Chapter Three
The Other Toulon
Leaving Abomination where he was Jake went back downstairs, still carrying his backpack and looked outside.
"The weather seems to be fitting the mood. Looks like it's going to rain soon."
It was now nearly ten at night as Jake stretched he spoke, "Ok, guys. I'm going to go try to contact Andre and Elsa to see if they know what's going on and I'd like a look out team to stay down here tonight."
Looking at those assembled, he asked, "Blade? Would you mind staying with Six and Trickster tonight?"
Blade's head swiveled to look at Trickster who was walking around the lobby, as if trying to figure out what trouble he could get into.
Turning back, he slowly raised his hand in a salute while hissing.
Jake chuckled, "Yes, he can be a handful, but try to take it easy on him."
He was about to leave when he said, "Oh yeah, here…" as he knelt down and opened the backpack, pulling out a small walkie talkie.
"Just push this button and I'll hear you." He said as he sat it down in a corner.
Turning, he, Jester and Tunneler went back up to Jake's room.
Looking to his side, Blade noticed Trickster was nowhere to be found as he looked at Six and made a slashing movement across his throat.
Six nodded as his bandana went up.
Upstairs, Jake took out the other walkie and set it on the bedside table before tossing the backpack on the ground and lying on the bed, soon accompanied by Jester and Tunneler.
Removing his cell, he dialed in a number and waited. After several moments, a message came on.
"You have reached Andre and Elsa. Leave a message."
Sighing, he replied, "Andre, its Jake. Look, something weird is going on here at the museum. Mom and dad sent me a letter asking me to come back quickly. I get here and it looks like they've been gone for around a month or so and I have no idea where they are. If you know anything, please give me a call. Love you guys." Jake hung up the phone feeling frustrated.
Taking in a deep breath, he laid his head on the pillow saying, "I'm just going to shut my eyes for a few minutes you two."
Within those two minutes, he was fast asleep.
The small, beat up Volkswagon puttered into the parking lot of the Myer's Museum of Puppetry only a few minutes before the rain began to trickle down onto the windshield.
Shutting the lights off, the driver quickly got out of the car and shut it before turning back and muttering, "Damn it! I locked the keys in the car! Stupid! Could this get any worse?" before turning and hurrying to the lobby doors.
There were no lights inside as the young woman of 18 tried opening the doors, rattling them.
"Hello? Helloooo?" she said, knocking on the door for several minutes. She didn't see anyone coming as she let out an exasperated sigh, "This is great. All I needed was to be stuck outside in the middle of a rainstorm." She said as the rain began to come down in sheets.
She thought she may as well just break the window and get in the car. Sleep there until the morning as she didn't have the money for a motel or even a cup of hot chocolate at the local diner.
As she began to walk away, she heard a slight click and turned back to the door.
Reaching out, she pulled once and the door opened easily for her.
Moving inside, the door shut behind her, hitting her in the backside as she called out, "Hello? Is anyone there? I'm sorry to intrude so late."
There was no response as she kept moving forward.
"Thank you for letting me in," she began to say, "It's coming down bad out there." Truth be told she was rather soaked as the water dripped down the edges of her short black coat forming a small puddle around her black flat shoes. Pushing a stray wet strand of hair out of her eyes, she began to walk deeper into the building.
Fumbling her fingers along the wall, she found the light switch and turned it on. Looking to where her hand was, she saw a small figure in a brown trench coat with some type of flamethrower aimed at her.
Letting out a muffled scream, her hand closed over her mouth before she realized it was only a puppet in a glass case.
Taking in several deep breaths, she muttered, "Who the hell would make a creepy looking puppet like that? You really scared me little guy."
As she continued to look around, she swore she could hear little feet running across the tiled floor, following the soft click of her own shoes but she stopped each time to look behind her and seeing no one she began to get a bit frightened.
"Look," she finally said, stopping in her tracks, "I appreciate you letting me in, I really do. But could you please come out so I can thank you properly?"
There was only a moment or two before she saw a little puppet emerge from the shadows. Only this puppet was unlike any she had ever seen before. This one was moving without any strings of any kind.
A little comical looking, he had a pair of x-ray specs on the top of his head and was carrying what appeared to be a little toy gun in its hand.
"Um." She said, unsure what to say, but going with, "Hello."
The puppet stopped, looking up at her and nodded to her.
"Are you the one who let me in?" she asked, feeling rather foolish and rather excited, talking to a toy.
The small puppet shook its head and pointed over behind her shoulder.
Turning, she saw another puppet standing there. This one was wearing a black trench coat and fedora, a knife and hook for hands.
