Route 3.2.2 – Window

Your gaze falls on the window. No one could guarantee you that the front door would be open, should you even make it there. You even suspect that the door would be locked. Why should it be open, given the situation you are in? And would you be able to get past your captor unnoticed? Maybe, but it is your life that is at stake here and you want to choose the option with the least risk. The window. You’d just have to be quick enough and hope that with a single axe blow you could make a hole big enough to jump through. No doubt it would make a noise and thus set the killer off. It’s pitch black outside. If you make it out, will he come after you? The likelihood of tripping and falling to the ground in the darkness is high, especially if you are running for your life. Then it would be easy for the criminal to catch you. What would happen to you then? You shake your head. You decide not to think about it until you have successfully escaped from the house of horrors. One thing at a time… You find it very difficult to concentrate in your excitement and fear anyway, but you need a plan. And escaping through the window is the best one you can think of in your hopeless situation.

You think hard about at which part of the window and at which angle you should aim your axe at the glass window to get the best possible chance of making a big hole. However, you are unsure – you have no experience of breaking glass and admit to yourself that you have no choice but to simply smash the window with your axe at full speed and hope for the best. You have only one chance to free your life from the clutches of the killer. With trembling hands, you raise the weapon and prepare to strike the all-important blow. You are already gathering momentum, but then your courage fails you and you lower the tool again. You fear that you will not be able to exert enough force with your shaky hands and try to calm down a little. You have to make sure you can give it your all. But instead of getting calmer, your heart beats faster and faster and you fall into a gasping breathing that partially steals your breath. You are simply afraid. It’s all or nothing, but you can’t move, you stand there rooted to the spot. You doubt yourself and your choice of escape. How quickly would the killer be here when he hears the glass shatter? The fear-driven thoughts of what might happen if you fail captivate you and gruesome scenarios play out in your mind against your will. You want to live. You don’t want to die today and you don’t want to die here.

Your eyes fill with tears and despair threatens to overwhelm you, but then a thought of your family flashes in your mind and you successfully regain your composure. You must not lose your nerve now, only the window separates you from escape and the way back into your life. You don’t want to leave your family alone.

Determined, you grit your teeth, grip your axe tighter and fix your gaze on the window. Suddenly you hear footsteps and the humming sound from the room at the end of the corridor becomes louder. Panic-stricken, you look in the direction the noise is coming from. Your kidnapper will be coming around the corner any moment! Drenched in sweat, breathing heavily and with weak knees, you take a step towards the window, turn your gaze back to the glass and raise the axe. You feel more and more adrenaline coursing through your body and gather all the strength you can muster in your arms. It’s now or never. All or nothing. You squint your eyes and then unleash it – with a mighty swing that rips the air to shreds, the weapon smashes into the glass window, shattering it. Shards of glass fly down the hallway and scratch your hands and face, getting stuck in your skin and clothes. With the sound of thousands of splinters hitting the wooden floor, you open your eyes again and experience a moment of shock. The axe has smashed a hole in the window, but it was far too small for you to climb through! The glass is very badly damaged, has an extremely large number of cracks and just one more blow would surely be enough to destroy it completely, but you don’t have the time. The murderer would catch you before you could swing your axe again.

