The Holder Series 1-50

01 The Holder of the End

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house in you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of the End”. Should a look of child-like fear come over the workers face, you will then be taken to a cell in the building. It will be in a deep hidden section of the building. All you will hear is the sound of someone talking to themselves echo the halls. It is in a language that you will not understand, but your very soul will feel unspeakable fear.
Should the talking stop at any time, STOP and QUICKLY say aloud “I’m just passing through, I wish to talk.” If you still hear silence, flee. Leave, do not stop for anything, do not go home, don’t stay at an inn, just keep moving, and sleep where your body drops. You will know in the morning if you’ve escaped.

If the voice in the hall comes back after you utter those words continue on. Upon reaching the cell all you will see is a windowless room with a person in the corner, speaking an unknown language, and cradling something. The person will only respond to one question. “What happens when they all come together?”

The person will then stare into your eyes and answer your question in horrifying detail. Many go mad in that very cell, some disappear soon after the meeting, and a few end their lives. But most do the worst thing, and look upon the object in the person’s hands. You will want to as well. Be warned that if you do, your death will be one of cruelty and unrelenting horror.

Your death will be in that room, by that person’s hands.

That object is 1 of 538. They must never come together.

o2  The Holder of the Beginning

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask the clerk for permission to visit someone who calls herself “The Holder of the Beginning.” A small smile will work its way over their mouth, almost as if to say, “You fool.”

You will then be taken down a long hallway — long enough that you would expect it to lead outside of the building. Yet, in clear violation of the laws of space and physics, it instead leads deep into the heart of the institution. The hall will be forever silent, even if you try to make noise. Screams will die before leaving your mouth, and footsteps will be muffled. In lieu of speech, your guide will simply point to a door.

Beyond it lies a cozy room filled with a pleasant yet unidentifiable perfume. At the room’s center, a beautiful woman holds her empty arms as if cradling something. This room will remain just as silent as the hallway that led to it, until you ask a singular question: “Why were they separated?” The woman will then explain, in excruciating detail, every horrific event in history. Every beating. Every war. Every rape. Every killing. No travesty in the history of the universe will escape your ears. When she finishes, all will fall silent, and you will be free to leave. It is up to you to do what you will with this information.

That woman is Object 2 of 538. They must never come together.

03 The Holder of Eternity 

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of Eternity”. A sigh might escape the worker as they look upon you with the utmost pity. They will take you down a flight of stairs that you might expect to lead to the basement; they don’t.

As you press deeper and deeper into the underbelly of the institution, you will begin to hear a chorus of screams. At first it will be barely audible, as if originating from a point a great distance away, but as you approach the end of the hallway, the screams will grow clearer and more thunderous, until they drone so loudly as to consume all other noises. The din will quickly become so painful that you will feel the unrelenting urge to claw at your own ears to escape it; resist this impulse. The worker, stoically enduring the cacophony, will show you a door. As swiftly as they can, they will unlock it and run, leaving you alone in this cramped, dark hallway.

This will be your last chance to run. If you decide to continue, open the door; the piercing wail will then end abruptly, leaving your ears ringing. The room you will enter will be coated in an almost tangible darkness that consumes all but the far wall. Manacled to that wall is an emaciated figure covered in raw lashes. He will stare directly at you with a maniacal grin plastered to his face, seemingly undisturbed by his festering wounds and the scalpel rammed into his chest. The only way to save yourself from this man’s dark designs is to ask, “Who created them?”

He will cackle in a manner befitting the death throes of an animal, before responding. His will be the most horrific tale you have ever heard, beyond such primitive concepts as pain and death. It will delve deep into the very essence of evil; those of weak mind would go mad hearing it.

When he finishes, it will be up to you to release this man from his terrible burden. Remove the scalpel and he will shudder once in agony before falling silent… forever.

That scalpel is Object 3 of 538. They must never come together.

04  The Holder of Nothing

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls herself “The Holder of Nothing.” Should a look of sheer, primal disgust mar the worker’s expression, you will then be taken to a separate building, one that appears to be an old, wooden outhouse. Inside will be a seemingly endless corridor that far exceeds the length of that outhouse.

The corridor will be completely silent. Attempting to make any sound at the wrong time is a grievous, lamentable mistake. You will notice the lights in the corridor getting brighter and brighter as you make your way down towards the end; eventually, you will find yourself blinded by their brilliance. If, at any point the lights go out, quickly shout out, “No! Stop! What you are doing is wrong!” while backing away. If the lights do not come back on, bolt for the door you came in through. It should still be open; hopefully you aren’t far enough down the hallway for it to close on you. If it does close, an eternity in Hell would be preferable to what you will suffer.

If the lights come back on, continue walking down the corridor. At the end of the hall lies a cell; the worker will open its door for you while glaring at you in disgust. Inside the cell will be a mad pastiche of colors, arranged in several harlequin-like formations. You must not be distracted by them, for at the center of the room is a naked young woman, slathered in blood and bound by strips of human sinew, and you would be better off not knowing what will happen if you take your eyes off of her face for even a moment. Focus on her, and ask: “What were they when they were one?”

She will look you in the eye and speak the answer in incredible detail. It will be unlike anything you have ever heard, leaving you on the verge of both ecstasy and agony. It is not uncommon for a Seeker to lose themselves in the euphoria. But you mustn’t let your focus break, and you must take special care not to look upon her tattooed chest. Your mind will tempt you to gaze upon it, but you must resist, for if you fail, she will flay you alive and add your mutilated flesh to her bindings, and you will remain trapped with her, fully conscious, for the rest of time.

That tattoo is Object 4 of 538.

05 The Holder of Light

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, close your eyes and ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of Light.’ You will be led to a single door leading to a long, winding hallway, and then told to open your eyes. Open the door. The hallway beyond it will be pitch black, but narrow enough for you to feel the walls with outstretched arms, and guide yourself forward.

If, at any point during your trek down the hall, it is suddenly bathed in light, shut your eyes immediately and quickly make your way back to the door you came in through. If your eyes stay open for more than a second, what you see will force you to instinctively tear them out.

If, on the other hand, the lights stay off long enough for you to navigate the entire corridor, you will reach another door. Look down: if you can see any light escaping from the crack beneath the door, flee immediately, for what you seek is not there. If no light escapes the next room, then carefully turn the doorknob and enter.

The room beyond will be completely dark, aside from a single, dimly-lit candle at its center. The faint light it emits will reveal the outline of a cloaked, motionless figure huddled over it. There is only one question that he will respond to: ‘What can protect us from Them?’ Say anything else, and the man will tear out your eyes, and force you to take his place under the cloak for the rest of eternity.

If you ask the proper question, a piercing scream will ring out from the candle, and a series of lights will illuminate the room, revealing images of the most horrifying thoughts, fantasies and memories experienced by sentient minds throughout history. Most people cannot handle this event, turning violently insane or perishing instantly at the sight of such horrors. If you should somehow manage to survive the ordeal, the cloaked man will rise slowly and put his hands to your head, turning your gaze to meet his youthful face.

Stare directly into his empty, gaping eye sockets, for if you look away from that terrible sight, you will be stranded in this room, forever forgotten by time itself. Do not turn to look as he opens your right hand, and places a small, round object upon your palm. As that object touches your hand, you will find yourself able to ignore even the most fearsome agonies — unless you are in the process of obtaining another Object, for the pains you feel then are far beyond any worldly suffering. Know that even this new-found power will never help you cope with the the horrifying images you have witnessed in that room. They will be burned into your memory for all eternity.

The eye you hold in your hand is Object 5 of 538.

06 The Holder of Song 

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls herself “The Holder of Song”.  You will then be guided to a long staircase that spirals higher than the building stands. At the stairs’ summit is a door.

As you open the door, a sudden wave of heat will pour out from the hallway beyond it, and wash over you. Proceed down the hallway. As you walk, the air around you will grow increasingly frigid. When you feel as if you are encased in ice, you must stand perfectly still, remain silent, and listen. If, after a few seconds pass, you hear a baby crying, turn and run. No harm will befall you, but the infant’s cry will follow you wherever you go. If you hear it for the rest of your life, count yourself lucky; if and when it stops, your firstborn child will die.

If you do not hear a baby’s cry, wait for the hallway to grow warm once more, and then proceed to the door at its end. Enter.

The room beyond will be awash in green light. At its center will be an old woman turning the handle of a silent music box. Her legs have both been severed at the knees. When you speak to her, you must look her in the eyes. She hides a spear fashioned from the bones of her legs; break eye contact, and she will impale you with it and leave you to bleed to death in seemingly unending agony. She will respond to only one question: “What was the song they used to play?”

The old woman will begin to sing in a language not of this world. Her melody will be the most beautiful one you have ever heard, bringing peace and serenity to your mind, body, and soul. You will find yourself vividly imagining a band of carefree children playing and singing, innocent as can be… And within minutes, the scene will eventually take a horribly sinister turn. The children will begin to fight each other, and their conflict will quickly escalate to the most brutal, lethal violence you can conceive of. They will impale each other on wooden poles, disembowel each other with sharp rocks, and even rip flesh from bone with their bare hands. You will witness these children, now merely tattered doppelgangers of themselves, spreading death and destruction more horrific than you could ever imagine on your own. You will see a naked boy, drenched in blood, singing with delight as he runs through a hellish wasteland, pursued by unspeakable monsters. They will overtake him and utterly destroy him, the song still issuing forth from his shredded lips all the while.

…Yet, inexplicably, you will remain calm and peaceful even as you watch this unspeakable brutality.

When these horrific visions end, an intense pain will stab at your chest. Your heart will feel like it is about to explode. Do not let the agony break your focus, and do not break eye contact with the old woman, lest you invite a fate so horrible that an exploding heart seems lovely by comparison. If you remain steadfast in your gaze, the pain will eventually cease. The woman will stand up (though, with your eyes still focused on hers, you will know not how) and place the music box in your hands.

The music box is Object 6 of 538.

07  The Holder of the Path 

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of the Path.” The worker there will try his best to keep a look of indifference on his face while handing you a key which, as he will explain, belongs to an unused supply closet in the building. If only it were that simple. Upon locating and unlocking the correct door, you will find yourself staring out onto a narrow, winding road suspended in an endless void, the sight only occasionally obstructed by the massive outlines of things best left undescribed.

To fall off the path is to be thrown out of reality itself. A nightmarish eternity of inconceivable horror awaits anyone who either stumbles into the void by their own error, or is dragged off the path by the timeless monstrosities that reside on the outskirts of creation. If you should ever feel as if you are being watched while traveling through this piece of oblivion, the best chance you have is to immediately freeze in place and hold your breath. Continue to do so until your audience either loses interest, or moves in to claim you. If the latter should occur, feel free to scream as hard as you want, though your screams will fall on deaf ears.

At the end of the path lies a door that leads to a small, dirt-caked room. Propped up against the room’s far wall is a heavily emaciated corpse; what’s left of its skin has long since blackened with necrosis. Approach it and ask one question: “How did they acquire guardians?”

In response to your query, the “corpse” will begin to stir. A subtle red glow will emanate from its eye sockets as it lifts its head and begins to whisper the long and macabre history of the Holders. It will speak of unholy pacts and unspeakable atrocities. Within time, its tale will touch upon every form of evil known to man or God, and a few forms that neither can comprehend. Furthermore, if told the title of any Holder, the corpse will reveal that Holder’s history and the meaning of the object that it protects.

Well, almost any Holder. The Holder of the Path will never go into detail about itself. This is because the ghoul hopes that you will not question why it seems to be lacking an Object. Truth be told, the ominous glow from within the ghoul’s eye sockets is actually the shining light of the Object that was somehow sealed inside of its skull.

That is Object 7 of 538.

08 The Holder of Wealth

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of Wealth.” The worker will raise one eyebrow, as if puzzled by your request. Ask a second time, and the worker will shrug and take you across the street, where an opulent mansion awaits. If you are observant by nature, you may notice that the mansion was not there when you started your quest… Its owner would rather you didn’t think about such things.

Inside the front door will lie a grand staircase, spiraling up across the foyer. The walls will be covered with fine paintings, and a large marble statue will rest on a pedestal by the base of the stairs. The statue’s eldritch features will evoke an image of a truly horrific beast, at once both alien and evil. Admire it all you want, but don’t touch it, unless you wish to awaken this starved monster.

Ascend the staircase. As long as you don’t touch anything, you will be safe. Don’t panic. At the top of the stairs, you will find a small, wooden door; its plain and unassuming appearance is a sharp contrast to its decadent surroundings. It will open on its own for you, so long as you are not afraid.

Past it, you will see a man with a pointed goatee and short, cropped, gelled hair standing behind a large, mahogany desk. His suit is made of both human flesh and Italian silk. He may speak, and at great length. He will talk about his amazingly beautiful house and the lovely statue of his concubine resting downstairs. Do not interrupt him, and do not answer any questions he may ask. When he is finished, steel yourself and confidently ask, “May I have my salary?”

