<img src="lake.jpg">
You are at the shore of a snowbound lake. The shining water reflects the day's fading light, diffused by the clouds that wreath the hills around you. (if: $mode is "unwholesome")[A heap of disturbed snow at the water's edge marks where you lay when you awoke.]
Mountains rise to the north and a dense forest surrounds the south side of the lake. Narrow trails wind through the woods to the southeast and southwest, while a wider road leads due south.
(if: $mode is "wholesome")[
Your breath curls into smoke in the freezing air and a brisk, stirring wind abrades your cheeks.
[[Southwest trail->Blood on the snow]]
[[Southeast trail->Cairn]]
[[Follow the road south->Southern road]]](else:)[[[Southwest trail->Blood on the snow]]
[[Southeast trail->Cairn]]
[[Follow the road south->Southern road]]]<img src="windows.jpg">
The house and its familiar clutter of sheds, lean-tos and outbuildings are surrounded by a grove of tall trees, protecting it against the harshest wind and weather(if: $mode is "unwholesome")[, and concealing it from ice wraiths, strangers and other terrors of the frozen age].
Golden light streams through the windows and into the main yard as you make your way round to the side entrance. Built of stone and added to over the years in a mish-mash of timber and brick, this has been home for almost your entire life.
You grope inside your pocket and find your doorkey. (if: $mode is "unwholesome")[You clutch at it with numb, unfeeling fingers, taking several attempts to grasp it in your hand.]
[[Go inside]]<img src="PDforestsnow.jpg">
An icy crust has settled over the snow that leads to a narrow path through the evergreen forest, but it's clear that people have walked this way recently.
The snow underfoot thins as you pass beneath the trees, and a thick floor of fallen leaves and soft pine needles protrudes in patches where the snow and ice thins.
The trail is little wider than an animal track.
You can [[turn back->Frozen lake]] or (link-reveal: "keep walking.")[
The trees are a little less dense in this part of the forest, and the snow beneath and among them is much deeper.
The snow is churned up and muddied with earth, fallen pine needles and small stones. (if: $mode is "unwholesome")[Bright splashes of red blood cover the snow and dirt, frozen into a crystalline tide of crimson ice.]
The trees beyond form a dense, dark barrier.
[[Go back the way you came->Frozen lake]]]<img src="rocks.jpg">
You emerge from the treeline onto a steep, ascending slope. Thick drifts of snow adorn rocky hills and the strange purple-orange sunlight of a late winter's afternoon is muted by thick clouds.
A few metres beyond the trees, a cairn of stones protrudes, a more structured edifice of rocks among those placed by nature's whim. It looks as though it has recently been [(if: $mode is "wholesome")[visited](else:)[disturbed]]. A trail of footprints leads [(if: $mode is "wholesome")[towards] (else:)[away from]] it through the snow.
(link:"Take a closer look?")[(if: $mode is "wholesome")[You follow the tracks right up to the carefully arranged pile of stones. Bright and sweet smelling winter flowers have been scattered over the cairn. An ornately carved red river stone reads: "We will love you forever."](else:)[The tracks in the snow lead directly away from the piled-up rocks. Only the bottom section of once-carefully stacked stones remains intact. The upper part of the cairn appears to have been pulled apart, revealing (link-reveal: "small void within.")[
It is empty, but you can see a space large enough for a curled-up human form. Faint lines of blood mark some of the tumbled stones, as if they were scrabbled away by hand.]]
]
[[Go back the way you came->Frozen lake]]<img src="PDkeyhole.jpg">
The key turns easily in the lock and you step into the warmly-lit entryway.
You stamp the snow off your boots and slide your frozen feet out of them, relieved to be back in the warm embrace of your home. From the next room, you can hear the sound of familiar voices and merry-making(if: $mode is "wholesome")[, smell good food and woodsmoke].
(if: $mode is "wholesome")[A small, tousled head pokes around one corner and meets your gaze with enormous brown eyes and the biggest smile you've ever seen.
"You're back! You were gone for AAAGES! Did you leave flowers for mum? Will you play with me?"
Your little sister runs down the corridor and leaps into your arms, scattering droplets of melting snow from your coat.
<center>
<b>THE END</b>
May the winter treat you well.
</center>](else:)[A small, tousled head pokes around one corner and meets your gaze with enormous brown eyes and a mouth that opens wide in a blood-curdling (link-reveal: "scream.")[
You begin to reassure your little sister that everything's fine, to apologise for having been gone so long, but you can't make your frozen tongue and larynx work to produce anything more than a breathy, voiceless (link-reveal: "croak.")[
By then, you hear the sound of running footsteps.