“What a naughty little sheep… Looks like I’ll have to teach you some manners first.” You spin around at the sound of your captor’s voice and stare at him, eyes wide in shock. You didn’t expect to see a man in a suit. He is also wearing a wolf mask and his body is covered with dark red spots and splashes. But you don’t have time to consider his appearance any further, because he moves purposefully towards you. Without a second thought, you turn back to the window and let go of your axe. You have only one last option. You take a step back, squint your eyes again, clench your hands into fists and hold them in front of your face. You use the one step of run-up you have, put all your remaining strength into your legs and leap head first against the shattered glass window. Your fists break through it first, then your head, followed by your shoulders and the rest of your torso. The shards of glass cut into your flesh and some get stuck in your body, but it is fully shattered! After a brief moment of freefall, you realise your success by hitting the muddy, cold ground. Without a moment to spare, you plant your arms in the ground and straighten up, and before you are fully up, you begin to run. You stumble but find your balance and then run faster than ever before. Without daring to look behind you to see if you are being chased, you simply let your shaky legs carry you, oblivious to the pain caused by the many splinters of glass. Every few steps you scan the walls next to you with your hands to get your bearings, as you can’t see a thing in the pitch dark. Don’t stumble… In the hope of not hitting a wall, you keep running straight ahead. You notice that your strength is failing and you can’t breathe. Then one of your legs gives way, causing you to slip on the muddy ground and fall. Frightened, you look behind you, but you can’t see anything. But you only hear your heavy breathing and the pattering of the rain, which you only now really notice. Unsteadily and shakily, you straighten up again and continue walking. Slowly you start feeling the pain and you feel the cold water falling from the sky soaking you to the bone. These circumstances drain your remaining strength and you slow down, falling into a trot. Completely disturbed by what you have just experienced, you force yourself to keep running. You don’t feel safe, you don’t know where you are, you don’t know where to go. Without warning, you hit a wall hard, fall back and land on your butt. The impact has caused a laceration on your forehead and some of the shards bore further into your flesh as a result. Along with the cold rain, warm blood flows down your body. Once again you stand up and continue walking in another direction. After a while you just stagger, you feel dizzy, but still you don’t stop. The ground under your feet now feels solid, like cobblestones, and you think you can see chroma shine in the distance. Despite your blurred vision, you head for the glow and sure enough, it gets steadily brighter. You can hardly believe it as you set foot on an illuminated street. Just as you are about to look around to get your bearings and find out where you are, you topple over to the side. Before you know it, the rain stops and your eyes go black.

Tower bells. You startle, open your eyes and sit up. Just as you sit up, you regret your reaction to waking up, because your whole body screams in pain. You wince and groan, squinting one of your eyes shut. For a moment you remain in this position, then you open your eye again and look around. You are sitting in a bed, mint green curtains hang to your right and left, and if you look straight ahead, you can see through a window onto a street. The pastel green walls of the building you are in are decorated by some stains, apparently caused by water damage. In front of the bed you’re sitting on is a bucket that catches drops of water beading from the ceiling. Where… am I…? You examine your arms and put aside the blanket that covers your legs. Your body is covered with small wounds with ointment all over them, some places are bandaged and you also feel a bandage wrapped around your head. That… what happened… was not a nightmare. Likewise, you realize that you are naked and quickly put the blanket back on. Stumped and in shock at what happened, you stare into the air in front of you. You can still remember everything clearly. The smell of blood, the fear of death, the distraught woman, the human flesh and the curious sight of your captor. Only then do you realize that you managed to escape. You are still alive and would probably be safe now. It is over. Exhausted but relieved, you exhale deeply. Then you hear footsteps coming towards you and direct your gaze in their direction. The curtain to your right is opened a little and out steps an older man with gray-brown short hair, wearing a dark blue smock. In a raspy but meek voice he speaks to you. “You are awake, how nice. How do you feel?” This man seems to be a doctor. According to your memories, you fainted on a road. Did he find you and bring you to his office? In a low voice, you answer him. “I… I feel… I…” You are so confused that it is hard for you to answer this simple question. “I… am in pain… but I’m still alive. I… am alive. That’s why… I feel… good?” The doctor tilts his head slightly and gives you time to continue talking. “Where… where am I? What happened? How did I get here? And who exactly are you?” The questions pour out of you like a waterfall. The old man smiles and answers you. “I’m glad to hear you’re doing well. You are here in my little doctor’s office. The only one in all of Archdorf. I am doctor Svange. You were brought here in the early hours of the morning by two knights who found you apparently unconscious on a road near here. Your body was covered with glass splinters… Some of them really drilled deep into your flesh… However, I think I was able to remove all of them. What happened to you? I have never had a case like yours before. And I’ve seen a lot of things.” You sigh in relief. You feel vindicated – you are safe. You are also grateful that you have been found and helped. “Thank you so much for the treatment, Doctor Svange. I can’t really comprehend right now that I’m here… and actually managed to escape… It all feels like a nightmare…” The doctor frowns. You describe to him what happened to you, who you are, what you are doing in Archdorf, how you woke up in the horror house, how you managed to free yourself from the chair you were tied to, tell him about the maltreated woman and the hung, skinned human torso and how you finally escaped. The doctor’s look becomes serious. He seems to believe your story and you are grateful to him. He could just as well have declared you crazy or said that it was probably just a nightmare. But the wounds on your body prove the opposite. The old man goes to the window and looks outside. “Well, then you must have had luck on your side. But so had this criminal. One could have followed your bloodstains to the house from which you fled. But the rain most likely wiped out all traces. I can already guess who did it. And we’ve had peace from him for a year now… But this old man here knew: it’s not over.” My kidnapper… the Halloween killer… Doctor Svange’s assumption is obvious, but cannot be confirmed beyond doubt. It may seem unlikely to you that someone other than the infamous Halloween Killer is up to mischief right at Halloween, but you can’t rule it out. After all, there are a lot of crazy people in the world. The doctor interrupts your thoughts. “So you couldn’t tell what this man looked like because he was wearing a mask? That’s very unfortunate… Again, I guess the mystery can’t be solved…” You’re sorry that you can’t help to solve the case, but you know that you shouldn’t take it to heart. You were fighting for your survival and you barely got away with it. One second of hesitation could have meant the end. In your fear of death, you couldn’t give a thought to solving the case. Of course you would like to see the culprit being stopped, but you are glad to have escaped with your life at all. The old medic seems to understand that. “Well, at least you’re okay.” You nod.

