Identity

Mary and Death were watching me. I was now in some sort of headquarters, and the other girls were out trying to figure out what to do next. Death would occasionally give me a smoldering glance that could burn my skin, but otherwise kept to herself. She was farther away, leaning back in a chair with her hands behind her head.

Mary, on the other hand, was interacting with me more. She pulled a puppet out of one of her drawers and was showing it to me.

“This is my first puppet, Moe.” Moe was a sock puppet. I’m certain the sock used to be white, but now it was stained beige from how old it was. Her voice still was uninterested and monotone, but I could tell she liked showing off her puppets. She put Moe on her hand, opening and closing his mouth.

I didn’t know what to say, because I feel like a compliment would sound forced, and it was hard to open up with Death looming over my shoulder.

I noticed when Mary was playing with her puppets, she would zone out and stare at them, completely forgetting about me. It’s like she occasionally drifted off into her own world.

Confirming my suspicion about her power, one of her puppets jumped out of the big drawer on its own. The stuffed dog walked around her feet and layed down curled up. The girl squatted down to pet the animated inanimate object. I followed her lead and sat down, criss cross, on the floor beside her. There was not much else to do but be entertained by the interesting puppet show.

I find it funny that even though she can control their bodies, she still controls the string puppets by the string. I guess it’s better than having the strings drag around behind them. She is exceptional at her power, because she can control many puppets at once, all of which walk around seemingly at their own will.

“Do you want to play with me?” She had a puppet in her hand, outstretched to me. The left side of my face felt scorching hot from Death’s glare, but when I looked to my side, she wasn’t paying any attention. It must have been my imagination. Not wanting to disappoint the darling doll-master, I picked up the stringed puppet. It was a miniature boy, and he dangled from the 2 sticks that I was holding. I put him near the ground, and tilted the sticks to see what would happen. Tilting in different directions would result in him moving his arms or legs. Mary clapped her hands in glee when I was able to make it look like he was walking.

Forgetting myself, I started to make him talk to the other puppets. I didn’t even notice it at the time, but I was using a higher pitched voice for him, instead of my normal talking voice. Before I knew it, Mary was making up voices for the other characters. When she first did this, I was so into it, I didn’t even realize that she disguised her voice so well. She had a different voice for every character, and they all sounded unique. They were consistent, so I have a feeling she’s voiced them a lot.

My character ended up being named Johnny. When he got into an argument with a cat named Leo, though, I felt an urge to apologize to the cat. It was silly when it went through my head, but when I tried to ignore it, that’s when the urge became compulsive and I acted on it. The second I made little Johnny apologize, I realized that Mary compelled me to do it. She must not even realize how strong her power is. She did that to me subconsciously, I think. I wouldn’t want to ever get on her bad side, especially if she doesn’t notice her unconcious use of power.

It’s been a while since I looked up from our little game, and when I did, I noticed that Death was gone. That’s when something cold touched my shoulder. It felt like the life was being sucked out of me. I looked at my shoulder and a pale, feminine hand rested on it. I looked up at her. She must have walked behind me just as I was looking for her.

“Let Marionette pack up. We have to go meet the girls in the other room.” She instructed, turning and walking away before I could react. My soul snapped back into me when she was almost to the door. I offered little Johnny to Mary. She floated him to the drawer and shut it once the rest of the puppets were neatly tucked away with her power. She bounced back up on her feet, not much taller than me when I was sitting down.

Mary waited for me to get up, but I was still stunned for some reason. The little lady offered her hand. I took it, not expecting to feel a rush of focus. My mind immediately started working again. Mary must have seen my vacant look and controlled my emotions, just like Lucy did.

I was able to get up on my feet after that. Before I could walk towards Death, the Puppeteer hugged my waist.

“Thanks for playing with me.” Her voice had gone back to its usual lack of inflection. I almost forgot about that, since all her characters sounded so distinct. She was a totally different person when she was controlling them.

I patted her head gently, “It was really fun. I’m glad we were able to. We should do it again sometime.” I could have sworn I saw her face get a little bit happier. I blinked and her face was back to the stoic, blank expression she typically wore. She released me and followed Death.