You're sure this water is probably //perfectly safe// to be swimming in. It's just strangely thick bloody/black water with the faces of the dead floating in it! Nothing weird, right?\n\nRight??\n\nRIGHT.\n\n<<if visited("quite a lot of blood") and not visited("Your world explodes in light")>>Your wounded hand goes numb as it touches the water. You hope that's not a bad sign. You notice no other ill effects, but you're<<else>>You're<<endif>> careful not to get it in your mouth.\n\nSwimming through the thick water – you're going to go on calling it water, for the sake of your sanity – //yes//, you still have //plenty// of sanity – is exhausting, but you've always been a good swimmer. You can do this.\n\nIt's certainly [[taking a while]], though.

You slump down against the door, thoroughly dejected. You could probably make it out again, as long as you don't eat anything in here – that would bind you to the realm of the dead – but what does that matter, really? You've failed. You've failed //twice//.\n\nYour sister is dead. She'll stay that way forever, and there's nothing you can do about it, and it's all your fault.

You hold your injured hand over his and allow two drops of your blood to fall into his palm.\n\nHe closes his fingers on them. In sepulchral tones he says: "You are not dead."\n\nYou figure living blood is a rare commodity here. Probably worth //more// than gold, really. "I paid," you say. "You're going to ferry me."\n\nThe ferryman shrugs and [[waves you aboard]].

When at last you reach the other side, your first instinct is to rest for a while. But you really, really don't have time for that.\n\nYou stand, on shaky legs, and look around. This bank looks much like the other. There is [[a single path]] leading onwards and upwards.\n\nYou're very wet, but surprisingly the blood-black water doesn't seem to have stained you at all. If anything it has bleached you<<if visited("quite a lot of blood") and not visited("Your world explodes in light")>>. Your wounded hand feels dead<<endif>>.

<<if visited("open portal")>>You make your way back through the portal, and it closes up behind you. Everything is just as you left it, except that day is dawning now. Your protective circle holds strong.\n\nYou blow out your candles, collect your crystals, and disperse the ash. You're finished here, and after three weeks of heartbreak you have finally found peace.<<else if visited("{{{>}}} No")>>You wake up to find a police officer shining a light in your eye, checking your pupils. You sluggishly protest.\n\nYou face interrogations. Who are you? What were you doing in the cemetery? Did you try to kill yourself? You're really glad, in a lethargic sort of way, that you didn't bring any ID with you.\n\nYou wave off their questions. "Sleepwalking," you say.\n\nYou end up spending the morning at the station, but in the end they have to be content with that. And despite the rude awakening, once you fight your way out of the sleeping-pill-induced haze you feel better than you have in three weeks.\n\nAfter three weeks of heartbreak, you have finally found peace.<<else>>You wake up feeling sluggish and heavy – no doubt a result of the sleeping pills – but otherwise better than you have in three weeks.\n\nDay is dawning. Everything is just as you left it. Your protective circle holds strong.\n\nYou blow out your candles, collect your crystals, and disperse the ash. You're finished here.\n\nIf you weren't still really dazed from the sleeping pills, you'd probably be humming. After three weeks of heartbreak you have finally found peace.<<endif>>

Your <<if visited("swim")>>dead hand has stopped bleeding, but there is no feeling in it and it doesn't respond properly<<else>>wounded hand hurts badly and is slippery with blood. It's going to be useless for climbing<<endif>>. It looks like you really are going to have to climb this thing one-handed.\n\nEasier said than done, but you are determined. You're not going to let some gatekeeper keep you away from your sister. You //will// save her.\n\nOnly, when you reach the other side, you don't know how to [[find her]].

He tries to block your way with his oar, and, failing, uses it to knock you out of the boat. The ferry vanishes before you hit the water.\n\nIt looks like you're going to have to [[swim]].

You try to bluff him out. Step one: stand in silence with one eyebrow raised and wait for him to speak.\n\nHe doesn't.\n\nStep two: take his hand as though he were offering it for a handshake, or to help you aboard. The trick is making it look natural.\n\nHe withdraws from your touch, and now appears slightly irritable. Maybe you shouldn't antagonize him further.\n\nOn the other hand, you still don't have any gold. Step three: just [[step into the boat]] as though you belong there.

You finally found her, but the victory is hollow, meaningless.\n\nEverything is.\n\nYou sit down on the bridge. You can't bring yourself to follow her, or to try to return to life yourself, or to do anything else at all. You'll sit here. You'll stay here. Nothing matters anyway.\n\nEventually, bored, you empty out your pockets. You find a mushroom from the realm of the dead: you eat it, knowing that it will bind you here<<if visited("yew")>>. You find a few yew-berries: you eat those too, making sure to chew the bitter seeds. You're already in the realm of the dead: you wonder what will happen if you die now. Maybe you'll find out soon<<endif>>.\n\nOr maybe you'll just stay here, on this bridge, forever. You could be another ridiculous gatekeeper. You could keep people from going through the membrane – \n\nAnd why don't you? You could make things better. You could make it so the dead //don't// pass beyond. You could make it so that they stay, that they have to listen when people come to the realm of the dead at great personal cost to see them again. You could change the world so that no one loses their twin the way you did ever again.\n\nYou take up position. You'll do whatever you have to.\n\nYou'll be here for an eternity.

