Night-Folk

The **Night-Folk**, colloquially and more often called the **Shadow People**, are mystic humanoid entities found within the Deep Sleep trilogy and make a cameo in Don't Escape 4. It is shown that the Night-Folk are very aggressive creatures within the realm of dreams and are known to attack human dwellers, who wind up in their domain.

Night Folk have only one goal in their dismal existence, take over the bodies of sleeping humans to enter the waking world. No motivation for this is ever given, on account of their mute nature, but a number of newspaper clippings reveal that it is not a rare occurrence, with dozens of suspected possessions by Shadow People in instances of overnight and post-coma personality changes. In one notable case, a former coma patient murdered his entire family, casting little doubt on the turmoil the Night-Folk bring with them.

They serve as the central antagonists of the series.

## Appearances

### **Deep Sleep**

In the first Deep Sleep, the Night Folk are first mentioned in a looped phone call which ends with "beware the Night-Folk." The player first physically meets one in an early jump-scare, in which a Shadow Person seemingly eyes the Traveler in a storage room, before fleeing after being noticed (The creature notably did not have their distinctive white eyes and instead vaguely resembled a dried, eyeless, black corpse, indicating it suffered a similar fate as the unidentified being in the boiler chamber, assuming it actually *was* a member of the Night Folk). The second and more direct encounter with a Shadow Person is when the player enters a long hallway and goes for the pickaxe at the end of the corridor, by which point the door next to the tool will open, revealing the being; this one is more aggressive and chases the player, who promptly locks the crank-operated door shut for good. The last time the player meets a shadow person its at the end where they are cornered by an entire pack of Night-Folk at the lighthouse, after having turned on the light. The crowd chases the player back up the lighthouse and as the leading Shadow Person approaches the cornered Traveler, it is disintegrated with said light, ending the nightmare.

### **Deeper Sleep**

In the second game, the Shadow People are revealed to be attracted to people who are aware of their sleep-like state and that they desperately search for bodies, in the realm of dreams, that are unoccupied in OOB (out-of-body) experiences and, most frequently, lucid dreaming. A fellow Traveler also reveals that Shadow People can sense being talked about, allowing them to track down humans more easily. They are somewhat absent until the end of the game where they, after the player climbs down the well, prevent him from climbing back out. They then encounter one within the tunnels of the well, before the game ends.

### **Deepest Sleep**

The intro sequence starts of with the Traveler seemingly waking up in their room, only to find themselves unable to move, only noticing a dark silhouette out of the corner of their eye. The figure is soon revealed to be a Shadow Person, who lunges at the paralyzed traveler with a ghastly shriek, only to wake up once more in the Dream Realm. While navigating through the halls of the Dark Church, shadowy figures are occasionally seen creeping behind pillars. Along with the presence of a large amount of floating black particles, this suggests that the church serves as a breeding ground of sorts for the Night-Folk (i.e. where Shadow People are "born"). Alternatively, it might be the place where the remains of Shadow People destroyed by light are collected and slowly restored to their full form. Beings known as Bottom Feeders are introduced as inhabitants of the lower levels of the tunnels, who are also the only entities who are known to be capable of hurting or even killing Shadow People. It is revealed that the player character had become one of *them*, having had their body taken over by the Shadow Person in the well. The Traveler finds themselves on the opposite side of the door of the corridor they had their own first encounter with a Shadow Person, with a man searching the floor, just like they did previously. Enticed by the possibility of escaping the dream realm, they begin chasing down the traveler, who promptly runs off. The Traveler may either catch the man and take over his worldly body or let him go, whereupon the Traveler decides to remain in the realm forever to stop the vicious cycle.

### Don't Escape: 4 Days to Survive

If the player completes the game with one or two of the two required floppy disks in the sleep machine, then, on the third day, a staircase appears in David's third prophetic dream where David will find Maggie/Cody's plushie tiger/both who will then instruct David to not let Barry/Cody come with him. Maggie/Cody's plushie tiger/both will then inform David that there is a Shadow person behind them, who then tries to take over David's body, and, depending on the player, may or may not succeed.

## Shown Abilities

### **Strengths**

* Possession: It is revealed in the second game of the Deep Sleep series that the Night-Folk can possess unoccupied bodies, in OOBs, comas and Lucid Dreaming, has shown in the end of Deeper Sleep.
* Hypersenses: Merely making indirect mention of Shadow People can alert them to the position of the speaker.

### **Weaknesses**

* Bottom Feeders: The Bottom Feeders are one of the only known things that can physically hurt, or even kill, a Shadow Person. Although entirely blind they are still dangerous due to the fact that they can hear noises and therefore can track down anyone who makes a loud enough noise.
* Light: In the first game, it was shown that the Shadow People could be "killed" by shining a powerful direct ray of light on them.