>typo in the one line I edit on the spot
Whoops.
Anyways, some obligatory disclaimers: Never written anything horror-adjacent before, treat this as a seasonal test while I figure out whether this is best as a long-term thing or a kind of inconclusive one or two-shot.
Either way, I hope anon has fun!

>>5448110
>And you still are. You have no idea what you want to do, just that you want a cushy white-collar job, and that you probably need a degree to do it. You'll just do gen eds for now.

>>5448110
>Art. Sure, it probably won't pay the best at first, but people say you have a talent for it. If you're lucky you might even make it big before you graduate.

You wanna make you webcomic dream come true.

>>5448110
>>And you still are. You have no idea what you want to do, just that you want a cushy white-collar job, and that you probably need a degree to do it. You'll just do gen eds for now.

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>>5448120 >>5448241 >>5448419
Your major, that is... slightly awkward. "Still undecided. Figured I'd just do gen eds for a while and see if there's anything that called to me. Since I don't have anything I want to do, any degree is alright as long as I can get a job with it, right?" Jason shrugs. "I guess." A moment passes. "Your uncle's place is right up here, right?" "Should be. Hang on, I have the address."

The van slows to a crawl as it turns onto a road on the edge of the town, bits of both wilderness and suburbia visible. Glancing out the window, you can see a small collection of two-story homes on both sides of the road. Picking out your late uncle's house from among them turns out to be a rather easy task- your dad said it would be the "gated house with all the hedges" and, yeah, there's only one of those.

In the middle of a street of near-identical homes manufactured to store the American Dream sits an oddity that is several decades older. A tall, sturdy wooden fence with several metal gates surrounds the property, whose overgrown gardens and hedges resemble a maze more than anything. From the top of a slight incline the house seems to stare on, chipping paint and other signs of wear showing the venerable ruler of the block's age. The more you look at it the more it seems to give off a feeling of... suppression, if you were to describe it. Clouds and gloom seem to gather around it, telling you that you shouldn't be here.

It's not until the van comes to a halt that you realize that you were unconsciously holding in a breath. "Is that gate open?" Jason points to a large, slightly rusted gate, that blocks the road from a gravel path leading up an odd, wall-less fusion of a porch and a garage. "If it's not I'll have the keys. Let me check." You jump out and give the gate a push with which it creaks open. The van is ushered forward with a thumbs-up while you walk up to meet it. A bad feeling wells up within you as you approach the house, but you do your best to ignore it and examine the yard in more detail. While the larger plants are overgrown, the lawn looks in pretty good shape. It seems one of the neighbors has been helping out- you should thank them later.

Just as you reach the van, the trunk creeps open with a click. You crouch down and peer under the door, in a hurry to check that your... well, everything you own really, is still in good shape. Your eyes first pass over your guinea pigs- one of them stares back, somewhat blankly, before whistling and moving closer to you. Fortunately they seem not to have minded the ride too much after you strapped down their enclosure. After that you survey the rest of your possessions. Books, clothes, et cetera. Besides a few things having fallen over, it all seems fine. You guess it's time to get to work then.

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>>5448610
Given that the 'garage' door is the closest to your location, you decide to use that. Jason watches on as you pull out what can only be described as a comically large ring of keys and try them one... by one... by one. Eventually, one of them fits into the door. ...And then another does, as it's been fitted with two locks. Faint clapping can be heard as you finally get the door open, a mix of mockery and congratulations.

Only now do you get the chance to see the inside of the house for the first time. Dust and darkness greet you, the signs of a place that's been uninhabited for at least a year at this point. After a moment the darkness seems to almost crawl out of the house and grab for you, but once you shake your head and focus your attention everything feels normal once more. There's nothing to be worried about. It's just an old house.

After kicking on the lights and glancing through the first floor, you get to work. First, Jason gives you a hand unloading the guinea pig enclosure. Through the garage door, down the hallway, into the kitchen, and from there to the living room next to the front door it goes. For the time being, you leave it on an empty spot on the floor. From there on you decide to just leave all your boxes on the living room floor, to be taken up to your room and sorted when you're not imposing on someone else's time.

It's not until about 20 minutes of work are behind you that you have everything unloaded and the boxes arranged in positions that you can most generously describe as "better than complete anarchy." You fill several glasses from the tap as Jason pets one of your guinea pigs, inspiring it to let out a purring noise. "Cute fellas. What were their names again?"
>Oh, them? They're... [Write-in two names]

"Thanks for the help again. Haven't been feeling too hot so I appreciate it." You almost spill your water as a hand slaps your back. "Don't sweat it man, don't sweat it. I'm just glad you got such a sick place- maybe I'll have to visit sometime." You reply with a chuckle. "If you want to I don't mind, there's a second bedroom upstairs. The culinary school you're going to is only, what, an hour from here?" Jason pauses for a moment. "An hour and a half I think. Speaking of... according to my phone my ride'll be here in about an hour. What'll you be up to until then?"
>"Oh, not much. Wanna grab lunch?"
>"Sorting through this stuff I guess. You need me to drop you off anywhere first?"
>"I think I'll stop by campus before orientation. What about you?"

Hm, well, I'll keep an eye on the thread but it's probably safe to assume that this intro was more boring to read than expected and a flop. Oh well.

>>5448612
>Madness and Folly
>"Oh, not much. Wanna grab lunch?"

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>>5449806
Instead of answering your question, your friend instead takes ahold of one of your guinea pigs and brings it to eye level- Madness. As you try to determine his intentions, he just says "This is Madness." You have a bad feeling. Not the ominous kind of bad feeling, just that you know how this is going to end. After allowing tension to build for a moment, Jason continues. "Madness? This is Sparta!" You refuse to laugh and instead take a seat while smiling. "How long have you been wanting to say that?" "...About three months? I figured if I didn't do it now I might forget." That's what makes you laugh. Cackle even. "That was terrible." A similarly amused voice replies. "Yep. Let's grab lunch."

You take the driver's seat this time. "You good to drive?" "Yeah. I feel a lot better now." With that said, you start up the van and drive it out of the gate you left hanging open and towards the town proper. Apparently when your uncle bought the home it was only a single house in the woods, around 15 minutes from the rest of the town. While a neighborhood has developed nearby over time, it's still rather underdeveloped- it takes a short drive before you see more than single shops and small clusters of homes and reach the town proper: Fairview, total population varying by which surrounding areas are included, but officially standing at just over 36,000.

An intensely bored-looking man stares at the two of you eating your burgers in an otherwise completely empty shop. You do your best to ignore his gaze as Jason talks. "How'd you end up with that house anyways Mitch?" "Uh.." You do your best to recall the details. "Well, apparently my uncle died about a year ago and ownership got split between my dad and his brother- his nephews. They cleaned it out a little bit but didn't really have time to deal with the sale, and since I was going off to college next year anyways we figured we could save on tuition costs if I was able to get into Fairview. Maybe rent out one of the rooms later and make back the property taxes and stuff."

Noises of understanding can be made out through Jason's chewing. "How'd your uncle die?" "He, uh, fell down the stairs drunk. Barely met him but still, pretty shit way to go." "Goddamn." Before either of you can continue the conversation, your attention is drawn to what sounds like someone screaming bloody murder down the street. Over the next 20 or so seconds the sound only moves closer, until eventually you see a very queer sight, by both definitions of the word. An acne-faced man around your age is running down the sidewalk in an unpleasantly small thong while screaming and possibly crying. Light red marks cover his back. Following closely behind him are a small horde of young men wielding soaking wet towels and pool noodles, also screaming.

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>>5450204
In the short time before the group is out of view the scene is indelibly seared into your memory. You turn to the only employee present, who now looks much less bored, with a questioning stare. "Excuse me, what the hell was that?" "That, uh... well, the fraternities get a little wild with initiations and that sort of thing. It's calmed down a lot in recent years though. Come here in, say, 2005 and you'd see way worse." You struggle to imagine what could be worse before deciding that you're better off not trying. "You're a freshman, right?" You nod. "Ah. Good luck then." "...Good luck with what?" "You'll know soon enough." With that the man turns his attention away from you and starts reading a book.

Before long the two of you are done waiting, and simply make small talk while waiting for Jason's ride. It's not long before it arrives, and you thank Jason again for his help before wishing him farewell. You return to your van, now alone, and check your watch. A little after three. Orientation tomorrow starts at 8, so you'd like to get up at 6 or 7. Given that you need to grab groceries and sort out some of the things you've just left sitting in the living room, you don't have time to do too much.
>May as well just grab your groceries and head back home. You're not sure how long it'll take to get everything dealt with and you'd like some time to yourself after all the driving and moving.
>The campus isn't too far from here. You guess you could spare a look.
>While your living situation is partially covered, you do still need money. May as well go around and grab some job applications.
>Write-in

>>5450205
>>May as well just grab your groceries and head back home. You're not sure how long it'll take to get everything dealt with and you'd like some time to yourself after all the driving and moving.

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>>5450205
>While your living situation is partially covered, you do still need money. May as well go around and grab some job applications.

>>5450205
>>While your living situation is partially covered, you do still need money. May as well go around and grab some job applications.

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>>5450228 >>5450420 >>5450446
Well, since you're already in town you may as well drive around and see who's looking for work. Even if your living costs are relatively low, you're gonna need money sooner rather than later after all. While 'fun' expenses could be cut back on there's still, uh, food and tuition and all that. You can't just take out student loans to cover everything.

Your process for scouting for suitable jobs is effectively stopping by anywhere with a help wanted sign, or anywhere you assume would have hours you could pick up- blue collar sort of things- and asking if they have job applications on hand. The general answer is yes, partially because the influx of students always brings in an expected surge in seasonal employment. After asking for a few pertinent pieces of information: hourly wage, expected hours per week, phone number, et cetera, you thank them for their time and tell them you'll get back to them.

Finding the obvious candidates within a reasonable driving distance takes around a couple hours, and with a stop by Walmart afterwards you don't get home until a bit after six in the evening. Unfortunately there's still much else left undone on the job hunting front: seeing if there's any good online listings, checking Craigslist, and going through the pile of job applications now sitting on your dashboard- but at least you've made progress for now. Maybe if you're lucky your college will have something to help with all this.

Upon your return you're greeted with the same dusty, gloomy house as before. Home now, you suppose. Feeling still just a bit unsettled by the place, you hurry around and flip on some lights. The stairways up and down, the living room, kitchen, and even the dining room. A bit much, but it makes the whole place feel much brighter and less... threatening. Or at least that's how you'll justify the expense.

Feeling more comfortable, you next make sure Madness and Folly are both properly fed and watered before getting down to business. First comes unpacking and laying out the kitchenware, followed by simultaneously cooking and figuring out what you need to bring up to your room. By seven the clutter of boxes is looking much more orderly, and chicken and rice fill your stomach. Now you just need to move some more stuff around.

You carry the first box out of the living room and move to the entryway. The front door stands to your left, and both set of stairs to your right. You ascend the one to the second floor, invasive thoughts of your uncle falling down them and landing with a splatter at the bottom bothering you despite the presence of a guardrail. It's only when you do finally make it to the top and flip on the hallway light that you feel a weight leave your mind.

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>>5450801
The hallway in front of you has a couple of windows overseeing the backyard on its left, four weighty wooden doors on its right, and a final window at the end of the hall. If you recall correctly, your bedroom should be the third door on the right. Just after you start moving forward, however, you involuntarily shudder. You almost drop the box you're holding as a shiver travels down your spine. Hesitantly, you put the box down and glance to your right. The first door down the hallway. Something about it... feels wrong. Bad. You have a very bad feeling about whatever lies beyond it.

You see a teenager standing in front of a dark, wooden door. He is staring at the door while taking heavy breaths, his face a mix of fear and annoyance at that fear. He reaches his hand out towards the brass handle.
>After a moment he takes hold of it and pushes the door open, determined to prove that there is nothing to be afraid of.
>...And after several several seconds of struggle, withdraws it. There is no need to pick fights with one's instincts. They're there for a reason, aren't they?
>Write-in

>>5450805
>>After a moment he takes hold of it and pushes the door open, determined to prove that there is nothing to be afraid of.

>>5450805
>After a moment he takes hold of it and pushes the door open, determined to prove that there is nothing to be afraid of.

Let's gooo.

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>>5450863 >>5451273
With a sudden push, you force the door open. Light creeps in from the hallway, revealing a floor made of the same golden-brown carpeting used throughout much of the house and... nothing else. Alarm bells are still ringing somewhere within you, but you do your best to calm down. The young man's face is no longer quite as pale, and his breathing has slowed. You begin processing yourself as yourself, instead of from some disassociated point of view. You are standing in front of an open doorway, and after a pause, take a step forwards.

You flick on the light as you enter the room- it still works. What's revealed before you is a rather simplistic bedroom. The entranceway is rather bare and contains a door leading to a bathroom. Most of the furniture is a bit further in. There's a large wooden desk with a few piles of papers and books on it, but it all seems very orderly. Either someone organized it after your uncle passed, or he probably didn't sit at it very much. To the right of it are a couple of bookshelves. A quick glance reveals that his tastes were rather ecliptic. Inclusions range from thick tomes on the history of Ancient Rome and classic novels to cheesy 80s sci-fi novels and the entire Twilight Saga. A great many years of Playboy magazines sit on the bottom shelf. Unlike the desk the books do have signs of use, leading you to conclude that he simply liked reading... well, anything

To the left is a large bed. A wooden chest sits at the foot of it and a window with the curtains drawn tight at the bed's head. Across from it is an old television set, a dresser, and what can only be described as an excessive number of VHS tapes. Even further left is the closet, which you would imagine used to have clothes, but is now mostly empty, sans a few odds and ends.

After finally absolutely nothing to warrant your fear, you manage to calm down. This is clearly just your uncle's bedroom. You lie down on the bed for a moment and stare up at the ceiling. Comfy. Just as you're about to get up however, you notice something. A quiet noise. You have to strain your ears for a few moments before you can identify it. Is that... sobbing?

The panic comes back as you sit up. You can still barely make it out. The sound of a man sobbing, like he's absolutely wracked with grief. You frantically look around the room as you try to identify the source of the noise, even peering into boxes and looking under furniture. Before you can ascertain the source however, it just fades away, as if an illusion. You stay in the room searching for several minutes longer, but you neither hear it again or find anything that could've caused it. The cable is disconnected, the VCR empty, and you don't spot anything like a CD player or a Walkman. There is no explanation that can comfort you.

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>>5451330
Before that occurrence you had considered browsing through the bookshelves to see if there was anything particularly interesting, but for the time being you decide it best to leave the room undisturbed. Perhaps that was just a manifestation of your fears back there, your imagination conjuring the silence into your worst hopes but... well, you will not disturb the room's rest any further for the time being.

Eager to take your mind off of what just occurred, you return to unpacking your things with a great zeal. You move them in a room which is very similar to your late uncle's bedroom in layout, simply minus the personality- the TV, books, VHSes, and so on. You suppose it was a guest bedroom up until now. Like the other bedroom is also connects to the bathroom, sharing it. There's nothing wrong with this, but after a moment of consideration you decide to lock the door leading into the other bedroom from the bathroom side. Not for any actual reason just... because you want to. You can lock your doors however you like.

Eventually you're done with your task, and your bedroom is, finally, feeling a bit like home. Instead of a bland, sterile room you now have a bland, sterile room with your computer on a desk and an Austin Powers poster hanging on the closet door. A task well done.
>And with that, a day well concluded. It's still pretty early, but you guess you'll head to sleep and wake up when you wake up, presumably with some time in the morning to spare.
>But it's still pretty early- oh so early to go to bed. Now that your laptop is hooked up and you know the internet is actually working, you can relax a little bit.
>But there's unfortunately still a task left to do. While you've settled in, there's still a large amount of house you've left unexplored. Maybe you should give it all a once over... just in case.
>Write-in

Rough diagram of the 2nd floor included below. Doors in brown, windows in blue.

>>5451332
>>But there's unfortunately still a task left to do. While you've settled in, there's still a large amount of house you've left unexplored. Maybe you should give it all a once over... just in case.

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>>5451335
There are still some hours left in the night, and you should make best use of them. While watching a movie and masturbating does sound like a splendid way to end the evening, time is limited and there is much to do. For now, you will do your best to survey the house before you head to bed. If you're going to be living here, you should at least know where everything is after all.

