Night Light

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[img[https://i.imgur.com/YUEZIaR.png]] [[Start|you.]]

<<cacheaudio "bgm" "https://www.dropbox.com/s/laqtar4pubgdqag/06%20the%20graveyard.mp3?dl=1">> <<cacheaudio "breath" "https://www.dropbox.com/s/7sikcog9bt90ibk/breathing.ogg?dl=1">> <<cacheaudio "laughter" "https://www.dropbox.com/s/yloc0hpv2kcl4er/laughter.ogg?dl=1">> <<cacheaudio "bones" "https://www.dropbox.com/s/jw1upcq8ndh4gye/littlebones.ogg?dl=1">>

You startle awake at the sound of a car alarm going off, somewhere outside. You groan and keep your eyes shut, willing the sound to stop. Living in an apartment complex, this isn't entirely new - alarms of various kinds go off randomly throughout the week when you live in the city. [[But it isn't just the car alarm that woke you.]] <<audio "bgm" loop volume 0.01 play>>

The siren cuts off, the staccato sound of it silenced. It's within the newly settled quiet of your room that you notice another sound, quiet; Unobtrusive save for the complete displacement of the sound. This is not a sound that belongs here. You are not alone. - [[It's the sound of breath being pulled in and out of dead lungs.]] - [[It sounds like laughter, quiet, gentle.]] - [[It sounds like the distant snapping of small bones.]]

The sound brings to mind the labored breathing of a creature close to death. You swear you can smell something foul, and you wonder, horrified, if that is it's breath. You know it doesn't matter, if it is. You are aware now, that you have a guest. - [[Greet them.]] <<audio "breath" volume 0.25 play>>

The sound would almost be pleasant, if it weren't so out of place. Your neighbors don't have children, and your building manager wouldn't take very kindly to stray kids wandering the halls at night. You feel you've heard this voice before, but you can't place a name to the sound. Whoever it is, it's clear you have a guest. - [[Greet them.]] <<audio "laughter" volume 0.5 play>>

Whatever it is lets out a steady rhythm of brittle cracks, snaps, and crunches. You feel the hair on the back of your neck stand straight, goosebumps making their way across your skin. The sound is unbearably tense. It makes you uncomfortable, and what's worse is that it means you are not alone. You have a guest. - [[Greet them.]] <<audio "bones" volume 0.1 play>>

You turn over in bed, take a steadying breath, and open your eyes. The layout of your room is a relatively odd one. You have your bed next to a window that leads out to the fire escape (perhaps putting your bedside table right there below it isn't the best or safest idea) and immediately across from that is the door to [[the rest of your apartment.]] It is through this window, you can see, that [[your guest]] has entered the room.

Your apartment isn't a luxurious one. Outside the dark cave of your room, the apartment spans down a small hallway, from which sprouts a single bathroom with a shower. At the end of the hall is your "living room", which is coincidentally also your dining room. The kitchen is a cramped one, with cabinets lining the walls top and bottom. Between the kitchen and the living room is your front door. [[It has occured to you that you are quite a few rooms away from escape.|Greet them.]]

The moment you open your eyes, a hot wash of putrid air wafts your way. The smell puts you on edge, causes the dinner you ate earlier in the day to riot against the confines of your stomach. But you dare not move. [img[https://i.imgur.com/gdKl2Tc.png]] For a moment, you think this is some sick joke. The creature, whatever it is, looks like a deer. But it's massive. All that could fit in through the window, it seems, was it's head and neck - the rest is still outside, unseen. What you CAN see of it isn't promising. Instead of a face, it's nothing but a vacant, leering buck skull, now turning towards you. It's been waiting for you to wake up. You don't know how you know this, for the thing doesn't have eyes in the empty, deep sockets of it's skull. - [[Look closer at the creature.]] - [[Run.]] - [[Say Hello?]]

