Up The Ladder

The Puppet

Newspapers were always boring to Toby, already stressed enough with his shitty life when younger, even though he could barely recall about it because of his amnesia -just a bunch of holes and gaps between names and places- ,only the emotions that made bile rise up on his throat.

'New killer on the edge, new body found on the west' read the title in the first page, or the glimpse he could see from the place he was perched on. "I told you this shit comes from them, we can't ignore it anymore" Tim raised his voice as he threw the newspaper on the
small table infront of him. "And how was i supposed to know it would be one of the others, it could be any other shit-crazy guy around and which probably already got taken care of" explained Brian as he harshly stood up and jabbed a finger to the paper.

Toby wasn't really all that informed about the others, other guests from the operator. He could only count on one hand the amount of guests he had met in person and had not heard from hushed whispers of the other two males in the room.

"So what? you want me to call and say, 'hey buddies, so me and Tim aren't sure if the hanged bodies found on your section are actually your work, not to disturb or anything', because if we do, then the operator is gonna suspect something, and you know how that would end." Brian continued with a tired and faked cheery tone, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"What if that actually makes sense, do you realize the freaks that abhitate around there? for example: woods and mister-eyeless" the raven haired one retorted, trying to make his point across. A quite and unsteady voice rises from the couch, "I've heard about them, an-and from it I've understood that they don't k-kill that way.." Toby spoke for the first time in the whole conversation.

A silence stretched around the room, but an exhale from Brian broke it as he proceeded to remark, turning his gaze to Tim, "What Roger's says is true, and the news also confirmed that the body seemed like it was already dead before it was hanged and broke its neck, deteriorated or something".

Tim huffed out a groan and slumped himself on the nearest chair, "I swear to god, if there is a new guest..." he mumbled, "but wouldn't Natalie or Kate told us? Kate would have been the fir-first one to notice s-something going on" Toby acknowledged as he stood up from the couch, stepping closer to where the other men sat. He wasn't close or a friend to Tim and Brian by any means, but they knew that everything was teamwork at the end for their own safety. Tim and Brian weren't proxies, as far as Toby knew, but they also weren't free from the operators grasp, leaving him as the only proxy of the trio -which sometimes also caused disagreements between each other-.

After minutes of silence, Tim finally uttered the plan, "Look, We'll stay the same, at the end it doesn't actually affect us all that much, but just to make sure," he pointed out, "we'll set up cameras throughout certain points in our section, a bit more on the south or the east and north" he explained his idea as he spread the forgotten newspaper on the table, turning it around to show the map of the forest in the back that indicated where the body was found.

"We'll place 10 different cameras," Tim started, his voice turning a bit unsteady do to nerves, "We'll then divide our section in its own coordinates," a voice interrupted, "the exact same coordinates of all the other strange bodies that were found" Brian completed, snapping his fingers as he quickly turned around to get from a cabinet a stack of what looked to be worn-out newspapers, some already yellowish.

"Wai-Wait, there's be-en more?" Toby inquired as he also started investigating, intrigued. "Some of this are even from decades before we arrived, so trust me, it's not something new" Tim confirmed him, placing his hands on his hips and staring quizzically at the newspaper in front of him. "Basically theres been generations since this kind of stuff has been going on, of course, they're all weird but not the same, so we'll only choose the ones that are the most similar" Brian overstated as he lied all the papers through the surface of the old table.