There is no way for you to get out of it. As soon as you are being invited to this place, you will not be able to leave. Even if I warn you about the potential danger, there is no way to stop it. The only thing you can try to do to avoid being part of the “family”, is by improving yourself.

  

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Excuse me and my poor english. English isn’t my first language after all. It doesn’t matter where I am coming from for this story since the invitation to this place can appear wherever you are, according to some notes I read here in this village. Some were walking in the streets before they suddenly were in the middle of an unknown forest, trying to find a way back home. Others were at work before they themselves also ended up in that exact same forest. And then, there is me. I decided to go camping one very normal day. There was nothing out of the ordinary happening to me so, a trip would help me spice things up. Well…That is what I thought. See, even if I thought nothing significant was happening, that wasn’t true. But I will explain this further into this story.

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I remember how I accessed this place. I left my home when it was still light outside, in fact, I left in the morning. I did not want to run into the problem of not being able to set up my tent properly because of the darkness. Once I

gathered all I needed, I took my keys and my stuff before I locked my door, walking towards my car to put everything inside. While I was in my thoughts, I did not immediately notice my phone ringing. I looked down at the screen to see it was my ex girlfriend trying to call me. Not wanting to deal with her incessant yelling, I turned off my phone: this day wasn’t about getting mad, it was about me clearing my mind. Now that I think about it, it wasn’t to yell at me that she called me, I knew that very well. But I did not want to believe in the fact that all she wanted to do was to help me. In short, I am the one who rejected her. I obviously wanted to be the victim in this story… How naïve of me. Once I sat down into the driver's seat, I tossed my phone aside, turning on the engine that roared to life before driving off, leaving all of my regrets and bad feelings behind. I didn’t know how long I would be staying in the wild. I just wanted to get some time alone, far away from the civilization. Far away from those who were hurting me. Just, far away from my responsibilities. But, no one but myself was hurting me. Of course, I did not want to believe that.  

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I continued to drive until I arrived at the chosen location: one of the biggest forests here in my country. It is an approximately four hour ride from my home which is perfect. Once I found a place to park my car, I got out of it and took everything I needed before locking it and just, randomly starting to walk through the forest. The path seemed completely normal and there was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, therefore, I could not explain to you how it was that I accessed this place. There were no strange signs like you would see in horror movies, no weird looking paths, no nothing. Just me and my thoughts. While I was walking, I felt all of my thoughts that were slowly eating me up from the inside rushing out at full speed. I was thinking of everything I did wrong, everything that hurt me…Every single thing that made me feel like…I was truly lonely. These thoughts that nobody wanted to see me anyways. These thoughts that made me feel like the whole world was against me. …I was truly lonely.

 

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I was lonely because I decided so. I have friends, don’t get me wrong. Well, I had friends. I am the one who rejected them, not wanting to get their help. When did I get to a point where I started rejecting each and every single person around me? My own bratty behavior is what made the people around me walk away, leaving me alone in my corner. And therefore, I ended up being a loner. My ex girlfriend truly loved me but me being the

asshole that I am, I ended up rejecting her as well. What was it with me trying to be a constant victim? Was it a lack of attention? Did I want people to run after me constantly? Of course, such behavior only makes people run away…  I mean, my father was never there for me, he himself ran away when I was rather young. My mom rejected me since she thought it was because of me that her husband ran away. I will never understand that selfish woman. Is this the reason why I myself came to the conclusion that rejecting everyone and being alone was the best way to live? Well, this wasn’t the solution but it is too late to turn back now. I truly wanted to change that. I did want to have friends…I did want to be part of something bigger. Part of a family perhaps. Was that really what I wanted?

