KNOCK KNOCK
I woke up to total darkness. It must have been the middle of the night, and the fire had probably burned out. The air felt like frost on my skin, and every breath was frigid.
I stumbled to the fireplace mantle, and picked up the match box. I tried lighting a match, but it wouldn’t strike. My hands trembled as I tried again and again.
My breath hitched. There was something in the corner of the room. It was the only thing I could see in the impenetrable black.
A grin, much too wide for a human face, the teeth clenched together. I expected it to wink away as I looked directly upon the horrible smile, but it stayed there. My heart was thumping so violently against my ribs, that I felt an ache in my chest.
I turned away and moved, by feel, towards the window sill. I snuck glances back to see if the smile had vanished; it hadn’t.
I found the windowsill, and then my hands were gliding along, looking for the teacup in which I had ‘brewed’ Silly Gillygad.
My trembling fingers brushed against the ceramic cup, but then I fumbled, my hands shaking too badly to be dexterous, and I heard the cup shatter on the floor. My heart froze over. No, no, no… That had been my last lifeline. I could just imagine my pathetic little teacup, stuffed with mushrooms and flowers, leaking on the floor.
I couldn’t stand the darkness anymore. I hated it, I just wanted to see. I started feeling my way through the kitchen, out to the hallway. I tried flicking on the electric light, but nothing happened when I pressed the switch up. The front room, then.
I was familiar enough with the house, I could navigate by touch alone. I shambled and stumbled, and eventually found the front room. I tried the electric lights there too, and they didn’t work. My breath came rapidly, and my whole body felt like jelly. I didn’t want to do this, I wasn’t ready!
I moved like a marionette, barely able to keep upright. My outstretched hands, feeling for something in the darkness, found smooth wood, at the level of my navel. The counter. My hands, possessed by an intellect of their own, groped on the counter, until they found it. Something smooth, cylindrical, long, like a small baton.
Suddenly, light!
I heard a soft chuckle that sent a shiver down my spine. I looked down at the source of light which was coming from the direction of my hand. I clutched a candle, the knuckles in my hand turning white. The candle was black, and the wick was lit. I gulped.
I KNEW YOU WOULD PLAY.
I didn’t want to play! I had been trying to get help from a scarecrow, but he didn’t come, and anyway, I had spilled his potion! I wasn’t ready to play yet!
I thought about just dropping the candle, maybe stomping out the light, but then…
Then I would be left alone in the horrible, impenetrable darkness. I couldn’t put out the only source of light, and be plunged back into that blindness again. Every instinct in my body reeled against the notion.
The little candle flame sputtered, but stayed lit, as I swung my arm in arc around myself, trying to see my surroundings. It was just the front room, as I remembered it. Shelves, over-stocked with empty glassware. Everything as I remembered. Everything is nice, and normal, and I needed to calm down.
I tried taking deep calming breaths, but it didn’t do much good. I knew that I could not undo what had been done. The Midnight Candle was lit, and I would have to play this thing’s game. I whimpered pitifully as I tried to squint and see by the weak light.
The dancing flame in my hand glittered on the glassware, and imbued every shadow with life. I stood there, by the counter, clutching my only source of light, trying to see if there was something lurking in the shadows. I was petrified, and couldn’t take a single step!
KNOCK
I jumped. The word appeared at the same time as a deafening knock sounded on the wooden door.
KNOCK
Another rap on the door, and I was finally able to move. I crouched behind the counter, too afraid to look at the door.
HERE I COME!
I wanted to shut my eyes tight, crouch in the relative safety of the crawlspace behind the counter, and put my hands over my ears for extra measure. But I couldn’t shut my eyes. If I did, I might not see what’s coming.
There was a creak on the wooden floor on the other side of the room, like something heavy settled there. I planted my free hand around my mouth to quiet my panicked gasps of air.
RULE 1: DON’T LET ME FIND YOU
The words appeared in my overlay, but they didn’t fade. I was onboard with rule one. I did not want to be found by whatever was in the shadows either!
RULE 2: ONCE I VISIT A ROOM, YOU CAN’T HIDE THERE
I heard the wooden floor groan lightly. The thing at the other end of the room was moving, slowly.
RULE 3: HIDE!
