Holly Gardner

**Holly Gardner** is the protagonist of *Fears to Fathom: Norwood Hitchhike*, the second game in the anthology horror video game series *Fears to Fathom*.

## Plot

Holly, now 21 years old, tells of a strange encounter she had when she was 19 years old. After going on a 12-hour interstate drive to a gaming convention on her own and having a great time, she gets back in her car, which she borrowed from her father, and sits on returning home. Noticing she's faced with a heavy traffic ahead, she takes a longer route this time to avoid the boring long wait at the traffic jam.

After driving half the way, she runs low on fuel and stops at the nearest gas station to refuel. Talking to the cashier, he informs Holly that there's a local myth and mystery that people have been going missing driving down the bridge where Holly has headed to. With the myth being that the Norwood Valley monsters tearing them apart and hanging them upside down on trees, Holly tired and preoccupied with the thought to only get back home and rest, dismissing this bizarre conversation about the local myth and trying to get back to her car.

Just before she's about to leave the gas station store, the cashier warns her not to stop for a woman dressed in a white or blue gown trying to catch a ride, as apparently, she's a vengeful spirit who died in a car accident on prom night, with some even saying that she suffered a far worse fate being sexually assaulted and murdered. The cashier finally gives a piece of advice to never pick up a hitchhiker, as they are out there for blood and trouble. Holly, creeped out by this information, gets back to her car and tries to drive as fast as possible to get back home.

After a while of driving and going over the bridge, strange things start to occur, with the radio becoming distorted and glitchy. Horrified to what might be happening thinking about the stories, she heard from the cashier Holly, then encounters two large logs blocking her way with a car parked not far behind in the middle of the night by the side of the road. Holly gets out of her car to inspect the logs noticing that someone could have deliberately placed the logs, there she uses all of her strength with the help of her adrenaline pumping through her bloodstream moving the logs out of the way, she quickly gets back in her car and when trying to drive off, she notices that her car has broken down, not starting up anymore overwhelmed with the creepy statics of the radio and the abnormal situation she has found herself in.

With no phone reception she's left with no other choice than to stick her thumb out and hitchhike after some time of waiting, Holly sees a car and tries to wave him to step, but unsurprisingly the car drives away as the cashier said you never know who you'll meet trying to hitchhike. Only being too young and not understanding the concept of danger and crime considers the driver to be evil and horrible, not to stop waiting even longer for another car to pass by.

After 20 more minutes or so, a pickup truck notices Holly and stops by giving care a ride the driver is no other than a customer in the Norwood gas station, Holly felt her tank from who strangely recognizes Holly, as if he was watching her. Holly then loads her stuff in the stranger's car, including the dog food she bought after her mom's request for the dog Milo, and hops quickly in the car after the stranger's complained that he's in a rush. The stranger introduces himself as Jason and makes a bizarre remark that Holly is a brave girl, which confuses her to why he would say such a thing. He continues on that the cashier is delusional, believing in such myths, indicating that he was listening in on Holly's conversation with the cashier. Jason then goes on a cryptic monologue about certain people or beings who possibly were the cause of Holly's car breaking down, and as long as she doesn't bother them, so wouldn't they.

After some small talk and a few hours of driving, Jason drops Holly at the nearest motel, which also happens to offer road services. The receptionist instructs Holly not to wake the other guests up, as they wouldn't take nicely on it, and he reassures Holly that a colleague offers will sort out her car early tomorrow.

Holly goes to her room, when suddenly, she gets jump scared by Tommy idling around in the bathroom. Tommy working there orders Holly to step outside until he prepares the room for her. After some time, Tommy prepares a room and Holly starts to rest on the bed, and drifting away. That's when a stranger starts peeping through the window, staring at Holly, which starts creeping around, getting off the bed, her feelings of anxiety taking over her exhaustion, Holly proceeds to leave her room and buy an espresso from the coffee machine, when suddenly she starts feeling dizzy and nauseated, quickly rushing to her room where she passes out.

After regaining her consciousness in a few hours, she realizes that she has been sedated. She subsequently hears creepy squeaks and sounds coming from her room, when suddenly, she's startled by knocks on her door. Joe, the receptionist, informs her that loud strange noises have been coming from her room, disturbing the other guests, which makes Holly become confused, as she was passed out and not making any noise. Joe notices Holly's unusual red eyes to ritually pleads that the coffee machine was tampered with. Joe confused to what she's talking about, as they don't have a coffee machine. He follows her to see what coffee machine she's talking about.

Being confronted with no coffee machine at sight, Joe as the result starts acting strange or daring calling to go back to her room quickly, where she could find some medication to relieve her symptoms, indicating as if he knows of what might have been happening, possibly someone installed a tempered with coffee machine just to drug and use the guests.

After some time staying in the room, starting to drift away on the bed, Holly hears someone with a soft voice trying to attract her attention. He then proceeds to knock on the door, asking Holly for help. Holly tries to ask who the person is, but he dismisses the question and tries to persuade her to open the door. Holly creeped out by the person behind the door gets threatened that he just wants help and that he's not police, that's when Holly tells the man to go away before she calls 9-1-1. Losing his patience, the man starts kicking on the door with all of his power, making Holly run to the closet and hiding there.

The man manages to quickly break the door and look for Holly inside the room. He inspects the bathroom when Joe from the reception quickly gets to her room and knocks the man out, taking him by surprise. Highly unsure to what just happened, with Joe withholding to give her any information and asking her not to call the police, he starts believing that this man might have belonged to a drug ring or an organized cult who dwelt within the area. The strange sounds Joe heard thinking he might have been Holly and with the squeaks coming from the room are soon revealed that they're from the strange man who was in fact hiding in the closet, with Holly being narrowly saved by Joe. When knocking on her door, the logs that were barricading the road and Holly's car breaking down seemingly all were due to call tampering, including the coffee machine with spiked drinks, therefore the cashier talking about this appearance is Jason talking cryptically about the mysterious people who wouldn't bother her, as long as she didn't bother them.

With Joe acting strange, when Holly told him about the coffee machine, all indicate that they all knew about the presence of this cult whom seemingly were afraid to talk about them, just in case they would get targeted as well or in case of them giving Norwood a bad reputation. It's not mentioned what the cult is capable of and what they do to the people, they kidnap with myths and stories believing they might be mythical monsters hanging their victims on trees upside down, which could possibly hand out that the victims were in fact found that way before with the call to conducting such gruesome rituals.