my brother moved out of the house back
in 2002 once he got his job as a
computer technician and he recently went
missing when I went to his house it was
locked with three sheets of print and
paper taped to the front door while
coming home from work one day I noticed
someone had left their damaged gray
laptop laying in the middle of my
driveway I got out of my car to examine
it more carefully the LCD definitely
showed signs of user related damage
there was a large hole on the side of
the left screen that appeared to fit a
standard Philips head screwdriver
perfectly there was a webcam above the
display and it was also destroyed with
the same screwdriver other than those
everything else on the computer showed
minor signs of wear and almost all of
the keyboard's keys were faded but not
to the extent that the laptop could be
considered unusable I looked at the back
of the display to find out what brand it
is but I couldn't find anything I looked
at the entire laptop shell but there was
no text or logo stating what brand it
was in fact there was no warranty
sticker no proof of license sticker on
the bottom no text
whatsoever what was even more odd was
the fact that the only ports on the
laptop were a VGA port for connecting an
external display and a USB port how long
could this laptop have possibly run
without a charging port to recharge the
battery it must have been a very low-end
laptop where you had to remove the
battery pack and put it into its own
charging dock why did it have a webcam
though
curious as to what was on the laptop I
ran inside to my basement where my old
desktop was currently being stored the
reason it was down there was because I
forgot to bring that Behemoth to the
local SAR can to recycle it I would have
been using it as my regular computer but
it takes 5 or 6 hours to fully boot
because the system always goes through
recovery mode every time you start it
and the processor is way too slow to
recover everything on the 500 GB hard
drive I had installed on
it a 100 20 MHz penum processor doesn't
get you too far I removed the old LG CRT
monitor from the desktop and plugged it
into the laptop I went to push the power
button when I stopped there's no way
this is going to work the battery has to
be dead by now I raged around the
basement to find my old battery voltage
tester and immediately withdrew the
battery from the laptop and check the
voltage lo and behold it had no charge
well I thought might as well just leave
it and take everything to start can
tomorrow morning with that I unplugged
the display from the laptop put it back
into the desktop and simply left
everything downstairs after leaving the
basement I went to go watch TV for about
3 hours or so before going to bed I was
suddenly awakened from my deep Slumber
by the sound of the Windows 2000 startup
jingle and fell out of my bed it was so
deafeningly loud I swore someone was
holding a pair of speakers right next to
my ears I stood up in a groggy Daz and
it took a couple of minutes to figure
out what the sound was the desktop I
must have accidentally hit the power
switch while trying to switch monitors I
headed to the basement but froze in the
middle of the steps I just remembered
there was no way my computer could have
started up because I have Windows 95
installed on my desktop I was reluctant
to go down the steps after that but my
Common Sense started kicking in and I
thought I must be getting my os's mixed
up when I walked down I was shocked to
see that my desktop wasn't on in fact I
remembered it wasn't even plugged in I
had to make sure of it though I checked
behind the desktop everything else was
poent except for the
power there was absolutely no chance of
that laptop turning on it was impossible
I removed the battery from the laptop
again and rechecked the voltage this
time I couldn't get a direct number the
voltage tester was just going insane I
reinserted the battery and pressed the
power button on the laptop some
indicator lights flashed meaning the
computer definitely started except this
time the startup jingle wasn't played at
all I needed to see what was going on
here I connected the CRT monitor back
into the laptop and what I saw was a
bare desktop with three icons in the
corner the taskbar was empty and there
was no start menu button the wallpaper
was black why would anyone do this to
their desktop anyone could remove all
the icons but they had to be pretty
skilled hackers to remove the start menu
button of the three icons one was the
game's folder one was the video's folder
and the last was the Dos command prom
but
program maybe this was a kid's laptop
clicking on the games folder confirmed
my suspicions a little girl must have
owned this laptop I felt some remorse
for the poor girl because there was only
one game in the folder the program name
was princess. exe I clicked on it just
to see what the game was like a fully
animated title screen came up with
various generic fairy tale princesses
twirling across the screen and then the
logo flew down with a bunch of sparkly
doves holding it the game was called
Princess Creator make yourself beautiful
ah so it must have been one of those low
budget put PNG of various clothing items
onto a photo of yourself games I was
right as the menu popped up I was given
the option to dress up or view pretty
pictures I wanted to see what the girl
looked like so I clicked on the second
option she had to have been no more than
five and on top of that she looked very
cute she was either of Mexican or
Spanish origin she wore a somewhat
tattered white dress with small red
Frills around the sleeves in the collar
it had small roses on it I smiled as she
looked like she had a lot of fun putting
a virtual TR on her head however
browsing through the photos about
halfway through there were pictures of a
room with nothing else with a bed inside
she must have been dodging the camera
for the hell of it I guess after that I
thought I'd seen enough with that
program and I might as well go see the
other two files on the laptop I decided
to go into the command prompt to see if
I could locate any other files in the
hard drive I simply got a colon SL line
with dve drive with no Drive letter okay
this is really strange I thought I tyed
in the command box start C col and slash
to see if I could open the directory I
wanted to explore I pressed enter and do
simply replied start is not recognized
as an internal or external command
operable program or batch file after a
few seconds the program crashed bringing
me to the desktop so I guess the last
thing was to look at the videos I double
clicked the folder and the screen faded
to Black I thought it had crash but
there was a small underscore flashing in
the top left corner suddenly the text
start/ videos
sl001 WMV flashed briefly then a video