He will proceed to explain to you, in great detail, the value of life. He will talk of things worse than death, and he will tell you exactly what he expects you to do. The fabulous interior of the room will rot away, and the floor will turn from French weave to feces. The man’s appearance will become cyclopic and unimaginably horrendous. He will fish out a small bank note from the pockets of his human suit, and hand it to you.

That note is Object 8 of 538. Its Holder is counting on you to spend it.

09 The Holder of Wisdom

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of Wisdom.” The desk clerk will chuckle and guide you to an empty room. They will hand you a key and tell you to wait some time in the room until you hear a bell ring. When it rings, you have to lock the door through which you entered, wait until a second ring, and unlock it.

Once those instructions have been carried out, the door will open all by itself and reveal a long hallway, with every conceivable color painted onto the walls, ceiling and floor. Follow the hallway until you hear a little girl singing. Stop, close your eyes, and stay where you are until the girl finishes the song. If you fail to remain perfectly still, run. Run back to the door through which you came, as fast as you can. Jump through the window of the room where you waited earlier, and you might live. Should you be unable to reach the window in time, you will be dragged back into the hallway by something that is definitely not a little girl. You will be pulled by this horror until time itself ends, forever feeling the pain of every soul dragged to an early grave.

If, on the other hand, you manage to remain perfectly still until the song ceases, you will be free to either turn around and leave forever, or venture further into this realm. If you prefer the latter course of action, walk deeper into the hallway until you reach a human-shaped door. Open it with the same key that was given to you earlier, step inside, and close the door behind you. In the middle of the room, you will see a desk with a bright candle. Behind the desk is a man, whose face isn’t visible behind the shine of the candle. Approach, but always keep the flame between you and the man’s face, for if you witness what he looks like, your gaze will be fixed on his until your own hands have removed every inch of skin from your bones.

Stop when you are five steps away from the desk. The man will raise his hand and gesture you to come closer, but do not step any further than this. Close your eyes and ask him one question: “Who will bring them back together?”

You will hear the man rise from his chair and begin to pray in a language that you will not understand. After two minutes, you will hear a name. If you hear “Anubis”, then you had best utter your own prayers in the short time you will have to do so… but if it is “Thor” you hear, then you may open your eyes. You will see the man’s severed head lying on his desk, still speaking. After another three minutes, his prayer will cease, and he will tell you how you will die. He will describe every minute detail of your horrible death, and you will be unable to move or react while he explains your end. Lastly, he will describe the one who will steal your life away from you, and go into such detail as to why it is necessary that you yourself will question which would be worse: you being murdered, or you being allowed to continue to live.

Eventually, the head will finish its ghastly tale. It is object 9 of 538.

10 The Holder of Ambition

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit a man who calls himself the “Holder of Ambition.” The sound that escapes the mouth of the worker will be so slight, and betray so little reaction, that at first, you may not even be sure your words were heard. All doubt will be settled when they guide you toward a stairwell lit by many windows.

At the top of these stairs, the worker will leave you to continue your journey alone. You will find yourself standing at the beginning of an eerily calm hallway. Walk to the end.

In all likelihood, you will encounter a shadow that moves along the wall. Do not follow it, for it is the one thing that will lead you to a place you do not wish to go: a place filled with your silent fears and failures, from which you cannot return. No matter what shape the shadow takes, and no matter how it eases and taunts your dreams with the greatest of your desires and hopes, do not even let it tempt your gaze, let alone your feet.

If you make it to the end of the hallway without losing sight of your goal, you will find an open doorway with no locks, bolts, or restraints. A soft light bathes the floor in front of the opening. This is your one and only chance to leave without facing the Holder of Ambition or collecting his Object: if that is the course of action you wish to take, then walk directly back the way you came, without attempting to peek around or into other doors, lest you discover what that seductive shadow hides.

Beyond the doorway lies a room, bathed in an artificial light cast by high windows that cover each wall’s expanse. At the room’s center stands a tall, healthy man, standing naked and looking out into the light. His body is covered in uncountable tattoos and scars; only his face is recognizable as unaltered human flesh. You might be tempted to look where he looks, in search of the object of his focus; feel free, but you will see nothing, and learn nothing. The man will not react to anything other than the question, “What joins them together?”

When asked, he will turn to look you in the eyes. Meet his gaze, but know that if you are not prepared — if there is even the slightest doubt of your intentions — then you will lose yourself in his soulless eyes for an eternity. If, on the other hand, your gaze is an honest one, then he will begin to speak in a low voice. His tone will be a comical one, his tale told as if they meant nothing at all, but you must not miss a word, for this story is your preparation. Listen carefully to his tale, and remember every detail.

When the man finishes speaking, he will bring his hands to his chest, and remove the sutures from one of his more noticeable scars. As the stitches come out, he will bleed profusely and fatally. When the last of his sutures have come out, he will offer them to you, uttering his final words through his own gurgling blood: “Choosing to seek… leads to an inevitable fate…”

The clump of sutures is object 10 of 538. How you use them depends on what you hear.

11 The Holder of Eternal Night

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of eternal night.” You will not have to worry about whether or not the desk clerk is truly the Holder’s caretaker. The Holder of eternal night knows of everything around himself at all times.

You will find yourself in the dark the moment you speak the Holder’s name. Lightening will appear above you, and a dark sky will take the ceiling’s place. This is a gateway and will take you to the Holder. If you hear the screams of millions through the black, boiling clouds, then the Holder has granted you permission to enter his lair. The screams are from the future.

In the dark, the Holder’s caretaker will whisper, “What is your question?” Be sure to ask “What will happen to them in the end?” or a question asking about the fate of the world at “the end”.

If you show concern for humanity’s fate, then the Holder will allow you passage to his lair, in order to confront him. The sky in the ceiling will open up for you and you will begin to fall upside down. You will fall up into the sky, through the ceiling and up into the night. All around you, you will see visions of the future. You will watch them all die, man beast and creature.

Whomever overcomes and contains the essence of this Holder will never feel the hand of death. But, they will see the ‘face’ of death. They will be immortal and will live through the ages to see the rise of new life and new biological creations. They will become a god to a new world. But, they will need live 2 million years before they will rule….alone. You will see these visions as you fall upwards towards the Holder’s lair.

The real test is to face the Holder of eternal night and confront the goodness in your soul. The Holder will give life to all of the love and joy inside of you. You must overpower your own, true self and kill it before the darkness of the Holder will weaken enough to be captured into the round, clear amulet worn around the caretakers neck. The shell of the amulet is created of pure light. So pure that it is unseen to the human eye. The light is bound to the amulet through electron exchange cycling through the alien, brass colored metal. The metals dance with miniature arches of lightening. The pure light is attracted to the electron exchanges so it is held to the amulet like gravity holds you to the earth. The darkness cannot pass through the light. It will be trapped within the amulet until the objects come together.

Do not listen to the cries of your good self, you must ignore its screams. You have to kill this youth, a younger image of yourself, in order to weaken the darkness to capture it. The youth will be truly afraid of you and will cringe at your blows. You will not be allowed weapons, so you must literally beat the child to death with your bare hands.

When you do so, the darkness will ooze from the child’s nose, eyes, ears and mouth to swirl aimlessly over the corpse. Take the amulet from the caretaker’s neck and hold it over the darkness. The caretaker will be in a vegetative state at this point, so don’t mind him or her. The amulet can be opened by unscrewing a small, brass stopper at the top of it. You will need to wrap your palm around the amulet to create a dark place to trap the Holder’s darkness. Place your fisted hand into the darkness above the corpse. The darkness will be drawn to the shadows inside of your fist.

Once the darkness has slipped into the amulet, replace the stopper and tighten it securely. The darkness of eternal night will not be able to cross the invisible light of the amulet’s casing. Just ask yourself this this, though. Are you sure you want to live forever?

The amulet is object 11 of 538.

12 The Holder of Catastrophe

In any city, in any country, go to any abandoned amusement park you can enter. Find the largest roller coaster in the park, no matter its condition. Take a seat on the far left side of the first cart, then close your eyes and whisper “I wish to see the Holder of Catastrophe.”

You will feel the coaster start to move, yet you cannot open your eyes, or you will find yourself moving through an endless void which you will never escape. The coaster will then slowly start to head up, for what seems to be ages as you listen to the rumbling of the tracks. You will then hear voices whisper at you and ask you to save them, yet you must not respond to them, or they will take you away to the same void to which they belong.

The voices will stop speaking to you and the cart will come to a stop. With your eyes still closed, you must grasp the bar in the cart as tightly as you possibly can, or you will be left behind forever. After you do so, you will feel yourself plummeting straight down at impossible speeds. The air around you will start to grow cold, and continues as it feels as if you are freezing. As you sense the cart around you disappear, you must keep hold of the bar, as it is the only thing keeping you attached to reality.

Abruptly you will stop. Drop the bar, and sit still with your eyes closed until you start to hear the sound of a carnival fanfare in the distance, and only than can you open your eyes, to which you will be greeted by a large pinstriped circus tent a few yards in front of you, surrounded by meadows and happy people, young and old. You must walk towards the tent, staring at the small entrance which is shrouded by darkness. As you continue walking, the scenery around you will start morphing. Slowly the meadow dies, the carnival music slows and bends in pitch until it starts to sound twisted and demonic. The people decay in the very spots they stand. They will scream in agony, and ask you to help them, yet you cannot look directly at them, or you will meet the same fate as these illusions.

You must continue forward until you finally reach the dark entrance. Walk forward and allow yourself to be swallowed by the darkness, yet do not stop or look back, as if you do either, you will never find an exit. Continue your walk into the void until you see a dim light in the distance, and start to hear the sobbing of a man. Follow these two signs, as you hear the crying of the man growing louder, until you can see the light is coming from a door in the darkness.

When you walk through the door, you will be greeted by a cold, cement cell. In the far left corner, you will see the crying man dressed as a circus clown, covering his face with a small diary. You must slowly approach him, as not to aggravate him, until he is right by your feet. Sit down next to him and ask, “What do we have to lose?”

The clown will then read you an excerpt from the diary through his sobs. The writings in detail describe the demise of millions of innocents, and the forces that so cruelly and coldly carried out this act. As he reads, illusions will appear around you, and in the side of your vision you will see every death of every person in the story, many of which were slaughtered, many of which were taken by disease. However, you must keep looking at the clown, as if you lose sight of him, you will be stuck in this illusion and you will become part of the story yourself.

After he is done, he will stop crying. He will lower the book from in front of his face, revealing that he has suffered the same decay as the illusions which you had seen before. He will hand the book to you, which you must accept. He warns that you cannot read the diary yourself, or else you will be driven mad.

He will then whisper, “When the stakes are high, best to play the clown,” as the rest of his body starts to decay, as well as the room around you. You must close your eyes one more time, keeping hold of the book, and count to exactly twelve seconds before opening them. When you do, you will find yourself in the same seat of the roller coaster in which you began.

The diary is Object 12 of 538. These events must never be allowed to occur again.

13 The Holder of Darkness

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask with no hesitation to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of Darkness.” The worker will mock you but you have to stay as calm as possible. Keep asking him until he stops denying and withdraws from his counter to guide you through the corridors. As his behavior changes radically, stay on guard, for if you start hearing one single tiny sinister hiss, you should turn around and flee as far as you can, covering your ears, because the time was bad. If you do not escape in time, the faint sound will turn into a dreadful growling, that will soon merge into a continuous shriek of sheer pain, until madness floods you and leaves you to die in a deafening agony.

If the warden remains silent, he will lead you to a closed door with neither handles nor lock. As he pushes it open effortlessly, you will see an ascending winding staircase which can’t possibly lead to any upper floor of the establishment. The door will close behind you and you will not be able to push it back. Past this point, climb and do not turn back, or you will fall into a bottomless pit waiting for living prey to chew upon. Do not count the steps, for knowing how many there are will drive you to insanity. One will then creak, and at that point you should stop. Another door should appear on your left. If it is on your right, then pray for a swift passing.

Enter slowly into the room, and a blinding, obscuring darkness shall descend upon you. You will be required to walk straight forward, for straying even slightly will lead you to be devoured by the roaming and unknown creatures observing you with blinded and purulent eyes. You will know you have arrived when coldness grips you. At that very moment, freeze, or you will die by the hands of the holder who is standing right in front of you. In complete darkness, even closing your eyes will not prevent you from his horrid appearance. It will form into your mind as the most outrageous monster ever conceived, and madness will try to creep into your brain as worms over a decayed corpse. His fulminating breath and constant mumbling would be enough to make you cry, but be advised not to utter anything louder than a weeping, for you might wake what must not be awakened. The only question you will be able to whisper without being torn apart will be ‘What do they fear?’