[[{{{>}}} Pretend not to know what he wants]]<<if not visited("{{{>}}} Pretend you've already paid")>>\n[[{{{>}}} Pretend you've already paid]]<<endif>><<if visited("yew")>>\n[[{{{>}}} Pay him in yew-berries]]<<endif>><<if not visited("{{{>}}} Pay him in glowy mushrooms")>>\n[[{{{>}}} Pay him in glowy mushrooms]]<<endif>><<if visited("quite a lot of blood") and not visited("Your world explodes in light")>>\n[[{{{>}}} Pay him in blood]]<<endif>><<if visited("{{{>}}} Pretend you've already paid")>>\n[[{{{>}}} Keep arguing]]<<endif>>\n[[{{{>}}} Just swim instead|swim]]

You walk, onwards and upwards. You wonder why there's so much //space// in the realm of the dead. Sure, it looks impressive, but you're on a //really// tight schedule here.\n\nThere's a huge, impressive, bone-themed gate blocking the end of the path. It is very closed.\n\nYou wonder what the point of all these gates and things is. There's absolutely no reason the realm of the dead should be so hard to get into. Most people who come through here have probably been through enough already, you'd say.\n\nYou [[knock]] on the door: it seems there's nothing else for it.

If all you want is to kill yourself and be with your sister again, why all the occult paraphernalia? Why the three weeks of feverish research? Why all this business with moon cycles and graveyards? You could kill yourself anywhere.\n\nFrankly, I don't think you're taking this seriously. Want to [[try that again|your passage]]?

You just want to see her again. Just one more time. You want to see her face, hear her voice, hug her one last time. You want to say your farewells knowing that she hears them. You want to thank her for saving you. You want to speak your heart to your //sister//, not to a grave.\n\nYou want to see her one last time, [[whatever the cost]].

It has been three weeks since the accident.\n\nYou had been walking with your twin sister – the one you'd shared your entire life with, the one you'd still been living together with even now. You hadn't seen the car. She had.\n\nShe knocked you out of the way. Saved your life. Died in your arms, choking out words you couldn't understand. Her throat was clogged with blood.\n\nMaybe you went a little crazy from grief. You haven't been able to bear these past three weeks without her, always running over that last fateful minute in your head over and over again. You didn't cry at her funeral. You couldn't bear to say goodbye knowing she wasn't listening.\n\n[[Tonight is a desperate hope]].

"What is your name?"\n\nYou give your sister's name.\n\n"When were you born?"\n\nYou give your sister's birthday.\n\n"When did you die?"\n\nThat date is ingrained in your memory. You recite it without hesitation.\n\n"How did you die?"\n\n"I was hit by a car."\n\nHe looks you over, up and down. He draws out the silence. At last he says: "You don't look it."\n\nYou smile wanly: "Thank you."\n\nHe shakes his head, evidently failing to believe you.\n\n[[{{{>}}} Keep arguing]]\n[[{{{>}}} Try something else|get past him]]

<<if visited("swim")>>The wound in your hand has completely stopped bleeding, and in fact looks extremely unhealthy. You don't want to mess with it again. Instead you take out your pocket knife again, and try to find a good place to cut yourself. The fingertips of your off-hand come to mind, but the entire hand looks off-color: better find something else.\n\nYou nick your upper arm. You have less adrenaline now, which means that it is actually quite difficult to go through with it. You keep chickening out and cutting too lightly. Finally, though, you manage to free a drop of blood: this time //without// horribly injuring yourself.<<else if visited("do something about that hand")>>You untie the handkerchief from your hand. Beneath it the wound still looks really nasty. Fresh blood is readily available.<<else>>Your hand is still dripping. Blood is one thing you really don't have to worry about.<<endif>>\n\nYou cut off a lock of your hair and dip the end in the blood to fashion some sort of compass or pendulum made up entirely of the DNA you share with your sister. This definitely seems like the sort of thing that should work.\n\n[[It had better.|It had better]]

There's no mistaking this place. You've never seen it before, but it looks hauntingly familiar.\n\nThen you realize //why// it looks familiar. You //have// seen this place before, after a fashion: you've played games, anyway, seen fictionalized depictions of the realm of the dead. Interpretations, really, and each of them a little different, but certain aspects of it have stayed more or less consistent throughout, and you see those aspects here as well.\n\nHuge cavernous surroundings which are, nonetheless, obviously underground: check. Bones (you can't tell if they're real or decorative, or whether that makes any difference in this place) so thick that the entire ground appears to be made up of them, yet still arranged in an artistic sort of way: check. Dim bluish teal-ish lighting: check. Glowy semitransparent green mushrooms: ...okay, you have to admit that you haven't seen those before, but here they are nonetheless.\n\nYou pick a few of those and take them with you, hoping as you do so that they aren't the souls of the dead or anything like that<<if visited("yew")>>. You put them with the yew-berries<<if not visited("hurry through") and not visited("do something about that hand")>>, which you've apparently managed to keep through the <<if visited("fall asleep")>>separation from<<else>>loss of<<endif>> your body<<endif>><<endif>>.\n\nWater, which looks either black or bloody – in this lighting, you honestly can't tell the difference – check. And there's the requisite boat with an ominous hooded ferryman. You probably have classical mythology to blame for this. Or, perhaps, classical mythology has this to blame for itself.\n\nOr, then again, maybe your perception of this realm is colored by your expectations. Thinking about it too much is making your head hurt.\n\nIn any case, it seems the thing to do now would be to [[approach the ferryman]].

