Blade sat looking at Andrea's knife collection. It wasn't very large, onlt about ten or so, and most of those were carving knives she still used once in a while. She had started it three years before, just after her father died. Blade never really understood why.
Just then, Andrea came stomping into her room. She slammed the door and sat down hard on the floor, angry almost to the point of crying. The three puppets closest to her gathered around her. Blade was about to hop down when the door opened again. Andrea's stepfather barged in glaring at her.
"I'm not finished with you, missy," he scowled as Andrea stood.
"Well, I'm finished with you," she yelled back. "Now get the hell out of my room, you drunk."
Her stepfather grabbed the lamp off her dresser and threw it at her. "I'm tired of your attitude!"
Andrea ducked, the soaring lamp missing her by inches to shatter on the wall. He walked over to her table.
"And I'm tired of your stupid knife collection," he said as he shoved them off to the floor. He picked up Blade. "And these damned dolls of yours. You're seventeen and I don't care if your daddy did make them…"
"Leave them alone," Andrea rushed up and grabbed for Blade, trying to push the man away. Then, he backhanded her, sending her to the floor with a sickening thud.
In an instant, Blade was turned around and had sliced the man's arm. He yelped and dropped the puppet. Pin Head ran up, knocking the man to the ground. Six-Shooter's guns blazed, but caused little damage from a distance. Blade was up again, getting ready To slash at the cowering man's face.
"No, stop, please," Andrea begged, sitting up.
The puppets halted and looked up at her.
"We'll get in lots of trouble if you kill him," she said. "If you stop now, we can make people think he's crazy. Then, he'll never bother us again."
They backed away from the injured man, crowding protectively around Andrea. He scrambled to his feet and out the door, his face an expression of complete fear and confusion.
Once he was gone, Blade looked up at Andrea. Her cheek was still red from the slap she had received. It enraged the puppet to see her so. But when her eyes turned to his, he was struck with an oft-recurring pang of longing. She laid on her side, facing the puppets with a sad smile.
"Thanks guys," Andrea said to all four. "Did he hurt you, Blade?"
Blade shook his head and touched his hook to her red cheek.
"I'll be fine," she replied. "Even better when he's out of our lives."
All the puppets nodded as she rolled onto her back.
---
Andrea's father was not sent to an insane asylum like she had hoped. He stayed there, and for another year and a half, Andrea had to put up with his drunken aggressiveness. Several times she had to keep the puppets from killing him and exposing themselves. She was glad someone cared enough about her to be that portective. Then again, the puppets had belonged to her father. Maybe it was a natural instinct even though they weren't under her control.
When she was eighteen, and had graduated from high school, Andrea moved out of her mother's house. Her father had left half of his surprisingly large estate entirely to her. She took the puppets with her to college and later when she rented a small house just outside of the city. It was a two-bedroom place, one for her and one for the puppets, with a good sized shed in the back for a workshop.
One day, she received an invitation to her friend's wedding and a request to be a bride's maid. She sighed as she read it.
"To Andrea Toulon and guest." She looked over at Blade who sat on her table. "Like I have anyone to take with me."
The puppet looked down at himself and back at Andrea.
"I'd love to take you," she said. "But I don't think it would be very appropriate."
The wedding was in a few weeks, so Andrea was very busy. During this time, the puppets were left to explore the house. They found little hiding places Andrea never knew about. One such place proved quite useful the day someone broke into the house while Andrea was gone.
The puppets were milling about with nothing to do when the front door busrt open. Hearing a commotion in the front rooms, Blade peeked out of the bedroom where the puppets were. He saw two men overturning furniture, both wearing black with strange symbols on their faces. They looked startingly like human-puppets, causing Blade's eyes to bug out.
"They're not in this room," one said to the other.
"We must find them," the other replied. "Master wishes it."
The two strangers moved toward the bedrooms and Blade quckly ducked inside unnoticed. He informed the other puppets and in moments, they decided to hide instead of fight. They all crowded into a vent in the closet floor. During their searchings, the puppets had found this vent that led all the way to the workshop. But they didn't go that far. They moved just out of view of the grate and listened to the burglars run amok in the house.