Dark Web Story by privatearm
I had just started a summer job where I was basically a custodian cleaning classrooms in preparation for the upcoming school year. My dad worked for the town’s district so he was able to get me this job.
I was the youngest one there as I’m only 20 and there were a handful of people who worked with me. They were usually off doing other tasks like waxing the floors or covering up foul writing on the walls with paint. The schools were completely empty besides the staff who was cleaning.
Things were going fine my first couple of weeks. For the most part, I was on my own wiping down desks and dusting while listening to music. It was nice and I enjoyed not having someone on my ass all day telling me what to do.
After I had finished cleaning the middle school, the head custodian had sent another woman (we’ll call her Karen), who was my coworker, to go start cleaning the high school. She was a slacker who’d often go out to smoke cigarettes but was a really nice lady. She didn’t really care what I did and always was off doing whatever she wanted. So yeah, basically I was alone. Again, I didn’t mind because I liked the freedom but I was taking up the bulk of the work.
A few days had gone by and I finished cleaning a couple of hallways. It was time to move to the basement where the robotics and woodworking classes were. I didn’t think anything of it until I got down there. I noticed light was peeking through under the doorway of the classroom. The windows of the class were covered with shades. I found this really odd since it was summer and no one was in the building besides Karen and me. I walked over and peeked in the door window. The lamp was on at the desk but no one was inside. I proceeded to knock. No answer. After turning the knob, I realized the door was locked so i used my key to open the door. A musty smell flooded my nose. I decided to scope out the room. Maybe someone had forgotten to turn the lamp off. I disregarded that idea when I noticed the computer at the teacher’s desk was on. The screen looked weird… I’d never seen this layout before. The website was all black with red writing on it, it also had a chatbox. I didn’t have time to read the chat because a sudden voice came from the doorway.
“Can I help you?”
It was a man, maybe in his early 40s, about 6 feet.
“Oh! Uh, sorry! I’m just cleaning the classrooms and I didn’t know if anyone was in here.” I said in an embarrassed tone.
“Ah, so I see. Well, I appreciate that but don’t worry about it in here. I’m uh,… working on a few things so sawdust is gonna get everywhere again after you clean anyways.” He said this in a very strange way. Like he was hiding something. He walked over and sat at his desk while closing the browser.
“Okay, no problem” I then proceeded to the door.
“Wait, could I ask you a favor?” He said in a delirious way.
“Uh.. yeah, sure” I didn’t really know what he was about to ask and I couldn’t find myself to say no. I just wanted to get out of there as I was already creeped out.
“I have this uh… petition. It’s to get more funding… for the extracurricular classes. Like art and… woodworking.” He sounded so uncertain as if he made that up out of thin air.
“… sure” I paused for a moment when he handed me the paper. It only had two other names on it. The petition required a full name, phone number, email, and address. I immediately felt uncomfortable but I didn’t know how to decline, so I just added my information.
“Thank you so much, dear. You have a beautiful bone structure by the way” he said in such a creepy way.
“Ha, thanks” I grabbed my cleaning supplies and speeded out of there.
After that experience, I didn’t really put much thought into it. Yes, he was creepy, but I didn’t really have much evidence to persuade myself that he was out to get me or something… until I started running into him throughout the school. It became pretty frequent. It’s as though he was watching me. Now I was concerned. I dismissed it because he’d just smile at me or wave if I saw him. Maybe I was overreacting… I mean he was a teacher there after all. Still, my gut feeling was telling me something wasn’t right.
Weeks went on and I started to notice him less and less. I only had a few more weeks at this job and then back to college I go. One day, the boss let everyone out early since it was almost 100 degrees. I got home and decided to hang out with some friends. It was a group of us, about 5 or 6. My boyfriend’s brother joined us this time which was unusual since he’s not really a social person. He is really into technology so he’s always on his computer which he built himself. He’s also good at hacking and stuff like that. Anyways… that day he told me he needed to talk to me and it was serious. I was conceded because we weren’t close so it must have been legit. He brought me into my friend’s living room and pulled out his laptop. To my surprise, he was on the deep web.
“So… you are up for bid on the deep web.” He hesitated.
“Wait… what??” I knew how the deep web worked, I would often listen to horror stories but I’d never been on it so how would my info even be out there!? It suddenly clicked… the webpage matched the one I saw in the classroom a month back. I had also given my info to that guy… my heart felt like it dropped to my stomach. I explained this to my boyfriend’s brother. He advised me to call the police immediately which is what we did. They did an investigation on the teacher and found the activity on his computer. Not only that but he had several girls’ information along with pictures. Some of the girls were minors too. There were also wooden contraptions they found in his home which he probably made in the shop. He probably planned to use them on these girls… or me.
I was disgusted…but relieved that he was caught. I often wonder what would have happened if the page was never discovered. Would he have kidnapped me and killed me online for these sick people?? I don’t know and I don’t want to know. I changed my number and moved since the incident. This just goes to show you can never give out your personal information.
