Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-25280829-20140808171905

The Haunted Marionette.

My daughter Janie, had always wanted a puppet. She had always loved the way they could be controlled to your desires. Her birthday was coming up, and I planned on getting her a Marionette, but I could never find one. However, just as I had given up hope, I spotted exactly what I was searching for, hanging from the ceiling in a second-hand store. I took her down gently and examined her. She had very intricate wooden carvings, and moveable joints. Her condition was very new, yet it had a very antique-like feeling to it. She was dressed in mostly purple. A white and puprle striped jumper, a very deep purple skirt, and pale purple boots. Her eyes had so much detail, and just looking at the carving, hypnotized me slightly. They were a piercing green, which stood out through her pitch black hair. I knew Janie would love her, so I bought her. The shopkeeper gave me a skeptical look as I set her down, but slowly told me the price, to which I happily paid, and went on my way.

-

Janie's birthday was only in one day. She would be turning four, she had indeed grown up so fast. I placed her presents in the corner of the living room, and smiled. I saw the Marionette sat on the couch. I didn't remember leaving it there, but I brushed any suspiscion away, and placed it atop the present pile.

When I went to sleep that night, I felt something I hadn't in a while. I had a nightmare, and it caused me to wake up. I checked the time, it was only 1:00 am. I sighed, and leaned on elbows, my head in my hands, trying to recover from the nightmare I had just experienced. I lay down, and tried to get back to sleep, when I hear footsteps. I call out, wondering if it was Janie, but instead, a raspy and scratchy voice replied.

I'm not Janie...,

I shot up and with my eyes wide, scanned the darkness, and in the corner of my room, I saw a pair of piercing green eyes, staring right at mine. My breath got caught in my throat, and no matter how much I had tried to move and get away, fear had frozen me. My blood seemed to slow down it's circulation through my body, as I became faint and fell back, and slipped into an unconsious state.

-

The next day, I was woken by Janie jumping on the end of my bed, exclaiming that it was her birthday, and I replied with a smile, and told her to go downstairs. When she had left, I looked into the same corner as I saw the eyes, but saw nothing. I simply brushed it off again, as two nightmares in one.

I smiled, happy with the results of happiness which I got when Janie had opened all her presents. She loved the Marionette the most, and declared that she would call her 'Nettie', short for Marionette. She had taken all her new stuff upstairs, and was playing happily while I cleaned up downstairs. That day went well, as Janie was happy and so was I. The following week however, I started to realize something was wrong... Very wrong.

-

Exactly one week later, Janie was back in school, so I was doing my usual household chores, like the dusting and dishes etc. I had moved from downstairs up into Janie's room. Her toys and dolls were scattered everywhere, making me sigh, but regardless, I cleaned her mess up. I was just picking up the final doll, when I heard a scratchy voice whispering a sentence over and over.

Your end is near Celia, Your end is near... And it wouldn't stop. I tried to ignore it, but after close listening, it began to get louder and louder until it was screaming the sentence, the voice ringing through my head. I fell to my knees, grasping my head before I screamed for it to stop, and it finally did. I slowly stood up, leaning against the doorframe, using it to lean against. I let out a long breath which I was unaware I had been holding in. I turned to leave, but nearly tripped, so I looked down to find what had caused me to nearly fall, and Nettie was laying at my feet, her once sweet smile seemed more like a sadistic grin to me now. I groaned, picked her up and placed her on Janie's bed, before going back downstairs, and beginning to prepare Janie's dinner.

Once Janie had played with her toys and told me all about her day, she went to bed. It was three hours early for her, and from what she told be about her day, it didn't seem exhausting, yet she had to be carried to her room. This concerned me, but I supposed she was just tired from lack of sleep.

-

Two months went by, and everything was fine. Janie had succeeded so much in class, and gotten several little slips of paper telling me how well she had done. This made my life brighter. But the sunny side of life didn't last much longer.

I had just finished my lunch, and decided to go upstairs and relax, maybe read a book. But when I finally reached my bedroom, I spotted Nettie in the center of my room, laying on the floor. I gasped, and jumped a little, not expecting the Marionette to be there, but just decided that Janie must have left her there, so I returned her to Janie's room, but to be sure, I closed both my bedroom door, and hers.

It was around five minutes later, that my heart rate increased, and my blood ran cold. I heard a door open, and as I stared at my door, I saw it slowly creak open, and a small Marionette dragged herself in. I jumped onto my bed and grasped the baseball bat I used as decoration. I noticed something else being dragged along with her...A butcher's knife. One from my kitchen. I didn't know what was happening, but my lack of concentration earned me a worrying amount of blood loss, as just seconds later, I was on the floor with a knife pinning my arm to the ground. I screamed, and tried to pull it out, but to no avail. It seemed to be completely stuck, so instead, with my free hand, I grabbed the bat again. I smacked the Marionette with it, and threw the body into the hallway, hoping it would buy me time, so I tried again to pull the knife out.

This time, it slid out, making my arm burn in extreme pain, and causing me to scream again, tears of agony escaping my eyes. I dropped the knife, and crawled into the hallway, my eyes flicking around to see if that thing was there. It wasn't, and that is what scared me more. I stood up, holding my arm to my body, as I searched around for it, but saw no trace of it. I slowly crept into Janie's room, and saw it sitting limply in it's usual spot. I started to hyperventilate, when a sudden series of static frequencies rang out through my head, and eventually, it turned to white noise as I fell to the floor, unconscious.

-

My eyes fluttered open, and I looked around to find myself sat in my kitchen, with my arm bandaged up, and Janie sat, with a worried expression, as she nodded and I heard my front door open, footsteps walk out, and close again. I coughed and stood up, only to fall on the floor again. Janie helped me up the stairs and to my bed. She sat with me and we fell asleep together.

-

I woke up in a cold sweat, my heart pounding and my bed empty. I frowned, and felt around, and realized Janie wasn't there. I sighed. She must have gone back to bed. I had gone through enough with these nightmares. They had me on edge constantly. It was still rather early, only 2:00am, so I lay down and attempted to get back to sleep, when heard my bedroom door creak open.

Janie?...

Instead of a reply, an eerie giggle rang through the room, so I jumped out of bed and grabbed the bat. I saw to green eyes, on the other side of my room, follow my movements, and I flicked on the light, and to my suspiscions, the Marionette was stood there, knife in hand, and her sadistic smile taking up most of her face. I screamed, ran at her and smashed the bat down over her head. She screamed in reply and stabbed my other arm, causing me to hit her so hard that she flew across the floor, and dropped the knife. I then also picked up the knife.

The Marionette advanced on me, somehow with another knife, but I plunged the knife through her body, making the animate object screech out in pain. I then smashed it's head in with the baseball bat, before beheading it, which surprisingly took a lot of time. But as I repeatedly stabbed the Marionette, blood began to stain the floor, catching my attention. I blinked and released my grip on the knife, and as I slowly back away, the blur of angry tears in my eyes disappeared. It wasn't the doll which I had maimed. Janie's lifeless corpse laid, bleeding and becoming pale, and her head was in the corner.

The haunted Marionette stood at the other side of the room, grinning, as she advanced on my defensless body. I tried to crawl out of the door, but the sensation of my skin ripping down my back disabled my movements. I flipped onto my back, causing more pain to run through my body, but I couldn't scream, so as the Marionette sliced my throat open and ended me, all I could do was cry silently. But as I drifted away, I heard two words bounce around in my head, in the same voice that had been haunting me.

Sweet Dreams... 