You've heard of this place. Somewhere just off the edge of normal, something to be looked into and explored. You're the kind of person that likes exploring, though for the most part you tend to explore stuff like online message boards and forums. Still, when you heard about this one, so very close to your own home, you just had to take a peek. Preparing a backpack, you filled it with a rope, a compass, a pocket blade, a swiss army knife, and of course, your phone. Beyond that, a good water bottle and a good flashlight are really all you think you'll need. Sure, it's an exploration of someplace creepy, but you'll be there in plain daylight, and it's not exactly off the beaten path.
The building itself is dramatically mundane. Walking a meters off the beaten path, off a dirt path a few miles from the docks, you find it, half-hidden in the weeds and behind a mess of overgrown trees. It used to be some kind of major storage facility, back when business was booming, but it's hardly booming now. The glass at the front has mostly fallen inwards, but that's not the end of the world for a tough building like this. You walk forward, ignoring the "no trespassing" sign on the rusted out fencing surrounding it. The main door has another lock on it as well, but this one is equally broken, half-ruined both by age and by an impact. It lends some credence to what you read, that others had been here, that this sort of thing could be found and understood.
You enter the building, the light of the clouded day makes its way through busted windows and making the space eery and a bit darker than it normally would be. It doesn't take you long to walk past a sort of lobby area and find what you're looking for; a spiral staircase, leading down, strangely out of place with its rusted guardrail leading through down into a larger, partially underground storage space that the upper floor overlooks.
[[You head down the stairs.->Journey Down]]You remember the forum you read, the way people talked about this place. You're not stupid; only an idiot walks into a damn slenderman sighting and doesn't expect to get hurt. Boring example, maybe; you know there are absolutely dozens of stories, myths, creeps and more that are real and are out there, and even if there weren't, following dumb ideas into dangerous places ain't a safe proposition either. When you went looking, you went for something creepy, something supernatural, but not the kind of thing that eats your soul, or follows you home, or like, clones you with a million hands and tries to eat you from the inside. Nah, this one here was a local legend, a place that was old but not anxient, a place that when you come through, you feel like you're being watched. Honestly you already do, kind of, a vague feeling of unease, though it's easy to still be convinced it's just the fact of being in a weird place that's getting darker by the minute.
Shadows lengthen, and time passes. It's honestly hard to tell how much; people are used to dealing with time in places and patterns that they recognize, and being in a strange space like this. Still, it almost feels like you're going... faster, maybe than you thought. Like... you're not even counting the steps, just thinking of the idea of walking down. Then again, that feeling is there, the idea of being watched, so maybe it's just messing up how it feels, if that makes any sense. You descend down the steps some more, and you begin to make out some of the shapes of the main area. To the left, there's a series of a sort of open air cubicles, like an office area right in the thick of things. Directly in front, the main loading area sits, with large back bay doors leading into the river and the loading docks back there as well. Finally, to the right is a larger storage space, not like the conveyor belts and unloading area in front. Supposedly the most haunted area is to the right, deep in that storage space, where the shadows are thickest and there are still some forgotten boxes, making something of a maze.
Do you go [[Right?->The Maze (early arrival)]] [[Left?->Office Spaces]] Explore the [[center?->Dead Center]]
[[Why does it feel like a question?->Strange Feeling]]It feels so //odd// here. Your sense of time feels so distorted, so off, it's like nothing here feels normal. You thought you could reason it out but it just doesn't fit. Something is off here, something with your perceptions and how much time is passing. Maybe this is something else the "thing that sees you" is influencing, or maybe just making your head funny. Maybe you should go.
You won't though.
[[Why not?->Why are you here?]]Unsurprisingly, there's not much here. The strange juxtaposition of an active working space with an abandoned building? Check. The abandoned, cheap portions of an office space that was probably a nightmare to work at anyways? Check. A few abandoned desks, a few pointless bits of styrofoam here and there (ooh, like that empty paper cup someone forgot there in the corner) but other than that, not much at all besides cobwebs and dust. There is a stairwell a lot like the one you came down on heading up into an office on an upper walkway, probably some kind of foreman's office, where there might be something interesting. Here, though, there's nothing but the ghost of a place that used to be, and now isn't, but didn't have the common decency to vanish entirely.
So. Wander about a bit more, maybe [[into the main space->Dead Center]] where stuff got unloaded? [[Check out that weird office?->Old Records]] Or maybe just get to [[why you came here?->The Maze (early arrival)]]Honestly, there's not much to see here. What was once a bustling, crowded part of a busy building is now just dead empty space, its details long since abandoned. There are some conveyor belts, a few abandoned trolleys, stuff that people would use to move boxes and their contents from one end to the other. Honestly, you're not sure why you came over here, you know what this is about, you know you came here for that urban legend, so why wander into some random spot in an empty warehouse? Sure, you're psyching yourself up a bit, but there's plenty of space until the inner warehouse, and honestly you're not that scared. The whole point was to come during the daytime, confront a really minor spook in some podunk nowhere that is your home. Heck, sometimes you can't even remember the name of the town you're in, and you've lived here for what feels like forever.
