YMMV / It Lives Within Chapter 21 Vertigo Cave

• Nightmare Fuel: This chapter is, without exaggeration, a Nightmare Fuel supertanker. Many scenes are horrifying, even the ones that aren't are still unsettling, and the less said about the character's deceased sprites, the better.
  • For starters, each of the five main characters is thrown into their worst nightmare, with Rowan at the picnic where their family was killed, Abel driving along the road his mother died in a car crash on, Amalia about to be buried in a lonely grave unloved and forgotten, Jocelyn being told by her past self that she'll never escape her past as a Barbaric Bully, and Lincoln having to essentially kill himself just to get his parent's approval.
  • If Rowan makes the wrong choice during their nightmare, they get an eye clawed out. That's bad enough, but unlike Jocelyn (who lost her eye years ago), the damage to Rowan's eye is completely visible, and it remains that way for the rest of the chapter and the next chapter (though Rowan does get an eyepatch in the final chapter if they survive).
  • Rowan can give into their anger and savagely beat Jocelyn to death after she planned to sell out Rowan to Matthias to keep the town safe. Poor Jocelyn is brutalized by Rowan, as their friends beg them to stop, to no avail.
  • The deaths of the main characters, sans Rowan (who survives the chapter no matter what). Even without seeing their dead sprites, the descriptions are bad enough. Connor is flung into the cave ceiling and impaled by stalactites, shredding his body (thankfully, there's no sprite that shows this), Abel suffers a car crash that claims his life (leaving his body coated in blood and his heart visible), Amalia is Buried Alive with a broken leg that has maggots infesting it, Jocelyn is beaten to death (caking her body with purple bruises), and Lincoln's brain explodes as a result of an overload in power, leaving him with an Eyeless Face with blood and brain matter leaking out of his eyesockets, nose, and ears. The death sprites show the end results in nightmarishly vivid detail.
  • If every single love interest dies, there is a unique CG image of their mangled bodies littering the cave, in addition to the dead sprites. For the morbidly curious, here's what it looks like, but DO NOT click if you are of a nervous disposition.
• Tear Jerker: While this chapter is mainly a tidal wave of Nightmare Fuel, it's also surprisingly sad.
  • Abel and Lincoln discover that Matthias (Lincoln's father and Abel's father figure) killed his own wife (Lincoln's mother) for trying with his Immortality Seeker plans, and both of them are distraught.
  • If Abel and/or Lincoln's Nerve scores are too low, they won't reconcile, and one of them will leave.
  • Rowan can refuse to forgive Jocelyn for her betrayal, send her away, beat her senseless or kill her. If Rowan does the latter, the rest of the main cast will cry over her (undeserved) death and be furious with Rowan (even if they regret what they've done).
  • Poor Rowan can lose an eye if they fail to escape their nightmare, and they will be in both physical and mental pain for the rest of the chapter.
  • The deaths of the love interests who fail to escape their nightmares will haunt the surviving characters. If Rowan's main love interest is the one that dies, their anguish increases tenfold.
  • If Connor's Nerve is too low, Noah and Devon will be unable to break through to him, and Rowan will end up killing him with their Power, leaving Noah and Devon to grieve. Made even worse if the cure for Connor's condition was found, and even moreso if Connor is/was Devon's boyfriend.