So, I was playing Anchorhead.
You know, Anchorhead...?
Classic text adventure game...?
I have no friends Anyway! I was playing it, and it's very heavily inspired/directly in the world of the Master of Madness himself, HP Lovecraft. So naturally weird shits going down
So, my character climbed into a well. So far, the games only had suggestive horror I.e. Whispered tales, drunks talking about things the locals won't talk about, M.C. HP's bread and butter, Yaknow?
Anyway, climbed into a well, and this is what the description read
In The Well
The sky is a dim circle of light far above you. The stone walls close in on you on all sides, and the air is clammy and frigid. The faint odor of decay drifts from the floor; the smell of a trapped animal decomposing under the back porch.
(So, at this time I'm thinking, cool, another dark and creepy place for me to poke around in. Then I read the next sentence)
"You are standing knee deep in a rattling jumble of childrens bones
And this is where the description ends. No explanation, no further horror cliches. Just that single, matter-of-fact statement. It scared the shit outta me. I mean, this games (and HPs) entire premise is subtle horror, fear that is palpable but not quite confirmed. So now, when they finally get to the real dirty business, in such an unexpected place, at such an early time, in such a factual way... Jesus. Additionally, the sentence that was the kicker was desperate from the main paragraph. You thought that it was going to be something besides description, like one of the random sounds or events that generally happen to make the game feel real. May not seem so bad here, but man did it sucker-punch me when I first read it.