Tithed

(align: "==><==")+(text-style: "smear")+(css: "font-size: 500%")[''TITHED''] (align: "==><==")+(text-style: "italic")[[''START''->The phone rings.]] (align: "==><==")+(text-style: "smear")[[''WARNINGS''->WARNINGS]]

You don’t know what you were expecting to see - you look the same as you normally do, just more tired. There are bruised circles under your eyes. Under the bathroom’s fluorescent lights, your right eye reflects a lurid green, a smear of brightness on your shadowed face. You splash some water on your face, hoping the cold water will shock you back into awareness. (text-style: "underline")[[Use the facilities.->Use the facilities.]] (text-style: "underline")[[Check your phone.->Check your phone.]] (text-style: "underline")[[Go back to the waiting room.->Waiting Room 3]]

The nurse directs you down the narrow hallway behind her, where you find a single-stall, unisex bathroom. You close and lock the door behind you. Inside, a fluorescent light glares down on a grimy mirror, a sink, and a toilet that at least looks like it's been cleaned recently. (text-style: "underline")[[Look in the mirror.->Look in the mirror.]] (text-style: "underline")[[Use the facilities.->Use the facilities.]] (text-style: "underline")[[Check your phone.->Check your phone.]]

After a long car ride, you definitely need to use the bathroom for its intended purpose. Afterwards, you wash your hands in the sink. The water is icy cold. (text-style: "underline")[[Look in the mirror.->Look in the mirror.]] (text-style: "underline")[[Check your phone.->Check your phone.]] (text-style: "underline")[[Go back to the waiting room.->Waiting Room 3]]

You take a moment to check your phone. You'd messaged a few people as soon as you decided to leave, but of course none of them had gotten back to you. For lack of anything else to do, you scroll through your contacts list. Should you call someone? That seems like something your therapist might have recommended. //You need to have your own support system. Reach out to others when you're in need.// Who would you reach out to, anyway? Your landlord? Your boss? And how likely is it that any of them would pick up? Your chances aren't looking good. (text-style: "underline")[[Look in the mirror.->Look in the mirror.]] (text-style: "underline")[[Use the facilities.->Use the facilities.]] (text-style: "underline")[[Go back to the waiting room.->Waiting Room 3]]

You enter to find a deserted lobby that clearly hasn't received a change of design or furniture since the hospital's founding. There's only one other person inside: an older woman sitting behind a desk, clearly a receptionist of some kind. You tell her about the phone call and show her your ID. She looks surprised - that you came so quickly, or at all? "Someone will come by to escort you upstairs, but it'll be a few minutes." She nods to the deserted waiting area. "Feel free to take a seat. There's a bathroom down the hall if you need one." (text-style: "underline")[[Go to the bathroom.->Go to the bathroom.]] (text-style: "underline")[[Keep waiting.->Waiting Room 2]]

You take a seat in one of the waiting room's cracked leather chairs. Minutes pass, and the only sound is the receptionist typing away on her keyboard and occasionally you fidgeting in your seat. Then the front doors slide open, and two people enter the waiting room. One is a woman, middle-aged, pulling a girl who could maybe be her daughter behind her. She can't be more than seventeen, and her face is scratched: three long scratches down her cheek, dribbling blood that's quickly soaking through the tissues she's holding to them. The mother tugs her daughter over to the counter and leans in, talking intently with the receptionist. Their voices drift over to you. "...no idea what it was, but who knows if they were fooling around down on the Gates," the mother says, her voice thick with a mixture of fear, anxiety, and irritation. She turned aside and looked at her daughter. "I //told// you not to go down there, alone or not!" "Can you tell me what happened?" the receptionist asks the girl. "If it was an animal, we'll want to administer a rabies shot as soon as possible." The girl speaks for the first time. "I don't remember." The mother gives her a stern glare. "Taylor, you need to tell the truth!" The girl shakes her head. The expression on her face is dazed, and her eyes keep flicking from place to place, like she's looking for an answer in front of her. "I don't...we were just messing around, Jack and the rest of us, down by the trees. I must have fallen or something - I don't remember." The receptionist and the mother exchange a look. In a not so quiet undertone, the receptionist adds, "We may also want to check blood alchol levels, if necessary." As you watch them, a nurse in red scrubs appears at the end of the hallway. The mother and her daughter follow her into the depths of the hospital, the sound of their footsteps vanishing into silence. Several minutes pass, and the same nurse reappears, gesturing to you this time. You want to ask what happened to the girl, but you doubt you'd get an answer. (set: $girl to "met") (text-style: "underline")[[Follow the nurse.->Follow her.]]

