The Island of the Dolls

You wake up with a terrible headache and, with it, your identity has been forgotten. You are no longer who you used to be: you are now one more inmate in the gloomy wards of La Castañeda, Mexico City's infamous asylum, which operated from 1910 to 1968.

Before you stands the Chief Psychiatrist. To her you are not a person: you are the perfect subject for her next clinical experiment. Around her lurks Patient Zero, a living warning and the exact reflection of what awaits you if your mind breaks tonight.

The treatment has begun. You will undergo a sensory shock therapy designed to fragment your mind, and your only hope of regaining your sanity is to hold on to memory. In the darkness of your confinement, the dishes placed before you will be your only lifeline: pure, primal ingredients that will trigger specific memories buried in your subconscious.

But salvation is not individual. To prove you still have your reason, you must debate with your fellow inmates, connect your minds and reach absolute agreement. As a table, you must shout in unison the exact word that evokes that shared memory: the ingredient. Get it right and the psychiatrist will note your progress. Hesitate, let madness divide you or say the wrong word, and control will be lost completely: Patient Zero will be free to unleash a chaos no one can escape. Will you remember who you are before you lose your mind?

The echo of an ancestral wail rises in the middle of an ordinary banquet. It is La Llorona —the Weeping Woman, Mexico's most famous ghost, who wanders the rivers crying for her children. An icy breath from the river has snuffed out every candle in the church. The darkness is absolute. Outside, the current carries a spirit that finds no rest; inside, the spirit has crossed the threshold.

In the gloom, a medium who knows that urban legends are real warnings tries to stop the creature from wreaking havoc. Meanwhile, a skeptical priest, clinging to reason, refuses to accept that his sanctuary has been desecrated. But the wailing demands an offering from the guests, and if its conditions are not met, no one may make it home.

Tonight, survival depends on your sense of taste. Your table will be served a series of deceptively sweet, comforting bites. But every round hides a trap: one of those bites holds the very essence of a tear.

If fate chooses you to receive this offering and you fail to recognize it, you will turn to stone. To face it, your mission is to swallow the tear and absorb La Llorona's agony without making a single sound or face. If your expression cracks, if instinct betrays you and you let out one moan, the spirit will know exactly where you are. The weeping will fall upon your table and the darkness will claim you forever. Do you have the physical and mental strength to swallow the pain before she finds you?

What was once a fairground game has become a trap. Lotería —Mexico's beloved picture-card bingo, with its iconic figures— has been shuffled by the Devil himself, and tonight you have been swallowed by it.

From the shadows steps El Catrín, the dandy, inviting you to bet your own soul without you noticing. Beside him comes La Bandera, the flag, who has spent centuries trying to win her ticket out. Both know the only rule of this underworld: the house always wins, unless you can read the cards in the dark.

To break the spell and return to the world of the living, you must play the game blindfolded. The traditional call of the cantor —the caller who announces each card— is dead; now the deck reveals itself only through your palate. A procession of dark bites, designed to trick your mind and challenge your memory, will arrive at the center of your table. You must taste the very essence of each figure and solve the riddle.

Dive into the textures and write down the name of each card. If your palate is right, you will win a hand against the Devil. But if instinct betrays you and you call out the wrong figure, your souls will be printed on the board forever, condemned to become the newest attraction of this eternal Lotería.