Marionette's Calling

{3}

APHMAU POV

As my eyes flickered open, and I took in my dimly lit surroundings, the memories from just before I fainted rushed into my mind and I gasped suddenly. I shot upwards from my previous position of laying down in my bed, only to have Katelyn jump on me, pushing me back. "OH THANK IRENE YOU'RE OKAY I WAS SO WORRIED AND SO WAS EVERYONE ELSE ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!" she hastily said to me, taking a moment to catch her breath afterwards. I gave her a small smile before frowning again and looking towards the window, where I'd seen Claire. "I-I'm fine, Katelyn," I told her affectionately while looking around at the others. Their faces were all as worried as Katelyn's, and in particular, I noticed the way Aaron was clenching and unclenching his fists, as if it were his fault that this had happened. I gave him an empathetic look, signalling through only our eye to eye contact that it wasn't, and although he seemed to understand what I was saying, I could sense the tension coming off of him.

"H-hey Katelyn, you don't happen to know the time, do you?" I asked softly before giving a tentative and painful glance at my broken door. "Uh, it's 6 pm at the moment, is there any significance to that?" she replied uneasily. "Oh, n-no, it's nothing." I tried to give her my most reassuring smile, but that only seemed to make her more worried, before Dante spoke up from where he was standing with Travis and the other guys. "Hey Aph, do you mind explaining that voice we heard before we succeeded in breaking in? You seemed... REALLY freaked out about it, and when we came in you had fainted." I inhaled sharply at this comment, the voice running through my head repeatedly. Aphmau... I realized soon that I had zoned out on my friends, and giving them a sheepish smile, I replied nervously with "W-what voice? I-I really don't k-know w-what you're talking about, D-dante." My voice almost cracked at the end, but I held up.

"Don't lie to us Aphmau; we all heard it. Why is it that you can't just tell us who's voice it was and why you suddenly panicked and fainted after hearing it?" came Garroth's sharp reply, his eyes stony and solemn as I stared wide-eyed at him, though I seemed to be the only one even relatively shocked. "U-uh, really, I don't have a clue what you're implying, and even if I did, I really couldn't tell you..." I whispered out the last part, but I'm almost certain at least one of them heard it. "Aphmau..." "PLEASE JUST STOP! I CAN'T TELL YOU! I JUST CAN'T, OKAY?! PLEASE JUST STOP!" I may have been on the verge of tears before when I had lowered my voice to a whisper, but now my tears had broken forth from the dam of my mental control of emotions that had held them back, and there was no stopping the flood of them as they stained my cheeks just like the tears on the mask. Everyone was shocked at my outburst, but with a quiet cough, my friends began to slowly exit my room.

Laurance and Garroth first, longing in their eyes however my words remained strong in the air, and they left, soon followed by Dante and Travis, as well as Aaron and with a lot of prying her off of my arm, Kawaii~Chan. Lastly, with unspoken words of burning compassion lingering deep in her startling blue eyes, Katelyn left me alone with Celeste, and my thoughts. The clock showed 7pm when I glanced at it, and I groaned softly, aware of the quiet breathing that loitered outside my door. The breathing retreated into the unseen zone beyond my room, and I winced at the thought of having to deal with my own thoughts for a whole 4 and a half hours before going to work to be distracted by my Marionette duty.

I sighed softly, and blew gently at an escaped part of my fringe, before groaning as I forced my legs to move out of the warmth of my purple blankets and onto the floor. Shivering slightly, I wondered how everyone else was able to endure standing on the floor barefoot for so long, as it was almost like permafrost underneath my feet. Slipping comfortably into my purple (DUH) bunny slippers, I slid fully off my bed, revealing that I happened to still be wearing my uniform for work. My hat, which read NIGHTGUARD in capital letters, sat on my bedside table, and I assumed that they'd looked at it for answers to their queries of where I worked. It didn't give away anything, and for that I was glad. Glancing at the clock I observed with a little surprise that it was already 8pm. Shuffling towards the door, I heard wisps of the whispery conversation that was taking place downstairs, the almost inaudible words flitting up to my door.

