Chapter One

James woke up hungry, then he remembered that he hadn’t eaten for at least 12 hours. He’d been so active he’d just forgotten.

He slid out of the messy tangle of arms, legs, and other body parts to the window. Looking out the night sky gave his reflection. Flexing he said,

“Damn I’m sexy”

Sighing he grabbed his silk dressing gown and went out the door, it was when he got to the kitchen he realised with a start,

“Where the hell am I?”

He also realised the dressing gown wasn’t his, it wasn’t even for a man, it was a woman’s. It was pale pink with a white rose on the breast pocket.

He looked at the pictures stuck on the fridge with magnets, happy smiling people. He didn’t recognise any of them. Then his eyes came to rest on an attractive brunette, her hair was long and had a slight wave to it, and it shone with life. He eyes were large and of the darkest brown, she was smiling confidently at the camera, her perfect white teeth shining.

“Wow" he said no more, indeed there was no more to say for how else could he convey the true beauty of the girl in the picture. Words were simply not enough.

James picked up the picture, honoured to be touching her, even if it was only her picture. As he stared into her eyes he felt as if she too felt the strange sensation, the need he felt for her was too great for him to bear. Did she too feel for him, was she lying somewhere wishing he were there? Is she upstairs right now?

He raced out of the kitchen and leapt up the stairs two at a time and just as he was at the top he slipped. He crashed down the whole flight, turning a triple somersault before smacking down on the hard wooden floor.

He woke up in a hospital ward, the stench of disinfectant invaded his senses, making him feel dizzy for a moment, shaking his head he struggled to sit up.

“No lie back down,” said a smooth, sensual voice, “The doctor will be here soon, and you’re not to get up until he is.”

James struggled to focus on the face, but a mass on contrasting colours swam before him. Slowly his eyesight cleared and a young mans face appeared before him. James drew back.

“Who are you?” He asked

“I’m Pete, remember? You came to my house for a party? We woke up this morning to find you passed out at the bottom of the stairs. You certainly gave us a scare, I practically sh*t myself!”

“What kind of party was this?” James asked nervously, “I can’t remember a thing”

“Oh, pity,” Petes face fell for a second, then he brightened, “Oh yeah, I found this picture next to you.”

Pete fumbled In his pocket and found the picture or her. James saw her perfect skin, her shining eyes, and a strange sensation came over him, but it was quickly replaced by embarrassment when he caught Petes twinkling eyes.

“Oh, errrmmm… thanks” James mumbled as he tried to grab the photo.

“You like her do you?” Pete asked as he kept the photograph just out of James’ reach.

“Well, yeah. I mean just look at her. She’s… she’s…”

“Beautiful?”

“No she’s more than beautiful, she’s a goddess.” James broke off embarrassed, “I mean well…I don’t know.”

“Wow, I didn’t know you could get it that bad from a picture. Look if you want to keep the photo you can, I don’t mind.”

“So you know her? Who is she? Where does he live?” James asked desperately.

“Hey calm down man! I don’t know, I just found the photo on the floor one day and I thought I’d stick it up.”

“What do you mean you don’t know her? How am I supposed to find her?”

“I don’t know, but calm down stop shouting!”

James breathed in deeply.

“I’ve got to find her,” he said, “I have to, I need to.”

“Ok, I’ll help you, if I can,” Pete sighed, “I guess this means that you won’t be coming to another of my parties. The guys will be so disappointed.

Words were simply not enough to convey the pure horror that James felt.



Chapter Two

It had been weeks, but no conclusive evidence to who she was. Pete had been brilliant, searching the library records, logging on to Friends Reunited constantly, he even asked random people in the street, but no one knew who she was.

James sighed; he had no idea of how to find her, no ideas at all. He knew it was hopeless and it wasn’t just the fact that all his closest friends had told him so a million times, he knew it, and if her was honest he always had.

He started moodily out of the window down onto the sleeping city, it was well past midnight, and the moonlight threw a silver stream on him, making him seem ghostly, like Death himself. He threw the glass against the wall with all his might, and the sound of crinkling glass rang out in the dark room, but it did nothing to heed his anger. So instead of causing more chaos, he pulled out the dog-eared photo from his breast pocket and stared lovingly into her chocolate eyes. He threw himself down on his bed, ran his finger along the side of her face, and closed his eyes, in his imagination he could be with her; he could smell her perfume, a light flowery smell.

“James, why do you make me wait? Why do you make me feel such exquisite torture? I long for you, come and find me, please.” She spoke in her velvety smooth voice.

“I’m trying, but it’s so hard, I don’t know where to look,” said James sadly.

“Please, I’m waiting, I need you…”

James suddenly opened his eyes, he was cold and sweaty, but he didn’t notice, suddenly he knew what to do.

He got up and hurriedly dressed, running downstairs (but being careful not to trip over this time) he thought about his plan.

“I’ll go to the all night Internet café, and post her picture on every site and message board I can think of,” he said excitedly, “Someone is bound to recognise her and email me!”

And with that he plunged out of the house and into the dark and dangerous world.



Chapter Three

It was a cold and miserable Tuesday morning; James sat at the computer, watching the rain slide down windowpane.

“This is madness,” he thought sulkily, “How could I have been so stupid as to post my email address on every website I knew of?”

Since he had posted the picture online, with his email address, he received at least a hundred emails a day. Most of them told him how much of a loser he was, some (mainly from women) told him how sweet he was, and a small heartbreaking amount told him they knew who the girl was, and where to find her. But his soul and spirit were crumpled when he arrived at the designated spot or address to be met by a barrage of laughter, abuse, or loneliness.

He skimmed through the usual junk when an email near he bottom caught his eye, it read: How did you get my photo?

James clicked on the email his heart hammering in his chest. Could this be her? Have the months of pure torture ended? Would he finally be able to meet the woman, whose picture had captured his soul forever?

He sat there waiting, the page was taking forever to load, after what seemed like hours he grabbed the monitor and shook it shouting,

“Get a f*cking move on!”

The whole café turned to look at him, many shook their heads crossly, and two teenagers giggled in a corner and a five-year-old started to cry. The manager came over.

“If you don’t stop using such foul language, I’ll have to ask you to leave.” He said.

“OK, I’m sorry,” said James, but his eyes never left the screen.

The manager sighed and walked away.

James stared hard at the screen, willing it to load faster, pleading with God, let this be the one.

James closed his eyes tightly, and said under his breath,

“Make this be her, make this be her, make this be her, make this be her, please!”

He opened his eyes and one sentence jumped out at him.

“The page you are trying to view has encountered an error, either click refresh or try again later.”

“Try again later?!?” James screamed at the computer. “You piece of sh*t! I’ve been waiting hours for this page and you tell me to try again later? Why don’t you f*cking work!”

James jumped to his feet and hurled the mouse across the room, still screaming profanities.

It took the manager, a waiter and two members of the public to finally haul him out of the café and into the gutter. As James lay there in amongst the slimy leaves, old newspapers and sweet wrappers, in the pouring rain he started to cry big loud sobs of sadness. As car came and splashed him, as the tidal wave of dirty water washed over his face James realised how pointless life was.