text: [Themes: love & dating, LGBT, fantasy, horror]
  
  I approach the clearing where Plummet lives, following the trail of several long extension cords leading from a house. It's been worrying, how fragmented his mind is becoming. I try my best to keep him together, but sometimes it's not enough. I've seen glimpses of a good man, I want to bring that out to the surface. I want to help him.
  
  I limp into sight, being careful with my right leg. I can catch a glimpse of something that he hides behind his back, but I can't tell what. I'm tired. He has various dolls of various people arrayed in front of him.
  
  "Hey, I'm back," I say, sitting down with something between flopping from exhaustion and delicately to avoid tweaking my leg more.
  
  Plummet seems excited. "You're back!"
  
  I nod, feeling a twinge of guilt. "Took longer than a while, sorry." Well, a little more than longer than a while. It had been a few days since I last saw Plum. At least he had the ghosts to keep him company.
  
  "I don't mind. I'm just glad you're back," he says, beaming. He glances off to the side and his expression turns sour. "Don't you dare. Stop."
  
  The smallest ghost of the four, wearing a dress and two bows in his hair, points behind plummet and seems a bit on the disturbed and urgent side.
  
  "Whazzup?" I ask, straightening up, confused. "Something behind your back, Plum?"
  
  Plummet turns back to me, coming back to a nicer expression again. "Hmm?"
  
  "He's pointing to something."
  
  "He's probably just worried about me. I had too many nightshade at one point while you were gone, and there's a bit of a mess behind me. Prolly just wanted you to know so you'd be worried too. You don't need to worry though, I'm fine."
  
  I wince at the mention of nightshade. Plummet has built up quite the immunity to it, but it's still poison. I don't see why he likes the taste of it so much. The small ghost is shaking his head and pointing more sternly to something behind Plum. Plummet glares at him.
  
  Another ghost, the one that normally follows me around in a cooking apron and messy short hair uses sign language to communicate to me what's behind Plummet.
  
  I watch his hands, and then nod to the apron wearing ghost. "My doll?" I turn to Plummet. "Mad at me, huh?"
  
  Plummet's expression turns furious, talking to the apron wearing ghost. "He wasn't supposed to see that! You weren't supposed to tell him!"
  
  It's... scary, his expression. It reminds me of when we first met and he was hostile to all strangers. I shrink away and watch cautiously. The dolls fly into the air, courtesy of some rough unformed magic from Plummet, my own included. That one bounces off me and one of it's wings fall off. The doll Plummet had of himself is now decapitated.
  
  "Plummet - " I stop, picking up the doll he made of me. There's a lot more stitches from making repairs to damage around the chest area and the base of the arms and wings. Are those teeth marks? I hold it to my chest and shiver.
  
  [Author's Note: It's hard seeing the one you love descend into madness.]
  
  > This isn't how it used to be
  [Themes: mystery / thriller, science fiction]
  
  [Author's Note: You were minding your own business when you are suddenly abducted by aliens! Now you need to find your way home before, well, you're not sure, but before something! This is a short, lighthearted puzzle adventure. It is not too hard and not too serious. The puzzle is simple, but try and pay attention to the clues to avoid dying and having to back up! There are seven ways to die and just one way to win. Created for Riddles & Puzzles 2016 contest First Runner-up: Riddles & Puzzles 2016]
  
  > Alien Abduction
  It was the start of summer and you really wanted to be doing what you had planned for many months: sleeping. Well, of course you weren't going to sleep ALL day, but you certainly were not planning on getting up a five in the morning just so you could go stand in line... and then stand in line again... and then again.
  
  Summer had arrived and while you had planned to spend the week sleeping and gaming, your parents had decided that instead you were going to spend a week with Aunt Mary. You really didn't have anything against Aunt Mary, but she was pretty plan and boring. Worse, she lived in a town with absolutely nothing to do. Last time you spent a week there, you spent most of the week sitting on the front porch watching the grass grow. Sure, you might catch up on some of your sleep in the first part of the week, but she didn't have a gaming system, so you knew you were going to be seriously bored. Then again, it's not like anyone asked you what you wanted to do. So you got up early and rode to the airport.
  
  After getting dropped off, you stood in the line to check in. The days of the skycap were over, you know, because of "terrorism." Instead you had to walk inside and stand in line for an automated kiosk. You managed to make it through the line only for the machine to tell you that you had to check in at the agent counter. You trudged over to that line and waited at least 30 minutes before you made it to the front of the line. You handed ID, she pressed about 500 keys, then took your luggage with a seriously fake smile. This was really going to be a long day.
  
  Thinking about Aunt Mary's tiny house, you headed over to the security line. Of course there were about 1,000 people in that line, most of them confused when the blue-uniformed Wal-Mart greeters told them they had to take their shoes off. Or leave them on. For some reason, some people had to take shoes off and some did not. The confused ensured the line would continue to move very slow. That and the "special" people who managed to cut into the front of the line after paying some bribes or some crap. You were just glad that when you finally got to the front of the line and through the scanners that you didn't get felt up by the goofy guards.
  