"What was that...... tears...... confused?" "We're all confused, Gar..... voice? Nev...... heard it...." Before long I understood that they were primarily just going over what had happened and trying to assess and understand it. Give my head a little shake at knowing I wasn't able to tell them, I shuffled silently out my door and looked down at the living room area, at where the conversation was taking place. Knowing that no matter what I did they would realize that I had left my room, I decided not to stick with the sneaky approach: it would only make them more suspicious as to what was going on with me.

Their heads snapped up as soon as I took my first step down; you would almost think that they're vampires at this rate. Aware of every movement, almost like every heartbeat, they tried to compose their jittery disposition, but I already knew what they had been talking about, so I closed my eyes and brushed it off as nothing. Opening them, I strode purposefully downstairs, and ensured to make a beeline for the kitchen and not to make eye contact with any of them. Tear stains were still clear on my pale cheeks, and the tension in the atmosphere could almost have been cut with a butter knife. Katelyn seemed to perk up all of a sudden, remembering something, and she averted her low gaze from the ground to my cautious eyes.

"Uh, Aph, would you like to, um, come maybe to my birthday celebration tomorrow? It's going to be held at Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, ya know, that old arcade game place down the road? So, if, uh..." she trailed off, uncertain on how to continue. My body had gone rigid at the mention of the place. Suddenly, memories came swooping into my mind like predatory vultures, always waiting for my weakest moment to betray me. I shuddered, before quickly replying with a "Sorry Katelyn, but that fainting incident has kinda left me feeling a little weak, so I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll be able to attend. Maybe we can catch up later?" My voice almost betrayed me at the end there, but somehow I was able to stay strong. Katelyn's eyes suddenly cast downwards, a hooded look almost clouding their startlingly beautiful quirkiness, before quickly being covered by a sad smile. "Oh it's alright, we'll definitely.... definitely catch up later.."

I tried to smile as I left the room, but as soon as I was hidden from sight around the corner and the the kitchen, my eyes began ignoring my adamant requests not to tear up, and tears that had not been their only a millisecond ago had began profusely spilling from my eyes, blurring my already unsteady vision as I leant back and slid down the fridge. Oh, world, why does thou hath to be so damn cruel?

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OMG PUGGINS!!! CRAZY STUFF HAS BEEN HAPPENING RN!! Alright, I'll explain. So, my mum had a bloodtest the other day, and 'apparently', she had this thing called a sudden death marker, basically meaning that you could die at any moment. TONIGHT EVEN 0-0. Anyways, so I was getting freaked out about my mum's life being on the line, and so was she, as she was worried that she wouldn't be here to care for me and help me and shit like that. The reason this 'sudden death marker' thingy was valid for her, was because the same thing had happened to her father and grandfather, who had 'apparently' passed the gene down to her. Now, you might notice that I have been saying 'apparently' a lot, and here's where the big hit comes: IT WAS ALL FAKE!! It turns out that doctors around the world happen to fake making medical discoveries, example being a guy who said autism was caused by giving your child measles vaccinations. This medical paper was an example of a doctor who had faked a discovery just to earn himself/herself more money and a better name, when it turns out the whole paper was LEGITIMATELY FAKED!! Like I got so worried for nothing!! Anyways, it totally ruined my concentration on everything, so not only have I been lacking ideas; my schoolwork has been behind to. AND LIKE WTF I HAVE EXAMS COMING UP!! ANYwhore, I love ya'll, thanks for being faithful puggins, don't forget to vote, comment, follow me, WHATEVER YOU FEEL NECESSARY!! DON't FORGET: I APPRECIATE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU AND EVERYTHING YOU GUYS DO, even if it is just reading my book! Well alrighty then, see you in the next chapter and HAVE A GOOD ONE MATE!!

~Yours truly,

~Your loyal pug/dragon,

~And every goat that has sworn allegiance to my army,

~Pug <3