,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,<h1>Thin Walls</h1>
<center>An interactive novella
by Wynter
[[About->about]]</center>
<h2>[[Begin->Darkness 1]]</h2>(set: $ChaptersStarted +=1)<h3>Chapter [$ChaptersStarted]: Beating Heart</h3>
Is the door shut? Yes.
Tug on the handle, to make sure. I don’t want to get on anyone’s nerves, at least not this soon.
Dark floorboards, a little dust huddling at the edges, and a long rug. A coat-rack on the wall, with no coats on it. A little table, and some unopened post. Funny how the staircase seems so much broader than I remember from the viewing.
Glancing upwards, I see an upstairs landing, and more rooms; I can just about make out more stairs going higher upwards. I suppose I will be living with a few housemates here.
//Housemates? Other tenants? What am I supposed to call them, in this setup?//
The landlord – Eddie something – wasn’t able to show me around that day, he was away on business: the estate agent had to meet me here and show me the room. The one at the front, on the left, had already been taken, he told me, a couple had viewed it the day before; and this one next to it was occupied too.
I peer cautiously at [[the other doors->Yasmin's room choice]].(set: $YasminsBedroom to true)I’m sure the room is bigger than it was when I came to view it. For some reason that troubles me.
There is a bed, a table and chair, a wardrobe, and a chest of drawers. A blocked-off fireplace with a mirror above it, and a mantelpiece which should be good for propping up picture frames on. In fact, it looks from the dust patterns that that is exactly what the last tenant in here did.(if: (history:) contains "Yasmin's kitchen")[ I remember what that girl in the kitchen said: the last person in here moved out of the room, but //not out of the house?// So they’re still here?](else:)[ I wonder where they moved on to.]
Towards the back of the room, furthest from the window, the pattern on the wallpaper is oddly distorted, as if it has been pulled somehow, like skin stretched over bone.
(if: $DownstairsBathroom is not true and $DownstairsKitchen is true)[I wonder what the [[bathroom situation->Yasmin's bathroom]] is like.](if: $DownstairsKitchen is not true and $DownstairsBathroom is true)[I find myself wanting to take a peep at the [[kitchen->Yasmin's kitchen]].](if: $DownstairsBathroom is not true and $DownstairsKitchen is not true)[I should see if the [[kitchen->Yasmin's kitchen]] is any good, and the [[bathroom->Yasmin's bathroom]] too.](if: $DownstairsKitchen is true and $DownstairsBathroom is true)[Now that I’m in my own room I just want to [[call it a night->Yasmin's first night]].](set: $DownstairsBathroom to true)There’s not a lot of storage space in here, just a tiny cupboard with three shelves on it, but maybe it’s just for me and the other people on this floor? And no bath, no space for a bath: just a shower, toilet and basin.
And I can hear a faint hum, an echo: water pipes, maybe? I put my ear to the wall: it’s like when you put a seashell to your ear, and hear the sea roaring in it.
My hands are still a bit greasy from the crisps I was eating. I wash them – there is a little pink bar of soap beside the basin – and dry them on the towel hanging on the rack.
As I am doing so, someone walks in, a tall, thin woman(if: $DownstairsKitchen is true)[, not the one I spoke to in the kitchen]; a man hovers behind her in the hallway (the couple that have just moved in?).
‘Could I please ask you not to use my towel?’ she says. I suddenly notice another towel hanging on the radiator, another bar of soap in another dish.
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know.’ What is this place, where we live together but can’t even dry our hands on the same stupid piece of cloth?
(if: $DownstairsKitchen is true AND $YasminsBedroom is true)[The encounter annoys me enough that I just want to be alone. I [[return to my room->Yasmin's first night]].](if: $DownstairsKitchen is not true and $YasminsBedroom is true)[Annoyed by the encounter, I realise that I haven’t really seen the [[kitchen->Yasmin's kitchen]] yet – I only had a quick look in there when the landlord showed me around.](if: $DownstairsKitchen is true AND $YasminsBedroom is not true)[Annoyed by the encounter, I realise that I haven’t actually been to [[my own room->Yasmin's bedroom]] yet. I saw it when the landlord showed me around, but somehow the memory seems to have been wiped from my mind the moment I left the house.](if: $DownstairsKitchen is not true AND $YasminsBedroom is not true)[Annoyed by the encounter, I realise that I ought to take a look at the [[kitchen->Yasmin's kitchen]] and at [[my bedroom->Yasmin's bedroom]].]I yawn, creep down beneath the covers, and try to sleep. My suitcases lie open on the floor: I have barely begun to unpack. I wonder how long it will take for this room to feel like mine, for this house to feel like home. I wonder when I will actually get to meet Eddie, the landlord.
There is a faint vibration coming through the bedframe, a beat: it must be music playing somewhere, but I cannot think where it is coming from. (if: (history:) contains "Yasmin cupboard")[There is no cellar or basement, I’ve seen that](else:)[I don’t think there’s a cellar or basement down there]; and yet somehow there seems to be another level to this place, down beneath me. I remind myself to check out that cupboard under the stairs (if: (history:) contains "Yasmin cupboard")[again] in the morning, just to be sure.
It’s almost as if the house itself is pulsating, its heart beating in some unknown depths.
But despite that, little by little I drift off to (link-goto: "sleep", "Hallway").(set: $Mirror to 1)
<h3>End of Chapter [$ChaptersStarted]</h3>//You are in a long hallway covered by a rug, leading from a heavy front door, with a table and an empty coat-rack(if: $ChaptersStarted is 1 or 2)[; a few envelopes are lying on the table](if: $ChaptersStarted is 3 OR 4 OR 5)[; a pile of envelopes is lying on the table](if: $ChaptersStarted is >5)[; a stack of envelopes is lying on the table].
Doors lead to Yasmin’s room, (if: $Couple is not true)[[[Mark and Nadia’s room->Mark and Nadia 1]], ](if: $Couple is true)[Mark’s room, Nadia’s room, ]Mandy’s room, (if: $AshLukasStory is true)[[[Tom’s room->Tom's room]], Paula’s room, Carlos’s room, Lee’s room, Dave’s room, ]a [[bathroom->Bathroom downstairs]], a [[cupboard under the stairs->Cupboard]], and a [[kitchen->Kitchen downstairs]].(if: $radio is true)[
From upstairs, you can hear a radio playing music.]
A wide staircase leads [[upwards->Landing]].//(set: $ChaptersStarted +=1)<h3>Chapter [$ChaptersStarted]: Candyfloss Hair</h3>
I heard her again this morning. The bathroom door slamming, rattling my windowpanes. I paused rolling on my tights, listening.
‘//Hhhhhuhhhhh!//’
It’s always like that. One day a //hhhhhuhhhhh//, the next an //oh my God//, perhaps nothing for a day or two, and then once I’ve got used to getting dressed in peace and breathing easy, the day after that a (link-reveal: "//fucking hell!//")[
The floorboards beneath me bend and groan, like a muscle tightening and unwinding.(click: "unwinding")[
For a while I thought maybe it wasn’t me, maybe she’d stepped on the scales and found herself a bit over what she thinks is okay, until I noticed it never happened the days she’s in the bathroom before me, only when I’m in first.
Or [[maybe it //isn’t// me->Tammy Friday 1]]?]](set: $ChaptersStarted +=1)<h3>Chapter [$ChaptersStarted]: Cells</h3>
We noticed first of all, when we arrived this morning, how the doorframe is just untreated, sawn wood, as if it had grown straight out of the wall. Inside, there is a picture rail running around three walls, and a high ceiling with a ring pattern, completely off-centre. Opposite the window is a vanity table, with a big circular mirror, and a chair. In an oddly-shaped alcove there is a blocked-off fireplace, and a point for plugging in a landline: this would have been the living room, once.
‘They’ve just stuck up an extra wall here – listen, it’s hollow.’
‘Huh. The person next door had better be a quiet sleeper.’
We spent today arranging our things, speaking to no-one except the other new tenant, and then only briefly. We came here to be with each other, not with other people.
The bed is down the middle of the room, and small for a double. [[We->Mark and Nadia 2]] hear the hissing of something in the pipes until morning.We get up early to make the room look a bit more like home.
‘Look, he’s just given us two single beds pushed together. That’s not what it said in the inventory.’
//Except that we slept in it all night and we never noticed.//
It’s against our contract to stick or nail things to the walls, but we can hang things from the picture rails. It’s strange how the walls seem to have thickened up overnight: they don’t sound half so thin and hollow now.
We disagree about where to put all our stuff, and it turns into a stupid row, and [[I->Mark 1]] don’t think [[I->Nadia 1]] have ever been so happy to just give up and call it a night.It was easier not to talk about it again today. The kitchen is too small to have both of us in it at once, and of course other people want to use it too, so I stay in here while he cooks. With no living room, it’s something of a relief, to be honest.
I catch a glimpse of my face in the wide oval mirror and I’m disconcerted by the expression looking back at me.
And the beds. The twin beds won’t quite stay together: maybe the legs are uneven or something – there’s a proper gap. I will put them back together in the morning.
So at night I lie there in the dark, in my-not-our bed, in this illusion of doubleness, of sharedness, covered over by acrylic sheets and a thin quilt.
It feels strange to be thinking the things that [[I->Nadia 2]] am thinking, and not telling [[him->Mark 2]].I can’t sleep tonight. Light is coming in over the curtain rail, reflecting off the oval mirror and spilling all over the room. My eyes run all around the edge of the ornamental thing in the middle of the ceiling, round and round and round. I turn aside, and feel the bed shift with me.
In the middle of the night, I hear her breathing deeply, and run my hand across towards [[her->Nadia 2]]: the gap has grown, the beds are a good couple of inches apart. [[I->Mark 2]] will put them back together in the morning.I am trying to read, he is watching some stupid thing on his phone, and I wonder what he thinks of me these days. If he thinks of me.
This is what I do not say to him: //if things were different, we would be having a baby now.//
Obviously it won’t work out, not here, not like this, not with just this one room to ourselves. And God knows we’ve not been getting on well recently, and it would be mad to bring a child into that.
A spider creeps across the ceiling.
When did that crack appear? Another thing to take up with Eddie, when he comes.
At night I lie awake again. This is what [[I->Nadia 3]] think about when I am alone, or when [[he->Mark 3]] is asleep, or when he does not speak.‘Growing at a rate of up to 4cm in just an hour, bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants on Earth ...’
Why am I watching this? Autoplay, some weird algorithm thing.
A spider scuttles across the wall.
She isn’t really reading that book: her eyes are just moving from left to right, and back to left again.
I turn back to my phone and search for something else.
She’s probably thinking about how much she hates this place. It’s all she ever thinks about. I know we don’t have much space here, but she doesn’t have to go //on// about it.
At night, I lie awake; she does not move. There’s a little light from the streetlamps creeping in through a gap above the curtains.
When did that crack in the ceiling appear? Another thing to take up with Eddie, when he comes.
She’s very quiet today. I bet [[she->Nadia 3]]’s thinking about some thing [[I->Mark 3]]’ve done to piss her off.
Finally I get to sleep.I think he is asleep. Funny how I can’t even take the risk of fantasising unless he is not here or not conscious.
And so I do my nightly imagining:
I imagine that he starts looking at me and listening to me properly again, and starts making me feel appreciated and taken care of again.
I imagine that we get new jobs, jobs that pay better, and we move out and get a house of our own, where there will be room for children, and room for each other, and time for each other, and even if we are exhausted we can still flop on the sofa and listen to music and just be together.
Eventually I fall asleep, and dream.
I dream about a baby beginning, about two cells appearing where there was just one, about four where there had only been two, each one whole and complete.
The light creeps over the curtaintops and reflects off the mirror. How strange its shape is, that it is cinched in the middle like an infinity sign, and how strange that I had not noticed until now. I can make out strands of spidersilk, stretching from ceiling to wall.
The curtain is coming off its rings. [[I->Nadia 4]] will ask [[him->Mark 4]] to do something about it tomorrow.I get home and fling the bags on my bed. There’s a kind of room divider here, which I think he must have set up while I was out, because I didn’t do it. It’s made of woven bamboo, just thin strips of it, but stretching from floor to ceiling, wall to wall. You can’t see where it’s attached.
For a moment I could swear it’s actually growing out of the walls themselves.
It’s nice to get a bit of space to [[myself->Nadia 5]]. But it looks so awful.
I will talk to [[him->Mark 5]] about it later.//You are standing on the landing of the top floor, where there is a [[circuit breaker->Circuit breaker]] and a [[mirror->Eddie's mirror]] on the wall, a small window, a narrow staircase leading [[downwards->Landing]], and a single door, leading to [[Eddie’s room->Eddie]].(if: $radio is true)[
From downstairs, you can hear a radio playing music.]//It //is// me. I heard her this morning as I was putting on my eyeliner. The door slammed.
‘//Hhhhhuhhhhh!//’(click: "Hhhhhuhhhhh!")[
There was a weird rumbling noise at the end of the corridor.
//Oh my God,// I thought. //It’s happening again.//(click: "again")[
‘Why does she never even //try// to …’ something something, ‘//Jesus Christ!//’
I bumped into her as I was leaving the house, said good morning; she said nothing. I think she said nothing. The door was open; maybe I just didn’t hear her response. She looked at me.
Looked at me ... funny?
[[Maybe->Tammy Friday 2]].]]Today my alarm woke me at five-thirty a.m. I got up, showered and brushed my teeth. I put on my jeans and an old t-shirt, put on my glasses and a pair of flip-flops, and put some motivational music through my earphones.
I stood on a stool and spray-cleaned the bathroom tiles. I cleaned the mirror and buffed it until it was streak-free. I wiped around the basin, and the basin itself, and the tap, and underneath the basin just to be sure. I rinsed out the shower, sprayed the cubicle outside and inside, and cleaned out every single last microhair from the plughole. I bleached the toilet and scrubbed it, swept the floor, and mopped it with Dettol so that it would be dry by the time she woke up.
It was shining, spotless.
And [[then I went to work->After Tammy's story]].
<h3>End of Chapter [$ChaptersStarted]</h3>(set: $Mirror to 6)<h3>Epilogue</h3>
‘Seriously. Could you put the fan on?’
‘Sorry.’ Alex snaps on the fan and goes back to stirring his dinner, as Sarah closes the door, puts down her plastic box of food (there’s only so much cupboard space) and gets out a chopping board.
‘And whose is this? Andy, is it yours?’ Sarah is holding up a denim jacket.
‘Nah. I think it’s Natasha’s.’
She makes a //hmmphh// noise.
We’re in the big kitchen on our floor, Alex, Sarah and me.
I turn back to [[my laptop->Andy census]].‘What?’
Sarah drops her voice. ‘There’s a light on in there.’
‘It’s probably a lamp or somethi–’
Her voice is tense and low. ‘There is a (link-reveal: "light on")[. (link-reveal: "In")[. (link-reveal: "Eddie’s")[. [[Room->Andy 13]]]]].’I wake at first light, and run upstairs.
All over the house, people are getting up and beginning the new day. Using the bathrooms, using the kitchens, making toast, making tea.
Up I go, others come down.
We circulate through the staircases, the corridors, like blood cells pulsed from the undiscovered heart of this strange, burgeoning [[space->Andy Eddie's door]].(set: $ChaptersStarted +=1)<h3>Chapter [$ChaptersStarted]: And All the Devils Are Here</h3>
‘But what if we actually make a feature of it?’
Mark, Paula and I are sitting around the table in the big kitchen down in the basement one evening.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Like, we make it a theme: an Afterlife Party. So this floor could be Hell, right? And the ground floor is Purgatory, and the first floor is Heaven. Serve different drinks in the kitchens on each one, so that people actually move around the house and it doesn’t get crowded.’
‘That’s actually brilliant. And everyone comes dressed as [[angels and demons->Tom 2]].’After the last person has finally gone to bed, the house gives forth a great shudder such as it has never given before: it groans and labours through all the remaining hours of [[darkness->After Party 3]].(if: $AshLukasStory is not true)[(if: (history:) does not contain "Cupboard")[//The door opens to a dusty cupboard; you can see a broom, a vacuum cleaner, and a tatty old mop in a bucket, and nothing else.
