The Man (Puppet Boy Prequel)

14.

TOMMY SHOOK HIS head, hoping that the people would go away, and that it was all just a nightmare, but they never left. Instead they rushed closer to the stage, clad in black uniforms that blended with the darkness of the audience.

"What's going on?" Tommy asked his creator, panicked. His heart was racing and he couldn't tell if the people were there to watch the show or not.

"It only took you ten years to find me!" his creator yelled to the mysterious people, laughing. "You're all so good at your jobs!"

This provoked the large men to grab him by his arms and harshly shove him to the ground, ignoring Tommy's screams.

"Leave him alone! Stop it!" Tommy cried, trying to shake his body to get himself off the ropes. He couldn't rescue his creator, and instead had to watch as the two men shackled him in metal restraints.

"I love you, my Puppet Boy," his creator said shakily, as he was being carried away. Tommy's eyes brimmed with burning tears as he continued to shake his head.

"Stop! Where are you going?" he screamed out, his straining voice echoing off the high ceiling of the old auditorium.

There was so much chaos, so much yelling and so many figures racing around. People from the audience were crying, their hands scratching at the stage as they desperately tried to get away from the intruders.

Tommy jolted his body helplessly, wanting to break from the ropes and stop these people from ruining his creator's dream - from ruining his dream.

"There's about sixty dead bodies total," a woman stepped up the stairs of the dusty stage, making her way towards Tommy at a hurried pace. Her words were muffled, as she was covering her nose and mouth with the collar of her shirt. Tommy looked around and noticed everybody else was as well.

Tommy couldn't help his utter confusion. He didn't see any dead bodies anywhere! They were all insane, why couldn't they just leave him alone?

Another man followed behind her, rushing over to Julie.

"You better not think about touching her!" Tommy screamed to the guy, who ignored him and quickly cut the ropes from her wrists.

The woman stood in front of Tommy, reaching up and using a scissor to cut through the thick rope that restricted his limp arms.

"Stop it!" Tommy bellowed, his throat raw as tears rushed down his cheeks. "We're performing!"

"Shh," the woman cooed. "It will be okay, you're safe now. He won't hurt you anymore."

Tommy could see the beauty in her angular framed face, the silkiness of her long brunette hair that fell to her midriff in waves, and her striking light eyes. He knew that she was too beautiful to be as mean as she was acting, and deserved to be performing with him. The only reason she was so bitter and cruel was because she wasn't a puppet, and all beautiful puppets deserve to perform.

"Leave me alone, I'm fine," he said weakly, all of the energy drained from his body as he began to twitch, not giving up his struggle to get away from her.

"Come on, it's okay," she said gently, her voice soft. Her eyes grazed over his skeletal frame, and the large gauze-covered gashes on each of his knees that still seeped with blood, and she gasped.

"The girl's dead," the guy told the woman, and Tommy noticed he had Julie slumped in his arms.

"W-what?" Tommy's lip quivered. She wasn't dead... He could see her wide, fear-filled eyes as the guy began to walk off the stage with her.

Julie screamed in the guy's arms, scratching at his back and reaching out to Tommy. "Tommy, help me! Help!" she cried out desperately, her voice cracking. Her blonde hair was a mess all over her face, her makeup was smudged and tears wouldn't stop falling from her terrified eyes.

He wanted so desperately to help her.

"Julie! Stop it! Stop!" he screamed. "She's alive! Please! Where are you taking her?"

He glanced around the empty stage, unable to find his creator anywhere. His heart couldn't stop slamming against his rib cage, he needed his creator with him. He needed Julie with him. He needed to perform, he needed to be the beautiful Puppet Boy he was born to be, and these people were taking everything away from him.

He fell into the lady's arms, and with the help of a few others, they put him on a stretcher and held him down. "Stop, stop!" he bawled, his vision blurring as a group of people stood over him and wheeled him off the stage.

As they brought him through the aisles, he noticed somebody standing over a black bag that was also on a stretcher beside him.

The person sitting in the long black bag was his mother. She sat up, her hair still beautifully curled and her eyes still sparkling as she waved to Tommy, a quivering smile plastered on her lips. The man standing over it zipped it up, and his mother's face was covered.

Tommy shook his head, thrashing his body as best as he could without the use of his limbs as he cried. "Stop it! They're all alive!" he screamed, wondering how insane they had to be to think they were dead.

He was horrified, his head was pounding with each cry he let out. He didn't know where he was being taken, but he hoped he would be with his creator.

"He's hallucinating," he heard somebody say.

He didn't have the energy to protest anymore. His eyes fluttered shut as he felt the brisk outside air nip at his skin, the atmosphere was so clear and not the usual stuffy environment he had grown used to. He took a deep breath and allowed his lungs to fill as he closed his eyes and imagined Julie's beautiful golden eyes.

There were loud sirens, people talking, yelling, cars screeching on the road - he drowned it out. Instead, he stared up at the clear obsidian sky. It had been so long since he last saw it...

He was wheeled into the back of a vehicle that flashed with red lights. The same woman stood over him, holding an oxygen mask to his lips. He closed his eyes, his whirling mind and his weak body threatening to knock him out of consciousness.

"What's your name?" she asked, her sweet voice pleasant and close to his ear. When he didn't answer, she asked again, "come on, buddy, what's your name?"

"Puppet Boy," he answered timidly, his voice holding no emotion.

She didn't answer for a few seconds. "Uh, P-Puppet Boy?" she sounded confused, and Tommy made a noise of confirmation.

"What... what's your real name?" she tried again.

"Puppet Boy," he told her. Why was it so hard to believe? It was a beautiful name...

She sighed in disbelief, and all Tommy could do was imagine how beautiful she would look hanging from ropes on a wide stage, the lights shimmering down on her. Oh, it would be so perfect...

She tried talking to him again, attempting to relax him, but he ignored her as he imagined the strokes of paint colouring her clear skin.

His mind drifted away, and darkness clouded his vision.

_

A.N

Everything's very chaotic in this chapter, and all over the place. It's supposed to be, I'm not sure if it's really all that good but whatever. I tried.
Next chapter will probably be the last chapter :)
thanks for waiting guys!
-Steph