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space-cathedral · 4 months ago

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Has Anybody Else Played "FIND ROSE"?

(AN: This story was written by myself and all pictures were drawn by myself, and is meant to be an inverse letter written someone in my OC-verse — in other words, everything written is fictional. It's on the long-ish side (6,352 words, to be exact), but can probably be read in less than fifteen minutes, if that. Thank you!)

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The following text was written and sent to our Research Team by an individual whose name will not be disclosed for privacy reasons. The following describes the author's experience with a game assumed to have been created in the early 2000s, which may highlight one of the first forms of human contact from the City to the human realm. If you have any further information, please contact us as soon as possible via any of the information listed on the “Contact Us” page of our website. Thank you.

To whom it may concern,

Hello. My name is [REDACTED], and I’m writing to you today, both to offer some information that could be relevant to your research and to see if I truly am the only person who has played the game I’m about to describe.

To provide just a little bit of background about myself: when I was a child, the internet was still considered a fairly new phenomenon that people were still waiting to die out. With the birth of the internet came the birth of CD-ROM PC games, and with the birth of CD-ROM PC games came the birth of what might have been my very first obsession. Every Friday after my classes were over, my parents would take me to the local game store, and I'd buy as many games as my allowance could afford (which, usually, was two at the absolute most). To highlight exactly how into PC games I was, I only ever bought them, never rented them; once I got my hands on a game, I wasn’t giving it back. Then, after I’d made my choice, I'd spend almost every hour of every weekend on my father's IBM PS ValuePoint computer (you know, the type of computer that used dial-up connection because Wi-Fi had yet to take off), logged into Windows 2000 and playing whatever game I'd bought the day before. By the time of my experience, I must have owned over thirty CD-ROMs — KidPix was, and still is, my absolute favorite one of the bunch. I still play the CD version sometimes as an adult, even though it's apparently freeware now.

Now, with all that over with, let’s get on to the whole reason I’m writing this.

That winter afternoon had been notably chilly as my parents took me on my pre-weekend CD shopping spree. That day had been the final day of school before winter break, meaning that I would have ample time to play my computer games. While en route, my mother had given me a calm but firm lecture about computer-time guidelines she'd be putting in place during break, but if I’m being honest, all of it went in one ear and out the other as my dad pulled into a parking spot in front of the store. I remember being just short of running through the glass door when my mother frantically snatched me towards her by the hand, as I'd practically catapulted out of the back seat once the engine was turned off. Even as I held my mother's hand, my excitement hadn't let up one iota as I jumped up and down on our way through the door.

Per usual, I had a difficult time choosing which game to buy, my 7-year-old gaze flitting from one captivating CD case to another. Also per usual, my father kept saying, "Don't take too long, now, we don't want it to be too dark when we drive home," (which even as a child I knew was his code for "Will you hurry up, I want to go home and sleep.") and also also per usual, I hardly paid him any mind. All that mattered at that instant were those games.

It was when I nearly settled on buying I Spy: School Days that it first caught my eye.

Next to I Spy: School Days’ bright yellow box sat another CD-ROM. The case had no title cover, leaving the CD itself exposed behind the transparent material, and on the disc, the words "FIND ROSE", handwritten in what appeared to be red Crayola marker, were barely legible; I remember having to squint to make them out.

I pointed it out to my parents, asking them what kind of game that was, and they were just as oblivious as I was. When we brought it to the cashier near the front door, he too had no definite answer to our questions. "Probably just some shoddy homebrew," he'd said. "We get those from time to time." He then offered the CD to us for free, which I happily accepted; my parents even let me buy I Spy: School Days along with it, since I hadn’t spent any money yet. As we walked out the door and headed towards our car, I was even more excited than I'd been when I'd gotten out of the car.

It was nightfall by the time my father pulled into our garage. After eating my dinner, changing into my house clothes, and brushing my teeth, I made a beeline for the computer, both CDs in hand. My parents, both of them about to head to bed, were fine with me using the computer that night, as long as I followed their rules: no eating or drinking anything at the keyboard, no staying on after 10 pm, no going on any websites other than the ones that they'd personally vetted, etc etc etc. Even now, I can remember it being exactly 7 pm when they finally turned in for the night, and when I fired up my dad's computer in our living room, filled with anticipation as the computer’s lights began to flicker.