You will feel movements all around you, as shudders animate your opponents. You will hear what nameless and incurable diseases will strike the world if they were to be frightened, the countless terrors their own fright will unleash on those with a weaker mind than theirs. Amidst the atrocious enumeration of the endless sores the world will suffer, you might hear the simplest, almost ridiculous, yet implacable and certain truth they all fear. Do not move again. When your head is about to implode, it will stop. If you are still able to move, you will find a door in front of you which leads you outside of the ward. There, in the open, in the grass, a broken hourglass will wait for you.

You are free to pick it up. It is object 13 of 538.

14  The Holder of the Adversary

In any city, in any country, venture across the highways and lonely roads until you reach the city’s bottom rung. Walk among the ones society has cast away, beggars and poor picked raw by the demands of those better off. Should you come across a scruffy man under a large oak tree holding a bottle of liquor in a paper bag, his shirt sweat-stained and his pants muddied, do not be afraid to ask him if he knows of the one who calls itself “The Holder of the Adversary”.

More than likely, he will smile knowingly at you, like an old friend with whom you’ve just shared an inside joke. Do not be alarmed; the man knows of the one you search for. The less fortunate of us often know things we will never dream of. He will guide you to a manhole and casually slide the metal lid off with one grimy boot. Tossing you a small flashlight which flickers precariously, he will urge you down into the darkness.

Once inside the putrid womb of the sewage system, you will come to realize that it bears no unpleasant scent – no scent whatsoever, in fact. But, turning on the flashlight and gazing at your surroundings, you will notice you are in a round room. On all the walls will hang partially decomposed bodies, their owners forever suspended in a state of half-awareness, feeling all the pain and horror of a body withering and rotting around them. Corpses litter the floors, and you may notice that one nearly touches you. Do not shrink back. To show cowardice would invite no creature or entity that you would do well to know.

Once you have observed your surroundings, the smell will arrive. It will be the most awful thing you could imagine: human and animal excrement, sulfur, rotting bodies, burning flesh. You will want to claw your nose from your face, and the watering of your eyes will nearly blind you.

But do not cower, do not run, and resist the urge to vomit. You will find a thought in your head, unbidden: “We are the remains of the ones who could not face the Adversary.” There is no source of this whisper, though it may curl around you as if carried by the stench itself. Suddenly, the bodies will rupture and burst, one by one, releasing more of the horrible stench and bathing you in rotted bodily fluids and slimy chunks of human refuse.

The corpses then will sink to the floor, and what rises from the slurry is a creature of pure beauty. Man, woman, or something else entirely – it depends on you yourself. It will not be possible to shake your gaze from this gorgeous, naked human until you realize the creature is an idealized caricature of you. Confident, heart-achingly gorgeous, smiling a gentle, patient smile, It will be everything you yourself could ever desire to become.

You will be overcome by a sudden jealousy, a total anger, a need to annihilate this perfect you. Do not give in, no matter how strong the temptation. If you do, you are doomed to the Adversary’s wrath – the eternal torment of the Damned you have witnessed prior. There is only one question you must ask the exquisite creature: “What could they destroy?”

The Holder of the Adversary will laugh at you melodically, condescendingly, and will explain to you as though you are a small, stupid child exactly the answer to your question. It will spare you no details, even the most horrific. Though horrifying, the story will be interesting and calming to listen to, and you will find yourself absorbed in a childlike fascination with The Holder. You may liken its story to one told to you by a loved one or a guide when you were a child, and you will know that you now have the key to defeating the Adversary – that which the Damned could not acquire.

At the end of the story, The Holder will ask, smiling pleasantly, “What will you do now, my child?” If it asks you anything else, or tells you something different, your fate is sealed, and when you eventually emerge from the sewer, the ragged people you have encountered will descend upon you like ravenous animals, and tear you apart with tooth and nail, feeding on your body. There is no escape, only the knowledge that it will happen.

Regardless of your fate, The Holder will place an Object in your palm and close your hand around it. “You mustn’t open your hand until you are free of this place,” it will say, as a fitting good-bye.

Now you must turn and leave, and do not look back. Once you escape the sewer, and if you are lucky, you may open your fingers. What you will find there is a green plastic army man toy.

That toy is Object 14 of 538. It understands how to defeat your greatest foe, and must never be allowed to join the rest.

15 The Holder of the Past

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house in you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of the Past”. At the last syllable of your sentence, his eyes should open wide and stare at you as if he was attempting to see past your skin into your soul. Don’t ask any questions, because he won’t speak to you, and in the case that he does, you will wish he hadn’t. He will take you down a long hallway and you will walk with him for what will seem like hours. Stare straight ahead the entire time, for if you look at the floor, walls, or ceiling of the hallway, you will run into a dead end and the worker will pursue you with a hellish blood-lust until you are completely disemboweled.

After exactly 350 paces the worker will stop, turn around, and pull a watch out of his pocket. He will turn the dial backward one hour and at that point, you will have one hour to complete your task. If you don’t, then there are no words to describe your fate. The lights will go out for exactly 3 seconds, and when they turn back on, you will be in a room with no doors and a red-tinted skylight shaped like a pentagram. This will cast a blood-red star in the middle of the room where a splintered cherry table with two seats will be. Sitting at the seat closest to you, look up. Look down again, and a man with long, dirty black hair will be face-down on the table. He will answer to one question: “Where did He once stand?”

The man will speak not of a place that exists on any map, but will describe the room in painfully grotesque detail. Pay very close attention, he will enumerate exactly how many of what horrible object hang from spears protruding from the walls. You have the rest of the hour to find the room and sit in His throne. If you fail, I suggest you become armed; heavily.

His Throne is object 15 of 538.

16 Holder of the Future

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to see someone who calls himself the “Holder of the Future”. Do not follow if the attendant offers to show you the way; he is not the true guide, and will lead you into madness. The true guide will fall silent and hand you a sheet of paper on which the way forward is written in lines of blood and fire. Walk forward, concentrating on the writing. If your focus doesn’t waver, you will pass through both desk and man to find yourself in a long, disused hallway. It may once have seemed opulent, full of color and promise, but the walls are now stained and the carpet is black and filthy.

As you pass through the hall images will flicker in previously-unseen windows. It may seem that, from the corner of your eye, you see friends long-dead beckon to you, or lost lovers turned young and new once more as they offer themselves to you again. Voices seem to whisper that the windows hold second chances, opportunities to make things right. You can choose again, they seem to say, but you mustn’t look up from the paper in your hands. To do so is to glimpse fully what watches you from outside, and that would leave you at an end truly beyond salvation.

Accounts differ as to the hallway’s ultimate, impossible length. Some say that you must continue to walk until you have glimpsed each of all your possible futures through the windows. Others imply that the closer the time of uniting approaches, the shorter one will find the journey to the end of the hall. If the latter is true, may all who enter find their path long beyond reckoning.

You may only look fully away from the paper at the end of the hallway, and even there you may never look behind you. The door before you leads into a ballroom that, like the hallway, has fallen from its former bright elegance into filth and despair. Move forwards into the gloom until the door and all chance of escape are lost behind you.

Walk with care. The Holder watches you even now.

The path forward once passed straight through the center of the room, but the center has not held over the many years, and the way has…drifted. You may never find your way if it has drifted too far, and you will spend the rest of your unnaturally long life wishing you had given yourself to the windows’ half-glimpsed temptations. If you are fortunate, however, you will find a single point where the little light remaining fades away completely, and there you must close your eyes and wait, regardless of what should happen next. If you have pleased the Holder, you will come to hear a cat’s soft purr, and you will feel its warmth twining around your feet.

You must keep your eyes closed until a voice has asked you “What will you do with them?” three times. To answer the first or second time will turn the purrs to snarls as the touch of a thousand razor-tipped claws prick your throat. Only after the third and final time may you open your eyes.

In front of you will be a woman lying on a bed. As with the rooms that preceded her chamber she might long ago have been stunningly beautiful, and though she lies naked on her bed she is nauseatingly fat, her skin pockmarked with bedsores and dead flesh and syphilitic blooms. Hundreds of cats cluster around her; eventually one will come to stand expectant at your feet. Speak only to this one, telling him “I will do what I must”.

He will then teach you the language of the cats, and once you have learned the others will tell you a secret that was never meant for human ears. You must never reveal it until such time when you have nothing else in the world to give; cats are jealous creatures and delight in the pain of those who betray their trust.

Their secret is the 16th of 538.

17  Holder of the Present

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask with no hesitation to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of the Present.” The worker will look at you vaguely; you have to ask him again. Once the worker understands your question he will lead you through a door into a hallway that looks like it’s an extension of Hell itself.

In this hallway you will find nothing but darkness and the feeling of unimaginable horror. If you should hear a shriek coming from the left of you, start running towards the door you just came from or you will be devoured by demons yelling incomprehensible babble from mouths awash with vile poison.

If you should hear a shriek coming from the right of you, start running towards the door that your path leads to. Ignore the worker and keep running until you reach the door. If you should hear another shriek coming from anywhere around you, close your eyes and pray to the gods that your death will be a swift one.

Should you not hear a shriek, just follow the worker until he unlocks the door at the other end of the hallway. He will now ask you to enter, and he will leave.

In this room you will only find two things: a naked girl whose left hand is a mangled stump, seemingly torn to shreds by an otherworldly maw, and the rusted key chain she is holding. You must look at the key chain and may not avert your eyes from it. You can say nothing, except ask her this one question: “Why do they belong together?”

Now move eyesight to the face of the girl. She will look at you and tell you the most gruesome story of the present, how this present has come to be, how it is now and eventually how it will be. The girl will slowly move towards you, do not move, and stay still until she is but one footstep away from you. She will put the shredded piece of rot that was once her left hand on your shoulder. She will then whisper into your ear, “The time has come, and now you must die.” Do not react to this statement. Just keep staring into her eyes and eventually you will feel something being pushed into your hand.

The key chain is Object 17 of 538.

18 The Holder of Passion

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask with no hesitation to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of Passion.” The worker will blush and daydream; you will have to ask two more times until he finally nods and gestures you to follow him.

He will lead you into a hallway. You will hear a muffled diesel engine, but for the moment, it does not matter. Ignore it for now. Instead, listen to any whispering you hear. If it stops, it is vital for your sanity that you shut your eyes, for a horrifying creature will emerge from the ground and after a short time leave through the ceiling.

Should you hear the whispers in unknown languages until you and the warden reach a door made from stone, you are safe. Now, listen to the engine. If it keeps running, proceed and open the door. Do not even try to imagine what happens when the engine stops; nobody has ever been able to tell after it has stopped.

Now, if the door has been opened, the worker will leave you alone. Enter the door and walk straight forward until it closes. Now, you have to say the words “Excuse me, I’d like to learn from you.’ If you did anything wrong, you will be dead before you even realize it, so do not worry much about this. Should nothing happen for several dozen seconds, you may resume walking. Do this until you reach a heart that is as big as your head. Do not touch it, instead, turn around. You will see either the most beautiful woman or the most horrific creature your eyes have ever witnessed. The latter only appears if you have touched the still-beating heart. Its sight alone will almost drive you insane and haunt you for the rest of your life.

Should you see the woman, look at her eyes, nowhere else, even if she does not wear any clothes. The beauty will literally blind you and you will be forced to wander around in her realm until the end of your life. If you are able to keep looking at her eyes, you may ask one question: “Are they alive?” The woman will suddenly moan soundly and lay down on the ground, beginning to satisfy herself by masturbating. You must now quickly close your eyes and hold your ears shut with your hands, as her moaning will slowly destroy your mind and body, should you hear it clearly.

After some time, you will feel someone touch your right shoulder. You may now open your eyes and lower your hands. Do not turn around to whoever touched you. Instead, look at where the woman was. She will now be gone, only ash is what is left of her. Search within the ash for her uterus. Take it and close your eyes. Open them again after you felt something cold touch your head. You will be back in the mental institute, behind the warden who guided you to the stone door.

The uterus is Object 18 of 538. It has one child left to bear.

19 The Holder of Innocence

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask with no hesitation to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of Innocence.” The worker will say nothing, but a single tear should fall from her eye.

She will guide you to a forgotten hallway in an abandoned wing of the run-down institution. She will not enter the hall with you, but will only look into your eyes with a cautious hope, her own expression seeming to beg for salvation. Should you enter the hall, you will not see much, save for the dirty, broken fragments of what were once beautifully carved ivory statuettes. Before long, you will hear a soft whimper from the other side. Pay close attention, for if the whimper stops, then all hope is already lost. There is no use in running away.

As you turn the handle of the simple wooden door on the other side, a warm and cozy light will greet your face. You will find yourself in the bedroom of a young girl of eighteen years. The girl herself will be sitting cross-legged on the floor at the foot of the bed, her only garment an open night-robe, exposing the entirety of her pure body. She is the source of the tortured whimpers, and nothing you say to console her will end her torrent of stifled wails.

