Polar Bear In A Snowstorm

Blank crept over to his room door. And put his ear right against the 2-in-thick door, probably bulletproof, and heard a loudspeaker echoing through the second floor hallways. [[Cry]] [[Clean the tile->Go to the bathroom]]

The light flung itself on, and again, Blank whimpered. Blank took a look into the sink cabinet. And it found the bathroom scrubber. An acrid sniff of this cold tin can reveals a metallic underworld beneath this facade. [[Spray the can]]

Blank sprays it on the floor. It foams into a white sludge. [[Be sad]] [[Follow the footprints]]

Blank cries and his tears mix with the white sludge, foaming and sizzling. [[Clean]] [[Reflect on life]]

With aching fingers Blank cradles a Scotch-Brite and pushes it back and forth. It collects brown fuzz and dirt as it staggers through the rubber floor. [[Look for the footprints]] [[Reflect on life]]

Blank thinks of himself. He imagines that the sponge was his own hair, collecting dirt, sadly, navigating life, collecting lint and dust. [[Keep cleaning]] [[Keep reflecting on life]]

Blank caught a glimpse of some entity in the tile. This motivated him, though in a strangely sad and slow way. He staggers back to the bucket, placing the sponge gently back into the plastic nest. [[Keep reflecting on life]]

Blank thinks he has a great heart. Blank thinks it is important to clean the floor, and only someone with a great heart would strain their nose to clean a floor. Blank reminds himself that it is all a personal journey. Blank then thinks of the Observer: a concept Blank held since being a child. [[Think about the Observer]]

In Blank’s life, there was always this Observer, who floated like a typical ghost in the corner of rooms, peeking at Blank and noticing his every thought, action, and feeling. Completely conjoined to Blank but separate, and it blasted its information to the fourth or fifth dimension where some alien force or alien clam would collect it and judge it. [[Be scared]] [[Don't be scared]]

Blank shudders at this idea of the Observer. Blank shuddered again and refused to move. Blank refused to think in the presence of the Observer. Inbetween scrubs, he caught a glimpse of a bear, deep within the snowy canvas, that would occasionally gaze at Blank with its white eyes and turn to look back into the distance. [[Keep scrubbing]]

Blank thinks that none of this effort helps him. Blank also thinks that his constant self doubt is cute. Blank sighs at this idea and tries to focus on cleaning the floor again. Inbetween scrubs, he caught a glimpse of a bear, deep within the snowy canvas, that would occasionally gaze at Blank with its white eyes and turn to look back into the distance. [[Keep scrubbing]]

Once again the sponge makes contact with the rubber floor. Foam erupts out of the spores and Blank smells it again. Blank drags the sponge up, then down, watching as little bubbles form and drag hangnails and scum with it. [[Eat it]]

Blank wants to eat it: this thought comes out of nowhere, but cannot leave his mind. It aches and grows. A winter's chill seeps through the bathroom door, and a shivering dog, Spot, staggers in. Its paws step on the soap scum and Blank immediately thinks of wiping them off, but the dog lays down and starts licking them. [[Inspect]] [[Call Spot over]]

Blank gazed at the dog in disbelief, it was indeed Spot, but Spot died a year ago, and was cremated. [[Call Spot over]]

The dog in the bathroom now found itself in Blank’s lap, cradling itself and washed over in white foam, licking the floor and the dead leaves that mixed with the brown pellets of dirt. Now the dog began to cough. [[Give Spot water]] [[Ignore dog and clean floor]]

Blank looked around with a blank stare at the sink and began to dump water into the dog’s mouth, but the dog only coughed harder, its eyes parted into two angles, and blood mixed in with the saliva and turned the foam on the floor a rosy pink. Spot was struggling, now, to close its eyes, and soon its mouth stayed open, and it vomited a mixture of foam and dirt, jolting violently on the soap-covered floor. [[Listen to loudspeaker]] [[Tell Spot to stand]]

Spot was struggling, now, to close its eyes, and soon its mouth stayed open, and it vomited a mixture of foam and dirt, jolting violently on the soap-covered floor. [[Tell Spot to stand]] [[Listen to loudspeaker]]

Once again the loudspeaker turned on in the hallway, but Blank was not there to hear it, and as Blank’s soap-covered hands covered his eyes and stung them like spikes. Blank’s eyes began erupting spikes, which landed on Spot’s fur and pierced it, making the dog yelp in pain. Blank felt a gentle snowflake tap his shoulder. He looked up at the ceiling, at the snow that was drifting in right through the plaster. [[Continue->12]]

