The Puppet Master- Chapter 1

Prologue



         A boy sat in a small, dark closet.  This was where he spent most of his time.  The rest of his house frightened the boy- all the rooms in the Victorian mansion seemed too large and vacant.  There was so much space for people to hide; it made him feel like at any moment, someone might jump out and grab him.

         He’d always been that way- different.  The boy never spoke a word at private school, and his prized possession was a seemingly worthless puppet.  But the puppet was worth the world to the boy.  He didn’t know where he’d gotten it from or when; it had simply always been there, like the wind, or the stars that pierce the night sky.

         The boy stroked his puppet with care, a sudden feeling of uneasiness coming over him… almost like even in the small, locked closet, someone was watching his every move.

         He held the puppet closer, felt strands of its wild hair tickle his face.  The boy had named the puppet Beethoven, not because it had any musical talent or ability, but because of its monstrous locks.  After all, puppets have no talents- they’re just pieces of carved wood with a face painted on them, no more than an empty body for their master’s controlling.

         Another thought occurred to the boy: He was very much like a puppet.  Always going to school as he was told, always allowing children and adults alike to make fun of him, never thinking for himself…

         Suddenly seething with rage, the boy shook the puppet rapidly, making Beethoven say, “I’m the puppet, not you,” and, “You’re my master,” over and over again.

         As the boy shook him, the puppet’s plastic eyes took on what almost looked like an evil glint, as if it were planning something.  In any other case, someone may have assumed it was nothing, a mere trick of the light- but there was no light coming in through the locked door.

         The little boy stopped short at the sight of the puppet.  Is that what I always look like?  It was true.  The puppet no longer had only the expression of the child- its face began morphing into that of the boy.  Slowly, eerily, the puppet’s wild curls straightened themselves into look-alike strands of the boy’s clean-cut, dark-brown hair.  The puppet’s nose became dotted with freckles, as if an invisible magic-marker had drawn them on its face.

         But the boy had been there- he’d seen it.  There had been no magic-marker, no person distorting the appearance of the puppet…  Yet its whole face had changed, right before the child’s eyes.

         “O-okay…” the boy said, beginning to panic.  “Okay, ok-okay!  I’m sorr-I’m s-sorry!  W-what are you doing?  STOP!” 

         But it was too late.  In a few hours, when the boy’s mother would come to drag him up to bed, she would not find him there.  She would find nothing but a trashy-looking puppet that bore the face of her son.

































Chapter 1

         When Caitlyn woke up on her thirteenth birthday, she admitted, she hadn’t expected her family to wake her up with “Happy birthday, Caitlyn!’ and carry in a home-made cake for her.  She didn’t have that high of expectations.  But still, the girl mused as she sat in her room at the end of the day, something would have been nice.

         When she had awoken and walked into the kitchen Saturday morning, expecting to see her parents making breakfast, she found a note on the kitchen table instead:

Nina and Caitlyn,

Me and your dad had to go out shopping.  Afterwards, we’re stopping to see your Uncle Jacob and Aunt Minnie- we’ll be sure to say hi from their two favorite nieces!

-Mom

         Caitlyn gaped at the letter- her mother hadn’t even written, “Happy birthday!”  Caitlyn was used to being ignored by her parents, though.  Both successful scientists, it seemed they were always at the lab working, or with Uncle Jacob and Aunt Minnie discussing theories.  Well, at least a note was something.  Her older sister, Nina, was probably still asleep- as usual- so Caitlyn went to fix them breakfast.

         The girl moved to the stove to find a rim of dirt around the four burners.  She sighed.  Why couldn’t anybody remember to clean them after they cooked?  Caitlyn moved to the other side of the kitchen, grabbed a wet sponge, and got to work cleaning out the grime.  She glanced around the kitchen observantly.  Everything about the room seemed just like the stove had- carelessly sloppy everywhere, like a trademark.  The sink was filled to the rim with dirty dishes that needed to be washed; the floor was littered with gum wrappers, courtesy of Nina; and the cabinets were all left halfway open.  Caitlyn sighed again.  She knew who would be cleaning that up later.  But no matter.  One thing at a time.  “Where are the patties…?” 

