Dr. Naesle.

As the end of my junior year of college approached,

I was determined to spend this summer driving around the US,

meeting and talking to people, and just having fun.

I found out last summer that staying in hotels and Airbnb's got expensive really quickly.

I had to abort my grand plans to slink home and get a menial job until school started again,

but not this year, not if I could help it.

So with the promise of summer alive and trees heavy with foliage and in the warm spring

air that made every classroom a dreary daydream, I decided to get really creative.

I wouldn't allow a lack of funds to cut my summer travels short again.

So in my desperation and for the first time in my life, I turned to the dark web.

I wanted to see if there was something like a cheaper version of Airbnb out there,

and I soon figured out that there were several sites like that on the internet's dark underbelly.

As I looked through them, I felt as though I struck a gold mine.

Not only could I stay in place as much cheaper, but as an aspiring author,

I could write a book on the dark web and my travels.

Of course, I wasn't dumb enough to think I wouldn't be putting myself in danger,

but I wasn't too worried about it.

I was confident I could handle myself, and I took some basic precautions to ensure I wasn't

getting ripped off. But I've never been more wrong about anything in my life.

I wasn't ready for what awaited me. I couldn't handle myself after what I experienced.

But before I started my trip, you couldn't have convinced me that something so insane would happen,

...