Now the dog, still in its seizure, tried standing up, gripping the soap with broken nails, and soon an entire paw had been crushed by the dog’s weight, and the nails bent sideways and backwards over the pressure and oozed red, and Spot collapsed back on the floor, now with a broken paw and covered in rosy pink goo. [[Listen to loudspeaker]]

The ceiling collapsed and snow and plaster trickled into the bathroom. A clear moon hung above the bathroom now, centered in a pitch-black sky filled with snow. Blank was now deathly cold. His eyes stung an oily red. [[Find Spot]]

Blank glanced down at his dog, which now was starving and appeared like a mummy, its skin seemingly chipping and vacuum-wrapped around its bones. It was somehow still (text-style: "shudder")[shivering]. [[Look at Spot]] [[Pick up Spot]] [[Leave the bathroom]]

It had coughed both of its eyes out, had a blue tongue, and its fur was charred. [[Pick up Spot]] [[Leave the bathroom]]

Blank picked up the dog, much lighter than he remembered. [[Look at Spot]] [[Leave the bathroom]]

The door pried open, and as Blank fell into the lofty snow, the dog carcass burst into flames, causing Blank to drop it and leave it as a burning cavity in the snow. The snow had become stronger, now shooting out of the sky like violent swarms of white. With each step Blank dragged his legs deeper into the snow, churning the mass that bit his ankles with heat. [[Look around]]

Blank looked around and was no longer at home, but rather at ease. His whole life, Blank imagined a snowy place, somewhere far from home but more belonging than his actual home, whenever he crept into bed, and this was it. It was hard to see anything in the thick snow, really, even himself. [[Look at sky]] [[Look at dog]]

The sky hung black-blue and the only illumination came from the moon, the stars, and the fire surrounding the dog carcass. [[Look at dog]] [[Find a way out]]

The dog, unbelievably, was still (text-style: "shudder")[shivering] as it burned in the snowy hole. [[Look at sky]] [[Find a way out]]

He looked around in the snow and nowhere was the bathroom now; the residence hall had disappeared, and now he wandered around in a vast snowy forest that lowered snow onto his clothes but he didn’t feel cold. He felt scared but comfortable, allowing the snow to cover his entire body, and rested in the familiarity of this fear, one that he had experienced his whole life. [[Go to Spot]]

The dog now sent barks from the snowy cavity it burned in, and Blank took one last look at its face. Its eyes were still missing and the fur was charred black but Blank could see it loved him. Its mummified body now resembled a twig more than a dog but Spot remained alive. [[Pick up the dog]]

Blank held its shivering body, now beginning to disintegrate into charcoal and ash, and felt the flames against his body and let himself catch on fire as well. Pepper crumpled into fine dust now; dust that was still (text-style: "shudder")[shivering left and right], eternally cold and defenseless. [[Pick up the dust]]

Blank, now with first-degree burns decorating his entire face like a blossoming flower, trudged on in the stinging snow, clutching his dog's dust close to him. He looked on into the eternal whiteness, and for a second, forgot what he was there for. [[Keep looking for the bear]] [[Return to safety]]

Blank died. And Blank didn’t vanish when he died like he expected, he got sent to Hell, because he didn’t believe in Christianity because of how uncomfortable it made him feel. [[Go to Heaven]] [[Continue to Hell]]

He caught a glimpse of all his ancestors in Heaven, and felt no emotion. This is what he saw. Though he could not see them, he could tell they all were there. [[Continue to Hell]]

Only a pile of (text-style: "shudder")[shivering dust] clutching an urn of his shivering dog, he descended into the core of the earth. Amazingly, it snowed in Hell as well. Blank resided in this white abyss for the rest of eternity, where he remembered his name, which was Jerome. [[Weep]] [[Meet the Observer]] [[Undergo the ritual]] [[Put Pepper's ashes in a pepper shaker]]

He spent most of this time weeping, thinking about that one time he cleaned the bathroom. [[Meet the Observer]] [[Put Pepper's ashes in a pepper shaker]] [[Undergo the ritual]]

And it was in Hell that he met the Observer face-to-face, and received his Life Score, which was 454 out of 10545, a very low score given that he was born into a wealthy and loving family with no health complications. [[Undergo the ritual]] [[Put Pepper's ashes in a pepper shaker]]

