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It would be terribly stupid to ignore their brother’s unasked-for reminder to unpack the frozen goods first, Fern reminded themself regretfully. They’d never hear the end of it if Adrian had to come all the way back out here just to deliver them more groceries, even if it was a little tempting to make him jump to their will.

They grabbed the heavy cloth grocery bags, doing their utmost to carry all three in one trip. The front hall gave way to stairs up on the right, a hallway forward to the kitchen, and some kind of sitting room to the left.

The kitchen was fairly roomy, with a table in one open half that had three chairs around it—for a one-bedroom place?—and generous cabinets. The fridge and freezer were clean on the inside except for a single box of baking soda to keep it fresh, and was lit up and humming. 

They unloaded the groceries quickly, perfunctorily, starting with the frozen goods as instructed; they more or less shoved in the refrigerated goods in a rough order to make things easier to find later. Meats on the middle left, cheese on the right, veggies on the bottom. 

There was no dedicated pantry, but opening the cupboards revealed that one of them had plates and cups, another had a few appliances that were kept there to not overcrowd the counter—a toaster, a kettle, a small food chopper and, oddly, a small portable radio that might offer some entertainment at some point—and the third double-cupboard had clearly been used as a pantry before. This last was mostly cleared out, but had a couple boxes of tea in it, along with a sealed box of off-brand cereal, and an opened bag of flour that Fern wasn’t sure if they trusted.

They threw the rest of their groceries into that cupboard with the ones that had been left for them and shut the doors before anything could fall out. Survival prep: complete.

On their way back through the hallway, they noticed that the side of the stairs up had a door in it; storage, maybe—or the fuse box, perhaps, something worth keeping in mind in case there were any problems later. The risk of spiders kept Fern from checking immediately; besides, they were on a roll with unpacking things.

Since there weren’t any on this floor, they had to assume the bedroom was upstairs, so shrugged their backpack back on, then grabbed their suitcase and began dragging it up, trying to keep the wheels from hitting the wood stairs too hard. 

Fern’s curiosity about the size of the place immediately paid off. There were three doors on the second floor, two of which were open—a bathroom and the master bedroom where Fern was to sleep—and the third of which was firmly closed and presumably locked, with a printer-paper sign taped to the outside reading “OWNER’S STORAGE, NOT FOR RENTERS USE.”

Fair enough, they supposed, though they were terribly curious. There didn’t seem to be any cameras set up in the hall, either… 

No, they were unpacking right now, they reminded themselves, and they had only received the front door key, even if this lock looked plenty old and jimmy-able. 

They headed into the master bedroom—a big room with a large bed against one wall, a nice writing desk to one side with a closet next to it, and a TV on a dresser on the wall facing the bed. They pulled out their bag of toiletries, their laptop, and chargers, and then decided they’d unpacked enough. Clothes could move into the dresser or closet later, if at all.

The bed turned out to be comfortable enough when they laid on it, but despite their Olympics-level ability to sleep anytime and anywhere, they weren’t in the mood to sleep. Instead, they stared up at the ceiling, listening to the unfamiliar sounds of the woods for a few long moments and feeling themselves coming perilously close to thinking about their problems before instead grabbing their phone and being immediately reminded that there was no internet access.

They sent a brief text to Trev to say they were here safely, and saw it go gray as it tried to send. Only time would tell if it got through. 

Fern swung their legs back off the side of the bed. Maybe it was time to look at some of these rooms in more detail, they decided, really do a deep exploration of where they were likely to be staying. They’d seen a lot of rooms in passing on their way through that they could return to—and the grounds outside too, of course. Any of them would be a fine starting place.

But where to start?

[Comment below with a suggestion for Fern]

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The cabin was an hour away from the nearest town. This would have been inconvenient if Fern could drive, and was outright damning since they couldn’t.

“I’ll call every day,” Adrian had promised while unloading the car. “You should have enough groceries here to last the whole two weeks, but if you run out, I’ll get some and bring it over. Make sure you unpack the frozen goods first.”