The nurse leads you a few floors up to a large ward, painted in soothing shades of white and pale gray. Only a handful of the beds there are filled, and the one on the furthest end of the row belongs to your $parent. When they had said an 'accident' over the phone, you had prepared for the worst. But really, $nompronoun doesn't look like $nompronoun's been in an accident; if it wasn't for the ventilator and IV, you would have assumed $nompronoun was only sleeping. The wheezing sound of the ventilator almost sounds like $posspronoun breaths. {(if: $supplies is "acquired")[You set the bag of things you brought on the the tiny bedside table. It feels less impactful when $nompronoun's not awake to receive it.]} You turn to the nurse, questions bubbling over in your mind. (text-style: "underline")[["What happened?"->"What happened?"]] (text-style: "underline")[["Has $nompronoun woken up?"->"Has your parent woken up?"]]

You return to the waiting room, which is just as empty as you'd left it. A few minutes go by before a distracted-looking nurse in red scrubs appears at the counter, holding a clipboard and gesturing at you to follow her. (set: $girl to "notmet") (text-style: "underline")[[You follow her.->Follow her.]]

The Memorial Hospital has loomed over your town for as long as you can remember. It had been built sometime in the 70s or 80s, as you remember, with a burst of federal funding of the sort that this area hasn't seen since. It's remained open against the odds, and the end result is a squat, concrete monolith whose windows are half dark, half flickering with light. You find a parking spot by the front entrance, the only one still lit up. (text-style: "underline")[[Go inside.->Waiting Room 1]]

An hour after the phone call, you're out of your apartment and on the road. Maybe it would have been better to wait until morning, but you know you wouldn't have gotten any more sleep regardless. It's a two or three hour trip from the city you live in now to home. At this time of night you go flying down the road, which narrows from a four lane highway to two lanes to one, growing more and more empty as it shrinks. The trees lean together and meet across the road, shielding it from the night sky. For company, you have late-night radio talk shows, whose noise keeps you from dozing off. Just as you're coming around a winding bend, you catch sight of (text-style: "blur")[something] moving through the trees on the right side of the road, jerky and agitated and too fast for you to do more than register it: an impression of horns and hide and round gleaming eyes. It lurches towards the road, right into your path. Instinctively, you (text-style: "underline")[[slam on the brakes.->Slam on the brakes.]]

The thing leaps across the road in a great bound as your car screeches to a halt, throwing you forward against the wheel. It knocks the breath out of you, and while you wheeze you hear the sound of rustling branches as whatever it was vanishes back into the forest. By the time you look up, there's nothing there. The radio is still jabbering away, the sound of it jarring in the silence. Heart pounding, you reach over and turn it off. What. The. //Hell.// (text-style: "underline")[[Get out and make sure you didn't hit anything.->Get out and check.]] (text-style: "underline")+(link: "Keep driving.")[(set: $mark to "unseen")(goto: "Keep driving.")]

Running down an animal is the last mistake you need to make tonight. You hadn't even felt an impact, but still, you should check. You throw your hazards on and put the car in park, then slowly open the door. You look left and right as you step down onto the asphalt. Still nothing. When you go around to the front of the car, there's nothing there either. But there are three faint scratches on the hood of your car, running exactly parallel to each other. Just as you notice, a harsh, screeching wail comes from the trees beside the road, like that of a screaming fox. (text-style: "underline")[[Quickly, you get back in the car.->Keep driving.]]

