text: [Themes: horror, horror]
  
  You keep your hand on the wall as your make your way around the edge of the entrance hall until you reach the door at the side. You try calling out "Hello?" one more time before you turn the handle and open the door.
  
  The room has a large window at one end and the moonlight is illuminating enough of the room for you to make out that the walls are lined with shelves of books. You step into the room and you're relieved this door hasn't closed behind you at least.
  
  You walk up to the shelves nearest the window and you read some of the spines of the books. They seem to be about various schools of thought regarding the magical arts and you even recognise some of them from your mentor's collection. You pull one of the books out and it's covered with a layer of dust as thick as the leather cover. You put it back on the shelf and cough in the cloud of dust you stirred up.
  
  One of the books then catches your eye as it has some symbols on the spine which look very familiar. You pull the letter out of your pocket and hold it up to the book.
  
  the book reads.
  
  the letter reads.
  
  All three of the symbols on the book are clearly on the letter as well. What can this book be you wonder to yourself. You pick up the book and immediately notice that it is only covered in a very thin layer of dust, this book hasn't been here for very long.
  
  You turn the book to face you and see that the cover is simply a huge eye with no further writing on it. You turn to look around you and just as your eyes are leaving the book, you're sure that you see the eye blink!
  
  You stare back at the book and the eye looks just as it had, an obvious painting of an eye and in no way a real one, but you're certain you saw it blink.
  
  What do you do with the book?
  
  > put the book back on the shelf.
  There's something about this book which gives you the chills. You might find information inside it but something tells you that the cost of that information would be too great and it's an instinct you think it is wise to follow.
  
  You go to put it back on the shelf and as you do, you hesitate, it feels as though the book wants you to read it. "No." you tell the book firmly, and yourself as you return the book resolutely to the space on the shelf where you found it. You take a few steps back from the shelf and turn away from it before you're tempted to go back and read it.
  
  You walk across the room to a small table flanked by two chairs which has a chess board inlaid into the tabletop. On the table is a small box, tied up with a ribbon and there is a tag attached to the ribbon. You pick up the box and when you hold the tag to the light, you see that it has your name written on it. You put the box quickly back onto the table and take a step back.
  
  You crouch down so that your eyes are level with the table and you examine the box from what you hope is a safe distance. It's a small box, about the size of your closed fist. Whoever sent you that letter, knew that you'd be coming here and they obviously meant you ill judging by the trap which was contained in the letter. This box might hold something equally, or more, terrible. On the other hand, they wanted you to come here and they took your sister, or more importantly told you about the fact they took your sister, for a reason.
  
  What do you do with the box?
  
  > open the box.
  Something nags at you that you need to see what is in this box. It's been left there for you, it was intended for you to open it. What if the box contains instructions for how to find your sister? You have to know.
  
  You step forwards and pick up the box again, ignoring the voice in your head telling you that this is a bad idea, this feels different to the book, this was meant for you to open. You pull on the ribbon and it unties and falls to the floor. You yank the lid of the box off as quickly as you are able, before you can change your mind.
  
  You stare inside the box, this isn't what you expected, although you realise that a part of your feared it, you just didn't want to admit it.
  
  Inside is a small finger, the size of a child's. It was cut a little short of the knuckle, straight through the bone with a clean cut. Next to the finger, coated in blood, is the ring you gave your little sister for her birthday last year, a silver snake eating its own tail in a neverending loop known as the ouroboros.
  
  You let out a quiet whimper as you place the box carefully back on the table, pick up the lid which had fallen to the floor from your hand at some point and gently place it back onto the box.
  
  This won't help you to find her, you have to focus on finding her and not let this distract you. You use a meditative breathing technique you use for the spells you cast which need the most focus and push the box and it's dreadful contents from your mind and walk deeper into the library.
  
  > Continue
  As you walk further back into the darkness of the library, pushing thoughts of the box to the back of your mind, you notice that you can see the outline of door at the end of the room; there must be light in the next room which is seeping around the door to the library. You take a big breath and walk towards the light.
  
  When you reach the outline of the what must be a door, it looks like just a continuation of the wood panelling on this side of the room, you never would have thought there was a door here if there hadn't have been light coming through from the other side. You feel around the panel but there's no handle. You start to feel along every crevasse of the panel, pushing and pulling, and suddenly, when you push into a section on the right-hand side, the door pushes in and pops out again and opens towards you.
  
  The door leads to a small room which is brightly lit by several large lanterns. You have to look away whilst you allow time for your eyes to adjust to the brightness of it. When you're finally able to see properly, you take a proper look into the room. The walls are painted white and there is a small black altar in the centre against the back wall of the tiny room. There are many, many more of the kinds of symbols from the letter painted onto the altar with red paint, you hope it's red paint at least.
  