It was the kind of well-intentioned but obvious reminder that Fern didn’t know how to answer without being sarcastic; when family was involved, they tended not to say anything at all to avoid poisoning their own well. They’d watched their brother fumble when the silence stretched on a little too long and felt a little spike of amusement.

“You’ll like it,” Adrian had finally said. “It’ll be good for you. Calming. I’ll see you later, Fern.” He’d accidentally called them by their old name, not ‘Fern,’ but there was no point getting upset about it, not when Adrian was just really the unwilling family volunteer, propped up to take the heat of the decision to strand Fern in the woods, away from all civilization.

That wasn’t a fair thought. Fern could have refused, but even if it felt like being shipwrecked, abandoned, their family’s suggestion was likely right. They needed a break, a rest, space from the world out there.

Shaking their head, they dragged the bags up to the porch. The owner had said that the key was hidden behind a loose stone in the front path, which they found after a little digging. Mortar ground to dust under their fingertips and several insects scurried away. Foreboding, Fern decided, a little pleased about that. 

The key itself was more modern than the little house in the woods was, the lock having been replaced recently. It stuck regardless, as if trying to resist Fern, but Fern leaned on it harder until it clicked, then pulled the door open.

It was a pretty large place for a single writer to stay in, although the ad had described it as a one bedroom. Fern could swear it was large enough that there’d have to be two of them in here somewhere. It was at least two stories tall, and the first floor looked well-kept, clean and bright. Admittedly, it came with a variety of odd decor choices, as if the owners had aimed for an old-timey, woodsy yet welcoming aesthetic, but had no idea what any of those words meant. On the stone fireplace’s mantle were a variety of family photos, but none of the people in the family seemed to match; over it was a mounted alligator head with a gruesome smile. Not only was this entirely the wrong area for alligators, it seemed bigger than it should be.

Not that Fern knew anything about alligators, to be fair.

It was nice enough, though, and honestly to Fern’s taste. Perhaps this really would be good for them, rather than just their family wanting to avoid having to deal with Fern for a while. Admittedly, it could be two things at once; Fern was certainly out of sight and out of mind, and whatever happened to them here would be nobody’s business. 

Still, it wasn’t like they were completely isolated, even like this. The lack of internet was a drawback, but the place had electricity, and their phone had a single bar that occasionally flickered up to two, so it looked like they could use roaming data in a pinch—if not reliably. There was an old phone on the wall, too, so presumably there was also a landline if their cellphone was unreliable. 

They chided themself for the thought. The whole purpose of this was to not contact anyone for a few weeks. To spend some time disconnecting, far away from other people. To take a couple of weeks to pull themself back together. 

How they’d get started on that task, Fern wasn’t sure.

[It begins! Comment with your suggestion for Fern 

For example, should Fern:
> Explore the cabin more thoroughly?
> Immediately unpack?
> Get started writing?
> Try to contact someone: friend or family?]

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Instructions | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 13 | Day 14 | Day 15 | Day 16 | Day 17 | Day 18 | Day 19 | Day 20 | Day 21 | Day 22 | Day 23 | Day 24 | Day 25 | Day 26 | Day 27 | Day 28 | Day 29 | Finale | Epilogue | Author Q&A 

It’s time! Our yearly Halloween “Interactive” Fiction begins tomorrow! As always, it’ll be spooky, queer, and a whole lot of fun! 

Last year we went very urban fantasy; this one’s going to be a bit more uneasy horror, with themes of disconnection, identity, loss, and rediscovery. You’ll meet several creepy crawlies in need of affection, help, and comfort. Or, perhaps, in need of fresh victims. It’ll be up to you how this ends up going for our isolated protagonist!