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When I came back to my senses, I did not realize that it was now suddenly night time. What? How was that even possible? I arrived here at approximately 2pm. So how come that it was already pitch-black outside? Did I walk for this long? Maybe that was the case. But this seemed far too strange. I slowly started to feel the panic taking over me, desperately looking for the flashlight I packed away. And this is when I noticed it. There…Were no sounds. Absolutely no sounds. We are in a forest so, how come I didn't even hear some branches cracking or the wind howling? What was this madness? Did you ever have the occasion to be in an isolated room with absolutely nothing inside but the white walls? No sound, no nothing…This is how I felt right now but, this was an open space which made the experience even more frightening. Not wanting to waste more time in this weird madness, I decided to finally move, flashlight in hand. Instead of continuing straightforward, I decided to turn back and walk out of this place. As I turned around and started to walk down, I noticed something else….Have you ever experienced the endless hallway in the game Mario 64? When you run through the final hallway but it seems to never stop, your only solution is to move backwards to visit the other places….This is how that moment felt. I was walking but it seemed I was walking on the spot, making it impossible to move forward. I stopped after ten more minutes of walking, thinking that maybe, if I was persistent enough, I would get out of this loop. It did not work. Instead of trying again, I turned around to take the other path. There were no other options anyways….

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I followed the path which seemed to only go straight forward, the place around me starting to get engulfed by some thick white fog, making the whole forest unrecognizable. Straight forward, that is all that was going through my mind.  So I did what my brain was simply telling me to do, no matter how weird this situation was right now. How come I felt so…at peace? I should be scared, terrified, I should feel like running away or hiding! But I wasn’t feeling any of this.I was feeling like some strange force wanted to guide me to a wonderful place.

  

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The more I walked, the more I forgot about the fact that I was being lost in the middle of nowhere. I didn't even mind not being able to hear anything until this moment… Out of nowhere, I could now finally hear sounds around me. It was unclear from which direction it was coming from but all I knew is that I wasn’t alone anymore. It was like someone or, something was following me in the darkness. The sound is hard to describe to be honest with you. It is like the shaking of a wooden toy and the cracking of old wood. I was unable to see what was following me and I did not want to risk turning around to see it. What if that thing was waiting for that? Or maybe it was guiding me with the help of its sounds? I had absolutely no answer to that. What was following me? Was it this thing that lured me here? Is it because of that thing that I am now trapped in an endless forest of darkness and fog? Strangely enough, it didn’t seem like it wanted to kill me. In fact, it even looked like it tried to guide me and get me into a secured place. But that was an obvious lie I had told myself for reassurance.

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That trip seemed to come to an end once I saw the weak beams of light in a distance. Was there a village? Was I just imagining to be trapped and followed by something weird? No, this felt far too real to just be my imagination. In a pure rush of adrenaline, I ran towards the warm and welcoming lights, wanting to see for myself what was awaiting me on the other side of that endless fog. I ran until I reached what did seem to be a village. But this village seemed…So out of place. It looked like the whole opposite of the world we are currently living in. It seemed to be part of the 1600 or even the 1800. I am bad at history, so do not ask me for an exact year… There weren’t a lot of houses and all of them were made out of wood and stone, far less modern than the fancy buildings we have in our era. I noticed that I was finally able to hear all of the sounds again. The wind, the water, the crows, what a relief to hear such usual sounds again. It seemed that the fog did not enter this village, only looming all around it like a protective veil. Since I had no other options, looking around for potential help seemed to be the best thing to do.

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I walked around and checked through the windows to see if there might be people to help me understand what was happening. After checking a few of them, I almost gave up since the houses seemed to be empty. That was until I finally saw some people. Their lights were turned off but their fireplace was burning. I observed two people sitting at their dinner table, back turned to me. Relieved that I found someone, I knocked on their window, shouting: “Please help!” but they seemed not to move an inch. Maybe they couldn’t hear me? Impossible, these windows were surely not as thick as the windows we have now, the glass seemed to be easily breakable. Instead of insisting, I ran towards their door and knocked on it. “Hello! I need your help, I am lost and I need some guidance!”

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Still no answer. In a rush of anger, I kicked the door with my foot which made the old wooden door open a bit. Did I

break it? No, it seemed like it was already half open. Should I go in? What if they panic? I have no idea if such families already had guns or some dangerous weapons. It should be alright, they should understand. I have no other solution anyway! After some more hesitating, I slowly creaked the door open, only the sound of the old wood was echoing through the room. I peeked in, hearing the crackling of the fireplace, the light from the flames making the people in the room visible. “Excuse me, may I ask you for help?” Still no answer. Impatient, I entered the place, approaching the people at the table. “Excuse me, I am talk—What the hell??” Now that I got close to them, I finally understood that these weren’t real people. These were…. Wooden puppets. Human sized wooden puppets. They seemed to have been carved in a specific position, making it impossible to move their limbs. What were these doing here? And why did they look….So real? Their eyes shined and glistened exactly like the eyes of a human. But even if they seemed real, it was visible to see that these things were made out of wood. I leaned in to inspect them much more closely. “What the fuck?....” Why were there human-like puppets in a random village that was surrounded by fog? Is this a huge prank? Maybe a tourist attraction?

