Cast (#wattys2016)

Chapter Thirteen

What have you done?!" Doctor Periwinkle yells.
"I was trying to save you!" Calvin explains.
"You didn't have to be so drastic so soon." The Doctor is crying now. I don't think either of them realize what's actually happened.
"Um, guys?" I put in. They look over to me, confused and angry.
"What?" Calvin questions.
"Look." I point next to Doctor Periwinkle where the Puppet Master is still standing, definitely not dead.
"Oh what an inconvenient time to learn this, isn't it?"
"Y-you're alive?" I feel so bad for Calvin, he must be on such an emotional roller coaster right now. 
"You're alive?" Doc too, he's been through way too much in the past week.
"What kind of weird magic are you using?" I ask. But the Puppet Master just laughs, like the madman he is. Then the guards that Calvin had killed... Stood up. You could hear the gasp come from just about everyone in the room. Calvin looks like he's going to pass out, and rightfully so.
"Oh come now, did you really believe that you're death? Did you really all believe he's death? I've just been playing to your sick fantasy since the very beginning."
"B-but Louise, and Piper." Calvin is a complete wreak and I'm quickly falling apart myself.
"I poisoned Louise so she'd die just at the right time and Piper was dying anyways."
"N-N-No." Calvin's words are barely a whisper.
"So you know what that means?"
"No! No! No, it's not true."
"It means you're crazy."
"NO!"
"Now it's time to finish what I started." We didn't even get time to react, we didn't even get time to breathe before the Puppet Master plunged the needle into the dolls heart, and by extension, into his brother's heart; the highest betrayal.

But as much as he entertained Calvin's 'sick fantasies', someone obviously entertained his as well because the Doctor looked just as healthy as ever. "What the?"
"You know what this means?" I taunt.
"H-How did this happen?"
"It means we win, I don't call people crazy."
"It's my game! I can't loose my own game! You don't know, but I've been testing you this whole time! We're playing my game and I'm testing you, you saw this board didn't you? Didn't you?" He points to the little board with all the coloured pieces on it and I nod cautiously. "Well it's how I plan my tests, I'm trying to push you to your breaking points and see how long it takes you to go completely insane. It's fun, really. I quite enjoy it. The thing is, you can't quit this game until I win."
"You've been trying to break us?" I question.
"That's the idea."
"So you started the blue stampede, right?" I conclude.
"I did, I go to great lengths to play with my puppets."
"But now your done, we've got you cornered."
"Hahaha, I have other tricks than just voodoo." From his desk drawer he pulls out a shiny, never before used, knife. "Now let's play hide and seek."
"Everybody scatter!" Calvin commands and we all dash out of the room.

"We have to find an exit." I instruct.
"So we split up." Zara suggests.
"We stay together." I state firmly. We weave through the halls, into ones I've never even seen before. There are doors labelled 'Janitors Closet' and 'Storage Room', but I know they probably hide much darker secrets.
"What's that?" Daisy is pointing to a shadowy hallway guarded by a 'Do Not Enter' sign.
"That's probably where the exit is." Beckley says.
"Well, rules are made to be broken." Zara remarks with a devilish smile on her face.
"Don't even think of going into that shadowy area!" The Puppets Master voice is coming from the PA system. "Ready or not, here I come."
"Everybody to the exit!" I yell.

Down the rabbit hole as the mysterious hallway leads us into a real life nightmare; Puppets are hanging from the ceiling and nestled against the wall, clowns and girls in dresses and animals, all of them seem tortured and creepy. "Puppets, why does he have to be obsessed with puppets?" Rain is hugging herself and keeping her head down, so I grab her hand comfortingly.

