95.txt
A couple of months ago, I was at a local Goodwill looking for some old 90s era computer software. I had an interest in retro computing stuff and I wanted to play some games from my childhood. I picked up a copy of Lego Island and an old "Putt Putt" game, and as I was walking out, I saw a shady looking man lifting a heavy box. He brought it up to the counter and opened it up. Out came a keyboard.. then a monitor.. then a computer tower. I waited as the man behind the counter picked it up and set it in an aisle. It was going for around $30 which was a steal. I convinced my mom to purchase it and I walked back to our car trying not to pop a blood vessel from lifting the damn thing.
Once I got home I plopped the heavy cardboard box down on the floor and took a peek inside. Not only were all the components there, like the monitor and speakers and what not, but also a CD. I picked it up and examined it. "95" was hastily scribbled on in Sharpie. No big deal, I thought. I assumed the 95 stood for Windows 95 and it was a burnt copy. I took the box down to the basement and hooked up everything. I pressed the power button and the computer hummed to life. After the BIOS came up, a DOS prompt came up saying "Operating system not found". I inserted the "95" disk into the CD drive and rebooted. As expected, the Windows 95 installation wizard booted up. I went through the necessary steps and it installed like a charm. When it completed, I realized that it didn't ask me for an authorization key at all. I brushed it off, as it had installed fine and there is some OEM versions of Windows 95 that don't require keys.
The computer rebooted once more, and I heard that soothing piano-synth tune that accompanies the Windows 95 startup. I installed Lego Island and Putt-Putt, but for some reason the Putt-Putt game didn't appear as a shortcut on the desktop or in the Start programs menu, probably because it was so old. I searched my C: drive for the game folder and noticed that the "My Documents" folder contained 8KB. I hadn't saved anything there, so I decided to investigate. I came across a file named "95.txt". What the hell? Windows 95 doesn't put anything into your My Documents folder on installation. Maybe it was a message from the people who "cracked" this copy of Windows 95 (which would explain why I didn't need a key during installation)? Curiosity overcame me and I double-clicked the file. The file opened in Notepad, but I immediately noticed something was wrong. The contents of the .txt was random gibberish, much like what you get from opening a .exe file in a text editor. The text, however, was animating, like the random numbers from the Matrix. The green background of my desktop was... peeling off, revealing black. The text became more chaotic, and I began seeing glimpses of words such as "STOP" and "HELP" popping up for a millisecond. A humming sound emanated from my speakers, which soon evolved into static. I was scared and I wanted to close the text file, but my hand was frozen with fear.
Suddenly I heard a blood-curdling scream come out from.. well, it sounded like it was inside the tower, but PC speakers are only able to make beeps... The tower was shaking and the screaming got louder. Horrible shit began flashing on screen... People being stabbed, entrails being ripped out of a woman as she was still alive, a kitten being crushed alive by a woman with her high-heels... I couldn't help it. I vomited all over my screen and keyboard and started smelling smoke... The PC tower was smoking and I could see the plastic case melting. I ripped the fire extinguisher off the wall and blasted the tower with foam. The monitor imploded on itself, and a large hole appeared in the glass. Thankfully I knew where the garbage bags were kept, so I stuffed all the parts into a bag and ran upstairs. I could STILL hear screaming from the bag.. My parents and brother were asleep by now, so I was able to throw it in the trash without any questioning. Walking out the house, I saw something at the corner of my eye. It was a figure of some sort. I looked straight at it, but it was gone. I ran to the recycle bin and dumped the contents of the bag inside. Blood and human organs dropped out of it, to my displeasure. The next morning I told my mom that I put it in the attic so I could sell it in 50 years or so. She looked as if she knew that was bullshit, but she didn't bother me about it.
Sometimes when I go to bed, I can still faintly hear Windows 95 booting up in the attic...
Credited to ElemCha0s
Originally uploaded on October 10, 2012
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