As I waited for Windows 2000 to boot up, I found myself fixated on the FIND ROSE disc, feeling as bewildered as I was excited. Normally, when I purchased a game, I would read the descriptions on the back of the CD case repeatedly during the car ride home, ensuring I knew exactly what kind of game I was about to dive into for the weekend. This time, however, was different; without any cover art, there were no descriptions to peruse, leaving me completely in the dark about what I was going to play. For reasons I couldn't quite grasp at the moment, the disc filled me with a sense of unease; perhaps it was just that fear of the absolute unknown that we all have.

Then, Windows 2000 finally loaded, displaying the default light blue desktop background that my father never bothered changing. All of the icons from my past gaming exploits were neatly lined up in rows of five on the left side of the desktop, coming right after Microsoft Word and Internet Explorer. My heart raced with excitement as I pressed the square button on the CD tray, watching it slide out from the modem. I placed the FIND ROSE disc inside and pushed the tray (perhaps a bit too hard) back into the computer, hardly able to believe I was about to dive into this enigmatic game while the CD spun and churned inside the machine.

The first oddity was something I initially overlooked until several years after my experience — although I had a vague inkling of it back then, I couldn't pinpoint the exact issue. In my defense, it was a minor detail that could easily escape a child's notice. Basically: all the CD games I'd played before FIND ROSE launched an installation wizard that you had to navigate through before playing your game. However, FIND ROSE launched no such wizard; the moment I inserted the disc, a fullscreen window immediately appeared, turning the screen almost completely black, sans the small pixel hourglass visible in the middle of the void.

The second oddity was something I caught right as it happened, and that was the ridiculously long loading time. I wasn’t keeping the exact time, but if I had to guess, the screen was black for what I can only estimate was at least 10 minutes. As I sat at the keyboard, a pair of 7-year-old eyes reflecting nothing but raw impatience in the dark screen, the thought that I had broken my father's computer began to creep into my brain. For a moment, the game faded completely from my thoughts as my mind began to swarm with questions of how exactly I would explain this to my parents and what punishment I might receive. Will I be spanked? Will they take away my games? Will I never be allowed on the computer again?

Just as a panic attack was about to take hold, a sudden and deafening beep blasting from the computer speakers jolted me back to the present. My gaze instantly shot to the monitor, my eyes wide and my muscles tensed up as I fixated on the blank, now-white screen. The loud noise had definitely startled me, yes, but a part of me braced for the sound of exasperated footsteps that would quickly morph into a lengthy scolding from two very exhausted, very agitated adults. Fortunately, though, those footsteps never came. Part of me was surprised the noise hadn’t disturbed my parents, but I most certainly wasn’t going to complain.

The white screen lingered for only a second before an image finally emerged, signaling that the game had finally started. I quickly shook off my shock and settled into my dad’s office chair, feeling both thrilled to play FIND ROSE and relieved that I wouldn’t face any consequences for breaking the computer or for waking the entire house up at 8 pm.

The image on the screen showed a peculiar creature that resembled a llama, but it stood upright like a human and had human-like hands, painted with red nail polish. The creature was situated in a small, rather minimalist bedroom; the only furniture visible was a neatly made white bed, a brown lamp on a wooden end table, and a burgundy rug that covered about one-fifth of the pale yellow floor. It wore a pearl necklace adorning a red rose at the center, and a fancy white dress with a repeating red rose pattern covering the entire bottom half of it. It also had a yellow purse, its long strap across its chest, and red high heels on its (assumingly also human-like) feet. She (at the time, I could only assume she was a "she" based on the attire) stood silently in the middle of the room, her hands folded politely at its waist, wearing an expression reminiscent of what I can only compare to a weary middle-aged woman and gazing off at nothing in particular. I’ve included a rough sketch to give you an idea of her appearance (sorry for the messiness, I am not an artist);

Though my drawing doesn’t really do it any justice, something about the overall art style made me quite uneasy. The only way I can describe it is… it was as if somebody put Tim Burton’s art through fifteen different languages on Google Translate and then put the results on a CD-ROM. Something about it was so gritty, imposing — unfinished, almost.

At first, I had zero idea what I was supposed to do; there were no onscreen instructions, no indicators of what my next step was meant to be, no nothing. My first move was to click on the llama-lady, but all that did was spawn some black text floating above her head. Based on the text, this llama-lady that wore a rose necklace and a rose-patterned dress was named… “Daisy”. Yeah, not sure what the developers were thinking with that one. Then again, the game was called "FIND ROSE"; if the llama-lady was the titular Rose, it would have probably won the world record for the world’s shortest video game.

