#hgk477

Inspired by @hgk477 's posts. And recently I have found my Minecraft world where I was building a "hotel" after reading Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky which gave me inspiration to build something similar.

First of all, you might be asking "what would kill me if I'm in creative?" Well, you are partially right. You are immortal, but there are ways to do harm to you. Where do you think the scary cave sounds come from? Are you really sure you are alone in an endless world?

When you create a new world, take a look at the biome where you spawned. Open places are dangerous. Ocean is dangerous. Snowy mountains ARE dangerous. Basically, everything is dangerous. If you want to build something, fly to the nearest biome which has elevations and where you can see everything around you. You guessed right, forest is ALSO not acceptable. ESPECIALLY the Pale Garden.

I'm sure you will want to build something. Eventually, you will get tired of it and decide to create a base.

Create your base away from whatever you are building. It should feel completed.

Do not sleep there until you finish building a part of your base. That makes you much more vulnerable.

The room where you sleep should not have any windows.

It also must be small. The larger the room, the less safer it is. If you want it to be big, make a smaller room inside and place your bed there. Place candles around, not torches. Fill the space with as much furniture as possible.

Do not build any long corridors.

Your bedroom and your corridor should NOT be connected. As I've said before, do a double room.

Always be aware of the daytime. The sun settles down fast. By the time it is dark, you should be at your base. I do not recommend building anything at night.

Move cautiously when at your base. Don't run. When it's night, crouch.

Make sure all the doors inside your base are closed.

Whatever this thing is, it hates sunlight. Do all your work while you can still see the sun.

Keep animals outside your base. They will notify you about its arrival.

Always check them and make sure they are protected from anything that can kill them. If they start to die, that's a sign for you to be twice as careful. Stay at your base. Only go out to check your animals. Create new if you're running out of them.

If you have to leave your world, make sure that you are doing that in your bedroom. Stand at your bed if possible. It's the safest place you can do it.

I wouldn't recommend staying at one place. Travel around the world.

Before closing the doors of your base, take a look at the world around you. Do you see anything strange? Is there an abnormal figure somewhere? Don't forget to look behind you. When it's day, you shall not be afraid.

If you answered "no" and "no", you can go to sleep peacefully. There's nothing wrong for now.

If you answered "yes" and "no", do not stare at whatever that is. Turn away, close the entrance and crouch to your bedroom. Don't be afraid, it can feel fear. Close all doors between you and the entrance. There's a very little chance of anything happening to you, though.

If you answered "yes" and "yes", there's not much you can do. Retreat as fast as possible. Close all doors between you and the entrance. Your only goal is to reach your bedroom faster than it reaches you. Do not turn around. Try to crouch if you still hear nothing. If you hear a sound increasing in volume, walk. Do not run at any occasion. I'm sorry. You must have done something wrong.

(A sneak peek of my [unfinished & rebooted] wip. hopefully, it will stick longer.)

1) Bring food and water. 

2) Avoid walking barefoot. Wear comfortable shoes as you will be walking for a long time.

3) The trees have ears. Be very careful of what you say. 

4) Don't push yourself. If the fatigue is too much, you are more than welcome to head back home. Refer to rule 10 and 12. 

5) The old well hidden in the deepest part of the plains is not abandoned. Don’t drink it though, it’s not water. 

6) The wheat-browed frogs that live in the Perang plains are harmless. However, they can be quite mean and not everyone can tolerate their sense of humour. Bring them a packet of pumpkin seeds and they’ll love you for life.

7) The big flowers floating in the pond may be beautiful but don’t ever come near them. The flower narwhals are ruthless and they like to play with their food first. 

8) After long hours of hovering in the sky, the stratus whales like to rest on the flowerbeds sometimes. Be gentle with them and they will remember you for generations to come

9) Trust your eyes. Sometimes, the 'foliage' moves out of the corner of your eye. You are not crazy. Ignore them and they will not harm you.

10) Once you’re finished for the day, go back home without stopping by anywhere if you could.

11) Remember rule 3 and 7. 

·First, gather your supplies. This will include paints, food and water, something made of meat (preferably raw), a strip of cloth long enough to tie around your head, a small container of salt, a wooden box big enough to fit the biggest object you will paint, and an alarm clock. Set it for an hour after sunrise.

·Rent a room, go to your school, book a hotel, anywhere that is not your home, anywhere you are unlikely to be again at midnight.

·Place a sturdy wooden table in the center of an empty room. For this to work, you cannot move the table now. On the table, carve a small x three times in the shape of a triangle on the underside, in the center. If possible, be sure that none of the peaks point towards a major direction (north, South, east or west). If they do, place a line of salt in front of any windows, sinks, beds, closets, or doors on that side of the room. Remove anything breakable or fragile from that direction and place it anywhere not of the four directions. In fact, do this with anything you are afraid of losing.

·Close all doors and windows. Remove all mirrors. Remove any possible organic matter other than yourself, the wood, and the bones.

