text: [Themes: horror, horror]
  
  You walk up to the door on the right-hand side of the corridor and you pause before you turn the handle of the door, was that a noise you heard inside? It sounded like a click, a familiar noise but you can't quite place it. You press your ear against the door but you don't hear anything again, maybe your mind is playing tricks on you.
  
  You cautiously and slowly turn the handle and open the door a little, holding the candle to the gap and peering in. You can see something large in the centre of the room and you open the door fully and let the candlelight spill into the room fully.
  
  Most of the room is taken up with a large snooker table in the centre of it. The balls used are the more modern snooker balls and they are spread out across the table and you can see a couple of balls in the pockets. A single cue is leaning up against the table on the far side of it. You look around the room and see a rack of cues for the snooker table on one wall, various comfortable-looking leather chairs around the room and a small cabinet in the far left corner with three crystal decanters on top.
  
  You walk over to the cabinet and see that one of the decanters has an amber liquid in it and there is a matching glass next to it which when you look at closer has a trace of the amber liquid in it. You smell the glass and you recognise the scent of whisky immediately, something your father has always enjoyed. You open the cabinet and see two bottles of whisky inside it, both opened and partially depleted. You're a little tempted to have some yourself to steady your nerves but you're not in the habit of drinking alcohol and you're not sure how it would affect you, you need all of your mental and physical facets in full working order if you're to have any hope of finding and saving your sister.
  
  You turn around to look at the rest of the room and you jump when the light from your candle falls on a wall of spikes and tendrils moving towards you. You back is pressed against the wall when you realise that they're not moving, it was the candle which was moving causing the shadows to move, and they're not spikes and tendrils, they're horns and antlers; the wall is covered in taxidermied and mounted heads of animals.
  
  You stare at the wall of dead animal heads for a while before you're confident that none of them are moving. You manage to tear your eyes away from the wall of heads and back to the snooker table in the middle of the room and then you realise, the click you heard when you were outside the door, it was the sound of a snooker ball hitting another one. The solo cue standing against the side of the table now looks very ominous to you and you slowly start bending down to look at the one place in the room where there is room for a person to be hiding.
  
  You stop bending down partway, realising that if you find someone underneath there, you're completely unarmed. You straighten and take one of the cue from the bracket on the wall; you're not sure what exactly you're going to do with the cue, poke them underneath the table perhaps, but you feel better with a weapon in one hand.
  
  You bend down slowly, trying not to lower the light too obviously so that anyone underneath there won't be forewarned that you're about to discover them, but it's too dark underneath the table and you need to lower the candle too.
  
  You lower the candle far enough to be able to see underneath the table and you discover... nothing. You stand back up, surprised, walk over to the table and bed down again, and the same result, there is absolutely nothing underneath the table, certainly not a person under there.
  
  What do you do now?
  
  > go to the branching corridor.
  You take a few steps forwards and turn into the corridor to your left. It was probably the shadows cast by your candle as you turned, but it looked for a moment like a dark figure moved quickly from somewhere on the corridor to the right. It's probably your paranoia but you look all around you, checking you're alone just in case.
  
  You start to walk down the corridor until you can see that there is a door to your left, a door a little further down to your right, a door further down from that on your left and another ornate window at the end of the corridor. The light from the window at the end of the corridor looks a little different on the right-hand side compared to the left-hand side and you wonder if there is something else down there too.
  
  Which way do you go?
  
  > go through the first door to the left.
  You walk the few paces to the closest door and see that it is already slightly open. You push the door open tentatively and stand back for a moment. Nothing happens. You step forwards into the doorway allowing the candlelight to be cast into the room.
  
  You give a sharp intake of breath when you see that this is, or rather was, a child's room, and it resonates so strongly that this could be easily your sister's room. The bed in the centre of the right side wall, looks so small even compared to the area you sleep in at the laboratory; the bed is neatly made, the bedding all left in place as though people still loved here. You move over to the bed and see blue stars and angels embroidered on the top blanket, this was obviously a little girl's room.
  
  A chest of drawers stands against the opposite wall, with a small mirror and hairbrush on top of it. A tiny rocking chair with a small tasselled cushion on it sits in a corner, perfectly still, with a porcelain doll in a white dress propped onto the seat, awkwardly leaning to one side.
  
