You never felt the need to listen to those corny internet safety PSAs. Everything felt more or less straightforward: don't talk to creeps, don't give out personal information, don't do anything stupid. You were convinced that as long as you kept a l...
9:00am is morning for most people. They wake up, eat breakfast and then go about their daily business. But for an internet addict like yourself, this hour was a good as midnight. As rays of sun peaked through your bedroom blinds and gently cascaded across your face, all you could do was grimace and pull away like a vampire rejecting the daylight. You had been slumped over your desk for several hours now, an unproductive lump too tired to relocate to your much comfier bed. You knew damn well that sleeping in such an awkward position would do no favours to your already-bad posture, but your body refused every urge to move.
You remained pathetically lifeless until a familiar whimsical chime quietly emitted through your PC speakers.
Pling!
In an instant, you violently sat up, your body responding to the noise before your mind could even comprehend it. It was a sound you knew all too well, something you had unintentionally pavlov dog'd yourself into reacting to.
"Wha... what? What's happening?" You mumbled in slurred speech, still half asleep.
You wiped away the shameful trickle of drool hanging from your lower lip and settled your hazy eyes on the brightly lit message across the computer screen. It took a while for your eyes to adjust to the harsh blue light, but then it revealed itself.
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A friend request. Your mouse instinctively hovered over the "accept" button... before hesitating. You were no stranger to adding randoms online. It was part of the fun after all. But most of the time the people you added were users you had interacted with before in forums, communities, servers and games. This user, on the other hand, didn't seem familiar. You sat swivelling in your desk chair for a moment as your mind compiled a mental list of all the recent users you had spoken to.
The name "Kitty" had never appeared.
"Oh well. Whatever. It's not that deep." you uttered nonchalantly, as you clicked the accept request button and leaned back in your chair like a proud CEO who had just signed an amazing deal. "Ow ow ow. My back is killing me. This is what I get for sleeping like a shrimp. I should do some stretches."
You rose from your chair and began poorly attempting a series of stretches you recalled doing in high school. It was evident that you were not practiced as you stumbled and failed to catch your balance repeatedly. Your PE teacher would be disappointed in you.
Pling!
The notification sound rang out again as you hopped around on one leg (trying to perform a stretch way beyond your physical limitations). Bad timing. As you became distracted by the upbeat tone coming from your computer, the leg you had pulled up into the air cramped and you came crashing down to floor, yelping and cursing in agony. You lay there for a few moments, incapacitated and groaning like that one family guy gag. The notification sounded again - someone was eager to get your attention.
"Urgh... what is it?"
You dragged yourself back to the chair and opened up your messenger.