I began clicking randomly on the screen, but none of my attempts produced any results. Frustration set in as I started to believe that this single screen was all the game had to offer; that this really and truly was the world’s shortest game. But then, I clicked on a very specific spot in the far left corner of the game’s PC window, and the screen went black, leaving only the Windows hourglass icon visible. As I waited for the next screen to load, I couldn't help but wonder how many people must have bought the game only to return it on the same day, unable to find the progress spot and convinced there was nothing else to do. Even as a child, I found it odd that it was hidden in a place where most players wouldn't think to click.

The loading time remained unusually lengthy, but it was shorter than the initial wait; it seemed to take about five minutes instead of ten (though, as a child, that was still too long). When the next screen finally showed up, it was all I could do to sit and stare at the strange scene that had been placed before me.

Daisy was now outside and appeared to be on some sort of city block, but the architecture of the buildings made absolutely no sense — constructed in all sorts of surreal shapes that realistically should have sent most of them toppling over in heaps of orangish-brown bricks. The streets were lined up with what appeared to be street lamps, but some of them seemed to be damaged, with their poles bent sharply at strange angles. This was all rendered in the exact same badly-translated-Tim-Burton style and maintained a lukewarm brownish-yellow color scheme, giving it an extremely uncanny, almost unnatural vibe. Here’s another drawing I did of what a typical screen of FIND ROSE looked like (again, not an artist):

It’s also worth noting that, unlike the previous screen, there was background music playing this time. It was this very bizarre piano tune droning on and on from the speakers — it wasn’t loud or discordant and it didn’t hurt my ears or anything, but there was no actual coherent melody going on with it. The only way that I can describe it is, It sounded like somebody who’d never played a piano before in their life was just making things up as they went along —like some kindergarten kid at the classroom piano — resulting in a slew of notes that didn’t really flow or go together well.

Despite how I’d struggled with the previous screen, I found the general controls were quite straightforward: use the left mouse button to move, click on characters to engage in conversation, click on items to pick them up, and use the mouse to guide Daisy towards the far left of the screen to proceed to the next area. The game hadn't explicitly stated the goal, but I’d long since guessed that it involved looking for whoever Rose even was.

I clicked on all of the weird buildings first, but doing so always brought up the exact same message at the bottom of the screen, written in some scratchy black font that looked like someone was trying to get ink out of a pen: "Rose is not there." I also tried clicking the street lights, which brought up the text: "Things that give light." With nothing else to check, I used my mouse to guide Daisy to the left, moving onto the next screen.

The next few screens were far more populated than the first one. There were all sorts of strange creatures wandering about, none of them seeming human. Each of them walked back and forth at a set path at random intervals, in what I can only assume were preset paths coded in by the devs. When I clicked on and spoke to them, each of them seemed to know Daisy, and they each said something in regard to this still-unseen “Rose” character. Below is a list of some of the dialogue I managed to remember, accompanied by what sort of creature said it, and any event that may or may not have happened afterward. Note that I didn't make any drawings of them, as I didn't feel exact appearances were necessary for this part.

Creature in a tuxedo with a rose for a head, apparently named “Mr. Thorns”, standing in front of a vaguely-rose-shaped building called THORNS based on a sign above the door: “Ah! Good morning, Daisy.” [A text box only containing ellipses.] ”Hm? Rose? Ah, I saw her pass by here not too long ago. I’m sure she’s close. Now, I’ve got to get back to work. Good luck with finding Rose!” [Mr. Thorns then walks into the aforementioned building.]

Creature in a yellow summer dress with a sunflower for a head, apparently named “Mrs. Thorns”, holding hands with a much smaller creature with a yellow rose bud for a head, named “Rosy": "Hello there, Daisy, nice to see you!” [Box of ellipses.] “What’s that? You’re looking for Rose? I’m afraid I haven’t seen her… I’m sure she’s not far, though!” [The dialogue initially ends here, but I talked to Mrs. Thorns a second time to see if she’d say anything else, to which she says the following.] “Ah, that reminds me: if you ever want a nice bouquet of roses, make sure you visit my husband’s shop. He sells plenty of beautiful roses! [There is no more dialogue from Mrs. Thorns after this. The child with her only says “Hello, miss.” when clicked on.]

