Oliver woke them up at the crack of dawn with a brisk knock. Caroline shoved her head under her pillow, while Laura cracked open the door. After Laura had snuck back in the room and carefully stowed the vitamins under her pillow she’d managed to get a grand total of three hours of sleep.

  “Daylight’s wasting,” Oliver said.

  “I find that hard to believe,” Caroline said from under her pillow.

  “We’re leaving in ten minutes.”

  Eight minutes later Laura had coaxed Caroline downstairs and out onto the porch with the others. The air was crisp and new; it would take several more hours of sunlight to burn away the fog and take the chill out of the air. Nate hopped in place, warming himself up, his breath faintly visible, while Caroline sipped a cup of coffee she’d grabbed on the way out. She shivered and yawned.

  Oliver clapped his hands at Caroline. “What is this, early class on campus? You’re in a fight for your life!”

  “Could I get a sip of that actually?” Laura said.

  “The body can only take so much adrenaline,” Caroline said, taking another sip before passing the cup to Laura.

  “So you’re flooding it with caffeine? Make it make sense,” Brett said.

  “Get bent.”

  “Why don’t you direct that hostility into something useful, Level 1,” Brett said back.

  Laura took a deep sip of the warm coffee and felt something stir inside her. She had pocketed two vitamins on her way out of their room, and she slipped them in her mouth and swallowed them down another sip of coffee. Time to kick some ass and actually get somewhere.

  Graham cleared his throat. “Speaking of, we’ll need some weapons.”

  Oliver laughed. “I can offer you a pick of what we’ve got, but so far we’ve come up pretty dry. Especially since none of you can wield a melee weapon. How’d you wind up with so many long range fighters anyway?”

  “Rats,” Graham said, enigmatically.

  “So that leaves us where exactly?” Laura said, swallowing down one last gulp of coffee before she passed the mug back to Caroline.

  “The way I see it, building up your stats is the safest bet. I personally don’t want to get too comfortable relying on a specific weapon if they can just take it away. Your stat points aren’t just going to vanish.”

  “Presumably,” Agnes said.

  “So the focus is on leveling up. Option 1: trial by fire.” Oliver pointed at the pumpkin house, the one marked difficult on Laura’s map. “We haven’t done that one ourselves yet. We could all go in, and take it on as a group. Agnes and I could take some of the tougher parts on, leave you to mop up the lower level mobs.” Laura couldn’t help but note he didn’t include Brett in his own logistics. Presumably Brett was now a permanent member of their party.

  “We should probably merge parties so we can get a share of the experience if you or Agnes end up tackling the boss in there,” Graham said.

  “I assume there’s an option 2?” Caroline said, voice wavering as she looked at the mass of cobwebs surrounding the pumpkin shaped building.

  “Yeah,” said Laura, “is there any way we can start a little more…”

  “Less cursed?” Nate said.

  “Puppets it is.”

  “How is this less cursed?” Nate asked.

  They stood outside the bookstore. The little puppet theater sat deserted out front, curtains swaying ominously in the breeze.

  “Well it’s easier,” Oliver said. “We already beat the boss, there’s just a handful of his little minions to deal with.”

  Graham had a second slingshot that Brett had begrudgingly given up. Laura was armed with a kitchen torch.

  Item: Kitchen Torch

  Type: Level 2 Weapon - Long range

  Requires a minimum of 3 Dexterity and 3 Intelligence.

  She’d had to put the stat point she’d just received from leveling up into dexterity just to make it work.

  “Last resort, obviously,” Oliver had said when he’d handed the torch to her. “You’re going to be surrounded by things that burn, not just the puppets.”

  “The only magical item we had was Joel’s,” Oliver said to Caroline. “So we obviously don’t have that anymore.”

  “Meaning I’m still screwed, thanks.” Caroline gave a little salute.

  “Well, in a sense you’re in luck here. You’ll get experience fighting the puppets but you’ll also get access to all the spell items once you secure the area.”

  “Spell items?” Caroline’s ears perked up.