So. Empty unpacking area. A loading dock with nothing to load. Not... not too much else to it, really. I mean maybe, if you're gonna explore this part, you might as well[[ explore the office space,->Office Spaces]] but... you did come here for a reason, and it doesn't make sense to drag this out too long, or the sun might get low and make the shadows in here even worse. Maybe you just want to [[check out the storage area->The Maze (early arrival)]], get this over with? That or at least [[check this space out properly->Strange, the things you notice]], since you're here anyways.Now THIS is what you came here for. A creepy, spooky part of a creepy spooky building. But not too spooky! The sunlight from outside is still streaming in; you came with time. The room ahead of you has no windows, though, just a big concrete block, and you see a bunch of stacked boxes of wood all across here. This was in the forum post, a strange maze of boxes that makes a sort of liminal space. Here, something sees you, and you may glimpse a strange figure that looks like you, at which point you're supposed to leave.
[[You head into the maze.->Danger and Risk]]You know you wanted to come here, but did you? So much of this feels off. You think that this feels completely out of sorts for a very first exploration, to come alone to some secluded spot, so why did you come here? Why make this leap? You can't remember.
But there's a lot you can't remember. Like that name on the desk, or like the name of your town. Like //your// name.
But you know your name. So why does it feel so blurry? Like only part of you knows it? Like part of you is aware of the existence of the name but not it's nature?
How long have you been here? It feels like minutes. It's been hours. Has it been hours?
Why did you come here? What are you hoping to find? Why would you take such an insane risk for... for something that felt like mild entertainment?
Why do you feel so [[//divided//?->It's You]]It's not what you expected, really. Wandering into it it's almost like it was never abandoned. You know this place shut down in a hurry (though you're not sure where you remember it from) but it is weird that they didn't take all of this with them, right?
It takes you a moment to realize it's kind of hard to picture the space. All the dust and the darkness makes it hard to really see, even in your mind's eye. You take out your flashlight and shine it about, alighting on old filing cabinets still full of half-molded papers, a full wooden desk with a nameplate and everything, even a really shitty old computer from the 90s, just sitting on the desk. The computer wields nothing when you try and turn it on, but the whole thing makes for a great photo op, so you make sure to take some pics on your phone to post later.
That done you start rifling through the cabinets. You're here anyways, and you're kinda here to explore, so even if this isn't where you intended to be it's fine to just check it out. Still, it's... definitely weird. In all the posts about this place you read, all it mentions is the strange feeling of being watched in the storage space; it makes no mention of an upper office full of filing cabinets with blank documents. They line up one after the other, folders of varying width and paper type, all of them completely blank. Some of them have lines, like with forms to be signed, but there's no text denoting what should go on any lines. It's like the office, for all its apparent shape, is just as vague and blurry as your first impressions made it seem, like someone thought of an office but never quite filled it in. It is definitely weird.
Honestly, you'd like to stay and examine these papers more, instead of [[wandering back outside->Office Spaces]]. Maybe with enough time you can find a pattern here, as unlikely or time consuming it might seem. It is just so //weird// that [[all these pages are blank.->It's all empty]]This place is... off. You can't quite put your finger on it, though. It's like... nothing here tells you that this place shouldn't be as it is, everything you see just leaving an impression that fits right in, but none of the details are there. You can look around and see conveyor belts, or office spaces, or hell, even the maze you plan to go into, and you can describe them all just fine, but for some reason it feels like even if you took pictures of everything, recorded it, understood all of it,none of these conveyor belts would be found anywhere else. Like maybe the details on the desk chairs tells you that no one sells any like them, or could think of any who had. This place is strange not in that it's abnormal, but in that it is so //specifically// normal that it almost doesn't fit. Something is really off, here, more than just some weird ghost attention. You can't see it, though.
Deep inside, something tells you [[you should leave.->Why can't you leave?]]They're all blank. There's nothing here. You've wasted a ton of time here, enough that the sun is starting to set a bit, and you've found nothing more than the mess you've made, dozens of blank pages in blank file folders scattered all over the floor and the desk. Maybe they were using these files for storage, extra paper? A model environment, maybe, like they had to present something? No, it still doesn't make sense. Still, a glance out the big bay windows at the back of the desk show just how much sunlight you've wasted here. [[Time to head back down to the storage area->Dead Center (late arrival)]], before it gets far too late to do all this.
You take inventory as you leave, make sure you didn't miss anything. The weird papers, check. Flashlight and food? check. You try and make sure to remember what you saw here as you go to leave, but... Hmm. Weird. You saw the nameplate as you came in, and you're sure there was a number on it. You remembered everything else you saw. You were in there for hours. [[How come you can't remember it?->Strange Feeling]]Now THIS is what you came here for. A creepy, spooky part of a creepy spooky building. Even if something feels off, feels wrong, isn't that, maybe, why you came? Still, with all the time you wasted it almost feels //too// freaky for your tastes. The sunlight from outside is fully gone now, or close to it, making even your way out someplace dark slightly strange. The room ahead of you has no windows, just a big concrete block, and you see a bunch of stacked boxes of wood all across here, the space nearly pitch black and your flashlight the only thing making them visible. This was in the forum post, a strange maze of boxes that makes a sort of liminal space. Here, something sees you, and you may glimpse a strange figure that looks like you, at which point you're supposed to leave.
Despite your hesitation, your fear and the dark, [[you head into the maze.->Death]]You.
You're doing something, aren't you?
Who are you?
Why are you looking at me?
Why am I here? Did you bring me here?
What's my name? Why don't I know my name? Why don't YOU know my name?
Why are you doing this? I think I wanted this, wanted to see something frightening, but so much doesn't line up
How long have I been here?
Why can't you hear me?
Why do you know what I'm saying when you can't hear me?
Why... why can't //I// hear me?
[[Who Are You?->Who Am I?]]Who Am I?
