text: [Themes: Surreal, Horror, hell, Terrorism, psychological, afterlife, London, surreal, amnesia]
  
  > Look around
  Foot of the Mountain: South (as Helen)
  Down here, the pit of fire attacks all your senses at once, your eyes with its intense colour, your ears with the sound of its bubbling and popping, your skin with its searing heat. Just a short distance away over the fire is a small island with a small church on it, and indeed no room for anything else. There's no way over to it, but there is an upright stake lodged in the ground, and a recess next to it where another one might go. There are also paths around the base of the mountain to the west and east, and a way back up to the north.
  
  > put the stake in the hole
  (the wooden stake in the recess)
  You lodge the stake into the recess, and a bridge shimmers into existence, leading southeast.
  
  A body rolls down the mountain, screeching desperately, before expiring in the flames below.
  
  > go southeast
  Church Isle (as Helen)
  A small hexagonal stone church stands here, filling up almost the whole surface area of the island. It's somewhat crooked, and seems to get thinner and more distant the higher up you look, until the spire is like a spindly wire reaching up to the sky. The church is surrounded by a spiky wire mesh fence; there might be an opening around the back, but you can't tell. You can only walk back across the bridge to the northwest. Flames are licking up at the church's foundations, and you have to be careful that they don't claim you too.
  
  > examine the fence
  A wire mesh fence topped with spikes is hugging the walls of the church.
  
  > examine the flames
  It's a colossal pit of constant flame. You can feel its heat from here, and hear the blaze as loudly as if it were already consuming you. You know that it will do so. You belong there.
  
  > pull the fence
  It is fixed in place.
  
  > go to the north-west
  Foot of the Mountain: South (as Helen)
  Down here, the pit of fire attacks all your senses at once, your eyes with its intense colour, your ears with the sound of its bubbling and popping, your skin with its searing heat. Just a short distance away over the fire is a small island with a small church on it, and indeed no room for anything else. You can reach it by a wooden bridge to the southeast, which is held up by two anchoring poles lodged into the ground. There are also paths around the base of the mountain to the west and east, and a way back up to the north.
  
  > Go east
  You follow the rocky path around the base of the mountain, until it suddenly becomes impassable.
  
  Foot of the Mountain: East (as Helen)
  In front of a line of heavy boulders, there's a cage. A cage, large enough for you to get into, and indeed with a door hanging invitingly open. A thick wire is connected to the top of the cage and runs right up into the sky, disappearing into thick cloud. You can still ignore it all and go back to the west, of course.
  
  > look at the cage
  It's a cage, cube-shaped and made of vertical metal bars. A thick cable is tied to the top of it, running all the way up into the clouds above. A door, also made of vertical bars, is hanging open.
  
  > get the pole
  You pull out one of the stakes, and the bridge to the southeast burns up, disappearing in an instant.
  
  There's a scream, and someone rolls down the mountain into the fire.
  
  > enter the cage
  No sooner have you stepped into the cage than the door slams shut, and you start moving upwards. You look out at the side of the mountain, and then the movement gathers pace and before you know it, you've passed the summit. You look up through the bars and see the clouds getting nearer. Far below, the pit of fire is still bubbling and spitting away. You can see the great line of the dead, queuing all the way down the mountainside, waiting to be judged at the top, but now even the judges and the judging table look small and insignificant. Suddenly the vision disappears as you shoot into a cloud. The cage keeps on moving up, and you see the clouds changing colour: the first ones red and fiery, the next ones gradually cooler, whiter, bluer. Then you see people. People looking at you, resting on the clouds and looking at you, pointing at you. Angels casting murderous glances at you. People laughing.
  
  Then the cage stops, and you're looking out at a familiar group of people, playing cards on this white fluffy cloud. Mark is there.
  
  On the Cloud (in the cage) (as Helen)
  Mark, and a couple of unimportant cronies, are playing cards here, here on this cloud. This must be the little place in heaven they've been granted for their unshakeable faith. You get the feeling you should be guilty, but shameless or not, there's only one thing that interests you about the whole scene: the page of your book that's on the table.
  
  > get the page
  (the page)
  You can't reach that from inside the cage.
  
