VanDyke_Jonathan

The faucet drips a brown liquid. You move towards the bath and brush aside the curtain.\n\nA dark stain covers the wall and side of the tub. Here is where they had found Tyler and the others.\n\n[[Return to the master bedroom.|Upstairs Master]]

The fire crackles. \n\n[[Check the kitchen.|Kitchen]]\n\n[[Check the guestroom.|Guestroom]]\n\n[[Check upstairs.|Upstairs]]\n\n

[[Hours?|Hole12]]

[[A deep blackness presents itself before you.|Closet2]]

[[The sounds grow.|Hole9]]

[[Push onward.|Hole8]]

[[Keep moving.|Hole7]]

[[Push onward.|Hole6]]

[[Move forward. Keep moving.|Hole5]]

[[Reach out. Feel the dirt around you.|Hole4]]

[[Infinite blackness before you.|Hole3]]

[[Darkness.|Hole2]]\n\n

<<set $visited_Fridge = "yes">>\nRancid, warm air releases from the fridge as a cloud of flies burst outward. \n\nThe door slams immediately before the contents can be seen.\n\n<<if $visited_Oven eq "yes">>[[Return to the living room|Living Room]]<<else>>[[There was something else...|Kitchen]]<<endif>>

THE SPEAKER\n\n[[START|Phone]]\n

Its gutteral voice is the source of all that you had heard throughout the house. You've come all this way for this. You beg the Speaker for answers. You want to grab the ancient cloth it's shrouded in.\n\n[[Why am I here? you ask.|Why1]]\n\n[[What do you want? you ask.|What1]]\n\n[[What happened to Tyler? you ask.|Tyler1]]\n\n<<if $visited_Why4 eq "yes" and $visited_What3 eq "yes" and $visited_Tyler1 eq "yes" >> [[Speak, you say.|Speaker3]]\n<<endif>>

[[I am the Speaker.|Speaker2]]

How can this be? you wonder. You've never had violent thoughts. You've never wanted to hurt anyone. You try to argue with him. \n\n[[I have a choice, you say.|Speaker5]]

On the side of the house is a window slightly ajar. A shutter gently taps against the wall.\n\nYou lift the window and [[sneak in.|Entrance4]]

The steps creak as you descend. The growling has turned into a full, overwhelming moan. It's coming from somewhere ahead.\nIn the middle of the basement you see a hole.\n\n[[Enter the hole.|Hole1]]\n\n<<playsound "Speaker_Basement.mp3" >>

[[I cannot tell you what to do. I can only speak that which is known.|Speaker6]]\n\n

Eventually the voice began to command of him things, he tells you. The house, it's begun to feel like somewhere else, he says.\n\n[[I'm sure it's nothing, you say.|Phone9]]\n\n[[Have you you talked to anyone else? A therapist? you ask.|Phone10]]

He agrees with you, it's probably nothing. Surely he's just coping with the stress in his life.\n\nYou tell him if he needs anything to feel free to call. You hang up, not thinking much of [[it.|Phone11]]

[[Some unknown that not even I can speak of.|Speaker2]]\n\n<<set $visited_What3= "yes">>

[[The eyes...are they...|following]]

[[What I want is unimportant. What I am here to do is to speak.|What2]]

Thank you for playing. \n\nThe Speaker was created by Jonathan VanDyke. Below you can find the references for assets used.\n\n[[Go back to the start.|Start]]\n\nREFERENCES\nThe Earth's Story Illustrated stylesheet. (n.d.). Retrieved October 22, 2017, from https://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/node/5163\n\nSound Ideas. (2014). Jurassic Dinosaurs Sound Pack. Retrieved from https://soundideas.sourceaudio.com/#!explorer?b=1351799&o=product_name&d=d&show=50&pg=0&no=Title.\n\n\n\n\n\n

[[Hello?|Phone3]]

Hello? Can you hear me, he says.\n\nYou haven't spoken to Tyler in months, maybe even years. There's a quiver in his voice. You ask him what's [[wrong.|Phone4]]

[[Am I crazy?|Phone7]]

There's a hesitation over the line. Before you can say anything to ease the tension he tells you of a voice. \n\nAt first benign, the voice simply spoke. Incoherent words, abstract [[concepts.|Phone8]]