"What did you try to tell me?" you ask. "I couldn't understand you – I didn't hear your last words – there was too much blood."\n\nShe laughs a bit, giddily. She sounds almost hysteric.\n\n"I told you to go on living. To be happy without me. But now..."\n\n<<if visited("You grow empty")>>Oops. That's... awkward.\n\n"I'm sorry," you say. You hug her again. "I'm sorry."\n\n"It doesn't matter now," she says. She laughs again. You know her too well: she's trying not to cry.\n\n"Come on," she says. "[[Let's go]]."<<else if visited("Your world explodes in light")>>"It's okay," you say. "Look, I know I'm dead and all, but it's totally okay. I made a portal – I kinda ripped the fabric of reality apart, so we can totally just go back. Both of us, if you want."\n\nShe looks at you like you've gone crazy. "You did //what//?!"\n\n"It's cool," you say. "Come on, let's go back."\n\n"No," she says. She pulls away. "I'm going to do things right."\n\nShe walks towards the membrane. You try to stop her, but she fights you off and runs into it and vanishes.\n\nYou've lost her. //[[You've lost her]].//<<else>>"I'm not dead," you say.\n\n"What?"\n\n"I'm not dead. <<if not visited("You grow empty") and not visited("Your world explodes in light")>>Look, I've got my body and everything.<<else>>I just left my body behind to come and see you.<<endif>>"\n\n"Oh," she says. She looks relieved. "Well, that's good then."\n\n"Yeah," you say. Suddenly you feel kind of awkward about this whole thing.\n\n"Go back, then," she says. "Live. Live a long and happy life, okay?"\n\n"I... okay. I'll try."\n\nYou hug her one last time, and turn back [[towards life]]. Behind you, your sister steps into the membrane and vanishes.<<endif>>

Yews ease the passage between worlds, right? You assume that these berries will get you past any of these ridiculous gatekeeping mechanisms.\n\nIndeed, the guard takes them happily enough. "She'll be on the bridge by now," he says. "Best hurry."\n\nThe massive door swings open, and you [[step through]].

<<if visited("{{{>}}} You will say goodbye")>>Seems a bit extreme just to say goodbye to her, doesn't it? Be reasonable: there's no sense in saying goodbye if you're //both// going to be dead.\n\nOr be honest, at least. If what you really want is to join her, [[admit it]].<<else if visited("{{{>}}} You will hear her last words")>>Who knows if her last words will even still apply when you're dead? If what you really want is to join her, just [[admit it]].\n\nThen again, perhaps finding some answers would be worth the [[sacrifice]]. The memory has haunted you too long.<<else>>It was you who should have been hit by that car, you who should have died, she who should have lived. Whatever it takes, you will make things right.\n\nYou would happily [[sacrifice]] your own life in exchange for your sister's.<<endif>>

When you come to yourself, you find yourself in [[the realm of the dead]].

Yews, you have learned, protect the boundary between life and death: this is why they are so commonly planted in graveyards. They do not close the door between worlds: indeed, they make it easier to pass between them; but they make that passage safer, so you have read.\n\nThis one hangs heavy with fruit, pale red <<if visited("{{{>}}} Yes")>>in the dim light of your candles<<else>>in theory but grayscale in practice. You can see no color in the blackness of this night<<endif>>. The sweet flesh is edible, but the seeds they encase are poison.\n\nYou pluck a handful of the berries and take them with you. They have enough occult significance that they're sure to be useful. Maybe they will ease [[your passage]], as well.

As you drift off to sleep, it suddenly occurs to you that you might have heard something once about sleeping pills causing dreamless unconsciousness. You start up an internal string of curses, albeit rather lethargic ones. If you came this far just to waste your one chance on a purposeless nap in a graveyard, you're going to have a breakdown in the morning.\n\nThen it occurs to you that dreamless sleep is probably closer to death anyway, and that's what you were going for, right? Right.\n\nReassured, you allow yourself to [[fall asleep]].

Rather than touching the tree, you seem to flow through it: the yew, itself, is a portal to [[the realm of the dead]].

The ferryman rows you across the – lake? river? – in silence. You sit quietly, watching little wisps of light bobbing over the waves. Occasionally you see a face floating in the water. You're really glad you didn't have to swim through this.\n\nSome time later, the ferryman deposits you on the opposite bank. The decor and atmosphere is much unchanged. There's [[a single path]] leading onwards through the carefully-arranged bones.

There aren't any large signs proclaiming a bridge's presence, but as you walk through the town you eventually see it towering in the distance.\n\nIt's huge. It's unmistakeable. There's no way you could miss it.\n\nYou break into a run. //You need to get there before the new moon rises.//\n\nYou wish you had a way to measure the time in here.\n\nBut the [[bridge]] is right ahead of you. You've made it. You're nearly finished. You've nearly found her.