You head down the stairs and poke around the first floor's entryway for a moment. It's fairly large and has an assortment of items near the entrance like a hat and shoe rack, but nothing except the welcome mat looks like it sees much use despite their age. Whether that's because people simply don't use these sorts of things anymore or because your uncle never had guests over isn't clear. You poke your head inside the coat closet and find that it's completely empty besides a few lonely hangers dangling from the valet rod.

The happy whistling of Madness and Folly greets you as you move into the living room. It's pretty bare for its size, with an old leather couch and chair sitting across from a CRT television on a small table. A coffee table sits in the middle, stains from drinks long past marring it. The rest of your boxes and the guinea pig enclosure sit at the far end of the room, near the window.

It's at this point that you notice something odd about the windows. All of them, with zero exception, have curtains drawn very tightly to them. It all has a... very distinct effort put into it, in sizing and making sure nothing peaks through. You're not sure if it was always like this, or if your father or his brother thought it would deter thieves, or what. A bit more light wouldn't hurt though.

You move up to the living room window, untie the curtain, and move it out of the way so that you can get at the window. Upon catching sight of it, however, you involuntarily laugh. Just like the side door, the effort put into locking a single window goes above and beyond. Instead of the default clasp lock used for a window, its instead been fitted with a key lock, with another lock fixed between the windowsill and the window to stop the window from being raised unless it's unlocked as well. Now you're fairly certain of a couple things. The curtains were always like this, and your uncle was a very paranoid man. Maybe that's normal for old men living alone. You're not sure.

Note that the layouts included are slightly rough, I can't guarantee that rooms are exactly to scale compared to each other. Kitchen/dining room on this are longer vertically then I'm actually envisioning them, as an example

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>>5452187
Poking around the rest of the floor, you don't find too much of interest. The kitchen, connected to the living room through an open floor plan contains all the amenities you'd want from it. A wide array of drawers and such, an oven, a microwave, and a fridge. The dining room can be walked into directly from the kitchen, and looks similar to most you've seen- a fancy looking table with some chairs that no one actually uses. There's also the pantry, which has food crates and shelving, but almost no food left behind for obvious reasons, besides a few spices. Finally, there's the bathroom and a spare room. The bathroom is a bit smaller than the one on the second floor, with only a small shower area, while the spare room is, well, spare. Nothing to note there.

After checking to make sure you have the keys to everything before relocking it (you find out the window keys all share similar designs- one for the window lock, one for the windowsill lock) you descend to the basement. The flooring is rather bare here, simply being concrete. You'd heard that there used to be carpet down here but that it was removed because the old man didn't feel like getting it cleaned after a bit of flooding.

Directly across from the stairs is a room with a washer and dryer, as well as several clothes hampers. Next door to that, a room with a deep freezer and a sump pump to help prevent flooding. At the end of the hall, a storage room with what you can only describe as walls of random shit, sorted into multicolored bins and boxes of all sorts. You poke through it all for a bit but call it quits after a little bit, only finding a few power tools for your trouble, which you set aside from the rest of the assorted crap.

Besides a large, empty concrete room with a single tiny window to the ground (which this time is not only locked, but also barred), there is nothing else in the basement. You call your search to an end and return to the second floor, where you briefly stop in at the last room on the floor. A quick examination reveals it to be your uncle's office, which contains a very long, very nice desk laden with papers and reading materials. An assortment of lovely pens sit in a mug on the desk, and a cushy-looking chair sits behind it. Several bookshelves sit against the opposite wall, but all of them are locked with eight-number combination locks, such that you can't even see what books are on them. The window this time has a blackout curtain, presumably to keep sunlight from affecting any books, which you can't help but consider taking to your room. Behind it is an even more impressive window than before, this time with three locks and a screen. Amazing. If that's an indication of anything, you guess your uncle spent the most of his time in here.

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>>5452189
All in all, you feel quite a bit of sadness from the place. You don't know if your uncle was unhappy or anything- he clearly had hobbies, after all. But still, the idea of a paranoid old man living alone in a big house with his things makes you sad. You guess you can at least try to take decent care of the place, so as to leave something behind of his.

As this melancholy fills your head, you return to bed and set an alarm for 6:30 AM on your phone. It is not long before you doze off, strange, scattered dreams filling your unconscious mind as you do so.

Until you awake once more. You'd opened the curtain behind your bed a bit previously, but only moonlight peers in from it. Looks like you woke up early. You turn to your right and try to turn the lamp on the nightstand on. The light bulb ignores this request, opting to stay dark. "It was working earlier. Bulb go out?" You shuffle out of bed and grab your phone to check what time it is. Your hand pushes aside the second phone and grabs the one you're used to- 3 AM. Yup, that's the early.

...Wait, second phone. Why is there a second phone on the nightstand? Was one in here all along and you just now noticed? You throw a cautious glance around the room before picking up the other phone. The sides are completely smooth, lacking buttons of any sort. Instead, the screen just lights up when you take it into your hand.

OBJECTIVE: Survive for eight hours.
REWARD: ???
PENALTY (for failure): None!

The first thought that comes to mind is "What?" The second, likely fueled by a sudden burst of adrenaline, is something along the lines of GRAB WEAPON. Lacking anything better in reach, you decide the lamp will do, unplugging it from the wall as your brain tries to process the message. Someone left that phone there while you were sleeping. Someone who clearly doesn't like you.
>You better call the police. You don't know if this is a prank or what, but it's not something you can deal with. Hopefully they just get here soon.
>You need to secure a better weapon. If you recall correctly, there were a couple of golf clubs in the storage room downstairs. You should hurry there.
>Shit, Madness and Folly are still in the living room. You wouldn't put it past someone willing to do this to hurt them. You better go and get them.
>Whoever did this is clearly treating it like a game, and has been here for some time. They have the advantage of surprise. For the time being, you should stay here and avoid putting yourself at risk.
>Write-in

>>5452199
>>Shit, Madness and Folly are still in the living room. You wouldn't put it past someone willing to do this to hurt them. You better go and get them.

>>5452199
>Shit, Madness and Folly are still in the living room. You wouldn't put it past someone willing to do this to hurt them. You better go and get them.

Cowards better not vote to leave them behind.

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>>5452343 >>5452527
Madness and Folly are still in the living room. You have to do something about them first. Then you can consider what to do next. You take a deep breath and shove your phone into your pocket before tightening you grip on the lamp and inching towards the door. You nervously leer at every corner of the room, as if something is going to jump out at you, before finally reaching the door.

Once at the door, you lock it and the door to the bathroom at the same time. Not with a proper key, but just with the first built-in door lock. One lock should be enough if something were to happen. Next, you throw open the closet all at once, lamp held overhead. What greets you is nothing but darkness. Letting out a breath, you then do the same to the bathroom and the hallway. Nothing, not even a sign of someone having been inside. If there is someone in your immediate vicinity, they are very well hidden.

Feeling secure enough to leave your room without being immediately attacked, you move into the hallway. Very little of the moonlight from the window above your bed reaches here, meaning that the only thing stopping the hall from falling into a deep vantablack are the few rays of moonlight that manage to pierce through the heavy curtains. Figuring that your location is already known anyways, you try to flip the hall light on, but nothing happens. It seems that the electricity is out- splendid. You'll have to settle for being able to see little more than your hand in front of your face. Given the situation you must advance carefully, and be ready to fight back against an assailant at any time. You're the one making noise, so you'll be at a disadvantage.

You creep down the hallway. Slowly, slowly. And then a little faster when you realize that it's unlikely you'll be completely silent anyways. When you reach the other bedroom's door, you turn towards it, ready to attack anyone who might jump out. But nothing does. The door just sits there, as ominous as ever. At least you can't hear anything from inside the room.

Pulling your attention away from the door, you grope your way to the staircase to the first floor. You make a steady descent with one hand glued to the handrail, and the other brandishing the lamp in front of you. With your attention split between possible assaults from above and below it's a very nerve-wracking descent, but you do eventually reach your destination.

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>>5452929

The living room is just as dark as the rest of the house, and as expected, the light switch does nothing. With breath bated, you make your way over to the enclosure on the other end of the room. Nothing happens. Hesitantly, you crouch down slightly and scoop up Madness and Folly with one arm as quickly as you can, holding them both close to your chest so that you don't drop them. Several annoyed rumbles sound out in response. You ignore them as you grab the empty backpack you left lying on the living room floor and gently place the guinea pigs inside, zipping up their temporary home just enough so that while they get air, they shouldn't be able to get out.

Despite you being in your most vulnerable moment, nothing happens. Only the sounds of your heartbeat, breathing, and several annoyed rodents can be heard. With that anticlimax, you begin to calm down just a bit. Whoever placed that weird... phone, if you could call it that, next to you, could've killed you. They didn't though. Instead, they asked you to survive for eight hours. Meaning this is just a game to them. Maybe they'd find acting immediately to be boring. Maybe they're giving you breathing room, to let you prepare. Or maybe they're just trying to get your hopes up so that they can cripple you, and then spend the rest of their arbitrary time limit chasing you around. But at least, for now, it doesn't appear that you will be killed.

That being said, you are rather lost to what you do next. As you recall there's a flashlight on top of the fridge, so you'll definitely take that, but... besides that there's quite a bit you could do.
>Odds are likely whoever started this is still hiding somewhere. You should sweep the house, starting with the first floor. Even if they for some reason aren't around, you may be able to find out how they got inside.
>This is insane. You need to call the police. Now.
>This lamp isn't really satisfactory as a weapon. You should grab something from downstairs.
>...Perhaps you should go grab that 'phone' from your room? It could have more information.
>Write-in

>>5452938
>>This is insane. You need to call the police. Now.

>>5452938
>This is insane. You need to call the police. Now.

>>5452938
>>This lamp isn't really satisfactory as a weapon. You should grab something from downstairs.
Police aren't gonna do shit.

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>>5452978 >>5453013 >>5453103
In the "best" case the info you were given was true and not purposely misleading, and you'll be safe in just under 8 hours. In any other case, that info was either misleading, as it never specifically said you'd be out of danger when the time period ended, or it's simply meaningless- it's not like a murderer has to keep to their word. In either case, calling the police seems beneficial. Even if it might annoy whoever is behind this... the police couldn't possibly take more than eight hours to respond to a call, right? An angry psychopath for 30 minutes to an hour is more acceptable to you than a calmer one for eight hours. You should make sure you can make the call safely first though.

After deciding on this, you quickly sidle over to the kitchen, the light sound of bare feet against linoleum accompanying you... which reminds you that you're still completely naked. A minor problem in comparison to the others you're currently dealing with, but a stark notice of how much you've been overlooking in your panic. Putting thoughts of your nudity aside, you reach up to the top of the fridge, and after a couple seconds of nervously groping around, grab hold of the flashlight you recalled being there. Your hand closes around it and you quickly flick it on, finally having a light to guide you.

With the light, you double check that your immediate surroundings are safe and find neither an intruder, nor any signs of one's presence. Everything is as it was before you went to sleep, which only serves to make you more uneasy. An open backdoor and muddy footprints would give you something to work with. As things stand, you're completely in the dark, both literally and metaphorically.

Now that you have some assurance that you won't be attacked mid-call, you take a seat at the dining room table and pull out your phone. You dial 911, and... there's not even a dial tone. What? You try again, and get the same result. That's when you look at your phone more closely. You have no signal. Not only that, your wifi is gone too. After throwing a glance at the clock- 3:11 AM- you put your phone back in your pocket. While you could try your laptop to see if that's still working, you have your doubts. Somehow, it seems, your connection to the outside world has been limited. You suppose you have little choice but to play this game for now.
>You'll return to your room for now- clothes seem like they would be helpful right now, as well as another look at that phone.
>Go down to the basement and look through the storage. You know that golf club is down there, and if you're lucky maybe you can find something else of use. Like spare batteries for this flashlight.
>Now that you have a light, you should check the rest of the 1st floor quickly and make sure no one is around and that everything is still locked. If someone got in, there's a 90% chance it was on this floor.
>Write-in

>>5453150
>>Go down to the basement and look through the storage. You know that golf club is down there, and if you're lucky maybe you can find something else of use. Like spare batteries for this flashlight.

>>5453150
>>Now that you have a light, you should check the rest of the 1st floor quickly and make sure no one is around and that everything is still locked. If someone got in, there's a 90% chance it was on this floor.

>>5453150
>Go down to the basement and look through the storage. You know that golf club is down there, and if you're lucky maybe you can find something else of use. Like spare batteries for this flashlight.

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>>5453155 >>5453663 >>5453669
Priority number one should be getting a proper weapon. There's little doubt in your mind that a person COULD be killed with a lamp if one was determined enough, but in a fight with what you assume is a seasoned killer? No chance in hell. Before you go looking for trouble you should have the ability to deal with it- the sooner a golf club is in your hands, the better.

Your guiding light carves out a path to the basement for you. As you descend the carpeted floor shifts to concrete, and a slight chill fills the air. For now you forgo even a cursory search of the rest of the floor, the simple fact that the doors to all the rooms are closed being satisfactory to you. If there is someone hiding in the basement, then you will probably hear them coming at least.

The door to the storage room is pushed open with more caution. You shine a light over what parts of the room can be seen, but to your relief you see only bins and boxes. Stepping in, you glance around the room. The bins you rifled through part of should be directly to your left, in the corner. The sight of a few cheap power tools placed on the ground proves that fact. A thought coming to mind you approach them first and try to see if you can power any of them on, but unfortunately the batteries all seem to be dead- although you don't imagine that an electric drill or such would make a terribly good weapon anyway.

After a once-over of the room with your flashlight, you begin digging through the boxes from before again. Junk, junk, so much junk. Holiday decorations of decades long past, posters, and all other sorts of miscellany. Fortunately, after a search that feels like forever but was likely only minutes, you do manage to uncover the golf clubs you recalled. With a grunt, you pull them out of the box and allow them to fall onto the floor.

Just as you're about to pull the clubs out of the golf bag, you hear something. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. It's coming from the top of the stairs... the front door. Someone is knocking on the door. Does that mean... that no one is inside the house? Or could it just be someone knocking on the front door from inside, trying to lure you up?
>Ignore the knocking for now and start testing out the golf clubs. You need to figure out which is the easiest to swing around and wield as a weapon.
>Grab the most fearsome looking of the clubs and head upstairs. You need to know what's going on before you can react to it.
>Take the golf bag and its five or six clubs upstairs with you and investigate. You can figure out which one works best later.
>Write-in

[If you vote to go upstairs vote on what you'd prefer]
>Attempt to sneak towards the front door- as you recall, it had a peephole, which should let you survey the situation outside.
>Avoid the entryway and quietly make your way to the far end of the living room. The window there should offer some view of the front door, albeit partially blocked by hedgerows.
>Write-in

>>5453975
>>Take the golf bag and its five or six clubs upstairs with you and investigate. You can figure out which one works best later.
>>Avoid the entryway and quietly make your way to the far end of the living room. The window there should offer some view of the front door, albeit partially blocked by hedgerows.

>>5453975
>>Take the golf bag and its five or six clubs upstairs with you and investigate. You can figure out which one works best later.
>Avoid the entryway and quietly make your way to the far end of the living room. The window there should offer some view of the front door, albeit partially blocked by hedgerows.

Rolled 55, 7, 5 = 67 (3d100)

Each dice is rolling against a difficulty of 10 that it needs to beat, the more passes the better.

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>>5453983 >>5454299
You should check upstairs as soon as possible- figuring out which of these golf clubs is the best weapon is much less important than figuring out who the fuck is at the front door. You pull a golf club out of the bag before putting it over your shoulder, making sure it doesn't press its weight on the backpack containing Madness and Folly as you do so. Once you feel comfortable with everything you're carrying as you can, you prepare to return upstairs.

Due to the need for stealth, your turn off your flashlight and shove it into your pocket, forcing your eyes which had just been getting readjusted to having some level of lighting back into darkness. With this change you return to a slow, methodical approach as you make it down the hallway, suspiciously peering at every doorway wondering if someone is going to jump out, suspicious of the knocking being a trap.