Tyler laughs. He's nervous still, like he doesn't want to tell you. You talk for a bit, but he's on edge.\n\nHe tells you about the house he's moved into, about how strange it has made him [[feel.|Phone5]]

[[I hear a voice...|Phone6]]

The phone rings. You [[answer it.|Phone2]]\n\n<<loopsound "Speaker_Phone.mp3" >>

Chattel from past owners of this house. A doll, old pictures of unknown people indiscriminately cast about, a jacket.\n\n[[Return to the study.|Upstairs Study]]

You pick up the notebook and flip through it. From the passages you glean this was Tyler's. You feel a little guilty, as if you'll be caught in the act. The dead can feel no embarrassment.\n\nSlowly you read his descent into madness. He keeps mentioning something throughout the passages that [[speaks to him.|Notebook2]]

You have never hurt anyone. You have never had the desire. This cannot be, you think. This is absurd.\n\nYet, you can't help but think of Tyler. The Speaker has not lied so far. What if he's correct?\n\n[[The Speaker has spoken the truth.|Believe]]\n\n[[The Speaker has spoken falsely.|Disbelieve]]

[[But the voice does not call from here.|Upstairs]]

You scramble through the papers searching for some sort of answer. You still don't know why you're here. A [[notebook|Notebook]] catches your eye.

The Speaker

The realtor unlocks the front door. She examines the each room before an upcoming open house. Everything is clean, immaculate. \nShe makes her way upstairs to the master bedroom. In it, she hears a faucet. Odd, she thinks. \n\nShe enters the bathroom and turns the handle. As she does she notices a vague shape behind the curtain. The realtor pulls it back. You lay there, eyes wide. \n\nDead. \n\nYears later, a train crosses a snowy backroad amidst a winter storm. A child looks out, face pressed against the glass. \n\n[[END|Start]]\n\n[[CREDITS|Credits]]

The Speaker is silent for a moment. He then speaks as if what he's saying has been uttered before.\n\nYou have been brought here to tell you one thing, he says. You will kill. [[You will kill hundreds.|Speaker4]]

[[The decisions you have made have all have lead you to this path. I am the one who guides you.|Speaker2]]\n\n<<set $visited_Why4 = "yes">>

Dishes pile in the sink. Undetermined meat sits on a cutting board on the counter. How long has it been there? A faint light shines from inside the oven. There is something [[inside.|Oven]] A soft rattling emanates from the [[fridge.|Fridge]]\n\n[[Go back to the living room.|Living Room]]\n\n<<if $visited_Notebook3 eq "yes">>[[You notice a door to the basement you somehow missed. There is grunting from the other side. If you go down there you have a feeling you won't return...|Basement]]<<endif>>\n\n

You wake up in the chair in the living room. The fire has long since died. Daylight shines in from outside. You climb out the window you came in from.\n\nYears later, you still think about that night. You wonder if it had happened at all, yet you can't shake that it did. One night as you drive down a wintery road your truck gets stuck on a set of train tracks. Through the storm you can't see or hear a train. You call a tow truck and wait under a nearby tree. It's cold. The wind cuts through your jacket. You begin to doze.\n\nAs you doze, you hear a sound coming down the tracks. The creeping realization dawns on you that you could have prevented this...\n\n[[END|Start]]\n\n[[CREDITS|Credits]]

The fire is hypnotizing. You feel a little foolish now. Why did you come here? What could possibly have come from this? \n\nBut the fire is nice...You drift off. \n\nSuddenly you wake up to the sound of a distance voice. You can't tell what it says or where it comes from. Yet, you have to [[find out.|Living Room]]

You stumble inside a living room. A fire gently crackles in the fireplace. It should alarm you, yet you feel a sense of invitation, a sense of being. \n\nThe only light source seems to come from the fire. Facing it is a wingback chair. You sit in it. You feel as if you're waiting for [[something.|Entrance5]]\n\n<<loopsound "Speaker_House.mp3" >>

You find yourself in the study. Boxes are laid out, [[some opened.|Boxes]] Stacks of papers cover the [[desk.|Desk]] \n\nThe voices take form in this place. They call out to you.\n\n[[Return to the hallway.|Upstairs]]

It's a windy night. You got lost for half an hour on the back roads looking for the house. Finally you come upon it, an old colonial looking mansion surrounded by trees.\n\nYou hear what sounds like [[knocking.|Entrance3]]