  You look underneath the bed, ignoring a childhood fear of monsters underneath your own bed, but find only balls of dust there. You walk over the chest of drawers and methodically open each drawer, only to find them all completely empty. You kneel down and look underneath the chest of drawers and see a small leather suitcase. You grab the suitcase by the handle, undo the buckles and open the case. Inside is what was probably once a much loved bear, his fur worn and matted, one ear torn a little from its head. You wonder what happened to the child who used to love here and if they missed the bear they left behind.
  
  The room makes you feel a keen sense of loss for a your sister's childhood as she suffers whatever ordeal she is being put through and you fight the melancholy this brings on in order to keep looking for her and to do your best to save her. You put the child's room behind you, leaving the room and closing the door behind you.
  
  Which way do you go?
  
  > go through the door to the right.
  You open the door of the room on the right and find to your surprise that there is already a light in this room, a candelabra on the other side of the room sits burning five black candles and illuminating the room better than the small candle you are carrying can.
  
  The room is dominated by a large, four-poster bed, with purple velvet hangings closed around every side. A small table flanks the bed on each side and a small leather chair nestles in the corner on one side. At the foot of the bed, a large trunk stands the width of the bed and you can see a large metal catch on the front of it.
  
  A large glass or crystal chandelier hangs from the ceiling in the middle of the room, reflecting the light from both the candelabra on the far side of the room and the candle in your own hand. To your left and right against the same wall the door is on, are two large wardrobes and a large chest of drawers and in the centre of the room is a small, round table with a glass tabletop.
  
  On the wall opposite the door is a large, sweeping bay window area with a chaise lounge filling most of the area within it. The curtains are open and the moon is contributing its light to the room as well. To the right is a dressing table, on which the candelabra is stood, with three mirrors attached to the back of it, allowing the candlelight to bounce off them and be sent to more corners of the room, illuminating several small seats around the furniture in the room and a large full length mirror stood in the corner near the dressing table.
  
  You allow the door to swing fully open and you continue pushing it open until it has reached the interior wall for fear that someone could have been hiding behind it, as certainly someone was here very recently who had lit the candles. You step very cautiously into the room, looking all around you at all times, expecting whoever lit those candles to still be here, but you make it over to the chaise lounge without anyone bursting out from a wardrobe or underneath the bed or anything, although you know that doesn't mean that they won't of course.
  
  The room has been decorated in pale gold and dark wood, giving the furniture a deep contrast to the soft furnishings, all except for the bed which looms in darkness as it stands away from the candles and the moonlight with the curtains in a deep purple colour. There's something about the bed which is making you feel uneasy and you instinctively go to the other side of the room instead.
  
  You open one of the drawers in the chest of drawers and find it full of clothing for a gentleman, seemingly clean and freshly pressed. You open another drawer and find the same, in fact all of the drawers when you open them contain similar clothes; this is the first room you've gone into which seems as though it is being lived in, which is simultaneously comforting as something so familiar, and disconcerting as you don't know who they are or what they're capable of.
  
  You go to the dressing table and find a variety of grooming items lying on the table next to the candelabra, including a comb, a shaving brush, moustache wax and a razor. You pick up the razor and open it out, the blade looks well cared for. You hold a section of your robes taut and drag the razor across the fabric, it makes a clean cut straight through the thick material and you nod your head approvingly at the sharpness. You close the razor and drop it into a pocket in your robes.
  
  You very hesitantly approach the closest of the large wardrobes, a modern item of furniture which seems very oversized to you, and unnecessary when clothes being folded in drawers was perfectly sufficient. As the wooden towers loom over you now, your opinion of them worsens and you vow if you make it through this alive, you'll never get a wardrobe, even if you manage to become a very successful wizard. You unhook the latch on the door, pull the door open and step back in one smooth, quick motion.
  
  You jump to one side when you see a shadowed figure inside the wardrobe and you manage to fumble the razor into your hand with the candle in the other hand but you don't manage to open the razor before you realise that the figure hasn't left the wardrobe, they're not coming for you.
  
  You hold your candle up towards the wardrobe and take a step closer. You then almost smack yourself in the head for your own foolishness, it's a dinner suit hanging up with a top hat on the shelf above, not a person at all. You chuckle to yourself slightly in relief and walk up to the wardrobe and open the other door. The other side of the wardrobe has a few suits hanging up as well and you close the doors smiling to yourself. Then you look over to the other wardrobe.
  
  What do you want to do?
  
  > open the other wardrobe.
  You're feeling far less intimidated by the other wardrobe after your paranoid overreaction to the first one and you confidently stride over to the second wardrobe, flick open the catch and open the door.
  