  "What's that whore even doing here?" says one of Mark's cronies.
  
  > Examine page
  (the page)
  A page from your book, a piece of you. But the words are blurred and you can't read them properly.
  
  > examine Mark
  Mark is sitting at the table, playing cards with two of his friends. He's completely ignoring the page that's right next to him, but something also makes you feel that he's guarding it.
  
  "What's that whore even doing here?" says one of Mark's cronies.
  
  > remember
  You can't seem to do that. Your mind's gone blank.
  
  > talk to Mark
  "Mark, look, I'm sorry about what happened. I'm really sorry. But I was wondering... could I have that page please?"
  
  One of Mark's friends snickers. That's all the response you get.
  
  > examine the cronies
  Two of Mark's friends are also sat at the table, concentrating hard on their game. You think one of them is Chris, and the other one is Paul. Or is it Luke? You're not sure. They're all pretty much the same anyway.
  
  > talk to the cronies
  "Would one of you be able to let me out of here please?"
  
  "Did you hear something?" says one of Mark's friends.
  
  "No," he replies. Perhaps if you could somehow prove to Mark that he once cared about you... Which you're fairly sure is true, even if it's incomprehensible.
  
  > ask Mark about the tattoo on the left bicep
  [ You cannot specify topics to talk about. ]
  "Mark, that page you've got there... it's useless to you. Let me have it. Please!"
  
  Nobody answers you, but you notice Mark slowly shaking his head. Maybe you could somehow prove to Mark that he once cared for you. He goes in for that soppy stuff.
  
  > examine the cage
  It's a cage, cube-shaped and made of vertical metal bars. A thick cable is tied to the top of it, running all the way up into the clouds above. The cage is currently shut.
  
  > open it
  It's locked! "Hey there!" you call. "Please can I come out for a little bit?"
  
  They ignore you.
  
  "What's that whore even doing here?" says one of Mark's cronies.
  
  > look at what you're carrying with you
  You are carrying:
  a wooden stake
  a page
  
  > look at the stake
  It's a simple wooden stake that used to be holding up a bridge.
  
  > Sing
  You have an awful singing voice.
  
  "Can't we get rid of that horrible thing over there? I swear I'm going to puke in a minute."
  
  "She's insignificant enough just to ignore," says Mark coolly.
  
  > throw the stake at Mark
  No! You might not be able to get it back.
  
  > show the page to mark
  (the page to Mark)
  "Hey, look at this!" you call. But he doesn't pay any attention.
  
  "We've got to be thankful for the Lord's protection," says Mark. "There's so much evil around."
  
  > About yourself
  You're just as useless in the dream world as in reality.
  
  > wake up
  Suddenly you're awake, and you struggle back into a sitting position, but it feels like you've just come from one nightmare to another. Images and memories from your dreams are parading through your mind, as if you didn't have enough torment.
  
  Carriage (as Helen)
  It's a grey, metal carriage, only slightly longer than it is wide. There's no window, so the only light is from a slim fluorescent lamp in the ceiling that flickers every so often, periodically plunging you into darkness.The floor is littered with dead wasps, but they're not you're only company: a man, probably in his early twenties, is in the same state, leaning against the opposite wall.
  
  > examine the wasps
  Disgustingly, there are about a hundred dead things on the floor - concentrated in the centre of the carriage - bobbing up and down with the train's movement in a grotesque dance. They're bigger than wasps, and they're red, with menacing needles for stinging. It's a good thing they're all dead.
  
  > remember
  Pictures and memories of being a bully are lingering in your head, for whatever reason.
  
  > think
  You're not feeling hungry at the moment - not in the slightest - but what's going to happen when you are? Will the train stop before that happens, and you'll be hauled into a creepy nightmarish abandoned mansion in the middle of nowhere, where your screams will echo throughout the valleys, startling sheep and assorted wildlife but reaching not a single human ear, and you'll be kept barely alive by stringy, tasteless sludge that's shoved under the door once a day? Or will you be lucky and starve to death?
  
  > talk to the man
  You so wish that you could talk. Of course, you have no idea what he's like, but he can't be the bad guy around here. Just having somebody to talk to would make things so much more bearable.
  