It eats at you. For days you can't stop thinking about it.\nWas there really something in that house? Could a structure possibly drive someone insane?\n\nYou decide to [[see for yourself.|Entrance2]]

[[If you do not want this, if you disbelieve, I alone can change it. You must authorize me. I cannot change it if you do not allow it.|Speaker7]]

You feel a sense of someone on the other side of the glass.\n\n[[Return to the living room.|Living Room]]\n\n

The moment you answered the phone, you made your decision, he tells you.\n\n[[But what option did I have? you ask.|Why3]]

There are passages that have sketches in them. The Speaker, he calls it. A hunched figure scraped on the page in charcoal.\n\nYou can't see its eyes.\n\nYou can't see its mouth.\n\nYou close [[the book.|Notebook3]]

As you shut it, you hear the voice louder. It's calling out to you pained and agonized. It sounds as if it's coming from the [[kitchen...|Upstairs Study]]\n\n<<set $visited_Notebook3 = "yes">>

You grip the handle of the door.\n\n[[Slowly it opens.|Basement1]]\n\n<<fadeoutsound "Speaker_House.mp3" >>

[[What option does anyone have? What is choice?|Why4]]

It sits at the end of tunnel. A lone figure, hooded. As you approach it lifts its skull-like visage to you. \n\nYou cannot see its eyes. You cannot see its mouth.\n\n[[Who are you? you ask.|Speaker]]

[[You see it.|Hole17]]

[[You crawl. Palms scraped, bloodied knees.|Hole16]]

[[The hole narrows.|Hole15]]

[[Keep moving.|Hole14]]

[[Days?|Hole13]]

[[The cacophonous of the unknown before and ahead.|Hole10]]

[[How long have you been crawling?|Hole11]]

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[[You are here because you chose to come here. I did not choose you.|Why2]]

I have informed the ones who have been brought to me since before the world was formed, he tells you.\n\n[[Who brought me here? you ask.|What3]]

Along the halls are paintings of those long dead. [[Portraits|Paintings]] of another life. At the end of the hallway is a [[closet.|Closet]]\n\n[[Perhaps the noise is coming from the room to the left.|Upstairs Master]]\n\n[[Perhaps the noise is coming from the room to the right.|Upstairs Study]]\n\n[[Go downstairs.|Living Room]]\n\n

The ground is covered in newspapers and newspapers plaster the [[windows.|Windows]]\n\nThe voices rise, yet the are not here. \n\n[[Return to the living room.|Living Room]]

You move closer to the bed. The mound is almost human in form. You think it moves but you can't be sure.\n\n[[Step away.|Upstairs Master]]

You feel concerned. What could be causing this? Tyler admits he hasn't reached out to anyone else. He's scared. He promises to call again. You hang up. \n\nA lingering dread settles in the back of your head, but you [[dismiss it.|Phone11]]

The phone rings. You [[answer it.|Phone12]]

[[Hello?|Phone13]]

It's an unfamiliar voice. The person on the other line tells you Tyler killed himself.\n\nI just talked to him the other day, you say. Who is this? you ask. There is silence on the other end. [[The line goes dead.|Phone14]]

The years go by and eventually you stop thinking about the phone call. \n\nUntil one day while you're watching the TV as life slips you by you see someone was found dead in their house. The house looks familiar.\n\nIt's [[Tyler's house.|Entrance1]]\n\n<<fadeoutsound "Speaker_Phone.mp3" >>

[[Like you, and those before him, he was brought here. His choice was made.|Speaker2]]\n\n<<set $visited_Tyler1 = "yes">>

<<set $visited_Oven = "yes">>\nThe door of the oven slowly creaks open. A mound of greasy looking cloths lie on the grate silhouetted by the oven light.\n\n<<if $visited_Fridge eq "yes">>[[Return to the living room|Living Room]]<<else>>[[There was something else...|Kitchen]]<<endif>>\n\n

[[following you?|Upstairs]]

Jonathan VanDyke

The master bedroom is grimy and filled with a faint stench. The bed is made and the [[covers|Covers]] are raised in the middle.\nThe [[master bathroom|Bathroom]] door is cracked slightly. Dripping can be heard from within.\n\n[[Return to the hallway.|Upstairs]]