Devil hunting chronicles of the impossible city.

Interlude IV Dollmaker

There was a somber mood this evening at an elegant lounge, there was an evening of mourning to its inhabitants. Thereupon a stage, a pianist took their sit. The pianist was a tall almost skeletal figure dressed entirely in a black coat that came down to its feet. it raised four pairs of arms and began to play a requiem of farewell, its face was covered by a black mask with the peak of a bird. It played its song of farewell with mechanical precision, its head moving from side to side as if barely connected to the rest of its body.

"Is such a sad day signore. Magnolia went so far away and yet, we can all feel her bitter end." A pierrot stood upon a spotlight at the side of the piano. A dainty and petite figure, wearing a half white and half black striped suit, the clown wore a mask that covered their entire head with a white comedian mask and half black tragedian mask. They walked unnaturally stiff and with every step, they took the bells hanging from their mask ringed.

"Signore, she was confident that she would get our stolen treasure back, and yet lovely Magnolia she has been lost to us, how sad, how sad." The clown monologues on stage and whispers could begin to be heard all around in that darkness.

"How lovely she was, never did I imagine a mere delivery man could have stopped, my heart indeed aches tonight, retribution will be demanded, but for tonight let us remember her, Magnolia was so sweet and always so stubborn, her dancing will remain with us forever, oh magnolia how I love you so." In the center of the lounge, a man sat alone. He was a man whose handsome features made him look so much younger than he truly was, tall, handsome but elegant. He was not muscular but a dandy gentleman with clean perfect skin and black short hair perfectly comber and almost shining, his features were of a young man but he had a fairly smile and trimmed mustache still making it clear he was an adult man. He was wearing a tuxedo with a red scarlet flower upon his heart and white gloves upon his hands. The man took a sip of wine with a quiet tender sadness in his eyes.

"I will make this right, oh magnolia how sad, that I will not see you dance ever again, such a tragedy could make a man go mad." He took his wine and then, in a student's fits he crushed the glass upon his hand, red wine and his own blood falling upon the table. Still, he didn't flinch, there was no pain in his expression only a quiet tired sadness.

"Signore, Signore Valentino. Please do not cry." A wooden hand reached for their shoulders, and from the darkness, many arms began to embrace him, all of them wooden human figures, all of the dolls with no face, their movements not unlike those of machines but they reached to the man desperately.

"You all don't worry, please continue to create, continue to enjoy yourselves, you all so much beautiful like that, the ugliness of life it Is I who must face it, so, for now, all of you my beloved, forget such sadness." The sound of cheering could be heard, and the dolls all began to laugh, to scream in joy. The man stood up on the wooden hands and retreated returning to the darkness of the lounge.

"I will have revenge, no one who steals from us gets away, give me time and I will rob them of everything they are, that way they can all join the audience in our show." He looked back a the end of the lounge where rows of the elegant chair were filled with broken dolls, they were each the size of a person, but they had no clothing and couldn't move. They were just dolls and yet, the way that Valentino Bramante looked at them with such spite made each doll recoil as if wanting to evade his gaze but their limbs could not move, they have no strings after all.

"Signore, you have a guest upstairs." A doll came forward wearing the attire of a waitress, in black and white lace. It looked more human than most of the dolls, but its empty wooden face had a knife pinned to its center. Valentino turned around coming closer and slowly he embraced the doll by her waist.