''Welcome to the family puppet' 'Welcome to the family puppet' 'Welcome to the family puppet' that phrase played in my head over and over like a broken recorded. It haunted me. Sometimes I think I hear it and it sends a shiver down my spine. After he left it was just me and the girls. The girl with the blue dress spoke, "Once again, I'm Dani. To my left is Elizabeth..." The girl in the pale pink dress similar to mine and Dani's gave me a sympathetic smile. "and in front of me," Dani continued " is Audrey and to her right is Taylor." Both Audrey and Taylor looked very much alike. I guess by the look on my face they knew what I was thinking. "We aren’t sisters by the way." Audrey spoke up. "But we were neighbors." I just looked at them. Audrey in her yellow dress and Taylor in her black. They seemed scared and dead but yet they were acting like this was a sleepover. All of them were. I turned to Dani. "Why?" was all I could think of to say. She stared at me, trying to decide how to put it. "Haile, I would love to tell you everything. I would love to give you every detail of why we are here and what he wants. I would love to explain it, but I honestly have no idea." My heart broke a little more then it already was. We are tied down in a cold moldy basement with the only form of heat being a small light that hangs above each one of our heads and we have no idea why. We were all quiet for awhile. We sat in our chairs, in our dresses and bare foot. I remember wondering what time it was and if the sun was still out or if it was dark. I wanted to say something, just to take my mind off the fact that I was here. We were here. "Dani, how long have you been here?" was the only thing I could think of. She looked up and counted to herself. "Um, Its December first right?" I nodded yes. "Okay, um, 5 months today. Since August first. I was the first." I couldn’t imagine being Dani. In this basement, In that chair, alone, down here, with him. "Its been 4 for me." Elizabeth spoke up. I guess trying to taking some pressure off of Dani. "Yeah, I was here September first." After a few moments, Audrey spoke, "Two. Months I mean. Since October first." "November first." Taylor injected."one month." "A day." I said.
"All of you were taken on a first?"
"Correct." I replied to Officer Marcs.
Marcs wrote on his yellow legal pad. "Im sorry, please go on."
"The sound of heavy foot steps interrupted our conversation. Dani leaned toward me a little and whispered, "Now look, don’t pull anything like before, he hates running. Trying to run will only make things worse. Made it worse for Heather." " Who's Heather?" I whispered back. "Exactly." was all she said before Alex's figure appeared in the doorway. "I would knock," Alex said."but my like sunflower made me upset." He walked towards me smiling, "You wont make me upset anymore will you princess?" What was up with all the pet names I thought. "No." I replied. His face became blank. He leaned forward and put his hands on my wrists putting all his weight on them. I wanted to cry. "No, what?" What do you want me to say? Was running through my mind and get off my wrists but I knew that wasn’t the answer. Alex I guess...maybe. "Um, Alex?" He slapped me. If his left hand was not still holding onto my wrist, the chair would have tipped over. "It is sir!" he yelled. "I deserve respect!" I tried to hold in the tears but a single drop flowed down my face. Another slap, this time to the right side of my face. He let the chair fall. My head hit the floor and I could feel a strong unruly head ache taking over. I wanted to cry, no, I wanted to sob but that would only make it worse. "Crying shows weakness, and when you are weak I must take advantage." This time he didn’t yell. He said it like a father giving his daughter advice. "Weakness will never help you. So grow a pair and maybe this will be easier for you." He picked up the chair roughly and set it in the center under the light. He leaned in, putting his lips close to my ears, "Maybe." He stood up and walked to the steps. "Oh!" He shouted "The sunflower caused me to forget my purpose of coming here.'' How could he act so normal? "Dinner will be ready in five minutes." Alex went on to say, "We are having Chicken Alfredo with a side salad and garlic bread. I know its Halie's favorite." He looked at me and smiled, "I hope you enjoy it puppet." and left. No one said a thing until the sound of it boots slowly faded away. "Is your head okay? Is it bleeding?" Dani asked frantically. "I don’t know. I just have a terrible headache." She looked down at her feet then back at me "Im sorry I should have warned you. I should have told you I’m sorry." she looked back to her feet blue from the cold. "Its okay." I said trying to make her not feel bad for what he has done. "This is not your fault, besides I’m okay." She gave me a smile that came from one side of mouth with her eyes still focused on her feet.
"Were you able to leave the basement for dinner or any reason? If her feet were blue she must have been there for awhile." Officer Marcs asked
"No" I answered "We only left to take a shower. He didnt like us to be dirty. He hated it. We each took a shower once every 2 days. The basement was just so cold."
"Continue." Officer Marcs said with his hand furiously writing every word that I said.
"I few moments later, Alex came back with a long white folding table. He leaned it against the wall and came towards me. He pushed my chair over towards Dani and walked back to the table. He set it up in the center of the room, where my chair once was, then he came back to me and pushed me to one end of the rectangle table. Dani to my left and Elizabeth next to Dani. He then walked to Audrey, who he moved to my right and Taylor next to Audrey. He then left and a few moments later returned with a dark brown chair which he set at the end of the table facing me. He went to each one of us and unbuckled our wrists. I was about to rub my wrist because of how sore they were from the buckles of the chair being so tight and Alex's body weight on them, but with one look from Dani, I didn’t dare move. Before Alex left again he said, “I'll return soon with the food puppets.” As soon as he was no longer in site the girls rubbed their wrist, so I followed. "Never rub them in front of him, He'll get angry." Audrey whispered quietly to me. "Another thing..." We heard foot steps and put our hands back on the arm rests. He first brought Audrey and Taylor their food then Dani and Elizabeth and then his and mine. “Don’t eat until I’m seated ladies.” He said as he left the room for the fifth time. He came back with a tray filled with drinks, utensils and napkins. He put the tray in the seat of his chair. He put a napkin on each of our laps and set a fork and spoon to the left of each of our plates. No knife. I guess he was a little scared of what we would do. He then put a glass of water on the upper right side of each of our table settings. He moved the tray to the floor and sat down. As he began to eat, so did the girls and I followed suit. The meal was good. I must admit it was good but I couldn’t eat it. I took a few bits and set my fork to where Alex first placed it. I couldn’t eat. This was all to crazy. He expected me to sit and enjoy this 'family dinner' when only a few hours ago, He stole me away. "I cant eat. I don’t want to. This is to much for me. After everything you can’t expect me to sit here and eat and act like everything it okay!" I spoke up breaking the silents. By the look of terror on the girls face I knew I messed up. Alex's head slowly lifted, and by the look on his face, I knew I made a huge mistake."
YOU ARE READING
Chairs
Horror"Okay, where do you want me to start?" "Anywhere you wish." "There were five of us. Dani, Elizabeth, Audrey, Taylor and me. We spent about 9 months in the basement. The walls where cement. The floor was cement. We each had...
