For once, it was a normal day. When you walked out of your APARTMENT this morning, you weren’t assaulted by a bat wielding maniac. On your way to SCHOOL, you didn’t hear a prophet of the old gods, rambling insanity inducing truths. Going from class to class, you didn’t have to find a detour because of some corrosive black sludge. But you should have known that there could never be a normal day in this town. When you got back to your apartment, your NEIGHBORS were in a panic.
When you asked them what was wrong, they told you how their CHILD didn’t come home last night. Their FRIEND had picked them up to hang out, and they never came back. This FRIEND seems very suspicious. Even more so, when the NEIGHBORS tell you how possessive FRIEND is of CHILD.
[[Head back to SCHOOL to find FRIEND.]]After calming down the NEIGHBORS, you immediately head back to SCHOOL. You’re pretty sure that FRIEND is a part of the HISTORY CLUB. The members of that club always unnerved you. Knowing what you know now… you have your suspicions about them. When you get there, you spot FRIEND hunch over a notebook.
As you walk over, you swear you can see NEIGHBOR CHILD’S name written in it many times. When you ask FRIEND about NEIGHBOR’S CHILD, they tell you what they know without a fuss. According to them, they last saw CHILD DOWNTOWN talking to an ODD MAN.
[[Go DOWNTOWN]]You head downtown to search for ODD MAN. As you wander around, you find someone matching the description FRIEND gave you. As you walk up to him, you feel that this man might be your guy. When you ask about NEIGHBOR’S CHILD, he avoids your questions. After a while, he finally brushes you off and left. Undeterred, you stalk— follow him. A few hours later, you see him enter the FOREST.
[[Enter FOREST]]You follow the ODD MAN into the forest. It’s peaceful, but you know from experience that this FOREST gets more dangerous the deeper you are. You’ll have to navigate these woods carefully to avoid the worst of fates.
[[Keep investigating FOREST]]After about an hour, you have a feeling that you're being watched and when you hear a branch snapping, you quickly turn around.
There is someone standing in the trees, just a few meters away.
[[Confront the person]]
[[Run]]You walk up to them, ready to fight. You don't get the chance. The decomposing skin and vacant stare can only mean one thing; it’s a corpse someone has propped up. The idea that someone could do it so close to you and so quietly makes you shudder. You quickly leave the area and hope to never see something like this again.
[[Keep investigating the FOREST]]You run and they don’t follow. You’re scared but safe.
[[Keep investigating the FOREST]]You continue on. As you walk, you hear a faint sound in the direction you’re going in. You follow the faint sound to a telephone line pole. When you get closer, you notice hairy lumps around the pole. The moment you notice the giant hairy balls, they start to twitch and rise.
Shit. It’s a TATORU.
[[Fight]]Knowing how relentless these things are, trying to run is useless. As you prepare to fight, the TATORU flies closer. You take out the army knife you keep on you for situations like this and slash at it. As you pull your arm back, it rushes forward and tries to bite you. You manage to dodge before whirling around and stabbing it in the back. This time you get unlucky and when you take your knife out, its disgusting mouth touches your arm. You can feel your skin burn under the contact, and you hastily move your arm away. This song and dance continues until you have finally defeated the horrible monstrosity.
[[Keep investigating the Forest]]You leave before you can be attacked by anything else, but it isn't long before you come across a forest glade. You discover an old campsite located on the edge of the small clearing. The tent has been knocked down, and the food and utensils have been scattered everywhere.
[[Search tent]]
[[Investigate for clues]]
[[Ignore the tent]]The sleeping bag has been torn to shreds. The amount of gore inside leaves no doubt about what happened to the owner.
[[Keep investigating the forest]]As you look around the area, what you see just confuses and slightly terrifies you. The only conclusion you can come up with is that the wolves have learned to walk on their hind legs.
[[Keep investigating the forest]]You back off, not wanting to disturb the potential crime scene.
[[Keep investigating the forest]]You continue walking for a long stretch of time without encountering anything. You take the time to calm down.
[[Continue investigating the forest]]As you continue walking, you pass by a pond. When you walk past it however, you hear a wet splash and stop. You slowly turn around to see a young girl slowly walking in your direction. In her eyeball, there's a swarm of disgusting worms. One of them falls to the floor with a wet splash.
[[FIGHT]]
[[RUN]]Those worms most likely will force her to follow after you in an attempt to gain another host. You decide to stay and put her out of her misery and end this parasitic threat. Before she even has a chance to attack you, your knife finds its target and lodges itself into her skull. Being careful not to let any of the worms get on you, you gently lay her down. You then remove your knife and step back, before you turn around and start jogging away.
[[Continue investigating the FOREST]]Not wanting to deal with this, you dash away from her and into the surrounding forest. Looking back, you can see that she slowly stumbles after you before the trees block your view. You keep running for another thirty minutes afterwards.
[[Continue investigating the FOREST]]After you slow down, you spot a break in the trees. Walking into the area, you can see a house and… some other things. Almost everywhere you look, there are arcane symbols and a few items as well. You recognize many of them as warding sigils. Even if the ODD MAN didn’t kidnap the NEIGHBOR’S CHILD, he was definitely up to something devious. As you walk further into the clearing, you spot a ditch surrounded by ritual components. Fearing what you may find, you peer into the ditch. And find CHILD’S body.
As you stumble back in horror, ODD MAN walks out of the house and spots you.
“NOo-OO, I GoT-t ThHaT Bo DY Ju-UstTT FOrR ThIsss! Do-N’T ToUUChh iT!
He rushes toward you and pushes you away, before fretting over the body of NEIGHBOR’S CHILD.