Creature wearing a black gown that seems to be a white humanoid poodle with three heads named “Ms. Cerber”: "Oh, hi, Daisy! Rare that we see you without Rose… Is she doing ok?" [Box of ellipses.] "You’re looking for her now? We hope you find her soon!" [There is no dialogue after this.]

Creature sitting on a bench that seems to be nothing more than a completely black silhouette of something resembling a human, apparently named “Zilch”: [An empty textbox and nothing but a cacophony of loud, glitchy noises (that, just by the way, made me jump out of my skin when I clicked on Zilch). Clicking on them more than once grants the same result each time.]

Creature with what seems to be a red mushroom for a head in a plain white t-shirt apparently named "Gus", seemingly sweeping the sidewalk with a broom: "Rose? Yeah, I passed by her earlier. She should be taking a stroll in the forest by now." [There is no more dialogue after that.]

Creature that appears to be an extremely massive serpent with four large eyes against a large brick wall, hovering over what appears to be several fruit and vegetable stands. The creature seemed completely flat, almost as if it was drawn into the brick wall. Apparently (and appropriately) named “Four Eyes”: Ah, Lady Daisy, a lovely morning to you! You here to shop?" [Box of ellipses.] "Hm? No? Oh well, that’s fine, maybe next time. Feel free to stay and chat, I enjoy your company!" [The dialogue initially ends there; however, Four Eyes continues talking if clicked on again.] "Hm? You’re looking for Lady Rose? Yes, she just bought some fresh veggies from me not too long ago. She’s most likely up ahead." [After this, clicking on Four Eyes will only ever bring up the text “Pleasure doing business with you!” and nothing more.]

So far, the game, despite its creepy visuals and less-than-appealing soundtrack, was relatively pleasant, and I was actually enjoying it thus far. Even though the NPCs were all bizarre and inhuman, they all seemed friendly enough (aside from Zilch; then again, the racket it made may have been “hello, have a nice day” in whatever language it spoke, but I can’t confirm that).

About three screens past Four Eyes' market, I came across the game's first true hurdle — a nameless humanoid red fox in a red suit only referred to as "Gatekeeper." He was stationed in front of a closed gate that looked like it opened into a forest, judging by the leaves jutting from the left side of the screen. Upon engaging him in conversation, he responded with the following:

“Mornin’”. [Box of ellipses.] “What? You wanna go through the forest? Sure, but I’ll need to see a permit. Don’t want any ne’er do wells in there again.” [Box of ellipses.] “…Don’t have one? Sorry, can’t let you pass, then.” [The dialogue initially ends here, but speaking to him again reveals the following.] "Ask around the City. I'm sure somebody can help you get your hands on one. [After this, the gatekeeper will only say “No permit, no pass. Sorry. Gotta follow protocol,” when clicked on afterward.]

After that, I backtracked multiple screens and spoke to every NPC I could find, none of whom could help me — that is, until I talked to Ms. Cerber again. She said the following:

“Hi again, Daisy! Is there something wrong?” [Box of ellipses.] “A permit to the forest? We’ve actually got one of our own!" [Box of ellipses.] “Hm? Can you borrow it? We don’t know, the last time we let someone borrow our permit, they lost it and we had to sign up for another one… Tell you what, how about we make you a deal?"

I can’t remember her exact wordage, but in the next few textboxes, Ms. Cerber described how she'd wanted to buy a rose bouquet for her (unnamed) partner back at her home, but didn't have the funds for it. She then offered to let Daisy not only borrow but keep the permit if she managed to get her some roses for her partner, claiming that the cost of a new permit was minuscule compared to the value of seeing her lover happy. It seemed that, even though you apparently had to sign up for something to get a forest permit, it seemed that any permit would allow you through even if it wasn’t actually yours because the gatekeeper never bothered doing any actual checks, and I was just fine with that. I felt that someone would be getting fired soon, though.

Remembering what Mrs. Thorns told me earlier, I immediately made my way towards Mr. Thorn’s shop, but not before I picked up an item blending in with one of the buildings that I hadn’t noticed on my way there; a coin (according to text that appeared), small and the color of a penny, its sprite now on the top-left corner of the screen. The coin would turn out to be the only item that you could pick up in FIND ROSE; everything else was obtained via talking to NPCs.

