Is This Thing On?

I walked into the old apartment building. It was of pre-war vintage, and had the musty smell that old buildings seem to accumulate but cannot remove. All was quiet, but I could not shake the sense of being watched. Why had I come? A letter, purporting to be from an old friend, one from whom I had not heard in many years, asked me to come. The tone was desperate. I went at once.

Inside the lobby, my unease grew. Why would Miss M___ contact me, of all people, after all these years? We had not parted on the best of terms, though I still cherished her friendship. Perhaps I hoped we could pick up where we had left off. That feeling of hope sent me to this address, but it had completely faded now. Clearly no one lived here any longer. I glanced at the mail sticking out of one of the slots: the date was months before, and the paper was yellow with age.

I could see no one, yet I still sensed a presence above me. I climbed the stairs - was that a moan I heard above me?

I climbed still further, knowing how foolish I was. Though I was armed, I knew I would have been better served to call the police and let them search the premises. Indeed, as I no longer believed Miss M_____ had sent me the letter, I had no reason to remain. Yet I hesitated, not wanting to seem a silly woman in front of the authorities. There it was again! Still the sound seemed above me.

Hmmm, that premise started out strongly, but petered out. Perhaps we'll return to it some day. In the meantime, I'm just hanging about.

And, dramatically speaking, when there is a blood-stained floor in Act One, there's going to be a body on it providing new stains by Act Four.


Pictures taken at REC, a Japanese sim with a movie tie-in. As far as I could tell, the movie is actually a Spanish film from 2007 called *REC, i.e., the recording button on a handheld video camera. The Internet Movie Database provides the following synopsis: "While covering the night shift at a small-town fire department, an ambitious young television reporter (Manuela Velasco) and her cameraman follow the crew on a call to rescue an elderly woman (Matt Frew) trapped in her apartment. Upon their arrival at the scene, the calm midnight air is pierced by the sound of horrific screams, and the television report takes an unexpectedly dark turn."

Some of the instructions for the sim were in Japanese only, and mine is a little rusty, so no doubt I missed some of the fun. But the basic idea is to pick up a free "video camera" and wear it, so that one appears to be looking through the viewfinder. (The attachment seemed to create problems moving, so I eventually took it off.) As one moves through the apartment, various parts flash, and clicking in that area - something of a hit or miss proposition - causes animations to happen. In the end, one finds one's self in...a room that plugs the movie. Well, I did say it was a movie tie-in.