Guilt

John was left alone with his thoughts, now that the call was finished. The gravity of the situation sank in. His worry began to make him feel guilty. ‘If I came home to such a situation, would I have reacted the same way?’ Tears began forming in his eyes. ‘No, if It was Mom or Dad, I would put my all into it.’ He tried to tell himself that was only because they were his important family, but that wasn’t reason enough. Minutes ago on his walk over, he had thought about how fortunate he was to have Meadow as a friend.

He turned around to look back into the house. The chaotic scene of the entry returned to his view. ‘John, what are you doing?’ This question to himself brought on by his worry started to outweigh his self preservation. ‘You just ended a call with 911. Sandra gave you strict instructions to wait outside for the officers’ arrival.’ The internal struggle with his fear and guilt found a logical counterpoint to grasp at. ‘Besides, what can you do?’

At that moment a quest notification appeared before him as if the universe wanted to convey to him, ‘You can do something.’

New quest: A friend in need
Check the house to see if your friend is around and alright.
Reward 150 Exp

His hesitation waned when he saw the quest appear. John now had an excuse to ignore his better judgment and the process that he put into motion by calling emergency services. ‘I just need to do my best not to disturb anything in case the police need to still look around,’ he thought as he accepted the quest.

John crossed the threshold into the house once again and made his way through the chaotic hallway to the landing of the stairs. He steeled his resolve and called out, “Meadow are you here?” Only silence followed his call, but that only made him worry more. ‘Please, I hope this quest isn’t wasting my time. I need her to be alright.’ To his right, the living room had similar signs of disorder.

Cautiously he entered the room, stepping over a broken mirror in the process. John slowly took in the unfamiliar state of the room; it wasn’t as bad as the hallway. The center table was crushed in, like something heavy had fallen through it. Beside the table, there were only random items scattered around the room. Toward the kitchen, there were broken glass and plates on the floor.

The kitchen looked like a warzone. Dishes and utensils were strewn across the room. The kitchen island was knocked onto its side. But nothing stood out more than the dried up bloody handprint on the countertop next to the sink. His heart was racing so much he could hear it thumping in his ears. He used Observe on the blood, but the skill only informed him it was dried up blood.

Observe Lvl 3
Observe will show the target's opinion of you.

John saw Observe Lvl 3 and got excited for the fraction of a second it took for him to read the next line. ‘That’s useless to me right now!’ he complained internally. The panic from earlier started to rear its ugly head again. ‘Whose blood is that? Where is Meadow? Is she alive?’ Breathing became difficult for him as those negative thoughts came flooding in. ‘I need to calm down and focus on the task at hand. Sure, there is a little blood, but there is nothing indicating that it is hers, the hand looks too large.’ He fought back the tears as he did his best to calm down.

John made his way back to the stairs after checking the unaffected dining room. He was muttering, “Keep looking,” as a mantra to help keep himself on the task at hand. As he ascended the stairs, he looked for any signs on them or the banister of anything irregular, but nothing stood out.

There were no signs of anything on the second floor. He made his way over to his destination: Meadow’s bedroom. The door to her room had a cherry blossom tree wallpaper on it. John entered the room and was hit with the alluring scent of vanilla, the one she had started to use recently. The room was in perfect condition and the sun shone on the light pink walls. Her cream-colored bed was made, with 8 pillows alternating between white and pink, a blanket lying neatly beneath them. The whole room carried a white and pink motif. Sadly, the empty room didn’t help him. ‘There’s no sign that she made it here. I need to keep looking, maybe she is in one of the other rooms.’

With her bedroom cleared he made his way back into the hall. Next, he entered the office that Meadow had turned into a gaming room for them. While her bedroom gave off this sweet girly vibe, the office was a gamer's dream. The only constant between the two rooms was the lingering vanilla scent. Two desks stood in the room for their longer gaming sessions, between which sat a mini-fridge. There was a personalized gaming chair for Meadow with black cat ears on top.

Back when she revealed the new gaming room to him after they had graduated, he’d asked her why she spent so much money on this set-up. Her response was, “It’s no big deal, Johnny, I had the extra money, and this big house is empty so I get lonely having it all to myself.” She had said it with a grin, knowing that he wanted to chew her head off for calling him Johnny. “This way you have a reason to come over more often. We already usually play together. Also, our reactions should be better because we’ll be bunched up in this room and can peek at each other's screens.”

He loved spending time in the game room with Meadow, crushing raid bosses and being themselves. It was their sanctuary. At this moment he wished more than anything to find her here. Finding the room empty and undisturbed since their last session was just another pang in his heart.

He was having trouble keeping it together as he did a quick check of the bathroom. It was immaculate. He made his way to the last door at the opposite end of the hall. Finally, he noticed something out of place. This last door was left ajar.

Ever since the accident that took her mother last year, Meadow never went into the room. It was an untouched shrine to her beloved mother Ruth. The last time he saw this door open in any way was the night of the funeral. John came over to comfort her and found her a crying mess on the floor.

After that the door to her mother’s room had always been tightly closed. ‘Why of all the possible days was it open today? She must have made it up here after the fight in the kitchen.’ He entered the room and nothing seemed out of place except for the closet. John approached it as he prayed to everything he could think of that he would find Meadow safely hidden in the back of it. All he saw was a normal closet at first, but something about the space seemed off. He stared harder and it looked like he could see the closet twice, like his eyes were slightly out of sync, but only for that one closet.

He used Observe on what seemed to be the double of the closet, and the skill revealed that this duplicate space was known as a barrier.