Albert Vanderboom

**Albert Vanderboom** is a member of the Vanderboom clan, and the son of James and Mary. He is the father of his artificially created daughter, Rose.

## Rusty Lake: Roots

Albert is born on April 26th, 1867, the youngest triplet with his two other siblings, Samuel and Emma. He is placed into the right-hand cot and given a bottle of wine to drink from. He has a birthmark on his forehead. In 1876, he and his sister are trying to catch a butterfly outside. Samuel slingshots the butterfly off of the tree, and Emma catches it in a jar. Albert tries to push Emma over, but she manages to push harder and knocks him onto the tree. At that point in time, he wishes that his siblings were dead. Using the slingshot again, Samuel shoots a beehive from the tree, and it falls onto Albert's head. His siblings laugh at him as blood drips down from his scalp, resulting in a permanent scar.

In 1885, he asks the player to get him a butterfly, the same one from his childhood. He has a variety of masks in his room, which have the strange ability to control the weather. After unlocking the chest and giving Albert the butterfly, he stabs it with his knife. It dies in a pool of blood. Later in 1891, he stands by the well as his nephew Frank plays on the swingset. He wants the player to carve a pumpkin to wear as a mask, and gives them a key to open the cabinet with a piece of Frank's teddy bear inside. Frank swings too far forward, and flies over to the well. He hangs on with his two hands, but after being given his teddy bear, only holds on with one. Albert now turns the lever, causing Frank to fall down the well.

In 1895, he appears in his brother Samuel's family wedding photo with his new wife Ida. Joining them are his mother Mary, his sister Emma, and Samuel and Ida's son Leonard. Unknown to Samuel, he develops an obsession with Ida, even keeping a small photo of her inside his pocket. Then in 1896, he plays a Lying Game with Samuel, Ida, and Mary. Each person holds three cards, and the player must guess which of their cards is a lie or the truth. As he only lies, he is given the Devil tarot card. When the player looks out the window, they are confronted with Mr. Crow's shadow wearing a deer skull. The skull is taken and given to Albert.

During the Summer of 1904, he plays the tuba in the family band, along with Samuel, Ida, and Leonard. After their song is finished, the room goes dark and the walls are coated in blood. He manages to kidnap Samuel and Ida, leaving two voodoo dolls nailed to the wall in their stead. Wearing the deer skull, he has the two under his control with their own voodoo dolls. The player uses scissors to cut the button eyes off of the dolls, which in turn removes one eye from Samuel and Ida. They drop dead after their eyes are taken and placed in jars. In 1909, he has created a contraption in the Vanderboom secret laboratory that allows him to have a child with Ida artificially. He has preserved one of Ida's ovarian eggs in a small chest, and upon being mixed together with his semen, water, and a green potion, their daughter Rose is born.

Down in the well, Frank decides to make an escape attempt in 1924. Through the storm drain connecting the well to the laboratory, Albert teases him with berries, moving his hand away before he can take the food. The player uses a sharp rock to stab Albert's hand to get the berries for Frank. After this Albert will show his face and laugh, but moves away before he can be attacked. Two years later in 1926, he reunites with Frank and the two engage in a chess match. Both are thinking about murdering the other one. When the two chess pieces, the Knight and the King, are placed on the board, Albert's head becomes a horse's head. After checkmating the King, he now dons the king's crown. Then the chess board will be filled with letters, and the King is checkmated again by spelling out the word "CEREBRUM". Frank goes up behind Albert and chokes him to death. Using the knife, the player takes out his brain and places it into a jar, becoming the eighth sacrifice. He is then buried in the Vanderboom family graveyard between his brother Samuel and his secret love Ida, and given a large marble headstone, complete with a heavy marble slab placed over his burial plot. His bones are eventually dug up by his daughter Rose, with his lower left leg being stolen.

## The Past Within

Albert's corpse lies in his coffin for most of the game, though he still plays a significant role. Before the events of the game, Albert anticipated his own death and devised a method by which he could return. He then wrote a letter detailing his plan for his daughter Rose, who harvests Albert's bone, flesh and blood so they can be sent to The Future. There, Rose combines the samples together with Albert's corrupted soul in a tank, rebuilding his body and bringing him back to life. Once resurrected, Albert takes both a Black and Golden Cube from Rose in her two respective time periods and merges the two into one.

## Trivia

* He was 59 years old at the time of his death. Once resurrected, he appears younger than he did when killed.
* His personal symbol is the white mask he is sometimes seen wearing.
* The tarot card associated with him is the Devil, which refers to how he causes his family pain and misery through his actions, such as dropping Frank down the well and killing Samuel and Ida with voodoo dolls.
* It is unknown whether or not he killed Mary in the chapter "The Family Band" in 1904.
* He appears as a shadow during Leonard's war flashbacks in 1918, dressed for the voodoo ritual that he used to kill Leonard's parents.
* He is featured in the most chapters in Rusty Lake: Roots, with 11 stages total. They are, chronologically speaking: "Childbirth", "Child's Play", "Masks", "The Swing", "The Wedding Photo", "The Lying Game", "The Family Band", "Voodoo", "The Brood", "The Well Pt. 1", and "Checkmate".
* In an interview with Rusty Lake, the developers mentioned that they created Albert because they wanted a dark character, and that "he will somehow return" in the future. This was confirmed with the announcement of The Past Within.
* In Cube Escape: Paradox, he appears on two TV channels. One playing in the family band, and the other of him in the deer skull mask.