Chapter 33

The Skeleton Man with the Skeleton Keys

Ty awoke in another strange place. Or maybe the lack of space made it strange. He saw no difference between the darkness around him than the back of his eyelids. Before he panicked over the possibility that he was blind, he finally noticed a slight difference.

Before he did anything else, he needed to make sure of something. He touched his face, relieved to feel a familiar softness. He checked the rest of his body, not an inch of wood to be found. Being a puppet had been cool—after all the pain stopped, at least—but he would certainly not enjoy being one all the time.

That important matter taken care of, he spread his arms and legs out, searching for something around his general area in the dark. Nothing; only a solid floor. He hopped to his feet and almost knocked himself out on a low ceiling.

He crouched and started to walk; fast. He didn't know what kind of place he was in, but if it had a ceiling that low, he didn't think he wanted to stay for long.

About five steps later, he slammed into another wall and his world flipped forward as he and the wall fell. He hit the ground in a roll, multiple thunk noises following him until he landed on his back, which had become far too commonplace for his liking. He was on his feet again in a flash, his sword swinging with his gaze as he surveyed the area for threats.

In a second he was able to take in the new area and found no immediate dangers. He was in an empty hallway, similar to the old man's white room in that it was a single, white color—but the new area was not a pure white. It was dim, flickering now and again like a light bulb that had almost reached its end.

He ignored the hall for now and instead pointed his blade at the source of the sounds, a collection of large squares on the ground. He relaxed. He didn't suppose a group of shapes posed a threat to him.

The squares were laid out in a familiar pattern that he'd used to make a 3D cube out of paper in elementary school. It was a box, knocked down to its barest form; a box that he’d been trapped in for who knew how long.

It made him claustrophobic to look at.

Not only that, it gave him a profound sense of accomplishment. And, he didn't know why, but he felt that he’d changed in some small way, that all he'd faced up to now hadn't been for nothing.

At the very least, he knew one thing: he was no longer afraid. Of anything. He was ready to end this, find out if Gentry had survived, and finally get home.

He left his box where it was and entered the strange hall, toward his next trial.

#

The walk down the flickering hallway was an uneventful one. No surprises, only a straight shot to an opening up ahead. Ty stepped into the new, wide space. It was a room, about the size of the interior of his house if it’d been gutted, walls and all.

As he made his entrance, a figure started toward him from the other end. His face was obscured by a hood, but considering his recognizable tall and skinny frame Ty didn't know why he'd even bothered to hide.

Boy and monster approached one another, meeting at a standstill in the center of the room.

“Hello, Ty. It's good to see you again,” San's voice said as one hand went up, beginning to pull back the hood.

“Hi, San. I can't say the—”

The hood fell off, revealing the surprise he had wanted to keep hidden: his new, dual face.

Half was the San he was used to, the white skull face and crooked mouth. The other half was the Puppet Master's darker face and perfect, sparkling teeth. Side by side, the two most awful mouths in the universe grinned at him.

Ty suppressed a shudder. He held his ground, staring as emotionlessly as he could, up into the two empty sockets.

“Look at you,” San and the Puppet Master's voices said, overlapping each other. “You've changed; grown a spine. Too bad they're such easy things to break.” The Puppet Master's side of the face snickered while San's stayed still.

“What's up with your face?” Ty chose to ignore San's crack about spines. And tried to hide how freaked out he was over this whole thing.

San's laugh and the Puppet Master's snicker combined into one sinister sound. “Why, nothing at all. I am me,” he turned, only showing the San side. “And I am he.”

The Puppet Master's side was shown, teeth wide as expected... but something was wrong. The humor and playful evil air was not about him anymore. Instead, Ty could feel the sad, defeated energy he'd given off back in the fake town. This was still that same person, reaching out to Ty. For what? Help?

They faced forward again, the Puppet Master's side returning to how it was before, as if nothing happened. But it did, and Ty was not going to forget it.

San stared at Ty, waiting for some sort of reaction. He didn't give him the satisfaction, and jumped right to the next important matter. “If you're here, where's Gentry?”

“You're getting ahead of yourself, my dear boy! All of that in due time... perhaps. It depends on you. We have some business to take care of.”

“What kind?” His sword was ready at his side.

“What do you think? The business that built this place, brought me here—brought you here. Growing up.”

Ty laughed. “I'm getting really tired of you people talking about that.”

“Then get to it already,” San's side snarled, with enough venom to catch the Puppet Master off guard, his one eye socket widened.

“Sure, bring it on.”

Both chuckled. “I thought I told you—spines are easy to break.”

He hopped a few feet away from Ty and clapped his hands together, a loud crack! coming from within the walls a moment later. He inched his hands apart, two doors sliding out of the walls to the center of the room as San stretched out his arms. When they were at their full length, the doors slowed to a halt against the palm of his hands.

The one on Ty's left was a better made version of the doors in the center of the towns, painted with a purer white. An intense light shined from inside and spilled out underneath the frame.

