The Puppet Mistress Chp. 1

Summary: After having inherited a puppet collection after her father's untimely demise, Sierra will soon find out that there is more to puppets than just the designs-but the secrets hidden behind her father's collection.

Sierra sighs as she sits in her lounging chair, waiting for someone to drop off a package-well, it was more or less a case. Her fatehr had been assassinatined a few days ago and he had given her the same puppet collection that her ansector had. But this wasn't just any old ancestor-her ancestor was Andre Toulon. But all she cared about was getting this over with. She never did care about the puppets. When she was little, she admitted that she liked to watch them on the shelves. A few times she even thought she saw them move, but that was when she was 5. Now 15 and living with her widowed mother, she could care less about what happened to them. Though deep down, she wanted them more than anything. They were the last pieces of her father that she had left, so she had to take care of them.

The doorbell rings; she gets up out of the chair and walks over to the door, opening it to her father's lawyer; beside him was the black case the puppet collection was kept in. She paid no attention to the drone of the lawyer, she just signed the papers and took the case. She rolled the case back to her room, shutting the door. She rolls the case to the foor of her bed and sits down in front of it, opening it fo the firest time. She looked over all the odd puppets in the collection. she knew each by name. Blade, Pinhead, Jester, Shredder Khan (the oriental puppet from the first movie) Ms. Leech, Six-Shooter, Torch and the newest addition-Decapitron. She subconsciously takes Jester out of the case-he was always her favorite puppet out of the collection.

"My, it's weird how the years have gone by since I last saw you and your lil' family." Sierra sighed,

"Sierra, I'm home." A voice calls out shortly followed by the shutting of the front door.

Sierra places Jester back in his place.

"I'll be right back," Sierra says.

She stands up and leaves out of the room, leaving the case open.

"Hey mom," Sierra says, entering the kitchen.

Her mom worked at the hospital in the city as a doctor, so she would be away a lot. Especially since her dad was gone and left her mom as the only working person in the household.

"Did the lawyer bring the collection today?" Sierra's mom asks.

"Yeah, it's sitting in my room." Sierra says.

"Well, I think it's nice your father left his collection to you. You did enjoy playing with them at a young age-especially Jester." Sierra's mom says.

"Yeah, but something tells me there's something more to them." Sierra says.

"Well, I've only heard this, but there is a story about your father's great-great-great-great grandfather-Andre Toulon, that he put a magic spell on them so that they could live. But it's probably just in a tall tale," Sierra's mom says.

"Well, call me when dinner's ready, I'm gonna check on the puppets." Sierra says.

She leaves the kitchen and heads back to the bedroom. After shutting the door, she notices three of the puppets were missing. But she was with her mom in the kitchen, and there was no sign of anyone else. She noticed it was Blade, Jester and Ms. Leech that were missing. She smirked and started looking.

"Jester," Sierra called out, "Don't think I don't know where you are," Sierra says, slowly walking over to her bed.

She carefully pulls the blanket back, revealing that Jester was lying on her bed.

"Told you," Sierra says, picking Jester up. "I've played with you too many times at a young age, I know you like the back of my own hand. Now do you know where Blade and Ms. Leech are?"

Jester's eyes snapped open, Sierra jumped slightly, then sighs.

"Spooked me there with that eye trick, I didn't think you could open your eyes on your own." Sierra says.

She sits down on the bed, and looks around the room.

"Well, they couldn't have gone far with the door shut, they have to be somewhere in this room." Sierra says.

A hook slowly comes out from under her bed and hooks around her ankle; she jumps with a squeak then lifts her leg up, seeing Blade hanging from her ankle by his hook.

"There you are," Sierra says, carefully taking Blade off her ankle and sitting him on her bed, setting Jester next to him. "I'm guessing Ms. Leech is under here too," Sierra says, getting down on the floor and looking under the bed, seeing Ms. Leech was, in fact, under the bed.

She reaches under the bed, grabs her and pulls her out, that's when she got a good look at the tattered dress she was wearing.

"Oh my, your dress is a mess. Hold on," Sierra says.

She sets Ms. Leech on the bed and reaches back under the bed, pulling out a sewing kit.

"Now let's see what we can do about this dress," Sierra says, grabbing Ms. Leech and walking over to her desk.

She sets Ms. Leech down and begins to work on her dress. And in a few minutes, she gets a good idea.

"Hold on," Sierra says, pulling off Ms. Leech's dress. "I think you'd look better if this was in a better color. You look like a fall, so I'll try a dark red."

Sierra reaches into on of the side drawers and pulls out a bowl and a bottle of cloth dye. She puts a little bit of dye in the bowl then pulls out a pair of rubber gloves from the same drawer and pulls then onto her hands, then puts the dress in the bowl and starts swishing it around and pressing it into the dye. After a few minutes of doing that, she clips it onto the desk shelf, over a thick black towel.

"Now to let that dry, in 5 minutes I'll wash it up, dry it a bit then it'll be wearable." Sierra explains.

A light growling noise is heard, Sierra blushes.

"Oh my, guess it's almost dinner. I'll be right back after dinner," Sierra says.

She gets up and walks out of the room, just in time to hear her mom call out to her that's it's dinner time. She rushes into the kitchen,

In the middle of dinner, Sierra excuses herself to go get Ms. Leech's dress. She hurries back and grabs the dress then hurries back out, washes it til the excess comes out then tosses it into the dryer for a bit. After which, she takes it to her room and lies it down on her desk then backto the kitchen she goes. After dinner, she comes back and puts the dress on Ms. Leech.