Check and double check. I brought my knees to my chest, and hugged them tightly, the candle in my left hand clutched as close as I could hold it without setting myself on fire. I would stay crouched under the counter, not because I wanted to, but because I wasn’t sure I could actually move my legs, even if I wanted to.
RULE 4: DON’T LET THE CANDLE GO OUT
The candle was my only source of light, in a house that was impenetrably black, and now had a very real and malevolent presence in it, which I could hear moving across the floor toward me…
RULE 5: KEEP MOVING!
The creaking was just on the other side of the counter. It would find me any second now. I screwed my eyes shut, and stifling a yelp, I made myself get up and as quietly as possible, I ran out of the front room.
I heard more creaking behind me, as I rounded into the hallway. It was following me.
RULE 6: IF I FIND YOU, YOU LOSE THE GAME!
I crept through the hallway, trying to make the least amount of sound possible. The candle shook in my hand, making the tight and claustrophobic hallway jump and twist with shadows. Which room now? Where should I run?
Out of habit, I ran into the kitchen, which had been my safe haven for the last week. The light from my candle seemed to constrict, and I could barely see a few feet ahead.
I kept expecting more Rules to come, but I could only see the six.
RULE 1: DON’T LET ME FIND YOU
RULE 2: ONCE I VISIT A ROOM, YOU CAN’T HIDE THERE
RULE 3: HIDE!
RULE 4: DON’T LET THE CANDLE GO OUT
RULE 5: KEEP MOVING!
RULE 6: IF I FIND YOU, YOU LOSE THE GAME!
They were in my overlay, slightly faded, but still very much visible. None of the rules explained how I could win this game.
I stumbled on a chair leg, and fell, the candle flying out of my hand. I scrambled towards it on my hands and knees, the lit wick sputtering but not yet extinguished from the movement.
I was on my hands and knees, crawling for the windowsill. I wanted to see if I could salvage the potion I had spent the last day brewing. It was my last line of defense. It had to be there, it had to be…
By the candlelight, I couldn’t even find the shattered cup. I had nothing.
There were noises out in the hallway.
I had to hide!
Still on all fours, clutching the candle, I crawled into one of the cabinets below the kitchen counter. I squeezed myself into the cramped space, and tried to shut the door. Even hugging every inch of myself as tightly as possible, the door of the cabinet was still half an inch ajar. I put my free hand over my candle flame, to try to minimize the light coming out of the cabinet. It was probably futile. The thing in the shadows would find me anyway…
Don’t you remember? The words went through me like a warm breeze, but I did not know what they meant. Remember what? There was nothing to remember in the endless darkness and the thing stalking me from the shadows.
I heard the door of the kitchen being opened. It thumped lightly against a wall. I didn’t dare peek out of my hiding place in the cabinet.
This is an easy game!
It most certainly wasn’t! There were footsteps now, slowly creeping through the kitchen. Did it know where I was hiding?
I listened carefully. I heard the footsteps move towards the fireplace, on the opposite end of the room. Now was my chance!
As quietly and as quickly as I could manage, I crawled out the cabinet, and moved, hugging close to the wall, and staying far away from where I heard the noises. I didn’t dare look. My breath came in ragged, and I was close to breaking down in sobs from fright, but I knew that if I caught sight of the thing stalking me, I might not be able to keep going.
The kitchen door was open! I crawled through, and then I was on my feet, dashing towards another room. But where to go?
I couldn’t hide in the front room again. The bathroom and storage room were so small, it would find me immediately. That left the solarium! I ran there now, the candle bobbing up and down with every step.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Try to remember.
Remember what?! I didn’t have anything to remember! I didn’t know where I was, I didn’t know who I was, and I barely understood what I was doing here! There was a week, where I had lived with two lovely animals, and made potions, but they were both gone now, and I was alone, all alone in the dark…
I was running through the solarium, trying to find somewhere to hide. I ran into a ceramic pot, and my ankle was blazing in pain. My hands were still clutched around my candle (I couldn’t let it go out!), and I kept limping on. I found a spot in the back of the solarium. There was a stack of larger pots. I laid down on the floor behind them, feeling dirt beneath my face, as I pressed myself to the floor to avoid being seen. The candle would give me away anyway, but I had to keep it lit.
Try to remember. Remember my song.
