Hemophobia (Feel free to participate.)

That leaves the mystery wall. Maybe some probing with the screwdriver will reveal something.

You walk over to the left wall. It's totally bare, although it seems to have a very faint reddish stain on it. When you prod at it with the head of your screwdriver, some you scrape off some white powder.



You think it might be plaster.

Try to stab through the wall.



You’re actually feeling a little faint.

Muster all your strength and stab!

You really don't...

WHOA! In a sudden burst of SUPERHUMAN MANLINESS, you drive the screwdriver into the wall. It doesn't get very far, but only because something abruptly stops it. Sounded as much like metal as something buried in a couple of inches of plaster can sound.

Before you can do anything, your legs give out beneath you and you hit the floor rather hard. You pass out in the most MANLY manner possible.

You wake up in your bed. Your head hurts a little, as does your hand; you must have closed it too tightly around the key when you fell. The key is still there.

There is someone sitting on the floor, looking rather ashamed of himself.

Laugh it off, maybe tell Leland that you’re tougher than you look?

Leland looks at you, appearing to be vaguely surprised to see you awake.



“Don’t say that. I… I know. I’m sorry. Should I leave? I can if you want me to. I should probably just stay away from you altogether so I don’t hurt you again….”

"Then we'd go insane from loneliness."

You tell Leland not to go, so he doesn't. He still looks rather guilty, however, and you can tell that being here is making him uncomfortable.

Look down. Do you have clothes again?

You can't move. Things are suddenly a bit vivid.



Oh dear.

Ask him if he saw how you got in here.

You barely manage to ask the question; you're way too distracted by whatever the fuck is going on with your eyes. But you ask it nevertheless.



"Yeah. Some doctor-looking guy and some dude named Lawrence carried you in. I was still in here from after I... y'know. Doctor said I could stay. Lawrence just smiled. I don't like him. Do you know who he is?"

No. No, you don't know who Lawrence is.

“I’m afraid not…”

“Oh. Well it was worth a shot. You seem to know everyone around here.”

Rub eyes if able

You can’t seem to move your arms. This is quite the predicament.

“Hey did you know that there are six of us apparently?.. Man, my sight just went wack.”



Wack does not even begin to describe it.

Leland seems strangely coherent today.

He does. You don’t think much of it, though. It’s nice.

give him a sort of “Everything is alright” grin

He smiles back a little uncertainly.

Do you feel as if you’re strapped down or just too tired to move?

You just can’t move. It’s like you’re paralyzed or something. Is that why Leland looks so concerned?

close our eyes for some much needed rest.

You close your eyes.

For some reason you can still see Leland.



Um.

What.

No seriously, what?

You wake up.



You don't know where you are, which may have something to do with the fact that you can't see a thing right now. You also can't move. You're fairly certain that you are presently restrained. Standing upright, unfortunately, which is rather uncomfortable.

You're not gagged; and you don't think there's anyone in the room with you, although you thought you heard a soft rustling a moment ago.

What will you do?

Call out. Ask if they can turn on the lights.

You don’t think the lights will do a thing for you, as you happen to be blindfolded, but you call out anyway in the hope that the source of the noise will offer some form of help.

The response you receive is a soft clacking noise and another rustle. Sounds like wings.

Recall the magpie from before. Did it belong to anyone?

You're not entirely sure; but if it belongs to anyone, then it no doubt belongs to Four. That had sounded like a bird....

Fondly recall all the wonderful times you've had with Four, now that you're thinking about him.

Haha, oh yeah, there was that one time where-- wait, you don't even remember what he looks like. Have you ever even seen his face before...?

Time to really test this bird's intellegence level. Ask it to remove the blindfold.

There's another flutter. You think you feel a slight gust of wind against your face. Unexpectedly, somebody speaks: "Two, two, one, nine." It doesn't sound like a bird but, then again, you don't know what birds sound like. It doesn't sound like a person either anyway.

The numbers can't refer to people as there are only six, not nine. It's not a countdown... "Come again?"

Something squawks.

If it's not a bird, and it's not a person... Could it be a computer?

You're fairly certain that computers don't squawk or flutter. Maybe it is a bird.

It might be an electronic blindfold. Say the password 2219.

As far as you know, electronic blindfolds don't exist, but it's worth a shot. You repeat the numbers and, much to your surprise...

you still can't see. What a shocker.

"Sector Two." Squawk. You are fairly certain that it is, in fact, a bird. A talking bird. You didn't know Four's birds could talk. Huh. The things you learn.

