History NightmareFuel / NightInTheWoods

* The game's beginning. Mae finds herself stranded at the bus station, unable to call her parents because the pay phone is broken and Possum Springs gets no cell service. The janitor fixing the door vanishes after she gets him a "free" soda. Mae thinks that she can just walk through the woods to get to town. Only the woods are filled with fallen logs, garbage, and an abandoned playground. Plus a giant fence is surrounding the town. Mae works her way up to a power line to jump, only to fall. Then a flashlight shines on her. Fortunately, it's her aunt Molly who was patrolling, but considering what was out there...
* Mae's dad has a guilty, worried reaction when hearing that he had forgotten the day that "kitten" would come home. It gets worse when you realize how close Mae came to suffering Casey's fate.

* Mae's falls in the game. She's generally very agile, but it's unnerving to see them in hindsight. Namely with her suffering a severe head injury after getting chased by the cultists.

** It might not be screaming, as it doesn't really sound like it; more like the screeching and crashing of metal. This tells this troper it may actually be elevators the cultists are using to get around the mine. Considering what they do, it's entirely possible that some nightmarish themes might be at work.

* The game's beginning is rife with AdultFear. Mae finds herself stranded at the bus station, unable to call her parents because the pay phone is broken and Possum Springs gets no cell service. The janitor fixing the door vanishes after she gets him a "free" soda. Mae thinks that she can just walk through the woods to get to town. Only the woods are filled with fallen logs, garbage, and an abandoned playground. Plus a giant fence is surrounding the town. Mae works her way up to a power line to jump, only to fall. Then a flashlight shines on her. Fortunately, it's her aunt Molly who was patrolling, but considering what was out there...

* The game is brimming with examples of AdultFear, which provide a subtle form of nightmare fuel. All over town, people are losing their jobs, struggling to make ends meet, succumbing to depression, being scammed out of their homes, and living lives of quiet desperation. The nightmare fuel comes from the realization that such misfortunes ''can happen to anyone, and frequently do.''

* Germ [[DissonantSerenity rather non-chalantly]] tells a deeply disturbing story about being followed home by a stranger, and hiding in a tree until they left. He assumes it was one of the crust punks that he regularly hangs out with, but the later revelation of the cult's activities paint the scene in an even more sinister light. Fittingly, most of Mae's response options for the conversation are variations on "Holy shit" or screams of varying length.

* Near the end of the game, Mae falls in a ravine while fleeing from members of the Black Goat cult. When she regains consciousness, she has a concussion. The player must guide Mae out of the forest as she moves sluggishly. The action has unpredictable gaps and jumps to new scenes without warning, suggesting that Mae is either experiencing memory loss or fugue states.

* The musical tracks in this part are called "God?" and "Unknowable". The first is a somewhat calming track with synthesized strings and a strange echoing murmur. The second, however, features PsychoStrings, a piercing ring and a muffled alarm blaring, as if alarms are going off in Mae's tired, shocked, afraid mind. God is ''not'' who she or anyone else thought, not even benevolent Pastor Kate. God may have been kind once... or maybe we just hoped they were.

* What Mae sees on Harfest after the play's actors disperse for the night: a strange figure knocking out and kidnapping a child. It takes Mae a while to realize what she saw because it's dark, and her brain needs a moment to register what happened. Realizing that no one else saw, Mae takes after the figure, but can't jump over the fence that they somehow navigated. Aunt Molly shows up, and Mae tells her what happened. [[PoliceAreUseless Mallcop doesn't believe her]] and tells her to come home with her. Mae refuses, obviously, then Molly raises her voice. Cue the FadeToBlack, then Mae suffering another nightmare where she can't run, only walk towards a well that has [[HellisThatNoise unearthly screeching noises]] issuing from its depths, and waking up. Later on, she doesn't recall seeing Aunt Molly that night.
* Mae's falls in the game. She's generally very agile but it's unnerving to see them in hindsight. Namely with her suffering a severe head injury after getting chased by the cultists.

* The musical tracks in this part are called "God?" and "Unknowable". The first is a somewhat calming track with synthesized strings and a strange echoing murmur. The second, however, features PsychoStrings, a piercing ring and a muffled alarm blaring, as if alarms are going off in Mae's tired, shocked, afraid mind. God is ''not'' who she or anyone else thought, not even benevolent Pastor Kate. God may have been kind once...or maybe we just hoped they were.

