Six Gray Rats Crawl Up The Pillow
by Caleb Wilson (as Boswell Cain) (2015)

A distressing episode in the life of Rinaldo di Gorgonzola.

action: %
response: "Poh! I'm short a hundred florins on rent money!"

Lorenzo snickers. "I'll give you a hundred to spend the night in Count Ruggino's house."

"I'll do it! Wait. Why Ruggino's?"

"He's a suicide. They say his house is haunted."

"Haunted? I don't believe in ghosts."



Count Ruggino's house lours in the dim air like a gathering of gravestones. The road makes a circle before it, then runs north back to Firenze.

A heavy wooden door leads in to the south.

A statue stands in the center of a dry fountain.
action: You look at the statue
response: A statue in grey stone, of a grim-faced angel with arms crossed over chest.
action: You look at the fountain
response: It's cracked all around and scaled with green-black scum.

In the fountain is a brass key.
action: You take key
response: Taken.
action: You check what you're carrying
response: You are carrying:
a brass key
a poniard
a sausage
The Return of the Worm
an herbal sachet

You are wearing:
a shiny black raincoat
a silk shirt
a pair of slacks
a pair of wingtip shoes

You recall:
a memory of Lorenzo
action: You examine the poniard
response: A short dagger with a plastic handle. It would be useless against ghosts, but you don't believe in ghosts anyway.
action: You look at Worm
response: paperback, written by your friend Viviana. It is just the kind of tale to take your mind off this current outbreak of the Pestilence.
action: You examine the sachet
response: The scent of the herbs is meant to block out any pestilential fumes you might encounter.
action: You remember Lorenzo
response: Lorenzo, left arm akimbo, is holding out his right to shake on
your wager. His hair is looking particularly shiny this morning.

You remember Lorenzo's hair.
action: You check your inventory
response: You are carrying:
a brass key
a poniard
a sausage
The Return of the Worm
an herbal sachet

You are wearing:
a shiny black raincoat
a silk shirt
a pair of slacks
a pair of wingtip shoes

You recall:
a memory of Lorenzo's hair
a memory of Viviana writing
action: You remember the viviana writing
response: Viviana is crouched over her typewriter in the tower garret of Lorenzo's father's mansion. She looks up and shouts at you: "Get out! Unless you have coffee."

You remember Viviana's typewriter.
action: You remember viviana's typewriter
response: It's a stormy evening, and Viviana's typewriter has a broken key.
She is kind enough to let you try to fix it, though you actually only manage to damage it further. "It's okay," she says, "Lorenzo's going to buy me a new one." There's a smudge of ink on the bridge of her nose, and your hands are likewise stained.

You remember your first sight of Viviana.
action: You remember your first sight of Viviana
response: Your first glimpse of Viviana is in a coffee shop stained red with setting sunlight. She has a sheaf of manuscript pages with her, and is holding a red pen in her mouth while she shuffles them. The pen is leaking, so it looks like a drop of blood is tracking down the side of her chin.

You remember first meeting Viviana.
action: Look around
response: Count Ruggino's house lours in the dim air like a gathering of gravestones. The road makes a circle before it, then runs north back to Firenze.

A heavy wooden door leads in to the south.

A statue stands in the center of a dry fountain.
action: You look at the statue
response: A statue in grey stone, of a grim-faced angel with arms crossed over chest.
action: You open door
response: (first unlocking the heavy wooden door)
(with the brass key)
You open the heavy wooden door.
action: You go to the south
response: A high-ceilinged hall whose walls press close side to side. The wallpaper hangs in moldy strips. The floor is warped and heaved like a road in winter. A staircase goes up.

A heavy wooden door leads out to the north.

There is a small hook on the wall. Hanging on the hook is an abstract painting.
action: You examine the painting
response: The painting is comprised of green, blue, pink and yellow arcs and wedges, and it seems to represent... hmm... a bouquet of flowers?
action: Keep going
response: The painting is comprised of green, blue, pink and yellow arcs and wedges, and it seems to represent... hmm... a bowl of fruit?
action: You close the door
response: You close the heavy wooden door.
action: Go upwards
response: Dusty beams slant overhead like the branches of some neglected, geometric forest. The carpet sags in divots where the floor beneath has subsided. There is a stairway down, and a dusty room to the east.
action: Go east
response: A chamber with a stifling atmosphere. The ceiling is a plaster dome, still intact, though marbled with ghostly mold. The floor is invisible beneath layered carpets and dust clots. The hall is west, and to the east is a doorway to a tiny balcony.

