The Monocle

Paralyzed with disbelief, Leroy's eyes were fixated on the monocle resting on his lap.

'This... this can't be real, can it?' Leroy's mind was a whirlwind of confusion, his forehead damp with the sweat of uncertainty.

'Haha, yes, a joke, a joke,' Leroy said as he quickly put the monocle aside and jumped out of bed, running downstairs as fast as he could.

Arriving at the bar, he looked around for Travis and found him behind the bar with Arthur. They were cleaning and organizing the whines, whiskeys, and other bottles.

"Hey, Old man, did you put that monocle on my bed last night? Did you see something, Arthur?" Leroy asked in a high voice, almost trembling.

"Huh, Big brother? No, I didn't see any monocles last night or even this morning," Arthur replied as he turned around to face Leroy.

"I didn't put anything on your bed either, kiddo," said Travis as well while also turning around to face Leroy

"Huh, what's wrong big brother? You look like you're seeing a ghost or something," said Arthur.

Leroy just stood there, looking at them both, as, at this moment, his mind was blank. After all, when the two had turned around, he saw something he had never wanted to see in his entire life.

The old man and Arthur had a frightening expression on their face.

The same expression he had seen on John yesterday.

Their eyes had widened, and the pupils and irises had shrunk, making it look as if their eyes were completely white. Their mouths were ajar, and saliva was rolling down to their chins.

Snapping out of his stupor, Leroy answered while stuttering.

"Haha, it's nothing. I was thinking about something. I'll go get dressed upstairs."

Leroy turned around and took quick steps up to the second floor, trying to act as unfazed as possible, but his hands just wouldn't stop shaking.

Opening the door to the bedroom and getting inside, he closed the door immediately and then leaned his back on it, sliding to the floor.

He was still in disbelief. He couldn't process the information he had received. All of it together was just too much for him at the moment.

He felt like his mind was shattering as a pane of glass.

He stood there for minutes, staring at the ceiling, his eyes blank and unfocused.

'I have to get up, I have to,' Leroy thought.

'But if everyone is already dead, what am I supposed to do? Should I even be alive?' 

'What would you do in this position, Travis... what should I do, please.'

Tears were running down his face as he just stood there. Even as the one-hour mark passed, he hadn't moved an inch.

Finally, light started to return to his eyes after a long time.

'I can't die yet, not yet, at least not until I get to the end of this.'

Gathering his strength, he slowly stood up while leaning on the door.

'Whoever, Whatever did this is going to pain. Even if I die, I'll at least drag you down with me.'

Looking towards his bed, Leroy saw the monocle he had tossed aside earlier in panic.

He went to the bed and grabbed the monocle.

'This thing is supposed to allow me to see the ritualistic magic? It looks completely normal, plain even.'

The monocle in his hand was circular, with grayish metal surrounding the glass. There were no inscriptions on it, as he had thought there would be in magical objects; it just looked like a normal monocle.

'Let's just try it then,' Leroy huffed as he put the monocle on his right eye.

'I don't see any red threads around here, so I'm definitely not being controlled unknowingly by the artifact,' Leroy thought as he started twisting the monocle on his eye.

Deciding to go see what the monocle would show when he looked at others, Leroy started to head downstairs, though this time, he was trying to be as silent as possible.

'She said that if I got found out, then the entire slums would be after me, that's a guaranteed death if there was one. Do the puppets share the vision with each other, or does it just mean they share information with the artifact as he controls all of them? Do the puppets have at least a little autonomy, or are they in complete control of the artifact? So many questions with no answer.'

Slowly going down, Leroy arrived at the end of the stairs, and now, all that separated him from the lounge of the tavern was one slim wall.

He carefully leaned his head to look at the bar at the tavern's center.

He could now see two red glowing threads coming from behind the bars counter.

'At least this seems to be working,' Leroy thought as he stopped leaning forward.

'I need to get out of here as quietly as possible, find some weapons to arm myself with, and prepare before starting to follow the threads. Thankfully, it seems like I don't have to hide as much as the puppets seem to think I'm one of them. There should be ways for me to get found out, though, if the mage decided to warn me,'

Going towards the entrance as quietly as possible while also trying to look like he was walking normally, he followed the walls closely, trying not to be seen.

'If the puppets see me going towards the artifact, they will most likely find me out. That should be one of the dangers. Also, I'm guessing that if I say anything against the sun god to them, they will find out.'

Leroy had finally arrived outside, managing to hide from Arthur and Travis.

 Looking around, he saw the street with ruined buildings and garbage everywhere. What was odd about the situation was that you couldn't see small critters, which there were plenty of around these parts. It seemed like they had all disappeared.

There were people roaming around, but if you looked close enough for a long enough time, you'd notice that their movements had a pattern that kept repeating over and over.

Another difference was what they were saying. If you listened to their conversations, it was all about the sun god.

Beggars asked people to give them money and that the sun god would favor them.

Other people talked about how great the sun god was and if they were to the last preaching yesterday.

'Great, tons of puppets just for me,' Leroy thought sarcastically while furrowing his brows.

Turning to the left, Leroy started heading towards the bustling street where he usually stole from people.

In there, he'd be able to get some copper and buy weapons or just straight up steal them from random gang members.

'Time to get some weapons'