THE LONG NIGHT

Welcome to the Long Night, darling.

THE WORLD IS DEAD. IT JUST HASN'T STOPPED MOVING.

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I. A VERY UNFORTUNATE ARRIVAL

You closed your eyes during a cheap horror movie on a stormy night.

You opened them in a rotting bed inside an abandoned village, surrounded by damp wood, peeling wallpaper, and the kind of silence that makes you miss the sound of your refrigerator.

Congratulations, darling. You are no longer home.

There is no familiar city beyond the window. No passing cars, no glowing shop signs, no neighbours arguing through paper-thin walls. Only crooked houses, muddy roads, and a sky drowned in endless shades of crimson and black.

The day lasts barely five or six hours. Even then, the sunlight is pale, sickly, and strangely cold. The remaining hours belong to the Long Night — an eighteen-to-twenty-hour stretch of darkness during which the world seems to draw a little closer to anything unfortunate enough to inhabit it.

The air tastes of rainwater, rust, and old earth. Streetlights flicker without electricity. Windows reflect rooms that do not exist. Sometimes, a telephone rings inside an abandoned house, and the voice on the other end knows your name.

The worst part?

You can still recognise the world.

The roads are familiar. The buildings were made for human hands. The furniture still stands where someone left it. Somewhere beneath the corruption, the old world remains visible — like a face beneath a layer of red paint.

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II. WHAT HAPPENED HERE?

This world used to be ordinary.

Then the Gates tore open.

Ninety-nine percent of humanity vanished during the first weeks. Some died. Some disappeared. Others were simply never seen again. The survivors learned an unpleasant truth: monsters are not metaphors, nightmares are not confined to sleep, and the laws of nature are now little more than suggestions.

The Gates did not merely release creatures into the world. They changed the world itself.

Forests grew restless. Seas became hostile. Abandoned buildings developed impossible interiors. Entire streets began rearranging themselves overnight. In certain places, memories became more tangible than physical objects, and reflections stopped obeying the people standing in front of them.

The land is divided into countless overlapping regions of corruption. Each has its own atmosphere, its own peculiar rules, and its own inhabitants.

Some creatures hunt.
Some observe.
Some wait for an invitation.

And some seem to possess a sense of humour.

Unfortunately, their idea of a joke is rarely shared by the punchline.

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III. THE LOCAL RESIDENTS

A practical guide to the things that inhabit this unfortunate reality. Their locations are approximate, their behaviour is poorly understood, and the advice below should not be mistaken for a guarantee of survival.

01. PALE LINGERERS

Common locations: lower floors, abandoned apartment blocks, flooded basements.

They favour dark corridors and places where the water has been standing for too long. Remain motionless in the wrong place, and you may discover that the darkness has been paying attention to you.

Local advice: If the corridor suddenly feels occupied, do not assume you are alone just because you cannot see anyone.

02. WHISPERING RAGS

Common locations: bedrooms, closets, abandoned sleeping quarters.

They are associated with old beds, heavy curtains, and rooms where the air feels unusually close. Their whispers are often mistaken for half-remembered dreams.

Local advice: If something whispers from the wardrobe, remember that you never invited anyone inside.

03. WET-HAIRED MAIDENS

Common locations: bathrooms, showers, flooded hospital basements.

They are associated with standing water, condensation-covered mirrors, and the sound of dripping taps in buildings without running water.

Local advice: Never assume that a reflection belongs to the person standing in front of it.

04. CRAWLING RED-EYES

Common locations: forest undergrowth, overgrown city parks.

Small movements in the undergrowth often precede their appearance. Their eyes are easier to notice than their bodies, particularly when the surrounding vegetation is almost completely black.

Local advice: If the rustling follows your footsteps, stop pretending the wind is responsible.

05. WELL-DWELLERS

Common locations: abandoned wells, cisterns, elevator shafts.

They inhabit deep spaces where sound travels strangely and the bottom is rarely visible. Echoes from these places sometimes arrive before the original sound.

Local advice: Curiosity is not a safety mechanism.

06. DOORWAY REACHERS

Common locations: interior doorways, narrow corridors, densely packed ruins.

They are associated with thresholds that appear darker than the rooms surrounding them. Some doorways remain perfectly ordinary until someone approaches.

Local advice: A dark doorway is not necessarily an entrance. Sometimes it is an opening for something else.

07. SMILING WHITE-HAIRED ONES

Common locations: residential streets during the Long Night.

They may resemble ordinary people at first glance. Their expressions, however, tend to remain unchanged for longer than any natural smile should.

Local advice: Courtesy is useful. Blind trust is not.

08. GREENWOOD BLADE-WOMEN

Common locations: restless forests, the outskirts of the Sinking District.

They are associated with wooded paths where branches grow across the trail overnight. Travellers report voices among the trees, sometimes speaking with unsettling familiarity.

Local advice: Not every conversation requires a reply.

09. THREE-SKULLED HUNGERING ONES

Common locations: factory floors, lower levels of the Ashen Cathedral.

Their presence is often noticed through changes in the surrounding acoustics. Machinery seems quieter, distant sounds become muffled, and ordinary echoes arrive from the wrong direction.

Local advice: In an abandoned factory, silence can be more suspicious than noise.

10. HANGING WEB-MOTHERS

Common locations: warehouse ceilings, churches, shopping malls.

Their territories are associated with high ceilings, tangled strands, and spaces where dust hangs in the air without settling. The floor may appear empty while the ceiling tells a different story.