  > get up
  You might be able to stand up, but there's no way you can walk anywhere without tripping: your legs are tied together with no fewer than three ropes. And even if you could walk, there is nowhere to go.
  
  > examine the ropes
  The ropes around you and him are the same and are in the same places - two are binding your arms to your sides and three are sticking your legs together. They are all excruciatingly tight.
  
  Suddenly that loud noise comes back, and the red light fills the room again. You can't help your pulse raising. But it happens just like last time: there are little tubes leading into the wall, and some sort of gas is being pumped out of them, but nothing happens. Then they shut.
  
  > remember the bully
  Your primary school. A drab single-storey building surrounded
  on all sides by the most garish green fence. You were standing next to that little extension on the side - you think it was the
  secretary's office or something - and you were trying to count the bricks. A girl came up to you, and then she ran off because you
  told her to go away.
  
  "You can't join me because you can't count," you said. "You're too stupid." You don't know what happened next. You didn't care. Maybe she went and cried in a corner, or maybe she just played with someone else.
  
  > remember girl
  Rhiane was her name. One of many people you looked down on. She
  was stupid, though. She always got the teachers' questions
  wrong. She was enthusiastic, always wanted to answer, but even simple arithmetic eluded her. Still, you were mean to her. You never saw her again after you went to secondary school.
  
  > remember the extension
  It was just a little block jutting out from the main building. The curtains were almost always shut. You think it was the secretary's office.
  
  > remember the primary school
  You don't have too many memories of that place. The building was from the eighties: it was ugly, but not intolerable. The playground was just concrete with hopscotch painted on it and stuff like that; you remember it got really hot in the summer. You spent minimal time outdoors. You were first in line to get in, and you just put your head down and worked, storming through arithmetic workbooks and leaving everyone behind.
  
  > remember secretary
  You can't remember how many bricks it had. You did get an answer, but you can't remember it, nor even how you felt when you finally got it.
  
  > remember the curtains
  The curtains were almost always shut.
  
  > think
  Time to take stock. Here you are, tied up, gagged, sitting on the floor in an iron train car, with only a load of dead wasps and a complete stranger who is similarly incapacitated for company. Now, what does this mean? Can you solve this one by induction? Stop being silly, Helen, this is bloody serious. It means you've been kidnapped. But why would that happen? You can't understand why a kidnapping of this magnitude would happen to a nobody like you. You would expect a random psychopath to just hack your limbs off and be done with it; if somebody is actually keeping you alive, it makes you think they need you for something.
  
  > Inventory
  Your hands are bound to your sides, and honestly, there's nothing here that you'd want to pick up anyway.
  
  Suddenly that loud noise comes back, and the red light fills the room again. You can't help your pulse raising. But it happens just like last time: there are little tubes leading into the wall, and some sort of gas is being pumped out of them, but nothing happens. Then they shut.
  
  > Sleep
  You're feeling surprisingly tired, so even though you'd rather not be off your guard in a situation like this, you can't be bothered to worry about it. You fall down onto your side, shut your eyes, and try to let the train's steady movement send you off.
  On the Cloud (in the cage) (as Helen)
  You're looking out of your prison at the little piece of heaven that Mark and his friends have been given. They're sat at a small table, completely ignoring you, having a game of cards. One of your pages is on the table. If the situation seems hopeless, then you think the lever that's poking through the bars of your cage would send you back down.
  
  > look at the cards
  The card game seems placid, but serious. Mark's hand is unreasonably good. You can't see what the others have got.
  
  "We've got to be thankful for the Lord's protection," says Mark. "There's so much evil around."
  
  > call the tichu
  You don't have a phone.
  
  "Can you smell something?" says a friend of Mark. "It's horrid."
  
  > Down
  How do you propose to get down?
  
  > pull the lever
  Suddenly the whole scene disappears as the cage shoots down into the cloud. It's swaying violently from side to side, shooting down between the clouds, barely giving the other residents chance to see you. Soon you're looking down at the pit of fire far below you, but before you know it the cage has slammed back into the ground and you're back at the side of the mountain.
  
