THE SOCIOPATH!

[Different]

If you've ever played old-school text-based adventure games, it's a bit like that. Maybe the best way to explain it would be with an example. Take this thread for instance; if it were me writing it, here's what I would have done.

First I have a bit of a nitpick: if you notice your house has been broken into, the last thing you should ever do is enter the house. If you can't call emergency services on your cell phone, you should ask a neighbour. As I result, I would have written it so it wasn't immediately obvious that the house was broken into (maybe they broke in through the back?). I also don't like how you're told how your friend is setting everything up towards the end. Anyway, I'd conclude the OP with something like this:

"By the time you return home, you're completely checked out. As you pull yourself through the entrance hall, you notice an unusually eerie silence encompassing you like a thick fog, but are too exhausted to pay it much mind. That is, until you open the door to your bedroom, at which point it suddenly culminates in a frightening realization: your house has been broken into. Your entire bedroom lies in disarray: your bedsheets have been carved up and are strewn across the floor, furniture has been toppled, and other various personal belongings are smashed and lying in pieces. You stand in the doorway, too stunned to move, with your heart sunken deep into your stomach. No sooner have you begun to ask yourself if the person responsible is still around than your thought is abruptly answered. Your bedroom closet swings open, and as a figure emerges you catch glimpse of a menacing kitchen knife in their hand, glimmering with fresh blood. Before you have time to wonder whose blood it is, the man begins to rush towards you."

I tried my best but I guess I wasn't able to think of a way to lead this story into something interesting, but the point is that you set it up in a way where the reader has lots of potential options that they can come up with on their own (not something I managed to do in this case). This would usually include describing the surroundings in more detail and what the reader has access to (pepper spray in their pocket, for instance).

When people respond, you can continue the story for them, taking their response into account. Ideally, it can develop into an interesting, interactive story.

Very interesting. I like the way you think, when it comes to writing these types of stories. In fact, you just gave me a great idea of how I should tell the story, next time. Also, you're right. Why tell the reader what's happening, when I can just keep some of those things out of plain sight, building up more suspense for them towards the end.

So basically, I think the next time I will be more descriptive on the reader's surroundings, but how they got there, won't be as obvious next time. I need to learn how to tell a better story like you and @Mystery does. The next post I come up with, will show a lot more improvement, this time.

But until then, it'll be after the post that I write, later on this week. That post will be something simple until I can come up with a far more, compelling and intricate story.