🎬 THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1

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You and Ryan are driving through rural Oregon, celebrating five years together. Tomorrow is your job interview in Portland. Tonight is meant to be quiet — just a stopover. One night.

But then the car sputters. A jolt. The engine dies.

Ryan pops the hood. Nothing. No signal. Just the endless forest pressing in.

You hike to the nearest town — Venus, Oregon. It barely feels alive. Locals stare without smiling. At the diner, the waitress, Shelly, serves burnt coffee with a frozen smile. Behind her: a missing person poster. Jeff Morell. The name sticks with you.

Outside, the mechanic, Rudy, tells you the timing belt is shot. Earliest fix? Tomorrow. Shelly offers to drive you both to a nearby rental cabin. You hesitate. But night’s falling, and you’re out of options.

The drive winds deeper into the woods.

The cabin is isolated. Still. Wrong in a way you can’t name. Inside, everything is too quiet — like the house is waiting. You try to settle in. Laugh. Unpack.

Then: a knock at the door. Three slow taps.

Ryan answers.

A woman stands just outside the porch light — blurred by shadow, her voice flat:

“Is Tamara home?”

Ryan says no.

She just stands there.

Then vanishes into the trees.

Later, Ryan realizes he forgot his inhaler. He takes a motorcycle left by the cabin and heads back to town. At the shop, Rudy nearly attacks him before recognizing his face. Ryan grabs his inhaler. Declines the locals' invitation to hang out. Heads back.

You’re alone now.

Another knock.

You answer. The same woman. Same question.

You close the door faster this time.

Trying to distract yourself, you find an old piano in the corner of the room. Dusty keys. You start to play — slowly, softly — anything to fill the silence.

You don’t see the tall figure in the hallway.

You don’t feel his eyes on your back.

But he’s there.

Scarecrow is watching.

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🎭To be continued... but you decide what happens next…. 🪓

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