Marionette

Chapter One

"...come on Cody. Help me clear out all this junk..."

"...Okay!"

Voices echoed around the small cramped attic and dust cracked off boxes as young hands sifted through the junk. Sitting quietly at the back of the attic, a marionette, his strings cut and lying around him, rested against the wall. His skin looked as though it was made of human skin, it had been painted so cleverly, but the joints at his knees, elbows neck and shoulder gave him away. Life size too, he had been the favourite toy of the children who played with him in the years past, but as they grew older they wanted to play with their technology and computer games more and more, so he got put away, up in the attic.

The size of a small ten year old boy, his dark skin still held a lifelike glow, and his glossy curls of hair fell about his cheerful face, it's brown painted eyes seemed to peer out from the dark with a life of their own. He wore only a simple shirt, pale brown as a tea stain and laced at the front, the style of clothing that was worn when he had first been created almost a hundred years ago. The children had played with him carefully, looking after him as the kings of old looked after their treasure. His strings had once been connected to a stand, a frame that made him dance and play with the children. But the frame had broken, and his strings had been cut, leaving him abandoned in the attic.

The junk in the attic slowly cleared, box by dusty box, until the marionette was revealed for all to see. The film of dust covering him was lovingly wiped off and fond memories of childhoods past had been traded, before they had left him alone again. It was his home, they decided, and that was where he should stay, until a child came and wanted the toy to dance once more. So the light was turned off and the door closed, leaving the attic in darkness again.

But back in the gloom, a wooden finger twitched. Those final words of kindness, those childhood memories they had exchanged, reached the ebony heart that had been put in his breast. And as a steady beat echoed from within, they embraced and it and whispered;

Time for the game to begin again...