The Man (Puppet Boy Prequel)

13.

"THE AUDIENCE," his creator whispered, his words soft and raspy. Tommy felt his creator's bony, cold fingers graze the side of his jaw in an admiring stroke. "They're here for you."

Tommy hung from the ceiling by his arms and wounded legs, his eyes burning with fatigue. He watched his creator's silhouette from the backstage area, studying the way his outline was sharpened by the slit of light that leaked through the curtain in front of them.

His mind whirled with confusion. He had no idea where they were, or what his purpose was in the situation. He actually found himself wanting to be back in the dingy basement he had been trapped in for years, talking to his skeleton friends and allowing the bugs to crawl on his limbs for the simple sensation of feeling.

Instead, he was dangling from the ceiling, listening to the sound of his creator's pacing footsteps and the sound of his blood dripping from his leg to the floor.

When he opened his mouth to ask what was going on, he choked, the thick dust that clouded the air nearly suffocating him. This earned a glare from his creator's shaded eyes that even in the darkness, Tommy could see so well.

"Puppet Girl, come on Sweetheart. Are you excited?" his creator asked quietly, turning his attention to Julie who was hanging just beside Tommy. "Huh, Puppet Girl? Are you as excited as your husband?"

With the help of the small stream of light, Tommy could make out his creator's figure leaning up to press a lingering kiss to Julie's cheek. A flame of jealousy ignited in his chest before he remembered that his creator truly cared about him, and would never take Julie from him.

Tommy examined Julie's eyes - they glittered in the tiny streak of light that illuminated the side of her face. His heart dropped to his stomach, because for a split second, her irradiated irises seemed almost as if they were a dead, milky-white colour instead of their usual golden.

Thankfully, the fogginess seemed to disintegrate, and her honey irises faded back to normal.

"I can tell that you guys are just nervous, but please do not be. The audience will love you because of how perfect you are," his creator lectured while tightening one of the ropes around Tommy's deformed wrist.

Tommy didn't understand. There were people that wanted to watch him? All he could remember was his creator calling him ugly while relentlessly slamming a belt into his back, but now he was perfect?

"Be lucky that you are getting to live out this dream. Most beautiful people do not get to perform as puppets, which is why they are so bitter and rude," Tommy noticed his creator's tone getting slightly louder, vexation laced through his words, "and it is why they feel so entitled. It is my job to save those beautiful people from becoming ruined, and to allow them to do what they were born to."

Tommy believed those words were true. Julie could have been one of those people, one of those girls that would only look in his direction to flip their hair and laugh in disgust.

Because of his creator, she instead fell in love with him.

"You're in my control," he heard his creator whisper, a bout of laughter soon following. "You're both in my control."

His creator continued to repeat that under his breath as he walked out onto the stage, leaving his puppets alone backstage.

Tommy's eyes fluttered shut, his exhaustion overpowering his consciousness. With the echo of his blood dripping onto the floor paired with his shaking breath, he could feel himself slipping more and more from reality.

He jumped when he heard a sudden, loud roar of clapping, hollering and laughter coming from beyond the curtain. He began to tremble, wondering what the deafening applause was for.

The curtain was pulled from each side, opening to expose both Tommy and Julie to the cluster of people that sat before them.

The light blared in Tommy's eyes. He blinked rapidly, trying to adjust to the intense brightness as he analyzed the audience. The faces were darkened, shadowed in contrast to the glare, but he could still see each detail clearly. He recognized each and every one of them.

His heart began to pound in his throat when he noticed Kevin sitting there, right in front of the stage. The freckles, the dark colour of his eyes, the fiery ginger hair, the meaty shoulders and arms - it all seemed so familiar to him.

Kevin still looked exactly the same, seeming to have not grown at all, which was strange to Tommy. He was the exact same eight year old child he was when he was captured. Except, instead of the bitter frown that usually occupied the boy's thin lips, there was a grin there instead - a genuine smile as he stared up at Tommy with amazement.

Tommy's breath was gone the second he spotted his mother. Her hair was voluminous and long, just like when he was younger. Her eyes were sparkling with proud tears as she clapped, her gaze never seeming to leave her son. She gave him a thumbs up, the same one that she gave him when he was riding away on the Kindergarten bus the first day of school.

Tommy smiled.

"Thank you, thank you," his creator shouted from beside him, silencing the audience.

There was a long pause as the claps died down, and the audience focused on his creator as he stood in front of his two creations.

"This is the story about a man and a woman, named Arthur and Linda-"

For some reason, the name Linda sounded quite familiar to Tommy, and it gave him a searing pang of sadness in his heart. But he brushed it off, as he was too elated to focus on the subject.

"-They are in love, oh, they're so happy and everything is perfect. They even have a son, but we won't get into that-"

The audience laughed.

"-And everything is perfect for the two of them, nothing could go wrong," his creator continued, clapping his hands together. "... Until one day, Arthur seems to walk in on something."

He started to laugh, shaking his head.

"Basically, he walks in on Linda acting like a fucking whore!"

Tommy jumped once his creator screamed. The audience seemed just as stunned, watching with him as his creator then began to thread his fingers through his thinning grey hair. Each scream was painful, stemming from the depths of his throat and coming out in raspy cries for help, as he then started to scratch painfully at his arms.

"And his son is gone!" he cries out, still dragging his nails up and down his arms. "His son is gone, and everything is ruined! Everything is gone!"

He stopped, slowly dropping his hands to his side as he stared blankly ahead.

"But not his puppets. His puppets stayed with him forever - they never left," his words were barely audible.

Tommy didn't know why he was so silent, until he heard somebody pound against the doors that were all the way across the auditorium. The people rudely interrupting the show shouted something, something incoherent, and Tommy wondered if they were more people just coming to watch.

His creator smiled, looking over at Tommy and Julie as the pounding only continued. There was more pounding, more shouting, and Tommy couldn't handle his confusion. He looked at Julie to see if she knew, but she barely reacted, staring blankly ahead with her head hanging low.

He knew she must have been tired, but he was surprised all of the disturbance wasn't waking her up.

He felt a few tears roll down his cheeks. He didn't want anything to ruin the show, he was so excited to perform!

But the yelling and the fearful gasps from the audience only grew louder.

"Welcome to my puppet show!" was all his creator said, just before the doors broke down and figures began to rush towards the stage.

_

A.N

if you are confused, there will be an explanation. don't worry :)

thank you guys for waiting so patiently. so much love and appreciation for you guys getting Puppet Boy and The Man to where they are. It means so much! So thank you again!