The Space Within

###The Space Within by Drew Stanke An Interactive Narrative Adapted from the novel (text-style:"italic")[House of Leaves] by Mark Danielewski [[Open]]

I still have trouble sleeping. I still get nightmares. My friend Lude called me one night. He had something to show me. An old guy in his apartment building had recently died and Lude had found someting very weird he wanted to show me. Lude warned me "Right next to the body I found these gouges in the hardwood floor, a good six or seven inches long." When we got into the apartment I noticed all the windows were nailed shut and sealed. Even the vents were taped up. There were bars on the windows and multiple locks on the door. The man who lived here was obviously disturbed and afraid of something. Despite the oddities of useless objects scattered about the apartment, what Lude had brought me to see was something else. In the corner sat a large trunk. [[Open the trunk]]

January 5, 1997 Whoever finds and publishes this work shall be entitled to all proceeds. I ask only that my name take its rightful place. Perhaps you will even prosper. If, however, you dicsover that readers are less than sympathetic and choose to dismiss this enterprise out of hand, then may I suggest you drink plenty of wine and dance in the sheets of your wedding night, for whether you know it or not, now you truly are prosperous. They say truth stands the test of time. I can think of no greater comfort than knowing this document failed such a test. Zampano [[Continue->more]]

[[Muss es sein?]] [[Continue->Navidson Record]]

Must it be?

The Navidson Record first appeared as "The [[Five and a Half Minute]] Hallway," which is a five and a half minute video depicting a halway to nowhere. The video starts in one room looking down the hallway and then the person holding the camera climbs out the window goes along the outside of the house and back in the window of the next room focusing on the opposite wall where the hallway should be. Rather than a door or a hallway, all that is visible is a blank wall.[[1]] The "Five and a Half Minute Hallway" was quietly passed around on VHS tapes to interested audiences. Some three years later The Navidson Record was released. [[Continue->moving in]]

Enclosed in the trunk with the preceeding note were reams of papers, scribbled notes, and what amounts to this manuscript. [[The Navidson Record->Muss]]

Five and a half minutes was the time it took for my mother to leave when my father took her away. "I live at the end of a Five and a Half Minute Hallway" Song by the band Libery Bell.

Daniel Bowler's "Resurrection on Ash Tree Lane: Elivs, Christmas Past, and Other Non-Entities" published in The House (New York; Little Brown, 1995). p. 167-244 examines the inherent contradiction of any claim alleging resurrection as well as the existence of that place.

Will Navidson, his wife Karen and their two children, Daisy and Chad, moved to the house on Ash Tree Lane. It was to be a new start for them. Navidson was a photojournalist by trade. The move to the new house was supposed to be a new beginning. A place where Navidson could make his own outpost and where Karen and he could reconnect. Navidson began documenting the family settling in. He set up cameras in various rooms and he and Karen started recording video diaries. From this footage The Navidson Record was created. [[Continue->Problems]]

The video diaries revealed a rift between the Navidsons. Will's career often required him leaving at a moments notice and sometimes being gone for months at a time. While Will's diaries revealed none of this, the rift was first noticed in one of Karen's diaries where she says "he mentioned [[Delial]] again." She adds "I've warned him if he's not going to tell me who she is he better damn not bring her up. Part of this move south was supposed to be about putting the past and all that behind us." The Navidsons don't get long to work on their issues. After returning home from a wedding out of town they find a change in the house. [[Continue->closet]]

Karen was not the only one who was kept in the dark about Delial. Even friends and fellow photojournalists who had heard Navidson use the name before never recieved any sort of explination. No one had any idea who she was or why it was she haunted his thoughts.[[2]]

What the Navidson's found on their return could only be described as [[uncanny]]. There was a new door in their bedroom. Behind this door was a short hallway leading into the children's bedroom. This new hallways was unsettling to say the least. Navidson called his brother Tom, whom he hadn't spoken to in years, for help in determining its origin. After repeated measurments they called on the help of Navidson's friend at the local university [[Billy Reston]]. The only thing the three men were able to discern was that the interior measurments of the house exceeded the external measurments. [[Continue->children]]

There has been a proliferation of material on the subject. See Chris Ho's "What's in a name" 1993, Dennis Stake's "Delial" 1995, Jennifer Cap's "Delial, Beatrice, and Dulcinea" 1996, Lester Breman's "Tis but a Name" 1994, and Tab Fulrest's "Ancient Devotions" 1995.