** Speaking of Demontower, its [[https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3860553942_16.jpg album artwork]] features a cat's skull...with two notches in the right ear. It's following the theme of having Mae's face on each album cover but it's still creepy considering that Mae almost died.

* Lori's idea for a horror film: a woman finds a window in her house that wasn't there before. The window shows her backyard, but it's always sunset and there's someone standing out there watching.

* What Mae sees on Harfest after the play's actors disperse for the night: a strange figure knocking out and kidnapping a child. It takes Mae a while to realize what she saw because it's dark, and her brain needs a moment to register what happened. Realizing that no one else saw, Mae takes after the figure, but can't jump over the fence that they somehow navigated. Aunt Molly shows up, and Mae tells her what happened. [[PoliceAreUseless Mallcop doesn't believe her]] and tells her to come home with her. Mae refuses, obviously, then Molly raises her voice. Cue the FadeToBlack, then Mae suffering another nightmare and waking up. Later on, she doesn't recall seeing Aunt Molly that night.

** Not to mention how it telepathically shows her how the universe is teeming with {{Eldritch Abomination}}s to whom Earth is a speck of dust. The creature shows Mae two colossal, twitching flea-like creatures as an example.
* The musical tracks in this part are called "God?" and "Unknowable". The first is a somewhat calming track with synthesized strings and a strange echoing murmur. The second, however, features PsychoStrings, a piercing ring and a muffled alarm blaring, as if alarms are going off in Mae's tired, shocked, afraid mind. God is ''not'' who she or anyone else thought, not even benevolent Pastor Kate. God may have been kind once...or maybe we just hoped he was.
* Everything about the cultists, from their killing one of their own in cold blood with no remorse while being annoyed that he keeps screaming, to their sacrificing people to some kind of underground cosmic horror, to them expecting Mae and her friends to see their point of view and eventually take up their task after they're gone. That they think the prosperity of the town is more important that people's lives, and that they threaten Mae and her friends by saying "you don't know who we are, but we know who you are..."

** Bea ''may'' have been sexually assaulted by a co-worker at the Ol' Pickaxe as a teenager. Mae tries to make Bea feel better when she's at Bea's for dinner, but winds up making it sound like it's Bea's fault. Afterward Mae wonders, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone "How did I screw that up?"]]

* In a nice little dose of FridgeHorror, the gang doesn't know who's in the cult... but we can assume that after the cave-in killed all the cultists (or at least trapped them underground), they might notice that some of their neighbors have just... disappeared, all of a sudden. That's not going to be a fun process for them.

** Toward the end of ''Demontower'', Palecat encounters a bleeding giant white cat with antlers on its head, weeping TearsOfBlood and waiting for someone to heal it. Mae even lampshades to Angus on how disturbing the scene is in the ''Weird Autumn Edition''.

* In Mae's ''Demontower'' video game, most of the enemies that attack Pale Cat are spooky skeletons and bird-wizards. However, writhing balls of ''rats'' will also attack her. One of the bosses she faces is a colossal ratball that devours a nearby bird-wizard, leaving nothing but his skeleton behind.

* As a followup to that, imagine what Mae's parents undergo in the climax. They find out their ill daughter and only child after a series of miscarriages turn up with a head injury. She then sneaks out of bed and walks to her friends' place without telling them. They never find out that she goes back to where she got injured, possibly intending to not return.

* Mae's dad has a guilty, worried reaction when hearing that he had forgotten the day that "kitten" would come home. [[spoiler:It gets worse when you realize how close Mae came to suffering Casey's fate.]]
* What Mae sees on Harfest after the play's actors disperse for the night: [[spoiler:a strange figure knocking out and kidnapping a child. It takes Mae a while to realize what she saw because it's dark, and her brain needs a moment to register what happened.]] Realizing that no one else saw, Mae takes after the figure, but can't jump over the fence that they somehow navigated. Aunt Molly shows up, and Mae tells her what happened. [[spoiler:[[PoliceAreUseless Mallcop doesn't believe her]] and tells her to come home with her. Mae refuses, obviously, then Molly raises her voice. Cue the FadeToBlack, then Mae suffering another nightmare and waking up. Later on, she doesn't recall seeing Aunt Molly that night.]]
* Mae's falls in the game. She's generally very agile but it's unnerving to see them in hindsight. Namely with [[spoiler:her suffering a severe head injury after getting chased by the cultists]].

