The Knowledge

Author’s Notes (May contains Spoilers)

As I mentioned in my notes for The Winter Coat, I’m trying to again play with the info hazard concept from SCP. Once again leaning into ‘more conventional’ horror, we have an archetypal wise old man who’s been cursed (essentially). We have the brash character we’re experiencing the story through, and he doesn’t know he’s in a story, so he’s a little stupid. I hate the idea of stories existing because dumb character make dumb decisions, but I hope it’s properly justified in the internal dialogue and the context of the situation.

I wanted to again play with the idea of an indirect monster, something that won’t be overt. This ‘monster’ is even less invasive than my previous story in a way. Most people might say “just don’t pick the flower”, and I’d agree, but the idea is that there’s an other-worldly temptation to it that actually makes the simple instruction difficult.

I had an opportunity to tie in a connection to the biblical story of Adam and Eve. It wasn’t planned like this but was an interesting result of fiddling with the writing. I hope no one finds it offensive. I only added it in because I thought it could have been interesting to shed some (fictional) light on the story and perhaps ‘justify’ Eve’s actions.