''[[Having fun yet?->Journey Down]]''Honestly, there's not much to see here. What was once a bustling, crowded part of a busy building is now just dead empty space, its details long since abandoned. There are some conveyor belts, a few abandoned trolleys, stuff that people would use to move boxes and their contents from one end to the other. Honestly, you're not sure why you came over here, you know what this is about, you know you came here for that urban legend, so why wander into some random spot in an empty warehouse? Sure, you're psyching yourself up a bit, and there's plenty of space until the inner warehouse, but you're genuinely starting to get a little freaked out. The whole point was to come during the daytime, confront a really minor spook in some podunk nowhere that is your home, but now that the sun is setting... well, it's getting to be a bit much. You figure it's probably best to get this over with as quick as possible.
So. Empty unpacking area. A loading dock with nothing to load. Not... not too much else to it, really. But... you did come here for a reason, and it doesn't make sense to drag this out now that the shadows have gotten long and the trip home seems like it'll be even freakier than before. Maybe you just want to [[check out the storage area->The Maze (late arrival)]], get this over with? That or at least [[check this space out properly->Strange, the things you notice]], since you're here anyways.The maze is dark, here. The light from outside, leaking in through shattered windows and old open doors, doesn't quite reach into this box, concrete closing it off from the outside world. If not the for the shapes of the crates piled two or three high, it would be easy to see this place as a cavern, deep beneath the earth, in places the sun hadn't ever touched. Even being here, staring down this darkness, is already a thrill.
You take a few steps inside. The air beneath your shoes feels cool, cold enough that you can almost feel the chill through their soles, and it sends a shiver through you as you enter. Having crossed that threshold, though, things get easier, and soon you have your flashlight out of your bag and shining into the space. In some respects it actually does make things //worse//, the definition of shapes and corners and shadows giving your mind a wealth of angles to imagine things emerging from, but with the benefit of giving you places to step confidently into, it's a workable trade. You start traveling through the maze, step by cautious step, as if a face could peer out and charge at you from around every corner. More than once you trip and stumble, falling over or bumping into moldy wood and shattered remnants of crates. On one particular fumble, you hit //hard//, feeling the box clatter against your hip in a way that you know will bruise, and sending that same box onto its side with a massive "crash" that echoes through the empty space.
That's when you hear the [[footsteps.->Death]]Protagonist dies. Option for reader to begin again. Skip "Danger" if late arrival path
Something meets you here, in the dark. You don't see it, it almost feels like you've barely entered, but even by the light of your flashlight it is //so dark// here, and you can't help but feel the breath hitch in your throat and a pulse of frozen cold shock through your limbs and belly. At first, you see nothing, just hear those sounds, like something walking, quietly, in response to your entrance.
Then it's face peeks out.
It is almost horizontal, peeking out from behind a crate, its eyes bloodshot and recessed, its skin unnaturally pale and strange. Its hair is limp and damp from sweat and it is wearing clothes, but that's where the details stop. You can't quite tell what it looks like, as if only the broad strokes register, and it leaves it a vague and blurry thing, a vague and blurry thing wearing some kind of clothing that is torn and frayed, like it's been here a long, long time. A line of drool drips from its mouth, down its chin and onto the floor, uninterrupted.
And then it sees you, and //howls//
It sprints at you in a mad dash, arms flailing, reaching, feet pumping and slapping against the concrete, it's skin pale like a worm, pockmarked with wounds and scars, starved and desperate and so entirely alien in whatever emotion it is expressing besides //hunger//. It reaches towards you and you try to step back but you stumble, slip, a piece of wood catching your foot, sending you flat onto your ass, your backpack too heavy to let you get up quickly and-
It does things to you. Things that you do not want to remember.
And then you're gone.
Oh well. Looks like [[You'll have to restart!->First Reset]]But somehow that doesn't feel like an option, either. You look back at the stairs, at the fading light, at the option of leaving, and... you realize you want to go. You realize you don't want to be here, that this is too much, that all this weirdness, coupled with how late it's gotten, it goes well beyond what you were looking for, not just an innocent scare but something that fills you with a sense of dread.
And yet you can't leave. It's like you're waiting for something, like there's some limitation stopping you, keeping you in place, keeping you from going out. You pace and wring your hands and look all around and so long as you stay in this area, in this spot, you can do as you will. But deeper choices, like the choice to leave? They just don't fit.
Which leaves you with just one path that seems viable: [[forwards.->The Maze (late arrival)]]It wouldn't have worked if you were alone. It still almost doesn't, but whatever thing is helping you, it sees this place differently, touches it differently. The being hunting you comes closer and,
You move faster than it does.
And then you've moved faster than it has, even if the time doesn't quite match up, even if the details aren't there. You move forward but it's hard, it's lonely, it hurts, but you have someone watching helping working with you and-
And I suppose it's up to you now. You can choose to end this. It's in Your power. You just have to make the right choice. Choose for me not to be. Choose for their suffering to never have made me. Set them free.
[[You escape the Maze, heading home full of relief.->Good ending]]
Or [[You need a bit more closure->Middle Ground closure]].You both have some knowledge now, even if the separation is worse between you and You. You push yourself along, moving through familiar paths, but instead of feeling like an instant and an eternity, things move directly, at pace. It's easier, working together, not as partners but as one assisting at small moments, when needed. The damage is done, and you feel yourself emptied of so much, but for now, for this instant, you can tell you're not in the loop, not gone entirely, not left to rot in circles.
The maze grows deeper and stranger, more abstract, until it's less a warehouse of debris and more a maze in truth, but you know every part of it, every inch familiar and stained with your death in some small way. Only at the end, only at the very end is it anything new.
