Marla slowly exhaled, shaking slightly. She had hidden in some closet in the panic and had no idea where anyone else was.
After a moment, she slowly peeked out of the closet, looking both ways down the hallway, finding nothing. She sighed shakily. She had to find someone else. She walked down the hallway, cringing as a wooden floorboard creaked under her step, trying to reassure herself with what Charlie had said. The Puppet isn't dangerous.
Just confused.
Marla peeked around a doorway, scanning the living room. A chair had been knocked over, either by someone rushing to get out of the room, or The Puppet themself. She stepped into the room, freezing as she heard something to her left: Quiet, tinkling music.
To the tune of 'Pop Goes The Weasel'.
She whirled around, eyes wide, relaxing slightly when she spotted the chair. They were behind it.
She silently exhaled, noticing the music seemed more… stressed than it was before, with another sound accompanying the tune. It was covered mostly by the music, almost silent but still noticeable.
It sounded like crying. They were crying. She felt herself stiffen. The crying sounded so… young. More than it should. Almost like a child.
She couldn't leave a child crying in the corner, even if they were so strange looking.
Mentally screaming at herself, she inched closer to the chair, eventually peeking around the side. She stopped herself from pulling back as she saw The Puppet, sitting on the ground, legs sprawled out under them in what sort of looked like a kneel, shaking as they held their face in their hands. They looked a lot less scary when they were like this, and Marla couldn't help but feel a little sad for them. She couldn't imagine how she would react if she found out she had accidentally slept through 3 decades. This reaction seemed pretty realistic, especially for someone who had only started thinking a couple years or so ago at most.
She ignored the blaring warning sign in her head and cautiously reached out towards the weeping figure on the ground. Posing herself so she could dash off if she had to, she slowly set her hand on their back.
The Puppet immediately tensed, their crying slowing to a halt quickly, clearly surprised by her hand. They didn't do anything else after that.
Marla thought back to her younger brother Jason, thinking of what she did when he was crying, as she stood as still as a statue for a moment. She silently prayed that The Puppet wasn't mad at her for doing this, as she slowly started to rub their torso slowly, as if she was comforting a child.
The Puppet seemed to tense just a bit more before relaxing slightly, moving to hold their head in their hands again, the crying noise playing again, but less in anguish. It sounded more like sorrow, or the feeling of defeat after mourning, the sad acceptance that whatever was lost, is lost. Marla cringed slightly as she felt the ticking within their torso through her hand, the dirtiness of the fabric smudging onto her fingers. "Th-there, there." She mumbled mostly subconsciously, unsure of what to even say to someone like this.
After what felt like hours of this, though it was likely only a couple minutes, The Puppet's weeping slowed to a silence, their hands falling from their face as they stilled.
Marla pulled her hand back quickly as The Puppet slowly raised to turn towards her, still mostly on the ground, but now looking at her. They both stared at each other, and Marla felt very awkward. "U-uh, sorry to- uhm- bother you-" she started to say, before cutting off with a panicked squeak as The Puppet lunged at her.
She briefly considered what it would be like to die, before The Puppet's mask buried into her shoulder, and their long snake-like arms wrapped around her in a tight, but not painful hold.
Oh. It was a hug.
Marla relaxed minutely, still extremely shaken from the speed at which The Puppet moved towards her. She felt the forest gunk on their 'skin' smudge all over her shirt and winced slightly, both of her arms stuck to her sides by the long arms wrapping around her. She also noticed that she was being lifted slightly by The Puppet, and she was on her tiptoes as they buried their porcelain face into her shoulder like a weeping child.
She felt the space on her shirt under The Puppet's mask wetted slightly. Were there actually tears? How? She awkwardly patted one of the long spindly arms, tensing very slightly as The Puppet shuddered, hugging her a little tighter. "N-no problem."
A small tune began to play from The Puppet, a relaxing one, calm and quiet. They seemed to relax slightly, clearly playing the tune for comfort. Marla just stood there and let them calm themselves down.
After what felt like even longer than the last couple minutes, she felt The Puppet start to unwrap themself from her, and took a step back as they rose to their full height, having (hopefully) regained their composure. Her feet fell flat on the floor, and she looked up at The Puppet, noticing that the purple lines that resembled tears on their face looked freshly painted, much more than the other paints. She realized that meant that they must have cried quite a bit for it to stain those lines onto their face. She suddenly felt terrible for them, enough not to complain when she realized that that meant there was purple paint all over her shoulder.
She opened her mouth to talk before The Puppet abruptly turned and left, rushing out and leaving her alone in the room, shaking slightly. Looking down at her clothes, she realized that she would probably have to change, she had dirt and forest pieces all over her shirt from the hug, and her shoulder was wet and was (as she had expected) adorned with a large purple stain, from The Puppet's tears. She didn't like the implications of the fact that they could cry.
After a moment, she sighed tiredly, wiping sweat off her forehead and pulling out her phone to text the others that The Puppet was calm again.
She decided to leave out the 'how' for now.
Charlie walked into the living room hurriedly, her eyes landing on the two occupants: Jessica, who had gotten here before her, and Marla, who looked… like something happened to her. Her shirt was dirtied, and there was a strange purple stain on her shoulder.
"What-" Charlie started to ask.
"Marla fought it." Jessica said, pointing.
"No, I didn't!" Marla sputtered, surprised at the accusation. "How would I win that fight, anyway?"
Jessica opened her mouth to make a rebuttal when John and Carlton walked in, both seeming to find each other on the way here. "Did you fight it?" Carlton asked Marla after catching sight of all the leaves and dirt on her shirt.
Marla groaned, "No, I didn't fight them," She pointed at the couch as she rubbed her eyes, "Sit down, I'll explain." She grumbled, sitting down as well.
