Chapter 29: Puppet Master (Marak)

The world goes darker, the surrounding screams becoming silent. I've failed you, May. I've failed us all.

I close my eyes to accept my fate. It all feels normal. The air is fresher than ever before. The silence filling in my ears makes me smile.

Is this what peace feels like? Is this what dying is like? Why should anyone fear it? The calming world, the end of everything horrible, is here. In this lonely world.

No! May!

I try to shout, scream her name, but I can hear only silence. My cries for my daughter echo in my heart. The world around me isn't peaceful! This is a mistake! The loneliness isn't worth it.

I struggle to move, trying to open my eyes to see what is beyond the darkness. I won't die here! Not without my daughter!

Click!

What's that sound? Something clicks again, as if it were a clock.

Am I alive?

I struggle to open my eyes, a towering metal shelf as tall as the eye can see stands beside me. Hundreds, maybe thousands of puppets lie on every shelf. Puppets of Cinari, Dogs, and strange bug looking creatures. The rest is darkness, void of colour or anything. As if I am standing in the emptiness of space.

I'm on a hard surface, a table of some sorts. I try to lift my arm, but it is as if I have no control over it. I can only move my neck and head, while the rest of my body is paralysed.

Thump, thump, thump.

The sound of footsteps gets closer and closer. I dart my eyes around to see who it is, seeing nothing but darkness.

A Dog with orange fur, his facial features rough and jaded. He sits next to me wearing large orange goggles that hide his eyes.

'I suppose you have questions,' the man smiles.

I want to scream, panic, and cry for help. Yet I am calm. I don't feel anger, sadness or even happiness. Just calm.

'Where am I? Am I dead?' I question the man.

He chuckles at my response. 'No, friend, you are not dead. Not yet, that is.'

'So where am I? Is this place even real?'

'Real? Fake? You are in a world that is both material and not. A world that follows its own rules.'

He grabs a broken puppet reassembling a strange bipedal creature. It seems to have black skin and four enormous arms. It has no eyes or ears, only a large mouth painted on it.

'This is my home, and you are safe here with me.'

I scrunch my face while I struggle to move my body. The man places a hand on my chest, urging me to stop struggling.

'Why did you bring me here? The last memory I had is when I was hit by that… Lightning.'

He smiles softly. 'I bring remarkable people here, Marak. People who can change the world, people who are interesting to them.'

'How do you know my name?'

'I brought you here. It would be rude of me to not know your name.'

I look towards the puppets. 'What are they?'

'They are people, people from this world.' He brings up a broken puppet that looks like a Dog with scorch marks on it.

'This one is yours.'

'You control us?'

He shakes his head. 'In every play, the puppet doesn't take the personality of the puppet master. The master takes on the personality of the puppet. Some puppets are more important than others. Some become more important as the play carries on. I just watch as the play unfolds around me.'

'If you don't control us, who does?'

He points upwards into the darkness above. 'They do, the one who created us. I, too, am a puppet, not as important as you. But still a puppet, designed to watch the fickle universe.'

I pause, soaking in what is going on around me. This strange world, a world I don't belong in. It makes no sense, is it just my dying imagination?

'I am surprised you've mentioned nothing about your people, Marak. Did you want to free them?' He untangles the broken puppet strings.

Did I? Of course I did. I fought for the freedom of my people so I can fight the Cinari. Why do you have to ask such a silly…

No. It isn't silly, it isn't stupid at all. I fought to kill, to harm the monsters that harmed me.

But what about my people? Did I really care for them being free?

'I… I don't think I did,' I reply slowly.

The man stops what he is doing, looking at me in shock. 'Why is that?'

'I wanted to kill them. To kill the Cinari. They took away something special from me, someone I cared for. So I just fought and freed my people along the way. Used their help to kill more Cinari. I loved it, every moment of it. The taste of their blood, their cries of fear. All of it.'

'And you continue fighting. Why?'

'I… I want my daughter back.' I turn away from him to face the darkness. 'She was the only thing I have left to live for.'

'What about Alex?' The man asks.

Alex? He isn't my son by blood. I raised him, but he is not like May.

'What about him?'

'He is your adopted son, a young man just like you. Would you turn away from him? A man who sees you as his own father?'

'He can handle himself. He is smart enough to handle anything.'

'Not on his own. The others don't see him the same way you do.'

I frown. 'What do you want me to say? What do you want me to do?'

'Choose, Marak. I want you to choose.'

'Choose what?'

The man points to the other side of the room to a door that wasn't there before. On its own, it opens for white light escapes. I hold back tears. Joy and love burst out of my heart as May sits on the grass playing with some toys.

'May!' I sob.

My lover appears in view, the mother of our child, sitting next to our daughter as they play together. Their smiles, their beautiful smiles. I can't help myself, I cry with joy seeing them again. I want to be with them.

'You can be with them Marak, that is one option.' He smiles as if to say he understands my pain.

'What's the other?'

'You go back to the living. To continue fighting.'

'Why would I want that? I could be in my own heaven.'

'The Cinari are coming to fight your free people. A final push to end the war, to-'

'What makes me special?' I interrupt him. 'I just freed them and kill Cinari. They can survive without me.'

The man shakes his head. 'Maybe they could, but you underestimate your importance. You keep them together. You are their banner they fight under. Some don't fight for their people, but for you. They have always characterised their hope for a brighter future as a person, a king, and his name is Marak.'

'I don't want that responsibility anymore, not when we have no hope against their flying beasts.'

The man displays the broken puppet with freshly painted white blobs covering the scorch marks.

'Everything can be destroyed. The actions you took against the Cinari made the world question their legitimacy. Even if you lost, they won't be considered as the world's greatest guardian. Their flying ships are just a symbol of their might. If you can take one down, the message you send would send shock waves to the world.' He gently puts the puppet on the shelf.

'That is my second option? To keep fighting. What if I don't want to fight anymore?'

He smiles. 'That is up to you. How would you consider ending your story has always been your choice. You can have peace now, or you can continue to fight for freedom or revenge. All choices are equally important and valid. It is up to you. But know that if you fight and eventually perish, you will meet them again. I can promise you that.'

He walks away, disappearing into the darkness.

I stare towards May, her youthful laughs rings like music to my ears.

But behind me are my people, and the Cinari. They have to be stopped! They need to be put down.

But do I deserve this? Can I truly walk away from my people and Alex for happiness? I would be a coward to walk away. But I would also have my wish. To be with the people I love.

My daughter plays with her toy mouse, laughing and enjoying her time. She is the happiest I have ever seen her. May, I want to be with you. I really do.