On the right was a pitch black door, every part of it that same color—including the doorknob. Or, so he assumed. He couldn't see it, so it either blended in or simply didn't exist.

Both doors were creepy in their own way. Ty imagined that if he dared to step too close to the dark door, something would pull him inside, never to let go. If he opened the white door, the light inside of it might burn him to a crisp.

San rapped his fists against the tops of the door frames. They gave a little shudder, two objects dislodged from the centers of them and flew toward Ty. He held his sword up to shield himself and waited for an impact, but none came.

He peeked over his blade, finding no danger—just a pair of skeleton keys. And that was literal—the tops of both were shaped into skulls, exact matches except for their colors: one white, the other black.

“Let me guess, I'm supposed to choose one of these?”

“You're getting good at this, your skills of perception are truly impressive,” said San's side of the face while the Puppet Master snickered. “But there is more to it than that.”

“Like what?”

“Whichever key you choose unlocks one of the doors. Both doors have the same endpoint: your world. You will wake up in the morning, only a night's worth of time will have passed. However, who the person that gets out of bed is depends on your choice here.” San faked a yawn. “I feel like I'm reading from a script. Do you have any idea how many times I've had to explain this part?”

“No, how many?” Ty would take any chance he could get to learn about this world.

“Too many. Your head has been fun up to this point, but this last leg never changes all that much from kid to kid. At the end of every child's journey—assuming they made it this far—is the same black and white choice. The same two choices that all of this has been about, stripped to their most basic form and laid out in front of you.

“Through the white door, you will relinquish all of your doubts. You will no longer care about what you hold dear. Growing up? Won't scare you a bit. Your favorite toys? They will be boxed up and given away, perhaps sold before you know it. You will get a job, have a family, and be another upstanding member of society. Your father will be proud.

“Take the black door and you will embrace all of your doubts. Worried about working all your life? Scared of commitment? None of those will matter to you any longer. You will do what you want, when you want, and not care about anything. You will sit at home and accomplish nothing, relishing in your vast amount of free time.

“Do you want to grow up and become like other boring adults, or do you want to turn your back on everything and become a kid forever, with no hopes or fears about the future? That is what it boils down to; those are the only two outcomes available to you. Now, choose.”

Ty listened to San's little speech and the entire time all he could think was that he was wrong. If the future was as black and white as that, then his world would be a lot more boring. If the world was only filled with people like his dad and hopeless slobs, then how were there people who created things? The writers, the inventors, the musicians, the artists, the toy makers—where did they fit into a world like that? They didn't. And neither did Ty.

“I choose...”

The world was not how San, the Puppet Master, or his father said it was. It was not about giving up who you are to be a part of society, it was not about giving up on everything you cared for. Life is about what you want, what you believe.

And in this dreamworld, all this time, that was what he had been fighting for. Why should he suddenly stop now?

“Neither!” Ty yelled, a quick burst of energy shot out from the tip of his blade and knocked San away from the doors. The keys floating beside him reacted, spinning in the air.

San quickly returned to his feet, as if he wanted the world to forget that he had fallen over because of a mere child. He would have retaliated against Ty, but now there was something interesting to watch.

“How are you doing that?” San asked through gritted teeth.

“I'm not doing anything!”

Next, the doors matched the keys shaking, increasing in magnitude by the second. San looked between both pairs, debating on what he should do or if he even could do something.

“Make it stop!” He roared at Ty.

“I told you already, I'm not—!”

The keys sped toward each other, the doors sliding along the ground and rushing for the center of the room. San boldly stepped back in between the two doors, readying himself to stop them. As they built up speed and showed no sign of slowing on their own, he appeared to think better of it and hurriedly moved back out of the way.

The keys and doors slammed into their opposite parts in perfect, silent harmony. In their place was one door and one key, both half black and half white. The door was still, but the key flew in Ty's direction.

He caught it and slipped it into his pocket.

San stuck his head around the side of the new door, the rest of his body soon following as he set about examining its black and white surface. Luckily, he didn't remember or care about the key.

“This is...” San mumbled.

“A third choice.” Ty walked closer to San.

He turned around, slow, a grin forming on his face as he replied, “Perhaps. But more importantly, it means the rules no longer apply to you, boy.”

San matched Ty's stride, meeting him in the middle and standing to his full height. Ty did so as well with less impressive results. But he didn't back down.

“You remember your spine? Well, I am allowed to break it now.”

“Aw, you needed permission to do that?” Ty's cockiness was all an act, his whole body tensed for fight or flight.

“I could smash you to pieces, right this instant.” The malice in his voice showed just how badly he wanted that. “But not now. I like to play with my prey a bit.”

“Like a cat and a mouse. You know, sometimes the mouse escapes.”

“Yes. But when does the mouse ever kill the cat?” San stepped away from Ty, spread his arms far behind him. “Ready yourself, little mouse!”