·Place your objects on the wooden table in the empty room. Be sure they are things you are willing to lose. This will be important later. Place all paints and brushes in a seperate room along with the cloth and salt. You do not want it to start without you.

·Place your easle and canvas in front of the still life setting. Be absolutely certain that you cannot see the bones from where you will sit. If you can, immediately move. Do not re arange the bones. Do not move any object that has already been placed.

·Leave the room.

·Do not look back.

·Close the door and lock it behind you, while avoiding looking at the bones.

·Return after dark with food and water. You will be here a long time. It is important that you also bring something with meat. Raw is preferable, but not necessary. Carry the paints and brushes in the wooden box if you can. If not, use a heavy bag but if the bag rips you cannot pick up the items dropped. Do not acknowledge anything it does.

·Close the door and lock it behind you.

·Do not look back.

·Sit before the easel, and place all panting supplies and meat to the left of the canvas, but within reach. They must be on the left. Place your food, water, salt, and cloth to the right, as it cannot be touched there.

·Eat and drink now, while you can. Be sure to only eat and drink half. Place the remaining half on your right again.

·Throughout this process you may hear whispers or see shadows move across the room. You may look at these, but if the shadows approach the table and the objects on it, you must look away. Again, it you must be absoluetly certain that you cannot see the bones and other objects that you wish to paint, but that they can see you.

·Open the meat and place it on the wooden table. It must be the closest object to you on your left. Open all paints and any bags needed. Anything sealed cannot be used.

·Do not look at the bones.

·If all is done correctly, the whispers should have grown to a dull murmur and the shadows will seem to reslessly shake. This is good.

·Do not look at the bones.

·The table may shake and the windows rattle gently, but do not look. Look only at your food and the canvas. Imagine what the painting will look like, but do not look at the bones.

This part will be difficult.

·When you are ready, pour salt onto your left shoulder.

·Cover your eyes with the cloth tightly and fill your mouth with as much salt as you can. Do not swallow this.

·You will hear the wood creak and moan, and the doors rattle, and chairs topple over. Stay still.

·You will hear whispers become deafening cries, and the objects you placed on the table will be flug off, as of something large has apeared there suddenly.

This is ok, because something has.

·You cannot see but you will feel it looking at you. You will want to scream. You may open your mouth, but make no noise and do not spit out the salt. Let some pour onto your lap and the floor, but keep as much in as you can. It cannot enter you so long as it's door is barred.

·It will circle you, and it will stand behind you, touching your hair and shoulders. Let it.

·Soon it will notice the meat, and it will take this as an offering. You will hear it eat the meat. Immediately place your left hand in the place it where the meat was.

·Allow it to touch your arm. Think of something happy.

·Allow it to reach into your arm, into your body. Try not to cry. The salt will protect you.

·You will feel an unearthly cold grip your arm. You will feels as if it is no longer your arm.

It is not.

Do not resist.

·The rest of the night will be frightening, but uneventful. You will not feel your arm, and you will not know what it is doing. Do not try to control it.

·Do not fall asleep.

·Think of something happy.

·The paint will begin to smell like copper and smoke. Try not to breath in the fumes.

It is not paint.

·The night may pass faster than you think, or it will seem to last for years. This is because the creature will influence your perception of time. When the alarm finally sounds, spit out the salt onto your right hand, and hold it in front of your mouth. Your left arm may try to push it out of the way, to claw its way into your mouth, but the wet salt will protect you. Open your mouth and repeat the following words.

"Non ducor duco. Consummatum est."

·Repeat it many times, as many as you like, until the room is quiet and your left arm no longer moves against your right. Do a few more for good measure.

·You may remove the blindfold and spit out the salt. Before you will be a perfect image of the objects you placed. It will seem too perfect to be a painting, because it is. You may notice other things in the painting, small things that you did not put there. Try not to think about them, or who they were taken from. Or what happened to the person it took them from.

·You may feel too weak and tired to move, so eat the rest of your food and rest. You can clean the spilled paints and broken brushes later.

·The objects and table will be gone. Do not look for them, they no longer exist. The creature captured them. They are in the painting, except for one. The largest bone will lay on the floor. Do not touch it with bare skin. When you are strong enough to walk, pour any remaining salt onto the blindfold and using that, place the bone in the wooden box. You must dispose of both before nightfall, it must not be at your home after dark. Burn it, bury it, sink it in the nearest river. Do not let anyone find or open it, not for many years until the touch of the creature has faded. Do not worry about this now though, it can be dealt with later.

·Your arm will feel like lead, and may be numb. This is ok. If you see it move on its own, cover your skin in salt and repeat the Latin words. It will pass.

·Take your painting home. Avoid shadows if possible. It is yours now to do whatever you wish, but never hang it in view of a mirror.

A Guide to Working the Night Shift

by DomainX

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[To view the original piece on Reddit, go here.] [To view the piece as featured on @hgk477, go here.]

[For more works by this author, go here.]

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[Narrated by @phinnsy.]

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