Part 2

Red bloody kitchen. Mrs Robinson sauntered towards me, her crazed smile back on her face. Toilet brush in hand, I braced myself for her vicious attack. She lunged at me, knife first, her shining white eyes filled with the glistening hope of lodging the blade into my lower belly. I dodged just in time and hit her with the brush by simple reflex.

"Ouch!" She said in a mocking tone, as we both knew I could not hurt her with that.

At that moment, a clever thought crossed my mind. Red bloody kitchen? Yes, kitchen! Mrs Robinson enjoyed the cat and mouse game, taking her sweet time to attack as she fed on my fear. That in return, allowed me to take quick looks around, allowing me to spot something I definitely needed. I threw the toilet brush at her face and she did not even bother to dodge, then, I ran towards the kitchen counter and grabbed a bottle of salt.

"Outlander." She called after she gasped, placing a few fingers on her lips. "So you know about the salt?" She asked, her worries covering her face.

My sole response was to open the bottle and throw the entire content at her. Once again, she did not move by an inch, and received the most salt right on her face, while I rejoiced in my heart, hoping to see her hurt. However, she just looked annoyed and brushed the salt off her.

"What a waste." She complained after sighing. "Sorry baby, I'm not the one who needs seasoning here. You're the meal." She said before charging towards me, her vicious smile back again on her face.

She pursued me to the living room. I stood behind a table while she was back sauntering, overconfident about me being at her mercy. She passed next to a door and her dog inside barked, hitting the door so violently that it seemed it wanted to tear it down. She probably locked it there earlier before attacking me. Mrs Robinson looked at the door, her distraction creating an opportunity for me. I threw the empty bottle of salt I still had in my hand, aiming for her head. She ducked, and I froze when I saw someone standing behind her, and catching the bottle with one hand.

"You missed!" She said gleefully before standing back up, completely oblivious to the presence behind her. "My turn. Time to end this." Mrs Robinson said, preparing herself to throw the knife at me, her eyes filled with anger, hatred and the intent to kill.

Before she could say or do anything further, the person behind Mrs Robinson punched her so hard that the old lady seemed to dive forward and she fell unconscious. The person then approached me. I took the vase on the table and threw it at her, but the woman just diverted it with a little tap. I recognized her. She was the one that spotted me looking at Carla and her group by the window. She had come back for me.

The woman was also well known in the village. It was Adelaide, a mute and discreet woman that also lived alone and was the village florist.

Each step she made towards me intensified her fierce look and the brightness of her white eyes. My heartbeat increased in pace, the dog was still barking and once more, I truly believed that my time was up. The lady then stopped a few meters away from me and shook her head in disappointment.

"Really? You the outlander? Just some freaked out— kid?" She spoke. She then passed her hands through her hair and walked back as if completely desperate, talking to herself. "After all these years, all the decades, the outlander ends up being a fucking kid. Like for real?" She added before chuckling.

"Adelaide? Adelaide, you can— speak?" I quietly asked, prompting the lady to turn toward me.

"Adelaide? ADELAIDE? Sorry but your dear Adelaide is not available at the moment, please call back later. Would you mind?" She responded, angrier and more agitated.

"What? What's going on? Why you all say the same thing?" I questioned.

"You people have been living here for all these years but you still don't know what the hell is going on here, right?" She asked back, then looked at the empty bottle of salt still in her hand. "No wonder you tried to use table salt. Dude, table salt? Sea salt boy, that's what works on us." She added, before chuckling again.

Carla. I remembered our parents giving us random salt containers with the content of mine looking and tasting slightly different from what I would call usual or normal salt. If I used sea salt back in our home, and Carla used table salt, that could explain how she could get out of her room but not come into mine.

"Sea salt? I think I have left some upstairs." I told the lady.

"Then go get it genius! Be fast, we gotta move before grandma here wakes up." She replied.

