Chapter Seven

Betrayal

The next two weeks at the museum went without incident. Due to the possibility of future attacks, everyone was now on the "buddy" system and no one went anywhere alone. This amused Trickster to no end, telling Jake, he and Tabitha would now have to shower together, go to the bathroom together and so on. To this Jake only replied, "Trickster, grow up."

Even though this was a time of great stress for everyone, there were some happy and humorous moments.

The first one happened three days after Tabitha's attempted kidnapping. The puppets had been moving slowly and needed their injections of serum. As they lay prone on the worktable of Jake's, Trickster decided that since he wasn't quite as depleted as everyone else, he would use this "naptime" to play a prank on Blade that would start a private war between the two.

Blade, after having received his injection, had left the table and was curious as to why people were smiling down at him. True, this was his family now and they needn't fear him, well, perhaps Trickster, but they rarely smiled this much at him.

It wasn't until he passed the full length mirror in one hallway that he realized what it was.

On his pale white face, there was now bright red lipstick on his lips and blush on his cheeks. The daggers from his eyes shot out as a loud hiss could be heard from the kitchen and as Andre and Elsa looked out to see what the commotion was, saw Blade running down the hall toward the injection area.

As the little gothic puppet stormed into the room, Trickster was quickly moving for high ground on the windowsill behind Jake who held a hand up.

"Hold it, hothead." He said, still wearing a smile as whispering and hissing could be heard from the other puppets, especially Jester.

Blade simply looked up at Jake and hissed.

"Yes, I know what he did. I saw it when I was doing the injection. I figured it was a little prank from Trickster." Reaching down, he picked Blade up and using a small wet rag, wiped the makeup from his face, "But no harm done. Back to your old nasty self."

Blade's dagger eyes still focused in on Trickster as he hissed once more and then motioned to be set down.

Tabitha was having a hard time concealing her laughter at this as she held a pillow up to her face as Blade turned and left the room. She was laughing so hard Jake vaguely wondered if she could suffocate stuffing a pillow to her face like that. Getting control she put the pillow down and wiped at her eyes. Jake couldn't help but smile at her.

Looking to Trickster, Jake said, "You had better watch yourself, Dex. He's going to be out to get you now."

"He he he!" was the only reply he got as Trickster received his dose of serum and left the room.

As the puppets left, Jake walked over and sat down on the bed, looking over at Tabitha as he extended a hand and ran it along her cheek.

"We need to talk." He said in a different tone of voice than he normally had. "About us."

She nodded, taking her hand and stroking his. Things between them had indeed progressed beyond the friendship level. Together, they had come to an understanding that their emotions for one another were growing fast and deep, to the point of making love two nights previous.

"I…" Jake was about to say before a noise from the worktable interrupted him, causing him to look over.

He looked back to her as she giggled and nodded, "Go check on junior."

Smiling at her, he stood up and walked over to where a new puppet lay.

The body itself was comprised of both wood and high durability plastic. It was designed to be quite muscular, though not to the point Pinhead had been. A head of short cropped hair topped the puppet, going down to a pair of deep set gentle blue eyes, an homage to Tabitha. The face itself was emotionless, so unlike Trickster with his wide grin.

Looking to its side, Jake looked down at what had made the noise, a small pair of cybernetic hands that were flexing into fists randomly.

"Well, it looks as though your hands are ready, Hunter." Jake said, grabbing a small set of tools and beginning to work on attaching them to the arms of the puppet.

Various pieces of equipment lay scattered on the table including a small flame thrower, two daggers, and what appeared to be a laser pistol. Scattered among these pieces were handfuls of wires and circuit boards.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw Tabitha just looking at him with those blue eyes he had fallen in love with. He had never been in love before, but knew that this must be it. His only desire now was to be with her as much as he could. To protect her from any and all harm. Something in his heart told him he wanted to make her happy, no matter what.

He had spoken with Andre and his father about this, with Andre relaying what his father was saying back to him. At first, only four days after the kidnapping incident, the pair had been slightly skeptical.

"In times like these, one might think they are in love, but after everything calms down, it turns out to have been infatuation." Andre stated, though with an understanding smile.

"How did you both know you were in love?" Jake had asked when being told this, "How do you know it's not love?"

Andre and Rick both gave their stories of their spouses and their relationships to which Jake replied that was how he felt.

"Better to let him go on and see if it is indeed love." Andre finally consented. "Perhaps it is true love."

"It is." Jake reassured them.

Now, he sat there looking over at her and before he knew it, he had said what he was thinking.

"I love you, Tabitha."

This sudden outburst caused her eyes to widen slightly as she asked, "Excuse me?"

"I said…I love you." He repeated.

He wasn't sure how she would react to this. After all, they had never said anything like that since they had been together.

She wasn't entirely sure what to say as she sat there on the bed, staring at him. Having been analyzing her own feelings for him, she had come the realization that she had loved him as well, but wasn't sure how he had felt until now. Hearing him say those words still took her by surprise but it was a happy surprise.

The look on his face made her think that he was worried about her reaction. A wide smile came to her face as she stood up and walked over to him, sitting on his lap and looking into his brown eyes.

"I love you too Jake Myers. Even though you can be a tease sometimes." She said with a giggle and kissed him.

