Hypocritical Bullies

Submitted into Contest #135 in response to: Set your story in a town full of cowards.... view prompt

6 comments

Crime Fantasy Fiction

“Russia invades Ukraine” was splashed all over the internet and dancing on the lips of everyone as Dierdre managed her Saturday. It had been but a couple of days since it had made the news. Everyone had an opinion about it. People were up in arms, the masses were protesting and nations were threatening sanctions.

Dierdre checked her rear-view mirror. As she reversed out of the driveway for the second time that day, the lady that lived across the street from her thrust her a cruel stare and gave her a deliberate evil eye. The rotund creature was wearing her favorite red chequered shirt. Hatred emanated off the vile woman in waves. It made Dierdre want to run her over if only to save the world from that spiritual vibration.

As an empath being bullied continuously by a bunch of bullies compounded the situation. An empath is someone who is able to feel the energy of another person, place, or thing as their own emotions. There were occasions when Dierdre was staring at the stars that she could receive the energy of star signs and planets.

The lady from across the street was just one of the many community stalkers Dierdre contended with. It seemed like there was a never-ending supply of people who went out of their way to call Dierdre names, lie to her about what she did to her face, and make suggestions on what she should do with herself that was not in her best interest. It was all of this that was the reason she was going out again this day.

Dierdre continued on her way to her Buddhist mediation class. It was difficult to deal with so many people who had encroached on her life and stomped on her human rights by hacking into her computer and phone, and trying to interfere with her mind through Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

When she arrived, once again, she realized whoever was organizing this against her had already gotten to both the students and the monk in the class. The students were all wearing the same kind of clothes and performing the same kind of actions that the main bullies (who always remained out of sight) had mobilized the population into acting around her.

She wondered once again about these creeps. Whoever they were they had money and technology to spare. From recent travels, she realized their network was global. Yet she never saw them. They always remained hidden. For such powerful people, they acted like a bunch of cowards. It didn't matter. God saw it all.

Buddhist class finished. Dierdre returned home. She mumbled to herself about the Russia and Ukraine business. She was of two minds. One mind said that it was all fake news, that there was no real war, but players were out there on social media, paid misinformants, to make it seem like there was. The other mind was certain that if it was real, it was merely some well-orchestrated dance on the world stage to entertain the masses. The people who ran the world didn't care about sacrificing people and lives to fulfill their agenda.

On Twitter, she faced an attack of a person who had a go at her, in the way that her stalkers have their chattel do, for having this opinion. Dierdre found it incredible that so many people were alleging to feel angry about the Ukraine and Russia situation, but they had no problem in participating against a person in an oppressive way. Hypocrites, she thought and said so on social media.

If you tolerate or participate in oppression in any way, shape, or form, then you aren't truly against oppression and should keep your integrity. But those who are for oppression and pretend to be against it, well, hypocrites is one category. Liars are also a category for them to be slotted into.

Dierdre felt by this stage that perhaps she was Ukraine and her community stalkers were Russia. This was funny to her because her community stalkers were against Russia, so that meant in her mind that they were against themselves. But the community stalkers only pretend to be against the very things that they participate in.

The only difference between Dierdre and Ukraine was the fact that Ukraine had access to weapons. They were able to mobilize as a group and fight back. Dierdre had no one. She had no friends or family as the group organizing the cruelty and oppression against her had bought them all out.

The difference between Russia and her community stalkers was that they never attacked her head-on. When they attacked, they always did it on the sly, through snide remarks, or throwing rubbish on her rental property. If she had to engage with them for any reason, they would attack through Neuro-Linguistic Programming. They hid behind false names and fake personas. All her community stalkers might feel comfortable bullying her en masse, but the reality is every last one of them was a coward.

It continued to baffle Dierdre, as well, why people had done this against her as she had never done anything to any of these people, or the group that had mobilized them against her. Dierdre knew for certain that a good amount of the things they accused her of were things she had never done. In fact, most of the things they accused her of were things that they themselves were guilty of.

They would call her a snake when it was they themselves who spoke with a forked tongue. She was called a fake, even though she never put on an act or arranged anything in her life to try and convince people she was something that she wasn't. Why would she? She wondered if people ever got tired of keeping up their acts around her. She supposed so because she was being forced to leave her property when she had done nothing wrong. She had been silent all these years of people thieving from her. There were also the vile, stinky, cruel, putrid, hideous, horrible men that had raped and beaten her, damaging both the property and her life. Those same people speaking out against Russia invading Ukraine had no problem in watching the videos of those occurrences and then participating in bullying her.

Evening fell. Dierdre was sick of trying to understand these predators. She was tired. It was time for bed. She was exhausted after having lived another day dealing with liars, hypocrites, and bullies. Tomorrow, she would wake up and deal with the masses of cowards again.

NEVER THE END

February 26, 2022 15:08

You must sign up or log in to submit a comment.

6 comments

McCampbell Molly
15:45 Mar 08, 2022

Lots of emotion in this story.

Reply

Show 0 replies
Michał Przywara
18:48 Mar 06, 2022

Very nice story. It starts off innocuously enough, but progressively builds tension. But it's so delightfully ambiguous. Is Deirdre a victim of organized aggression? Is ahe an unreliable narrator, possibly delusional? Is it some grey middle ground? I like that I can interperet the story multiple ways, but none of the interpretations are absolute. Deirdre says things that seem absurd, but she says them in the same breath as very mundane things. It's hard to tell what's true, but it's clear Dierde is telling us what's true *for her*.

Reply

Minerva Noiropp
07:41 Mar 07, 2022

Deidre is very much a long-term victim of organized aggression. I tend to call the phenomena 'community stalking'. It is a real-life occurrence, yet no one speaks of it. Because of its nature, it is incredibly difficult to prove as even witnesses tend to be on the aggressors' side. The object is to drive the intended victim into acts of violence whether towards themselves or others. The perpetrators want to either land the person in jail, a mental institution or bury them. Which, if you ask me, is where the perpetrators belong, not the victi...

Reply

Show 0 replies
Show 1 reply
07:12 Mar 06, 2022

Very well written story and very timely. I feel sorry for Dierdre as her empathy is being sabotaged and she cannot trust anyone. Her neighbors are rats and they are contemptible people. She has a strong mind and will and must not lose hope. There is so much spin and propaganda these days that you have to be a bit skeptical, but the collateral damage is that you become less empathetic toward your neighbors. You shut down and they try to find more sly ways to find out what you are thinking. Its a vicious cycle of paranoia. Great story! Thank you!

Reply

Show 0 replies
Charlie Murphy
20:16 Mar 05, 2022

I feel for Diedre! It's why I rarely talk about politics over the internet.

Reply

Show 0 replies
Kendall Defoe
18:03 Mar 05, 2022

Not bad. I was wondering if we would get anything timely with this prompt, and you got the mood of the moment just right... Thanks!

Reply

Show 0 replies

Bring your short stories to life

Fuse character, story, and conflict with tools in the Reedsy Book Editor. 100% free.