Flying in the cloud

Virtual games

At the same time, along with the intensification of Yasser’s messages, new friend requests from many men of different ages and nationalities suddenly appeared on her profile. They were mainly Turks and Arabs from Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt, as well as white men from European countries and the USA.

Every time Nina was looking through a profile of a new friend, something signaled her that it was another mask of the boy.

She became even more convinced of this, when a new friend had started to write her about love and send romantic or erotic pictures right off the bat. In fact, these strange new friends had been falling on her head for a long time already, almost right after the first serious quarrel with the boy.

It was that they had suddenly started to multiply in even larger quantities. Nina knew that all these friends were part of the boys’ virtual games. And each time the profiles of these “masks” became more and more plausible.

These accounts already had had a long history with friends and photos. There were new posts on their pages regularly. How did he do it?

Nina was interested in this issue and soon found out that on the Internet you can buy ready-made accounts for any social networks, of a male person, female, of any country, absolutely real ones, with friends and full of personal info.

You can also copy the accounts of existing people, take their photos and information and create a complete copy of a page of a real person.

Nina even tried to make a couple of fake accounts herself, one of a female and one of a male to visit the page of the boy, since he had blocked her and she couldn’t visit it from her real page.

She got the hang of creating such pages easily, but soon got bored, as it took a lot of time! How was he making hundreds of fake accounts? When she blocked one, he created another!

“God!” thought Nina, “when does he study? When does he sleep?”

Often, when Nina couldn’t sleep at night, she went online and saw one or more of his accounts active. She realized that it was all under his supervision, as prey is with flags during the hunt.

She was no longer capable of erasing all those false friends from her profile, because there were too many of them so that it actually was easier to completely delete her entire page!

Nina sometimes felt uncomfortable from such unceremonious and total invasion into her life. It seemed to her that the boy was watching her every move. Moreover, he even entered the Russian social network where Nina also had a page. There was she, all her relatives and close friends. He was already there and was sending friend requests from fake accounts to Nina! Nina suddenly remembered his words:

“I love you and won’t let you leave,” he said once in response to her another try to speak about the age difference and the necessity to break up.

“Little fool!” thought Nina. “He wants to control me and know what I’m doing in social networks, how I chat with my friends, whether or not I cheat on him!”

He would often write and call her from several accounts, creating somewhat a simultaneous game! Keeping this in mind, Nina behaved in a very restrained manner and if anyone would cross the boundaries, immediately blocked these so-called “friends”.

She couldn’t start new relationships because of this. It was due to the fact that even if it could be a real person, she was afraid to face the fake account, created by the boy.

Yes, indeed, she did not want to chat with anyone. She was so into Ismael! He created truly fantastic worlds for her.

He was at the same time a black African Catholic teenager, volunteering for an international African children aid organization, who had found an abandoned baby girl under the bridge and his older brother was raising her, while he was buying her baby food in a pharmacy; a teacher of Arabic at the school for girls, from Tunisia, who was eager to teach Nina Arabic; an Indian Hindu boy, who had a degree in arts, but couldn’t find a job to support his elderly parents in the province. He would paint their hut in different colours, turning it into a palace and then would go to work in Delhi…

Moreover many, many other different people and stories. And they all liked Nina and opened up their hearts to her, surrounding her with love.

Often Nina didn’t even exchange a word with some of her newfound friends. They only communicated using pictures, photographs, emoticons and stickers. It looked like comics books sometimes. It was fun, actually…

However, among those fake friends were some who terrorized Nina with obscene images and suggestions. When they made her really mad, Nina would block them, although she was sure that under those masks was her boy, too! He wanted to control her and see how she would behave with different people.

He was doing all of that, blocking her from his real account. Though he called from time to time from his real page, he would always block her again. Nina was very offended and didn’t understand why he kept on doing that, but at the same time, her life had never been as exciting as with this Egyptian boy.

And now there was this Yasser, with whom she had a long and confidential conversation… Nina was sure that even if Yasser existed in reality, these chats were still with Ismael, who was writing from Yasser’s page!

“Who will meet me in Tunisia?” thought Nina and her heart froze with uncertainty. It was so mysterious and so intriguing!

A journey to Tunisia

And the day had come. Nina had a departure from Vnukovo airport at ten in the morning. When she was packing her suitcase, she told her husband that he was going to visit her daughter.

The husband didn’t worry about that, as Nina was visiting her daughter who lived with her family near St. Petersburg several times a year. A couple of times they went there together. The only thing Nina was afraid of was the fact that her husband could escort her with a taxi and hear what she would tell the taxi driver to go not to the Leningrad station, but to Vnukovo airport.

She made sure her taxi would come at 7 AM. She wanted to arrive at the airport early. Everything went great; her husband was still asleep, she kissed him on the cheek and said: “The taxi’s here. Don’t bother escorting me, I’ll take the elevator!”

He obediently kissed her in response and turned to the other side.

“To Vnukovo!” Nina said to the taxi driver and rushed towards her love.

Nina tried not to think about the upcoming meeting, and focused her mind on the current moments of the trip; otherwise, she’d just go mad from the anticipation, excitement and happiness.

She arrived at the airport very early; check-in hadn’t even started yet. Nina decided to get a cup of coffee and sat at a table in one of the airport cafes. “Whom will I meet in Tunisia, Yasser or Ismael? Or both? Is Ismael coming?”

“How will their first meeting go?” that thought kept revolving in her head as Nina tried to push it away. She had already forgotten all her fears of the possible physical disability of the boy. She was hoping for a happy ending and couldn’t wait to see her beloved!