  The only other thing in the room is on the wall above the altar and it was the first thing you saw when you opened the door. There, hung in a frame, surrounded by more symbols, is a photograph of your sister from a couple of years ago when your parents hired a photographer for your grandmother's funeral. She looks innocent and vulnerable and you shudder at thoughts of what they are doing to her right now and what greater purpose they have for taking her.
  
  You stand there staring at your sister's photograph. You don't remember when you last saw the photograph in your parents' house and you wonder if they took it from there when they took Amelia or earlier than that. You finally snap out of it and slam the door closed, clicking it back into place. You leave the library, more determined than ever to find your sister and put a stop to whatever the people who have taken her are up to.
  
  Where do you want to go now?
  
  > go down the corridor underneath the stairs.
  With no answer to your calls, you decide to venture deeper into the house. You walk carefully across the open entrance hall, finding it harder and harder to see in the darkness of the house. You reach the corridor which passes underneath the sweeping staircase and your leg brushes what feels like a table to your right. You put your hand down to it and feel the edge of the table.
  
  As you move your hand over the table you feel a box of matches. You grab it quickly, push the tray and carefully take a match out. You feel around the box for the strike strip and the match flares the life, temporarily blinding you as your eyes adjust to having light once more.
  
  You hold the match out over the table and there is a candle in a holder. You move the match to the wick before the flame reaches your fingers and the candle takes the flame. You shake out the match before it burns you and drop it onto the table. You pick up the candle and hold it up to the corridor in front of you.
  
  For an instant in the darkness, you think you see a figure at the end of the corridor but as you focus you can clearly see there is no-one down there, it must have been a trick of the light, with all the shadows the candlelight was casting.
  
  You can see now that there are two doors leading off from the corridor, one to the left and one to the right, and a half-open door at the end though the light doesn't cast far enough ahead yet to see what lies beyond that door.
  
  Which way do you go?
  
  > go through the door to the left.
  You walk over to the door on the left side of the corridor, turn the handle and push the door open. You hold the candle out in front of you and you can see a large room with a long table running down the centre, surrounded by chairs. A large chandelier hangs over the centre of the table and reflects spots of light from your candle.
  
  You step into the room, furthering the light the candle is spreading into the room. The table is the longest you have ever seen with enough chairs around it to seat twenty people. There is a candlestick in the centre of the table and something else down at the far end of it.
  
  You walk down the room towards the end of the table and as you get closer, you start to make out what it sat in front of the chair at the head of the table, it's a small box.
  
  When you reach the box, you find that it has a ribbon tied around it and a tag attached. You lift up the tag and find that it is addressed to you.
  
  Do you open the box?
  
  > open the box.
  You pull on the ribbon and it falls away from the box easily. You lift the lid and peer inside to see there is a small vial in there, with a cork stopper. You reach into the box and lift the vial out.
  
  The vial is full of liquid, a slightly thick liquid which clings to the side of the glass a little as you tilt it back and forth. You hold it up to the candle flame and as the light passes through the edges of the liquid you can see that it is a dark red. You realise then, that this is blood.
  
  A vial of blood left in a box, nay a present, addressed to you in a house only the people who have taken your sister know to expect you in; there's only one possible source of the blood and it hits you like a kick to your stomach. "Amelia!" you cry out loud desperately. "Amelia!" you shout now, hoping to hear a reply, some clue as to where in this hideous place she is, but there's no answer from the house.
  
  You drop the vial back into the box on the table. Your sister obviously isn't in here so you hurry out of the room to try and find her.
  
  Which way do you go from the corridor?
  
  > go through the door to the right.
  You turn the handle on the door to the right, push the door open and the candlelight spreads out into the room and the first thing you see is a grand piano, the lid still propped open as though it had been recently played.
  
  You step into the room and see that the piano is set up with a wide bay window area surrounding it. You walk over to the piano, sit down on the stool and see that there is some sheet music set up on the piano. You hold the candle up to it and see that the title reads Opus 31, Prelude No. 8 by C.V. Alkan. This isn't a piece that you've heard of but you know how to play the piano and the music looks to be pretty easy.
  
  Do you play the music?
  
  > play the music on the piano.
  It's been a few years since you last played the piano, when you still lived at your parents' house, but your hands feel comfortable sitting back onto the keys.
  
  You start to play the deep bass chords and the sound seems deafening in the quiet of the house but it somehow feels right to be making music here. Your right hand starts to pick out the melody of the piece and you think you see something move out of the corner of your eye but you can't be sure.
  
