Mari slinked through the undergrowth, his machete cutting through the dense foliage. She followed him closely, her shadow darker than those around her. He drank the potion willingly tonight, not wanting to deal with the pain that still lingered after his punishment.
She led him deep into the forest, far enough that the branches of the trees grew together and the sky was no longer visible.
"Tread carefully my dear, he may be watching."
Mari nodded, but said nothing, he didn't talk much when under the potions influence, not unless she told him to.
From a distance came the sound of voices. She smiled.
"There they are. Come along Dear."
She led him to the edge of a clearing, where he saw three figures gathered around a fire. He recognized them from the night before, or, at least, he recognized their bodies, he hadn't seen their faces.
She smiled and placed a shadowy hand on his shoulder.
"The Operator seems to be away for now, why don't you go retrieve what's ours."
"Yes Mistress Carmilla. With pleasure."
He put the machete in a holder on his back and retrieved his gun from its holster.
He pointed it at the small one, because that's the one he remembered taking the vial from him. Before he could shoot, however, there was the sound of deafening static. It made his ears feel like they were bleeding, and they were, as he tumbled foreword into the clearing.
All eyes turned to Mari, then drifted to the thing that had snuck up behind him. As he watched, they all fell, just as he had. One of them coughing like he was about to lose a lung.
The static got louder, and Mari's vision began to go fuzzy, before a soft darkness settled over him, blocking the sound from his ears.
When the darkness faded, he was standing again, in the light of the fire, but now she stood in front of him, blocking the other thing from reaching him. She stood at her full height, much more than just a shadow now.
The other thing was massive, towering as high as a tree, dressed in a suit. It was deathly pale, and, terrifyingly, it had no face. Before it stood the three from last night, now wearing their masks once more.
The two monsters stood in a silent standoff. Neither backing down. To any normal person, this would have been terrifying, to the four "humans" stuck in the middle of this, this was a typical tuesday.
YOU ARE READING
The Marionette of Madness
FanficTim had hoped after all these years that he had finally beaten this thing and could live normal life, but he's having gaps in his memory again, and waking up with random injuries in unfamiliar places. Toby can't remember how he ended up in the woods...
