|~Hello Puppets~| [The Final Show]

|~Chapter 1: Escaped~|

[Act 1: Safety At Last]

=

They stumbled down the hall, holding Scout in their hand like they were holding onto some hope they could help her still but they felt so drained, physically, emotionally and definitely mentally, no longer could they feel their feet despite the light came closer and closer to them and finally. . .
The light consumed them.
They were dead. . . Weren't they, the light at the end of the tunnel must have been the end of their life.
Then everything went black.

=

The doors to the college classroom flew open, banging the wall every so slightly but it gained the whole room's attention especially once seeing cops enter the room and the room was silent, the Professor stopped talking and even some students shifted uncomfortably as one cop walked up to the Professor.
The Professor, remained calm as she closed the PowerPoint.
"Class is dismissed but Marcus and Paige, you two will accompany myself as the police want to speak to the Three of us.", the class glanced to them nervously, Marcus and Paige looked at each other confused and scared, the class packed their things and left while the Professor, Paige and Marcus left with the two cops.

=

"This may come to a bit of a shock."
They entered a hospital room, all three were confused but the Professor kept a calm face to not panic her two students as they were lead into a hospital room.
. . .
"#######!!!!"
The Professor left like her body was frozen, she wanted to say something but. . . What could she say?
In the hospital bed was one of her students that had been missing for 2-days with their mouth stitched, their hand gone and looked like they had been tortured for how dead they looked.
"######!!!!"
"What happened to my student?"
The police man cleared his throat,"We have a witness saying she was taking her child out on the pram, when she saw your student/friend collapse out of an alleyway injuried, they were unresponsive and called an ambulance and police once noticing their stitched mouth and missing hand.", The Professor nods, Paige stood by her friend's side as the doctor came in and examined the stitches,"Why would someone do such a thing. . .", "We were going to ask you that.", the room's atmosphere suddenly changed, the cop then held up a phone with a battered screen and hit something.
"Hey, #####. Paige here, I wanted to let you know I found this place we can do our report on.
Our Halloween Addtion is feeling light, you ever hear that old decommissioned warehouse, the one where they use to film that old kid show from the 80s?
It's supposed to be haunted, there's rumors about homeless people going missing, it's probably all bullshit but, see if you can sneak in, take some pictures and write something up, but don't do crazy cause we are a college paper."
The message cut off.
The cop pointed to Paige and Marcus,"After looking into their phone, you two were the last to know where they were and it is mandatory to report a missing person after 24 hours especially with the kidnappings happening.", another cop came in and cuffed Marcus,"Wait-! You're not saying!?", "Yes; You're both under arrest for suspension of torture, kidnapping and conspiracy to kill.", Paige and Marcus looked at one another, confused, scared and horrified!
"Wait- We're innocent!"
"We would never hurt them!"
"Tell it to the judge kids, you two are looking mighty suspicious."
And they dragged out of the room crying and yelling how they were innocent or framed.
The Professor stood still, she wasn't sure what to think; One of her students is in critical condition and two more of her students is being accused of this?!
. . .
The doctor tapped the Professor on the shoulder,"Excuse madam, could you call any family they may have?", The Professor nods, pulling out her phone,"The stitches. . .?", the doctor sighed, shaking his head,"Looking at the stitches, they are tight and complicated stitch work to keep the mouth sealed, whoever did this obviously needed them to be quiet and the bag over their head was to conceal their identity if they died.", Professor covered her mouth looking at his missing hand, walking away as she walked away and towards the window and saw her two students being pushed into a cop car and many people taking pictures of the scene and the Professor only could hear her ringtone echo in her ear.