i have been in quarantine for 17 years

Hi, my name is Mia, and I’ve had a bit of an unusual life. I live with my dad in the middle of nowhere. And look, I love my dad...but he’s a bit of a weirdo. Even though we’re miles away from civilization, he has cameras surrounding our property. He even has crazy motion sensors and these super high fences.

I always assumed my dad was paranoid. I figured maybe he watched too many horror movies or something. I wasn’t allowed to go to school, so I was homeschooled by him, and I rarely even left the house to go grocery shopping or go to the movies.

It was like that for as long as I could remember. I didn’t know when we moved out into the middle of nowhere, and I had no idea what had happened to my mom. My dad was always crazy secretive and strange.

I didn’t have any friends or family, and my dad was weirdly strict about social media. When I was about 14, he caught me with a social media account. He ripped my phone from my hands, took it outside, and smashed it with a hammer! I mean, he was that strict. After that, I stopped trying to get social media accounts. I knew it would only get me in trouble.

Luckily for me, I was allowed to have one thing: Video games. And when I say I became obsessed with them from a young age, I mean I was obsessed. At first, I was kind of okay with playing around my schoolwork and after dinner, but when I turned 16, I started playing this mythical war game. I played online with a bunch of other people. There was a guy who went by “Dark Horse” who invited me to join, and right away, I was in love with the world.

I would stay up until the sun rose to talk to Dark Horse, battling demons and witches and taking over kingdoms. He made me laugh. I knew I wasn’t supposed to be talking to strangers, but I felt safe with Dark Horse. I felt like I really, really starting to like him. And while I was playing video games with him, I could forget how lonely and stressful my own life was.

Soon, it reached a point where I wasn’t leaving my room for days. I was glued to the screen, afraid to miss a single part of the game and our campaign. I’m embarrassed to say this, but it reached a point where I was afraid to even go to the bathroom. I started using a bucket in the corner of my room. I know, it’s gross...but my worry about being away for too long was so strong.

My dad told me if I didn’t start leaving the room, he was going to take my game away. I brushed him off a billion times. I told Dark Horse what my dad was threatening and he started joking about ‘getting rid of my dad.’ I laughed and joked around with him, but something in his voice kind of spooked me. He talked about how he didn’t want anything to come between us playing together.

One night, I was up playing at four am with Dark Horse. He started talking about how much he liked me. The conversation kept going and I was SURE he was going to ask me to be his girlfriend. I had never had anyone like me like that. I was so excited.

Then, my door flew open. My dad stormed in and ripped the cable to my game out of the outlet, shutting it off. He told me I would get the game back “When I earned it.” I was so shattered. The next few days were like a living nightmare. I spent every single hour thinking about the game and thinking about Dark Horse. Would he be mad at me for disappearing?

A few days passed and my dad finally gave me my game back, but with conditions: I was only allowed to play 2 hours a day! I tried to fight him on it and he wouldn’t budge. I was so angry I slammed my door and stormed into my room.

When I got online, Dark Horse called me within minutes. I thought maybe he’d be excited or concerned...but he was sobbing. He was crying, begging me to tell him where I went. He cried that he thought I was never going to come back. Looking back on that now, I shouldn’t have been flattered...but I totally was. I told him I would never leave him again.

But my two hours a day wasn’t enough. Dark Horse told me he needed to talk to me more than that. When I told him I couldn’t, he asked me why “our love wasn’t strong enough to go against my dad’s wishes.’ I felt like I was being manipulated...and then he asked me to be his girlfriend. I accepted.