"He let me in?" she asked, still shocked at the little puppet's gothic face.
Blade gave a nod.
She shook her head, "I need to sit down." She whispered, sitting in the nearest chair, next to a table with maps of the museum.
The purple and turquoise clothed puppet moved to stand in front of her and raised his little gun.
"Not now, please." She said, rubbing her temples, "I've got a really bad headache." Blade hissed slightly. Was the girl really not afraid of them?
Pulling the trigger of the gun, a little pop sound was heard as a little metal needle and banner popped out the end, a liquid dripping from the tip. As the banner rolled down, it simply read, "BANG!"
Shaking her head again as if trying to awaken from a dream, she said, "Cute. I'm sure I'll find it funny later."
A second pull of the trigger and another pop was heard. This time, however, the small needle was projected through the air, hitting her in the neck.
"Ow!" she screamed out, grabbing the needle and pulling it out, before smelling an unusual odor from the end of it.
"What the hell did you do you little…" she began to say as she stood up, debating whether she could kick the little puppet across the room.
Trickster laughed, mentally thinking she was thinking about that and doing a good backflip, Trickster avoided her with ease as she took a step back and collapsed into the chair once more.
The world began to get fuzzy and warm as she looked at the two puppets coming toward her.
"What's going on?" she asked as the world faded into darkness.
As she shut her eyes, Six approached her from behind.
Blade motioned to him as he removed his lasso, whirling it over his head before throwing it around her arms. Pulling tight, he began tying the other end to the chair as Blade moved to the corner where the walkie-talkie was.
Pushing it, he hissed for several moments before Jake's voice sleepily replied, "Okay, I'll be out in a second."
A door upstairs opened as footsteps were heard before Jake's face looked down over the balcony, "Who the hell is that?" he asked spotting the prone form on the chair, before turning and heading to the elevator.
Trickster, meanwhile had dropped his x-ray glasses over his eyes and was standing in front of his captive, looking at her while his head was slightly turned to one side.
As Jake exited the elevator, he walked up and looked down at the woman before noticing him.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
The little jokester whispered something as Jake frowned, "No, I won't let you interrogate her. You've already drugged her, isn't that enough?"
Trickster simply shook his head.
"Go bug Blade." He said, shaking his head as he patted her down, looking for any means of identification and not finding any.
Grabbing another chair, he pulled it over into the corner which was hidden in shadows before coming back.
"Okay, we're going to find out exactly who this is, but how about we have some fun doing it?" he asked the others who readily agreed.
The girl was woken up abruptly as a stream of water hit her in the face.
Shaking her head, she turned to the side and saw Trickster sitting there with his little hand holding on to the end of a flower squirter pinned to his shirt.
Letting out a "He he he!" he leapt from the chair and ran off into the darkness.
Trying to get up, she found herself tied to the chair as she shook around and hopped up and down for several moments with no success. Her feet were apparently tied to the legs of the chair.
"I wouldn't recommend doing that. You might tip over and hit that pretty little head of yours." A voice said from the furthest corner, concealed in darkness.
"Who are you?" she called out trying to hide the fear in her voice.
"I might ask you the same question. Breaking into a museum in the dead of night. You must be up to no good." Replied the voice.
"I was let in here by that creepy puppet with the gothic face!" she screamed back. She was shaking now but from her wet clothes chilling her or from fear of the voice in the dark she didn't know.
There was a moment when she swore she heard the voice whisper, "Why didn't you tell me you let her in?"
Another moment and then, "That doesn't matter! Who are you and why are you here?"
She shook her head, "I don't feel like talking when I'm tied to this chair and when I can't see who I'm talking to."
"Perhaps you'll feel more…talkative after this. Jester!"
She heard something by her feet before feeling her shoes being untied and taken off, followed by her socks.
"Going to cut into my feet with a knife?" she asked, trying not to sound as horrified as she really was. But Jake saw through her pretend bravery. You don't grow up in a puppet and doll museum without learning how to tell when someone is pretending.
"Hardly." Replied the voice as Jester removed a single feather…and began to tickle the underside of her feet.
She couldn't help it. She bit her lip and tried so hard, but that was her Achilles's heel. She was so ticklish on her feet! She began to smile, while still biting her lip, but soon couldn't hold it in and began to laugh.
Shaking her head, she didn't want to be in this position. Whoever had her tied up surely had the advantage as she continued to laugh like a little girl.
"Jester." Said the voice as the tickling stopped, "Now, care to tell me who you are?"
Taking in several breaths, she replied, "Tabitha."
