Simon Henriksson



Simon Henrikson is the main protagonist of Cry of Fear.

Biography
Simon Henriksson, a nineteen year old male and the main protagonist of the series Cry of Fear, is an individual plagued with anxiety and depression, little being known about his school or home life - something his doctor notes as topics Simon refuses to discuss. Simon has been known to self-harm, as indicated by the cuts on his left wrist. It is known that Simon lives with his mother, with no mention being made of a father or other relatives. His only friend outside his home appears to be Sophie, whom he harbors a secret interest in.

Before the events of Cry of Fear, Simon was the victim of a hit and run, when he was pinned to a building by a car whilst trying to help an injured man late at night. While he surprisingly survived the incident, he was crippled from the waist down and was permanently confined to a wheelchair, subjecting him to further mental trauma that drove him into becoming reclusive and spiteful of his own life and others around him. Doctor Purnell was assigned as Simon's psychiatrist following the accident, and he made the decision to recommend Simon try a new form of cognitive therapy. Simon was instructed to write a book on his feelings and emotions, to get all the trauma out of his head. Simon set to work as instructed and the events of Cry of Fear begin - the events unfolding being a metaphorical depiction of Simon's mind and his battle to purge his inner demons whilst writing, the actions taken during the game showing how the therapy unfolds within Simon's mind.

Chapter 1 Role
In the beginning of Chapter 1, Simon wakes in a dark alley with only his mobile phone and a switchblade in his possession. Unknown as to where he is, Simon explores the immediate area, only to find clues of a sort of conflict to be happening, clued by bloody messages written on the walls, inscribing concerns such as "help me". Continuing throughout the area, Simon is suddenly attacked by an insane, mutated man wielding a hammer. After killing it with his knife, Simon attempts to phone the police, only to have a failed signal in reaching them. Regardless of the issues surrounding him, Simon presses on. He encounters several more men who attempt to attack him, and eventually comes across a deserted apartment complex. He receives an SMS message from an unknown number, telling him to hurry to the fourth floor so he could help the sender. Much of the apartment is blocked off, and Simon finds several disturbing notes from what seems to be some kind of deranged individual who delights in trapping, abusing and killing children who live in the complex. The deeper into the apartment Simon goes, the more creatures he begins to encounter, including bloodied children wielding knives; malformed women with blades in place of their hands and feet; twisted baby-like creatures, and in the basement, eerie, floating women whose presence gives Simon an almost uncontrollable urge to kill himself. While exploring, he finds the sender of the mysterious SMS - a man who is now dead in a bathtub full of his own blood, a bottle of pills next to him. He also finds a disturbing videotape showing footage of a man (potentially the same man who wrote the notes located around the apartment) beheading another man with a pair of shears. Upon reaching the basement, he finds a tall, slim humanoid creature wielding a chainsaw known as Sawer, which serves as the chapter's boss. Once Simon has caused enough damage to the creature, it decapitates itself, leaving Simon in a sickened state, causing him to puke and pass out in fear and confusion. Eventually, after escaping the apartments, Simon encounters a man wearing a gas mask, who is in fact Doctor Purnell, Simon's evil manifestation of his psychiatrist in his thoughts (though Simon is unaware of this). Threatened by his presence, Simon raises his gun towards the mysterious man. Quickly, Purnell exclaims to Simon that he is not "one of them", referring to the monsters Simon had encountered earlier. When Simon questions him further, the doctor says that he cannot trust him and that he doesn't know if Simon is real or not. He then flees, leaving Simon with the question of who he was.

Chapter 2 Role
Simon travels through the town, progressing through an abandoned construction site. He eventually encounters Doctor Purnell beheading a man, cursing him for not telling him the location of a key he was seeking. Upon seeing Simon, he flees. Simon tries to chase him only to encounter the Mace, who swallows a key before lumbering towards him. After killing it, Simon retrieves a saw and cuts into the creature's stomach, retrieving the key to further progress. He uses the key to unlock a nearby decrepit door, only to come across a corridor which leads to a dead end. Upon turning back, the walls turn red, rusty and bloodied. He progresses through the now warped corridor, sprinting as the floor gives way to a metal grating, with disembodied hands grasping up at Simon. When he exits the corridor, he is in a normal room, with no sign of what caused the nightmare behind him.