** Mae's visit with Bea to the graveyard is creepy, but becomes funny once they bump into the Weird Teens. After that it's creepy again, complete with [[spoiler: exhuming a corpse and examining its skeleton.]]
** Mae's visit to the Historical Society with Gregg is fairly creepy the entire time, as the place is filled with dark lighting and horrific sounds, even though [[NothingIsScarier they can't seem to find anything]]. [[spoiler: Eventually the two realize they're being followed throughout the building, and attempt to escape with the "ghost" right on their heels. As the two ''just'' make it out, there's a JumpScare happens as Mae and Gregg sprint down the fire escape, the ghost appears in a window not two feet away from Mae just as she makes it to the bottom of the fire escape.]]
** Mae's visit to the hill with Angus is alright, if a little depressing, until right at the end, when it shifts into scary. [[spoiler: Angus quietly points out that there's someone watching them. Mae immediately starts freaking out. When Mae and Angus call out, [[SilentAntagonist the figure doesn't respond]], prompting Mae and Angus to run for it. At first, it seems like the figure was just going to stand there, until a few seconds after they're gone when [[JumpScare the figure dashes across the screen after them]].]]
* Mae's dreams start out strange and slowly get creepier and creepier until she ends up in a desert with [[spoiler: a large black ''thing'' that she thinks might be God, except it doesn't care about Mae or anyone else. It tells her that there is a hole at the center of everything that will eventually swallow everything up, and that nothing and nobody matters]]. It basically give Mae a crisis of faith and an existential crisis all in one, and if you've ever had either of those things yourself, it will not be pleasant for you to watch.
** Not to mention how it [[spoiler: telepathically shows her how the universe is teeming with {{Eldritch Abomination}}s to whom Earth is a speck of dust. The creature shows Mae two colossal, twitching flea-like creatures as an example.]]

* [[spoiler: Everything about the cultists, from their killing one of their own in cold blood with no remorse while being annoyed that he keeps screaming, to their sacrificing people to some kind of underground cosmic horror, to them expecting Mae and her friends to see their point of view and eventually take up their task after they're gone. That they think the prosperity of the town is more important that people's lives, and that they threaten Mae and her friends by saying "you don't know who we are, but we know who you are..."]]

** [[spoiler:Mae revealing that she beat a kid to near-death with a softball bat due to a breakdown caused by her dissociation. Doubles as a TearJerker.]]

* The ultimate fate of [[spoiler:the cultists. While hardly sympathetic characters, Mae points out that they're still alive in the collapsed mineshaft, potentially still with air.]]
* Near the end of the game, Mae [[spoiler: falls in a ravine while fleeing from members of the Black Goat cult. When she regains consciousness, she has a concussion. The player must guide Mae out of the forest as she moves sluggishly. The action has unpredictable gaps and jumps to new scenes without warning, suggesting that Mae is either experiencing memory loss or fugue states.]]
* As a followup to that, imagine what Mae's parents undergo in the climax. [[spoiler:They find out their ill daughter and only child after a series of miscarriages turn up with a head injury. She then sneaks out of bed and walks to her friends' place without telling them. They never find out that she goes back to where she got injured, possibly intending to not return.]]
* [[spoiler:Casey died alone in the pit. If there was a Black Goat, he was eaten. If he wasn't, that was a long fall down.]]

* Right after Mae and the group have gotten out of the mine shaft and seemingly left [[spoiler: the cultists behind them, Bea suddenly tells them all to be quiet. Then the lights flicker on and off, and the same cultist Gregg injured previously just ''appears'' in the elevator behind them, lunging for Mae in an attempt to kill her. Were it not for Angus' help in dropping the elevator (crushing the cultist's skull and severing their arm in doing so), Mae would likely have been killed right then and there.]]
* If you visit the graveyard with Bea, seeing [[spoiler:the decomposed cat carcass of Little Joe after opening his coffin]] is pretty jarring. Especially since it sort of just pops out and is accompanied with a ScareChord.
* In a nice little dose of FridgeHorror, [[spoiler:the gang doesn't know who's in the cult... but we can assume that after the cave-in killed all the cultists (or at least trapped them underground), they might notice that some of their neighbors have just... disappeared, all of a sudden. That's not going to be a fun process for them.]]