  “Well yeah, how else would the puppet master have been able to animate the puppets?” Oliver said.

  “Duh,” Brett said sarcastically.

  “The puppet master was the boss I assume?” Laura said.

  “Yes. Joel was able to defeat him with his own magic.”

  “Eventually,” Brett said.

  “Yes, initially Brett snuck in because he had the highest dexterity and smuggled out a spell book. The puppets only activate with a certain level of activity, so if your dexterity is high enough you can just sneak right past them.”

  “Those little things are creepy as fuck,” Brett said, a bit of editorializing that didn’t help Laura one bit. “I am not doing that again.”

  “So how do we take care of the puppets?”

  “Also by magic, ideally. Joel was basically able to “de-animate” them. But you can slow them down by shattering their legs or their arms. It just doesn’t stop them entirely. The only way is if they’re completely pulverized or destroyed. So the majority of you can distract the puppets, slow them down while Caroline grabs whatever she needs and gets to work.”

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  “Just like that?” Caroline said. “While surrounded by this walking nightmare, I pick up a spell item and just poof I somehow can use it—”

  “Like magic?” Oliver said, smiling. “Yeah, according to Joel using it was pretty intuitive once you had whatever items you needed. Difficulty was getting the stuff in the first place.”

  “But she’s still just a Level 1,” Brett said.

  “So was Joel, right?” Caroline said.

  Brett shook his head. “Nah, once I got the spell book out he went back into the woods and hunted down ghosts and zombies to level up a bit before we went back to the puppets.”

  Laura thought of the particularly large pile of mob corpses they’d passed on their way into town.

  Oliver shook his head. “We don’t have that kind of time. Plus they won’t have the boss to deal with, just the puppets.”

  “No way am I going in there armed with nothing yet again,” Caroline said, crossing her arms. “I’ll be a sitting duck.”

  Laura pulled up the tarot cards in her inventory. They were single use, and this was meant to essentially be a training exercise. They were in a bad place if they had to use them already. Plus she wasn’t sure she was ready to answer the questions it would generate about where she’d gotten them.

  Caroline stared Oliver down. Oliver sighed.

  “Are you freaking kidding me?” Brett said. “I have to do this shit again?”

  “You sneak in,” Oliver said, turning to Brett. “Grab the first book you see on basic counter-animation, and get back out. Caroline gets ten minutes to prep, then you all go in. Simple.”

  “Yeah, easy for you to say. They have their eyes open all the time, you know,” he said to the rest of them. “All the time. And they don’t blink. You don’t know they’re looking at you until they turn their little heads. And his creepy little office is all the way behind the kid’s section which is at the very back.”

  Brett sat down and pulled off his shoes and set them to one side, still griping. “Keep an eye on those for me,” he pointed at Agnes. Then he walked over in just his socks and opened the door to the bookstore. He stepped over the threshold and guided the door gently shut behind him so it closed without a sound.

  “And now we wait,” Oliver said.

  A few minutes passed. Then a few more.

  Laura strained to hear any movement from inside. All she could hear was the flapping sounds as the curtains on the puppet stage moved in the brisk wind.

  “How long do we have to wait ex—”

  “Agh, creepy fuckers!” Brett yelled from inside. “Get back!” Then there was a loud thud of books and something being knocked over.

  “Well so much for that,” Oliver said. “Guess we’ll have to go with the original plan.” He nudged Caroline towards the door. She dug her feet in until Brett yelled again, galvanizing Graham, Laura and Nate to run for the door. Caroline threw up her hands and ran after them.

  “Thanks for the help,” Caroline yelled at Oliver as they passed by him leaning against the puppet theater.

  “Good luck!” he yelled after them.

  They all stopped just inside the door as it swung shut behind them. A bell tinkled as it hit the threshold. That must have been why Brett had eased the door closed. Laura cringed at the ringing sound, but it was quickly overshadowed by more thumping and yelling coming from the very back of the shop.

  The first room was empty, including the checkout counter near the door. Tables and displays were filled with books that looked completely untouched.

