You make your way back down the path you took to get here and make your way to a [[cemetery]] not too far from home.
Pathways
<<set $room to either("your old","the master")>>\n<<set $deceased to either("father","son")>>\s\nYou walk up a dusty staircase and into <<print $room>> bedroom. \n\nMemories come rushing back.\n<<if $room is "your old">>\s\nYou remember the times you used to hide under the four-post bed and surprise your parents and friends, and the times when your mother and father used to read to you at night as a child. You remember your brother, Seth, and the times you'd get into mischief around the house. \n<<else if $room is "the master">>\s\nYou remember how you were born into a lower-class family that had to struggle just to put food on the table. You remember how your father toiled endlessly at job after job and insisted that you get a quality education. You remember your parents' beaming smiles at your med school graduation, and your rise to fame as a surgeon.\n<<endif>>\s\nBut above all, you remember [[her|Gloria]].\n\n\n\n\n\n
You slowly walk among the graveyard looking at the ornate tombstones erected at each of the graves. Flowers old and new sit at the foot of most graves.\n\nYou stop in front of a pair of immaculate white marble tombstones.\n\n<<if visited("mansion")>>\s\nThe epitaph on the left reads, "Franklin Alcott, Jr., <<if $room is "your own">> "1991-2014."<<else if $room is "the master">>"1935-1966."<<endif>>\s\nThe other stone reads, <<if $room is "your old">> "Gloria D'bellatros, 1992-2014."<<else if $room is "the master">> "Angela D'bellatros, 1937-1966."<<endif>>\s\n\n\nAs you said, it's been a while since you'd last made it home.\n\n"Welcome home," a familiar voice says. You turn around to find a woman standing right behind you smiling the beautiful smile that made you spellbound so many years before.\n\n<<if $room is "your own">>\s\n"It's good to be home, Glor," you say as you pull her close to you. "So damned good to be home."\n\n<<else if $room is "the master">>\s\n"Glad to see you again, Jelly Bean," you say for the first time in decades.\n<<endif>>\s\n"Sorry I'm late.\n\n__//@@font-weight:bold;FIN@@//__\n\n<<else>>\s\nYou walk along a row of graves, looking at the ornate gravestones. It takes you a few minutes to find the two you're [[looking for]]. \n<<endif>>\n\n\n\n
Two arrows point to the two paths. One is labeled [[Past|1]], the other [[Present|1]].\n\n
It's raining, and the sky is an ominous gray. As you walk along the dilapadated walkway, you absent-mindedly step in one puddle after another, splashing mud and water over your expensive trousers.\n\nYou stop for a second and look around. It's been a while since you were last here; the cracks in the pavement and condition of the groundskeeper's quarters make that quite evident. \n\nA pang of guilt strikes your heart. Maybe if you'd-\n\n//No//, you tell yourself, //I can't keep worrying about what-ifs. What's happened happened. No fixing that.//\n\nYou continue walking until you reach your [[destination|either("mansion","cemetery")]].
You walk down a [[path]] covered by a dense and ominous fog.
This hypertext is an experiment in which I used conditional logic and variables to create a story that is different each time it is read. It's not particularly "interactive," but it is still a cybertext under Aarseth's definition because of its reconfigurable nature.
Tom Klne
The house is a shadow of its former self. Boarded up doors and moss-laden walls conceal the house's former beauty. The fountain you used to stare at in wonderment as a child is now little more than an eyesore of worn-down concrete. \n\nWhere once this house was glorious, it is now pathetic.\n\nYou walk up to the front door with the key the gateskeeper gave you and walk [[inside]].
You come to a fork in the road and a cryptic-looking [[sign]].
//You were out on a date together that night at a fancy Italian restaurant. After dinner, you planned to visit the hill overlooking the city (where you had your first kiss) <<if visited("mansion")>>in order to propose.<<else if visited("cemetery")>> to stargaze (among other things).<<endif>>\s\n\n<<if visited("mansion")>>\nJust as you were about to propose <<else if visited("cemetery")>> Five minutes after arriving on the hill<<endif>>, a car pulled up and a cold-eyed man stepped out with a Desert Eagle in hand.\n\nTo this day you still can't remember if there were two or three shots fired.//\n\nShuddering, you turn to [[leave]] the room and the house.\n
<<if $room is "your old">>\s\nGloria was your childhood friend, the daughter of a wealthy businessman and his novelist wife. You met at a dinner party your parents threw when you were four years old, and later when you went to prep school When you were young, people loved to tease you about having found a little girlfriend. \n\nYou realize what a self-fulfilling prophecy that was.\n<<else if $room is "the master">>\s\nYou met Angela on the way to class one day. You were both running late, you for human anatomy, she for history of ethics, and knocked each other over like they do in the movies. You saw the Sartre in her bag and was entranced.\n\nYou never did make it to class that day, much to your professors' annoyance.\n<<endif>>\s\nYou remember the first night you spent together in this room, her slender figure stradling yours, hands clasped as you both melted into ecstacy. You can practically feel her soft caress once more.\n\nYour thoughts shifted to the last time you saw her before the [[tragedy]].
<<set $deceased to either("father","son")>>\nThe stones' epitaphs read <<if $deceased is "father">> "Franklin Alcott Sr., 1954-2011" and "Angela Alcott, 1956-2011." <<else if $deceased is "son">> "Franklin Alcott, Jr., 1991-2014" and "Gloria D'bellatros, 1992-2014."<<endif>>\n\n<<if $deceased is "father">>\s\n"I've come to visit you, Mom and Dad," you say softly. "I miss you both so much."\n<<else if $deceased is "son">>\s\n"Hey, son, it's been a while," you whisper. "I miss you so much."\n<<endif>>\s\nYou wipe away a tear as you turn and leave the [[cemetery|mansion]]\n\n