  All confidence leaves you as you yelp and leap backwards in pure, primal terror. Your back is against the bay window before you even realised you had moved and you're staring fixedly at the open wardrobe door.
  
  Across the open doorway is a very large web covering the entire door and sat in the middle of the web is a gigantic spider, the like of which you have never seen before. From the size of it, you can only assume it has been feeding on rats or birds or maybe small children, and a picture of Amelia flashes across your mind.
  
  You're just managing to focus your mind to think about moving, when the giant spider beats you to it and starts to climb down its monstrous web. You stand very still, hoping not to attract the attention of the beast spider as it starts to lower itself from a newly spun web down the front of the wardrobe.
  
  It lands on the floor and you actually hear it thud onto the rug when it touches down. All of your instincts are screaming to move, to get off the floor, to get to a different level to where the spider is, but you're too scared to move and you just keep watching the spider instead.
  
  It starts walking across the room, not towards you but towards the bed. It gets to the foot of the bed, stops, turns, and starts moving directly towards you.
  
  This is too much for you and you leap on top of the chaise lounge, pulling your robes high up with you around your knees, being sure not to give the spider a way of easily climbing up. The huge spider is getting closer and you think you're going to have to go out the window to get away, when it stops again, turns, and this time runs straight out of the door, faster than any creature should be able to travel. You dash across the room and quickly close the door after it and your heart starts to slow down a little. It's far too big to be able to get in through the gaps around the door, you're safe from it now. You kick the wardrobe door closed again and hope there wasn't another one in there too.
  
  After getting your breathing back under control and your heart beating at a normal, if slightly quickened, rate again, you decide to open the trunk at the foot of the bed and hope not to find another monster inside this one.
  
  > Continue
  The trunk has a catch on it with a slot for a padlock but there isn't one attached. You flip up the catch, grip it and use it to pull up the lid.
  
  Inside, the trunk is full of black. You hold the candle closer, leaving the lid of the trunk leaning back against the bed, and yes, it's completely full of black. You grab some of the black and pull it out, it's a black cloth which seems to absorb all light from around it. You place the candle on the little glass table behind you and use both of your hands to shake the material out and you find that it's a robe, not that dissimilar to yours but with a large hood which would fall forwards to cover the face on any normal sized person.
  
  You throw the robe around your shoulders and try it on, on top of your own brown apprentice robes. You fasten the catch around the front of the robe and put the hood up, letting it fall down in front of your face. Something feels very wrong about wearing the robe, you get a really bad feeling all the way up your spine and your instincts are screaming at you to take it off.
  
  What do you do?
  
  > take the robe off.
  When it comes to magic, your mentor taught you to always listen to your instincts and you pull the robe from you just as your mind started to see visions of a ritual circle. When the robe hits the floor, the wave of negative energy and then the hit of it no longer being there, turns your stomach into knots and you find yourself retching next to the trunk.
  
  You take a few deep breaths and centre your energy, calming your stomach and more importantly, your mind. You look down at the robe on the floor and you need to get it away from you as quickly as you can. You hook one foot underneath the robe and with one smooth motion you whip the robe up into the air and back into the trunk before you slam the lid of the trunk down on top of it and plonk yourself down on top of the closed trunk with a sigh of relief.
  
  Once you're over the trauma of having worn the robe, the disappointment of a missed opportunity hits you as you think about how good it would have been to be able to blend in with your enemy and then strike with the element of surprise from within their own ranks. You shake your head, reinforcing to yourself that it wouldn't have happened like that, that the robe had been worn through so much evil magic that it buzzed with negative power, that you would most likely have joined their ranks rather than struck at them from within them. You focus your mind and stand up, moving on from the horrible experience altogether.
  
  You look around the room and the bed and area around it are the only part of the room you haven't examined, though it seems the least likely area to hold any answers as well.
  
  What do you do now?
  
  > look further around the bed area of the room.
  You pull the notebook that you found in the house out of your robe pockets and use the bookmark to turn to the map you found in there, holding the book up to the candle sat on the little glass table in the middle of the room. You turn the map around until it's oriented the same way as the room and you're sure this is a map of this floor of the house, which would put that little red circle in this room. You check the layout of the room and the position of the red circle and it looks like it must be right about the left-hand side of the bed against the wall. You close the notebook and put it back into your robes pocket.
  
