The older Mr. Hesper was a tight-lipped and introspective man. When he saw his son coming, he nodded in greeting. He sat in his wheelchair like he was a king on his throne. His guards slowly pushed him down the steep incline to the mine opening.

Nicholas went for something that might have been a hug, but it wasn't reciprocated, so it ended up just being a shoulder touch.

Hesper wore expensive work clothes that he must have purchased when he was a much younger man because they were now several sizes too large for him. He must have been seventy or eighty years old.

“I didn't know you were getting in this early,” Nicholas said.

Gerald Hesper largely ignored his son’s comment, responding only with a polite smile.

“Have you been down into the mines yet? Is the elevator in working order?” He asked.

Nicholas cleared his throat. “We took a short journey into the mines. Had to climb down myself, but we were only just about to go search for the gold veins when we got word that you had arrived. The elevator is repaired now. I told them we had to have it done as soon as possible. We couldn't wait for tomorrow.”

Hesper nodded.

Nicholas gestured toward Kimberly, “You remember my fiancé Kimberly Madison from the holidays?”

“Yes, of course.”

Kimberly glanced over at us for just a moment before walking forward and putting her arm around the man in the wheelchair.

She had her hand placed gently on her stomach. I thought she was about to do her pregnancy reveal, but as the old man looked up at her with his stern, piercing gaze, she lowered her hand and backed away from him.

“It’s nice seeing you again,” she said.

I thought that it was strange she didn’t attempt to use her pregnancy reveal trope there, but maybe she simply thought better of it.

Then I realized why.

We were still Off-Screen. If the audience didn’t see her reveal, it wouldn’t work. Glad she was paying attention.

I still didn’t know why we weren’t on camera. An important-seeming character had just been introduced. The only thing I could think of was that Dina was doing something even more important. Even then, we had been Off-Screen for so long…

“I do hope that you will be joining us in the mines?” Hesper asked.

Kimberly was hesitant.

“Don’t you think she ought to stay up here?” Nicholas interjected. “After all, there are safety concerns. We wouldn’t want to endanger her.”

“I would think someone who wants to be a part of the family would want to see what the family does,” Hesper responded.

Nicholas looked to Kimberly, pleading with her to understand as he said, “I suppose she should be alright. I fixed the elevator, after all.”

“Wonderful,” Hesper said. “Now, shall we go find the treasure?”

I thought it was strange that a man in a wheelchair would want to go into a mine that had been abandoned for decades, but the plot was clearly leading us there. I knew Hesper was up to something nefarious. If I had to guess, he was hoping to leave the mine without the wheelchair. Maybe even without us.

But my character wouldn’t know that, not quite. The script clearly had us trudging back into the mines.

I was nervous in a way I had yet to be in a storyline.

I had never been able to get a glance at any enemy. Hesper was technically an NPC, so I couldn’t read him. Reading enemy tropes was my main method of getting a grasp on a storyline. Without that, I felt like any terrible thing could happen.

The mine itself didn't reveal any tropes like the cornfield in The Final Straw II or the castle in The Astralist.

I had no idea what I was walking into. This must be what it felt like to not be a Film Buff. It was scarier.

With the elevator fixed, getting back down into the mine was as easy as pushing a button. As we descended into the darkness my heart rate started to rise.

A glance at the plot cycle told me that First Blood had passed. Maybe something was going on elsewhere after all. Dina might have an explanation, assuming we found her.

Only time would tell.

Last time moving through the passages of the mine took a long time because we were unfamiliar with the area.

This time it took a long time because we were led by a man being pushed in a wheelchair on the long uneven ground. Every time we came to a tight hallway his guards would have to pick his chair up and force it through.

We went down the same path we had originally. I was eager to get to the same area that we had found before and see if Hesper would explain why there was no visible gold there despite the map saying that there was.

It wasn't meant to be.

Ten minutes into our journey, we were led off the path that we had traveled on before, deviating far to the left down a narrow corridor that we had all but ignored on our first trip through.

“This area isn't marked on the map,” Camden said.

“Oh really?” Hesper replied, “Strange.”

He wasn't even keeping up the pretense of having never been to this place before. He was leading us around by memory. Maybe that was just because he was an NPC offscreen and didn't need to explain because the audience wasn't watching, but it seemed off.

