Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Into Unending Horror)

Okay, so this Amnesia game isn't so bad. Got a couple spare tinderboxes, plenty of lamp oil. Got the key to the wine cellar. Let's go.

"BLUROORAGH!!"
O_O Oh God. What was that?! Crouch! Hide! Put away the lantern! Hide next to this piano! Do. Not. Move.


<2 minutes later>


Okay, so source of the horrible roar screech is not looking for me. This is good. Now we'll just sneeeeak along here, stay in the shadows... Oh god, the shadows scare my guy. Into the light before he goes insane!



Okay. Good. Now we're in a room. And we have to go down the hallway to out of here. So if we just sneeeak alo- Oh God! Just run! RUN!


Okay. We made it to the door. Loading. Good. Okay, done. Okay, we're back here. Now we just have to go down here- what the hell? What's all this noise happening? It sounds gross and I'm panicking and flailing my mouse and my guy is spinning in circles. Okay, focus. You're facing the door you just came through. Turn around. Oh, okay, horrifying fleshy webs are now covering the ground and walls. Well, let's just ignore that and continue to the wine cellar. If I recall correctly it is down this dark staircase. I'm sure nothing will go wrong.


Okay, wine cellar. Not too bad, although a little dark. [Hint: Darkness scares your guy shitless!] Oh that's right. Lantern, on! Okay, down these stairs. Oh, barrels. Oh, puddles of dark red liquid. I'm sure that's wine. We're in a wine cellar after all. Okay, there's like 6 different doors and hallways... let's go through this one. Okay, light the candle, and put away the lantern. Oh, tinderboxes. I'll take them. Things are looking up, guy.



...Alrighty, let's just put this chair against the door here, barricade ourself in. Try to open the door- okay good, the chair blocks it. Now, what else is in this room. A barrel of oil, cool. Fill up ma lantern. And... oh wow, some rocks. And a giant rock. Boulder-esque, even. I'm sure rocks make much better barricades than chairs.



Okay, good, but now I'm stuck in this rather dull room.



Let's just leave and look around elsewhere. La de da... Oh, a hallway- and now a door. I'll just get closer so I can ope-

"ROOAARAARGH"



OH GOD SOMETHING IN THERE WANTS ME DEAD



BACK TO THE PANIC ROOM!

CLOSE THE DOOR.
ROCKS! MORE ROCKS! AND THE CHAIR!

...

Okay. Okay. I think we're safe. Now all I have to do is stay in this room and never leave. I think I'll quit now, and assume my guy stayed in that room until he died of starvation.

Chapter One

So, for school we had to write the first chapter of a book we made up. I read a lot of Sin City prior to this, so, you know, I was inspired. Anyway, we don't need an introduction. Let's just get into it...


This City

Revenge is never a good motive. It tends to lead to trouble, which leads to danger, which leads either behind bars or six feet under. However, revenge brings closure, justice. This is a revenge I need. All these thoughts running through my head. If I mess this up, I’m as good as dead. So I won’t mess up. Johann must pay for what he did. Johann, the notorious leader of this city’s drug ring. The cops can’t bust him for “lack of substantial evidence”. Yeah, right. Not that they would anyway, half of the Force are customers of Johann’s. You can’t trust a cop in this city. They only care about each other and the rich folk who shovel money into the Department’s coffers. But I have to stay focused. I have to do this – for Marie.

Marie was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. She helped me up when I was down. She believed I could achieve anything. She never lived a lie, never took a life, but surely saved mine. Marrying her was the best thing I’d ever done, or ever do. She was just… in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I was worried when she hadn’t arrived home. When she didn’t answer her cell I decided to check on her at work. I took a shortcut. Somehow I found her before I even arrived at her work. Hunched over in an alley, sitting with her back to the wall. Clasping her stomach, blood pouring through her delicate fingers. She told me what happened, the pain brutally evident in her voice despite it being hardly more than a whisper. How she was taking a shortcut home, and accidentally witnessed a botched deal. Johann doesn’t take kindly to witnesses. She told me how she tried to run, hoping they hadn’t seen her. But they’ve got sharp senses, like rats. Put a bullet in her gut as she was running. She must have been there alone for more than an hour. I yelled for help, but no one came. No one ever does in this city. I dialled 911, but it was backed up. It always is. I told her to hang in there, that everything would be okay. I promised I’d make things better. I held her hand in mine the whole time, our wedding rings gently clinging together. She was barely with me when I got another voice on the line, and by the time the ambulance arrived it was too late. Marie was my pillar of hope, without her to support me… Well, now I have nothing to lose.