Unlike the previous segments of the game, the shop was drawn in a top-down perspective rather than a side view. Fittingly, the shop was covered from top to bottom with all things relating to roses; rose lollipops, rose jewelry (which I quickly assumed was the same jewelry that Daisy wore around her neck), rose seeds, rose-shaped décor, and of course, rose bouquets. I spoke to Mr. Thorns, who sat behind a counter at the top of the screen. His dialogue was as follows:

“Oh, hello again, Daisy! Have you found Rose yet?” [Box of ellipses.] "Not yet? Well, I'm sure she's around here, don’t worry about her. Now, did you want something?" [Box of ellipses.] "Ah, you’d like to purchase a rose bouquet? Of course, of course! Let me get you one right away!" [Mr. Thorns goes offscreen for about a second, and then reappears at the counter.] "Alrighty, that'll be 5 cents, please!"

I clicked on the coin in the corner of the screen, thinking that I could pay for the roses with it, but that resulted in the following dialogue:

“Oh, I’m so sorry, you seem to be low on money… Hm…" [Box of ellipses.] “Don’t fret, Daisy. I'll give it to you; that is, if you could do me a small favor. Don’t worry, it shouldn’t take too much of your time.”

To summarize what Mr. Thorns said next, he’d give me the bouquet for free if I got him an orange from what I learned was called “the All-Seeing Market”; according to him, he’d get it himself, but he didn’t want to be away from his shop in case a customer arrived. How somebody with no mouth could eat anything, I couldn’t tell you, but all I cared about was getting that permit so that I could finally advance and, hopefully, find whoever Rose was.

As I headed for Four Eyes’ screen, it had only at that moment dawned on me that the music didn’t loop. In the ten or so minutes that I’d been playing, the “melody” (and I use that term very loosely) never repeated itself in the same way, essentially playing one long piano tune. Right then, I could only imagine someone sitting at a piano for probably an hour, just pressing whichever key caught their attention next.

Upon reaching the market, I got the following dialogue when I spoke to Four Eyes:

“Lovely seeing you again, my Lady!” [Box of ellipses.] “You’d like to buy one of my oranges? Wonderful! That will be 1 cent, if you may.”

This time, when I clicked on the coin, it actually worked, much to my relief, and the coin’s sprite was replaced with that of an orange in the inventory. “Pleasure doing business with you!” Four Eyes had said afterward.

I’m not going to get into any of the dialogue spoken between the time of me buying the orange to me speaking to the gatekeeper, because the entire fetch quest took a little less than five minutes, and nobody said anything interesting or of note that I can remember. Long-but-not-long story short: I gave the orange to Mr. Thorns and he gave me the roses, I gave the roses to Ms. Cerber and she gave me the permit, I gave the permit to the gatekeeper and he let me through. Objective complete.

After opening the gate for Daisy, the gatekeeper said the following:

“What business do you have in the forest, anyway?” [Box of ellipses.] “Rose, huh? Not sure who that is, but a fine lady did pass through here earlier. With any luck, that’ll be your girl. Head on through.” [The dialogue initially ends here, but talking to the gatekeeper then has him say the following.] “Be careful, and remember: don’t bother Mother Goose, if you know what’s good for ya."

Although I was eager to move ahead, the gatekeeper's warning stirred a bit of anxiety within me as I moved toward the next screen. What did he mean by "be careful"? Who exactly was Mother Goose? As the screen went dark, I expected these questions to be answered very soon. When the next screen appeared, however, my fingers froze on the mouse, and my eyes became fixed on the landscape presented.

This scene was darker, much darker, than any that came before it. As expected of a forest, the landscape was filled with trees and bushes, but they were all depicted in pure black, while the background was a deep blue that would have made the trees invisible had it been any deeper. The art style, while still maintaining the bootleg-Tim-Burton style of the game, appeared much rougher and more chaotic, causing the bushes to look less like bushes and more like amorphous, shadowy masses. Daisy, previously vibrant in color, was now just a bunch of white outlines, the background bleeding straight through her. The disjointed piano music ceased entirely when the screen appeared, and despite how the music creeped me out, the silence that followed was far worse.

There was a sprite of what appeared to be a wooden signpost in the middle of the screen, and it gave me the following text when I clicked on it:

“Do not bother Mother Goose.”