You [[close the door again->Hallway]].//](else:)[//(set: $CupboardResponse to (random: 1,3))(if: $CupboardResponse is 1)[Nothing to see, [[go away->Hallway]].](if: $CupboardResponse is 2)[What do you keep looking in here for? It’s [[just a cupboard->Hallway]].](if: $CupboardResponse is 3)[You look amongst the cleaning equipment again but there really is [[nothing else there->Hallway]].]//]](if: $AshLukasStory is true)[//The door opens to a narrow flight of stairs, leading down into the [[darkness->Tom 1]].//]That line is always misquoted, by the way: it’s //Abandon// [[all hope->Tom 3]]//, ye who enter here//.The party is over, but I cannot sleep. Long into the early hours, there is (link-reveal: "yelling")[.
Screaming, (link-reveal: "yelling")[.
For a few hours, it is as if something louder and [[more alive than the house->After Party 1]] itself exists]].He consults a tablet. ‘According to our records, this residence is the domicile of no fewer than’ – he turns a page – (click: "turns a page")[ ‘$HousemateCount people.’ He peers over my shoulder doubtfully. ‘Is this [[correct->Andy 8]]?’]The door clunks shut, the man and the daylight now out of the house. I drop the papers onto the table, run up the stairs, and up again, (if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 2nd floor bridge")[along the bridge, ](if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth spiral")[up the spiral, ](if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 3rd floor 2")[over the banisters, ] up so many, many stairs, (if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 4th floor dome")[into the dome, ]all the way up to the little landing outside Eddie’s room. I pant as I crawl to the very top.
Through the landing window, the sky is barely milky green against the black outlines of rooflines, chimney stacks, TV aerials, rising through blue into a dull black. I can just about make out Sarah, lit up like a saint by the light leaking out from behind the door, and Alex fiddling with [[something on the wall->Andy 11]].I rush downstairs, and open the front door.
There is a man there, wearing a shirt and tie under his anorak, as far as I can tell: he is tall, blocking out the rays of the setting sun as they struggle into the house.
‘Good afternoon, sir. Are you Mr Edward Hutchings?’(click: "Hutchings")[
‘Yes.’ //Why did I say yes?//(click: "say yes")[
‘Simon Jeffries, borough council. May I ask if you have a licence for a house in multiple occupation?’(click: "house in multiple occupation")[
I squint into his face, and [[say nothing->Andy 7]].]]]Hell is other people: most people, in fact. Demons, angels, the occasional zombie. Many of them I recognise – Emily from upstairs, Carlos, Mark – but quite a few I don’t. People’s friends?
It’s lit by battery-operated candles (fortunately sanity won and we didn’t end up with real naked flames), which flicker against the metallic red and gold paper that we stuck on the walls. It actually looks pretty good.
I can just about hear the music playing in the kitchen above us(if: $Dice is 3 OR 4 OR 5)[, and the sound of raised voices, too]. The ceiling is bouncing up and down rhythmically, and there is a long crack down the middle which I swear gets longer with every beat.
I pour myself a drink and gradually overhear what Mark and the others are saying.
‘... so every time there’s any kind of tension in here, anyone arguing or whatever, another room just ... appears.’
‘What?’
‘The walls sort of swell up –’
‘– they kind of stretch and burst –’
‘– and another room just sprouts out of the wall.’
‘And then Eddie calls the letting agent, and we get a new housemate. And it [[begins all over again->Hell 2]].’(if: $Dice is 1 or 6)[Drink in hand, ]I duck my head into the ground-floor kitchen. People are talking, and some are dancing. The music is turned right up, and the floor is (if: $Dice is 3 or 4 or 5)[actually ]going up and down with the energy of it.
Funny how the kitchen is so much bigger than I’ve noticed before(if: $Dice is 1 OR 2 OR 6)[ – but now I know it’s the house growing, and it’s not just me imagining things. I look around me at the dozen or so people dancing and think: //this is what they were talking about downstairs. The house has swollen to fit all these people//].
I stand, a little shy, next to (if: (history:) contains "Water basil" OR (history:) contains "Water basil 2")[a big, bushy basil plant that is threatening to outgrow its pot](else:)[some dried-up twigs that presumably used to be a potted herb].
(if: $Dice is 3 OR 4 OR 5)[‘It’s weird,’ I say conversationally to the guy next to me, ‘I didn’t think we’d get so many people in here.’](if: $Dice is 1 OR 2 OR 6)[‘Good job this kitchen is a decent size now,’ I say conversationally to the guy next to me, ‘so we can get so many people in here.’]
He stares at me(if: $Dice is 3 OR 4 OR 5)[, and I wonder what I have said wrong]. ‘Why? Do you think it’s getting bigger? How long have you lived here, anyway?’ I recognise him now: he’s one of the upstairs lads.
Before I can answer, a girl comes up to him. ‘Leave him alone, he’s done nothing wrong,’ she says. The guy shrugs and wanders off to get a drink.
‘Thanks,’ I say. (if: $Dice is 1 OR 2 OR 6)[‘I don’t know what his problem was. So the house keeps getting bigger, so what?’](if: $Dice is 3 OR 4 OR 5)[‘What was that all about? Why does it matter how many people there are? I’m not a fire safety inspector or anything.’ Not that one of those would go amiss around here.]
She looks at me for a second. ‘You’ve not lived here long, have you?’
‘Only a [[few weeks->Purgatory 2]].’(if: $Dice is 1 or 2 or 4)[Carefully holding my drink, ]I poke my head into the first-floor kitchen, where my eye is drawn to a couple of angels, one of whom is smoking a cigarette out of the window, and a devil who seems to be on holiday from Hell.
Music drifts up from the floor below(if: $Dice is 1 OR 3 OR 4)[, along with the sound of raised voices].
‘I mean, does anyone even know what he actually looks like?’ the devil asks.
‘He was here a lot of the time before I moved in,’ answers the smoking angel. ‘Lived in the flat on the top floor, used to stay weeks at a time before taking off again.’
‘Really?’
‘Oh yeah. I think he’s an airline pilot or something, that’s why he’s hardly ever here.’
‘I thought he was a war correspondent.’
‘Well, either way, you’d think he’d come and stay here a bit more, wouldn’t you? Answer a few questions.’
(if: $Dice is 3 OR 5 OR 6)[I listen, fascinated; [[Eddie hasn’t been around at all->Heaven 2]] while I have lived here.](if: $Dice is 1 OR 2 OR 4)[I remember what they were saying about Eddie down in Hell, and have a [[faint sense of unease->Heaven 2]].]The party is great, at first.
I emerge from my room to the sound of music coming from the ground floor kitchen – ‘Hey Ya!’, it sounds like – carefully dressed up as an angel down one side and a devil down the other. I’m still new in this house, and I want to make a good impression. I don’t think I’ve actually met everyone yet.
Paula is standing by the coat-rack that no-one ever seems to use, dressed up as the Grim Reaper.
‘Hel-//lo//, Tom! Welcome to the afterlife. Roll the dice!’
There is a large wooden die on the table where Eddie’s post is piled up.
‘What?’
‘We don’t do fair here. Doesn’t matter how much you gave to charity, how many old ladies you helped across the road, how many kittens’ lives you saved. None of your choices matter here. Roll the dice.’
[[I roll->Grim Reaper 2]].‘What about the stairs going up to Eddie’s room? We’ll have to stop people going up there – even if there is approximately zero chance of him actually being in.’
‘Oh, sure. Anyway, it’s not like you can have anything above Heaven. Unless he’s God or something.’
‘What, because nobody’s ever seen him and [[I’m not sure he actually exists->Grim Reaper 1]]? Sounds about right.’In my dream I am thirteen years old. Taller than all my friends, with feet that do not fit me, and with a voice that is neither a boy’s nor a man’s. You’d think it’d make me happy to be maturing quicker than everyone around me, but I feel like a freak. I don’t fit into the spaces around me, I hit my head on shelves that my twin sister runs under happily.
My bones are growing so fast that they ache. Sometimes they grow so fast I swear I can hear them.
Slowly I realise I am awake, I am definitely awake now. I can still hear the growing, the groaning in the walls.
The streetlight trickles over the curtain (why hasn’t [[she->Nadia 4]] put that hook back up? [[I->Mark 4]] can’t sleep like this), reflecting off the funny-shaped mirror, sort of like a sideways 8. I see silver threads glistening down the middle of the room. That spider’s been busy.
The room feels so tiny, like a prison cell. We are doing time together.
I think she is asleep.So I get home to find that she’s bought this sort of room divider – I don’t know when she had time to go out and get it, but it must have been her; //I// didn’t do it. It’s made of reeds or raffia or planty stuff like that.
Funny how you can’t see where it attaches to the walls, floor and ceiling. As if it was growing that way.
It’s really weird: a few days ago, the room felt so tiny and cramped, but now that it’s divided into two – a bed on each side, a small, square table on each side – my side actually feels about the same size as the room used to be.
I can work at home this way; [[I->Mark 5]] can get more done without [[her->Nadia 5]].I am playing the new game, totally into it. I can’t remember how long I have been playing.
I used to think this room was pretty crap, to be honest, but it’s actually alright. I swear it’s even bigger than it used to be. Maybe it’s the big round mirror opposite the window, reflecting the light.
Today I realised there was a picture rail on all four sides of the room, so I hung a poster on the wall beside the bed (no blu-tack allowed, of course). Nice.
Makes this place look a bit less like a prison cell.
I’m so deep into the game that I can almost not even hear that stupid woman banging on the wall of the cell next door. It actually looks as if it was painted more recently than the other three; funny, that.
It gets late, and I turn off the computer, and go to bed. Just as I switch off the light, I notice a spiderweb in the corner.
I will do something about it (link-goto: "in the morning", "Hallway").(set: $Couple to true)(set: $Mirror to 2)
<h3>End of Chapter [$ChaptersStarted]</h3>The wall between my room and the one next door is too thin, too cheap, and they’ve clearly just divided one room into two. I can hear voices: that man next door, Mark or something, must have the TV on. I put music on so that I don’t have to think about him.
I stretch out in bed: to my great pleasure, it seems somewhat broader than it used to. I can take up more space.
(if: (history:) contains "Mark 3")[I go to sleep, with a vague sense of having [[lost->Nadia end]] something.](if: (history:) contains "Nadia 3")[I go to sleep, with a vague sense of having [[lost->Mark end]] something.](set: $DownstairsKitchen to true)The kitchen is small, only big enough to get two people at the worktops (and that’s being optimistic); there is a tiny square table in the corner, with a plasticky tablecloth over it. A basil plant is dying slowly on the windowsill. Another plant, with white flowers but unidentifiable (by me, at any rate), sits in a pot beside it.
A youngish woman(if: (history:) contains "Yasmin's bathroom")[, not the one I saw in the bathroom,] is standing at the stove, listlessly shoving something in a frying pan.
‘Hi.’
She doesn’t respond.
‘I’m Yasmin. I’ve just moved into one of the downstairs rooms.’
A slight twitch of recognition that a human being is addressing her.
I try again. ‘I suppose someone must have just moved out of there – out of the house.’
Finally she speaks. ‘Moved out of the room. Not out of the house.’
(if: (history:) contains "Yasmin's bedroom")[I think of the dust patterns on the mantelpiece in my room, the picture frames that had been taken away. ]‘They moved in with someone?’
‘No –’ She’s said all she’s going to say. As if there is some great mystery that she doesn’t want to talk about.
Beneath my feet I can feel a strange pulsing sensation.
I decide to try one more time. ‘I was wondering about Eddie, the landlord. Does he come to visit much?’
‘His room’s on the top floor. But he’s not here right now.’ That frostiness, again.
(if: $DownstairsBathroom is true AND $YasminsBedroom is true)[All of a sudden I want to be alone, and [[return to my room->Yasmin's first night]].](else:)[I feel like I am intruding, even though this is my space too. Silently I withdraw; maybe I should check out (if: $YasminsBedroom is not true AND $DownstairsBathroom is not true)[[[my room->Yasmin's bedroom]] or the [[bathroom->Yasmin's bathroom]]](if: $YasminsBedroom is true)[the [[bathroom->Yasmin's bathroom]]](if: $DownstairsBathroom is true)[[[my room->Yasmin's bedroom]]].]It’s Saturday. No work today, thank God.
(if: $toiletlid is true)[ I carefully lay down the lid of the toilet after I use it, and] I shower, looking behind me as I step out. It looks clean. I brush my teeth and pop the brush and paste back into the jar afterwards.
I curl up and watch something on my phone. It’s raining outside and besides, I don’t have any money to go anywhere with, anyway.(click: "don’t have any money")[
The floor beneath me shakes, like there’s an earthquake; my graduation picture falls off the shelf.(click: "graduation picture")[
I step out of the room to go and use the shower, and find myself almost face to face with her. She is in a white dressing-gown and a dark mood.
‘Have you [[//seen//->Tammy Saturday 2]] what it’s like in there?’]]Without saying any more, she points me inside, and disappears.
I ... can’t see what is wrong with it. Shower, fine. Basin, fine. Toilet, fine(if: $toiletlid is true)[ – and I’ve left the lid down as well]. I’m not psychic! How am I supposed to solve the problem if she doesn’t tell me what it is? What does she see that [[I do not see->Tammy choice]]?Back in my room, light passes through the window and reflects off (if: $glasses is true)[my glasses onto](else:)[my phone screen onto](if: $photo is true)[ my graduation photograph in its shiny frame.](else:)[ the cover of my book.](if: $glasses is true)[
What does she see that I do not see?](if: $photo is true)[
From the photo my face stares back at me. Happy and smiling, hair as pale and fine as candyfloss. ](if: $glasses is true AND $photo is true)[
And then I have a [[horrible thought->Tammy realisation]].](else:)[(if: $book is true)[
I pick up the book, and start to read from where I left off. It’s actually not bad, once you get into it.](else:)[
I pick up my phone and play a game to calm myself down a bit.]
Maybe I will [[never know->Tammy housemate talk]] what’s getting her back up so much.]I run back to the bathroom, bend down and give the shower a closer look. It’s covered in hair. Candyfloss hair.
And then I straighten up again. Spotless.
My glasses are still on my bedside table. Distance glasses, needed for the TV and the computer, but not for reading or just hanging around in my (link-reveal: "room")[.
Or for having a (link-reveal: "shower")[.
So //this// is what she was so annoyed about all this time?
I had no idea.
I had always been so careful, always looked behind me before leaving the bathroom, to check if I had made a mess; and I always cleaned up if I’d noticed a bit of hair or foam or anything on the shower or around the basin or whatever. But most of the time I had noticed nothing of the sort, because I //could not see it//.
And she had simply believed that I was thoughtless or dirty or (link-reveal: "didn’t care")[.
And that is the trouble with living with [[people you don’t know->Tammy housemate talk]]]]].(set: $TammyRealisation to true)(set: $ChaptersStarted +=1)<h3>Chapter [$ChaptersStarted]: There’s No Place Like Home</h3>
Ivana said that living in this house used to be terrible, but it’s actually okay now.
I miss having my own place, though.
The rent went up, my salary stayed the same – there was no getting around that.
I saw what way the wind was blowing. I gave notice on the flat, and fortunately someone from work had a spare room in her [[house->Emily 2]]. That’s how I ended up here.(set: $ChaptersStarted +=1)<h3>Chapter [$ChaptersStarted]: In the Shadows</h3>
When I wake in the morning, the first thing I hear is [[their voices->Anna 2]].
In the back of my mind, it feels as if a blind is lowering, shutting out the light for the rest of the day.I look up to find that Ivana is staring at me, as if she has just asked me a question.
‘Uhh .... yes,’ I say, and (link-goto: "hope that that is the right response", "Landing").(set: $EmilyStory to true)(set: $Mirror to 9)
<h3>End of Chapter [$ChaptersStarted]</h3>It is warm under my duvet. I press the switch, and there is darkness.
Their voices still carry through the (link-goto: "thin walls", "Landing").(set: $AnnaStory to true)(set: $Mirror to 10)
<h3>End of Chapter [$ChaptersStarted]</h3>‘When did he even get here? Did anyone see him?’
I remember the leather jacket hanging in the hallway. Slowly, I take the handle. It turns, but it does not open. ‘It’s locked.’
‘What do we do? Knock?’
‘Go on, then.’
Sarah rests her knuckles against the door, pauses, and (link-reveal: "knocks three times")[.
[[Nothing->Andy 14]]].‘We could phone him.’