Only, if you ask her ‘What happened when it was first created?’ she will become silent to glance up towards your face. Her beauty will render you breathless, and if you are still capable of any thought it will be only the realization that in her you see everything in this world that you truly love. Suddenly, you will realize that the girl is bleeding from her nether regions as a grotesque phallus emerges from the petite orifice between her legs. The object will pulsate with its own life, and you will find that it is hypnotizing you. Do not look away, for you do not wish to try its patience.
Soon, the room will disappear before your eyes, and you will be standing in the most serene clearing you have ever witnessed, and all of nature’s fauna that you recognize will go about their lives around you, with no fear of anything, not even death. Suddenly, though, a shadow will fall over the meadow, and you will witness the forest all around burst into a pillar of flame. What happens next, no man can dwell on for long before going insane, but in the strength of the human mind you will endure. In the end you will hear screams and moans and groans, but what will overcome you more than anything are the quiet whimpers, the stifled cries, of all the sullied innocents of the world that was. You realize that these cries will continue to be heard all across the globe until the world’s end. None can endure those near-silent pleas and still maintain the slightest hope for the future.

The illusion will fade, and you will find yourself back in the room. You will find the girl lying dead on the floor, her face a mixture of agony and horror, her already decaying body feeding the now towering phallus and giving it a sinister glow.

That is Object 19 of 538. If you touch it then it will be yours, but if you let it master you then it will use your body to seek and assemble all the pieces, no matter what the cost.

20 The Holder of Deception

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of Deception.” The worker will look at you with an expression of shock on her face. Then, with superhuman speed she will attack you with her baton. If you are not knocked unconscious by the first blow, flee the city, for they will know what you are after.

When your consciousness returns, you will be in a magnificent courtyard on a starry night. There will be a great stone staircase that appears to ascend to the heavens themselves. Climb this staircase, but never look behind you. If you do, the stairs will begin to crumble and you will plummet into the void for an eternity.

After what will seem like days of climbing, you will come to a landing overlooking a great marble amphitheater styled in the ancient Greek fashion. Descend to the bottom of the amphitheater. An old man in opalescent robes will be waiting for you on a dais in the center. This storied old man will be lecturing as if there was a great crowd – however, you must not listen to him, for not a word he speaks is true. If you are drawn in by his charismatic speaking, your mind will be completely subjugated by his deception and you will be his slave for eternity. He will only react to one question: “What is the only truth you are permitted to speak of?”

The man will look down at you with an expression of great sadness. He will then impart on you a story that will shake the very foundations of your soul with great sorrow, but will leave you knowing one important truth: the number itself is not as it seems. He will then motion you towards an exit from the amphitheater, and continue his lecture. Turn away from him quickly, for you will now be able to see the legions of horrific, twisted demons sitting on the seats of the amphitheater. Do not gaze towards any of them longer than a moment, or else they will tear you apart and add you to their collection of souls. Walk to the exit as quickly as possible. There will be a great grimoire on a stand next to the door. Take the grimoire and exit through the door. You will find yourself in the back alley behind the asylum.

The grimoire you clutch, with its pages firmly strapped shut and locked with a great steel padlock, is Object 20 of 538.

21. Holder of Rage

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of Rage”. The person will appear shy as they show you to a door, and then walk away. When you enter the door, you will be looking down a staircase that descends into darkness. As you descend the stairs, you will begin to hear screams. The screams will come from a throat of indeterminate origin.

If the screaming stops at any time, shout to the darkness “Resume your business! I do not wish to intrude!” If the screaming does not come back, there is nothing you can do, for you will be dead before you know what happens. If the screaming continues, you may move on.

Eventually, you will see light coming through the cracks in a door. Go through this door and you will be in what appears to be a medieval dungeon. Hollowed out skulls filled with candles serve as lanterns, and skeletons line the walls. There will be a wooden table in front of a fire inside a fireplace. On this table is the severed head of a 4 year old girl, staring ahead with glassy eyes.

Step up to the table and look the head in the eyes. In a clear, commanding voice ask “Who will stop them from coming together?” The head will look you in the eyes and tell you the tale of a man. She will tell you his entire story, from his violent birth to what he is doing that very moment. His deeds will be recounted in horrifying detail. He is a murderer of which the likes have never been seen, and he is just as mad.

If at the end of the story, the head tells you “He is listening to our conversation,” you will be dragged out of the room and never be heard from again. You will experience all of the most horrifying things ever conceived, and you will be kept alive until you have experienced them all.

If she tells you He is elsewhere, He is now looking for you. He will not stop until you are dead or the objects come together. She will tell you to pick her up. Pick the head up by the hair and look at the table where she was. Sitting there will be a needle, covered in dried blood, semen, pus, and countless unidentifiable substances.

That needle is Object is 21 of 538.

22. Holder of Chaos

In any city, in any country, go to any hospital and ask to visit the one who refers to himself as “The Holder of Chaos”. The clerk will begin to shake his head and pound his fists upon the desk. Ask him thrice more and he will stand up quietly and lead you to a room with only one door, the one which you entered through. You must close your eyes, if you don’t you will forever be stricken blind and the only thing you will see is a constant sight of utter chaos.

If you have closed your eyes in time, after an hour of standing in confusion, you will hear a soft voice call out, “Do you have them?” Do not answer this question. Instead, stomp your foot upon the floor and then open your eyes. If you see a long, stretching field in front of you, then you have succeeded in the first half of your endeavor. If you see a fiery plain of death and mutilation, then it is too late for you. You will be devoured by your own thoughts of your greatest fears.

Walk towards the setting sun in the grassy field for one hour until you reach a tree with no leaves on its branches. As you get closer you see that the tree is constructed out of bones and it is surrounded in a pool of blood. Submerge yourself fully in this blood, and when you surface once more, you will feel a bone hand press something into your palm It is a small vial. Drink from the vial and you find yourself standing in the lobby of the hospital.

This vial is Object 22 of 538.

23. Holder of Hate

In any city, in any country, go to any hospital and ask to visit the “Holder of Hate.” The attendant will give you a firm handshake, look you straight in the eyes, and say “It took you long enough.” They will hand you a key to room 532 and tell you to go down the left hall.

As you walk down the hall you will hear insane cackling. Should it stop, yell “I do not fear you!” If it does not begin again, run as fast as your legs will carry you. Should it continue, keep walking. Stop when you reach room 532. The door will be covered in scratches, gashes and all manner of burns.

There will be a small, strangely unscarred glass panel in the door. Peer inside. If there is a figure standing with his back to you, retreat as quietly as you can. If the room is empty, unlock the door and enter. A red light will be shining in through the sole window in the room. Should you gaze out of this window your eyes will soon burst from your sockets and your screams will be your only utterance for all eternity. The room is small, the walls covered in blood, and a small cloaked figure sits in the middle. It will respond to only one question: “Why do they hate?” The figure’s cloak will fly into the air revealing a grotesquely disfigured being. It will answer your question in horrific detail. Upon finishing the story it will collapse, as if a tremendous burden has passed from its shoulders, and crawl into the corner. You will begin to hear strange, unearthly shrieks from beyond the door. They will be getting nearer by the second. Your only hope is to wrap yourself in the cloak and hurl yourself out the red window. If you were not followed you will wake up on the lawn of the hospital the next day, wrapped snugly in the cloak.

The cloak is Object 23 of 538. It will hide you from their hate.

24. The Holder of Color

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself into. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit the “Holder of Color”. The warden will glance up at you and give you a shy smile before holding out his hand to you. You must wait precisely eight seconds before taking it, or the colors themselves will deny you, and you may not enter.

The warden will stand and lead you to a cell, opening the door for you and motioning for you to enter. Inside the cell you will find two little boys, both garbed in shades of grey, and their skin and hair will appear as if all the color was drained out of them. One has long hair and wears a white dress, while the other wears a black suit and has hair cut short. Only look into the white one’s eyes, for they are normal, and the eyes of the black-clothed boy will lead you into madness. Each will wear one glove and hold out both their hands to you. Take only the gloved hand of each, for should you touch the black-clothed boy’s flesh, you will be plagued with the worst agony in all the universe but you will not die and he will not let go. Should you touch the white-clothed boy’s flesh, you will feel more pleasure than you have ever experienced, but he will soon pull his hand away, and you will never feel that pleasure again, no matter how you yearn for it; your lust will kill you.

The boys will look at each other and nod once; should they shake their heads, close your eyes and quickly say, “I am not what you seek, but I can change the tides.” Once you say this, they will both giggle and pull on your hands, opening a trap door in their cell and descending into darkness. The boys will speak in unison, endlessly bragging about their riches, all the things they have. They will ask you many times if you are jealous; each time you must simply answer “Yes.” Your fate now lies in the hands of these boys.

The stairs you descend are long, and grow ever narrower, until finally one boy will go in front and one in back. Should the boy in black go in front, consider yourself lucky; life now is at your back. But should he go in back, your death will be agonizing and he will throw you from the stairs to the abyss below.

After what seems like an eternity, you will reach the end of the stairs, and both boys will push you to a large glass door. They will stare after you, tears streaming down their faces, and tell you they can go no further, but point to the door. You must enter.

The room is pitch black, save for a single beam of light at its direct center. Standing in the light is a woman, much like the boys, completely stripped of color. Her hair and gown both reach the earth, each as white as her flesh. Her eyes are only whites, staring blankly at you. If she should smile at you, you have amused her, and she will light up the entire room with her light and you will become one of the writhing bodies that makes up the collection beneath her glass floor. Should she frown at you, she will turn her back and light up the part of the room behind her, awakening seven other beings: a cackling man who wears just black, a weeping man garbed in white, a snarling man with piercing red eyes, a grimacing woman who wears only pink petals, an emotionless girl enveloped in green, a sickly man with silver hair, and a smirking gentleman covered in riches. They are to be your judges. You must the pick the one that you feel will do you justice and walk towards them, asking along your way, “When will they strip you of this earth?” Should you choose the wrong color, the one you have chosen will stand very still and smile at you eerily, and you will soon feel yourself slipping away into nothingness. Should you have chosen the correct color, they will respond with a hideous screech, pointing fearfully at the woman in the center of the room. The others will scream curses at you in many different languages and you will feel piercing pain rip through your body. Soon, the one you have chosen will step forward to embrace you, and whisper in your ear their sickening tales, the stories of your demise, of the demise of the world when every breath will fade away. Do not move.

The curses will stop and the room will be lit, the seven all staring at you. Where the woman was there will now be a small feather, like that of a dove, changing its color continuously.

This feather is object 24 of 538. With it you can take away what was theirs to give.

25. Holder of Creation

In any city, in any country, go to any hospital and ask to visit the one who refers to himself as “The Holder of Creation”. The clerk will look into your eyes, horrified, before standing up. She (and only a she) will lead you to the maternity ward and push you into a locked door, which you will glide through.

Once inside the door, you will notice two more: one to the left and one to the right. You must chose the one in the direction to which you are more accustomed, hoping all the while that fate has correctly guided your hand. Touch the door handle. If light peeks from under the doorway, you must enter. If it doesn’t, you must run into the other room, as fast as you can. Sleep where you drop and do not trust anyone. Do not enter the sunlight; seek shadows and pray to whatever god you wish that you pass unnoticed.

If the light is emitted from beneath the door, or if by some miracle you evade capture after your error and return to choose once more, enter cautiously. The room seems to stretch into eternity; make no attempt to comprehend its size or shape, as many men greater than you have been driven mad at the thought. Strewn across the entirety of this room are the bodies of the stillborn and the fetuses of the unborn. Those capable of sound will be seem to pierce the very fabric of your consciousness with cries, which appear to be both audible and a figment of your imagination.

On the horizon will be a mother, little more than a child herself, clutching a baby wrapped in a tattered blanket to her teat. Closer examination of the suckling infant will leave you pondering its true age. Its expression seems weathered and careworn, an eternal, knowing glance assuring you that its eyes have forgotten more than most will ever see.

Approach the mother, calmly. Should you startle her and interrupt the feeding, your only hope is to whisper, “I wish not to disturb you, nor your beautiful son.” If you have appeased her, position yourself so as to gaze directly into the child’s eyes. Once there, you must not break eye contact for fear of upsetting the infant and bringing about your own doom. You may ask him one question and one question only: “For what have we been created?”

The baby will move and wrap his tattered cloth around you, binding you and rending you limb from limb, yet you must not react to the pain or risk never returning to your original form. If you can overcome the agony, he will stare into your eyes, and you will see the beginning of the cosmos. All things that have been since the creation of existence will unfold before your eyes. The truth of the origin of the Seekers will be brought to life, and if you’re not driven insane by this truth, you will feel the warmth of this knowledge glowing inside you. This heat will grow until the pain of the burn outweighs that of your torn flesh a thousandfold. You will feel your body melt away, burning into nothing save ash.

At the peak of your anguish, if you have managed to remain stoic, you will blink the eyelids which you no longer have, opening them to find you have returned outside, exactly one day before the incident. In your hands you will find a tattered manuscript, the text of which seems to predate existence.

