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It's time to vote again! You've unlocked Door #3 and we have some delicious options for you to unlock!

Before we get there, we wanted to spotlight the winner of Door #2's votes! It was a close one, but the hardcover endpages pop-ups and behind-the-scenes content won! The video from Jenny and me will come sometime after the campaign ends, and the hardcover books will be automatically upgraded.

Now, time for Door #3! Our options are:

Option 1: Make Katee write a Bluebeard Candy Land short story! This was our second-most voted on the last poll. Hope lives on!

Option 2: Spicy art cards. These will feature the art from the vellum overlay inserts. They will be included automatically in the One-Click Merch Box and will be available as an additional add-on.

Option 3: Upgrade the shipping boxes to be fancy! This will apply to orders with physical books and/or the One-Click Merch Box.

Option 4: Illustrated chapter headers for both ebooks and print books.

Y'all continue to amaze us! Door #3 is unlocked! Thank you for having patience with the achievement bar not counting correctly. You crushed it! We'll have the poll up tomorrow to vote on what you find behind this particular door. And, DAMN, we're almost to the fourth and final door!

Speaking of doors...

It's time to decide your path forward! You've seen the woman dragged away by two guests and you know they're up to no good. It's time to act!

You...

Option 1: Fake it till you make it! They don't know you aren't the boss. You can talk your way into freeing this woman. Probably...

Option 2: See...yourself? But how can that be? You're standing in the hallway...aren't you?

Option 3: Favor stealth! Find something in another room to cause a distraction and use the opportunity to get to the stranger.

Option 4: Rush in! YOLO, amirite? Your role model is Leeeeeeeroy Jenkins and no one can fault you for it!

(Yes, I realize the Leroy Jenkins joke might be aging out, but let me have this.)

We've got a delicious update loaded with goodies (though, tragically, not of the Candy Land variety!).

TWO new stretch goals!

The results of your poll for Door #2!

AND the next part in our intriguing Bluebeard Choose-Your-Own Adventure story!

What was behind Door #2?

You enthusiastically yielded to your curiosity, and though this was our closest vote yet, you picked Pop-Up End Papers on the hardcovers AND a BTS discussion about Bluebeard with Jenny and Katee for your second stretch goal!

I'll just be over here scheming how to get Gothic Candy Land on the next one...

This time, you've got TWO doors tempting you with two more stretch goals!

Door#3 Challenge: Help us to get the word out about the project! If we get 100 reposts on our most recent Instagram post, you'll unlock this door and get to vote on another goal!

Door #4 Challenge: Beat Season 3: The Black Rose Auction's $554,575 record to become our biggest campaign ever! We're so close!


Bluebeard Choose-Your-Own Adventure Part 3:

If you've just joined us, we've been collectively creating our own version of a Bluebeard story. You can always catch up to this point here!

Your suggestions on the last one were SO GOOD! Here's what you chose to do...and the consequences of that choice:

The Ball

You’ve come this far–it’s too late to go back now. You descend the curving staircase, your heart in your throat, to approach the tall table with an assortment of masks. Everyone is dressed so extravagantly, with ballgowns and suits and everything in between. You stand out in your jeans and T-shirt, but you gamely pick a mask from the pile. It’s a gorgeous piece that will cover the top half of your face, with a stylized beak and golden feathers meant to obscure your features further.

As you place it against your face and fasten the ties, a strange sensation tingles against your skin, reminding you of gently misting rain. You go to take a step forward and stop short as the sudden weight against your legs. When you look down, it’s to discover your clothing has morphed into an iridescent gown that swishes around you with every movement. As you bring your hand to your hair, you find another change–it’s coiffed and pinned back from your face. 

You’ve been transformed.

“Would you like to dance?”

You startle as a deep voice breaks through your surprise. You know this voice–you spoke just a short time ago when he brought you to your room. Bluebeard.

He’s changed in this place, too. You didn’t realize how dulled he was earlier until he stands before you now, utterly resplendent. There’s a power to him, a thread of danger that draws forth a confusion reaction. You don’t know if you want to put more distance between you and this man…or if you want to be closer.

Belatedly, you realize he’s asked you a question. You don’t know the dance that sends the others swirling about the room, but if you beg off, surely he’ll be suspicious. Did he see you descend the staircase, trespass in this place you’re not supposed to be? You’re so tangled up in your thoughts, you can only watch in shock as your hand rises to set gently into his. You didn’t make the decision to move, did you? You’re nearly certain you didn’t.