After the nightmare sequence, there is a flashback to the hit-and-run accident, showing several police cars surrounding the scene.

Chapter 3 Role
Simon continues further into town. Upon reaching Waspet Park, he receives a distorted phonecall from an apparent stranger, who wants him to go to the rooftops of a nearby building. When he reaches the rooftops, he meets a friend from school (and an apparent love interest) - Sophie.Sophie steps off the edge of the building, leaving Simon in absolute shock. As he peers down, a deformed creature, the Carcass, is elevated up by chains. Simon screams at it, accusing it of causing Sophie's death. The player can then either choose to fight and kill the Carcass, or escape from it, ultimately impacting the ending. Simon leaves the building, but as he approaches Sophie's body on the ground, he has a flashback of him confessing his love to her, only for her to tell him to let her go.

Chapter 4 Role
After Sophie's suicide, Simon decides to continue trying to get home, and heads for the subway station. The trains are offline and the main passage to the next station is closed off, so Simon proceeds through the ventillation shafts. When he reaches the next station, he finds Doctor Purnell, who shoots a man dead and calls him a "stupid psycho" before fleeing. Simon chases Purnell, but finds the doorway he travelled through to the next subway station is offline, and to reactivate it, he must retrieve two fuses to power it. He traverses the town to find them, collecting one he found earlier, and the second by returning to the apartment of the child-killer. After a distubing, surreal experience in one of the flats of the pedophile's victims (which is, in fact, Simon's own apartment), he finds the second fuse and returns to the subway. He passes through the active door and reaches the new station. The train there is functional, but in order to open the gate, he has to retrieve the fuses again. When backtracking to get the fuses, Simon finds a secret passage, but upon entering it he finds himself in a twisted nightmare. A bloodied, twisted path leads through a seemingly empty abyss, the only things visible are cages filled with malformed humanoids, wailing as they harm themselves. After passing through a door, seemingly escaping the horrors behind him, he finds himself in a padded cell, with four doors, his only clue being an abstract page entitled 'My Life'. After navigating through the puzzle, he finds himself in a twisted corridor with an open window on the floor. He drops through to find himself in a narrow, bloody maze, being pursued by Hangmen. As he finds the door to the exit, he has a flashback to Doctor Purnell discussing Simon's condition, concluding that he was very lucky to still have upper body motion after the accident, but unlucky due to the paralysis of his lower body. He also noted that Simon appeared to be a "deeply disturbed induvidual," whose issues existed long before the accident. After the flashback, Simon collapses to the floor, temporarily losing the use of his legs, but manages to escape the maze. But upon reopening the door, he sees only a harmless, empty corridor in front of him, leading him to the possible conclusion that he might simply be hallucinating.

Chapter 5 Role
After escaping the nightmare, Simon arrives to the station that'll lead him home. After fighting through several Suiciders he gets to the train he has to take, only to find that it isn't working. After checking inside the train, he finds an open, bloodied briefcase with the words "I want my foot" written in blood, and a hammer. He takes it and breaks a fragile, crumbling wall and, after crossing a yellow door, he finds himself in another nightmare. After he passes through it, he retrieves a fuse to get the train working again. He boards the train to return home, and he hears a crash from the compartment behind him. Upon investigating, he finds that monsters have started to assault the train. He goes to the back of the train crossing through several wagons while fighting Spitters and, upong getting to the last wagon, he finds the foot and goes back to place it in the briefcase.

Chapter 6 Role
In chapter 6, Simon is trapped in the crashed train, which is hanging off of the edge of a cliff, but manages to escape at the last minute before it falls. However, in the course of this he loses his bag, and all of his items. After the events of the crash, Simon must make his way through a dense forest, armed only with a tree branch and a lantern. He wanders aimlessly, encountering desolate houses filled with Crazyrunners, trees filled with hanging women, and gets chased by the Sawrunner. Eventually he escapes into an underground passage, which leads to an abandoned insane asylum. He sees Doctor Purnell enter the asylum and decides to follow him. Inside, he confronts Purnell.

