Katarina's Adventures

From Create Your Own Story

The autumn sun shines down on your North Carolina mansion. You smile as you look out the living room window at the green fields and the trees with their colorful leaves. Your mind drifts to how you got here...

Your name is Katarina Hart. You grew up in suburban Charlotte, the only child of middle-class parents. Smart, athletic, ambitious, and pushed by your mother and father as well as yourself, you were the classic stereotypical overachiever in high school and college. After getting your master's degree, you were hired by one of the large corporations downtown for a position in sales. With your intelligence, charm, and drive, as well as your stunning looks and willingness to use them to your advantage, you posted impressive numbers and quickly rose through the ranks, gaining your first promotion after only a year and becoming a senior vice president by the age of 32.

It was not long after your latest promotion, on a beautiful afternoon in early summer, that you had your epiphany. You were in your large corner office on the 24th floor, gazing out the window, when you realized how you had never really taken the time just to enjoy the view from up here. You thought about how you had once again had to decline an invitation from your friends to go out to the sports bar because you had to work late. Again.

"Why am I doing this?" you had asked yourself. You had never liked this job. You were sacrificing your social life, your free time, and your happiness...and for what? Money? You had already made enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your life. To prove to yourself that you could be a success? You had already proven it, many times over. As, for the first time, you took in the simple pleasure of just enjoying the view out the window, everything suddenly seemed to click into place. It was as if a veil had been lifted from your eyes. Ego-satisfying and ladder-climbing suddenly seemed so unimportant. You quit your job that very day. You moved away from the shadow of the skyscrapers of downtown Charlotte and bought a large house in a rural area about thirty miles outside of town.

Then came the decision of what to do with the rest of your life. You didn't want a nine-to-five (or nine-to-eight or nine or ten, as was the case much of the time) job, but you didn't want to do nothing, either. The solution came quickly. Ever since you were a little girl, you had been fascinated by action, adventure, monsters, and the supernatural. Novels and video games alike inspired your imagination. Now, you were in a financial position to do more than just imagine.

Opening your laptop, you click the shortcut to your favorite website, Wired & Weird. A headline catches your attention. It reads:

• "Aliens Responsible for Unexplained Massacre of Antarctic Researchers?"
• "Is Ancient Inca Curse behind Tourist Disappearances in Peru?"
• "Mysterious Murders in Transylvania: Could Vampires Be Real?"

Status
Health	{{{Health}}}	Equipment: All the things in your comfortable North Carolina home
MP	{{{MP}}}
Level	{{{Level}}}