You smile as you approach the familiar mahogany door. Ah, it's good to be back. You reach your hand out towards the handle, but you suddenly hesitate. That feels weird, doesn't it? After all this time?
Well. Maybe, for old times' sake, you ought to check the [[back door->Back Door]]. You inspect the back door. Unlocked, as usual. Good, good. Nice to know some things never change.
You walk into the [[house->Laundry Room]]. The back door feeds directly into the laundry room.
[[Enter the main house.->Passageway]]
[[Hide in the laundry room.->Hide]]You enter the narrow passageway. You used to be able to stretch both of your arms out and place a palm on each wall. You try to do so now. Hmm, not quite the same.
The creaky [[stairs->Upstairs]] have been re-polished since you last saw them. Sad. You and Quinn had made a contest out of slowly chipping away at the old varnish, to see who could get away with doing the most damage without being noticed. Damn, all that hard work for nothing. They must've saw it during your absence, you think. Guess Quinn wins by default.The laundry room has one of your favorite hiding spots in the house.
You used to be able to sit in the crevice between the washer and the dryer for hours. It was because you had such a skinny frame, you think. If you scooted far enough back, the shelf above the machines would cover your figure until you were barely visible. In the dark, you blended into the shadows perfectly - it would've been a perfect location for a great jumpscare, you muse.
Even someone who was doing laundry couldn't see you, unless they were trying. And nobody except Quinn would know to look for you here, so you were safe.
You settle in to the cranny and wait.
(after:10s)[You wait.]
(after:11s)[You wait.]
(after:12s)[You wait.]
(after:13s)[You wait.]
(after:14s)[God, this is boring. You guess that you don't really want or need the silence of the crevice anymore. It used to be a safe space. Now it just feels... even more isolating.]
(after:19s)[You wait.]
(after:20s)[You wait.]
(after:21s)[You hear footsteps.]
(after:22s)[You hold your breath as someone enters the room. A man. He sets down an overflowing basket of laundry and sighs. (link-reveal:"Hey, those are your boxers in there...")[You almost feel violated before you remember your circumstances again.]
He leaves the room without doing the laundry.
[[Follow him.->Dad]]
[[Keep hiding.->Hide2]]
]You see three familiar doors when you arrive upstairs.
(if:(history: where its name contains "Talk to her.")'s length >= 1)[The door directing facing the stairway is completely ajar, but you probably shouldn't go back in there. Seeing Quinn again... it would make you want to stay, and you came here for closure.] (if:(history: where its name contains "Talk to her.")'s length < 1)[The door directly [[facing the stairway->Sister's Room]] is completely ajar. You can see into the room, and it looks freshly cleaned. That's really weird...]
(if:(history: where its name contains "Your Room 2")'s length >= 1)[Your room's door is closed. Good, you don't think you could emotionally handle seeing it again. ](else-if:(history: where its name contains "Follow your dad.")'s length >= 1)[Your room's door is closed. Good, you don't think you could emotionally handle seeing it again. ](else-if:(history: where its name contains "Your Room 2")'s length < 1)[The door [[to the right->Your Room]] is closed. (link-reveal:"A sign hangs from it. ")[(text-colour:red)["DO NOT ENTER. THAT MEANS YOU TOO, MOM!"]]]
(if:(history: where its name contains "Parents' Room")'s length < 1)[The [[door to the left->Parents' Room]] is open a crack. From inside, you can hear voices.](else-if:(history: where its name contains "Parents' Room")'s length >= 1)[Your parents' room's door is closed now.]
(if:(history: where its name contains "Talk to her.")'s length >= 1)[
(if:(history: where its name contains "Follow your mom.")'s length >= 1)[
(if:(history: where its name contains "Follow your dad.")'s length >= 1)[
[[Ending]]
]]]You follow him from the laundry room. Was he out of tide pods or something? The man walks slowly into the kitchen and pours himself a tall drink from the liquor cabinet.
You stare. //It's 4'o'clock in the afternoon, though//, you think. You had, in fact, never seen your dad drink like this before.
You watch in helpless bewilderment as he puts his head down in his hands and stays that way for a (link-reveal:"long time.")
[Eventually, your dad moves and walks upstairs slowly. //The laundry//, you say, but he doesn't hear you. You feel the helplessness sink in.
[[You should probably leave now.->Cryptic Ending]]
[[You shake off your sadness and head upstairs also. Maybe happier memories await there.->Upstairs]]].
(after:1s)[You wait.]
