Words covered my vision and information filled my brain. It was a little overstimulating, and I tried instead to only focus on one thing.

There were two sides of the bench at the back of the garage, newly done up and varnished. I focused on the side with what looked like a charging station.

Battery charge

Can hold up to two batteries

Charges for 24 hours

Gives power to flashlights for 8 hours

Nice. Good. Great, even. I immediately grabbed two rusted batteries from the drawer and shoved them in the black charger. A green glow appeared around the charger, which was weird, but I wasn’t going to question it. There were other things to question.

I then glanced at the other side of the work bench and saw some strange working station.

Paint making station

select room

room must be decluttered and walls must be wiped off

primer must be applied to room, will take half a day to apply

once primer is done, you may choose a color for the walls

paint will take ten minutes to be applied

I tried to hide my smile but failed. Paint! I could paint the rooms, now!

“So, um, what about the paneling? Is that… magically disappearing now once I choose a paint color?” I asked.

Yes

My smile grew. There was no doubt going to be something that happened with the floor, but the paneling! I could see what this old house was like! I wanted to pick the paints right at that moment, but my entire body froze as I got closer.

Must be wearing level three clothing for cleaning to use this equipment.

“Oh. Right,” I mumbled.

In that case, I really did need to make this debt disappear. With a sigh, I cut up some logs and put them in the dumpster until I had 14.94 total dopamine points. It was too exciting. It was getting dark, but the wolf timer still had a good hour left. It was hard to tell time when the clouds were covering the sun. And then the trees covering the clouds covering the sun.

I went to the clipboard, checking my progress.

Farming level 14

Cleaning level 16

Logging level 19

Cooking level 10

Building level 21

Animal Care level 12

I was building a lot. I supposed it made sense. Logging and building were still leveling up close together. I was close to buying a third level of clothing for farming. Like, really close. So close that it would probably be in my morning routine tomorrow that I’d hit farming level 15.

I focused on what I was supposed to do, and that was to buy a third article of clothing for cleaning because I needed to see that paint! Now that the garage was upgraded, I chose a pale blue dress that somehow meant cleaning. I gave up trying to figure out the logic of these clothes.

I mentally chose the gloves, apron, and recently purchased blue dress to head out to the garage wearing that, my steel toed boots, and a hard hat. My outfit was wild, but it was always wild.

My heat timer was gone, but the run from the house to the garage was not that bad. I hoped that the rain logic for the garage was the same as the front porch. No, the garage wasn’t heated by electricity by any means, but there was a newly made roof over my head, and my stamina was not hurt by the rain as I stayed in the garage.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

I approached the paint station and saw more words filling my vision.

Model house appear?

Y/N

“Sure!” I was too curious not to try out everything.

A 3-d image popped up of the house on the bench. My eyes widened as I looked at it. I wondered if it was the level of technology I saw in movies. I tried touching the house, smiling as the image followed my finger. I pinched it and watched as it zoomed in. It was a perfect replica of the house, to the point where the movies and the VHS’s were all there.

I zoomed back out and saw that every room on the bottom floor had a slight green glow, whereas the second floor was all red. The locked room was completely grayed out. I guess I didn’t wash the walls in the pink room.

-Choose room

-Prepare primer

-Give half a day for primer to dry

-Once primer is done, you may choose any color you’d like

I couldn’t help it and started taping my fingers together in pure joy. I’d be clapping, but I didn’t want to alert anything out in the woods. A large smile crossed my face. This was one of those moments where I seriously hated that I was on a time crunch. I could spend hours choosing the paint for the rooms. I had woken up to the red dawn light and the weird green paint on the ceiling of my bedroom since I got here. I wanted a different color!

Lilac. Did this have a soft lilac color! Ugh, I loved lilac in bedrooms. It was so nice and inviting and…

I glanced at my wolf timer. I had maybe ten minutes. Stupid time crunch. I had so many ideas. I wanted to start with my bedroom first.

“Lilac!” I hissed to the sky as I pressed the room that had the bedroom. “I don’t know if I’m a swearing girl, but goddamn I need to have lilac as an option…”

Must paint primer first

Primer costs -7.00

Once primer is done, colors do not cost anything

I let out a quiet scream of frustration. I wanted to do this now. I was getting to the point of the house where I could actually change the aspect of the rooms instead of just cleaning it.

And man, did I want that lilac color in that beautiful, tall bedroom I was sleeping in.

It was worth the sacrifice. I needed to experiment, anyway. I ran into the storage room with eight minutes on my wolf timer and grabbed a brick.

“Time to see how much you give me,” I whispered.

I ran back to the dumpster in the cold, sacrificing the stamina as I dropped the brick in there.

+15.00!

I squealed and ran back to the garage.

“Bedroom, please! Primer on bedroom!”

The model on the house flickered to view again, and the section with the bedroom turned a solid blue color with a timer counting down from six hours. By tomorrow morning, I would see the catalog of colors.

I also tried to paint another one, but I got an error message instead.

Can only put primer paint on one room at a time

“Fine,” I said. “Bedroom is fine.”

I could still use the bedroom though, right? Because I knew they were attacking tonight, but I still needed to sleep in that room.

My mood deflated just a little. In all my excitement and giddiness, I forgot that they were coming tonight.

The wolf timer began blinking, and I winced. I rushed out of the garage and into the front porch. I pulled out my to-do list, just to see how close I was to finishing it.

Repair all damages caused by them

Make glass

Strengthen the wall around the house and greenhouses

Upgrade garage

Purchase third article of cleaning clothing

Build bridge to collect sand

“I was so close,” I whispered. “Next time. I am going to finish my to-do list next time.” I placed the list in my pocket and took a deep breath, thinking about what the next few hours would bring.

“I’ll be okay,” I said, opening the front door. “I will keep happy thoughts. Like a lilac bedroom. It’s going to be gorgeous.”

Nice lilac walls, and soon I will gain the ability to change the floors. I had to. It only makes sense. Then this house would get back some of its old charm. Back to that beautiful hardwood that I knew was under that shag carpet. These were my happy thoughts to fight against the ghosts in the house threatening my sanity. It would work. It would absolutely work. I was going to stay mentally strong.

***

I was underneath the computer desk in the living room, curled into the tightest ball I could, sobbing quietly to myself as they left, an echoing thud still sent shivers down my spine. I clutched my chest like that could calm my erratic heartbeat.

I wanted to think that everything was different with this attack, but it was the same. It was all the same, and thoughts of that lilac bedroom made no difference. The ghosts, the giggling, the shrieking. Them, the thudding, the bellowing.

I had a little more than a sliver of my sanity left, and I was exhausted on the ground, unable to find the desire to get up and go to bed, even though that was everything I wanted. The thing that hurt the most was I would experience this in another four days. A physical body could not handle this so soon. I needed a break, but I wasn’t getting one.

Four more days, then three more after that.

And I chose now to realize that once again I did not get a memory orb. I wanted the attacks to end. I never felt a stronger desire for this whole game to be done than after an attack from them. But how could I figure out the clues to who I was before when my alien overlords weren’t giving me anymore?

I stumbled to my feet, Killie in my arms, purring softly. At this point I didn’t care if I saw a ghost. My entire frame was trembling as I pushed open the bedroom door. Why did they sufficiently drain me of energy every time? Why did the ghosts terrify me so badly? I was doing so well. I was close to finishing that to-do list, and I had such excitement.

And yet I collapsed in a heap on my bed, hearing the quiet sounds of someone, or something, painting this room.

“If there’s no lilac…” I whispered with all the energy I had left, “…I will find a way to hurt you…”

With that, I ordered the game to force me into a dreamless sleep.