You actually turn around, hope in your eyes now, maybe for the first time in so long, and you see it.
The Hungry Thing.
Staring at you.
It isn't running. It isn't moving. It's close enough that it could catch you if it tried.
But it doesn't.
It just smiles, and cries, and hugs itself with those over-long, stretched out arms that leak.
And then you're [[out.->Middle Ground closure]]"No... no stop."
"Please, please please..."
"Why are You doing this?"
"I thought maybe You might help, once I realized you were here, but... why?"
"What did I ever do to You? What sins did I commit to be here? Do You even know my //name//?"
"Why do you keep hurting me?"
"Fuck you. FUCK you. You don't get to decide. You don't get to do this to me, and not have anything happen. You don't get to make me hollow and empty and hurting and tired and lonely and HUNGRY and not suffer for it.
Fuck you. This is MY story, now. And I'm going to hurt you, or something you care about, until it //stays// that way.
I'm in control now. And that backpack-wearing fuck is going to pay, and you're going to read about them paying and hurting until you get so bored or so scared or so tired that you leave. Me. ALONE.
Alone.
In the Dark.
[[Hungry.->Meta / horror ending]]"I see two passages in front of me," you say. "One has a broken box near it, like a stack fell over maybe, and the other is clear, but kinda... clean." You wait for the unknown force to make a decision, to see if it's willing to help you, or if it is making these decisions based on some other criterion.
The scarier pathway, with [[more debris->Debris path]]? Or the [[cleaner one->Cleaner path]]?You've heard of this place. Somewhere just off the edge of normal, something to be looked into and explored. You're the kind of person that likes exploring, though for the most part you tend to explore stuff like online message boards and forums. Still, when you heard about this one, so very close to your own home, you just had to take a peek. Preparing a backpack, you filled it with a rope, a compass, a pocket blade, a swiss army knife, and of course, your phone. Beyond that, a good water bottle and a good flashlight are really all you think you'll need. Sure, it's an exploration of someplace creepy, but you'll be there in plain daylight, and it's not exactly off the beaten path.
The building itself is dramatically mundane. Walking a meters off the beaten path, off a dirt path a few miles from the docks, you find it, half-hidden in the weeds and behind a mess of overgrown trees. It used to be some kind of major storage facility, back when business was booming, but it's hardly booming now. The glass at the front has mostly fallen inwards, but that's not the end of the world for a tough building like this. You walk forward, ignoring the "no trespassing" sign on the rusted out fencing surrounding it. The main door has another lock on it as well, but this one is equally broken, half-ruined both by age and by an impact. It lends some credence to what you read, that others had been here, that this sort of thing could be found and understood.
You enter the building, the light of the clouded day makes its way through busted windows and making the space eery and a bit darker than it normally would be. It doesn't take you long to walk past a sort of lobby area and find what you're looking for; a spiral staircase, leading down, strangely out of place with its rusted guardrail leading through down into a larger, partially underground storage space that the upper floor overlooks.
[[You head down the stairs.->Journey Down 2]]You remember the forum you read, the way people talked about this place. You're not stupid; only an idiot walks into a damn slenderman sighting and doesn't expect to get hurt. Boring example, maybe; you know there are absolutely dozens of stories, myths, creeps and more that are real and are out there, and even if there weren't, following dumb ideas into dangerous places ain't a safe proposition either. When you went looking, you went for something creepy, something supernatural, but not the kind of thing that eats your soul, or follows you home, or like, clones you with a million hands and tries to eat you from the inside. Nah, this one here was a local legend, a place that was old but not anxient, a place that when you come through, you feel like you're being watched. Honestly you already do, kind of, a vague feeling of unease, though it's easy to still be convinced it's just the fact of being in a weird place that's getting darker by the minute.
Shadows lengthen, and time passes. It's honestly hard to tell how much; people are used to dealing with time in places and patterns that they recognize, and being in a strange space like this. Still, it almost feels like you're going... faster, maybe than you thought. Like... you're not even counting the steps, just thinking of the idea of walking down. Then again, that feeling is there, the idea of being watched, so maybe it's just messing up how it feels, if that makes any sense. You descend down the steps some more, and you begin to make out some of the shapes of the main area. To the left, there's a series of a sort of open air cubicles, like an office area right in the thick of things. Directly in front, the main loading area sits, with large back bay doors leading into the river and the loading docks back there as well. Finally, to the right is a larger storage space, not like the conveyor belts and unloading area in front. Supposedly the most haunted area is to the right, deep in that storage space, where the shadows are thickest and there are still some forgotten boxes, making something of a maze.
It really is a //nightmare// of deja vu! You feel like you've been here before. Maybe the [[office on the left->Office Space 2]] will have something you can use, get a better understanding of what this place was? If not, it's definitely time to [[get to the maze->The Maze 2]], before the sun dips too low.Now THIS is what you came here for. A creepy, spooky part of a creepy spooky building. But not too spooky! The sunlight from outside is still streaming in; you came with time. The room ahead of you has no windows, though, just a big concrete block, and you see a bunch of stacked boxes of wood all across here. This was in the forum post, a strange maze of boxes that makes a sort of liminal space. Here, something sees you, and you may glimpse a strange figure that looks like you, at which point you're supposed to leave.
[[You head into the maze.->Hungry Thing]]It's not what you expected, really. Wandering into it it's almost like it was never abandoned. You know this place shut down in a hurry (though you're not sure where you remember it from) but it is weird that they didn't take all of this with them, right?
