"Being different, going against the grain of society is the greatest danger you can take".
Elijah Wood
Clifford pressed enter, his blog was finally online, he stood up and admired his job, a long blog about the existence of the Illuminati, a controversial topic to talk about, the amount of feedback he got was astonishing, mostly was negative, most people replied that it was impossible that they were actually there, walking around the world like a normal person, others replied that the Illuminati were obviously aliens explaining why they were not visible at all.
After hours of reading the comments he got tired and fell asleep, when he woke up it was dark, he looked at the clock, 11:59PM, then at the computer screen and saw a big triangle in the middle of it with a caption beneath it, it said: "Sometimes knowing too much is not an advantage". He wasn't scared, he knew that almost everything that was in the Internet was fake, but that minimum probability of veracity flowed through his body in the shape of shivers that ran down his spine. Clifford felt nauseous suddenly, maybe it was the Illuminati using their gamma rays, or it could also be the roasted beans that he ate earlier, but either way, it was a bad thing, he ran into the bathroom and threw up his lunch and his breakfast, it was a thick and red liquid, his first thought was that it was blood, but it could also be the great amount of ketchup that he had put in his beans.
The phone rang, Clifford took a deep breath, stood up with the forces that he still had and answer it.
-Hello?- asked Clifford.
-I've been watching you son, I know what you have been doing and you better...
He threw the phone away and ran to his bedroom hearing the voice saying: "I'll be there soon". Clifford was now terrified, he sat down and grabbed his knees, not knowing what to do. Nausea. He ran as fast as he could and let it all out again.
-Could this be worse!?- he shouted to the roof.
Oh he forgot that those words always make things go worse. Diarrhea, that was what he got for saying those words, the Illuminati were using there beta rays now, or the beans were really expired, he ran to the toilet, he sat on the throne of the release and felt how a lava volcano went down from his stomach to his anus and when he thought it was all over. Vomit. He was trying so hard to find a place where to vomit but he surrendered, it was all over now, they got him, they were victorious, he started crying, desperation overwhelmed Clifford, how could he be so weak. Not that day. He stood up feeling renovated, cleaned his clothes and got ready to go and find his aggressors, he was reaching the doorknob, he felt the cold steel of it, but the phone rang again, it was that voice again.
-I'm getting there soon.
The boy was terrified, he didn't knew what else he could try to get rid of the Illuminati, they were close he already knew it, he gave up, Clifford released the doorknob as he sat against the door, it was the end, the voice would be there soon and will probably torture him or maybe even kill him. Maybe it was the better way to solve all that problem, giving up, believing that all what he had researched was fake and that the Illuminati were nothing more than a simple urban legend. That was it. All the problems he had were only for his beliefs, the media made him that way, had given him shape, his brain was put into a virtual machine which replaced his thoughts for the ones that the media wanted to give him, every news that he had read, every comment he emited were part of the big plan of the society itself, but how is the leader of the society? Not the president of any country, not the heads of any religion, it was them, the Illuminati. That was the answer to everything, the Illuminati wanted to make people believe they weren't real. Every word used, every image, everything was biased, only to hide their existence, it was intelligent but not enough for him.
Clifford got up and went to his computer and started to write a short critique about media, about how everything was trying to make him believe things, but he knew that he was right, the Illuminati were real, he said that no trolls were accepted in the truth, nor noobs or even Russian CS:GO players. He replied every comment that he could, so many comments to reply. Knock knock. He was there, the mysterious man was already there. Th boy knew that he had to open the door, he went slowly, sweating, nervous and scared, he opened the door as fast as possible ready to punch the man, but he was surprised when at the door his dad was waiting.
-Hey- his dad said- the phone was broken, it distorted the voice of the people speaking, I really hope that you didn't confuse me for someone else, also, the fried beans that we ate were way to expired, like 2 years ago. There's a weird smell inside the house, don't you smell it?
2 months without computer was his punishment for all the mess that he had done, his parents told him that he needed to stop believing in stupid things such as Illuminati, but he knew that they were real, every clue that they gave him, everything they tried to showed them, but he was tired and he didn't want any more problems, so Clifford jumped to his bed and felt quickly asleep as the sound of his father blaming the internet calmed him.
Internet is always a way to communicate and people always tend to believe everything that the media tells us, this is the problem that I addressed through a short story, based on the idea of how posting something in the internet gives a hint of existence of a person, and how the media can make people think the way they want, I tried to use informal language in the conversations between characters, formal language in narration parts and special ideas, like the Illuminati, to address teenagers like me and people who just want to read a story and media. I also used a lot of humour, that was used during almost the whole story, making Clifford think that he was followed by the chiefs of the world, The Illuminati, so people can feel a little more comfortable with the text. I tried to make people aware of what bias is and what is going on in the world with the media, trying to make us think the way they want to and making people ignorant and how the media can also make people being paranoid. We have studied this problems of the media since the beginning of classes and we have being debating about this topic, we've been analysing news, searching for the bias.