A few minutes pass and neither you nor the doctor say anything, both of you just stare silently through the window at the street lit by chromashine, where now and then a few people can be seen. You decide it’s time to head home and put land between you and Archdorf. “Doctor Svange, I thank you again for everything. I would now like to make my way home, if you understand…. Would you possibly have something for me to wear?” The doctor turns to you and thinks for a moment before answering. “Hmm… Well, I could provide you with a smock… I wouldn’t recommend wearing the rag you had on when you arrived here. It’s completely soaked, blood-soaked, and riddled with holes.” You nod again and the old man disappears behind the curtain, only to return moments later with a pastel blue smock. He hands it to you, you thank him and put on the garment. It reaches your knees and has long sleeves. It wouldn’t keep you warm, but it’s definitely better than walking around naked. You get up from the bed and look at your feet. Better barefoot and catching a cold than dead… Shrugging your shoulders, you turn back to the doctor. “How much do you charge for your services?” But just as you utter the sentence, you remember that the killer has taken everything you had with you. Embarrassed, you look to the side. Being in debt is not a pleasant thing – in the worst case, the doctor would call in the knights and then the whole thing can get messy. Especially since you’re not in your home village right now, but traveling. Collecting money from you wouldn’t work, you wouldn’t be able to get money from home either and so, depending on the discretion of the knights, you might even have to serve a prison sentence. Archdorf and your home village are unfortunately not among the places where medical expenses and doctor’s visits are free of charge.

Doctor Svange looks at you seriously and thinks for a while. Then his gaze softens and he sighs. “Well, it’s not every day that you cheat death and don’t have any money with you. I’ll waive the fees for you, after all, you’ve even shown the will to pay. I wish you a safe journey home. May you be spared such terrible adventures in the future. And you should not roam the streets of Archdorf at night on Halloween. Not even as a merchant.” You can hardly believe what your ears hear. Rarely have you met such a kind person. “Many, many thanks Doctor Svange, I will not forget this.” You wish the old man a good day and leave the office.