Upon closer inspection, you see that its head is wrapped in some sort of red linen, scraps of it hanging in places. It's dirtied, and you wonder if it was ever supposed to be red at all. The things antlers are cracked, seemingly broken off, but there's no blood coming from them. At least, you think to yourself, it can't gore you. With the antlers. It's eyes look a little less empty than they were before - it seems that, in an attempt to get your attention, it's sockets have begun to glow with an eerie blue light. [[You realize you've been sitting there, staring at the creature that's invaded your home.|Speak.]]

The fear takes a hold of your heart and, before you can stop yourself, you've thrown the blankets off of your legs and are trying to bolt. You stumble up and out of bed, tripping for a moment - only a moment - and panic seizes you as you hear creaking behind you. The thought of [[looking back|Look.]] crosses your mind. You crumple against the door in your haste to escape. Your hands, shaking, grab at the doorknob but can't seem to steady long enough for you to grip the damn thing. Your intruder doesn't have so hard a time. You look down as you feel something snake against your leg, and as you do you see dirty, clawed, vaguely human hands wrapping around your ankles. You gasp as you hit the floor, kicking and screaming. But you aren't making a sound, and as you turn your frantic tantrum is stopped dead by two round, blue lights. //"[[A word.]]"//

You pause, watching each other for a few moments. The creature shifts, it's eyes beginning to glow, and the sudden change worries you. However, You suspect that, if it had wanted to kill you, eat you, whatever, it should have - could have - done so by now. You lick your lips, a nervous gesture, and sit up properly in bed. > "[[Hello? Can I help you?|Speak.]]" > "[[Do you mind? I'm trying to sleep.|End1]]"

[img[https://i.imgur.com/Q3wENx7.png]] The creature observes you with it's bright "eyes" and slowly opens it's jaws, and you watch, horrified as a pale, clawed hand slips out and reaches for you. - [[Slap the hand away|Rejection.]] - [[It hasn't hurt you yet, why would it hurt you now?|Acceptance.]]

You look back for a glance, too afraid not to know, and you see the creature shifting in place. It doesn't make any attempt to go fully through your window; That would be a fools effort, it would never fit. But you watch in abject horror as it opens it's skeletal maw and two snake-like, pale, inhuman arms snake from the abyss of it's throat. [[You stop looking.|Run.]]

A few tense moments pass, and you wonder if you've angered it. You continue. "I have work in the morning. So if you wouldn't mind...I have another..." You glance at your phone, sitting on the bedside table, "3 more hours of sleep to catch before work." The creature considers this. It huffs - from where, you don't know - and lowers it's head. You watch as it ducks back out of the room, and are horrified to note that it closes your window again with a...more humanoid hand than you anticipated. The hand stays on the window for a few more minutes, and then is gone, leaving only a print on your window, one that doesn't wash off for the next 3 months. - [[Ending 1 - Cursed Blessings|Start]] -

You are captive. And the creature seems displeased, simply by the tone of its unnatural voice. It's hands grip you tightly as it pulls you in closer. This may be it, you fear, perhaps this is how you die. Not surrounded by loved ones, but cold, in the dead of night, tragically silent and alone in the clutches of some terrible monster. But it doesn't eat you. //"I have come far. Too far into the land of men, far enough to be weakened and tired. Do not test my patience nor my good will. I come bearing a [[gift.|Acceptance.]]"// At this, the creature retracts one hand, and brings it back clasped around something.

In a panic you slap the hand away, wary of the creatures touch. The hand recoils, shrivelling to a blackened stub, and receeds back into the creatures maw with a dissatisfied hiss. You hear stamping as the deer-creature expresses it's frustration, worried that it will make another attempt, but it doesn't. Instead, it catches your attention with it's eyes, holding you with an ethereal command. Your body seizes; You cannot move. You can do nothing but watch as it shoves the window up - further than it should - and a hoof begins to make it's way into your room. But it isn't a hoof. It's another hand, it seems - but less humanoid than the first. And much more gnarled. The creature makes it's way into your bedroom, too large to make it easy, too frustrated to care, and when it's finally mostly inside - enough to reach you, it gazes deeply into your eyes again. //"You know not who you trifle with, little human. I bring you warning. A message. A gift. My duty was to deliver; It was not specified in what way."// [[You find the strength to whimper as it's putrid breath washes over you again, it's bony face inches from your own.]]