  

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Have you ever seen these expositions where a whole room is recreated to match the rooms of a specific timeline? This is what this place looked like. It was like I entered some park that people could visit to see and learn about a random old village and its story. I know this sounds ridiculous, but I just try to convince myself that there is nothing wrong here. After my inspection and being less paranoid about them suddenly starting to move, I got back up and turned around. “What the heck???” I screamed, almost tripping backwards. There was a child standing right in front of me. No, a wooden child puppet. Did I not notice it before? It stood there, holding a wooden toy in its hand, staring blankly at me with its highly realistic eyes. I placed a hand on my chest to try and calm down my racing heart. Fucking puppet. I almost kicked the damn thing but after some consideration, if this was a tourist attraction, I would be fucked if I breaked one of their props. I took a look around the room, seeing that there was no other place I could access. The stairs were blocked by some wooden panels. Not wanting to break anything, I decided to leave this house, taking one last look at the puppets. Still not moving…

 

That’s at least one good thing. I stepped outside and took a

look around the village. All of the houses were still plunged in darkness. Since I had nothing to lose I figured that looking around for possible clues about this place would help me understand where I am. It did take me hours to inspect each and every single household in this village. Weirdly enough, all the houses were vacant, only a few essential furniture were placed around. There was absolutely nothing, not even some notes that I could read to learn about this place. It is only later that I found some of the notes that I mentioned at the beginning. It seemed that stuff appeared randomly at this place... Isn’t the point of an attraction to have panels with information on them for tourists to read? Still trying to look for reassurance, I told myself that this place might be free to interpret it however we liked. I had no idea of how much time passed but the sky did not seem to change at all. It was like…Time stopped here. Not knowing what to do, I walked back to the main place of this village.

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There was now a light that got turned on in one of the other houses. Since this seemed to be an attraction, I figured that maybe they were guiding the tourist in such a bizarre way? Still convincing myself that all of this was a big organized event, I walked towards that house, entering it after I knocked on the door. No puppets in this one as well? In contrast to the previous places I entered, this one had the stairs accessible to the people visiting.  “Is anyone in here?” Wanting to make sure that I was indeed alone here, I asked this question multiple times while I was slowly walking upstairs, the sound of the creaking wood being the only thing that echoed through this place, with the sound of my voice. Once upstairs, I was greeted by a simple hallway, a light burning from under one of the doors of a room in the far back. A bit hesitant, I walked towards that room until I was face to face with the door, my hand reaching for the handle. I figured no one might be there, so I slowly opened the door and peeked in. The room was vacant as well, a bed placed in one of the corners. Upon further inspection, I saw that a desk and a closet were also placed in the room. Nothing out of the ordinary. Like any paranoid person, I quickly opened the closet to see if perhaps, someone was stalking me. No one. Sighing in relief, I took a closer look at the door. It seemed I could close it by using the key that was placed in the keyhole. The only reason I wanted to know about such a detail was because I felt tired and, sleeping in a cozy bed was all I needed right now. So, I closed the door and took one last look outside. There was still no one. I was sure that, if this was an attraction, someone would find me and kick me out of here as soon as they saw me. We shall see tomorrow.

