A Shameful Past
“You promised me that you would never go back to that old life again.”
Click here for the previous chapter. Or go to the chapter guide.
This is an alternative chapter of ‘Vacation Roulette,’ a choose your own adventure story. The original chapter was written by Linden Schneider here. See the bottom of this story for more details.
“Hey babes, look at this,” you tap your partner’s shoulder with urgency.
They frown. “What?”
So you shove your phone at them, displaying the texts you got from an unknown sender:
We’re sorry that you could not sign up for our vacation. However, we’d like to offer you another opportunity! If you complete another task, you’ll be able to come on vacation with us. Would you like to find out more? Text YES to receive more info.
You texted YES out of curiosity, and then got this:
Thank you for your interest! You have 24 hours to complete the following task. If it remains incomplete in 24 hours, we will be forced to follow up.
You must go to 613 Maple Ave between 1:00 am and 3:00 am, break into the house, make your way to the main bedroom, and retrieve the gold locket from the jewelry box on the dresser. The residents may or may not be armed.
You must then take the locket to the coffee shop on the corner of Main Street and Church Street at 9:00 am and give it to the person in the red hoodie reading a Jim Butcher novel.
It’s almost comical how your partner’s jaw drops. They grit their teeth. “No. Don’t do it. You promised me that you would never go back to that old life of thievery again.”
“But we could go on vacation,” you say desperately. You try and fail to take their hand, as your partner moves out of your reach. You add, “Aren’t you afraid of what they will do when they are ‘forced to follow up’?”
But your partner snorts. They brush a hand through their hair, nonchalant and cool. “This is clearly some stupid scam. Don’t fall for it.” Your partner climbs into bed and pulls up the covers. “And if you do choose to do their task, we’re breaking up.” Their voice is colder than you have ever heard it.
Your heart aches at their words. And you stare at your partner’s smooth, perfect face. “But we’ve come so far to be together,” you say, trying not to cry.
But your significant other turns their face away. “I know. But you promised me. I will accept nothing less, even from you.”
Their voice seems to crack near the end, but you can’t be sure because they’re hiding their face from you.
Time to decide. Do you:
Note: As mentioned in the blurb above, Linden Schneider wrote the original chapter. I wanted to cross post Vacation Roulette to my Ghost website, so that non-Medium member readers can access the game without a paywall.
However, I was unable to reach Linden, as she has left Medium and has not responded to my messages or emails. Hence, I will write new beginning chapters (alternative beginnings), which I will cross-post to my Ghost site. The basic plot will be the same, but many of the details will be different.