Unheimlich or uncanniness in the form of being not-at-home.

On Billy Reston's desk there is a photograph of a younger version of himself taken by Navidson. The image is of a young man running from a high voltage wire which had been dislodged from the electric pole it was attatched to. Billy kept it around as a way of keeping people from asking about how he ended up in a wheelchair.

One day Karen and Navidson are alerted by cries from Chad and Daisy. The sound seems like it is far away, yet no room in the house is longer than twenty-five feet. Navidson discovers that the sound is emenating from a dark doorless hallway which has appeared out of nowhere in the west wall of the living room. Without hesitation Navidson plunges into the darkness. Neither the camera nor Karen are able to follow him. [[3]] Fortunately she doesn't have to wait long as Navidson soon re-emerges with Chad and Daisy in each arm. Karen makes Navidson promise to never go into the hallways again. Navidson agrees and Tom installs a door to to close off the hallway. [[Continue->ExpA]]

Karen suffers from crippling claustrophobia. A few years earlier Karen took part in a study which promised to evaluate and possibly treat her fear. ...Subject (Karen Green) suffers severe panic attacks when confronting dark, enclosed spaces, usually windowless and unknown.

Navidson tries to keep his promise to Karen. However following a dinner party with friends, and a few glasses of wine, Navidson shows his dinner guests the hallway. Karen is so enraged by the whole incident, she makes Navidson sleep on the couch. At 3:19 A.M. Navidson gives up trying to sleep and begins what is refered to as [[Exploration A]]

Navidson films his journey as he slips across the threshold. "Cold, Wow, really cold! Walls are dark," He comments. Within a few seconds he reaches the end. The hallway cannot be more than seventy feet long. "That's it. Nothing else. No big deal. Over this Karen and I have been fighting." Except as Navidson swings around, he suddenly discovers a new doorwayto the right. It was not there before. This corridor is at least one hundred feet long. Another passage is off to the left. This one is larger with a high ceiling. Navidson's flashlight connot penetrate to the end of the hall and the light fades into the darkness beyond. [[Continue->ExpAHall]]

Navidson pushes deeper and deeper into the house. Eventually he starts passing by numerous doorways leading off into alternate passageways and chambers. He finds a door without a lock behind which is a small [[room]]. No windows. No switches. No outlets. Navidson continues on down the corridor. No matter how far he goes the light of his flashlight never touches a final wall at the end of the hallway. Eventually navidson comes to an archway opening into a much larger space. [[Continue->Opening]]

Navidson step out into the open space. His flashlight makes contact with the floor but nothing else. The walls and the ceiling are too far away for the light to reach them. Only now do we begin to see how big navidson's house really is. [[Continue->ExpAlost1]]

Navidson keeps his attention fixed on the floor below him as he ventures into the darkness of the chamber. He freezes, unsure whether or not he really just heard something growl. "I better be able to find my wy back," he whispers. Navidson swiftly turns around. Much to his horror, he can no longer see the arch, let alone the wall. He has walked beyond the range of his light. All he can see is the oily darkness surrounding him. Navidson proceeds in the direction he believes he came from. Quickening his pace, he reaches a wall. He has to choose between going left or right. This time he reaches into his pocket and places a penny at his feet and proceedes left. When he doesn't find a doorway after a few minutes he turns back and goes right from the penny. Soon he comes to a doorway, only this one is much smaller than the previous one and has a different shape. He decides to keep walking. After a few minutes of walking and not finding the archway Navidson stops. Again a faint growl returns, rolling through the darkness like thunder. Navidson quickly turns around to return to the doorway. Only now he discovers that the penny he left behind, which should have been at least a hundred feet further, lies directly before him. [[Continue->penny]]

