Before I start my story I must tell you that this is no joke. This isn't about me downloading some bootleg copy of a game I want from some shady website, or getting a cheap copy of my favorite childhood game at my local GameStop only to find that it's "Haunted". No. This is a story of something that has scarred me for life; something I will only talk about once, so listen closely. Let's begin...
Another boring Saturday afternoon was about to pass me by. I had nothing to do. I had already finished every book or E-book I have ever owned, and had beaten every game on my desktop at least twice. I sat still looking at my desktop background for at least a good twenty minutes before I thought of something. I remember earlier I had watched Pewdiepie play a game called Penumbra: Black Plague, and it looked like one of the best horror games I had ever seen at the time. So I pulled up Google and quickly typed it in to the search bar. I skimmed through a couple of results before I saw a link I could trust. "Download Penumbra: Black Plague on Mediafire.com free". Now, I trust MediaFire since I had downloaded a couple things from there before but little did I know, this download would be life changing[]
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I clicked the link and it took me right to where I could download the game. I was looking through the description when I noticed something weird. In the description it said "Includes mod 'The Grin' ". At the time I thought "Sweet, I get an extra for free" but this was no normal mod. I waited about 10 minutes before it was done downloading. I went through the boring setup and finally got to the actual application. I noticed that there were two applications that downloaded and not just one. One was named Penumbra: Black Plague, but the other one was titled: The_Grin.exe . I knew I wasn't very good at handling horror games so I decided to start with the normal game first and leave the mod for last. I clicked on Penumbra, but nothing happened. I didn't think this was strange at first since some games didn't like to register with my laptop so I tried again. I clicked on the app again, still nothing. Okay.. this is weird, if my computer couldn't run it then wouldn't it give me a message or something? "God Dammit, I seriously hope I don't have to re-download this piece of crap again" I thought. Once again I tried but once I clicked the app, it disappeared.[]
"What??" I thought "How the hell did that happen?". I quickly checked through all of my documents and downloads frantically looking for Penumbra. A quick sweep of my computer revealed nothing. Now I was starting to get suspicious, was this a joke? Was it a part of the mod? No, it can't be the mod. The mod would have to be pretty high tech to be able to fuck around with my computer. I gave up and went back to my downloads. I clicked on the Penumbra download and saw that a Text.doc had appeared above the "The_Grin.exe" mod. Now I was seriously alarmed. This was starting to freak me out. How could a simple free download be able to change and replace documents on my computer? Was this some sort of stupid virus that I was tricked into downloading? I shook these thoughts from my head and stared at my screen. I debated on whether I should open the text.doc or not. Half of me was very anxious to open it and read it's contents, but the other half of me was cowering in the shadows, not wanting anything to do with this damned mod and game anymore. My anxiety got the best of me and I opened the document.[]
Inside was this chilling sentence: "Once you start you cannot stop, he watches your every move and if you slip up, he'll be waiting right there ready to take your life". That was almost as much as I could take. My hands were shaking and my forehead was damp with sweat. "Ok, that's it" I said "I will not take anymore of this from some stupid game". I shut my laptop off and left the house, hoping that going on a long bike ride would take my mind off things. I arrived back home at around 5:00 p.m. tired and very thirsty. I dragged my self to the fridge and grabbed a can of Iced Tea then set off to my room. I sat down in my chair and grabbed my laptop from my desk. I logged in and went on YouTube to watch some videos, completely forgetting about the mod I had downloaded. About halfway through one of the videos I was watching I got a message from Norton Antivirus saying "Your AntiVirus protection expired two hours ago, you are no longer protected from harmful viruses and Malware". What? I just renewed it yesterday! The Mod. It was almost like it was trying to get my attention now. Changing shit on my computer? Erasing important documents and applications? "That's the last straw" I said. I went to Windows Explorer and went to my downloads. I opened the Penumbra download and right-clicked on The_Grin.exe and chose the delete option. The icon disappeared and I breathed a sigh of relief, but that brief moment of relief was suddenly shattered when I got a pop-up from Windows saying "The document 'The_Grin.exe' cannot be deleted". I sat there with my mouth wide open. It hit me like a Nine-pound hammer. This game could not go away until I played it through.[]
I took a deep breath and clicked the app. I was sent straight to the main menu which consisted of a black screen and three options: Start, Options, and Run. What did the game mean by run? Whatever, I thought nothing more of it and I reluctantly hit start. A static picture of a horrific creature popped up accompanied by a very loud screeching noise. My ears felt like they were bleeding but I was too afraid to care about that after what I had seen. This creature was the most terrifying thing I had ever seen in my life. It's face was roundish shaped and very pale, almost as white as snow. One eye had both eyelids stitched together in a very crude fashion, while the other eye socket was missing the eyeball. Dried, crimson colored blood stained around it's eye sockets and streaked down it's face. The skin around it's jawline had sunk in exposing the outline of it's jawbone and it's mouth bore the most grisly, inhumane smile. I shut my eyes and did not bear to look at the screen. About five minutes passed and decided to peek at the screen.[]
