Chapter 1 – Late Night in Budapest
I hear the clock strike the hour of midnight as I catch a glimpse of snow beginning to fall to the ground. Normally a sight like this would be pleasant and I'd be goofing around and making a mockery of myself in such weather, but that's not easy to do when you've been nailed to a wall to hang for days on end. Even so, the sight of fresh snow would brighten the mood if it didn't remind me of all the horrors and dreadful memories that are engraved into this breathing wooden shell of mine. The snow makes me remember the living nightmare in which life ceased behind my eyes, well, at least behind my eye sockets. There's not much one can do as a mere object hanging on a wall. I can only recollect on the past. They could have made me into a stern effigy that could be honored, or even a child's plaything that's destined to exist among stuffed animals for eternity. But no, instead of being something with the slightest bit of dignity, I am a wooden slave; a dancing clown who can't even take his own makeup off. My soul is intact, but as far as I'm concerned I'm dead. At least I had a small grasp of life when I could still see her. No. No I WILL see her again! I WILL find a way out of this mess and get her back! It wasn't always like this; there must be some way to reverse all of this! I'll make them pay.
Shit, I can hear the crowd. They're ready and waiting above. Midnight: it's time for the show.
It all started on a late night in Budapest. I caught word of how amazing puppet shows were outside of the land I knew, so I took a trip to see for myself. As soon as I found the puppet theater, I discovered the line stretched around several street blocks. People from all over the world must have come to this place! I found a spot in line and waited for what seemed like days, surrounded by some of the weirdest I have ever seen before. Most were lonesome looking people dressed in large overcoats and scarves, concealing most of their features. The few faces I was able to catch slight glimpses of seemed, inhuman. Not inhuman in the sense that they looked like ghouls or demons, but inhuman in the sense that they had no souls or emotion. There seemed to be no life present in their eyes, almost as if they were not made of flesh. Ah, who am I kidding, it was probably my imagination getting the best of me. They were probably just as pissed off and irritated I was from waiting in a seemingly endless line, and the cold winter air has taken its toll on their skin. After what seemed like an entire night, the line began to move. It was moving as fast as a dried up slug, but at least I was one step closer to marveling at the show to come. It was in the slug line that I caught my first glimpse of her. She was standing about ten spaces in front of me, and her mid length pink hair stood out from the repetitive colors of black and brown in the endless line. Something caused her to turn my way for a few seconds, but when she briefly turned her head around I thought I saw a glimpse of magic within two large green eyes. Although eye contact only lasted for a second and a half, the eyes almost seemed to look me in the dead center of my pupils and mock me. It was quite a strange feeling I had but I had more interesting things to think about. Still though, the image of the young girl penetrated my mind every so often for the rest of the night. After an hour of moving at a snail's pace, I was inside the puppet theater.
If the folks outside seemed creepy, the ticket handler seemed like a nightmare come to life. It was a woman, around age fifty by the looks of it, yet she had the long and bony hands of a corpse and sounded even worse than that with creaky witch-like voice you only hear in stories. "That'll be sixy dollars little boyyy. Heheheheheh *cough* *gag* you look like you could use a GOOD seat my love." I tried by best to not gag myself at the putrid odor coming from the torn coat and rags she was wearing while I quickly handed her the money. "I'm suuuure you'll find the right seat doll, they always dooooo, heh." Even before she was done speaking I bolted for the theater doors, unwilling to get creeped out any longer. After paying a fortune, I was wandering around theater desperately trying to find a seat but it seemed as if they were all taken. In the back of my mind I was hoping for a seat near the strange girl from before, but it seemed like she vanished completely from sight. I got a strange feeling throughout my body and some kind of force seemed to push me in the direction towards the center of the theater. Brushing it off as my imagination and drowsiness again, I soon locked my eyes onto an empty seat located in the center of the theater. It seemed too good to be true, so I snatched it before anyone else could. It felt as if the seat was meant to be taken by me, as if it called out to me as soon as I entered the theater.
The wait time was surprisingly shorter than I expected, only roughly five minutes. This was a relief, as I waited long enough today. Now it was time to put all bullshit aside and witness what I came here for. Right before the curtain began to rise up from the floor like a velvet flame, a line of gas lamps along the edge of the stage magically lit up. Since I was from the village of Konohagakure, little tricks like this had no effect on me whatsoever, as the many ninjas of the village are able to do much more than just make little lamps light up on command. Everyone around me must have not been use to little ninja tricks and jutsu's since they were all sitting like statues with their mouths agape in marvel at the gas lamps. The velvet flame soon disappeared at the ceiling to reveal a vacant and dead stage; no sign of any forms, human or otherwise anywhere in sight. Many thoughts went through my mind (other than the strange pink haired girl) such as the puppet master being late, perhaps making us wait even longer to make us want the performance so bad that we'd be begging at our knees to see this marvelous show. Those thoughts soon were quelled and logic took a grasp over my mind; what kind of performer would be sick enough in the head torture their audience by making them wait hours on end? As soon as the crowd started talking amongst each other and started to sound like a group of squawking black birds, there was an abrupt wooden sound and everyone's head immediately turned to the stage and their mouths seemed to sew themselves shut at the sight of wooden limbs peaking behind the curtains.
Note: I know this chapter is a little slow, but I promise it'll get better! Feel free to review though, it's greatly appreciated.