You cannot bear life without your sister, and you cannot bear knowing that she gave hers up for you. You don't deserve this. //She// should be the one left alive, and this time you will be the one to save her.\n\nYou will bring your sister back to life, [[whatever the cost]].

When you come to yourself, you find yourself floating in a gruesome red mist. You would like to vomit, but no longer have the necessary mouth, throat, or stomach. You no longer have any body at all, in fact.\n\nYou realize that it was in fact your body which exploded. This does not make you any less nauseous.\n\nYou find yourself dead, bodiless, the victim of magicks that escaped your control. Your resolve to find your sister is undiminished, but you wonder if trying to do it //this// way wasn't, after all, a bit foolhardy.\n\nJust when you think that things can't get any worse, every particle of the gruesome red mist that was once your flesh begins to glow and spread and change color, turning into a portal to the realm of the dead. You were hoping to open a door big enough to pass through, but instead you've ripped a giant hole in the fabric of reality. That //can't// be good.\n\nStill, there's no sense in worrying about it now. The clock is always ticking, and you've got a twin to find. You pass through the rift into [[the realm of the dead]].

By doing this at all, you're already toying with forces beyond the comprehension of mortals. May as well go for broke.\n\n<<if visited("{{{>}}} Yes")>>You cast a second circle of ash, interweaving it with the first<<else>>You cast an elaborate circle on the ground in ash, surrounding your sister's grave<<endif>>. You add bits of bone and broken-off foliage from the yew. You begin to intone a chant you found in one of the more ancient books, rolling it off of your tongue in the most ponderous way you can manage. You don't understand the words as you speak them: the language is so old you can't even recognize it. You hope your pronunciation is good enough for this to work.\n\nIt is enough to make your blood bubble up with power, though. You can feel it sparking through your veins, eager to leap from you. You can //see// it sparking all around you: you're actually, quite literally, glowing.\n\nYou feel like a god.\n\nIt isn't enough, though. You need a catalyst. Your reading prepared you for this as well: you flip out a pocket knife and draw it rapidly across your hand. Adrenaline helps you cut deep and quick and hard. The blade flicks through the flesh of your hand, and you suddenly find yourself dripping [[quite a lot of blood]].

The ferryman wordlessly extends a hand, palm up.\n\nTwo gold coins. Right.\n\nYou don't //have// two gold coins. You don't even have two vaguely gold-ish coins. In fact, you don't have any coins at all. In anticipation of someone noticing you doing occult rituals at the cemetery at midnight and calling the police, you didn't bring your wallet: you assumed that being easily and correctly identified would probably complicate things.\n\nAs far as you know, the two-gold-coins thing is obsolete anyway. There certainly weren't any coins on your sister's eyes when she was buried, and yet //she// presumably came through. In fact, hundreds – thousands! – of dead people probably come through here //every day//, and none of them with any gold coins. There must be a less expensive way to [[get past him]].

The memory of your sister's choked voice, the desperation with which she tried to speak, the blood she spit out against your cheek, has haunted you for three weeks. Something was important enough that she braved the pain to tell you about it, and the guilt you feel for failing to understand it is immense.\n\nYou need to hear her last words, [[whatever the cost]].

You fish out two of the red berries you took from the yew in the cemetery and place them in the palm of his hand. These things have occult significance, right? You're sure //you// would accept them, if you were a mystical ferryman in the realm of the dead.\n\nThe ferryman gives them a cursory glance, then pockets them and [[waves you aboard]].

In the Shadow of the Yew

The bridge ends in a gate, but it's not one you can bluff or buy or force your way through. It is only for the dead.<<if visited("You grow empty") or visited("Your world explodes in light")>>\n\nWell, you are dead. You can pass through it. Maybe you can even find your sister there. But – if the things you've read can be trusted – she won't remember you. And neither of you will be able to return, of course, and in fact you'll probably both cease to exist.\n\nWell, you're dead. [[Nothing else for it]].<<else>>\n\nYou've lost her. You've failed. You won't ever be able to find her. <<if visited("{{{>}}} You will bring her back")>>She'll remain dead forever.<<else if visited("{{{>}}} You will hear her last words")>>You will never hear her last words.<<else>>You'll never see her again, never be able to say goodbye to her face.<<endif>>\n\nYou've failed.\n\n//You should have been faster.//<<endif>>

Well, it does seem to pull in one direction, slightly, though you can't be sure it's not just the way your hair curls. You follow that direction, as quickly as you are able.\n\nEventually you grow aware of an astoundingly huge [[bridge]] ahead of you. Hopefully, that's what you wanted to find.

[[Your world explodes in light.|Your world explodes in light]]

The cemetery has its own protections, chief among them the great [[yew]] that stands near your sister's grave; but you will be dealing with powerful forces here, and it pays to be cautious.\n\nYou came prepared for this. You draw an elaborate circle of protective wards on the ground in ash, surrounding your sister's grave. You place carefully-chosen crystals at carefully-chosen points in the circle. You whisper protective charms. You place one black candle at each corner of the circle and light them, with a certain amount of ritual ceremony. You hope the light won't attract any undue attention, but then again the point of all this was to prevent undue attention from interfering, so presumably that will take care of itself.\n\nYou make the yew a cornerstone of your circle. May as well incorporate the existing protections: your circle will be the stronger for it.\n\nYou suppose you're as ready for [[your passage]] as you'll ever be.

