The Tapping

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You rub your eyes and look around to try to get your bearings. Did you fall asleep? This place is familiar, but it smells wrong. Empty. You put your hand out to raise yourself up off the floor and find paper. Envelopes? A pile of mail has built up inside the door you find yourself next to. [[Look at the room]]

It's hard to tell at first what the room is... there's not much in it. It's carpeted, with some kind of display cabinet on one side and a brick fireplace surrounded by wood panelling taking up one end of the room. Opposite the cabinet, navy velvet floor-length curtains hang at the windows; they probably looked expensive at some point but mould and dust have ruined them. A set of double doors sits in the wall between the cabinet and the fireplace. You scruffle to your feet amongst the abandoned mail and try the front door it's been pushed through. Locked. [[Look at mail]] [[Check fireplace]] [[Inspect cabinet]] [[Look out the window]] [[Go through double doors]]

Some of the envelopes have the crispy feel of paper that got wet at some point and dried. Mould has gotten to some of it. You try to make out a name but on every single piece of mail the details are distorted; the ink has run, or they're somehow sun-faded... how long has any of this been here? [[Look at the room]] [[Look out the window]] [[Check fireplace]] [[Inspect cabinet]] [[Go through double doors]]

<<audio tapping play>> A distant memory of reading about people hiding things in fireplaces tickles at your mind. Maybe there's a spare front door key here? That would be weird, but maybe... A look in the fireplace reveals it's never seen a real fire in it's lifetime. A faint draught whistles down the chimney, but you can't see any light up there. You gingerly poke your hand up and feel around, and a cloud of dry black dust tumbles down, along with more than one spider. You jump back, the spiders run too quickly for you to see through the dust. You brush yourself off and wonder what on earth you were thinking. No key here, only crawlies. [[Look at the room]] [[Look out the window]] [[Look at mail]] [[Inspect cabinet]] [[Go through double doors]]

You open the glass fronted doors on the cabinet to get a closer look at the trinkets inside. A white dinner service with silvery-gold edging occupies the centre, while the outer shelves hold ceramic, crystal, brass dolphin ornaments, tankards, decorative perfume bottles... It's all very car-boot-sale. No rare antiquities here. And no front door key. [[Look at the room]] [[Look out the window]] [[Check fireplace]] [[Look at mail]] [[Go through double doors]]

Your fingers leave imprints in velvet thick with dust as you pull a curtain aside. It feels kind of greasy. The window looks misted up, like condensation, except when you try to wipe it away it doesn't work, and just leaves your hands with the same damp, slick feel as the curtains. Light shines in, but the outside surroundings are obscured. [[Look at the room]] [[Look at mail]] [[Check fireplace]] [[Inspect cabinet]] [[Go through double doors]]

The doors click open and you see what must have been a living room. Two sofas sit at right angles facing a TV that sits atop a large cupboard. Wood floor, rug, coffee table, lamp, the usual. A tarnished mirror with an image of a blank-eyed, long-haired woman printed on it hangs on a wall leading to the stairs, and you can hear something tapping in a draught from upstairs. Whoever decorated this room clearly liked green - the walls are pale green, the rug is green, the curtains are green, the sofas are green. You can see the kitchen through a wood-panelled archway. A small dog bed sits in the space underneath the stairs. [[Open the curtains]] [[Look in TV cupboard]] [[Go to kitchen]]

The kitchen is a little grim but unremarkable. Fridge, cooker, sink, washing machine, tumble dryer, kitchen table. Cobwebs stick to the layer of grease that coats most things in here. A large window shows the same brick wall outside that you saw from the living room, but you still can't see where the path leads. The back door leading to it is locked tight. Another door lies in the end wall. The smells of cigarette smoke, cooking oil and hairspray linger. There's no electricity so you don't open the fridge - if there's anything in there, it can stay in there. You risk gingerly opening the cupboard underneath the kitchen sink, wary after the last cupboard experience. Inside, you find nothing but eleven cans of spider-killing spray. It seems like a useful sort of thing to have in this place so you take one with you. [[Open the door]]

