Thou shalt not steal. In some religions in whatever way or form it’s a common rule. It’s even a part of our laws in most of countries. No one has ever thought why? I’m sure they have wondered but what is the cost of stealing something. Some countries have strict rules for those who steal like chopping off a arm, hand or a finger. We are lucky I guess to only get community service and in worse case scenario jail.
In an information age that we live in now we can steal music, movies, and TV shows without any consequences. You could watch a movie on a website in English or Chinese website. I say all this to introduce what point I’m driving at. I’ll start my story from the beginning in the time were torrenting is great and anything you can imagine can be thought up. Well one while I was looking for favorite comic book digital file. I came across a file called “don’t download this file.pdf” now I had heard the song don’t download this song and all the anti piracy ads you can imagine. When I clicked on it my computer screen flickered for a brief second, which is weird since it was a relatively new computer.
I then saw the amount of downloads for this file over 100,000. There was no comments and the amount of seeders was surprisingly high since usually you can get 5 -20 on a good day this was one was in the 1,100 range. Now the voice in my head was telling me go for it, I mean if it s***s just trash it. And then in my gut I had a sinking feeling. Out of all of those feeling my hand moved the mouse to click on download like it was being controlled on its own.
After it popped up in my torrent application, it took no less 5 minutes to download it. I clicked on it and it opened up. What appeared on the screen was a PDF with the a few sentences saying “ You ignored the warning. But now you will receive your just desserts. What you’re about to lose, you never be able to take back!” After I read that, it closed by itself. Thinking it was a fluke on the side of my computer. I clicked on it again the computer said “the file has been corrupted please look online for a way to repair it or delete it” . With that I deleted it and thought that was the end of my worry’s.
Then I decided to go do something else so put my computer in sleep mode. The next day as I passed my computer and it made a funny sound , it was mix between a Facebook message and email notification but it was more high pitched. My ears rang after hearing it. I decided to wake my computer up. After I logged in I noticed the desktop had a new file. It was that corrupted file from the day before. I attempted to open it.
What appeared next I can’t even explain. There isn’t he screen was a photo of my sister sleeping and some dark figure standing over her. The alarm read 9:45 am. That two minutes ago, I rushed up the stairs to find her awake looking at their phone. She yelled “ why here dork?” I said stuttered “um I’m just checking on you?!” Then I left.
This happened a few more times in the week, to different family members each time. I would burst in a check on them and of course they would yell at me for distribution them.
I then began to notice behavior of my family had changed slightly from weeks before. At it wasn’t noticeable but soon it became apparent something was up. They would forget which room was theirs, my mom forgot to make dinner one night which wasn’t normal for her. In the back of my mind I would always think about what the message had said from that download. But I would quickly put it off.
One night when I came home late from hanging out with my friends. As I entered the door my whole family was sitting in the living room talking about something. As soon as I came in they all went silent and stared at me. My little brother said “ Why are home so late?”. My sister then said “Probably forgot where the house was!”. I said “ No I just lost track of time sorry, what you guys up too?”. They all got up simultaneously and said nothing but walked the stairs to their rooms. Something I have never seen them do before.
As I walked up the stairs toward my room. And as I opened the door my computer went made another noise. It wasn’t a notification like last time it was a high pitched sound. Just then the tower started bellowing smoke. Black acrid smoke and then a fire broke out lighting my desk and the floor on fire. I ran to the door and tugged on it. It was locked! I ran towards the window and opened it. The night air blew in, as I climbed out the window the flames began move up the wall.
I scrambled out onto the gutter and a quickly I shimmied actions the gutter to the window of my parents room. It was still dark. There I reached out to the tree next to it. It wasn’t close but if I timed my jump and went for it because I wasn’t going to die today.
I landed half grabbing the branch and the trunk. Crawled down the tree and ran to the front door yelling for my family to open it up. My dad answered and said “ What? How are you here?” “Dad my room was on fire!”. With that my Dad went upstairs with me and opened my door to find nothing. “ Have you been doing drugs?”. “Dad…It was on fire I had to get out!”. Well he didn’t buy it and just went back to his room. As soon as the door shut the house went really silent.
I closed the door and looked at the computer. It looked normal. I decided to lay down my bed try to get some sleep. That night, all I saw were nightmares of demons laughing and skinning humans. I woke with a cold sweat. I began to sit up when I saw something sitting at my desk. The room was dark so I couldn’t tell his whole shape. It was huge and hulking in my chair. I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep and hoped it would go away.
As I laid there I felt a cold hand on my mouth. And that same acrid smell from before. And a raspy voice saying “You ignored the warning. But now you will receive your just desserts. What you’re about to lose, you never be able to take back”. A cold shiver went down my spine. Just then I woke up again and I was in my room. I sat up and there was nothing in my room. I sat up for while till morning. Then I headed downstairs to eat breakfast. As I sat there no one else came down for breakfast. An hour had past and I went to check my phone it was Friday. My dad should up for work at least. I went to the garage and his car was still there. As I climbed the stairs I smelled that acrid smell again. It filled the entire second floor. Then I heard a simultaneous screaming coming from all the rooms in the house. And then silence.
I walked to my sister’s door and touched the door handle, it wasn’t locked. I opened it. Right before my eyes was the dream I had the night before. My sister’s skin had been ripped from her body and she was on her bed blood dripping everywhere. I couldn’t hold in the vomit and I threw up on the floor. I heard a faint breathing coming from her. She was still alive but barely. It was too much for me to bare and worse was I had a sinking feeling that the rest of my family had a similar fate.
I went to my parents door and knocked on it. No reply. I opened it to see the same horror as from before. But time they were both nailed to walls. I couldn’t take I ran out of the room went to see my brother. And I couldn’t look too long. I ran into my room grabbed my wallet. Then searched each room for money. After that I gathered some clothes and food and water.
Then went to the garage and started both cars up and the found a gasoline can on the ground and spreader it all over both cars. Then I took a couple bottles of alcohol from my father’s cabinet. Placed rags in them and then I lit them. There was no going back after that. I had to make it look like a accident. I tried my best and threw them at the cars.
I grabbed my bike and began biking to school. Halfway there I realized I would be caught the minute I go to school. I headed back to see my house, it was lighting on fire. Some of my neighbors had came out. I put my hood and rode past them as fast I could.
I don’t sleep much now. I found my into a homeless shelter. There I just hold on to the next day. Every time I close my eyes I see the my family’s gruesome fate. I heard the police were looking for me to ask some questions. Hopefully I can get away in time. I don’t want to go to prison, but I know that’s where I’ll be out once they find me. Even though my own life feels like a prison already.