Jenga

Chapter Fourteen- Psychic Psycho Boy ~Neil~ Part 1

I look around myself and see a pretty typical day. Julia arguing with Cyan, Arthur silently reading to himself either the book or his favorite magazine, Charlie practicing his punches, Wisty and her coloring book, and me, the girl who watches all this happen. 

There are a couple additions to what's typical, though, and that's Reynie barging in, and the twins sitting in the corner doing voodoo or something. I can't wait until they leave. They scare me. 

"Let's have a discussion about the book, shall we?"

Right after Arthur asks this, moans and groans fill the room. I stifle a laugh at Arthur's expression when it happens.

"I'll start," I say, "with the main characters. The first main character's name is Joshua. He's got the top grades in his class and is very reserved."

Charlie clears his throat and continues, "He has no social life, until he meets a familiar one day in his house. His familiar. She's a puppet, or rather, she claims herself to be, because she has been controlled all her life and is now going to be controlled again. This time by Joshua."

Wisty takes over, "The familiar's name is Allison, and techincally, is dead, because in the story, familiars are dead sidekicks to those with powers. Joshua is at first very cold to Allison, but adheres to her situations and comes whenever she's in trouble with the U.S. militia, who's after hers and Joshua's powers."

Juila continues, "This militia group has supernatural tricks up their sleeves, and even Joshua's classmates reveal some secrets. If I were him, I'd just send my daddy over there to kill them. But, Joshua is a orphan, so that's out of the box. The plot basically ends there, and in one part of the story, I think Allison gets kidnapped by the militia, but that's way far ahead."

Astonished that everyone did their reading, I clap my hands proudly. Arthur does the same. "I'm so proud!" he says, "Now, I have an assignment--"

The moans and groans fill the room again.

While he scolds the four who always don't feel like doing anything, I look around myself once more and notice something out of place. Something that shouldn't be here. Someone, rather.

I get up from my seat and walk up to the window. Neil is looking straight at me, too, so I'm probably the reason why he's here. "Get lost," I whisper to him.

"I didn't come here to fight, although what you did to me the last time we met was rude. I came here to tell you what's going on. Charlie won't tell you anything, right?" he whispers back.

Whispers are louder than I thought.

"Right . . . but why help me?" I ask. I don't even know why I'm bothering talking to him. I could just call Charlie over and that would be the end of it. 

 He smiles and takes my arm. "Because you're you."

What the? OK, so first he's all like, ugh, I hate Charlie and he literally almost gives me a concussion when we first encounter each other. Then, he's like, oh, don't drag your girlfriend into this, to Charlie. Now though, he's flirting with me? What exactly is he trying to prove? That he's multitalented?

Before I'm able to object, he pulls me out through the window and I scream, "Char--", but he covers my mouth so that nobody will hear me. Excuse my language, but this clever bastard is seriously like Reynie's twin or something. They both probably come from the same pedophile land of morons. I'm not even trying to be rude or funny, I'm just trying to say stuff to get my mind off of being kidnapped.

As my legs fly out of the room, my right shoe comes off and lands in the room with a noticeable drop. But, unfortunately, Neil and I are long gone before anything happens.

 I struggle out of his arms as he runs away from the place I'm supposed to be at. But he shakes his head as if I'm a joke. "You're not stronger than me," he says.

"Don't be so arrogant. I won't be with you much longer. Someone'll come for me," I reply.

"Don't be so ignorant. Are you really sure someone will come for you? Do they love you that much?"

This signals a flashback of me in the second grade, when everyone in my class teased me for being an orphan, for looking like a character in a horror movie, and for having a boy's name. They pointed out all of my flaws, and I cried, wanting someone to console me. A classmate, a boy, came up to me and said something like . . .

"Not everyone will console you when you cry."

I came back to Earth and look surprisingly at Neil. How'd he know I was thinking that? 

"I have psychic powers," he jokes.

"Do you?" I played along and laughed a bit. There's someone I once knew who said that before. Then I came to my senses. "Wait, why are you being nice to me? What do you want with me?"

Neil stops running when we reach a house. It's a pretty lofty an aged looking place. Almost like a haunted house. No, it probably is just like a haunted house. "You'll find out soon enough," he says to me.

I won't stand for this. I don't want to be here. I've come to my final resort of escaping.

I try and struggle out of his arms once more, and it doesn't work, so I shout, "Charlie! Charlie!" I don't really know if he'll come, but I hope he will. I try to shout his name once more, but Neil covers my mouth.

We enter the house, and my suspicions are even more confirmed. The inside looks more haunted than the outside.

Neil puts me down on the couch in the middle of what seems to be the living room, but as I try to get up, metal cuffs come from nowhere and snap around my wrists and ankles. "What do you think this is? We're not in some kind of movie!"

He walks up to, and closes in on me. "Just keep in mind that I'm helping you."

Then, as he walks away, turns the light in the room off and shuts the door, I begin to panic.

I seriously do. I struggle and struggle, but the cuffs just become tighter. What the hell is this kind of situation? Am I having a nightmare? This is unreal. So unreal. 

I want to get out. I want to leave, and go back to being with everyone. Why am I here? I don't want to be. 

"Charlie! Charlie!" I shout over and over. He's not coming for me. I already know that. Then why am I shouting?

Oh, no. Now it hurts. The cuffs are starting to really hurt my wrists. I must've struggled too much.

I've been holding this in for too long. I want to be in Charlie's arms, I want to laugh with him, I want to cry with him, I want to joke with him, I want to argue with him, I want to study with him, I want to discipline him.

I'm making too much of the situation, but my eyes water anyway. I shout one more time, "CHARLIE!"

The door breaks open. On the verge of tears, I look up and face the man standing in the doorway. "You idiot! You should know better not to speak to him! Now you've gotten me through the trouble of rescuing you."

This voice is Charlie's. Thank God.

"I'm sorry I caused you trouble . . . wait, how in the world did you get here? And where the heck did Neil go?" I ask as Charlie turns the light back on.

"I stalked you," he says bluntly.

I suddenly feel like hitting him. "You mean to tell me . . . that this whole time you knew I was being kidnapped and you didn't do a thing about it?!"

He nods as if he's an innocent five year old. No, even five year olds aren't innocent.

I, becoming more angry than elated with him, take a deep breath and bellow, "THE IDIOT HERE IS YOU!"

As he pouts, he tries and takes off my cuffs, but they get even tighter. I cringe in pain. "It hurts! Stop!"

Then, Neil comes inside. "I've been waiting for you both to come."

Now I know. I now know what this is. This is The Puppeteer.