Prologue: One Foot in the Grave

"Oh I don't mean a Sin Eater... I mean she has a foot on both sides."

One of the newly emergent ghosts steps forward. Bathed in the liminal auras of the krewe, her appearance grows more vibrant. She takes on color and crispness, but so do the wounds on her Corpus. Chunks of flesh are missing from her left cheek and lips with only bloody flaps of ripped skin in their place. Her gums and teeth are exposed in a sort of rictus grin. She's young and dressed like a hiker.

"She carries a mask..." says the woman. Missing part of her face makes her voice sound slurred. "When she puts it on, she changes."

That's when all of you notice the flickering of lights coming from the inside of the kitchen. The patio lights also gutter and come back on. Even the screen of Derek's phone glitches for a few seconds.

Adriana

Mr. Guillory walks into the kitchen from the backyard. He heads to the sink and starts washing his hands. Claudine looks to him. "What's happening outside? Did you find anything?" she asks her husband.

Jérôme shrugs. "Just nonsense. They're having conversations with invisible people."

Claudine furrows her brows but doesn't respond. She watches from the window for another minute before moving away and grabbing the coffee pot.

"Coffee?" she asks, as she tilts the coffee pot toward your mug. In that instant, the kitchen lights flicker slightly.

Drying his hands, Jérôme glances at the ceiling light fixtures and frowns. "Not again," he mutters. The lights flicker a second time, and Mr. Guillory shakes his head. "The electrical is on the fritz again." Claudine also looks at the lights but with a wholly different expression. One of dread.

Samantha's hand tightens around yours. The girl looks pale.

The gathered ghosts noticeably tense up when the lights begin flickering. All of them look toward the space beneath the house. Your geists also seem to sense something amiss and shift their attention to the same location. An active Avernian gate usually siphons Essence from nearby ghosts, which makes it easy for the dead to feel when one has opened.

Almost immediately after the lights in the kitchen flicker, the ghosts themselves also flicker slightly, disappearing and reappearing for split seconds at a time. It's like watching holographic projections that are glitching.

Several of the shades begin to look panicked, but Jay's question keeps the attention of a few. William Fields Sr. strains to think of something. He snaps his fingers as though on the verge of remembering a snippet of information. "Uh... I... I know there's... I know there's somethin' but my mind is too hazy..."

The woman with the missing face speaks up. "Green!" she exclaims, urgently. "I've seen her destroy green colored things in the house, or steal them. Anytime the family has something green in the house, she breaks it or takes it. But I've never seen the color actually hurt her."

"That's right!" says William. "She ain't fond of that color. It's the opposite of red on the color wheel. I remember that much from school."

Although your krewe's experience with Reapers is limited, every Sin-Eaters understands some basics. As Rank 3 ghosts, Reapers tend to possess obscure banes and bans. While the color green is perhaps a good start, you also know that it's too common for the color alone to be a weakness. Furthermore, you know that Reapers without their death masks are no more powerful than any other Rank 2 ghost. It's not until they don their masks that they gain a Rank and transform into full-on Reapers. As with all Rank 3 ghosts, Reapers (as well as geists) can exist in the Material World without Anchors and don't struggle with Essence Bleed. They can also travel in and out of the Underworld with ease.

If Ruby is a Reaper, it explains how she can come and go from the Guillory's home. She doesn't need to worry about staying close to an Anchor.

As Max rushes into the kitchen, Jérôme and Claudine both turn to look at him. Mr. Guillory raises an eyebrow. "What's wrong," he asks.

Very suddenly, the room starts to go cold. The temperature in the kitchen rapidly drops by a dramatic degree, as though someone just threw open the door of a large walk-in freezer. Everyone's breath becomes visible as small misty clouds of condensed moisture. Claudine hugs her arms from the abrupt chill.

"What the hell..." exclaims Jérôme watching his own breath. He looks at his wife. "Shouldn't be this cold in here. It's over 80 degrees outside. Did someone crank the AC?"

The heads of Adriana's geist stare down at the tiled floor in expectation of something. Fearfully, Samantha gets up and positions herself behind Adriana. Several appliances in the room begin turning on and off. The coffee machine percolates for several seconds and then suddenly stops. A radio in the corner spontaneously emits the sound of fluctuating music as stations quickly change. The ice maker in the refrigerator activates, rumbles, and spews dozens of cubes of ice onto the kitchen floor.

Claudine gasps and clasps a hand over her own mouth.

Almost as suddenly as they started, the various appliances cease their spontaneous activity. The kitchen is now deathly quiet except for the sounds of everyone breathing.

This is when you see it. A form starts to emerge from the floor; rising through the tiles as though riding atop a slow moving elevator. The newcomer's Corpus depicts a Caucasian woman, once in her thirties perhaps, and marked by a slim build, aquiline nose, and a head of straight hair reaching down to the small of her back. Her clothing is several centuries out of fashion: a ruffled muslin gown with wrist-length sleeves, a sash at the waist, and a caraco jacket worn open at the front. It vaguely brings to mind the styles of colonial era New Orleans. Were it not for her menacing air, she looks like she could have stepped off the set of a period drama.

Most notable of all, however, is that her entire Corpus is a deep vermillion hue. She's not painted red or covered in blood. Rather, it's as though someone turned the color tint on the television as far to red as possible. In keeping with her name, everything about the Red Lady - her skin, her clothes, her eyes - is literal crimson of varying shades. Obviously, "red" is not a figure of speech in her case. Only her hair retains a strong contrast from the rest of her form. You can tell that, in life, her hair must have been very dark, indeed.

Claudine and Jérôme are oblivious to the Red Lady's presence, but Samantha definitely seems to sense her. She takes a few quick glances from behind Adriana.

The woman's bearing is strange; a quiet confidence that isn't often seen among the desperate, beaten-down legions of the dead. "O' Eaters of Sin? Perchance there is a reason you have trespassed into my abode, pray tell?"

Her voice is pleasant but forceful. She speaks with the self-assuredness of a being with several centuries of experience. Slowly, she shifts her gaze around the room and makes eye contact with each of the Bound. Her eyeballs have pupils but no irises; as hard as blood red marbles. "T'would behoove you to answer me, promptly."

She clearly notices your geists, but if she is concerned, the dead woman doesn't show it. Unlike a majority of ghosts, the Red Lady seems largely unperturbed by the presence of your Other Halves.