Choose Your Own Adventure installment #1

Hugo drove home through the dark streets. He had just come from a monthly Hugo's House of Horrors LAN party. Suddenly, his car died and he coasted to a stop. As he got out, lightning flashed. "Who didn't expect that?" he muttered. In the distance, a house loomed. "What should I do now?" Hugo wondered aloud.

You search the car & find your All Purpose Mystery Toolkit, complete with a Solvin' Hat. Handy! You walk to the house. Nearing the house, you hear a noise behind you. Looking, you see your car stripped bare.

"THIS ISN'T LA!" you exclaim.

At the house, you see a shuttered window, a door & a door knocker. You try the door. Locked. Rifling through your Toolkit, you find a lockpick kit. You pick the lock & enter. A trapdoor opens. Crap! With a thump, you land on your ass. Ow! You find yourself in a dark basement full of dust and cobwebs. You turn on your flashlight & see a shadow loom over you. Wondering how the shadow is cast from behind the light, you turn around. As you turn around, a figure slips through a door, closing it behind. You drop the light and it goes out. Grabbing your light, you wonder what to do.

Deciding to follow the figure, you open the door. You walk through & it closes behind you. You try it & find it's locked. You find yourself in a hallway, extending to the left & the right. Deciding to go straight, you promptly walk into the wall. Ouch! When you come to, you try a different approach. Heading to the right, you come to a corner. As a student of mysteries, you know corners hold surprises. You jump out and find... another hallway. A door on the left stands slightly ajar. Opening the door, you find... a linen closet. As you close the door, your hand brushes the softest towel you've ever felt. Wow! It's so soft, you contemplate stealing it... but decide to come back for it. Down the hall on the right, you see another door. As you reach the door, you have an uneasy feeling. Slowly opening the door, you peer into the room to find... a man lying prone, blood pooling around him. You roll him over & lean in close. He lets out a groan. Startled, you draw back. Recovering, you lean in. He lets out a groan. You realize your knee is on his crotch. As you pull your knee back, he whispers "bastard!" & promptly dies.

You pull out a fingerprint kit from your Toolkit. Hours later, you find your prints all over. "So I'm the prime suspect. Wait, no…" Dusting for more, you end up covered in dust with no more prints. Hours later, you notice the note on his forehead.

"I warned you. See what happens when you don't listen?" the note reads. You pocket it and continue looking.

Finding nothing else in the room, you move out into the hallway. You continue down the hall to a staircase leading upwards. Reaching the top of the stairs, you find a second flight going up, a hallway & a lever. You pull the lever. The stairs become a ramp and you slide back down. As soon as you reach the bottom, the stairs return. You climb back up. Unable to resist, you pull the lever again. Whee! At the top again, you still have a choice. As you reach the top, you decide to enter the hallway. You peer down a dark hallway, with a lone candle to break the gloom. You begin down the hallway. Suddenly, you hear a loud creak and you jump to the ceiling, heart pounding. As you land with a thump, you realize the loud creak was the floor. You continue down the hallway, clutching the candle. You're suddenly plunged into darkness as you pass by an unseen vent. Dropping the candle with a squeak, you remember your flashlight. As you fumble around in the dark for your flashlight, you hear a whistling behind you. You find your flashlight. You quickly turn the flashlight on and turn around. A face appears in the light. A face, lips puckered, whistling.

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That is all.