Status Updates From The Invitation: A Horror Mo...

Dina’s expression shifted; her curiosity was replaced by concern. “2011. When else?” she said. My friends and I exchanged glances, our disbelief evident on our faces. Anna shook her head in confusion. “That’s not possible,” she said, her voice tinged with skepticism. She was right. It wasn’t possible. Not anywhere but in Carousel, at least. “We got here in 2022.”

“You’re saying you arrived in Carousel … right before Christmas?” he clarified. “Yes … Why?” Camden was onto something. We had arrived at Carousel just after our junior year of college let out for the summer. How was it possible that Dina left for Carousel in the winter and arrived at the same time we did?

“The man on the top floor. He watches us through violet lights. He is the one you need. He looks for dark stories. Like yours. Like … mine. Your Friends in High Places have set the path. Go!” He started to look around the room. It was like he had never seen the place before. “How did I get here?” he asked. A look of sudden realization. “He’s done it. That sick man—he’s trapped me.”

Dina didn’t miss a beat. “I want my son back.” The gentleman looked legitimately surprised at first, but then he slipped back into his smile. “Where is he? Do you need a map?” Dina wasn’t amused. “He died.”

“Red curtains closed, blocking off my mental view of the screen. Then, for the first time since I had started using Deathwatch, I realized I wasn’t alone. Other people were clapping and cheering too. I was in a movie theater after all. As I turned my head to see who was there, all went dark.”
…
“Who were those people?”

“I crossed the room over to the control panel for the system. This one was so sophisticated it made mine downstairs look like the security system for a pizza parlor.”
ITS JUST QUOTING FNAF AT THIS POINT

I searched around for my blanket but realized it had fallen on the floor. I leaned over the side of the bed and fished it out. I wrapped it around my body, finally warming up again. “How is your office? We keep it pretty cold in there, don’t we?” Dr. Mentes asked. “We believe it is best. Cold keeps the surveillance specialist awake.”

“Five days? As in, the storyline would last five days?”

Huh, five days as a security guard. Where have I heard that one before?

“I think he can only talk in prerecorded quips,” I said. “He can’t just talk to us straight up.” When I said that, Silas turned his head to me and said, “Aren’t you a smart cookie? Be careful—some of the monsters around here have a sweet tooth! Hehehe.”

Akers had made up a story to conceal his past deed. Why had we somehow seen something different?

“How did you find the cavern beneath the well? Why did you go there? You were just supposed to ride the minecart and escape. There was no evil entity in the mines. No waters brimming with power. It was only the possessed, that’s all.”

Third was of how the straggler curse came to be with Douglas wishing all trespassers to be cursed (sacrificing his grandfather for it). Then we find out Old man Akers who was telling the stories is actually an immortal Douglas

That story being a collection of short ones tied together was actually pretty cool. First part was the straggler curse, anyone who enters the forest is cursed to stay there until someone replaces them. Second was the glitchy story in the mine where they end up finding the weird being that grants wishes for a price.

At the end of the day, when you find treasure in the same cave as a dead eldritch deity, it’s best not to take it.