Puppet

by Ed Kightlinger

  Chloe has arrived at the back door of the shop. Her eyes open wide in panic. The puppet mob has entered the alleyway, and the vibrating strands of twine are propelling them even faster. The puppets will be upon her within seconds! She waves her hands high in the air and screams at the dreamlike mob.

  “Leave me alone. I haven’t done a thing to you. I like puppets! I have a few of them myself, collectible ones!”

  She frantically twists the doorknob. Mercifully, it opens! She scurries into the anteroom and slams the door shut. Then sheer panic sets in yet again.

  Oh, my God, I cannot lock the blasted door behind me! It takes a key to secure it from the inside, and I bet Claudia has the key with her!

  But not to worry – or so she thinks. The puppets are too short. They cannot reach the handle. The second she feels a bit safer, alarm bells go off in her head yet again.

  What is that? What in the world is that scraping noise outside the door? Oh, no, they cannot be doing that, can they? These hideous monster puppets may be able to chase and taunt me as they hang from strands of twine, but they are not smart or strong enough to do that! Then again, are they?

  She rises on the tips of her toes to look through the door’s tiny glass window. It is hard enough to see through the window with the thin strands of wire running through it. Add a couple of layers of decades-old filth to the window, and then seeing what is going on outside is nearly impossible. She wipes away the window’s greasy dirt with the sleeve of her pajama top. When she looks through the window into the alleyway, she shrieks. The puppets have turned an empty wooden Pepsi case onto its side. They are dragging it to the door!

  I do not need to worry! Even if they stand the case on end, they still cannot reach the doorknob. Besides, there is no way their tiny hands can turn the doorknob. It is so rusty I could barely turn it myself!

  While she stares speechlessly through the window, she frowns with amazement with the puppets’ ability to rise above seemingly impossible challenges.

  They may be small and suspended by strands of twine, but I have to admit they are industrious!

  The tallest and creepiest of the puppets suddenly clambers onto the top of the soda pop case. Another puppet pulls itself hand over hand along the towering puppet’s clothes. It stands on the towering puppet’s shoulder. It places its hands on the door jamb to maintain its balance.

  Slowly, but calculatingly, four smaller puppets haul themselves up the backs of the first two puppets. They stop when their tiny hands are two or three inches below the doorknob. Along with an abrupt, coordinated lurch, they reach up to grab the doorknob with their eight small hands. The doorknob slowly twists from left to right. A second later it turns back and forth as the puppets swing their bodies from side to side.

  In a complete panic, Chloe grabs her part of the doorknob in reply. No matter how hard she tries, she is unable to counter the puppets’ strong twists of the doorknob. They slowly turn the doorknob counterclockwise until it is free of the door latch. At that moment, the other puppets in the alleyway begin pushing against the bottom of the door.

  She yells, “Please, somebody lend me a hand! These puppets have superhuman strength. I cannot hold them back much longer!”

  When the door slowly begins to open, she turns around and scrambles up the rickety stairs to the main store.

  “Claudia, Claudia, are you here?” There is no reply. “Mister Cheaply, are you in the shop? The back door was unlocked, so I know someone is in here.”

  She slowly walks through the canned goods aisle whispering, “Claudia, Mister Cheaply – anybody!” She listens intently for any sign of life in the store. The store is eerily quiet except for the hum of coolers, refrigerators, and the clackity-clack of the old frozen meat cabinet. The meat cabinet is where Mister Cheaply stores neatly wrapped squares of horsemeat cleverly disguised as cuts of choice ground beef.

  “Help me, please. Something crazy is going on outside. I know all of this must sound silly, but there are puppets instead of people. For whatever reason, the puppets are chasing me! They are in the cellar right now! All the houses, stores, and cars – they are all gone! Claudia, Mister Cheaply? Hello?”

  Just then Chloe hears something at the front of the store. The sound comes from behind the see-through glass counter where Mister Cheaply displays row upon row of chocolate bars like Snickers, Milky Way, and Three Musketeers, and plastic containers of penny candy. The sound she hears is crumpling of paper that is used to wrap cold cuts. She stops dead in her tracks and calls out. Her voice is shrill and unsure.