You hear your father crying as your oldest sister yells: "She came back. I <i>told</i> you she'd come back. We should have taken her heart out in the woods when she turned."
You see her shoulder her way between the others to face you. You try to speak as she murmurs: (link-reveal: "\"I'm sorry.\"")[
You see the gun, hear the report, and then feel, see and hear no more as a bullet rips through your skull.
Your family spends the remainder of the long night taking turns to watch your now mindless body and ensure that it does not rise again before they can build a pyre large enough to burn it.
<center>
<b>THE END</b>
May the winter treat you well.
</center>]]]]
<img src="icyroad.jpg">
The road leads you down a steep descent into a frost-shrouded valley. Finer and more delicate than snow, a filigree of ice covers the plants by the roadside, the fields and trees in the distance.
Thick smoke rises from a cluster of buildings just visible to the south. (if: $mode is "wholesome")[The wind carries the warming scent of woodsmoke along with ice crystals that sting your nostrils.]
After some time, you reach a narrow turning off the main road. A well-worn sign points down the southern fork, but the lettering has faded so much that it's no longer possible to make out.
[[Investigate the structure to the south]]
[[Keep heading home]]<img src="fieldfog.jpg">
As you continue down the road, gathering clouds obscure what's left of the day's failing light.
To your right, roiling mist rises off the (link-reveal: "bare earth.")[
(if: $mode is "unwholesome")[It is a transient thaw, as false as a lover's promise. With nightfall, the earth will freeze hard again. This land was last ploughed years ago, before the sky was seeded with ice and time ended. Nothing has grown here since.](else:)[The fertile ground lies dormant, waiting for spring to come, bringing with it a new cycle of growth and plenty.]]
On the left-hand side of the road, frost sparkles across grass and scrubby bushes. A circular stone tower rises from the icy grass, incongruous in this pastoral environment.
[[Investigate the tower]]
[[I need to get home]]<img src="tower.jpg">
The tower, which lost its roof at some point in the distant past, is built of rough stone. Its surviving floors stand some three storeys high.
Although the boards that make up the floor above are still present, the wooden stairs that once wound around the inside of the structure have rotted away, so you can only access the lowest level.
Tools and stacked piles of indeterminate sacks indicate that the tower, prosaically enough, has been used as storage for a farmer's supplies. (if: $mode is "unwholesome")[It is clear that nothing has been touched here for many years.]
Just behind the ruined stairs, you think you catch a glimpse of movement among a cobweb-strewn (link-reveal: "pile of discarded wood and cloth.")[
You investigate the pile of rags and sticks[(if: $mode is "wholesome")[ and find a small, sleek black cat with a glossy coat and a loud purr. The cat nuzzles your hand and meows stridently before scampering off through a hole in the wall, leaving behind nothing but footprints in the dust and a few friendly spiders](else:)[. You soon realise that the sticks are a jumbled heap of human bones and that the rags were once clothing. There are strange marks etched into the bones. The skull is missing. The dust surrounding the sad little heap is oddly disturbed].]]
[[Keep heading home->I need to get home]]<img src="sunset.jpg">
You'll be home soon. You're close enough to taste it. The sun hangs at the horizon, a heavy gong as it descends behind the treeline.
You come to a bridge, its stones rimed with frost. Beside it, a narrow path cuts its way straight down a steep bank leading to the river's edge.
[[Cross the bridge]]
[[Go down to the river]]<img src="river.jpg">
The wind has blown away much of the snow from the bridge's parapet, leaving only a crust of frost across the weathered and lichen-covered stones.
You tread carefully through the shallow, iced-over drifts that have built up over the slippery cobbles, protected from the wind by the parapet's lee.
(if: $mode is "unwholesome")[The river below makes a thick and sickly sound as it laps the banks.](else:)[Beneath, the rushing water still chatters and roars beneath a thin crust of ice as it passes under the ancient and sturdy arch of the bridge.]
(link: "Look into the water.")[
(if: $mode is "unwholesome")[You peer over the edge of the parapet into the murky, ice-crusted water below. Your eyes meet the sightless gaze of a bloated corpse, caught amongst the reeds. You start backwards and vow not to look again.](else:)[The icy river glitters like a sea of jewels. At the banks, the frost forms scintillating patterns where the water meets the land.]
]
[[I can't stop now. I'm nearly there]]<img src="riverbank.jpg">
After a slippery, muddy scramble down the bank, you pause to catch your breath and watch the half-frozen river for a few moments.
(if: $mode is "unwholesome")[You gaze into the water for quite some time, your mind blank, watching dead leaves, tattered bits of cloth and oddly shaped branches drift by.
There's an unusually large amount of debris in the water, which has a murky cast and is flecked with unhealthy looking yellow foam.
