...
Second
Chapter
...

"Aaaaand, done! Nice dps you had there!"
"All thanks to your tanking, my dear."
"Gotta admit though, I'm getting kinda tired of this one...
Hey, I did some research, found some pretty good alternatives!"

"Well, I did some research of my own, and guess what I found?"
You can almost feel the anticipation on her voice...
"A haunted mansion, at the edge of town, completely abandoned!
What do you say we go have a look?"

"That... Is definitely more interesting than a new game.
I'm in! What are looking for in it?"
"Hmmm, to be honest I'm not so sure.
There are many stories around, but they're not very clear."

"That's more than enough for me.
A mansion surrounded by mysteries is definitely haunted!"
You can barely contain the excitement yourself.
"Come on, tell me those stories already!"

She giggles, happy to see you happy. "Now now, don't rush.
Why don't I tell you about them as we make our way there?
That way we'll be on the right mood when we get there.
On that matter, it's getting late. Do you want to go now or wait until dawn?"

1. "I can't wait! It's now or never!"
2. >"Riding the sunrise to a haunted mansion? So romantic!"<

She giggles and gives you a peck on the lips.
"It is! Well, if we're going to catch the sunrise, we should go sleep already.
We can check that other game when we're back."
"Sounds good. You're going to love it, there's all sorts of classes."

Waking up to a dark room, you feel like a kid, restlessly waking up too early.
Checking the clock however, you realize that was probably for the best.
It's almost 5 o'clock already. Better get up real fast.
"Wake up sleepyhead, or we're going to miss on that beautiful sunrise!"

You prepare a breakfast on the go, pack some snacks and grab a bottle of juice.
You go back to the bedroom, to make sure she's up. Almost, but not quite.
You pull her covers and give a fierce glare. "Up with you!"
"I'm awake, I'm awake..." she says, stretching with a big yawn.

After that, things go more smoothly.
Your girlfriend spends a good twenty minutes wrestling the bed.
Meanwhile you make sure everything's ready.
Once you finally get into the car, there's already some warm lighting outside.

As you start driving, your tension begins to rise.
"Okay then, were are we going? Will we ride towards the sunrise?"
She smiles and shakes her head.
"Not quite. We'll be able to see it to our left though."

"Oh, we're going south. How far?", you decide to play along.
"I wonder... Should we go far enough to find snow?"
"Oy, that's pretty far... Seriously, were are we going?"
"Don't worry, we're barely leaving the city. It's less than an hour away."

You both quiet down, still feeling drowsy from having just awoken.
It's a bit chilly outside, but that just makes the car feel more comfortable.
Your surroundings are bathed in the calm light that precedes sunrise.
This was a good choice.

"Hey, didn't you say there were a lot of stories around here?
Why don't you tell me some?"

She wiggles her fingers at you, grinning.
"Well, people say you can hear the screams of the damned at night!"
"We're not going there at night, however", you grin back.

"They also say nobody dares come near the house anymore."
This time, she frowns, second-guessing herself.
"Then again, the house is pretty isolated..."

Still, she recovers pretty fast, a new gleam in her eye.
"Ohhhh, I almost forgot, but this was also the location
of an extremely bloody murder case, one worthy of a detective novel."

Now she has a serious look on her face. Feels like it's story telling time.
"The owner had arranged a party, it was some happy occasion,
like his son's wedding, or his daughter's coming of age."

"It wasn't a big party, but it wasn't small either.
Enough people to fill a mansion, you know?"

"Anyway, nobody really knows what happened,
but every single person that attended to the party was found dead the next day.
And they never found the culprit."

"Wait, that's it?" you say, feeling that there should've been more to the story.
"What did you expect? It's a real story.
How could people know what happened if everybody died?"

A somber mood fills the car for a while, but she lifts it with a giggle.
"Don't worry, sweet. I'll protect you"
She kisses you, making you wonder if this was all a ruse.

Not that you're complaining.

You spend some sweet moments sharing niceties,
enjoying the sun rise and bring with it some more warmth.
As it gets hot, you open the windows,
glad that the breeze is still cold and refreshing.

You can still smell grass and earth on the air,
but a small town can be seen in the distance, which prompts her to ask:
"Hmmmm, we're almost there. Hey, do you want to go straight to the mansion
or should we walk around the city first?"

1. "Let's go to the mansion! We can check the city later."
2. "Let's have a look around the city first. It's such a nice day."

Anemone

Ok, so a couple things worth saying, I suppose.

Firstly, I've decided to use the poll feature to have some choices happen in here as well.
(I will add the votes in here with the other votes)

I will not, however, do that for every choice, since that'd leave us with extremely short 'chapters'.
Instead, I'll let some choices gather and post here once there's enough content.
So if you want to participate in all the choices, joining our Discord is still the way to go.

Secondly, I'm trying out a couple new things. You'll notice I adopted a different format this time.
I think I'll stick with the four-liner for the tense parts, but I feel like a loose format works better for the calm parts.

Finally, you'll also notice this chapter has a very different tone.
I'll say this here so people don't get the wrong idea:
What I intend to do is have tense parts (chapter 1) and then calm parts (chapter 2) interspersed.
So if you enjoyed the first chapter's tone, worry not. It'll return.