This Object is 25 out of 538.

26. The Holder of Love

In any city, in any country, go to any hospital and ask to visit the “Holder of Love”, and prepare yourself to be destroyed completely and utterly.

None have returned from their quest for this Object, or if they have, they are no longer truly “living”. They are husks, gone from their bodies completely and
utterly, leaving mad messages strewn across the walls of their new home, their ruined bodies sickening to behold.

The things that I call “survivors” no longer have the will to live, and yet no longer have strength enough to end their lives. They have descended to a place of nightmares and horror, a place of hate and despair. A place where their desires become torments and their despair becomes home. This place is filled with denizens more horrid and unimaginable than the Objects themselves, beasts and monstrous beyond words which will rent you apart in a thousand ways before they end your life. This is the place this Holder calls home, the worst Holder; the worst in all of the Hells.

They have set forth on the path of an Object; a dark “protection” both divine and demonic. It may steel you from the horrors of your quest, and you may believe it spells your salvation, but know what I know: that you are damned if you Seek this, damned beyond any of the Holders you have heard of or shall hear of.

But, if you believe you can strive forward and defeat the trials and horrors this fell Guardian has to offer then I hope you finally taste the rewards of your quest, for you are greater than the greatest and a God among the insects of Holders.

The dark “protection” is the 26th object.

27. The Holder of Sleep

In any city, in any country, go to a hospital at night and ask the head nurse to see “The Holder of Sleep.” She will ignore you and say she has work to do. Ask twice more without stammering and she will sigh as if weary. She will ask you if you are sure, if you answer no you will wake up the next day fully rested and free of any chains. If you answer yes she will guide you to an empty room and tell you to sleep.

When you awaken you will be on a stone table at the beginning of a hallway. As you walk down the hall you will begin to feel drowsy, you must resist sleep here for you will slumber eternally. If you make it to the end of this hallway you will find a door. Open this to find The Holder of Sleep.

You will see a wizened old man sleeping peacefully. Tread lightly for he does not like to be disturbed. Do not look under his bed, for there lies death and it will pull you under to be tormented forever. Walk quietly up to his bed and whisper in his ear “Why do they never rest?” until he wakes up and tells you the story of how they chained their slumber onto him, then he will invite you to sit with him. Do so, else he will chain their slumber unto you and you will never truly be awake again.

After sitting with him he will pull a small crystal with inner light from his nightgown. He will then push it deep into your chest. If you can ignore the pain he will fall back into his slumber. If you cry out you shall replace him in his tortured slumber. Return to the stone table and sleep again. You will find yourself outside of the hospital after waking up.

The crystal is object 27 of 538. You no longer need sleep, pray your nightmares do not follow you out.

28. Holder of Clarity

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself ‘The Holder of Clarity’. The worker will begin to chatter on about their life, making inside jokes and references which only they understand. All the while, they will walk in a weaving motion to the recreational area of the building. They will slide open a hatch beneath a table and suddenly fall silent with a grim look upon their face. You will look down into the hole, and you will see a vast number of lights flashing on and off, and you will feel berated and confused, but you must go in.

This hall seems to have no start and no end, the lights flashing sporadically, and you will find that tiny flying objects flit in front of you, in your eyes and nose and mouth. The air will fill with a horrible, all-consuming buzzing noise that does not allow you to hear even your own screams. You must only walk on, and if for any reason the objects stop moving or the lights hold their glow, you must yell out, ‘They shall not know I’m here, as I have covered my tracks!’ If the calm stays, you are too late, as it has already begun.

If the horrible bewilderment returns, you must forge on. In your wanderings, you will meet a door. You can feel its handle and allow yourself in. The room will be eternal, only the floor holding your mind intact.

There will be a man whose entire form is run through with long nails and stakes, every inch of his body secured. His mouth is held open, pins forcing his lips up to his face, a stake buried in the back of his gaping mouth. His tongue will writhe and flop at your arrival, his eyes searching over you in a panicked state.

He will respond to only one question: ‘Why do they take form?’ His eyes will affix on you and his tongue will hold still. In a gargling, horrible speech, he will recite to you the creation of every Object, and the purpose of each. The description will force you to vomit upon every sentence, and the tale leaves most mad.

You will find a rusty and worn fillet knife in your hand. You must remove his writhing tongue with his pathetic and gurgling screams echoing through your soul. He will seem pathetic and you will want to help him, but do not, or you will replace him.

His tongue is Object 28 of 538.

29. Holder of Frost

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house in you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls herself “The Holder of the Frost”. If the worker shivers unnaturally, you will be lead to a hallway that shouldn’t exist where it does. The worker will wave you down the hall, and, once your back is turned, will shake his head and mutter, “The poor fool.” The hallway will get colder as you proceed, but do not make any attempt to warm yourself. If you do, heaven help what will become of you.

If, at any time, the cold ceases and the hallway becomes warm, you must cease walking quickly and shout, “Stop! This is not the answer!” If the warmth persists, run. Run as fast as you can for the exit. If you do not make it, then the fires of Hell shall consume you. If you do make it, do not stop running. Flee the asylum, the city, the country, for the hell hounds have your scent, and they do not rest.

If the cold returns, proceed down the hallway until you come to a door made of solid ice, and knock three times. If a soft, womanly voice beckons you to enter, open the door. If a gruff, male voice tells you to leave, pray for a quick demise.

Inside of the door, you will find a room made of ice, with frozen stalagmites and stalactites giving it the appearance of a massive maw. In the center of the room will be a veiled, ivory-skinned woman. Do not look at the woman directly, and say only one thing: “What caused their hibernation?”

She will tell you her story, a story of destruction and devastation, war and famine, life and death, and of a deep slumber. The story will chill you to the base of your existence, but do not ever look directly at the woman. If you do, your soul will be frozen for all eternity.

When she is done, she will remove her veil, but you must not gaze upon her. Her beauty would shatter your mind. If you keep your eyes away from her, she will cup her hands over yours and whisper into your ear: “The ice age is over. What will you do?” The world will explode in white, and when it subsides you will be outside of the institution. In your hands will be a large, crystal snowflake.

That snowflake is Object 29 of 538. The ice age is over; they are starting to thaw.

30. The Holder of the Flame

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house in you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of the Flame.” The worker will stare impassively at you for many minutes before pointing, silently, to a door behind you. The door was not there, and anyone else around you will not notice it. Approach the door and close your eyes before grasping the knocker. You need knock only once. If the metal suddenly cools in your hand, run. Run far away, and keep running. Only hope that you have escaped, for the alternative is a horror only the souls in hell can comprehend.

If the knocker grows warm, hold onto it tightly, even when it begins to sear into your hand. Eventually, the pain will stop. Once this has happened, open your eyes. You will be in a small garden, illuminated by the light of a full moon, and surrounded by ivy-covered stone walls. To your left will be a pond. Do not look directly into the water, lest the multitude of terrors lurking within capture and drown you again and again for the rest of eternity. To your right will be a funeral pyre, not yet lit, slickly dark with a flammable fluid.

Take exactly 5 steps towards the pyre. Do not ask why. You will find the corpse of a castrated male child, his arms folded over a vial of quicksilver. Say nothing but the question: “What caused their immolation?”

The corpse will not move, but the pyre will ignite of its own free will. As will the bushes, the grass, the trees, and the flowers all around it. The flames will shift colors, from the normal colors of fire, to the red of freshly spilled blood, to the green of infection and disease. The plants will shriek in agony as the walls surrounding the garden are consumed. The pond will dry out, the water itself burning with a blistering heat, as the souls of the damned rise upward in the steam, howling their litany of curses upon you.

As the first curse reaches your ears, you must summon your courage and begin to laugh. Loudly, spitefully, arrogantly, but not softly. If the curses become more vehement, you are safe. If they stop, then throw yourself on the pyre to escape a fate far worse.

In the midst of the tempest, the corpse will calmly sit upright, consumed entirely in flames, and will proffer the vial. You must continue to laugh, and cross your arms. You must not accept this gift now.

The corpse will open its mouth, and if you are lucky, what you will see in its depths will not leave you laughing in madness for the rest of your mortal life.

The vial will drop, shatter, and spill its contents upon the blackened remains of the grass as the flames die down. Everything will be silent. At your feet will be a new flower, its stem hard and spiny, its petals painted with the colors of hell-fire and damnation. Pick it, and you will find yourself away from the garden and back in front of the door.

This flower is Object 30 of 538. It will burn itself deep into your soul, and ignite the fires of madness.

31. Holder of Silence

Do not speak. Do not sigh. Shut down any sound-making device; smash it if you must. Send away your friends and family; never see them again. And smother that damn dog.

Shoot the neighbors; they want to break it.

The silence- hear it? Pure and golden, all for you. There will be no clamor, no gasping or struggling, so long as you maintain the silence.

Walk to the institute. Make no noise and let no others blast and blare through your silence; their fists and guns and bullets must not stop you.

They must not break the silence.

When you reach the institute, hand the desk worker a blank piece of paper and they will understand.

You will be taken deep into the institute. All the while, bask in your silence: crushing you, maddening you. It wants to destroy you so that you may be part of it.

Hear that? The blood rushing through your veins? That must be silent. Tear out the noisy heart, for it has offended and must be cast aside.

Continue walking- you must walk- and be surrounded by the silence.

Bring up walls and cages to defend the silence; create punishments for those who would break it.

When you reach your cell you may once more speak, but you will not want to. You will simply wish to maintain the silence, have it surround you, be near you. Hold it for a while.

Because that Silence is Object 31 of 538. It must not be broken.

32. Holder of the Speed

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask for something called “The Holder of the Speed.” The worker should become motionless. Look around yourself; if everything else became motionless, you are on the right path. If you are not, no one shall know of your demise. This will make it all the worse.

You will notice that moving around and breathing will become gradually, but increasingly, difficult; this is expected, for the air slowly becomes motionless. You should explore carefully the halls surrounding you, thinking about your first great failure, but be aware that, if you take too long, you will suffocate.

Your objective is to find a child who still moves amidst all the surrounding statuesque shapes. The child will approach you with a ball, hand it over to you. Pay attention to how the ball is held. The child will then declare, “You’re it.” And then run outside the room, always giggling.

What you will have to do is return the ball. Careful to not be fooled by the voice echoing within the halls, for wasted time means you’re closer to death by asphyxiation. As time passes, the air will become harder to cut through, requiring greater strength; warmth will slowly leave your body; droplets of water will pierce your skin. Most likely, you’ll be blinded, deafened, and similarly mutilated during this chase. Vision will be impaired as everything slowly darkens, as even light itself is eventually reaching a stop.

It is certain that you will find the child in one of the hallways, under a beam of light; it could be coming from a window, a lamp, or any similar light source. You should return the ball in the same way it was given to you and attempt to escape, giving continuity to the game.

If you succeeded, the air won’t be heavy anymore. You will notice every place you ran past will be damaged to some degree. Depending on where you finished your ordeal, you may have to give many explanations to the facility’s administration, and somehow avoid imprisonment.

If you failed, the child will once again hand you the ball as soon as you’re reached. He will then again declare, “You’re it”, and dash through the corridors. You will probably die, pierced by the air’s humidity and suffocated, before you can reach the infant a second time.

Your new-found agility is Object 32 of 538. Mentioning the child to others will earn you, at first, scorn and ridicule. To mention him a second time is to invite your demise at the hands of everyone in earshot. If you’re lucky.

33. Holder of Wind

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house in you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of the Wind.” The receptionist will then walk off, as if you weren’t even there. Follow the receptionist. After five minutes of what seems like aimless walking, the receptionist will begin to whistle. If it is a tune you recognize, then continue to follow. If you do not recognize the song, try to remember the better times of your life, as from there out you will know nothing but the endless pain of your own personal Hell.

If you find yourself humming along to the tune, the receptionist will turn to you and point you to a room on your left. Enter the room. Inside is a wide prairie filled with endless, knee-high grass. The first thing you will notice is a warm, gentle breeze playing over your face. In the distance, you will hear a faint whispering sound. If you do not hear the whisper, run out the door and close it behind you or the peaceful prairie will become your final resting place.

If the whisper persists, close the door and it will disappear. Follow the whisper as best you can. After a few steps, a young man will rise out of the grass, clothed in simple farm clothes. This man knows only the answer to one question. “What carried them away?”

The man will tell you a lazy tale. A story filled with illusion and deception, dulled by his accent. You will start to become tired and may want to lie down and sleep for a while in the comfy grass, but do not. For if you do, you will never awaken from your slumber.

Once the man is done rambling, he will ask you a question. “Do you really want it?” The laziness induced by the scenery will make you want to say no, but resist and take the wind chimes he offers you. The door you came in will then appear in front of you, allowing you to leave in peace.

These chimes are Object 33 of 538. When the wind causes these chimes to sound, another Object is near.

