Tales of Regression

Chapter 5
Piracy Doesn't Pay

Chapter Description: For Legal reasons I Must Disclaim That Piracy Is Illegal And I Should Not Condone It, Even If I Personally Don't Always Agree With That Statement.

"Little angel! Keep me from the pain! Can you come to Earth before I go insane?" As I scroll through a site of questionable legality I silently sing Angel of Mine from the Subdigitals as it plays on my phone; my tail lightly tapping the beat on the wood floor of my room. "Sigh, none of these games are really catching my attention." As I continue to scroll around I start to lose hope that I'll find a game I truly care about and will have to download a game from an ever growing list of tabs with titles that I might wanna try. Eventually, after scrolling for what feels like over an eternity, I find one I've been meaning to see if it's available yet but just simply forgot about: Music Wars - Alla Breve.

"Looks like today is my lucky day." As I mischievously grin I open the link in a new tab and close the other tabs to the right of it. "Just need to get the torrent file and I'll be golden." Down near the bottom of the page I find the download button for a torrent mangnet for the torrent file. Torrenting may seem sketchy since a lot of piracy happens because of it but, there's a use case for using it legally. It's how I used to get the updates for my preferred office suite LibreOffice back when I still used Windows. "Transmission is a go." As the torrent finishes downloading I just click on it from within the browser download list and the Transmission client opens rather quickly; the torrent starting to try to connect to other torrenters as quick as it can.

"Now I just have to wait and eventually... Huh?" Out of the corner of my eye I notice my web browser decide to just force close itself and re-open itself back up on the task bar on the side of the screen. "I hope I didn't just download an infected torrent file. It'll take a while for me to clean my setup or switch distros if I did. And I don't have all the time in the world to focus on that." Under normal circumstances I've never had many issues with the site I decided to get this torrent file from. Let alone any troubles with my web browser ever since I got a higher RAM count in my desktop.

"It's probably nothing serious. Probably could have just been a minor glitch with a running process. At least this game was made specifically for Linux before being ported to Windows, so I don't have to worry about using WINE to try and get it running." Luckily the website has a torrent file for both versions of the game. Also, with my brother and parents gone for the night, I can spend it making sure it works just fine and playing a bit. The download is a bit sluggish as I am only connected to four others currently seeding this file.

"What was that?" I feel rather paranoid as I hear what sounds to be the sound of a breaking plate from outside my room. "I better make sure nobody has broke into our apartment." Next to my computer tower is a sharp pocket knife I like to keep on me just in case I need to use it for cutting things open or for self defense. I flick it open and slowly and quietly make my way from my chair to the opposite side of the room to my door. I stick my ear to the door, having left my wired earbuds at my makeshift desk consisting of a beside table and a folding dinner tray.

"Nothing. I can do this." It's only midnight yet I am already getting a touch paranoid. It must be from all the nights I've been staying up late and the sketchy people who sometimes come through this apartment complex as of late. As I slowly open my door, I make sure to keep my knife at the ready. Nothing jumps out at me or makes any noise as I finish opening the door. To my left I turn on the bathroom light and do a quick search only to find nothing. The door squeaks a bit as I check the shower.

"Huh?" The door shouldn't squeak, or have I not been paying enough attention to notice it actually does? I can't recall right off hand, causing my paranoia to rise a little. "Next room." Next up is the next closest room: my brothers' room. After turning on his lamp I search and find nothing. As I finish searching his closet I hear a voice whisper to me.

"Filthy Thief..." I immediately turn around to find that there is nobody behind me or anywhere near my body. This immediately heightens my paranoia. Is there someone in this apartment with me or am I imagining all this? I can't say for sure, making me pretty uneasy.

"I don't like this one bit." Next up is the kitchen and pantry, knife grip gripped firmly in my paw. If anyone tries to attack me, I'll stab them and call the police if at all possible. Luckily the site of blood doesn't make me queasy because I'm used to seeing mine every time I have to get my INR checked. The kitchen is small and easy to clear. Same with the pantry. As I'm about to turn around in the pantry I feel what feels like someone breathing down my neck with a hot breath.

"Fuck, if this keeps happening, I'll be too paranoid to enjoy my night alone." With all the light leading up into the living room on I turn on the living room lights and find nobody. I even turn on the balcony lights and find nobody outside. Just to make sure there's no foul play I go out and check for any ladders leading up to our balcony. None are found. As I'm about to head in I notice a stranger in the distance looking towards me, his head facing up towards me.

"Shit. I hope this guy isn't coming after me and doesn't know I'm all alone." Once back inside I quickly check to see if the front door is locked. "Thank god it is locked because I don't know what that stranger was looking towards me for." He looked almost like a blue otter friend of mine but I know it couldn't be him. "Alright, let's continue checking the rooms." Since I'm already in the living room I decide to check the front closet. As I find nothing, I feel my paranoia levels leveling out and even decreasing a touch.  Lastly I check all of the master bedroom and find nothing.

"I guess it was all in my head." With a grin on my face I turn off the lights and head back to my room "My download should hopefully be done soon, maybe." Once back in my chair I am greeted to a screen showing my download is complete. "Sweet. Let's get cracking." Inside my file browser I open the downloads directory and find not only the file but also a text file labeled "you shouldn't have done that" next to it. My paranoia level rises a lot as I open the file. Inside is just a bunch of nonsense text with no meaning to it. At least until I find some strings of words in-between the junk text. "Curse, Punish, Age, Delete." It almost sounds like whoever is having fun at my expense probably wants me to delete this file.

"No way. I am not deleting it." I just decide to close the text file and just go ahead with unpacking the game tarball. Once unpacked I look for the installation files. Eventually I do find what I need and let the installer run.

"I warned you!" I turn around in my seat only to feel absolutely sick to my stomach, causing me to wrap my arms around my stomach. I feel like my stomach is going to explode and splurt my stomach acid everywhere. My head begins to spin and I start to get a massive headache worse than anything I've ever experienced before. I start to feel weak as my body begins to slide out and onto the floor.

"Aaaaahhhhh!" I scream as I sit up in bed. I start to cry as Adler opens my door.

"What's wrong Zach?" My mom and dad and my big brother are all gone tonight so Miss Adler is here.

"I had a bad dream."

"It must have really scared you. Your sheets are wet."

"Huh?" I didn't even notice I wet the bed.

"Why don't you change pajamas and get that soaked Goodnite off of you while I change your sheets? Then I'll read you a bedtime story." I nod as I get out of bed. I'm going to start second grade tomorrow and I still wet the bed. What's wrong with me?