Every other Wednesday, each member of Hell is skinned and eaten alive, and Jerome undergoes this rigorous routine with Pepper, and for some reason has citrus juice squeezed into his de-fleshed body for extra injury. He didn’t know what he did wrong to deserve such special treatment. But he enjoyed it anyway; he felt like a delicious lobster. He laughed at everyone’s suffering, just like he wanted to on Earth. [[Weep]] [[Meet the Observer]] [[Put Pepper's ashes in a pepper shaker]]

And he put Pepper’s shivering ashes into a pepper shaker for some poor family who would mistake it for seasoning. [[Meet the Observer]] [[Undergo the ritual]] (if:(history: where its name contains "Meet the Observer")'s length >= 1)[[Stay in Hell]]

Jerome stayed in Hell until the moon collapsed into the sun, and until Hell itself collapsed, and Jerome promptly disappeared after that. [[The End->Start]]

Polar Bear In A Snowstorm By Andrew Zhang [[Start from nothing->Proceed]] [[Epilogue]]

Absolutely blank: this was the state of Blank’s mind. Our protagonist’s name is Blank. Blank is a person’s name. Blank stood in time without movement. Without breathing. With no one by Blank's side. [[Continue->pp]]

A silent tear crept off of Blank’s face and landed on his wrist. Blank registered that housekeeping was only minutes away. Blank kicked the empty bottles and cans and crept through his room and into the bathroom. [[Go to the bathroom]]

"I can't see it." [["Look closer"]]

"What's it like?" [["The polar bear blends in just with the snowstorm"->problem]] [["It's beautiful, you can see every little snowflake"->problem]] [["It's almost like you can feel the wind!"->problem]]

"It's right there" [[There's nothing there->dd]] [[I don't care->dd]]

The man swallowed and cleared his throat. He said: "I mean, it's just a blank piece of paper. But to me, anything could be there." She looked like was holding her breath. "So nothing was there? Even everything you said?" "Yes", he began. [[Continue->g]]

He pointed vaguely at the paper. "It's right there, can't you see it?" "No..." He smiled. "Don't you get it? There could be a million white elephants for all I know. An entire field of daisies. It's blank, but you can let your mind fill it in!" [[Continue->g]]

She held the paper loosely. Thankfully she didn't look upset, but moreso amused. "I pretend sometimes. But it just makes me feel weird, you know?" [[Apologize]] [[Leave]]

At this point, the man seemed more upset than she did. But he apologized anyway: "I'm sorry, I was just having fun." She shrugged. "If you have to perform, then why do you want to deal with the ache of being fake? I just thought you were being honest, is all." [[Continue]]

"Still, I know why you would do that", she continued. She didn't seem bothered at all, but something about that conversation tug on him. The man had essentially told his daughter about that all beauty was fake. [[Continue]]

After this discussion the man felt strangely sad. He went into the bathroom, closed his eyes, and cried for seven years. Though in the darkness, he still saw black cats sweeping chimneys at night. In his ears he listened to the symphony of a million ghost orchestras. In the stillness of the moment, he felt centuries go by. He could not get that polar bear out of his head. [[Continue->d]]

It felt like everything was fake. He scrambled to find something that wasn't made up. It was only when he looked within himself, within his sould, that his mind could rest on nothing. Pure, honest, untampered, divine, nothing. No, the nothingness disappeared as soon as it arrived. He saw a figure. He saw Blank. [[Continue->Start]]

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As Jerome vanished, he let out a tarnished scream, one that erupted from his mouth with such force that it produced a shimmering white fire. His eyes burned into a thousand daisies. His ashes crumpled into a pile of silk. He tried crushing the daisies but they only sprouted again. The silk became a part of him, mummifying his body. [[Continue->f]]

The rest of this story has been ommitted.

"//Where?//" [[Tell the truth]] [[Keep pretending]]

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Once in a while, Blank would gaze into the tile of his bathroom floor. And the flat white slate would hold his gaze like a prison. He did this without knowing it. [[Continue->ppp]]

And the longer he stared, the bigger the tile grew. Blank stared for minutes at a time, and the tile grew so big he could see snowflakes in the white abyss. [[Continue->pppp]]

He felt a snowflake land on his shoulder each time. And with this tap, his gaze would disappear. [[Continue->p1]]

This kept happening until Blank started seeing footprints in the snow. [[Continue->p2]]

He couldn't tell where they were going, but they kept going further every day. [[Follow the footprints]] [[Clean the tile]]

