Puppets
I walk downstairs, normal day as
ever. I must have been half asleep, because the stairs seemed to take me five
minutes when normally they took seconds. I walked through my computer room,
with no worries in the world.
Then I entered my kitchen. I sat at
the table, and realized that I still hadn’t seen any of my family. Then I
turned around, and there they were, wooden arms hanging crookedly at their
sides, strings extending into the sky and cutting off a few inches above their
head. Their heads were tilted to the side, with the pieces of paper with their
faces on them attached to where their face would be.
My heart started pounding, and I
knew I was about to start freaking out. I had to think fast, what would be the
safest route to take right now? So I decided to act normally. I forced a smile
at them, and said “Good morning guys.”
They just stood there staring at me.
Not moving, not talking, just staring. They had no eyes, yet I could feel their
glare. They had no mouths, yet I could see their snarl. Then finally, the
mannequin that was supposed to be my mom moved.
When she moved, it was more
terrifying than when she was staring at me. She moved in a disjointed, choppy
fashion. When she moved her arms up, they swiftly rose then came to an abrupt stop.
When she walked towards me, her legs swung as they moved, her entire body
leaning towards the direction she moved in with her, head flopping all over.
She reached me, and gave me a hug.
Her cold, wooden skin felt splintery and uncomfortable. She then spoke, which
was the most terrifying thing of all. She turned an everyday phrase, good
morning, into a demonic utterance that should be banished back to the depths of
hell in her lungs from whence it came.
When she spoke, it was as though
somebody was rubbing two cheese graters together, and ran it through a machine
to make it deeper. The very sound of it sent chills down my spine, and made me
shiver.
I reluctantly hugged back, and
everybody else said good morning as well, though not in quite the same pitch.
My dad’s was lower, my sisters’ higher. After we had finished our awkward
greetings, my mom asked if I wanted a bowl of cereal. I said “Yes please.”
She then moved in her disjointed way
to the cupboard, and got out some cereal. She then poured it all into a bowl,
and gave it to me. The cereal, however, wasn’t something I particularly wanted
to eat, considering that it was wood.
However, not wanting to offend my
would-be family, I ate it. As I ate it, they all simply stared at me. With each
bite splinters got into my gums, with each swallow splinters coated my throat.
By the time I was done, blood was seeping out of my mouth and I was in
horrible, horrible pain.
As soon as I finished, my family
rushed me out the door, yelling about how I was going to be late for school.
Their voices were even worse when they spoke louder, the grating sound combined
with shattering glass to create a cacophony of horrible noise which somehow
formed together to create words.
I quickly got out of my house and
down the street, eager to be away from my family. I walked down the street,
with no cars passing by, and there weren’t even people walking the street.
As I got to the corner, I ran into
my best friend. Or who would have been my best friend anyways. He was a puppet
too, and I got even more terrified. This invasion into my world went beyond my
family, it extended into other people as well. Who knew how many people were
like this in the world?
I muttered out “Good morning.” And
he said what I think was a response in kind. We walked to school silently, just
staring straight ahead. As we were walking up, there were still no people
passing us on the street, and no cars driving.
When we got to school, he stumbled
off on his own, while I walked to my locker. I was passing more people on my
way, but most of them had no faces. I saw some people I was friends with who
had faces, but everybody else was just a blank faced mannequin.
I got to my locker, and opened it.
But in there, was just one piece of wood with some carvings in it. I took it
out, and inspected the carvings, three altogether. The first one was a series
of inscriptions in a circle that looked like they could be letters. The second
one was inside the first one, and was the same series of inscriptions but in the
form of a square, with each corner touching part of the circle. The third one
was inside the second, and was a series of inscriptions in horizontal lines,
filling the square.
I wondered what it all meant, and
stood there staring at it for a good ten minutes trying to figure it out. Then
I turned around, and there was a group of mannequins surrounding me, staring at
me. All of them faceless, just standing there.
Then a noise resonated throughout
the school, which I supposed was a substitute for the class bell since
everybody walked off in different directions. I walked off to my first class,
which was math.
I got there, and everybody was
already in their seats, staring straight ahead, faceless. I sat down in my
seat, and the teacher got up there, faceless. He started making
incomprehensible noises, and everybody seemed to perk up. Their heads stopped
leaning to one side, and their arms straightened out a little.
He then drew three things on the
board. The exact same things that I had on my wooden tablet.He pointed at
these, and made a series of noises. The rest of the class repeated these
noises. He then walked over to my desk, because I didn’t. He then repeated the
noises, louder.
I couldn’t make those noises if I
tried, so I stayed silent. Everybody in class was staring at me now, and I felt
terrified. He got up in my face, and basically shouted the noises again. I made
a feeble attempt at the noises, which seemed to agitate everybody.
Everybody in the class was
clamoring, making a series of random noises. It was like the cheese grater
sound, but without making words. The teacher was loudest of all, simply yelling
out random sounds. My hair was standing straight up, and my teeth were on edge
from these sounds.
Then, it started. They all ran at
me, and the teacher got to me first. He slapped me across the face, leaving
splinters and a stinging sensation across my skin. They all started crowding
me, and beating me down.
I managed to get out eventually, but
by then I was covered in splinters, cuts, and bruises. I ran into the hall, and
there were more mannequins moving towards me. I ran, dodging as many of them as
I could.
I tried going down the stairs, but
there were too many of them, they were blocking me. So I did the only thing I
could do, I jumped out of the window. I was only on the second story, so it
wasn’t too high, and I landed on the grass. It still knocked the wind out of me
though.
As I stumbled back to my feet and
began to run, more puppets were descending from the sky, and as they landed
they started chasing me. I was running, running, nonstop running. I ran down
the street, across the forest, never stopping.
But I still couldn’t escape the
puppets. I still couldn’t get away. They were actually gaining ground, despite
my best efforts. I ran and ran until I couldn’t run anymore. I collapsed on the
ground, defeated.
That’s when they surrounded me. They
just stood there, staring at me with their faceless faces. There was no room
for movement even, that’s how close they were, just staring. There was no
noise, nothing. Not even the birds tweeting.
Then they picked me up. They began
to carry me, through the woods and on to the road. They held me above their
heads, and I was too tired to fight back. They carried me up the road, and I
was just laying there, limp.
Then, they stopped. They circled me,
holding me above them in the center of the ring. Then they dropped me, and
started kicking me. They kicked and stomped me into the ground, splinters
piercing my skin and blood dripping from me. Then black faded in.