Despite your suspicions, however, nothing happens as you head down the hallway and begin to creep up the stairs. While this is a relief to you, what's even more relieving is the lack of a man with an axe waiting to ambush you at the top of the stairs. In fact, this is a bit too much of a relief. Once you finish ascending the stairs you inadvertently let your guard down, and in a moment of supreme clumsiness, hit your shin against the part of the banister at the very top of the stairs. A loud thud sounds out, and you involuntarily crouch down slightly. You suck in a cry of pain and end up letting out a hissing noise as you try to recover from the blow.

As you're recovering, you hear three more knocks come from the front door. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. The pessimist in you wants to say it's because whoever is there heard something from your accident just now, but who knows- they could've just been about to knock anyways. At least you can confirm that they're definitely outside the door now. Just as you're completely back on your feet and ready to head to the living room window, you hear a light squeak from behind you, and glance back to see that when you hit your shin, Folly took that chance to force her way out of your bag... and is now scurrying towards the front door, likely interested in the noise.

Well, fuck.
>You should go over and get her. Quietly. And hopefully without running into anything else.
>You really don't want to go near the front door right now. Maybe you can lure her over with some fruit? You should have some in the fridge.
>Folly will... probably be fine for now. If they're knocking at the door it's a safe assumption that they won't be able to open it. For now you'll try to get a look at who's there from the window.
>Write-in

>>5455115
>You should go over and get her. Quietly. And hopefully without running into anything else.

We must save our guinea pigs no matter what!

>>5455115
>>You should go over and get her. Quietly. And hopefully without running into anything else.

Rolled 41, 60, 30 = 131 (3d100)

Difficulty of 15 to beat, the more passes the better.

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>>5455321
>>5455401
If you leave now and go do something else there is certainly a chance that Folly will find her way somewhere safer on her own, or that you may be able to grab a banana or something to lure her away from the door to get away without going near it yourself. But while slightly safer, that would be putting your own pet at more risk for yourself. What if the door isn't really locked? What if they have... you don't know, an axe, or a chainsaw. That would result in the door becoming naught but a suggestion, and even a single one of the resulting splinters could hurt Folly. You must get her yourself.

With that thought processed, you begin lightly, light stepping your way to the entryway. You give up the advantage of the quiet carpeting near the top of the stairs and enter the hardwood entryway but very, very fortunately, it has several large carpets itself. No one would want mud tracked in all over their nice floors, you suppose. These carpets serve as a path to the front door, and after a tense, but short walk you make it to Folly's location.

You want to mutter a swear at the creature, but knowing that someone is on the other side of the door, you resist. Instead you just pick her up with both hands and fix her with an annoyed stare to express your displeasure at Folly living up to her namesake. She just stares back, seemingly perplexed. Knowing any further battle of wits with your guinea pig is useless, you turn your attention to the door. Of the three locks, one is visible on, one you have no idea of the position of, and one, the chain lock, is undone. You are somewhat relieved knowing that there is a locked barrier between you and whoever is there, but you would rather it be locked more.

As you begin considering whether to lock it or not, you become calm enough to realize something. You have a bad feeling. Well, of course you do- anyone finding out that they were being hunted down by some killer in their home would. But not that kind of bad feeling. Something else that feels distinctly different. You get the impression that standing past this door is something... wrong. Extremely dangerous. A reason to feel a deep, all-consuming fear from deep within oneself. There is no proof to this feeling but your body, your instinct, insists that it is true.

[You may choose more than one]
>Do up the chainlock. Even if they hear you, well, at least there will be more between you and them.
>Since you're already here, you'll glance through the peephole. If you are to defeat your guest, you must first know who they are and face that fact. All you can do now is shake of fear of what they might be.
>Begin making your way back and head to the window. You were lucky enough to make your way here without making any noise, but if you mess with the door they'll definitely know you're here.
>Write-in

>>5455733
>>Begin making your way back and head to the window. You were lucky enough to make your way here without making any noise, but if you mess with the door they'll definitely know you're here.

>>5455733
>>Begin making your way back and head to the window. You were lucky enough to make your way here without making any noise, but if you mess with the door they'll definitely know you're here.

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>>5455744 >>5455890
That chain lock is practically beckoning to you, but you think that concealing your presence is more important right now then getting yet another lock between you and whoever is on the other side of that door. To that end you refrain from looking through the peephole either, and withdraw to the living room as quickly as you can while remaining silent, hoping to get away before Folly starts squeaking about something or other.

You arrive in the living room without further incident. With some more space and wall between yourself and the front door, you place down your backpack and take a moment to place Folly back inside it. At the same time you take the opportunity to quickly remove your notebooks and laptop from it. There's no reason you have to carry all that around right now, and you're frankly lucky that one of either Madness or Folly hasn't pissed in your backpack already. You should save everything else while you have the chance.

With that dealt with you place your backpack down for a moment and creep towards the far window, running through what you're going to do in your head. You will pull back a corner of the curtain slowly, just enough to see through, as to avoid the notice of whoever is outside. Then, using the hedgerow as cover for your spying, you will do your best to catch some view of whoever is at the door, however nebulous it may be.

A deep breath allows a temporary calm to settle into your mind as you put your plan into action. The bottom right corner of the curtain, slowly peeled back. Your head carefully moving into the gap without moving the curtain up any further, and a view of the front door found through the overgrown leaves of the hedgerow. While the view is, frankly, shit, you imagine that it would be nearly impossible to catch sight of you from the front door even if it was a bit less dark. You suppose you can thank the old man for that, although you doubt such an arrangement was intentional.

Through the leaves you can barely make out a shadowy figure at the front door. Their features are hard to make out through the darkness, but you can gleam a couple of things. Their figure is rather short and thin. You would hazard a guess that it's a woman, although it's not impossible to be a man- you'll assume a woman for now. Some part of her outfit trails on the ground behind her. A dress or a robe, perhaps. When she raises her hand- KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK, you don't see a weapon in it although what you think are long, float sleeves droop down from her arm. The lack of a weapon doesn't mean much though- you can only see her from one side from where you are.

Now that you think of the knocking, it just occurred to you that every time she's knocked, it has sounded... very similar. Almost as if it's a recording being played back. That's clearly not the case, however- you just watched her knock at the front door. You still get an odd feeling from it, though.

>>5456026
You fix your sight on her for five or ten more seconds and she just stands there, absolutely motionless, in the night. Her clothes seem to stir in the wind slightly, but beside you can't make out even a trace of movement otherwise. Unsettled, you decide that you've seen enough. You feel pretty secure watching from here, but better safe than sorry.

Well, you now know something about your enemy. It is not a burly man with a massive beard, and they probably aren't in possession of an axe. You're not sure whether the end result is any better than what you were imagining, but it is what it is.

It doesn't look like your guest will be leaving any time soon so you suppose you should at least get something done in the meantime.
>Most of the house is still unsurveyed. You'll go through the floor and see if any of the other entrances are unlocked or if anyone is lurking around in the darkness.
>Now's as good a time as any to see which of these golf clubs feels the best. You don't want to carry them all around for too long.
>Your nakedness is starting to get to you. Maybe you should go upstairs, get dressed, and see if you can glean any additional info from that 'phone' left at your bedside.
>Write-in

>>5456029
>>Your nakedness is starting to get to you. Maybe you should go upstairs, get dressed, and see if you can glean any additional info from that 'phone' left at your bedside.

>>5456029
>>Your nakedness is starting to get to you. Maybe you should go upstairs, get dressed, and see if you can glean any additional info from that 'phone' left at your bedside.

>>5456029
>Your nakedness is starting to get to you. Maybe you should go upstairs, get dressed, and see if you can glean any additional info from that 'phone' left at your bedside.

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>>5456397 >>5456431 >>5456447
You would quite like to get dressed while you still have some breathing room against whoever is out there. Both because it's oddly cold in here despite it being August, and because you feel like shoes and clothes in general would be helpful in fighting for your life. With that thought in mind you make sure the golf bag and backpack are both secure before beginning to make your way upstairs.

Not wanting to risk any light from your flashlight making its way under the door, you move past the entryway in darkness. It is a slow, bothersome process, in which most of your attention is spent making sure neither of the bags you're carrying bumps against walls or furniture. Fortunately, while annoying and time-consuming, this ensures that the process of returning to your room takes place with very minimal noise.

Besides another set of knocks once you reach the top of the stairs, nothing of note occurs on the way back to your room. Once you're close to your destination you can see better, rays of moonlight making their way through your bedroom window and open door out into the hallway. Once you return to your room you go through another cursory examination of the place to make sure you're safe before closing your door.

With some guarantee of safety, you turn your attention towards getting dressed. First your boxers, then some knee and shoulder pads you dug out of a box yesterday before haphazardly throwing in your closet. So as to not leave you looking like a streaking athlete, jeans and a shirt next. From there you grab a bicycle helmet you frankly forgot you owned before you unpacked it yesterday (amusingly enough the bike itself finally died on you last year), a belt, and some socks. As for shoes... you're not quite sure what would be best here. Tennis shoes would be good for running, but maybe you want your boots? If you had to kick someone they would certainly pack a bit more of a punch. Or perhaps just staying in socks would be best- that is the quietest.
>Tennis shoes. You have a feeling you'll need to run away before this is over.
>Socks. If you're never found you'll never have to run.
>Boots. They're pretty loud, but they're best for outdoors and kicking others in the face.

>>5457431
With the wardrobe problem dealt with, you turn your attention to the 'phone' left on your bedside. It currently sits dark, but when you grab hold of it once more it lights up again. Instead of the information from before, it simply displays one line of text:
TIME LEFT: 7 hours, 25 minutes, 46 seconds
This counts down, second by second. Besides that, you can't really get much else from the thing. Shining your flashlight on it reveals what looks like a black smartphone but with no buttons or openings. It's just a smooth rectangle. It doesn't look like it was modified, but just made this way. Which unsettles you. Phones like this just aren't produced, which makes you wonder what exactly this is supposed to be and who made it.

After several more seemingly futile tests of whether the device is voice-controlled (from what you can tell no), and whether you can pry the back open (also no), all you really know is that someone left it here and that the screen turns on and displays a countdown whenever you're holding it.
>For the time being you'll just leave it here. Your phone displays the time even if it's disconnected from the internet, so you have no need for it. For all you know it could be tracking or listening to you.
>May as well take it along. It's easier to glance at it than to do the mental math on how long you have left based on your phone's time.
>Write-in

>>5457431
>>Tennis shoes. You have a feeling you'll need to run away before this is over.

>May as well take it along. It's easier to glance at it than to do the mental math on how long you have left based on your phone's time.

>>5457543
2nd

>>5457435
>Tennis shoes. You have a feeling you'll need to run away before this is over.
>May as well take it along. It's easier to glance at it than to do the mental math on how long you have left based on your phone's time.

I would pick boots, but tennis shoes seem like a decent middle ground.

Heads up, I'll try to fit one in but I might not have a chance to update today, schedule is a bit packed.

If not expect something early tomorrow.

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>>5457543 >>5458129 >>5458552
You'd be lying if you weren't suspicious of this thing, but it's probably better to have it on you than not. If whoever was behind this really wanted to kill you, then they just would. There's no need to create some convoluted tracking device which you may or may not decide to carry around in order to do so. With that decided you slip it into one of your jean pockets before glancing around the room to see if there's anything else you should take with you.

Surveying the room, your attention is drawn to the open window. The full moon peeks in, a slightly red tinge to it. You... hadn't quite noticed that before, had you. What's that called- a blood moon? Odd. You feel like you would've heard something on the radio or TV if one of those was coming up, but you guess you could've missed it. Just one more thing to add to the weirdness of tonight.

With your attention to the window you consider either peeking out or closing the curtains, but hold back for the time being. As you recall the window of your room overlooks the front yard, with a decent view of your neighbor across the street. You don't have any particular reason to think you'd see anything important there, and it's possible that the person at your door might be moving around the yard between knocks and spot you. If there's any chance that's the case then looking outside right is too risky.

Going down your mental checklist of what's left to deal with, you pull a golf club from the bag. May as well see which of these has the best swing. You go through all six, giving them all a few whacks. Some feel a bit too light, some a bit too heavy, and one long enough that it might be completely useless indoors. Fortunately, however, one fits pretty well. It's a bit less than a few feet long, comfortable in your grip, and should be able to smash a skull in if needed. It'd be nice if you could lose a bit of length on the thing, but as long as you don't get cornered in a hallway it should be of some use.

Everything that you can think of dealt with, you check your pockets to make sure you're not missing anything. Phone, check, wallet, check, keys, check, car keys, check. ...You just now remembered that you have a car. Is the correct move just to... drive away from this whole situation, perhaps? There's a non-zero chance that whoever is behind this has already thought of that and denied you the option, particularly given your current lack of electricity, internet, and phone signal in the house but... maybe, just maybe they forgot about it? If your van does work and you simply never checked then you'll feel pretty stupid once this is all over. Assuming you make it that far.

>>5459905
Just as you're considering whether you should go out to the carport and check, you hear more knocking. Significantly louder than before this time. [b]KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.[/b] At the same moment, as if in response, you can barely make out a noise from your uncle's bedroom. The sobbing you heard last night. Faint, mournful, sobbing.
>You know whoever's there is at the door right now. You should check out the window while you're still certain they won't be able to see you from where they are.
>Last night you weren't able to find anything behind the sobbing, but maybe this time it will be different. You'll give your uncle's bedroom a once-over.
>Whoever is at the door sounds like they're getting impatient. Maybe you should make your way down the stairs and to the carport while you're sure they're kept outside.
>Write-in

>>5459906
Lock yourself in the room.

>>5459917
+1

>>5459906
>You know whoever's there is at the door right now. You should check out the window while you're still certain they won't be able to see you from where they are.

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>>5459917 >>5460175 >>5460332 They don't contradict so I'll just take both votes as winning.
You certainly could go the other bedroom and cautiously, cautiously look into that damned sobbing, or you could see if there's a chance left in just driving away before this all escalates but you have a feeling that's not going to help you. You need to survive for another seven hours and roughly twenty minutes, if you were to estimate. That considered, you think perhaps you should just... settle. Settle for what you currently know and have on hand, and stay here. Lock the door, grab your golf club, and refuse to come out. Perhaps that is just the best option.

That being said, you do have some small bit of risk you're still willing to take. The window. Your visitor should be at the door at this very moment, so you have a bit of safe time to look outside and... well, check if anything else has been done to your yard, you guess. Maybe whoever cut your electricity and internet left a few bear traps on the way out. You certainly wouldn't put it past them.

With that thought, you glance at the window and take in the view. Your yard appears the same as what you recall from a distance. Overgrown greenery, gravel driveway, semi-maintained fence and all. Beyond that, however, is a sight which inspires fear in you. Or to be more accurate, [i]would[/i] inspire fear with you if it did not merely shock your mind still instead.

There was nothing noteworthy about the ordinary asphalt road, riddled with pot holes and cracks, that you drove down yesterday. Now, however, a massive [red]red[/red] line runs through the middle of it, bursting out of the ground and pushing everything nearby aside. Several smaller, similar lines branch off of it at some points, disappearing under the ground some feet away. From afar it looks like a mix of tree root and blood vessel, although neither of those labels explain how such a growth suddenly appeared, nor why.

After a few shocked seconds your brain forces itself to move once more, and you take your eyes off of the oddity and to the house next door. It looks... completely normal. A slight relief. Behind it, in the distance, the back yard fades out of you and mixes in with the fog of the early morning.

Your eyes are involuntarily drawn back to the unnatural growth in the middle of the road, but knowing there's little to be gained from staring it and plenty to lose by poking your head out the window for too long, you quickly duck your head out of view.
>A moment later, your arm snakes up to move the curtains closed. You feel uncomfortable leaving a view into your room open.
>You turn your attention away from it and leave it as is. Any difference in the house's exterior appearance could broadcast your location.

>>5461046
The window dealt with, you quickly move to the doors leading into your room. The faint, desolate sobs from the other room can be heard slightly more loudly as you do so. Moments later, the first locks for both the bathroom and hallway doors are locked. Perhaps a minute or two more, and the second locks on both doors are dealt with. You are now locked in your room. For the time being nothing else can get you, nor can you get them. Safety, in a sense.
>But not safe enough. Perhaps some furniture pushed up against the doors would help.
>Now you just need to wait. You, your guinea pigs, and your golf clubs.
>Write-in

>>5461046
>>You turn your attention away from it and leave it as is. Any difference in the house's exterior appearance could broadcast your location.
>>Now you just need to wait. You, your guinea pigs, and your golf clubs.

