mask_salesman | Premise

From the first time you see the hallway, you know something isn’t quite right. Maybe it's just a trick of the light, maybe it's your eyes that are playing the trick, who knows – but it doesn't look like a normal hallway. It looks... oddly twisted.

Shaking it off, sure that this is the way to get to your destination even though it looks entirely unfamiliar, you continue on down the hallway, forcing yourself to look ahead, because when you look anywhere else, you feel oddly dizzy. Pressing onward brings you to a passageway, which you decide to go through – and this time, you know it's not your eyes, the light, or your overtired mind. This is definitely nowhere you've seen in your life.

Before you can turn back, the sound of gears turning and grating starts behind you, and looking around you can see a door closing behind you, the noise echoing in cavernous basement room, and you turn and struggle to open it for a moment, but before you'd even started you'd already known it would be locked down tight. Starting to really worry now, you turn back to survey the room – a water wheel slowly turning, propelling a small stream of water through the middle, stone walls and floor, and a staircase leading up to a big wooden door. As you take a few steps forward, a small huddle of people comes into view around the side of the water wheel; startled, but relieved, you hurry towards them. They're all just as confused, just as lost, as you... and since the wooden door seems to be the only thing left to try, you decide to try it.

Just as you lay your hand on the smooth, oddly cold wood, though, a voice comes from behind you, and with it comes a sinking sense of dread – it's almost as if the rest of you has finally caught up with your mind's realization that this is not going to be a quick and painless detour. Slowly, you turn to face the voice's owner, even as his words sink into your mind, burn themselves there in a way that you're sure means you'll hear them in your dreams a lifetime from now.

"You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"