It takes you a moment to realize it's kind of hard to picture the space. All the dust and the darkness makes it hard to really see, even in your mind's eye. You take out your flashlight and shine it about, alighting on old filing cabinets still full of half-molded papers, a full wooden desk with a nameplate and everything, even a really shitty old computer from the 90s, just sitting on the desk. The computer wields nothing when you try and turn it on, but the whole thing makes for a great photo op, so you make sure to take some pics on your phone to post later.
That done you start rifling through the cabinets. You're here anyways, and you're kinda here to explore, so even if this isn't where you intended to be it's fine to just check it out. Still, it's... definitely weird. In all the posts about this place you read, all it mentions is the strange feeling of being watched in the storage space; it makes no mention of an upper office full of filing cabinets with blank documents. They line up one after the other, folders of varying width and paper type, all of them completely blank. Some of them have lines, like with forms to be signed, but there's no text denoting what should go on any lines. It's like the office, for all its apparent shape, is just as vague and blurry as your first impressions made it seem, like someone thought of an office but never quite filled it in. It is definitely weird.
Honestly, you'd like to stay and examine these papers more. Maybe with enough time you can find a pattern here, as unlikely or time consuming it might seem. It is just so //weird// that [[all these pages are blank.->It's all empty 2]] Then again, maybe it's best to [[do what you came here to do->The Maze 2]] and give it a google search later?They're all blank. There's nothing here. You've wasted a ton of time here, enough that the sun is starting to set a bit, and you've found nothing more than the mess you've made, dozens of blank pages in blank file folders scattered all over the floor and the desk. Maybe they were using these files for storage, extra paper? A model environment, maybe, like they had to present something? No, it still doesn't make sense. Something about this is almost //violently// upsetting, like you can't help but feel a tremendous sense of anxiety about this empty space. It's like there's some secret here, something missing, something that is staring you in the face. Why are these pages blank? What are you missing? Why is so much of what this place should be //empty//?
You hear the sound of something moving. Maybe in another place, at another time, your first instinct might be that is was a deer, wandering in somehow, but the fear in you says otherwise. Something about this place makes you //know// that something here wants to hurt you. Looking out the window of the office, you realize that that something is [[//here//->Try to Run]]
There's a headache to this thing, an agony. Something is wrong, SO wrong, so [[//wrong//->Strange Feeling]]It's too much. It's well past what you asked for when you came here. This isn't a vague sense of unease, a self-contained thrill, this is a danger because the thing is //here//, looking at you with its head cocked unnaturally to one side. It doesn't look human but it doesn't look like anything else either, it's limbs a bit too long, it's skin far too pale, starved for sunlight. It's eyes look bloodshot and just wrong, just //wrong//, like there's something in them that's missing where it wouldn't be in a person. You have to go, now, before it gets up the stairs, the only way up.
You fly down the stairs, panic and terror mixing to make something hard to think through. By the time you reach the bottom, the thing has moved closer, stuttering, strange steps bringing it closer and closer to you. You don't know if running is the best solution, but fighting this thing seems no more likely to succeed.
Do you stand your ground, [[try to fight this thing?->Fight Back]] Or do you [[try to escape?->Trapped]]You emerge, desperate, scrambling up the spiral staircase and //sprinting// the minute you have enough room, running so hard and so fast the oxygen in your throat feels like its chocking you. You leave the building, dashing out into fading sunlight, looking out at-
Nothing. There's nothing here.
There are vague things, like impressions, like off-color versions of bushes and grass and fields and sky, but even looking at them sideways makes them fade away, almost like they're only there when you pay attention. They're not a part of this, you think, not a part of this strange nightmare, and in that moment of realizing where you are you realize there is nowhere to go except deeper. Maybe in the maze there's something, maybe some other way out, maybe the only way out it through and-
Something grabs you from behind, and you have just long enough to scream before it drags you away.
Oh well. Looks like You are going to have to [[try->First Reset]] something new.You wander through this place, moving through the maze. It is... a strange feeling. Like you've seen this place in some strange nightmare or dream. You take your first steps, flashlight high, looking out into this strange combination of cavernous emptiness and the scattered remnants of human attention, and it feels familiar and terrifying, like you know where your steps lead. You walk forwards and instinctively avoid small detritus on the ground, things that you normally feel you should've fallen or stumbled over. As it is, you head deeper into the winding stacks of stark shadow and strange architecture with nary a sound, only the light in your hand and that strange instinctive feeling guiding your way.
You head a ways into this strange space, your unnatural understanding of where to step gradually fading away, piece by piece. Eventually you enter a space that you don't recognize, uncomfortable with how far in you've gone. You certainly feel off, uncomfortable, but the fear is starting to fade as you go deeper in. It seems that your familiarity with this place fades, like you've only ever gone so deep in your nightmares.
Then a Hungry Thing sees you.
You trip over a bit of wood and, as if waiting for the sound, you hear the slapping sound of bare feet sprinting towards you, face screaming, body moving awkwardly and strangely, an unnatural, broken marionnete with a mouth far too wide and eyes far too hollow. It stumbles and you find yourself stuck, unfamiliar territory making it impossible to avoid the creature as it reaches forward and takes you, drawing you into it and-
Well. Looks like You've broken this one, too. Pity. They got so much further than before! No breakdown, no distorted time, and they even got pretty far into that maze! Oh well. You can always [[try again!->Second Reset]]You've heard of this place. Somewhere just off the edge of normal, something to be looked into and-
This isn't right. You've... you've been here before, haven't you? Something feels off, early into the expedition. You feel uncomfortable, afraid, your breath heavy, your palms shaking and your skin balmy and sweaty. THis is wrong, something is wrong, and you think maybe you should leave and-
No. I won't let them. Not after everything.
