I got home from school one Friday afternoon and, rather than beginning my homework like a good girl, I checked YouTube to see if Fridays with PewDiePie had been posted yet. It hadn't, but some other videos had. One of them was an Amnesia Custom Story titled "One Step Closer." The title of the video was "AMNESIA WITH GF ;D" and I always loved it when Marzia joined in on the fun, especially Amnesia.  I clicked on the video.

It started like normal. "How's it goin' Bros? My name's PEWDIEPIE" Felix said in a way that seemed like a combination of excitement, anticipation, and nervousness.  That was unusual.

Marzia didn't seem to notice, though. "And I'm CUTIEPIE," she cooed with her adorable Italian accent.

"Welcome to 'One Step Closer,'" Felix went on in his usual manner. "This was a Custom Story that was sent to me to beta test and I thought I might as well show you guys."

The game opened in the middle of a grassy field with rain coming down very hard. The onscreen text read, "You have just arrived at Pension Buyoute. It's been rumored to be haunted, but you don't care. You need shelter from the cold and pouring rain." Felix moved toward a door that was quite a few paces away. The building attached to the door was huge.

"Looks more like a castle than a pension," Marzia said.

"Well, it's Amnesia. Nothing is small in Amnesia," Felix retorted.

They entered the pension. The foyer looked like the foyer from Ao Oni, only 3D. The only thing illuminating the room was a single candle on a table against the left wall. The entire room was covered in spider webs. They didn't hear any squeaks, so Felix figured there were no spiders.

"Where's Jens?" he asked aloud.

"Looks no one's been here in a long time," the onscreen text read, "But why is there a candle lit here? It hasn't melted much, so maybe someone's still here. No matter. Right now you need to find food. You're starving."

"OK, so we need to find the kitchen, it seems," Marzia said slowly as she examined the scene. "There's a door straight ahead."

Felix started moving towards the door, but paused to look at the hallways extending on either side of the foyer. Both were pitch black. He continued moving until he got to the door. On the other side was the kitchen, which was also covered in spider webs. The only difference was that there was nothing to illuminate this room, so Felix adjusted the color to make everything visible. In the corner of the room was a cabinet.

"I think there's food in that cabinet," Felix said. But no, there was a lantern with some oil next to it. "Or not." He immediately turned the lantern on.

"At least you can see now," read the text. "You can eat later."

Felix turned around to leave, but then saw Piggeh hanging behind him. "PIGGEH!" he shouted.

"Hey, Piggeh!" Marzia also said.

"Wazzup, Marzia. I'm pumped!" Felix made Piggeh say.

"Do you know where Stephano is?" she asked him in a coy voice.

Felix giggled. "He's… somewhere. I think," Piggeh said as he went limp again.

By this point (only 2:30 into the exactly 9:00 video), my ADD starts acting up, so I paused and began to scroll along the bottom of the video to see pixelated screencaps. I couldn't make anything out other than a Grunt at around 7:12, so I decide to press play and try to keep my easily distracted mind in check.

Felix exited the kitchen and began to walk down the hall that had the table next to it. It was a very long and dark hall, with walls of stone and a floor of wood. Felix looked a bit uncertain in the reaction cam, but Marzia was smiling, seemingly looking forward to the Teleporting Naked Guy that appeared with just a splat sound, triggering a scream from Felix and a laugh from Marzia.

"Not funny!" Felix shouted, trying to hold back laughter himself. They continued walking down the hall until it came to a dead end. On the floor were six tinderboxes, one oil container, and a note.

The note was titled "Step One." It read, "Join the community and scream."

Marzia looked confused. Felix attempted to keep his expression hidden from her. "I wonder what that means," he said. He turned around and advanced down the other hall. It seemed longer than the other one, but there were no jumpscares. At the end was a locked door with another note on it.

This one read, "Step Two. Link the worlds and love."

I already knew where this was headed, but I tried to resist scrolling down to the comments to confirm. It was 5:36 into the video and I wanted to watch to the end, despite my ADD wanting otherwise. But it was over halfway through, so I didn't have much longer to wait.

"I wonder if there's a key to this door," Felix inquired. It sounded like he knew there was.

"Yeah…" Marzia said quietly, seemingly either entranced with the environment or suspicious, like I was.

They turned around to go back down the hall and up the stairs to the next floor. The second floor was just one long hallway, just like the ones downstairs. After a few minutes of wandering down the hall, they heard a small, distant growl, signaling that a Grunt had been spawned somewhere behind them. Felix picked up speed walking until he came to a door at the end of the hall. This one was unlocked.

Felix opened the door, still listening for the Grunt that spawned. The room was just a bedroom with one bed and a table. Nothing else. Behind them, they could hear the Grunt getting closer and the chase music began playing. Freaked out, Felix turned off his lantern and hid in a corner of the room. The door was still open, so he could see if the Grunt was approaching. It ran into the room, but stopped a few paces after entering.

"'Don't be afraid,'" the onscreen text read and the Grunt said with a very broken and tired voice. "'I'm not going to heard you. I just need for you to get out of here. If the master finds out I let a guest in without permission, he'll kill me. Just read all of the notes you find. They'll provide hints for you.'" Then he poofed away.

"Thank you, bro," Felix said, pleased. He stood up and looked around the room for another note.

"There's one," Marzia pointed out when the table came into view. Next to the note was a key. Felix picked them both up.

The note read, "Step Three. Form the union and live."

Marzia was starting to catch on now, I could tell. All she said was "Hm" and gave a small grin.

"This key must go to that door we saw," Felix said nervously, since he knew what was coming next. Clearly. I still had trouble resisting scrolling down to see if my hunch was right.

They walked down the stairs and towards the door they found before. Felix used the key to open the door, and it seemed to lead back outside. Instead of rain, though, it was sunny. On one of the rocks nearby, there was another note. Felix hesitated to pick it up, though. He paused the game and looked at Marzia.

"Marzia," he said after a deep breath. She looked a little scared. But he quickly got cold feet. "Never mind."

He unpaused the game and clicked on the note. When I saw what it said, I wanted to scream in glee. Marzia looked even more surprised than I was.

It read, "Step Four. Marzia Bisognin, will you marry me?" Felix reached offscreen for a small box and opened it, presenting a small diamond ring.

Marzia's face was glowing more than the diamond, or at least I think it was since the screen was so small. She put her hands to her mouth and nodded while squeaking out an overjoyed "Yes."

They hugged, and Felix advanced the player of the game to a small gate, clicked on it, and a role of credits appeared with the song 'A Thousand Years' playing. The credits actually didn't have any real credits, just an excerpt from The Tempest:

"Hear my soul speak:
The very instant that I saw you, did
My heart fly to your service."

After "The End" disappeared, Felix and Marzia both looked directly into the camera.

"You saw it here first, Bros," he said joyfully. "See you all later."

As his outro theme ended, the two kissed and brofisted the camera simultaneously. I extended my hand to the screen, feeling that all was right with the world.