You haven't seen any glowy transparent green mushrooms on this side of the water. Maybe they only grow close to the border with life.\n\nYou offer them up to the guard, hoping that he doesn't leave his post very much. He accepts them eagerly.\n\n"She'll be on the bridge by now," he says. "Best hurry."\n\nThe massive door swings open, and you [[step through]].

You find yourself in a misty dreamworld: everything around you is unreal, pearly gray and transparent. You realize that you are floating.\n\nBeneath you lies a dark shape, curled up, prone. After a moment you realize that it is your own body, lying on your sister's grave. You can see her body as well, right through the earth between you, mirroring your posture: if you were three feet deeper and she three feet higher, you would be embracing her.\n\nShe is an empty shell, but then, so are you.\n\nThe headstones that seemed so solid by the light of insomnolence are nothing more than misty shadows now, but the cemetery is alive with other, realer shadows: ghosts, you realize. They are so thick that you wonder how you managed to get in here without tripping over at least twenty of them. Then you realize that you are one of them, now.\n\nYou do not see your sister among them.\n\nThe yew near <s>your</s> her grave is glowing gently. It doesn't cast light, as such, but it casts an aura of solidity. Almost without your realizing it, it [[draws you in]].

You must journey into the realm of the dead if you wish to find your sister. Your reading has uncovered several potential methods:<<if not visited("kill yourself")>>\n\n[[You could kill yourself.|kill yourself]] This is sure to succeed: there's no way you could fail to reach the realm of the dead. You'd journey through it as one of the dead yourself; the texts were unclear as to whether this would make it easier or harder, though. You'd pass unnoticed, but perhaps the living have some power there that the dead do not. And, of course, you'd never be able to return: you must know for yourself whether <<if visited("{{{>}}} You will bring her back")>>your sister's life<<else>>the closure you seek<<endif>> is worth that price.<<endif>>\n\n[[You could try to leave your body without dying.|project yourself]] If you could induce yourself to fall asleep, or fall unconscious, or enter a trance, you could enter the realm of the dead in dreams. You are in a cemetery, under the shadow of a yew: this should make it easier. You suspect you'd be able to find the realm of the dead with no trouble. But it would be risky: there's always a chance of being unable to return to your body, and there's always a chance of failing to reach the other side in the first place. It isn't //sure//. And you have only this one chance: with the new moon she will be beyond your reach.\n\n[[You could try to open a portal to the realm of the dead.|open portal]] This would be risky, extremely risky. You're not sure if you have that sort of power. You're not sure what //using// that sort of power would do to you. You are in a cemetery, under the shadow of a yew: that should make it easier, but tearing open a door between worlds, //ripping a hole into the fabric of reality//, seems like the sort of thing that might have some serious consequences. On the other hand, you'd be able to take your body with you. It might be worth it for that comfort alone.

You threaten the ominous figure with physical violence<<if visited("do something about that hand") or visited("hurry through")>>. You have a body, after all: that's got to come in handy sometime, after everything you went through to get here<<endif>>.\n\nHe has the audacity to laugh in your face. The window in the door slams shut.\n\nYou knock again, violently, for quite some time. It doesn't open again.\n\n<<if visited("do something about that hand") or visited("hurry through")>>Better put that body of yours to [[better use]].<<else>>You're [[trapped on this side]], apparently forever. You can only hope you'll be allowed through once you die.<<endif>>

<<if visited("Your world explodes in light")>>The other side of the door is filled with ghosts, and they press forwards as soon as the door opens. Ghostly voices fill the air: "Freedom! Freedom, at last!"\n\nYou realize that they smell the rift you tore into the world. They've overpowered the gatekeeper and are flooding out to return to the realm of the living.\n\nYou sure hope that's not going to be a problem.\n\n<<endif>>You find yourself in a ghost town with twisty leafless trees and twisty cobbled streets and twisty pointed roofs. It's a ghost town in that everything is greenish-blue and transparent and glowing, but also in that it is empty<<if visited("Your world explodes in light")>>. Now, anyway<<endif>>.\n\nPart of you wants to look around, but you //really// can't waste time<<if visitedTag("time") > 1>>. You've wasted more than enough time already<<endif>>. You need to [[find the bridge]], as quickly as you can.

No time to waste. You grit your teeth against the pulsing pain in your hand and step through the portal on your sister's grave, into [[the realm of the dead]].

You allow yourself to pass through the membrane.\n\nEverything that is you about yourself is unmade. You dissolve. You end.\n\nYou failed. //You should have been faster.//

<<if visited("yew")>>You could try to poison yourself with the yew berries you plucked, but you're not sure how quickly they work, and you're constantly aware of the pressure of time. You<<else>>You<<endif>> could try to cut yourself badly enough that you bleed out, but frankly you're kind of squeamish: you don't think you have it in you.\n\nYou came prepared for this, though. Bottle of high-dosage painkillers: check.\n\nYou had to jump through a few hoops to get those. There's a definite chance that your behavior and demeanor in the past three weeks has raised serious alarm bells among your friends and surviving family: you suppose it's lucky that you managed to get here tonight, rather than having landed in a hospital somewhere.\n\nWhatever they might say, it's not like you're suicidal. You're just driven. You have a //purpose// here.<<if visited("{{{>}}} You will bring her back")>>\n\nWhen they find your sister alive again tomorrow morning, they won't dare to call you crazy.<<endif>>\n\nYou down the painkillers, repress the urge to vomit, and lie down on your sister's grave to [[wait]].