‘Has anyone even got a working number for him? It doesn’t even go to voicemail any more. Last time I tried, I just got a couple of bleeps and [[nothing->Andy 15]].’//(if: $AshLukasStory is not true)[On the first-floor landing there is a kitchen, a (if: $TammyStory is true)[[[bathroom->Upstairs Bathroom]], ](else:)[bathroom, ](if: $Ivana2 is true)[Ivana’s room, ](else:)[(if: $TammyStory is true)[[[Ivana’s room->Ivana 201]], ](else:)[(if: $Ivana1 is true)[Ivana’s room, ](else:)[(if: (history:) does not contain "Ivana 101")[[[Ivana’s room->Ivana 101]], ](else:)[[[Ivana’s room->Ivana new room]], ]]]](if: $TammyStory is not true AND $Ivana1 is true AND $Couple is true)[[[Tammy’s room->Tammy Thursday]], ](else:)[Tammy’s room, ]and (if: $TammyStory is true AND $AnnaStory is not true)[[[Anna’s room->Anna 1]]](else:)[Anna’s room](if: $TammyStory is not true)[; the landing ends in a plain white wall. ](if: $TammyStory is true)[; at the far end of the landing there is a bathroom, a [[kitchen->1st floor new kitchen]], (if: $EmilyStory is not true)[[[Emily’s room->Emily 1]], ](else:)[Emily’s room, ](if: $milk is true AND $Lukas1 is not true)[[[Lukas’s room->Lukas milk 1]]](else:)[Lukas’s room](if: $radio is true)[, and [[Ash’s room->Ash radio 1]]](else:)[(if: $juice is true AND $Ash1 is not true)[, and [[Ash’s room->Ash juice 1]]](else:)[, and Ash’s room]].(if: $radio is true)[
From one of the kitchens, you can hear a radio playing loud music.]
]The broad staircase behind you leads [[down->Hallway]] to the ground floor; a narrower one leads further [[upwards->Eddie's floor]].](else:)[On the first-floor landing there are two bathrooms, two kitchens, Ivana’s room, Tammy’s room, Anna’s room, Emily’s room, Lukas’s room, Ash’s room, Claire’s room, Michelle’s room, Richard’s room, Connor’s room, Anil’s room and Lucy’s room. The landing [[continues->Landing 2]] down a short corridor.
The broad staircase behind you leads [[down->Hallway]] to the ground floor; a narrower one leads further [[upwards->Eddie's floor]].]////You are at the top of the house; you stop for a second to catch your breath.
You are standing on a landing, where there is a circuit breaker and a [[mirror->Labyrinth mirror]] on the wall, a small window, (if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth little door")[a small doorway, and an ordinary-sized](else:)[a narrow staircase leading downwards, and a] door, leading to [[Eddie’s room->Labyrinth Eddie]].
From all around you can hear a terrible noise, like a screaming alarm.//I wake abruptly from a meagre, dream-ridden three hours’ sleep to find the house transformed.
Alcoves have budded from corners; walls that were already swollen have finally burst, shooting forth corridors; new stairs, new floors have erupted, new brick forming a coating around them all, flesh protecting bone.
New stairs, new floors, new rooms.
And, as if by instinct, within days people come, [[and they fill them->End hallway]].
<h3>End of Chapter [$ChaptersStarted]</h3>It must have been weeks since I moved in, and now I cannot imagine living anywhere but here: it is as if my feet were rooted into the very floorboards.
Sometimes I look into the big round mirror and think of how old I am now, and how I wanted to have a partner, and to be having a baby now: I think of it growing, of cells dividing inside me: one cell into two, two cells into four, over and over.
That annoying man next door is making too much noise, playing his video games or whatever it is. For a second I hesitate before banging on the wall – I worry about the thinness of it, that I might knock through it – but it’s actually pretty solid.
I get into bed, and stare at the corner for a bit. Sometimes I could swear that I am missing something, but I don’t know what.
The spiderweb is still there. I will do something about it (link-goto: "in the morning", "Hallway").(set: $Couple to true)(set: $Mirror to 3)
<h3>End of Chapter [$ChaptersStarted]</h3>I open the door and throw my keys on the single bed, pushed up against the thin wall.
Cheap crappy plywood, they’ve clearly just divided one room into two. I can hear a sound through it: that Nadia woman next door must be listening to the radio or something.
I put on some music to drown it out. It’s all you can do to get some privacy in this place.
In the end, I go to sleep, with a weird sense that I’ve (if: (history:) contains "Nadia 3")[[[lost->Mark end]] something](if: (history:) contains "Mark 3")[[[lost->Nadia end]] something].This is a work of fiction about living in a shared house in a big city, with nine chapters and some linking passages.
As this is my first piece of interactive fiction, I have deliberately incorporated a number of different Twine techniques as a way of learning to use them. The chapter called ‘`#perfecthome`’ may be easier to complete on a computer than on a touchscreen.
Contains occasional swearing.
The cover art (‘|image>[(text-colour:#696969)[Corridor Image]]’) was created by Latte1703 and can be found at |wiki>[(text-colour:#696969)[Wikimedia Commons]] under a |licence>[(text-colour:#696969)[Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International]] licence.
<h2>[[Return->Introduction]]</h2>{(click: ?image)[(open-url: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Corridor_Image.jpg")](click: ?licence)[(open-url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en")](click: ?wiki)[(open-url: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page")]}(if: (history:) does not contain "Yasmin cupboard")[It’s [[this room on the right->Yasmin's bedroom]], I remember now, which is to be my new room.](if: (history:) contains "Yasmin cupboard")[It’s [[this room just here->Yasmin's bedroom]] that is to be my new room.] Beside it, an open door leads to a [[kitchen->Yasmin's kitchen]]; the [[bathroom->Yasmin's bathroom]] is at the end of the hall.(if: (history:) does not contain "Yasmin cupboard")[
And what’s this door under the stairs? [[A basement or something?->Yasmin cupboard]]]‘We could put a big sign over the door going down here: “[[Abandon hope->Dante quote]], all ye who enter here.”’
‘And a sign at the bottom of the hall stairs, saying “Stairway to Heaven.”’
‘And another at the top, saying “Highway to Hell.”’[[We->Anna 3]] are in the kitchen together.I get up, go to the bathroom (if: $toiletlid is true)[(//finally// Tammy has learned to put down the toilet lid!)](else:)[(//when// will Tammy ever learn to put down the toilet lid?)], and go back to my room. I switch on my laptop and start watching some film, some romantic comedy.
The walls pulse gently: they are supple, fluid.(click: "fluid")[
Through them I [[hear their voices->Anna 5]] as they come back from the kitchen together.]Next door they are talking; it is getting late.
I am curled up in bed with my laptop again, finishing that film.
I am tired of watching others go where I cannot go, and wondering why the world is [[different from me->Anna End]].I wish we had a living room. Then I might feel like I actually lived here, instead of just sleeping, eating and showering.(click: "lived")[
I dream about having work people over for (link-reveal: "coffee")[ somewhere my bed isn’t on display].(click: "bed")[
I dream about making dinner for my (link-reveal: "friends")[, and not having to [[worry->Anna 6]] that someone else will need to use the kitchen].]]I want to sink myself into a long, hot bath with lots of bubbles and rose petals.
Fortunately we actually have a bath now, downstairs, so I sneak down there, lock the door, and [[immerse myself->Anna 10]]. (if: $TammyRealisation is not true)[Plus, it means not having a shower, which Tammy will have left her fucking blonde hairs all over. As I soak, I wonder about it: why she will clean up after herself in the kitchen, but leave the bathroom looking like a pigsty.](if: $TammyRealisation is true)[It’s pretty clean, thank God. Tammy used to leave our bathroom upstairs looking like a pigsty after she’d finished with it – you could tell it was her, she is the only blonde on our floor. And then one day it was like a switch flipped and she started leaving it spotless. Strange.](set: $Dice to (random: 1,6))I roll a (print: $Dice).
(if: $Dice is 1 OR 2)[‘Sorry, Tom, you’ve been bad. Straight to Hell with you!’
Right as she finishes speaking, the [[door under the stairs->Hell 1]] swings open, and I swear a few faint wisps of smoke emerge.](if: $Dice is 3 OR 4)[‘Hmmm, you still need to have your sins purged out of you, Tom – you have committed the sin of //SOBRIETY//!’
She points me [[towards the kitchen->Purgatory 1]].](if: $Dice is 5 OR 6)[‘Well, Tom, it looks like you’ve lived a better life than I thought! It’s [[upstairs with you->Heaven 1]], go and pick a cloud and harp.’
I slip past the Reaper and up the staircase into Heaven.]The other angel – I think she’s (if: $Dice is 1 OR 3 OR 4)[another ]one of the girls from this floor, I can’t remember all their names – pours herself a vodka and tonic. Clear drinks, for Heaven. ‘I think I saw the back of him once, just as he was leaving.’
‘//When?!//’ say the others.
‘A few months ago now? A guy in a leather jacket, just the back of him. I wouldn’t have known it was Eddie if I’d not seen him pick up some post and stick it in his bag.’
(if: $Dice is 2 or 3)[In the kitchen below, the song ends and a low, edgy bassline pulses through the floor. ‘Seven Nation Army’.
](if: $Dice is 1 or 4)[In the kitchen below, the song ends and the fast, sinister guitar riff of ‘I Predict a Riot’ begins. A shiver goes up my spine.(if: $Dice is 1 OR 3 OR 4)[ Someone in the kitchen beneath us is beginning to properly shout, now.]
](if: $Dice is 5 or 6)[In the kitchen below, the song ends and an upbeat sound begins. ‘Mr Brightside’, I think.
]‘It could have been Mark on the ground floor,’ says the devil. ‘He gets a lot of post. And he has a leather jacket.’
‘[[I suppose so->Heaven 3]].’‘Yasmin’s //definitely// seen him.’ The other angel stubs out her cigarette on the outside windowsill.
‘You sure?’
She nods vigorously. ‘Carlos said he’d heard Lukas talking about it. Just after she first moved in, there was a weird noise in her room, the floorboards or something, and she got him to come in and have a listen. Ask her.’(if: $Dice is 1 or 3 or 4)[
‘But I was just talking to her a minute ago,’ I begin, ‘and she said she’d never met him.’
The angels and devil just look quizzically at me, as if unable to believe what I have said, and change the subject.]
(if: $Dice is 1 or 4)[So I finish my drink, and am just looking around for another when I realise that things are really kicking off on the floor below. Someone is shouting, a door is slamming.
‘Can you hear that?’ I ask.
The devil nods. The music below stops.
We can’t work out what’s going on exactly, but now they’re really screaming. The angels and devil look warily at one another. The floor is beginning to quiver beneath our feet, the walls are vibrating.
I remember what they were talking about in Hell. [[We’re for it now->Fight]].](else:)[(if: $Dice is 2)[I finish my drink, and am thinking of pouring myself another, ](if: $Dice is 3 OR 5 OR 6)[I think about pouring myself a drink, ]but realise that there’s nothing here I want, so I decide to check out (if: $Dice is 6 or 3)[[[Hell->Hell 1]]](if: $Dice is 2 or 5)[[[Purgatory->Purgatory 1]]] instead.]//Tom’s door opens onto a spare, undecorated room; cardboard moving boxes lie scattered over the floor. A few [[books->Tom's books]] – classics, mostly – have already been arranged on the shelves. Some clothes lie in a stack in the open wardrobe; a duvet is on the bed.
[[Nobody is here->Hallway]].//‘But //how// ...?’ I ask.
‘Don’t ask me. But you’ve noticed it, right? You’ve been here long enough, haven’t you?’
Apparently I’m the only one who finds this unbelievable. I wonder what all the friends and boyfriends and girlfriends are making of this, until I think: is //anyone// here from outside of the house? Did anyone invite any friends? Does anyone here even //have// any friends?
(if: $Dice is 4 OR 6)[The ceiling stops reverberating for a second, and then I hear the muffled bassline of ‘Seven Nation Army’. All the hairs on my arms go up as one.
](if: $Dice is 1 OR 2)[The ceiling stops reverberating for a second, and then I hear the upbeat opening of ‘Mr Brightside’.
](if: $Dice is 3 or 5)[The ceiling stops reverberating for a second, and then I hear the opening of a new song: ‘I Predict a Riot’. I don’t feel so good.(if: $Dice is 3 OR 4 OR 5)[ Someone on the floor above is beginning to properly shout, now.]
]I try to think of some time since I moved in that anyone had their girlfriend over or said they were going out with friends. Never.
But there are [[//loads// of people->Hell 3]] at the party ...I take another look around, a proper one this time. I can’t put a name to half the faces here, but they are beginning to look vaguely familiar. I think I spotted that guy with the piercings yesterday, moving his stuff in; and then I think, //oh yeah, Paula and Ash got a bit stroppy with each other a couple of weeks ago. Wasn’t there just a blank wall, before, where his room is now?//
(if: $Dice is 1 OR 2)[‘And I suppose Eddie has to come every now and then,’ I say, ‘to get the new tenants in?’
‘Oh no. He hasn’t been here for a while. The estate agents handle it for him.’](if: $Dice is 3 OR 4 OR 5 OR 6)[‘And how does Eddie know,’ I ask, as the thought occurs to me, ‘since he’s never actually here?’
‘Don’t know. The estate agents say he called them, that’s all.’]
(if: $Dice is 3 or 5)[My thoughts break off suddenly when I realise that the ceiling has stopped moving. The music from above stops.
Someone is shouting, a door is slamming.
‘Can you hear that?’ I ask.
A zombie nods.
We can’t hear what's going on, but now they’re really screaming. The assembled hosts of Hell look warily at one another. The ceiling is beginning to quiver frantically, the walls are vibrating.
I remember what we were just talking about a minute ago. [[We’re for it now->Fight]].](else:)[Well, this is pretty weird. I decide on a change of scene.
Like a bat out of Hell, I swoop out and up the stairs(if: $Dice is 1 or 6)[ to [[Purgatory->Purgatory 1]]](if: $Dice is 2 or 4)[, and up again to [[Heaven->Heaven 1]]].]No, it’s just a cupboard. There’s a few cleaning things here, but [[that’s all->Yasmin's room choice]].//You look into the glass, and see no face reflected in it. But as you [[turn away->Eddie's floor]], (if: $Mirror is 1)[you can feel a steady pulse in the floor and walls about you, like a beating heart.](if: $Mirror is 2)[you have a vague sense of having lost something without knowing what it was.](if: $Mirror is 3)[you are sure that you hear the faint and faraway sound of a baby’s cry.](if: $Mirror is 4)[you feel a strange sense of emptiness beneath your inner calm.](if: $Mirror is 5)[you feel the ache of something you have never had but are somehow missing.](if: $Mirror is 6)[you notice the light reflecting perfectly off its surface, as if there were something there that you are not seeing.](if: $Mirror is 7)[you are gripped by a sudden feeling of embarrassment.](if: $Mirror is 8)[a sense of unexpected warmth floods over you.](if: $Mirror is 9)[it occurs to you that you had failed to see what was reflected in it all along.](if: $Mirror is 10)[the sense of being utterly alone shivers over you.](if: $Mirror is 11)[you think you see something move, just out of the corner of your eye.](if: $Mirror is 12)[you could swear you hear a mocking, hollow laugh.]//I give her a second look. ‘You’re Yasmin, aren’t you? You live on this floor, with me.’
‘That’s right.’
(if: $Dice is 1 OR 3 OR 4)[‘I was going to ask ... is Eddie the landlord going to be visiting soon? Because my door won’t lock properly, and –’
She gives a kind of hollow laugh. ‘Eddie won’t be turning up any time soon. He hasn’t been here the whole time I’ve lived here. Maybe one of the others will have seen him, those who have been here longer than I have.’
‘Ahh, okay.’ ](if: $Dice is 2 or 5 OR 6)[‘They were just talking about you upstairs. You’ve actually met Eddie, haven’t you?’
‘Eddie the landlord? Oh, no. He hasn’t been around in all of my time here. But I think he used to come here more when Mandy first moved in.’
]I pause, unsure what to say next. (if: $Dice is 3 or 4)[The song comes to an end, and ‘Mr Brightside’ begins. ](if: $Dice is 2 or 6)[The song comes to an end, and ‘I Predict a Riot’ begins. I don’t feel so good.
](if: $Dice is 1 or 5)[The song comes to an end, and the low, edgy bassline of ‘Seven Nation Army’ begins.
]‘So what was that guy talking about?’ I ask.
She looks at me strangely. ‘Have you ever noticed that there is something ... weird about this house?’
(if: $Dice is 3 or 4 or 5)[‘What do you mean, weird? Are you talking about the footsteps that go up and down the stairs at night? The doors that keep opening when no-one’s around to open them?’
She’s just about to respond ](if: $Dice is 1 or 2 or 6)[I’m about to tell her that yes, I know exactly what she’s talking about, ]when we are interrupted.