  Nate and Graham ran ahead towards the ruckus, and Caroline and Laura followed. At the very back of the store, turning to the right and down a few steps, was a cramped sunken area that held all the children’s books. Low lying shelves stacked with picture books ringed an open area towards the center with an alphabet rug. Towards the back was a faux fireplace stacked with toys in every shape and size.

  Brett was standing in the middle of the rug with three different puppets hanging off of him as he spun around, blindly grabbing for picture books and flinging them, trying to knock over two more puppets that were jerkily walking his way.

  To the left of the fireplace, behind where Brett was currently battling puppets, a staff door was open revealing a cubicle sized office crammed with dense books and various magical items. Brett had a small crumbling old book in his hands. Clearly he’d triggered the puppets on his way back out of the puppet master’s office.

  He stumbled back into the fireplace, knocking several small toys to the ground with a squeak. The book fell next to him. He grabbed a stuffed pig and threw it at one of the advancing puppets, knocking it into one of the bookshelves. Then he grabbed the book and started swinging it at the puppets clinging to his legs.

  “Get. Off. You creepy. Motherfuckers.” He smacked one directly in the head with the book, sending its head spinning around, but it didn’t let go.

  The puppets were more specifically marionettes. They were the kind made of separate lengths of wood attached together to form articulating arms and legs and typically controlled by strings. Except there were no strings. Seeing them walk on their own across the alphabet carpet was like watching a stop motion movie in real life.

  “Get them off me!” Brett yelled, spotting Laura and the others. He continued trying to beat one of the puppets off with the book in his hands, although it wasn’t very effective. Brett’s health bar was dropping, but very slowly. It seemed he wasn’t in immediate danger, just creeped out.

  Caroline, on the other hand, was in danger. One of the two puppets not hanging onto Brett saw her and scurried, faster than they should have been able to, and grabbed onto her. Its fingers elongated, like vines, and burrowed, winding around her leg. The damage was creeping rather than immediate, but faster than Brett’s by a fair bit.

  Caroline screamed. “Why is it so strong? I have a higher constitution than you!”

  “Because you’re a Level 1, dumbass. Your health scales to your level,” Brett yelled back. “I kept trying to tell you!”

  “What is it doing to me? I can’t feel my foot!” Caroline pulled up her pant leg. The puppet’s fingers had grown to fully encase her left foot. “What is that?”

  Laura and Graham meanwhile were grabbing books off the shelves and trying to knock the three puppets off of Brett.

  “You know how in the story Pinocchio became a real boy?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Well this is kind of the opposite of that.”

  Graham used his slingshot to knock one puppet off.

  “Oh my god! What the hell, Oliver?? Easy, my ass.”

  “Wait,” Laura said. “You’re saying zombie bites don’t turn you into zombies, but the puppets can turn you into puppets?”

  Laura threw a book and it collided with the puppet crawling its way up Brett’s chest, throwing it to the floor.

  “They’re pulling out all the stops with her! I guess that they know she’s a magic user.”

  Nate was busy prying the puppet off Caroline’s leg. He snapped its fingers, spraying splinters. The puppet shrieked with rage. Each finger he snapped another one grew, twining, to take its place.

  Graham grabbed the book out of Brett’s hand and ran it to Caroline. “Here!”

  “What am I supposed to do with this?” Caroline said, trying to kick the puppet with her other leg.

  “Figure it out!” Brett yelled, breaking free of the last puppet. It scurried back to join the other two. He scrambled back to give himself room. He’d loaded up his pockets with jawbreakers that he now used to arm his slingshot.

  Bright blue and purple jawbreakers shattered the legs on one of the puppets, sending shards of candy and wood flying. The de-legged puppet then started dragging itself across the carpet towards Brett. Green new growth started sprouting out of each leg stump.

  Caroline flipped frantically through the book while Nate continued snapping puppet fingers. It slowed the damage Caroline was taking, but didn’t stop it entirely. Graham ran over to help him, while Laura and Brett took on the other four puppets, who had all regrouped and were slowly advancing.

  “I found the page!” Caroline said. “Oh crap, I need ingredients?”