You find yourself inside the dampest, mouldiest bathroom you've ever had the displeasure of being in. Whoever chose wood panelling for this room had very poor judgement. It has gone black and slimy, and smells really quite rank. Some kind of flesh-coloured mushroomy fungus, like little disembodied babies ears, is growing from it above the bathtub. There is nothing good here. You leave and close the door tightly behind you. [[Leave]]

<<audio tapping play>> You head back inside and start up the stairs into the darkness above. The landing has no windows, and all the doors up here are closed. The first door you come to is off-level with the others, at a point where the staircase turns around and up to the right. The light from downstairs doesn't reach up the ceiling, and you're pretty sure you can hear a faint tapping sound from somewhere above you. You hope it is just the sound of the same draught you've felt elsewhere in the house. You reach out and give the doorknob a shove. [[Go into back bedroom]]

The door doesn't open very far; it seems that something is wedged behind it. It's a wide enough gap for you to get in though. It's cold enough to make you have a little shiver as your eyes adjust to the light, and you see hints of pink carpet, pink walls, and pink curtains. You can't figure out what's in here for a second, then realise it is, quite simply, a small mountain of //stuff//. A wardrobe and dressing table are shoved in behind the door, and a pink duvet cover peeks out from a heap of clothes, books, toys, magazines and just-general-whatever. Ornaments and jewellery are piled on the dressing table, where the smell of stale makeup permeates from an open drawer. Black bags of miscellany fill any gaps on the floor around the heap which builds up in the the opposite corner, where it is literally taller than you. The window is visible directly opposite you, the wall surrounding it burnt black with a creeping mould that is stretching out to meet the cobwebs dripping from the ceiling. [[Open the wardrobe on your left]] [[Open the wardrobe on your right]] [[Look through the window]]

<<stopallaudio>> It's completely empty in here, without so much as a cobweb lurking in a corner. It's the only room without a musty smell, and the white walls are unmarked by the creeping mould present everywhere else. Silence wraps you like a comfortable blanket. The window is obscured by ivy growing over the outside of it, so you still can't see what's outside. The room feels light and airy regardless, and you pause for a while to gather yourself. A loud creak from the landing disturbs the silence. [[Stay in here]] [[Return to landing]]

<<audio tapping loop play>> You know that you won't be getting out of any upstairs windows - too high. Unless you want to wither away in the empty room you'll need to see what that noise was. Taking a deep breath, you open the door and step out onto the landing. The light from behind you hits the attic hatch board that has fallen on the floor at your feet. You look up and your eyes lock with other eyes, black eyes with a glint of reflection in them. A long black tendril unfurls from the hatch and attaches to the ceiling with a //tap//. Then another, //tap//, and another, //tap//, and you realise they are extremely slender, extremely long legs. The spider lowers it's body from the hatch, and with a movement that would be scuttling if it wasn't the same size as you, crawls down the wall, //tap tap tap tap, tap tap tap tap// and turns to face you, blocking your route back downstairs. It inches forward, and you take a step back. One of it's front legs touches the piece of wood on the floor, which crumbles to dust. [[Use the spider spray]] [[Step forward]]

As you step back from the nasty bathroom door, you see a shadow in the frosted glass of the back door. You freeze, and it darts out of sight. However, the handle clicks, and the door drifts open. You can see outside and whatever it was seems to have gone, and the thought of a breath of fresh air is rather inviting after the bathroom stink. Stepping out onto the path, you see it leads into what was supposed to be a garden. It's completely overgrown with nasturtiums, a waist-height waving pool of green and orange, too thick and tangled to see what's beneath them. Any hope you had of getting out this way is dashed by walls on all sides that are too high to safely climb, and you have no idea if it would be better on the other side anyway. At least in here, you've got your spider spray. You wonder if you can see what's over the wall from the upstairs windows. [[Go upstairs]]