‘What are you talking about?’ It’s one of the upstairs girls (there are so many of them).
‘(if: $Dice is 1 or 2 or 6)[The way the house keeps getting bigger and bigger. And here’s another thing. ]I keep hearing all these weird noises at night, but nobody’s there. There has to be a rational answer for –’
‘I don’t know anything,’ Upstairs Girl mutters, and turns to Yasmin. ‘And don’t you go talking to him about ... all that.’
(if: $Dice is 3 OR 4 OR 5)[‘All what?’ I ask. ‘Why won’t anyone tell me what's going on?’](if: $Dice is 1 OR 2 or 6)[‘Why not?’ I ask.]
She is looking [[pretty pissed off->Purgatory 3]] now. Nobody answers my question.‘Don’t start any trouble,’ Upstairs Girl says, ‘or it’ll start happening again.’(if: $Dice is 3 OR 4 OR 5)[ //Or //what// will start happening again?// I wonder.](if: $Dice is 1 or 2 OR 6)[ And I think of all the people at the party, and I think: //How many more people can this place take?//]
‘But I’m not starting any trouble –’(if: $Dice is 4 or 5)[
Better make a speedy exit. I haven’t checked out [[Hell->Hell 1]] yet. I slip away and down the staircase.](if: $Dice is 1 or 3)[
Better make a speedy exit. I haven’t checked out [[Heaven->Heaven 1]] yet. I slip away and up the stairs.](if: $Dice is 2 OR 6)[
I’ve really put my foot in it. Upstairs Girl shouts, and walks out, slamming the door.
And now someone out there in the hall has started screaming at her. The walls and floor are beginning to shake rapidly. Someone has switched off the music.
I remember what they said downstairs in Hell. [[We’re for it now->Fight]].]//You try the door handle(if: (history:) contains "Eddie")[ again]. It turns, but it (if: (history:) contains "Eddie")[ still] [[does not open->Eddie's floor]].//(set: $ChaptersStarted +=1)<h3>Chapter [$ChaptersStarted]: `#perfecthome`</h3>(set: $IvanaChapter = $ChaptersStarted)
The paintwork in this room is all new; the furniture, too. The fabrics are fresh and white and crisp.
(link-reveal: "`#eleganthome #homeinspo #homedecor`")[
From the moment I first saw the room, I knew I could triple my followers.
[[#perfecthome->Ivana old room]]]<center>*</center>
I had hoped to find love by this time in my life, but I’ve found something else.
(link-reveal: "`#contentment`")[
Even though we live on the same floor I WhatsApp her first thing in the morning. We shop together, cook together, eat together.
(link-reveal: "`#happiness`")[
I talk about my day to her, and she is the perfect listener: she never butts in or talks over me.
[[`#friendship`->Ivana meeting Emily]]]]I cook alone, eat alone, and return to my perfect room.
//(print: $ChaptersStarted*25190) followers//
I snap off a couple of photos, filter and post, and get (link-goto: "a dozen likes within seconds", "Landing").(set: $Ivana1 to true)(set: $Mirror to 5)
<center>*</center>//You are in a small kitchen, newly fitted. You can smell the paint, barely dry, upon the walls.
You can see a cooker, a small worktop, a (if: $ChaptersStarted >5 AND $Ivana2 is true)[[[fridge->Fridge]]](else:)[fridge], a freezer, and there is a little table in the corner; two cupboards are fixed to the wall. There are bins for waste and recycling.(if: $milk OR $juice is true)[
On the worktop there is (if: $juice is true)[an empty glass, with lip marks and a tiny dribble of juice at the bottom](if: $milk is true)[; and also a bowl and spoon, with fragments of cornflakes stuck to the sides, and a puddle of milk beside it].]
There is a (if: $Lukas1 is true AND $radio is not true)[[[radio->Radio]]](else:)[radio] on the windowsill(if: $radio is true)[, playing loud music].
A door leads back to the [[landing->Landing]].////On the bottom shelf of the fridge in the first-floor [[kitchen->1st floor new kitchen]] there is an assortment of vegetables, beginning to go bad, and some cured meats.
On the middle shelf of the fridge there is a pot of yoghurt and a tub of butter(if: $milk is not true OR $juice is not true)[.
In the fridge door there is](if: $milk is not true)[(if: $Ash1 is true)[ a [[bottle of milk->milk]]](else:)[ a bottle of milk]](if: $milk is not true AND $juice is not true)[ and](if: $juice is not true)[ a carton of [[orange juice->orange juice]]].////You take the milk from the fridge, and a bowl and some cereal from the cupboard, and you make yourself a bowl of cornflakes, (link-reveal: "spilling a little milk")[ (no point in crying about it)].
You leave the bowl on the worktop and put the milk bottle [[in the recycling->1st floor new kitchen]].//(set: $milk to true)//The juice carton is (link-reveal: "half-empty")[ (or half-full, if you prefer)].
You take it from the fridge, and a glass from the cupboard, and pour yourself a nice cool drink.
You leave the glass on the worktop and throw the carton [[in the bin->1st floor new kitchen]].//(set: $juice to true)‘That the circuit breaker?’
‘Yeah.’ A squeaking noise, something plastic opening. ‘Got to be one of these.’
‘Who was at the door?’ asks Sarah.
‘Guy from the council, looking for Eddie. He’s breaking the law – too many people living here, or something.’
‘What’s going to happen?’
‘Big fine, if they catch him.’
Alex snorts. ‘They’ll have a job finding him.’
‘What if they get him, though, and close him down?’ I ask. ‘What’ll happen to us? Will we all have to find somewhere new to live at a moment’s notice – all of us?’
I imagine the household breaking up and dispersing, all (print: $HousemateCount+1) of us, blown like spores on the wind, taking root, and (print: $HousemateCount+1) new houses growing like mushrooms from the dirt of the city.
Then Sarah speaks. ‘Oh my God. [[The door->Andy 12]].’//You are standing in a long hallway covered by a rug, leading from a heavy front door, with a table piled with post, and a coat-rack. Doors lead to Yasmin’s room, Mark’s room, Nadia’s room, Mandy’s room, Tom’s room, Paula’s room, Carlos’s room, Lee’s room, Dave’s room, Amy’s room, Jenny’s room, two bathrooms, two kitchens, and the basement kitchen.
A [[broad staircase->Labyrinth stairs 2]] leads upwards.
From somewhere you can hear a steady beat, like a dripping tap.//(set: $HousemateCount +=11)//As you climb the stairs, the hall behind you pushes further and further back, growing longer and longer; the stairs get steeper, the ceiling higher above you.
You start moving faster, and [[emerge on the next floor->Labyrinth landing]].
From somewhere you can hear a steady beat, like a dripping tap.////On the first-floor landing there are two bathrooms, two kitchens, Ivana’s room, Tammy’s room, Anna’s room, Emily’s room, Lukas’s room, Ash’s room, Claire’s room, Michelle’s room, Richard’s room, Connor’s room, Anil’s room and Lucy’s room; yet another room is bursting into being, and the wall is straining and buckling at the [[other end of the landing->Labyrinth 1st floor 2]].
(set: $LabyrinthText to (random: 1,3))(if: $LabyrinthText is 1)[The doors are all expanding and contracting rhythmically; the floorboards underneath your feet rise and sink as if you were on board ship.
]The broad staircase behind you leads down to the ground floor; a narrower one leads [[further upwards->Labyrinth landing stairs]].
From somewhere you can hear a steady beat, like a thudding drum.//(set: $HousemateCount +=21)//You are standing, breathless, at the top of the stairs: there are rooms on each side. The corridor is budding to the [[left->Labyrinth 2nd floor left]] and the [[right->Labyrinth 2nd floor right]] of you.
(set: $LabyrinthText to (random: 1,3))(if: $LabyrinthText is 1)[The doors are all expanding and contracting rhythmically; the floorboards underneath your feet rise and sink as if you were on board ship.
]From somewhere you can hear a loud noise, like a clanging bell.//(set: $HousemateCount +=12)(if: $TammyStory is not true)[//The kitchen is small, with a cooker in the corner, a fridge-freezer in the other corner, and a couple of worktops squeezed in between them. (if: $Couple is not true)[Three](if: $Couple is true)[Four] bottles of washing-up liquid stand beside the sink.
A wrinkled (if: (history:) does not contain "Water basil")[[[basil plant->Water basil]]](else:)[basil plant] is on the windowsill, reaching for a little sunlight. Beside it is a small strawberry plant in a pot, with some little white flowers. A fly is banging against the window, repeatedly.(set: $fly to true)
A square table, covered in a plastic tablecloth, is beside the [[door->Hallway]]//.](if: $TammyStory is true AND $ChaptersStarted <6)[//The kitchen is of medium size, with a cooker in the corner, a fridge-freezer in the other corner, and some worktops. Four bottles of washing-up liquid stand beside the sink.
(if: (history:) contains "Water basil")[A healthy-looking basil plant is on the windowsill, reaching for the sunlight.](else:)[A shrivelled (if: (history:) contains "Water basil" OR "Water basil 2")[basil plant](else:)[[[basil plant->Water basil 2]]] is on the windowsill, reaching for a little sunlight.] Beside it is a strawberry plant in a pot; shoots are budding from it into the soil, from which new plants are beginning to sprout. A fly is banging against the window, listlessly.(set: $fly to true)
A rectangular table, covered in a plastic tablecloth, is beside the [[door->Hallway]]//.](if: $ChaptersStarted >5)[//The kitchen is large, with two cookers, a big fridge-freezer, and worktops on both sides. (if: $AshLukasStory is true)[Nine](else:)[Four] bottles of washing-up liquid stand beside the double sink.
(if: (history:) contains "Water basil" OR (history:) contains "Water basil 2")[A luxuriant basil plant is on the windowsill, basking in the sunlight.](else:)[A few dried-up stalks of basil stand in a pot of dry dirt beside the window.] A row of strawberry plants grow in little pots, new plants budding from them. (if: $fly is true)[The fly has given up and died.](else:)[A fly lies dead on the windowsill.]
A rectangular table, covered in a plastic tablecloth, is beside the [[door->Hallway]]//.]//You give the basil a little water (but [[not too much->Kitchen downstairs]]).////You are in a (if: $TammyStory is true)[largish bathroom](else:)[small bathroom]. There is a toilet and washbasin, beside which (if: $Couple is not true)[three](if: $Couple is true AND $AshLukasStory is not true)[four](if: $AshLukasStory is true)[nine] little soaps sit in separate containers, and (if: $Couple is not true)[three](if: $Couple is true AND $AshLukasStory is not true)[four](if: $AshLukasStory is true)[nine] little hand towels hang on a rack and a radiator; on the wall there is a (if: $TammyStory is not true)[small ][[cupboard->Bathroom cupboard]].
There is a shower, (if: $TammyStory is true)[a bath, ]a [[mirror->Ground floor mirror]], a patterned mat on the floor, and a door leading back to the [[hallway->Hallway]].//(set: $IvanaRoomEntry +=1)(if: (history:) does not contain "Ivana new room")[But since this upstairs room opened up, things have been so much better.
(link-reveal: "//(print: $ChaptersStarted*95) likes//")[
Everything is white and ivory, sleek and chic.
(link-reveal: "//(print:$ChaptersStarted*136) likes//")[
Crisp sheets, fluffy cushions. Cream carpet, magnolia paint.
(link-reveal: "//(print: $ChaptersStarted*427) likes//")[
Only the [[door->Landing]] is blue. All around it, there is nothing but white curtains, white picture rail, everything blending into the white, white walls.
[<span class="hides">[[I put my hand to the white wall, feeling the pulse of electricity, and the truth about this house that does not show up on camera.->Ivana 104]]</span>(set: $Mirror to 4)
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//(print:$ChaptersStarted*136) likes//
Crisp sheets, fluffy cushions. Cream carpet, magnolia paint.
//(print: $ChaptersStarted*427) likes//
Only the [[door->Landing]] is blue. All around it, there is nothing but white curtains, white picture rail, everything blending into the white, white walls.
(if: $IvanaRoomEntry <3)[<span class="hides">[[I put my hand to the white wall, feeling the pulse of electricity, and the truth about this house that does not show up on camera.->Ivana 104]]</span>(set: $Mirror to 4)
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]]My old room was okay, I suppose. Careful photography, good use of light – I could make it look good on camera.
(link-reveal: "`#filter #sepia #cityliving`")[
The wardrobe and drawers were a bit old-fashioned and chipped, the patterned wallpaper a little outdated. But the fireplace was good, and I covered the mantelpiece with picture frames and houseplants.
(link-reveal: "`#vintage #shabbychic #nostalgia`")[
I wanted to make it look as if I lived somewhere more stylish, but the rent in this city is impossible.
[[`#millenniallife #goals`->Ivana new room]]]]You can never really paper over the cracks, can you?
I didn’t get on that well with Mandy anyway, but everything changed after that night. When the yelling was over, the [[floor above us->Ivana 105]] began to creak.I don’t think any of us slept that night. It wasn’t just the noise from the first floor, the grinding of the walls as they expanded and contracted; it was the awful silences in which we listened and waited, wondering [[what would come of it->Ivana 106]].
I think even Mandy regretted it.It was Anna who looked first thing the next morning, and who told us about it: the door, gleaming and new, where before there was only a wall.
I pressed the handle, and it [[opened->Ivana 107]].I had moved from house to house, friendless flatshare to friendless flatshare, chasing cheaper rents.
(link-reveal: "`#millenniallife #chasingthedream`")[
Every time I lived with someone who became a friend, they got a partner and went to live with them instead.
(link-reveal: "`#loneliness #pleasehelpme`")[
And, in the end, I moved into this place, and I just gave up.
[[`#alone`->Ivana end 1]]]]Unblemished and new the room had sprung from the body of the house. Furniture, all chrome and pine, undamaged and pure.
(link-reveal: "//(print: ($ChaptersStarted)*10456) followers//")[
I moved upstairs and filled the new room with new things, unbroken, unspotted.
(link-reveal: "//(print: ($ChaptersStarted)*15893) followers//")[
My photos were my defence against the world, my pretence that all was well in this house.
[[//(print: ($ChaptersStarted)*18018) followers//->Ivana 108]]]]//You are in a small bathroom(if: $Mirror is 6)[, recently cleaned].
There is a toilet(if: $toiletlid is not true AND (history:) does not contain "Anna 4")[ (someone’s left the lid up)], a [[mirror->1st floor mirror]], a handbasin, and a shower; a couple of shelves hold the occupants’ belongings; (if: $Ivana2 is true)[a beautiful conch and a large scallop shell are propped up artistically on the windowsill](else:)[the windowsill is bare]. On the (slightly wet) floor there is a bathroom scale.
A [[door->Landing]] leads back to the landing.//Ivana knocks on the door and we go to the kitchen on her side of the landing (bigger than the one on mine, and far away from Ash and Lukas’s bickering). We make breakfast together: layered fruit, granola, and vegan yoghurt. Ivana takes a picture for Instagram.
I shouldn’t be living in a shared house at my age.
I should [[have a place of my own->Emily job]] again by now, or be [[living with a boyfriend->Emily man]].Of course, the only way that’s ever going to happen is if I suddenly start getting paid a lot more.
So let’s imagine that one day Morgan, my head of department, calls me into a meeting room and sits me down.
‘Emily,’ she begins. ‘I’ve been watching you carefully for some time now. It has become apparent to me that you were meant for much more than this – someone of your talent should go far. I have a new position which has been created just for you which involves a great deal more responsibility – you will [[accept->Emily hand in notice]], of course?’Just imagine.
Our eyes meet across the crowded Tesco Metro. He is – oh, this is a fantasy, so why not? – tall, dark and handsome. Instantly I drop the bag of mixed dried fruits that I am holding and they scatter all over the floor.
My face goes hot: I’m not sure if it’s the embarrassment, or the sight of the beautiful man looking up to me from bended knee, with a handful of the scattered fruit lifted up before me, saying, ‘I know it’s corny, but could I possibly offer you a ... //date//?’
His name is – oooh. |Carl>[Carl]? |Jack>[Jack]? |Sebastian>[Sebastian]?{(click: ?Carl)[(set: $ManName to "Carl")(goto: "Emily hand in notice")](click: ?Jack)[(set: $ManName to "Jack")(goto: "Emily hand in notice")](click: ?Sebastian)[(set: $ManName to "Sebastian")(goto: "Emily hand in notice")]}(if: (history:) contains "Emily man")[He whisks me out of the house and into a lovely place of our own:](if: (history:) contains "Emily job")[I am househunting for absolutely no time at all before I find someone wonderful:] a modern, eco-friendly flat in an up-and-coming area of the city.
