THE PUPPET MASTER
Midnight...Hiei could see the snow that's falling while still hanging on his wall. he's thinking back in time, to when he still had a life free of misery. Oh...but it was never to be.
The snow is falling and still she was haunting him. he's thinking back in time, to the cellar in the darkest night. all the misery. all...the blood he had to see.
They're ready for the show. now the blood must flow. they are waiting above. Oh nooo!
Let the show begin!
CHAPTER 2 THE PUPPET MASTER
Night time in Budapest, so many people are waiting in line. darkness without a radiance what a night to be watching a Christmas show. as Hiei and his fiancé Mukuro walked through the darkness to their seats in the theater and took their seats.
"aren't we lucky sweetheart we got front row center seats." Mukuro said to Hiei with a smile some snowflakes melting in her red hair.
"We waited in the blistering cold for hours we should get good seats." Hiei replied "it looks like the place sold out."
"I'm not surprised." she answered kissing him on the side of his head. "They say this is unlike any puppet show we've ever seen before."
"Hn, we will see if it lives up to the hype." Hiei replied taking off his gloves and scarf.
The theater is so dark inside, gas lamps light the stage. they watched as the curtain began to rise.
"what a magical mystery feeling watching the puppets dance at the end of their silvery strings. the puppets were almost human in size and like children with plague in their flesh these puppets were all so grotesque." Hiei thought to himself. he looked over at Mukuro and could tell she had the same feeling.
"These puppets are sick looking." Hiei said to his lover.
"Sssssshhhhh here come the puppets." was her only reply.
Hiei looked on and saw 1...2...3 puppets waiting in the wing. then they started to walk, in line and suddenly they were all on the stage. Hiei could see the puppet master high above on the walkway. he pulls one string and up goes a leg, down goes a head. he pulls one more and then he lets them all go.
Hiei and Mukuro stared in amazement as the puppets all stood with no strings attached. Hiei took a look at the little drummer boy. "Oh, no!" Hiei gasped he thought the puppet looked at him "Is he alive?" Hiei wandered for a second but no it couldn't be they are just horrific puppets playing in a macabre Christmas show he thought.
Hiei got a little scared when the little drummer boy puppet began to play his drum. on the skin of his hand he could see a little cut. "...blood." Hiei spoke softly. his fear began to climb.
So many things there were not what they seemed but Mukuro loved them all. "This show is amazing Hiei." She said without looking over at him but if she had looked over at him, she would have seen a look of shock and fear on his face.
The show finally an end. the master himself was on the stage with what he called his children. the curtain falls and then the puppets they are... gone. the theater erupts in cheers Mukuro is clapping while Hiei sits in his chair still in shock at what he saw.
CHAPTER 3 MAGIC
In the darkness after the show people were leaving and headed for home. the air was damp and cold outside the theater. they don't believe, that what they saw was magic.
Hiei knew it was magic. to him the night was full of it. he never saw the undertow, and he never saw the evil down below.
He would never forget that night, he saw the magic in mukuro's lightening blue eyes. THEY would never forget that night they saw the magic in each other's eyes. all the people are gone now and it's just Hiei and Mukuro, and they believe in magic.
"It was magic I know." Hiei said to Mukuro as they talked the night away. they have so much in common. they had met a year ago and instantly had to get to know each other. they became engaged just a month ago. and neither one of them could be happier. no matter how bad their day was the sight, or voice of the other instantly brought them to a better place. Hiei was never one to show emotions but, she made him grin like a fool every time he saw her beautiful eyes. those lightening blue eyes that reflected her electrical personality that Hiei so loved. and she loved his red eyes. red like the deepest center of a fire. she felt so safe every time she looked into them especially when they cuddled the cold nights away.
Suddenly one, night Hiei felt so cold it was as if a ghost was next to him whispering its cold breath into his ear and said "Kiss her now." He looked down at her in his arms in the bed, their eyes locked and before Hiei could do anything he found himself locking lips with the blue eye's redhead.
That kiss one year ago was a seal of their eternal love. tonight, she went to the theater alone and never came home. "I gotta find her now." Hiei thought to himself.
But he would never forget that night. he saw the magic in her eyes and she had seen the magic in his eyes.
CHAPTER 4 EMERENCIA
The shadows were thick and old. Hiei was searching the dark for his love. behind the theater of puppet shows Hiei found the steps to the cellar hiding in the shadows.
The cellar door opens while the full moon watches above. then 300 pounds of a woman Hiei knew came out and closed the door behind her. it was the puppet master's wife. she pulled a cart behind her and tucked a knife away on her person.
