Ruby Red Marionette

fifty | marionette

//: The support on this story has been amazing. Thanks to all readers, commenters, and voters. Final chapter. Sequel coming soon. 

Hennessy. Red Liquor. A man who no one could see.

This seemed a lot like a riddle born out of a five-year-old's mind, yet I still couldn't find the answer.

Keeping things from the others wasn't going to help, but I did it anyway. I couldn't tell them anything about the deal I'd made with the Devil or my trip to the directory. There was a possibility that they could help me figure things out, but there was also a possibility that telling them would only make things worse. Telling them about the directory wouldn't make sense anyway; all I found out was that the Invisible Man was the boss of everything, but then again he wasn't, because all he did was appear like a ghost. He never gave out assignments, he never did anything evil. He just...appeared. (Of course, there had to be something else, but that girl at the directory was a basic employee and would probably never have access to that kind of information.)

I also learned that the person who registered Red Liquor is also not as evil as I might've thought, and his 'co-workers' are the ones who do the most evil. The part about his name didn't matter, because there was no Hennessy (at least not in this state).

These were the reasons why I didn't feel bad about not telling them. The thing about submitting Yvette's name still bothered me, but much less. There were more important things on my mind than guilt and loyalty – my life was at stake in ways I didn't even know yet. As I sat in Yvette's living room with the rest of the group, all I could think about was the endless list of ways I could be killed right now. There was no escaping this; no amount of investigation or precaution could protect us.

"Would you guys like anything to drink?" This was from Yvette's sister, Veronica. She was just like Yvette – tall, beautiful, graceful. Unlike her younger sister, Veronica's personality didn't take away from her beauty. She was very relaxed, calm, polite. She wasn't fake or trying too hard, which I appreciated. They looked a lot alike, only Veronica's hair was curled and she had a slightly darker complexion.

"I could use some more soda," Tyler said. She came over to him, took his cup, and went into the kitchen to refill it.

They lived in a nice two-bedroom apartment by themselves. Every room was spacious and had a lot of sunlight from the windows. It was six in the evening, so we were just in time to see the sunset. I was probably going to miss it, though; I sat on the floor, my back against the couch and my eyes glued to the neat pile of board games in the corner. There was nothing interesting about it, but I was looking past it. I was looking into the vortex of my mind.

It was ugly.

"I feel like we should do something tonight," Batul said.

"Like what?" Tyler asked.

"I don't know...something. Anything. I don't want to be inside tonight."

"We can go to the club," Yvette suggested.

"Oh, yeah." Tyler nodded. "I've never actually been to a night club. We should do that."

Isaiah shook his head. "You wouldn't like it. It's dark, there's flashing lights, really loud and fast music, people are drunk and bumping into each other and you might get groped at least twice."

They all agreed and began to ponder other places to go. The conversation, as usual, spiraled into something else and they soon forgot what their initial goal was. While they discussed the stupidity in age limits on tattoos and what they would do if they were president, Batul separated herself. She pulled her hair into a ponytail, came in the center of the room, and began to move and shift from different yoga positions. I was used to watching her, so she didn't take my mind off of things. I was still stuck.