36 - The Puppeteer

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"Hey Alice, is this the one?"
Mana picked up a video game case. On the front it said 'Five Nights at Freddy's: The Collection' in large white text.

Alice approached the pinkette, pulling out a wad of cash from her purse. It had always been her intention to buy the games with her own money as she was also a fan. It had come as a massive surprise to her to hear Regina was head over heels for the game, and had spent over two hours earlier that day explaining just the surface level plot details.
Even the thought of it garnered a little chuckle from her.

"Yes, that's the one," Alice answered as she took the case out of Mana's hands and picked up a second for herself, "and this one is for me."

"Wait! You aren't buying both are you?" Mana questioned, pulling out her own money.

"Of course I am, I have the money for it." Alice answered as the store owner scanned both games before charging the money, to which she paid.

Mana didn't admit it, but she felt guilty and a little envious. She wanted to buy the game for Regina herself. However after counting how much money she had, she was a few dollars short. Such a price to pay after buying some plushies.

"I'm going to have to get home, oh and here's your game," Alice said with a smile, handing the video game to Mana and putting it into her bag, "it's been fun! See you tomorrow!"

With that, Alice raced home. Mana stood there for a moment, watching her leave, but a small smile formed on her lips. She pulled her earphones out of her pocket and opened her phone, playing her song playlist. She began to walk, subconsciously moving in time to the beat. It wasn't long before she found herself jumping on the individual slabs of concrete, making it a mission to not touch the lines. She also found herself humming the lyrics to her favourite song.

//

Regina sat alone in her room, lost in thought. That... dream. What did it all mean? Was it real?

There was something else itching at the back of her mind, as if something wasn't quite right with something, as if something she should know way too well was out of place, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She groaned in frustration as she fell back onto the messy bed, staring up at the roof.
"What am I missing?" She asked aloud, putting her arm on her head.

The 'dream' began to replay in her mind. Regina made sure to take note of every detail, as maybe then she could make some sense of everything else.

She began to hear music. Of course, this shouldn't be an oddity, but the genre of said music is what confused her.
Regina stepped down the ladders and made her way onto the floor. She carefully walked to the door, the sound of the music getting louder.
Now the genre was discernible. It was blues. Regina even knew the artist. Nat King Cole. She opened the door and walked downstairs. In front of the window sat a gramophone which looked as if it had been ripped straight from the 1940s. The song playing was 'Unforgettable'.

Two things were immediately apparent to Regina. Mana's family didn't own a gramophone, they preferred much more modern technology, and with the introduction of streaming services and smartphones, gramophones slowly became moot.
The second thing was Nat King Cole and this song were notably Western, and Regina knew that aside from Mana herself, who was well versed in Western culture, the rest of her family were more traditional, and preferred music that had more of an Eastern culture.

Perhaps Mana was bored, and she not only found this gramophone but also a Nat King Cole record disk?
That theory didn't hold any water to it however, and was completely redundant the minute Mana walked through the door, a big bag of goodies in her hand.

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