Soon we're greeted by the relieving sight of a set of double doors, the way out. I push and shove at the door but it-  unsurprisingly- won't budge. "Here, let me handle this." Zara steps in front of me and takes a running start the door, ramming into it with an unsatisfying 'thunk'.
"What are we supposed to do now?" Rain asks, shivering from the nerves.
"I can answer that." The voice nearly makes me cringe.
"And what are you doing here?" The person in front of me is Emily "Back to sell us out to the Puppet Master again, I assume."
"Actually I'm here to help, for you see I've been a triple agent this whole time." She stands as proudly as her 4 foot body will allow.
"But what if you're a quadruple agent?" Finn challenges.
"Wait, quadruple agent? How would that work?" Daisy inquires.
"It means that we thought she was on our side but she was really on the Puppet Master's side, until she revealed that she's actually been on our side the whole time but she's actually lying because she's still on the Puppet Master's side, that's a quadruple agent." Reid explains.
"But that's not what she's saying she is, she's saying she's a triple agent." Beckley reminds Reid.
"Well a triple agent-" Reid is cut off by Beckley.
"I know what a triple agent is!"
"So do I, but I was the one who asked what a quadruple agent is." Daisy clarifies.
"But why were you even asking about quadruple agents if she's a triple agent?" Beckley questions.
"Because Finn was talking about her being a quadruple agent."
"But she's not."
"I know that!" Daisy cries. Finn starts to put in his two cents,
"But I was accusing Emily of being one because-"
"Enough! I'm sick of this triple-quadruple agent ridiculousness; I'm on your side, ok? Look, I have the key to the door." The shiny piece of silver shuts everyone right up.
"Too bad you won't get the chance to use it." Gosh dang it, we had spent so much time arguing about what kind of agent Emily is that the Puppet Master had time to catch up with us. "Not if I have anything to say about it."
"See, she was a quadruple agent." Finn says with a satisfied tone. Out of the shadows the Puppet Master appears, Doctor Periwinkle next to him. He betrayed us. The Doctor betrayed us. Out of all the people here it had to be him. I think. But Doc doesn't stand next to his brother with a matching evil grin on his face, no, the Puppet Master has the knife to his throat!
"Are you insane?! That's your brother!" I tell him, as if he needed reminding.
"Why yes it is. Huh... The sacrifices I'm willing to make for my little slice of heaven. For my Sanctuary." Ok, he's officially lost it. I can tell just by the look on his face, the glazed eyes, the quivering smile, the torture of his only brother, it all comes together to create one sick mess of a man. Zara pounces at him but he steps back, becoming more tense from the sudden attack. "Don't touch me or I will kill him!" My breathing has become unintentionally laboured and my heart has turned into some kind of jitterbug. "Let's look at what we have here for a moment, shall we? Zara here is chasing after the same dreamland as that Mr. Ralph fellow, Daisy is gifted but has used that as an excuse for her social anxiety, Maria is verbally challenged and overly attached to her sister, Clementine has anger issues, Rain is also gifted but has irrational ways to coping with fear, Henry is being brought down by his sister, Reid is using knowledge to fill the void of loneliness, Finn is uniquely traumatized, Beckley is a mutated freak that doesn't realize he's a miracle or science and you Paige, you don't even realize that your crazy and that's the saddest part of this all."
"No, the saddest part is that you don't recognize the irony in what you just said to me." I remark.
"I'm not crazy, you said it yourself, 'I don't call people crazy'." His impression of me is horrible. Through all the talking, Doctor Periwinkle has managed to pull something out of his pocket, it looks like a... Oh no. He's ready to go, and it seems like Emily is to, but I'm sure not.
"Everyone..." Emily says, slowly stepping towards the door. "Let's bolt." With that, Doctor Periwinkle drops the match he was holding, setting the floor beneath both him and the Puppet Master on fire.
"NO!" I scream as Emily pulls me farther and farther away from the sight in front of me.
"T-thank you... for being you." I will never know how Doc managed to say those last few words to me, but I do know that I'll never forget them.

As I'm forced out of the building by Emily's surprisingly strong grip, I realize that I've technically gotten both things I asked for, the place won't stay standing and I was the last one to leave. Yeah, I got those things that I was so stubborn about; but at what cost?