But that’s all gone and buried now. I have a promise to keep. I’m prepared for this. I’m ready for this. Johann must pay.

Rain batters against the windscreen while the wind whips up random bits of trash through the headlights. Storms like this don’t come along too often. It’ll provide good cover. I pass the tightly locked down shops, the many scantily clad women packing the streets. You only see them this hour of the night, come rain or moonlight. Plenty of “honest, hard-working men” come night after night to see them. They go by many names: prostitutes, harlots, whores - although you don’t want to be going and offending them. This district is run by them. They have their own set of rules and morals, and you best not be caught breaking them. This city…

Johann doesn’t think the city’s good enough for him, so he runs his ‘business’ from his manor just out of town. That’s where I’m heading. I’m in a quieter part of the city now, almost out of town. Suddenly lights burst from the shadows to my right, reflecting off the glistening road. A vehicle tears out of an alley and slams into the rear of this junk-pile I call a car, sending me fish-tailing onto the side-walk – lucky the side-walks are all empty of life here – before crumpling into a light post. Electricity sparks from the now broken bulb while metal bends and tears. I shove the door open and fall on my hand and knees. It stings, the ground is hard and drenched. What the hell just happened to me? It’s dark, I can’t see. I hear footsteps splashing amongst the rain. My eyes adjust and I see a small truck parked down the road – the vehicle that hit me. And a man, walking towards me, big, imposing. Shoulders as square as his jaw. Fists clenched. His blonde hair, cut short, is plastered to his head from the rain. A crazy grin cuts across his face. This isn’t good.

I pull myself up, getting ready. “We got a tip about you. Ain’t no one try to mess with Johann and live!” yells the big guy as he throws a punch. I duck it, but he swings his other fist into my jaw. He’s no amateur. He readies for another swing but I tuck and twist around behind him and send my foot hurtling between his legs. Cheap move, but I’m no hand-to-hand fighter. He hurls himself around and picks me right up off the ground. I thought I was prepared, but I wasn’t. Not for this. He yells with fury as he effortlessly throws me across the street. I land hard. Something cracks. Pain jolts down to my left arm to my wrist. I’ll deal with it after this brute. He stomps toward me, drenched in rain and sweat, face full of rage. As he raises his foot, I roll and scramble to my feet. His foot crashes into the ground where my head was as I spring towards my car. I fumble around beneath my seat. My fingers close around the handle of my Beretta. Hah! Got it. His size won’t help him now. I turn just in time to see the back of his hand smack me across the face. Tears cloud my vision and blood streams from my nose as he embraces me in a killer bear hug. Mistake. I whip my arm up as my feet leave the ground and press the barrel of my Beretta to his gut. He knows. I pull the trigger. The gun barks and bucks in my hand. Another shot gone ignored in this city. The giant exhales sharply and drops me as lightning lights up the background. I stumble back and fall into the seat of my wreck as the man falls to his knees, thunder dully rumbling in the sky. The man’s accent, it was German. There’s only one man who employs fellow Germans.

“Johann sent you,” I say. He looks up at me and smiles. “Who tipped him off?” I ask, annoyed. He laughs in my face, sending specks of blood flying from his mouth. I raise my Beretta to his forehead; my arm outstretched, and ask again. Louder this time. “Who tipped him off?!”
“Fahr zur Hölle - go to Hell!” he spits. I squeeze the trigger. It’s not pretty. Blood and brains cake the road like paste. He falls with a wet thud.

Questions dash through my mind. My wrist aches, my cheek burns. I twist my hand around; listen to the bones crackle as I try to sort these questions. How the hell did Johann find out about me? Who was that behemoth he sent after me? Who am I to him? I’m nobody! Nobody to send his goons after anyway. This was not part of the plan. Revenge is never a good motive, but I’ll do anything for Marie. I had told no one of my proposed actions tonight, has someone been watching me? For how long? I’ll have to postpone my plans. Johann will get his, but not tonight. Right now I need answers, and someone who can fix my wrist without asking questions. I should find both at Cindy’s Bar, I know a guy there. If anyone knows something about this, it’ll be him. So that’s where I’m heading. I can’t take my car, seeing as it’s one with the lamp post now. But the German’s truck… I trudge over to see the keys still in the ignition. Perfect. Time for some answers. I’m doing this for Marie, Johann can’t make me give up this easily…