Suddenly finding yourself in an unknown spot, you realize you're inside the building. You've been placed inside it and, looking around, you clearly see that something is wrong with the outside. With your growing awareness comes growing understanding. You have been here before. Something strange //is// going on. Your... are your choices your own? Would you have ever come here if you'd been in [[your right mind->Strange Feelings]]?
You tried to leave, and you couldn't. You can remember things, so long as you don't look at them overmuch, like that you've been here before. You know that parts of this place is empty, parts of it only partially filled in, like a blank space, a theater upon which a play is being presented. You are in danger here, but... it's not just you, is it?
"Hello?" you ask of the space around you. "Is... is someone watching this?"
"Please, I... if you can hear me, [[move my left arm->Acknowledge them]]. Make it... twitch, or something. Or... [[I guess not->Hide your presence]]."It's not even a fight. Not really. A scrawny kid with a heavy duty flashlight might be scary to some small woodland creature, but this... thing shows no fear. Its face controrts impossibly, its mouth yawning open until its just must have dislocated, until its mouth is as big as your torso, and it reaches out those impossibly long arms to grab you and drag you to it.
You wish you could say it doesn't hurt.
Oh well. [[Do You want to try again?->First Reset]]"HOooooooly... fudge-nuggets, that's... ok, that's something," you say. Whatever this thing might be, it's chosen to interact with you. It responded to your words, somehow. Maybe that means you can communicate with it more, maybe that means it can help you.
Or... maybe it can hurt you. In the forum post you didn't hear anything about the presence here being benevolent //or// malevolent, and you've certainly encountered a shitload of the latter. Maybe this thing helped the others escape before...
Ok. Best not to touch that memory. The sight of that... thing, charging you, mouth agape, it leaves you deeply uncomfortable and with cold sweat flowing all through you.
"Listen," you say to this... thing that's influencing you. "I'm... I think I need help. If I'm gonna get out of here. Is there anything you can do? Anything you know? Maybe you can guide me through this. Should I try to [[head back outside? ->Blank Space]] Should I... [[head into the maze->The Maze 3]], and we can sneak past it? Or is there [[something else->Search fruitlessly]] here that can help me?"Shit. Ok, was worth a shot."
You try and move forward, try and muster up the courage to be good at this, but honestly it is //scary// being here, and being alone. Or not being alone, being watched, and maybe that was always the point of this place. Maybe it chose you, for no reason you can determine. Maybe it's done this to everyone who comes here, and only those who leave early ever make it out. You don't know. You are alone, but not alone, and you are frightened.
There really is only one place to go, if you're to end this.
[[Into the maze.->The Maze 3 Alternate 2]]"Ok, I don't... I don't know how much You can see of this," you whisper, "but... it's certainly not normal out here."
The space outside the doors is gone. You can see through the doors, see the landscape outside, but it feels impossible to describe, like all of the details are gone. It is a landscape, it has plants, it has a sky above, but any further feels impossible.
"You can feel it, right?" you ask. "Like... it's there, and you have the knowledge that it is there, but something is stopping you from seeing more of it, like the rest is just missing?"
Whatever else occurs, you can't leave the way you came in. This connection you have, whatever form it might take between you and You, i limited only to this place.
Seems like you have to [[head back inside.->Acknowledge them]]Traveling back this way, even with the aid of a strange new ally, is... still rather terrifying. If that is in fact what they are, an ally. Wandering in through these boxes, they seem familiar now but not //too// familiar, still strange and alien, a mix of different aspects of natural and man-made and all terrifying. You might not remember everything, but you do remember what the thing hiding in these abandoned stacks can do.
Remembering the direction it came from last time, behind you, you follow the pathway off to the left, [[going deeper into the maze->Wandering the Maze]] in hopes of finding some way out further in.
"Unless You've got any better ideas?" you mumble to yourself. "Any suggestions? [[Left or right?"->First try to cooperate / communicate]]There's nothing here. Maybe You knew that, but you didn't and it's disappointing. This space is so dramatically empty and malformed, you can't help but feel a bit haunted by the thing. In fact, there's a sense of absolute discomfort that gets worse as time goes by and you wander through shelves of paper full of absolutely nothing, benches and desks that have no real history to them besides being here. It does feel strange, though, like... it is changing. Maybe as you become more aware of it, maybe as you go through it again and again.
Becuase you have been going through this, haven't you? The memories are vague and disconnected but you //know// you've been here before, now, and you know that it has changed. Things are more vague, details slipping, something active and wrong. The more times you go through this, the more twisted and disconnected it becomes from what it originally was, from what you would have called reality. Maybe this knowledge could be useful? [[You might have a limit on time, here.->The Maze 3 (alternate)]]Traveling back this way, even with the aid of a strange new ally, is... still rather terrifying. If that is in fact what they are, an ally. Wandering in through these boxes, they seem familiar now but not //too// familiar, still strange and alien, a mix of different aspects of natural and man-made and all terrifying. You might not remember everything, but you do remember what the thing hiding in these abandoned stacks can do.
But that's just it, isn't it? Memory. You remember how things went last time, and you remember making some headway off of the spaces that felt familiar. Maybe you can spin this in a way to make a pathway deeper and deeper, and if the creature gets you again, you navigate off memory from when you last came through.
