Chapter Text
Chapter 1 - Nostalgia In Darkness.
Slow, distorted music echoes from an old CD player down into the basement. Fragmented sounds interrupted by the occasional dry wheeze as you shift your way through stacks of boxes and forgotten furniture, all blanketed in thick dust. You don’t recognize the song - you’d picked a disc at random from one of the boxes, an album that probably peaked in relevancy a good 30 years ago now.
None of these things are really yours. You’d bought the old house cheap and it could be a good home - with some work. Anyway, it's nice not having to pay rent.
The previous owner had been an older lady who recently passed, and everything in the basement was once hers. You cough again as you try to make sense of the chaos left to accumulate for what seems like decades, before picking a box at random to sift through its contents. Inside, you find VHS tapes that look as if they’d been re-recorded over many times, books by unrecognizable authors with yellowing paper, and a tangle of mismatched cables clustered together in a haphazard mess. Abandoned memories. All left to slowly deteriorate as the technology became obsolete over the years. On top of the pile, one of the better-preserved VHS tapes catches your eye, labeled “Christmas, 1987”.
You reckon the previous owner must have been a sentimental woman, keeping recordings of every special occasion tucked away in overflowing boxes like this.
After some searching, you find something more interesting hiding under an old, red table cloth - an old CRT TV with built-in VHS player. To your surprise, it’s in significantly better condition than most other things in the room. The old owner apparently took the time to carefully preserve it to avoid dust and damage, but left it abandoned in the basement all the same.
Most of what you brought with you are hand-me-downs anyway, so you’ve grown used to living with older technology. If something still works, you see no reason to get rid of it. Throwing it away would just feel wasteful. Still, it takes you a second to figure out how to turn the old TV on. After a while messing around with the settings and bending the antennae into various positions, you give the side of the casing a good smack. Feeling a small sense of accomplishment as the screen comes to life with a dull static glow.
After some time manually rewinding the tape by hand - something you’re glad society has moved past now - you push the VHS into the machine. Emitting a satisfying click as the picture comes into view. Cheerful faces gather around a gift-laden tree, and a woman’s voice can be heard in the background, encouraging the children to open presents together. It brings a smile to your face as you’re filled with bittersweet nostalgia - you’ve always liked the vintage feel of old recordings.
Slowly, the camera pans across the same basement that you’re currently standing in, only, in the corner of the screen, you see an unfamiliar door. One you hadn’t previously noticed. You look up to where it would be, realising why as the space now sits completely boarded up. Something you previously thought was just an… interesting design choice.
You look back towards the screen, closer at the grainy image when you begin to notice, ever so faintly, small wisps of black smoke spilling out from under the frame. Gently rising up but seemingly unnoticed by the family.
Squinting, you lean in closer towards the TV to get a better look, and… CLICK - the video abruptly ends. Leaving the blank screen to emit a flat hum. Frustratingly, as you mess around with the VHS, you soon come to realise the tape is far too deteriorated with age to continue playing. In the video, the space surrounding the door had been solid brick, but all you can see in front of you now are wooden panels covering… something. No smoke, no door.
Clearly this side of the wall had been intentionally boarded up, and for better or worse - curiosity always has a way of taking hold of you. You push some more boxes out of the way and begin to investigate. A few of the panels are already damaged - decayed with age and damp, making them easy to pry away with little effort before revealing the same wall of cold solid brick. In the center, you find the large wooden door, surrounded by what looks like hand-carved runic imagery.
You think you recognise them from the few times you’d been dragged to church by your family growing up, but you never really paid much attention to the sermons. Deciding instead to use the time for more important things - like napping.
You pull away the final few panels covering the entrance and let them fall to the ground, kicking up dust and causing you to choke once again. As the cloud settles, you start to notice the small wisps of black smoke rising from underneath the frame - the same smoke you saw in the old tape.
Fascination overrides hesitation as you begin to pull the door. It refuses to give way at first, finding parts of the wood have fused to the frame after years of neglect. Stubbornness shifts into frustration as you grit your teeth to try again - harder this time. “Come on,” you mutter to yourself, bracing a shoulder against the obstacle. With one final pull, the door gives way, causing the once gentle smoke to now cascade around you in a heavy wave, flooding the basement.
You don't have time to react, within seconds, your whole world is plunged into pitch darkness.
The last thing you see is a brief flicker of static from the old TV. Its dim glow provides the last shred of light before everything around you is snuffed out. Something inside it was eager to be re-discovered, after being hidden away for so long.
A sharp, cold wind snaps you back to your senses as the world steadies itself around you. You sit up, take a shaky breath and attempt to take in your new environment. The dark void enclosing you is eerily silent and all consuming, stretching on for what seems like forever. There’s no clear path forward, even the ground is so obscured that you can’t be sure what you’re lying on.
Behind you stretches the outline of an ornate door, the edges of its frame blending seamlessly into the surrounding dark. It emits a gentle golden glow with the same runic symbols as the door in the basement, and as you try to open it, you find it refuses to give no matter how hard you push. Any chance of return is seemingly blocked for now - if that’s even where it leads to.
For now - you’re trapped.
The only way forward is to face the endless night ahead.
