Network

Elisabeth sat on her bed like she did every night. Her walls were covered in books that she was able to get by hacking her mothers credit card to purchase them. They were her escape from the place she was being held captive. This wasn't how she thought her life should have gone. Most the stories she read told her that kids her age knew one a hell of a lot more than she did and two did a hell of a lot more than she did. Her parents didn't even teach her things like what a period was or what things like hormones were. She did all the figuring out on her own. She taught herself to read and write and that's how she was able to line her walls with books. Not that her parents were ever home to really notice her.

Her mother was a doctor and her father was a high powered lawyer. So she didn't get to leave the house or do anything fun in that regard. She didn't play outside with other kids growing up and she surely didn't attend any school. Her parents said they had all the money in the world, why would she need an education? She didn't question it, nor did she feel the need to have human interaction. Her world was in her books and in the beautiful world she created on the internet.

Sighing, Elisabeth rolled onto her side and looked over to her desktop. It was calling her, begging her to go to it, but today she didn't feel like moving. She had what online therapists would call "Clinical Depression", they tried to get her help, but she would delete her IP address from their systems and wipe any information about her from them away. She didn't need help, she just wanted to know why she was feeling the way she did. She researched all the ways to help herself without medications and for the most part she thought she was doing well, but now was the hard part. She had to take it to the next level.

A support system. She didn't know what the hell that was going to do for her, but she knew she needed to try it. Gently pushing herself up off her bed, Elisabeth dragged herself to her computer desk. Her eyes scanning over the website she'd had pulled up from the night before. She'd tried to do this a million times over the past few years, but who would want to talk to a girl that didn't know anything other than the information she found herself.

Sign up! The sound of her mouse clicking made her wince. She took a deep breath and gently hit the "E" key. Elisabeth first name was done, she could get through this information, Calvin, now her last name was in. Username was the harder part, "What the hell am I going to put? Lonely_18_never_had_a_friend? No. Ugh." She scanned her room and sighed. Her eyes landed on a poem she writes after listening to a Lost boy by Ruth B, and then her fingers started typing. Lostgirl18, her fingers continued filling in her email, birthday, and gender. Then almost like signing away her life, she clicked the signup button one more time.

She filled out her bio and added a photo of her with her after she'd done make up for the first time, but it wasn't filling the emptiness inside of her. She waited for the first message to pop up, but nothing happened. Growling she slammed her fists down on her desk as she stood up. "What am I not even good enough for strangers to talk to me?!" She screamed before storming down the hallway towards the stairs. She walked towards her kitchen and started preparing breakfast. Her mind still reeling from what she'd just done.

With her cereal bowl in hand and a cup of coffee in the other, she walked back towards her room. "What the hell Elisa, it's not like they were all just waiting for you to join. You have to give it time." She sighed and sat down with her bowl of cereal. Munching on Captain Crunch, she read over her profile. It seemed okay, not too plain, but also not her spilling her guts out. Just as she was about to close out the screen, a little "4" popped up over the messages. She blinked a few times and clicked the link to go to the messages.

The first message was from a boy in Spain. "Hello, my name is Josh, I was born in America, but my mother and father decided they wanted to spend the rest of their life in Spain. So I grew up here. I'd really like to get to know a foxy lady like you." She rolled her eyes and hit delete.

The next boy is from Toronto Canada. His didn't have a name, just a username: Playa97. She didn't even read the message. With a username like that she didn't want to know what slander could be in the message.

Boy three said he was from Italy, his username made her smile, peterpan101: "Hello Bellissimo, I hope you are having a good day. I would like to get to know you more. Si prega di splendida?" She blinked and quickly typed back a response. " What does any of those words mean? I don't know Italian." She admitted and went down to the next one.

His didn't have a name or an actual picture, but it did say he lived in Ohio which is where she lived. his username was, justice_is_punishment. Her finger hovered over the view button, it actually slightly terrified her, but what danger could he posses if he didn't know where she was? "Hello lost girl, funny, you don't know how lost you really are. I am here to help you, if you want truths respond."

Her heart was pounding. What did he mean by "you don't know how lost you really are"? Who was he and what did he mean by truths?