Not so Heroic After All

Do You Believe in Magic? Part 1

Warning: This chapter has more violent imagery so just beware. The picture above is an idea of what the victims you'll see later resemble. Thanks for reading!

...

The following week things went back to normal. Well, sort of. Strangely enough, there had been no sign of Captain Cold, Heatwave or the other escaped metahumans. It was like they just disappeared all of a sudden. What Barry wanted to know was, why?

"Barry, we've got a break in at the theater downtown." Joe came into the Crime Lab, where Barry was comparing samples of Cisco's DNA, as he had asked him to do the other night.

"I need you to take a look at my DNA," Cisco asked, handing him a small container labeled TOP SECRET!

Barry looked at him strangely. "Why can't you do it?"

Cisco looked honestly frightened when he said, "Because I'm afraid of what I'll find."

Now what could he have meant by that? What was different about Cisco's DNA, and what about it had Cisco too scared to find out himself? If it was something that scared Cisco so much that it overpowered his curiosity as a scientist, then something had to be very wrong.

"Barry, did you hear anything I just said to you?" Joe asked, bringing Barry back to current time.

"Robbery at movie theater. I'm on the way," Barry announced, putting away the samples and starting towards the crime scene.

"Uh Barry?" Joe called into thin air.

He returned in a millisecond, looking at Joe. "What?"

"It's a break in, at the Central City Performing Arts Center. In other words, not a movie theater," Joe corrected. Barry nodded.

"Right. Cool. Sure thing." He made to leave again until...

"And Barry?"

"Yeah?"

"You might want to change into the suit before you go racing through the Police Department."

...

The theater was empty and dark. Barry could hardly see anything in the room. It was dead silent, except for this strange squeaking noise, like something swinging back and forth. It sent shivers down his spine.

As he scanned the rows, he noticed trash here and there, a couple of abandoned tickets, nothing too alarming. It looked like the place was in desperate need of a janitor, but not necessarily the Flash.

It's important to realize that Barry scanned the theater in a couple of seconds, if that. He is the Flash, after all.

Anyways, the problem wasn't about what was in the audience. It was about what was behind the stage curtain.

It was a puppet show. A full-scale, marionette puppet show with life-sized dolls. They hung from the ceiling by their hands and feet, awkwardly strung up as if frozen mid-dance. It was a horrifying sight.

It took him a second to register the stench. It was a wonder that they didn't stink before. The smell was slightly faint, but still there. It was...

"Oh my God," Barry breathed. They weren't puppets at all. They were people. People strung up like dolls, covered in a sheen that resembled plastic. They had been painted to look like dolls somehow, but there was no mistaking the glazed look in those dead eyes, and the expressions of terror on their faces. It was the worst thing he had ever seen in his life.

There was a woman in a pink dress. A man in a pinstriped suit. And a child in what appeared to be a magician's costume, hat and all.

...