[[Leave and call the police]]
[[Confront ODD MAN]]Deciding not to stick around any longer, you run out of the FOREST entirely until you're back in DOWNTOWN. You head to the nearest payphone and call the police. After you tell them what you found, they investigate the FOREST themselves and arrest ODD MAN. After an autopsy, the coroner finds that the CHILD appears to be in a death-like state, but they aren’t dead. When interrogated about this, ODD MAN refuses to talk until finally the police give up. He will remain locked in a cell to rot for the rest of his life. Similarly, CHILD will never wake up again.
[Ending C: Innocence Lost]After a few seconds of stunned horror, you shake off the daze and start questioning the ODD MAN.
“Y-yOu wAnT tOo kNOow w-hERE I GOt thIsss BO-oDy FrOm? A chi-ILd gaVe iT t-oOo mEee. AnD t-ThEy sAId tHEy dI-Dn’T wANt aNyONe tO kNOow aB-oOuT iTTt.
THE ODD MAN starts staggering towards you, intent on making sure you never leave this place alive. You prepare to fight for your life.
ODD MAN lunges at you, and you barely throw yourself to the side in time to avoid him. You swing your knife and cut open an artery on his arm. He lunges at you again, and he manages to grab you this time. You both crash into the ground and roll for a few moments, before you are able to get on top of him and pin him to the ground. Taking the opportunity, you use your Ashen Contract to burn the ODD MAN alive, being careful not to get burned yourself as you feel your sanity drain away. After a few seconds, the man's anguished screams stop completely, as you watch on.
You don't stay still for long. You pull yourself up and begin heading back to town after casting a safety spell on CHILD's body. You have a FRIEND to talk to.
[[Head to FRIEND'S HOUSE]]It didn't take long for you to track FRIEND down. You had been sure to ask your NEIGHBORS for their address. Knocking on their door, it takes a few minutes for them to answer the door. They seemed hesitant to let you in, but you were able to convinced them to do so. Looking around their living room, you see that their TV looked like it had just been turned off.
[[Confront FRIEND]]
[[Turn on TV]]After you both have settled down, you bite the bullet and ask the FRIEND if he had anything to do with CHILD'S disappearance. FRIEND tried to deny it but when reveal what the ODD MAN told you, their face contorts in anger.
"So you found out, huh? Well I'll just have to get rid you then."
Jumping out of your seat, you brandish your knife and prepare to fight FRIEND. They take out the switch blade they had in their pocket as well, but you get the first strike. You dodge their retaliation strike and manage to graze their stomach but they kick you away and you hit the wall. They pin you down before have a chance to get up and try to stab you in the neck, but your struggling causes them to miss and only nick you. You're able to shove them off you and shove the knife into the back back of their head. Their dead body slumps on top of you. You don't waste time and start dragging their body out of the house so you can dispose of it. It takes you a few hours to get rid of all the evidence, but before the next day both the ODD MAN and the FRIEND are dead and gone. Though you'll probably never find out why they killed CHILD that day.
[Ending B - Innocence Betrayed]As you sit down, you spot the remote to the TV. Picking it up, you don't notice FRIEND's panicked face. As you turn on the TV, you're horrified by what you see. There, in the TV, is CHILD, banging on the screen and yelling to be let go. You're too disturbed to realized that FRIEND has come up behind you brandishing a knife. It's only because of CHILD's yell that 'They're right behind you!' that you're able to turn around and dodge FRIEND's attack, but not before the manage to slash your cheek. They tackle you and pin your arms down with their legs. Their knife is poised above their head, and is about kill you.
[[Bite FRIEND's leg]]
[[Struggle]]Leaning you head forward, you bite down on their thigh HARD, causing them to yell in pain and drop their weapon. You roll out from under them. As you take out your own knife, you can't help but notice something *strange* about FRIEND. Is that static? You don't think about that much longer as FRIEND is coming straight towards you, oh god! You think quickly and slam your knife into their throat, but... there's no blood? You yank your knife out so you can dodge their swing, and yeah you're not hallucinating that, FREIND isn't bleeding and it seems like there is more static around them as well.
Putting the dots together, you realize that FRIEND is most likely using some kind of magic and that's why they aren't dying right now. You'll probably need to use magic as well if you want to win this fight. As you furiously dodge all of their attacks, you wrack you mind for what spell would be useful. You shudder as you think of that spell. You don't want to use it but you aren't sure of how long you can dodge FRIEND's attacks. Spotting an opening, you punch friend in the throat, and they recoil in pain.
'Glad to see that worked' you think as you start performing THREAD OF FATE. As FRIEND lunges at you, you cut their string and watch the life drain out of their eyes as their body falls to the floor. You're surprised when their body dissolves into static when it touches the floor, but you're mostly relieved that they're dead.
After a quick search of the house, you find their notes on what they did and how they did it and stake out in their place to keep CHILD company as you find a way to get them out of the TV. It takes a few days, but eventually you're able to deconstruct the ritual and reverse, after bringing CHILD's body to the house. You walk CHILD home to their immensely grateful parents and they all thank you profusely. CHILD even proclaims that they owe you a life debt and won't hesitate to help if you ever need it. You walk back to your apartment alone, but very happy, for the first time in a long time.
[+1 Ally: Child]
[ Ending A: Innocence Found]You struggle in an effort to free your arms. But it's useless, the bring their knife down on you multiple times, as CHILD's horrified screams echo through the house. You black out soon after, unaware of what FRIEND is planning. After a while, you wake up in a pitch black void. You search around tirelessly for something, *ANYTHING* to help you. You don't know how long you searched that void, but eventually you thoughts slowed down until you couldn't think at all.
[Bad Ending: Imprisoned in Screen]