Putting your foot back on the gas has never been so relieving yet so terrifying. The rest of the drive is uneventful, but that doesn't keep you from being on the edge, riding the brakes harder than usual. You leave the radio off. Sometimes you see things moving on the edge of the trees, but each time they turn out to be stationary deer, eyes reflecting the glare of your headlights back to you. After another hour, you pass a familiar 'Welcome!' sign, its paint faded and chipped. The population count has gone down since you left. It feels like no time at all before you're driving down the town's tiny Main Street, all its shops either locked up or left abandoned. Where to now? (text-style: "underline")+(link: "The hospital.")[(set: $key to "notacquired")(goto: "Hospital")] (text-style: "underline")[[Home.->House 1]]

(set: $key to "notacquired")You take a few steps forward, holding out your hand and clicking your tongue. Someone's housecat, maybe, left to wander? House or wild, the cat doesn't respond to your gestures, quiet and still below the bush. (text-style: "underline")[[Get closer.]] (text-style: "underline")[[Stay still.]]

The person on the phone had said your $parent had been picked up by an ambulance off the front lawn at your house. Ever since you left, $nompronoun'd lived alone - you doubt that anyone has been inside the house since the EMTs came. You could at least make sure the lights haven't been left on and grab a few things for $objpronoun. You follow the familiar route away from the heart of the town, back to its outskirts and to the lonely road that you grew up on. The gravely, pitted asphalt spits under your wheels as you drive along slowly, passing small houses with dark windows. And there's yours - the house you'd spent your whole life in, abandoned and silent as a grave. $parentinformal had been letting things go: the small lawn was far overgrown, and moss was creeping across the roof in soft, fuzzy patches. You park at the foot of the driveway and walk up to the front door, looking around guiltily, like one of the neighbors might see you and report you as a prowler. Luckily, you know where the spare key is. (text-style: "underline")[[Under the doormat.]] (text-style: "underline")[[Beneath the garden statue of a girl carrying flowers.]] (text-style: "underline")[[Tucked behind the horseshoe nailed over the front door.]]

{(if: $key is "acquired")[You lock the door behind you and head back down to the car. With the bag safely installed in the passenger seat, you leave your quiet neighborhood and drive straight to the (text-style: "underline")[[hospital.->Hospital]]]}{(if: $key is "notacquired")[Shaking yourself, you turn around and hasten back out to the car, fumbling the keys in your hands. You don't want to waste time messing around in the yard.]}{(if: $cat is "fuckedup")[ Too much time in the dark is liable to make you start seeing - and hearing - things.]} {(if: $key is "notacquired")[The hospital, that's your goal. You have to go to the (text-style: "underline")[[hospital.->Hospital]]]}

The phone rings late at night. You don't know when exactly, but it's late enough that you're fast asleep and less than happy about being woken. Still, you grab your phone from your nightstand and answer the call anyway. The voice on the other end of the phone tells you that they're calling from Memorial Hospital, the one in your hometown. It's about your - \ (text-style: "underline")+(link: "father.")[(set: $gender to "man")(set: $nompronoun to "he")(set: $objpronoun to "him")(set: $posspronoun to "his")(set: $parent to "father")(set: $parentinformal to "Dad")(set: $cappronoun to "He")(goto: "Decision")] (text-style: "underline")+(link: "mother.")[(set: $gender to "woman")(set: $nompronoun to "she")(set: $objpronoun to "her")(set: $posspronoun to "her")(set: $parent to "mother")(set: $parentinformal to "Mom")(set: $cappronoun to "She")(goto: "Decision")]