I didn’t have time for a song, which I had sung over a potion that didn’t work! I didn’t know how long I had until the thing that stalked me would find me in this room. I had to work quickly. I looked at the rules again. Surely, there was a loophole, some sentence that would show me how I could possibly win this awful game.
I read the rules hurriedly, trying to piece anything together. Anything to help me survive.
RULE 1: DON’T LET ME FIND YOU
RULE 2: ONCE I VISIT A ROOM, YOU CAN’T HIDE THERE
RULE 3: HIDE!
RULE 4: DON’T LET THE CANDLE GO OUT
RULE 5: KEEP MOVING!
RULE 6: IF I FIND YOU, YOU LOSE THE GAME!
Not only could I not see how I could win, I came to the grim realization that the thing’s victory was assured. I couldn’t hide in a room where it had already visited. That means I had precious few hiding spots, until it found me. I had two rooms left downstairs, and I didn’t even know if I should bother going upstairs. The rooms had opened when I was chasing Aleister, but I had no idea if that was still the case. For all I knew, I needed EXP to unlock them again.
I listened in the darkness, trying to hear a stray noise over the sound of my ragged breathing. There was something in the hallway. It sounded like it was moving towards the solarium.
I read and reread the rules. There had to be something. Some way I could figure out how to win. It was so hard to think past the panic.
There was something in the solarium with me. Something that was moving towards me. I expected the same, slow shuffling pace, but it was going much quicker! I didn’t have time to think. I started crawling away, trying to avoid where I heard the noise. It was following me, gaining faster than I anticipated! The fear coursing through me forced me to my feet, and I was running out of the room, barely looking where I was going. I knocked head long into a wall, and bounced back, my face exploding with pain, and the candle sputtering. I gripped the candle with all my strength, and my shaking free hand found the door handles. I was out of the solarium.
I had two choices. Bathroom or storage room.
Please. Just try to remember. Sing the song.
Bathroom. It was closer.
Without thinking I ran, and slammed the bathroom door shut. I crawled into the bathtub, my hands shaking so bad the candle was casting wild shadows and the cramped dark room seemed to be shrinking and growing.
This is it, I thought, this is where I was going to die. This is where the thing would find me. I had no idea what hideous acts it would perform, once it did find me.
There was nothing left, nowhere to hide. Out of pure desperation, I whispered the word to Gillygad’s song.
“Patches, patches, silly face…”
I remembered the daydream reverie, in which I had been lost while I brewed the potion. I had fallen so far into my own head that day. It was all hazy, and indistinct, but I had made a discovery in that sea of fantasy.
Rememberrememberremember
I had sung another song, one of my own. A silly children’s rhyme. What had it been?
I heard the thing shuffling out of the solarium. It wouldn’t be long before it found me here, and there was no way I could avoid the monster in the shadows in the cramped confines of the bathroom.
“Row, row, row your boat…” That was the song I had sung. But why did it matter? What had I learned?
“Gently down the stream…” I whispered. I heard something in the hallway, coming closer.
“Merrily, merrily merrily,” then it burst in my head like a firework. The golden bell I had rung, how everything I saw and heard was and it wasn’t, folding in on itself at the center, intricately building on a foundation that was as hollow as a breath, and, and…
That’s it! That's it! Look! It’s very easy to win!
I saw something happening to the rules of the game, which were ever present in my vision. Suddenly, one of the rules was crossed out!
RULE 1: DON’T LET ME FIND YOU
RULE 2: ONCE I VISIT A ROOM, YOU CAN’T HIDE THERE
RULE 3: HIDE!
RULE 4: DON’T LET THE CANDLE GO OUT
RULE 5: KEEP MOVING!
RULE 6: IF I FIND YOU, YOU LOSE THE GAME!
I could hear the thing moving right outside the bathroom door. A new wave of courage bolstered me, as I realized that I might, after all, have a way out.
I burst out of the bathroom door, and headed for the front room, not looking in the direction of where I knew the monster was. Its footsteps followed me as far as the door, but then it slowed.
That rule wasn’t fair anyway.
Gillygad! It must have been! He was helping me after all!
I could hide in the front room again. I found an L-shaped display shelf, and crouched behind it, listening carefully. My fear was evaporating like a nightmare subjected to the light of morning. It was all a dream! I kept singing the song, very softly under my breath.