"Emerencia, where are you going with that knife?" Hiei asked mentally
Hiei hid behind the wall of the theater as she came up the stairs pulling a large wooden cart. Hiei wondered what the cart was for. deep through the narrowest streets Hiei followed her every step. in an alley there was a homeless sleeping. Emerencia approached him pulling out the knife as she did so. And then..." Oh no!" Hiei said aloud barely a whisper as he looked away.
Hiei learned two things that night the first was that it was so strange to see a life slip away. and that in the moonlight blood is black not red. Hiei looked back and saw that the knife was still deep in the poor man's chest, keeping most of the blood inside the body. Then Hiei saw her pull a large sack out of the cart and wrap him in it and in a display of pure strength that came from her three-hundred-pound frame lifted the sack up and drop it in the cart with a loud thud. "She better leave before she gets caught." Hiei thought not daring to make a sound.
Through the dark old streets no one must know. only the moon and Hiei knew. and neither of them would ever tell. Hiei saw her coming back his way so he quickly ducked down and hid out of sight and held his breath as the murderer passed by him cart and all. every bone in Hieie's body told him to leave. but he had to follow her, his love had come to the theater and he had to find her. so, he began following her back toward the theater.
When they arrived, she pulled the body off the cart and drug it down the stairs to the cellar. the head of the body in the sac making a thud, thud, thud sound as it hit the concrete steps. Then Emerencia opened the door and dragged the body in through the door into the dark.
Hiei waited a moment, he wondered why she left the door ajar. he needed to find his Mukuro so he summed up his bravery and slowly and quietly crept down the stairs and paused for a moment when he was in front of the door. every fiber of his being was screaming at him to leave and go home and hide in his bed. but his love for Mukuro drove him onward.
He pushed open the door and quietly entered and what he saw...was a horror show. "Good God!" Hiei thought then felt a strong blow hit him in the back of the head. he screamed and fell to the floor, he tried to get up but was hit in the back of the head again, and again. the third strike knocked him out cold. Emerencia had known he was following her and hid behind where the door opened, waited for him to come through and then clubbed him from behind.
CHAPTER 5 BLUE EYES
Hiei opened his eyes, he could barely see. he had a feeling inside that no one was there but him. "I'm stone cold...i must be lying on the floor." Hiei thought to himself. he tried to move but his hands were tied to the wall by a thick iron chain he couldn't move at all.
"Wait I remember." Hiei thought. "I must be in the cellar.
His red eyes were sucking dark trying to brighten the gloom. then his eyes were blind no more he could see what was in the room...it was full of skeletons dressed in human skin. they were sitting on their shelves a cellar full of sin.
Finally, Hiei put it all together. "THE PUPPETS WERE MADE OUT OF HUMANS!" Hiei said out loud. "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed and struggled to try and get free, but he couldn't.
There were so many puppets there. there were eyes everywhere. Hiei looked around until his eyes rested on a puppet with red hair and blue eyes...lightning bolt blue eyes. he recognized them. "Oh, no it's the eyes of my love." he thought. "MUKURO, NO!" Hiei screamed again.
Hiei closed his eyes and opened them again but the eyes seemed to shine at him in the dark. but all the tears in his eyes made them look like a blur. "This is only a dream...only a nightmare...somebody better tell me it's just a nightmare!" Hiei kept saying over and over again as his heart sank into his stomach. He tried to will himself to wake up in his bed and roll over and wrap himself around Mukuro and hold her tight and tell her all about his horrible dream so she could comfort him and tell him it's all okay now it's all over.
But it wasn't working. it came to him that this wasn't a dream that it was more real possibly than anything else in his life had ever been. he screamed again at this realization.
He looked back at the lightning blue eyes, he knew they saw nothing even though they seemed to be staring right at him. but yet the eyes were so alive. he sat staring at them crying and sobbing.
CHAPTER 6 THE RITUAL
As Hiei cried and stared into the eyes of Mukuro the puppet master and his wife opened the metal door and entered the room. Hiei was in shock, he couldn't speak. they lit the torches in the cellar and Hiei could fully see his surroundings causing his shock to increase.
Human skulls, ancient books, the black candles made of human fat burning so low. in the gloomy light Hiei saw an altar in white. "what is it for? It must be a ritual." Hiei figured as he stared at his surroundings.
He saw glass jars up on the shelves. inside them, a liquid as dark as hell. there was one for every puppet.
Hiei saw the puppet master get an ancient book and open it. he was speaking magic words from ancient times. Hiei was feeling strange inside. it was as if something had taken his mind.
In panic he kicked the shelf with all the jars on it and one of them fell to the stone floor and busted. red liquid went everywhere. "It's blood!" Hiei gasped.
"How dare you disturb my work!" the puppet master said to Hiei.