Wide-eyed, Blank treaded the footsteps one by one. He got a closer look--they were not man; they were that of a large animal... [[Keep following]]

Blank took a look into the sink cabinet. And he found the bathroom scrubber. An acrid sniff of this cold tin can reveals a metallic underworld beneath this facade. [[Cry]] [[Spray the can]] [[Follow the footprints]]

Blank strained his mind to remember why he was in the bathroom. Was it to comb his hair? Either way, he was in his bedroom now. [[Sleep]] [[Keep trying to remember]] [[Look outside]]

Blank closed his eyes and laid on his bed to rest. Somewhere in a corner behind his eyelids, he saw something. A black cat sweeping a chimney at night. The image was totally black. It was strangely grotesque, childish. It felt cheap. Blank cleared his throat, as if he were going to tell the cat to go away. He realized the uselessness of this action and gazed dumbly at the cat's face. It had no eyes. [[Keep trying to remember]] [[Clean the tile->Go to the bathroom]] [[Look outside]]

Blank remember that he wanted to do something for a long time now. Weeks, or something like that. Was it to clean the tile? Cleaning the tile seemed like a relatively new idea, but maybe he'd already been contemplating it for years. [[Clean the tile->Go to the bathroom]] [[Sleep]]

Now gazing into the shinier tile, Blank caught a glimpse of a bear. He knew it was there, but it was hard to tell because of the heavy snow. [[Reflect on life]]

Though Blank could hardly tolerate the dog's yelping, for a brief second, he could see the bear. It was crouched near a ditch and gazing inward, at some sort of mystifying light emmitting from the ditch. Blank could hardly contain his amazement. [[Look at the bear]]

It looked lonely, up on that snowy bank under the windy white sky. It looked like an unusually large volume of snow poured out of that sky and onto that bear every second. [[Tell somebody about the bear]] [[Go find it]]

Blank ran out of the bathroom and open the door to his neighbor's apartment. He told his neighbor. They didn't understand. [[Kill them]] [[Bring them to the bathroom]] [[Force them to understand]]

Blank squinted and pulled his face close to the tile. There was the bear again, its face illuminated by some light in the ditch it was peering in. Blank was shivering. He didn't know it at first; he could only tell by the way his hands vibrated when he spread around the foam. He dug his fingers into the stuff. It felt unusually cold. And his fingers didn't meet the tile like they usually did--he came back up with a fistful of snow. [[Continue->Lie down]]

Blank examined what he could use to kill his neighbor. [[Use a knife]] [[Punch]]

Blank took the neighbor to look at the tile. Once again the polar bear looked up at blank with its white eyes. Blank breathed easier after spending hours to clean the floor--now he could finally see the animal. The neighbor still couldn't understand Blank. [[Kill them]] [[Find the bear->Go find it]] [[Force them to understand]]

Blank stabbed him. [[Go back to the bathroom]]

Blank killed his neighbor. [[Go back to the bathroom]] [[Tell someone else->Force them to understand]]

Blank hurried back to the bathroom in an excited spree and found that Spot had dried up quickly in the time it took to kill the neighbor. Blank tried cradling the dog but his hands kept leaving splotches of blood on its fur. The bear was gone. In its place was vomit and the dog's urine. Blank began to feel his eyes grow a terrible ache. [[Continue->Go find it]]

Blank collected the dusk into an urn that he drew from his imagination. And together they went into the small wooden urn, grey dust that was still shivering from the cold winter air. [[Vanish]] [[Go to Heaven]]

The footprints of the bear appeared one-by-one, hardly distinguishable from the white background behind them, but Blank grasped onto these and followed them. In the blankness of the scenery, he could see fantastic mountains and valleys that stretched on for miles. Snow swirled on top of Blank, and time stopped. In the stillness of that moment, centuries passed. Only the whirling and the gushing of the wind kept him stable. [[Keep walking]]

Looking back to the bathroom, Blank saw a snowy abyss. He knew what was there. This was the same snowstorm he saw every day, standing there staring at the tile. It wasn't beautiful. He didn't want to see it. [[Keep looking for the bear]]

Who knows how long it took him. But Blank walked up to the bear. It was peering into the very same ditch that he saw through the tile. It was the most beautiful thing Blank had ever seen, now that he was finally able to see it in person. The ditch, illuminated in a bright orange, carried the burning corpse of Spot. It mummified body was covered by a layer of snow. The mangled white beast turned and looked at Blank solemnly with its eyeless gaze. [[Freeze]] [[Approach it]]

