text: [Themes: Horror, teenage protagonist, horror]
  
  > look at your surroundings
  The living room is not actually a small room, but it feels cramped because of the amount of thrift-shop furniture crammed into it.
  There's a fireplace on the north side of the room, a window to the east, and a tall, heavy bookcase against the west wall. An archway leads back to the south.
  
  > Examine books
  The books are jammed onto the shelves in haphazard fashion. Scanning the spines, you see quite a number of hardbacks that look a lot like the first editions of mysteries by John Dickson Carr that your aunt has in her collection at home. Several titles are new to you, though.
  
  > Go south
  The entry hall of Eternal Springs is bare of decoration. The only furnishings are a grandfather clock, which ticks heavily, and a small round telephone table. The front door of the house stands open to the east, the screen door providing, at best, a very partial barrier against the ingress of insects. There are open archways to the north and south, and a narrow staircase with a threadbare runner leads upward. The hall extends further to the west, alongside the staircase.
  
  > go west
  You walk down the narrow, ill-lit hall, and emerge in what appears to be an office.
  
  This room looks as if it serves as Beauregard Phelps's office. It's frankly a mess - littered with teetering piles of yellowing paper.
  It's dominated by a big desk, which sits in the center of the room with a chair behind it. Beneath the window at the west end of the room is a small square table, on which rests a curious device.
  
  > look at the device
  The device is circular, and about the size of a small lazy susan. Bright sunlight shines directly on it through the window. The central part of the device is a circular platform of polished wood, in which is inlaid an arrow in lighter wood. The arrow points somewhat to the left of the window. Also incised in the wood are some abstract figures or designs. They look rather like the mysterious letters on the stone bracelet you found in the dining room.
  
  Mounted along the edges of the circle are several clear glass prisms and several more small rectangular mirrors. The latter are held in place by slim brass mounting clips. One of the mounting clips is empty, however.
  
  As the sunlight hits the prisms, a rainbow of light cascades across the surface of the device.
  
  > examine the desk
  The big desk is made of some dark wood, possibly oak.
  
  > examine the chair
  The leather of the chair is cracked and faded.
  
  > look at the table
  The table sits beneath the window, with the bright afternoon sun shining directly on it. Atop the table is a curious device that glitters in the sun.
  
  > examine the window
  The window, which is set in a heavy wood frame, is the old-fashioned kind that's opened by raising it. It overlooks the driveway. Sunlight is streaming through it, directly on the mirrors and prisms of the curious circular device.
  
  > Go east
  The entry hall of Eternal Springs is bare of decoration. The only furnishings are a grandfather clock, which ticks heavily, and a small round telephone table. The front door of the house stands open to the east, the screen door providing, at best, a very partial barrier against the ingress of insects. There are open archways to the north and south, and a narrow staircase with a threadbare runner leads upward. The hall extends further to the west, alongside the staircase.
  
  > Go upwards
  The stairs creak a bit as you climb.
  
  This stuffy passageway extends westward from the head of the stairs, which lead down to the entry hall. The wallpaper is blotchy, and the residual grime along the baseboard suggests that the housekeeping has been perfunctory at best. There are doorways in the north and south walls.
  
  > examine wallpaper
  The wallpaper is decorated with an ugly fleur-de-lis pattern that looks disturbingly like the clawed fingers of a hand.
  
  > Go north
  This stark bedroom seems to be a repository for cast-off furniture, some of which probably dates back to the Civil War. The bedstead has an iron frame, but no mattress. The door back to the hall is to the south, and an open doorway leads west into a closet. In the north wall is a window.
  
  A crow is perched on the sill just outside the window.
  
  The crow flaps heavily away, but a moment later he's back.
  
  > examine the crow
  The crow is large and black, and has beady black eyes. He's perched on the sill just outside the window, fluffing his wing feathers and pecking for lice.
  
  The crow taps on the window with his beak.
  
  > open window
  With a little effort, you're able to push the lower half of the window upward, letting in what passes for fresh air in rural Mississippi on a hot summer afternoon.
  
  The crow flies away when you open the window ... but a moment later he's back, looking into the room with keen interest.
  
  > examine the bed
  The bed consists of an iron frame and an open platform or grid of wires on which a mattress would lie, if there were a mattress.
  
  The crow squawks mildly at you.
  
  > examine the furniture
  The bed consists of an iron frame and an open platform or grid of wires on which a mattress would lie, if there were a mattress.
  
  > go to the west
  The closet is small and pretty much empty. Set in one wall is a little metal door about a foot high. The bedroom is to the east.
  
  > look at the door
  The metal door is about six inches wide and ten inches high. It's badly rusted.
  
  > open the door
  You open the little door - and jump back about two feet, banging your head painfully against the far wall of the closet. Perched on a web in the shallow recess behind the metal door is the biggest spider you've ever seen!
  
  > look at the spider
  The spider is easily as big as a tarantula, but hairless and a gleaming milky white. It's busily spinning its web.
  