  You pick up the candle and walk around the bed to the left hand side of the bed and the small table stood next to it. The bed itself is hidden by the deep purple curtains hanging from the canopy. You pull the nearest curtain to one side and hold your candle up high; you see that the bed is elaborated covered in bedding and soft furnishings with golden blankets and purple pillows and cushions and a golden bolster with a purple trim at the foot of the bed. When you look closer, you notice that some of the bedding is pulled back on the side closest to you as though it was recently slept in.
  
  You draw back from the bed itself and turn your attention to what is around it. The little table stands next to the bed and there is an unlit candle sat on it with a small, leather bound book next to it. You move over to the table and take a closer look at the book. You flick through the pages but they're all covered in the strange symbols like the ones from the letter you were sent, you can't read any of it so you put it back down.
  
  You take out the notebook again and check the map but you're certain that circle is over this area of the room. You pocket the notebook again and you get down onto all fours and hold the candle carefully underneath the bed. Nothing looks strange underneath the bed until you take a closer look by the legs of the bed next to the wall and you notice a small recess in the wall, about the right size for a few fingers. You slide your fingers into the recess and find that they curl around what feels like a post. You pull and find that it is actually a lever and when you release it again, the wall behind the little table next to you moves back a couple of inches and then slides behind the wall the bed is stood in front of.
  
  You get back to your feet quickly and hold your candle out towards the hole in the wall now and see that there is a set of steps going upwards.
  
  What do you do now?
  
  > ascend the stairs.
  You found a hidden staircase, you think that surely this will help you find your sister; you take a deep breath and walk up the stairs.
  
  You haven't gone up many stairs when you see that the top of the stairs is blocked off and your heart sinks. You carry on climbing the steps regardless and when you get to the top you squat down so as to get a little higher underneath the lid cutting off the steps. You go as high as you can without resorting to contortionism and take a good look at what is blocking off the exit of the stairs.
  
  It's a plank of wood about a yard long and a foot and a half deep. You put your hands firmly on the plank and push it straight upwards but it doesn't move. You hold the candle up and look a bit closer and see hinges on the far side of it where it meets the stairs. You turn your attention to the opposite edge and see a simple little catch. You turn the catch and push on the plank again and this time it swings up smoothly. The plank opens a little past the hinges before it stops, leaning against something you can't yet see. With the blockage now opened, you slowly stand up.
  
  You find yourself stood in a large wooden box. The plank which opens to the stairs below doesn't quite cover all of the floor of the box and you step up and onto the section of wood to the side of it and swing the lid of the stairs closed again. You panic when you hear the catch click when the lid goes down as you're now trapped in a wooden box and you don't know if there is a way out. With the lid closed, you can only tell where it even was because you know to be looking; at the very edge on one side of the lid there is a little recess, not dissimilar to the one you used to pull the hidden lever. You put your fingers into the recess and find that it allows you to push the catch underneath the door with the tips of your fingers, and lift the lid up again. You sigh with relief that you still have a way back and you allow the lid to fall closed again.
  
  You have to hold the candle close to you as you stand in the wooden box which is only just tall enough for you to stand up in, is only just wide enough for you to put one arm stretched out from your body and is only just deep enough for you to turn around in. You take a look around the box and find a pole running just above your head, straight across the box. You push at the sides of the box and one of them rattles when you do; you take a closer look and find that the side of the box there is actually two doors and there is a small handle in the middle of them. You grip the handle and turn it, opening the door out in front of you.
  
  You let the door open and take a moment to look at the room you can see and to check you're alone there. There is a single bed with a metal bedframe and a bare mattress against the wall opposite you in the very small room. You lean forwards and see that the room is absent of any other furniture. You step out of the box and see that you were in fact inside a wardrobe. You push the wardrobe door closed but not completely closed, you want to make sure you have a way out once you've found your sister.
  
  You look around the room but there is nothing else in there so you walk over to the door which is stood half open and out into the corridor outside the room.
  
  The corridor to your right goes around a corner to the right. To your left you can see two doors on the left and then the corridor looks to go around the corner to the left.
  
  Where do you go now?
  
  > go into the first door on the left.
  You push open the first door you come to along the dark corridor and the candle lights up a very drab bedroom. There is a single bed with a metal frame, a lumpy looking mattress and no bedding. A simple wooden chair stands next to a small, square, wooden table which looks as though it would break as soon as you tried to use it. Other than that, the room was completely bare and felt very small compared to the rest of the house. You crouch on the floor and look underneath the bed but there is nothing to be seen in this sparse room and you decide to leave it and return to the corridor.
  
  Where do you go now?
  
