It was January 6th, 2021. He was scrolling through past messages in his favorite community, Atere Worshippers, when ping! a notification appeared. Pleased, he went to the new message. One of his close friends, Alno, typed:
I think we should remove the venting chat.
Eli's heart began to race as he tried to type out a coherent response.
Why? It's helped so many people.
Alno replied, quick as ever.
There are sus vents. Remember the vents about wanting to murder others and being followed by a shadow?
Eli furrowed his brow in confusion. Sure, he thought, some people lie when venting but that doesn't mean all vents are bad.
So are we going to take away everyone's ability to vent because some people lie? Isn't that unfair to others?
No. There are other issues too.
Such as?
Vents have been causing a lot of drama lately, and there's stress on the people who respond to vents.
Can you give me examples of drama, besides the weird shadow chasing vent? I haven't seen any.
That's because it's all in direct message chains.
So … can you DM me some examples?
There was a pause before Alno started to type again.
… it's between you and Atere.
Sure.
Eli was not given any further information about the supposed drama, but Atere stepped in to agree with Alno.
Eli, vents are causing stress on everyone. Getting rid of the venting chat is for the better.
Even Atere agrees with this? Eli thought in despair. His brain felt as if it was going 100 miles per minute.
But what about the people who have nowhere else to go?
Alno's next message was as predictable as ever. Eli dreaded reading it.
We can direct them to hotlines. Eli, you're a sixteen year old boy. This isn't good for you.
For the record, Eli was not sixteen.
I know from personal experience that hotlines don't fucking work. All they ask you is if you have any history of depression, direct you to useless apps, and make you feel even worse.
The arguing seemed to go on and on. Messages from his friends blended together until he couldn't tell which was from whom. All he knew was that he couldn't win.
Eli, stop this. I'm not allowing you to …
… my friend, not my employee …
… should calm down, we can continue this … time
You can't … stress … more trouble than they're worth …
It was as if he was in a drunken haze. Everything blurred together until he read Atere's last message:
I spend all my time trying to please you, but that leaves me no energy for myself.
In the process of fighting for his safe place, he had altered his relationship with his best friend, and there was nothing he could do to take it back.