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In a large, cream-colored house, perched on a suburban street, is a childhood bedroom with a door firmly shut.

Sitting at her desk, writing stories about the trials of teenage girlhood, is 15-year-old Alexis Stern.

I've realized that the worst pain comes from the person you do anything for. is 15-year-old Alexis Stern.

I've realized that the worst pain comes from the person you do anything for.

I think that's the morbid humor of life, the fact that it gives you something sweet and wonderful,

but then it goes sour and poisons you the longer you haven't because you hope the sweetness returns.

Alexis lives in Big Lake, a small Minnesotan town in the United States Midwest.

There's a McDonald's, a subway, and a string of gas stations.

And you might have guessed it, a big lake at the center of it.

But Alexis doesn't venture out much. She prefers to stay at home writing self-published novels or hanging out with friends on the internet.

It's 2016, and recently Alexis met someone new online, a British 19-year-old named Adrian Fry.

After being introduced by some mutual friends, they start texting every day and spending hours

getting to know each other over video calls.

Alexis tells him about the novel she's been writing about a possessed secret agent and

the dark web.

She says she's always been drawn to darkness.

Adrian seems almost naive in comparison.

Alexis says he doesn't drink, he's soft-spoken,

and he never even heard of the dark web,

all the illegal things that happen on there.

...