There’s a park just around the corner, (if: (history:) contains "Emily man")[ where we go for picnics sometimes](if: (history:) contains "Emily job")[ where I go and feed the ducks sometimes], and instead of getting two buses to work I just wake up at a sane time in the morning and stroll a few streets away into the office.(if: (history:) contains "Emily job")[ Oh, I love my new job, and now I have a great life to go with it.]
And there’s a lovely neighbourhood café just around the corner, oooh, what would it be, |Greek>[Greek]? |Italian>[Italian]?{(click: ?Greek)[(set: $Cafe to "Greek")(goto: "Emily cafe")](click: ?Italian)[(set: $Cafe to "Italian")(goto: "Emily cafe")]}(if: (history:) contains "Emily man")[$ManName and ]I move out into the green, green countryside, into a beautiful old house of (if: (history:) contains "Emily man")[our](if: (history:) contains "Emily job")[my] very own. I can feel the beauty literally dripping into my heart. Every day I get up at first light, get onto the train and into the city and go to work, and then I come home to (if: (history:) contains "Emily man")[our](if: (history:) contains "Emily job")[my] blissful rural idyll.
Where should it be? In a [[valley->Emily valley]], with a river? By the [[sea->Emily sea]]?Everything in my room is white and ivory, sleek and chic.
(link-reveal: "//(print: $ChaptersStarted*95) likes//")[
Crisp sheets, fluffy [[cushions->Ivana cushion]]. Cream carpet, magnolia paint.]I already had a lot of white cushions – big, fluffy ones – but this one is covered with [[white sequins->Ivana sequins]]. It’s special: Emily got it for me as a birthday gift, she knew I liked a white-decorated room. I got myself a picture frame, made of reclaimed wood, and painted white, to hang from the rail.
I’m always posting selfies on Instagram, but this one never went online: Emily and me, on [[that day at the beach->Ivana seashells]], with the sea behind us, happy to be there.But if you brush the sequins back the other way it shows, in all the colours of the rainbow, the word //''(text-colour:red)[F](text-colour:orange)[r](text-colour:yellow)[i](text-colour:lime)[e](text-colour:green)[n](text-colour:cyan)[d](text-colour:blue)[s](text-colour:navy)[h](text-colour:purple)[i](text-colour:magenta)[p]''//, adding a secret depth to [[my room->Ivana room 2.2]]’s aesthetic that was not there before.We looked for seashells. Scallops, spirals, little ones that looked like slippers. Once the perfect homes for sea creatures, now needed no longer, they became ours. I have a couple on the shelf in the bathroom nearest [[my room->Ivana room 2.3]].It rained all day yesterday, so Emily and I just stayed in and played cards for a while.
(link-reveal: "`#peace`")[
I hadn’t played in years – it was something I used to do with my grandparents. Still haven’t lost my touch! And then we just talked for a while.
(link-reveal: "`#friendship`")[
All this time I was looking for happiness through a screen, but instead I found it right where I was all along.
(link-goto: "`#perfecthome`", "Landing")(set: $Ivana2 to true)(set: $Mirror to 8)
<h3>End of Chapter [$IvanaChapter]</h3>]]That’s what my uni friends always used to tell me: a woman shouldn’t be afraid to stand up for herself!
I don’t feel like a woman, not yet. Just a scared girl who hasn’t grown up like all the others have.
She is in the kitchen as I go to cook dinner, she is making a cup of coffee.
‘Hey, how are you doing?’ I begin, psyching myself up to [[ask her->Tammy cooking]].What can I do? Never in my life has speaking up for myself ever amounted to anything much. Somehow, it’s always me who has to apologise, me who goes away thinking, //Why don’t they understand?//
Confrontation is not for people like me, not for people who melt in the presence of others, not for people who never have words in their mouths good enough for the thoughts which swirl inside their heads.
She is in the kitchen as I go to cook dinner, she is making a cup of coffee. We are [[silent->Tammy cooking]], side by side.(if: (history:) contains "Tammy confrontation")[She says nothing: it is as if I am not here. ]She takes her coffee pot, mug and milk jug and leaves the room just as Ivana enters.
‘Hi there!’
Oh, she’ll speak to Ivana. Why do I have to be the only one who’s alone in this house?
Something down the hallway is shuddering: the house is [[doing it again->Tammy Saturday]].
<center><h2>THE END</h2></center>//As you cross the landing, passing Jordan’s room, Jade’s room, Samantha’s room, Mohammed’s room, Lisa’s room, Krystyna’s room, Nigel’s room, and Ffion’s room, the floor beneath you begins to stretch and pull in all directions as a dozen new rooms form in the walls; somehow, you stagger [[forward->Labyrinth 1st floor 3]] towards the end wall.
(set: $LabyrinthText to (random: 1,3))(if: $LabyrinthText is 1)[The doors are all expanding and contracting rhythmically; the floorboards underneath your feet rise and sink as if you were on board ship.
]From somewhere you can hear a steady beat, like a thudding drum.////You are running up a tight little staircase which is getting narrower and narrower as you go.
Just as you are about to reach Eddie’s floor, the walls crack and burst, and the ceiling flakes and splinters; the top half rises up above you as you stagger onto the [[new landing->Labyrinth 2nd floor 1]].
From somewhere you can hear a steady beat, like a thudding drum.////The wall beside you swells like a mushroom, and bursts: a [[tunnel->Labyrinth tunnel 1]] opens in its dark gills; a light still shines behind you.
(set: $LabyrinthText to (random: 1,3))(if: $LabyrinthText is 1)[The walls are all expanding and contracting rhythmically; the floorboards underneath your feet rise and sink as if you were on board ship.
]From somewhere you can hear a steady beat, like a thudding drum.////You are surrounded by darkness; the floor and walls around you are swelling, squeezing you. As you clamber upwards, the passage corkscrews [[up into the light->Labyrinth 2nd floor spiral]]; you find footholds beneath you, you struggle to breathe as you climb faster and faster: the steps are so thick and tight that they barely fit into the passageway.
From somewhere you can hear a steady beat, like a thudding drum.////You are surrounded by doors, circling you, spiralling up into the [[dark dome->Labyrinth 4th floor dome]] of the ceiling. You run upwards, breathing heavily.
(set: $LabyrinthText to (random: 1,3))(if: $LabyrinthText is 1)[The doors are all expanding and contracting rhythmically; the surface underneath your feet rises and sinks as if you were on board ship.
]From somewhere you can hear a loud noise, like a clanging bell.//(set: $EndKitchen to 3)(set: $HousemateCount +=16)//You are in a long hallway covered by a rug, leading from a heavy front door, with a bare table and a coat-rack, upon which a black jacket hangs.
Doors lead to Yasmin’s room, Mark’s room, Nadia’s room, Mandy’s room, Tom’s room, Paula’s room, Carlos’s room, Lee’s room, Dave’s room, Amy’s room, Jenny’s room, Kyle’s room, two bathrooms, two kitchens, and the [[basement kitchen->End basement]]. A wide staircase leads up, up, [[upwards->End landing]].////On the first-floor landing there are two bathrooms, two kitchens, Ivana’s room, Tammy’s room, Anna’s room, Emily’s room, (if: $ManName is not 0)[(print: $ManName)’s room, ](else:)[Jack’s room, ]Lukas’s room, Ash’s room, Claire’s room, Michelle’s room, Richard’s room, Connor’s room, Anil’s room and Lucy’s room; beyond that point, the floor becomes twisted and distorted as it [[continues->End 1st floor 2]].
The broad staircase behind you leads down to the [[ground floor->End hallway]](if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 2nd floor 1")[; a narrower one leads [[further upwards->End 2nd floor 1]]].////You try the door handle(if: (history:) contains "Eddie" OR "Eddie end")[ again]. It turns, but it (if: (history:) contains "Eddie" OR "Eddie end")[ still] [[does not open->End Eddie's floor]].////(if: (history:) does not contain "End Eddie's floor")[You (if: (history:) contains "End 4th floor dome")[go through, and ]stop for a second to catch your breath.
]You are standing on the landing of the top floor, where there is a [[circuit breaker->End circuit breaker]] and a [[mirror->End mirror]] on the wall, a small window, a (if: (history:) contains "End 4th floor 1")[[[staircase leading downwards->End 4th floor 1]], and a single](if: (history:) contains "End 4th floor 2")[[[narrow staircase leading downwards->End 4th floor 2]], and a single](if: (history:) contains "End 4th floor dome")[[[little door->End 4th floor dome]] leading back downstairs, and an ordinary-sized] door, under which a glow of light seeps, leading to [[Eddie’s room->Eddie end]].////You look into the glass, and see not just one face reflected in it, but a hundred.
From all around you can hear a terrible noise, like a screaming alarm.
You look [[away->Labyrinth Eddie's floor]].////You are running down a corridor which is getting longer and longer, doors opening up to your left and right. As you run, the floor before you unrolls like a scroll.
As you reach the end, a gash tears open in the floor, and up out of the void pillars burst through it. A tight [[spiral staircase->Labyrinth stairs 4]] scales it, swift as a spider.
(set: $LabyrinthText to (random: 1,3))(if: $LabyrinthText is 1)[The doors are all expanding and contracting rhythmically; the floorboards underneath your feet rise and sink as if you were on board ship.
]From somewhere you can hear a loud noise, like a clanging bell.//(set: $HousemateCount +=20)//You are running down a corridor which is getting longer and longer, doors and doors and rooms and rooms budding from the masonry.
At the end of the corridor, the wall cracks under the strain, and a [[narrow passage->Labyrinth 2nd floor bridge]] grows out of it.
(set: $LabyrinthText to (random: 1,3))(if: $LabyrinthText is 1)[The doors are all expanding and contracting rhythmically; the floorboards underneath your feet rise and sink as if you were on board ship.
]From somewhere you can hear a loud noise, like a clanging bell.//(set: $HousemateCount +=20)//As you run up the stairs, they split down their length, forming two helical staircases where before there were just one. You jump, just in time, up onto the [[third floor->Labyrinth 3rd floor 1]].
From somewhere you can hear a loud noise, like a clanging bell.////A bridge, little over a metre wide, shoots out into the darkness. You begin to run, not knowing where you are going. As you run, rooms begin forming to your left and right
The bridge leads [[onwards->Labyrinth bridge stairs]](if: (history:) does not contain "Labyrinth 2nd floor spiral")[, or there is a narrow [[passage->Labyrinth 2nd floor spiral]] off to the side].
(set: $LabyrinthText to (random: 1,3))(if: $LabyrinthText is 1)[The doors are all expanding and contracting rhythmically; the floorboards underneath your feet rise and sink as if you were on board ship.
]From somewhere you can hear a loud noise, like a clanging bell.//(set: $HousemateCount +=16)//On the third floor, now, and still not at the top. The narrow row of bare boards and brickwork walls is overgrown: a [[staircase to nowhere->Labyrinth staircase to nowhere]] grows from the centre of the landing; to the right, a [[cluster of banisters->Labyrinth 3rd floor 2]] stands in your way.
(set: $LabyrinthText to (random: 1,3))(if: $LabyrinthText is 1)[The doors are all expanding and contracting rhythmically; the floorboards underneath your feet rise and sink as if you were on board ship.
]From somewhere you can hear a great noise, like a clashing gong.//(set: $EndKitchen to 1)(set: $HousemateCount +=16)//You stop in a dark, silent space: you can hear your heart beating in your throat.
(event: when time > 2s)[You inch forward, carefully, slowly.
(event: when time > 4s)[Slowly you become aware of a faint light from some hidden place up above, and gradually you come to make out [[shapes in the gloom->Labyrinth dome stairs]].
From somewhere you can hear a loud noise, like a clanging bell.]]////You emerge onto the top floor, a ring, looking down, far down over the floors below.
The dome is low, too low, and you have to crouch; it is pocked with holes, each as big as your palm, tight and close-grown. You [[place your hand on one->Labyrinth beehive]] as you move around.
(set: $LabyrinthText to (random: 1,3))(if: $LabyrinthText is 1)[The holes are all expanding and contracting rhythmically; the surface underneath your feet rises and sinks as if you were on board ship.
]A sickness is in your stomach.
From somewhere you can hear a great noise, like a clashing gong.////You climb the staircase, expecting to hit your head on the ceiling, but you find yourself passing [[right through->Labyrinth 4th floor 1]].
From somewhere you can hear a great noise, like a clashing gong.////You clamber over the banisters and continue along the landing, running; the corridor races ahead of you, spiralling in on itself, upwards, doors to the right and left of you, going up floors, going up [[several floors->Labyrinth 4th floor 2]].(if: (history:) does not contain "Labyrinth 3rd floor 3")[ A [[side corridor->Labyrinth 3rd floor 3]] erupts to the right.]
(set: $LabyrinthText to (random: 1,3))(if: $LabyrinthText is 1)[The doors are all expanding and contracting rhythmically; the floorboards underneath your feet rise and sink as if you were on board ship.
]From somewhere you can hear a great noise, like a clashing gong.//(set: $HousemateCount +=16)//The wall fragments into dust. Out of the darkness swarm a thousand bees, fussing and buzzing around you. They nest in the thousand cells of the dome around you, each cell a [[little door->Labyrinth little door]].
From somewhere you can hear a great noise, like a clashing gong.//(set: $HousemateCount +=14)//You are on another, yet another row of identical doorways, terminating in a narrow wooden staircase.
(set: $LabyrinthText to (random: 1,3))(if: $LabyrinthText is 1)[The doors are all expanding and contracting rhythmically; the floorboards underneath your feet rise and sink as if you were on board ship.
]A sickness is in your stomach.
Wearily you [[ascend the stairs->Labyrinth Eddie's floor]].
From all around you can hear a terrible noise, like a screaming alarm.//(set: $HousemateCount +=14)//You are at the centre of a circle of rooms, under a black dome, at the foot of a tiny spiral staircase.
Wearily you [[ascend the stairs->Labyrinth 4th floor dome]].
From somewhere you can hear a loud noise, like a clanging bell.////You put your hand on the nearest cell door, and it opens. You [[clamber through->Labyrinth Eddie's floor]].
From somewhere you can hear a great noise, like a clashing gong.////You are on another, yet another row of identical doorways, terminating in a narrow wooden staircase.
(set: $LabyrinthText to (random: 1,3))(if: $LabyrinthText is 1)[The doors are all expanding and contracting rhythmically; the floorboards underneath your feet rise and sink as if you were on board ship.
]A sickness is in your stomach.
Wearily you [[ascend the stairs->Labyrinth Eddie's floor]].
From all around you can hear a terrible noise, like a screaming alarm.//(set: $HousemateCount +=14)//You are in the middle of a landing, sprawling (if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 2nd floor left")[[[leftwards->End 2nd floor left]]](if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 2nd floor right")[[[rightwards->End 2nd floor right]]] from the main staircase, which leads down to the [[first floor->End landing]]; doorways lead to Marcus’s room, Lauren’s room, Ingrid’s room, Rachel’s room, Zoe’s room, Carrie’s room, Helen’s room, Siobhan’s room, Alison’s room, Karim’s room, Jay’s room, Lily’s room, and the kitchens and bathrooms.(if: $EndKitchen is 1)[
You can smell something faintly.]////You are in a corridor, and to your left and right are Samir’s room, Tony’s room, Marianne’s room, Katie’s room, Wendy’s room, Ella’s room, Rob’s room, Matt’s room, Dafydd’s room, Terri’s room, Tim’s room, Jonathan’s room, Wei’s room, Lewis’s room, Antonio’s room, Jamie’s room, Charlie’s room, Finlay’s room, Mia’s room, Abbie’s room, and some kitchens and bathrooms.
At one end of the corridor, a pair of identical helical staircases lead [[upwards->End 3rd floor 1]]; the other end [[leads back->End 2nd floor 1]].(if: $EndKitchen is 1)[
You can smell something, the smell of food cooking.]////The corridor is long, and to your left and right are Samir’s room, Tony’s room, Marianne’s room, Katie’s room, Wendy’s room, Ella’s room, Rob’s room, Matt’s room, Dafydd’s room, Terri’s room, Tim’s room, Jonathan’s room, Wei’s room, Lewis’s room, Antonio’s room, Jamie’s room, Charlie’s room, Finlay’s room, Mia’s room, Abbie’s room, and some kitchens and bathrooms.