You bend down to get a better look at your $parent. $cappronoun really does look like $nompronoun could be asleep, face relaxed and brow unclouded. It's strange to see how much $nompronoun's aged since the last time you saw $objpronoun. That's what happens when you spend years apart, you guess. But it's undoubtedly the face of the $gender who raised you. Something catches your eye, down by the neckline of the hospital gown they've put your $parent in. They look like (text-style: "blur")[scratches] - streaky red ones, the sort you'd get when you fell on gravel as a kid. From the fall of the fabric, you can't tell whether or not they've been bandaged. (text-style: "underline")+(link: "Say something about it.")[You turn to say something to the nurse and catch her in the middle of a deep yawn. The two of you share an awkward look, and you look away, irritated and numb at the same time.] (text-style: "underline")[[Leave the hospital.->House 2]]

You make your farewells and exit the silent hospital as quickly as you entered. As you step through the front door, the burst of cold air hits you like a splash of water to the face. It's got a familiar, woodsy scent to it - the one you've always remembered as the smell of autumn. You walk over to your car, but hesitate before entering, looking up at the dark sky. It's not quite dawn yet, but it's drawing close. You feel... (text-style: "underline")[[...angry.]] (text-style: "underline")[[...sad.]] (text-style: "underline")[[...unsettled.]]

What are you talking about? (align: "==><==")[You always have dreams] (align: "====><==")[You can't escape them] You can never escape (align: "==><==")[Somewhere in the trees...] (align: "=======><==")[they're watching you] (align: "=><==")[//They take your eyes out two by two // ] (align: "===><==")[//Squeeze your throat til you turn blue// ] (align: "==><======")[they're always watching you] (align: "=====><==")[//Pluck your teeth out one by one// ] (align: "===><==")[//Eat your heart til you have none // ] (align: "======><==")[the knife] (align: "=====><==")[it's in your hand] (align: "==><==")[it's on your face] (align: "==><==")[youreyeyoureyeYOUREYEYOUREYE] (align: "==><==")[THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT] (text-style: "underline")[[Wake up.->Wake up.]]

You wake with such a start all you can do is lay there, breathing hard as adrenalin floods through your veins. There's morning sunlight seeping through your curtains, reflecting onto the ceiling of your bedroom, and you focus on that. It was just a dream. Just a nightmare. Once you've calmed down, you push yourself to get out of bed and ready for the day. It feels weird to be back in the house, following your daily routine like the intervening seven years simply haven't happened. That's probably what caused your nightmare - the weirdness and the stress - after going so long without one. It's what your therapist would have said. Once you get dressed, you sit back down on the bed. There's a logical explanation for everything. You know that. But somehow...something doesn't sit right. Something about the dream and your bedroom and the urgency of your $parent lying senseless in Memorial Hospital - it all makes you feel like there's something you're missing. Like...like you've forgotten... You stand up and look around, suddenly sure that there //is// something - something you forgot, something you hid. Where did you hide the things you needed to, when you were a kid? The closet, the dresser... You kneel down next to the bed, peeling off the stiff sheets and quilt until you can get your fingers wedged between the dense mattress and the slats of the bedframe. (text-style: "underline")[[You lift the mattress up.->Push the mattress aside.]]

There, hidden between the mattress and the boxspring, is a knife, wrapped loosely in an old, stained t-shirt. (set: $knife to 1)You pick it up before setting the mattress back in place. It's an old kitchen knife, judging by the wear on its wooden handle, but clearly a sturdy one. You reach up to touch the blade and hiss as you nick one finger against the edge. Still sharp. There was a knife in your dream, wasn't there? One that looked a lot like (text-style: "underline")[[this one.->wasn't there?]]

This game contains potentially dark and disturbing content. Please only proceed if you are comfortable with all the elements listed below: <ul><li>moving and flashing text</li> <li>hospitals and hospital scenes</li> <li>mentions/descriptions of violence, including blood, eye injury, strangulation, and death</li></ul> (text-style: "underline")+(align: "==><==")+(text-style: "italic")[[''START''->The phone rings.]]

You re-wrap the knife in its t-shirt and stow it in the backpack you brought with you. (text-style: "underline")[[Go to the hospital.]]