The flight was delayed for seven hours due to the malfunction of the plane. Nina couldn’t find rest and was so tired that she no longer cared, who was going to meet her in Tunisia. She couldn’t get in touch with anybody. The boys’ account was still blocked and Yasser didn’t answer.

She wrote him that she was in an airport and would arrive in Tunisia, probably, late in the evening (though they had agreed to meet in the hotel lobby at twelve o’clock, local time). However, her message wasn’t read. Yasser had warned her beforehand that he was already in his car on the way to Tunisia would have to be without Internet for some time.

Finally, the plane was fixed. Nina, who had a sleepless night and had spent nine hours stuck at the airport, sat down in her chair, closed her eyes and thought that the best option would be if nobody would meet her at the hotel. She then could quietly go to her room, take a shower and go to bed…

When the plane landed in Tunisia, it was already late in the evening. The transfer to the hotel took more than an hour because the bus from the tour company had to bring people to many other hotels. Nina had rested a little during the flight, drank a cup of coffee, fixed her makeup and her fatigue was finally gone and the even stronger excitement came back to her.

It seemed to her that everybody on the bus could hear her heart pounding. Finally, that was her hotel. When Nina went to the front desk, it was already more than 11 PM Tunisian time.

Another Russian couple arrived to this hotel together with her. While they were checking in, Nina carefully looked around. The lobby was small and the light was already dim. It was quite empty inside with only three girls sitting in the corner and looking at their phones. Nobody was meeting her…

Nina gave her documents to the receptionist for registration. He looked into her passport and said:

“Madam, Mr. Yasser Abdullah from Algeria has been waiting for you here since the very morning. His room number is 303; it’s on the third floor”.

Nina startled in surprise. She murmured:

“Thank you,” she took her room key and headed toward the elevator after the receptionist, who was carrying her luggage. Elevators were around the corner at the end of the hall and were invisible from the front desk. Nina saw a man with dark hair in a white t-shirt with the label “Adidas” and blue jeans, who was standing there.

He offered her his hand, and then quickly kissed her cheek and said:

“Glad to meet you, Nina! I’m Yasser!”

Nina looked at his face in the darkness of the hall. It was exactly the same as in the pictures he had sent her.

“Hello, Yasser,” she answered on the go, looking around, hoping to see someone for whom she had come here.

However, she didn’t see anyone. The elevator doors opened, and the bellboy carried her suitcase inside.

“Leave all your stuff in your room and come to mine. My room number is 303, it’s on the third floor,” said Yasser. Nina nodded and followed the bellboy.

Upon entering her room and closing the door, Nina cheered up and started running around the room, not knowing what to grab.

“How clever of them to come up with such an idea!” she suddenly thought, “Yasser met me in the lobby, and Ismael is waiting in the room to surprise me!”

She quickly took a shower, fixed her hair, refreshed makeup and grabbed the souvenirs for Yasser and Ismael, which she had bought in duty free in Moscow: some chocolate and bergamot tea.

When Nina knocked on the door of room 303, it seemed to her that she was going to faint.

Yasser opened the door and invited her in. Nina entered the room timidly. There was no one inside. Yasser was alone.

She hoped that the boy was playing hide and seek with her. She even went to the balcony and glanced in the bathroom, pretending to be estimating the comfort. No one. At one point, Nina finally lost her temper and asked: “Where’s Ismael?”

“Who’s Ismael?” asked Yasser with a surprised face.

“Isn’t he here with you?” Nina asked, and she was broken inside, because she already knew the answer.

“I don’t know any Ismael!” Yasser replied.

Nina felt the world crashing, and her heart was filled with icy emptiness. She placed both gifts on the table and headed to the door. Yasser also got a gift for her, it was some French perfume, and tried to hug her, but Nina stepped away and said: “I’m very tired and want to sleep!”

She spent the whole night crying. She was walking around her room like an angry tiger in a cage. Her first thought was to fly back to Moscow tomorrow. But Nina knew it was impossible, she had a return ticket and the flight was in seven days, as she had purchased the tour through an agency.

Nina couldn’t even imagine such a monstrous deceit and betrayal!

When the initial shock had passed, Nina realized that she was the one to blame. After all, she had fantasies about the boy and his cunning plan. Actually, he didn’t tell her about it personally, from his real account.

Nina felt lost. She was sure that that was Ismael, who wrote her from Yasser’s account. However, if so, how could he be so cruel to do that to her? Why did he give her away to another man?!

Maybe he just sold her to that Yasser? Maybe he had some sort of a business, writing to women on behalf of the clients and organizing their meetings?

The thought of his physical disability came up in her mind again.

Nina became totally confused and couldn’t think any longer. She fell asleep early in the morning without any thoughts and in the state of extreme emotional and physical exhaustion.

The next day Nina didn’t go to breakfast, partly because her eyes were swollen from a night of tears, partly in order not to see Yasser, as his looks were unbearable to her.

She was lying in bed without the strength to move. Suddenly, the hotel phone rang. It was her tour agent, who invited her to the meeting in the lobby, where they were choosing excursions. She somehow got herself ready and went downstairs.

Some people were sitting in the centre of the hall. She saw the couple that came with her last night to the hotel among them. A guide-girl was offering several excursions and showing colourful brochures. Nina was interested in a two-day safari to the Sahara Desert.

“At least I’ll escape from here for two days!” Nina was delighted and without any hesitation paid the money for this tour and took the information brochure. The tour was set for the early morning the next day.

“I have to survive in this hotel for today,” thought Nina and decided to make friends with other Russian tourists. Two of them, a mother and a daughter, were from Moscow, and the couple which came with her were from Yaroslavl.

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