I’ve got a knife, so I can surprise whoever or whatever is out there. It’ll slice them up for good. That’ll teach them. I just have to be careful and quiet.
I slowly turn the handle and open the door. At last some light.
Something stirs inside me. I feel lighter, like something weighing me down has escaped the confines of my body. I feel … empty.
There’s someone behind me. I feel them. It lets a guttural growl and then it howls so loud that it feels the whole house will come down on me.
Oh my God! I’m going to—
Unfortunately, your character died. You made the wrong choice. The Darkening claimed you, like it claimed more than ninety per cent of the Earth’s population. Can you guess what it was that killed your character? I urge you to play again, but this time make a different choice. There are three more instalments waiting for you before this short story ends, and on each one, only one answer has the potential to lead your character to surviving a little longer. As a participant in this interactive story, it’s up to you to find out which string of choices leads to probable survival. Probable is the key word here. Nothing is certain in the world of The Darkening. There are many more ways one can die in that world. I explore some of them in my novel.
Copyright © 2018 Chris Sarantopoulos.
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