1993-2014

Joe pressed the button on the device and it began to make a weird clicking noise. Nothing happened. Joe was dumbfounded and stood there with the box clasped in his hands, shaking it, hitting it, hoping something would happen, but nothing did. The ghost was coming toward him. Joe started to panic, blocked in the room by the ghost. He didn’t know [[what to do]].

There was once a man who lived in [[a hut]] in the middle of the forest. His name was [[Joe]]. Time had not been kind to Joe. He tried to live his life to its fullest in spite of his [[hardships]].

When the hut was complete, Bob brought over a mirror he had bought from a traveling merchant. The merchant had sold it to him at a very reasonable price, and Bob decided it would be a great memento to celebrate the day Joe had finished building his new house.\n\n<<back>>

Joe awoke in a cold sweat, not sure what to make of his dream. It was so real to him, that he wasn’t sure if he should go [[check the mirror]] or go settle himself with a [[bowl of fresh berries]].

Joe walked slowly into the mirror room, afraid that he would find something. He knew it was just a dream, but the feeling of terror was all too real for him. As he approached the mirror, he eventually brought himself to look closely at it. There was no ghost, no monster, only his own reflection. But then, what was that thing in [[the corner]]?

Joe quickly thrust his arm toward the ghost and grabbed for the material, getting a firm grip, he pulled with all his might, revealing the person underneath. It was [[Bob, his friend]].

The berries are small and red, slightly bitter and slightly sweet. Some people use them for stewing and others make jam out of them. However, Joe's favorite dish is a simple bowl of vanilla ice cream with freshly picked berries piled on top.\n\n<<back>>

The hut was made of sticks and mud, it had a sloped thatched roof of straw and was pleasantly warm and roomy despite outside appearances. The hut was far from the village.\n\n<<back>>

Joe was seen as a hermit of sorts by some and much worse by others. He was known by the villagers by a cruel moniker because of the eyepatch he wore. They called him "One-eyed Joe".\n\n<<back>>

The Weird Mirror

In a last ditch effort, Joe threw the device at the ghost. “Ungh!” the ghost mumbled and stopped, recoiling from the hit to the midsection. “Wait a minute, ghosts don’t make sounds like that” Joe thought to himself, [[relieved]] slightly but still confused.

This goat of Joe's was the undefeated winner of the annual harvest festival's goat competition. It was by far the best goat anyone had seen. Its coat was fluffy, its horns perfectly curled, and its legs very strong. Some of the other villagers were angered that Joe's goat kept winning, especially since Joe was seen as an outsider among them, and they felt that he didn't have the right to enter the contests each year.\n\n<<back>>

THE END...\n\n...\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n..\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n...?

Based on a story I wrote a long time ago in grade school. Adapted to Twine for the 2014 EctoComp.

Joe rushed back into the room, ready to finish what had been started, intent on confronting the ghost. However, when he returned, there was nothing there. He heard a thump coming from [[the kitchen]] now.

As Joe collected himself, he gained a moment of reassurance and realized that something about this ghost just wasn’t right. He noticed a shoe peeking out from under [[the white... sheet]]?

“Come on Bob, let’s eat. It’s been a long day.” They both sat down at the kitchen table to enjoy some of the day’s gather. Then something strange happened. The noise of [[shattering glass]] came from the mirror room.

Joe sat down in his favorite chair and slowly drifted off to sleep, his heavy eyelids closing as he reclined, head slumping as he began snoring softly.\n\nJoe began [[to dream]]...

Joe was ready. He doubled back, but before he left the room, he ran right into the ghost at the doorway. It was right there in front of him, catching him off guard. He was shaking with fear, but ready to [[press the button]].

A while ago, some of the villagers that didn't like Joe decided that they would play a trick on him. They had come to his hut in the middle of the night with a can of red paint. When they approached the hut, silent and careful not to knock into anything or step on any stray branches, they found their target sleeping. With the paintbrush coated, they started to apply it liberally to Joe's prized [[goat]]. Luckily for them, the goat was a very sound sleeper, and before long, his entire coat was red. Mission accomplished, they walked back to the village and left the goat for Joe to wake up to. \nWhat they didn't know was that Joe wasn't sleeping, but out on a weekly, late-night mushroom hunt. It was known to a select few that the best mushrooms could only be found and collected in full moonlight. \nWhen Joe returned from his hunting trip, he saw the red goat. Then he had an idea.\n\n<<back>>

“Bob, what are you doing? You almost scared me to death!” Joe shouted. \n\n“Obah cjib Sd’rasjh S’st Fj,” bob mumbled. Joe wasn’t sure what to think. He didn’t speak in the native deskese language, so he wasn’t sure what Bob was saying, but he [[offered]] him some fresh berries.

From the dark corner of the room, there was something moving toward Joe. The figure was dark and formless and was making strange sounds. It started to come toward Joe, and that’s when he remembered, the [[get the device]].

The device was a small box with a button and a funnel on it. Joe had bought it from a strange old traveling woman who had set up shop in the village one day. She insisted on him taking it, “You never know when you’ll need it,” she advised.\n\n<<back>>

Something was off. Joe was [[transfixed]] when he noticed that his door was slightly ajar and his furniture had been moved around, as if someone was looking for something. That's when he started to get scared. The people from the village usually leave Joe on his own. It had been a long time since they had wandered past his hut, and even then, they knew to not start a fight with Joe since he had [[made it clear]] that he would not take kindly to reckless villagers.\n\nHe looked around his house for a while, but after getting tired, he decided the burglar had already left. Maybe it was someone from town just messing with him? He eventually [[took a nap]].

On one day, when Joe was trekking through the forest on one of his weekly mushroom-foraging trips, he found [[some red berries]]. He picked some of them and loaded them into his wicker basket. \nOnce Joe had gathered enough berries, he set back on the trail to the hut. It wasn't long before he [[reached the hut]].

[[it didn’t work]]\n\n[[squirt again]] There's no paste left.\n[[throw it]] Bob takes the hood off.\n[[talk to Bob]]

[[hungry]]\n[[investigate]]

Joe’s gaze was stuck on the door. He was sure he had closed it all the way before he left, and no one beside Bob had come to his hut in years. Bob would always stand in the yard to wait for Joe if he was out.\n\n<<back>>

M. J. Antonellis

Joe walked to the kitchen, intent on having some of the fresh redberries he had picked earlier that day. Looking on the table (the only table in the room), it seemed that the basket of berries had disappeared. He was sure he put the basket down right on that table. No one else was here, and he surely didn’t put them in [[the mirror room]].

In his dream, he was in his hut sorting berries and organizing his pantry when the noise of shattering glass came from another room. The sound beckoned to him. As he walked into the room, something crunched beneath his feet. Shattered glass covered the floor like an ocean made of a million tiny pieces. \n\nHe looked up and then he saw it. His mirror had been broken. It was a present given to him by his friend, Bob, to celebrate the day of Joe's [[founding of his farm]]. It was only a bare wooden frame now. The glass laid on the floor. \n\nJoe bent down and touched the glass as if to pick it up. Something strange happened. Something strange started to materialize in the glass. Joe looked closer at the wavy image and didn’t see his reflection, but that of a specter. A monster appeared, staring back at Joe. It had horns...antlers? And it was fanged as well. It snarled and Joe recoiled falling back. The glass began to vibrate wildly, and an ominous purple smoke rose from the floor, coalescing into the form of the monster. It made a horrible howling sound. That’s when Joe [[awoke]] from his nightmare.

Joe ran to the kitchen and threw open the cupboard, grabbing the [[device]]. He knew now what he had to do. He would go back and use the device on the ghost, and [[return to the mirror room]].