In the center of the room is a four-poster bed.

There is a small hook on the wall. Hanging on the hook is a forbidding portrait.

Across from the bed is an armchair.

On the armchair are a dusty, desiccated corpse and a gold-plated automatic pistol.
action: You examine the pistol
response: An expensive-looking, if also ridiculous-looking, gun.
action: You examine the corpse
response: This must be the unfortunate Count Ruggino. He's dried out and fragile as a mummy.
action: You take the pistol
response: Taken.
action: You look under the bed
response: Under the bed you find a suitcase. You fish it out.
action: You open the suitcase
response: You open the suitcase, revealing a travel pillow.
action: You look at the pillow
response: A slip of foam inside a rag, or, a pathetically thin travel pillow.
action: You look at the portrait
response: An old man with an expression of steely confidence. Perhaps one of the more frightening Popes?
action: Shoot portrait
response: (first taking the forbidding portrait)
Taken.

A horrifying stain, formerly hidden by the forbidding portrait, is revealed on the wallpaper below the hook.

The forbidding portrait lacks a trigger.
action: You look at the stain
response: It is the blackish green of mildew and shaped like satan holding a pitchfork.
action: Go west
response: Dusty beams slant overhead like the branches of some neglected, geometric forest. The carpet sags in divots where the floor beneath has subsided. There is a stairway down, and a dusty room to the east.
action: Go downwards
response: A high-ceilinged hall whose walls press close side to side. The wallpaper hangs in moldy strips. The floor is warped and heaved like a road in winter. A staircase goes up.

A heavy wooden door leads out to the north.

There is a small hook on the wall. Hanging on the hook is an abstract painting.
action: You take abstract
response: Taken.
action: You put forbidding on the hook
response: You hang the forbidding portrait on the hook.
action: You go to the east
response: A chamber with a stifling atmosphere. The ceiling is a plaster dome, still intact, though marbled with ghostly mold. The floor is invisible beneath layered carpets and dust clots. The hall is west, and to the east is a doorway to a tiny balcony.

In the center of the room is a four-poster bed.

There is a small hook on the wall. A horrifying stain, shaped a little bit like satan holding a pitchfork, mars the wallpaper beneath the hook.

Across from the bed is an armchair.

On the armchair is a dusty, desiccated corpse.
action: You put abstract on the hook
response: You hang the abstract painting on the hook, hiding the satanic stain from sight.
action: You shoot the pistol
response: Nothing happens. It looks like the safety is on.
action: You check the safety
response: The safety is currently switched on.
action: Examine dome
response: Fine plasterwork, though it could do with a cleaning.
action: Switch safety
response: You switch the safety off.
action: Switch safety
response: You switch the safety on.
action: You shoot the pistol
response: Click. It must be out of bullets.
action: Look around
response: A chamber with a stifling atmosphere. The ceiling is a plaster dome, still intact, though marbled with ghostly mold. The floor is invisible beneath layered carpets and dust clots. The hall is west, and to the east is a doorway to a tiny balcony.

In the center of the room is a four-poster bed.

There is a small hook on the wall. Hanging on the hook is an abstract painting.

Across from the bed is an armchair.

On the armchair is a dusty, desiccated corpse.
action: Go east
response: This little railed platform sticks out like a wart from the top of Count Ruggino's house. What a view!
action: You look at the view
response: Away to the east stretch dark hills dotted with stands of poplar, and the sky is speckled with glittering stars.
action: You remember
response: You recall:
a memory of meeting Viviana
a memory of Lorenzo's hair
action: You remember lorenzo's hair
response: Lorenzo's hair, shiny with gel, is slicked back, except for one
curved strand which keeps falling across his eyes almost--but not quite--as if against his wishes.

You remember Lorenzo's eyes.
action: You remember lorenzo's eyes
response: experimental drinking with Viviana, Camilla, and you.

You remember a night of drinking.
action: You remember meeting Viviana
response: Viviana looks up at you from her manuscript. "Yes?" A bit
brusque... Still: "I believe this is yours," you say, and hold up the page she dropped outside. And you don't see her for another six months, until she is hired to ghost-write the memoir of your old friend Lorenzo's father.