Oh, I forgot that IP changes killed formatting.
tsk

>>5461046
>>You turn your attention away from it and leave it as is. Any difference in the house's exterior appearance could broadcast your location.
>>5461047
>Write-in
grab some food and water incase you get hungry
>But not safe enough. Perhaps some furniture pushed up against the doors would help.

I'll roll to break the tie if it's still present tonight.
>>5461626
Just to be clear are you saying to go to the kitchen, grab food, and then return and blockade the door?

>>5462474
yes

>>5461626
+1, I'll support this one.

Rolled 38 (1d100)

Difficulty of 8 to beat, the more passes the better.

Rolled 27, 29 = 56 (2d100)

>>5462588
Whoops, meant to roll three dice.

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>>5461050 >>5461626 >>5462561
If you've decided to simply wait out your time in here, then, well, what exactly do you do now? Push everything up against the walls, keep your golf club close at hand, and send up a few hail Marys? That certainly is a tempting prospect, but what else would you need for seven hours. No, not just any seven hours- seven hours spent on edge, seven hours mentally running at full throttle. If you are to stay awake and ready to act in peak condition at any time you'll need... food? Water? Maybe something to piss in? At least those, you think.

When nothing else comes to mind, you grab your backpack, flashlight, and your most suitable golf club before preparing to head downstairs once more. With a deep breath you slowly unlock the door to the hallway, relieved when the sobbing in the room besides you doesn't respond to your actions. Down the hall, slowly, slowly, flashlight left unlit. Down the stairs once more, with even more effort put into staying quiet now that you have shoes on.

You reach the kitchen from the door without broadcasting your presence. ...Or you suppose, without whoever's at the front door reacting to your presence, at least. The quiet clack of shoe against linoleum sounds out as you creep up towards the fridge. First, you grab a pitcher off the counter and start filling it with water. Water starts pouring and after a second, simply stops. A quiet curse escapes your lips. You could get why one would cut the phone and internet connection, or the electricity. But... the water? Why? How?!

After a moment, though, you calm down. It doesn't matter. Maybe it's unrelated, maybe this stupid fucking sink just stopped workings on its own, or maybe they did shut off the water. Who cares, you have shit to do. You put the lid on the near-empty pitcher and turn to the fridge and open it up. It's not running, so you should hurry and grab what you need before you let all the cold air out.

Cheese, salami, and RC Cola from the fridge, and a loaf of bread from the counter. That should more than suffice. You place them in your backpack- in a different section from Madness and Folly, who currently seem to have grown somewhat bored of their captivity- and prepare to return to your room.

It happens when 'reyou on the third stair up. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. Loud enough that it almost makes you jump. Loud enough that the yell that comes after could almost be described as quiet. "HONEY, I'M HOOOOOooOOOMEEE!"

The voice you hear is not a human voice. You would not even call it an imitation of a human voice. It reminds you of the throat boxes you hear of smokers getting after years of lung cancer. The voice is strained, rough, and scratchy. The pitch and speed seem to jump around erratically, as if shoved into Audacity and distorted several times at random.

The voice you hear is not a human voice.

>>5462721
As if echoing your fears, the sobbing upstairs intensifies momentarily. You are snapped out of your fears for a moment. Your frozen legs move, and you manage to buy yourself a bit of distance from the door, only stopping once you reach the top of the stairs again and draw closer to the sound you feel less horrified of.

What happened just now has made you face the truth that you have been subconsciously rejected as it grew ever more blindingly obvious. This... is not just a 'normal' psychopath, is it? It makes no sense. All the utilities cut without exception, a strange device left next to you, the blood red moon, the vein in the middle of the road, whatever the hell is outside. This cannot be explained away by the normal laws of reality.

Your mind races for several moments before coming to a conclusion. You know what's going on now- you're sure of it.
>This is all a nightmare. A terrible, lucid, realistic nightmare. You just need to wake up.
>You must've died in your sleep. This can't be anything but hell. Hell is the only place that would do this to you.
>Ghosts. Your uncle's house is haunted and the ghosts are fucking with you.
>Aliens. All of this can be explained as some warped alien study of human behavior. Would you care about the ethics of what you're doing if you were doing it to an ant?
>Write-in

>>5462722
>>Write-in
>All of this is the actual reality. You've just been too ignorant to realize it.

>>5462722
>Snap back to reality.
>All of this is the actual reality. You've just been too ignorant to realize it.

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>>5462729 >>5463513
No, this isn't a nightmare. No way in hell. This is real life. Your other guesses, that could all be true for all you know, but you don't really have time to contemplate the reasons behind this farce right now. Most, importantly it is real. Whatever is happening now has always been happening. You are not the first, nor are you likely to be the last to go through this... game. It is just a constant like death and taxes that you have been lucky enough to avoid up until now. But you have no choice but to confront it now.

The thought that hundreds, thousands, or possibly even millions before you could have gone through similar trials re-energizes you somehow. You are still terrified of course- it can be considered your good fortune that you emptied your bladder before bed- but you are also ready to face whatever this all is. You may not succeed, and you may go out being torn limb from limb shitting and screaming, but at the very least you will put your all into preventing said demise.

Newfound resolution does not quite translate to courage though. Or, if you were to put it in terms that left you with some modicum of pride, it does not translate to foolhardiness. With the realization that some aspect of this world that you have simply been ignorant of up until now has quite literally come knocking, comes the thought that you really should put another door between you and it. More, if possible. You return to your room, lock the door, make sure it's locked, and then begin building a barricade against the door as quietly as possible. Boxes, nightstand, et cetera, et cetera. As you're doing so, the problem of how to arrange the whole thing comes up. A blockade is helpful in preventing things from coming in but, obviously, it also prevents you from going out. Perhaps it's best to leave one door unblocked, just in case?
>It's less likely that something will try to get in via the bathroom door than the hallway door. You can leave it unblocked.
>It's less likely that something will try to get in via the bathroom door than the hallway door... particularly if you take the risk of going into the bathroom and lock the doors from the bathroom to the hallway and your uncle's bedroom. You can leave it unblocked.
>...Maybe you should leave the hallway door unblocked and the bathroom door blocked. Knocker is still downstairs, while Sobber is practically next door.
>No, you think you'll leave both doors blocked. In the worst case scenario, you always have a window to leave from.

>>5463577
>>No, you think you'll leave both doors blocked. In the worst case scenario, you always have a window to leave from.

>>5463577
>>No, you think you'll leave both doors blocked. In the worst case scenario, you always have a window to leave from.

>>5463577
>No, you think you'll leave both doors blocked. In the worst case scenario, you always have a window to leave from.

What could possibly go wrong?

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>>5463654 >>5463821 >>5464111
As you consider the upsides and downsides of your options, one major downside to leaving a door unblocked continually stands out to you: That something could get through that door more easily. You don't like that. Ultimately, even if you left the bathroom door unblocked, all that would leave for you to escape into is either the same hallway something is trying to get in from, or the room with all the crying. Neither of those sound like terribly good options as of now, so you'll just... seal both of them off. The window is always available if you truly need to make an exit.

With that decided you pile up a wide variety of boxes and furniture up against the doors in the aim of keeping everything else the fuck out of your room. During the process you hear some more knocking, and some more sobbing, but you ignore both in pursuit of constructing a giant wall of things. Doing so at any level of quietness takes quite some time but eventually you do finish. You owe much to the many boxes left in your room, and to the fact that your closet doors are the sliding kind that can be easily removed from the wall. In the construction process you did still make some noise, but, well, it's nothing that should've traveled to the front door and whatever is in your uncle's bedroom is still just sobbing aimlessly. No harm, no foul?

As you sit down in your now rather barren room, sans massive pile of things, you have time to think and... well, not quite relax, but untense your nerves slightly. With a sigh you sit down in the corner of the room and reach into your backpack to let Madness and Folly out for a moment, whilst at the same time keeping a very close eye to make sure they don't treat your barricade as some sort of playset.

You glance at the device. 7:00:04 left. 3, 2, 1...

BANG BANG BANG. "HOOoooOOONEEEEEY, I'M HOOMEE" in the same horrid imitation of a female voice as before. If you're hearing things correctly, it sounds as if the creature outside has moved onto banging on the windows to see if anyone's home. Maybe if you're lucky it'll just do that for the rest of the night, but, well, if tonight is anything to go by you aren't lucky. You guess you'll just have to wait and see what they do.
>Time for RC Cola and a sandwich- the breakfast of champions. Some food and time spent half-resting could do you a bit of good.
>There's so many oddities that it's all difficult to even process. You should go think through every odd thing you've encountered so far and try to see if you can figure out anything from it- about what's going on or why... if that's even possible.
>Now that you're going through this you have to face the fact that this has always been part of reality that you've always been ignorant to. That begs a question: Are you ignorant because you've never been encountered with it, or because you've turned your eyes away from it? You'll need to think about it.
>Write-in

>>5464393
>>Time for RC Cola and a sandwich- the breakfast of champions. Some food and time spent half-resting could do you a bit of good.

>>5464411
This and you should probably start studying for school and sorting through those job applications.

>>5464393
>There's so many oddities that it's all difficult to even process. You should go think through every odd thing you've encountered so far and try to see if you can figure out anything from it- about what's going on or why... if that's even possible.

Rolled 35, 94 = 129 (2d100)

>>5464483
You don't have your textbooks yet but you can certainly start filling those jobs applications out, yeah.
>>5465375
There's a bit of time left to try this after grabbing food, taking a breather, and going through those job applications. Two dice, 70 to beat. Failures reduce DC if you try again later.

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>>5464411 >>5464483 >>5465375
First thing's first: time to eat. You're not sure a sandwich and cola is what you'd describe as breakfast, but oh well. You're certain that college students have eaten, and will continue to eat, worse. As you construct your sandwich you position yourself between the barricade and your guinea pigs, somewhat paranoid that they'll try to squeeze into the mishmash of boxes and furniture while you're distracted.

Fortunately neither seem interested in such a pursuit, and you're able to eat in peace. An odd calm pervades over the room, with only the sounds of squeaking, chewing, and the slight fizz of cola audible. It is both a bit unsettling and relaxing. With that thought you slowly eat and calm down, the sounds of banging and knocking occasionally sounding out from below as you do so.

After a bit you let out a sigh, return your old friends to their temporary prison (much to their displeasure), and get up and stretch. It seems like you will be here for a while, and presuming that you survive whatever this is, you will still have the rest of your life to deal with. You may as well take advantage of the fact you're awake and get something done.

In what may both be an attempt to do work and get your mind off of the situation in, you begin filling out job applications. You have quite the stack from yesterday, but they are of little use if you just leave them sitting there. Pen in hand, you remove the stack of job applications from the desk sitting near the outside of your barricade and begin filling them out. It is a boring, repetitive process, but it's also one that allows a certain kind of calm.

By the time you finish filling out all the forms and sorting through them based on which jobs you're going to apply for first (in order for desirability), you find that it's 4:45. Or in more useful terms to you, 6 hours and 15 minutes left. Little else to do, you turn your thoughts to everything you've seen tonigh- er, this morning. Given everything that's occurred and how filled with adrenaline you were earlier, it was all a bit difficult to process. Now that you've calmed down slightly perhaps you make make something out of it.

Before you woke up, this device appeared at your bedside. There were no signs of entry into the house, so how it ended up there is a complete unknown to you. Whatever left it there wants you to survive eight hours, presumably against the thing outside the house and the thing inside the house. Maybe more. Whatever is outside the house has stayed outside for a bit, but whether tha-

THUNK.

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>>5465599
That... does not sound like knocking or banging. That sounds like someone trying to break down a door. The front door, from where the sound is coming from. Concerning, but you guess you can't do much about it since you've locked yourself in here. Uh, where were you. So, the thing outside it still outside- for now- but whether that's because of it's desires or something else you don't know. ...You also have no idea whether it's the thing behind this or if there's yet other creature bearing down on top of you. Great.

THUNK.

There is one thing bothering you- besides the noises. How exactly did everything get cut off? The electricity, the internet, even the water. The WHY makes sense, but it's not really something you see as paranormal behavior. Did the creature knocking around outside really take the time to go through your yard, find your utilities, and disconnect them all? Even your water? How would that even work with a cell phone- a signal blocker? That would be oddly high-tech for the situation, unless there are aliens involved. No, there has to be some simpler, more straightforward explanation you're missing.

That's when it hits you. It's almost 5 AM right now. It should be just a bit brighter outside now, shouldn't it? Or at the very least, the moon should've changed position. But the moonlight hasn't moved a bit the entire time you've been here. It's not something you paid too much attention too, but you're almost certain of it.

A strange, unmoving celestial body, blood vessels bursting out of the street, and a complete lack of all utilities. You've got it- something that can explain all of that. This is definitely your house, but what if it isn't exactly- what if this is some sort of alternate dimension or something? It's unlikely the world around you suddenly changed so much in the hours you were asleep, so the most reasonable explanation is that you aren't in your world! Right, but that-

THUNK. CRACK. SLAM.

...That sounded an awful lot like the front door being forced open.
>Perhaps now is a good time to unlock the window and survey what an escape route would look like.
>Well, it's not like you can hide any more than you already have, so all that's left is to quietly clutch your golf club for dear life in the corner.
>Write-in

>>5465600
>>Perhaps now is a good time to unlock the window and survey what an escape route would look like.
Maybe try and find something that would let us get down easier or cushion us

>>5465600
>Perhaps now is a good time to unlock the window and survey what an escape route would look like.

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>>5465603 >>5465681
Right, now would be a good time to figure out what your escape route looks like. Thankful for the carpeted floor, you creep over to the window and begin fiddling with your key ring as quietly as possible. Unlike the door keys, the window ones all look pretty similar. One design for the first lock, a different for the second, all identical between the windows. It takes a total of eight tries with different keys for you to unlock both of the window's locks, the sounds of sobbing and the creature loudly lumbering around downstairs providing a nerve-wracking backdrop.

With the window unlocked, you slowly push it up and open. Cold, moist air finds its way in and you involuntarily shiver. It's the middle of August, but it seems like you could do with a sweatshirt. Putting the cold aside, you poke your head out the window. The sill outside the window is rather narrow, but you could probably fit your feet on it if you had to. From there you think you could reach the roof, although it'd definitely take a lot out of you to climb up there, and wouldn't be perfectly quiet.

To the left and the right are the windows to your uncle's office and bedroom, respectively. The office window is too far to reach from where you are, but you think you might be able to step over to the other bedroom's windowsill, albeit it with some difficulty. It should still be locked from the inside though, so you'd probably have to smash your way in. Even ignoring what might be inside the room, it doesn't sound like a great escape route.

Below is an overgrown hedge, which you imagine would both cushion your fall and scratch you up. Speaking of the fall the distance is a bit dicey, but not the end of the world. If you were prepared ahead of time you don't think it'd kill you or anything, at least. Although you guess you might sprain and ankle, which, well... might be the same as a death sentence in your current situation. It would all depend on your luck, you guess.

With that in mind, you close the window, turn your attention back to the room, and think of how you could get down safely. It doesn't take long for you to think of the most cliched approach in the book: make a rope out of your bedsheets. Sure, you don't know if it actually works but... well, you've seen it in movies before, and it makes sense, logically. If you tied up your sheets, your blanket, and maybe some clothes or the curtains into a rope, and then fix it against something in the room, then it would probably provide a much safer path down.

>>5466310
That does beg the question though- what would you fix it against? Your bed is the only thing here you can imagine easily bearing your weight, but it's also the first thing you added to the barricade. You guess you could use it, but it'd be pretty far away from the window- you'd need a longer rope, likely including lower quality materials. You're pretty sure your blanket wouldn't rip if used, but you can't quite say the same for your old shirts and jeans...

Besides the bed, you could also try something like your nightstand or a closet door that could easily be removed from your barricade, but you're certain they'd move around once you started descending. Even if that wasn't a danger to you, if a closet door suddenly slammed up against the wall next to the window it'd certainly make a lot of noise. But maybe it's worth it?
>You'll try making a shorter rope out of stronger materials. Having a lighter anchor definitely presents its own dangers, but at least you'll be pretty sure the rope won't break on you.
>You'll make a longer rope using whatever is around. The rope will end up having a weaker weakest link, but you're sure your bed won't slip, particularly with all the stuff on top of it.
>There's no need to make a rope. When the time comes to escape you can just throw some soft stuff down and hope it anchors your fall.
>There's no need to make a rope. Escaping to the roof sounds like a better idea. It's certainly defensible, if nothing else.
>There's no need to make a rope. If whatever's wandering around shows up you'll break into your uncle's bedroom. Maybe whatever two... things are around will end up fighting each other.
>Write-in

>>5466312
>>You'll try making a shorter rope out of stronger materials. Having a lighter anchor definitely presents its own dangers, but at least you'll be pretty sure the rope won't break on you.