Blank took largest piece of white that he could and he showed the polar bear in a snowstorm to them. He wasn't happy with how they responded. Nobody seemed to see the polar bear. [[Continue->pbj]]

It started small, but Blank started painting things white. [[Continue->pbj2]]

He fostered a community that would appreciate his images. And he built walls that kept white sqares always in view. [[Continue->pbj3]]

He had a purpose. But all his blank squares started to interfere with people's lives. They couldn't get around with them. All around, that snowstorm rained down on everyone. And it began to snow everywhere. Inside buildings, on sunny days. Snow. He could no longer feed his own dog. [[Find Spot]]

Blank stood in time without movement. Without breathing. With no one by Blank's side. Except for that bear. At last, a breath escape from Blank, swirling into an icy mist above him. The bear groaned and slowly approached Blank, its breath puffing out of its nose in a similar fashion. [[Leave the bear]] [[Get closer]]

Blank's legs trembled and his heartrate quickened as he slowly approached the polar bear. With fingers outstretched, he finally felt the bear's fur. Soft as velvet. [[Get closer]]

Ice crunched under the bear's paws, leaving those footprints that Blank had noticed all those nights in the bathroom. The bear's muscular legs carried its body over to Blank's. Another groan sent a spittle of fine breath soaring into the air, tasting like sweet dewdrops on Blank's tongue. [[Continue->yucj]]

Facing the bear, Blank backed himself away, now shivering from fright instead of the cold. But the bear never looked away from Blank. In fact, it began to run. Blank ran as fast as he could away from the snowstorm and into a blank white slate. He could see behind him that the bear had a limp. Its nails broke into bloody stumps against the snow. That is probably why Blank could outredun it. He eventually cleared into an open area, safe from the bear. Though he had been too adrenaline-phased to notice before, he noticed that some human footprints appeared in the snow, located just ahead of where he was and walking in same direction. [[Observe]] [[Ignore them]]

At that moment, it was only those two in the entire world. Blank walked around and examined the bear with endearment. Its skin held a warmth that lit a fire deep within Blank. The mere thought of the bear sent a strong trickling stream of beauty into Blank's mind, lifting up all the dirt and leaves from years gone by. Every breath was followed by a deep groaning, and the dewdrops evaporated, letting Blank's passion overtake him. [[Continue->thisissad]]

Before he knew it, Blank was flying, at least spiritually. He could see past the mountains of ache and obsession. At last, panting, he let go of his tight clasp of the bear's soft perfect fur and relaxed. Still leaning against it, he smiled satisfied, limp and comfortable. He watched the snow fall from the clear white sky and wondered how two of the same color could even be so distinguishable. [[Run->bad]] [[Fight->bad]]

Unknowing to Blank, the bear lept up from the snow and tore at Blank's body. It was the strangest thing--being eaten alive by another animal. Something about it was so natural yet so dystopian. The newly mauled-over body parts trickled blood outwards in a circle, leaving a deep red stain in the ground all around his body. The uncovered skin gained a soft coating of white. [[Continue->ghfdi]]

Blank couldn't scream. With every breath he could see his diaphragm expanding and contracting through his ribcage. It was an ugly thing. An ugly beige-colored organ. As Blank died, he could feel his blood run cold and freeze. At that point the pool of blood that stained the snow stopped growing. Blank's body laid there, surrounded by a circle of red that became fainter and fainter with every second of falling snow. [[Vanish]]

A searing headache sent Blank back into the space of the bathroom; he had crashed his head into the wall after walking only a few feet. The motion-detecting light flung itself back on--how long had he been standing still? The image of the snowy land disappeared; now, only a tile remained, along with its dust and scum. [[Leave the bathroom->poop]] [[Clean the tile]]

This question came out of nowhere: "Do you see the polar bear?" [[Say yes->a]] [[Say no->c]]

She lead a pencil tip close to the paper, only barely touched it, and lifted it back up. After a couple more repetitions, she took a few steps back and examined her work: But something felt off. She wasn't totally satisfied with it. [[Draw the polar bear->dd]] [[Do something else]]

Double-click this passage to edit it.

