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Damian Ehrenburg

They say Blackstone is a city. They lie.

Novel "Rot"

Rot book cover

Blackstone looks like a normal city from afar, but up close it follows different rules. Streets shift places, mirrors answer back, and the silence seems to wait for you to speak first.

Artist Raven Lockhart, detective Arthur Lane, and scientist Hannah Daniels chase different goals. Each searches for their own truth, yet they all end up on the same path: Vincent Crow.

This is the story of a place that notices you before you notice it.

Read on Amazon (Soon)

Game "Freedom in Rot"

Freedom in Rot game poster

Archive file: Protocol 7-B.

Freedom in Rot is a short first-person psychological horror experience set in the Blackstone universe.

The system records your actions and delivers a personal diagnosis.

Play on itch.io

About the Author

I write dark urban prose and craft interactive horror stories.

I am interested in the point where fear breaks a person or builds them anew. In Blackstone every choice leaves a scar, and every scar has a price.

On this site I gather one universe as a whole: the book, the game, and the Ashworth archive materials. If this tone is close to you, stay.

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ASHWORTH INTERNAL DATABASE

CASE #: 79-1138 (Exhibit B)CLASSIFIED

SUBJECT: Psychological Evaluation of V. Crawford

...The subject speaks of human pain not as a feeling, but as "excess energy in an unstable system".

I have the persistent feeling that I am not speaking to a grieving man, but to a predatory mathematician who has just discovered a fundamental error in the fabric of reality itself. And he intends to "correct" it.

Note: Recommend immediate isolation and... [text illegible]

CASE #: 94-0812STATUS: Active, Cold Case

SUBJECT: Disappearance of Minor A. Lane

Location: Ashburn Elementary, Room 3-B. No signs of forced entry. No witnesses.

Item found on desk: crude rag doll, missing eyes. Numerous chalk drawings found on walls and blackboard. Nature of drawings (complex, repeating spiral patterns) is inconsistent with psychological profile and motor skills of students in this age group. Case transferred to Cold Case division.

ITEM: Recovered JournalSTATUS: Evidence

SUBJECT: Final Entry (The Cartographer)

...Tried to map the Old Quarter again. Maple Street no longer leads to the river. It folds back onto itself. I walked it for three hours. The houses repeated. The same crack in the asphalt... My maps don't lie. Geometry lies.

The city no longer obeys space. It breathes. It redraws itself as it pleases, erasing streets like a bad sketch. I fear one day it will erase me too.

SOURCE: Ethnographic NotesSTATUS: Unverified

SUBJECT: "The Blackstone Nursery Rhyme"

One, two, three, four, five,
The City comes to eat alive.
Six and seven — close your eyes,
Beneath the street the thunder lies.
Eight, nine — the silence deep,
Watching you while you sleep.
And ten — prepare to pay the cost,
For in this town, the dead aren't lost.

Analytic Note: This "rhyme" appears in several unrelated cases... infrasound frequencies causing anxiety and derealization are detected in the pauses between stanzas.

CASE #: [REDACTED]DESTROY IMMEDIATELY

SUBJECT: Contamination Threat via "Protocol 7-B"

DESTROY IMMEDIATELY.

You think this is a game. You are mistaken. You are undergoing calibration. Syncing with it, learning to see the world through its eyes. The ending is a diagnosis. Its verdict on you.

This protocol is a virus. It doesn't just show the disease. It IS the disease. Cease all research immediately. Burn all copies.