  Nate and Graham working together had slowed her damage to a trickle.

  “I need sweat, blood, and hair,” she said. “Sweat, blood, hair,” she chanted. “Uh, okay sweat and hair I’ve got. Anyone have something sharp?”

  “You have a book!” yelled Brett, exasperated. He and Laura threw a constant volley of books, toys, and jawbreakers at the other four puppets, keeping them away from Caroline and the others.

  “So??”

  “Paper cut!” Laura yelled.

  Caroline smacked her forehead. She wiped one hand along her forehead, collected some sweat, then she yanked a hair off her head. Then steeling herself, she grabbed a few pages together and sliced her finger along the edge. She squeezed a drop of blood from the cut. She consulted the book again. “Okay, I’m a level 1 so I can only really do this one at a time.”

  The puppet had almost entirely engulfed her left foot. Caroline opened the book to the crucial page, and read out loud. The hair, blood, and sweat coalesced on her palm and burst into flames, turning into an ash that she sprinkled on the puppet. The ash clung to the puppet’s limbs and head. The puppet’s eyes began to glow as it resisted the attempt to overpower its original animating force. Caroline grunted with the effort.

  Eventually its eyes dimmed and the remains of the puppet fell off her leg and slumped, empty and lifeless, on the floor. Her foot was still encased in wood. “Okay,” Caroline said, panting. “That’s one.”

  With Caroline no longer actively in danger, Graham and Nate were able to focus on the other puppets. Caroline dashed around the room, trying to stay one step ahead of the four remaining puppets while she collected another round of ingredients. Her wooden foot clunked as it dragged behind her like it had fallen asleep.

  “Separate out another one for me!” She yelled, as she continued making a circuit of the room. Graham pointed out another puppet, and Brett and Laura focused their attention on the other three puppets, while Nate tried to punch that puppet away from the others. Caroline dashed up and worked her magic, and it too dropped to the ground.

  “3 to go!”

  But there was a problem. Caroline was moving slower. “It’s saying I need to recharge! I don’t have the constitution to do it this many times in a row!”

  The puppets were realizing that the books and jawbreakers, while annoying, weren’t proper weapons. The three puppets ran off in separate directions.

  “Shit, where are they going?” They lost sight of them behind the low lying shelves.

  “Shh,” Laura said, straining her ears.

  The patter of little wooden feet came from multiple aisles, still hidden from view.

  Laura pulled out the blow torch.

  “Woah, last resort, remember?” Nate said.

  “I’m just going to put the pressure on a little.” She ignited the flame. It made a hissing sound. She raised her voice. “Hear that?”

  The pattering stopped.

  “Yeah, I thought so.” Laura pulled everyone back onto the alphabet rug. “Come any closer to us and I’ll use it!”

  “Don’t make threats you don’t intend to follow through with,” Graham murmured from next to her. She didn’t know if the puppets could hear in any traditional sense, but Graham seemed to not want to take any chances.

  “I just need two more minutes,” Caroline panted from behind her.

  It was still quiet. Laura craned her neck around but didn’t move off the rug. She scanned the floor, looking for any signs of movement among the scattering of toys and books. A rustling sound came from the shelf near her shoulder. She turned her head to see wooden eyes level with hers.

  “Watch out!”

  The three puppets, who had stealthily climbed the shelves, all leaped onto Laura.

  Caroline lurched forward, stepping on her bad foot, and her leg went out from under her. Two of the puppets jumped ship from Laura to Caroline, one of them wrapping its little fingers around her throat, the fingers lengthening up her neck. The other continued working on her affected leg.

  Caroline shrieked, then ripped a handful of hair from her head, bringing a few drops of blood with it. Her hands were already dotted with sweat. She threw the book to the ground, using her elbow to keep it open to the right page. Flames erupted from both hands, sending ash flying through the air. Then she grabbed each of the puppets by the throat. “How do you like it?” She growled as they each slumped lifeless to the floor. Then she passed out.

  Which left one very enraged puppet still clinging to Laura.