You don't remember walking here. You remember the gauzy interference of those videos they play in the back of cabs. Ads. Pre-recorded content. When did you [[meet him]]?
{
(track: 'scary', 'loop', true)
(track: 'scary', 'playwhenpossible')
}He was no one you'd ever seen at Rosie's. He had dark hair, that in the light of the bar looked jet black, but he assured you it was blue.
You talked about [[kleptomania]]. Why? The twists in whatever conversational pathway you both had taken had led you here. Maybe you were nervous. You were often nervous, or, cautious your mother would say, yes, cautious. But not this night, no. You'd figured you'd been good enough, [[careful enough]].
He had an angular face. Surely there were other detail but what did they matter now?
But these facts seem to erase themselves when they enter your memory.
You wonder if it's the headache that wracks your skull as if there were no space between your brain and your skull. Did you hit your head?
[[Lay still]]You find a pair of keys tied to your hair.
(link: "pick up key")
[(set: $key to true)]
The keys are gold and small, but heavier than they appear.
Your body feels hammered to the ground.
Walk towards [[the red room]].
Walk towards [[the blue room]].
You feel nauseous. You want to get up but feel stitched to the floor. You move your finger tips. Isn't this how (text-style: "italic") [Kill Bill] started? You conjure Uma Thurman wiggling her big toe. You will yourself to move. You hear a voice coming from what feels like a distant room. But the voice is so close to your ear.
"Think of a story. Any story. A bedtime story" It whispers.
You think of:
[[Sleeping Beauty ]]
[[Litle Red Riding Hood]]You stagger to the left. Red light seeps out of the bottom of door. The paint is cracking, peeling off in strips.
You crouch to look under the door. As your face presses to the ground, you feel a warm liquid touch your face.
(if: $loophole is true)[Go back to the begining to leave before it's too late, whispers a small feminine voice. Actually, it seems to be many voices- a collection of them singing to you.]
You [[look under door frame first]](set: $sleepingbeauty to true)
You realize that your fingers feel something. It's a fairy tale book.
(link: "pick up book")[(set: $fairytalebook to true)]
Your hands drop the book onto your stomach. Suddenly you feel able to get up. You sit up finally in the dim light.
[[Look around the room]]
You open the pages. But they seem stuck together by a kind of glue. You can't see.
(set: $redridinghood to true)
[[Look for Light to see what the substance is]]
[[Open Book]](if: $sleepingbeauty is true)[A voice, small and delicate, whispers to you: "go back go back"]
You attempt to read the cover of the book and see it in more detail. But there is barely enough light.
[[Look for your phone]]
Who is more (link-show: "dangerous?",?danger) [The wolf or the girl?
](danger|
(set:$redridinghood to true)The (link-show: "room..." ,?room) [[In another dream]] to your right is drapped in beautiful blue velvet curtains. You're really weirded out. It's like if Violet Beuaregaurd decorated your grandmother's sitting room in here. There are portraits on the wall but the faces are shadowed out by blue spray paint. Ok, trendy. You think. ](room|
The main room you laid in was empty, drab, barren.
But this place is lavishly furnished. You almost want to lounge around in here. It's comforting. Almost too much so.
You could lie down here.
(if: $redridinghood is true)[You see blood covering the edges of the pages. It is brown and dried. But the smell is unmistakable]
[[Turn the page]]
Your phone is missing.
(set:$phone to false)
[[Feel your head]]You crouch to look under the door. As your face presses to the ground, you feel a warm liquid touch your face.
You [[feel your face]]Have you ever done anything you weren't meant to?
(set: $klepto to true)
Do you have something that isn't (link: "yours")[[[mine]]]?(if: $bloodrhyme is true) [Every page is scribbeled with symbols but you can't understand. They've blotted out the words]
You turn another [[page]]A note falls out from the book's pages.
'You can run, and you can hide, but I hold the keys to the kingdom, young girl. Scurry and hide. Scurry and hide!"[[Keep reading]]
You shut the book. You decide to explore the room. You notice there is one large window. But it isn't ordinary. It's long and filled with colored glass, like you'd see in a church. But the outside is boarded up.