You remember meeting Camilla.
action: You remember meeting Camilla
response: A hot, wilted afternoon. Viviana has brought her friend Camilla to
her garret. Camilla is holding a flask of pale green liqueur. Camilla smiles at you before even learning your name. "Want a sample?"
action: You remember a the night of the drinking
response: Midnight is dead and in its grave. You are holding some dreadful potion of Camilla's up to the light bulb: it looks like a cocktail of antifreeze and rosewater. Camilla is laughing, already drunk out of her skull on the concoction.

You remember Camilla laughing.
action: About yourself
response: You are Rinaldo di Gorgonzola. About you, above all, let it be said that you do not believe in ghosts.
action: You remember Camilla laughing
response: Camilla's mouth is wide, her head tilted back in the shadows, her pupils dilated. She is laughing, with chemical assistance, at a joke just told by Viviana.

You remember Viviana's joke, and Camilla's workshop.
action: You remember the viviana's joke
response: In the carpeted rec-room basement of Lorenzo's father's mansion, Viviana has just told a joke: "How is a plague doctor like an elderly heir? They are both running out of patients."

You remember Doctor Giallo's office.
action: You remember the camilla's workshop
response: Camilla in her workshop, lit by harsh fluorescent light. Flasks
and alembics clutter the wooden surfaces. Camilla's white coat is speckled with holes from acid. She casts you a quick smile from behind a rack of test tubes, and tells you about a gift she whipped up for you.

You remember Camilla's gift.
action: You remember the camilla's gift
response: the top of her head. "I know you've been having trouble sleeping, so I made you a special little something. Do not take it just before operating heavy machinery, Rinaldo! Now we just need something to hide it in from Lorenzo..." She leans down towards a drawer tucked beneath her workbench.

You remember Camilla's drawer.
action: You remember the camilla's drawer
response: Camilla opens a drawer in her workbench and takes out a cheap, plastic-handled poniard. "Ah. Here." She shows you how to open the secret compartment: first twist and then pull the handle.
action: Inventory
response: You are carrying:
a suitcase (open)
a travel pillow
a gold-plated automatic pistol
a brass key
a poniard
a sausage
The Return of the Worm
an herbal sachet

You are wearing:
a shiny black raincoat
a silk shirt
a pair of slacks
a pair of wingtip shoes

You recall:
a memory of Doctor Giallo's office
action: Twist poniard
response: Nothing obvious happens.
action: Twist handle
response: The poniard's handle twists around with a click.
action: You pull the handle
response: The handle pulls an inch away from the blade, revealing a small cavity inside the poniard.

In the cavity is a tiny pill.
action: You look at the pill
response: A tiny yellow pill with a pink "C" marked on it.
action: You remember the doctor giallo's office
response: It is a golden afternoon, and in his musty office, the famed
Doctor Giallo is lecturing you about the medicinal value of dried toads. But it is hard to concentrate due to his distracting teeth--are they carved of agate?--and to the fact that your Uncle has just died of the Pestilence.

You remember Uncle Guglielmo.
action: You remember the uncle guglielmo
response: It is a summer day smeared with pollen. You are a boy, and Uncle Guglielmo has just galloped into the millpond in which you think you are drowning. It turns out the water only comes up to his waist, and your chest. Lorenzo is laughing on the bank.

You remember Uncle Guglielmo's funeral, and first hearing about Lorenzo.
action: You remember the uncle guglielmo's funeral
response: Uncle Guglielmo is being buried. Under clouds like a seal of lead,
the cemetery is a mess of holes and bulging graves. The priest stumbles over his lines. He misstates Guglielmo's name and keeps checking his watch. He has a nasty cough, himself.

You remember a bottomless grave.
action: You remember a the bottomless grave
response: The grave seems bottomless. Damp soil stretching down, down, down, little white flags of gravecloth whipping in a subterranean wind.

The image is stuck in your mind's eye like a thorn.
action: You remember first hearing about Lorenzo
response: You are very small, and holding your Uncle Guglielmo's hand.
Together you are walking through a field towards the mansion he has just been hired on at, as director of security. "There's even a little boy who lives there. His name is Lorenzo."

