I Found a Hidden Folder on My Girlfriend's Laptop

**** It started with a text. I was at work when my girlfriend of three months texted to say she'd found a spot on a nearby beach where she could skinnydip without being seen. The message was simple. "I'm going skinnydipping. See you at 8?" I was surprised to say the least. My girlfriend was a beautiful, confident woman but also painfully shy. The text was completely out of character for her. "Are you okay?" I texted back. "You're not usually into that kind of thing." There was a delay of a few minutes before she responded, which only added to my confusion. "I know," she wrote. "I've changed a lot since I met you." "You haven't known me that long," I pointed out. "Well, whatever. Meet at mine at 8." The messages continued to flow but I couldn't seem to get a better read on her from them. I was relieved when the working day was over and I could go and check on her. Her apartment was a twenty minute walk from mine. It was a beautiful day for walking, with just enough breeze to keep the heat bearable, and I made my way there lost in thought. "You haven't known me that long." Her words echoed in my mind as I walked. How wrong they were. I'd known her my entire life. We'd grown up together. We were childhood sweethearts. Why would she say something like that? It didn't make sense. Unless...unless this *wasn't* her. Unless something had happened to her. The thought sent a chill through me. It had been three months since something monstrous had taken her. Three months since I'd found her changed. Three months since...since the thing in her head had started talking to me. The thought of it made my skin crawl. Of course it did. If you knew what I knew, you'd be terrified too. The truth is horrifying. In fact, it's worse than that. Ignore the politicians and the priests and the scientists. They don't know any more than you do. The simple facts of this world are this: 1: a small minority of people possess a soul 2: the soul is the thing that makes us human: personality, empathy, self-awareness, free will; all these things and more 3: not having a soul doesn't stop a person from mimicking all of the above 4: at least 50% of the global population are soulless 5: the soul is not a fixed entity. It can be transferred from one body to another, and can even exist temporarily outside of a body 6: a small minority of people are capable of manipulating the soul 7: the soul is the only part of a human being that is immortal 8: we have no way of knowing whether there is an afterlife, but the soul is capable of continued consciousness outside of the body There. That's it. Now you know as much as I do. Now you know why I fear the thing in my girlfriend's head. Why I fear her. I'd always known about the facts of the world. I was one of the minority who could manipulate the soul. My gift made me a target from a young age but I had always managed to keep myself safe. Until three months ago. Until the imposter had taken my girlfriend's soul for itself and her body for its own. Of course it was an imposter. The real her was better than this. Better than trying to convince strangers to kill themselves, better than trying to tear my life apart out of spite. I'd lived through three months of hell with the thing. Three months of it trying to ruin my life, to turn me against my own kind. I'd had enough now. I had a message for it, and that message was simple: it was time to die. "You haven't known me that long." I wracked my brain for an explanation of her words but it was no use. I had none. All I could think of was the imposter and its mind games, of how it must have written that text. "You haven't known me that long." I was fuming by the time I reached my girlfriend's apartment. How dare it. How *dare* it. I blew my top as soon as I was inside, screaming at the top of my lungs at the monster that had taken my girlfriend's place. "You're not her!" I shouted, tears of anger streaming down my face. "You'll never be her! And soon you're going to be nothing!" There was no response. My girlfriend was gone. I searched the apartment for her but she was nowhere to be found. I was confused and worried and for a moment I forgot that I hated her. For a moment, I feared for her safety. Then it hit me. The beach. She'd said she was going to the beach, and I'd forgotten all about it. Excitement and nervousness took over as I rushed to the beach. I didn't have to look far. My girlfriend was a short walk from the nearest carpark, and was exactly where she said she would be. I spotted her immediately when I rounded a bush, and my jaw dropped as I took in the sight before me. It was a beautiful day. The sea was a brilliant blue and the sun was setting over it, casting a golden glow over the shore. The sky was dotted with a few wispy clouds that only served to enhance the beauty of the scene. If I'd been in a better mood, I might have been able to appreciate it. My girlfriend didn't seem to be in any better of a mood than I was. She sat on the sand, huddled over and hiding her face in her knees. I didn't need to see her face to know that she was crying. "She's not my girlfriend," I reminded myself, trying to harden myself to the sight. "She's not my girlfriend." "She's not my girlfriend," I said out loud. It did no good. I was already running towards her, already falling to my knees in the sand. "What's wrong?" I asked, taking her gently in my arms. "What is it?" Eventually she managed to compose herself enough to look up at me and to tell me what was wrong. "I've got something important to tell you," she said slowly. "Something I've needed to tell you for a while now." I tried to interrupt but she talked over me. "I'm going to show you something now," she said. "Something you need to see." "What is it?" I asked, surprised when she smiled. "You'll see." I did. She stood up, and I watched in shock as she stripped off every item of clothing she was wearing and walked into the sea. "You can get in too," she called over her shoulder once she was waist deep in the water. I was frozen to the spot, unsure of what to do, but the way she was smiling at me soon changed that. In less than a minute I was naked and in the sea with her, holding her in my arms as the sun dipped below the horizon. "You're so beautiful," I said, stroking her hair. "You're beautiful too," she replied, smiling up at me. It was then that I kissed her. Trying to savour the moment, trying to cherish the brief time we had together. We'd always loved each other. We'd always known it. After all, how could you not love someone you'd known your entire life? "I love you," I said, breaking off from the kiss. "I know," she said, smiling. "I've always loved you," I went on. "I know," she said again. Trying to hide something. "What?" I asked, sensing that there was something she wasn't telling me. "What do you mean?" she asked, still smiling. "There's something you're not telling me," I pointed out. "What is it?" "I know you've always loved me," she said slowly, a smile still on her face. "But I've always known that you've loved me." "You haven't known me that long," I quoted, my mind made up. "I've known you your entire life," she said softly. "And I've always known that you've loved me." "What?" I asked, stunned. "How can you have known me longer than I've known myself?" "I think it's time you saw for yourself," she said softly. I nodded. I didn't know what she meant, or where she was going to take me. I didn't care. She took my hand in hers and I would have followed her anywhere. I *would* have followed her anywhere. Looking back, it's clear to me what she was doing. She was taking me to my death. She'd been planning it for months, ever since we'd met for the first time. I didn't know that then, of course. I was still under the delusion that she was my girlfriend. I was infatuated with her, besotted even. I would have followed her anywhere. "You haven't known me that long," I quoted again as she led me from the beach, trying to clear up any confusion. "I've known you your entire life," she said simply. "You haven't known me that long." "I've known you your entire life." I was trying to point out that she'd been gone for three months. Three months since we'd met, since we'd made our minds up to be with each other until the end of time. Or at least, until the end of hers. Three months since my life had been turned upside down by her presence in it, since I'd found a soulmate I never knew I needed. Three months until now, when I was about to lose her for good. "You haven't known me that long," I said

I Found a Hidden Folder on My Girlfriend's Laptop

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