>>5466312
>>You'll try making a shorter rope out of stronger materials. Having a lighter anchor definitely presents its own dangers, but at least you'll be pretty sure the rope won't break on you.

>>5466312
>You'll make a longer rope using whatever is around. The rope will end up having a weaker weakest link, but you're sure your bed won't slip, particularly with all the stuff on top of it.

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Sorry for the wait, was busy yesterday. Should be updating tonight.
>>5466590 >>5466699 >>5467084
You simply don't think there's enough good material lying around the room to make a good rope if you were to use your bed as a base. The distance from the ground to here must be... about 9 or 10 feet to the first floor's ceiling, another foot for the material in between floors, and maybe three or four more feet to the bottom of the window. All things considered a distance of 13 feet if you're lucky, and perhaps 15 or even 16 if you're unlucky. Now that you hear that number it sounds decidedly more unsafe than the fall looked just a minute ago. And from a materials point of view, that doesn't account for any material wasted tying knots. You don't think another six or so feet from the window to the bed is feasible.

With that, you determine that you need a roughly 13-15 foot long makeshift rope, ideally a bit more if you have the time. To do so you should definitely start with the sturdiest materials. It's much safer if the rope breaks 5 feet from the ground than if it breaks when you're barely out of the window. The sturdiest material you have available is... your blanket. Definitely your blanket. And after that the extra winter blanket still in the closet, and then your coat. That should be pretty close. What after that? Your bedsheet would do nicely, but actually getting it off of your bed would be difficult to do quietly given that it's part of the barricade right now. You guess if you add a few sweatshirts tied together to reinforce them then that should be about good enough- a few feet off the ground, at worst.

Considerations made and materials gathered, you begin your work. But that leads to another consideration. What exactly are you going to attach it to, if not the bed? If you attach the rope to one of the closet doors and move it close to the window then in all likelihood it will slam against the wall and be braced against it by your weight as you go down. That will probably be loud, but you think having it braced against the wall would make for a pretty stable descent. As for the nightstand, it's small enough to fit through the window. While it would probably make less noise, your weight would almost certainly lift it off the ground partially even if you weigh it down, messing with your anchor and maybe, just maybe, sending it flying out after you.
>Tie the rope to one of your closet doors. It will probably be loud, but you can't see it moving around too much while you're on the rope.
>Tie the rope to the nightstand. It will have a bit more give, but it will certainly be quieter, and surely you're not so unlucky as to have it just fly out after you. ...You think.
>Perhaps there's something else in the room that you can tie the rope to. [Write-in]

>>5468476
>>Tie the rope to the nightstand. It will have a bit more give, but it will certainly be quieter, and surely you're not so unlucky as to have it just fly out after you. ...You think.

>>5468476
>Tie the rope to the nightstand. It will have a bit more give, but it will certainly be quieter, and surely you're not so unlucky as to have it just fly out after you. ...You think.

Here's to hoping this doesn't end badly.

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>>5469354 >>5469697
If at all possible, you'd prefer to get out of here with a lesser level of noise. The longer what's outside takes to notice, the longer you have to make distance from the window. And given how wide open parts of the yard can be, unless you plan to just hide in the greenery you're going to want that extra time.

First, you tie your blanket around the nightstand, making a thick knot at the end opposite of its door. You plan to have the end with more wood face the window, while you weight the rest down with books and such and attempt to keep it in place with boxes. It's certainly not the most stable system you can think of, but, well, it's better than nothing. After securing the blanket you twist into the shape of the rope and then knot it to your spare blanket. Then you twist your spare blanket and tie it to your coat, which you twist and tie to several interconnected sweatshirts using each other for support. Now that rope itself is done.

Once the rope is done, you go over each knot, tugging slightly. Double checking, and then quickly triple-checking to make sure everything is in place. Given the sound of doors being thrown open and things occasionally being knocked over downstairs your time is certainly limited, but you need to make sure your rope won't just give out on you before anything else.

From there, you turn your attention to reinforcing your anchor. You quietly move over to the edge of the barricade and begin removing a few boxes from it- your books. A lot of people complain about print books being heavy and weighty nowadays, and talk about switching to a Kindle, but fuck you're glad you have them now. Your nightstand is essentially a piece of wood hollowed out to have a cabinet in it, and you'll need to fill that up if you're to have any hope of it staying in place.

You move the nightstand and books close to, but out of view of the window, and begin stuffing your metaphorical turkey. It is a monotonous but easy process, and you manage to finish it before too long. With that done, all you need to do is move the thing into place and shore it up with a few boxes around it. You will leave that for now you suppose. That would require you to move the nightstand with the rope around it in front of the window, making your aims a bit obvious, and will only take a minute or two regardless.

>>5469990
5 hours, 12 minutes left. You can faintly make out a creak on the stairs. It's soon drowned out by a particularly violent bout of sobbing. It seems that whatever broke in is tired of the first floor- it's coming up. Time to ready your escape. But as you do so you start to wonder- when should you make an escape? As soon as you have the rope ready? If it starts to try breaking into the room? Once the door starts looking like it's about to give?
>You'll leave as soon as possible. You don't know how quickly it can break through a door if it's determined to.
>You'll wait until the door seems as if it's struggling to leave. It took it 15 or 20 minutes to get through the front door, and you don't see it doing much better here.
>You'll wait until the door gives out to make a quick escape via the rope. The barricade will buy you some time and you want see what the fuck you're fighting against before you leave. What's it going to do, try to follow you down it?
>Write-in
And a bit of a meta vote here- would you like to roll your own crunchy, crunchy dice for your escape, or would you rather I take care of it.
>Yes, let us roll the many dice.
>No, you do it, I don't care.

>>5469992
>>You'll wait until the door seems as if it's struggling to leave. It took it 15 or 20 minutes to get through the front door, and you don't see it doing much better here.
>>No, you do it, I don't care.

>>5469992
>You'll wait until the door gives out to make a quick escape via the rope. The barricade will buy you some time and you want see what the fuck you're fighting against before you leave. What's it going to do, try to follow you down it?

>>5469992
>>No, you do it, I don't care.

If there's not a tiebreaker by this evening I'll leave tiebreaking the first vote up to RNG.

>>5469992
>You'll wait until the door seems as if it's struggling to leave. It took it 15 or 20 minutes to get through the front door, and you don't see it doing much better here.
>No, you do it, I don't care.

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>>5470090 >>5470637 >>5471416
Fleeing now would be a bit of an overreaction, to say the least. What if it doesn't try to break through the door at all? What if it decides that it's too much trouble and heads back downstairs, catching sight of you on the way down? You at least need to know that there is a reason to escape before you do so. But at the same time you can't leave too late. If the thing gets into your room while you're on the rope, then it could simply untie the rope from the anchor and send you plummeting, or worse, go to wait for you at the bottom.

The risks of both extremes considered, it seems best to start going when door seems to be 'giving' a little. At that point it should be focused on trying to break in, and hopefully won't notice that you're trying to leave. Decision made, you're broken out of your thoughts by a final creak of the stairs, near the top. It is on the second floor.

You still your movements and slow your breath. If you could, you would just disappear, but unfortunately you are stuck right here right now- because this is reality. There is no chance for escapism. You have to face up to this.

A sound from next door- it's trying to enter the bathroom, but the door is locked. You didn't hear it try to enter your uncle's bedroom. Perhaps it purposely avoided it? It tries to open the door again. You hear it speak, more quietly this time. "Edwaaaard. Let me in." More important than the several abrupt changes in pitch it makes while saying Edward is the name itself. You can't pin it down, but you feel like you've heard it recently. Well of course you have- it's a pretty common name- but in a context that was important.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. It bangs on the bathroom door. This repeats one, two more times, before you hear it move down the hallway again... to your door. You hear it try to push the door, the only real, solid barrier between the two of you, open. It fails. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. Even though you expect it, it almost makes you jump. "Doooo you hate mee Edwaard?" The voice sounds markedly sad now. And... god that name is bothering you. Edward. Is that your uncle's name? You think that it could be, but it could also just be your first assumption given that, well, you're in his house and all this started happening. The last time you actually heard his name was... hell, months ago at least, so you can't be sure. Still, you can't think of anything else that would make sense.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. And there goes your train of thought. Instead of pursuing it again you just stand there, staring at the door. After what feels like ages but is likely only a minute or two, another set of knocks can be heard. And then, finally, it moves away. A few seconds later you hear the door to the study open.

>>5471734
It's five minutes of hearing it turn the study over before it returns to your door. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. "Honey. I'm coming in." The sound of someone forcing themselves against the door follows, and you freeze up for moment before reacting. It's trying to get in. There is no hiding anymore. You should try to be quiet but... it is time to move the anchor into place. The only options left to you are flight or fight, and you'd much rather choose the former.

Only a minute or two passes before you have everything in place, and it's only very shortly after when you hear a rather worrying sound from the door. Whatever's out there has been throwing itself against the door rather consistently, and while you think you still have some time, it's actions are showing an effect. Whether that's because it's more determined to break this down than the front door, or because it's just a shittier door doesn't really matter- you need to leave. Now.

Any last bits of hesitance left behind, you prepare to leave. You throw your golf club out the window, allowing it to land in the hedge with a quiet thud, slide on your backpack, and begin crawling out the window.

Rolled 21, 49, 13, 24, 39, 90 = 236 (6d100)

You are now climbing out of the window. You will climb down the rope in four phases, your rope and anchor gradually being strained more as you descend further. Each phase the rope and anchor will roll 3d100, and for every roll failed one will fail you slightly.
I will pause when one of three things happens:
1. You reach the bottom of the rope successfully, with nothing happening.
2. The rope or anchor deteriorates to a condition which worries you, and makes you consider jumping to the ground ahead of time.
3. The rope or anchor fails completely too suddenly for you to react.

FIRST PHASE: Beat 7 on rope, 20 on anchor. (First three dice for rope, last three for anchor)

Rolled 35, 52, 6, 48, 96, 99 = 336 (6d100)

You are around twelve feet in the air. Your rope is still whole, and your anchor is still firmly grounded.
SECOND PHASE: Beat 10 on rope, 25 on anchor.

Rolled 16, 38, 53, 92, 31, 89 = 319 (6d100)

You are now around nine feet in the air. A few frays in the rope worry you slightly, but all things considered it's still in very good condition. You continue descending.
THIRD PHASE: Beat 14 on rope, 33 on anchor.

Rolled 85, 29, 94, 18, 55, 67 = 348 (6d100)

As you move further, you hear a quiet thunk as your rope suddenly swings. You have to stop for a moment before it steadies again. You think the anchor slipped a little. Fortunately nothing else happens, and before long you're only around six feet in the air- if you really need to you could jump to the ground from this point, but spraining your ankle would probably still be a real risk.
FINAL PHASE: Beat 18 on rope, beat 40 on anchor.

Doing your best not to hurry, you move down the last section of the rope, eyes moving between the open window above and the living room window only a bit below you. Your rope swings again, this time more dangerously, and you have to freeze up and wait nearly 10 seconds for it to steady again. This... still feels a bit unsteady, and you think you heard something thud against the wall. Your nightstand may be midair right now. It's a good thing you're near the ground, you guess.

I will compile the descent into one proper update later, but more importantly, you've made it to the ground in one piece, without any major incidents. But you still have around five hours left on the clock, and the yard is very exposed. What do you plan to do now?
>Make your way to the carport and see if your car is working.
>Make a break for it and try to run to the house across the street.
>In terms of pure distance, the house to your left is the closest to you. Run to your left, and then try to climb the fence and make it into the neighbor's yard.
>Quietly let go of the rope and return through the front door. Maybe you can get the drop on whatever is up there?
>Write-in

>>5471756
>Run to your left, and then try to climb the fence and make it into the neighbor's yard

>>5471756
>>In terms of pure distance, the house to your left is the closest to you. Run to your left, and then try to climb the fence and make it into the neighbor's yard.

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>>5471734
>horror creature cant keep up with our mental shenanigans

>>5471756
>Quietly let go of the rope and return through the front door. Maybe you can get the drop on whatever is up there?
we're not done yet :^)

>>5471756
>Quietly let go of the rope and return through the front door. Maybe you can get the drop on whatever is up there?

>>5471756
>>In terms of pure distance, the house to your left is the closest to you. Run to your left, and then try to climb the fence and make it into the neighbor's yard.
It'd certainly be funny to go back through the front door, but the only thing we have with us is a golf club so I wouldn't say we're prepared for whatever is in there, especially since we barely even know what it looks like.

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>>5471825 >>5471908 >>5472012 >>5472296 >>5472442
Despite the clear danger in front of you, it takes a bit longer than you'd like to admit for you to fully entrust your weight to the rope. Upon doing so a shiver travels down your back. Whether from the fear of hanging 15 feet in the air without a harness or from the unusually chilly weather, you're not quite sure. You calm down for a moment, making a conscious decision to fix your eyes on your breath condensing in front of you instead of below you. No need to make yourself more nervous about this than you need to be. Then, taking another thud from the door as a signal to go, you begin your descent.

The first thing that you realize is that it's much harder than you expected to descend a free-hanging rope with no footholds. You are effectively carrying around 190 pounds of weight with just your hands, which as someone who can only describe themselves as 'in average shape' at best, is rather unpleasant. But there's nothing to be done for that- you just need to continue. After some careful movement downwards you hear a slight tearing noise, and glance up. Your blanket, rather unsuited for this as it is, has frayed a bit. Nothing more than some small tears though- you should keep going before it gets worse.

Left hand move. Right hand move. Left hand move. Right hand move. Left ha-thunk- oh god the rope is swinging now. You freeze up and try to stay as still as possible. A second or two later, the rope does the same. Letting out a sigh of relief, you glance below you. Your feet are probably lined up with the top of the living room windows, but you're still a little high up. Just do your best to ignore it... the anchor isn't going to suddenly fly out of the window... get down.

As if to contradict your fears, as you begin descending once more you immediately hear another thud, and your rope begins swinging again. Longer this time- uncomfortably long. The rope does eventually stop moving though, and while you do now feel an uncomfortable amount of give at this point, fortunately you're very close to the ground.

It's with a sigh of relief that you feel your feet step into the hedge below you and can finally ease yourself off the rope. A final faint noise from above bids you farewell from the thing, likely your nightstand returning to the floor. You imagine that it could probably be heard from the outside, but, well, it's less of a racket than using the door would've been at least.

You grab your golf club as you catch your breath. You can't afford to rest yet. That climb probably cost you a minute or two, and you don't imagine that door has too long to live. Once that thing gets through it will see the open window and the rope, and it will know what you did. You need to keep going. Your thoughts turn towards heading to your car, or maybe sneaking back inside to confront it, but neither of those are guarantees. The safest thing to do is just keep running.

Rolled 8, 83, 33 = 124 (3d100)

>>5472576
That decided, you begin jogging to the nearest fence. It's roughly as tall as you, and will certainly be a pain to climb over, but you guess that's an upside too. Once you're over the thing it will be difficult for whatever's in your house to catch sight of you. Taking in a deep breath, you begin running towards the fence and jump, aiming to get a good grip on the top of it so you can lift yourself over.

A roll is a success if it beats 40. The more successes the better.

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>>5472578
Alright, you just need to run and jump. Run and jump. Run and- oh god you might not have enough time to get a clean jump. Jump now, jump now, don't run into the goddamn fence. With that last thought you push off of the ground and try to jump towards the fence. As you do so you blindly reach up, trying to grab the top of the fence.

To your pleasant surprise you feel your hands manage to grab the top of a couple pieces of wood, which you then hold onto for dear life. A moment later any relief from that is erased as your head smacks against the fence. You don't think you lost any teeth or anything but fuck that smarts. Fuck, fuck, ow. But you do still have a hold of the fence, and... well, that's something.
>Try to pull yourself up.
>Lower yourself down and try to do that again. You've had a try at it, surely you won't smack yourself in the face with a fence AGAIN.
>Write-in

>>5472590
>>Lower yourself down and try to do that again. You've had a try at it, surely you won't smack yourself in the face with a fence AGAIN.