Your $parent had a bad accident. They say $nompronoun's still alive, but $posspronoun condition is unstable. They don't know who else to call. The phone call lasts six minutes. You hang up and sit on the edge of your bed, staring down at the phone in your hands. (text-style: "underline")[[Of course, you have to go.->Drive.]]

Inside, the house is dark and still. The floorboard creak under your feet, and it takes a bit of fumbling before you can find a light switch. The hall light flicks on, and you blink as brightness floods the narrow front hallway, decorated with familiar family photos and knickknacks. Everything's almost exactly as you remember it, completely undisturbed. Flipping on lights as you go, you go upstairs to gather what you came for. You venture into your $parent's bedroom, where you pick up a few paperbacks from $posspronoun nightstand, a battered pair of slippers, and several sets of pajamas and sweatshirts. All of this goes into an old gift bag you find at the back of $posspronoun closet.(set: $supplies to "acquired") At the far end of the hallway, the door to your bedroom is shut tight. You leave it alone for now. You don't need anything else here. (text-style: "underline")[[Time to go.->Recoil.]]

A different receptionist is in today, who tells you that your $parent's primary care doctor has arrived and can speak to you in their (text-style: "underline")[["Go on up to room 187, on the third floor. Dr. Marcos can meet you there."->The Doctor]]

You lift up the doormat, a raggedy old thing whose message of 'Home Is Where The Heart Is' has mostly faded away. Beneath it is a patch of dirty concrete, devoid of keys. ...well, shit. (text-style: "underline")[[Check beneath the garden statue.->Beneath the garden statue of a girl carrying flowers.]] (text-style: "underline")[[Check behind the horseshoe nailed over the front door.->Tucked behind the horseshoe nailed over the front door.]]

For as long as you can remember, your $parent has had the same tiny garden statue sitting next to the front stoop - a little girl carrying a basket of flowers, beaming a generic smile. Now, it seems to have been moved. It takes some searching to find it - you find her lying on the ground by the side of the house, overgrown with weeds and with one of her arms cracked. Obviously the key is nowhere to be found. There's a rustling from the bushes lining the yard, and you look up to see what might be - must be - the shape of a cat lying beneath them. It stirs, and eyes of a blank and shiny green glint in the faint moonlight. (text-style: "underline")[[Check under the doormat.->Under the doormat.]] (text-style: "underline")[[Check behind the horseshoe nailed over the front door.->Tucked behind the horseshoe nailed over the front door.]] (text-style: "underline")[[Approach the cat.->NONONO]]

You reach up to lift the horseshoe, hanging above the doorframe by a single nail, and a small brass key comes tumbling down. You just manage to catch it.(set: $key to "acquired") (text-style: "underline")[[You unlock the door and step inside.->Enter the house]]

As you step closer, the cat in the bushes blinks its eyes and vanishes - doubtlessly slipping off deeper into the brush, judging by the sound of leaves. Pursuing stray cats is an activity that can wait until daylight. (text-style: "underline")[[Check under the doormat.->Under the doormat.]] (text-style: "underline")[[Check behind the horseshoe nailed over the front door.->Tucked behind the horseshoe nailed over the front door.]] (text-style: "underline")[[Leave for the hospital.->Recoil.]]

You stay still, watching the cat like you're in the world's weirdest staring contest. Wasn't there a cat that used to come around here, back when you were in high school? Then the cat jerks and writhes, an undulating movement that looks (text-style: "blur")[strange] in the darkness, and lets out a blood-curdling yowl. (set: $cat to "fuckedup")With a sharp curse, you jump back. The cat writhes again and vanishes into the bushes. Your heart feels like it's going a mile a minute. (text-style: "underline")[[When you look back under the bushes, there's nothing there.->Recoil.]]

Double-click this passage to edit it.

(text-style: "shudder")[You can't escape them]

An involuntary, absurd giggle slipped out of your mouth at the thought Fairy tales. Fairy stories. Tell it to yourself. Like a story.

