The sharp smell of Pine needles

A pleasant but sharp smell of pine needles greets you as you slowly regain consciousness. You can feel the cold linoleum floor beneath you, but can't find the energy to get up, not yet. Your heart is pounding, but you can't remember why. It had been something, something bright...you can almost taste the memory, but something cold and sharp stops you from reaching it, like a wall of icicles in your way. [[You open your eyes and look around]] [[You stay on the floor just a little longer]]

You seem to be lying on the floor in a long hallway with whitewashed walls and a low ceiling. The only source of light is a Christmas tree far down the corridor, its bright glow in different colours illuminate the walls in shades of blue, green and red. The lights shimmer and pulse, making the narrow hallway flicker and distort in front of your eyes. [[Get up and walk towards the Christmas tree]] [[Call out and see if there is anyone around]] [[Close your eyes again and try to remember what happened]]

As you lie on the floor that cold sensation that blocked your memory starts to spread through your mind and across your body. It whispers to you, but you can't make out the words. Like snowflakes drifting down on you from above, creating a cold, white blanket. [[Keep your eyes closed and try to focus on the whispers]] [[Shake of the cold and open your eyes->You open your eyes and look around]]

As you get to your feet you can faintly make out the chiming of bells further down the corridor. You start walking towards the tree, feeling like you’re doing something important, something meaningful. //I promised, didn't I?"// a though drifts through your mind, but it is gone in a second. [[Continue down the hallway->Walk towards the tree]]

//"Hello! Is anybody there?"// Your voice echoes through the hallway, and you hear a soft rustling out in the darkness away from the Christmas tree. //"Hello?"// you call out again in the darkness. No response. The lights of the Christmas tree are blinking and pulsing with a welcoming light, calling out to you. [[Walk towards the tree]] [[Walk away from the light, into the dark hallway->Turn back]]

As you close your eyes again you can hear a thin sound of bells ringing, and slowly music starts to play in your head, a Christmas carol that’s been played to death over the years. And something else, behind the bells and the music. Something low, and blaring that cuts through the noise. It grows louder and louder, but before you can make it out the sound is cut of, and all grows quiet again. [[Keep your eyes closed and try to focus on the whispers<-Keep your eyes closed]] [[You open your eyes and look around]]

You gasp as a sharp pain slices through your mind, and a shattering sound of breaking glass vibrates through you. Suddenly the voice reaches you crisp and clear. //"But daddy I want a Christmas tree! You promised me we could have one this year!" //she says. It feels so familiar, that voice, and your heart beats faster again as she continues. //"If we don't have a tree where is Santa going to put all the presents? My socks are NOT big enough for a bike."// she says, and in your head you see a little girl with a mass of brown locks and a pouty face crossing her arms across her chest. [[Continue->Remember]]

You see yourself getting out of the comfy chair in front of the fireplace and down the mug of warm mulled wine that stood on the table next to you. Its warmth spreads through you, driving back the cold that had a tight grip on your heart moments before. You pat your little girl on the head and walk towards the hallway on slightly unsteady legs. Each step echoes through you, pounding. You try to make him stop, to go back to the warmth in front of the fireplace, but your body keeps walking towards the dark hallway. "Be back soon, little gremlin! Why don't you watch some cartoons while I'm out?" [[Continue-> walk to the car]]

Suddenly you are outside in the cold, crisp air, snowflakes dancing around you as you make your way towards your car. As you reach the old Buick you drop your car keys in the snow. Muttering you bend down to grab them you lose your balance for a moment, but you brace yourself with one hand on the icy gravel buried beneath the blanket of white. You realize you still have your house slippers on, but it's a fleeting though. You are on a mission to get a tree for your little girl, and that's all that matters. You watch, distanced from yourself as the old engine sputters to life with a hoarse roar and pulls out of the driveway. [[Continue->Carcrash]]

Yu see homes on both sides of the road covered in cheerful figures of light: Santa, snowmen and dancing reindeer. As you head onto the highway you notice that your daughter’s teddy bear is lying in the passenger seat next to you. //"Even little teddy’s should wear their seatbelts, don't you think?"// you hear yourself mumble, and reach over to secure the stuffed animal. Suddenly the inside of the car is much brighter, you can see the pink furr of the stuffed animal clearly. A blaring car horn, screaming in alarm. As you look up you are blinded by the sharp whiteness shining straight into your eyes through the windshield. You raise your arm to shield your eyes. Something massive smashes into you, crushing you in an instant of flaring pain, making it impossible to breathe, to think, to remember... [[Everything goes dark->Start]]

The lights pulse brighter as you approach. At first it feels warm and welcoming, but as you walk down the narrow corridor the glow changes, blinking stronger and brighter for each step. Alternatingly you are blinded by searing light, then plunged back into complete darkness. In one of the blinding pulses you manage to make out the shape of a small pink teddy bear lying on the floor. [[Pick up the teddy]] [[Ignore it and keep walking towards the tree]]

You bend down and pick up the stuffed animal. As you do a sudden warm dizziness hits you, and you almost fall over but manage to steady yourself again the cold, sharp gravel that covers the floor of the hallway. The Teddy is in bad shape, one of its arms has been ripped off and the stuffing is leaking out through the shoulder and neck, making it more misshapen with every passing breath. [[Ignore it and keep walking towards the tree<-Continue walking towards the tree]] [[Turn back]]

A few more steps, a few more blinding flashes of light and you reach the tree. As you reach out a trembling hand towards the mass of green branches, the lights stop flickering, bathing you in a warm glow. Your fingers brush through the branches, and a wet warmth covers them. as you pull back your hand you see hundreds of small pine needles imbedded into the palm of your hand, drawing tiny droplets of bright blood. [[Continue->Keep your eyes closed and try to focus on the whispers]]

Something is clearly not right here, and you turn around to walk away from it all. As you do you see a light further out in the darkness, blinking and pulsing. It is the only illumination in the gravel covered hallway that you are standing in. [[You start walking towards the light, the gravel crunching beneath your slipper-covered feet.]]

As you walk down the hallway you can smell the scent of pine needles and you can make out a shape of a Christmas tree far away down in the hallway. It seems to be the source of the pulsing lights. You feel a smile tug at your lips, you’ve always liked Christmas trees. [[Continue->Walk towards the tree]]