This Person Doesn’t Exist

By Alissa Corbut

After a long, long, boring day of doing absolutely nothing, an idea came up in Danielle’s

mind. She remembered that one website- a website that shows you a picture of somebody that

doesn’t exist. She was curious as to how it worked, and the FAQ on the website claims to mix

and match facial features of already existing photos.

Danielle found herself refreshing the page for a while, greeted with a new, strange photo

of random people. Some people looked familiar- but it was mainly certain facial features. It was

only a little creepy. She then got bored of it, and exited the website.

The following day at school, with nothing to talk about, Danielle suddenly mentioned the

website she was on yesterday.

“It’s a website that shows you a picture of people who aren’t real.” Danielle said, pulling

up the strange site. “Here, refresh the page.” Danielle handed the phone to Shelly, one of her

close friends.

“That’s mega creepy,” her friend remarked, as she kept reloading it over and over. “How

does it do that?” Shelly looked up, and Danielle raised her brows.

“It just mixes and matches facial features,” she looked back down at her phone that was

in Shelly’s hands. “Let me see,” Danielle said as she reached out a hand.

Danielle reloaded the page, and she and her friends laughed at some of the photos.

“Some of these are pretty funny,” one of her other friends, Jennie, giggled. They found

other generators too, like random nonexistent cats, but the people one was the most intriguing.
 Once Danielle got home, she kept reloading the website. It was addicting. To be surprised

with a brand new, random face every time she refreshed kept her on the website for hours.

Danielle caught herself wasting time on the site, and realized the homework she had to

do. Upset that it was time to do something else, she groaned and threw her phone onto her bed as

she situated herself at her desk.

As she began working on math, Danielle could not stop thinking about the faces she had

seen. Some were funny, some were normal, and sometimes the AI messed up. Suddenly, like

mental magic, her phone buzzed. Danielle got up to see multiple messages from Shelly.

“Oh my god! I went on the website, and this kind of reminds me of Danny from class!”

Read Shelly’s text, attached with a screenshot of a familiar face. It did look a lot like Danny.

Danny had brown parted hair, sunken brown eyes, and a cleft chin. The picture had just that- but

something was off.

“The nose is definitely off,” replied Danielle, followed by laughing emojis. Danielle went

back to her homework, and tried to avoid the website for a bit- as Danny’s almost doppelganger

bothered her only a little bit.

“Danielle, have you noticed Danny isn’t here today?” Shelly asked, as she walked

alongside Danielle to class. “What if he didn’t exist?” Shelly and Danielle both laugh, as they

brush off the thought.

Once again, Danielle found herself refreshing. One would be creeped out enough to stop

after one reload- but not Danielle. Upset that she wasted her day away again on that weird

website, she did her homework and went to bed. This was the routine for a while.
 As Danielle waited for her friends at lunch, she refreshed the website to kill time. It was

until her stomach dropped- a picture of what looked exactly like Shelly popped up. Danielle felt

her heart pound. In the photo, the girl had round, bright blue eyes, thick brown eyebrows, and

light freckles. Pretty general appearance, but what really stuck out was the girl’s cheek. There

was a faint scar- very similar to the scar Shelly has.

Danielle’s group of friends arrived, all except for Shelly.

“Where is Shelly?” Danielle frantically asked, fear clear in her voice.

“She didn’t come to school today- she didn’t text you? And what’s wrong?” Jennie

asked, concerned for her friend. She was then shown the image on Danielle’s phone- of Shelly.

“Is that the website…?” Jennie asked, and suddenly she knew. “Oh my God,” Jennie

clasped her hands to her mouth, with widened eyes. She looked around the friend group.

“I don’t know what this means,” Danielle said. “Did our Shelly never exist, or did she

disappear-“

“Relax, Danielle.” Jennie interrupted. “We can check by asking her teachers.” The girls

nodded and went to the third period teacher that they all shared.

“I don’t know who Shelly is.” The teacher searched through her files, and shook her

head.

The girls all looked at one another in absolute fear. Shelly’s disappeared.

“What do we do?” Jennie asked, impatient. Danielle had a massive headache from this.

“I don’t know-“
 “What if we killed her?”

“We didn’t-“

“What if-“

“It might just be a prank,” Tara, one of the girls, interrupted the two. “Knowing Shelly.”

Tara reassured, and both Danielle and Jennie felt better. “Let’s just wait ‘til tomorrow to see.”

It was the next day. No Shelly.

“Danielle, I’m really scared,” Jennie whispered, and Danielle shook her head.

“I know, I think everything is okay…It really could just be a prank. Let’s call her.”

Danielle then dialed Shelly’s number, only to be told from an automated voice message that this

line isn’t in use.

“Okay- Shelly would not go as far as to cancel her phone.” Jennie was starting to panic.

Danielle let out an exasperated sigh.

“There was a picture that almost looked like Danny- and Shelly and I noticed he wasn’t

there at school the following day,” Danielle remembered. “Is Danny here today?” The girls

waited until fourth period to see Danny, but he didn’t show up.

“Do we call the police?” Jennie said. Danielle snapped back with a huge no. How could

they explain this situation to the police?

“It has to be some sort of coincidence.” Danielle sighed. “I’ll text you later, stay safe,

okay?” Danielle waved Jennie off as they departed ways at the end of the day.
 On the bus, Danielle couldn’t wait to get home. It felt wrong, but she needed to trust her

gut. She was going to reload the page again.

Danielle almost jumped off the bus’ stairs and ran home. She got in her house quickly

and pulled out her phone. She typed in the website’s name super quick- her thumbs tapping on

all the wrong letters in impatience.

She was shown a picture of someone she’s never seen before, and sighed in relief. She

refreshed again out of habit, and almost felt her heart stop.

It was a picture of her. Danielle. Hazel almond shaped eyes, thin arched brows, cupid’s

lip, round head shape, and dark, brown hair. Danielle felt tears in her eyes well up. She refreshed

it again out of fear and was shown a picture of her mother. No, no this can’t be. She was shown

her father. Her little brother. Out of frustration and fear, Danielle left the website and threw her

phone across the room.

After a while, Danielle went for her phone to send Jennie a text of what she had just

experienced. But Jennie wasn’t a contact somehow, and Danielle couldn’t remember her number

off the top of her head. She tried to call her mom, but her number was missing as well. Danielle

found herself having no memory of her mother at all. Danielle couldn’t remember anything. The

password to her phone, or what the website’s name was. She got up, the floor started to sway,

and she then broke out in cold sweats.

Danielle looked at her hands, which were transparent. She screamed, but her screams

made no sound. She tried to feel around, touching furniture, only to go through the material. She

was fading away. Danielle felt lighter and lighter, until she was no more. This person, Danielle,

does not exist.