The player is offered the choose whether they want to give the doctor the gun or not. If the player selects no, Simon will refuse the doctor's request, but will still receive the key. The doctor then shoots him in the shoulder. If the player agrees to give him the gun, he thanks Simon for trusting him and gives him the key. However, he will load the gun and shoot Simon anyway. Simon pursues the doctor while avoiding droves of Psychos, and eventually finds Purnell in the attic, leading the two to engage in a gunfight. After defeating the Purnell, Simon has a flashback where the "real" Purnell urges the paralyzed Simon to write a book about his feelings and anxieties, which is the cause of all the events of Cry Of Fear. Blaming the doctor for what he had endured prior to confronting him in the asylum, Simon kills Purnell by violently stomping and crushing his head, despite the doctor's plea for mercy.

Chapter 7 Role
After leaving the Asylum, Simon discovers dawn is breaking. He continues on foot on reaching his home, rowing across a tranquil lake. When he reaches the other side, he finds a small abandoned shack, and upon entering is ambushed by Crazyrunners. He escapes through a sewer, finally emerging into his own neigherhood at last.

However the streets are infested with monsters, and Simon must battle his way to his home. When he arrives, he finds his house is empty, with no signs of his mother. Finally, he finds his book, where there are two possible outcomes depending on the player's choices throughout the game regarding Sophie and Doctor Purnell.

Alive (Sick Simon vs Book Simon) This happens if Simon killed the Carcass and trusted Doctor Purnell with the gun.The Sick Simon (who is crippled in reality) is preparing to commit suicide, but Book Simon opens the apartment door. Sick Simon chases after him in his wheelchair, slowly chasing him down and shooting him. It is then revealed in the ending's monologue, that he was expriencing a psychotic break, and shot two police officers who had entered his apartment in a bid to stop his suicide. Simon is admitted to a psychiatric hospital for the rest of his life but continue being treated by Purnell, and is visited occasionally by Sophie, who has since gotten a boyfriend and consequently has less time for Simon. This is only the outcome of ending four.

Suicide (Book Simon vs. Sick Simon) This happens if Carcass is left alive, and/or Simon did not trust Purnell with the gun. Simon has finished his book, and commits suicide, after killing Sophie and/or the Doctor, depending on his choices earlier in the game. The game does not have the chase sequence between Sick Simon and Book Simon, and instead has the next chapter, which reflects how the suicide occurs in his own mind.

Chapter 8 Role
Happens if Simon did not kill the Carcass and/or did not trust Purnell. Simon awakes up in his room. But outside, there is a twisted abyss with flying book pages saying "SUICIDE". Simon progresses through, and ends up fighting with his true, wheelchair bound self. Eventually he breaks through to 'Sick Simon' and knocks him out of his wheelchair before beating him repeatedly then throttling him to death. This is a reflection of Simon's inner torment catching up with him and eventually killing him; murdering the weak and sick Simon is in fact his own committing of suicide.

This chapter unlock Endings # 1,2 and 3

Secret ending
The fifth ending serves as a prequel to the events of Cry of Fear. Waking from the brute collision of the vehicle, Simon wakes up pinned to a wall with a man blaming his state of high (on drugs) being the reason of the crash, one David Leatherhoff, the protagonist of Team Psykskallar's first title "Afraid of Monsters". This scene probably took place during the car-ride in Afraid of Monsters: Director's Cut. Taking in the issue, Simon expresses anger towards David, uttering "What the fuck? You...?" in a memorial way, intending that Simon knows David. Simon then threatens David, saying he'll "regret this", which provokes David to run away from the scene, thus ending the fifth ending of Cry of Fear.

This ending can be achieved if the player mails the "Secret Package" to the mailbox located by the college.

Co-op ending
In the Co-op ending, we see the beginning of the single-player campaign; Simon coming to the aid of the man on the ground. But this time, the police apprehend the driver of the car, arresting him, and preventing Simon from being crippled. Simon is then seen walking hand in hand with Sophie, before the game ends.