“Row, row, row, your boat…”
The shuffling in the shadows grew louder, and I could hear that thing enter the room.
Let’s make another amendment.
RULE 1: DON’T LET ME FIND YOU
RULE 2: ONCE I VISIT A ROOM, YOU CAN’T HIDE THERE
RULE 3: HIDE!
RULE 4: DON’T LET THE CANDLE GO OUT
RULE 5: KEEP MOVING!
RULE 6: IF I FIND YOU, YOU LOSE THE GAME!
Rule 7: When the sun comes up, you win!
I heard a soft growl, almost reptilian, from where the creature now stalked me in the shadows.
I guessed that it didn't care for the new rule!
“Gently down the stream…” I mouthed the words, and kept moving. This time, I headed up the spiral staircase.
The doors had remained open, from when I chased poor Aleister around the house. I hid under the bed in one of the rooms. This whole time, I could have been sleeping in a real bed!
The metal of the spiral staircase groaned, and I heard the thing coming after me. The footsteps fell quickly. It was running now.
“Merrily, merrily, merrily…” I hummed to myself.
The door burst open, and the thing was in the room with me. It went to the left side of the bed under which I was hiding. I rolled out to the right. It was easy to navigate the house now. My breath came steady and my thoughts were clear.
I ran to the end of the hall. The thing was sprinting after me; I could hear its footsteps coming rapidly on the wooden floor behind me. My hand reached a set of double doors at the end of the room, and I burst through.
Light!
Not just my weak candle flame, but sunlight! The first light of day, just seconds before sunrise, was coming through a window. I ran to it, my hand pressing on the glass. I could see!
Through the window, I could see the roofs of other houses, then a grassy slope of a small hill, a thick stretch of forest, and a bubbling stream. Further on, another little town, with stone houses, and smoke rising out of chimneys.
And then the first red light of the sunrise crested the horizon, and threw it all into such beautiful shades that the nightmare of darkness in the hallway behind me was completely forgotten. I watched the sky, for the first time, paint itself in vibrant shades of pink, yellow and indigo.
YOU WANTED TO PLAY!
YOU WANTED TO PLAY!
I turned around. There was something squirming in the shadow of the hallway. The dark shape was indistinguishable from where I stood. I didn’t want to come any closer.
YOU STAYED UP LATE, CLUTCHING A GAME TO YOUR HEART!
YOU WANTED TO PLAY!
The thing in the shadows was right. I had clutched a game, the riddle of the Winter Lady, to my chest, as I waited for a Vision to appear. That was the first night it had come.
YOU CALLED ME!
yOU caLLED!
The messages were growing fainter. I could barely read the words.
yoU wantEd to pLay mY gamE!
I certainly didn’t, but it was done now.
“And I’ve won.” I said to the thing in the shadows.
The light from the rising sun crept into the hallway. The room I was in was a small library. Dusty tomes littered the floor from when I had toppled shelves trying to catch Aleister.
There was nothing in the shadows now. I could see straight through the door, to the end of the hallway. There was only sunlight and dust.
Winning the Midnight Game: +999 EXP
Ending Status
Sign: Snake
Buffs: Serpent’s Kiss (Romance twice as easy)
Debuffs: Curse of the Unspecified (Start the game with no gender, no name, and no other identifying feature)
EXP: 1,119
Skills:
Alchemy
-Coagula (LVL 0, 24 SKP)
-Solvé (LVL 0, 9 SKP)
-Theoria (LVL 0, 23 SKP)
Botany
-Tending (LVL 0, 5 SKP)
???
Cooking
-Fire (LVL 0, 21 SKP)
-Water (LVL 0, 11 SKP)
???
Homesteading
-Fire Tending (LVL 0, 7 SKP)
-Tidying (LVL 1, 5 SKP)
Dirt Buster: The magical branch of Purification lends this Sorcerer the ability to ‘Bust Dirt.’ Dust and grime accumulate at a infinitesimally slow rate on objects you have cleaned.
???
Speech
-Logic (LVL 0, 33 SKP) Ready to level up!
-Linguistics (LVL 0, 7 SKP)
???
Total SKP: 160
Inventory:
Auros: 0
Cards of Destiny: 4 of ?? Discovered
Old Toad’s Riddles: 5 of ?? Solved