(Pinnochio)

A lone boy is walking along a path in a small, empty, silent town. He walks alone, yet two voices can be heard as he spoke,

"What can I do?" Pinnochio asked. It was the same thing he had asked all morning, all week, ever since his author vanished

"Do what I want! Kill them all, make the world as empty as your ambition!" screeched a raspy close by Pinnochio.

Pinnochio held up his staff. It was a long, wooden shaft with a white, pointy-nosed face at the top. It spoke with a disgusting grin, and a condescending tone, as though it knew it would get what it wanted from the poor boy

"I don't want to… I don't want to kill"

"But you must," said a pair of voices from behind Pinnochio

The boy, wearing a short, dark green jacket and kneehigh tights below black trousers, turned around in surprise. His face was filled with innocence, and his eyes with confusion

"You must kill to get your wish"

"You must kill to find your author"

Pinnochio shook his head at the two puppets in front of him, with a pale look on his face. When his author was alive, he had a purpose. Not even knowing when he became a real boy, he still had strings holding him down. Strings that would tell him what it was he should do at any given moment of his existence.

The strings of dependence were all he had to hold on to.

But now they were gone, leaving him alone to wander the world with his staff, the only thing in the world capable of keeping him company. No matter how afraid he was of the staff tempting him to kill, he was more afraid of being abandoned with no one to guide him. With these two puppets in front of him, however, the same narrative was being relayed to him

"I don't want to, I don't want to hurt anyone!"

"Parrah, does he lie?"

"He does, Noya. He wants to meet his author after all"

"That's right, it's as they say, you must kill all in your path!"

"I don't want you here!"

"Since when could you lie, my sweet and gentle boy. When did you start to lie?"

"I can't lie, it's in my story!"

"No author means no story," said Parrah lifting her arms up stiffly into a shrug

"No story means no purpose," added Noya, pointing at Pinnochio with a small, fragile hand

"I… I don't need to kill…"

"But you want your author to live, and write again?" screeched the staff with an eerie grin

"You need to kill if you want to meet him"

"You have to kill if you want a purpose"

"Bu- but I don't..."

"Do you wish for purpose?" asked Parrah

"Yes…"

"What of a future, one written out just for you?" asked Noya

"Yes," said Pinnochio, nodding his head

""Then kill!"" spoke the staff and the puppets.

The poor boy, who knew only what it was like to live as a puppet, looked down to his feet. He looked at the ground, at the bugs crawling on the grass, and at the empty town around him. He enjoyed the silence. While the staff was killing on its own, Pinocchio could hear the screams of nightmares, writhing on the ground, waiting to be put to rest in the most brutal ways. If there could be a world of silence, a world where he was told what to do, a world where he could live with Gepetto and live like a normal boy, then maybe…

"I want to do it"

"Parrah, he will kill"

"Noya, he has a purpose"

"Will you let me do as I please then?"

"I will"

"Then, let me take control, sit back, and enjoy the show! I'll slaughter, I'll tear, I'll reduce them to nothing but piles of flesh!"

The staff spoke as it seemed to pull Pinnochio away from the town, and into the forest nearby. The puppets stared as Pinnochio nodded his head, accepting what the staff told him as though it were all he wanted to do

"He is a boy, his nose cannot grow if he lies"

"But the staff is not a boy, it's nose grew as the boy spoke"

"He does not want to kill"

"He does not need that staff"

"He wants someone to command him"

"Someone he can obey"

"Is he like the next one?"

"She wishes to be dominated"

"Is masochism different from dependence"

"They both seek someone strong"

"Someone they can obey"

"Someone that will give them purpose"

The puppets were pulled back up where they came from, and as the moon rose up, the two began their search for the next character that lost her way, a masochistic princess on a journey to find a proper master