Oh god, did you fall asleep in a church? The last place you were was in that bar. Your friend, the one that forgets you when she saunters around the room to "network" told you it was the (link: "Bluelight Bar")[(text-style: "shadow")[Bluelight Bar]] [(set: $bluelight to true)].
"Get it? Because you stay up all night." She said
You explore the [[room|"Draebeulb"]] more.
As you continue to flip through, you realize the pages spell something.
As you hold your hand up to the light, you notice the liquid is thick and goopy.
You push through the door to see the light.
More liquid flushes out of the room. It covers your feet.
You look up. The room is bathed in red light. On the walls six red shadows dye the walls.
You wade into the flooded room. As you enter the middle an unreal stench stops you cold.
[[Red Room]]
(set: $name to true)
You try and sound out the words. And realize suddenly that there is tape covering your mouth. On the outside, the letter B How could you not have realized it before? You get a sinking feeling in your stomach that this isn't just a [[twilight zone]] kind of drunk night. This is different.
You slowly peel it off.
(if: $facts is true)[On the wall, you hear a [[scratching]]]You immediately regret your excitement.
The figure blurs to your left. Whoever it is is tall and imposing, but somehow (link: "his") [a man's] shape is familiar.
"Do I know you?"
You say, but what an idiotic question. Why would you know him? But the form, the way the figure ambles towards you looks familiar, as if you knew its shape in another life.
(set: $twilightzone to true)
When you were younger, you watched that one [[episode]] over and over again.
Rod Sterling's booming voice was a scary as it was comforting in a distant way. If he were here, he'd be able to guide you through wherever or whatever you're in.
{(track:'rod','loop',true)
(track: 'rod', 'playwhenpossible')}The episode was "Eye of the Beholder": the one where a beautiful woman is thought grotesque on the planet of pig people. You always thought it was funny until you were older. Until you worried if the episode didn't mean something else beyond its kitschy fifties bad (link-show:"effects.",?effect) [Why did they keeep her sedated like that?
](effect|
You remember having (link-show: "nightmares.", ?nightmare) [That woman would scratch her face off through the bandages. Like she hated the feminine curves of her face for reducing her to an imprisoning
(link-show: "fate.", ?fate) [You look around this room. That seems to have nothing but you in it. You notice an engraving on the wall [["Draebeulb"]].
](fate|
](nightmare|
In the drywall, an invisible hand carves out the letters (link: "B")[(text-style: "blurrier")[B.L.U.E.B.E.A.R.D]][(set: $B to true)]
(if: $bluelight is true)[Suddenly your phone [[turns on]]]You recieve a text:
(link: "Hello my princess, welcome to the palace. There are many rooms for you to explore. Now that you know my name, we can continue to play our game") [Ok, you're OFFICIALLY in the Twilight Zone. This is a reminder never to go to bars in Brooklyn again.]
"What is this?" you ask aloud, some kind of [[escape]] room?
(Set: $key to true)(set: $possession to true)
In the darkness, you see a neon sign flash. You must be seeing things.
(text-style: "fade-in-out")+(text-color:"pink") ["Girls, Girls, Girls"]
Were you at a strip club? You trace your night. But all you can remember is the blue haired boy, and his big dumb toothy smile...
[[Lay still]]You're (link-show: "running...",?run) [down a long and winding corridor. You are you but not you. Why are all dreams like that? You're always you but not. Present but absent.
You know you're not you because you're wearing this large, embroidered dress, which you wouldn't be caught DEAD in.
Behind you, there's a bellowing laughter. It's almost joyful and as you're running you start to laugh along. But really, you discover placing your hand to your face, that you are in fact crying. Sobbing really.
(click-append: "laugh")[ (cry) ]
The man's voice grows louder and louder. You ask [[who are you?]]
](run|
The ceiling is covered, wall to wall in newspaper clippings.
You look closer. They're from the 60s,70s, and 80s.
(cycling-link: bind $serialnames, "Dahmer", "Bundy", "Wilson", "Rolling", "Jack")
These are the names circled on the pages, written over and over again in red ink.
Several names are written over the papers in red lettering (cycling-link: bind $names, "Sheila", "Maria", "Annabel", "Ivanna", "Next is You")?
[["What?"]]
