Strings

Chapter VII: Souls

-Warning: There is some language in this. But not much.-

To the sound of his footsteps, Latis and Diaval both stood up. Smiles were pasted on their faces.

“He’s back.” Diaval spoke up.

Latis jumped in joy. “Yay!” he was laughing almost uncontrollably. To this, Diaval gave a slight smile.

The door opened slowly and Ruvel entered the room. Once he closed the door behind him, his puppets hugged him almost immediately. The reaper smiled. “Heh… I’m home…”

“We’re so glad you’re back master..” Latis spoke up first.

Diaval gave a nod. “We missed you so much..”

Ruvel gave the boys a partial hug in return. “I missed you guys too…” He said. “You did as I said, right?” Both of the puppets nodded. Ruvel’s smile got a little wider. “Good boys..” Ruvel turned around to hug them back fully. It felt so good to be back in his room with his puppets. The void that was inside of him was replaced with the warmth given by the embrace.

A little while after the hug, Ruvel sat down with his puppets and began to read to them. Latis and Diaval both tried to follow along while asking what some words meant every now and then. As Ruvel read to them, he began to analyze them once again.

Diaval was struggling a lot on sentence structure but his senses did get stronger. Sadly, Diaval became less talkative than he was yesterday. Ruvel had to admit that Diaval was acting more like him.

And every now and then, Diaval would be found upside down on the roof and he himself wouldn't even know why it happens. Ruvel kept that noted in his head and kept a close eye on him.

Latis, however, was just the opposite. Not only was he improving on vocabulary but he was asking more and more questions. It wasn't that bad since Latis was pretty young and his questions were good questions. What was bad was that he sometimes won't stop talking. And when that happen, it annoys the heck out of Diaval and Ruvel.

There times where… It was as if Latis was a hollow log. To Ruvel, it was kind of creepy. His eyes and frown would dull and empty, his body would be motionless like a doll, and he would sit on the bed like this for what felt like hours.

Keeping this in mind, Ruvel decided to spend the night on trying to improve the two puppets. He sat down on his desk to write down notes like getting a dictionary, getting some books for the two so they can learn how to read and study his puppets and their souls to hopefully find ways on improving their behaviour.

Ruvel was turning the pages in his book when he felt a tap on his shoulders. Ruvel turned to see it was Latis.

“Yes Latis?” the reaper said as he placed a bookmark in between the two pages he was on.

The smaller puppet was playing with his fingers. “Master, may we discuss something that happened to Diaval and I earlier?” Latis asked.

“Of course...” Ruvel closed the book. “I’m listenin Latis.”

Latis got down on his knees next to the chair Ruvel was sitting on and began his story. “Well.. Diaval and I were hiding as you instructed.. That’s when a man...  Reiner I think approached our door. Diaval and I then felt weird. It was like something was telling us to.. open the door. We weren't ourselves..” Latis stares towards his master as if he was a child. “Why master…? Why did that happen?”

Ruvel couldn't find an answer to Latis’s question. His eyebrows furrowed slightly. Something might be wrong with them… “I don’t know Latis but.. I’m looking into it.” the reaper said, reassuring his puppet with a smile. “You just go to sleep alright?”