A Marionette's Dream

July 18, 1899

”London’s Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down. London’s Bridge is falling down my fair lady.” I walk through the dark streets of old London singing my soft tune. One by one the small children of London come to walk with me, they sway their heads to my song. ”Build it up with wood and clay, wood and clay, wood and clay. Build it up with wood and clay my fair lady.” The children begin to sing along with me. I grin, a silk velvet male voice joins the children and me in our song. ”Wood and clay will wash away, wash away, wash away. Wood and clay will wash away my fair lady.” I look up at the ticking Big Ben and see Lucas standing at the top. He returns my gaze, he gives me a sharped tooth smile as he hops down.

He lands with a soft thud and takes my hand gently. ”Build it up with iron and steel, iron and steel, iron and steel. Build it up with iron and steel my fair lady.” I continue you sing as I grip onto Lucas’s hand tight. “It’s time my dear,” he whispers. I smirk evilly and turned to the children, “Ah my sweets. I am afraid our little song has come to an end.” I say in mock sadness. The children all awe in sadness, “But we can all play a game together.” Lucas adds on. The little kiddies then perk up, I bend in front of a little green eyed girl and smile. “The game is called hide the soul, and guess what? Lucas and I are it.” Before the little girl could even blink she was on the ground bleeding. A gaping red hole was in the center of her small chest.

I hold the little white soul in my bloodied hand, the other children begin to scream, but they are quickly silenced by Lucas. I lick my lips and place the soul into my mouth. I heard a familiar chuckle, I looked over my shoulder to see Lucas catching the souls into enchanted bottles. “My my love you must have been starving.” I grin and lean my head back. “You know me, I’m always hungry for these sweet little things,” I say as I stand from the ground. The circus was burned to the ground last year, we suspect it was Adeline. She began to disagree with mine and Lucas’s ideas. “Have you heard about the string of murders that have been happening?” Asks Lucas, I nod my head.

It’s been going around town that people are being mutilated, especially children. It’s definitely not us, we don’t mutilate we violate by stealing their souls. “I’ve heard the coppers say it’s some madman pretending to be a nanny.” Lucas’s voice interrupted my thinking. I look at him and arch my brow in question. He shrugs his shoulders, I shrug mine as well and walk ahead of him. “There is no way it’s a demon, everyone knows children are our jurisdiction,” I say as I try to keep in line with the marks on the road. Lucas chuckles as he walks beside me, “Yes my dear, the others know better than to cross our paths.” He says. I smile and play with the black ribbons on my wrists, the last demon to cross our path was a lowly naberius demon.

“Mm...you bet, we taught that naberius who was the boss,” I say as I do a cartwheel. Lucas chuckles and continues to walk, an ear piercing scream breaks our childish banter. I stopped walking and look around, Lucas is already running down one of the alleyways. “Hey wait up!” I call as I run after him. I hate how fast he is, I run faster and run straight into his back. “Why did you stop?” I ask. He shushes me, I huff and peek over his shoulder. There was a man dressed in black standing over the body of a little boy, I squint my eyes and gasp. “A-Aidan,” I whisper. The boy who was dead was my brother, I cover my mouth and stare in horror. His body was so hideous, it looked like a wild animal had mauled him.

The person standing above him locked eyes with me, “Adeline. So we meet again.” Lucas says softly. I grip his sleeves tight, I stare at Aidan’s mutilated body. A familiar feminine laugh pierces my ears, she’s laughing at me. “It is so nice to see you two again! I figured that if you’re going to be taking the kiddies life’s then it would be better for me to take them first.” Tears burned at the back of my eyes. Why did she kill my brother? Why him!? “W-Why did you kill my brother,” I whisper menacingly. Adeline began to step closer to me and Lucas, “Oh you poor little doll baby! Do you want to cry over him? Please do, it will give me the satisfaction.”

I clench my fists and glare at her, how dare she mock me. “Are you getting mad dolly? Do you need mama’s titty to suckle on? Oh wait, I forgot your mother was dead as well.” That was the last straw. What little bit of sense I had left had snapped, I scream and lunge at her. “HOW DARE YOU MOCK ME! Y-YOU KILL MY BROTHER AND MOCK MY TEARS!! I’LL KILL YOU!” I yell as I pull two long needles out from my yarn hair. Before I could stab her I was grabbed from behind. I squirmed in Lucas’s arms and screamed loudly. “LET ME GO!! I’M GOING TO KILL THIS FILTHY SLAG!” Adeline’s laughter echoed in the alley, “Mm what is that melody you two always sing now? Ah yes, I know it now.” She says as she slowly sits up from the ground.

”Every stitch will rot away, rot away, rot away. Every stitch will rot away my fair lady.” My eyes widen in fear. A scream ripped through me as my stitches began to rot. I could feel my cloth skin just pull away from my body, the pain was agonizing. Adeline was laughing as she ran down the alley, Lucas was holding me tight shushing me. I continued to scream, my skin was leaving me again, the pain is so unbearable. “I’m going to put you to sleep, it’s going to be okay love, I promise,” Lucas spoke softly as he placed his hand over my eyes.

I groan softly, my body is throbbing with a dull pain. “Scarlet? Can you hear me?” I heard Lucas ask softly. I force myself to nod. “That’s good...I was able to provide your body with new stitches, this time I used metal instead of the string...I figured that would protect you better.” He explained as he stroked my cheek gently. “W-Why...W-Why did she come after m-me?” I ask quietly. Lucas heaved a great sigh and said: “I have no idea love...but she will not get away with this. I promise.” Tears slip down my cheeks, I shouldn’t cry, but my former best friend had killed my brother and just had tried to kill me. My eyes snap open when realization sinks in, “H-How did she know...m-my melody would work on me a-as well?” I ask softly. “I don’t know dear...but we’ll find out.” My melody should only work on children, not me. She’s had to done something, she’s had to.