Sugarcane

There is a child. It is playing in a sparsley furnished apartment living room. The front door is open to let the building's heating come in from the hall. To the left there is a kitchen, and to the right there is a hallway.\n\nWhat should the child do?\n\n[[play]]\n[[run out the front door]]

<html>\n<img src="http://i.imgur.com/FJt7Abz.jpg">\n</html>\nThe child does not press the down arrow.\nThe child has been deathly afraid of elevators ever since it got off one and its mother did not get off in time. It had to watch its mother be swallowed back up by the elevator and dragged into the depths of the building.\n\nElevators are dangerous.\n\n[[push it anyways]]\n[[return to the apartment]]

The child skrieks, slamming its eyes shut and curling up into a ball. It [[waits]] for its impending doom.

The child has escaped danger. The dark devoured the dark, and when the child opened it eyes again to the light, he was nowhere to be seen.\n\nThe child will not ever forget the man made from shadows, nor will he. There will be times the child awakes at night to see him lingering in a doorway, approaching slowly. The child will blink and send him away. The child will flee that place. He will find her again. \n\nThe child will always be on the run from the shadows.\n\nEND.\n\n

The child returns to the apartment. No one had noticed the child leaving or returning. The child does feel as thought it has missed something important. The air of the room now feels heavy, dark, and buzzing. It is almost as though everything in the apartment was stolen and replaced with the exact same furniture, including the air. Its threatening and dark.\n\nThe room buzzes. The feeling of dread will never leave the child.\n\nEND.

Nothing appears to be happening. The room doesn't seem to be vibrating anymore, nor does the silent buzzing seem to be present any longer.\n\n[[open eyes slowly]]

<html>\n<img src="http://i.imgur.com/eKHQXGn.jpg">\n</html>\nThe child ignores the buzzing. The room starts to fall into a pitch darkness. The child is starting to feel like maybe it should have looked--or maybe left the apartment before the buzzing started.\n\n[[DON'T LOOK]]\n[[turn around]]

The child continues to stare at the wall, shaking violently--or is the child vibrating now? It's incredibly hard to see as the light is sapped completely out of the room.\n\nMaybe you made the wrong choice. Maybe you should have let the child look around. Who are you to dictate the actions of a small child you do not even know the name or the sex of. Who the hell are you to have [[doomed]] this child?

<html>\n<img src="http://i.imgur.com/eKHQXGn.jpg">\n</html>\nTime passes. It is impossible to know how much, in this dreadful shadow world that has eaten the apartment. All that can be done is to wait in [[terror |doomed]]

no.\n\n[[return to the apartment]]

The child turns.\n\nEverything stills, the room is suddenly too bright and too still. Stepping out of the hallway is a shadow. He has no mass or true presence in the room. It is almost like a shadow had stepped off the wall—-a flat, black, and lightless thing slowly making its way toward the child.\n\nA monster. It seems to buzz silently, his darkness shifting like static on a television screen. The child hears him buzz despite the fact the room is silent. He is like a tear between dimensions, a human shaped portal to some dark unknown world. An illustration of a man come to not-life.\n\nthe child is frozen in [[terror]]

The shadow creature steps closer.\n\nThe child remains [[frozen]] in terror.\n

Shadows

The child, deciding it has had enough of this stupid babysitting for one day, toddles out the front door and down the hall.\n\nThere are two elevators ahead.\n\n[[press down arrow]]

The child plays make-believe with its imaginary friend. They have tea and violently fight off the approaching hoards of demons from under the tv.\n\nBut oh no! The evil bread crust demon approaches!\n\n[[vanquish him with an ice cream freeze ray |freeze ray]]

The child stares intently at the wall. The buzzing intensifies and the room slowly grows darker.\n\n[[turn around]]\n[[mind meld with the wall]]\n[[ignore it]]

<html>\n<img src="http://i.imgur.com/BGnvOMu.jpg">\n</html>\nThe apartment lacks terror or dread. Nothing is out of place. The couch cushions still do not have enough stuffing in them. The babysitter still is cooking in the kitchen. The TV station is still blasting CNN stock news.\n\nThere is no [[monster]].

All of a sudden the light is back. The vibrating has stopped. The buzzing sound is gone. \n\nThe child is gone.\n\nEND.

The child kills the breadcrust demon and all the other demons with an ice cream freeze ray from its eyes.\n\n[[what about THAT demon?]]

The child has not yet learned the skill mind meld.\n\n[[turn around]]\n[[ignore it]]

There is nothing to do but [[wait |waiting]].\n<html>\n<img src="http://i.imgur.com/B57sOTh.jpg">\n</html>

The shadow is now inches away, reaching out to grasp the frozen child.\n\n[[squeeze eyes shut to block out the terror |eyes]]\n[[scramble backwards, making sure it remains visibile |open eyes]]

The child is confused. It destroyed all the demons it can see. There is, however, a slight buzzing in the corner of its eyes. In fact, now that the child is paying attention, the whole room seems to be vibrating.\n\n[[turn around]]\n[[don't acknowledge it]]

[[no |start 2]]

<html>\n<img src="http://i.imgur.com/laVlqLU.jpg">\n</html>\nThe creature suddenly lunges foreward and envelopes the whole room in darkness. The silent buzzing becomes loud and intense. Everything feels like it is shaking violently.\n\nIt is impossible to see anything, much less hear or think clearly. There is only an intense feeling of [[dread |wait]].

Alexandra Glenn-Collins