  Next you had to wait for your plane to start boarding and then watch as all the people who were not called to board ran to get in line first. You had a ticket with an assigned seat, so you just waited until your row was called and then went to stand in line yet one more time. As you walked down the aisle of the plane, you counted the seats and knew before you finished counting that the seat next to the really fat guy that was having trouble breathing was your seat. Hooray for coach seats! At least you had the aisle seat so you wouldn't be squashed into the wall of the plane. You took your seat, fastened the stupid seat belt, and promptly closed your eyes, trying to ignore everyone and everything around you.
  
  At some point in time, you woke up, wide awake. You're not really sure why you woke up. The plane was filled with the sound of airplane noises. You looked around and realized that there was some sort of odd greenish light coming in through the windows of the plane. A few people started talking about just that as more noticed it. You heard a popping sound and looked around for the source. Everything looked normal, but then you heard someone towards the front of the plane yell. You stood up, like most of the plane, and looked towards the front. Suddenly there was another popping noise, and half the people in front of you simply disappeared! They were there one moment and not the next. More people started to yell and run into the aisle. There was another pop, and everyone in front of you disappeared. You looked around towards the rear of the plane, and saw others staring at you, eyes wide open. Then there was another popping sound and suddenly blackness...
  
  > Continue...
  When you start to wake up, you feel cold. Actually, mostly just your rear end feels cold. And quite uncomfortable for some reason. You slowly open your eyes and blink in the bright white light. You realize that you're lying down on your back and your pants are down around your ankles. You are lying on a cold metal table. Well that explains why your rear end is cold, but why does it feel like...
  
  You sit up and look around, pulling your pants up. You are in a small, strange, round metal room. The floor is flat, but the silver metal walls curve up and around, creating almost a bubble. You are sitting on a table in the middle of the room and there is a large machine of some sort sitting right next to you. It has long probes on it that are pointed in your direction. Fortunately, none of them are moving at the moment, but your butt clenches as you stand up from the table.
  
  There is an opening in the wall to the east that leads into a hallway, but you don't see any other ways out of this room. The floor and walls appear solid, but they also appear to be glowing a little, enough to provide light so that you can see all around you.
  
  > head out of the room to the east.
  You stand at the west end of a long hallway. The walls are silver and curve up and around the ceiling so much that you feel like you are walking in a long, strange tube. The floor is flat and level, but there are small dips at the edge, looking almost like gutters that you would find on the roof of a house, but not quite as deep.
  
  To the west is the room where you first awoke with the strange table and probes that make you feel strangely uncomfortable. The hallway continues to the east, slowly bending out of sight to the right. To the south is a rounded doorway that leads into a well-lit room that looks like it might have some other metal tables in it.
  
  > go east towards the east end of the hallway.
  You stand at the east end of a long hallway. The walls are silver and curve up and around the ceiling so much that you feel like you are walking in a long, strange tube. The floor is flat and level, but there are small dips at the edge, looking almost like gutters that you would find on the roof of a house, but not quite as deep.
  
  The hallway continues to the west, ending in a doorway at the other end. To the south is a rounded doorway that leads into a dark space. Off to the east, the hallway goes through a rounded archway, then twists around to the south.
  
  > go through the doorway to the south.
  This room is a small round room, very similar in size to the room where you started. As you walk into the room, lights appear making the rest of the room visible. Instead of tables and probe machines, this room has two medium-sized cages in it and nothing else. The cages are about four feet tall and have bars on all side.
  
  The cage on the right contains a furry creature, at least you assume it is a creature. All you can see at the moment is a large, purple ball of fur. The fur looks long and thick, and you feel like you want to pet whatever that thing is. As you watch it, it rolls a little in the cage, almost towards you. You think you see a glimpse of eyes and teeth through the fur, but you can't be sure...
  
  The cage on the left appears to be empty.
  
  > open the cage with the creature in in.
  You head over to the cage and see that the entrance to the cage is the entire side of the cage, held in place by a simple latch on the top of the cage. You can easily slide the latch to the side and then open the side of the cage.
  
  When you open the cage, the ball of fur does not appear to move. You reach out to touch it, and suddenly the ball comes to life! The fur slides to the side an almost disappears as a creature emerges from the middle of the ball that appears to be nothing but a pile of teeth -- long, sharp teeth! In a moment, the teeth start gnashing together like a machine and your hand and then arm quickly become little more than a pile of mush inside the creature. Before you can register what is happening, and even before you start to feel pain, the creature has completely engulfed your arm. As you look down, the teeth continue to gnash and grind as they move up and over your shoulder. You can only stare into the depths of the maw of the creature as the teeth slam over, through, and around your head.
  
  I'm sorry, but you appear to have died. Feel free to try again, especially since if you died here, you probably haven't seen most of the story. Next time you might want to leave the strange creatures alone.