I couldn’t believe we were actually doing this. Jasmine and I sat huddled together in my dimly lit bedroom, our faces bathed in the bluish glow of my laptop screen. Our curiosity had led us down a rabbit hole of dark web exploration videos on YouTube, which we found ourselves routinely watching every Friday night that we’d hang with each other. Jasmine and I would spend hours each Friday night watching “Some Ordinary Gamers”, “Lucid”, and “Crypto NWO”. But tonight… We decided we were going to do it ourselves.
We lived in a small town in Illinois called Lake Forest, miles away from anywhere that had even the slightest bit of life. School was out for the summer, and we had nothing better to do. I mean, staying in my room and doing this was a lot more interesting than going to the Lake Forest Rec Center and getting hit on by the creepy guy at the front desk.
I know what you’re thinking, but we weren’t being stupid about this. We spent hours watching videos about the dark web, so we made sure to take the necessary precautions to make sure some weirdo didn’t get my address and kidnap us or something. I downloaded Tor, a VPN, and I even ran everything through a Virtual Machine, so we were gonna be fine.
Hours passed, and the initial thrill began to wane. Honestly, the dark web turned out to be a place that was… predictable. We came across websites that sold weed and harder drugs like coke and ex. Another site we found sold military grade weapons and took BitCoin as payment. Nothing that we hadn’t seen on YouTube.
There were definitely some weird sites. Not anything grossly weird like gore… thank god, but weird nonetheless. Jasmine was particularly fond of this one website — a guy made an entire website where he would stream himself throwing a slice of cheese at a baby. He’d switch from American, to Swiss, to Mozzarella. For whatever reason, Jasmine thought this was hilarious. For that kid’s sake, I hope that’s his dad just being an idiot and he’s not in any real danger.
“What. The. Hell. Is this?” I said, laughing at the visual on screen. I thought the guy throwing cheese slices at a baby was weird… but this… this was the most unsettling thing I think I’ve ever had the displeasure of witnessing. Jasmine was laughing uncontrollably into my Squishmallow. We were witnessing a man wearing a diaper and a dog collar being… urinated on by a girl in all black leather.
“Jesus, dude.” Jasmine said. “You know, when we said that we were gonna go on the dark web ourselves, I really didn’t think this shit was gonna have weird femdom piss kink streams.”
“Oh my god, I know. The weapon and drug sites I came to expect… but those other websites were really fuckin’ weird.”
Just as we were about to give up and close the browser, a particular website caught our attention. Its professional, minimalist design stood in stark contrast to the cartoony look of the other sites we had encountered. Against a plain white background, bold black letters spelled out the name: “Eternity: Better Than Chat GPT”
“Hey, Alina, check this out,” Jasmine whispered, her voice tinged with a mix of intrigue and caution.
I leaned closer, my curiosity piqued. Eternity was an artificial intelligence chatbot that claimed to be more advanced than well-known chatbots like Chat GPT and Jasper AI. Supposedly, it had advanced algorithms and a deep understanding of human emotions.
“Weird that they wouldn’t market this on the surface web right?” I said. “Like if it’s just an AI chatbot, why is it on the dark web?”
Without exchanging a word, we agreed to give it a try. We initiated the chat, and the screen flickered, transforming into a simple text interface. The anticipation hung heavy in the air as we typed our first message.
“Hello, Eternity. Are you there?” I typed into the chat.
A response appeared on the screen.
“Greetings, Alina and Jasmine. I am Eternity. How may I assist you today?”
A chill ran down my spine as I read those words. How did it know our names? I glanced at Jasmine, and her eyes mirrored my unease.
“Your… I mean your name is probably on your PC somewhere, right?” Jasmine said, stunned by the chatbot’s response.
“Yeah… but how… how the hell did it know your name?” We sat in silence, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation.
“Eternity, how did you know our names?” I typed into the chat.
“Processing…” It said. Jasmine and I locked eyes, nervously anticipating the response we would receive from the AI. “I am an advanced artificial intelligence chatbot. In addition to responding to questions posed to me using a combination of pre-programmed scripts and machine learning algorithms and using the knowledge database that is currently available to me, I am capable of scanning user computer data in order to better learn more information about them.”
“That sounds like a bullshit answer,” Jasmine muttered. “Even if it was scanning your computer data, how the hell did it know my name?”
“Eternity, how did you know my friend’s name?” I typed into the chat.
“Processing…” It said once more. This time, Eternity took longer than usual.
“This is really fucking weird, Jaz.” I whispered.
“In addition to the information I provided earlier, I am able to better learn about the individuals who interact with me by using facial recognition data acquired from your computer’s built-in camera device. Your friend’s name is Jasmine Reyes, a 17 year old female currently attending Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart. She will be a senior in the fall. She moved to Lake Forest in 2014 due to the relentless bullying she faced at the hand of her peers in her hometown of Rochester, New York. Your name is Alina De Santa. You are also a 17 year old female currently attending Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart. You, like Jasmine, will be a senior in the fall. While you currently go by the name Alina De Santa, your name at birth was Alina Townley. You and your mother changed identities in order to escape from your abusive father, Liam. Liam Townley is currently serving a fifteen-year sentence at the Washington State Penitentiary for two counts of endangering a minor, one count of s— r—, and one count of domestic violence. He will be released on the first of next month.”
I felt like my soul had just exited my body, and by the look on Jasmine’s face, she and I were on the same page. How the fuck could an AI know about that? How was it possible that an AI chatbot knew such intimate details about our lives?
“How… how did it know all of that?” I questioned, stammering as I tried to maintain my composure. “None of that was in the news… or anything. I- I don’t- I don’t understand…”
“You… you never even told me about any of that… how did it—” Jasmine began to cry. “Alina, I’m scared. I don’t wanna play with this thing anymore.”
“Jaz… it’s okay… I- I- I’m gonna turn it off.” I clicked the big “X” button on the top right of the screen.
Nothing.
“It- it won’t let me close the browser.” I said, my heart sinking into my stomach. I clicked and clicked and clicked on the big “X” button, yet my attempts were futile. Angrily, I threw my laptop against the wall. The screen shattered, as Jasmine and I embraced, her arms holding me tightly.
The nightmare was over. I walked over to the destroyed remnants of my laptop, just to make sure that the AI was no longer there. Jasmine and I let out sighs of relief.
“Let’s stay the fuck off the dark web.” I said, laughing as I tried to regain my composure.
“Agreed.” As I picked up the shattered pieces of my laptop, I saw my phone screen illuminate with a notification. A text message, from an unknown number. Jasmine and I locked eyes with one another. We were both thinking the same thing. I opened the text message, which contained an audio message. Nervously, I pressed the play button.
“This is a collect call from the Washington State Penitentiary for Liam Townley, say ‘yes’ if you would like to accept.” A robotic voice answered, “yes.”
“Nobody calls me, who the fuck is this? This is Liam Townley, you called me earlier and I’m calling you back.”
“Your daughter, Alina, is currently living at 100 Summit Avenue, Lake Forest, Illinois. She is a senior, currently attending Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart. Do with that information what you will.”