The tiny wave of fear I felt when the gatekeeper had said the same thing had grown into a full-blown tsunami. Yes, it was just a game, but at that moment, I felt as though I was in that forest instead of Daisy. After a bout of shaking and heavy breathing, I steeled myself to press on, guiding Daisy past the sign and into the following screen.

For the first three screens, nothing happened, and for a moment, my fear began to diminish. Whoever this “Mother Goose” was hadn’t made its presence known in any way I could detect, and I figured that by not “bothering” them — whatever “bothering” actually meant — they wouldn’t pop up.

This relief was short-lived, however, when I saw a tall, lanky figure slowly rise in the middle of the fifth forest screen, staring right at Daisy as she entered the screen.

The being was at least double Daisy's size and had no identifiable characteristics apart from a bird-like beak, a bonnet-like accessory on its head, and a shining white eye on the side that contrasted harshly with the gloom that swallowed the locale. Trying not to panic, I moved my cursor towards the creature, wanting to examine it to get some idea as to what exactly it was and what its purpose its presence served.

“Be careful, and remember: don’t bother Mother Goose, if you know what’s good for ya."

After a few seconds of hovering over the thing, the cursor jerking and quivering against the blackness that surrounded it as my right hand shook, I swiftly decided against it, yanking the cursor from the thing as if it were an atom bomb that would explode if I lingered over it any longer. My immediate instinct was to head back to the brighter, more populated city full of friendly characters, but every single time I attempted to leave, Daisy would stop just short of going offscreen, and the following text would appear:

“You can’t go back right now. You have to FIND ROSE.”

With seemingly no other choices available, I held my breath and slipped by the shadowy being to proceed to the next screen. Thankfully, it didn’t attack Daisy; it only turned in her direction, watching her as she progressed.

I’m unsure of the exact number of screens that comprised the entire remaining forest area, but I am sure that it was far too many. Each screen repeated the same scene; the creature, whom I eventually concluded was Mother Goose, appeared in each and every one, never breaking its gaze away from Daisy as she wandered through the forest. I've illustrated the scene as best I can to give an idea of what it looked like:

I think it was around the halfway mark when I noticed the music. It began with one note, then two, and gradually added more as I went from screen to screen. When the sixteenth note played, I realized it was the first few notes of the nursery song "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary," a tune my mother used to sing to me as a child. The tempo was incredibly slow, with a full second of silence between each note.

I know that most people, especially adults, may not have found any of this particularly scary, but at the moment, my seven-year-old self was beyond terrified. While all of my childhood friends were scared of the Mad Piano from Super Mario 64, I was scared of Mother Goose from FIND ROSE. While all of my adult online buddies were scared of the Lavender Town music from the old Pokémon games as kids, I was scared of the one-note-at-a-time piano rendition of “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary” from FIND ROSE. While everyone else remembers being scared over a popular console title, I was scared over some obscure CD-ROM game from a corner store that nobody other than me has probably even played.

Despite my fear, I continued to press on. I kept telling myself that, because I'd made it this far, I had an obligation to see this entire game through. I had an obligation to FIND ROSE.

In what felt like hours — though it was most likely less than two minutes — I finally reached the forest’s final screen. Everything was essentially the same as it had been in the rest of the forest, with Mother Goose still staring me down, but there was another wooden sign at the far end of the screen, which provided the following text when clicked on:

“Forest Exit; Picnic Area Ahead.”

Overwhelmed by a surge of intense relief, I quickly made my way to the left, eager to escape this nightmare, while Mother Goose turned to look at me one final time.

It was when I was just about to transition to the next screen that it happened. The final cherry on the proverbial panic-inducing sundae. It happened so quickly that I almost didn't see it.

Mother Goose darted towards Daisy at astonishing speed, its beak wide open and its white eyes growing almost to the size of its head. The very last note that played before I left the forest was incredibly loud and distorted, as if somebody violently banged their finger on a piano key (something else that I thought would wake my parents up, but thankfully didn’t). I could have sworn I heard the strained cry of a dying bird layered over the noise, being abruptly cut off at the end. Mother Goose was barely a centimeter from touching Daisy when the screen went dark.

As the screen brightened and transformed into a more inviting setting, accompanied by the return of the weird-yet-benign tune, I needed a full minute to motivate myself to move. Once I managed to exhale the breath that had lodged in my throat, I started to move Daisy across the screen again. A small part of me considered backtracking to the previous screen out of curiosity, but I refused. I would never return there again. To this day, I have no idea what happens if you click on Mother Goose, but I’m perfectly fine with not knowing.