So she began to write a poem instead: [[I want to sleep but I can't]] [[I want to take off this brand]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to sleep but I can't [[I want to take off this brand->123]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to take off this brand [[I want to sleep but I can't->11]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to take off this brand I want to sleep but I can't [[Exhausted lines are my eyes]] [[Too many family ties]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to sleep but I can't I want to take off this brand [[I can't get rid of this smell]] [[I'm spending Thursdays in Hell]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to sleep but I can't I want to take off this brand I can't get rid of this smell [[I'm spending Thursdays in Hell->14]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to sleep but I can't I want to take off this brand I'm spending Thursdays in Hell [[I can't get rid of this smell->15]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to take off this brand I want to sleep but I can't Exhausted lines are my eyes [[Too many family ties->16]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to take off this brand I want to sleep but I can't Too many family ties [[Exhausted lines are my eyes->17]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to sleep but I can't I want to take off this brand I can't get rid of this smell I'm spending Thursdays in Hell [[I think I can see the escape]] [[If I squint I can make it]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to sleep but I can't I want to take off this brand I'm spending Thursdays in Hell I can't get rid of this smell [[Holy Ghost haunts me at night; Telling me just keep it quiet]] [[Feel around for any holes; That's where they keep all the gold]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to take off this brand I want to sleep but I can't Exhausted lines are my eyes Too many family ties [[I got man's blood on my hands->22]] [[God forsake your damn demands->23]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to take off this brand I want to sleep but I can't Too many family ties Exhausted lines are my eyes [[I got man's blood on my hands]] [[God forsake your damn demands]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to sleep but I can't I want to take off this brand I can't get rid of this smell I'm spending Thursdays in Hell I think I can see the escape [[If I squint I can make it->20]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to sleep but I can't I want to take off this brand I can't get rid of this smell I'm spending Thursdays in Hell If I squint I can make it [[I think I can see the escape->21]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to sleep but I can't I want to take off this brand I can't get rid of this smell I'm spending Thursdays in Hell I think I can see the escape If I squint I can make it [[The end->Start]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to sleep but I can't I want to take off this brand I can't get rid of this smell I'm spending Thursdays in Hell If I squint I can make it I think I can see the escape [[The end->Start]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to take off this brand I want to sleep but I can't Too many family ties Exhausted lines are my eyes I got man's blood on my hands [[God forsake your damn demands->27]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to take off this brand I want to sleep but I can't Too many family ties Exhausted lines are my eyes God forsake your damn demands [[I got man's blood on my hands->29]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to take off this brand I want to sleep but I can't Exhausted lines are my eyes Too many family ties I got man's blood on my hands [[God forsake your damn demands->24]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to take off this brand I want to sleep but I can't Exhausted lines are my eyes Too many family ties God forsake your damn demands [[I got man's blood on my hands->25]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to take off this brand I want to sleep but I can't Exhausted lines are my eyes Too many family ties I got man's blood on my hands God forsake your damn demands [[The end->Start]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to take off this brand I want to sleep but I can't Exhausted lines are my eyes Too many family ties God forsake your damn demands I got man's blood on my hands [[The end->Start]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to take off this brand I want to sleep but I can't Too many family ties Exhausted lines are my eyes I got man's blood on my hands God forsake your damn demands [[The end->Start]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to take off this brand I want to sleep but I can't Too many family ties Exhausted lines are my eyes God forsake your damn demands I got man's blood on my hands [[The end->Start]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to sleep but I can't I want to take off this brand I'm spending Thursdays in Hell I can't get rid of this smell Holy Ghost haunts me at night Telling me just keep it quiet [[The end->Start]]

So she began to write a poem instead: I want to sleep but I can't I want to take off this brand I'm spending Thursdays in Hell I can't get rid of this smell Feel around for any holes That's where they keep all the gold [[The end->Start]]

Blank tried his best to ignore them but something never left his attention. He recognized the shoe print: a Nike Pegasus. His shoes. They were his footprints. He instinctively took a step closer to examine them, and as if by magic, his shoe fell flush into the cavity. He took a step back, out of shock, and noticed that he had again placed his shoe perfectly in line with one of the footprints. [[Observe]]

He tracked the trail of footprints with his eyes. From an outsider's point of view, they looked like someone was staggering around blindly. They wound away towards the North (though Blank couldn't tell it was the North), then back towards the bear, then sporadically back to the North, and back towards the bear again. Whoever this was couldn't make up their goddamn mind. [[Pay attention to the prints]]

As Blank continued away from the bear, his shoes kept landing perfectly into the footprints. He took a couple steps to the left to examine the trail he just walked. Only one set of footprints. Nobody's but his. He looked down below, and to his horror, this little detour was predetermined as well. [[Continue->66]]