One end of the corridor leads (if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 2nd floor 1")[back towards the [[staircase->End 2nd floor 1]], the other] towards the [[bridge->End 2nd floor bridge]].(if: $EndKitchen is 2)[
You can smell something faintly.]////You are on the third floor. The floor is newly carpeted, the walls freshly painted, and to your left and right are a kitchen, some bathrooms, Alex’s room, Sarah’s room, Natasha’s room, Andy’s room, Tyler’s room, Jason’s room, Megan’s room, Leah’s room, Niamh’s room, Oliver’s room, Zahra’s room, Ashleigh’s room, Maya’s room, Kristian’s room, Neil’s room, Jo’s room, and another [[kitchen->Darkness 3]].
(if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth staircase to nowhere")[A staircase stands in the middle of the corridor, going [[up->End 4th floor 1]]; the other side of the landing ends in a banister sticking out of a blank wall.](else:)[A staircase stands, incongruously, in the middle of the landing, terminating in the ceiling; on the other side of the landing, [[the corridor continues->End 3rd floor 2]] beyond a group of oddly-placed banisters.]
A staircase leads [[down->End 2nd floor left]] to the second floor.
The smell of cooking is overpowering.////The corridor spirals, with Caroline’s room, Marta’s room, Lara’s room, Gareth’s room, Shauna’s room, Lawrence’s room, Erik’s room, Andrea’s room, José’s room, Leanne’s room, Stefan’s room, Paolo’s room, Heather’s room, Dean’s room, Lena’s room and Angus’s room, and some kitchens and bathrooms, to your right and left(if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 4th floor 2")[, going [[up->End 4th floor 2]] several floors.](else:)[, going up several floors, and ending in a solid wall.](if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 3rd floor 1")[
At one end of the landing, [[the corridor continues->End 3rd floor 1]] beyond a group of oddly-placed banisters. (if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 3rd floor 3")[A [[narrow corridor->End 3rd floor 3]] leads off to one side.
]](else:)[
At the foot of the spiral, [[the corridor continues->End 3rd floor 3]] beyond a group of oddly-placed banisters.
](if: $EndKitchen is 1 OR 2)[You can smell the scent of cooking food quite strongly.]////You reach the fourth floor: to your left and right are Becky’s room, Stephanie’s room, Martin’s room, Ziggy’s room, Cara’s room, Alisha’s room, Shan’s room, Nora’s room, Craig’s room, Alia’s room, Adele’s room, Charmaine’s room, Nathan’s room, Rhys’s room, and some kitchens and bathrooms. The staircase goes [[up->End Eddie's floor]] and [[down->End 3rd floor 1]] from here.(if: $EndKitchen is 1)[
You can smell the cooking food quite strongly.]////You are on the fourth floor. To your left and right are Becky’s room, Stephanie’s room, Martin’s room, Ziggy’s room, Cara’s room, Alisha’s room, Shan’s room, Nora’s room, Craig’s room, Alia’s room, Adele’s room, Charmaine’s room, Nathan’s room, Rhys’s room, and some kitchens and bathrooms. The corridor spirals [[downwards from here->End 3rd floor 2]]; a narrow wooden staircase leads [[upwards->End Eddie's floor]].
You can smell a faint scent of something cooking.////You are in the large, well-equipped basement kitchen of the house. A small window, high up in one wall, looks out to the street above, and the light spills across the table, kitchen surfaces, oven, and sink.
A staircase leads [[upwards->End hallway]].////You are on a long narrow passageway(if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 2nd floor spiral")[, which links the two parts of the house](else:)[, leading nowhere]. To each side are doors, leading to Natalie’s room, Erica’s room, Erin’s room, Scott’s room, Callum’s room, Ari’s room, Jake’s room, Alice’s room, Shania’s room, Georgia’s room, Peter’s room, Alan’s room, Cat’s room, Charlotte’s room, Francesca’s room, Isabel’s room, and some kitchens and bathrooms. (if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 2nd floor right")[One end leads back towards the [[main part of the house->End 2nd floor right]]. ](if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth bridge stairs")[
A steep flight of stairs leads [[upwards->End 3rd floor 3]].](if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 2nd floor spiral")[
A narrow [[corridor->End 2nd floor spiral]] leads off to the side.](if: $EndKitchen is 2)[
You can smell something, the smell of food cooking.]////You (if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 2nd floor bridge")[ are on the third floor: you] can see a kitchen, some bathrooms, (if: $EndKitchen is 1)[Lorna’s room, Amber’s room, Hayley’s room, Roxanne’s room, Jonas’s room, Tara’s room, Kylie’s room, Maryam’s room, Francisco’s room, Nadine’s room, Harry’s room, Shane’s room, Laura’s room, Melanie’s room, Gary’s room, and Christos’s room.](if: $EndKitchen is 2)[Alex’s room, Sarah’s room, Natasha’s room, Andy’s room, Tyler’s room, Jason’s room, Megan’s room, Leah’s room, Niamh’s room, Oliver’s room, Zahra’s room, Ashleigh’s room, Maya’s room, Kristian’s room, Neil’s room, Jo’s room, and another [[kitchen->Darkness 3]].](if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 3rd floor 1" AND "Labyrinth 3rd floor 2")[
A [[side corridor->End 3rd floor 2]] leads off in one direction.](if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth bridge stairs")[
A steep flight of stairs leads [[downwards->End 2nd floor bridge]].](if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth bridge stairs" AND "Labyrinth 3rd floor 2")[
A [[cluster of misgrown banisters->End 3rd floor 2]] is at one end of the corridor.](if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 3rd floor darkness")[
A tiny staircase [[spirals upwards->End 4th floor dome]].](if: $EndKitchen is 1)[
You can smell cooking faintly.](if: $EndKitchen is 2)[
The smell of cooking is overpowering.]////The corridor has a warped, twisted floor; to your right and left are Jordan’s room, Jade’s room, Samantha’s room, Mohammed’s room, Lisa’s room, Krystyna’s room, Nigel’s room, Ffion’s room(if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 1st floor 2")[, Marcus’s room, Lauren’s room, Ingrid’s room, Rachel’s room, Zoe’s room, Carrie’s room, Helen’s room, Siobhan’s room, Alison’s room, Karim’s room, Jay’s room, Lily’s room, and some kitchens and bathrooms](else:)[, and some kitchens and bathrooms].
It leads [[back towards the main staircase->End landing]] in one direction(if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 1st floor 3")[, and continues [[onward->End 1st floor 3]] in the other](else:)[, and in the other it ends in a solid wall].////You are in a tight, almost vertical passageway, made up of steep steps, upon which you can clamber [[up->End 2nd floor spiral]] and [[down->End 1st floor 3]].////You are on a spiralling landing, with doors on the outside wall leading to Elizabeth’s room, Jared’s room, Emma’s room, Carys’s room, Liberty’s room, Jane’s room, Naz’s room, Colin’s room, Jean-Paul’s room, Kevin’s room, Rose’s room, Selina’s room, Ricardo’s room, Heidi’s room, Lydia’s room, Nick’s room, and some kitchens and bathrooms.(if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth tunnel 1" AND "Labyrinth 2nd floor bridge")[
The landing leads [[[downwards->End tunnel]]]; at the top it ends in a solid wall. A narrow [[corridor->End 2nd floor bridge]] leads off to the side](if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth tunnel 1" AND "Labyrinth spiral")[
The landing leads [[downwards->End tunnel]] and [[upwards->End spiral]]](if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 2nd floor bridge" AND "Labyrinth spiral")[
The landing leads [[upwards->End spiral]]; a narrow [[corridor->End 2nd floor bridge]] leads off to the side].
You can smell something faintly.////You emerge onto the top floor, under a domed ceiling(if: (history:) contains "End 3rd floor 3")[, looking [[down->End 3rd floor 3]] over the floors below](if: (history:) contains "End 3rd floor spiral")[; a corridor [[spirals down->End 3rd floor spiral]] around it]. All around you are doors, leading to Becky’s room, Stephanie’s room, Martin’s room, Ziggy’s room, Cara’s room, Alisha’s room, Shan’s room, Nora’s room, Craig’s room, Alia’s room, Adele’s room, Charmaine’s room, Nathan’s room, Rhys’s room, and some kitchens and bathrooms; and one [[small door->End Eddie's floor]].(if: $EndKitchen is 2 OR 3)[
You can smell the food quite strongly.]////You bang on the door and rattle the handle. It turns, but it does not open, does not open, [[does not open->Tom end]].//We return to the kitchen: Sarah and Alex go back to their cooking, I shut down my computer. It’s getting late, and I have to be up early tomorrow morning.
‘Tell Natasha to pick up her stuff, if you see her,’ says Sarah.
I mutter something non-committal.
‘She’s always leaving her things in the kitchen. //And// I had to put her plates away.’
Yes, the plates she had left on the draining board to, like, drain and that. [[Shocking->Andy 16]].I don’t want to cook in a messy kitchen either. But why is it so important for Natasha to erase every last trace of herself?
Isn’t this her home? Isn’t this [[our home->Andy sins of housemates]]?We all know the sins of [[housemates->Andy sins of housemates 2]].They make [[too much->Ash sins of housemates]] mess.They make [[too much->Lukas sins of housemates]] noise.They [[steal your milk->Andy something serious]].But while all this is happening on the surface, [[something more serious->Couple something serious]] is quietly going on.We want [[love->Ivana something serious]].We want [[connection->Emily something serious]].We want [[hopes and dreams->Yasmin something serious]].And in the end, it’s okay, mostly.
So we (link-reveal: "wait")[.
And (link-reveal: "wait")[.
And we continue to (link-reveal: "wait")[.
And so we [[pass our lives->Andy next morning]]]]].I’m on the census website. How are we supposed to fill this out? Write in the names of everyone living in the house (I don’t know them all; I don’t even know how many there are from day to day) and //somehow// persuade everyone to fill in their details (not everyone will), and then someone has to be the one to click ‘send’ before the deadline.
Who thinks this stuff up? Probably the sort of person who assumes that people who live together actually know each other. Who assumes that people who live together are //on speaking terms// with each other.
If only [[somebody was in charge->Andy 3]] around here.I can just about make out the kitchen door by the light of the setting sun, and stumble out onto the landing. I look up, look down.
Someone approaches. ‘Does anyone know where the circuit breaker is?’
‘Top floor. Next to Eddie’s room.’
I am just about to go upstairs and find it when, for the first time I can remember in – how long have I lived here, anyway? – I hear the [[doorbell ring->Andy 6]].
We look at each other, confused.And then the lights go out.(event: when time > 1s)[(go-to: "Andy darkness")]I take the door handle. ‘Oh, sure, absolutely, I will take a look at all of this, thank you very much, thanks.’ Steadying myself, I rest my free hand on the wall, brushing up against the leather jacket hanging on the coat rack.(click: "leather jacket")[
‘I hope you understand how serious this is, Mr Hutchings?’(click: "serious")[
‘Yes, absolutely, I’ll sort it out, thank you, [[goodbye->Andy 10]].’]]They take up [[too much->Anna sins of housemates]] space.We want to [[dry our hands on the same sodding towel->Andy waiting]].If you live with friends or with a partner, and something goes wrong, there is a relationship, a history, a memory to cushion you: the knowledge that, overall, this person is actually okay.
But when you move in with people and there is no relationship, any little tension becomes all that you know of them, it becomes all that they are. Just a paper doll with ‘Noisy’ or ‘Makes a Mess in the Bathroom’ written on it.
(if: $TammyRealisation is not true)[And I had hoped that that kind of understanding could grow in a shared house like this, out of the ordinary everyday things. But not here, and not yet.
Maybe [[one day I will figure out->Tammy bad ending]] what I am doing that drives her so crazy.](if: $TammyRealisation is true)[And I had hoped that that kind of understanding could grow in a shared house like this, out of the ordinary everyday things. Not yet, not here, not this way. Maybe one day.
But today I just have a bit of cleaning to do. And in future, I will always take my [[glasses into the bathroom->After Tammy's story]].(set: $Mirror to 7)
<h3>End of Chapter [$ChaptersStarted]</h3>](set: $TammyStory to true)//You look into the glass and see no face reflected in it. But as you [[turn away->End Eddie's floor]], you think you hear a hundred voices murmuring.//(if: (history:) contains "Emily man")[Okay. $ManName.
We have a whirlwind romance, and we know we are meant to be together. Just a few blissful months later, we are talking about finding a place to live.
](if: (history:) contains "Emily job")[Oh, how long I have dreamt of this day.
]I give my notice to Eddie – what the hell, maybe I even get to meet him, finally – and hand in my keys.
Goodbye to shared kitchens and towels dropped on the bathroom floor. Goodbye to Ash and Lukas’s little spats. Goodbye to this freakshow house that never seems to stay normal and still, and the weird footsteps at odd hours of the night.
(if: (history:) contains "Emily man")[And together $ManName and I find somewhere new. ](if: (history:) contains "Emily job")[Hello to ... ooh, I don’t know. ]Maybe somewhere fancy [[in the city->Emily city]] – or in the [[countryside->Emily country]]?(event: when time > 4.5s)[(go-to: "Andy 5")]=||||=
(if: $Lukas1 is not true)[(set: $ChaptersStarted +=1)<h3>Chapter [$ChaptersStarted]: Knowing the Score</h3>
]It was definitely him.
I went into the kitchen this morning to find that all my juice had been drunk. He knows it’s my juice.(set: $LukasScore +=1)
[[Seriously->Ash juice 2]]?
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
And he left the used glass in the kitchen for me to put away.
HE JUST [[LEFT THE GLASS THERE->Ash juice 3]].(set: $LukasScore +=1)
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
I can’t believe what Ash has done.
He’s used my milk //and// just [[left the bowl->Lukas milk 2]] out in the kitchen!(set: $AshScore +=1)
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
It’s getting worse.
In the middle of the night, //someone// switched the radio on in the kitchen. Who does a thing like that?
It’s got to be [[Lukas->Ash retaliation]].(set: $LukasScore +=1)(set: $Ash2 to true)(set: $radio to false)
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|//You turn on the radio, and [[music starts playing->1st floor new kitchen]].//(set: $radio to true)=||||=
And [[spilled it everywhere->Landing]]!(set: $AshScore +=1)(set: $Lukas1 to true)(set: $Mirror to 11)
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
I almost get the feeling that he’s doing it just to piss me off.
Well, if he can do it, I can do it too.
I could [[use his mug->Ash mug]], make a [[mess in the kitchen->Ash soup]], or maybe I could just do what he does and play obnoxiously [[loud music->Ash music]] back at him.
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
(set: $Round4 to "you using my coffee mug")I’m in the kitchen, enjoying a nice cup of tea from Lukas’s mug – the red one with the cartoon character on it. Mmm-mmm.
And now I’m going to leave it right here on the table, unwashed. Hopefully it’ll [[leave a nice ring->Lukas retaliation]].(set: $AshScore +=1)
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
(set: $Round4 to "you spilling that soup all over the place")I go into the kitchen and heat up some tomato soup in a saucepan. Oh, whoops, spilled a bit there. Never mind.
I eat the soup, and leave the bowl out on the [[kitchen worktop->Lukas retaliation]].(set: $AshScore +=1)
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
(set: $Round4 to "you playing your crap music at full blast")Hmm, what can I play to really piss him off? |Metal>[Death metal]? //|Orff>[Carmina Burana]//?{(click: ?Metal)[(set: $Music to 1)(goto: "Ash music 2")](click: ?Orff)[(set: $Music to 2)(goto: "Ash music 2")]}
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|(enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))(enchant:?passage,(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black))//A [[household->Darkness 2]] is either a single person or members of the same family who live together.//
(align:"==>")+(box:"=XX")+(text-size:0.75)[From the UK government’s guidelines on [|HMO>[(text-colour:#696969)[Houses in Multiple Occupation]]] (accessed February 2022, licensed under [|OGL>[(text-colour:#696969)[Open Government Licence v3.0]]])]{(click: ?HMO)[(open-url: "https://www.gov.uk/private-renting/houses-in-multiple-occupation")]}{(click: ?OGL)[(open-url: "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/")]}(enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))(enchant:?passage,(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black))//Your home is a large HMO `[House in multiple occupation]` if both of the following apply:
* at least 5 tenants live there, forming more than 1 household
* you share toilet, bathroom or kitchen facilities with other tenants ...//(click: "household")[//If you live in a large HMO, your landlord must meet certain standards and obligations ...//](click: "landlord")[
//All large HMOs need a [[licence->Darkness 4]] from the local council.//(align:"==>")+(box:"=XX")+(text-size:0.75)[From the UK government’s guidelines on [|HMO>[(text-colour:#696969)[Houses in Multiple Occupation]]] (accessed February 2022, licensed under [|OGL>[(text-colour:#696969)[Open Government Licence v3.0]]])]]{(click: ?HMO)[(open-url: "https://www.gov.uk/private-renting/houses-in-multiple-occupation")]}{(click: ?OGL)[(open-url: "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/")]}(event: when time > 1s)[(go-to: "End epigraph")]I rest my weight on the door, trying to look casual. ‘Well, not exactly – another guy turned up yesterday, but he’s not really moved in yet, and –’(click: "not really moved in yet")[
He raises an eyebrow, and thrusts a packet of papers into my hand. ‘We are undertaking an investigation, and if you are found in contravention of the law you could face a very serious fine’ – he peers over my shoulder again, wrinkling his nose – ‘although in a case like [[//this//->Andy 9]] …’]The door is [[shut->End]].(event: when time > 1s)[(go-to: "Andy 1")](event: when time > 1s)[(go-to: "Epigraph")](event: when time > 1s)[(go-to: "Yasmin enters")](event: when time > 1s)[(go-to: "Emily end")]The glow around Eddie’s door is [[gone->Andy coatrack]].=||||=
I open YouTube, (if: $Music is 1)[look up something by Screaming Flailing Death Wish, and jack up the volume. Within seconds, the air is filled with a frenetic beat and the singer howling over a distorted guitar.