Local advice: When entering a large, abandoned building, remember to look up.

11. ANTLERED ELONGATES

Common locations: deep forests, mountain passes.

They are reported in places where the trees grow too close together and the wind carries voices across impossible distances. Their silhouettes can be mistaken for branches until they move.

Local advice: If the forest suddenly seems to have grown taller, reconsider your route.

12. VILLAGE COLLECTORS

Common locations: ruined villages during the deepest hours of the Long Night.

They are associated with empty streets, abandoned homes, and knocks that sound much too heavy to come from an ordinary visitor.

Local advice: Not every visitor expects the door to be opened.

13. CATHEDRAL SKELETON

Common locations: open city plazas and exposed public squares.

Its name appears in survivor accounts connected to the Ashen Cathedral and the surrounding urban ruins. Reports are inconsistent, but the warnings are remarkably similar.

Local advice: Open spaces provide excellent visibility. They also provide very little cover.

14. DROWNED CHORUS

Common locations: flooded coastal basements, underground parking garages.

The sound associated with these places resembles several distant voices speaking at once beneath the water. Individual words are difficult to distinguish, though some survivors claim to recognise familiar names.

Local advice: Never mistake a familiar voice for a safe one.

15. BED-HOLLOWERS

Common locations: abandoned bedrooms, neglected houses, apparently comfortable beds.

They are associated with sleeping spaces that seem untouched despite the surrounding decay. The mattress may look clean, the sheets may be neatly arranged, and the room may feel warmer than the rest of the house.

Local advice: Comfort is not proof of safety.

16. MULTI-ARMED DOOR GUARDIANS

Common locations: deep interior doorways, the Ashen Cathedral.

They are associated with entrances that remain closed even when their locks have rusted away. Some doors are surrounded by marks that do not resemble any known writing system.

Local advice: An unlocked door does not mean you have permission to enter.

17. SPIRAL-BOUND MOTHERS

Common locations: the lowest levels of the Drowned Library, industrial cisterns.

Their territories are marked by descending staircases, circular arrangements of old objects, and corridors that seem longer on the way back.

Local advice: Always remember how many steps you descended. If the number changes, leave.

18. LAUGHING MEAT-WEAVERS

Common locations: the travelling Circus of Hollow Lights.

They are associated with the circus's strange performances, its unusually cheerful atmosphere, and laughter that sometimes continues after the audience has gone silent.

Local advice: Free entertainment is rarely free in a world like this.

19. LONG-NIGHT BRIDES

Common locations: the edges of the last human settlements, during the deepest hours of darkness.

Their presence is often associated with distant voices, familiar phrases, and the sensation that someone is waiting just beyond the reach of a light source.

Local advice: Memory can make a dangerous voice sound like home.

20. CROWN OF HOLLOW LIGHTS

Common locations: the largest ruined city centres on rare starry nights.

Accounts describe unusual lights above the city and gatherings in places that should be empty. The details vary between witnesses, making the phenomenon difficult to understand.

Local advice: When the sky begins behaving strangely, finding out why is optional.

21. FINAL EMBRACE

Known location: wherever she decides to walk.

Unlike most inhabitants of the Long Night, Final Embrace has no reliable territory. Reports describe encounters in places separated by enormous distances, with no consistent pattern of appearance.

Local advice: There is no confirmed method of avoiding her once she has chosen to approach.

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IV. SURVIVAL ADVICE FROM THE LOCALS

Compiled from the observations of people who are still, more or less, breathing.

✓ DO:

• Keep a light source with you, even if the light only reveals the teeth more clearly.

• Pay attention to changes in familiar surroundings. A corridor that was short yesterday may not remain short tomorrow.

• Remember the locations of exits, staircases, and landmarks whenever possible.

• Treat unexplained sounds as information rather than an invitation to investigate.

• Be polite when necessary. Sometimes a calm response buys you a few extra seconds.

• Run when running is the only sensible option. It is excellent cardio and occasionally works.

✗ DO NOT:

• Go back to sleep in a bed that looks suspiciously comfortable.

• Lean over dark water just to see what is underneath.

• Accept free tickets to the Circus of Hollow Lights.

• Trust a familiar voice simply because it sounds like someone you know.

• Assume that a quiet building is an empty building.

• Assume that beautiful inhabitants are safer than frightening ones. Appearances have very little to do with survival here.

• Believe that every rule has an exception in your favour.

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V. A FEW WORDS BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Good luck, new arrival.

You may find abandoned homes, ruined hospitals, flooded tunnels, forgotten villages, and cities that continue operating long after their inhabitants have disappeared.

You may encounter other survivors. Some will help you. Some will lie. Some will have lived here long enough to understand things you cannot yet imagine.

The world is vast, the rules are inconsistent, and not every mystery has an answer. Every location has a history. Every journey carries uncertainty. Even the smallest decision can lead somewhere unexpected.

There are places where people still gather around fires, trade supplies, tell stories, and pretend that tomorrow will resemble today.

There are also places where the only sign of human life is a light burning in a window that should have been empty for decades.

Try not to scream too early, darling.

Somewhere in the darkness, something may be listening.

THE LONG NIGHT AWAITS

RUINS · ANOMALIES · FORBIDDEN PLACES

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#Horror #DarkFantasy #PostApocalyptic #BodyHorror #Monster #LongNight #SurvivalHorror #DarkHumor #OpenWorld #Supernatural #PsychologicalHorror #Mystery