There was a demon skull, red as blood. it was a symbol on the wall. Hiei felt a sting in his eyes as they were given eternal life. all because of the blood on the floor, an interrupted ritual.
The puppet master started reading from the book again and he lured away Hiei's soul. Hiei didn't know it but to the puppet master his soul was gold. trading souls with the demon is something the puppet master knows, as well as hell.
Magic life...is his return. Hiei could feel pain in his skin, like burning. and he felt some kind of magic...inside. then he was rendered unconscious.
CHAPTER 7 NO MORE ME
Hiei woke up still in the cellar and noticed he was laying on something soft but he couldn't move. he was restrained, he realized soon what it was. "why? why am I strapped to this hospital bed?" Hiei asked out loud knowing he was not alone. The puppet master turned and looked at him with a polite smile and approached the bed and leaned in toward Hiei.
"First your eyes, then your skin." the Puppet master said pointing towards his eyes then skin on Hiei's arm. "We will make you feel born again." the puppet master finished. there will be no more Hiei I'm afraid.
Hiei noticed a shiny scalpel in the puppet master's hand. Hiei looked over and saw that the master's wife had the jars for blood. she kept one near. Hiei feared for his life. he feared there would be no more him after they were done. was this goodbye to his sweet life?
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" the scalpel cuts and Hiei's eye lids drop into a jar. he's crying blood now, fingers pull his eyeballs out. the scissors snap he bleeds a lot.
They set Hiei's eyes into this puppets head. but still his eyes can see. he's looking back at himself and what he sees is no more him at all. he has no eyes.
His veins...feel...like worms drying in the sun. it takes too long... stripping skin from all his bones. the pain was too strong, his senses they went numb.
All of Hiei's blood is now in little jars. he should be dead by now, but he is still alive. Hiei is still alive inside his eyes. and he sees Emerencia throw his carcass in the trash.
CHAPTER 8 BLOOD TO WALK
Sitting in the cellar watching all the others. it was only yesterday, needles in his skin. THEY turned Hiei's last remains into a puppet thing.
Hiei could see, but he could not move at all. yet he had feelings, it was very strange. Hiei's on his shelf...eternal eyes they never slept. He took a look in the dark and he could see Mukuro.
There was no mistake that was his beloved. sitting on her shelf alone...and so dead. there's a light outside the door. the puppet master and his wife are back for more.
"Let's play!" Emerencia exclaims.
"Hello, my children...in blood I will teach you." the puppet master says walking towards Mukuro's shelf.
They take Mukuro down from her shelf and sit her in the floor. then sit Hiei in front of her. there are strings attached to their heads. there are strings in their arms and legs. the puppet master's hands, they keep them up straight.
Emerencia takes a syringe and fills it with blood and presses it into Hiei. Hiei can feel the sting of the needle going in. Injecting blood into both of them...it's hot.
Hiei thought he saw Mukuro move. there's a tingle in their skin. Hiei couldn't believe that she could see again. "there is no mistake that is my beloved." Hiei thought to himself since he could not speak and neither could any of the puppets since they had no vocal chords.
"I have missed you so." Hiei communicated to her with his eyes. it's like a horror show. without a word they knew each other in these macabre forms. as they communicated with their eyes deep inside, they wondered why.
Why their minds were now in their eyes. and why they can move without any strings.
"They're alive!" the puppet master said excitedly. "that's enough for today, put them away." he finished.
CHAPTER 9 DARKNESS
For 13 days, they have trained and trained. they are learning to walk again. they are learning to stretch their skin.
Every time they bring them back to life. little jars come down from the shelves. Every time they feel the sting. every time they feel the blood going in.
Their eyes are now their minds. their souls are their magical skins. the blood they use comes from themselves. they live for just an hour and then they fade again. in the darkness they live their lives. in the darkness they die again. then live again then die and die and die again.
Every night Mukuro and Hiei they spend what's left of the blood in their systems sitting on opposite shelves. talking with their eyes, trying to remember. it is all that they've got. they are living through their memories, and it's worth it.
The communication with their eyes and the reliving of good memories is interrupted by the puppet master. he Is here again. the Puppet master walks over to mukuro and picks her up by the strings.
"Tonight, you will dance for me puppet girl. no strings attached." he says holding her up. "but I can't. I never knew how to dance." Mukuro said mentally. but the puppet master was not a mind reader.
"Dance!" he commanded dropping the strings and leaving Mukuro to stand on her own feet. she takes a step and tries her best. but she stumbles into the shelve with all the jars. six of the jars come down and smash and puppet life is on the floor.
Hiei jumps down from his shelf and goes to mukuros aid, untangling her from her strings that the puppet master dropped. then helped her up.