appeared in full screen it was a girl
again this time she was smiling bouncing
slightly in excitement her happiness
made my heart feel warm my guess was
that she must have been recording
herself play the dress up game with the
webcam at first she was simply moving
her finger across the track PL trackpad
clicking then giggling excitedly for a
bit she must have been laughing at the
things she put on herself in the game
after about 2 minutes or so the scream
had cut to Black for a fraction of a
second then returned to the girl playing
the game this time however she was
dressed differently in a simple pink
T-shirt with the words go go girl
stitched in glitter I guess the game was
recording her every time she started it
without her knowing that made me sort of
uneasy I mean why would anyone program a
game to do that whatever I guess it was
going to be the same sort of thing over
and over with the video so I might as
well turn on the computer I reached over
and pressed the power button and it
didn't shut off this time the video
continued to play and I saw the girl
this time wearing an orange tank top
with nothing on it she was smiling and
giggling as usual and I thought maybe I
could turn off the computer after the
video was done it couldn't be that long
the video seemed to drag on with more
cuts of her playing the game in a
different outfit and I started to doze
off however the next cut in the video
the girl was was just staring at the
camera with an expressionless look on
her face wondering what the hell was
going on I became interested in the
video again this one didn't make me
smile it made me extremely uneasy to
watch her without her usual smiley face
on it was dark in the room but there was
one desk light on at the side she was in
some sort of nightwear what was she
going to do she sat there for a minute
with that blank expression like she
wasn't thinking at all I started to get
really tense as if something awful was
about to happen she bent over and picked
up a handsaw from the left side of where
she was sitting she held it in front of
her showing it to the camera then she
placed the jagged blade on the side of
her cheek I cringed at what I was saying
slowly she began slicing into her right
cheek blood drizzled down her neck as
she did it slowly the side of her teeth
began to show after about 10 seconds as
she went lower on her face more of her
teeth began to show on the side
blood covered almost the entire right
side of her face she eventually got to
the bottom of her Jawbone and saw a tiny
piece off of it too her cheek fell to
the ground with a small thud and she put
the saw on her lap and continued to
stare at the camera
emotionless I couldn't take more much
more of this and tore the battery out of
the laptop but the video continued to
play then the next cut began the girl
screamed in extreme pain I almost fell
out of my seat it was so loud she
screamed and put her hands over her now
absent cheek she continued to scream in
agony for about 10 seconds then a
knocking was heard from the side it was
a woman yelling in a language I couldn't
understand she was pounding the door but
not opening it the girl must have locked
it I tried to unplug the monitor from
the laptop but it was stuck in I didn't
want to see what happens next the
screaming and the yelling continued up
until the next cut she was back in her
emotionless State again but her cheek
was still missing saying the woman at
the door was pounding and yelling still
it must have been her mother the girl
then raised the saw up to her right
shoulder and began cutting it just as
slowly as last time I gagged at the side
of this it was a holocaust of wrong the
blood began to stream out in all
directions the yelling behind the door
fell silent I guess the other woman was
trying to get someone to help her either
the father or brother or whatnot when
she hit the bone an awful grinding noise
could be heard covered my ears but I
could still hear it vividly through my
hands I noticed a piece of her muscle
got stuck on one of the teeth of the saw
this cut ended a lot faster than before
and the next cut was the same thing
except the color from her face was
draining and her pain ridden screams
became quickly weaker her clothing was
completely red with blood on the right
side then she became emotionless again
oh God what is she going to cut off next
the mother returned with what sounded
like two other people
and they were all yelling in the same
language as before she raised the saw
and began cutting the right side of her
head off loud thuds were sounding at the
door they were trying to knock it down
she continued to work her way down with
blood going in all sorts of directions
the studs still repeated themselves on
the door I was mostly confused as to how
she kept going even after she went
through her brain with the saw her right
eye rolled into the back of her head
blood began leaking out of it she
eventually made it to the top of her
mouth where she hacked her way through
the bones and
teeth it was the single worst sound I
have ever heard in my entire life I can
still hear it in the back of my head
some
days the THS continued and deep in the
back of my mind I hope they wouldn't be
able to break down the door so they
wouldn't have to see such an awful sight
she finally made it through and with
that the right side of her head fell to
the side of her neck held on only by a
tiny only by a piece of skin again I
remember the chilling sound of her jaw
being unhinged when it was tugged
violently by the force of the top half
of her head she put the saw down to her
side the cut ended and in the next cut
she simply fell face down onto the desk
her half of her brain fell out onto the
desk on impact and her eye popped out of
its socket blood pulled on the desk the
people trying to break in the door
finally made it try trying to break down
the door finally made it in and they
were hysterical at what they saw their
daughter was in pieces the mother
vomited and ran out of the room the
father ran to the daughter put her head
back together and cried holding her head
at the side of his the other man
presumably the girl's older brother
simply stared in horror at what he
saw the horrifying self mutilation
finished with that cut and the scream
cut to back to the empty room with the
bed with a sigh of relief that it was
over I sat there Breathing heavily and
sweating I didn't realize that the room
was so hot until now I had so many
questions to ask how is all of this
possible it frightened me and I spent a
good 30 minutes sitting in that chair
and finally I got the courage to get up
I looked back at the laptop for what I
hope was the last time the room with the
bed glared on the screen then it cut to
something else it was a cut of my face
in the basement using the laptop
[Music]