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Chapter 01

Horror Theatre

Anton Puppet

In stories told by the acts of a show, victims are turned into puppets and forced to perform. 

Act I: Invitation

 

         Anton opens a new message on his cell phone. It’s from one of his old high school classmates, inviting him to an alumni meeting. Anton raises his eyebrows – it’s an odd message to receive, since he had been known as the high school bully.

         But that had been years ago, after all – now that he and his ex-classmates are all adults, they must have overcome the events of the past and decided to reconnect.

         Anton re-reads the message. It says that the meeting is at a theater that his old classmate had just opened in the city. Anton finds the meeting place unusual – why a theater instead of their old high school gym or something? – but he decides he will go to this meeting.

 

Act II: Meeting

 

         When the day of the meeting arrives, Anton arrives at the theater and recognizes his ex-classmates clustered in a corner of the theater. They talk for a while until a voice coming from an overhead speaker says that the show is about to start.

         Anton and his ex-classmates sit in nearby chairs in the audience. The curtains open and a puppet show begins. Anton rolls his eyes and starts mocking the show and the taste of whoever chose the place for the meeting, not bothering to whisper. One of Anton's ex-classmates shakes his head, realizing that Anton hasn't changed at all.

         The show ends, and the speaker's voice announces that people in the audience can now get on stage to interact and play with the puppets. One of Anton's ex-classmates grabs him by the arm and leads him onto the stage, insisting it will be fun. Though a little unwilling, Anton lets himself be taken to the stage.

         Anton and his ex-classmate grab puppets and start playing while talking about their high school days. The game feels ridiculous to Anton, so he decides to make it more interesting. He has his doll start hitting one of the other puppets until he finally destroys his ex-classmate’s puppet, and it falls apart.

 

Act III: Punishment

 

         This time, a voice with an angrier tone comes out of the speaker and announces that the next part of the main show is about to begin. The curtains suddenly close in front of Anton and his ex-classmate. Anton finds it strange that the curtain has closed without him leaving the stage.

         A strange Red Mist begins to spread across the stage. Upon realizing this, Anton gets a little worried. He glances over at his ex-classmate and realizes that he doesn’t seem worried – on the contrary, he’s smiling strangely. His ex-classmate raises a hand to point behind Anton, who feels a sudden chill run down his spine.

         Anton spins around and sees a mysterious, red-eyed man walking toward him across the stage. Overcome with fear, Anton tries to run but realizes that his feet won’t seem to move or obey his command, so he looks down and realizes that the Red Mist spreading across the stage is now densely concentrated around his feet.

         The Red Mist begins to rise rapidly until it covers Anton's entire body. Now the heavy, unresponsive sensation from Anton’s feet seems to blanket him entirely, leaving Anton unable to move his entire body. The ex-high school bully blinks in horror – his eyes are about the only thing he seems to be able to move – as he watches his clothes dissolve into a mist and melt away into the Red Mist that surrounds him. Then Anton feels his body grow hard and begin to shrink in size while his limbs begin to split along with his mouth. The mystery man's eyes stop glowing and the Red Mist disappears. Anton drops heavily to the floor.

 

Act IV: Revenge Show

 

         Anton finds himself lying on the floor, his immobile body sprawled helplessly in an awkward position, staring upward as the red-eyed man grins and extends his hand toward Anton’s ex-classmate.

         Startled, Anton moves his mouth – which seems now able to respond clumsily to his commands, along with his eyes and neck – and begins to demand that his ex-classmate and the red-eyed man explain what happened.

         The two men standing above him ignore Anton's words and shake hands as if closing a deal. Anton tilts his neck to look downward at his body and, realizing what has happened, starts begging to be turned back into a man. But he continues to be ignored.

         The mysterious man grabs Anton with one hand and positions himself. Anton blinks and drops his heavy jaw in surprise as he feels the man’s fingers close around his smaller body. Still in despair, Anton continues pleading for attention.

         Anton's ex-classmate leaves the stage, and the curtains slide open. Except for the ex-classmates who had been bullied by Anton in the past, everyone else in the audience begins to emanate the strange Red Mist from their bodies, revealing themselves to be all creatures made of mist. Anton's ex-classmates start pointing their fingers at him, laughing uproariously while the mystery man plays with him on stage.

         Anton begs all of them for mercy, for all of this to stop, and the mystery man pauses. He looks at the broken and disassembled puppet on the floor, then looks back at Anton in his hands, and slowly dismantles one of his legs.

         Anton pleads with everyone to stop laughing because what they're doing to him isn't funny. Then one of his hands is dismantled and placed over his head. Anton, furious, starts insult everyone, so the mysterious man dismantles Anton's penis and puts it inside Anton's mouth. The bully-turned-puppet tries to continue spitting insults, but with his own penis inside his mouth, no words are understandable. Finally, Anton is completely dismantled and placed inside a box, to be stored for future shows.

Cowritten by Krynshar and nowvoyager64 

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