  > go into the middle door in the corridor.
  You push open the second door along the corridor and find that this room must have been home to two people at some time as two single, metal bedframes are on either side of the room. The mattress on the right hand bedframe is bare and looks very uncomfortable. The bed on the left hand side though, looks to be made with fresh linens and looks positively inviting.
  
  You look around the rest of the room and see a small table with two simple wooden chairs either side of it and you put your candle down on the table. Between the two beds is a nightstand which has a large bowl with a jug stood inside it and when you walk over to it, the jug is full of piping hot water.
  
  There is something about the water which seems very inviting and you pour it out into the bowl and submerge your face in it. The water feels like it's refreshing you, like it's washing away your worries and your problems.
  
  You pull your face out of the water and look down at the made bed. It looks very inviting and you really are feeling tired, you should have been asleep for hours by now.
  
  What do you do?
  
  > take a nap in the bed.
  You feel really tired and the bed right there just looks too inviting. You're sure that you'll be able to help your sister better if you're not dead on your feet. You kick your shoes off and climb into the bed. Your head sinks down into the soft pillow and the blankets covering you feel warm and cosy. You close your eyes and in a few seconds, you're asleep.
  
  You open your eyes and you can't remember where you are. You seem to be lying in a bed and you're hugging yourself, you must be cold, but you don't feel cold. You move to pull the covers back but your arms don't move. You try to look down but the covers are in the way and you can't see why you can't move your arms. You try harder, struggling with all your strength but your arms don't move at all.
  
  Then the world goes white. You close your eyes as you are blinded by brilliant light and you hear the sound of a door opening.
  
  "Good, you're awake." you hear a voice say.
  
  Slowly you open your eyes just a crack and you see a woman standing in the doorway. She's dressed in white and she's holding a small tray.
  
  "Who are you?" you ask the woman.
  
  "I'm Nurse Hannigan." she says patiently. "You need to take your medication."
  
  You look around the room as far as you can see lying on the bed and you can clearly see that this isn't the room you went to sleep in; the walls are white and seem to be covered in fabric, the floor is tiled and the light embedded in the ceiling is electric, a florescent tube.
  
  "How did I get here?" you ask groggily, your eyes almost open fully now and you try to sit up but Nurse Hannigan pushes you back down again.
  
  "Not again." sighs Nurse Hannigan.
  
  "My sister!" you cry out, suddenly remembering what had happened before you went to sleep in that terrible place. "I need to save her, she's been taken!" You swivel your legs around off the bed and half stand up this time before Nurse Hannigan pushes you back down again.
  
  "You need to take your meds." replies Nurse Hannigan calmly, but she is holding your firmly by the shoulder with one hand so that you can't easily stand up, especially with your arms immobilised.
  
  You look down at your arms and find that they're inside a white jacket but the arms are wrapped across your body and round the back and they must be fastened there as you can't pull them back.
  
  "My arms are stuck." you say to Nurse Hannigan as you continue to try to free them.
  
  "It's for your own safety." replies Nurse Hannigan.
  
  "I need my arms!" you say, starting to panic a little now. "I need to save my sister!"
  
  "You don't have a sister and you need to take your meds." replies Nurse Hannigan, starting to sound a little impatient.
  
  "I do!" you cry, "She's in danger, they're going to hurt her!"
  
  "Calm down." says Nurse Hannigan firmly and she holds out a little paper cup to you.
  
  "No! I have to get out of here!" you yell, knocking the cup out of her hand when you use your shoulder to knock her arm to the side and you stand up and run towards the door which she left open when she came in.
  
  "Security!" yells Nurse Hannigan and before you reach the door, a large man in a white t-shirt and white trousers is filling the doorframe. A logo on his t-shirt reads Arkham Asylum and you just have time to think that sounds vaguely familiar before you barrel into him to knock him out of your way. What you actually manage to do though, is rebound off his immoveable form, falling backwards and without your arms free to balance you, you fall down to the floor onto your behind.
  
  He reaches down, rolls you over and holds your face against the floor with one hand and holds down your body with the other.
  
  "I've subdued the patient." says the hulking man, sounding like he's reciting a phrase he has been taught.
  
  "Good." replies Nurse Hannigan, walking over to you as you kick your legs wildly but there's nothing for your feet to make contact with. She bends down, putting her face next to your head and says "You need to calm down." and you feel the pinch of an injection in your arm.
  
  Your eyes feel really heavy and you close them before you even realise that you feel sleepy.
  
  "You'll feel better after your treatments." you hear Nurse Hannigan say just before you lose consciousness.