The Adventures Of Red Dragonfly [Volume One]

Issue 6 - Pull My Strings

FOUR MONTHS AGO - BEFORE THE ATOMIC BOMB ACCIDENT

Phineas Wright owned his antique store in Downtown Scarlet City. He had a real niche hobby for puppetry. More accurately, marionettes. Phineas had been alone for most of his life. He was 67 years old. He never had a wife, a son or a daughter. In a way, his wooden puppets were kinda like a family to him.

But sadly, his house and business was in jeopardy. He had to go to the bank to ask for a extension on a loan for his property. He walked into the bank, sitting his hat on his lap as he sat in front of the mortgage lender. He glanced at the woman's name on her name plaque on her desk. Her name was Jennifer Prescott and that made Phineas smile.

"So Mr. Wright..." Jennifer began. "...I heard that you were behind on mortgage payments."

"I've tried my best but I haven't had a single customer in months." Phineas replied nervously. "Just give me more time. I'll pay the bills as soon as possible."

"I'm sorry, Mr Wright but your home and your place of business will be repossessed by next week." Jennifer said. "No, no, no! You don't understand! This is all I have! W-where am I supposed to go?" Phineas said, breaking down in tears as he got on his knees in front of Jennifer. "Please, four more weeks! I promise I'll pay! I'll sell my soul if I have to!"

"Sir, p-please calm down..." Jennifer said, trying to deescalate the situation. "Don't kick me out on the street! I'm an old man, for God's sake!" Phineas crawled towards her as he tugged at her dress, tears pouring down his face as he hugged onto her waist.

"Security! Anybody!" Jennifer yelled for help, trying to push him off of her. The security guards rushed over quickly to pull Phineas off. Bystanders were watching this in concern. None of them tried to intervene. Some of them were recording this to put up on social media.

Phineas pulled away from the security guards grip and panted softly, looking at how everyone stared at him. He was feared. He looked like a crazy old man out of context. He walked out of the door slowly, giving up all hope. Jennifer stared at him with shock and confused about what just happened.

Later that afternoon, Phineas sat on his porch watching the sun go down. He knew that his whole life was gonna be taken away from him in a couple of days. He wouldn't be able to survive. But then, something impossible happened.

A massive explosion happened in the distance. There was strange wave in the air, almost radioactive. Phineas was knocked off the porch by the amount of force from the far away explosion. The elderly man stood up slowly, feeling strange as he checked his body. No bruises, no injuries. But his fingertips felt even more strange. He pulled a small white piece of string out of his fingertip. It looked almost like one of his marionette strings.

"What....happened to me?" Phineas looked up the sky, wondering what curse or blessing he was bestowed with.

Just then, the strings attached themselves to a random stray cat on his porch and Phineas had full control over it. Then, he thought of a crazy idea. A crazy idea that just might work.

PRESENT DAY

Jennifer was walking down the parking garage to her car. It was really creepy around 9:00. Her footsteps echoed down the garage as she finally got to her car, reaching into her purse for her keys.

Just then, she heard the echoing footsteps coming from the other side of the garage. She looked around in confusion. All the bank employees left earlier that night. "Hello?" Jennifer looked in different directions from where she at. The footsteps only got louder as Jennifer fumbled with her keys.