  “Hello? Is anybody here? I’m Chloe Alexandria Brown. I live down the street with my brother, Jim, who, as you probably know, works here. Something dreadful is happening outside, and I need your help. Hello?”

  It is then that she hears it – a high-pitched voice, a tiny voice. It is the most intimidating voice she has ever heard. Goose bumps hurry up her spine, the backs of her legs, and across her arms causing her to tremble. The hairs on the nape of her neck stand straight up.

  The high-pitched, tiny voice whispers, “Hello, Chloe Alexandria Brown. I have come for you. All my friends have likewise come for you. It is time, Chloe. It is time. I know that you like adventures. I know you enjoy scary movies, books, and stories. As I said, it is time. It is time for you to be so terrified that you soon will wish you were never born!”

  Chloe turns to run, to escape the madness that promises to devour her sanity just as it swallowed her neighborhood, her family, and her friends. Before she can take a single step, she shrieks. A horde of puppets, many more puppets than were following her outside, has blocked the aisle. There are life-sized puppets, little puppets, ugly puppets, and puppets missing arms, legs, heads, eyes, noses, you name it, and it is missing! She considers running full speed ahead at the horde of puppety monsters.

  As an enthusiastic roller skater and volleyball player, Chloe has strong legs. She could effortlessly kick the puppets aside, hurling their disfigured bodies into the shelves containing large bottles and cans of vegetables, juices, and baked beans. Chloe quickly considers, with a little bit of luck, she could crush some of the puppets. She ponders that she could jump over them as well.

  That could work! Then again, given how unbelievably dreadful today has been up until now, I would undoubtedly get stuck in the countless strands of twine dangling from the ceiling! Despite that, I have to try!

  She prepares herself mentally to rush the puppets. She plans to try to escape on the count of three.

  One. Two. Thr—

  Chloe stops counting. Her heart sinks when she notices the fluffy tail of her handsome Himalayan cat, Charlie. Charlie slowly emerges from behind the horde of puppets. She flashes a brief smile despite her predicament.

  Charlie looks directly at her, but his passive, capricious look seems more fickle than usual.

  She calls to him, “Charlie? Charlie? Here kitty, kitty, kitty. Come to Chloe.”

  Charlie does not go to her. He meows one time, and then he turns around and disappears behind the horde of jeering puppets.

  “No, no, Charlie, no!” Chloe cries. “Come back, Charlie. I am going to get us out of this mess. I promise you!”

  Chloe is determined to protect Charlie no matter how risky it will be for her. She grabs two cans of spaghetti and meatballs from the shelf. She quickly looks at the labels, and then she frowns. Spaghetti and meatballs are her favorite food. She tosses the cans aside, and then she grabs two cans of spam from the shelf. She detests spam.

  Doesn’t everyone?

  Just as she is about to hurl the cans at the puppets, the dreaded, high-pitched, tiny voice calls out to her yet again from the front of the store.

  “Chloe, I said I have come for you. It is time. Yes, Chloe, it is time.”

  Suddenly, the tallest and creepiest of the puppets, sporting a grotesque scar across his cheek, roughly grabs her hand. He is missing his right eye. There is a hollow black hole where his eye used to be. He is wearing a brown cowboy hat.
It reminds Chloe of the hat that Woody wore in Pixar’s movie, Toy Story. Except, the puppet’s attire does not go with the cowboy hat.

  The weird-looking puppet’s trousers are pinstriped black and white like those worn by convicts. Emblazoned on his torn shirt are a spaceship, stars, and planets. Chloe recognizes one of the worlds. It is Saturn. There are words printed on the shirt. Chloe narrows her eyes to read the faded words.

  The words read, “To Infinity and Beyond!”

  The puppet begins to lead Chloe through the canned goods aisle to the shop’s back door. He looks up at Chloe and winks with his one eye.

  “Hello, Chloe. I am George, middle name Lincoln. But you can call me Space Cowboy. I come from China.”

  Chloe tries to pull away from Space Cowboy’s grip, but she cannot. Not only is Space Cowboy’s grasp of her hand surprisingly firm; she feels as if she is in a senseless stupor. Her body feels like wet mush. It is almost like she is unable to resist. Despite her helplessness, her mind is screaming over and over.

  I do not want to go with you creepy puppets!

  Space Cowboy, also known as George, middle name Lincoln, says something that makes her skin crawl even more.

