Week 30: Weapons -- Fairbanks

Deadly Secret
By Chloe Fairbanks
Main Street Middle School, Grade 7

Weapons. What comes to your mind when you hear that word? Guns? Spears? Bombs? I’m not surprised. I think of those, too. But what no one ever realizes is that there are other, more subtle weapons. Words, glances, secrets. Secrets that destroy and condemn, secrets that hurt and abuse, secrets like the one I carry.

Suicide, he tells me. Don’t tell anyone, please. And what a secret. I trust you, he tells me. And so my secret becomes a weapon.

To tell or not? To tell, and save the life of one I care about? Or not to tell, to never again see that smile, hear that laugh, talk to that friend. To see his parents, walking through life, shadows of what they were, the empty shells where people once lived.

How can I keep this secret? How can I not? Why is it I who must bear this, this weapon? Why is it so unfair?

I know the answer. Nothing is fair, nothing is ever fair. So, for now, I keep his secret. I will tell them tomorrow.

Note: No, this is not a true story. I do not actually know someone who is thinking about suicide. This is fiction, cross my heart.