34. Holder of Oblivion

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house in you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of Oblivion.” If the attendant stares at you and swallows audibly, follow him to a room deep within the building, far deeper than you thought possible. The attendant will open the door and give you a fearful look. If you are brave, enter the room. If you are craven, flee now.

Inside the room, there is only a chair. Sit down in it. If at any time you begin to feel fear, get up and leave. You are still free to escape. If you choose to stay, you must sit and wait until the lights in the room flicker. Do not stand. Do not get up. If you are not sitting down when the lights flicker, then you will plummet into the void between worlds, a meal for its grotesque denizens.

When the lights flicker, you must shut your eyes immediately. Gazing upon the void will destroy your mind. Only when you hear a man clear his throat may you open your eyes. You will be in a dark dungeon, bound to the chair by a web of ebony chains. Surrounding you will be heads impaled upon blood-soaked pikes, and standing before you will be a man wearing an executioner’s uniform. Stare him in the eyes; do not move your gaze and do not show even the slightest tinge of fear, for if you do, he will add your head to his collection.

The only thing you may speak without being beheaded is the question, “What will they bring?” The executioner will laugh an inhuman laugh, and then the impaled heads will begin to speak. They will speak of horrors, of executions, of their individual ends, but you must not move your gaze from the executioner, or you too will be speaking of your death. Eventually, he will speak of his own end, of what they brought to him. When he finishes, he will remove his cowl, revealing a skeleton’s face. With a cackle, he will wave his hands, and the world will plunge into darkness.

When the light returns, you will be sitting peacefully in the lobby of the institution. In your lap will be the executioner’s cowl.

That cowl is Object 34 out of 538.

35. Holder of Fear

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house in you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of Fear”. If the time is right, the attendant will lead you to a closet with no floor. With a malicious grin, the worker will shove you into the hole and close the door.

As you fall through the abyss, you cannot feel any fear. If you do, you will immediately hit the spike-ridden bottom of the pit and meet a gruesome death. If you remain resolute, your fall will eventually slow and stop, leaving you in a room soaked in darkness. Into the darkness, you must speak only one thing: “What is their weapon?”

Immediately the room will be illuminated. Surrounding you will be everything that you fear, and in the center will be a creature who will take the appearance of your greatest fear. Not even once can you flinch or shrink away from this creature, or it will dismember you in the most painful way possible.

You must stare at your greatest fear while it tells you its story in excruciating detail. It will tell you of all the fears in the world, from the tiniest to the greatest, in all of their horribleness. When it is finished, the creature will ask what you fear. Now you must confess all of your fears to the creature, without looking around the room. If you miss even one, you will be consumed by your own terror, leaving nothing but a shell remaining.

If you confess all of your fears, the creature will scream, and the scream will send you hurtling through the wall behind you. When you stop moving, you will be across from the closet you entered earlier, and in the closet will be a mirror.

That mirror is Object 35 of 583. It reflects your greatest fear, and that is their weapon.

36. Holder of Faith

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or religious institution you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, close your eyes and ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of Faith’. The worker will look at you in abstract confusion, shake his head, and go back to his work. If you wait for 3 full minutes, he will sigh and walk you to a custodian’s closet. He will lead you inside and lock you there. The door will not open, and it will be pitch black. Slowly the darkness will begin to describe, in the brightest of white words, in a language you have never read and voices you have never heard, speaking the foulest blasphemies your body can withstand.

Should the soliloquy ever stop, fall to your knees and clasp your hands, screaming every prayer you know. If the writing does not continue, curse the god that has put you into existence.

If the writing does continue, stand quickly and race down the tunnel. There the tunnel will open up into a large dome, and you will see a young girl in white, staring at you with her hair fallen down into her face. Do not look at your hands, or they will peel the flesh from your bones. She will respond to only one question: ‘Why do they fear?’

She will look up to you and her mouth will blurt out every wrong that has ever occurred in the name of a god, and some that you must believe happened beyond your reality. She will then fall to the ground screaming in horrible agony as she is consumed by a white flame.

That ash is Object 36 of 538.

37. Holder of Confusion

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of Confusion.” The worker will initially ignore you, but if you wait for one full minute, she will rise and motion for you to follow her. After following her down a series of dimly lit hallways, you will come to a dead-end corridor with no doorways. The worker will motion to the end of the hallway, and promptly leave you without a word.

You must walk to the end of the hallway, without speaking a word. Once you reach the end, place your hands upon the wall to reveal that it is an illusion which you may walk through. If you are scared, or unsure of what is behind the wall when you step through, or have any doubts at all, you will simply walk off of the plane of existence forever, never to be heard from again.

But if you believe in yourself, and believe answers lie beyond the wall, when you step through you will appear in a bright white room with many paths. Some lead into the distance, others appear to lead nowhere at all, yet others appear to defy understanding, and lead to suffering that only the most damnable of all souls can comprehend.

The path you seek is the one that lies ahead of you. It appears to continue on for eternity. While walking, you must say nothing, no matter how long the trip appears to take, and should the room begin to darken halfway through your trip down the path, your only option is to sit down and weep silently, for you are now nothing more than nourishment for the most grotesque and cursed demon of them all.

However, if the room remains an almost unfathomably perfect white, your trip down the path will be without peril, and you will safely come to a door. At this point, you need do nothing, as the door opens to you to reveal a room which appears an impossibility. It is not big, but not small. Not lit, but not dark. It appears to be everything, and nothing. Equals and opposites are meaningless in this room. It is said that most who enter are driven to a maddening insanity and begin to claw their own flesh off, or disembowel themselves with their bare hands, all while laughing manically. Never dying, this will be their fate for eternity.

Should you manage to not be driven to insanity, you will notice a nondescript figure standing in the center of the madness. It appears to be human, yet at the same time, something much more hellish. You will not be able to comprehend this entity visually, but you must not repulse at its sight, nor can you say anything to it. It will begin to speak to you many events. Some of which you know are true. Others you know are lies. Some which you are unsure of. The entity will become increasingly agitated that you are ignoring its nonsense. You MUST refrain from saying anything at all, until the entity falls silent briefly, and then asks:

“What would you do, if they were all brought together?”

To this, you must very firmly reply:

“Everything that you would do. Including what you wouldn’t.”

The entity will stare at you blankly for a moment. If it doesn’t believe you, it will simply walk away and leave you there, forever in darkness. If it does believe you, however, it will reach its hand out and give you a small, seemingly immaterial glowing object. This is the “Beast’s Resolve.”

That is Object 37 of 538.

38. The Holder of Accuracy

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the receptionist’s desk, ask to visit someone who calls themselves “The Holder of Accuracy.” Should a look of terror and sorrow fall over the receptionist’s face, they have found you, and no amount of running will save you.

However, if their face shows an expression of excitement and disbelief, you’ve come to the right place. They will take you to the nearest door and open it for you. You must walk through the doorway exactly three seconds after they open it. No more, no less. After walking through, the receptionist will close and lock the door behind you. You will find that you are now standing in a firing range with spots taken on either side of you as far as you can see. The people who take these spots are Seekers that have failed. They are doomed to an eternity of thoughtless enslavement, unable to summon enough free will to end their own lives with the weapons so tantalizingly close at hand.

Take the one open spot that is directly in front of you. You will notice that there is a rifle conveniently placed on a nearby table. As soon as you pick it up, a target will appear at the end of the firing range. You will have five rounds, and you must hit the center of the target with each of them. If you miss the first shot, the Seeker to your left will put their gun to your head and pull the trigger. If you hit the first time but then miss another shot, you will join the Seekers that have failed in their mindless stupor.

If you manage to hit the bulls-eye all five times, however, the firing range will disappear, and you will find yourself in an empty black void standing before a man dressed in a black trench coat and a dark brown fedora, but you will not be able to see his face. This is The Holder. If he is smoking a cigar, then he does not find you worthy of continuing your journey, and will shove you into the void to fall for eternity. If he is smoking a cigarette, then he believes you are capable of progress. He will beckon for you to speak. You must ask him, “How many people tried to stop them?”

He will then tell you in great detail how many people tried to stop the objects from being lost, how many rounds were fired, how many battles were fought, how many wars were started, among other things. Don’t worry. Few have gone insane from this information. The man will then hand you the rifle you used in the firing range. any round that you load into this rifle will never spread and will always shoot where you aim. The man will give you a respectful nod and walk into the void. You will feel a strong gust of air and then you will find yourself standing in front of the place you call home.

That rifle is Object 38 of 538.

39. Holder of Absence

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of Absence”. Should the person at the front desk try to convince you that the person you wish to visit is no longer there, ask to visit their cell nonetheless. At this point, the receptionist shall show a look that can only be defined as emotionless. The receptionist will lead you down a long wall with many doors on either side until you reach an iron door with one barred window on it. They will open the door for you but lead you no further. Beyond the door is darkness, nothing more.

As you step into the darkness, the door will slam shut behind you. You are now trapped and the only way to go is forward. You will not be able to see the ground, the roof, or the walls. Be aware, you may be walking for a very long time, possibly days. As you walk, you will begin to feel cold and empty inside. You will feel as if your soul has left your body as a shell. In time you may hear footsteps that echo loudly. Stop immediately and wait. If the footsteps do not stop, you must sit down and wait until they do. If they begin to grow even louder, then you will surely perish by an unimaginable horror. If the footsteps do stop, you must press forward until you reach another iron door, illuminated by a light behind it. Open it and step inside.

Inside will be a pitch black room. Only a small circle of light upon the floor can be seen, lit by a small candle. Behind the light will be a chair with a coat on it. Approach the chair but do not sit in it, no matter how long you have been walking. Wait until the candle burns out. When it does, reach out and take the coat. The next time you blink, you will find yourself in front of the desk in the mental institution or halfway house. Reach into the right inside breast pocket of the coat and pull out a singed sheet of paper with red ink. Do not read this ink or the Holder of Absence will become present and destroy you with unthinkable pain and anguish.

This paper is Object 39 of 538.

40. Holder of the Abandoned

In any city, in any country, go to any orphanage or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of the Abandoned”. The attendant will look up at you with lonely eyes, and lamely motion for you to follow her. She will lead you through a maze of corridors. Do not look back and keep on her heels or you will be forever lost in this maze. She will show you a door, crumbling with age. She will then suddenly vanish, abandoning you to your fate. Push forward or be lost forever.

After you open the door you’ll be confronted with a hedge maze of slowly dying bushes. Follow your gut as you navigate or risk losing yourself to an eternity of wandering. Listen carefully. Every step you make will ring loudly through the still air. Should the sound stop, stand still and don’t dare to move. If you hear a buzzing sound, shout out, “Go back, I do not need your help!’ If the buzzing persists, then run. Run for your life. Your body, your mind, your very soul will be in great danger. Do not stop, no matter what you may hear or see. Should they catch you, you will be gnawed eternally by the sharp fangs of every problem that has ever plagued mankind. If you escape, then you may consider yourself blessed with luck few have had before.

Eventually you’ll make it to the end. Before you will stand at a golden gate; knock once, and it will swing open for you. Slowly enter the courtyard. Inside you will find a beautiful man in his late forties wandering around aimlessly. Ask him this and nothing else: “Where were they abandoned?’ If this man attacks you, then count yourself lucky; you will never see the end of this. If not, then he will show you. He will show you every hidden crevice, every basement lair, every corpse, every madman, every evil place that these things have tainted. You will probably go insane. If not, then you are truly destined to see this task to the end. The man will have left you by the end of this slideshow. In his place you will find a map and a broken watch. The watch shows how much time you have left in this race. You may not keep it, and you will not remember the time that it shows.

That map is Object 40 of 538.

41. Holder of Solitude

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. As you approach the front desk, keep your gaze on the floor. Should your gaze wander, then you have already failed. At the desk, do not move or shift your gaze until the worker makes a sound, recognizing your existence. Without upturning your eyes, ask her for the being known as “The Holder of Solitude.” As these words leave your lips a great gong will ring, shaking the very ground you stand on. Once the ring of the gong turns to silence, you can finally observe your surroundings.

You will find yourself under a strange sky in a vast and morbid wasteland, only a cold stone path leading towards the horizon. The instant you become aware of this lifeless wasteland, you must start moving, for they know you are there. And they do not take well to outsiders.

Should clouds gather in the sky and darkness encroach on the path during your crossing towards the horizon, shut your eyes and kneel. No mortal has ever let his stare rest upon this world’s inhabitants. As you kneel, you must plead: ‘I do not know you, nor have I any wish to. But my path is here and I must follow it.” After you have uttered these words, await their judgment. Should they choose to allow your presence, you will feel them retreating; should they decide otherwise, then this was not your fate. Hope that they end your existence quickly.

At the end of your path awaits an obsidian pillar. Perched atop it is an obsidian gargoyle, regarding your approach. The gargoyle will only stir to the sound of one question: ‘Who shall perish?” Once these words are spoken, the gargoyle shall descend upon you, and his wings will envelop you in darkness. There he will show you the lives of all human beings as stars in the darkness, and as stars you will watch them flicker and die. For eons you shall watch the deaths of those who came before you and those yet to come. And you shall experience their loneliness as you watch them die, sensing how utterly separated they were from each other.

