Luke felt… disoriented. He couldn't quite remember what had happened. Where he was… but he heard someone crying.
Rubbing his head, Luke searched for the source of the noise. It sounded… like it was coming from below? He looked down to see-
"Haley?" He rasped. That was odd. He didn't remember keeping his voice modulator on. "What's wrong?"
And why did she look so tiny?
Such a tiny face revealed itself from tiny hands. Her blue eyes were shot red with tears stinging them. Her face blotchy and snot ran from her nose.
Panic seized him. He quickly bent down as his hands went to wipe away her tears.
He didn't notice how odd they were.
"Luke?" Her voice wobbled.
A shaky smile graced her. "The one and only! Who did you expect? The Prince?"
Her body froze at that. Why?
Suddenly, she jumped up, and grabbed a hold of his hand. "Come on! Luke we need to leave! Now!"
He let himself be dragged along, but confusion ate him alive. "Hey, hey, hey! Haley, what's going on?"
"There's no time! We need to-!"
And then Luke saw it. His face. His body. It was only a mirror, but he stopped the moment he saw it. It was… Snatcher? But that was impossible. Snatcher was a puppet. Not… not… this.
"Luke! Luke please we need to go." Haley pleaded, pulling with all of her strength at his hand.
He did not move. He could not move. He was cold. He was… he remembered. He was dead. He… he was… killed? No. Yes. He was killed by-by-by-
Vanessa. Vanessa locked him into the cellar. He only wanted to buy her flowers…
"Luke! Please!" A familiar voice shook him out of his memories.
Turning to the voice, Snatcher smiled at the sight of Hat Kid. She was crying still. "Kiddo, I know you sad, but really, I can just make you a new hat if you really missed it that much."
Snatcher watched with worry as something broke within Hat Kid. Slowly, she fell to her knees as silent tears streamed down her face.
Smile now gone, Snatcher picked her up. "Come on, let's head back to your room. I'm sure we'll get back home soon. My minions would love to play more games with you. And I can make more Death Wishes for you!"
Hat Kid didn't say a thing. She only held onto him tighter.
So! For some clarification this is an au based off of the "what if Luke died" in the puppet au! Here, Luke has possessed the Snatcher puppet, but as you can see, the longer he has spent in the puppet the more he becomes the actual Snatcher. The puppet is no longer a puppet, and his memories/mind have been warped to think he IS Snatcher. And due to this he thinks Haley is Hat Kid, and they've somehow gotten to a place far away from Subcon, and is trying to get the two of them 'back home.'
There are moments of clarity, of course, and Haley tries her best to take advantage of these and get the two of them back to the theater. And this? This was another failed attempt.
But seriously, check out Fedoraspooky's Puppet au if you haven't! Check out their blog here! fedoraspooky tumblr com