Page 80 of Miserable Marionette

It does nothing to stifle the whimper that works its way from my throat. “Oh god, Gideon, what did you do?”

I try to sit up again, my eyes finally obeying my command to open, although that only makes the bright room blurry as they fill with water.

“I took care of you, just like I always have,” he answers as if it’s the simplest thing in the world.

The form of the embalming room of Bell Funeral Home comes into focus, the cold metal table underneath me making bile rise in my gut. I lurch to the side, my mouth filling with saliva, signaling my incoming vomit when my arm lets out an agonizing tug. This time Gideon’s hiss mixes with mine.

I collapse back onto the table, panting as he tries to settle me, but I’m already looking down. A scream bubbles up my throat as I see what he’s done. It seems to bounce around the sterile room as I stare in horror at my arm, the thread that’s connecting it to his. “Gideon, what the fuck?” I sob. “What did you do?! Stop it, take—oh god, take it out now.”

“Shhh, I-I just needed to calm down. I needed to know you wouldn’t leave when you woke up.”

I force my eyes away from our attached arms, the skin red and angry. “You’re fucking insane. It hurts.”

“I’m sorry, Audrey. I didn’t, I… didn’t want it to hurt. I can give you something to numb the area. It—"

“Where is Jessica?”

He ignores me and keeps rambling, and I’ve never seen Gideon this… panicked. “It was the only thing I could think of to make sure you couldn’t run. I-I just need you so bad, Audrey. I’ve always needed you so badly. You don’t understand what happened to me last time. I wasn’t… I wasn’t in control.”

His hair is a mess, glasses gone from his face as he leans closer to me, making me flinch. His clothes are smeared with blood, his ocean eyes frantic.

“Did you kill her?” I sob.

He frowns. “Are you scared of me?”

His voice cracks and the reminder of the horrible dream seems to be the final straw on my sanity, my sobs turning guttural, crying so hard it makes my chest ache. My hand is trembling as I reach across us and cup his face, turning it toward me. “Tell me what you did.”

In a second, the raw panic in his eyes blinks out, but somehow it doesn’t make me doubt the validity of it. I don’t dare scream as he slams us into the table, making its metal groan at the force of it. “Why do you even fucking care!? I took care of it! I fixed everything for you!” he yells before he cants forward, making me hiss as our sewn arms strain from the position. If it hurts him, he doesn’t show it as he presses his forehead to mine. “She was in the way. They all were, okay? Audrey, don’t you fucking get it?”

And I do. Revulsion and an odd, discomforting warmth blooms deep in my chest underneath the horror as his words sink in. “You killed Bryan.”

I cry out as he adjusts our arms, bringing his hands up to hold me. “Of course.” He laughs. “You didn’t think you could get away with fucking someone else, did you? That I’d just let a thing like that slide? That I could stand walking around knowing another fucking piece of shit had touched you?”

“H-how?”

“It was nothing, really,” he soothes, but the softness in his words disagrees with the tone of his voice. “He came over looking for you. I spiked his drink. It was nothing.”

I’m trembling now, opening and closing my mouth like a suffocating fish.

“Do you have any idea how hard it was watching you cry over him that day?”

“Who else? Oh my god, Jess was telling the truth. Did you kill those women?”

Gideon goes quiet at that. “They meant nothing to me. There’s never been anyone but you.”

“B-but you’re him… r-right? You’re the Marionettist?”

“I’m just yours, Audrey.”

“Gideon, answer me.”

He makes a strangled sound, his fist connecting jarringly with the table. “Are you scared of me? I won’t tell you until I know. Will it change anything?”

His lips land on mine, my stream of tears soaking his face before I can answer. My movements are jerky… and honest when I shake my head. I’m horrified, disgusted... odd, and my body is filled with excited nerves I can’t place, a bone-deep… reverence.

Gideon loves me so much.

More than I could’ve ever hoped for, terrifyingly so.