It's not until a scrawny crow flaps down to pluck at what you had at first taken to be a log that you realise that most of the flotsam is made up of tattered and bloated human remains.
Only the cold prevents the river from stinking like a charnel house.
[[Shuddering, you continue on your journey home->I can't stop now. I'm nearly there]]
](else:)[You stare into the clear water, fast-flowing beneath a crust of ice, following the movements of odd sticks and leaves as they whirl and spin across its currents.
You can just make out the smooth stones, some dull and others brightly coloured, of the riverbed. The sounds and sights of the river soothe you, but even in this sheltered spot, you begin to feel the chill of late evening.
[[Best keep moving->I can't stop now. I'm nearly there]]]<img src="cantstop.jpg">
Frozen fields interspersed by boundaries of scrubby bushes and leafless trees stretch as far as you can see to the left and right of the road.
The fog lifts a little as you ascend a steep hill, and the road, like the curling tendrils of mist, is illuminated by the light of a full moon.
After some minutes, you crest the rise. Through an encircling grove of trees, you can make out the familiar path that will lead you to the warmth and light of home.
You're almost there!
[[Head towards the buildings->Home]](set: $mode to "paused")
<img src="cover.jpg">
Welcome to Winter's Heart, an interactive greetings card, a heartwarming festive story, and an exploration of what waits for us in the cold dark.
This story starts in ''wholesome mode'', which is safe and friendly, but bears a light content warning for a depiction of the past loss of a family member.
During the story, you can switch into ''unwholesome mode'' (and back again) at any time by using the options at the bottom of the page. Please note that ''unwholesome mode'' includes scenes and implications of violence, horror, and existential dread.
<center>(link: "Begin the story")[(set: $mode to "wholesome")(goto: "The beginning")]</center><hr>Current mode: $mode <br> {
(if: $mode is "wholesome")[(link: "Switch to unwholesome mode")[(set: $mode to "unwholesome")(goto: $currentpassage)]]
(else-if: $mode is "unwholesome")[
(link: "Switch to wholesome mode")[(set: $mode to "wholesome")(goto: $currentpassage)]]
(else:)[ ]
}
(if: $currentpassage is "Go inside")[
[[Credits]]](set: $currentpassage to (passage:)'s name)<img src="PDbonfire.jpg">
(if: $mode is "wholesome")[As you come closer to the cluster of buildings, you can hear lively music, the chatter of voices and laughter of children.
By the warming light of a carefully laid bonfire, musicians play familiar refrains on pipes and mandolins as a procession of giggling, costumed children winds its way around a small village green enclosed by a tiny hamlet.
Adults look on, seated at benches or warming themselves by the fire, their hands wrapped around cups of warm spiced wine.
[[You decide not to interrupt the gathering->Keep heading home]]]
(else:)[As you come closer to the cluster of buildings, you see that gouts of flame are busting from the roof and windows of one wood-and-stone structure, standing out against the darkening sky.
Illuminated by the roaring flames, you can make out pale, humanoid forms, scuttling among the buildings on all fours. The remains of what were clearly once human beings are scattered about the burning village green.
One of the beasts lowers its head to a small form before loping away, a tiny arm gripped in its hideously elongated jaws.
[[You flee the awful sight, attempting to scrub the images from your mind->Keep heading home]]]<img src="water.jpg">
(if: $mode is "unwholesome")[You wake grudgingly, disentangling yourself from the heavy tendrils of a fast-fading dream.
You are surprised to find yourself not in your warm bed, but curled up in a drift of snow. The wind blows loose ice crystals across you, but you don't feel cold. You notice that your fingernails are torn, dirty and faintly bloody, and your hands feel numb.
You get to your feet, brushing the snow off your stiff clothes, and look around, taking in the shining lake and the snow-covered shore opposite.](else:)[Enraptured by the beauty of the lake, as calm and still as a mirror, you realise that you've lost track of time. The snow has stopped falling, but you can see its traces, softening your footprints and adding to the drifts on the far shore.
You shake your head and a cold breeze helps to clear the webs of bittersweet memory and reverie from your mind.]
The short day is coming to an end, and the moon's pale outline is already visible against the late afternoon sky.
It is the eve of winter's longest night.
[[It's time to go home->Frozen lake]]Words and photography by K.G. Orphanides, except the following images:
<b>Forest floor</b> - <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/sheet-forest-nature-cones-plant-1175288/"]>Kebkalalina</a>
<b>Bonfire</b> - <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/bonfire-st-combs-aberdeenshire-2922298/"]>The Red Queen</a>
<b>Weathered door</b> - <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/door-keyhole-design-lock-key-683014/"]>ferobanjo</a>