You remember your first sight of Lorenzo.
action: You remember the first sight of Lorenzo
response: The mansion towers above you. "Hey!" comes a shout, and you look
up reflexively. The apple hits you in the forehead. Through tears you see a small laughing face peering through an open attic window. Yes, that's Lorenzo.

You remember Lorenzo's father.
action: You remember the lorenzo's father
response: A dour man comes out of the front door to meet you and your uncle.
He leans on a skull-handled cane. He eyes the apple lying in the dust and then stares at you as if appalled at your wastage of food. "To begin with, Guglielmo," says Lorenzo's father, "while you are in my employ, I'll expect better discipline from the child."
action: You check what you're carrying
response: You are carrying:
a suitcase (open)
a travel pillow
a gold-plated automatic pistol
a brass key
a poniard
a sausage
The Return of the Worm
an herbal sachet

You are wearing:
a shiny black raincoat
a silk shirt
a pair of slacks
a pair of wingtip shoes

You recall:
a memory of a bottomless grave
action: Smell sachet
response: It smells of medicinal herbs which are highly rare, expensive, and efficacious (according to the doctor who sold it to you).
action: You read the book
response: You brought it along to read in bed to help you fall asleep.
action: You go inside
response: A chamber with a stifling atmosphere. The ceiling is a plaster dome, still intact, though marbled with ghostly mold. The floor is invisible beneath layered carpets and dust clots. The hall is west, and to the east is a doorway to a tiny balcony.

In the center of the room is a four-poster bed.

There is a small hook on the wall. Hanging on the hook is an abstract painting.

Across from the bed is an armchair.

On the armchair is a dusty, desiccated corpse.
action: You take the corpse
response: You gently lift the desiccated corpse of Count Ruggino from the armchair.

Its arm falls off and hits the floor, then rolls out of sight beneath the bed.
action: Go east
response: As you carry the torso out the door, it crumbles further. You end up up hanging onto the leg; the rest of the torso falls to the ground and is left behind in the bedchamber.

This little railed platform sticks out like a wart from the top of Count Ruggino's house. What a view!
action: You check your inventory
response: You are carrying:
a withered leg
a suitcase (open)
a travel pillow
a gold-plated automatic pistol
a brass key
a poniard
a sausage
The Return of the Worm
an herbal sachet

You are wearing:
a shiny black raincoat
a silk shirt
a pair of slacks
a pair of wingtip shoes

You recall:
a memory of a bottomless grave
action: You examine leg
response: A withered leg, light as papier-mâché.
action: You throw the leg
response: Dropped.
action: Go inside
response: A chamber with a stifling atmosphere. The ceiling is a plaster dome, still intact, though marbled with ghostly mold. The floor is invisible beneath layered carpets and dust clots. The hall is west, and to the east is a doorway to a tiny balcony.

In the center of the room is a four-poster bed.

There is a small hook on the wall. Hanging on the hook is an abstract painting.

Across from the bed is an armchair.

You can also see a torso here.
action: You examine the torso
response: A torso, light as papier-mâché.
action: You check what you're carrying
response: You are carrying:
a suitcase (open)
a travel pillow
a gold-plated automatic pistol
a brass key
a poniard
a sausage
The Return of the Worm
an herbal sachet

You are wearing:
a shiny black raincoat
a silk shirt
a pair of slacks
a pair of wingtip shoes

You recall:
a memory of a bottomless grave
action: You take the torso
response: You gently lift the desiccated torso.

The head falls off and hits the floor.
action: You examine the head
response: A withered head, light as papier-mâché.
action: You take the head
response: These body parts are slippery little devils! As you grab the head the torso slips out of your grasp.
action: Go east
response: This little railed platform sticks out like a wart from the top of Count Ruggino's house. What a view!

You can see a withered leg here.
action: You drop the head
response: Dropped.
action: You go west
response: A chamber with a stifling atmosphere. The ceiling is a plaster dome, still intact, though marbled with ghostly mold. The floor is invisible beneath layered carpets and dust clots. The hall is west, and to the east is a doorway to a tiny balcony.

In the center of the room is a four-poster bed.

There is a small hook on the wall. Hanging on the hook is an abstract painting.

Across from the bed is an armchair.

