#6

You approaches the house quickly, once more in a heart-racing panic. You remembers that Your parents lived here; that memory had been driven from Your head by the concussion. You runs all through the house—as thoroughly destroyed as if it had been hit by a runaway mower—but there's no trace of anyone. Perhaps, You deduces, they fled to Susie's house, next door.

Before heading over, You inspects the house for any clues of the attacker's identity, or for any items that could be useful to defend Yourself. There is little here. Some shards from a broken table might come in handy, and You takes some silverware. The knives You could use to defend Yourself, alongside the shards; the other stuff, if needed, could be pawned. You pauses then, however. You is acting like You might have to go on a long journey, when that might not be necessary. Your family could still be in Susie's cellar; or they could have taken Susie's family car to the government building where Susie's stepdad works, or somewhere else that's safe. Still, You senses that something is wrong. It's not a grammar trip-off this time, though. It's a real, crackling, tangible presence in the air, like the afterimage of something fading away.

With the items You took in hand, You walks over to Susie's house. It, too, has been badly damaged. In fact, some of the damage is worse—an old fuel-powered water boiler was kept outside the house, and it looks like it was beaten up badly enough so that it eventually exploded. The burnt out area, which punctures one of the walls, is still hot. Still, it seems as if the house didn't catch on fire, as aside from a few charred papers inside (probably belonging to Susie's dad), not much else is damaged.

You enters the cellar, but no one is down there. In fact, it looks pretty empty. You never went down here; it's pretty likely it was never used, except for maybe as shelter during bad storms.

All the rooms upstairs are abandoned and clawed to pieces. There's no blood, though, and the car is missing. So perhaps everyone did manage to escape? If the monster, or whatever it was, is in the habit of kidnapping people, as it did You, it wouldn't have taken the car, too. You retains hope that Your family, and Susie, are still alive and well, and perhaps safe. Maybe they've already called the police. Neither household has a phone, as you can't afford such things, but if they made it to town the possibility of help isn't out of the question.

It's during these ruminations that You reaches the kitchen. The counter is slashed, but you see something: an untouched piece of paper. Your heart picks up again as You reads it. It's addressed to You, from Susie!

“Hey You,

“You's probably wondering what happened to You out there—Dad's letting me right You a note letting You know what actually happened. You was attacked by something, and don't ask me what that 'something' is write now. It was some sort of monster, like a lion or something (like in that book I showed you?). When it attacked us, Dad and Your dad starting fighting it with their guns. Look I can't right what it is now that's going on, but I knew that then I had to bring you to the cave. If you found the Item then You's good to go. We're safe, You. Get out of here, as soon as You can.

“Bye for now,

“- Susie”

Instantly, Your APPLE acts up. Susie has very clearly written the word “right” and “write” incorrectly. And, of course, she knows about Your APPLE. Could the word “write” be important somehow? Or, rather, the word “right”? It does appear three times, and three rights make a left. Perhaps this is a reference to the forked road at the edge of the driveway. The right leads to town, but the left leads...somewhere else. And where that somewhere else is, You doesn't know, because no one will answer Your questions about it.

But why would Susie encode a message to You? If she was in danger, she would've just told You where she was. Your APPLE does also point out to you that she highlighted “Dad”...which doesn't bode well at all. You's never trusted Susie's stepdad. He was always caught up in his work and didn't take too much pride in his daughter—at least, so it always seemed to You. Perhaps things were not that bad, but the fact that the note leaves out all of the important details indicates Susie was afraid of someone nearby finding her note.

You makes sure the eight-sided runestone is still in Your pocket. She seemed to think that that was important. What did she know about that cave that she never told You...?

You walks outside and realizes that Your previous fears, about going on a long journey, have likely been validated. Something has gone critically wrong here, and You will have to find out exactly what that is.