text: [Themes: horror, horror]
  
  The letter was hand delivered but you didn't see by whom and it was certainly after the last post would have been delivered. Checking your pocket watch you notice it's much later than you realised and it is fast approaching midnight; this was something which happened all to often when your head is buried in your studies. You turn the letter over and you see that it was sealed with a purple wax seal you don't recognise. The insignia is a large letter G with what looks like a tentacle wrapping itself about the letter. Your name is written in neat letter across the front, with such precision that you could almost believe it was done with a printing press but the strokes of the fountain pen are detectable enough that this was certainly written by hand.
  
  You don't often receive unexpected correspondence and when you do, it's usually a bill you managed to forget would be due; your head is usually so caught up in your studies that it's easy to forget these day-to-day trivialities.
  
  There's something about this letter which sets you on edge and you can't quite put your finger on why you feel so uneasy about opening it. You hold it up to one of the candles you have burning by your desk. You can't tell much more than you could before but it seems like there is a letter inside and perhaps that's the edge of a watermark you can see on the envelope. You don't think you've ever been sent correspondence in a watermarked envelope before and that uneasy feeling isn't getting any better.
  
  What do you do with the letter?
  
  > burn the letter without opening it.
  The uneasy feeling about the letter gets too much for you and you hold the letter closer and closer to the candle, you're not sure why but you're overcome with a need to burn the letter, to destroy it. Your mind is certain now, the letter must be completely eradicated, it must be burnt, but your arms are stopping you from reaching the flames.
  
  You concentrate harder, you focus all your will on pushing the envelope towards the candle but your arms feel like they've become steel, they are utterly rigid.
  
  You start to panic now, the letter can't be here, it can't stay here; you don't know what will happen if the letter is allowed to exist for a single minute longer but the dread in the pit of your stomach tells you that it will be something truly terrible.
  
  You whip your body around to the left with your arms still rigid in front of you. A flame dances across the bottom of your palm and you stop with the letter right over the flame of another candle. Your arms try to jerk away but you hold them steady; holding them still feels a lot easier than pushing them forwards had been.
  
  The paper begins to blacken where the flame meets the letter and it spreads out across the envelope quickly. The burning reaches your fingers but you just can't let go. You're sure your fingers must be burning now, but you can't feel it, you're just mesmerised by the letter which is emerging from inside the envelope as it burns away. The paper is acid green and somehow untouched by the fire.
  
  As the black and crisp envelope flakes away, the letter inside finally succumbs to the fire and begins to burn. Suddenly, a mark forms on the paper in brilliant light so bright you have to turn your face away from it. The light dims and as you look back, you see that the mark on the paper which has lit up and the same insignia as was imprinted in the wax seal. The G fades away leaving only the tentacles illuminated until the fire engulfs them too.
  
  When the last fraction of paper burns between your now angry red fingers, your grip is released and a flood of pain from the fingers which had been gripping the paper in both hands crashes into you like a wave.
  
  You collapse to your knees on the cold stone floor, your hands still held out in front of you but searing with agony now and you're not sure what came over you, why you felt the need to burn the mysterious letter and you start to feel pangs of regret.
  
  The next morning, with your hands bandaged up as best you had been able to manage with your fingers crippled, your mentor wakes you from your bed. You open your eyes to see her pushing back the curtain which separates your bed from the rest of the room where you work.
  
  "You need to wake up." she says, with an urgency in her voice you haven't often heard. "It's your sister."
  
  Any tiredness you felt from just being woken is gone in an instant as adrenaline surges through you. "Leanne?" you ask, your voice higher than normal. "What about her? Is she alright?"
  
  "She's gone." replies your mentor. "I was near to your parents' house this morning as I came back from the market and heard the ruckus." She hesitates before she speaks again, letting the words sink in to my brain as I try to think exactly when had I last seen my little sister. "I think she was taken yesterday." she says grimly.
  
  Your mind races and as the pain aches from your fingers you find your thoughts going back to the letter you burnt last night. The strange letter which arrived on the day your sister was taken. Why had your burnt it, what had come over you?
  
  You can hear your teacher speaking to you still, but it is all a muffled echo in your ears as you lay back down in your bed, staring at the spot on the floor where you can see the ashes of the letter you hadn't swept up last night. The same feeling which had made it so impossible to move your arms the previous night seems to be affecting your whole body and the image of a G wrapped in tentacles seems to fill your thoughts and your vision and you don't even want to move anymore, you don't see why you should even try.[Themes: family friendly, drama]
  
  Welcome to the campaign season!
  
  This game will take you through a year of a campaign for a small-town mayor. You will try and win the election for mayor and your choices will help decide what will happen in the game.
  
  There are two elections you have to win to win the game: the primary and the general election. If you do not win the primary election, the game will end.
  