  > Go east
  This stark bedroom seems to be a repository for cast-off furniture, some of which probably dates back to the Civil War. The bedstead has an iron frame, but no mattress. The door back to the hall is to the south, and an open doorway leads west into a closet. In the north wall is a window.
  
  A crow is perched on the windowsill, looking around the room.
  
  The crow fluffs his feathers.
  
  > take the crow
  The crow sidles away from you rapidly.
  
  The crow squawks mildly at you.
  
  > go west
  The closet is small and pretty much empty. Set in one wall is a little metal door about a foot high, which is open, giving you a close-up view of the biggest spider you've ever seen. The bedroom is to the east.
  
  > look in the door
  Behind the little metal door is a shallow recess. What lies within is largely obscured by a heavy curtain of spiderweb. Within the web a fat white spider is busily spinning.
  
  > kill the spider
  On a normal day, you might be able to grit your teeth and force yourself to do something with (or to) the spider. But you're feeling pretty nervous today. You just can't quite bring yourself to get that close to it.
  
  > hit the spider with shovel
  (first taking the old shovel from the burlap sack)
  On a normal day, you might be able to grit your teeth and force yourself to do something with (or to) the spider. But you're feeling pretty nervous today. You just can't quite bring yourself to get that close to it.
  
  > hit the spider with the poker
  (first putting the old shovel in the burlap sack to make room, then taking the poker from the burlap sack)
  On a normal day, you might be able to grit your teeth and force yourself to do something with (or to) the spider. But you're feeling pretty nervous today. You just can't quite bring yourself to get that close to it.
  
  > go to the east
  This stark bedroom seems to be a repository for cast-off furniture, some of which probably dates back to the Civil War. The bedstead has an iron frame, but no mattress. The door back to the hall is to the south, and an open doorway leads west into a closet. In the north wall is a window.
  
  A crow is perched on the windowsill, looking around the room.
  
  > Go south
  This stuffy passageway extends westward from the head of the stairs, which lead down to the entry hall. The wallpaper is blotchy, and the residual grime along the baseboard suggests that the housekeeping has been perfunctory at best. There are doorways in the north and south walls.
  
  > go to the south
  This room has been mostly stripped of furniture. The wood floor is bare, the window uncurtained. A bulky, old-fashioned cradle stands against the west wall, and there's a small square table in the northeast corner, on which stands an old-fashioned model merry-go-round. Dominating the south wall is a large, rather faded image of a clown, which has been painted directly on the wallboard.
  
  > look at the clown
  The clown seems to have been painted on the wallboard many years ago, in a style that was probably cloyingly cutesy even then. By now the image is patchy and faded. A crack in the plaster runs diagonally down through the clown's face and across the corner of his mouth, making his expression look less festive or playful than ironic or mocking.
  
  > look at the cradle
  The fabric that covers the high-sided cradle may once have been pink, but the years have bleached it. The cradle stands about three feet high, and is built on wooden rockers.
  
  > Rock cradle
  You push the cradle idly, causing it to rock. As it moves, you catch sight of a heating grate in the baseboard behind it. Curious, you drag the cradle out into the middle of the room to have a better look at the grate.
  
  > examine the grate
  The heating grate is set in the baseboard in the west wall of the room. It's about a foot high and two feet wide, and is covered with a metal grill, which is stained by years of smoky furnace fumes. It's held in place by a couple of heavy metal screws.
  
  > check your inventory
  You are carrying a burlap sack (which contains a sequined jacket, a flashlight, a gold locket, some faded photographs, an indecipherable map, a stone bracelet, a sketchbook, a pill bottle, the key to Cabin One, a little white pill, some fire tongs, an old shovel, and a poker), a croquet hoop, and a wooden bucket. You're wearing your clothes.
  
  > Unscrew grate
  The screws are too stiff for you to move them with your fingers. If you want to unscrew them, you'll need to find a screwdriver.
  
  > examine table
  The table is built of dark, waterstained wood, and the legs look a bit uneven. Occupying the top of the table is a model merry-go-round.
  
  > look at the model
  The merry-go-round is large and old-fashioned. It's made of painted tin, and the paint is flecked and the tin rusting. The little painted horses are cavorting (motionlessly, of course) with a toothy gaiety that looks rather forced, if not actually hysterical. The round base of the merry-go-round is about two inches thick, and more than a foot in diameter.
  
  > Turn model
  You push the merry-go-round experimentally. The base seems to want to rotate, but it balks. Perhaps it's stuck.
  
  > take the model
  It seems to be attached to the table.
  
  > examine the base
  The base of the merry-go-round looks to be thick enough to conceal a mechanism that might cause the merry-go-round to rotate. Around at the rear of the base, where you would never have noticed it if you weren't looking, is a little keyhole.
  
  > examine the crack
  The clown seems to have been painted on the wallboard many years ago, in a style that was probably cloyingly cutesy even then. By now the image is patchy and faded. A crack in the plaster runs diagonally down through the clown's face and across the corner of his mouth, making his expression look less festive or playful than ironic or mocking.