Time achingly passes as the world seems to close in around you, at this point you can’t tell how long you’ve been blindly wandering. The uncomfortable tightness in your chest only grows more suffocating as you realise the only possible exit has long since disappeared, along with any sense of direction. Your breath becomes increasingly ragged the further you roam, but continuing on seems to be the only choice - despite how directionless your stumbling has become.
As your eyes adjust, you start to notice the faint outline of deep purple mountains on the horizon. At first, they seem like the only point to aim for, convinced that eventually, the distance will shorten.
But it doesn’t.
You keep your eyes on the mountains, thinking maybe they can be used for navigation, a way to find some sense of direction in the featureless landscape. But even as you turn, the horizon bends with you, remaining exactly where they were before.
Gradually, an unnatural glow with no clear source rises in the far distance. The light is barely visible, even in the dark, but it’s just enough to follow towards… something. In a strange way - they’re eerily beautiful. Focusing on the pale lights helps ease the growing dread for just a moment, giving you enough confidence to apprehensively follow. Feeling like a better option than aimlessly wandering the dark at least.
You tell yourself that if something was intending to harm you, it would have done so by now.
You haven’t even seen another person yet.
For all you know - you could be the only person here.
…With no way back.
Your thoughts race between fear and comfort as you continue down the uncertain path ahead. A vicious cycle that's abruptly cut short as a sharp, lifeless sound sends fear washing over you in a dense wave. Holding your breath, you strain to listen in on the noise. You can't make out its exact source, but that isn’t your main concern right now as a far more uncomfortable truth settles in - recognising the sound as distorted, artificial laughter.
The darkness ahead remains an unchanging absolute, yet your skin begins to burn with the knowledge that something unseen is hiding just out of view. You can feel eyes close in on you from every direction, pinning in place - leaving you trapped, exposed, and utterly alone. Your body refuses to cooperate, even as your mind screams at you to run. Any option seems hopeless at this point, in fear that whatever’s out there notices your presence and doesn’t deem it welcome enough to stay.
Whoever is out there can definitely see you.
And they’re laughing at you.
Once again, you’re dragged from your spiraling thoughts as tiny flecks of light emerge in the far distance. Their incandescent glow reminiscent of stars in the midst of a hazy night, stretching on into an endless tunnel. You watch as they begin to show a clear path forward, reinforcing your prior assumption.
Something definitely wants you to follow.
You force the feeling of dread back long enough to drag yourself a few cautious steps forward. At the very least, you just hope the path ahead leads away from the eerie played-out sounds enclosing you. For all you know, you could be blindly walking in circles. Gradually, the sound of taunting fades, replaced by a soft mechanical hum in the far distance. It keeps you on edge as you strain to listen in, though the drone feels far less intrusive than the previous laughter. After a while, you’re able to tune it out into harmless background noise.
The further you travel, the more staggered the lights become. Large gaps appear that leave you feeling lost once again, before eventually finding your way down another dimly lit path. The humming becomes more prominent over time, but even when you convince yourself to turn around, to face whatever’s following you - you’re only met with the same empty landscape. Any prior lights before you disappear back into the dark, obscuring any return to where you came.
This world is strange. You wrack your brain for answers, but how can you when this place refuses to follow any reason or logic? You’ve spent long enough wandering now to become used to the unearthly sounds and feelings that come with it. Not comfortable, far from it - but familiar enough to keep you heading towards the light, your one hope of salvation.
Light that abruptly ends at the foot of an endlessly high mass - blocking any path forward.
Gently reaching out, you realise the wall has a soft velvet texture, swaying slightly as you brush your hand against the material. You cling to the dark fabric, attempting to drag it back - to reveal whatever’s hidden, but it refuses to give way. Barricading you from continuing further and leaving you defeated, as your endless trek into the dark comes to an end. The only thing to do now is wait. Wait for any other sign to tell you where to go next.
But nothing comes.
No lights, no stars, no way out.
Only an endless barrier, softly illuminated by the gentle flicker of the last remaining lights - your only refuge against the vacant expanse.
Eventually, long shadows cascade up the material as dim light stretches up from behind you. The once subtle drone that sat as background noise, now grows louder as the feeling of being watched returns in an unbearable wave.
Someone had been following you.
You’re not alone here.
Any attempt to suppress your fear fails as you cover your face. Your body refuses to turn around and face whatever’s coming, left frozen in place as the approaching silhouette comes to a stop. The figure projected onto the fabric stretches well into the darkness, and if these shadows are anything to go by - whatever’s been following you is far, far larger than yourself.
Heavy pressure engulfs your shoulder, sending a shock of static racing through your body. Its weight steadily shifts your position, giving you no other choice but to look at whatever’s been so adamant to follow you all this way. As you prepare to look at whatever might exist in this empty expanse, you’re met by a dense wall of blinding white noise, inches away from your face. The static hum quietens to a gentle buzz as the hunched figure emits a stark light, forcing you to squint against the glare.
You’re only able to make out a brief sentence.
‘’What… are you…?’’
The artificial hysterics return from behind the velvet wall - cold, uncanny and even louder than before. You watch as the creature stands back to its full height, its humanoid shape towering over you. As your eyes re-adjust to the light, you notice subtle shapes through the pale static.
It seems to be smiling at you.
Before you can react, a painful blinding light opens up from above, obscuring all vision into a mass of white.