The Puppet master

Allegra

Wind whipped Allegra Montessori's long blonde hair as she ran. She was on her way home from exploring. Allegra had been exploring the town of Dellmere as a hobby for quite awhile now. Although she had lived there her entire life, it had never crossed her mind to explore the place. The town of Dellmere was a small town. That was what everyone told her. The odd thing was that seemed to be true. For however much she explored she always ended up at the town again.

Frowning, as she thought about that, she ran past some of the townsfolk. Mr. and Mrs. Brown, Polly Malri, Jason smith and many more. Stopping to catch her breath she accidentally started to listen into Mrs. Brown and Polly Malri's conversation. " So poor all Mikey Lather has kicked the bucket", said Mrs. Brown,"Or hit the sack. I never could tell the difference. Anyway he died." "Oh that's awful!",gasped Polly," Just think of his family!"" What family? He never had children and his wife left him years ago." "What about his mother?"asked Polly. " Oh his mother's dead too,"said Mrs. Brown bluntly, "He's going to be buried next to her.""Do you think it's..."asked Polly tentatively. "Oh that's just an old story for the children Polly."said Mrs. Brown indicating her head to Allegra, who quickly bent down to pretend to tie her laces. When she realized she was wearing straps she stood up awkwardly. "Now now Allegra, you best be off. Your mother will be looking for you.""Yes Mrs. Brown."said Allegra and she sprinted off. Not in the direction off her own house. No, this was to important. She headed off to her best friends house.

She ran to the old part of town where Dara lived. His family wasn't poor, they had just lived there before the new part of town had been built. "Two minutes of a walk doesn't make much of a difference to us" his parents had said. Dara lived beside the farms and the fields where his parents work. There isn't much of a choice of jobs in Carontin. You can either work on the farm, in the market, in the engine that powers the town or as a messenger. A messenger basically runs around the town for whoever wishes and sends messages to people so others don't have to. Allegra's parents worked at the market so they aren't home much. Allegra knocked on the door of Dara's house. Dara answered quickly. "Hey 'Leag, what's wrong?" he asked noticing her expression. Without waiting to be invited in, Allegra barged inside.

"There's been another." "Another what?",asked Dara, confused. "Another death! This is getting weird. I was thinking about it and the deaths have been 80 to 70, then 70-60 and now 60-50! It's like someone is killing off everyone, from oldest to youngest. They say it's just the flu, but I don't know..." she broke off when she saw Dara staring at something out the window. Allegra whiled around just in time to catch a glimpse of someone running around to the side of a building. "That was weird", said Allegra,"Do you know that person?" "No I don't", said Dara,"Let's go follow him." And they set off after him.

They crept around the side of the building, trying to catch a glimpse of the mans face. He had red hair and bright blue eyes. Not exactly a face you are likely to forget. He was good-looking and about nineteen. The man looked around. Allegra and Dara dodged behind the wall. The man looked about worriedly. Then he shook his head. "This job is making me paranoid." he muttered to himself. Dara peeked around the wall, then signaled to Allegra that the man wasn't looking. Allegra peeked around too, and was surprised to see the man climbing into a bin. Allegra and Dara looked at each other, confused. They waited a bit expecting the bin to fall over or something. But nothing happened. Allegra ran over to it ignoring Dara, who was telling her not to get near it, and opened it. To her great surprise she found a tunnel. "Take a look at this!"

"No."

"No?"

"I don't want to."

"Why not?"

"It's a bin"

"So?"

"I don't want to."

"Oh just get over here."

Reluctantly Dara walked over. "It's a tunnel." "Really? I hadn't noticed." Dara glared at her "They say sarcasm is the lowest of wit." They've obviously never met me. Anyway what are we waiting for? Let's go in!" Allegra said excitedly. "Are you crazy? He's down there! We will go later." "We can't go later, now's our chance." "No Allegra," Dara said firmly, " Your Dad will be looking for you. But I'll come with you." Allegra sighed. She knew he was right. "Anyway do you still have your spy tools? No wait I'm getting over excited." "Yes you are," said Allegra grinning. "Besides we need to work on our cover story in case we get caught." "Us- get caught? Never! We're like mice." He squeaked to prove his point. Allegra laughed. "If you squeak like that we'll both be caught like two mice in a mouse trap." He grinned and peered down at the bin. "Do you think it smells in there?" "I dunno. They might want to make it realistic, but I have no clue. No one would suspect a bin unless it was holding a gun."

"How?"

"How what?"

"How would it be holding a gun?"

"Maybe it's a robot," Allegra shrugged, "You don't know it's life."

"Anyway we need to -" she broke off. They could hear sounds of metal creaking. Sort of like someone climbing up a ladder. "Time to go." Dara said tugging Allegra's arm. They sprinted off to Allegra's house. When they reached her house, Dara stopped and asked "Why are we running? It's not like we were doing anything wrong." "Are you kidding?" "What? All we were doing was planning to have a look around." "Yeah 'cause breaking and entering isn't a crime." said Allegra sarcastically. "Shut up. Any-" he was cut off by Allegra running to the back of her house. "Allegra, wait!" Dara ran after her. "Whats wrong?" he asked puzzled. "I thought I saw- Oh!" "Whoa, whats the matter?" She didn't bother to answer, only pointed to a small window near the ground. It was broken. Someone was in her house.