(set:$NScratch=0)
(set:$WScratch=0)
(set:$EScratch=0)
With a start and a gasp, you awake to find yourself ~~lying~~ in a dark room.
[[Get up->South_standing]]
Now that you're standing, you begin to get your bearings.
While fumbling around in the darkness, you come into contact with a wall. Steadying yourself against it, your eyes begin to adjust to the near-total darkness of the room, settling on a faint light source directly across from you.
With nothing to compare to, it's impossible to tell how far away the light source is.
[[Walk across->South_center_lost]]
After walking for seems like hours, you become exhausted and decide to take a break. As soon as you sit down, your back comes into contact with the wall. You haven't made any progress at all.
You consider a different approach.
[[Walk across->South_center_lost]]
[[Walk left->North_center]]
[[Walk right->North_center]]
You walk along the wall for a while~~, making sure to keep your hand against it~~. The wall feels perfectly smooth, and it isn't long before you fall into a sort of trance, methodically plodding along until, abruptly, your knee smashes into a wooden pedestal.
Picking yourself up from the ground for the second time, you find yourself standing in front of a lantern. Looking around, you can't see the faint light source from earlier.
[[Get lantern->North_center2]]
The lantern is very simple and minimalistic - nearly a perfect paper cube except for the brass handle on the top and the small, persistent fire that enters the cube from beneath.
~~Upon further inspection, you can't figure out what's feeding the fire, nor the mechanism that keeps it from lighting the cube on fire.~~
As you turn to face the abyss once more, you shiver. There is the persistent, vague feeling of being watched.
[[Examine wall->North_center_wall]]
[[Walk across the room->North_center_lost]]
[[Walk left->East_center]]
[[Walk right->North_center_left]]
As you lift the lantern to examine the wall, you realize that it's nearly transparent. You can just barely make out something through the wall.
[[Look harder->North_center_wall2]]
[[Walk left->East_center]]
[[Walk right->North_center_left]]
After walking for seems like hours, you become exhausted and decide to take a break. As soon as you sit down, your back comes into contact with the wall. You haven't made any progress at all.
You consider a different approach.
[[Examine wall->North_center_wall]]
[[Walk across->North_center_lost]]
[[Walk left->East_center]]
[[Walk right->North_center_left]]
After turning a corner and nearly an hour of walking, you find yourself in front of a window.
As you set your lantern on the window ledge, you spot movement on the other side of the glass.
[[Look through the window->East_fail]]
[[Remove lantern->East_center2]]
[[Walk left->West_center]]
[[Walk right->North_center3]]
As usual, you keep your hand glued to the wall as you walk. Suddenly, the texture changes.
Upon further examination of the wall, you see that there is a word scratched into the wall vertically. It starts near the ceiling some 4 or 5 feet above you and it spells out...
''Nothing''
You also come to realize that you can make out the shape of a door through the wall~~, as if the wall was paper thin~~.
[[Open the door->North_center_left2]]
[[Walk left->North_center3]]
[[Walk right->West_center]]
Squinting, face pressed against the wall...
[[Focus->North_center_wall3]]
you [[see->North_center_wall4]]...
~~.....................
.....................
.....................
..........[[.->South_lying]]..........
.....................
.....................
.....................~~
Slowly, you reach out to the door through the wall, and it opens silently.
As you step through the once-solid wall, you feel something shift behind you.
The door closes just as silently as it opened.
This time, as you examine the wall, you realize there are two words scratched onto the wall.
''Nothing''
''Nobody''
You can still make out the door through the wall.
[[Open the door->North_center_left3]]
[[Walk left->North_center3]]
[[Walk right->West_center]]
After turning a corner and several more minutes of walking, you find yourself in front of a massive mural.
In brilliant reds and blues, covering the wall from floor to [[ceiling->West_ceiling]], the image of a whale towers over you.
Softly, in the distance, you hear a low hum. It strikes you as bearing resemblance to a whale's song, but with the melody of a ~~mother's~~ lullaby.
[[Walk left->North_center3]]
[[Walk right->East_center]]
Slowly, you reach out to the door through the wall, and it opens silently.
As you step through the once-solid wall, you feel something shift behind you.
The door closes just as silently as it opened.