You can also see a torso here.
action: Go east
response: This little railed platform sticks out like a wart from the top of Count Ruggino's house. What a view!

You can see a withered head and a withered leg here.
action: Go west
response: A chamber with a stifling atmosphere. The ceiling is a plaster dome, still intact, though marbled with ghostly mold. The floor is invisible beneath layered carpets and dust clots. The hall is west, and to the east is a doorway to a tiny balcony.

In the center of the room is a four-poster bed.

There is a small hook on the wall. Hanging on the hook is an abstract painting.

Across from the bed is an armchair.
action: You get on the bed
response: You get onto the four poster bed.
action: You check what you're carrying
response: You are carrying:
a suitcase (open)
a travel pillow
a gold-plated automatic pistol
a brass key
a poniard
a sausage
The Return of the Worm
an herbal sachet

You are wearing:
a shiny black raincoat
a silk shirt
a pair of slacks
a pair of wingtip shoes

You recall:
a memory of a bottomless grave
action: You eat the pill
response: You dry swallow the pill.

After a few moments your mind drains empty of anxiety. You feel still and slow and cool, like an undisturbed pond.
action: You read the book
response: debauched bank vice-president Cesare, having been bitten by a venomous spider hidden inside a cash bag by the duplicitous teller Otto and doomed to death within the day, dooms in turn his lover Astrid's secret lover's second lover by tricking her into touching a poison-coated safety deposit box key.

Your eyelids have grown heavy, and you think you are ready to fall asleep.
action: Sleep
response: But you're still wearing your pair of slacks!
action: Undress
response: You take off the shiny black raincoat.

You take off the pair of wingtip shoes.

You take off the silk shirt.

You take off the pair of slacks.
action: Sleep
response: You're a little hungry. You'll need a snack before you can fall asleep.
action: You eat the sausage
response: That was spicy and delicious.
action: Sleep
response: You'll never be able to fall asleep while holding that pair of slacks.
action: You drop all
response: suitcase: Dropped.
gold-plated automatic pistol: Dropped.
brass key: Dropped.
poniard: Dropped.
paperback book: Dropped.
herbal sachet: Dropped.
shiny black raincoat: Dropped.
silk shirt: Dropped.
pair of slacks: Dropped.
pair of wingtip shoes: Dropped.
action: Sleep
response: Your eyes close. Your breathing slows. You start to drift off. Then you roll over onto the poniard, which for some reason is in the bed with you, and you come fully awake again.
action: You take all
response: pair of wingtip shoes: Taken.
pair of slacks: Taken.
silk shirt: Taken.
shiny black raincoat: Taken.
herbal sachet: Taken.
paperback book: Taken.
poniard: Taken.
brass key: Taken.
gold-plated automatic pistol: Taken.
suitcase: Taken.
travel pillow: Taken.
action: You get up
response: You get off the four poster bed.
action: You drop all
response: travel pillow: Dropped.
suitcase: Dropped.
gold-plated automatic pistol: Dropped.
brass key: Dropped.
poniard: Dropped.
paperback book: Dropped.
herbal sachet: Dropped.
shiny black raincoat: Dropped.
silk shirt: Dropped.
pair of slacks: Dropped.
pair of wingtip shoes: Dropped.
action: Sleep
response: A horripilation comes over you... You'll never be able to fall asleep while that horrible withered withered arm is under the bed.
action: You take the arm
response: That's fixed in place.
action: You look under the bed
response: Under the bed you find a withered arm. You fish it out.
action: You take the arm
response: (the armchair)
That's fixed in place.
action: You go east
response: This little railed platform sticks out like a wart from the top of Count Ruggino's house. What a view!

You can see a torso, a withered head, and a withered leg here.
action: Go west
response: A chamber with a stifling atmosphere. The ceiling is a plaster dome, still intact, though marbled with ghostly mold. The floor is invisible beneath layered carpets and dust clots. The hall is west, and to the east is a doorway to a tiny balcony.

In the center of the room is a four-poster bed.

On the four poster bed is a travel pillow.

There is a small hook on the wall. Hanging on the hook is an abstract painting.

Across from the bed is an armchair.

You can also see a pair of wingtip shoes, a pair of slacks, a silk shirt, a shiny black raincoat, an herbal sachet, a paperback book, a poniard, a brass key, a gold-plated automatic pistol, and a suitcase (empty) here.
action: You get on the bed
response: You get onto the four poster bed.

