EVILUTION

THE TROLL

Tad opened up his laptop and logged onto Twitter the way he did every day in his basement room in his aunt's house.

Tad had 623 followers on Twitter of which he was quite proud of. He was even followed for a time by actress and self-proclaimed "woke" activist Lisa Malone which he was estatic about.

Tad was also a die-hard Twitter troll of which he was also damn proud of.

Tad's username on Twitter was TrollHunter22. He got that name Troll Hunter from his favorite show of all-time South Park, and 22 was his current age.

Tad felt a sense of power from his trolling, a power which he did not possess in his real life.

Tad was obese and, apart from his aunt Cathy and his 623 followers on Twitter, alone.

His aunt Cathy tried to get her nephew to get out of the house every once in a while, but she had no such luck. So she ended up leaving him alone. Alone to his trolling.

Tad had been living with his aunt Cathy ever since he was 12-years-old after his mother Ann died in a car wreck. His father James had taken off when he was only 3 and he hadn't seen or heard from him since. Not that he cared to.

He didn't want or need a father in his life. He had his 623 followers on Twitter who, like him, suffered no real consequences from their trolling regardless of how nasty or vile they got.

Or so he believed.

Tad was getting ready to send a really nasty tweet to someone who dared defend "free speech" by calling them a "racist Nazi" when he heard something-or rather someone-behind him who wasn't his aunt Cathy.

"Knock, knock," a voice behind him said.

He turned around in his chair to find this strange man standing in the doorway of his basement room. He looked angry as he glared at Tad like he had some big score to settle with him or something.

"Who the hell are you?" Tad demanded of the man. "And where's my aunt?"

"Are you the guy who goes by the name TrollHunter22 on Twitter?" the man asked Tad without answering his questions.

"Maybe," Tad snorted. "What's it to you?"

"Do you remember a girl you trolled a few weeks ago by the name of Lucy?" When Tad acted likr he didn't, the stranger continued, "Or have you trolled so many people you can't remember them all?"

When Tad still didn't respond, the stranger added, "Here, let me refresh your memory: You and your little Twitter pals attacked her for wearing an Asian dress to her prom. Do you remember her now?"

Suddenly Tad's face beamed when he remembered who he was talking about. "Oh yeah! I remember her!" He smiled at the stranger and said, "It was a Chinese dress, by the way."

"I don't give a fuck what type of fucking dress it was, asshole!"  Tad stopped smiling when he saw how furious the stranger was at him. Through clenched teetch, the stranger informed him of the following:

"My sister committed suicide a week ago to this day. In her suicide note, she said she couldn't handle all the trolling she got from you  Iand your pals on Twitter after she posted that picture of her wearing that dress."

Tad and the stranger stared at one another for one long tense moment. Then suddenly Tad burst out laughing, which only infuriated the stranger all the more.

"What the fuck are you laughing about, asshole?"

"Is that all?" Tad said in between laughs. "Your sister committed suicide?" He wiped his eyes and looked right at the stranger. "Well, you know what I say to that?" The stranger didn't respond. "I say good!"