"Hey do you think I could go with you?"


"Umm...why would you want to do that?"


You explain how you don't have any reason to stay in Ashton anymore. Your parents are likely dead and you're unemployed. A new start in Kingsbury is just what the doctor ordered. 


"You can come...just meet me outside the Cinnamon Pearl at dawn."


"Yes! Thank you so much, I can't wait!" 


You leave the cafe and feel an incredible sense of euphoria. You can't believe she said yes, although she was a bit apprehensive. You can't wait to show her that she made the right choice in letting you come along. You spend the rest of the day gathering all your most prized belongings. You also take all of your parent's savings figuring they're never coming back. You fall asleep and begin to dream...


You're back in school and are sitting next to Julia. You don't hesitate and begin talking to her fully lucid of your actions.


"Hey Julia! Want a cookie?"


You pull a cookie out of thin air and hold it out to her. She reacts in disgust,


"Did you really think you could win my love so easily? Andy's my boyfriend and we're going to be together forever!"


You stammer out,


"One day you'll realize Andy isn't as nice as he may seem. Appearances can be deceiving..."


She bursts out in hysterical laughing and you have no idea why. Your look of confusion becomes apparent as she says,


"Appearances sure are deceiving!"


"Yeah..."


"For instance, I'm not even Julia."


Your pulse increases as you feel yourself losing control. Julia's face contorts feature by feature. First, her eyes turn red, then horns grow out of her head. By the end of it you are staring face to face with the demon of your nightmares.


"Catia?"


"You may think you've escaped me, but Julia will never be your true love."


"Shut up! Julia's just a friend..."


"No, YOU shut up! I know your deepest secrets and desires. Why keep up the charade? I know you think Julia can fill the void in your life, but that's just a fantasy."


"None of this is real and that includes you. This is nightmare, that's all."


"Go ahead, believe that. Just don't act like I didn't try to warn you."


You wake up as your head pounds like never before. You're suddenly very scared and seeing Julia and aren't sure why. It's clearly irrational, but a part of you wants to contact Catia again. Who's to say the curse will go away just because you're with Julia? Should you even bother?

You summon Catia one more time

You don't care if it's irrational, something deep inside says you need to see Catia. You head out to The Drunk Tortoise Tavern to get in a "more suggestive state". It's warmed up quite a bit since the last time you've been there and you're glad. New weather, new you, and perhaps a new Catia? You can only hope...


As you daydream, you lose track of where you're going. You don't even realize it when you take a wrong turn and end up in a dark alley. Logic tells you it's too dark to see anybody, but that isn't the case. The shadow people are back and they have you surrounded! You press yourself up against a wall and begin to scream.


"Hey, quiet down. We're not here to torment you," a shadow person says.


"In fact, we're here to prevent you from making a huge mistake," another says.


They explain how they weren't always shadow people. They used to be everyday people; soldiers, farmers, merchants, and every other occupation imaginable. However, one day they met a succubus and fell in love.


"I didn't want to go through with it, but once the madness hit I kept crawling back," one says.


"We all kept crawling back. There is a point where you lose so much individuality and can't even make decisions for yourself."


"That's how we all became shadow people. We lost our faces, our bodies, and our past to the abyss."


You can't believe you're having a full on conversation with the shadowy figures after all this time. You've completely lost it, why not see where this goes?


"Ok, so you lost all your individuality. How are you able to talk to me and tell me all of this?"


"What?"


"You said it yourself, you couldn't make 'decisions for yourself.' If so, how are you here right now?


"Shit he's on to us!"


"What should we do, can we still trick him?"


You shift uncomfortably.


"You idiot, why would you say that? Now we have to kill him."


You get up and try to run. You figure they aren't real and can't hurt you. Well, it turns out they can. They punch, kick, and slap you into a bloody mess.


"Finally, I will have a face again!"


They begin to peel away your skin and plaster it on their body. All the shadow people converged into a single mass resembling a ball. They tear off your arms and legs and add it to the mass. You're fully converged to the ball-like mass as a portal is conjured before you.


"Into the forest!"


You're don't die and live as part of this abomination. Your life is an eternal nightmare.