Fortunately, you don’t have to orient yourself for long, because you recognize the place you are in directly. A paved area with a fountain in the middle stretches out in front of you, and a church front rises into the air right next to you. You are at the marketplace of Archdorf. In the square you see some people busy setting up their stalls. Relieved to know where you are, you take a breath and then make your way to the stables to get your cart. The chromastars in the sky tell you that it is still morning, so you have a good chance of being home tonight. A cold wind blows and you shiver, the chill of the ground creeping up your legs through your bare feet. Thinking of your beloved family, you walk down the street, albeit in pain and still wobbly on your feet. You know you should have rested longer, but despite the new day and the kind doctor who treated your wounds, the desire to leave Archdorf as soon as possible burns inside you. You just don’t want to be here anymore and it would certainly take quite a while until you come here next time. And it would certainly not be on Halloween.

Halfway to the stable, you notice an elderly lady talking to two citizens. She seems upset and has tears in her eyes. Without thinking further about it and leaving Archdorf firmly in mind, you are about to pass the three people when the woman suddenly approaches you. “Excuse me, have you possibly seen a girl, nineteen years old, brown hair, brown eyes, slim… She is my beloved daughter… She suddenly disappeared last night…” The lady bursts into tears and the two people she was talking to before come to stand by her. You can’t help but think of the girl in the killer’s house and guilt plagues you. “I didn’t see her, sorry I can’t help…” You turn away and quickly walk away from the small group. You only hear the woman collapse behind you, and sobs and hysterical screams echo off the walls of the buildings. Clearly, this mother seems to think that her daughter has become a victim of the Halloween killer. You try to remember if the girl in the horror house also had brown hair, but you can’t remember, maybe it had been too dark to see it properly. Besides, there are many girls with brown hair. You shake your head and hope that the missing girl will turn up again, alive, and that there will be a simple explanation for her disappearance. Still, you can’t shake the guilt, and what you saw and experienced will haunt you for the rest of your life. What happened to the girl in the killer’s house? What did she have to go through? Was she able to escape or was she tortured and killed? Remorse plagues you, but you barely escaped with your own life, so how could you have saved hers? You look to the ground and decide that you will have to live with a guilty conscience, but also with the knowledge that you could only survive because of the choices you made. A few minutes pass and the woman’s crying becomes more and more distant. You can already see the stable building in front of which a small group of people has gathered around a knight. The atmosphere seems tense and there is wild confusion as you pass them and enter the stable. To your relief, you find your horse and cart still in exactly the same place where you left them last night. A theft would really have been the last thing you needed now. You are glad to have paid for the accommodation yesterday and start to harness the four-legged friend to your cart. One of the people from the small bunch breaks away and comes towards you. It seems to be an employee of the stable. He greets you quietly, examines you briefly, but pays no attention to your poor clothing situation and begins to help you. You notice that the man is shaking and decide to talk to him about it. “Sir, are you alright?” Without answering you, the man now looks at you – he looks pale and fear is written all over his face. You look over at the group of people the man came from and notice that some people there also look scared. You point your head at the crowd and, now gripped by curiosity, ask him. “What’s that about up ahead and what is the knight actually doing here?” As you ask the question, the suspicion creeps over you that you could have answered it yourself. The man’s eyes wander to the ground with a blank stare before he gives an answer. “Ha-haven’t you heard? The… Halloween killer is… back… Last night he struck again… They’ve already found one disfigured body and… a few people have already been reported missing…” They… have already found someone… After a brief moment of rigidity, you get back to tacking up the horse. Your need to leave Archdorf is steadily growing. As soon as you have finished tying the horse to the wagon, you thank the disillusioned man and climb onto the wooden bench of your cart. Without hesitation, you give the four-legged friend the command to go and leave the stable. A few minutes later you find yourself on the road that will lead you home. You turn around and fix your gaze on the slowly shrinking village in the distance where you almost lost your life. It will take quite a while to overcome this trauma. You consider yourself lucky to still be alive, now you just want to go home and look forward to seeing your family. One day you will have to return to Archdorf, your work demands it of you, but you know one thing for sure: never again be in Archdorf for Halloween night.