"I came to bring you back," you say. "You deserve to be alive. You – you shouldn't have saved me."\n\nShe looks at you like you've gone crazy. Suddenly she jerks away from you: "I'm not going to let you do this. This is wrong."\n\n"I can't live without you," you say. "Please. Come on."\n\n"No," she says. "The dead are supposed to stay dead. I'm not going to let you – "\n\nYou swell with helpless rage and despair, and maybe she sees something of it in your eyes, because she suddenly whirls around and runs for the membrane. You lunge for her, but you're too slow. She runs into it and vanishes.\n\nYou've lost her. //[[You've lost her]].//

You have a body. A body with a <<if visited("swim")>>dead<<else>>wounded<<endif>> hand, to be sure, but all the same – a body. You have physical strength, and you are going to use it.\n\nThe door may be huge, but it doesn't go all the way up to the cavern's ceiling. The bone motif will give you plenty of hand- and footholds. You can't give up now: you are going to [[climb it]], even if you have to do so one-handed.

You take out your glowy transparent green mushrooms and attempt to place them in his hand.\n\nHe removes his hand before you can. The gesture looks irritated. You suppose mushrooms aren't acceptable currency: probably because they're readily available here.\n\nBetter [[try something else|get past him]].

You yell out her name, and she turns to face you. It's like looking in a mirror, except that she is mutilated from the accident. Her face fills with sudden horror as she sees you, but you have no time for that: you fall into her arms, hug her tightly. It's almost been worth it just for this moment.\n\nBeyond her is a pulsing membrane, a gate that only the dead can cross. Beyond it lies oblivion.\n\n"What are you doing here?" she asks. You realize that she's worried for you – she thinks you're dead<<if visited("You grow empty") or visited("Your world explodes in light")>>. Well, you are, but you have a reason<<endif>>.\n\n<<if visited("{{{>}}} You will bring her back")>>You [[tell her|bring her back]].<<else if visited("{{{>}}} You will hear her last words")>>You [[tell her|last words]].<<else>>You [[tell her|goodbye]].<<endif>>

<<if visited() > 4>><<if visitedTag("time") < 8>>At last, you see [[your sister]] ahead of you.<<else>>You can see [[the end of the bridge]] ahead of you.<<endif>><<else if visited() > 3>><<if visitedTag("time") < 6>>You can see [[your sister]] ahead of you.<<else>>Why haven't you seen her yet?\n\nYou can't help wondering if the new moon has risen already. Maybe you've already failed.\n\nYou [[keep walking|bridge]].<<endif>><<else if visited() > 2>><<if visitedTag("time") < 4>>You can see [[your sister]] ahead of you.<<else>>You should have been quicker. You shouldn't have wasted so much time.\n\nYou [[keep walking|bridge]].<<endif>><<else if visited() > 1>><<if visitedTag("time") < 2>>You can see [[your sister]] ahead of you.<<else>>You can't see where the bridge ends.\n\nYou [[keep walking|bridge]].<<endif>><<else>><<if visitedTag("time") is 0>>You can see [[your sister]] ahead of you.<<else>>The bridge stretches endlessly into the distance. It is empty as far as you can see.\n\nYou [[keep walking|bridge]].<<endif>><<endif>>

You certainly don't have the time to just curl up on your twin's grave and hope you'll fall asleep with enough time until morning, particularly since you've never been great at sleeping under pressure.\n\nBut you came prepared for this. Bottle of sleeping pills: check.\n\nYou didn't even have to do anything difficult to get these. They were your sister's: she always had trouble getting to sleep. No one noticed when you quietly let them disappear into your possession.\n\nYou take double the recommended dose: you don't want to waste time, and you absolutely don't want to risk waking up too early. You figure this probably isn't enough of an overdose to actually kill you. Right?\n\nYou lie down on your sister's <<if visited("{{{>}}} Yes")>>grave, in the center of the protective circle,<<else>>grave<<endif>> to [[await sleep]].

It takes longer than you'd hoped it would. You're a bit worried about the time, but that – like everything else – doesn't seem to matter as much anymore after a while.\n\nYou grow tired. You fall asleep.\n\nYou grow cold.\n\n[[You grow empty.|You grow empty]]

You have no idea where to start. You find yourself in a ghost town: both in that everything is green-blue and glowy and transparent, and in that there is no one here. Your fancy body, which you took with you with such great difficulty, isn't going to help you now.\n\nOr is it?\n\nYou're twins, after all. You know absolutely nothing about the occult except what you've learned in the past three weeks – all of which was related to gaining entrance to the realm of the dead – but you share the same blood, right? And blood can be used to find people – right? Like... spiritual magnetism, or something.\n\nIt's [[worth a try]], anyway.