Even stranger than the penny being at his feet, the doorway is no longer the doorway. Now it is the archway he had been looking for all along. As he steps through it he sees how drastically everything has changed. The corridor is much narrower and now ends in a T. He pauses not knowing which way to turn. When a third growl ripples through the place, this time signifigantly louder, Navidson panics and starts to run. Realizing the danger of his course of action Navidson stops and tries to collect himself and calm his frayed nerves. He shouts "Karen!" Then "Tom." Then shouts again "I'm here!" A sharp cry comes back to him, a child's cry. He tries to follow it. Eventually after making several turns and backtracking numerous times he comes to a low passageway. There is a warm light at the end of the hall and a tiny silhouette standing in the doorway. Emerging into the safety of his own livingroom, Navidson immediately scoops Daisy up in his arms and gives her a big hug. "I had a nightmare," she says with a very serious nod. [[Continue->Nextmorning]]

The next morning Navidson cannot bring himself to tell Karen about his visit. He promised to turn over the investigation to Billy Reston: "Then we'll call The New York Times, Larry King, whoever, and we'll move. End of story." Karen responds to his offer with kisses. Navidson admits in his video journal: "I feel lousy about lying to Karen. But I think it's unreasonable of her to expect me not to investigate. She knows who I am. I think -" [[Continue->enterHolloway]]

Holloway Roberts arrives carrying a rifle. The very first shot we see of him, he emerges from a truck holding a Weatherby 300 magnum. Holloway has made a career as a professional hunter and explorer. Reston had met him years earlier at a symposium on artic gear. Reston sent Holloway a copy of the [[Five and a Half Minute]] Hallway, and Holloway was more than willing to participate in an investigation. His team, Jed Leeder and Kirby "Wax" Hook, arrived with him. While the three new arrivals listen to Navidson's explination of his expedition into the hallway Jed finds it difficult to stop smiling and Wax finds it difficult to stop laughing. Holloway keeps gancing at Reston implying that Navidson may have a few wing nuts loose. However, when the hallway door is opened the icy darkness instantly slaughters every smile and glance. Holloway's face loses color, something even close to panic suffuses his system. Suddenly he sees what fortune has plopped on his plate and how famous and rich it could make him, and he wants it. He wants all of it, immediately, no matter the cost. [[Continue->expl1]]

#####Exploration #1 Holloway, Jed, and Wax enter the hallway with cold weather gear, cameras, fishing line, and high powered flashlights. The come back come back explaining how they had navigated down a series of hallways eventually coming out to a great room. The power of their flashlights allows the light to make contact with the ceiling which is estimated at two hundred feet above them. What stops their expedition is their running out of fishing line and then the sounds of the growl which Navidson had heard during his exploration. On the way back they also discover how the walls have shifted since their jopurney into the space. [[Continue->exp2]]

#####Exploration #2 The second exploration lasts nearly eight hours. During which the team more fully explore the great room finding a spiral staircase several hundred feet from the archway. After the team returns Jed describes the staircase: "It was enormous. We dropped a few flares down it but never heard them hit bottom. I mean in that place, it being so empty and cold and still and all, you really can hear a pin drop, but the darkness just swallowed the flares right up." Wax adds: "It's so deep, man, it's like it's almost dream like." [[Continue->Exp3]]

#####Exploration #3 The third exploration ends up lasting more than twenty hours. The team takes more than forty minutes to reach the spiral staircase and and then spends the next seven hours walking down it. When they stop at last a dropped flare still doesn't sound or iluminate the bottom. Jed notices the diameter has increased from two hundred feet to well over five hundred. It takes them eleven hours to return. When the team does return they realize the immensity of the place. Preperations begin for a more prolonged journey to reach the bottom of the stairs. [[Continue->exp4-1]]

