Pacman Glitch
To be honest, I was unsure if I'd ever share this story, consdering it brings back a whole lot of bad memories.
It was late, and when it's late I never think straight. My friend was asleep at my place, and in an effort to keep myself entertained I searched "download pacman" on Google. I'm not exactly sure why I wasn't satisfied with the first couple of results on the list. I kept going further down the bowels of search engine Hell until I found one that said "Pacman" with no description.
The site had a plain red background and the web address wasn't the run-of-the-mill download site URL. Rather it was an impossibly long string of numbers with .gov tacked onto the end. There was only one hyperlink on the site: Pacman.exe. I downloaded it and attempted to run it.
The first time I ran it I got a black screen, so I ran it again and it worked fine. The only problems with it were that the screen would flash black at points and Pac-Man was invisible most of the time. Basically, it ran like your usual glitchy emulator. I shut the game off (due to increasing boredom and more than a little frustration) and went to bed.
When I awoke, my friend was gone from his previous location of slumber. I figured he had gone home. I booted up my computer only to find when I opened my browser that my history had been deleted. I figured it was my friend playing some sort of dumb joke like he sometimes does, so I moved on.
Over the next few days, things started to get weird. My mom didn't come home from work at 7:00 on day 1. By day 2, she still wasn't home, and her phone hung up on the first ring. I called 911, and told them the situation, excluding pacman.exe, considering that had nothing to do with the story. They came over to my house and took me to the police station. My dog was still at home though, and I worried he was my only friend here.
The policeman let me sleep on the couch in the back office. It got pretty cold there at night. At about 2:00, I called my friend to touch base with him and at least get somebody to talk to. He didn't answer. I was getting colder, so I quietly said, "Hello?" to try to get somebody to get me a blanket. Nobody answered. I tryed opening the door out of this back room, but it was locked. A little louder this time, I exclamed, "Hello!?" but there was still no answer. I sat on the couch for the rest of the night, waiting until day.
In the morning the door opened, and a new, grumpier policeman told me to get out of the room. I walked into the lobby where the familiar policeman from yesterday was. He asked me if I was ok, and I told him I wanted to go back home. He drove, and told me he really wasn't feeling well. The house was only about a two minute walk away. I told him to go to the doctor's office and swing by the house when he was done. Nervously, the young policeman agreed.
I walked to my house, and wiggled the door handle. It was locked. I looked under the mat for a key, and found one that I didn't recognize. It worked on the door. I entered the house and called for my dog. He didn't come running like usual. After searching the house for over 20 minutes, I couldn't find him. I opened my computer. Everything was gone. My files, my history, my contacts. Everything. Suspiciously, I got the feeling I wasn't the only one here.
Oddly enough, one thing remained on my computer. You guessed it: pacman.exe. I ran the game this time, and got a blue screen of death. I waited a minute, utterly scared. A loud crash came from downstairs. To be honest, I fainted here and don't remember the details. When I awoke, it was morning. I found it odd that the policeman had not yet come to pick me up. I went downstairs, slowly creeping down the steps. Everything was amiss. Books off the shelves, wallpaper ripped down to the floor. I was devestated. I was positive that this was some sort of personal attack.
I was hyperventilating. I ran out the door but I couldn't open it. It was locked shut, it was my consciousness the prevented me from opening it. I had to look for more. I went downstairs and booted up my dead dad's old PC. It took a few minutes to start up. When it finally loaded, I realized this computers memory had been wiped out too...all except for pacman.exe. I loaded the game, no fear at all. The game worked fine, then it crashed. I heard a knock at the door.
I ran up the stairs, and I saw my mom. I joyfully opened the door. She stared at me and said, "You little piece of shit," Unaware of what was happening, I ran, I ran as fast as I could. My mom stood in the doorway nomatter what I did. I escaped out of a small hatch in the basement and ran towards nowhere.
Finding myself in the woods minutes later, I saw the policeman from earlier, bloody and dead. It looked like his heart had imploded from the inside. I tryed speaking to him, but got no answer. I ran farther into the woods, then I hit a muddy, rocky shoreline. No cell phone reception. I turn around and see my mom. I can see now she has blood dripping off her strings of hair. She's still staring.
I hurdle myself over rocks until I find a house. I quickly knock on the door, and am greeting by the old police officer I saw earlier. Nothing much happened after that. He drove me the police station, and a fews days later I was transfered to an orphanage. The orphanage was hell, it was more boring than anything ever before.
So I did it. I snuck out one night. To my house, as fast as I could. I swung open the door and all the lights were off. My friend was sleeping on the couch and my old laptop was layed down sloppily on the floor, just like on the first day. I woke up my friend, but he shoved me off. I opened my laptop. Everything was still gone. Pacman.exe was there. I deleted it, holding my breath, and tryed to go to bed. I woke up the next morning with my friend fidgeting with my arm telling me he's going. I said goodbye. Later that day, two men in suits arrive at my door telling me my mom is dead.
I've been living with my friend and his mom ever since. I haven't told him about this. I don't know what happened to the young policeman. Perhaps someday I'll update this if I can ever recover pacman.exe. Until then, I need mental therapy.
Originally uploaded on October 23, 2011
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