controlling the marionette

Chapter Two

The second time it happened, Mafuyu, thankfully, was alone.

She floated high above the soft clouds, soaring through the skies, trapped within the tangles of an illusion. Her body felt weightless, and her mind was clear.

Would it be so much better to just stay here?

Nobody was there to tell her what to do. Nobody was there to tell her what she wanted. Nobody could disturb her eternity of peace.

A few seconds too late, she felt the blissful mirage shatter to pieces. It crashed down, darkness consuming the light.

Mafuyu stumbled back in surprise, and bumped something big. She turned around and started to automatically apologize, "Sorr—" but then her eyes widened and she fell to the floor.

She tried to scream, but no sound came from her throat. She desperately clawed at it, wishing with all her might to release some kind of noise, but it was all for naught. Her voice was gone, and towering over her was a life-sized marionette, complete with a golden cage full of roses and thorns and an eerie smile. Her blonde hair was mattered with knots, and the spine-chilling way its eyes were closed passive-aggressively had Mafuyu petrified in place.

Mafuyu, she echoed. Oh, Mafuyu.

Mafuyu kept her eyes trained on her. She tried to speak, but was denied once more.

The doll put a pale, slender finger on Mafuyu's lips. She said in a sickeningly sweet voice, "You're just like me, aren't you?"

She shook her head vigorously. She heard vaguely the sound of someone screaming behind her. She fell to her knees, legs trembling weakly. It was then she realized that she was the one making the noise. Ear-splitting screams racked her body and she hugged herself on the floor, alone and desperate.

She had not...felt...in so long. Her emotions were locked away in a cage she thought she had lost the key to long ago. Although what she was experiencing definitely wasn't a good feeling, it was an improvement. She laughed bitterly as she remembered the times she had broken down in tears alone and had thought that miserable. Feeling something was nothing compared to what she was these days.

She suddenly opened her eyes to a gray and dim-lit room. Her bed was hard and cold, and her room was clean and tidy, as always, but it didn't reflect the chaos her mind was in.

It was just a dream. But she had felt something. Was it still real? Or was it just a figment of her imagination? Did she really feel some emotion?

Well...even in her subconscious mind, it still had to have counted. Maybe...maybe someday she could remember the times when she was an ignorant and naive child, without the burdens of the world heavy on her shoulders.

Maybe. Just maybe.