Forgotten Hill Short Story: Nathan and Josephine

Abduction

Josephine looked as her boyfriend walked away toward a house on a hill.
She sighed. Jimmy was always so protective of her, before leaving he recommended her to stay in the car and to not open to anyone.
He acted like she was a child, even if usually he was the one always late for dates and messing around.
Outside the car everything was dark, except for the house on the hill. She turned on her mobile flashlight to see what was around her on the outside, but she could only see grass and trees.
After a while she got out to breath some fresh air, already forgetting about her boyfriend's warnings. She took a few steps away from the car, breathing in the cold night air.
Everything was quiet, not even birds were singing.
But after a while she heard a weird noise, it was like the heavy breath of a dog.
She turned around, pointing the flashlight in the direction of the noise. There, a huge wolf was standing. Yes, standing on two feets, like a human. Josephine was so terrified that she didn't move, she just stood there, staring at the creature.
The creature stared back at her, then growled and jumped towards her.
Before even realising it Josephine was running in the woods, running for her life.
She didn't even look back to see if the creature was chasing her or not, she just kept running until her legs couldn't take it anymore.
Then she fell on the ground, heavily breathing.
«Oh, what do we have here?» a voice asked.
A man stood in front of her. He was tall and in the current position his face was aligned with the moon, so Josephine couldn't see it.
She tried to speak but she was still catching her breath so she just laid down.
«Are you okay young lady?» the man asked, kneeling beside her.«A-A wolf... On two feet...» she said, still shaking and out of breath.
«I see, I see. Don't worry pretty lady, wolves don't live around Forgotten Hill. Probably it was just my brother's doing.» he said smiling and offering his hand to Josephine.
She took it and he helped her stand up.
«By the way, what's a young lady like you doing out here?» the man asked, looking at her.
Now that she could see his face, Josephine noticed that he was not as old as she thought, maybe thirty years old or so. He had brown hair and dark eyes. Still there was something sinister in his looking.
«My boyfriend and went our together but the car broke down. He's in the house, the one on the hill, looking for help. I was waiting for him in the car.» she explained, trembling a bit. She could still hear the heavy breathing of the wolf in her head.«Oh sure, the people from that house are really kind. One of them is a employee of mine... Oh, I have and idea, why don't you come with me? I don't think it's nice to let a young lady like you alone in a car» he said.
That offer sounded kind but it just made the man look more sinister.
«My boyfriend would get worried if he got back and did not find me... Thank you, but I think I should get back.» she said, looking in the direction from where she came running.
«You see, I have a theater not too far away from here. What if we leave a ticket for your boyfriend so he knows where you are?» he said, immediately getting by Josephine's side.
She was kind of scared now, but turning down the offer could have angered the man so she nodded and smiled a bit. They got back at the car -the man knew the way to "the house on the hill"- and there was no trace of the standing wolf.
«As I told you, my brother likes to make this kind of things» he said reassuring Josephine.
«Does he make hyper realistic costumes for your theater?» she asked, trying to understand what the "things" he made were.
«No, he works on his own.» the man said, without giving other explanations. Maybe they weren't on good terms, Josephine thought. Also she took the answer as a confirm that what she saw was nothing more than a hyper realistic costume.
She opened the car and thought of getting in and leaving the stranger outside. But looking at the thin glass of the window she sighed and just asked the man if he had something to write the note for her boyfriend.
«I said we would leave him a ticket, young lady» he said while pulling out a ticket for the theater from a pocket and leaving it on the car seat.
Josephine closed the car door, then looked at the man waiting for him to lead her to the theater.
He did, and after the not so long walk she felt a bit grateful for coming there. She always liked dolls when she was a child and she liked now the puppets around the place.«It's a nice place, mister...» she interrupted herself, not knowing his name.
«I'm Nathan McMillan, son of Owen McMillan» he said in a soft tone.