>>5472590
>>Lower yourself down and try to do that again. You've had a try at it, surely you won't smack yourself in the face with a fence AGAIN.

Rolled 53, 46, 30 = 129 (3d100)

>>5472688 >>5472968
You were really relying on that momentum to help get you over. You should just let go and try it again. A frustrated groan can be faintly heard as you let go of the fence. Man, you hate this thing. You get that the guy was paranoid, but did he really need, a... what is this, a nearly seven foot tall fence? Christ.

After a moment taken to double-check that Madness and Folly are still present and your golf club well-secured and poking out your backpack, you hurry back far enough from the fence to get a running start whilst trying to cover up a newly-gotten nosebleed with your arm.

A roll is a success if it beats 35.

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>>5472996
Alright, run, run, jump, come on! You try again, and, much to your relief, you don't slam your face into the fence. Instead of essentially hitting the ground ahead of time, you do actually get something out of your running start, and manage to fix roughly half of your arms over the top of the fence. At the same time your leg is part of the way up, and after only a couple tugs you manage to get it over as well.

With a few more frenzied pulls your body lifts up, and you manage to feel several pieces of wood uncomfortably dig into your stomach as you roll over the top. Despite your best effort to gently lower yourself down you land with an unpleasant thud on the other side, but are thankfully left mostly whole. While your everything hurts a little right now, your only actual wound is the bloody nose.

You examine your neighbor's yard as you catch your breath. To your left stands one of those above-ground pools, full, and to your right a patio with a couple pieces of cheap furniture and a barbeque. Unlike your uncle's house this one doesn't have a fence, making the only barrier between it and the neighbor's house a legal one that can be crossed with your own two feet.
>Not far enough yet. You run to the next house over.
>Their patio is lifted a bit off the ground- just enough for you crawl under. Maybe you can hide under there?
>You don't feel safe out here. You do have a golf club, perhaps you can just... break open one of their windows and get inside?
>Write-in

>>5473017
>>Not far enough yet. You run to the next house over.

>>5473017
>>Write-in
Let's see if there's any houses nearby that do have a fence. If not run to the next house.

>>5473017
>Not far enough yet. You run to the next house over.

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>>5473088 >>5473467 >>5473513
There isn't a fence or anything else stopping you from heading to the next yard over and there's fuck all around here to use to hide. You should hurry up and make some more distance between you and your house. For all you know it could have gotten through that door by now, and the further away you are when it starts looking the better.

You settle into something between a jog and a run and approach the next home. The back yard has what feels like a bit of everything. A trampoline, a couple of hay bales with a target strapped to it, and a real junker of a car. A big tree overlooks it all, although to be honest you couldn't say what type of tree it is. Unlike the last house, there's no patio. Just a back door and a curtainless window providing a view into a cluttered kitchen.

After a few seconds though, something catches your attention more than the house itself. You thought it was just foggy outside, but the fog, uh... isn't retreating. As you approach the fog on the horizon, it just gets closer. There is a giant, endless wall of fog at the end of the yard you're entering and to your left, only a few feet into the woods just behind the houses on your street.
>Try and break into the house through the kitchen window. You're not going to do well out here for hours.
>Circle around to the front of the house and try to break in, assuming the door isn't just open.
>See if you can hide yourself in that junker. Surely there's enough space in the back for you.
>Survey the tree a bit more. Maybe you can climb it.
>Head into the giant curtain of fog. It's a bit ominous, but surely nothing could find you in there.
>Write-in

>>5474161
>>Try and break into the house through the kitchen window. You're not going to do well out here for hours.

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>>5474161
Better not to enter a strangers house where we could potentially be killed for trespassing. Instead, we're going to use the neighbor's flesh blood as a distraction.
>Write-in
>STEP 1: Make ninja mask out of our tshirt (pic related).
>STEP 2: Go out to the front of the neighbors, and try to locate their car.
>STEP 3: Begin smashing the car until it activates the alarm. Even if the neighbors see you through their windows they won't know its you :^)
>STEP 4: Hide out in the woods and wait until the alarm draws in the attention of the horror creature, and, if its possible, the neighbors
>STEP 5: Bait has been placed X), now quickly leave the place heading in the direction where you came from while the creature is distracted killing your neighbor. Even if the neighbors aren't home, the alarm should be good enough of a distraction.

>...problem? X)

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Happy Turkey day all! Update tomorrow.

Hm, I was kind of just hoping if I left this for a while there'd be a tiebreaker but I ended up falling asleep.
I'll go with >>5474469 as I don't really want to go for anything super risky and out there without a clear majority.

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>>5474469
>>5474685
While it's all well and good that you have some distance from that thing, you need to find somewhere else to stay while you wait out the clock. There's a couple promising places outside but, well, it's cold out here, and while you doubt the heater is gonna be on anywhere given your lack of electric, it'll still be better than out here. Maybe if you're lucky you'll just be able to hole yourself up somewhere with a cover.

Before you can try to achieve that unlikely wish however, you actually need to get into a house. And given that you've already left your house behind that, uh, poses some difficulties. You hopefully approach the back door to the house you're in front of, but it locked. ...Guess that leaves you one option.

Wind up, aim, swi- wait a minute, wait a minute, if you just swing and it works you're going to get fucking showered in glass, aren't you. Hell, depending on what the shrapnel hits that could get you before the monster does. Move to the side, move to the side, hesitantly hold the thing out and thrust. You're gonna try and get a hole in the window so that you can more gently clear the rest of the window out without it's materials, well, flying out at high speeds in every direction towards your delicate, delicate, body parts.

THUNK. A crack. THUNK. Many more. THUNK. And a hole forms, causing some glass to fall across the countertop on the other side of the window. From there your work gets a bit easier, albeit nervewrackingly time-consuming. Each thrust of the club makes an extra hole in the glass, which essentially just falls onto the countertop. Your vision constantly flashes between the window, to aim your thrusts and see if anyone or thing inside the house was alerted, and your fence, to see if the thing hunting you has started coming your way, but for the time being it seems nothing is happening on either front.

After a very nerve-wracking couple of minutes, you have a hole large enough for you to get through. With a sweep of your golf club along a couple edges of the windowpane you get rid of any sharp bits of glass along the edges that could dispossess you of your blood, and then consider your method of entry. Your first instinct would be to go in on your hands but, uh, the countertop is covered in glass and you aren't wearing gloves. Go in leg first and slide across the counter on your butt you guess? There's not enough space for you to go in standing and while you REALLY don't like the idea of getting glass in your ass it at least wouldn't be a crippling injury.

As a last precaution you sweep your golf club across the now exposed countertop a couple times, trying to move as much glass out of the way with the handle with possible, before making your way in. You certainly feel a few unpleasant pinpricks in your bottom, but you do your best to avoid putting all your weight on the counter and slide yourself across it quickly.

>>5477157
The sound of glass crumbling can be heard as you manage to reach the floor. Fortunately your tennis shoes, while not the best, haven't started wearing through or anything and provide ample protection. With that dealt with, you quickly wipe off your bottom and glance around. Besides the kitchen you're inside and its door leading to the back yard, you can make out a door to your right, to your left, a living room in front of you, and a staircase in the living room leading upstairs. As your eyes adjust a bit you also manage to catch sight of a small door built into the side of the stairs, likely for some storage cubby.

Given the layout of the houses in this neighborhood the door to your left is probably the garage. To the right could be... well, a spare room, a laundry room, a pantry, anything really. Since you don't see much on this floor, upstairs are the bedrooms you guess?
>Grab your flashlight and give the house a onceover. You won't be comfortable in here until you know there's no company.
>Find a position out of view of the windows but nearby and lay in wait. You weren't particularly stealthy in getting in or careful about hiding your traces, so who knows when that thing could follow you in.
>Go around the floor and check all the locks. You should make sure everything is locked so nothing else can get in.
>Go around the floor and check all the locks. You should make sure everything is unlocked so you can escape as quickly as possible if need be.
>Head to the left and start looking through what you assume to be the garage. People normally keep their power tools and stuff in there, maybe you can find something useful.
>Find some object, anything really, to cover up the view into the house. You feel uncomfortable with no curtains on these kitchen windows.
>Write-in
Feel free to specify a couple top priorities if you want, there's a lot of things you could do here and if they're both quick they might get done in one post.

>>5477158
>>Go around the floor and check all the locks. You should make sure everything is locked so nothing else can get in.

>>5477158
>Grab your flashlight and give the house a onceover. You won't be comfortable in here until you know there's no company.
>Go around the floor and check all the locks. You should make sure everything is locked so nothing else can get in.

>>5476952
Holidays really do be like that tho.

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>>5477216 >>5477225
Well, before you do anything else you should give the place a quick once over and make sure you're, relatively speaking, safe. Check the locks, shine a light into the corners and see if anything jumps out, stuff like that. As is you're in danger, but if you get jumped by something else in here there may not even be time to regret it. You only have one life, so better safe than sorry.

If anything is in here it heard you break the window open, so there's probably no need for stealth. You pull out your flashlight and shine it around the room. Besides the place generally being kind of cluttered, nothing stands out as particularly odd. A set of large cooking knives sits on the counter, of which you take one before hiding the rest in a cabinet. You think the golf club is probably a safer weapon given that you can use it from a range, but hey, it's better to have more options than not.

While you could feasibly see someone cramming themselves into one of the many counter cabinets or even the fridge if they emptied it, you don't have all the time in the world right now, so you forgo a more thorough examination of the room and go to the room to your right. A quick scan of it reveals that it's just a laundry room. You throw open the doors to the washer and dryer while you're there, but find nothing. In fact, the only thing of note in here is the startling amount of dirty clothes scattered about and the unpleasant smell they give off, driving you to quickly make your exit.

The door opposite of the laundry room, as you expected, leads to the garage. It's almost as cold as outside, and a faint smell of gasoline fills the air. An old, red convertible serves as a centerpiece. Shining your flashlight inside finds it empty. Your attention then turns to... everything else. A few half-finished carpentry projects are scattered about and several storage racks sit against the side of the garage, piled high with miscellany such as nails, wood, and what you think is a bow on a top shelf. It looks a little too high to reach, but maybe if you poked around for a second you could find a stepladder? Something to consider after you make sure the living room is clear, you suppose.

While you'd like to know if the garage door still works without power you decide against it considering the attention it might draw from anything outside. From there, you head to the living room. As you shine your flashlight across the room you frown slightly, confused. Someone left an entire pair of clothes: shirt, jeans, underwear, and all, on the couch, partially covered up by a blanket. Maybe someone fell asleep down here watching TV and then undressed themselves and headed to their bedroom? Weird, but probably not worth considering- not until you know you have some time and wiggle room, at least.

>>5478540
The living room is, surprisingly, rather bare. A standard table, seating, TV set-up, a few family photos, a display case, and a pet bed. Of most interest among these is the family photos, which picture a burly man with a beard, a somewhat homely woman, and a teenage girl. Occasionally a cat shows up in the photos. You guess that these should be the residents, but you haven't seen head nor tail of them yet.

You finish by checking the (curtained) living room windows and the front door. All are locked, and your sweep of the first floor is complete. If someone is down here then they have certainly put effort into hiding at least.
>Go back to the garage and see if you can't get that bow. The last time you handled one was probably eight years ago, earning a boy scouts badge, but you'll figure it out.
>Head up to the second floor and continue checking the place out.
>Hurry to block off the kitchen window. A few pieces of wood and some duct tape from the garage won't do much to secure the entrance or cover your tracks but it's certainly better than nothing.
>Write-in

>>5478543
>Head up to the second floor and continue checking the place out.

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>>5478769
Leaving the window unsecured is a bit nerve-wracking, but you should ensure that the second floor is clear before you do anything about that. That being decided, you turn your attention to the stars, which are located on the far left of the living room, or the far right from the perspective of someone entering through the front door.

Just as you prepare to go up, you catch sight of the small door in the stairs and recall something- you never did check that, did you? Careless. Too careless for a situation like this. You should pull yourself together. Annoyed at yourself, you pull open the door and are relived when you find little of note. The cubby is, as you guessed, used for storage, and just has an assortment of holiday decorations, knick knacks, and the like. With that worry assuaged, you head up the stairs.

Three rooms are on the second floor, all to your left. Two windows sit on the opposite side of the hallway from them, curtained, whilst the window at the end of the hall lacks one. Maybe they didn't bother for windows facing their own backyard? The first door leads to a full bathroom, which is surprisingly clean and orderly given the rest of the house. The second reveals a large bedroom with a two-person bed sitting in the middle of the room. A closet full of women's clothes and shoes is on the left side of the room, neatly organized, whilst the men's clothes in the room is haphazardly kept on a large, seemingly handmade, piece of wooden shelving.

Across from the bed sits a television with an Xbox 360 hooked up to it. On the other side of the bed is another cat bed, but this time there's a cat's collar on it. Odd that it's not attached to the cat, but whatever. Coming to the conclusion that nothing should be in there, you head to the final door.

This room is also a bedroom, but it, uh, stands out from the rest of the house. The walls are painted in hot pink but can only barely be seen under the tapestry of posters on the walls- mainly for punk bands. A single bed with a curtained window above it sits across from the door, with a desktop computer and a desk in the corner to your left. This room also has a closet, again containing mainly women's clothes.

It's not until after a couple seconds that you notice something odd. There's a choker on the bed, right next to the pillow. Curious about something you lift up the covers. What you find makes you frown. A bra, underwear, and socks are in the bed as well, laid out across the bed as if someone was sleeping in them.

It appears that no one is in the house. Maybe they were gone in the first place, or maybe every living thing in here simply vanished. That would certainly explain the clothes. If that is the case though, that's rather unfortunate for you- you can't imagine the presence of other people being around to be anything but helpful in surviving.

>>5479635
With your once-over done, you can finally feel comfortable in the place. You guess now you should prepare yourself before something finds you.
>Now that you have a moment maybe you should get that bow from the garage. It could help.
>You really should seal up that window with something, if only so that a racket is made if something tries to get in from it.
>Maybe you should look through the bathroom in more detail. If you had first aid stuff that's where you'd keep it, and you feel like there's a good chance you'll injure yourself before this night is over.
>Someone around here should have keys for the car, right? You should poke around and see if you can't find them.
>Try to survey what's outside through one of the windows. Hopefully that thing from your house hasn't started following you yet. [State which window(s)]
>Hole yourself up in one of the rooms. The garage and the second bedroom both have locks and an exit, although you guess it's not impossible to go somewhere else. [State which]
>Write-in

>>5479637
>Maybe you should look through the bathroom in more detail. If you had first aid stuff that's where you'd keep it, and you feel like there's a good chance you'll injure yourself before this night is over.

Safety first, ho ho.

Rolled 73 (1d100)

Rolling to: see if there's a first aid kit, and if so how much is in it.
Next roll is for what room the kit would be in, if it exists.

Rolled 9 (1d10)

>>5480692

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>>5480346
You figure that you should try to find something that will be of use while you still have time. Messing with the window ultimately won't cover your tracks, and hiding will only use up time. The best way to improve your chances of surviving will be adding to your current arsenal.

The main question is what would be the most useful. You don't know what's all in the house, but you guess you can make a few guesses. There's probably some woodworking tools in the garage, but you imagine those might be kind of unwieldy as weapons. There's also the bow but frankly you can't imagine that you'd get many chances to use it, particularly given your skill with it, or the lack thereof. Obviously you wouldn't turn down having it, but it probably won't be of much help either. As for the car... well, if you found the keys that would be another avenue of escape, but to where exactly? Down the street? That wall of fog outside makes you feel uneasy, and if you just went driving into it you'd get lost immediately, which could wind up with you in an even worse situation than now.

Ultimately, you decide that you should try looking for medical supplies first- a first aid kit or something. You have both a middle and short range weapon to fight whatever comes after you, but you don't actually have anything to help with the aftermath. Even if you fight and come out on top, will you do so uninjured? You need to be able to deal with at least basic wounds.

