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ARCHIVIST
Statement of Mira Flores regarding a strange traveling puppet show act. Original statement given July 9th 2015. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of The Magnus Institute, London.
Statement Begins.
ARCHIVIST (STATEMENT)
I’ve been volunteering at this library my friend works at for a while. It’s a gig where I help out the people who come for their special programs: Drag book readings, Fun singalongs, ect. She’d worked there for a while, and convinced me to help out. It’s very fulfilling, I mean, I get to spend time with my best friend, I get in community work which looks good on job applications, and I meet all kinds of people. That said, I do meet a lot of unusual people. Not that unusual means bad, of course, in fact my favorite acts are always the ones put on by more eccentric people, but that’s beside the point. The day it happened started out pretty much like any other day. The guests came in, said the name of their act to my librarian friend, and then came to me for help setting up. They were both covered head to toe in thick clothes and a face mask, hell, one of them even had gloves, which threw me off because of how hot it was that day. One of them also looked pretty familiar to a classmate I hadn’t seen in a while (Fiona, I think?) I asked her if she knew where Fiona was, but she said she didn’t know anyone by that name.
I asked who they were, and they said “Pound and Fireball”. It struck me as a bit odd that one of them was named after currency, but it wasn’t too unusual. I noticed that Pound’s limbs made an odd noise when she moved, and Fireball radiated an unnatural amount of heat. I would have commented on it, but I really didn’t want to be rude. The setup went fine, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off with them. Like, their conversations almost felt scripted.
Their setup was cute, though. It looked like a little island, sort of like total drama but with object puppets? Their show was fun too. A little competition with a bunch of contestants, ending with the contestants getting abandoned at like episode 4. Everyone loved the show, we packed up, and that’s when the performers were supposed to leave. But they didn’t. They looked at just the back of the front cover of every book we had, and then came up to talk to me and my friend for like, hours. They were very pleasant, but I just couldn’t shake this feeling that they had ulterior motives. I couldn’t shake that suspicion no matter how hard I tried, so I did something I regretted; following them out. They sort of just hopped behind the building and stripped off all those long sleeved layers into some more sensible clothes for summer. That Pound girl had ball joints, and Fireball’s skin was cracking off, revealing scathing red innards like hot metal. I sort of just watched from my shitty hiding spot, thinking I had been slipped something, because that could not be real. They went on about “not being aware there were two targets”, and how that “complicated the mission”, or whatever. I could barely focus with how out of it I suddenly felt. I just went inside and told my friend I wasn’t feeling well so i’d be leaving early. On the way back home, I was full to the brim with paranoia, I swear this was all real though. I’d see glimpses of a body bleeding red hot fire in the corners of my eye, dolls stared at me from shop windows, I was seeing doors in weird places, the whole shebang. Home was even worse. I was scared they’d be around every corner, in my closet, in my shower, in my bed, I felt like I was going crazy. I tried to call my friend, but she wasn’t answering. Eventually, I ended up sleeping with a knife under my pillow at 2:am. I woke up sweating hard . My room felt so hot, like it was on fire. I didn’t know what else to do, so I just headed to my job and did my shift like everything was normal. When I went to the library in the afternoon, my friend wasn’t there. I frantically called her, but she just wouldn’t answer. All her accounts have gone completely inactive too. The next few weeks have gone exactly the same, and I frankly don’t know how i’m supposed to handle this. This place is honestly my last resort. Please tell me if you get any new information, I need to know what’s going on.
ARCHIVIST
Statement ends. This was a written statement from a day no-one was in. lucky for me I suppose, lord knows i’m not good with the more delusional statement givers. Anyways, we were … ‘lucky’ enough to be able to look rather far into this case. Sasha was able to find Miss Flores’ social medias, as well as that of her friend (one Yvette Beck), and The Library the two had worked for. The Library had posted more than once promoting the puppet show mentioned, if the pictures are anything to go off of, confirming that the show happened. Miss Beck’s socials have been inactive since slightly before she was reported missing, and Miss Flores’ has inexplicably switched from selfies and flowers to puppets and dolls. However, aside from the library’s post, there’s no evidence supporting the existence of this Puppet Act. We also looked into the classmate mentioned, That being Miss Fiona Bales. She was reported missing a few months ago, and we could find no more information on the matter. We reached out to Miss Flores after Tim insisted , but all Miss Flores did was reassure us nothing was wrong. Whatever the reason, she has made an appointment to come back next week to give an update.
End recording.
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