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I woke up that morning, needing a moment to remember where I was since I did not recognize the environment. After inspecting the room I had stayed in, all of what happened previously rushed back into my mind. Yes… I remember fully well what happened. I got up from the bed and realized something. It…Was still night time. No no, I remembered it has been night hours ago! So why? Why was it that it was night again? Did I sleep for this long? Did I really sleep for a full day? Maybe I was able to leave now! Yes, this was all that mattered: Leaving. I took my bag that I had placed right besides the bed and opened the door, rushing downstairs and stopping dead in my tracks. There it stood, looking straight at me with its expressionless face.. A …. Wooden puppet. Was it there yesterday? No…I specifically remember that this place was vacant! So why was it standing there, looking at me while holding what seemed to be a wooden pot in its hands? It was carved in a standing position, recreating the scene of an elderly woman that prepared food for whoever was living in this house. And I noticed something more. There was indeed food on the table. If this was really a tourist attraction, they were doing a freaking good job. Any rational person would take their leave, run away, scream for help but… Not me. Why did I feel like this? I continued staring at the wooden puppet, taking a few steps to the side to see if its gaze was following me. No, nothing. It just stood absolutely still. “Is this for me?”, I asked, thinking that perhaps, a speaker would activate and tell me something, anything! But there was absolutely nothing coming. The room was silent. The smell of the food made my stomach growl. I haven’t eaten in a while, and since there seemed nothing wrong with this food, why not take this opportunity to eat? No no, why am I getting this easily influenced? This is wrong! Nothing here seems to be right! So why am I now sitting at this table, enjoying the food that had been made by god knows who?

 

 

 

 

I finished my meal faster than anticipated, looking at the puppet who still didn’t move. “Um…Thank you for the meal I guess.” Still thinking I might get an answer, I uttered out these words but the puppet stayed absolutely still. Not having many more options, I stood up from my seat, leaving the place while keeping my gaze on the puppet. Still not moving. I closed the door and looked around. This…was getting weirder. Yesterday, this place, apart from one house, was completely vacant. Now, there were a few puppets on the streets. They were all carved in specific positions, portraying different moments of what seemed to be the villagers routine. There were children playing tag together, carved into a running position while a wooden dog puppet was running with them. There were some women talking in a corner, looking at what seemed to be a priest walking down the streets, all of them standing absolutely still. Which was normal since they are puppets after all. This situation was more than just bizarre. Did a whole team of people place them here overnight while I was sleeping? Remembering the first puppets I saw, I ran to their house and looked through their window to see if anything changed in there. It did not seem to be the case. The three of them were still in their original position, the fireplace still burning as brightly as it did hours ago. This showed me that somebody must have indeed come over there to take care of this place. How would the fire be burning otherwise??

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Just like yesterday, I ran all around the village to check out every single household. There was indeed a difference… Some of them now had habitants in them. Of course, all of them being wooden puppets, all carved in their unique position, interpreting certain actions. I ran out of the last house I visited, my mind racing with a thousand different thoughts. What was this place? Why are there suddenly more puppets? Who guided me here? Why couldn’t I get out?

 

Yes, I did try to leave but, everytime I took a few steps inside of the forest, it seemed like I was walking on the spot, making it impossible for me to leave. I tried more than one exit, all of them taking me back to the village. “FUCK”, I shouted, hearing crows disagreeing with me. Crows…So there were still living beings here? I followed the sound of the birds, looking around to see if I could spot them. Suddenly, something fell down from one of the trees I walked past. Was this a wooden branch? That was a close call! I got closer and kicked the thing with my foot, only for me to gasp in horror. This was a wooden crow. A wooden…..Crow? So were they making that noise? I picked it up to inspect it. Maybe it had a speaker in it? No, nothing. Nothing but wood. I looked up and saw other multiple crows placed on the branches of that tree. All of them completely motionless. I guessed these were made out of wood as well. Perhaps there was a speaker around here somewhere that was playing the sounds of the crows? After further inspection of the spot around the tree, I concluded that there was absolutely nothing. Pissed, I threw the one wooden crow I held in my hands, throwing it into the streets.

  

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How much time had passed? I had no idea but, it seemed like it has been an eternity, even if the time did not seem to pass here. I continued to look all over the place for notes, a way out, anything! I did find a note… It just read something in the lines of:

“I saw it with my very own eyes. That woman was working on some evil, concocting nocuous beverages to poison us all, perhaps even curse that village! The nobles as well as the sacred court decided to take actions to cleanse our prestige village from filth. Never have we thought that such evil would penetrate the village! I, father Eldridge Middleton swear on my name and position as a noble to save our realm from the impure evil... “

The note seemed to end here. No more text than this could be read. So this note got written at an age where witches were a thing? I do not know when such events took place in history, I apologize. Anyway, it did seem that things were appearing out of nowhere here.