This shall continue until your sanity shatters or until only one light remains. And so the gargoyle shall speak: ‘Your end is not mine to reveal to you, and it is not what you seek.” These words will echo inside your head until the day the task is completed. Once again you must shut your eyes, lest you keep your gaze on the last remaining light, and the gargoyle will devour you. As you shut your eyes, you will feel as though you are being hurled through the dimensions, spinning endlessly until solid ground is only a vague memory. At that moment you will be thrown to a stone floor, and it will be as being born again, as returning into the light after eternities in darkness.

And once you open your eyes you will look around at a gargantuan, withering ballroom, the cracked marble floor covered with dead leaves. At the far end of the room you will see a light, calling you. As you advance towards it you will be able to make out something hung upon the wall: a dark kite shield decorated with macabre symbols, the symbols seemingly alive and pulsating. You need only to take it off the wall to claim it.

The moment the shield leaves the wall you will be back at the front desk where the worker is staring at you intently. She knows what you have started and she hates you for it.

The shield you hold in your hands is Object 41 of 538. Pray that it can protect you from what is to come.

42. Holder of the Star

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or hospital and ask at the main desk for the one who refers to himself as the “Holder of the Star”. The worker will stare into your eyes with a smug look of contempt for several seconds. If he does not see your heart’s resolve in your eyes, he will laugh arrogantly. If he does, flee, or guards shall take hold of you and lock you in a cramped cell where you will hear the man’s laughter in waking and sleeping as long as you live. If he sees the determination in your eyes, he shall stand and guide you down a hallway. He will stop at a cell door and will hand you the key, saying nothing and walking away. With key in hand, grab the handle and turn it slowly; it is not locked.

Instead of a cell behind the door, there is a hall, dimly lit. Enter the corridor then close and lock the door behind you. As you walk down this hallway, you will hear the laughter of children playing mixed with the heartwarming chants of foreign monks. Quickly the laughter will turn to screams and the chants to curses. As long as you hear these terrible noises you are safe, but if your courage sways, and the slightest fear overcomes you in this corridor, the sounds shall stop. And if this happens, shut your eyes and pray that what hideous creature that just awakened will take your life in its first bite. If you survive this corridor, you shall reach a small locked door. The lights will dim around you until all you can see is the door. When all is dark, use the key you were given and unlock the door. Enter through the door into a small, pitch-black cell. In the cell there is a hooded man in red robes. He holds a candle and keeps his eyes closed while chanting. He sits in the middle of a pentacle drawn in glowing red blood. The stench it produces will cause you to gag, but dare not do any more than that. Before the man is a smoldering rock. Do not stare at the stone directly for too long, or the burning from the rock shall envelop your mind and send your body into a fiery eternity. Instead, stare at the candle and listen to the old man.

He responds to only one question: “What must be done to complete their task?” The man shall stop chanting, and will tell you five names and five questions. He shall inform you that you must learn on your own which matches with the other. He shall then dab his forefinger in the blood of the pentacle and will draw on the wall a formula. A Key, plus a Book, plus a Quill, plus a Word scrawled in a way that it is illegible, yields an open book with three ovals drawn around it. He shall chuckle warmly and return to his seating place. He will hand you the still-burning stone and from behind his robe he shall pull out a still-beating heart. With all your might, crush the organ until it no longer quivers. Inside the meaty mush you will find an antique fountain pen. When you look back up, you will find the old man dead, with a look of serene content upon his face. Pay this man the final honor of closing his eternally glassy eyes, and leave the room. He was the Holder, and his looks deceive. If you are to touch him again, you will become one of the cursing monks for eternity. The darkness will sweep over you and, when it lifts, you will find yourself outside of the hospital.

You will find the pen to never require refilling of its red ink. Though the ink never stinks of it, you will realize that it is your blood that drains through the pen onto paper. Should you ever allow this object to be destroyed, a horrific, slow death will befall you. As long as you hold this item, you will hear whispering chants in the back of your mind until you die or do their bidding.

This pen is Object 42 of 538. It wills you to write in the cursed tome with your own blood.

43. Holder of Earth

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of Earth”. The worker will laugh loudly, drawing the attention of only one other patron. The worker will remain seated, but the person whose attention he drew will call you over. Do not ask him anything as he leads you to a disused broom closet deep in the asylum. He will open the door for you and wait for you to enter first; do not do this, or the stairway inside the door will disappear and you will plummet endlessly through the ice-cold black. Instead, tell him, “I would not dare see these sights before you”. If he believes you, he will nod slightly and enter, and you should follow him. If he does not, be thankful that you are deep enough into the asylum that no one can hear your screams.

As you descend the stairway, you will hear beastly yells coming from all sides, but primarily from above you. Keep your eyes trained to the darkness below you (for the man will have vanished in the darkness, though you will be able to feel that you are not alone). You must never look up, or the demons and hell spawn watching you, mocking you, will descend, rending your flesh from your bones, draining your blood, ripping your muscles and sinew in all too long of an instant.

As you climb down, you will find the atmosphere becoming more and more tomblike, and though you will still be able to hear the demons above, it will seem as though there is finally a ceiling overhead. You must still take the utmost caution never to look up. After an impossibly long amount of time, you will set foot on solid, soft ground again. If the demons from the stairwell have stopped their yelling, you will not live to see the ground. If they have not, you will wish they had, for now is your opportunity to ask the only question to which the darkness will respond. You must ask firmly, “How can they be stopped?”

When you do, ghastly wails will emit from below you, though you will still be able to feel the ground under you. You will be able to sense the gentleman who led you here turn around. His eyes will pierce you, though you will not be able to see them. You must never look down or otherwise falter your gaze from the darkness immediately in front of you. The wails will continue, wordless at first, but a strong male voice will lead them into speaking in unison. They will tell you of the one thing that can prevent the result of the objects coming together, but it will be interlaced with every last consequence of doing so. They will tell you of the sky raining fire, of rivers running red with your blood, and they will tell you so much more.

When the consequences are finished, the lights will suddenly go on. The man who led you here will be gone. In his place will be an object that you will not be able to see in this place, lest it drive you completely insane. You must close your eyes as soon as the lights come on and feel around blindly on the floor for the warm, rough texture of the object. If you do not close your eyes, you will see what the ground is made of: disemboweled human corpses, all missing their eyes, though their mouths still breathe. If you look at this sight and are not driven mad immediately, you will become one of them, joining the satanic earth.

If you take the object successfully, though, you will be transported to the exterior of the asylum, where you may open your eyes.

The granite stone is Object 43 of 538.

44. Holder of War

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. Gaze at the ceiling with a bored expression as you walk up to the front desk, and with a voice that sounds like it is distant and indifferent and ask to see the “Holder of War”. You will get a light tap on the shoulder; it is now safe to look down. The attendant will smile politely and begin walking, giving a speech that sounds almost mechanical as he describes the history of the asylum. Do not react to his speech- it is insanely bloody and filled with rather graphic descriptions, but reaction at this point means a one-way trip to hell.

After some time of walking, you will come to an elaborately carved door of mahogany and gold. Stop in front of it. Keep your bored expression on your face, possibly adding a blank grin, but do not react as the worker grabs you by the back of your shirt, or he will change his grip and you will be without your head.

The worker will pitch you through the door, and you will hear it slam shut behind you. You are on what might have once been fertile farmland but is now a ravaged, blasted battlefield. Soldiers clad in two colors- a horribly bright, yet somehow stained, white and a filthy, sickening black- are battling in the most horrid manners possible, fighting with rifles, cannon, swords, bows, all the weapons of war that have existed since the dawn of time.

Do not shrink from this battlefield, or the soldiers will notice you, stop their quarrels, and turn upon you with a ravenous hatred, for you are what they have been fighting over, and in their fevered, battle-crazed minds, that means that you are the cause of all their bloodshed.

Also, do not try and go back through the door. It has fallen flat in the mud, pushed over by a screaming infantryman wielding a bayoneted rifle. If you let him get the better of you, he will rip you to pieces in seconds, but somehow not manage to kill you. The pain of the experience will undoubtedly drive what is left of your mind mad.

Instead, drop your bored expression and put a grim, determined one on your face. Walk in measured, military-style steps straight ahead until you see a three-story tall structure of blasted concrete that might have once been a command bunker. Do not turn around while doing so; the armor has arrived to the field, and if you stop, or change your pace, the tanks will run you down.

Once you have entered the bunker, do not give any notice to anyone who makes a request of you or tries to talk to you, no matter how desperate they seem. They each think you are the enemy, and the moment you respond, you will be rewarded with a knife to the face. Instead, go straight up the stairway in front of you, to the second level of the bunker. As you mount the stairs, a crash will be heard behind you- that’s the fire doorway sealing as a flamethrower detachment attacks.

On the second level, there is only one man, sitting at a desk, yelling into a phone. The stairs to the third level are a mass of twisted concrete. The man at the desk wears the stars of a general, but does not seem to notice that the phone, as well as all those on the level, are dead.

Walk up to him, salute, and in your finest military voice, yell “SIR!” He will snap around to stare at you. If he thinks you are not worthy of his army, he will slowly dismantle you with his hands, and you will join him in his oncoming death. If he thinks you are worthy, he will nod and stare pointedly at you. He does not like slackers, so quickly ask him your question.

The only one he will respond to is: “Where do I go, Sir?”

He will tell you. He will tell you in such detail, such horrifying detail, that you will be tempted to strangle him. Do not try it- he is a far more experienced fighter than you could ever hope to be, and should you break salute, you will meet an extremely messy demise. When he is done, he will say “at ease”, and hand you his pistol. This is your cue to drop salute. Take the sidearm and put it in your holster- if you did not have one before, you do now.

An explosion will suddenly decimate the far wall and atomize the general. Through the hole you will see, on the horizon, the long, thin shape of a missile rising.

Shut your eyes tight and open them for nothing. The sounds of horrid battle will fade away until, out of the silence, a single gunshot rings out. Open your eyes.

You are standing in the middle of a field of waving wheat. Somehow, you know that this is where the horrific battle you walked through will take place. And you also know, somehow, that you will be in the general’s place.

The pistol he handed you is Object 44 of 538. Learn how to use it- it has one magazine left. If you fire the last shot at the right time, you will avoid the fate of the general. If not, you will join him.

45. Holder of Peace

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. Storm up to the front desk with a look of rage on your face, and demand to see a person who calls themselves “The Holder of Peace” immediately. The attendant will recoil, and ask you to speak softly. Do not comply with his request- if anything; speak louder- for the anger in your voice is all that keeps the chains locked on the door behind the desk.

Keep the anger in your voice- the attendant will duck under his desk and point with a quivering finger down a hall to the right that was not there before. Immediately turn and stomp off down the hall. Do not look over your shoulder, for should the attendant catch you- and he will- he will casually lean back and flip the lock off the door behind him.

Walk until you find a door with a beautiful mother-of-pearl inlay design. Throw it open, but take the rage off your face immediately- the ones inside do not appreciate such anger.

With a peaceful look across your face, enter. You are in a beautiful, open-aired temple, with ivy curling up the marble pillars and beautiful mosaics embroidering the walls. The door will lock behind you. Do not try to open it, for it never will, and the monks in brown robes you see wandering about will do anything to get you to stay- even if it means your death.

Wander around. No matter what language you speak, the monks speak it too. They’re friendly, and all of them would love to chat, but politely decline. Tell them you must speak with the Head of the Order.

Eventually you will be directed to a man sitting at a chessboard – the temple’s abbot. The figure across from him is hooded and wearing armor. Do not attempt to speak to the hooded figure, or your death will be far worse than any vision of hell that man could conjure up. Instead, turn to the man in the now-familiar brown robes. The game is one move away from checkmate.

Bow, and ask nicely, “Why do they gather, Father?”

He will open his mouth as if to speak. But the figure across from him will let out a demonic howl of rage and draw a sword. It is beautifully crafted, but seems somehow stained with an unthinkable evil. With a yell, the figure will kick you down and begin systematically slaughtering the other monks. They will try to fight back, but they have only staves, and the sword the madman wields is so sharp that it slices through the pillars like a knife through butter.

As you are watching this, the abbot will make the final move in the game. The man in armor will swing around, and then run at you with the sword upraised.

If you were rude or did something wrong, you will be rent at the atomic level by the blade of the sword, and the pain will never cease. However, if you were polite, the abbot will step in front of you and jam the black king into the right eye of the warrior.

Pay no heed or sympathy as he falls to the ground, screaming, or the abbot will whirl around and do the same to you with the white king. Instead, focus on the abbot, who has now turned around to face you.

