Eternal Road

Leroy looked around him in panic.

'Have I been caught already?' he thought, his body unable to sit still from the fear he was experiencing.

'No, otherwise I'd have already been swarmed by hundreds of puppets, or maybe they just aren't here yet.' Leroy's expression had changed, now showing a constant frown. His hands were shaking, which had been happening a lot these past few days.

Turning towards the right road, he started heading into it.

'Ill try the other road then, maybe ill finally go past whatever this magic is.'

Leroy went down the other road, but mere minutes later, he found out that he had come back to the same intersections.

It had been more than an hour since he decided to go to the source of the red threads.

'This, what am I supposed to do now?' Leroy thought, now agitated with the situation. If it were any other time, he would have already screamed out his frustrations.

Yet, he refused to surrender, mustering the courage to try again, only to find himself back at the same spot.

'It's impossible. How am I supposed to win against this? The mage told me to destroy the crystal ball at the source, but if I can't even go there, what am I supposed to do.'

Clenching his fists, Leroy started to look for any clue as to how he could solve this situation he had found himself in.

'Wait, can I head back from where I came from?' 

Leroy thought as he tried going back to where he came from. He quickly found out that he could, so he went back to the intersection.

'That means that only the way ahead is blocked, meaning it's likely I have yet to be caught, or They would have sealed me in with no escape.'

Looking around, all Leroy could see were the destroyed buildings and the dirt road. Nothing else was in sight.

He stayed at the intersection for hours until he felt that if he stayed longer, the sun would go up, and he would get caught.

Still, he had yet to find a way ahead, no way to break the magic.

Deciding that he had no more time, he headed back towards the Tavern.

'One more night left, I have to be able to cross the next night otherwise it is my end.' 

Half an hour later, across the street from the Tavern, you could notice Leroy coming back. His expression was dark as he walked towards the Tavern.

Going towards the door of the Tavern, he found it locked. Travis was the only one with a key, but thankfully, he had learned how to lockpick.

He wasn't good at the craft, so it took him a while, and by the time he was done, the sky had already started brightening up.

Going inside, he closed the door as quietly as possible, hoping Travis would think he had simply forgotten to lock it last night.

He headed up the stairs and into the Bedroom. Thankfully, it seemed like everyone was in a deep sleep and hadn't been woken up. He got into his bed, put the monocle under his pillow, and closed his eyes, hoping to get at least a few hours of sleep.

Leroy woke up a few hours later. From what he could see through the window, he hadn't slept more than three hours. His entire back was covered in sweat.

He felt horrible. 

The entire time he slept, he had countless nightmares, most of them revolving around puppets eating him alive or getting burned by a smiling sun, whatever that abomination his subconscious had created was.

he sat up from his sleeping position on his bed, took the monocle from under the pillow, and put it in his pants.

He wouldn't want others to see him randomly put on a monocle when he had never worn or owned one in his entire life.

Going down the stairs this time with more confidence than yesterday, at least this time, he knew that the puppets wouldn't be attacking him randomly, at least not yet.

What would happen on the day of the ritual? He didn't know and didn't want to find out either.

Finally, in the lounge of the Tavern, he could see Travis, Arthur, John, and Ivar sitting on the barstools while eating breakfast.

"You finally woke up, kid. Come take a bite," said Travis loudly, now facing Leroy.

"Yeah, coming."

'Those faces are still creepy as hell,' Leroy thought while looking at Travis and the others.

Heading up to the bar, Leroy sat down on the remaining bar stool and took the plate of food Travis had prepared for him.

It was a small loaf of bread with some unknown meat on the side.

It was nowhere near enough for any growing child, not to mention an adult, but this was the situation in the slums.

While eating his food, Leroy started thinking about what he should do today. He had to find a way to get past that intersection; otherwise, he was doomed.

'There were no clues there. The only other place I know where there might be something is the Church of the Sun God. Going there will be extremely risky, but it doesn't seem like I have a choice.'

A few minutes later, everyone had finished eating their food.

The more Leroy saw, the more discrepancies he saw between the now puppets and his family.

If it were them, the breakfast would be filled with banter and jokes, but no one talked, not a single time throughout the breakfast.

They just stood there eating the food, even when they were doing that they would sometimes miss their mouth with the spoon.

It seemed like the puppet's motor skills had gone down considerably.

Leroy couldn't stare at them for too long, though. Every time he looked, he felt like his heart would explode, his throat grew tight, and his eyes became misty.

Getting up from the barstool, Leroy gave the Tavern one last look.

'I might never come back again, and it's truly depressing when you think of it like that, isn't it? Tonight, this whole charade will end. I'll make sure of it.' Leroy thought his determination firm as he turned towards the door.

Going outside, Leroy looked around and noticed the same puppets as yesterday doing the exact same things.

'This magical artifact really doesn't seem that intelligent if it thinks it can fool anyone with this, though I don't know why they're even keeping up the acting at this point. There's a barrier stopping people from coming into the slums, so it should be obvious to anyone outside that something is happening, but they can do nothing about it, and from what the mage told me then, the church thinks that everyone has already become puppets so why are they still keeping up this mess of a facade?'

Finally, Leroy started heading towards the Church of the Sun God.