 

I returned to the house that I now claimed as mine for this trip. I opened the door and got greeted by the same puppet who still stood completely motionless. This time, there seemed to be what I deemed to be dinner on the table. “Guess you are the one taking care of me huh?” I felt stupid for talking to this puppet but, it felt kind of nice to have someone taking care of you. Well, of course it is probably someone who brought food here and wanted me to think it was all of the puppets doing. I shouldn’t even be thinking the way I do right now but, what else could I do? I sat down at the table, eating the dinner that got prepared for me in complete silence. Occasionally, I was looking up at the puppet. Why was I being so paranoid? This thing is an object, and objects can’t move! After some talking to myself and a nice dinner, I got up from my seat before I walked towards the stairs, turning around before I spoke once again.

“Thank you for the meal.” As expected, no answer. I walked upstairs to join my room, falling asleep for a solid few hours, my mind still racing with multiple thoughts.

  

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The next days here were rather similar: The puppet prepared food for me at least three times a day, more puppets appeared in the village each day that passed, all of them being placed on various spots. There were now the famous notes placed besides some of the puppets. It is besides them that I found some of the information that I could provide to you. Information about how someone could get access to that place. And that was already it. No notes that would tell me more about this place. Why did these puppets seem so scared? The puppets that held the notes looked like they did not belong to that timeline. They looked like they came from our era, 2020.  

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Before you ask, yes, I tried stalking the house I was staying at to see if anyone would bring food or just pass by. No one ever did. I even tried to look at the elderly puppet in my house for a whole day. The more I stared at it, the more creeped out I felt. But the more I looked at it, the more this puppet seemed to look sad. Since it seemed nothing would happen if I stayed there looking at it and that, the hunger made me go crazy, I got upstairs to get myself one of the convenient snacks I packed in my bag for the trip, only to come back downstairs and seeing a table full of various delicious looking foods. How?? How was it possible??? I inspected the table, the floor, anything I could inspect to see if I could spot any type of mechanism that could bring the food here fast enough. No, absolutely nothing. Nothing ….. It was just me and these puppets… These goddamn wooden puppets.

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Personally, I didn’t feel any less weak or bad, so I did not get any more suspicious than that. I accepted that this might now be my life. I sat down at the table, eating the dinner the puppet had prepared for me once more. Before going to bed today, I decided to go on a night round. This is when I started to feel it. While I was walking through the village, I had the feeling someone was following me. This was the same feeling I had back there at the forest the first time I came here. It is such a strong presence. But even if I focused hard on finding what was following me, I never saw someone! All I could hear was the sound of something that was like, a wooden bell being shaken around. Or even, the cracking of wooden limbs while they were moving around. This sound…It was indescribable. Was this person walking around guarding this place? Would a human even be able to produce such sounds? It was the sounds that made me come to the conclusion that this thing following me around wasn’t human… And since this thing appeared, it started to follow me everyday. I never saw it, I could only hear it. If it wasn’t already weird enough to live with puppets, god knows who had to put a weird thing following me around on top of that. Well…At this range, I

really do not think that this was a tourist attraction at all.

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When did I start to get accustomed to this place? When did I reach the point where I told myself that this is completely fine? Weirdly enough, compared to the world I was used to living in, I felt far less lonely here. Even if the people I am living with were just puppets that could not even be moved, they felt far more welcoming than humans.

Was it because they couldn’t judge someone? Was it because I could talk to them and all they could do was quietly listen to me? Was it because they…Took care of me? How long has it been since someone last took care of me like this? This is something my mom never did to me: I had to look after myself since she hated me. She wasn’t like the sweet elderly woman that I lived with now! Waking up everyday at this place made me feel happy. But…Did it really?

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One day, I was eating dinner, discussing a few things with my puppet buddy when it happened. I was used to days of silence. Because of course, puppets couldn’t talk. Then could someone explain why I heard voices speaking outside of my house? There were…A lot of them! Voices of men, women, children, dogs barking, it is like this village suddenly came to life! I was paralyzed. Voices…How long has it been since I last heard voices apart from my own? I wanted to get up from my seat when I saw it. I saw something move! It was there!

Right in front of my window, I saw something I couldn’t even describe! Were these legs?? Giant wooden legs walking by? Did this thing trigger the voices? Was it the thing that was following me around? Even though I needed a moment to gather my courage, I suddenly got up, knocking my chair over before I ran to the door. I tried to open it but it didn’t budge. Why? I pushed and pulled on it, throwing myself against the wooden frame as I tried to leave this house, the voices outside only getting louder and louder.  Why can’t I leave? Who is holding me back from facing what seemed to be my “kidnapper”? Don’t tell me….