  You get more and more drawn in to the strange, at some times jarring, melody, the deep chords still booming out in a slightly off pitch; you're vaguely aware of several figures in the room but you can't seem to stop playing the piece of music. Your back feels slightly itchy as you sense the presence of someone behind you but you carry on playing, unable to tear you eyes away from the music, unable to stop playing.
  
  You reach the final note of the melody in the piece and as you release the final chord it feels as though the piano's grip on you as suddenly been loosed and you almost fall backwards at the release. As you jerk backwards, a black gloved hand covers your nose and mouth from behind and an arm is wrapped around your throat, choking you. You feel the cloth of a bag going over your head and everything goes black.
  
  You slowly start to come to, the first thing you notice is how uncomfortable your arms are behind your back. You drift closer to consciousness and manage to tell your arms to move, to end the discomfort, but they don't respond. This acts as a catalyst to you fully waking and you slowly open your eyes.
  
  The room you are in has no windows but it is lit by about eight flaming braziers around the edges of it. It looks about the same size as the entrance hall to the building, but with a much lower ceiling. There are figures in black cloaks, their heads covered by tall hoods, stood in a circle around the centre of the room and chanting something which you can't make out. You can see through the gaps between them that there is some kind of symbol painted on the floor in white, with candles and other things you can't make out around it.
  
  You shift your body awkwardly, your hands are bound behind your back and your legs are bound together with rope and there is a cloth tied around your head at your mouth, gagging you. You manage to manoeuvre enough to sit upright, your back against a wall of the room, and from your new vantage point, you can see what is in the centre of the circle of hooded figures, what is in the centre of the symbol painted on the floor.
  
  "Amelia!" you cry out, but it comes out as just a muffled noise. None of the hooded figures react your moving or attempted shouting, though it's possible they couldn't hear you over the sound of their chanting which is starting to really unnerve you.
  
  You push your back up against the wall and use your legs to push you up it until you're in a slightly unstable standing position. You have a different perspective on the circle now as you look between the shoulders of the hooded figures and you can now see the symbol which is painted onto the floor which swoops around your sister with a line intersecting the curve and forming a solid line around her.
  
  You can see a few of the items which are dotted around the symbol now, they look like figurines of strange, alien, hideous creatures; something about them screams inside your head when you look at them. Your sister is curled up on the floor, there are no tears and you realise she must have expended all the energy she had for crying some time ago, she was probably now into the midst of despair.
  
  You stand there, with your legs bound, with your hands tied behind your back, and you struggle to think of a way in which you can help your sister. You look around desperately for something you can use to free your bonds, something you can do which will help her. You try to think if there is any magic you can do without any ingredients, without any equipment and without even the use of your hands but you can't think of anything which can help.
  
  Then you see a table in a corner of the room, a small table with three large knives laid out carefully on it. As quietly as you can, you start to hop around the edge of the room towards the table.
  
  The chanting abruptly stops and all of the hooded figures turn to face you in unison. You stop dead and lean back against the wall to keep your balance, wishing you could do veiling magic like your mentor can, wishing you could blend into the room and not be seen, but your talents were never for the subtleties of veiling and your emotions right now would probably prevent you from being able to create one even if you had the capabilities.
  
  Three figures break away from the circle and walk over to you whilst you see a fourth one go to the table in the corner that you were trying to reach yourself. You struggle as they grab you but with your limbs restricted, there's only so much you can do and they carry you over to the centre of the room.
  
  They lay you down on the symbol painted in the floor over the line which intersects the curve. Three of them are holding you in place and your struggling only serves to tire you out. One figure holds a knife directly above your face, point down and the hooded figures all start chanting again; they're chanting something different this time, you can't make out the words but the rhythm of the chant is quite different.
  
  You look over to your sister and she is staring blankly at you, curled up, hugging her knees as she lies on her side. You try to yell at her to help you but the gag is muffling your words and Amelia isn't reacting at all, she seems to be completely catatonic and you shudder to think of what they have done to her to put her in that state.
  
  You look around in complete desperation for something or someone to help you, but all you can see is the hooded figures and the knife. A dark mist seems to be curling around you now, slowly winding around each part of your body. Once it has completely encapsulated you, you see the mist start to resolve into a shape with your body within it.
  
  The mist shape becomes a great beast with tentacles sprouting from its face and huge, lumpy limbs which look as though they're formed from many tumours and lesions. You feel your body rise up as the mist figure rises and then you feel the knife slice across your throat and the wet of your blood running down your neck and chest, and then there is nothing but blackness.