With a sigh, you decided to call it quits with the red herrings and deliberately vague statements. It was getting sketchy, and you didn’t want a part in this anymore. “Y’know, it was fun talking to you, but I’m heading off to bed.” Getting to your feet, you waved him off. “See ya’ in the morning…”
As you snuggled in under the covers, the stranger did not move one inch from his seat by the dancing flames. Wearily from travel, you drifted off into the sweet embrace that sleep becomes when you spend enough time cold, wet, and lost. Still, you couldn’t stave off the concern that perhaps you were too generous, helping a man you didn’t know, in a town you only just arrived in…
You couldn’t tell what time it was when you were startled awake, but the fire had gone out and the room had grown cold. There was this urgent pressure- a squeezing around your windpipe, like some great serpent had wound its length around your neck. Choking, you sat up with a jolt. However, you couldn't get too far, your torso pinned down to the mattress by some...unseen force.
Did you say something wrong? Did you know too much? If there was anything attacking you, it was too dark to see. Even if the room was illuminated, however, it still may not have been much help. Thrashing around like a fish that had jumped from its tank and was now suffocating on the ground, you clawed at the bindings around your neck, but to no avail!
Lightheaded and soaked in freezing sweat, there was only so much energy you could muster, choking out a few garbled gasps before your movement slowed, then ceased, cold limbs falling heavy and limp against the mattress…
When they found your body the next morning, there would be no evidence of foul play. The only leads to go off of would be a collection of rather inconspicuous items: a silk smoking jacket haphazardly tossed over the back of a chair, an abandoned pair of glasses…The investigation would evidently go nowhere because, as it so happens, this is just another day in Darkmoor.