This time, as you examine the wall, you realize there are three words scratched onto the wall.
''Nothing''
''Nobody''
''Nowhere''
You can still make out the door through the wall.
[[Open the door->North_center_left4]]
[[Walk left->North_center3]]
[[Walk right->West_center]]
Slowly, you reach out to the door through the wall, and it opens silently.
As you step through the once-solid wall, you feel something shift behind you.
The door closes just as silently as it opened.
This time, as you examine the wall, you realize there are
~~no words~~
four huge scratches, as if a massive predator had attempted to rip through the wall from the ceiling downwards.
(set:$NScratch=1)
You can no longer make out a door through the wall.
(if: $NScratch+$WScratch+$EScratch is 1)[Far away, in the distance, you hear a rumble.](if: $NScratch+$WScratch+$EScratch is 2)[Something vicious growls nearby.](if: $NScratch+$WScratch+$EScratch is 3)[A roar fills your very soul and shakes the entire room.]
~~It sounds like a hungry fire~~
[[Walk left->North_center3]]
[[Walk right->West_center]]
~~On the ceiling, you can just barely make out a line in a beautiful, elegant cursive:
"How many toes does a whale have?"~~
[[1->West_ceiling_fail]]
[[2->West_ceiling_fail]]
[[3->West_ceiling2]]
[[4->West_ceiling_fail]]
[[5->West_ceiling_fail]]
~~You hear your mother whisper, "No."
[[P.->West_ceiling]]~~
As you whisper "Three", the ceiling itself tears apart, peeling away like bark on a tree.
Beneath the words are four massive scratch marks, made by some ~~minotaur~~ beast.
(set:$WScratch=1)
(if: $NScratch+$WScratch+$EScratch is 1)[Far away, in the distance, you hear a rumble.](if: $NScratch+$WScratch+$EScratch is 2)[Something vicious growls nearby.](if: $NScratch+$WScratch+$EScratch is 3)[A roar fills your very soul and shakes the entire room.]
[[Walk left->North_center3]]
[[Walk right->East_center]]
As you peer through the window, the lantern goes out.
~~You become aware of huge, bulbous, endless, bottomless red eyes staring at you through the [[darkness.->East_darkness]]~~
As you pull the lantern down from the window ledge onto the floor, you see more movement through the window.
Then, [[nothing.->East_center3]]
~~It roars.
You
[[fall.->South_lying]]~~
~~[[Darkness.->East_fail2]]
[[Silence.->East_center4]]~~
//Where there is silence, there are no [[lies.->East_center5]]//
~~You become aware of huge, bulbous, endless, bottomless red eyes staring at you through the [[darkness.->East_darkness]]~~
Suddenly, there is the sound of glass shattering.
As you raise the lantern from the floor, there is no window to be found.
In it's place are four long, brutal scratch marks.
(set:$EScratch=1)
(if: $NScratch+$WScratch+$EScratch is 1)[Far away, in the distance, you hear a rumble.](if: $NScratch+$WScratch+$EScratch is 2)[Something vicious growls nearby.](if: $NScratch+$WScratch+$EScratch is 3)[A roar fills your very soul and shakes the entire room.]
[[Walk left->West_center]]
[[Walk right->North_center3]]
After a significant amount of walking in a straight line, you arrive once more at the pedestal.
[[Examine wall->North_center_wall]]
[[Walk right->North_center_left]]
[[Walk left->East_center]]
(if: $NScratch+$WScratch+$EScratch is 3)[[[Walk away->Endgame]]]
As you walk into the [[abyss->Endgame2]], the floor drops out from under you.
Before you roars a [[flame->Endgame3]], surrounded on four sides by white marble walls.
As you close your eyes,
~~you imagine
a
[[sunset->Endgame4]]~~
~~and
[[what you're remembering->Endgame5]]~~
~~''God is [[a->Endgame5_our]] [[house.->Endgame6]]''~~
~~[[House of->Credits]] [[Leaves->Endgame6_lies]]~~
Thanks for playing.
Made by Brandon Zhou for English108: Gaming and Narrative
Based on //House of Leaves// by Mark Danielewski
~~''God is [[our->Endgame5]] [[house.->Endgame6]]''~~
~~[[House of->Credits]] [[Lies->Endgame6]]~~