Settling on an objective, you head down the hallway to the bathroom. You point your flashlight at the mirror and frown. Past the glare of the light can be seen a man that is worse for wear. Your hair is stained with dirt and a wide streak of blood is smeared on your face, running down from your nose, past your chin, and all the way down to your neck. At this point it's mostly dried. You'd like to wash your face, but given that the water probably isn't running here either, it seems like a waste. As your attention moves downwards, you catch sight of your sweatshirt. It was a dark blue before, but blood and dirt have discolored parts of it into a tapestry of blue, brown, and red. Tonight has not been particularly kind to you.

With a sigh, you turn your attention away from your appearance and open up the mirror so that you can begin poking around in what you hope is their medicine cabinet. Comb, comb, toothpaste, toothbrush, hairbrush, yet another comb, cologne... ah, some aspirin! Not amazing, but a painkiller is a painkiller. Maybe if you take a couple now it will dull some of the hurt you still feel from your rough landing earlier and any more you may feel later.

After the aspirin, however, you don't find anything terribly interesting. Just razors, rags, and other assorted bathroom junk. Fortunately you think to look under the sink afterwards though, and stumble upon the jackpot. Behind rolls of toilet paper and air freshener is a red container with a white cross on it- a clearly labeled first aid kit!

>>5480835
You smile as you glance inside. There's bandages, tweezers, some gauze pads, disinfecting spray and ointment, medical tape, a thermometer, and a few other things beside. While you won't be able to give yourself stitches or anything (although you doubt your ability to do so even if you were provided with the needed supplies), this should be enough to help with minor wounds. It's a shame you don't have a proper painkiller just in case, but oh well- you can't get everything.

You fill a nearby glass with what water is left in the tap, down a couple aspirins, and then pack up your find in your backpack. What will you do next?
>Head to the garage and poke around. Maybe you can find something of use.
>Head to the garage and find a stepladder so that you grab that bow. Maybe shooting off a few arrows could serve as a distraction later, if nothing else.
>Look around in the master bedroom and living room to see if you can't find those car keys. You can't really get far, but hey, driving away is better than running.
>It shouldn't take too long to seal up that window with something. You should pop into the garage to grab some wood and tape and then cover it up.
>Maybe there's something of use in that storage room under the stairs. You should take a look.
>If something tries to get in it will probably be from the kitchen window. Maybe you should find an inconspicuous spot to watch it from.
>Attempt to survey the situation outside through the windows. [State which window(s)]
>Hide in a room. You have what you need, so you should just stay put. [State which]
>Write-in

>>5480836
>>It shouldn't take too long to seal up that window with something. You should pop into the garage to grab some wood and tape and then cover it up.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

Rolling for something

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>>5480863
Any way you look at it the window should be your top priority now. You can't think of any way to hide your entrance fully- a broken window is a dead giveaway of something odd after all- but a broken window that someone has bothered to cover up and one that's just missing half the glass are very different. The former kind of fits in with the, er, 'aesthetic' out back, and could maybe be the result of a broken window that they just haven't gotten around to fixing yet. It's possible to overlook. The latter not only draws attention, but is also drafty and possible to get through while making almost no noise. Not a good combination of features, especially now.

While not an expert in window repair, you do have 18 years of pop culture to help you in figuring out what to do. In zombie movies and in hurricanes and stuff like that people nail wood over their windows to stop things from getting in, right? You don't really have the time for that, but that does provide you with some inspiration. There's plenty of wood in the garage, and there should be duct tape or something similar around to. That'd certainly make for a quick fix that's just a little more solid than "shove something in front of it".

With that decided, you head downstairs. You turn the flashlight off at the bottom of the stairs, wanting to stay cautious given the exposed window. Several seconds later you're very glad you made this decision. Just as you pass through the living room and walk up to the kitchen counter so that you can examine the hole in the window and determine how much you're going to need to fix it, you hear something. A faint noise to your front and left. In the back yard.

You freeze up. A moment later, you hear it again. Something that sounds like the rustling of shoes on grass. Another moment, and you snap to attention. You definitely aren't imagining that noise. Something is just outside, and probably coming closer. You need to act- NOW.
>Drop down to the floor and hide using the counter as cover so that you can't be seen through the window. If something tries to get through then you'll jump up and ambush them.
>The laundry room is only a very short distance from you. You'll quickly back up and withdraw into it.
>The short hallway from the garage to the kitchen is barely out of view of the windows. If you cross the room and hide there then you can either retreat into the garage or charge towards the window as needed.
>Yup, nope, fuck this. You'll try to get to the living room door as quietly and quickly as possible and sneak out the front. Time to find somewhere else.
>Back up slightly and keep your golf club and knife at hand. If anything tries to get in then you're the one with the defending advantage. You'll fight back.
>Write-in

>>5481291
>The short hallway from the garage to the kitchen is barely out of view of the windows. If you cross the room and hide there then you can either retreat into the garage or charge towards the window as needed.

>>5481291
>>The short hallway from the garage to the kitchen is barely out of view of the windows. If you cross the room and hide there then you can either retreat into the garage or charge towards the window as needed.

Rolled 81, 46, 54 = 181 (3d100)

Rolling for moving over to the garage door unseen and unheard. Difficulty to beat is 25, the more successes the better.

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>>5481924
>>5482040
You can't stay here. Living room door is too far away, laundry room only has one exit. Garage. Now. NOW. You force yourself into motion as try to make your way across the room both as quietly and quickly as possible. In what was likely only a few moments but what felt like an eternity, you don't hear the sound of shoes against grass outside, nor the sound of your sneakers against tile flooring. Just the thudding sound of your heart beating, at least until you reach relative 'safety', next to the garage door.

Now that your thoughts are coming back to you, you... frankly have no idea of if you were loud or not. You suppose it doesn't change much about your course of action either way- you'll just have to wait and see. Taking in a deep, quiet breath, you throw a glance at the garage door. Opening it will probably make a little noise, but if you want to keep the garage ready as an escape route then it's probably better to do it now rather than later.
>Open the door.
>Leave it closed.

You stand in silence for around a minute before you hear a distinctive noise. The sound of someone stepping on glass. Your stomach drops. Not only is someone or something nearby, they are just outside the window. If you stepped maybe a foot forward and turned your head, you would see it and it would see you.

There is little doubt as to what is going to happen next. Something will likely attempt to entire through the window, and you have two choices. Fight or flight.
>FIGHT. Being on the defending side against something that's halfway through a window is probably the best you're going to get. Get ready to get a good swing in with your club- the kitchen has plenty of space to wind up.
>FIGHT. Being on the defending side against something that's halfway through a window is probably the best you're going to get. Grip that oversized knife with both hands and prepare to run it through whatever's there.
>FLIGHT. Whatever is there, you do not want to face it. You will retreat into the garage and find a place to hide.
>FLIGHT. Running away has worked well so far. You hope that garage door still works, and if not, that you can lift it.
>FLIGHT. Running away has worked well so far. The front door feels far away right now, but it's really only a short sprint. A very short sprint. You can run up to it, unlock it, and then slam it behind you before it gets through the window. Hopefully.
>FLIGHT. You're still in a perfectly good house with a bedroom upstairs that you can lock yourself in. You just hope you have enough time to try to get out the window again.
>Write-in

>>5482583
>Open the door.
>FIGHT. Being on the defending side against something that's halfway through a window is probably the best you're going to get. Get ready to get a good swing in with your club- the kitchen has plenty of space to wind up.

Time to see how this golf club fares.

Rolled 32, 17, 68 = 117 (3d100)

Rolling for how much noise opening the door makes. Difficulty is also 25.

Rolled 78, 57, 83 = 218 (3d100)

And now for the golfing, difficulty to beat is 30. The more the successes the better on both of these, can generally take that as a given.

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>>5483305
You got this. Run towards the window, wind up, swing. Run towards the window, wind up, swing. With a deep breath and a mental "FORE" you rush into the kitchen and catch sight of someone partway through the window. Before you can process who, you pull the golf club back and then let it rip. The head of the golfclub meets their head, hitting their right cheek with a meaty thud.

Only after you swing do you have enough focus to spare to actually process what's in front of you. The simplest description would be "a woman in a negligee", but the reality is far more upsetting than that. Her skin is devoid of color, a dark grey, and her neck is unnaturally long, nearly half a foot, with a sudden bend in the middle. A look at her face, which is at an angle from the rest of the body, makes your stomach turn. Rows of stitches hold together burnt, grey patches of flesh. Well, except where your club hit- several of the stitches there have burst, and now her jaw is hanging slightly on that side.

"Ewaahd?" An attempt to say something with the other half of it's mouth that still works snaps you back into attention. You do not have time to be shocked. What matters is that it is here, and that you have to deal with it.

The thing's vacant eyes stare at you as it resumes dragging itself through the window. It's coming in arms first, leaving itself rather defenseless for the time being. A glance at its arms reveals that the nails on the right arm are disturbingly long and sharp, having left several light scratches on the kitchen countertop. Like her face, her arms also look burnt and held-together by stitches.
>There's only one thing left to do- SWING, SWING, SWING AGAIN. [Specify where you're aiming on her body.]
> ...Perhaps the knife would be better. It'll take a second, but you'll pull it out of your belt and get to chopping. [Specify where you're aiming.]
>You... are honestly not sure how to deal with this. There's no blood coming from your attack- does it even have vitals? Perhaps you should take advantage of this time to run away. [Specify to where- garage, upstairs, or out the front door.]
>Write-in

Oh yeah, more likely than not there will be updates, but just in case I disappear for a day or two I'm not dead, just out of town.

>>5483695
>There's only one thing left to do- SWING, SWING, SWING AGAIN. [Go for the right arm.]

>>5483695
Lol totally forgot about this thread.

>>There's only one thing left to do- SWING, SWING, SWING AGAIN. [Go for the head]
It worked the first time, let's keep doing it!

>>5484944
+1

Rolled 94, 6, 93 = 193 (3d100)

The cheap Black Friday laptop I was hoping to use to write with was dead on arrival, will be heading back home later today though.
In the meantime, Rolling to hit:
The more success the better, beat 35.

Rolled 42, 98, 13 = 153 (3d100)

And for the sake of pacing I'll roll one more hit since the lasts rolls don't really warrant a "do you want to change your approach?".
Same difficulty.

>>5486630
>>5486632
sus

>>5486637
amogus

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>>5486652

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>>5484944 >>5486211 >>5486603
https://youtu.be/KIjoqpG4B9w
You stare at the thing and it stares back at you. You have a bad feeling. You pull back the golf club and send it flying towards the grey, burnt creature's right arm. You have a bad feeling. The golf club comes in contact with the thing's shoulder, slamming into the soft flesh underneath with a thud. Neither blood nor a bruise is left behind, but as your golf club retreats once more you catch sight of a bit of grey material left behind on it, as well as a stich that burst at the shoulder. You still have a bad feeling. Not from any particular aspect of this- there are frankly too many things that could give you a 'bad feeling' right now to bother counting- but simply because this is the kind of thing that gives you bad feelings. But at this point you have little choice left but to abandon overthinking and fear and to swing. For now at least, you will beat the bad feeling down with each swing of the club, beating it into mush.

It crawls forward slightly, eyes silently locked on you. You swing again. You try to aim at the same spot, but this time hit close to the elbow. With a thud and a quiet snap, a couple of stitches burst. You doubt that you've disabled the thing's arm, but with those blows hopefully it will have slightly less control over it and the clawing nails at the end of it.

After two swings, the thing's knees are about through the window. More than likely, when you next attack it will be on its knees, and a bit less defenseless. But it will still be at the disadvantage all the same. If there is a time to fight it is likely now, although if there is a time to run, you imagine that it would also be now.
>You have dealt some damage. You will retreat. [Specify to where- the garage, upstairs, out the front door, etc.]
>This is the best chance you will get to attack. You won't fall back until it's back on its feet. [Continue swinging. If you don't want to continue attacking the right arm, specify where else you want to.]
>You cannot let this thing get through the window. It would be bad- very bad. You should use your golf club as a jousting lance, put all your weight behind it, and then charge towards its stomach. Perhaps you can push it back through the window... although the imagined consequences of such a gambit failing make this seem like a bit of a double-edged sword.
>Write-in

>>5486883
>>This is the best chance you will get to attack. You won't fall back until it's back on its feet. [Continue swinging.]

>>5486962
+1

Rolled 56, 17, 35 = 108 (3d100)

Rolling, 38 to beat.

Rolled 7, 6, 18, 23, 17, 32 = 103 (6d100)

Rolling for something, 3 dice at 30 to beat, and assuming that doesn't go very badly then the last three dice are for another hit at 38.

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>>5486962 >>5487033
Even if it's regaining its footing, this is still the best opportunity you're going to get to deal a hit to this thing. Whether you run away later or not, you need to disable this thing at least partially now. With that thought you wind up and swing again, aiming at the right arm. In a split second decision you try to aim for the right elbow, since that's where more stitches snapped before, but that doesn't work out. Today's the first time you've actually, well, used a golf club, and with the stress of the situation on top of that your aim is a little shit. Instead of hitting the elbow, your attack instead goes towards the thing's wrist.

If that were the only bit of bad luck, then perhaps the golf club would land a glancing blow against its wrist or somewhere nearby, burst a stitch or two, and then you'd get ready to attack again. But that is not the only bit of bad luck. The thing sways back a bit to attempt to move out of the way of your club, its arm doing the same. Your golf club that was now moving towards the wrist is merely a foot away from an open hand.

It is too late to move the golf club back. You have a bad feeling about this.

You do land a heavy blow against the creature's palm, but whether that dealt any damage or not is unimportant right now. What is important is getting your golf club back before it can think to close its hand. Just as you're trying to do so, that "is important" changes to a "was important". With surprising speed its hand closes, grabbing the top of your club and slowing your moments late retrieval of the weapon to a halt.

It is still staring at you. The left half of its face breaks into a smile. The right half does its best to with the sagging jaw, but only manages a grin. A scratchy laugh comes from its throat, changing pitch multiple times in only a few moments.
>Do your best to put your weight behind the club and pull it out of its grip. You need this thing back.
>Grab your knife from your belt and cut towards that right hand. You're getting your golf club back by force.
>It is holding onto your golf club right now, but doesn't that give you the perfect opportunity to try to take its right arm while those giant fucking nails aren't pointed towards you? If you lean in a little and use enough force then you might be able to cut through the arm at the elbow. If you're able to get through then it will just drop the thing, hand and all, and if not, then, well... uh, you don't know.
>Fuck, you guess you'll just call the club lost for now. But as long as it's holding onto the thing then that means its right arm is busy. Now would be a good chance to get in a hit- it will either have to let go or bear with only having one empty arm. [Specify where]
>...Perhaps now would be a good time to run away. Your long weapon is gone, and it's only a matter of time before the thing gets its feet through the window. [Specify your route of retreat- garage, front door, upstairs, etc.]
>Write-in

>>5487198
>Grab your knife from your belt and cut towards that right hand. You're getting your golf club back by force.

>>5487198
>>Fuck, you guess you'll just call the club lost for now. But as long as it's holding onto the thing then that means its right arm is busy. Now would be a good chance to get in a hit- it will either have to let go or bear with only having one empty arm. [Specify where]
left arm

Rolled 1 (1d2)

Rolling for tiebreak.
1: Cut towards right hand.
2: Cut towards left arm.

Rolled 15, 24, 61 = 100 (3d100)

38 to beat.

Rolled 88, 55, 48 = 191 (3d100)

45 to beat.

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>>5487751 >>5487784
Oh, fuck this thing. You're getting your club back and then beating that smile off of its charred face. You take a moment to withdraw the knife you took earlier from your belt with your left hand and then take a step forward. And then two. Then, when you think you're barely in range, you lean forward and attack with the knife in your left hand while keeping a firm grip on the body of the golf club with your right.

You can see the attack more closely this time. The grey hand, lit up by moonlight, and the razor-sharp and knife-length nails at the end of it. The stitches holding the wrist to the hand, the palm to itself, and the fingers to the palm. The oversized blade in your hand cutting through part of the hand like it's sliding into weak, rotten meat.

There's now a slash cut across half of its right hand, from the back side. It doesn't make it all the way through, but you think you may have hit bone. It doesn't care though. It stubbornly keeps its grip on the head of your golf club, its right hand forced closed. It looks like you'll need to put more work in to get it back- one more time!

