Route 4.2 – Sacrifice the girl to escape yourself

The man in the wolf mask comes closer and closer to you. You back away until your back is against the wall. Although you are armed with an axe and could try to attack him, the fact that the man is walking so calmly and serenely towards you makes you suspect that he has an ace up his sleeve and is therefore not intimidated by the weapon in your hands. Your instinct tells you that you had better not get too close to the murderer. There is nothing left of the courage you had just mustered when you stood protectively in front of the girl and your panic paralyses you. In your shock, your grip loosens and the axe slips out of your trembling hands. As the weapon hits the ground with a clanging sound, you notice out of the corner of your eye how the girl next to you flinches and crouches, holding her arms protectively in front of her face. You avert your eyes from the man in the wolf mask and hastily fix your gaze on the crying young woman. Completely distraught and screaming hysterically, she rocks back and forth. In your desperation you see only one last way out to escape your fate. You are no hero. You are terrified of dying at the hands of the killer. Not to mention the torture that might be waiting for you before that. You are afraid of the pain. You’ve always acted strong, always said you’re not afraid of death, that it hits everyone at some point, that you have to deal with it. When you were hurt, you pretended you weren’t in pain so you could look strong in front of your children. Back then, you bravely faced the burglar at the risk of your own life to protect your frightened family. You have anything but weak nerves and have been through several situations that could have cost you your life. Fear is not an unknown feeling for you and so far you have always been able to deal with it to some extent. But this is something completely different. This fear is far more intense than any feeling you have felt in your entire life so far. Never before has your death been so set in stone as it is right now, and never before has fear and despair robbed you of your sanity as it does at this moment. And ‘fear’ is an understatement, but there are no words for what you are feeling right now.

Suddenly you reach for the abused girl. Without a clear thought, your eyes follow her as you pull her up by her wounded arms and push her forcefully onto the man in the wolf mask, who is now only two steps away from you. The force of the impact sends the man reeling, the girl screams louder than ever and she begins to flail wildly, bringing herself and the killer down. Ignoring the scuffle at your feet, you sprint past them, stumble up the small wooden staircase, and run through the wooden door into the adjoining room. Your vision is blurred, your heart is pounding, and you can no longer feel your powerless body due to the extreme shaking and adrenaline rush. Only now do you realize what has just happened. That you are no longer standing rooted to the wall and the killer is coming closer and closer, but that what you just saw really happened. You pushed that poor, tortured girl onto the man who was abusing her so badly to save yourself. W-what…what did I do… That… that was not on purpose! I didn’t mean to do that! Your perception returns to you and you stop. Your legs threaten to give way under your weight as you stare at your shaking hands, now bloodied by the open wounds on the girl’s arms. What did I do?! I pushed… her onto him… with these hands! Just so I… just because I… I… don’t want to die! I-I… am scared! I… You are in shock and your thoughts are confused. You understand that your body has just escaped your control, following the influence of the survival instinct. However, this realization does not alleviate in the least the painful feeling of guilt that is spreading inside you.

The girl’s bloodcurdling screams come from the basement room you just escaped from, and you turn toward the source of the noise. I-I must… save her! But your wobbly legs don’t move an inch. You stare through the open door at the end of the room you’re in, into the room you just fled from, and you notice tears rolling down your cheeks. You can’t. Not a single step can you take in that direction. This isn’t a story of a brave hero saving a damsel in distress, it’s not a scenario in your head where you would die to save someone. This is a real situation. How many times have you thought about sacrificing yourself to save your family if the worst that could possibly happen would occur? That was before you really ever were in such a situation. Your fear overwhelms you, you lack any courage, you just can’t do it. You can’t save them. Neither this girl… nor your beloved family.

Distraught about your powerlessness and the limits that your body and mind have just shown you, you give up on the girl, back away a few steps, turn away from the room of horror and let your eyes roam wildly through the room. If you want to survive, you have to escape while the killer is still busy with the girl. Next to a small kitchen, a table with a chroma candle on it and chairs, a sturdy door catches your eye. It seems to be the front door. Without thinking, you walk up to it and push down the handle, but the door remains locked, not moving a bit. D-damn, it’s locked!  Suddenly, you hear a dull rumbling sound coming from the basement room and the girl’s hysterical screams fade away. Your blood freezes in your veins. You dread to think what he might have done to her – but you suspect the worst. And he will surely come to this room in a moment to take care of you, too!

Panic-stricken, you turn your gaze to the left, to where the kitchen and the table are. Behind the table you see a window. Without another second you rush towards it, climb over the table and pull the handle of the window. Luckily for you, it opens and you can jump out! But as you hit the muddy floor, your legs give way and you fall. You almost fall again when you get up. You don’t know where you got the strength to push the girl onto the man in the mask earlier, when you can’t even reliably keep yourself on your feet now. As soon as you have straightened up and regained your balance, you run as fast as you can. Just get away from this house.