Helpfully recall any vaguely useful knowledge about Sector Two. And why Four's birds would know anything about it

All you know about Sector Two is that that door back in the room with all the stasis chambers evidently led to it. All you know about Four's birds is that they tend to show up all over the place. You feel incredibly knowledgeable, like some sort of living encyclopaedia.

"What about Sector Two?"

"Two, two, one, nine."

Oh.

"Is that a room number, code, or combination?"

"Be my Valentine."

You're not too sure where this is going. Is the bird coming on to you? It starts laughing in the most disturbing way possible and you decide that you don't like this bird at all.

2219, Be my Valentine. Listen for more. Is it a riddle?

You listen for a few minutes but the bird says nothing more.

Ask it something else.

You don't know what to ask it.

Well, birds don't talk, no matter that they're Four's. He's probably repeating something he heard earlier. Or something someone told him to say. Isn't it a little funny that one of the symbols on the stasis chambers was a heart?

Whoa. What a coincidence right there. Numbers five and six are just getting more and more enigmatic. You wonder if either of them is a person you would like to meet.

Probably not.

Try to move your hand, if at all possible.

You wiggle your fingers. Okay, good, so you can move. That's nice. You can even flex your wrist a tiny bit, but that's the extent of it.

There is a loud bang, presumably from somewhere outside of the room you're in.

Try to flex your wrist and wiggle your hand out of it's restraint.

You don't have quite that amount of freedom, unfortunately.

What about your legs? Can they move too?

Oh. Sh!t. You can't even feel your legs. That's not a good sign.

There is another loud bang, and then you hear a door slam open. Someone runs in to the room.

….

You wake up; and for a moment, you’re not entirely sure where you are. Your neck is oddly stiff and you think you can feel something stuck in the flesh under your ear, but before you reach up to see what it is, you notice the blood.



Silas’s room is devoid of life save for you. It’s fairly obvious that you were the one to put that bloodstain on the wall— your hands are still painted crimson and you can taste something coppery and oddly appetizing on your tongue— but what isn’t so obvious is what happened to Silas, because there’s no sign of a body.

After a moment of staring at the wall and feeling like you’re going to vomit for a number of reasons, the first and foremost being guilt, your eyes follow the rusty stain on the floor. It’s smeared slightly in the direction of the open door; and on closer inspection, you spot a few telltale drops of blood in a very subtle trail leading out of the room.

So… so maybe he’s still alive? That’s an awful lot of blood, though….

Feel the object behind your ear

Feels like... a hypodermic needle or something? No. More like a dart. You deem it safe to remove and drop it into the Pillowrock of Smashing +2 out of habit. It becomes +3 again. You puzzle briefly over why it went down in power level only to recall stabbing Silas with your screwdriver.

Now you feel bad.

Follow it, but be careful, it could be a tarp.

There isn't much to follow anyway. The trail leads to those double doors you ran into earlier. There's blood on the lock, leading to believe that it has probably been opened recently. It's not anymore, though. Bummer.



All of this blood is making you feel ill....

Put your ear to the door. Can you hear anything?

Erg, blood. Yuck. Cautiously avoiding the stains on the floor, you pick your way down the hall to the double doors and press your ear to one of them. Surprisingly, you can hear everything going on in the room as if you were standing on the other side of the door.

Not that there's much going on.

Just fluttering wings that make you feel even sicker and very soft footsteps.

You're a little perturbed by how good your hearing is.

>Pull on the lock.

Have a sudden flashback!

BEARS! OH GOD THE BEARS ARE EVERYWHERE WHY ISN'T ANYONE DOING ANYTHING WHY ARE THERE SO MANY BEARS IN H--

Hahahaha, you didn't actually think there were bears. Heh.

Heh.

Bears.

It's the large reptilian eyes that you need to really watch out for.

Well, we’re not getting in and who knows what’s on the other side… *irony*

What irony?

How dramatic.

Can we take the pillowcase off of our beloved Pillowrock of Smashing and tie it around the lower part of our face? Not tightly, just firmly enough to maybe slow Leland down in case he gets the munchies again.

You think about it for a moment and decide against that. It would just make you look like a horse with a bag of oats strapped to its face and the Pillowrock of Smashing +3 would be naked again.

You don’t like making it feel uncomfortable.

Maybe we should explore down the hall some more.

Seems like a good idea. It’s not like you have anything better to do, right? Maybe you’ll find out what lock your key opens or something.

we should avoid Lucy’s room-she put us in the weird, hand-losing trance thing last time.

Yea, no, you’re never touching that door again.

You were planning on walking right through this hallway because of Lucy, but something stops you: Four’s door is open slightly.

Beyond gladness that it’s his and not Lucy’s, you aren’t entirely sure what to feel about this.