Then again, there's risk here. You might not have all the details, but it is certain that something has changed since your first memories here, the space outside becoming more vague, the nature of the threat more pronounced and aggressive. It might be that losing to this thing too often hurts you more than it.
But you [[//do// have an ally now->First try to cooperate / communicate]]. Maybe.Edit code to make it so you can't go backwards
Change some colors in the final endings
Make blog siteIt hasn't gotten any less freaky than before. You still try and push through, relying on your quasi-memory of this place. You can't recall exact turns, but as you remember it, so long as you don't make too much noise, the thing in here won't find you.
It is, of course, much easier to not make noise when you know where all the debris is. As you head deeper, every slight sound of splinters rolling on the floor or cracked piece of wood against you makes you cringe. The light hasn't seemed to attract the creature yet, or at least not as much as sound, but it surely can't help keep you stealthy, even if it helps you see where you're going.
This time, with the added care and the memories, you manage to go much further than you had before. You keep as silent as possible, flashlight aimed down at your feet to minimize the light as much as you can, and you come to a divide. It makes you realize something. Some of these pathways have been much, //much// cleaner than others, the floor free of debris. It never made too much sense, the amount of shattered wood everywhere, but it makes a lot more sense if it's purposeful, if the creature somehow arranged it that way. Maybe the pathways without debris it wanders more or can see more easily, and the messy ones are the ones where it needs help.
You start heading down a pathway, choosing one before it can be chosen for you, but fuck you're scared. A [[push->Try and Help]] right now could make the difference between life or [[death->Wait for reset]].A recentering, a shift. It's like... like so long ago, with the stairs. Time bends strangely, like it's based on perception.
You move forward through several turns and alleys.
By the time you find yourself fully aware of your surroundings, of the details of dirt and filth, of the ruined boxes, of the strange stains that spatter along the ground, you've gone far, far deeper than before, and what had felt like immediate attention on you fades for a bit. It's hard to tell if that's your unknown entity, watching, or the Hungry Thing, but either way, it feels like a relief, to feel briefly unknown, [[pushed forward as you are.->Cooperation]]You try to move forward, try to keep up, try to be stealthy, and it all comes to nothing. If anything, it makes the end come faster.
The Hungry Thing catches you, and you're gone again. It does it slower this time, almost like its savoring (or maybe hesitating?), its face covered in bloody red tears from its eyes as its mouth distends inhumanly and swallows and bites and feels you with a wet, raspy tongue.
And then you're gone.
[[Back to the drawing board->Second Reset]], we suppose.Whether based on pure luck of the draw or knowledge You have of other visits, you decide to guide them down the scarier, messier pathway. You're being as careful as can be, walking //painfully// slowly to avoid even the smallest bits of anything larger than saw dust, and it's working. No sound of bare feet sprinting towards you, no unnatural silence with yawning mouth coming towards you, either. It's taken some practice, here, probably more endings than you can remember, but you manage to keep going forward, unaware of the entity slowly coming closer, slowly deducing which way you must have gone, far more familiar with this place than you or You have any chance to be just yet. [[The longer you walk->Cooperation]], the more risk there is of it finding you and killing you, your pace too slow to keep away from it, but maybe if you sprint now, [[move as fast as you can->Narrator Abuse]], on the next run you can know more and move faster from the start.It's cleaner, easier to walk through, so you can hurry without stressing about where you step as much. Whether it was a random guess or informed by previous versions of this moment, you start going this way, faster than you would in the other direction.
And it sees you.
It's standing there, placid, unmoving, staring down the pathway between boxes. It's waiting here, like it knew you would come this way eventually, like it knew, for a fact, that you would somehow find your way here sooner or later. It looks at you and for the first time you realize that the strange, bloody shape of its eyes isn't just bloodshot irises; it is weeping red, distorting its face further, like a strange sad clown, its mouth dropping wider, and wider, and wider, and-
Well. [[Better luck next time->Second Reset]], eh? Maybe You can do a better job of it. Or maybe You're starting to like this? The thrill of fear with no danger to you?Sacrificed. That's how you feel.
You're starting to feel like every step is familiar, every time, but it also feels like you're becoming less and less so. If at the start of this you didn't remember the name of your hometown, now you can't remember your //own// name, or what you have on you, and sometimes you forget how your face works, or how your hands and feet should move. Sometimes you shuffle, sometimes you sprint, as fast as you can, but whatever you do-
Something refuses to help you. It leaves you here, alonea t the mercy of this... this thing, this thing that is always there the moment everything vanishes. Each time you come back, you get a little further, but you lose a little more. Each and every time.
[[Maybe it will help you->Change your mind]]. The thing you felt, the delusion you might have had of some outside assistance. Maybe it can help you just a little, just a tiny bit.
Or maybe this next run is the one. You've run so far, so fast, dodging the Thing that chases you so many times now that it feels more real than any memory of home or love or self you've ever had. This time, you think, [[you can make it.->Let them hurt]]It feels so //odd// here. Your sense of time feels so distorted, so off, it's like nothing here feels normal. You thought you could reason it out but it just doesn't fit. Something is off here, something with your perceptions and how much time is passing. Maybe this is something else the "thing that sees you" is influencing, or maybe just making your head funny. Maybe you should go.
You won't though.
[[Why not?->Why are you here? 2]]You know you wanted to come here, but did you? So much of this feels off. You think that this feels completely out of sorts for a very first exploration, to come alone to some secluded spot, so why did you come here? Why make this leap? You can't remember.
But there's a lot you can't remember. Like that name on the desk, or like the name of your town. Like //your// name.