He will tell you why they gather. It is a long tale, so fraught with bloodshed and horror that it may well snap your mind. But if you survive its telling, he will reach under the table with the chessboard and pass you a scabbard richly jeweled and inlaid with gold. Though you have never seen it before, you instinctively know that it matches the sword the warrior was wielding a moment ago. Do not hesitate- take it, walk over, pick up the madman’s sword, wipe it, and sheath it. Buckle it on as well- you will have need of it.

Move to leave, but before you do, the good Father will halt you and gesture towards the, now un-hooded, face of the warrior. He was handsome, but pay no heed to that. The one thing you should be focusing on is the fact that the black king is gone. Look up at the abbot, who will nod and say one word: “Regicide”.

A flash of light will blind you, and when your sight returns you will be standing on the curb two blocks down from the asylum. Step back onto the sidewalk- you don’t want to have an accident.

The sword you now wield once belonged to the white king, and is Object number 45 of 538.

46. Holder of the Mirror

In any city, in any country in the world, go to any mental institution or hospital, and ask the attendant for the “Holder of the Mirror”. The attendant will look at you strangely, as if you had spoken in a different language. Ask again, until they finally understand, and they will lead you deep into the institution without a word.

They will lead you to a plain iron door, unlocking it and motioning for you to enter the dark hallway beyond. They will stay behind, never uttering a word, never making eye contact with you. Once the door closes behind you the hallway will be lit by an ethereal light, to reveal the walls of the hallway made of mirrors. The reflections stretch out to infinity on either side of you, but none of them show your reflection; they show the reflection of those who came before you. Each reflection shows another who sought the Holder, each shows how they died. Try not to look at their faces as the beasts devour them; try not to look at all, just walk in a straight line. If you look, if you watch, the beasts in the reflections will see you, too, and they will come for you.

If ever the light begins to dim, if you begin to lose your way in the darkness, close your eyes tight and say firmly, without fear, “The ones you seek have gone before”. If the lights return, you are lucky, and the creatures that stalk you have let you alone. If it goes dark, do not run. There is no point in fleeing, nor in praying for a swift death. They will catch you, and your end will stretch out to eternity.

At the end of the impossibly long corridor, you will find another door, with hot white light shining around its edges. Knock on the door, and you will be allowed entry. Standing in the center of the octagonal room will be a figure, merely a silhouette in the half-light of the chamber.

He will pay you no heed, until you ask him the question, “What do they reflect?’ Any other question, and he will fill your every pore with a thousand needles, flaying your hide and letting it fly in salt winds as he tortures your mind into insanity, ensuring you live eternally with him in the chamber, merely a shade of what you once were, every moment of existence a mad agony.

If you ask him the right question, however, he will answer you, in details that will chill you to your bones and turn your heart to stone. He will tell you what the Holders mean, why they exist, and what is to come.

After he tells you this, he will step into your vision, revealing who he is. You will see yourself, except instead of eyes your copy will have shining silver mirrors in its sockets. As you watch, unable to move in horror, your copy will dig one of the mirrors out, blood spilling thick and fast.

You will hand yourself the bloodied shard, and then you will find yourself back, outside the institution.

This bloodied mirror is Object 46 of 538. Do not attempt to clean the Blood from its surface, or your end shall be a Nightmare beyond even the Horrors of Hell.

47. The Holder of the Bloom

In any city, in any country, go to any inn, motel, or any place you can rest; simply find a bed that is comfortable enough for your tastes. Then sleep, and sleep awhile longer. Should you dream, then you are meant for this task. If not, then your success up until now was only luck, and pray, pray that you never awaken. The objects you have are yours no longer, and their Holders will want them back.

In your dream you will see a beautiful garden, with cool fountains and rare flowers sparkling in the mist. Here you may rest and prepare yourself. When you are ready, search the garden until you come upon a gazebo in the middle of a clearing. In the gazebo’s shade rests a beautiful woman in a dress that echos the colors of the garden. She will gesture for you to sit on her left; she likes you and she has a task for you to complete for her. Without words or gestures, she will ask you to find her a flower in her garden. It’s best to do as she asks; you are, after all,she is your friend and it best to be in her graces.

She will keep the description of the flower a secret; she is testing you, after all. If you are destined for your role, or if your luck continues, you will come upon two interwoven trees, each producing a different flower. Choose wisely, for if you displease your hostess it would be more advisable to smash your skull upon the rocks than to face her discontent. If you choose the right flower, then simply head back to the gazebo and give it to her. She will smile, kiss you on the cheek and say, “I was a Seeker once, too; be aware of your fate.’ As she turns away, you will see her back has been mauled and mutilated by fire, teeth, and things your mind couldn’t hope to comprehend. Follow her into her home. Do not be afraid; she wishes you no harm, as she understands your journey. You will stop at the entrance of the house, and she will open the door for you with these final words: “I will let you go freely, but you must promise me one thing: if ever your journey brings you back here, I ask that you end me. If you break my promise, sleep will never hold safety for you again.” With that, she will gently push you through the door and back to the realm of the waking.

You will awaken in your own bed. Through the corner of your eye you will see something being slipped under the door. It is an envelope containing a single flower petal.

The petal is Object 47 of 538.

48. Holder of Sacrifice

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of the Sacrifice”. A look of bliss should then come over the worker’s face, and they will ignore you. Request twice more. You will then be taken by another staff member to the highest floor in the building, then one higher. It will be in an unused, pitch-black section of the building. It will appear as if it is under construction. If you hear the sounds of work being done, demand that you be taken to the overseer. The staff member will realize he has not fooled you and will take you to the true floor. You will hear an unending groaning reverberate off of the walls from the area furthest from you. It is of utmost importance that you listen to where the sound echoes from. Should the source of the noise change, stand still for 5 seconds and extend your right arm, displaying your palm towards the darkness. If you feel what seems to be thousands of the most wretched bugs in existence crawl across your arm, do not flinch, do not cry out. If you do either, there is nothing that will save you. If the feeling ceases, then proceed further. Upon reaching the end of the hall, something will trigger the lights. The light shall reveal thousands of corpses formed together as the floor, so as to show the sacrifices one must make to achieve ownership of the object. A door will be to your right. Open it.

Once you cross over the threshold of the door, you will arrive in an office. A man will be facing you, sitting in a chair on the opposite end of the room. He will speak on a cell phone dripping with blood, but his voice will be nonexistent. However, once you ask him the question, he will pause. “Why have I been chosen?”

He will then hold out the bloodied phone to you. Take it, and listen. A raspy voice shall describe the purpose of the objects, and why you have been chosen, and you shall shake uncontrollably.

This phone is Object 48 of 538.

49. Holder of the Grail

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of the Grail.” As soon as your words reach her ears, the worker will suddenly have a blank stare on her face. If you stare at her, you may suddenly lose all grasp of reality. You should avert your gaze, and ask your question again. A blunt object will smash into your head from behind, and all will go black.

When you wake up, you’ll be in a dark room. A compass stands on a pedestal in the middle, pointing out the four directions for all eternity.

If you go south, you’ll find a well. If you look inside the well, a stream of demons will emerge and eat you. This is far worse than it sounds, as your consciousness does not vanish, and you will have the experience of being digested in fifty different places for countless millennia.

If you go east you will wander the land of Nod for all time. The wind may strip the flesh from your bones but your skeleton will not cease to walk.

If you go west you will reach The Edge and will not resist the urge to throw yourself over.

If you go north, you’ll find a door with a strange marking on it. If you place your hand on this mark, you’ll see an image of Him. He will tell you to enter the door.

Inside, you’ll find a forest. If you go into the forest, you’ll find a lake. Quickly, if you turn away, you’ll escape from sudden death, for the lake is but a mirage, masking a creature far more horrible than anything from your worst nightmare. If you keep going and suddenly turn left, you’ll find a pool of blood. There’s a man in the pool of blood, and he asks for your soul. If you give him your soul, he’ll get up. This man has the face of a devil, but his voice is that of an angel. When he smiles at you, if you do not turn away, your soul will be lost forever. When the man walks up to you, he’ll say, “Thank you,” and will give you a grail filled with blood. And suddenly, in a single second, you will wind up in the kitchen of whatever place you call home. Be thankful- if you had done something wrong, the man would still be holding your soul, and the pain of such a separation is an experience you do not wish to go through.

But bear in mind, you will survive. You will live on in screaming agony till someone deigns to end your suffering. Put the cup in the freezer- it should be kept cold and never spill a drop, lest it ignite once more the fires of hell on the earth.

This grail is Object 49 of 538.

50. The Holder of the Afterlife

This journey is not for the faint of heart, nor the wicked. I control the lives of all men, and those that are…inhuman. If you still wish to seek me, be advised you cannot make this journey more than once.

You will go to any morgue in any city, state or country. Ask any mortician there to see the most current “customer”. Should a look of disgust and disbelief come over him, thank him for his time, take a bow, turn around, and walk, do not run, walk calmly out of there. I know your time as I know everyone’s and it has not come yet.

Should a look of understanding come over him, he will leave the room and return with a large French chef’s knife, two surgical needles with thread, and a gold bar. He will also roll in a fresh body and a medical book.

Put down the needle on the roller, stab the knife over the body’s head, and stand facing the top of the body with the bar in your hand, (do whatever with the book, only a book). You must wait until the mortician leaves the room, (which will be quite a long while). Before he leaves, he will state the scientific name of a location in the body and will take his leave.

Stand until the mortician leaves the room, and do nothing until he does. When he leaves, look in the book for the name of that place in the body, and use the knife to split that part of the body open. Place the gold bar in that part, and thread it up. Only one of the needles will completely remove the scar, so choose wisely. Do all this while holding a stoic expression on your face. After you have completed your task, the room will go dark, and you must yell in a clear voice, “See? I have prepared a gift for you, take what is yours.” I will then appear in all my unearthly glory, and judge.

If you had a reaction from anytime the mortician left the room up until the lights went dark, or the scar remains, your soul will be mine to take as well as the gift, and you will both be taken to my lair. If your face was stoic throughout, and if the scar healed, I will unwrap my present with my great Scythe, searching for the bar. Remain with a lack of expression on your face, or I will decapitate you, not so bad an end as to others in this journey.

When I find it, I will Smile. And when I Smile, a bright light will flash, and the room will reappear, shockingly different. I describe to prepare you.

The room will be constructed out of dead children and toddlers, their eyes gone, and blood ebbing out of their mouths. They will be cemented together with a black substance slowly enveloping them. They will writhe, and cry for their mommy and daddy, blood will replace their tears. You cannot close your eyes, or show emotion, lest I judge you to be unworthy, and will take you to Tartarus.

There will be one baby in front of you, dead, normal, with a scalpel in its head, perhaps you will recognize it…

After half a minute of this horror, if you remained sane, it will be time for the third test.

A dark, twisted version of this world shall appear, inhabited by the damned. Where we appear, there will be a strange, smooth stone field, with one 3-foot pillar in the center.

I shall reappear, and throw you a wicked, dark knife, carved with symbols. You must stab the end of your forefinger with it. You will feel unbearable pain in your finger, but be pleased that I have lessened the pain for you, otherwise you would have had pain throughout your body. You must bear the pain however, and though the blood will not clot the finger, you will not run out of blood, for you are in my realm.

After which, you must draw me a pentagram, 6 feet circumference, with the tip of the star pointing me. Make sure it is good, I am a ruthless judge. (You are allowed to plan and measure.)

When you are done, I shall look upon it. One of two things will happen.

One: I turn and close my eyes in disgust; if this happens, the pentagram will catch ablaze. As your blood on the ground burns, so shall the remaining blood in your body. Your veins shall burn for all eternity, in the center of the pentagram, the pain never leaving.

Two: I like your art, and Smile. I will turn to you and Smile. My eyes will blacken, dark, shadowy tendrils will come from my mouth, and form a hellish grin. You will realise that the same is happening to you, and that I have just infected you with my Disease.

When the blackening will cease to flow from your body, it will have turned night; stare only at the pentagram. A demonic audience is watching you, and they tend to rip people to shreds if they look at them, so keep your gaze fixed upon the pentagram. They will dance around you in a devilish flurry, taunting you, mocking you, spitting on you and the like. If you remain stoic, then they will leave. After they have all left, the blackening will return, and ignite a random number of candles around the pentagram. Count and remember this number; it will serve you well at The End.

The light will return and you will awaken outside of the morgue, around mid-day. The cut on your finger will have healed, and it will the exact number of candles that will dictate how many days have gone by. You will notice a dark ooze on the ground in front of your face, and sticking in your clothes. The Blackening has followed you. You now hold the power to summon the Blackening within you at will, the same you saw in my face during the third test. The ones who gaze at your face when it appears will slowly be consumed by the Blackening, the Disease. Every time you summon the Blackening, you will feel the pain you felt on your finger, over your whole body, increased tenfold. You will not pass out, but the pain will be unbearable.

The Disease is object 50 of 538. With it, you can Blacken anyone, even the immortal.