<<audio dust stop>> --------------------------------------------- The Tapping By Helen Williams Made for My First Game Jam 2017 at itch.io --------------------------------------------- Photograph copyright Helen Williams 2012 Music from <a href="https://lewislepton.itch.io/" target="_blank">Lewis Lepton</a> Sound effects from: <a href="https://freesound.org/people/ciupaboy/sounds/141795/">Tap tap.mp3</a> by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/ciupaboy/">ciupaboy</a> | License: Attribution <a href="https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/345561/">Dust Scatter, A.wav</a> by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/">InspectorJ</a> | License: Attribution ----------------------------------------------

<<audio tapping play>> The doors take a bit of a yank to open, but eventually they creak and a puff of a vaguely familiar scent wafts into your face. You peer in and as your eyes adjust to the darkness, you'd swear that it seems to be bigger on the inside than the outside. It is filled to overflowing with stuff. VHS player, DVD player, a record player, a games console, and all the accompaniments: videos, dvds, cds, a box filled with 12" vinyl records, cassettes, video game cartridges...Is that an old computer at the back? You could probably sell the Megadrive games to a nostalgic collector, but the records all seem as neglected as the forgotten mail by the front door. You kneel down and reach in, grabbing a record box by its handle to heft it out to see if any actual treasures lurk in this hoard. Your hand brushes against something and you swiftly pull it back out. Just a spiderweb. You look back in and see the occupant of the web you just ripped crawl out from a back corner. It sits on top of the box you were just about to take. Your eyes sense movement from the other corners, as dark shapes start to scurry, and seep down over the videos. You tumble backwards and kick the cupboard doors shut. Maybe not. [[Open the curtains]] [[Go to kitchen]]

These curtains are much less plush than the ones in the front room. Maybe those were to show off to the neighbours. You pull these open to see a heavily rotten window frame, to the stage that you wonder how the glass is still in it. A large dead moth lies, paperlike, on the windowsill. Through the glass you see a narrow path, a brick wall and little else. There is no sound from outside. [[Look in TV cupboard]] [[Go to kitchen]]

The door opens to what looks like the wardrobe to Narnia. Old dresses, suits, fur coats are squashed in too tightly to get any out without causing another pile of stuff. They're all covered with beige dust from woodworm in the shelves above, which tumbles out around your feet from the bottom as well. The mirror attached to the inside of the door reflects the darkness on the landing behind you. [[Open the wardrobe on your right]] [[Look through the window]]

This wardrobe is small, painted white with red handles at some point. You realise from the Care Bears stickers at the bottom that it's a child's wardrobe. It's pretty bare inside apart from one coat hanger full of 60s looking ties and a soft doll, dressed like a cute little red riding hood except in pale blue. Her hood slips back to reveal short, blonde hair. She seems pretty cool. You've no use for a doll though, so you tuck her back into her spot and close the door. [[Open the wardrobe on your left]] [[Look through the window]]

<<audio tapping play>> You start to make your way through the hoard toward the window, doing your best not to break anything as you go. Despite your best efforts, about three-quarters of the way across and thigh-deep in squishy black bags, you knock a pile of books, which slide aside and uncover a big old spider. It scuttles a couple of inches towards you and stops, between you and the window. You pop the lid off the spider spray, take aim and fire. The spider recoils, and runs up the pile, legs twitching, so you aim higher and give it another spray. As it spasms onto it's back, you hear the //tapping// above you again. The pile of stuff starts to slowly tumble down, except - it doesn't, that's not stuff moving, it is spiders, crawling out from the heap. The cobwebs shimmer as their owners descend toward you, and you tumble backwards, spraying everywhere, twitching spiders flailing toward you as you retreat back to the landing, slamming the door shut. If this is a dream, you'd like to wake up now. [[Two more doors]]

<<audio tapping play>> Up three more steps, and you can make out two more doors, and little else. The door straight ahead refuses to budge at your touch, so you open the door to your left. The light from inside illuminates the landing enough for you to make out a big heavy padlock on the other door, the rust from which has run in the damp in this place, leaving coppery stains trickling to the floor. Grubby handprints suggest someone else tried shoving the door open at some point, to no avail. The light reaches up enough to see an attic hatch, with a board nailed over it, some of the nails missing. That tapping noise is more insistent now. [[Go into middle bedroom]]