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Before I could even think any further, the door finally opened, making me fall flat on the ground, outside on the streets of the village. All of the voices vanished, plunging the village back to its quiet state. “Fucking hell?” I got up again but I could feel my legs shaking. The puppets they….were all staring at me. They were still in their position but their heads were turned towards my home, towards…Me. How was that even possible? There was no way to even move their limbs! I started to feel comfortable in this village, so why is it that now, I am back into this state of intense fear? I turned around to run back inside but stopped dead in my tracks. The puppet, the one who took care of me was now turned around, facing me, its pot on the floor. It was just staring blankly at me with its shiny glistening eyes… Feeling like I was going completely insane, I ran out of the village, in the direction of a place I didn't even notice until now. It seemed the path to this place had now been opened. Up the hill, there was a church. How come I did not see it you may ask? I did mention the fog was constantly around this place, making anyone unable to see what lies further away. I only realized now that the fog had dissipated on one spot, opening up this place and giving me access to it. I continued to run up the hill until I reached the old building. This church looked exactly like any old church that you can see in our timeline. Obviously, it looked far older and much more destroyed and beaten up than the other buildings. I approached it and opened the heavy door. It took me some effort but I successfully opened it, running inside and closing the door behind me. A church should protect me from any demonic presence, right? ... Right?...

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I took a look around to check out the place. There were no puppets. A huge cross was placed behind the altar, an altar that looked rather beaten up. In contrast to the other places here, this one was huge and rather cold…So cold. It wasn’t as warm and welcoming as the cozy house I had stayed in. From all of the emotions and the intense running session I had, I collapsed and fainted on one of the benches in the front row, falling asleep for god who knows how many hours. When I woke up, nothing here had changed. The place was just as quiet as the rest of the village always had been. Even though I really did not want to leave this place, the hunger I was experiencing drove me to the irrational thought of going back to my once to be home, seeing if the puppet had cooked for me. I peeked outside the heavy door, making sure that this thing wasn’t following me. If I was fast enough, no one could get me. I ran down the hill at full speed, running towards the village. No one could hurt me, no one could…

  

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When I got there, I saw all of the puppets now standing completely straight, looking towards me…Towards the church. No… No no no no no no! Don’t tell me that, they are trying to get me? They were fucking wooden puppets, how could they even get me? This is a dirty trick yes! I just need to stay hidden there, take as much food with me as possible. Pray until one day, the door to freedom opens for me! I ran to the house, the door still being open from earlier. I took a look inside, noticing that my Puppet was now gone. But it did leave me some food on the table. Without any second thought, I took the various pots and lids to pack the food away, stashing it in my bag. Fast…Fast!

  

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I could hear it…It was there. It was here! I did not want to stay here any longer so after getting all I needed, I ran, I ran back up the hill, the puppets eyes following me as I ran for my life! I stopped dead in my tracks when I noticed something out of the corner of my eyes.  I…I saw it. I did not see it as a whole but I saw its face. It was peeking out from behind the fog and the trees. It was made out of wood, just like all of the puppets here. It stared at me with its huge eyes, its mouth smaller than its other features. Its eyes were such a pure light blue color. Such beautiful eyes on such a creature… But different from the other puppets that were present in the village, it seemed that its eyes were simply painted on the wood, the mouth being the only part of its face that seemed movable. I did not see all of it, too scared that it might get me. I ran, ran until I couldn’t even breathe anymore, ran until I reached the door of the church, pushing it open and running inside. I slowly pushed the door back shut and saw this face one last time…

  

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How many days have passed? I lost track of time, I feel weaker by the minute… I managed to run out a few times to get some food but… I also saw that the puppets moved a bit everyday. They were moving towards the church. They were coming for me. Since I felt too scared that the puppets might catch me faster if I stayed at the village, the church seemed to be the only reasonable place to stay. And due to me feeling weak, it was impossible for me to go back to the village anyways… How come that such a nice peaceful life had been ruined by one single being? Why are they now all against me? They were helping me out before so why do they hate me now? Why is it that, no matter with who I am, they end up hating me? Why? Why was this happening? Even if they all hated me, I felt a bit happy that at least, the elderly puppet seemed to want to help me out, always leaving something for me. The last day I got there, I found a note… “I miss you Walton.” ...