It’s pitch dark, only black as far as your eyes can see, and freezing rain falls mercilessly from the sky. You have no idea where you are, but you keep running. Every now and then you stumble, fall down, somehow manage to get up again and keep running. Your head is in chaos, you are soaked and out of breath. Your lungs hurt from the icy night air and your legs burn like fire, but in your panic to possibly be chased you don’t dare to stop, even as you get dizzy and your vision blurs. Every now and then you brush against the walls of houses, sometimes turning left, sometimes right to avoid the buildings. You don’t know how long you’ve been running for your life, when you see something pale in the distance. Chroma shine. You head for it and the closer you get, the stronger the glow becomes. Arriving directly under the glow, you fall down, onto the now paved ground. You gasp for air and stare down. You remain in this position for a moment before looking behind you. Apparently, you’ve come out of a dark alley. But besides your heavy breathing and the pattering of the rain, you can’t hear any other sounds. There is nothing to indicate that you are being followed. Still, you stare nervously into the darkness for a while before turning away from the alley and looking around. Above you, a chroma streetlamp does its job of illuminating the night and you realize you’ve landed in a spacious square with a broken fountain in its center. A church front stretches upward to your left across from you, and you recognize more chroma streetlamps and lit pathways. The marketplace of Archdorf… Somewhat relieved that you’ve accidentally landed in a place you know, you pick yourself up with great difficulty. As soon as you stand on your shaky, weak legs again, you turn around once more, frightened, but still, you can’t see any pursuers in the dark alley. But your fear is deep and nothing could convince you at this moment that you are already out of danger.

Insecure, you take a few steps back, then turn around and go to the center of the deserted marketplace. In your mind’s eye, several scenes from the nightmare you just experienced replay. You shudder, shake your head and cover your eyes with your hands. What should you do now? You should find shelter from the freezing autumn rain, if possible, but you have no money with you to seek refuge at the inn. You try to think hard, but in your state of shock you don’t succeed, when you notice that your legs have already started to move and you are walking towards a lit up street leading away from the marketplace. Confused, you look down the road and realize where your feet are taking you. You’re on your way to the stable where you’ve stored your wagon and horse. Ha… Oh, right… A roof over my head… And there… I’ve already paid for it… At a fast walking pace you head for your destination while you keep turning backwards to look around in panic. On the way to the stable, you keep reliving memories of the horror you just went through. You almost have another mental breakdown at the thought of what could have happened to you and your enormous feelings of guilt towards the girl you left behind are unbearable and cause tears to well up in your eyes again. You force yourself not to think about the fate of the young, innocent woman. From now on, you will have to live forever with the pain that it was you who plunged her into ruin, only to be able to survive yourself, and you could do nothing to make up for your terrible deed.

Completely exhausted and traumatized, you reach the illuminated stable. You stumble in, search for your cart with your eyes, find it and stomp towards it. In the corner of your eye, you blurrily notice a stable employee who is mucking out the horses’ stalls, but he doesn’t seem to notice you. Arriving at your wagon, you climb onto the loading platform with the last strength you can muster before your body topples over and you pass out.

Through increasingly louder birdsong, you gradually regain consciousness and slowly open your eyes. Your body aches, your head throbs and you feel empty and exhausted. A twinge in your heart makes itself felt and drowns out any other pain after a few seconds. Water gathers in your eyes and you clutch your chest as the terrible memories of yesterday’s experience come back to haunt you and you can’t help but think of that poor girl. You remain in this position for a while until you have calmed down a bit. Your whole body is trembling and you are unspeakably cold, the rag you are wearing is still dripping wet. Painfully, you straighten up. Your gaze falls through the stable door to the outside and you recognize the morning twilight of a dawning day. I want… to go home… to my family… and get away from here… Driven by thoughts of your loved ones, you crawl from the loading area of your wagon and gingerly make your way on wobbly legs toward your horse, which stands relaxed in its stall, dozing. You are actually going to see your family again. Just a few hours ago, you didn’t think this would be possible. Arriving at your four-legged partner, you untie him and lead him back to the cart. You notice the stable boy, who had cleared the stalls of manure earlier, leaning on a chair against the wooden wall of a stall. He seems to be fast asleep.

This time it takes you longer than ever to harness your horse to the cart. Familiar movements suddenly seem strange to you and you feel that your whole situation is unreal. After a while, however, you have done it and climb onto the wooden bench of your transport. Without waiting another second, you take the reins and leave the spacious stable. The rain has subsided and the clouds move on. The first chroma stars appear on the horizon and a handful of people are already on the streets. You head for the exit of the village and the puddled, muddy country road takes you further and further away from this place where you almost lost your life. You don’t look back. A cold breeze moves through the cornfields beside the road and you freeze even more. But you don’t care. The fact that you can feel the cold tells you that you’re alive. You have survived. And even though your work as a trader demands it of you, you don’t know if you will ever be able to set foot in Archdorf again.