How it works:

• On October 1, I’ll put up the first section of a story.
• By no later than 3 pm PST the next day (check your time zone against the world clock), please leave a comment to the post (i.e. a post goes up on Oct 1 —> You have until 3 pm PST on Oct 2 to comment).  
• Comments should be suggestions for the protagonist specifically. Generally, this will be an action or something for them to consider.
• You can always just +1 other people’s ideas if you like what they’ve said!
• The next section of the story will get posted between approximately 5-9 pm PST on the next day.
• We repeat this every day through October (or until the story comes to a natural end)!
• Please only leave suggestions on the most recent post — if we’ve already moved on, I won’t be able to fold the suggestion in. 
• Each suggestion should apply to what’s coming up next (either immediately or shortly thereafter); if in a morning entry you say “remember to call your boyfriend tonight” a. I probably won’t remember by the time it’s in-world evening and b. the situation may have fundamentally changed by then.

As noted, you can only advise the protagonist from the other side of the screen. You can’t tell the villain to surrender, but you can tell the protagonist, “Beg the villain to surrender.” If suggestions contradict each other, I’ll pick either the one most people have suggested or the one the character is most likely to do based on their established personality.

For a better idea of how this works, take a look through the Halloween IF archives to see what we did in previous years.

“Do I have to check back every day?”

I’d love it if you came back and kept playing! This game only works if people participate, so don’t be shy! 

But don’t feel that you have to comment or follow along every day: it’s OK to hop in and out as you like. 

If you want to participate regularly but are worried about forgetting to check in, you can put your email in to “Get Email Updates” in the page footer, and you’ll receive an email every time the blog is updated with a new post. (You can always unsubscribe if it ends up not working for you! I don’t update all that often outside of the Halloween event, so there won’t be any spam.) If you’re not seeing it in the footer, it’s because adblockers sometimes hide email fields — you can pause the adblocker just long enough to subscribe, then block ads again, I don’t mind.

KICKOFF COMMENTS

To get us kicked off, comment with an oddity that might be found in a rentable cabin in the woods. Nothing powerful (no firearms or magical artifacts), but just a curiosity. Something a previous guest left behind, or was put in as decor or a gratuity from the owner, or maybe even that our protagonist’s family helped pack for them. 

The Fine Print
I reserve all rights to this work. If I eventually get this published in any form that requires me to take this version down, I will send copies of this online version, with comments left intact, to everyone who contributed suggestions, if I am reasonably able to get in contact with them.

We’ve done it! We’ve made it! The story’s complete!

It was really exciting to get to come back to the Uncanny Valley setting again for the fourth time, and absolutely amazing to hit our eighth story over the 9 years we’ve been doing this little event. Star, as you know, was a minor tertiary character back from A Little Night Magic, but some characters stick with you and make you want to tell their stories. I’m glad I got to do that with you all. 

Thank you so much to everyone who contributed suggestions, whether on one part, five parts, or all the parts. It wouldn’t be the same piece without all of you, and I’m so grateful for everyone who turned out and got invested in Star’s little adventure as the stakes got higher and higher.

Of course, I hope you enjoyed this, whether you read it as it came out or read it later, whether your participated in suggestions or not! I had a lot of fun writing it, truly. If you did enjoy it, while it’s absolutely not required, I’d be delighted if you’d consider leaving me a tip over at my ko-fi, and I’d also love it if you checked out more of my work!

Anyway, the full story ended up being 58,274 words! Damn, that’s like an entire short novel out there! If you want to read it again from start to finish, the Index will stay up, and you can find the whole thing linked off my Interactive Fiction page.

Thank you again for reading, thank you so much for participating ♥

Now… ask me questions! You can ask me about the story, about the characters, about the writing process, about how something looked in my planning doc and how it changed to now, what would have happened if you’d done x instead of y, any background details about a character that you’re curious about, whatever! AMA! (And if you don’t have questions, feel free to share some part of it you enjoyed and I’m happy to talk about that part at random!)

Or just talk to me :> It’s been a lot of you suggesting things and me turning it into story but I’d love to just chat.