The game had started out just like it does in the normal penumbra, except the room layout was a bit odd. I started out in a room that looked a lot like a modern day prison cell instead of starting off in the normal empty room. My character was standing in the corner of the room when suddenly there was a loud banging coming from the cell door. A notification popped up on the top of the screen saying ``Hide or die``. I quickly searched around the room for somewhere to hide. In the corner opposite to me there was a rusty old locker. I quickly sprinted over and my character opened the locker and hid inside. That`s weird. The normal game didn`t have that kind of interaction. Suddenly the door to the cell room burst open and the hideous Grin demon entered. I watched as it slowly drifted towards where I was hiding. I was starting to get very nervous. It moved away from the locker and checked out the rest of the room. I was just about to open the locker door when The Grin quickly popped up in front of the locker, grinning it`s terrible grin while staring right into my very soul. The locker door ripped open and my character ran out through the door that The Grin had came through. A new objective popped up that simply said ``Escape``. I started running down a very dark empty hallway while that thing was close behind. Every time it got close a terrible sound played. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard but also like... screams.[]
Very faint screams but not as faint as to not be able to hear them. My character stumbled through the darkness before turning a corner and ducking through an open doorway. The grin passed right by the room and down the rest of the hallway. I waited in that room for about 5 minutes before I got enough courage to stand up and walk around it. On the floor was a flashlight, two batteries, and a note that appeared to be scrawled in what seemed like blood. I picked everything up and instantly began to read the note. ``No... Escape.. It`s too... fast.. Everyone`s dead.... dear god, HELP. After I read the note my character looked up and the entire map had changed. I was no longer In a dark room, I was in a hospital. I took up my flashlight and walked through the halls. Dead bodies were strewn about all over, one in a corner there, one slouched against the wall here. The most disturbing part though was that the injuries on some of the corpses looked very life-like...[]
The most gory one was on a dead soldier. His chest was burst open, blood splattered the walls and roof , rib bones stuck out of the hole and pieces scattered the ground around him, internal organs were strewn about and some were missing. I saw this and cringed. Why would someone take the time to make a serious wound look so realistic? Whoever made this must be psychotic. Now messages would appear on walls scrawled in blood. Often there would be dead bodies with grisly wounds laying next to these messages, almost as if The Grin was using these poor people as containers of paint; killing them and writing with their own blood.[]
Walking down the hall the lights started to flicker as I turned a corner. The exit! I made my character sprint as fast as he could down the hallway towards the exit. But wait, why is the exit moving away? NO. It can't be. Every time I run down the hall the exit gets further and further away. Eventually I reached a dead end. "NO.. NO it can't be, LET ME OUT" I shouted at the computer screen. As if The Grin had heard me, he spoke in a deep raspy voice "There is no way out, you will die like the others". Without me touching the keyboard my character slowly turned around, all noise ceased emitting from the speakers. My character turned around and saw The Grin.. waiting there.. smiling it's wide, grisly smile. It charged toward my character and the screen went blank. All I could hear was the sound of bone crushing and blood gushing. Then unexpectedly I was greeted with my own face. How the hell did the game turn my webcam on? By now I was on the verge of shitting myself. I couldn't back out, I was stuck looking at my face on the screen.[]
===== Suddenly on the screen I saw something morphing out of the wall. It was him. His face came out of the wall. I couldn't look away from the screen, It was like I was glued to it. I couldn't look away. In a very quick motion I grabbed the knife off my desk, swung around in my chair and pointed the knife right at the wall. There was nothing there. Of course there wasn't, it's only a stupid game. I slowly turned around and saw on my computer... a black screen.. bearing these exact words: "You can't escape, you will never escape, I will always be watching you, stay away from the shadows, always check over your shoulder, because I will always be there.. watching you...slowly draining you of your life". Those chilling words were accompanied by a picture of what seemed like murder victims. Bodies, most of them with ghastly injuries just like the bodies in the mod all piled in the middle of a field. I thought that I was going to be sick. The picture lasted for about three seconds and then it cut to my desktop. The game had completely erased itself from my computer. I checked online to find something on it, but to this day I have never heard anything about it. But even now I still stay away from the shadows, and always check over my shoulder. People say I'm paranoid, but I just tell them "I'm being cautious". =====