  “You are going on an exciting adventure, Chloe. Our Supreme Spectral Puppet awaits you.”

  As if to add further drama to his ominous words, Space Cowboy’s head suddenly separates from his neck. Still dangling from its twine, the head summersaults three times in the air, and then it smashes onto the floor with a sickeningly brash thud. The head separates from its twine.

  Chloe is shocked as she watches Space Cowboy’s head as it begins to roll clumsily across the floor. The lips of the head form into a nasty sneer. They start to laugh madly. At the same time, the head’s eyelids are erratically opening and closing in rhythm to its lips’ boisterous laughter!

  The severed head moves to the side of Chloe as she walks hand in hand with the headless Space Cowboy. She is in a paralyzing stupor. She tries to scream, but nothing escapes her lips. All she can do is stare transfixed in horror at the sardonic puppet head and silently pray that her nightmare will end and that it will end soon!

  Headless Space Cowboy leads Chloe, together with his snickering head, down the rickety stairs, through the cellar, then out the back door into the rubbish-strewn alleyway. Within a minute, Chloe is standing on the pebble-strewn sidewalk in front of Cheaply’s Food Shop. Space Cowboy is still gripping her hand firmly. Since her back is to the shop, the store and adjacent buildings are only evident when she glances over her shoulder. Nothing in front of her is visible. She is thankful to be outside the shop and its spine-chilling, eerie atmosphere. She is especially glad to be far away from the unobserved puppet behind the counter, the one with the dreaded, high-pitched, tiny voice.

  It was the weirdest, most bone-chilling voice I have ever heard. To think I love horror movies! I even wanted my character likeness featured in a horror novel. How could I have been so foolish?

  As far as things disappearing when I face them, only to reappear as I walk backward or look over my shoulder, that is weird. It almost is like my entire neighborhood is in an indeterminate state or something equally strange. It is almost as if my community wants to be here, but it is not sure if it should stay or if it should go.

  Why am I here supposedly all alone except for these nasty puppets? Also, what is it with this blasted, hideous-looking, creepy, walking and talking puppet, Space Cowboy? Why is he bothering me? While I have no earthly idea, and I may never know, one thing is for sure. I’m getting the heck out of here as soon as I can, and I am not looking back!

  Space Cowboy suddenly lets go of her hand. He casually walks toward his detached head. It is lying in the dirt a few feet from the fire hydrant. Its spooky, wide-open eye is staring at Chloe penetratingly. The head’s purple, grossly engorged lips gradually begin to move. The movements are painfully sluggish and horrible to watch. It is like the lips are trying to figure out how to talk, but, of course, they already know how to speak even though the head has no body attached to it.

  Chloe stares in appalled bewilderment as Space Cowboy’s lips, eye, hairline, and jowls struggle as they undergo all sorts of emotional, painful-looking gyrations. Together, the four parts of the head contort, frown, pout, snigger, scowl, pucker, scrunch, wrinkle, you name it. Then the head slowly rocks back and forth on the ground from left to right, its one eye disappearing into its skull. Loud noises abruptly come from its hideous lips. The noises do not produce any talking sounds. Instead, they are throaty, dreadfully lethargic noises. As the repulsive, ghastly noises continue, Chloe is growing more annoyed.

  Darn it! I need to ask Space Cowboy some questions. However, I refuse to converse with a talking head without the rest of its body or talk to a body without its head!

  The head tries to clear its throat which causes Space Cowboy to step back a few feet. It is as if he knows what is about to happen. The head begins sputtering.

  “Ahem. Ahem. Cough-cough.”

  What comes next is a disgusting, premedieval, guttural noise.

  “Aaaggghhh!”

  The head lurches violently backward and cartwheels two times on the ground. It comes to rest upright against the fire hydrant. Its eye disappears into its skull once more, and then it slowly re-emerges cross-eyed.

  Without warning, the head’s purple, repugnant lips open wide and puke a slimy, four-inch glob of ghastly-looking, pinkish-gray sputum. The glob soars through the air and lands on top of Chloe’s right foot with a horrifyingly sordid “flop!”

  She vigorously shakes her foot to rid it of the revolting glob. Then she watches as the gluey globule strikes the fire hydrant. When it hits, it makes a nauseatingly sickening, slushy sound.