Just as you prepare to withdraw the knife so that you can cut into the hand again, the hair on your neck rises. Bad feeling. You involuntarily glance your right and see that the creature is moving its left arm. You had to lean in just a bit too close while attacking, and now its about to counterattack.

...While your knife is stilled embedded in its hand.
>Pull the knife out and then move out the way as fast as you can. You might take a punch, but since you noticed ahead of time it shouldn't be more than that.
>Let go of the golf club in your right hand and step further away from its left arm while you withdraw the knife. It make take the opportunity to get a better hold on the club, but you should be able to avoid being hit.
>Move out of the way immediately. Your well-being is more important than your weapon.

Once you've dealt with its counterattack, the initiative is yours once again.
>Move back in and lunge towards the right arm again. One more cut and your club should be back in your hands.
>Put your weight behind the golf club and pull. How much force can it really put into keeping it with the damage you've dealt to its right arm?
>You've dealt enough damage to the right arm. You should attack somewhere else. [Specify where]
>The thing is getting feisty and it's nearly through that window. You should fall back. [Specify your route of retreat- garage, front door, upstairs, etc.]
>Write-in

>>5488959
>>Move out of the way immediately. Your well-being is more important than your weapon.
>Move back in and lunge towards the right arm again. One more cut and your club should be back in your hands.

>>5489745
>Move out of the way immediately. Your well-being is more important than your weapon.
Just doublechecking, are you voting for trying to grab the knife back after you've already let go of it and dodged and then trying to use it to attack again, or simply trying to tear apart the stitches on its right hand (or forcing its hand open to release the club) with your bare hands? I'll assume the former if not specified.

>>5490770
former

Rolled 58 (1d100)

Alright, dodging the attack goes without any trouble, rolling for pulling the knife out of their hand quickly and then attacking again.
50 to beat.

Rolled 26, 67 = 93 (2d100)

>>5490846
Whoops, haven't forgotten the other two dice in a while.

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>>5489745
You let go of your knife and step back. The thing's arm travels maybe half a foot in front of your face as you get out of range of its attack. Just as quickly, you step forward again and lunge towards your knife. Immediately realizing that one hand is going to be insufficient to get it out quickly enough to avoid being attacked again, you let go of the golf club for a moment and pull it out with both. After a tough first pull it comes out smoothly, much to your relief, although you do feel a tiny bit of wet something brush against your cheek as you pull the knife out. You'll do your best not to think about what that might be.

You lift up the knife once more and prepare to bring it down on the thing's hand, but it makes a move before you do and lets go of the golf club. The front half of it hits the floor with a thunk and moves out of its reach. At the same time it moves back to avoid your reach, the threat of another laceration on its hand seemingly too much to bear.

Just as you consider what the best way to follow up would be, you notice something. The thing is... higher up than before. No longer on it's knees, but getting to its feet. It's all the way through the window, and now trying to stand on the kitchen counter.
>Back up and wait for it to get down. By the time you attack it again its likely you'll only be able to reach its legs, and its more than possible that it could decide to just jump on top of you.
>Use the knife in your hand to attack one of its legs. Best not to waste time.
>Take a step back, sheathe the knife, and wield the golf club again. All in all its the better, less risky weapon.
>You've gotten in what damage you could while the the thing was at a disadvantage. You retreat now that it can feasibly fight back. [Specify your route of retreat- garage, front door, upstairs, etc.]
>Write-in

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>>5490911
>Use the knife in your hand to attack one of its legs. Best not to waste time.

It can't hold out forever, we just need to keep wailing on it.

Rolled 3, 39, 71 = 113 (3d100)

Rolling, 45 to beat.

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>>5491151
A lot of thoughts about what MIGHT be the best choice of action comes to mind. Backing up a bit so that you don't risk having this thing looming over you. Switching out for that golf club so you can fight at a range again. Maybe just fucking off for a bit and finding another chance to fight this thing. But that's all hopeful- that it could help. Truth to be told, you don't have enough time nor focus to figure out whether that'd actually help right now.

Another part of you takes a much simpler view of things: You've been fighting the thing. It hasn't hit you yet. This is probably the best chance you're gonna get, and if you think too hard right now you're just going to ruin it. If you keep hitting it then eventually, it will be torn apart limb by limb and give in. So for now you'll just face the reality in front of you and beat the shit out of it. You believe that you'll come out the winner on the other end.

With a yell you swing the knife again, this time towards its left ankle. Hopefully you'll get a good chunk cut out of the thing and make it hard for it to walk. Hell, maybe you can even get rid of the entire foot!

Just as you're having such hopeful thoughts, you feel metal meet flesh. It sinks in slightly, but then just as you're getting excited... you feel the energy behind your blow run out. Was your attack off? Odd. How'd you mess up with a stationary tar- oh dear when did the foot get that big-

THUD.

A moment later you're sent reeling. The firm kick to your face makes your head buck back, your grip on the knife failing as the force sending you backwards rips it back out of its ankle. Your now free hand involuntarily heads to your face, covering up your once again bleeding nose.

The pain begins to withdraw after a moment, and you manage to fix your focus back on your opponent. That is when annoyance and anger turn back into fear. Its eyes are fixed on you, and it's smiling again as it stares down at you. It's crouched down now, as if about to jump. It's about to jump onto you. You can feel it. And you don't think you have very long to react.
>Grab your golf club with both hands as quickly as possible and hold it up in front of you. Having a barrier between the two of you seems helpful.
>Drop everything and rush forward. If you're lucky it will just end up falling over you and falling on the ground. If not, uh... well, you won't anything to defend yourself with.
>Move. Move. Move. Regardless of the chances, you need to get out of the way now. If it falls flat on the ground then it'll all be fine.
>Write-in

>>5492013
>>Move. Move. Move. Regardless of the chances, you need to get out of the way now. If it falls flat on the ground then it'll all be fine.

Rolled 87, 78, 45 = 210 (3d100)

Dodging is gonna be a rough roll here, but if you do well you should be out of the woods for a moment.
55 to beat.

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>>5492228
No thoughts. Just movement. Nerve signals shock your body into motion, and you practically leap to the left to get out of the way. For a not-quite-athletic young man you'd say you did damn good. Well, if you had the presence of mind to patting yourself on the back right now. But that's not quite enough to get you off completely scot-free. You avoid the fate of being buried underneath that rotten, burnt pile of flesh, thank whatever the fuck is in charge of everything, but you do still come out a bit worse for wear.

As you fly through the air a sharp pain travels through your right shoulder, reason unknown, and then a duller one in your left as you crash into a nearby cabinet that stops your movement out of the way. You land in a bit of a heap, but not completely on the ground- you're on your knees at least. The thing is a bit worse off, sprawled on the ground a few feet away from you. In between the two of you lies your knife, the golf club you still have one firm hand on, and some blood.

You take a look at the knife left on the ground and the gold club still barely in your clutches.
>You pick up the knife.
>You take up the golf club in both hands.
>You take a moment to sheathe the knife and then take the golf club up in both hands.

Rearming yourself dealt with, you force yourself to your feet, ignoring the pain in your body telling you to sit down and rest.
>The thing is still prone. It's open season. [Specify a region to attack]
>It'll take a minute for it to get running. You should get going. [Specify your route of retreat- garage, front door, upstairs, etc.]
>Write-in

>>5492533
>>You take up the golf club in both hands.
>The thing is still prone. It's open season. [Specify a region to attack]
Its legs to cripple it so it cant follow us.

>>5492533
>You take up the golf club in both hands.
>The thing is still prone. It's open season. [Go for the legs.]

While I do want to take the knife, I think the golf club is the better weapon right this moment.

Rolled 58, 12, 85 = 155 (3d100)

Alright, 35 to beat.

Rolled 39, 100, 24 = 163 (3d100)

And one more, same difficulty.

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>>5493137>>5493138
Counting the crit as a double success, making that 2/3 and 3/3. Nice.
>>5492572 >>5492828
You ignore the knife and reach out towards the golf club with your other hand, taking it into a proper grip. Fortunately it wasn't quite long enough to get trapped under the thing's body when it fell, saving you a lot of effort. Now you just need to swing again. You glance at the shaky connections on the right arm, wondering whether you can beat that into uselessness, and then at the wound you left on the left ankle. You think you'll aim for that. If you cripple the legs, then running away for the next however long should be trivial.

"FORE!" You swing the club at the thing's left ankle and see it struggle to hold on. As you hit the foot it gives a couple of inches, only held on by a couple of remaining stitches. You hear some squeaking from Folly, almost as if congratulating you. With a smile now, you pull back and swing one more time, the thing still struggling to lift its upper body off the ground.

The pops of stitches and what might be the cracking of bone sound out as your golf club slams into its left knee. The knee isn't quite just hanging on like the foot, but that definitely had to hurt. For once you take in the situation with a slight smile on your face. Your opponent is making its way off the floor and turning to face you, but that doesn't undo what damage is already done. If you left now, it would be difficult for it to pursue.

Another whistle sounds out as you appraise your handiwork. You hadn't heard them make any noises in a while- good to know Madness and Folly are fine. One more worry off yo- WAIT. That noise was not from your backpack. You snap your head to the right, where you see Madness scurrying around the couch in the living room.

You can't even be angry right now. Why? Why did she have to get out of the backpack again? Why now? Did it- or they- slide out while you were fighting? That has to be it. You were moving around a lot.
>Force your attention back to the main problem and hit it again. You have this thing right where you want it. The slower it ends up the better for you. [Specify where if it's not the legs.]
>As much as you want to get a few more solid hits in, you really should find your guinea pigs before they get themselves into any trouble. You hope Madness is still in your backpack. You can continue this when you're done with that.
>You guess it was about time to leave anyways. You'll figure out where those two went and then make a retreat. With that leg you don't think your pursuer will be coming any time soon. [Specify whether you want to return to your home or find a new one to enter.]
>Write-in

>>5493147
>>Force your attention back to the main problem and hit it again. You have this thing right where you want it. The slower it ends up the better for you.
Legs again. If we can disable its movement completely we can just keep whacking it until it dies.

I think the thread hit the bump limit; we're on page 9.

>>5493147
>Force your attention back to the main problem and hit it again. You have this thing right where you want it. The slower it ends up the better for you.

Rolled 22, 28, 19 = 69 (3d100)

>>5493509
Threads stop bumping on /qst/ pretty early, after five days I think?
Should be another week on the board but I'll make a 2nd thread soon regardless.

Rolling, 37 to beat, update in the morning probably.

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>>5493508 >>5493568
You'd be lying if you weren't a little worried about what those two are up to, but the doors are all closed and they aren't particularly good at climbing stairs. They shouldn't get far while you're dealing with this. Course of action decided you pull back your golf club again and step in so that you can swing towards its legs.

And then it tackles you.

As it jumps into your legs they fold out from under you, and you go tumbling over the thing. With only a second or two to think you try covering your head before you hit the ground. Shortly after, you feel pain. You've been feeling a lot of that today. With an involuntarily moan you uncover your head and push yourself off of the ground and into a sitting position.

You're facing the door to the garage- not good, turn around. You're facing the thing again, only a short distance away from you but facing the opposite direction. Like you, it's also trying to get up, the scratching of its long nails clacking against the floor. There's some more blood between the two of you, mainly where you hit the ground. ...Do you have an open wound? Given the variety of places that hurt you legitimately can't tell. That's a question for later you guess.

For now, you assess the important details. You still have your golf club. Both of you are on the ground. You hurt all over, but you aren't aware of any injuries that would stop you from running or fighting. The other thing is injured, but you imagine that as long as you don't get away, it can still stand and fight. You're on relatively even ground.
>Crawl a bit closer and then hit its legs with your golf club. It's not getting up if you're not.
>Try to force yourself up as quickly as possible. You need to get to your feet and put this thing down.
>Try to force yourself up as quickly as possible. You need to get going before you're forced to fight evenly with this thing. With the damage you dealt to the leg you should be faster.
>Write-in

>>5494340
>>Try to force yourself up as quickly as possible. You need to get going before you're forced to fight evenly with this thing. With the damage you dealt to the leg you should be faster.

>>5494340
>Try to force yourself up as quickly as possible. You need to get going before you're forced to fight evenly with this thing. With the damage you dealt to the leg you should be faster.

Rolled 80, 26, 52 = 158 (3d100)

Rolling, 30 to beat.

It's looking like we're about at a good place to end the thread, so I'll put together an update once a couple of immediate concerns are worked out.
Alright, so you're going to be able to get up a few seconds ahead of the thing. A quick glance shows that Madness is currently nibbling at that couch, and you're not sure whether Folly is still in your backpack or elsewhere. Would you prefer to:
>Try to sweep out the thing's legs with your golf club to buy you more time to run away.
>Pick up Madness and leave through the front door towards your house.
>Pick up Madness and run towards a different house.
>Pick up Madness and head upstairs.
>Write-in

And do you want to:
>Check inside your backpack to see if Folly is still there.
>Hope Folly is still there and get going.

>>5495511
>>Pick up Madness and run towards a different house.
>Hope Folly is still there and get going.

A shame we didnt name them Madness and Combat

>>5495511
>Pick up Madness and run towards a different house.
>Check inside your backpack to see if Folly is still there.

No pet gets left behind.

I'll roll tiebreaking dice a couple hours after I wake up if we're still tied then.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>5495738
>>5496862
1: Don't check for Folly.
2: Take the time to check for Folly.

Rolled 87, 14, 45 = 146 (3d100)

50 to beat.

File: This is Madness.png (1.47 MB, 1006x988)

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>>5495738 >>5496862
Decisions later. Movement now. You need to get up. The ground is not safe. With a grunt, you manage to force yourself onto your knees. From there you reach for the kitchen counter and use that to pull yourself up. You let out a deep breath as you do so, let go of the counter, and steady yourself. You hurt- you really do- but nothing immediately stands out to you as 'unable to operate', thankfully. If you really do have a major injury or sprain... well, you guess you'll find that out when you try to use it.

Now you have to... what did you have to do again? It's not to destroy this thing- it's to survive. You just need to not die, and ideally not be maimed, and you're in the clear. You need to leave. Now. While your 'friend' is still trying to get up.

But as you're abut to bolt, you remember one more thing. You're not accountable only for yourself. Madness and Folly are still around here. While they aren't, well, people, you've had the two of them for a long time and care about them. They're your friends. You have a responsibility to get them out of this in one piece, come hell or high water.

With that thought, you peer into your backpack. They're both gone. Fuck. You know Madness is in the living room, but where did Folly go? You're still going to do your best here but- well, they certainly aren't making it easy on you. What you wouldn't do for some squeaking or somethi- squeak- no, not from you Madness.

Well, regardless, you should grab Madness first.You do your best to move out of range of the creature, which is still trying to steady itself on its uneven leg, and run to the couch. You lean down and grab Madness, who responds with some indignant chattering. As you do so, you force yourself to take an extra couple of seconds and sweep under the couch. In both a philosophical and very literal sense, Madness and Folly tend to appear together. If you take the time to look, you should have a good chance of finding Folly under the furniture nearby.

Much to your relief, 'a good chance' quickly turns into 'a guinea pig that is upset about being woken up in your right hand'. You withdraw your hand from under the couch and ignore your pets' angry stares as you try to fit them in one hand so you can unlock the front door. As you do so, you hear a noise from behind you. You can't help but glance back- the thing is up, and it's walking towards you.

No, no, no, no, no. Unlock the door. Unlock the door. There are footsteps behind you. Unlocked- good. Pull. Why didn't it open?! Pull harder- there you go. Now step back to give the door room to open, a-

Those footsteps are way too close.

You practically jump forward into the still opening door, but still manage to feel a sharp pain graze across your upper back. Fuck. Ow. It's nothing- you're sure it's nothing. Just keep running. Just keep running.

With that thought in your mind you rush out into the door and into the cold street, desperate to find a new shelter.

My semester ends tomorrow so I should throw up a thread tomorrow night. If I roll some dice before then don't be terribly concerned. Depending on where you guys would prefer to end I imagine this will either take less than a thread, or less than two threads to reach a conclusion, I'll probably put up on a vote on that when it's relevant. If you have any feedback on the quest now is a good time to post it. Something I've noticed myself is overly slow pacing where I might be stopping for votes too much, I've never run anything this granular and survival-focused before and it shows.

>>5495738 >>5496862
The new thread is up.
>>5499822
>>5499822
>>5499822