Origins Unlocked (CP)

Ch. 21-The Invitation

"You what?!"

Slender yelled at Splendor and Puppeteer, the brother seeming a bit startled by the outburst while the puppet master only sighed. "As I said, Emra went to the Zalgo realm to give the message-"

"Without my permission!"

"Splendor said so."

"SPLENDOR!?" Slender roared at his brother, getting a nervous laugh in return.

"What? We have a plan, an open location, Dr. Smiley said we were ready-"

"Not by a long shot! Some of the CP's are still healing!"

"Oh calm your fucking tits man." Puppeteer grumbled, his body levitating to meet Slender's height. "Bloody Painter even agreed this was the best course of action. She can easily blend in if she needed to."

"And pray tell Puppeteer, what should happen if she is broken?"

"I don't think you have to worry so much, Slender," Splendor cut in with a smile and put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "After all she's not alone-"

"Who is with her?" Slender snarled at his brother, he was certainly beyond annoyed with everything that has happened in the last couple of days.

"Uh...another CP-"

Puppeteer released a stressed-filled sigh as he answered. "What Splendor means to say, is that I know Emra is fragile so I had Ben Drowned go with her. He's one of the people of this mansion that is demonic and the only one to not say no to my request."

Slender was mildly surprised, Ben was strong in some ways, but hand-to-hand combat was not one of his strengths. The young killer was more familiar with manipulation and electrokinesis, if anything Puppeteer should have to send Mr. Widemouth, Laughing Jack, or anyone with greater power. "Ben is not one to agree to favors so easily, how did you manage to have him say yes?"

"Simple, the kid hates Zalgo, he's level-headed for the most part, and I promised to give him money."

"So that was the ticket in," Slender huffed, Ben was always one to easily bribe but nodded. "Alright, I will trust your judgment since she is not my proxy, are you sure she can handle being around Ben?"

"Relax brother." Splendor chuckled and hugged him tightly. "Now let's go see Chessmaster, he and the proxies are scouting a good place for the fight."

"I don't like this place.." Emra muttered, gracefully walking across the green grass with Ben following beside her, the boy rolled his eyes for what felt like the umpteenth time. "I'm serious Ben, I-I can't deliver this message-"

"Look princess," Ben hissed and stopped in his tracks to look at the doll ballerina. "Zalgo isn't going to hurt us, he's a demon but by the sound of it he has his own morals. He likes to see his prey squirm and panic, so you need to keep cool if you want to get this done right."

The forest was quiet that night, not even the crickets chirped and the sky was dark with clouds to block the stars, the heat of summer was still lingering from the day and leaked into the night. Emra's red eyes wandered as they walked again, Ben making it very clear he had no interest in their discussion and wanted to get it over with. She was not ready, nothing about this idea was full proof and she knew Ben was only there to fill any gaps she might make in the conversation. Puppeteer had explained that her task was only to make Zalgo tense and accept the fight that was soon to come, yet she couldn't find the right words to put together for such a threat. Once they had reached the border of Zalgo's woods, Ben was beyond paranoid, he had not really seen Zalgo's demon army and only seen pawns to his game.

What was expected to be a struggle to get to, it was surprisingly easy to find the center of the burnt demonic forest, but where Creature should have been there was a scarecrow in its place. The scarecrow hung limply on its post, straw poking out from every hole in the clothes it wore and the gloves on its "hands", there was no hat upon its sack head and a face seemed burnt into the sack. Emra watched curiously before stepping forward, then froze when Ben seized her wrist and glared at the scarecrow.