<<audio tapping loop play>> You don't want to know what made that noise. It sounded bigger than anything a can of spider spray could handle. The //tap tap tap// descends down the other side of the room's wall, and the door moves slightly, then starts to open, ever so slowly. You run over and push it shut. It bumps against your back as you lean against it, then slide down to the floor and sit with with your weight keeping it shut. The tapping behind your head never stops, but it never gets in, and you never get out. [[..........]]

<<audio tapping loop play>> You've still got half a can of spray left after the incident in the back bedroom. And sure, that didn't go too well, and they were small, and this is big, and they chased you, and it's looking at you... You try to get yourself together, take aim, and press the spray button. A screech seems to wail from the walls of the house itself as the spider recoils. A hundred smaller //tap tap taps// sound as the smaller ones you couldn't see start to fall down the walls. You step forward, finger firmly pressed on the button, as it twitches and falls, and look on in horror as it's back bursts and a thousand tiny spiders pour out, swarming up the walls and along the floor, turning everything black as they clamber up your legs and into your hair. They pull you down and silky web caresses your limbs as your can of spray runs out. There is nothing but the //tapping// as you feel yourself pulled up and into the absolute pitch blackness of the hatch. [[..........]]

You take a step forward toward the creature. It reacts by hissing menacingly, and taking a step forward towards you. //taptaptaptaptaptaptaptap// Another step forward puts you within it's reach. It lifts it's front legs, and your eyes follow them up above your head. It uses the rest of its legs to close the small gap between you. //taptaptaptaptaptap// The two front legs lower around your ears and bear down on your shoulders, as another two legs raise up and rest their fuzzy weight in the crooks of your elbows. [[Push forward]]

<<audio opening play>> <center> The Tapping <img src="https://dl.dropbox.com/s/wpqdo48c2xs4jka/ivywindow.jpg?dl=0"/> [[Wake Up]] </center>

<<cacheaudio "opening" "https://www.dropbox.com/s/lyjfzgxtxdd79f8/MF035.mp3?dl=1">> <<cacheaudio "closing" "https://www.dropbox.com/s/6kkaih11s0f7av4/MF047.mp3?dl=1">> <<cacheaudio "tapping" "https://www.dropbox.com/s/6xjw2y3s1023oca/tap.mp3?dl=1">> <<cacheaudio "dust" "https://www.dropbox.com/s/enzxjgjxww8gjci/dust.mp3?dl=1">>

<<audio dust play>> You push forward another step, causing it to lose its balance and stumble backwards. It seems to have shrunk as it raises its legs at you once more. It hisses again, but sounds different, smaller, weaker. In the dark you can make out small shapes dropping from the ceiling, not crawling this time, but falling. One lands on your arm, and you see it is one of the smaller spiders from earlier. You smack it off, but your hand meets no resistance as it dissipates into dust. [[Take another step]]

<<audio dust loop play>> You step forward again, and behind the creature, you see dust starting to pour out from underneath the door of the back bedroom, drifting down the step. It's visibly cowering now, backing away from you, as one by one the legs and eyes and everything crumble, the tapping turning to nothing more than the sound of soft breaths around you. By the time you reach the spot where it stood, it has gone. A light glints in the soft pile - a key? - so you grab it, and start back down the stairs. [[Go]]

<<audio tapping stop>> <<audio closing play>> As you hurry back through the living room, the TV cupboard bursts open, overflowing with the dust, as the furniture and wallpaper and everything else start to decay and flake.You hurry towards the front door, as a shatter tells you that the display cabinet has given way to it's crumbling occupants. The abandoned mail gives a mild crunch under your feet as it, too, turns to nothing, and you reach forward to put the key in lock. Thankfully, the key turns, and you finally open the door, take a breath of fresh air, and step out into warm sunlight. [[..........]]