         She was nearly done cooking hash brown patties on the stove when her older sister came in.  “Good morning!” Caitlyn chirped, who wasn’t usually a morning person but was glad to see someone around, even if it was her bossy high school sister; It had gotten creepy, standing in the dim kitchen alone for so long.

         Nina grumbled something that her sister took for a hello.  Without another word, Caitlyn flipped a hash brown onto a plate and handed it to the girl. 

         Nina raised an eyebrow quizzically at her younger sister.  Caitlyn only made hash browns- Nina’s favorite- when she wanted something.  “Alright, I’ll bite, what?” she said finally.

         “Did you get me anything for my birthday?” Caitlyn asked hopefully.  Nina knew all too well how much Caitlyn wanted the new Taylor Swift cd, Speak Now.  And, as Caitlyn’s older sister, she knew it was her job to crush Caitlyn’s dream of getting it.  Nina smiled smugly.  “Why?  What is it you’re hoping to get?”

         Caitlyn still refused to look up from the pan.  “Nina,” she said sternly, “you know perfectly well what I’m hoping to get.”  She reached up suddenly to snatch back the potatoes she’d given Nina, but she was too late- her older sister had already pulled the plate back, just beyond Caitlyn’s reach.

         The girl sighed in defeat.  “Nina, come on; how long are you going to keep me waiting?  Did you get me the Speak Now cd or not?”

         Nina looked down thoughtfully for a moment, probably deciding whether or not she should continue teasing her sister or eat breakfast- Caitlyn had made the potatoes crispy, just how Nina liked them.  Finally, the potatoes won out.  “No,” she answered.  Caitlyn’s face fell.  That cd was all she’d been talking about for months. 

“But…” Nina relented, going over to her backpack.  Caitlyn looked curiously to where her sister knelt over the pack.  After some rummaging through, Nina pulled out what at first appeared to be a trashed potato bag.  She held it out to her sister, and, after a moment, Caitlyn realized what she was looking at was the cheapest, dirtiest looking puppet she’d ever laid her eyes on.  It was the kind of puppet you see professional ventriloquists use on TV, but Caitlyn knew no self-respecting puppet master would ever think to use this particle puppet in an act.  Even if you knew the short hair was fake, it looked practically drenched with grease.  There was a small hole where the puppet’s nose used to be, and its eyes twinkled as if the puppet were sad about whatever it had gone through to look like that.

As Caitlyn gaped at her sister, Nina explained, “Me and a couple of friends found it at a rummage sale- we were going to use it as a prank on the new girl, but you can have it.”  She handed it to her sister, and, as she did, her shoulders seemed to relax, as if she’d been holding her breath and could finally breathe again.  Caitlyn ignored the change to continue glaring at her sister. 

“Really?” she gasped incredulously.  “I ask for Speak Now, and you give me a puppet from the trash?”  Nina simply shrugged, scooping up a forkful of hash brown.  “Take it or leave it.  Throw it away, for all I care.”  And Caitlyn did just that- passing the silver garbage can on the way to her room, she lifted the top and carelessly tossed the puppet in.  Because that’s where trash goes- the garbage can.

    Caitlyn sauntered into her bedroom and shut the door loudly behind her.  She sighed, glancing around the room.  There was a bed in the far left corner, in line with the opened windows.  A nightstand was placed right next to it, overflowing with cd’s, books, and other various items.  A dresser stood against the lilac walls a few feet away from it  Posters of Taylor Swift and Kelly Clarkson hung above the bed.  Caitlyn went to her bookcase and fingered the spines of her books- all of them were either mysteries, horrors, or the occasional sci-fi.  There was nothing Caitlyn loved more than a good ghost story. 

Nina thought her sister’s book-taste was gothic, and she never let Caitlyn forget it.  But Caitlyn didn’t care; in her opinion, Nina cared way too much about what other people thought.  The two sisters had always clashed when it came to things like social status.  Nina was bound to be prom queen her senior year, while Caitlyn would be lucky if she got a date.