You watch the hand, wary, but let the creature continue. It hasn't done anything to directly hurt or scare you (aside from...existing) so you risk giving it the benefit of the doubt. It gingerly reaches a slow hand forward, clasped around an unseen object. It stops in front of you. You look from hand to skulled face, and the hand nudges forward in a clear gesture. //"Take it, human."// Dumbfounded, you simply obey, opening your hands. Your [[prize]] is dropped into your palms, cool and smooth and perfectly ordinary.

The creatures hands - more of them, now, grip you tightly. You can tell there will be marks, bruises, scratches even, as one of it's many hands grabs you tightly by the wrist. It wrenches your hand up and open. Into your hand it deposits it's "gift", a small nightlight. //"You have been foolish to waste my patience. I will spend no more time here, trifling with a mortal."// At that it throws you back to the ground, unserruptitiously slithering back out through the window. It pauses, casting you one last glance. //"You will die without the light, human. By my hand or anothers. Do not dwell long in the dark. You know not what lies within."// And like that, your guest is [[gone.|End2]]

[img[https://i.imgur.com/48CZqTx.png]] In your hands rests a regular, round little nightlight. The bulb is small but carefully twisted glass, the decorative casing around it lightweight, depicting some woods and a few twinkling fireflies. You look up at the creature, confusion plain on your face. //"You sleep in the dark. Do you know, Human, Just what lurks there?"// It leans impossibly further into your room, almost closing the distance between you with the length of it's stretched neck. It's next words are spoken softly, seriously, foreboding. //"Humans fear my visage, but I am plainly what I am. When last did you question that which appears normal before you?"// You feel the cold weight of the night light in your hand. - "[[How can this possibly help me?]]" - "[[Thank you.|End3]]"

The creature stamps it's hooves outside, or so you think, it's patience wearing thin. //"It is light. There are creatures that dwell in the spaces in absence of light. To keep light with you at all times is to ward them from you."// You consider this, for a moment, turning the little light around in your hands. "[[But why me?]]"

You simply thank the monster, and at that it seems satisfied. It bows it's head and withdraws from your window, pausing. //"Be wary, human. Not many are so patient and disciplined as I."// With that it closes the window behind it, and your guest is gone. It takes you a few minutes to feel like you can, but slowly you stand up and make your way to the nearest (and most open) plug-in. You pause only a second, and plug the little light in. You don't know what you expected; all it does is flicker on. It looks like any normal, albeit fancy, nightlight. But it's light casts a warm glow, and that in and of itself is comforting. You hope, distantly, that whatever it's supposed to do for you works. You don't know if you can handle another encounter like this, another "guest". Luckily, you don't have to. You are careful and sure to have the light on every night, and every night you sleep all the night through. In truth, you've never slept as soundly. [[Ending 3 - Safety|Start]]

You look at the nightlight in your hands, dazed and still processing. You find that your body is still unwilling to move, but that the creature's hold on you is loosening over time. [img[https://i.imgur.com/48CZqTx.png]] The nightlight is small, humorously so. You wonder how in the world something like this could save you from something like...THAT. It seems impossible to you, that this could do anything. You find yourself laughing, an empty little laugh, that drifts off into tired sobs by the time the sun starts rising. You make yourself coffee, you get ready for work. You mark it up to a bad night terror. Sleep paralysis. You tell no one; And so, no one knows what to make of it when you simply disappear. [[Ending 2 - Failure|Start]]

Tired of your questions, the creature doesn't even mask a scoff. //"Do not ask that of me. Ask that of the one that sent me."// Without offering you any further explanations, the creature withdraws from your window, not hesitating to close it with it's strange hands. You look down at the light in your hands again, confused, disoriented. - [[Plug the light in.|End3]] - [[This is too much.|End2]]