(after:2s)[You wait.]
(after:3s)[You wait.]
(after:4s)[It doesn't appear that anyone is coming back. You stare at the dirty laundry. What a mundane task, you think. Everyone's gotta do laundry eventually. Except you now, of course. At the very least, you've been excused from doing chores.]
(after:7s)[Honestly, you kind of wish you could put the goddamn laundry into the washer. Who leaves dirty clothes out in the laundry room without doing them?]
(after:10s)[You miss doing chores. What has your existence come to? You're suddenly very tired of sitting in the crevice. Maybe coming back was a bad idea. You should [[leave the house->Cryptic Ending]].]It's time you leave, probably, before you want to stay forever. The walk around the house maybe provided some closure, you think. Maybe it doesn't even matter if you get closure. Well, either way. Time to see what... the future... has in store for you.
[[Start over?->Stages]]You look around. In your memory, there have always been clothes strewn across the floor and candy wrappers littering all around the [[desk->Sister's Desk]]. The only thing you can see on the floor now are a [[backpack]] and a [[singular sock]]. Jesus Christ, either Quinn had a personality transplant or someone else lives here now.
The drawers of the [[dresser->Sister's Dresser]] are all shut neatly, barring one bin that is wide open. You grin to yourself -- it might be fun to snoop around.
(if:visits is 1)[Didn't you see the do not enter sign? No, you're a person who respects boundaries. Best leave that room alone for now, you smirk to yourself. [[Go back.->Upstairs]]]
(if:visits >= 2)[Alright, alright. You suppose that the sign doesn't quite apply to you. You enter your [[old room->Your Room 2]]. ]
You enter your parents' room to their (link-reveal:"loud voices.")[
"Goddamn it, Dan! All you do these days is drink," your mom is snapping angrily.
"We lost our son, Maria!" your dad suddenly bellows. "I'm sorry my coping mechanism isn't to your liking."
"Wow, I didn't know that we lost our son," your mom mocks. "No, you're using him as an excuse. Why don't you go sit in his room again and keep leaving me with all the hard things that we have to do?"
You sigh and drown out the rest of their shouting. Seems that your absence made the fighting even worse than usual. (link-reveal:"You sit down and take a deep breath. There's nothing you can do to help, anyways.")[
(link-reveal:"You wait.")[
(link-reveal:"You wait.")[
Eventually, your parents storm off in different directions.
[[Follow your mom.]]
[[Follow your dad.]]
]]]]
You walk towards the desk, looking at the little polaroid pictures that Quinn hung on the wall right above. Beneath them, piles of unfinished homework assignments seem like they were hastily shoved into the corner of the desk.
(after:4s)[Creak]
(after:5s)[Creak]
(after:6s)[Creak]
(after:7s)[Footsteps.
You freeze in place and look up to see Quinn, who looks... exactly as she normally does. You take the sight of her in - the purple headphones, the fifty friendship bracelets she refuses to take off, the mismatched socks. If you're being honest with yourself, you're a little disappointed. You expected her to be going through an emo phase or something without you.
[[Talk to her.]]
[[See if she notices you.]]
]The bin of the dresser that is wide open is filled to the brim with random arts and crafts. Is that a knitting needle?
The disorganization of the bin is comfortingly familiar.
[[Keep exploring.->Sister's Room]]Someone seems to have missed this when they cleaned the room. Quinn always wore mismatching socks anyways, you muse.
(after:4s)[Why are you still looking at the sock? There's much more interesting stuff around to [[snoop through->Sister's Room]].]You peer into the open backpack. A computer, a [[diary]], and [[a calculus test crinkled near the bottom]].Quinn's diary... She's never let you read it before. You gleefully reach down, but your hands go straight through the pages. Oh, right. [[Back to exploring then.->Sister's Room]]You can make out a 64% on the calculus test. You feel guilty -- maybe without your late night study seshes, Quinn fell behind in school. You [[step away from the backpack->Sister's Room]].You feel the urge to say something.
"Hi Quinn."
She doesn't respond.
//Honestly, typical//, you think.
"I'm, uh, gonna miss you when I'm gone. Like, for real," you say. Gah, why can't you talk like a normal human? You're glad Quinn couldn't hear you. She'd probably make fun of you until the end of time for that one.
You suddenly remember two years ago, when you had run into the girl you had a crush on at Walmart. Quinn had pushed you towards her and you had tripped as a result, faceplanting in front of the avocados. You feel your face flame even now in embarassment. Maybe it's time to [[go somewhere else->Upstairs]] now - you've had your fill of sibling bonding.