I only encountered a single other NPC on my way through the Picnic Area; a humanoid black cat with an orange t-shirt and yellow sun hat on, sitting at what appeared to be a light-brown picnic table to the right of the screen. Speaking with her gave me the following text:

“Hey there, Daisy! You enjoying the weather?” [Box of ellipses.] “Rose? She’s just up ahead. I think she’s waiting for you. You should go see her!” [There is no more dialogue after that.]

After advancing through two more screens, each showcasing rows of vacant picnic tables, I arrived at what seemed to be the beginning of a grassy field. In the center stood a large tree, beneath standing a creature resembling a brown gazelle. Like Daisy, she stood on two legs and had human-like hands, with hers holding a straw basket filled with what appeared to be carrots and lettuce. The creature wore a long, gray summer dress that brushed against the ground, covering her legs and feet, and like Daisy, she had a necklace, only with a white daisy at the center. Her expression mirrored Daisy's own weary, almost middle-aged-lady-looking appearance. Here’s a doodle of her:

Upon finding her, she had her back turned towards Daisy, but she turned around when I clicked on her. True to the cat-beast’s word, the creature was indeed the one whom I’d been searching for the entire game. I had finally found Rose. When I clicked on her, she gave me the following dialogue, which served as the final piece of text in the entire game:

“Oh, Daisy, dear! I was just enjoying the pleasant breeze… I was hoping you’d come to enjoy it with me. I was just thinking of visiting your house for tea afterward; would that be fine with you? [Box of ellipses]. Wonderful! I’m so happy to see you.”

Then, suddenly and with no fanfare, the game window just closed itself out. A bit anti-climactic, yeah, but I was happy to have won the game. I did attempt to re-launch the game by removing and then re-inserting the disc several times, but it seemed that the game would no longer boot.

As I sat there reflecting on what I’d just played, a soft knock on the wall nearly made me fall out of my chair. I looked up to see my father at the end of the hallway that led to the living room where the computer was, staring at me with half-lidded eyes.

“Yo," he said, punctuating his greeting with a huge yawn. "It's 10 o'clock now, bud."

“Yeah, I know,” I said in placid agreement. “I just closed the game, and I’m getting off right now.”

As my father nodded and trudged back to his and mom’s room, I turned the computer off, leapt out of the chair, and headed straight to bed without a word, falling into a restless sleep.

I never told my parents about the game. When my mom asked about it the next morning, I told her that the disc hadn’t worked and I just played I Spy: School Days. It wasn't a complete lie, though; each time I attempted to load the game after that night, the CD wouldn't read. We didn’t bother bringing it back to the store, since we’d gotten it for free anyway. It was a bit more difficult, however, to come up with a reason for my mother as to why I didn't want her to sing "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" to me anymore.

When I returned to school, I asked several of my peers if they’d ever played or heard of FIND ROSE, and all of them looked at me like I had grown an extra head. I’d even resorted to asking my teachers, who, predictably, had zero clue what I was talking about, and about half of them signed their answer off with some variation of "games are fun but don't let them make you forget to study". After classes, I used the school library's computer to do Google research on (I couldn't use Google on my family's computer, as my parents felt that I could look up something I wasn't supposed to on it, and had it locked behind password via a third-party program); my search yielded no results. I eventually gave up.

So now, years later as an adult, I’m writing this as a… call-to-action, so to speak. If anybody who reads this has played this game, has footage of this game, or even has actual ownership of a functioning copy of this game, please, please contact the research center, so that they can forward it to me, and if you are willing to part with it, send a physical copy to the team as well. I would greatly appreciate it, and I’m sure the team would as well.

Thank you for reading.

Sincerely,

[REDACTED]

P.S: To whoever is in charge of the research party; I’ve read the report on your website you posted a few days ago regarding a tall, bird-like creature with glowing white eyes that was sighted skulking in a dark alley sometime last week? If you happen to gather more information on it, I would appreciate it very greatly if you could share any and all you possibly can with me. I’ve been losing sleep over it.

[End.]

#my writing #writers on tumblr #horror writing #oc writing #note: this is not a full-on horror story but it has horror elements and I felt that I should tag it as such #my art #idk what else to tag this but. here #please forgive any typos this might have it was not beta'd #rose #daisy #mother goose #long post

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