I [[don’t actually like this stuff->Lukas retaliation]] that much.](if: $Music is 2)[find //Carmina Burana// by some guy called Carl Orff, and jack the volume up.
The opening notes are so loud, they blow me away.
[[Perfect->Lukas retaliation]].](set: $AshScore +=1)
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|Somehow we end up fighting – a proper fight, a massive one – and, deep down below, we feel the earth rumbling, the house (link-goto: "shaking in its foundations", "Landing").
What have we done?(set: $AshLukasStory to true)(set: $Mirror to 12)
<h3>End of Chapter [$ChaptersStarted]</h3>=||||=
And he just left the used glass in the kitchen for me to put away.
HE JUST LEFT THE GLASS THERE.
[[Without even cleaning it->Landing]]!(set: $Ash1 to true)(set: $LukasScore +=1)(set: $Mirror to 11)
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
‘Look,’ he says, ‘I only did that because you switched on the radio in the kitchen at night.’
‘That wasn’t me.’
‘Oh, come on. We’re the only ones who ever use this kitchen, and it wasn’t me. So [[who else was it->Ash argument 1]]?’
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
I’ve been in a bad mood all day, having been woken up by someone turning on a radio in the middle of the night. Hmmm, I wonder who //that// was.
(if: (history:) contains "Ash soup")[I come home from work and am just about to make a pot of coffee when I see the soup bowl and the mess all over the counter.
Ivana and Emily don’t normally use this kitchen, and anyway they are never this messy. ](if: (history:) contains "Ash mug")[I come home from work and am just about to make a pot of coffee when I see my mug – my //favourite// mug – out on the kitchen counter, used, and still with dried-up tea at the bottom of it!
Everyone knows that’s my mug. Ivana and Emily don’t normally use this kitchen, and anyway I can’t imagine them just leaving dirty stuff all over the place. ](if: (history:) contains "Ash mug" OR "Ash soup")[And Anna’s a straight-up neat freak: I don’t think she likes them.
I don’t think she likes //anyone//, to be honest.
Has to be Ash.](if: (history:) contains "Ash music 2")[I come home from work and have just started to relax in my room with a pot of coffee when music blasts from the room next door.
Again?
(if: $Music is 1)[It’s Thrashing Wailing Slaughter Dream, definitely.](if: $Music is 2)[Some classical crap.] And it’s //really// loud.
I have to put up with noise all day at work, why do I have to live with it at home too?
And of course it’s Ash.]
Always Ash.
What can I do to get back at him? Mess up his stuff in the [[bathroom->Lukas bathroom]]? Make noise in the [[middle of the night->Lukas night 1]]?
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
I could [[drop his towel->Ash towel]] on a wet floor, use his [[shower gel->Ash shower gel]], leave loads of hair in the plughole(click: "hair")[ (and I’m the only redheaded one around here, so he’ll know [[exactly who he’s messing with->Ash hair]])].
The possibilities are endless!
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
It’s 1 a.m. I know that Ash is usually trying to get to sleep at this exact moment. I’ve already pissed him off by playing //Resident Evil// until late (it’s a work night); now to keep him awake properly.
Of course, I don’t want to just make loads of noise: that wouldn’t be //subtle//.
I slip out of my room and begin pacing, up and down, on the dark landing. The floorboards are ever so slightly creaky. It’s just enough to disturb his sleep.
[[Mine, too->Lukas night 2]].(set: $LukasScore +=1)(set: $Round5 to "and your late-night gaming sessions")
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|When I started working at a new (link-reveal: "company")[, Emily was the first person who made me feel at (link-reveal: "home")[. I wished that we could become closer].] I was drawn to her personality and her sense of fun.(click: "closer")[
When she said that she needed somewhere to live, (click: "others")[ I was afraid of showing how excited I was.] I told her that a room had just opened up in my house(click: "excited")[ (I didn’t tell her I meant it //literally//)]. We could live (link-reveal: "together")[ – well, us and all the others].](click: "literally")[
It wasn’t the first time this had [[happened to me->Anna 7]].]Many times in my life I have felt (link-reveal: "yearning")[ which has nothing to do with love or attraction](click: "nothing")[, for people who I like and who (link-reveal: "like me too")[ (I think)]].(click: "think")[
I carried her boxes up the stairs; I (link-reveal: "helped her unpack")[ for a while but she insisted she was fine(click: "friendship")[ and I tried not to show how I [[hurt->Anna 8]]]. I thought about us(click: "together")[, talking, drinking coffee; cooking and eating, forming a life of friendship] together].]Every day, Emily and I come home from work(click: "home")[ and then she and (link-reveal: "Ivana")[ go into the (link-reveal: "kitchen")[ and cook and (link-reveal: "eat")[, and I watch, silently, drinking my coffee as they talk and laugh]] and] spend the rest of the day] together.(click: "silently")[
I would feel that I had been granted [[the whole world->Anna 9]] if I had the kind of friendship they have with each other.]=||||=
It’s nearly two, and I have work tomorrow. I can’t sleep.
It’s not the first time, either.
I remember what it was that put this idea into my head. It’s been happening the whole time I’ve lived in this place, on and off: the sound of someone in the night-time, along the landing, up and down the stairs, in and out of the kitchen. But every time I go out there and check, I see nobody.
It’s almost as if we are [[haunted->Ash morning]].
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
I wake up feeling good after a proper sleep, thanks to the earplugs I’ve been wearing the past few weeks. Seriously, who is it pacing up and down the landing at night?
That’s one thing I can’t pin on Lukas: once or twice I’ve got up in the middle of the night to figure out who’s doing it, and found him standing outside his door, not moving, listening to the footsteps, just like me. And last week I swear I saw the kitchen door open and close by itself, heard the hinge creak.
This house weirds me out.
But never mind. I’m actually in a good mood. I get up early, get ready, swing my bag across my shoulder and practically dance along the corridor. I even whistle a little tune. It’s going to be a [[wonderful day->Lukas morning]].
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
(set: $LukasScore +=1)(set: $Round5 to "leaving my towel to get all wet")The next morning, I go to have a shower when I find my towel lying on the floor, soaked through.
How would //he// like it if I messed around with [[//his// stuff->Lukas jumper]]?
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
(set: $LukasScore +=1)(set: $Round5 to "using up my shower gel")The next morning, I get into the shower and am just squeezing my shower gel bottle when it goes //phut phut phut//, and nothing comes out.
Didn’t I have [[half a bottle->Lukas Coke]] of this last week?
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
(set: $LukasScore +=1)(set: $Round5 to "leaving all that hair //IN THE DRAIN//")I drag a load of sludgy red hairs out of the plughole.
I swear, some days it’s like he’s [[marking his //territory//->Lukas shelf]] or something ...
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
(set: $AshScore +=1)(set: $Round6 to "hair //ON THE BATHROOM SHELF//")What the hell? There’s a load of nasty hair dumped on my shelf in the bathroom cabinet.
For God’s sake.
I need a [[coffee->Ash confrontation]].
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
(set: $AshScore +=1)(set: $Round6 to "Coke stealing")I definitely had half a bottle of Coke in the fridge yesterday. I put it in there after getting back from work.
I slam the fridge door shut.
This is [[war->Ash confrontation]].
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
I am just going into the kitchen to make myself a cup of tea when I practically slam right into his face.
‘Okay, okay,’ he says. ‘This has //got// to stop.’
I’m taken off my guard for a second. ‘This what?’
‘Where do I begin? The (print: $Round6), for example?’
‘Well, what about you (print: $Round5)?’
He glares at me. ‘Do you [[think I didn’t notice->Lukas argument 1]] (print: $Round4)?’
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
(set: $AshScore +=1)(set: $Round6 to "whistling")I wake up feeling like six different kinds of crap. It’s going to be a terrible day. And who, I ask, is that, stomping across the landing at half past seven, //whistling//?
Ash has won this round: I can’t go on any further.
I need a coffee. [[//Now//->Ash confrontation]].
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
‘Well,’ he says, ‘you used up all my milk!’
Whoa. Whatever else I’ve done, I definitely didn’t do //that//.
‘Maybe it was Ivana?’(click: "Ivana")[
‘But she’s a vegan!’(click: "vegan")[
‘Or Emily?’(click: "Emily")[
‘She’s lactose-intolerant!’
What the hell is [[going on here->Lukas argument 2]]?]]]
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
‘I [[don’t even //like//->Ash and Lukas end]] orange juice.’
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
(set: $AshScore to 0)(set: $LukasScore to 0)‘Well,’ Ash says, changing the subject, ‘what about [[you->Ash argument 2]] and my orange juice?’
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
(set: $AshScore +=1)(set: $Round6 to "sweater stealing")I //definitely// left my sweater over the back of one of the kitchen chairs.
Has he moved it?
[[//Stolen//->Ash confrontation]] it?
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|=||||=
After over an hour of this I find myself wondering who is winning this time: me, or [[him->Lukas night 3]]?(set: $AshScore +=1)
=||=
''(b4r:"solid")+(b4r-colour:black)+(css:"padding:20px")[Lukas: $LukasScore
Ash: $AshScore]''
|==|I can feel a tension, a straining in my bedroom walls.
I can hear anger boiling up, seething in the pipes, as if it can [[take no more->After Party 2]].They are in the kitchen together(click: "They")[, and I am (link-reveal: "there too")[, and Ivana is telling Emily a funny story as they make breakfast together, and I butter my own toast, and I eat it, silently, as if [[unseen->Anna 4]]]].I can hear the tunnelling of pipes as they break through brick, the humming of electricity in the wires that spread down through the whole [[house->After Party 5]] from the nerve centre somewhere on the utmost floor.And at last, at long last, I drift into a restless [[sleep->Labyrinth ground floor]].For a long time I can’t even begin to sleep, not while the wiring jangles and judders all along the walls, not while the doors flex and wrench, and crack their hinges, not while the carpets scrunch and [[ruck->After Party 4]].Mmm, yes. And (if: (history:) contains "Emily man")[we spend our](if: (history:) contains "Emily job")[I spend my] Saturday afternoons there, eating (if: $Cafe is "Greek")[stuffed vine leaves and salads,](if: $Cafe is "Italian")[panini, and marinara pizza,] basically anything as long as they can do it dairy-free.
(if: (history:) contains "Emily man")[We make it our usual hangout, and the people who run it get to know us, and we all become friends.](if: (history:) contains "Emily job")[I make it my usual hangout, and the people who run it get to know me, and we all become friends.]
But of course the main event is the [[flat itself->Emily flat choices 1]].(if: (history:) contains "Emily man")[We](if: (history:) contains "Emily job")[I] open the front door and walk into ... an elegant [[hallway->Emily hallway]]? Or straight into the [[lounge->Emily lounge 1]]?(if: (history:) contains "Emily man")[We](if: (history:) contains "Emily job")[I] open the front door and walk into an elegant hallway, with white paintwork and blue-grey walls. A door opens into the [[lounge->Emily lounge 1]].(if: (history:) does not contain "Emily hallway")[(if: (history:) contains "Emily man")[We](if: (history:) contains "Emily job")[I] open the front door and walk straight into the lounge.
]It is airy and spacious, with two large red sofas. And a coffee table in between them, and, oooh, I don’t know what on the walls. |Posters>[Posters from classic films]? |Photos>[Black and white photos]? Large prints of |Prints>[European cities]?{(click: ?Posters)[(set: $WallArt to "Posters")(goto: "Emily lounge 2")](click: ?Photos)[(set: $WallArt to "Photos")(goto: "Emily lounge 2")](click: ?Prints)[(set: $WallArt to "Prints")(goto: "Emily lounge 2")]}(if: $WallArt is "Posters")[Yes, film posters. //Breakfast at Tiffany’s//, //The Wizard of Oz//, that sort of thing.](if: $WallArt is "Photos")[Big photographs, in frames. Something that’ll make me look cultured.](if: $WallArt is "Prints")[Romantic European cities. Paris, Venice, Rome.]
Lots of bookshelves. And soft lighting, and a comfortable window seat for curling up in with a mug of herbal tea and looking out on the world.
And the kitchen – should that be a [[separate room->Emily separate kitchen]] or part of the [[same room->Emily kitchen area]]?Yes, let’s have a separate kitchen, with a completely different colour scheme. Let’s have warm yellowish walls, and all new fittings, shiny and clean. A new fridge, a new toaster, a new kettle.
And what about the [[bedroom->Emily flat bedroom]]?Yes, let’s have it all as one single space. Kitchen area, dining area, lounge – it’s the modern way.
It’s definitely got a breakfast bar – I don’t know why, but that’s very important – with stools, and all shiny surfaces, and one of those taps that dispenses boiling and chilled water, yes, let’s have one of those too.
And what about the [[bedroom->Emily flat bedroom]]?It’s a proper country cottage, with roses growing up the trellis around the [[front door->Emily cottage hall]], and a garden, and smoke rising from the chimney; and, above all, space, and plenty of it – at last!
(if: (history:) contains "Emily man")[$ManName and I are thrilled: it’s just what we’ve both always wanted.](if: (history:) contains "Emily job")[I’m absolutely thrilled: it’s just what I’ve always wanted.]Of course, there is a garden.
Good and large, surrounded by a brick wall, and with rich, fertile soil for growing ... [[food->Emily vegetables]]? [[Flowers->Emily flowers]]? Or maybe I just let it go [[wild->Emily meadow]]?There’s a proper kitchen, with plenty of space, and painted yellow – no, ochre, it’s more natural-looking, and it’s got to be a deep, warm colour.
An old wooden table in the middle, for working on, and bunches of herbs hanging up to dry, and plenty of shelf space for all my mason jars full of pickles and preserves. And a dining table, big enough for all my friends to sit at as we eat, and drink, and talk long into the night.
(if: (history:) does not contain "Emily living room")[Now let’s think about the [[living room->Emily living room]].](if: (history:) contains "Emily cottage bedroom" and (history:) contains "Emily living room")[Oh, but I’ve forgotten the [[most important thing->Emily garden]]!]I hear a sound, and look up. (if: (history:) contains "Emily man")[$ManName is standing by the front door with his suitcase and rucksack.
Damn. I’d forgotten all about him.
‘So, I’ll be going now, Emily,’ he says as he opens the door and [[walks out of my life->Emily darkness]] forever. ‘It’s been nice knowing you.’](if: (history:) contains "Emily job")[The phone is ringing. It’s Morgan.
Ah, yes – work. I’d forgotten all about that.
‘Emily, today was your last chance. You’re fired.’
And she hangs up, and there goes [[my perfect life forever->Emily darkness]].]//A three-volume translation of the //Divine Comedy//, //The Tempest//, //Waiting for Godot//, //No Exit//, //House of Leaves//, and a few //Choose Your Own Adventure// books.
You turn back to [[the room->Tom's room]].//It totally goes with the cottage aesthetic.
Soft lacy pillows, and a patchwork quilt on the bed. Hand-made rugs. Narrow windows with that sort of criss-crossed pattern on them – oh, and shutters, real wooden shutters, ones that actually work.