«I'm Josephine» she responded, starting to like him. Maybe he just had old fashioned ways and was actually a good person. After all, he even left a hint for her boyfriend to find her.
Josephine looked at the place once again, and the puppet of the fat man caught her attention. She got closer and touched it. When it started to talk, its voice gave her chills down her spine.
It was a human voice, but it had something a human voice shouldn't have. It was vibrating in the wood it was made of, like it came from inside the puppet but not like a record. It was like-
«Josephine dear, are you fine? You look like you just saw a ghost.» Nathan said, putting an arm around her shoulders.
«Oh, the puppet took me by surprise! I'm okay, Mr. McMillan» she said giggling. He smiled. «You seem to like my puppets.»
He took her to another room. In a closet there were four puppets hanging. Josephine got close to them, smiling a bit.
Their features were so beautiful, even if they had some broken parts. They looked so realistic she almost thought they were real human beings hanging by strings.
«I have a bit of work to do, so please stay here dear.»
Josephine nodded and Nathan got out of the room, leaving her alone with the puppets.
She liked them but got bored of staring at them after some time. She didn't dare to take them to play with so she took her mobile and started reading old chats, since internet didn't work in that place.
Then she heard a noise. It was like something dripping, like water from a broken sink. She looked around and saw something red dripping from one of the puppets. Blood.
Immediately she got out of the room.
She could think of nothing except the fact that Nathan was a psychopath that turned corpses in puppets.
She got out of the theater and ran towards the car, trying to get safe.
Josephine was so tired when she got in the car, she just closed the door and sat on the car seat.
She looked toward the house on the hill, but her boyfriend wasn't getting back.
Then she thought that maybe he was in danger too. After all, the one that told her that in the house lived kind people was Nathan, the psychopath with bleeding puppets.
She got out of the car only to get attacked by the wolf she previously saw. It was crawling on the ground near the car and the moment she put a foot outside, the monster bit it off.
She closed the car door again screaming in pain. She tried to not look at her leg that was now missing the foot.
The werewolf disappeared again and just when she gave a sigh of relief the car door opened.
«For God's sake where have you-» she started asking her boyfriend.
«Why did you run away dear? See, you got hurt being all by yourself in here» Nathan said, looking at her.
Then everything went black.
When Josephine woke up she was laying on the floor. She got up and started walking around, not noticing that now her foot had been replaced with a piece of wood and metal. Everything was dark and she could not see anything. Then she felt something on her wrists.
«Dear, you're not ready to go yet»
She recognised the voice and tried to run and find an exit, just to feel something soft in front of her, like a fabric.
The voice sighted.
«Fine, I see you're impatient» he said.
She felt a grip on her wrists and ankles like some sort of strings were attached to her body. It hurt so bad she wanted to scream, but her voice didn't come out.
The darkness went away, now the fabric was not standing in her way.
And she saw a crowd looking at her. They were on the seats of a theater, and she was on the stage. Moving her eyes to look around she saw her hair were now light blue, and her clothes were different too.The strings forced her to move whenever and however the puppeteer wanted. She tried to oppose to him but it was useless and painful, so she gave up and let him do what he wanted.
At the end of the show the red fabric separated her from the crowd, making everything dark.
She felt the strings leaving her free to move now, so she tried to get off the stage.
«What did you think you were doing there?» Nathan asked from behind her.
Josephine immediately stopped and just stood there, trembling.
«I told you weren't ready for the show but you were impatient and did what you wanted.» he added. She felt the strings pulling her again, now being forced to dance around the puppeteer.
«Now we will practice until you become a good puppet and learn how to follow me» he said, pulling the strings while dancing with her.
After hours of "practice" she collapsed exhausted. Nathan forced her to get up, and took her to an underground room. He locked her in, then went away.
Josephine felt her energy leaving her body. The darkness came back, and the next thing she saw when she opened her eyes was her boyfriend, right in front of her, late as always.