(text-style: "blurrier") + (text-color:"white") [You decide it's time to get out of this place. If only your head wasn't so cloudy]
This is not the kind of (link-show: "True Crime Drama",?drama) you signed up for.[You remember all those awful documetaries you watched on Netflix and regret your fascination with them.
](drama|
Your old life feels so (link-show: "far away now.", ?away) [It feels like you'll never [[escape]] this...this..place...wherever or whatever it is.
](away|
You return to the hallway. As you exit the (text-color: "red") [red room] you see the liquid coating your shoes in the light coming from the hallway.
(text-style:"blurrier") [Blood]
You begin to run frantically down the (link-show: "hallway.", ?hallway)
[The hallway seems so long, stretching in front of you as if it were a
(link-show: "dream.",?dream) [You remember being put into a cab, your head lolling nauseaously against the cab's window pane. He had his hand on the back of your neck, keeping you upright like a doll (set:$memory to true). a figure in the hallway appears, an imposing black shadow draws closer and closer, you see a [[room]] to your right](dream|
](hallway|
scary:https://courses.digitaldavidson.net/elit20/files/2020/04/Scary_Sound-Mark_DiAngelo-1101865305.mp3,
rod:https://courses.digitaldavidson.net/elit20/files/2020/04/Pennock-Point-Rd-6-1.m4aYou slam the door just as the being overcomes you. The room is (text-style: "shadow")[dark]. Pitch black even.
(if:$key is true)[A small feminine voice whispers to you. "You can turn on the light with the key you (link-show: "found.", ?found)] [You take the small gold key in your hands and feel around the length of the wall to find a (link-show:"hole.", ?hole) [Got it! As you press the key inside, a light casts shadows across the room. Nothing is in the room except your own [[shadow.]]
](hole|
](found|
Suddenly your shadow breaks into several shapes. As if someone is manipulating your body.
(text-style: "shadow") [In front of you, you see a story unfold in a kind of puppetry of light and dark].
(text-color: red)[ The puppets: (cycling-link: bind $puppets, "A Large Man with a Long Beard", "A young woman, scared", "Six Hanging Women", "a key", "a castle")]
(event: when $puppets is "a key")[You remember this story from childhood. Bluebeard: the man with the many dead wives. You always thought it was kind of a copy-cat for Henry the Eigth. (The OG serial killer in your opinion). But this is a [[children's story.]] ]
A voice fills the room. It's booming and crackly.
Do you know what is worse than the evil you (link-show: "don't know?",?know)
[It's an evil you [[know]].
](know|
(if: $memory is true)[You're an (link-show:"adult", ?adult). [But you've never felt more helpless in your life. Whoever's outside might as well be Bluebeard or a wolf or whatever stand-in villain they've picked for the evils that plague women day after day. You have that hollowed out feeling in your stomach like when you're at the peak of a drop in a ride--when you can see the fall (link-show: "coming.", ?coming) [And now you remember, what you desperately tried to [[forget]].
](coming|
](adult|
]He was your friend. It was your favorite bar that you felt comfortable in.
(if: $bluelight is true) [You never viewed him as a threat, least of all a murderous one]
(if: $memory is true)[You trusted him to take you home. You threw up in the Bluelight bathroom. You told him you thought that guy with the blue hair roofied you. So you asked your friend, please take me home. (link-show: "You trusted him",?trust)[He was a good person. But you woke up days later knowing he was no longer a [[good person]]
](trust|
]
The moment you realize this is true. You realize this place isn't a place at all.
It, like all stories, is maze in your mind that hides things you dare not remember.
(if: $name is true)[He didn't have a name like Bluebeard. He had nicknames. Nicknames you gave him, lovingly.]
(if: $fairytalebook is true) [In the story of your life, you never imagined this would be what (link-show "happens.", ?happen) [You never imagined that it would be impossible at first glace to seperate the villains from the heros. The good from the bad.
](happen|
This is work is titled (text-style:"italic")[Bluebeard's Body] by Katie Walsh.
The piece reimagines the fairytale of Bluebeard by Charles' Perrault, analyzing what that fairytale so many years ago seemed to allegorize--sexual assault and abuse.
Therefore, though no graphic scenes are depicted, I recommend a trigger warning for this game.
[[Start]]
Double-click this passage to edit it.