Abomination had been standing on the side of Sutaketh's throne chair for an unknown amount of time now. The demon lord had been questioning him and probing his mind in an attempt to better plan his next move.

His Wheelers had failed him, his Totems had failed him. Before making his next move, he would plan out a better strategy. Conversing with the small puppet, he had gained the information he needed to take advantage of the Myers boy's weaknesses and that of the Toulon girl.

The question was how to do it without invoking extreme suspicions in either of them.

Once he had them, Andre Toulon and the soul of Rick Myers would come to him, he knew it. They would give anything for the lives of the children. How pathetic.

Tonight, the first phase of the plan would need to be initiated. For this, he had created his own puppet of sorts. Not a work of plastic, metal or wood, one made from supernatural forces, made flesh and bone nonetheless.

Back at the museum, Jake had nearly completed soldering the armor onto the puppet's torso, except for the helmet. That piece would be removable. The armor itself was still metallic silver in color for now, but that would be changed soon enough. Once that was done, it would be complete. But then, it would sit and wait for a soul to possess it.

Both Andre and Rick had congratulated and complimented him on his work. Indeed, as Andre had said, Jake had become the new generation of Puppet Master.

It was on that next morning while everyone was in the kitchen that a commotion was heard from out in the hallway. Rising from the table to see what it was, they saw Blade running around, his knife hand extended to protect himself from Trickster. The second puppet running around in what appeared to be one of Mrs. Leech's dresses with several small cuts along its back as if someone with a knife and hook hand had forced it onto the little puppet.

There was no longer any laughing from Trickster though it appeared Blade was with his near silent hissing.

"Okay you two," Tabitha said, moving forward and stepping between them, "Break it up."

Blade moved to the kitchen, but still watching his own back by looking over his shoulder.

Trickster thrashed about as Tabitha removed the dress and set him back down, "There. But you have to admit, you had it coming to you."

Looking up at her, he waved a single finger as if to say, "This isn't over." Before turning and walking away.

Shaking his head, Andre, Elsa, Rick, Suzie and Jake and Tabitha all walked back into the kitchen to continue the discussion they had been having.

"So Andre," Tabitha asked, "You said that this museum has some kind of weird mystical properties around it?"

Andre nodded while taking a drink of juice, "Yes, child. You see, I'm not sure what it is, but it is almost like a sixth sense I have. The same way I can communicate with Rick and Suzie. Something is in this house that connects it to other realms of existence, perhaps including the afterlife."

"What makes you say the afterlife?" Asked Jake while putting a third helping of bacon on his plate, just as Tabitha reached over and put it back, waving her finger at him.

Leaning forward she whispered, "No prospective future husband of mine is going to have high cholesterol and have a heart attack." She warned him.

He was about to reply when Andre answered his question, "Well, for instance, there are souls here in the museum that have not moved on. One in particular is still among us, though why he hasn't returned to us in his previous form, I'm not sure."

This caught both Jake and Tabitha's attention as they turned to look at him, "Who?"

"A man named Herman Strauss. Strauss was a truck driver who secretly brought food to the Jewish ghettos; as a result, he was killed by the Nazis for treason." He explained, mostly for Tabitha's sake, "He was known as the puppet Pinhead."

Tabitha nodded, "Jake told me about him. Sweet personality as long as you didn't attack anyone he was close to."

Andre smiled as he nodded, "Yes. But as to why he has not taking up residence inside his repaired body, I cannot tell you."

"Is there a possibility that there is something stopping him from moving on?" Jake suggested.

Shrugging, Andre shook his head, "Who knows?"

After breakfast, the three pairs split up, going their different ways. Jake and Tabitha to his workshop, Andre and Elsa to their own room and Rick and Suzie to the lobby.

As the last pair exited the elevator, they saw something before them that shocked them. Pinhead was standing in the center of the lobby, clad in his normal red sweater, the large puppet beckoned them to follow as if in a hurry, waving his large right hand and turning to leave.

Quickly the puppet pair followed, unsure of what was happening, but if Pinhead was asking for help, they would give it. Opening the door to the basement, he moved down the stairs, Rick and Suzie behind him. Once they reached the lower floor, Pinhead moved to the center of the room and pointed down at something on the floor in the center of the room.

As they moved to investigate, they saw a series of runes almost drilled into the concrete. Ones similar to those in Tabitha's room by her bed.

As Decapitron knelt to one knee to look at it, a mighty first came down from behind, slamming into his back and knocking him face first onto the floor.

Turning, Mrs. Leech was also struck in the side of her head sending her several feet against the wall. Slowly getting back to his feet, Decapitron began to move forward to his wife when a second fist struck him again, knocking him once more to the ground.

A large hand grabbed him by the leg and dragged his body over to where his wife still lay, unmoving as he was thrown against the wall.

Walking around the corner, Pinhead came back carrying a large amount of wire and rope and began tying the two back to back from their necks all the way to their ankles with no possibility of movement.

Shaking his head Decapitron looked over to Pinhead who simply shook his head as his body began to change before them, morphing into that of a demonic looking creature comprised from bones with glowing red eyes but retaining the size of Pinhead.

Picking the pair up, he tosses them into a small crate and shut the lid, before putting another crate on top of that one.

With that work done, the creature vanished in a burst of flame.