C. Alex - The Hidden Webpage

Chapter 1

Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I've been an internet user for twenty years now. That's older than some of my co-workers. It's over half my life. And still the internet feels like "the new thing." I used to take it for granted, like we all do. But at least I remember what it was like when it wasn't there. When you had to leaf through an encyclopedia set to find an answer. When you could only find Gillian Anderson's picture in magazines. Or later, when songs took 30 minutes to download and full-length movies were almost impossible to find, because no-one's hard drive could hold them.

First getting online was super exciting. I mean, the first time I did it without supervision. Because I knew I had anything at my fingertips. I could type it into good ol' Lycos, one of many pre-Google search engines, and there it would be. I was interested in naked celebrities and the paranormal back then. I was only 13, give me a break. I was so interested in the paranormal, I built a Fortunecity free homepage all about the occult and The X-Files. I linked it to the DarkNet webring, where all the best "dark" websites and homepages came together. Pages on spell books, goth babes, the occult, dark art, and a gross-out page or two. It was through the webring that I met Angelica.

Angelica hosted a Wiccan geocities or tripod homepage that I found particularly alluring. No wait, it was Angelfire. She just made the best of some cool animated gifs, midis, and frames—amazing stuff at the time. Just like her, the page was creative and attractive, but also simple. The reason I bring all this up is she suddenly contacted me just a few weeks ago by email asking, "What's been happening?" A catch-up question. We had almost 20 years of catching up to do. And this is pure Angelica: She signed the email with her ICQ contact #. I enjoyed the quaint touch. It'd be like someone in the '90s sending a letter with a wax seal, right?

I replied back with a summary of how my life had gone over the past 18 years or so since I'd last communicated with her. 18 years—makes you think. She shot back a response almost immediately asking for details. We exchanged a few emails this way. I was pretty excited to come home from work and write to her, actually. Nothing romantic. It was just—it was reconnecting with my past. It's a strange but addictive feeling.

Soon I started to notice something just a little off. She never really answered anything about herself. She ignored my suggestions that we text or talk on the phone. All she wanted was to know more about me. It got me wondering. Like maybe she's dying and just doesn't want to say. So I asked her. I asked why she wasn't sharing and if there was something I should know.

I start reading over her previous messages for clues, and I noticed something that didn't occur to me at all until then. Her email address was at globetrotter.net. That may not mean anything to you. But it struck me as strange. You see, Globetrotter was a Canadian ISP way back in the mid-90s. I didn't even realize they still hosted. I know a lot of people still have their old email addresses for sentimental value and all. But it's like she was purposely trying to be old school. Something about it creeped me out. Like she was trying too hard to make me feel nostalgic or something.

Again, I didn't have to wait long for her reply. Oh, she didn't answer my questions. She asked me, "Hey, do you remember The Hole?" I didn't know why then, but the moment I read that sentence, I felt uneasy. Like I was being watched. I had a hazy sense that I'd dreamed about something called 'The Hole' once. Whatever it was, I was instinctively repulsed by it. I couldn't remember anything solid, though. In my head I went over IRC rooms, websites, newsgroups, webrings—all the old internet stuff—and came up empty.

She sent me another email before I could even reply:

"You really don't remember? The Hole was our little secret. Not many knew about it. Even fewer how to find it. But we found it. It was right there all along. Sometimes, when you'd load DarkNet in Netscape, there'd be a tiny black dot in the bottom, left corner, in all this blank space. You had to hover over it exactly and click it. Then you'd be there. You'd be in The Hole. You remember it now, don't you?"