⫸——⫷

The next morning, you awoke peacefully.

No nightmares, no paranoid thoughts. You stretched and rose from bed, then showered and made yourself breakfast.

At 11:40, you got dressed to train for your new job at the post office.

The weather was surprisingly warm today. You walked down the same path that you had taken to get to Wally's house yesterday. All of the scenery was the same.

It was during your walk that you started to feel a little nervous. Wally had called you by your real name twice yesterday, once publicly and once privately. Plus, there was the you saw in his painting in his office, the one that symbolized your certain doom.

You would feel much safer going to his house alone for dinner later if you had a phone to call for help if need be. (Actually, you probably would not feel safe no matter what.) However, you planned on telling Eddie your whereabouts later so that, if you went missing, at least Eddie would know where you were last.

Going missing at the hands of Wally was a horrible thought. You wondered what his motive was for looking into your past so deeply, because it seemed like there was no motive at all.

Then it dawned on you that perhaps he wanted to protect his town. Not only were you an outsider, but to someone who knew you were a murderer, you were a dangerous outsider. If Wally knew the events of your past, he might think you were a serial killer looking for a quiet new town to satiate your bloodlust. Of course, that was not the case at all.

Part of you was, however, thankful for your past. A very small part of you. Because now you knew how to kill. You knew how to compartmentalize watching someone die by your hand, you how to frame a suicide, and you knew how to hide a body.

Gross. You shivered. The post office was quite close now, so you put an end to your train of thoughts in preparation.

Today was going to be a good day. You were going to finally start your new life and you were not going to go missing later.

⫸——⫷

"Alright newbie. How's it going?"

Eddie had set you to the task of organizing the day's mail to start off your training. There was a large cardboard box full of letters that needed to be sorted by address. You were almost finished; the task was tedious, but not strenuous. "It's going good," you told Eddie, who was standing next to you with his hands on his hips. "Everything is almost ready to be delivered."

"Great!" he replied. "You're making awesome progress. Just remember which addresses are next to each other so that, when you go on your separate delivery trips, you take the right piles."

You nodded. "For sure," you said. He had given you a little map to help with keeping the piles organized since, of course, you did not know the addresses around here yet. "How's it going with you? Lots of stuff to package for Poppy?"

"Oh yeah," Eddie said. "Tons of stuff. But I don't mind it at all. I'm always glad to help out a friend, and you'll find out how much I love working if you stick around." He punched you, very lightly and playfully, on your shoulder.

"I'll be sticking around all right," you laughed. "I actually met Poppy at Wally's art thing yesterday — I meant to tell you earlier. She's really sweet, but definitely enjoys gossiping. And she made us cookies; they were so good."

Eddie laughed. "Yeah, she's a goofball, but definitely an amazing chef. She's always trying new recipes and new ingredients and whatnot." He paused. "Speaking of Wally, I hope he didn't quiz you too hard?"

You frowned. "Quiz me? What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, I hope he didn't ask you too many questions. He tends to get like that with visitors and newcomers."

That made sense. He had not asked you a ton yesterday, but it seemed like he had asked the internet some questions. "Oh. No, he was fine yesterday, but I'm meeting him for dinner later today, so I'm sure he'll ask me a whole lot then." You absently started to continue sorting mail, trying to hide the fact that you were starting to get nervous again.

"Dinner? Oh yeah, I'm sure you're in for an interview." He chuckled. Eddie had no idea how terrible that sentence made you feel. "Okay, well! I've got to get back to it. Let me know when you're going out to deliver, I'll be in the back."

You nodded and watched him go, then resumed working. You found it quite easy to talk to Eddie. He was a charming guy, and he seemed very trustworthy. He trusted you enough to work here without knowing anything about you or your past, and you found a sense of companionship in that. He never even gave you an interview.

You hoped that Wally did not know too much about you because, if he did, your life here that was turning out to be quite pleasant would be destroyed. Trying to avoid all thoughts of that happening, you resumed sorting through the town's mail.

⫸——⫷

Hours later, you were finished with all of your deliveries. It was almost 5, so you located Eddie to tell him that you would need to leave soon.

"Alright," you said once you found him. He was taping a label on a cardboard box and looked up once he realized you were there. "I'm done!"

"Great! How did it feel?" he asked, putting his hands on his hips. "Does the mailman life call to you?"

You laughed. "I don't know about all that, but it was definitely the best kind of work I've done in a while."

Eddie smiled. "I'm glad to hear it. I'll get your pay stuff sorted out and give you some cash by the end of the week. No need for anything crazy; it's a small post office and a small town so, y'know, things are pretty lax around here."

"Yeah, I get it," you said. "Whatever works for you is fine with me."

The two of you took a second to get some scheduling things figured out, then exchanged your goodbyes. You wished him luck with his work before leaving, then walked out to the front lobby.

Your stomach churned, both with hunger and with nerves. You did not eat lunch today, so you were hungry, but your next meal would be with Wally, which reminded you that you needed to be afraid.

The clock in the post office read 4:49, which meant that Wally would be here to pick you up soon. It was nice outside, so you figured you could wait out there for him. As you were reaching for the door handle to leave, you saw Wally waiting outside through the window. He was staring off into space.

He was already here. 10 minutes early. You had less time to mentally prepare than you thought.

You took a deep breath. All you could do at this point was hope. There was no turning back now, at least, not until you found out what Wally knew about you and successfully threw him off your trail.

What truly prevented you from high-tailing it back to the motel was this: if Wally already knew everything about you, then you had no choice but to do what he wanted, or he could ruin your life — or worse, he could ruin your family's lives.

You opened the door, and Wally's head instantly turned towards you. "Hey," you said.

"Howdy, neighbor!" Wally stood, smiling at you. "How was... oh my. You look lovely today."

Lovely? That would not be the word that you would use to describe your current state, which made his compliment that much more flattering. You felt color rise to your cheeks. "Oh, hah. Thank you. You look quite nice as well."

"Why thank you." He grinned. "Now! I hope you worked up an appetite in there — come, dinner's almost ready."

⫸——⫷