Chained Puppet

Behind a Mask

Anti gasped loudly and shot up from his bed, "GET AWAY FROM ME!!"

He shook and stared into the dark room. But it was just as bare as when he closed his eyes to fall asleep. No one was there.

He rubbed his head and groaned, 'Another fooking nightmare. What's it mean, though?'

All he remembered from the dream now was people shouting and begging him to stop. He remembered seeing blood and heard someone laughing. He didn't want to believe that it was his laugh. Then there was that man in the cloak again. So ominous and frightening. He must know him somehow but he couldn't remember what his face looked like. Whenever he saw him in a dream, he was blurry and in the dark.

He tried not to think about it too much, his head starting to ache again. Anti's throat was parched so he decided to jump off the bed and make his way down to the kitchen. Stepping lightly, he got down the stairs but was surprised to see that the light was on already in the kitchen.

'Did someone forget to shut it off?'

He ventured in to see Marvin sitting at the table munching on some nachos.

"You're up late" 

Marvin snorted, "Yeah well so are you, brat." he didn't have his mask on so Anti had a clear view of his face and light scars. Ones he was told HE put there. He tried not to think about it.

"I was thirsty" Anti shrugged and got himself a glass of water before going over to sit next to the magician, "Plus I had a nightmare . . . . "

Marvin raised a brow, "Oh? Another one? What was it about? If you want to tell me"

Anti took a sip of his water, "I don't know. . . . past things I'm assuming. Scary."

"The past can be scary" he commented strangely.

Anti didn't know exactly what he meant by that but could see by Marvin's stature that he was in the dumps, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. Why do you ask?"

"You seem so . . . . sad"

Marvin blinked and smiled, "The masks I wear hide a lot of things. You're just seeing the real me . . .  A failure"

"You're not a failure!" Anti couldn't believe what he was hearing, "You're an awesome magician! You did all those cool tricks the other day!"

"I DID. Can't anymore for some reason. . . ."

"Hm" Anti furrowed his brow, "Maybe you're not trying hard enough . . . or doing it for the wrong reason?"

"What are you, a monk now? Oh wise one" Marvin joked and shook his head, "You don't understand, Anti. No one does. You all see tricks and manipulations but I. . . ." he stopped himself.

"But what?"

"Never mind. You should go back to bed, brat"

Anti pouted a little but Marvin's look was serious. Not wanting to annoy him, Anti gave in, "Alright, fine. I'll see ya in the morning. Don't stay up too late" he pat his shoulder gently and went back to bed.

Marvin watched him go, feeling slightly uplifted. 

'This Anti is so fucking different. It's hard to believe he's the same man who . . .' he sighed, shaking his head, 'I really should go to bed, too. Snacking the pain away isn't going to fix my problems'

After finishing his nachos (of course those weren't going to go to waste), Marvin left the kitchen and went up to his room.

He flopped on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. His old wand was on the other side of the bed and on instinct, he took it in his hands to mess with it. He had always like to just hold it. It always comforted him.