Restless, Blank furrowed his brow and told himself he would not listen to the footprints. He would not go back to the bear. But no matter how prudently or rebelliously he stormed away from the bear, a footprint would always be under his shoe, waiting for him. [[Keep following the prints]] [[Turn around]]

Blank stood defeated. Even his attempts at disengaging with the footprints seemed coordinated. So he turned and strolled back to the bear. Of course, he did not leave the prints that signalled that he had made a turn. They were already there. [[Continue->Keep looking for the bear]]

Blank ran now. He charged against the billowing snow, his mouth ajar, his eyes fixed only on the blank white horizon ahead. Those footprints always crept under him every time. With no fail. It felt terrible, how perfectly they hugged his shoe. Though he knew where the print laid, he only walked into it. That walk felt like his. It was totally unnerving--he didn't feel controlled. Even knowing that he could possibly avoid them, he kept drifting naturally into one, after the other, after the other. But then slowly... he almost liked it. It felt cool, like he didn't have to worry anymore. He was the cool kid in town, because he knew how fast to walk, and where to go, and what foot to use. It was like having a direction arrow pointing your through life... [[Attempt to break the chain]] [[Follow them back to the bear->Turn around]]

Though Blank came to the conclusion that his will held no power against the predestiny of his own footprints, he came to a stop. And he observed the footprints in front of him. From where he was standing, there was a footprint from his left shoe about three feet in front. Two feet later, a right footprint. Then the footprints stopped. He was dumbfounded. From the right: a flurry of bear footprints interjected his, stopping for a brief moment where his ended, then continuing into the distance. [[Look closer]] [[Turn around]]

Blank took a closer look at the last few prints he left. They were very close together. He wasn't facing the bear. He was caught by surprise. Blank withdrew as he realized; in looking closer, he had just stepped into one of the prints leading up to the end. [[Look at the paw prints]] [[Turn around]]

Blank turned and tried to see where the paw prints ended. What happened to him after he got attacked? A couple yards to the left, he could see the paw prints lead up to a snowy mound, about one foot high and 5 feet across. Though it was hard to tell in the snowy air, he thought it looked like it was bleeding. Also, though the wind gushed too loudly to discern, Blank thought he could hear some... [[Continue->bad]] [[Break the chain]]

Blank punched the bear that was charging at him at full force square in the face. This felt really weird. As if it was unrealistically fragile, the bear plummeted to the snow, cracking its bones as it fell. Weirdly enough, its blood was red. I know it sounds corny because everything else is white but trust me it's true. A red gaping hole now appeared where its eye was. Blank continued punching the bear and his fist picked up boughts of saliva and cartilage. He felt his shoe slide against the snow and throw bits of it into the air--this felt good. He almost forgot that snow normally crunches under your foot. The bear was clearly dead. [[Leave it and move on]]

Blank left the carcass out there, letting it cover itself in snow. Then he walked away. This time no footprints trailed in front of him. Only behind. He walked for a couple hours. In all this emptiness, he kind of missed the bear. So he saw it all around him. It kept him company as he walked. Then he grew really sleepy. As if sedated, he slept for the first time since seeing the bear. Blank's lifeless body laid out there in the snow, after he collapsed from exhaustion. [[Continue->ending?]]

Blank woke up in a simulation. His descendants claimed he was the Original Sinner and his break from the loop caused all the snow to melt. Unfortunately, what was under the snow was just a bunch of concrete. The bear was meant to be the Antichrist, but since Blank punched it, nothing devilish could ever be made of Blank's sin. They claimed he was technically in the afterlife. They put his consciousness in a computer after he died. It was weird. For some reason he was stuck in a random park that Blank had never seen before. Nothing like he imagined Heaven would be like. Blank didn't even know he had children. He was reminded of staring at that tile. And, as if they programmed it, a stock image of a polar bear appears after 3 seconds of looking at a tile. He stayed here until he grew bored and asked his children if he could leave. They looked as if they had been punched in the face. But they let him go eventually. When he was leaving, he was surrounded by hundreds of people who claimed they were his children. It was very uncomfortable. He tried his best to cry but nobody really bought it. Eventually they realized the afterlife thing was a mistake and agreed to shut it all down. He spent 101,899,732,338-odd years in Heaven And he was (text-style:"shudder")[shivering] the whole time. [[The End->Start]]