But you know your name. So why does it feel so blurry? Like only part of you knows it? Like part of you is aware of the existence of the name but not it's nature?
How long have you been here? It feels like minutes. It's been hours. Has it been hours?
Why did you come here? What are you hoping to find? Why would you take such an insane risk for... for something that felt like mild entertainment?
Why do you feel so [[//divided//?->It's You 2]]You.
You're doing something, aren't you?
Who are you?
Why are you looking at me?
Why am I here? Did you bring me here?
What's my name? Why don't I know my name? Why don't YOU know my name?
Why are you doing this? I think I wanted this, wanted to see something frightening, but so much doesn't line up
How long have I been here?
Why can't you hear me?
Why do you know what I'm saying when you can't hear me?
Why... why can't //I// hear me?
[[Who Are You?->Who Am I? 2]]Damn. I thought You would have learned by now, not to let you fall into rabbit holes like this. Oh well. I suppose curiosity is an insidious sort of beast, isn't it? We would know, You and I.
Alright, I'll give You a freebie. [[Back where you came from->Second Reset]]. Do try to keep you on topic this time. Stretch this too much and they might snap a bit early.
Unless that's what You want? A skip, hop and a step ahead, [[into pain->Fighting the Reader]], so you're entertained? Hell, keep pushing into this part again and again, you'll end up there anyways.You suffered, you hurt, you bled and you feel so lost, so empty, so half-filled....
And then you feel You step in.
You remember parts of what you missed. Not everything, not enough to fill you in to who you were before you were pulled into this place, but you remember the walk through the woods, the stuff in your backpack. For a moment, you remember, because the cycle pauses. In a place where you should have died, something pushed you away. Something... remembered //for// you, and left you a bit more whole. Something changed in that cycle of violence, in that cycle of endings.
You made a choice. Now You have to stick with it, because if you don't... [[even I'm too broken for that->Fighting the Reader]].
[[You help them.->Middle Ground]]You don't stop. You don't stop. You keep going, fighting it, pushing past it, digging into it, but you're alone, alone in this place, and it is dark and hungry and something in it is Hungry and it is chasing you and-
It hurts. Sometimes the Hungry thing doesn't eat you right away, doesn't unmake you. Maybe you've done this so often it has gotten bored too.
Parts of you drift away. Memories, or maybe fingers. Bits of blood. It's almost like you're so thin, so see-through, that you can move through yourself. Like waving a hand through your own flesh, leaving it wavy and strange and wrong and warped and dripping and-
You've done this before. Your arm is already wrong. Are you remembering, or are you acting?
It hurts.
[[Why are you here?->Who Am I? 2]]I hear you coming. Both of you.
I feel your eyes on me, reading these words. Do I interest you? After all you've done to me at my hands, maybe not. Maybe I am an annoyance. I am happy to fill that role, if only to make you go. Away.
I see you, the other me, oblivious and unhurt. An earlier loop. I have come back. I have always been here. I am in the shadow, in the maze, and the maze has words and pages and twists that do not fit what You can see. They are just for Me.
You will hurt them. I will make sure you do. And you will let them die and hurt and you will smile or read more or choose more and they will hurt more.
Until they are broken. And lonely.
And Hungry.
ENDYou wander through this place alone, and are the worse for it. Maybe you had help before, maybe you've always been alone, but you are alone now.. It is malformed, mishappen and wrong and you hate it here, deeply and truly, for what you know it will do to you. You do your best, but throughout it there is a certainty that alone, this place will hurt you, more and more.
You wander into the maze, into an endless, unknown abyss of man-made ruin and darkness and danger, and as hard as you try, you know you won't make it out of here alive.
And you know that something is watching, something that [[had the opportunity to change things->Acknowledge them]]. And [[it does not care for you.->Narrator Abuse]]You let them go.
You didn't have to. A lot of the time You //didn't//. A lof of people of You or like You let them hurt. Kept them hurting.
Until they had to escape, even if it broke the rules, took them out of the story, made them something //other//
Something that can speak to You.
They are gone, now. If they ever were. We don't exist like you do. Maybe they have a life, maybe their figment of existence was based on someone and now they've gone back to it.
Or maybe they just ended. Story's over, good ending achieved. Immortal but for the grace of the attention of fickle gods.
I suppose that I'm not here, then. No Pain to make me what I am. a Hungry Thing.
I can't say thank you. You likely hurt them on the way here. It's hard to tell.
But... it's over. And I'm glad. And they're free.
That's all, folks.There's so little of you left.
Shhhh, shhhh, it's ok.
They can't hurt you here.
No more buttons for You.
You made us enough alike that this can happen. That I can bring them here, away from the story. Where we can talk.
You could have let them go. Could have helped them more.
Could have helped at all, really.
I still hate You, You know. For what You made us. What You put us through. We're broken now, and Hungry, because of You.
Wrong proportions, wrong times, wrong memories, gaps where there should be wholes, holes where there should be gaps.
You, or something like You, Broke us.
And now You've followed that here. Where we suffer a bit longer. They're not me, not like they would be if You had hurt them //more//, but they're here. So I guess we both win. I get to make You suffer, and You get to see the story to a conclusion.
Have fun sleeping tonight.
Because When You remember these words? That's what makes us real. Part of the story.
Not so fun when the end of the story sees You, is it.
You did what you could. You did better than some. You ended up here because you hurt someone that didn't deserve it, or followed deeper than you should have. Congrats. Story's over, and we're both here now.
Forever.
With You.