Halloween 2018 IF

  • Halloween 2018 IF,  Interactive Fiction

    Halloween I.F – “Crafting Love” – Day 8

    [Please read the instructions before jumping in!]

    “You know what,” Jay said, “I honestly am pretty hungry. If it’s no trouble, I’d love to come in.”

    Mask or not, Louis was clearly being polite, and Jay could do the same. Besides, if he wanted to get to know the neighbors, it’d be better to spend a little time getting to know each one rather than running around, just barely making introductions. Even if the other neighbors went out, he could talk to them later today, or tomorrow—or whenever, really. He was going to be here a while, after all.

    As for inviting the guy over right away… yeah, naw. Not until he got to know him better, at least. He did seem nice—maybe they’d hit it off. And if they did, who knew if, later on, he’d want to invite Louis over anyway.

  • Halloween 2018 IF,  Interactive Fiction

    Halloween I.F – “Crafting Love” – Day 7

    [Please read the instructions before jumping in!]

    Huh, Jay thought blankly. Guess I found the woods guy.

    Under normal circumstances, meeting a man in a mask who had crept around outside his house as night fell would absolutely be cause for panic. But the absurdity of the entire situation—sunlight, flannel, tight jeans and all—made it almost impossible to panic.

    “…Good morning,” he said. He held out a hand. “I’m your new neighbor, Jay Park.”

  • Halloween 2018 IF,  Interactive Fiction

    Halloween I.F – “Crafting Love” – Day 6

    [Please read the instructions before jumping in!]

    Slowly, carefully, Jay folded the strange message and tucked it in the key-holder next to the door. No matter how much it had to be a coincidence with his dream, clearly ‘signs’ were important in some way, or the note wouldn’t have been left for him.

    Maybe it had to do with what Camden had said about town politics; it might be a code word around here. Perhaps the factions were color-coded in some way? Certainly, the local issues had been on his mind last night—that, along with reading the book, had obviously influenced his dreams, both shaping them and giving him reason to recall them more clearly than usual.

    Had Camden mentioned anything about signs? He didn’t think so, but he couldn’t be entirely sure. Or maybe he’d seen something in the bedroom when he was moving Aunt Grace’s stuff around so he could sleep—either a sign, or the word sign might have been among her things. Perhaps it was a simple, harmless issue, an item someone had loaned Aunt Grace and never got back. It was capitalized; maybe it was the title of a movie or a book. Just a normal Have you found the book I loaned her, but more intimidating when taken out of context.

    Maybe.

  • Halloween 2018 IF,  Interactive Fiction

    Halloween I.F – “Crafting Love” – Day 5

    [Please read the instructions before jumping in!]

    Jay drew a deep breath and tried to chill the fuck out.

    It was only natural to be wired. Everything had changed around him. He’d lost his job, moved away from his family, and had left a big, fairly diverse city in favor of a free home in the middle of Whitesville, Nowhereland. On top of that, his aunt’s disappearance from here had him on edge—why else would he be overreacting so much to the normal curiosity of the neighbors?

    He got out of bed, heading down the darkened hallway to the office again, and browsed briefly for a book to take back to bed with him. He didn’t plan to read much—no point in getting himself woken up even more—but a little bit would help distract his spiraling thoughts.

    Listlessly, he cast his gaze over the bookcases, but found himself instead drawn to the pile of books he’d made on the desk. In the dim light from the moon outside, he read I had the Library Dream again in Grace’s handwriting, and shifted The King in Yellow to the side to pick up the slim, leather-bound volume immediately beneath it.

  • Halloween 2018 IF,  Interactive Fiction

    Halloween I.F – “Crafting Love” – Day 4

    [Please read the instructions before jumping in!]

    Jay stared at the stranger’s back until it vanished between the trees, unwilling to move until he was sure they were gone. If he’d left right away, he might have been able to catch up to them—but he was pretty sure that he didn’t want to do that.

    Maybe whoever it was was just a curious gawker. Maybe they hadn’t been wearing a mask—now that he was no longer looking, he wasn’t sure that it hadn’t just been a pale face with very little expression. Still, if it was just a neighbor who’d come by out of curiosity, he could meet them tomorrow in broad daylight. Whoever it was, he did not want to meet them in the woods at night.

    What if the person hadn’t left? What if they’d only pretended to leave, to try to get in later?