"YOU STUPID LITTLE REDHEADED BITCH!" the puppet master boomed in an angry voice. He turned to his wife who looked afraid and he approached her. she flinched from him as he raised his cane but he didn't strike her instead he continued yelling.
"SEND THAT PUPPET FAR AWAY AND I MEAN FAR AWAY FROM HERE! SEND HER TO BERLIN!" he boomed walking toward the metal door. "SEND THAT PUPPET TO BERLIN!" he yelled and then slammed the door shut.
CHAPTER 10 SO SAD
Hiei was sitting in the dark, he was with his one true love. they were looking into each other's eyes. Hiei knew if they took her away, there would be no life for him. if they took her away, he would die.
"tell me this is not goodbye." Mukuro said with her eyes.
"do you remember the butterfly?" Hiei communicated with his own eyes.
"it made me cry" she replied.
"i know...but we dried it's wings so it could fly again." Hiei spoke with his eyes. "I wander if this is the end for you and I. I know we've got to say goodbye. I know that I would change my life for you...i would die for you." Hiei's red eyes spoke.
"I will always remember the things we used to do. all the memories I keep in here just for me and you. with your image in my eyes I take you with me when it's time to go." Mukuro replied. If she had the ability to cry, she would.
"I swear, I swear I'll find you! I'll keep on searching, searching till the end of time!"
"And if I can't survive without you by my side?" Mukuro asked through her blue eyes.
"THEN WAIT FOR ME, WAIT FOR ME WAIT ON THE OTHER SIDE...I'LL BE THERE!" Hiei said through his own eyes he would have tears coming down his face if he had tear ducts.
"I CAN BARELY SEE YOU ANYMORE!" Mukuro cried out through her eyes. the blood in her system was beginning to wear off and she was fading back to the darkness again.
"you must remember the butterfly, it did not die." Hiei reminded her through his gaze.
"I LOVE YOU!" Mukuro said one final time with her stare.
"I LOVE YOU TOO!" Hiei stared back.
"I CAN'T SEE YOU ANYMORE!" Mukuro's gaze faded into blackness as did she.
"Goodbye my love." Hiei spoke solemnly.
CHAPTER 11 CHRISTMAS
Come they told me, a newborn king to see. our finest gifts we bring to lay before the king...oh, when we come.
It's Christmas again...it will never be the same. it's Christmas again Hiei knew. but there was only sadness in his soul. and as the snow is falling from the sky all Hiei wanted to do was cry.
Hiei had to get away from there, had to get away. by tomorrow he would be gone. by tomorrow he would see the sun again. but that night he was the little drummer boy. but that night he would also be the one who would bring destruction.
The secrets never told before. of those who lost their souls. there are sad things in the darkness. there are sad things all around us.
Hiei could hear the singing it was almost his cue to go on playing his little fucking drum.
"Come they told me a newborn king to see. our finest gifts we bring to lay before the king." Emerencia sang.
"Now here I go." Hiei thought.
Hiei started off well but then he fell flat on his face, drum breaking on the stage. Oh, my God it was such a big disgrace. everybody was laughing Hiei had single handedly ruined the show...just as he planned to. in his time with the puppet master he learned the one thing that he could not stand was mistakes and embarrassment. now he would be sent to Berlin just like Mukuro and several other puppets that would not go along or made big mistakes. even if he couldn't see her, he would at the very least be in the same building as her and that was better than this. he would even see the sun again. yes, he had a great plan.
CHAPTER 12 LIVING DEAD
Yeah, his plan had worked. Same old wall, still hanging tall. same old nail, through his throat! eighteen years came along. and in all this time he never, ever got to see his love.
Hiei was going insane. he had not gone to Berlin. instead they sold him to a little shop, where he remained. Hiei was feeling like a living dead. two red eyes in an empty head.
"This life is NOTHINGNESS!" Hiei cursed mentally. life on a wall, time to be called back...to the beyond. There's a rumor going around and around. they say the puppet master is going to build another theater in London town...for kids. run by his son and daughter, it's going to be a bloody mess. but Hiei didn't know that. all he knew was the wall he hung on and the nail through his throat. and the mocking insults from the children that saw him saying things like "I don't like that disgusting puppet, it's scary, it's gross who would make such an ugly puppet."
Hiei used to like children but now he hated them. all they did was come into the little shop, take one look at him and start throwing insults and making jokes at his expense. yes, Hiei would trade places with one of these little bastards in a second.
Yes, Hiei felt like a living dead forever on the same old wall. forever with a nail going through his throat. all the children who see Hiei in that little shop they are scared of him. they say he looks sick. his eyes follow them never to be sold again.
"Life is never fair...life is air."
"Where is she now?"
"Where is he now?"
"Where is she now?"
"Where is he now?"