#####Exploration #4 The team prepares for the fourth exploration as they would a climbing or caving expedition. The readied tents, food and water for six days, and glowsticks to mark their path. In addition, Holloway decides to take along his rifle. When Navidson protests Holloway responds: "Just in case." Navidson believes the the growl is just a sound generated when the house alters its internal layout. Wax sides with Holloway asking: "What if you're wrong? What if that sound's not from the wall's shifting but coming from something else, some kind of thing? You wanna leave us defenseless?" [[Holloway's team enters the hallway.->exp4-2]] [[Navidson, Tom, and Reston wait]]

It took the team four days to reach the bottom of the staircase. On the morning of the fourth day they agreed to explore the series of rooms they find at the bottom. Soon they are wending their way through the [[maze->maze]]. Holloway personally takes responsibility for marking their path. He constantly tacks neon arrows to the wall, sprays neon paint on corners, and metes out plenty of fishing line wherever the path becomes especially complicated and twisted.[[4]] The farther Holloway goes the more infrequently he stops to mark their path.Jed is the first to voice his concern over how quickly thier team leader is moving.[[5]] Holloway appears to be determined to find something, something different, something defining, or at least some kind of indication of an outsideness to that place. At one point Holloway scratches, stabs, and ultimately kicks a [[hole]] in the wall. [[Continue->exp4-3]]

(text-style: "strike")[ Perhaps The most famous labyrinth was the labyrinth Daedalus constructed for King Minos. It served as a prison, Purportedlylocated on the isle of Crete in the city of Knossos, the maze was built to incarcerate the Minotaur, a creature born from an illicit encounter between the queenand a bull. As most school children learn, this monster devoured more than a dozen Athenian youths every few years before Theseus eventually slew it. While the Minotaur has often been depicted as a creature with the body of a bull but the torso of a man - centaur like -the myth describes the Minotaur as simply having the head of a bulland the body of a man, or in other words, a man with a deformed face. I beleive pride would not allow Minos to accept that the heir to the throne had a horrendous appearance. ]

The fishing line also has myhtological resonance to the [[thread]] used by Theseus to escape the Labyrinth.

[[Quod evenit in labyrintho properantibus: ipsa illos velocitas inplicat]]

The hole reveals another windowless room with a [[doorway]]

When Holloway's team decides to trek back, they discover the staircase is much farther away than they had anticipated, as if in their absence the distance had stretched. They are forced to camp for a fouth night thus necessitating strict rationing of food, water, and batteries for light. The next morning they reach the base of the stairs and begin the long trek back up. Prudently Holloway had left provisions along the way during their descent. H estimated it would take them no longer than eight hours to reach the first cache. It ends up taking them twelve hours to reach it. The climb proceeds smoothly until Hallow discovers the remains of one of their foot long neon markers barely clingling to the wall. It has been badly mauled, half of the fabric torn away by some unimaginable claw. Even worse their next cache has been gutted. Only traces of the plastic water jug remain along with a few scattered pieces of PowerBars. Fuel for the campfire stove has completely disappeared. As Jed and Wax exclaim their frustration Holloway pulls out his Weatherby 300 magnum and carefully inspects the bolt and scope mounts before loading rounds into the magazine. A glimmer of joy flickers across Holloway's features, as if something about the place has begun to make sense. He insists they search some of the immediate hallways branching off of the staircase. [[Continue->exp4-4]]

This is what happens when you hurry through a maze: the faster you go, the worse you are entangled.[[6]]

[[Si on lit trop vite ou trop doucement on n'entend rien.]]

If one reads too quickly or too slowly, one understands nothing.

The doorway leads to a hall with more [[rooms]] on either side.

Thread has repeatedly served as a metaphor for an umbilical cord, for life, and for destiny. The Fates of Greek and Roman mythlogy spun the thread of life and also cut it off.