Not that she cared.

         Caitlyn picked her favorite books from her collection- The Old Willis Place.  She’d read it in the fourth grade, and loved it so much, she bought some more ghost stories.

And some horror books…

…And some mysteries…

…And some Sci-Fi’s….

…Until she had enough books to call it a collection.



         Caitlyn smiled, flipping through the pages of the book- she’d written so many notes in the margins about what she thought about it, how she related…  Fourth grade had been a tough time for Caitlyn, when every time she slept, she had another nightmare, and her grades started slipping…  Her books alone had gotten Caitlyn through that time.  Shuddering now, Caitlyn placed the book back on her shelf.



She came out of her room and went through the day as usual from there- drawing, reading, eating lunch, reading, watching TV, writing, having dinner, and waiting for her parents to get home.  She was watching The Innocents in her parent’s room because Nina was hogging the TV downstairs, as usual.  It wasn’t the scariest movie she’d ever seen, but it was definitely creepy.  Caitlyn tried to categorize the top ten scariest movies she’d ever watched.  After a long time of careful consideration, she came up from scariest to least-scariest; The Exorcist, Paranormal Activity 3, Jeepers Creepers, Paranormal Activity 2, Creep Show, Candy Man…



         She was still deciding when she heard Nina call from the living room, “Caitlyn, mom and dad are back!”  Caitlyn put the movie on pause and went to see her parents.  You never know, maybe they actually remembered it was their youngest daughter’s birthday on the way back.



Not that she cared.









*                                    *                                    *



         “Happy birthday, honey,” Caitlyn’s mom said sweetly as her daughter came in.  Caitlyn felt relief come over her- they had remembered.  That is, until Nina ruined by whispering in her sister’s ear, “I reminded them it was your birthday.”  Caitlyn frowned.  She turned to both of her parents sharply.  “You mean you really didn’t remember your own daughter’s thirteenth birthday?”

Her parents exchanged guilty glances with one another.  Then her mom got that stern look on her face that all moms get when their kids are driving them crazy.  “Look, Caitlyn,” she lectured seriously.  “You need to stop thinking so much about yourself.  I’ve been so busy lately, going to work, visiting your aunt and uncle…!”

“Not to mention, you didn’t even say anything!” her dad added, backing Caitlyn’s mom up one hundred percent, as always.

“Exactly!” her mom agreed, gaining speed on her lecture.  “You didn’t even tell us what you wanted, like any normal kid would do!”  There was something about the way she’d said it, something about the way she’d stretched the word ‘normal,’ that got to Caitlyn. 

         Nina leaned in and laughed gleefully in her sister’s ear, “Don’t you feel like the luckiest girl in the world now?”  That’s when Caitlyn snapped.  She stormed into her room and slammed the door shut behind her.  Caitlyn threw her face into the plush white pillow on her bed and screamed at the top of her lungs.  She got into bed and threw the covers over her face.



         Once Caitlyn had gotten over her anger, she removed and covers…

…and yelped in surprise, to find she was staring into the plastic eyes of a cheap, trashy looking puppet.



         Caitlyn groaned.  Nina must have slipped it back into her room earlier in the day.  She’d probably done it right after Caitlyn had rejected the puppet, and Caitlyn just hadn’t noticed when she’d gone back into her room after breakfast.



         Still, there was something about the puppet… something Caitlyn hadn’t seen there before.  Maybe it was from being singled out by her family, having her parents forget her birthday, or reminiscing about her days in the fourth grade, but the puppet seemed to say, I know how you feel.  I’ve been rejected by people, too.  The girl’s eyes went glassy, a hypnotic glow coming over them.  Caitlyn picked it up and hugged the puppet, not caring that it was covered in a thin layer of dirt, not even thinking about that. 



“I’ll call you… Daniel,” she decided.  “No one in my family wants me, Daniel.  But you’ll be my friend.  You’ll take care of me, and I’ll take care of you.”  She held the puppet up to her shoulder, never seeing the evil glint in its plastic eyes.