Everyone's heard stories about the old mansion on the hill. Decades ago, they say, old Doctor Black lived up there all alone. Until something happened—nobody knows what—and he vanished without a trace. The house belongs to the Historical Society now, it's turned into a little sort of local museum. But the south wing has always been closed to the public, and they say that's where it happened. Where he was murdered.

You don't really believe in the ghost stories any more, of course. You're too old for that. He probably just had a heart attack. But it is Halloween coming up, and Abby started telling the story, and you'd read that book and you told her it sounded like a poltergeist, a ghost that throws things around. Which means it has to be real and physical, right? Something you could find and trap.

And then Dylan made it a dare and nobody wanted to back down. And that's how you ended up here, in the dead of night on Halloween, prying one of the boards off the window next to the door and squirming your way in.

None of the others showed up. But you are not afraid of ghost stories, and you are not going to chicken out like your friends did. One way or another, you're determined to find out the truth, just like the detectives in the books always do.

This is a short, puzzle-y work of parser IF. Tutorial included for people who aren't familiar with the medium.

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Enigma.zblorb 751 kB

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Comments

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You have provided us with this outstandingly well-structured source text, may I localize or translate it to German? 
Ofc free for you to use if you'd like to.
The story reads smoothly and I can already read it to myself in German as well :)

Your story goes beyond game jam levels, it's worth building up on it imho. I enjoyed it!

Feel free! I’d love to see a translated version if you make one.

Thanks for your permission! :)
I hope I don't crush any hopes by saying that it will probably take a bit to complete. At the moment I have two other things scheduled that I need to tackle before diving deep into your story. Secondly, I don't want to rush it out either way, I prefer a result to be proud of :) You probably want to hear back from me once I am done with it, should I reply back here or rather send a mail? Or Twitter? Whatever is comfortable for you. Just let me know the easiest way to catch you in case I have questions :)

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Replies here work, or you can contact me through intfiction.org (my username there is Draconis). I’m happy to answer any questions you have.

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perfect, thanks!