  Foot of the Mountain: East (as Helen)
  In front of a line of heavy boulders, there's a cage. A cage, large enough for you to get into, and indeed with a door hanging invitingly open. A thick wire is connected to the top of the cage and runs right up into the sky, disappearing into thick cloud. You can still ignore it all and go back to the west, of course.
  
  > Go west
  Foot of the Mountain: South (as Helen)
  Down here, the pit of fire attacks all your senses at once, your eyes with its intense colour, your ears with the sound of its bubbling and popping, your skin with its searing heat. Just a short distance away over the fire is a small island with a small church on it, and indeed no room for anything else. There's no way over to it, but there is an upright stake lodged in the ground, and a recess next to it where another one might go. There are also paths around the base of the mountain to the west and east, and a way back up to the north.
  
  > go west
  Foot of the Mountain: West (as Helen)
  Looking west you can see an island, floating on the surface of the fiery sea. A single wooden stake is lodged into the ground here, with a recess next to it, and directly opposite you on the island's shores are two more stakes. You can continue around the mountain to the north, or go back where you came from to the south.
  
  > put the stake in the hole
  (the wooden stake in the recess)
  You lodge the stake into the recess, and a bridge shimmers into existence, leading west.
  
  > Go west
  Coast (as Helen)
  You're on the shores of an island, bigger than the church isle you saw earlier, floating in the pit of fire. The great mountain is visible to the east, and a bridge leads over to its base. There's a crater here, with a signpost next to it that has an arrow pointing down.
  
  There's one of your pages here, glowing faintly.
  
  > get the page
  (the page)
  That was the second of your pages. Somehow, you know there are seven. There's always seven.
  
  > examine sign
  The arrow is pointing straight down.
  
  > look at the crater
  There's a crater, with a radius of almost a metre, and there's a signpost next to it with an arrow pointing straight down.
  
  > read the page
  A page from your book, a piece of you. But the words are blurred and you can't read them properly. Maybe if you were awake you'd be able to concentrate on it?
  
  > wake
  Suddenly you're awake, and you struggle back into a sitting position, but it feels like you've just come from one nightmare to another. Images and memories from your dreams are parading through your mind, as if you didn't have enough torment.
  
  Carriage (as Helen)
  It's a grey, metal carriage, only slightly longer than it is wide. There's no window, so the only light is from a slim fluorescent lamp in the ceiling that flickers every so often, periodically plunging you into darkness.The floor is littered with dead wasps, but they're not you're only company: a man, probably in his early twenties, is in the same state, leaning against the opposite wall.
  
  > remember
  Images from your wretched past are swimming around in your mind: the holiday in Turkey and being a bully. Most prominent are the memories of being a bully.
  
  > remember the Turkey
  There was that nuclear furnace we call the Sun, and though you knew it was the same one, it definitely felt different, beating down on you on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. You felt very dizzy on that walk, because of the heat. You'd gone out of your little holiday cottage on your own, hadn't told your parents where you were going. Mary was in the pool, and you didn't like swimming, so you just left. You walked through the town, wandered in and out of shops, tried to talk to random locals, who didn't answer you, not even if you said "merhaba" or some of the other phrasebook things that you can't remember now. You ended up on this beautiful coastal path, looking out at the glimmering sea and the beautiful rocks poking out of it.
  You were fourteen.
  
  > remember the sea
  You remember looking down at the sea, and all you could think about was what it would be like to jump in. It was a really long way up, and you weren't scared. There was no fence on the side of the cliff - it would have been so easy to just dive down. You knew you wouldn't do it, but you couldn't resist thinking about it.
  
  Usually you wouldn't want to be asleep when you feel in danger, but you've somehow ceased to care. You could do with a nap.
  
  > remember the rocks
  You thought about the rocks poking out from the water. You thought about your jumping trajectory. You imagined what it would be like to fall straight onto the rocks, your blood flowing out to sea.
  
  > Sleep
  You're feeling surprisingly tired, so even though you'd rather not be off your guard in a situation like this, you can't be bothered to worry about it. You fall down onto your side, shut your eyes, and try to let the train's steady movement send you off.