Once everyone was sitting, Marla started to recap the prior events. "So, I felt unsafe being by myself, and I went out to find some of you guys."
"And that was safer, how?" Carlton muttered confusedly, receiving a pointed look from Marla.
"I was stressed," She defended exasperatedly, before continuing, "So I end up coming in here, and I find The Puppet, crying."
"Crying?" Charlie clarifies, receiving a nod from Marla, "How?" She just now notices the small purple stain on Marla's shoulder.
"I- I don't know," Marla admitted, wringing her hands, "but, I- uh- I tried to comfort them."
Everyone else was silent, so Marla went on. "After a bit of me just- like- patting their back, they- uh…" She drifted into silence.
"They what?" John asked, calmly.
"Hugged me, I think."
Everyone was silent for a small moment. "Is that what all the…" Jessica asked, gesturing to Marla's jacket, and all the dirt on it, as well as the stain. Marla nodded. "I'll admit there was a split second after they jumped at me I thought something else was happening."
Carlton snorted.
Charlie stared at the stain, it was purple, like the tear tracks, she was now realizing were fully real. They had cried before.
"Charlie," Marla looked at her, "whatever is in that machine, cause it sure as hell isn't an AI, could it be like… a person?"
"Like a ghost?" Jessica clarified.
Marla shrugged. "I guess."
Charlie squinted, rubbing her chin. "I guess it's as good an explanation as any." She admitted. It did make sense, even if she wasn't one for superstition. It certainly explained why The Puppet could float.
"Charlie, they- they sounded so young." Marla half-whispered.
Nobody spoke, and Jessica stood up after a moment. "Well, then we should be more…" she paused, "polite. Do they even know our names?" She asked, looking at the 3 that weren't Marla with a curious gaze, not quite a judging one, but definitely interested.
"I told them mine." Carlton raised his hand, and Jessica nodded before looking between the rest of them. "Nobody else?" She asked, receiving a small sound of agreement from John and Charlie.
"Well, then I'm going to find them." Jessica said determinedly before walking out of the room.
That was so embarrassing, Charlie thought as she sat down in the bedroom again, pulling her legs up onto the chair. She pulls the part where her knees would be up to her chest and drops her face into them, making a small static sound all the while.
She felt terrible, she could have hurt somebody. Luckily, the kind girl had helped her. She liked that one, she was really nice. But it was still so embarrassing.
She stiffened as she heard footsteps approaching the doorway, and stood up, if you could even call it standing. She drifted over to the door, listening as the small overlapping noises of shoes landing against carpet grew closer. As they slowed to a stop outside the door, she watched as the doorknob turned, and she pulled her hands to her chest and held them together.
The door opened to show the blonde girl, who promptly jumped as she saw Charlie in the door, similar to how they had first met. She held back the amused tinkle, starting to drag one of her fingers up and down the back of her 'palm,' she felt a little bad for scaring them.
They stared at each other for a moment, and Charlie looked up at the other 4, who were also there. Her gaze landed on the kind girl that helped her calm down earlier, and stayed there. The girl seemed to get a little nervous, before waving with a shaky smile. Charlie gave a little wave in return, her head tilting slightly, before she looked back at the blonde one, who seemed to be the one leading the group at the moment.
"Hi." The girl said kindly, but Charlie could tell she was still nervous, she was fidgeting with her jacket. Charlie gave another little wave. "I've become aware that you don't know any of our names."
Charlie straightened up, nodding eagerly. That would be very helpful information, she only really knew Carlton's name. The girl smiled, pointing to herself. "I'm Jessica," she introduced, before beginning to list off the others' names, pointing to each. "That's Carlton, Marla, John, and Charlie." She nodded along to each, before she stared at Charlie.
The one with the green jacket was Charlie. It wasn't anything weird, thankfully. She looked back to the blonde one (now dubbed 'Jessica'), and cataloged each name in her head.
Blonde girl = Jessica, redhead = Carlton, moron = John, nice girl = Marla, and green jacket = Charlie. "Did you get all that?" Jessica asked, receiving a nod from Charlie, the one that wasn't in the green jacket. She mentally decided to refer to her as 'Other Charlie.'
"Can you… tell us your name?" The kind girl, Marla, asked in a gentle voice.
Charlie tilted her head, how was she supposed to tell them if she couldn't talk? She pointed at her mouth and made a small confused jingle to portray this. Marla nodded, "Right, forgot. Sorry."
After a moment of silence, John speaks up. "We could use a pencil and paper." Everyone looks to him, and Charlie (not Other Charlie) nods.
As they all head over to the main area to find something for Charlie to communicate with, she makes the decision not to bring her name into this to avoid confusion, and also to keep some secrets.
There is one thing she has to say though.
Writing was difficult, way more difficult than she had initially thought.
She accidentally broke the pencil twice already, so she had been given a pen instead. She was sitting on the lone chair, everyone else on the couches across from her, and was carefully dragging the pen across a notepad. She eventually scrawls out 'FORGOT' in large, shaky letters. She turns around the notepad and shows it to the 5 on the couch.
"I'm… sorry." Other Charlie said quietly after a moment, and Charlie nodded, lying through her teeth (metaphorically). Before anyone else could say anything, She flipped the notepad around and began writing something quickly.
She scribbled down in big letters, 'GIRL,' and displayed the notebook. A few of them seemed to be getting what she was saying, and when she used one hand to tap the word, then point at her, the others did as well.
"You're a girl?" Carlton clarified, and she nodded.
"Well, it's nice to meet you." Other Charlie said kindly, nodding.
The others all said something along the same lines, and Charlie felt dumbfounded. She had no idea how to process just having a conversation. She hadn't had one in like, forever. She wasn't very good at it.
…She hadn't felt so happy in years.