A small window opens in the huge door, and an ominous hooded figure looks out at you.<<if visited("Your world explodes in light") or visited("You grow empty")>>\n\n"Dead, are you?"\n\nYou suppose there's no point in denying it. Dead people are allowed in here, after all.\n\nStill, you're here for a reason. You tell the ominous figure that you're looking for your sister, who died three weeks ago.\n\n"She'll be on the bridge by now," says the figure. "Best hurry."\n\nThe massive door swings open, and you [[step through]].<<else>>\n\n"Here, now," says the figure. "You aren't dead, are you?"\n\nYou consider lying, but decide that there would be no point. Your cover is obviously blown.\n\n"I'm looking for my sister," you say. "She must have come through here three weeks ago."\n\n"Ah? [[Why?]]"<<endif>>

Part of you is still exulting in the feeling of power, but another part is struck with sudden panic. Blood isn't just welling up: it's running out of your hand at an alarming rate. Despite the focus demanded by the ritual, in the back of your mind you find yourself thinking about bandages. A wound this large needs tending.\n\nBut that doesn't matter now. You fight to keep your focus. You don't allow yourself to stop chanting.\n\nBlood falls off of your hand in several large drops, and as it hits your sister's grave it starts glowing, pools together, widens, changes color – you can see night beyond it, something that is not the cemetery.<<if visited("{{{>}}} Yes")>>\n\nThe power passes out of you. You flop down beside the rift, suddenly exhausted, and barely remember to keep your heavily bleeding hand out of the dirt.\n\nMaybe you should [[do something about that hand]] before you try to pass through. You may be in a hurry, but you're a bit worried about carrying an open wound through the realm of the dead.\n\nOn the other hand, the clock is always ticking. Setting up protections took long enough; you don't want to waste more time. Maybe you should [[hurry through]] after all.<<else>>\n\nThe spell is finished – but the power isn't leaving you. If anything, it is growing stronger.\n\nYour voice keeps chanting, although you've run out of words. You have no idea what is passing through your mouth anymore. Your blood is glowing white-hot as it spills out of your hand, and your skin feels like it is burning.\n\nSmoke pours out of your throat. [[You realize that you are screaming]].<<endif>>

Your hand is bleeding heavily. You should probably avoid using it until you can get to a doctor – you resolve to get stitches in the morning, after you've <<if visited("{{{>}}} You will bring her back")>>saved<<else if visited("{{{>}}} You will say goodbye")>>said goodbye to<<else>>spoken to<<endif>> your sister – but for now you just need to stop the bleeding.\n\nYou brought a lot of occult paraphernalia to the cemetery tonight, but you did //not// think to bring anything sterile. You hope it won't matter too much as long as you can get professional medical attention in the morning. You don't have much choice, in any case: the only spare bit of cloth you have is your handkerchief, which may be thin and fairly small but is, at least, clean.\n\nYou tie it awkwardly around your hand. You suppose it's lucky that it was your off-hand you cut, but tying knots one-handed is never easy. The blood soaks through almost at once.\n\nYou apply pressure: at least the handkerchief spares you having to touch the wound directly.\n\nBlood drips. Pain pulses through your hand, in time with your heartbeat. You keep applying pressure.\n\nYou find yourself glancing impatiently up at the sky. You never learned to tell time by the stars, so it doesn't really help, but you're growing nervous. Your sister will be gone when the new moon rises. You really don't want to spend more than a few minutes applying pressure to this terrible makeshift dressing.\n\nYou can't tell if the wound is still bleeding. The handkerchief is so soaked with blood that it would be red and dripping in any case.\n\nYou're getting impatient, though. Finally you decide to just call it good. At least the delay offered you a chance to rest a bit; now you hurry through the rift as quickly as you can, into [[the realm of the dead]].

The cemetery has its own protections, chief among them the great [[yew]] that stands near your sister's grave. You will trust to them: you have no time to waste. You should be preparing for [[your passage]] now.

<<if visited("{{{>}}} You will say goodbye")>>"I just want to say goodbye to her," you say. "Properly, I mean."\n\n"She'll be on the bridge by now," says the figure. "Best hurry."\n\nThe massive door swings open, and you [[step through]].<<else if visited("{{{>}}} You will hear her last words")>>"I never heard her last words," you say. Your voice chokes a bit; you cough to clear it. "Her – there was too much blood. She couldn't talk."\n\n"She'll be on the bridge by now," says the figure. "Best hurry."\n\nThe massive door swings open, and you [[step through]].<<else>>You square your shoulders, thrust your chin forwards, allow all your resolve to burn in your eyes. "I will bring her back," you say.\n\n"That will not be easy," says the hooded figure.\n\n"I //will// do it."\n\n"People have tried to cheat death before. They have failed."\n\n"I'll find a way." You don't know how, you don't even know what you're getting into – all your research never went beyond getting into the realm of the dead in the first place – but you're determined.\n\n"There are rules," says the figure. "If you break them, I won't let you back this way again."\n\n"Listen," you say, "I'm in a bit of a hurry. Will you let me in or won't you?"\n\nThe hooded figure musters you dubiously.\n\n"What'll you give me if I do?" he asks at last.\n\n<<if visited("yew")>>[[{{{>}}} Yew-berries]]\n<<endif>>[[{{{>}}} Glowy mushrooms]]\n[[{{{>}}} Nothing, but I'll punch you if you don't]]<<endif>>