Holloway is stalking doorways and corners. Jed's flashlight illuminates only more walls, corridors and [[rooms]]. Soon enough they all begin to detect that inimitable growl. For Holloway it is impossible to accept the growl as a quality of that place anymore. The torn marker, their lost water, they seem to transfigure the eerie sound into an utterance by some definitive creature providing him with something to pursue. Holloway seems almost drunk as he rushes towards the sound, failing to lay down any fishing line or hang any neon markers. Jed and Wax realize that no matter how far they travel from the staircase they are not getting any closer to the source of the growl. They insist on turning around. Holloway refuses, calling them "cowards," and "jack-holes." "we're heading home now," Jed snaps. "Fuck you," Holloway barks. "I give the orders here, and I say no one's going anywhere yet." Without another word Jed and Wax turn around and start heading towards the stairs. Holloway refuses to follow them. [[Continue->exp4-5]]

Back on the staircase Jed and Wax wait for Holloway. Several hours pass and Holloway doesn't return. Jed and Wax make camp and try to sleep. With the start of the seventh day they have a terrible decision to make. With almost no supplies left and no sign of Holloway they gultily begin their climb back up the stairs. They discover that every neon marker left on the stairs has been torn apart. Furthermore the higher they get, the more the markers have been devoured. Eventually Jed and wax reach another cache at the far end of the stair near the entrance to some unexplored corridor. Nothing remains of the food but the jug of water is perfectly intact. Wax is back for a second chug, when the crack of a rifle drops him to the floor, blood immediately begins guching from his left armpit. "Oh my god! Oh my god!" Wax screams. "My arm-Oh god Jed help me, I'm bleeding!" Jed immediately crouches next to wax's side and applies pressure to the wound. Moments later, Holloway emerges from the dark corridor with his rifle in hand. He seems just as shocked by the sight of Jed and Wax as he is by the sight of the stairs. "How the hell did I get here?" He mutters incoherently. "I thought it was that, that thing. It was that thing. I'm sure of it." "Don't just stand there. Help him!" Jed yells. [[Continue->exp4-6]]

Jed starts to tell Holloway what they will have to do to get Wax up the stairs. "Are you crazy?" Holloway suddenly shouts. "I can't go back now. I just shot someone." "What are you talking about?" Jed asks. "It was an accident." Holloway sits down. "It doesnt matter. I'll go to jail. I'll lose everything. I have to think." "He'll die if you don't help me carry him." "I can't go to prison." Holloway mumbles. "I just can't." Holloway struggles to his feet, but instead of giving Jed a hand, he just walks away, disappearing once again into that impenetrable curtain of black. [[Continue->exp4-7]]

Jed carries Wax as best he can towards the stairs. He doesn;t get very far before two bullets smash into a nearbly wall. Holloway's helmet light reveals that he is standing on the opposite side of the stairway. Jed instantly turns off his light. By quickly flicking it off and on he is able to find a narrow hallway. Unfortunately another shot answers his momentary vision, the bang echoing over and over agian through the pitch. Jed is able to drag Wax through a series of hallways and rooms in order to put distance between them and Holloway. Holloway can be heard in the distance screaming like some rabid animal, no longer a man but a creature stirred by fear, pain, and rage. [[Continue->hide]]

Time passes for those still outside of the hallway. There are long conversations, there are long silences. Sometimes Navidson and Tom play Go. Sometimes someone reads aloud to Daisy, or helps Chad with a game on the family computer. Karen keeps clear of the living room. By the seventh ight everyone fears the worst. In the early morning of the eight day there comes a faint knocking rising up like some strange black oil. Chad and Daisy actually detect it first. . It sounds exactly like someone rapping his knuckles against the wall: three quick knocks followed by three short knocks, followed by three quick knocks. Over and over again. [[...---...]]