  Each month you will be able to do just one thing, so choose carefully! You will need to keep track of your cash, expenses, and don't forget your health -- a lot of campaigning can really take a toll on your health, and that will increase the odds that you make a mistake on the campaign trail.
  
  Have fun and be sure to try again if you don't win the first time.
  
  Note: yes, there are tons of random variables and chances used in this game, so even making the same choices can have different results each time you play the game. If you don't win your first election, please do try again!
  
  [Author's Note: Try to get elected as mayor of your town! This is more game than story. Okay, there's not really much story to this one, it's a game. There are many options and lots of variables, so be sure to play more than once!]
  
  > start the Campaign!
  Ah, the crisp feeling of late Winter!
  
  It is February and not many people really care about elections right now, especially something as "little" as the election for mayor in River Junction. But you know that if you want to win this election, you've got to get started NOW.
  
  You have set up your campaign, filed all the papers, and you're ready to go. But before you can get on the ballot for the November election, you've got to win the primary. Yes, someone else is running in the primary, so you'll have to convince your party's primary voters that you are the best choice. That election is in May, so you only have four months to go! Let's get started and win this election, Mayor!
  
  Or course, the election can't be easy: Dewey McDewerson has also filed to run against you in the primary. He has a strong following in district 5, and he has been active in party politics for a few years now. He's not an impossible opponent, but he is going to campaign, and he is going to get some votes.
  
  What do you want to do in February?
  
  > take a rest (Increase Health)
  Ahhhh.... What a relief!
  
  Taking some time off from a campaign is important, and you certainly enjoy your time off (but not too much, of course, you are a candidate!). Without some time off now and then, you are more likely to make mistakes or just be unable to keep going.
  
  > Continue...
  The moderates seem to like you a little less this month.
  
  The air is starting to get a little warmer as you start to see the first signs of Spring!
  
  Welcome to March: The primary election is now just three months away!
  
  Select an activity for March:
  
  > Attempt to Raise Funds
  You tell your campaign manager that you want to spend time this month focusing on raising funds. You are scheduled to make two stops at party events to speak and get people excited about your campaign. You also send out a direct mailer to try and raise some funds.
  
  This month your campaign raised $210 to add to your campaign war chest!
  
  > Next Month...
  The moderates seem to like you a little less this month.
  
  April showers bring a wet and tired candidate. It is supposed to bring May flowers, but right now all you can think about is that the primary election is coming up next month! You do not have a lot of time left. Now you wish you had started campaigning earlier.
  
  Since you cannot go back in time, all you can do is keep working forward.
  
  Select an activity for April.
  
  > campaign on the Issues, Target your party voters ($100)
  This month you decide to take your campaign to your base. These are your people. They already agree with you on most of the ideas (except for those wackos over in the corner, of course).
  
  You do your best to get them excited and to get them motivated to come out and to vote for you. You even drop a few hints about how bad things might be if that other person is elected.
  
  You sure do hope that these people will actually come out and vote on election day.
  
  > Next Month...
  The moderates seem to like you a little less this month.
  
  Dewey McDewerson just made some bad news and the people like him a little less this month.
  
  Yes, it really is already May. You're sure there are some May flowers outside, but you just don't have time to even look out a window. There are only a few days left before the election, but you have just enough time to do just one more thing to try and lock in that win!
  
  Select an activity for May, the last thing you do before the election.
  
  > campaign on the Issues, Target the middle voters ($100)
  Now you decide to go out there and convince people that you are right. That shouldn't be hard, since you ARE right, aren't you?
  
  The voters you visit with this month aren't big on absolutes, but you already know that, so you try and convince them of the good things that you will do if you are elected and how you can help them once you win.
  
  It seems like they are listening, and they are certainly nodding their heads a lot...but you can't really tell if they care or more importantly, if they're going to show up and vote for you on election day.
  
  > Next Month...
  Whew!
  
  The time is really here. Time for election day. Time to see if your efforts have paid off.
  
  Keep in mind this is just the primary election: You just want to think about winning this one, not that if you win you're going to have to campaign for another six months to try and win the general election!
  
  Time to go to campaign headquarters and watch the election results live...
  
  > view the election results...
  District Votes for you Dewey McDewerson Total
  1 335 (63%) 197 (37%) 532
  2 307 (65%) 166 (35%) 473
  3 233 (48%) 253 (52%) 486
  4 81 (23%) 272 (77%) 353
  5 4 (1%) 400 (99%) 404
  6 149 (46%) 177 (54%) 326
  
  The final totals:
  
  Votes for you: 1109 (43%)
  
  Votes for your opponent: 1465 (56%)
  
  I'm sorry, you lost the election (by 356 votes)!