People have always said that you and your twin sister looked alike. She must have come past here: you can probably bluff your way in on the same ticket.\n\nYou've done this before. Sneaking into movies, getting into amusement parks for the price of one... there's no reason it shouldn't work here.\n\n"I already paid," you say. "I paid like //three weeks// ago. Come on, you remember me."\n\nThe ferryman musters you, unconvinced.\n\n"Come //onnnnn//," you say. "I was told I only had to pay once. Free passage afterwards, that's what I heard. //Free passage.// Does this look like free passage to you?"\n\n"I did not take you back this way," the hooded face intones.\n\n"I swam the other direction. Okay?"\n\n"You can swim again."\n\n"I don't have all day." You start to push your way onto the boat, but the ferryman [[blocks your way with his oar]].

The night is cold, despite the season. There is fog rising. You shiver, and tell yourself it is because of the cold.\n\nBut you don't have time for dilly-dallying. The new moon will rise in a few short hours, and by <<if visited("{{{>}}} You will bring her back")>>then your sister must be alive again<<else>>then, if you haven't yet spoken to her, you never will<<endif>>.\n\nThe texts you read spoke of setting up protections. You don't want <<if visited("{{{>}}} You will bring her back")>>something other than your sister<<else>>something<<endif>> to come through from the realm of the dead, and you don't want anything to disturb the site of of the ritual while you are gone. Still, doing so will take up precious time.\n\nIs it worth it?\n\n[[{{{>}}} Yes]]\n[[{{{>}}} No]]

"Look," you say, "I'm sorry, but I'm in a hurry. You can do a DNA test or something, can't you?"\n\n"You will pay, or you will swim," says the ferryman.\n\n"Haven't you heard Chris de Burgh?"\n\nHe doesn't respond. Evidently there are no MP3 players in the afterlife<<if visited("You grow empty")>>. That comes as a bit of a disappointment, since you're going to be stuck here for an eternity<<else if visited("Your world explodes in light")>>. Maybe tearing open a rift between worlds wasn't such a bad thing<<endif>>.\n\n"I'm not going to pay //twice//," you insist. "That's just not fair."\n\n"Then you will swim."\n\n"But I've already paid!"\n\nThe longer you argue, the more righteous you feel about it. You're beginning to believe your assumed story yourself, and are //determined// that the ferryman will not see any payment from you. Not that you have any coins on you in the first place, but that's totally beside the point.\n\n"So you say," says the ferryman.\n\n"I can prove it!" you say desperately. "Ask me anything!"\n\nThe ferryman gives you a long, measuring look. You tap your feet impatiently, ever aware of the ticking clock. You wonder how much time you've already wasted with this.\n\n"What were your last words?" he asks.\n\nYou open your mouth, ready to bluff – then stop. You don't know.\n\nApparently the look of shame in your eyes reveals everything. The ferryman vanishes with his boat before you can regain enough composure to respond.\n\nLooks like you're going to have to [[swim]].

You have spent the past three weeks preparing for this day, searching feverishly in whatever occult books or websites you could find. You could have done with more time – you're still unsure of yourself – but you have none. Whatever you seek to do here, it must be done before the new moon rises.\n\nThat will be sometime around dawn. You have only a few hours.\n\nIt is midnight now, and the cemetery is deserted. Her grave looks barren without a headstone. The sight of it fills you with emptiness, but you have your hope. You will see your sister again.\n\nYou will enter the realm of the dead, and you will find her spirit.\n\n[[{{{>}}} You will say goodbye]]\n[[{{{>}}} You will hear her last words]]\n[[{{{>}}} You will bring her back]]

"I... I just wanted to see you again," you say. "To say goodbye."\n\n"But..." she looks at you. "Are you dead?"\n\n<<if visited("Your world explodes in light")>>"...Yeah," you admit. "I messed up. I tried to make a portal, to come here, to find you... but I messed up, and it kinda killed me." You run a hand ruefully through your hair: "Sorry. I guess I can't really say goodbye now."\n\nShe laughs, but she's also crying. She hugs you again, tighter, and says: "It's okay. We can go beyond together now."\n\nYou nod, step back, and take your twin's hand. "[[Let's go]]," you say.<<else>>You shake your head. "I'm not dead. I'm just... I came here to see you."\n\nShe sighs in relief. "I'm glad."\n\n"//I'm// glad I got here in time," you say. You hug her again, tighter. "I don't really want to let you go."\n\n"You have to."\n\n"I know."\n\nOne last hug: "Thanks for saving me. I love you, sis."\n\n"Love you too. Live a long and happy life without me, okay?"\n\n"I'll do my best." You take a long shuddering breath and finally let her go. "Goodbye."\n\n"Bye."\n\nYour sister gives you one last wave, steps into the membrane, and vanishes. You wipe the tears from your eyes and turn back [[towards life]].<<endif>>

Hand in hand, you step into the membrane. Hand in hand, you vanish. Hand in hand, you dissolve into nothingness.\n\nHand in hand, you end.

by [[G. Deyke|http://gdeyke.deviantart.com/]]