After we had walked for ten minutes, I saw light up ahead of us. It flickered and moved like a flashlight. After a few moments, it shut off.

I could hear scuffling up ahead.

Two of Hesper’s guards moved forward, a flashlight in one hand, a pistol in the other.

“We can hear you there,” one of the guards said.

There was silence for a moment.

The guards ran forward and we could hear more movement.

“Get on the ground,” one of the guards said. His voice echoed back to us from ahead.

As we rounded a corner, we were able to see the people involved.

It was Dina and the long-haired activist who had thrown an egg at Nicholas’ car. Dina was on her knees. Maybe she could have run for it, but one look at the guard’s Plot Armor would probably prevent that. He would have high enough stats to catch her or kill her if he wanted to.

All that was left to do was comply, so she did.

The long-haired activist, however, stood still.

His name was Corey on the red wallpaper. He was an ordinary NPC with three Plot Armor.

He stood still as the guards held their guns on him and Dina. He didn’t even really seem to be paying them any attention.

“Looks like we have some uninvited guests,” Hesper said. I could see him smiling. “They can come too then.”

And then he just kept going. The guard pushing him wheeled him around Dina and the NPC, Corey.

No more dialogue. No confrontation. No explanation.

That didn’t make sense. Finding activists in his mine should at least bring about more than a simple line.

And why were we still Off-Screen?

Everyone was here now. What was the camera looking at? Was the camera even on?

Something was very wrong here.

Two guards behind us. One in front of us pushing Hesper.

Dina and Corey walked directly in front of me, Anna, Camden, and Kimberly. The other players and I looked at each other nervously. We all knew something was wrong.

All of that was very concerning. It wasn’t the most unsettling thing going on though.

Soon after we began walking through the tunnels, Corey, the NPC activist, started to talk. No one asked him a question. No one spoke back to him. To top it off, we were still Off-Screen, so this dialogue was certainly not scripted, at least not for this scene.

Yet, he talked.

And talked.

I could only conclude that he was broken. We had seen that NPCs could break free from their scripts and “wake up.” The card-playing demon had done as much.

This was different. This was more like he hadn’t broken character; he was just in the wrong scene.

Was the storyline itself broken?

Hesper, Nicholas, and the guards didn’t even so much as acknowledge him as he spoke despite the fact that he was talking about Hesper. As he spoke, tears formed in his eyes.

“The first thing you got to understand is that this is not about mining gold. This is about keeping the gold they have. The evidence inside this mine will be enough to keep them tied up in the courts for years and possibly even in prison.

“It all started 30 years ago. What you gotta understand is that this place wasn't always this type of mine. It was a gravel pit originally. That’s why the entire area around here is dug out.

“Then they found the cavern and started mining. That would have been about thirty-two years ago. A couple of years later, they start reporting findings of gold and jewels. But something strange started happening on the outside.

“The animals in the refuge next to the mine, they start going crazy. They become aggressive; they stopped eating. They started fighting with each other. Ecologists, biologists, zoologists, they didn’t know what was going on. Entire ecosystems in that forest just disappeared within a matter of weeks.

“Something they were doing in this mine was making that happen. I don’t know if they were using chemicals or some weird type of sonic vibrations, but it was making all the animals around here go cuckoo.

“It was so bad, even the government started looking into it. Next thing you know Hesper pulls out of the mine and seals it shut. They come up with some excuse. They say it’s a business decision. Or they say that the owner’s wife just died and he’s too bereaved to move forward.

“I say that’s bullshit. They were trying to dodge fines and lawsuits. They ended up greasing the right palms and getting out of the whole thing. We didn’t have any evidence of what they were using in the mine, so they just walked away Scott-free.

“Now that it’s being opened back up by the same guy, we know we only have a limited amount of time to come in here and find evidence of what they’ve done before they destroy it all.

“Have you seen any chemicals or strange machinery that you don’t recognize?”

No one responded. Finally, Corey stopped talking. No one acknowledged it but it was very strange and out of place.

We went through several different forks and tunnels before we found our destination.

The place they brought us looked a lot like any other pathway in the mine except for one thing—there was a large crack in the wall.

It was big enough for a person to fit through and it was dripping wet. A slow trickle of groundwater leaked down from the top of the crack all the way to the bottom.

For the first time in a long time, we were finally On-Screen.