"Well, that's a start," said the voice, "Tabitha what?"
She shook her head in defiance once more as the voice said, "Suit yourself. Jester."
The tickling resumed, only this time whoever the man was in the shadows let it continue for several minutes before calling off his little puppet. Of course by then, she had nearly wet herself.
"One last chance. Next time I'll let him tickle until you go on the chair."
She knew it was useless trying to fight back, if only it was anything but tickling, as she said, "Tabitha Toulon."
From below, the sounds of an "Oooo!" was heard as a puppet in a Jester outfit came into view moving quickly into the shadows. She had hit a nerve with this statement.
A young man emerged from the shadows, smiling and running his hand through his hair before he stopped mere inches from her face. He bent his knees down till he was staring into her startlingly blue eyes.
"Miss…Tabitha isn't it?"
She nodded.
"Cut the crap. You're no Toulon. There aren't any among us anymore." He said, his face showing no sign of humor in it.
She growled back, with a fierce look of her own, "I AM a Toulon. So, your information seems to be flawed."
"So what are your grandparent's names then?"
"Robert Toulon and Mary."
Looking down, he sighed, "Look, we are very protective of the Toulon bloodline here, but I know for a fact, it ended with Andre. You're no relation to him."
"Andre Toulon was my Grandfather's brother!" she shouted out, getting very angry now, her eyes narrows and nostrils flared.
Slamming both of his hands down on the arms of the chair, he yelled back, "Quit lying to me!" before the sound of a phone ringing in his pocket stopped him from saying anything more.
"I'll be back." He said, turning and walking from the room, saying over his shoulder, "Watch her!"
Soon, she was surrounded by four puppets on all sides.
Answering the phone, he let out a sigh of relief, "Damn, it's glad to hear your voice, Andre."
"What's happening there?" asked Andre from the other end of the phone.
"Like I said, I got a letter from mom and dad telling me to get back here. I show up and no one is around. Blade is barely awake and the others were sleeping due to not getting any formula. The place looks like it's been abandoned for about a month. Blade tells me he heard them mention Abomination, so I went and checked on him."
"You went in there?" Andre asked, not believing this.
"Yeah. I have to say he looks like he's still dead. Perched there on his little stand. So, I left him there and just now we caught someone breaking in."
"Breaking into the museum?"
"Well," Jake said, correcting himself, "I wouldn't say breaking in. Blade let her in."
"Her?" Andre asked, "It's a woman?"
Jake nodded, "Yeah. We have her tied to a chair, but I know she's after something here. It's obvious."
Andre's voice was confused, "How do you know this?"
"She lied about who she was."
Andre sighed, "What identity did she give you?"
"Tabitha Toulon, granddaughter of Robert and Mary." Jake chuckled.
There was silence before Jake asked, "Hello? Andre?"
A startled voice replied, "Jake. I'm afraid she may be telling you the truth."
Jake was dumbfounded, "Andre, you told us that you had no other relatives."
"Jake," Andre began to explain, "I told your father about my brother. We simply never mentioned him because he was already dead. You see, he and I had a falling out while we were in Paris. He was a notorious ladies man and I was with Elsa. We had words one night about the puppets. He despised them and thought me a fool to continue my missions with them. We soon parted ways and I lost track of him. Later, I had heard he had married a woman named Mary James, soon to be Mary Toulon."
Jake simply sat there, not believing what he was hearing.
"In time, we did get back in touch with one another. He still wanted nothing to do with the puppets, but we managed to stay on speaking terms. I didn't know they were expecting a child. Of course, this was back when I was among the living. So, a lot could have happened. There is more I need to tell you about Robert, but now is not the time. Elsa and I will leave immediately and come back there. Whatever you do, keep her safe. If someone is after the formula, they will want you and her dead."
Nodding his head, Jake muttered, "O-okay."
The phone clicked off on the other end as Jake hung up the phone sighing. Now this was going to be embarrassing.
Heading back into the lobby, he walked up to Tabitha before saying, "Blade, cut her loose."
Nodding the puppet moved to the chair and began cutting the ropes until they fell to the floor.
Extending his hand he said, "It seems as though I owe you an apology. Sorry for not believing you."
Cautiously, she took it and stood up, rubbing her arms, before asking, "So, why the sudden belief in me?"
"It's a very long story." He said, shaking his head.
"I've got plenty of time." She replied as her stomach rumbled.
Embarrassed, she put a hand on it, "Sorry about that. I haven't eaten since yesterday morning."
Extending his hand, Jake smiled, "Come on, the kitchen's upstairs. We can talk more there."