One of Us Is Next opens as Liz Rosen of Channel Seven News reports live from Bayview High, where students are dealing with the loss of a classmate. It is the second teenage death in the past 18 months. The camera cuts to two girls; one is crying, and one is not. The crying girl says Bayview feels cursed. She compares the death to Simon Kelleher’s death, a Bayview student who framed four students for his suicide. The other girl retorts that the two deaths are nothing alike.

After the news report, the narrative cuts to 10 weeks earlier, where users Bayview2020 and Darkestmind communicate on a Reddit subforum called Vengeance Is Mine. Darkestmind asks what Bayview2020 wants, since this forum is dedicated to revenge. Bayview2020 reveals that someone ruined their life and the lives of others, yet went unpunished. Darkestmind can relate to their experience, stating that it’s hard when “the person who ruined your life gets to walk around like always. As if what they did doesn’t matter” (11). However, Darkestmind disagrees with Bayview2020’s conclusion that nothing can be done.