That night, Eddie had a strange dream which he would be left to interpret when he woke up.
The setting was back in the basement, when he was sinking through the cursed sand, he recalled slipping and falling down, down, but it didn't feel like sand he was falling through. And he couldn't see a thing anymore either. And the setting suddenly changed to him being dragged by a dark figure in the daylight, in the woods. But he was viewing everything taking place in a third person perspective. The figure was dragging Patricia in his other hand.
Coffins awaited in the clearing, with holes already dug. On the lid of the coffins were symbols that looked like shelves with streams flowing downward out of it. And for some inexplicable reason, Eddie already knew it was the symbol of Set.
The figure, still having no distinct features, but was shadowy and took the physique of a large, tall man, made the coffin lids open on arrival, and he chucked both Eddie's body and Patricia into each coffin. The coffins levitated and fixated themselves into the holes, and the dirt piled itself on top.
And as the shadowy figure was beginning to leave, a motion which seemed to show his head turning around happened, and Jerome's face flashed towards Eddie. A dark cloud began swarming towards him, and he fell back until he fell onto his feet in Anubis house.
The house was crumbling, and Nina was there too, holding back onto the staircase pegs. She reached out her left hand towards him, signaling she was trying to get him to hold it.
But when Eddie looked back forward, Jerome was marching out of the kitchen with a devilish look on his face. His hands were clasped behind his back as he approached slowly.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." His voice echoed all around, and Eddie reached out his hand for Nina's, and that's when he woke up to Alfie leaning right over him.
Eddie shot up with a start, but was knocked back down again where his forehead slammed into Alfie's.
"Ow!" Alfie rubbed his head.
"Wow. Utterly similar to the coffin," Eddie grimaced as he sat up and draped his feet to the ground from under the cover.
"Coffin?"
"Guess who got buried alive."
"That's what happened to you? How cool was it?"
"Oh, you mean being trapped inside a tight box under six feet of dirt? And then having to claw your way out, without suffocating? Oh, it was just splendid."
"Oh. Sorry."
"Why're you in here anyway?"
"It's 2:00pm, dude. Wake up."
2:00pm?, Eddie thought.
Alfie left, and Eddie stood up to stretch. He sniffed himself and realized he smelled like dirt. He decided to take a shower to freshen up right away, and afterwards, he began heading to the kitchen.
At the same time he was on his way there, Nina was coming down the stairs.
"Nina!" Eddie yanked Nina right by the basement door.
"Easy," Nina commented. "What is it?"
"It's you. I-I-I-I mean it-it's me and you. I mean...gah-"
"Eddie, get your thoughts together, and then your words."
Eddie took a deep breath. "Alright," he whispered, "I had a dream last night, and you were in it, and we were in the Anubis house for some reason as it began crumbling. And you reached your hand out to me, but then Jerome came in-"
"-Jerome?"
"Let me finish. Jerome came in, but then I took your hand, but then I woke up. But, before that, I kind of saw exactly what happened to me after I sank through the sand. And I was watching from a third person perspective, but a shadowy figure was dragging Patricia and me through the woods, and then we were chucked into coffins, and then buried. And then the figure turned around, and I saw a glimpse of Jerome's face."
"Wait, so when you really woke up before you got here, you were in a coffin?"
"Yes. The dream was crazy; it was like going back in time to watch myself at a moment I wasn't conscious in, and it just doesn't make much since, unless-you consider the fact that I'm still the Osirion."
"But you're not the Osirion-"
"-ok, well the dream left me thinking-for the ten minutes I've been awake-that dream wouldn't be possible if I weren't still the Osirion. Yeah, maybe I don't have all the Osirion powers anymore, but I could see myself during a moment I was conscious for, and I was protecting us in Anubis house. Or we were protecting eachother, or the world, something like we always get ourselves into."
"So, you're thinking the Osirion didn't die?"
"No! And I should still be protecting you."
"Isn't it Mara who you should be protecting?"
"That's kind of confusing to me. For some reason, it still feels like it's you. Maybe I'll have another dream tonight that'll tell me something more, but I'm also thinking that Set has possessed Jerome's body. That's the only thing that remotely makes sense right now about him, considering what I saw in my dream. And I had a mini talk with Jerome last night, and I had suspicions Jerome was wacked up."
"I guess that explains the change in his behavior. Guess we know to keep our distance from him, and we should alert the rest of Sibuna, especially Mara."
"Yeah. Later today, but soon."
"Maybe right now. I'll round them up."
"Great, but I'm going to get some food first. Tell them for me."
Nina nodded as she began with KT, Patricia, and Mara upstairs.
~~~~~
Nina soon had the girls ready to come down, and she escorted them into Fabian's room. All she needed was Alfie, and Eddie would be out the kitchen soon. Alfie was walking out his room and heading towards the main part of the summer house by the time Nina was leaving Fabian's room to get him. Nina went to the corner of the hall and whispered Alfie's name, and he turned around, but right afterwards, Willow called his name from the top of the stairs.
"Alfie!" she exclaimed.
"Hey babe," he greeted, eyeing Nina and then looking back up at her. "What's up?"
"I was wondering if you'd like to go see if there were any frogs or toads by the seashore. Oh, I just want to hold a bunch of them in my arms!"
Alfie nervously glanced back at Nina and back up at his girlfriend. "I actually have something to do-" His voice began trailing back as he crept back towards Nina, but he looked back at Willow whose expression was slowly getting more and more depressed.
Alfie stopped in his tracks and turned back towards Willow. "You know what? It can wait. Let's go."
Alfie held out his arm, and Willow scurried downstairs to grab it as the went outside. Nina threw her head back and silently moaned. She jumped when she heard the click of a door behind her.
"Hi, Nina," Jerome's voice spoke as his shoes tapped their way across the floor. "I hope everything's alright."
"I wonder the same about you," Nina responded, daringly.
Jerome smiled. "Well, thank you. I'd be happy to inform you that I am indeed, alright."
He headed past her, towards the main part of the stairs, with his goal to see his girlfriend who was just coming at the top of the staircase right when he was about to go up, and Eddie was coming out the kitchen. Nina came out from the corner to get a better view. She eyed for Eddie to do something.
Eddie ran up the stairs before Jerome made it to the top and pushed Joy back. This made Jerome stop and watch.
"Don't get to close to him," Eddie instructed.
"What? Eddie, he's my boyfriend."
"No, he's not. I mean, it's not safe to be around him."
"Why? Is he ill?"
"You could say that."
Jerome continued up the stairs and shoed Eddie away with a motion of his hands. "Please. I'm her boyfriend."
Jerome twirled Joy around, under his arm, and escorted her to her room.
Eddie hurried back down the steps as Nina came further out.
"Ok, we need to do something about that," Nina asserted. "Joy's far too close to Jerome, and she has no idea of what's going on here."
"Right, um, I've got Jeroy covered. Can you just tell Sibuna what we discussed, and I'll do something to make sure nothing happens to Joy."
Eddie was about to head back upstairs until Nina spoke again.
"Eddie."
"Yeah?" Eddie looked back.
"Stay safe, alright? Don't do anything too stupid, ok?"
"What could I possibly do to upset the Egyptian god of chaos and disorder?" Eddie smiled.
Nina smiled back and headed back to Fabian's room.