  “Swishhhh – thummpp!”

  The gluey glob begins to lengthen as gravity tugs at it. It starts to slide down the fire hydrant. The revolting, now super stretched out sticky dollop gradually disengages itself from the fire hydrant. A split-second before the globule falls to the ground, Space Cowboy’s head rolls to its left. The vile-looking head opens its mouth out wide to catch the gross, gooey glob between its waiting lips.

  The head’s throat swallows deeply, and then a shockingly long, serpent-like green tongue emerges from its mouth and licks its lips hungrily. The head begins to shudder cruelly. It closes its eye, and then it emits a foul-smelling, gaudy burp that smacks Chloe’s nostrils full speed ahead. The foul-smelling belch is immediately followed by a satisfied, long-winded sigh – naturally from Space Cowboy’s smiling head and not from Chloe!

  Chloe feels as if she is about to vomit. She frowns, swallows deeply, and then she trembles slightly to stifle the urge of upchucking last night’s delicious, homemade spaghetti and meatballs dinner. She places her hands on her hips, bends over, and breathes in the morning air deeply. The impulse to vomit now safely behind her, she shakes her head somberly. While she genuinely loathes Space Cowboy, she detests its one-eyed, severed head even more. She cannot wait for the headless torso and disgusting head to be reunited.

  Space Cowboy’s head cries, “Chloe, I thought you were going to upchuck for me. Shucks!” It grins a sickening smirk. “I still am hungry! Anyway, what I just ate was something else, deliciously good! You ought to try it sometime. I’ll tell you what, Chloe. Next time, I will save a huge chunk for you, okay?” Suddenly, the head furrows its brow as it scowls angrily.

  “I know what you were thinking, Chloe Alexandria Brown,” the head’s lips suddenly sputter. “Do not even think of it. If you try to run away, you will be sorry!”

  The headless torso of Space Cowboy bends over to pick up his head from the dirt. As he does, Chloe makes a mad dash toward what she hopes is Leroy Avenue’s two-lane thoroughfare. Before she runs less than ten feet, she stops dead in her tracks. She hurriedly turns around to look at Cheaply’s Food Shop. It is still there, evident as if it had never disappeared. Space Cowboy and his detached head are also visible. What is even better, everything else in her neighborh
ood has reappeared as well!

  She yells, “Yes, yes, yes! Everything is back to normal! Everything is visible once more!”

  So is the delivery truck that Chloe perceives out of the corner of her eye! The vehicle is swerving back and forth as it rapidly hurries toward her! To her disbelief, a creepy-looking puppet wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap is behind the steering wheel. The eyeless creature is smiling gleefully from his earless ear to his earless ear. What is worse, he is vigorously waving his hands high above his head. It is as if he wants Chloe to know that he is not steering the truck as it speeds toward her!

  Chloe tries to run, but her legs will not move but a few inches from left to right and back and forth. What is worse, her legs feel strangely springy. As she remains practically immobile in the middle of Leroy Avenue, she knows that she has but seconds to live. She screams at the top of her lungs.

  “Oh, my God! I’m a goner for sure! George! Space Cowboy! Help me, please!”

  Space Cowboy, with his head cradled in his arms, cannot reply. Nevertheless, his head can respond, and it does.

  “See, Chloe? I told you that you would be sorry. Yep, Chloe, it is time! Yippee!” The head suddenly wiggles free from Space Cowboy’s clutch. It falls to the ground and howls with raucous laughter just as its one eye pops out of its head and sails across the sidewalk onto the thoroughfare. The eye lands at Chloe’s feet and stares up at her.

  Chloe tries to move once more. Like before, she is unable to move her springy legs but a few inches here and there!

  Why is it I cannot move?

  She looks up. The racing truck continues to speed toward her. Now, it is weaving back and forth from lane to lane madly.

  Perhaps, if I lie flat on the asphalt, I might get low enough so the truck will not slam into me!

  She tries to crouch down. Once again, she cannot move her legs but a few inches. Something keeps jolting her upright. As she looks at her bare feet, and then at her hands, a feeling of indescribable terror suddenly engulfs her entire body! She feels faint as if she is about to lose consciousness. She tries to scream, but no sound escapes her lips.