Kind of.

The light flickered. We were mostly On-Screen though.

“What is this?” Anna asked.

“A miracle,” the old man answered. “My miracle.”

He turned from Anna to Nicholas.

“You know I love you,” Gerald said “Ever since the day you were born you were my favorite person. Even more than your mother.”

Nicholas looked confused. “Thanks… Dad.”

“I could never tell you my plan for this place. I always wondered if you would still go along with it if I did. If you would understand. But that would be asking too much of you.”

“What are you saying?” Nicholas asked.

“You had to come on to this land. You had to come into this mine. You had to do it of your own volition. I truly believe that there is power in consent, in choice. You chose to enter this land despite all warnings. Maybe you'll make another choice just one more, for me.”

Nicholas looked around at all of us. He was speechless.

“It was 30 years ago that I found the water. You can hear it down there if you listen. It’s almost like it’s talking to you.”

His voice was almost dreamy.

He was right, I could hear subtle splashing from the hole in the wall. Echoing up through the crack in the wall.

“Jump into the water,” Gerald said. “Of your own free will. It will be so much more powerful that way. I know that’s the mistake I made last time.”

“Wait what are you talking about?” Nicholas asked.

“Jump into the water. I always imagined what it would be like down there, but I was never brave enough to look. Please be braver than I was.”

“Dad, you’re scaring me.”

Hesper looked to the ground, resigned.

“I should have known it was too much to hope for, but your gift will be wonderful either way.”

The guards, whose guns had been aimed at Dina and Corey, aimed their guns at Nicholas instead.

“Go into the water.”

Hesper looked exhausted.

“Dad, what are you saying?”

“Turn me around, I can’t look,” Gerald said. He actually sounded sad.

One of his bodyguards turned him around and the other two began training their weapons on Nicholas.

“Go in.”

Nicholas didn’t make a move. He seemed to have just realized how serious this was.

One of the bodyguards grabbed hold of Nicholas and started shoving him into the crack in the wall. Another trained his weapon on Nicholas in case he managed to get away and the third had his weapon on… us.

Running would be useless. If they wanted to shoot us, they wouldn’t miss. Their stats were high enough to ensure that. If they wanted to chase us and catch us, they would succeed at catching at least some of us.

Nicholas pleaded with his father. He tried fighting back but that was futile. The bodyguard was too strong, and the threat of the bullet was scarier than the threat of the unknown.

After a struggle, he dropped into the hole to the sound of a splash a few seconds later.

“Why?” Nicholas called up through the hole. He had survived.

Hesper’s bodyguard turned him back around. He didn’t mind seeing what was about to happen. Not to us.

“Unfortunately, you won’t be of much use to me but still I can’t have you talking. Into the hole. It’s where you’re going alive or dead.”

That was fairly persuasive.

The Off-Screen light was flicking faster and faster.

We were led to the hole one at a time to drop down into whatever water lay beneath. Even though I knew it was futile, my mind worked in a million directions looking for alternatives. The problem was: when you don't know the script you don't know if the alternatives are worse.

The next part of the story was down that hole. Hopefully, at least down there we would stay On-Screen.

“Wait,” Kimberly said, attempting to summon every ounce of emotion she could. “Please don’t do this. I’m pregnant.”

If her Pregnancy Reveal trope was going to work, it would have to be that moment. The trope was all about eliciting sympathy from the audience after all. We were technically On-Screen too, even if the light was flickering.

It certainly didn’t elicit sympathy from Hesper himself.

Hesper laughed, “I don’t know if you’re telling the truth. I’m afraid it doesn’t matter. I made this decision a long time ago.”

A cartoonishly evil horror anthology villain. I was wondering if we would get one of those.

I had a feeling that this interaction is why they were NPCs instead of enemies. Although they were antagonists, they were only here to get us into the water below. That was their purpose. We weren’t meant to fight them. We would lose if we tried.

Anna was the first of us. Then Camden, Dina, Kimberly, and Corey, who spent the entire time cussing out Hesper as if he knew him personally. Gerald Hesper paid him no mind.

When it was my turn, I lowered myself in. As soon as I got close, I could feel a strange tangible force on my skin. There was something down there. I could try for a thousand years, and I would never describe the sensation.

With one look back at the guns and Gerald Hesper, I dropped through the hole in the wall.