(if: (history:) does not contain "Emily cottage kitchen")[But what about the [[kitchen->Emily cottage kitchen]]?](if: (history:) contains "Emily living room" and (history:) contains "Emily cottage kitchen")[Oh, but I’ve forgotten the [[most important thing->Emily garden]]!]The bedroom is similarly sleek and modern: all IKEA furniture, a couple of simple shelves on the wall; and Roman blinds, not curtains. Simple white fabrics, no frills.
And all of my things are stored in coloured boxes discreetly tucked away under my bed or in a wardrobe. No clutter, nothing holding me back, holding me down.
And, ooh, what about the bathroom? Maybe a [[nice, big one->Emily bathroom]]; or perhaps an [[//en suite//->Emily en suite]]? I’ve always wanted an //en suite//.And what do I do with my wonderful, wonderful life?
I hang out in the café; I go out to fashion shows, and exhibitions; I cook for my friends, and have dinner parties; but best of all, I spend my time at home, sitting in the window seat, reading a lot, thinking a lot, and working on my fiction, becoming a really great writer, and generally being very [[content->Emily denouement]].I cook large meals and invite all my friends over for lazy long weekends. I learn to knit, and cross-stitch, and make tapestries which I give away as Christmas presents. I get a dog or two, and a cat or three. I take long walks in the country, and pick blackberries for my home-made jam, and grow wise in the lore of hedgerow and field. Maybe I join the Women’s Institute.
And I am very, very [[content->Emily denouement]].It’s a decent size, with not just a shower, but also a really big bath – a free-standing one with legs, and I have plenty of rose petals and bubbles for pouring into it. And glass jars full of pink cotton wool balls, just because.
And one of those little home saunas. (Why not?)
[[Beautiful->Emily flat pastimes]].It’s somewhat bijou, but it’s literally attached to my bedroom, and makes expert use of the space: a shower, toilet and basin fitted into what would once have been a cupboard. And decorated in white, with little aquamarine tiles on the walls.
[[Excellent->Emily flat pastimes]].The hall is a bit cluttered, with bare boards and a rack of shoes in varying levels of muddiness, umbrellas, and a sign reading ‘There’s No Place Like Home’. Because there really is no place like home – and it’s (if: (history:) contains "Emily man")[//our//](if: (history:) contains "Emily job")[//my//] home.
Doors lead to the [[living room->Emily living room]] and [[kitchen->Emily cottage kitchen]], and a staircase goes upstairs to the [[bedroom->Emily cottage bedroom]].It’s snug and cosy: rugs on the floor, and textile hangings on the walls; plants hanging from macramé pots; soft chairs and shelves full of books for curling up with on a rainy day. And a //real// fireplace that I throw a log on from time to time as I sip a hot chocolate made with lactose-free milk that isn’t at all hard to get hold of in the village shop.
(if: (history:) does not contain "Emily cottage bedroom")[I should think about the [[bedroom->Emily cottage bedroom]], too.](if: (history:) contains "Emily cottage bedroom" and (history:) contains "Emily cottage kitchen")[Oh, but I’ve forgotten the [[most important thing->Emily garden]]!]It’s in a little village which follows the course of a meandering river. There’s an old coaching inn on the edge of the village green, and a twelfth-century church (which (if: (history:) contains "Emily man")[we] (if: (history:) contains "Emily job")[I] never actually go into, but it’s nice that it’s there). And a great green oak tree, and the birds fluttering in the morning, and an owl which hoots by night.
Now let’s think about what the [[house->Emily cottage]] itself looks like.(if: (history:) contains "Emily man")[We](if: (history:) contains "Emily job")[I] live by the coast – not in a big seaside town, but in a village somewhere off the beaten track. There is a little stretch of beach where (if: (history:) contains "Emily man")[we](if: (history:) contains "Emily job")[I] go for long walks, and there are sand dunes, and little rockpools that the waves wash over. And a few small boats on the shore, in which our neighbours put to sea.
Now let’s think about what the [[house->Emily cottage]] itself looks like.I have a kitchen garden. I grow my own courgettes, and rhubarb, and scarlet-flowered beans running up poles. And a couple of apple trees, and pear trees too.
And there’s a herb garden, where I grow basil, thyme and rosemary, for cooking with, and lavender; and melissa which I rub between my fingers every now and then just so that I can breathe in the scent of lemon.
And what do I [[do with my time->Emily cottage pastimes]], in this beautiful, beautiful place?What kind of a cottage garden doesn’t have flowers?
I grow lupins and delphiniums, and foxgloves, all standing tall in rows; up the walls scramble clematis, and passion flowers, and honeysuckle.
And roses, in every shade from white to deepest red.
And what do I [[do with my time->Emily cottage pastimes]], in this beautiful, beautiful place?For the sake of the environment, I let my garden go back to nature.
The grass grows green and long, and wildflowers return to the land. Cornflowers, and knapweed, and dandelions, and little Welsh poppies that toss their heads in the wind.
And the butterflies come – showy peacocks and tortoiseshells, and the pretty brown speckled woods – and bees feed from the flowers; and from time to time I spy hedgehogs snuffling through the long grass by moonlight.
And what do I [[do with my time->Emily cottage pastimes]], in this beautiful, beautiful place?I wasn’t happy when the house did its thing again. Some fight between Anna and Tammy, I’m not sure what that was about. The sound of the walls grinding kept me up all night. And new rooms to fill.
I wasn’t really paying attention when some colleague of Anna’s turned up, with suitcases and boxes.
[[#serendipity->Ivana room 2.1]]//You give the basil a little water (but [[not too much->Kitchen downstairs]]).//Sarah starts stacking the plates that had been draining on the rack.
‘Doesn’t anyone put stuff away around here?’
She piles them on the table, with a note on top:
//PLEASE PUT YOUR PLATES [[AWAY->Andy 4]]!//She stopped speaking to me a long time ago; now she doesn’t even acknowledge when I pass her in the hall. I should have moved downstairs when I had the chance, before Yasmin moved in: Eddie must have advertised the room before I thought about it.
I need to think about what I am doing wrong.
I shower, brush my teeth, look around. The bathroom is clean.
What am I [[not seeing->Tammy next bit]]?(if: $TammyScore is <2)[(if: $TammyScore is 0)[I return to my room. What’s going on? What is her problem?
I glance across the room.
]Beside my bed there is a table, on which are my (if: $glasses is true)[glasses](else:)[[[glasses->Tammy glasses]]], a (if: $book is true)[book](else:)[[[book->Tammy novel]]] and my (if: $phone is true)[phone](else:)[[[phone->Tammy phone]]].
On the shelf there are a couple of other books(if: $photo is true)[ and my graduation photo](else:)[; my [[graduation photo->Tammy photo]] is on the floor where it has fallen down].(if: $TammyScore is 0)[
I can hear a faint rumbling noise at the end of the corridor. It’s building up to something.](if: $TammyScore is 1)[
That rumbling noise out there is getting louder.]](else:)[The noise at the end of the corridor is getting //really// loud now.
I’d better go and [[check it out->Tammy wall]].]When I was about fifteen or sixteen, I started thinking it was funny how my teachers’ whiteboard pens didn’t work any more: they’d gone all faded and wishy-washy.
And one day I looked out of the window and realised I couldn’t see the individual leaves on the trees.
When I put on that first pair of glasses, I couldn’t believe how much detail I [[hadn’t been seeing->Tammy choice]]. It had crept up on me, slowly, and I hadn’t noticed.(set: $TammyScore +=1)(set: $glasses to true)The book is a paperback, with [[a receipt stuck in it for a bookmark->Tammy choice]]; one of the corners is a bit mashed up.
It’s that thing that was a massive bestseller a few months ago, that everyone was going on about, the one about the couple that keep splitting up and getting back together again, over and over.
To be honest, it’s not that great, and I don’t see what everyone sees in it.(set: $TammyScore +=1)(set: $book to true)I pick up the photo and put it back onto the shelf.
It is the day of my graduation, and I am standing there with a mortarboard on my head and a cheesy grin on my face. My hair, [[white-blonde and fine as candyfloss->Tammy choice]], floats on the breeze. My parents have their arms around me; they are so proud of me.
The photo is in a frame propped up on the shelf (no nails allowed in the walls, of course), and always looks as if it is about to fall down.
It feels like a long time ago, as if it was far more than six months ago that I graduated and moved into this place.(set: $TammyScore +=1)(set: $photo to true)It’s nothing fancy, just a basic smartphone. There’s a crack across the screen that I can’t afford to get repaired.
The lockscreen photo is a [[picture of my family->Tammy choice]].(set: $TammyScore +=1)(set: $phone to true)I open the door.
The wall at the end of the corridor is bulging outwards, and the paint is beginning to [[crack->Tammy no]].As I return to my room, she passes me on her way to the bathroom.
I’m not sure whether to |lid>[wait and talk to her], or just |run>[run away].(click: ?lid)[(set: $toiletlid to true)(goto: "Tammy home")](click: ?run)[(goto: "Tammy home")](if: $toiletlid is true)[I wait outside the bathroom.
‘Jesus Christ!’ Something slams. ‘Why doesn’t she //clean//?’
The door locks and I hear her mutter something. The toilet lid slams down. Maybe that’s what’s winding her up – she wants the toilet closed.
(link-reveal: "Okay")[.
I go back to my room. This place has never really felt like home.
I want to go back to my family for a couple of days. But my work shifts are too irregular, not mapped out far enough in advance, and I can’t afford last-minute train tickets.
I want to see my mum and dad and brother and sister and nephew.
I’ve always been terrible with faces, even of people I know, but it shocks me when I realise that I can’t remember my own family’s faces without looking at a picture of them. Like something is [[sapping my memory->Tammy decision]]].](else:)[I return to my room. This place has never really felt like home.
I want to go back to my family for a couple of days. But my work shifts are too irregular, not mapped out far enough in advance, and I can’t afford last-minute train tickets.
I want to see my mum and dad and brother and sister and nephew.
I’ve always been terrible with faces, even faces of people I know, but it shocks me when I realise that I can’t remember my own family’s faces without looking at a picture of them. Like something is [[sapping my memory->Tammy decision]].]It’s still bothering me. I never know whether to [[confront her->Tammy confrontation]] or [[not->Tammy acceptance]].The wall at the end of the corridor has blown right open, the floor is heaving.
As the dust settles, the floor oozes outwards, and brand new rooms are already beginning to form in the still-soft walls beyond. Doors stiffen in them as they cool.
I don’t want to be found at the [[scene of the crime->Tammy distraction]].//The wall at the end of the landing has buckled and crumpled; the floor has oozed out to fill the space, and doors have sprouted up one side and the other, to a bathroom, a kitchen, and three new rooms.
All grown out of anger and fear and (link-reveal: "nervousness")[.
People are coming, moving in, filling the space that has (link-reveal: "emerged")[.
One of them comes up the stairs; one of the existing tenants is with her, carrying her boxes, talking as if she already knows her. She seems (link-reveal: "excited")[.
For a fraction of a second, she looks in your direction, almost as if she sees something. But then she [[turns away->Landing]]]]].////You look into the glass, but you see no face reflected in it.
You [[turn away->Upstairs Bathroom]].////You find yourself scrambling up a steep flight of [[stairs->Labyrinth 3rd floor 3]] which seems to come out of nowhere.
(set: $LabyrinthText to (random: 1,3))(if: $LabyrinthText is 1)[The steps underneath your feet rise and sink as if you were on board ship.
]From somewhere you can hear a loud noise, like a clanging bell.////On the third floor, now, and still not at the top. The narrow row of bare boards and brickwork walls is overgrown.
(if: (history:) does not contain "Labyrinth 3rd floor 2")[To the left, a [[cluster of banisters->Labyrinth 3rd floor 2]] stands in your way. ]The [[corridor to the right->Labyrinth 3rd floor darkness]] recedes into the darkness.
(set: $LabyrinthText to (random: 1,3))(if: $LabyrinthText is 1)[The doors are all expanding and contracting rhythmically; the floorboards underneath your feet rise and sink as if you were on board ship.
]From somewhere you can hear a great noise, like a clashing gong.//(if: (history:) does not contain "Labyrinth 3rd floor 1")[(set: $EndKitchen to 2)](set: $HousemateCount +=16)//As you run along the corridor, it escapes from you, forging upwards and [[around a bend->Labyrinth spiral]]. Doors are bursting out of the walls to the left.(if: (history:) does not contain "Labyrinth 2nd floor bridge")[ A narrow [[passage->Labyrinth 2nd floor bridge]] leads off to the side.]
(set: $LabyrinthText to (random: 1,3))(if: $LabyrinthText is 1)[The doors are all expanding and contracting rhythmically; the floorboards underneath your feet rise and sink as if you were on board ship.
]From somewhere you can hear a loud noise, like a clanging bell.//(set: $HousemateCount +=16)//The corridor thrusts up into the ceiling, in a seemingly endless [[spiral->Labyrinth 3rd floor spiral]], doors appearing to the left as you run.
(set: $LabyrinthText to (random: 1,3))(if: $LabyrinthText is 1)[The doors are all expanding and contracting rhythmically; the floorboards underneath your feet rise and sink as if you were on board ship.
]From somewhere you can hear a loud noise, like a clanging bell.//(set: $HousemateCount +=16)//You are surrounded by doors, leading to a kitchen, some bathrooms, (if: (history:) contains "Labyrinth 3rd floor 1" OR "Labyrinth 3rd floor 3")[Carly’s room, Sally’s room, Adi’s room, Reena’s room,](else:)[Alex’s room, Sarah’s room, Natasha’s room, Andy’s room,] Tyler’s room, Jason’s room, Megan’s room, Leah’s room, Niamh’s room, Oliver’s room, Zahra’s room, Ashleigh’s room, Maya’s room, Kristian’s room, Neil’s room, Jo’s room, and another [[kitchen->Darkness 3]], circling you, spiralling up into the [[dark dome->End 4th floor dome]] of the ceiling and [[down->End spiral]] towards the lower floors.
The smell of cooking is overpowering.////The corridor continues upwards towards the ceiling, in a [[spiral upwards->End 3rd floor spiral]] and [[downwards->End 2nd floor spiral]]; there are doors to the right and to the left leading to Lorna’s room, Amber’s room, Hayley’s room, Roxanne’s room, Jonas’s room, Tara’s room, Kylie’s room, Maryam’s room, Francisco’s room, Nadine’s room, Harry’s room, Shane’s room, Laura’s room, Melanie’s room, Gary’s room, Christos’s room, and some kitchens and bathrooms.
You can smell something, the smell of food cooking.////You are in a narrow, cramped corridor. One end leads [[back towards the landing->End 1st floor 2]], the other leads [[upwards->End tunnel]].////A circuit breaker box, with switches for the light and electricity circuits on each floor. At present, all the switches are pointing the same way.
You [[turn away->Eddie's floor]].////A circuit breaker box, with switches for the light and electricity circuits on each floor. At present, all the switches are pointing the same way.
You [[turn away->End Eddie's floor]].//Everything in my room is white and ivory, sleek and chic.
//(print: $ChaptersStarted*136) likes//
Crisp sheets, fluffy cushions. Cream carpet, magnolia paint.
(link-reveal: "//(print: $ChaptersStarted*425) likes//")[
White curtains, white [[[picture->Ivana picture]]] rail, indistinguishable from the white walls.]Everything in my room is white and ivory, sleek and chic.
//(print: $ChaptersStarted*425) likes//
Crisp sheets, fluffy cushions. Cream carpet, magnolia paint.
//(print: $ChaptersStarted*567) likes//
White curtains, white picture rail, indistinguishable from the white walls.
[[//(print: ($ChaptersStarted)*612) likes//->Ivana Saturday]]By the time I get down to the ground floor, his jacket is [[missing->Andy end]] from the rack once more.//At this end of the landing, doors lead to Jade’s room, Samantha’s room, Mohammed’s room, Lisa’s room, Krystyna’s room, Nigel’s room, Ffion’s room, a kitchen and a couple of bathrooms. A [[small passage->Landing]] leads back.
The landing ends in a solid wall.//(link-reveal: "No")[.
Not [[again->Tammy collapse]]].//Inside the cupboard there are (if: $Couple is not true)[three ](if: $Couple is true AND $AshLukasStory is not true)[four ](if: $AshLukasStory is true)[nine ]shelves, each with a few toiletries on it, and (if: $Couple is not true)[three ](if: $Couple is true AND $AshLukasStory is not true)[four ](if: $AshLukasStory is true)[nine ]separate rolls of toilet paper.
You [[close the cupboard door->Bathroom downstairs]].////You look into the glass, but you see no face reflected in it.
You [[turn away->Bathroom downstairs]].//