He tugs you onto the dance floor, though you can’t really see any delineation, and into his arms. His free hand comes up to rest against the curve of your waist. Your dress is structured enough that you shouldn’t feel the heat of his palm against the fabric, but you do all the same. It feels like his touch is imprinted upon your skin. You’re not sure you like it. You’re also not sure you don’t.

“You look lovely,” he says as you move through steps you most certainly don’t know. Your body hasn’t gotten the memo, though. Once again, it moves without your input, taking you through the motions in time with Bluebeard, as if you’ve been dancing all your life. He spins you out and easily draws you back. “You’re not a regular attendee.”

Maybe he didn’t see you arrive. Relief threatens to make you dizzy. You didn’t think there was an overt threat to his warning to stay in your room, but this night has gotten stranger with each passing minute. If there is a secret ball, with…magic? What other dangers might hide in this strange house? 

You lick your lips, suddenly aware of the way he follows the movement. “My first time.”

“Then I have claimed your first dance.” Even his voice is different in this place, deeper and seeming to roll through me without any particular effort on his part.

A thousand questions press for answers. What is this place? Who are these people? Who is he to them? You can’t ask a single one of them. If you do, he’ll know that you aren’t supposed to be here. “So you have.”

You circle the room, feeling like you’re flying. You’ve never danced like this, and you’re suddenly certain that you never will again. The thought feels bittersweet enough to reach your face. Bluebeard tugs you a tiny bit closer. “Is there a problem?”

“This is my first time, and I already want to experience it again.”

His lips curve. Gods, he’s handsome. You noticed that before, but it feels so different now. Intentional, almost. “I can appreciate your greed, little bird.”

You almost ask him why he called you that before you remember the mask you wear. “I suppose we all share it, seeing as how we’re all here.”

“Even so.” He spins you away again, keeping a careful hold on your hand, and then brings you back to him. “It is not meant to be a permanent thing. There is beauty in the transient moments, more so because you know you may never experience it again.” 

You can see the truth of his words, no matter how little you like them. Before you can think of anything else to say, the song eases and he releases you. “Enjoy your night, little bird. Perhaps I’ll claim another dance from you before the end.”

You’re still trying to decide if you want to ask for one right now when he melts into the crowd. The moment you lose sight of him, the space becomes disorienting. The laughing animal faces of the nearby people seem to follow you as you move, as if they’re laughing at you. Everything is so bright and glittering and the movement never stops.

You stumble to the nearest wall in an effort to ground yourself. Leaning against it helps, if only a little. You’ve never done drugs, but surely this is what it feels like, the world gone twisting and strange? As you look around, searching for something to steady yourself, you see a woman.

There are many women here, of course, but this one is different. She looks…normal. She has no mask, for one. For another, she’s not in a gown at all, but something much closer to what you had on when you came down the stairs. She also doesn’t look fully coherent, her head lolling as she’s half-carried between two party-goers to a set of double doors not far from where you stand. They disappear through the doors without anyone around appearing to notice.

The dose of reality in the midst of a dreamlike scene is a bucket of cold water in your face. Something isn’t right here, hasn’t been right since you arrived earlier today. You might be able to write off the whole experience as being too tired–maybe you’re still in your bed, safe and sound–but that woman…She doesn’t fit the same way you don’t fit, except she is bare of your disguise.

You follow. Of course you follow. You’ve come too far to go back now, and she clearly needs help. Nothing good comes from an inebriated or drugged woman being escorted, seemingly against her will, to a private location.

The doors lead to yet another hallway, this one remarkably mundane and nearly identical to the one you wandered down just a short time ago. You pad silently in slippered feet, following the sound of footsteps to a cracked door. Peeking inside, you see the woman has been laid on a chaise, one of the people standing by her head, the other crouched next to her and examining her fingertips. “Good nails, good skin, good hair.”

“Good dreams, good nightmares, good fears,” the standing one replies in an identical distracted tone. “She will do nicely.”

You don’t know what’s going on, but this is wrong. You have to help this woman…but how? These two seem distracted. Maybe you should rush them? Or search the other rooms for a weapon? Would going back to the party even be worth the effort when you’re just as likely to find enemies instead of help?

Comment to tell us what you'll do next, and remember to upvote your favorites!