I live in a remote location in the outskirts of a forest. Most nights I sleep well as I quite like the silence of the area, but it was different tonight. For some reason I just felt as though something or someone was watching me. A strong feeling in my gut told me that I was in danger, but I just put it off as tiredness and tried to go back to sleep. That was the worst mistake of my life.
It all started when I was at school. Some of my friends had downloaded an app called ‘Lovefinder’. I decided to install it just because my friends had it- I didn’t really want to ‘find love’. Once I installed it an alert popped up on my screen, it said something about safety but I just decided to accept and ignore. I created an account and instantly began matching.
The first few were just obviously bots, saying something like: Free money or free… You know what. So, I skipped them. There were a few that stood out to me though, like Jake from Tennessee or Robert from California, but I noticed these locations weren’t accurate at all, so I searched in settings to see if I could make the locations more accurate.
I eventually found the setting and switched it on, oblivious to what I had just done. There were definitely less bots and I even saw people I knew on there which was funny. But then I saw someone who looked so majestic his eyes seemed to hypnotize me. My hand seemed to match him without a thought in my mind and we instantly began talking.
I felt like there was a real connection between us as I actually found his jokes funny, which is a first to not have to fake laugh at all. His long blonde hair and deep blue eyes seemed to etch itself into my mind. I couldn’t stop thinking about him, he would be stuck in my head all day every day, 24/7.
We arranged to meet up somewhere near my school, he apparently went to a nearby school, but I didn’t know any nearby schools. I didn’t care that his school might not exist, he was such a catch! I even printed out a photo of him and hugged it and slept with it like a toddler slept with a teddy bear. I did notice that his picture was on google… I thought that somebody must have just stolen it from him and uploaded it onto google.
The day before the meet up, Friday, I bought a new white fur coat and some ‘diamond’ earrings to try and make myself feel worthy of him. I even bought some new shoes which cost 2 months’ worth of pay. I finally felt although I was even a little worthy of his love. I was so excited for Saturday I couldn’t sleep so I had to knock myself out to make sure I had no bags under my eyes. I had to look perfect. I had to.
Finally, Saturday! I did my makeup as well as I could, put on my new earrings and shoes- I even put on my mother’s perfume that she wore on her wedding day. I still didn’t look good enough but I rushed out the door as to not be late. When I met up with him, I was filled with love and happiness, all the doubt in my mind was gone- he really did look like that in real life! The connection was still there even in real life. He bought me lunch and we said our goodbyes, but I still felt like I was with him walking home, or more like he was with me.
When I got home, I still thought I was with him, and when that feeling faded, I felt although somebody was watching me. Everything seemed at little off- or at least everybody seemed off. My dad was so much nicer than usual, we connected so much better than usual, same with everybody else- they were all perfect… As I was falling asleep, I noticed that my dad was watching me through my doors window, when I confronted him, he said he was making sure I fell asleep alright. He stayed like that the whole night. When I came back from doing the shopping I put it away in the cupboard, but noticed my mother and father were lying in the cupboard. Lifeless. And yet, there stood my father behind me, asking what I wanted for dinner. I ran into the bathroom and locked myself in. I hear clawing at the door and my father’s voice begging me to come out. Please send help immediately.