Once upon a time, there was a town in the middle of the woods, and in that town was a $parent and $posspronoun child. The $parent had to work all day long, and the child had no friends to play with, but they were happy in their own way. In the summer, the child went on long walks by the woods. Because they had no friends, they went alone. Each night they came back later and later. First they returned with blackberry juice on their fingers; then they returned with bare feet; then they returned with scratches down their arms and legs and cheeks. They became stranger and quieter, eyes losing their shine and their face its color. Their $parent forbid them to leave the house during the day and locked them in their room at night. For a time, this worked. But one night the child heard fairies singing at their window and knew they would have to follow them, as they had every night before. But fear made their mind sharp. Before they crossed the threshold of the house, they hide a knife from the kitchen inside their clothes, and the fairies spirited them away without seeing it. The fairies brought the child to the fairy mound, in the dark pit of the earth where the Alder King held court. The fairies danced and gibbered and drooled, for they were very hungry indeed for their tithe. But before they could put the child on the altar, the child spoke up

The nurse clicks into explanation mode. "According to the paramedics that brought $objpronoun in, one of $posspronoun neighbors saw $objpronoun collapse on the lawn with what appeared to be a seizure. They described similar symptoms - tremors, drooling, changes in breathing - but the symptoms continued past the point of a normal seizure, and $nompronoun fell unconscious." (text-style: "underline")[["$cappronoun's never had a seizure before."->"They've never had a seizure before."]] (text-style: "underline")[["What does that mean?"->"What does that mean?"]]

The nurse shakes her head. "No, not yet. The paramedics said $nompronoun lost consciousness on the way to the hospital, but we're hopeful that $nompronoun'll wake up once $nompronoun's recuperated further." The expression on her face doesn't //look// that hopeful. (text-style: "underline")[["What happened?"->"What happened?"]]

"Yes, that seems to be correct according to our records," the nurse says. "At that point, they decided to bring her here for further observation. It was on the way here that $nompronoun began to go into respiratory arrest. Thankfully we were able to intubate $objpronoun and $nompronoun's since stablized." (text-style: "underline")[["But $nompronoun still hasn't woken up."->"But they still haven't woken up."]] (text-style: "underline")[["Is $nompronoun going to be okay?"->"Going to be okay?"]]

"Seizures typically last less than 2 minutes, even grand mal seizures. That's what we think happened here," the nurse says. "However, the paramedics reported that $posspronoun convulsions lasted upwards of seven minutes, and those who suffer grand mal seizures usually regain consciousness within an hour or two. Your $parent was brought here in the evening, about six hours ago, and hasn't woken up yet. "When the symptoms persisted, they decided to bring $objpronoun here for further observation. It was on the way here that $nompronoun began to go into respiratory arrest. Thankfully we were able to intubate $objpronoun quickly, and $nompronoun's since stablized." (text-style: "underline")[["But $nompronoun still hasn't woken up."->"But they still haven't woken up."]] (text-style: "underline")[["What you think happened here? Are you not sure yet?"->"Not sure yet?"]] (text-style: "underline")[["Is $nompronoun going to be okay?"->"Going to be okay?"]]

"Yes. Of course, we'll notify you as soon as $nompronoun regains consciousness." (text-style: "underline")[["Is there anyone I can speak to for more information?"->"More information?"]]

"We're still running tests because of the...inconsistencies in $posspronoun case and so we can figure out the cause, but that's our current diagnosis." (text-style: "underline")[["Is there anyone I can speak to for more information?"->"More information?"]]

The nurse hesitates, just long enough for to be noticeable. "The fact that $nompronoun's hasn't relapsed and responded well to intubation is a good sign. We haven't determined the cause yet, but it's only a matter of time." (text-style: "underline")[["But $nompronoun still hasn't woken up."->"But they still haven't woken up."]] (text-style: "underline")[["Is there anyone I can speak to for more information?"->"More information?"]]