You wave your hands in front of her face as she peels off her socks and throws them onto the ground.
She slumps down onto her desk chair and pulls out her diary from her backpack. You read the (link-reveal:"latest entry.")[
''//I took up knitting. Halfway through my first scarf. //''
You're surprised. Quinn had never expressed interest in knitting before. You look (link-reveal:"further up.")[
''//Day 7 of cleaning my room every day. Keeps the intrusive thoughts from coming in. Also, I've been sleeping like twelve hours every day. Goodbye, insomnia?//''
Out of morbid curiousity, you look over to the [[entry for last monday->Incident]]. ]]//''Tommy's in the hospital. (after:2s)[~~Can't wait to laugh at him when he gets out for not looking both ways. That's kindergarten stuff!~~]
(after:5s)[He can't be gone. He was just here. I can't think right now.]''//
(after:7s)[You stop reading. [[You feel the overwhelming urge to give Quinn a hug, but you can't.->Cryptic Ending]]]You look around your room, which seems to have been almost perfectly preserved over the last week - except your basket of dirty laundry is missing.
You glance at your (link-reveal:"bed. ")[It looks... kind of like someone has been sleeping there recently. Upon closer inspection, there's a pillow there that certainly isn't yours and an indent in the mattress that couldn't have been made by you, given you were last in this room (link-reveal:"seven days ago. ")
[(Blegh, you don't know how to feel about that. Do you still have a right to privacy?)]]
Your desk is littered with bits and pieces of metal and plastic from your last robotics project. You think back to how stressed it made you; funny how that's all irrelevant now that you're dead.
You feel (cycling-link:"confused","sad","nostalgic","overwhelmed","acceptance"). You think that you should probably finish going around and saying your goodbyes.
[[Leave the room->Upstairs]]Your mom is in the living room now. You watch as she grabs a glass and throws it against the wall.
"Stupid, useless husbands who can't even do laundry right," she mutters impatiently. "Does he even care about the stress I'm under?"
Your mom starts eating from a tub of ice cream.
"Goddamn it, Tommy," she says suddenly. She looks up, almost straight at you, then back down.
"Why did you do this to me?" your mom whispers bitterly, staring into her ice cream. You recoil in the face of her anger, but you sigh and walk close to her. You wish you could give her a hug.
"I'm sorry, mom," you whisper back. "I love you."
You hesitate. So much unsaid, but...
(if:(history: where its name contains "Follow your dad.")'s length < 1)[[[Go find your dad ->Follow your dad.]]](else-if:(history: where its name contains "Follow your dad.")'s length >= 1)[[[Go back out->Upstairs]]]Your dad is in your room, laying down on your bed. He hugs your pillow tight to his chest.
Almost detachedly, you notice tears streaming down his face. You've never seen him cry before, either. You sit down next to him.
(link-reveal:"He holds a picture frame.")[It's a photo of the two of you eating ice cream, but your five year old self seems more interested in smearing the ice cream on your face than eating it. It's a good memory, you reflect.]
You grapple with getting your words out. Your dad and you have always been close, but you never really verbally expressed your love. Instead, you lay a hand (well, as much as you can) on his back. His sniffles calm, and you hope that maybe you've connected with him, somehow.
(if:(history: where its name contains "Follow your mom.")'s length < 1)[[[Go find your mom.->Follow your mom.]]](else-if:(history: where its name contains "Follow your mom.")'s length >= 1)[[[Go back out->Upstairs]]]
You walk back down the stairs through the house. You feel simultaneously lighter and heavier now that you've seen what you're saying goodbye to.
But, you know that you can't stay here - you need to move on to, uh... you guess it must be the afterlife? You're not sure what comes next, but you've felt a pull towards it.
You spent the first seven days after your death avoiding your house, because you knew it was the last step before you leave permanently. But you've accepted it, you think.
(link-reveal:"Right?")[youdon'tknowwhatyou'redoingyoudon'twanttoleaveyoujustwantyourlifebackpleaseifthere'ssomeoneouttherepleasegiveyouyourlifeback]
No. No, you have to leave, and you've accepted it. You walk out the front door this time, your ghostly form shimmering as you pass through the solid wood. You take one last look at the house, and then you're gone.
[[Stages of Grief]]=><=
Stages of Grief
Shock
''Denial''
''Anger''
Bargaining
''Depression''
Testing
''Acceptance''=><=
Stages
[[Play->Front Door]]