I spent the rest of the evening chopping down trees for the barn. I kept an eye on the window, but no beer cans appeared. I assumed that meant the creep only came out at night, but I still kept an eye on my bedroom window as I dropped tree after tree.

The sun was setting when I got all two hundred logs into the barn. I stepped back, panting. My stamina was low, and I didn’t have much food left, but it was fine. I wanted to see the next resources it needed.

0/150 boards.

I figured as much. I cut the three leftover logs into boards and stuck them into the barn. Then I turned around and headed into the house. I had been putting this off long enough. I needed to clean those floors.

I wasn’t sure where to start, so I went to the clipboard and searched through the cleaning materials. Usually a washcloth just appeared in my hand when I cleaned the wall, so I wasn’t sure what this game logic required of me.

There was a cleaning chemical to buy that advertised it would clean up after monsters, so I dropped 10.00 dopamine points on that.

I started in the kitchen, finding a scrub brush in my hand as I started scrubbing. It took a few scrubs, but the blackness disappeared as I dunked the brush in a bucket that also magically appeared out of nowhere. I didn’t question it, I just went to work.

With the first floor practically unrecognizable, the shrieking grandma ghost was nowhere to see. That was helpful as it got darker. The other nice thing was my cleaning levels were high enough that this scrubbing did not take any stamina. Considering the small amount I had left over of both stamina and food, I was content to clean as long as possible tonight.

I only stopped once to fill the fence with the finished bricks from the tool. Then I set the tool with five more bags of sand. Other than that, I stayed inside the house, hearing the hauntings upstairs as I remained on the first floor, scrubbing. It was mostly Theo singing, so though it was creepy, it didn’t take chunks out of my sanity like before.

I told myself that tonight was the night. I had enough sanity to see what happened when I stood in front of those footsteps. See if the murderer would attack me. I had days to recover, and my sanity could take the hit. I’d stop cleaning and face the door once I heard the creaking stairs. See what happened. Until then, I’d clean.

I could comfort myself for an hour straight with these words, but it still did not calm my heart.

I kept scrubbing, the warning playing constantly in my head. If I didn’t clean this, they could break through the fence no matter how strong it was. If I didn’t clean every inch of this place, then I would have to do this all over again. Pick up a broken back yard, clean the house. I wasn’t interested in wasting any more time on that. I would repair this place back to before. And then I would spend the next seven days after another attack to restock for the faster days.

I used the opportunity to play a bit with Killie. Cleaning was comfortably past level twenty, and I needed to do something to help my animal care levels.

I kept scrubbing the kitchen, pushing the bucket as I moved throughout the room. It was all over the floor, but not so much on the walls. That was nice. It still felt a lot, though. I kept scrubbing, tossing a wadded up piece of paper at Killie to keep her entertained. She kept batting it away, chasing after it.

It wasn’t until I finished the kitchen floor that I came to a realization. I had heard little Theo singing upstairs his creepy little nursery rhyme, but I did not hear the stairs creaking. It was getting late, and no ghost murderer came down. Did the murderer come every night? Was I missing something?

Maybe there was a pattern with the hauntings I wasn’t catching. It was late, but as my sanity didn’t take a huge hit, I kept cleaning. The grandma ghost didn’t seem to come unless they were attacking, which was fine by me. I got to where the kitchen crossed into the living room, and I glanced behind my shoulder. There was a moment’s pause, then the kitchen floor gave a little sheen. That had to mean it was completely cleared of them. Perfect.

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With the kitchen done, it was time to move into the living room. This would take the most time, I could tell. It was like the creature had oozed in, taken up most of the room before spreading away somewhere. I kept scrubbing, kept tossing the ball at Killie when I needed to. I was thinking about how much I missed those times in farming games when I was like a dragon, guarding my horde of resources. When I had at least fifty of every little thing. A point in the game where I was practically throwing resources away. I’d been here an entire season, and I still felt like I was barely getting anything.