The nurse shrugs. "If you'd like to speak to $posspronoun primary doctor, Dr. Ridley will be in tomorrow afternoon at two o'clock. He'll be able to help you with any concerns, and we'll call you if the situation changes before then." (text-style: "underline")[[Examine your $parent more closely.->Examine your parent.]] (text-style: "underline")[[Leave the hospital.->House 2]]

Angry at who? Tired nurses, the world, yourself...all of the above, probably. Maybe even angry at your own $parent - but even now, those familiar feelings of anger and resentment feel muted. Now's not the time to focus on such things. {(if: $mark is "unseen")[As you stand outside the hospital doors, your eyes fall on your car. In the center of the hood are three parallel scratches - too perfect to be anything but deliberate. You have no idea where they came from.]} (text-style: "underline")[[Go home.->Homecoming]]

Guilt and fear cloud your mind, and you have to bite your lip hard as a lump swells in your throat. You'll make it through this. You'll do everything you can for your $parent, and that's that. That's all you can do. {(if: $mark is "unseen")[As you stand outside the hospital doors, your eyes fall on your car. In the center of the hood are three parallel scratches - too perfect to be anything but deliberate. You have no idea where they came from.]} (text-style: "underline")[[Go home.->Homecoming]]

You couldn't have come up with a better nightmare than this if you tried. Your $parent hurt - maybe dying - in a situation you know nothing about, weren't there for. It's more than enough to leave you feeling jumpy and on edge, like you're waiting for the next fright to jump out from around the corner. {(if: $mark is "unseen")[As you stand outside the hospital doors, your eyes fall on your car. In the center of the hood are three parallel scratches - too perfect to be anything but deliberate. You have no idea where they came from.]} (text-style: "underline")[[Go home.->Homecoming]]

At this time of night, there's only one place that'll take you. By the time you pull up to your $parent's house, you're practically falling over with exhaustion.{(if: $key is "acquired")[You pull the house key back out of your pocket and unlock the door. The house is just as dark and silent as you left it.] (else-if: $key is "notacquired")[Thankfully, you find the hidden key on the first try, tucked behind the horseshoe above the doorframe. The house is dark and empty, feeling unusually vacant even though you know your $parent was here only a matter of hours ago.]}(set: $key to "acquired") You don't even bother turning on the lights - you trudge directly upstairs, down the hallway to your childhood bedroom. Evidently it's become a junk room in the past few years, judging by the boxes stacked everywhere, but that doesn't stop you from dumping the duffel and backpack you brought with you on the floor and throwing yourself down on the tiny twin bed. It's just as lumpy as you remember. After kicking off your shoes, you crawl under the starchy sheets, fatigue and worry both weighing down on you. Despite all the thoughts crowding your mind, it doesn't take long for you to fall into (text-style: "underline")[[a deep, dreamless sleep.->Dream.]]

You close your eyes, thinking. Ever since you got that call - was it only last night? - it feels like things are piling up. It was easy to dismiss in the moment, but now, in the daylight? It feels uncanny. Those weird scratches on your car. Dreaming of a knife that you find //hidden under your mattress// as soon as you wake up. The little uncertainties in the things you've been seeing - or remembering. All right after your $parent - your $parent, who's always been as healthy as a horse, who hasn't said a word to you since the day you left - falls down in a strange seizure and can't wake up. It feels like //something// is connecting all of this. There's a logical explanation for everything. Maybe...you just have to keep looking. You look back down at the knife in your hands, adjusting your grip until you feel comfortable. It's absurd - it's //dangerous// - but for some reason, you feel like you should bring it with you. So you do. TO BE CONTINUED

You re-wrap the knife in its t-shirt and stow it in the backpack you brought with you, along with your house key. You hadn't slept long - it's ten o'clock now, so you have four hours until you have to be at the hospital. Four hours to explore this strange hunch of yours. What should you do? Search the house. Go into town.

Maybe revisiting old haunts will help jog your memory, like the library or your high school. Alternately