The Mastermind

“What the hell is going on here?” I yelled.

None of this made any sense. Why was Louise kneeling before me and calling me master? Was she mistaken? No, I looked around and noticed that all the other cultists had started kneeling as well.

This shouldn’t have been happening. They should have been waiting to ambush me, right? They’d laid a trap for me, knowing I’d bite, and then I’d have to somehow find a way out of this mess. That was what should have happened, but instead, they were…kneeling! Kneeling, as if I was the mastermind behind all this! I’m the protagonist, I’m supposed to stop these people, so why! Why?

I knocked Louise’s torch out of her hands, grabbed her robe and yanked it off her furiously, then held her by the collar of her shirt, my hands shaking with both fear and fury.

“You better explain this shit, right now!” I shouted, failing to faze her.

“Why so angry, master?” She answered calmly. “Your plan worked, after all.”

“What plan? What the hell are you talking about?”

“Ah yes, it seems that you’ve indeed lost yourself, just as you predicted beforehand.” She continued. “Don’t worry, we’ve been proceeding as instructed, and soon, the real “you” shall return.”

“Wait, what?”

What was I supposed to do? I didn’t have any other choice but to get out of here, but would they really let me leave? I was completely surrounded! For now, I had to bide my time patiently and try to find something, some kind of opening.

“What do you mean, as I predicted?” I asked, while still holding her shirt tightly.. “Explain everything!”

“All you need to know is that nothing that has happened up until now was a coincidence, master.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Where are your parents? You didn’t see them when leaving this morning, did you?”

“What would you know about that?”

“Of course we’d know, you’re the one who sent them on that little business trip of theirs. You really think it was a coincidence that you just happened to transmigrate into this world at a time like this?”

“Wait, hold up, me meeting your brother right after leaving your home….It wasn’t a coincidence, was it?”

“That’s right, you’re finally figuring things out.” She chuckled. “He was meant to come into contact with you regardless of whether you approached him first, in order to make sure that you met me. Why else would he be walking near your house while I waited at the station if he was there simply to accompany me?”

Damn it, if only I’d thought of that earlier! Of course, it was staring me in the face yet never even crossed my mind! Why was christopher walking in a random street while his sister waited at Easthill station? Because it was premeditated!

“Who…who ordered you to do this?” I asked.

“You did. You planned this all out.”

“Including the fact that I arrived here now?”

“But of course. It was all planned to the last minute detail. To be honest though, there has been a slight setback in our plans: We’ve been expecting you to have recovered your entire consciousness by now, but unfortunately that hasn’t happened yet.”

“My…consciousness? What do you mean by that?”

“Arthur Barnaby’s consciousness, of course. After all, the “you” that currently resides inside that body isn’t Arthur after all, am I incorrect?”

“Damn it, so it was you guys who did that, after all…”

“Wrong again, it was you, it was Arthur Barnaby. And now, his consciousness remains hidden, submitting to yours.”

“Shut up! You brought me here, so you can take me back to Earth, right?”

“Even if we could, which we cannot, why would we? We require your presence here, there is a reason Arthur underwent such a dangerous ritual that threatened to tear his consciousness to pieces. Luckily, it is intact, and hiding deep beneath yours, waiting to resurface.”

“He’s waiting…inside me?”

So I hadn’t completely taken over Arthur’s body, but simply overridden the commands? He was still somewhere in there?

“That’s right, and this is where we come in.”

Louise snapped her fingers, the sound causing every cultist to suddenly stand up and start slowly approaching me.

“What the-What are you doing?” I looked around for a point I could run from, but I was surrounded from every direction.

“Like I said, we had planned on Arthur’s consciousness resurfacing naturally, but it seems like we’re going to have to adopt a few….artificial methods, shall we say.”

Damn it. I’m trapped. I have to do something. I can’t just stand here and let them do what they want.

“Hey, can I ask you something, please? Like, since you’re gonna do some ritual cult thing on me, I figured you owed me an answer, plus you’ve already explained a lot of things.”

Think Arthur, think. Wait, no, not Arthur. You’re not Arthur. No, I am Arthur, I’m Arthur Barnaby..Wait, no, now’s not the time for this! I need to escape!

“Sure, what is it?”

What can I even do? I’m completely surrounded, it’s suicide!

“Did you summon me specifically, or was it a random person that just happened to be me?”

No, It’s suicide if I just stand there. I have to run, I have to run, I have to run!

“The second one. It could have been anyone, but it happened to be you.” Louise said.

I can’t run! They’ve covered every angle! There’s no way to get past them!

“I see…”

I could feel them all around me, slowly closing in. I was completely trapped, with nowhere to go.

It’s over, It’s over, do something you bastard, do something! Anything!

“That’s right, you just happened to be the unluckiest one, unfortunately for you.” Louise chuckled coldly.

“Nah, you’re wrong. I’m not the unlucky one….”

As I felt the presence of a cultist right behind me, I turned around and stabbed him right in the guts with the wrench I’d been hiding inside my suit the whole time. As I pulled the blood-soaked wrench out, the cultist immediately crumpled to the ground, leaving a hole in the circle of cultists for me to escape from, and causing the others to stop right in their tracks. Shock crossed Louise’s face, as if she had been expecting me to meekly obey.

“...It’s all of you.”