Contrition

About Contrition

Contrition is a short Twine story by akfedeau, free to play in the browser on itch.io. It is told entirely in text, white words on a black page with red links for your choices, under a title drawn in a lattice of red crosses.

As a priest, it is your job to listen to your parishioners' darkest secrets and absolve their guilt. On Halloween night you sweep the halls of your church, past the votive candles and the stained glass, while the radio in the sacristy crackles out a Halloween story of terror. Then you find the altar crucifix gone, and a stranger comes to the confessional. He does not quite know what to say. Then he does.

The tension is all in the dialogue: the quiet, cramped booth, the voice behind the screen and the slow understanding of who you are talking to and why he chose you. The maker warns that it contains discussion of violence and death. Players describe it as a terrifying wake-up call for its priest, and note how what you say shapes how it ends.

It takes a few minutes. It suits players who like short, tense text horror built on one conversation, and stories about guilt and faith such as Gray Dawn.

How to play Contrition

1. Open the itch.io page and play it in the browser; there is nothing to download.
2. Read each page and click the red links to choose what the priest says or does.
3. Listen to the stranger closely; what you choose to admit matters.
4. Play again and answer differently to see how else the night can go.

Tips

• Take your time; it is short, and the details of the opening set up the conversation.
• Be honest in the confessional, or not, and see how the stranger reacts.
• Play at night with the lights low; it is a Halloween story.

Questions