Soft Green = Toward Floodwall Escape ending Faded Red = Toward Downriver Event ending Pale Violet = Toward Archive Assimilation ending Soft Gold = Toward False Sunrise ending Cool Blue = Mixed or secret branch
Help & Guide
What is this?
The Keokuk Anomaly is an early 90s styled interactive horror story set in Keokuk, Iowa.
You read a scene, then click a choice. Your decisions change which locations you visit, what you
learn about the anomaly, and which ending you reach.
How to play:
• Read the story text in the white box at the top.
• Click the blue links in the Choices box to continue.
• Use the Back button inside the story interface instead of your browser Back button.
This keeps the story history consistent.
• Use Restart Story if you want to jump back to the very beginning and try a new path.
• There are multiple endings. Some choices move gently toward a particular ending. Others keep you
in the middle of the anomaly where anything can still happen.
The Anomaly Path Overlay (optional hint mode):
The button labeled Anomaly Path Overlay acts like a soft hint system. It is not called
a cheat inside the story, but it gives you a color based sense of where each choice leans.
• When the overlay is OFF, choices look normal and you must rely on instinct.
• When the overlay is ON, each choice link is color coded:
Soft Green = The path gently leans toward the
Floodwall Escape ending.
Faded Red = The path leans toward the
Downriver Event cataclysm.
Pale Violet = The path leans toward the
Archive Assimilation ending, where you become part of the anomaly.
Soft Gold = The path leans toward the
False Sunrise ending, where the story pretends to let you go.
Cool Blue = Mixed route, secrets, or branches that can
still pivot toward several endings.
You can toggle this mode on or off at any time without breaking your current story. It does not
change the content of the scenes, only how clearly you can see the shape of the paths.
Tips for exploring Keokuk inside the anomaly:
• Pay attention to references to real places in Keokuk such as Victory Park, Rand Park, the riverfront,
and the bridge to Illinois. They hint at which forces are at work under the Mississippi surface.
• If you find yourself looping, you may be near the Archive Assimilation route. Use that to your
advantage if you want that ending.
• The most peaceful ending still carries a cost, and the most violent ending may tell you the most
about what the anomaly really is.
• It is fine to treat this like an old web page you revisit at night. Take a break, then try a
completely different set of choices.
Credits
Title: The Keokuk Anomaly
Story and original concept: James E. Hamelton Jr
Setting: Keokuk, Iowa and the surrounding Mississippi Riverfront
This interactive horror story is designed to feel like a strange file that someone in Keokuk might have opened on an aging computer in the mid 90s. It is meant to blur the line between local memory, river legends, and early digital hauntings.
For more of the author’s writing outside the anomaly, look for the novel An Enchanted Heart, published on May 1, 2025. It showcases a very different side of the author’s storytelling and is a good companion if you want to see how the same mind that wrote this eerie archive handles emotion, character, and slow build tension in book form.
You can also visit the author’s official website at jehamelton.com to explore more projects, books, and experiments in storytelling.
You are welcome to host this file on your own website, keep it on a retro machine, or share it with friends who know Keokuk and the feel of the Mississippi at night. If you do, please keep the author credit and the title intact.