Navidson declares his intent to lead a rescue attempt. Karen is furiou. "Why don't we just call the police?" she demands. "They've been in there almost eight days with water for six. It's three in the morning. We don't have time to get officials involved. We have to go now" Then adding in a half-mumble: "I waited too long with [[Delial]]. I'm not going to do it again. [[Rescue]]

Karen May lose herself in resentment and fear, but the Navidson we see seems joyful, even euphoric, as he sets out with Reston and Tom to rescue Holloway and his team. [[Continue->res1]]

When they reach the top of the stairs Navidson's plan is for Reston to set up camp at the top of the stairs and Tom to accompany Navidson downward. "Navy, I can't go down there," Tom Stammers. Navidson objects. Reston, by barely touching his friend's arm forces Navidson to look at his brother. Tom is pale, out of breath, and in spite of the cold, sweating profusely. [[Continue->res2]]

It is decided that [[Tom]] will establish a base camp at the top of the stairs while Reston and Navidson [[descend]] to search for Holloway and his team.

=><= ###Tom's Story ####Day 1: 10:38 <== Who am I kidding? A place like this has to be haunted. That's what happened to Holloway and his team--the ghosts got 'em. That's what will happen to Navy and me. The ghosts will get us. Except he's with Reston. He's not alone. I'm alone. That just figures. Ghosts always go first for the one who's alone. In fact, I bet they're here right now. Lurking. ####[[Day 1: 12:06]]

Navidson sets off first. Based on Holloway's descent, he had estimated the stairway to be more than thirteen miles down.Less than five minutes later, however, Tom and reston hear a shout. The peer over the banister and discover Navidson with a lightstick in his hand standing at the bottom- no more than 100 feet down. [[Continue->bottom1]]

As navidson and Reston head out in to the [[Labyrinth->maze]], they occasionally come upon shreds of neon marker and shreds of various types of fishing line. "It looks impossible to leave a lasting trace here," Navidson observes. [[Continue->bottom2]]

After making camp for the second night Navidson hears soemthing. A voice, maybe a cry, but so fleeting were it not for Reston's confirmation, it probably would have been shrugged off as just a high note of the imagination. [[Continue->bottom3]]

Navidson and Reston's search for the source of the sound takes them through hallways and corridors past a gauntlet of near fifty empty [[rooms]]. Navidson discovers for the first and only time a door without a door knob. He tries to push it open and discovers it is locked. [[Listen->bottom4]]

He hears a whimper coming from the other side. Taking two steps back he throws his shoulder into the door. It takes him four tries to get through sending the door cracking to the floor. [[Enter->saved]]

As the door gives way, and Navidson followed by Reston breaks through into the room, we see an image of Jed's face as his rasp of terror almost instantly transforms itself into laughter and sobs of relief. Jed learns his sentence will be remitted. He will live. [[Continue->hit]]

Jed drags Wax through room after room, eventually ending up in the one and only room with a door. Once inside he quickly shuts the door behind him. Recognizing Wax is going into shock, Jed elevates his feet and covers him as best he can. Then in a moment of desperation he begins tapping out S.O.S. on the wall next to him. After a few hours he hears movement outside the door. Then a crash like something slamming into it, trying to get in. Then another crash, and another. Not knowing whether it is Holloway or some other unidentified monster, Jed braces himself for what he is sure will be his final moments. [[Accept fate->saved]]

A fraction of a second later one bullet pierces his upper lip, blasts through the maxillary bone, dislodges and fractures the central teeth, and obliterates the back side of his head. Chunks of occipital lobe and parietal bone spew out in instantly senseless patterns. [[Here we -]]

[[see]]

[[A lifetime]]

[[of meaning finished]]

[[in a]]

[[second]]

Jed crumples, his moment of joy stolen by a pinkie worth of lead, leaving him dead on the floor, a black pool of blood spiling out of him. [[Continue->shootout]]

Navidson drags Jed and Wax out of harms way while Reston returns fire with an HK .45. "Since when did you bring a gun?" Navidson asks. "are you kidding me? This place is scary." [[Continue->shootout2]]