But I’d reach that point soon. I had two weeks where they would only attack twice. I could get a lot done. I had already gotten a lot done. The kitchen was sparkly clean, and once my levels reached twenty, I would know for certain if it was clean. I had been meticulous, cleaning over every inch of the ground, making sure every darker section of the rug was scrubbed.

This would have been so much easier if I could just toss the carpet, but I knew that wouldn’t happen for a while. Definitely not in two weeks.

Killie had gone to bed, but I felt pretty confident that my playing with her while cleaning had risen my animal care levels. Maybe not to twenty yet, but a lot closer than at the beginning of the evening. I pushed through, slowly but surely revealing the brown shag rug.

Past midnight. Force sleep begins now.

I panicked. Was it really that late? I had enough mental fortitude to quickly change into my nightgown. I may still have been over fifty percent, but it would be nice to have full sanity.

I woke up to a red dawn, and I blinked. Would the light always be red in the morning, no matter the season? The sky was still a hazy color. But maybe I was just used to the sky having a slightly yellowish haze to it. No. I didn’t want to get used to that.

I went through my morning routine, placing five panes of glass in the first greenhouse and retrieving a few more shattered glass for it. I then stuck fifteen more baked clay into the tool before entering the greenhouse. I was delighted to see tomatoes ready to pick, though not any potatoes. That was okay. I had something. I then moved on to the second greenhouse and stepped in. The carrots were ready, but not the lettuce. That was fine. Again, I had something. I picked the carrots, then planted some more. I wasn’t in a position to feel stingy. I needed food.

Once that was done, I checked on Daisy. She was alive as ever, which always gave me relief. Still no egg, because I never found that medicine for her, but it didn’t matter. She was alive. I still had today to find it. And to hopefully help her gain a friend.

I wanted to go right now to see what the traps gave me, but I resisted. Despite everything I needed to do, I was most curious to check the note. I needed to know if it worked. If Theo responded. It also wouldn’t hurt to make some more baked clay today. I would be swimming in bricks before the week was done, mark my words. I just… really wanted to have a lot of bricks.

I made my trek toward the river. Theo hadn’t arrived last night. There was a chance he didn’t get the note yet. This was simply to check. Check to make sure the note worked. If it didn’t, I’d be back to square one. I’d have to figure out some other way.

The river perhaps wasn’t as strong as in the summer. It was something I noticed. There was still a lot of water, and I was grateful I had a bridge to walk across, but I did notice that the water didn’t seem to be gushing as much as before.

I stepped onto the bridge and saw the two rocks. The paper was there, too. It was enough that I rushed forward, my eyes bouncing over the paper. It had been flipped over, and I saw a hasty scrawl with what looked like a piece of charcoal.

I refuse to enter that house. Meet me at this bridge at nightfall.

I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I thought. Nightfall meant the wolf might come. If it was late enough, I might not make it back in time. That meant I would probably wait at the bridge until fifteen minutes before the wolf came, then I would have to book it back. Maybe I could write a warning for such so Theo wasn’t waiting there all night for me.

After spending some time gathering more clay mounds in my inventory, I got back to the house and pulled out another long sheet of thin paper and wrote my message.

The wolf roams at night on my side. If I’m not at the bridge when you’re there and it’s night, know I’m back at the house. I will instead meet you the next morning.

I missed phones. Like, actual cell phones that I could call up Theo right now if I felt like it and talk to him. Sure, I had a phone here, but it only gave me my to-do list.

I molded more clay into brick shape to be cooked before heading back to the bridge. A few more trips to get plenty of clay would be nice, then I’d check on my traps. I gathered two more stones with my note. I did the same, placing a part of the note on the edge of the paper and spreading it out before securing it with the other rock. It stayed throughout the night, so that had to be a good thing. I stood up, brushing my hands when something came out of the trees. I figured it was another spider monster, but I saw the tall, thin figure and instantly recognized him. Theo walked through the bush, his eyes downcast, heading right toward the bridge.