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I felt like my body was getting more stiff the more I waited. It got harder for me to move. It was like my limbs were getting harder and harder… What was this feeling? I prayed every day. I prayed every single goddamn day for someone to come and save me! Why is no one helping me? All I can hear outside are the voices of the wooden puppets and the creature running around, its grotesque form passing by the windows of the church. It seemed I wasn’t the only one who had been here since, some of the windows got barricaded by wooden planks, benches pressed against the back door. In my current state, it was impossible for me to move. All I managed to do is to open the door to peek outside, seeing the puppets getting closer and closer, standing absolutely still everytime I took a look outside.

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Feeling weakened, I decided to walk towards the altar. It got harder to walk, my legs starting to turn even more into what seemed to be wood, making me fall right as I arrived in front of my destination. I used my almost stiff arms to make myself sit up, my back now pressed against the wooden furniture. I stared at the entrance, waiting for something to happen, anything. Please.

Don’t let me die like this. Please.

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It was then that I saw the door opening and that…a human form was walking towards me? Another human being? Who was this person? Were they here to help me get out of this hell or… Too weak to stay conscious, I felt like fainting again, plunged in another few hours of sleep…

 

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I woke up a little bit later, hearing voices sing in unison in the church. What was happening? I slowly opened my eyes, noticing I was further up somewhere, a place that gave me an overview of the whole church. There they were.

These goddamn wooden puppets, their mouths absolutely not moving, their eyes on me, their voices echoing through the grand hall. Wait… Was I on the cross? It was impossible for me to move my head to confirm my suspicions, my neck already turned into wood as well. All I could do was scream, scream for anyone to hear me. It felt like hours had passed, the puppets never stopped singing.

Shut up. Just shut up! Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

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It is the sudden stop of the puppets singing that made me look at the door. There it was. Oh god, what in the holy spirit was that? That thing, whatever it was, slowly walked all the way up towards the cross. Its wooden limbs shook grotesquely as it walked in a bizarre way. It advanced slowly, its face shaking, the sound of the cracking wood filling the room. The puppets eyes followed the form as it walked towards me. Its limbs were so long, made out of the same wood as the other puppets. It looked like there was rotting human flesh on the main part of its body, its mask attached to a blob of decaying meat. I stared at it in horror, unable to scream. It got so close, so goddamn close to me. It looked at me deep in the eyes, its light blue painted orbs staring directly into my soul. I heard the cracking of the wood again, realizing that it was moving its hands towards me. Don’t. Please don’t.

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The thing placed its long unmovable wooden hands on my face as it stared at me. I could feel my face slowly turning into wood as well. I could feel my skin harden under its touch. I am scared. I am so scared. Am I turning into one of them? Before I was unable to move anymore, I heard a faint raspy voice talking to me. “You are part of the family now.”

  

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Time continues to pass endlessly. In contrast to the other puppets, I got used as a part of that cross. My lifeless body now hanging high up in this church, cursed for all of eternity. All I can do is staring endlessly at the same door. We continue to exist. We are still alive. But we are unable to escape, unable to move. We got robbed from our free will. We are part of the lonely wooden puppet family.

  

The reason why I mentioned the only way for you to escape this madness was by improving yourself, is because that is the only way to stay safe. The reason I got dragged here is because I myself was a fool. I rejected everything, even though I could have lived a quiet life. I rejected everyone, making me the victim. I wanted to be miserable, resulting in me truly being lonely. I was drained, weak…And this is what this creature is looking for: Weak and lonely people. People who have no more hope. People who wish to be part of something big. People who wish to have people taking care of them. These more modern looking puppets were once just like me, people who were living together with these quiet beings, feeling loved and appreciated, until the creatures decided otherwise. I guess this creature was also lonely once… I know life can be tough, and humans can be cruel towards each other. But please, for the love of god, don’t let yourself get beaten down. If you look for happiness and for the good people, you will find them. But only if you get back up and fight for yourself. Don’t make yourself miserable. Live. Or you will become an empty shell just like all of us.