"I can't see a damn thing," Reston whispers. Navidson grabs his camera with a Metz strobe and its parabolic mirror. The powerful flash captures a shodow in the distance. The shadow is the blur of a [[man]]

=><= standing dead [[center]]

=><= with a rifle in his [[hand]]

Just as the strobe light captures the figure lifting the weapon, we hear a series of sharp cracks. All those [[doors]]

=><= behind the man are slamming [[shut]]

=><= [[one]]

=><= [[after]]

=><= [[another]]

The [[figure]] vanishes behind a closing door. The roar of more slamming doors crescendos until the last door closes of the room saturating it in [[silence]].

Reston fashions a makeshif stretcher out of the Jed and Wax's tent. While Navidson cleans Wax's wounds and feeds him a painkiller. Navidson then tries to make radio contact with Tom telling him to meet them at the bottom of the [[stairs]].

At around noon on the thrid day of the rescue attempt Navidson and Reston reach the bottom of the stairs. Wax's breathing is shallow and inconsistant. Jed's body weighs heavily on Navidsion. Even worse, Navidson realizes his brother has not come down the stairs to reach them. [[Continue->help]]

Tom's story to continue along this thread. Including Tom's joking and his attempt to go down the stairs to meet Navidson. [[Continue->help]]

As Navidsion is lamenting the unreliability of his brother a [[rope]] slaps down on the floor in front of him.

After making his unsuccessful bid to reach the bottom of the staircase, Tom had retraced his way back to the living room where he began to construct a light gurney out of scrap wood. Karen helped out by going to town to purchase additional parts, including a pulley and extra rope. [[Continue->pull]]

==> (text-style: "upside-down")[(text-style: "mirror")[[[top?->top]]]]

As the stairway starts getting darker and darker and as that faintly illuminated circle above--the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel--starts getting smaller and smaller, the answer becomes [[clear]]

==> [[Continue->resto]] <== (text-style: "upside-down")[(text-style: "mirror")[Navidson is s i n k i n g or the stairway is s t r e t c h i n g]]

In the Reston interview, we learn that the pulley at the top was torn from the banister. Luckily Tom managed to grab him as well as the rope before "the whole kit and caboodle" plummeted back down the shaft. [[Continue->emergence]]

Tom emerges carrying a bleeding, and dying, Wax. Reston also emerges and Jed's body is brought into the kitchen. Karen waits for news about Navidson. [[Continue->chad]]

=><= ###Holloway Holloway's story will be told trough this thread in a center aligned text comple[ ]e with brackets for missing letters in the t[ ]t. [[suicide]] [[Gunshot->chad]]

This passage will detail Navidson's contemplation of suicide and link it with's Holloway's eventual suicide.

This passage will cover the wait for Navidson and the turmoil in the house when Navidson doesn't return with Tom and Reston, including Chad's escape into the tree and his rufusal to come down, as well as him hearing murmmering in the house and a gunshot(Holloway). Daisy's unexplained [[scratches->Begin]] on her arm will also be mentioned. Karen sleeps on the couch [[waiting]]

Navidson finds his way out and wakes Karen up. The two have a reunion and karen starts packing. [[Continue->escape]]

Description of the Navidson's escaping the house as it collapses in on itself swallowing Tom with it. End?

Wax is hauled up first followed by Jed. Then Navidson ties the rope to Reston and starts hauling him up. About halfway up, something strange happens: the excess rope at Navidson's feet starts to vanish while the rope he holds begins to slip across his fingers and palms with enough speed to leave a burning gash. Navidson finally has to let go. Reston, however, does not fall. In fact, Reston's ascent only accelerates, marked by the burning green light he still holds in his hand. But if Navidson is no longer holding the rope, what could possibly be pulling Reston to the... [[Continue->the]]

This is not for you. [[Begin anyway->Begin]]