The Night Shift Abductor

## Evil-Doer

**The Night Shift Abductor** is the main Antagonist of the Indie Puppet Combo horror game *Stay Out Of The House* and its prologue *Night Shift*.

He's a psychotic and crazed serial killer that kidnaps and eventually eats his victims. He's also regarded as one of the most mysterious Puppet Combo villains (Alongside **The Fireman**) to date.

## Appearance:

According to a newspaper article, the Night Shift Abductor is a large-built adult male, assumed to be in his mid to late 30's, standing approximately 6'4" tall, and weighing an estimated 250 pounds.

The Butcher wears what is described by police as "seasonal clothing", consisting of a red-black patterned plaid shirt, light blue jeans, gray gloves and brown Oxford shoes. Over the outfit, he wears a black, heavy rubber apron splattered in blood, and a burlap sack haphazardly fashioned into a mask with eyeholes and affixed to his head with rope. He is most commonly seen carrying a sledgehammer in his right hand to knock victims unconscious. At some points in the game, he was observed using a meat cleaver and a chainsaw.

## Biography:

Much of the information that can be extracted from the otherwise unnamed man and his background is gleaned from notes and the in-game environment. He lives in a large farmhouse in Cedarville, an otherwise abandoned ghost town in the Oklahoma countryside, where he lives with a wheelchair-bound elderly woman, widely believed to be his ailing mother. One of his notes implies that he had once held Christian beliefs, but eventually grew tired of "waiting for answers and rewards". Coupled with the total abandonment of his hometown due to economic decline, it was likely during this crisis of faith where he came into contact with an alternative religious group known as CFV.

By the time of *Stay Out of the House*, his home has become as decrepit as the ruined buildings of the rest of town, with barricaded windows and doors, junk scattered all over the floor, rats running around, the walls covered in mold and paint peeling off. Satanic symbols, such as the number of the beast (666), upside-down crucifixes, and crudely scribbled pentagrams can be found on the walls. Having become a fervent believer of CFV, he constantly has numerous televisions inside the house running, showing an interview with the supposed head of the organization, even forcing some of his captives into watching the report during imprisonment. His backyard is surrounded by a large fence that's preventing his victims from escaping. Underneath his house is a large bunker where he keeps some of his farm animals, and, inside a specially sealed chamber, the pulsating mass of flesh the Butcher calls his master.

As shown in *Night Shift*, the Night Shift Abductor is also working alongside another man, a neighbour of his, who acts as a lookout and decoy of sorts, checking the gas stations for potential witnesses before his partner ambushes the workers.

## In-Game:

As a prelude to *Stay Out of the House*, the protagonist is initially state at an unknown gas station outside of Mill Creek who becomes a target of the Night Shift Abductor. Throughout the game, a white van, which is later seen in a garage at the Butcher's house, routinely circles the gas pumps, never stopping, but always slowing down when nearing the front of the station. Near the end, a suspicious customer enters and asks the cashier whether the player is alone tonight before purchasing a beer and leaving the gas station. Shortly after, a door is heard creaking in the back of the shop, revealing that the previously locked bathroom has been opened. If one either waits long enough in the restroom or goes back inside, The Night Shift Abductor will attack with his hammer, either outside or inside the store, beating and knocking out the player with a single blow.

Nine days after Debra's (The protagonist of Night Shift) kidnapping, Brendan and Roxanne pass through Custer County during a road trip, with the former deciding to make a pit stop at a roadside restroom. When he doesn't return, Roxanne goes looking for him, finding no one in the bathroom, but Brendan's driver's license behind the back. Searching the whole area for him, she is met with a dog, who leads her across the area, finding many more items, such as broken glasses, a teddy bear, a briefcase, a junked pickup and even a trashed Microbus with clothes and an ID card left behind. Close to all these is a fenced-in farmhouse with its lights on. Roxanne enters the property by passing through the cornfield and approaches the home, discovering the front door unlocked and the house in a terrible state. All doors, safe for one, are locked and as she descends the staircase behind it, she hears the whimpers of the dog, caught in a bear trap. As Roxanne frees the dog, it rushes back upstairs and through the front door, which suddenly locks. Almost immediately after, Grandma comes barreling down from upstairs, who, in spite of her seemingly dead appearance, screams aloud, whereupon Roxanne is ambushed and knocked unconscious by the arriving Butcher. If one chooses to linger around outside the house near the ruins instead of following the dog, The Butcher may appear there to attack Roxanne.

Roxanne wakes up hours later, trapped in a cage and with extreme stomach pains. Before she can think about the cause of her condition, she finds her prison easily broken, now determined to escape the house with her life.

At some point in the game, Roxanne will come across Brendan, naked and tied to a chair in a room beneath the vent she is crawling through. First, believing everything to be a sick prank, he pleads with his captor before he is decapitated by The Butcher with a chainsaw, who then leaves the room.

Upon finding that Roxanne has unlocked the front door, the Butcher makes a mad dash for her and tries to intercept her with a chainsaw. After she passes through the cornfield, she is able to reach a somewhat nearby trailer settlement, whereupon he quits his chase, disappears, and leaves the rest of the work to his partner (Assumingly the man from Night Shift) who lives in the trailer park where Roxanne goes to for help. Eventually Roxanne meets up with an unknown woman, both The man watches unflinchingly and Roxanne watch as the girl in front of both of them pukes blood and a worm-like creature wriggles its way out of her mouth, Roxanne is shocked by this and escapes ending the game avoiding the unknown partner of The Butcher and leaving all the antagonists fates unknown.

## Trivia:

* In the early versions of the game, the Butcher had a different model: he wore a grey-ish blue shirt, a burlap mask with smaller eyeholes, and wielded a cleaver.
	+ Puppet Combo didn't like the model so he changed it in 0.2.6. version of the game
* The Night Shift Abductor's height is often conflicted. In the game, it's stated that he is 6'4" (192 cm), but on Puppet Combo's Twitter it's stated that he's 6'8" (203 cm).
* The Butcher's eye color is unknown, however, back in older versions of the game, he had brown/black eyes.
* Curiously, one of his victims is named Marvin Delaney, which is the same name of a victim by the Unidentified Suspect in *The Riverside Incident*. It should be noted that this Delaney was headed for Durand, Wisconsin, had a girlfriend and is presumed to have been abducted from his car alongside her from a road by Shakopee, Minnesota, while the other lived in S. Melbourne, Oklahoma, was said to have no known family or close friends and was recorded being kidnapped on surveillance at his workplace in his hometown.

## Gallery:

The Butcher encountered in Night Shift in which he can be somewhat lured inside the store.Miscellaneous In-game screenshot of The Butcher.An unexpected newspaper article explaining the state authorities and their expense at trying to capture him.The Butcher in the ending, wielding a chainsaw.The Butcher's old design.