I may be stealing some of Colin’s thunder by posting this; it was his idea. Here at The Ninja Ken we are thinking about creating our own series of choose your own adventure type stories. All featuring the use, or possible lack of use of cranks. The kind of cranks you always found in your inventory in Resident Evil games. Cranks that make you think, why the hell do I have a crank. And who the hell shapes the end of a crank like this. Here is the beginning of a Crankventure I whipped up for Colin to read at the office today. Enjoy, and choose your path wisely. Of course Jesus, a carpenter, drank out of a crude and unadorned goblet.

The Twenty-First Floor
It’s early in the morning. You are at the office early to take care of some business that is behind schedule. It’s still dark out and you had to use your key card to gain entrance to the building. The lobby lights are dim and the up arrow shines bright when you press the elevator call button. Your office is on the twenty first floor in the fortynine floor building. The last elevator in a row of six opens up and you cross the threshold and lean against the cool walls in the back left corner. The doors close.

You close your eyes; you are still very tired and your wife had broken the coffee pot the night before. Nine minutes later, according to the hands of your wrist watch, you open your eyes. You had fallen asleep. The elevator was still at ground level, indicated by the illuminated G above the doors. You must have forgotten to press the appropriate floor button. You yawn and reach forward to hit the button marked 21. It remains unlit. You reach out again and this time it lights up before your finger can reach it. You fall back against the walls again.

The air conditioning in this elevator feels a good five degrees cooler than you recall the elevators ever being. It’s probably just the lack of hot summer air being constantly sucked in by the morning rush of people entering the office. They won’t arrive for another two hours. The elevator slowly climbs upwards and your empty stomach sinks for just a second. You intended to indulge on some granola bars in your desk once you arrived. The subtle whirring sounds take on a faint tone of struggling for a moment, and then seem to right themselves. The elevator comes to a stop and dings. 21 is lit up above the opening doors.

This is not your floor. It’s not even a floor. You seemed to have stopped between floors. You can see the ceiling of the lower floor and the floor of the above. You look up at the floor indicator again. You miss it at first but do a double take. It doesn’t read 21, but 2 1. The two belongs to the twelfth floor, and the one to the fourteeth. 10 11 1(2 1)4 15 16. Like most buildings, there is no thirteenth floor. You try the proper floor button again, then ground, then all the others. No response. You lean against the center of the back wall in bewilderment.

As you stand and think your back becomes chilled and a shiver runs through you. You inspect the wall and notice a small indention. It’s hard to notice as it blends well with marble inlay design. It’s an imperfect circular outline, that is actually cut quite deep but very thinly into the wall. This is where the cold air is coming from. Inside the outline you think you can make out the letters XIII. How peculiar.

Do you:

A. Crawl onto the twelfth floor.
B. Climb onto the fourteenth floor.
C. Wait for help.
D. Open your briefcase and use the crank, which your father had mysteriously left you on his death bed one year ago, on the outline marked with a XIII in the center.

What do you do?

Take a stand!

1. F. Die crushed under the enormous wall of text.

   — Joe · Apr 8, 10:15 PM · #

2. D.

   I hope I don’t get eaten by a grue!

   — PhilWal · Apr 9, 12:37 AM · #

3. A. Why climb when i can jump.

   — B · Apr 9, 01:46 PM · #

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