On the four poster bed you can see a travel pillow.
action: Sleep
response: Your eyes close. Your breathing slows. Your cheek deadens against the travel pillow. You drift off and experience a hectic dream...

Count Ruggino is as good-looking as ever. Count Ruggino is
carrying a gold-plated pistol. Count Ruggino shoots himself with the gold-plated pistol. Click. It must be out of bullets. Click. Count Ruggino's arm falls off and rolls under the bed. Click. Count Ruggino looks under the bed and fishes out his arm. Count Ruggino's leg falls off. Count Ruggino picks up his leg and his head falls off. Click. Count Ruggino sees a rat, a rat, a rat, and a rat here. Count Ruggino picks up a rat and his head, and his nose falls off. Click. Click. Count Ruggino eats a sausage and a sleeping pill. Count Ruggino picks up a rat and a rat and drops a rat. Count Ruggino unlocks his head. Count Ruggino opens his head, revealing a rat. Count Ruggino unlocks his leg. Count Ruggino opens his leg, revealing a rat. Count Ruggino picks up a rat, a rat, and a rat. Count Ruggino drops his head and it rolls under the bed. Click. A rat picks up a rat and a rat and drops a rat. A rat opens a rat, revealing a rat. A rat jumps up and down on the spot, fruitlessly. A rat wouldn't like that. A rat wouldn't like that. It is pitch black, and Count Ruggino can't see a thing!

You awaken at sunrise to find the bedchamber filled with rosy light.

Sunrise (on the bed)
You can't see much of anything due to the reddish light that floods the room via a narrow doorway to the east.
action: You get up
response: You get off the bed.
action: Look around
response: Sunrise?
You can't see much of anything due to the reddish light that floods the room via a narrow doorway to the east.
action: Go east
response: From the east shines an overpowering roseate light, though the sky is still dark, and speckled with stars like freckles of pestilential blood.

A gleaming red form flies towards you through the air.

That's not the sun.

When the form comes closer you see that it is an angel dressed all in red gauze. A plague angel! Its scarves flutter behind like stage flames as it drifts closer.

The angel hovers several yards past the railing of the balcony. Its androgynous smile is hard, carved from rock candy. It reaches into a red box tucked beneath its arm, and then casts its hand towards you, like it is feeding grain to chickens. Red-black flakes fall on your face, sink into your skin. So this is how the plague is spread. You always thought it had something to do with bad night air or snakes.

(At least it's not ghosts.)

Mid-morning.

Lorenzo is laughing so hard he's about to throw up. "You should see your face!"

"I don't have to see my face," you say. "I have my face."

"I'm really sorry," says Camilla, and she seems almost sincere.

"About what? The, the spiked pill you gave me? Or the, what was that thing, a store mannequin rigged up with a red spotlight and dangling on a zip line?"

"The fake plague angel was totally Lorenzo's idea," says Camilla.

"I made the papier-mâché corpse, too." Lorenzo shakes his
head, wipes away tears of laughter.

"My money," you say, holding out your hand.

Lorenzo snorts. "You think I have that kind of cash? My dad keeps me on a strict allowance. I'm more broke than you."

What a rotten day.

But a month later Lorenzo's dead, of the real Pestilence, and you are driving his father's cherry-red Aceto west towards Avignon. Supposedly Avignon is plague free, which leaves just a pesky anti-pope to put up with. Viviana is sitting in the passenger seat, her hair blowing every which way, a manuscript in her lap. Camilla is squeezed in between you. And that you don't mind at all.
action: Note
response: In John Webster's play The White Devil, the poisoned
character Bracciano hallucinates on his deathbed. After seeing the devil, who wears a blue bonnet, breeches, and a great cod-piece "stuck full of pins with pearls o'th' head of them," he cries out: "Look you, six gray rats that have lost their tails crawl up the pillow; send for a rat-catcher." Of the many creepy, weird images in the play, the rats on the pillow might be my favorite. The phrase, which also sounds a little like the title of a giallo, struck me enough to borrow
here. If Rinaldo manages to fall asleep with the travel pillow on the bed the connection to this story is made a little less tenuous.

Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last command, or read the author's NOTE?