"Wait, she's not dead? And— don't you want to— kill me like all the others?" I asked.

"It should be obvious by now. I'm not a murderer. So no, I don't wanna kill you. But I really can change my mind if you keep asking such dumb questions. Like for real." She replied, crossing her arms.

"Okay then, there's something else that I found here. It's also upstairs with— the salt."

"Great, mind showing me?" She said, leading the way.

"If you're not Adelaide then who are you? Who are all of you?" I questioned again as we walked up the stairs.

"We don't have much time so let me be brief. We're wandering souls from some place which is maybe the afterlife. I don't really know how to call it. It's the place before heaven or hell, depending on which one you qualify for. Numerous souls like me are trapped or stuck there because of unfinished business. Each blackout allows us to possess your bodies. Just random bodies, so that we get to be alive again in this world for 24 hours. My name is Edlynn by the way, I died in 2013. And the psycho you saw inside grandma, that's Nadia, a mental asylum escapee wasted by the police back in 2004, after she slaughtered 9 people.

"What?"

"We don't share your memories, we don't even know who you are. We just fully use your bodies for a day, usually regardless of your physical conditions but not always. And the next day, you all come back. Sad thing is, there's no filter about which soul shows up during the blackout. So any good fellow can pop up for one more slice of life, one more chance to right a wrong, along with psychos and serial killers who would do anything for one more kill, just like Nadia there. Hope it makes sense to you, cause I'm not repeating myself."

"What? How is that possible?"

"Anything is possible in this world. People are just oblivious to it. It's like being blinded by a spell, and people of this village surely are. When I think about how ignorant I was... All that is a result of a very evil act, and it has to be stopped— by you."

"Me?"

"You're the outlander, Terrence. Do you think it's random? It's not. You're the success obtained after many failed attempts, and the first outlander." She replied. "Here? She asked when we reached the open bathroom door, and I responded with a nod.

We entered the room and she immediately saw the items in the basin. "That's more like it. Take it and keep it far away from me." She said about the salt.

"I found those things hidden here." I revealed, pointing at the diary and the watch.

"You found them." Edlynn spoke, opening the diary. "You're truly the outlander. Everything, all the answers are right there."

"Answers to what? All these random drawings, maps, it doesn't really make sense to me." I said.

"Oh yeah that's right. You know, we can talk and communicate and all that but, we can't read or write in that state. That's the only way my fellow rebels found to leave clues about what happens."

"Fellow rebels?"

Sounds of drums suddenly arose from afar, plunging Edlynn in absolute terror as she began looking all around her.

"Already?" She spoke.

She then quickly put the diary and the watch in her backpack and handed it to me.

"What's going on? What's that?" I asked.

"He's here. He has arrived." She replied.

"Who?"

"Redeye. The one behind it all. Our enemy. Your nemesis."

"My— nemesis?"

"Listen to me Terrence, go to that Adelaide's house and wait for me there. Don't come out until I come back. We're about to go to the square to meet him. None of us can resist him, but you can. Please, don't follow me, don't go to the square even if nobody can notice you. Go to her house and wait for—" Edlynn stopped, her eyes suddenly going from a shining white to a red glow as an empty expression seized her face.

"Edlynn?" I called, not sure of what was going on and what she was about to do.

"Long live Redeye, master of the craft, shepherd of souls. Long live Redeye, master of the craft, shepherd of souls..." She repeated.

Edlynn then turned to the door, hypnotized by an unknown power and walked out of the bathroom, still repeating the same words. I followed her closely, even though she no longer paid any attention to me. Downstairs, I found Nadia or Mrs Robinson if you want walking towards the house entrance door with red glowing eyes too, and also saying the same words over and over again. She broke the door with only one punch and they both exited the house.

When I followed them outside, I found many others in the same condition, ignoring me and walking towards the square from which the sounds of drums came from. Their slow and little steps drew them closer to Redeye, the one behind it all, my nemesis.

Part 4