, she saw a new post.

I don't know how she done it, but Abbi has changed her account to my email address. I'm getting all her Chattr messages now. That woman is stalking me! She watches me all the time, looking for ways to hurt me. Somebody stop her! All Chattr will do is tell me to block her and set my account to private. I don't know what to do.

 
The comments she received for making this assertion made Abbi laugh.

“U muppet, you can only use one email address per account, and they won't let u make more than 1,” said one poster.

“I believed you the first time,” said another, “but not any more.”

“Remembr da boy who cryed wolf?” asked a third.

“Don't fall for this muck-spreader's lies!” warned a fourth. “She's trouble.”

Abbi let the sweet taste of vengeance linger for a while, then washed it down with the rest of the    Beaujolais. After that, she cleared out her Chattr account, redirected her emails to a new email address and went to bed, satisfied that justice had been done.

The End.