"There, now isn't that much better?" Sierra asks,

That's when she feels something tap her leg, she looks down and sees it's Blade-moving on his own.

"Whoa....I must be seeing things." Sierra says, setting Ms. Leech down and picking Blade up. "Are you really moving?"

Blade taps Sierra on the forehead with the back of his hook, telling her to put him down.

"I'll take that as a yes," Sierra says, setting Blade down next to Ms. Leech, who's now standing up as well. "Those stories are true, you guys are enchanted. But can you talk?"

"What do you think?" Blade asks.

"Cool, I thought you guys were just puppets before but-wow, this is too cool." Sierra says.

"You mean you're not scared?" Ms. Leech asks.

"No, I've only dreamed of this happening. I didn't you guys were-I mean, this couldn't be-i-it can't be," Sierra tries to say.

"Quit while you're still ahead kid," Blade says.

"Sorry, having a fangirl moment here." Sierra says. ".....Don't ask,"

"Wasn't gonna," Blade says.

"Blade, don't be rude," Ms. Leech says.

"Sorry Elsa," Blade says.

"Elsa? Hold the phone-Elsa Toulon?" Sierra asks.

"Yes, how did you know?" Ms. Leech asks.

"Well, you're one of my ancestors." Sierra says.

The two puppets just looked at her, rather confused.

"I'm Sierra Toulon," Sierra says.

"A Toulon? No wonder we're here," Blade says.

"My father gave you guys to me in his will-he was assassinated a few days ago." Sierra says.

"I'm sorry to hear that...but why? Why'd he give us to you?" Ms. Leech asks.

"He knows how much I enjoyed playing with you guys at a young age." Sierra says.

"Hey, you were that kid that pulled out of the case all the time." Blade exclaims.

"Yeah, I was 5 at the time, I didn't know better." Sierra says.

"Yes, you really liked Jester." Ms. Leech says.

"Still do," Sierra says.

"Sierra," Sierra's mom calls out.

"Oh boy, give me sec," Sierra says.

She gets up and rushes out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

"That's weird, that she didn't get all freaked out over this." Blade says.

"Well, some people can take this better than others Blade. She is a Toulon, so she probably knows about Andre." Ms. Leech explains.

"Maybe, or she's just one odd human." Blade says.

"Oh, lay off of her, she just lost her father. Just try and be nice for once," Ms. Leech says.

Blade just shook his head and jumped down onto the desk chair then down to the floor.

"How I can deal with these men, I'll never know." Ms. Leech sighs.

Later that night, Sierra returns, seeing all the puppets gathered on her bed.

"Sorry guys, my mom had to take me to my lessons. I almost forgot," Sierra explains.

"Lessons?" Blade asks.

"More or less practice-I'm in my school's drama class and we have to practice for a play for this winter." Sierra explains, sitting down at her desk.

"Sounds exciting," Jester says,

"I guess, though the kids were acting pretty weird today. Not sure why," Sierra says.

"You don't sound too excited though," Ms. Leech says.

"Well-my mom signed me up for the classes." Sierra says. "I'm more into art than drama, but she says I spend enough time drawing during school."

"You draw?" Ms. Leech says.

"Yeah, but I'm not really that good." Sierra says, pulling out her sketchbook, opening to a random sketch. "This was the best one I could do,"

Sierra gets up from her desk and walks over to her bed, setting the sketchbook down.

"I got thinking about you guys and did this sketch in only a few minutes." Sierra explains.

Ms. Leech walks over and sees the sketch, it was of the collection, in Sierra's style.

"Wow, it's us-and in very nice style. This is actually pretty good." Ms. Leech says.

She starts flipping back, seeing some of the other sketches she had done. And she comes upon one that even surprises her-the sketch was a design layout-for a new puppet.

"And what's this?" Ms. Leech asks.

"Oh, I thought about designing a puppet to add to the collection. But I'm not a craftsman, so I never tried to work on her." Sierra says.

Blade spotted a name scribbled in the corner.

"Acara?" Blade says.

"That's what I was going to name her," Sierra sighs, carefully sitting down on the bed. "My father and I were supposed to work on her until....."

She gets choked up by a sob; she feels a small hand on her leg, she looks and sees it's Jester.

"It's alright," Jester says, "You still have us,"

"You're right," Sierra says as she sniffles and wipes a stray tear away. "You guys are still a part of my dad. As long as I have you," She picks Jester put and puts him on her lap. "I'll have him as well,"

Jester's face spins to a happy experession, making Sierra giggle a bit.

"I think it's time we all went to bed," Ms. Leech says.

"Yeah, it's getting late," Sierra says.

Sierra sets Jester down and gets up, walking over to the case and helping the puppet inside.

"You want me to leave the case open?" Sierra asks, as she puts Blade in last.

"Sure, it won't bother us." Blade says,

"Alright," Sierra says.

She gets up, climbs into bed, shuts the light off and slowly tries to fall asleep. And in the window, a shadowed figure with bright yellow eyes peeks in, seeing the case open and Sierra asleep.

I'll get those puppets in time. I just have to wait til' that human slips up-then they're all mine.

Some passing clouds block the moon, making the window go dark. When the moonlight comes back, the figure is gone.