Last Puppeteer's diary

1

And again they're fighting for the next valuable member of the pack. I'm so tired of all that...

But it's the reason I brought Feather here. To break the balance, to give a good shake to this house and all my "guests"?

It's hard to remember now how it all started. I never used to re-read my old diaries. I just threw them away after filling the last page...

Perfect. Now I understand how Jim has known all that about me. I wonder who found my diaries in the trash.

2

I forgot about you, Jenny, again. And you managed to do so much. While I was watching the struggle between the old rat and the raven, you persuaded Ryan to help you. While I kept my eyes on Firewood brothers finding each other again, you went through the rooms. While I was remembering the past, you nearly caught me, baby girl.

It's too late to change something or run files. They trailed me to the hatch in the bedroom. Well, I planned to show this room to the Feather for a long time. And I need to remind my head boy that life in this house is full of pain.

3

She's still shouting on me through the camera, but I had turned off the sound. Jenny... You've changed a lot. You are not the same cheerful girl, who taught the boy named John how to manipulate a puppet and not the frightened girl in a nightgown, gazing longingly out of the window. They locked you in your own home for ten years, Jenny, and you're here for less than a year. Why didn't you shout on them? Did you care for them, more than for your own freedom, more than for your own life? But you never mentioned them here...

4

5

"I threw a quick glance at the monitor and saw a miracle. You say one word, I can't hear you, but I don't need to. I imagined it so often. Lips parted, as if in a smile, rounded to make a vowel... You remembered me. You called my name.

I dreamed about it, so why am I afraid now?

Because I haven't been the one she remembered for so long.

And I can't even imagine for how long."

6

The Feather found a note from Mrs. Wallis and gave it to Jenny. I've found it in the graveyard some years ago, when her parents decided to bury the empty coffin and stopped looking for their daughter.

Now she doesn't think of me, she collects some stuff, she knits. I think, I've made a mistake, but I don't know when or where. Recently she laughed. Flatware cases were a simple game of hide and seek.

7

Alice is buzzing around. Before, she argued with underground or preached, passed the challenges or waited to hear the voice of her prophet. Do you think she finally get down to work? That's surprising. And she's so keen that she doesn't even notice what doctor does.

8

Jim nominally still belongs to the followers, although half of the underground members regularly see him in the basement. The brothers draw schemes together, explore chimneys... I never expected that he would try to get out of here so desperately. It's a pity it does not stop him from speaking regularly to the cameras. I'm tired of muting the sound as soon as I see him on the screen. And if I don't mute, I can't help answering him. Doc learned how to hurt me, and all my taunts and teases doesn't confuse him. Sometimes it seems to me that his goal is to make me throw them out of the house just to stop them talking. It's the most original way of escaping I've ever seen.

9

"Old dog never gets off the trail. Especially, if it had been taken before by another decrepit detective. I remember Barney, he kept a stiff upper lip. He died of a heart attack. I even thought to take him to the hospital, but he died too fast. Bill now continues his work. And Alice ... What she needs Kat's dolls for? Yeah, I guess mom would like to give us a sister, but how does Alice care about it? She has no right to say that Kat Fall was a bad mother! She was my mother, damn it, not her! And she's gone long ago..."

10

"The Feather roams around the house, passes the challenges without practical purpose as it seems to me. %[u_sex=male?He:She]s skips shelves in the closet, picks something up from the sofa, from the floor ... Sometimes even from the air.

Speaks with emptiness. Sees something that I do not notice.

Isami was speaking with Ryan about someone named Leonard. I think that was the name of a convict who had burnt the house in the nineteenth century. Why do they speak about him?"

11

Ryan is tinkering something in the attic, and sings this war songs again. Was he in Vietnam? I haven't studied his biography in detail. And my technical knowledge isn't veru helpful in tis case, he is working on something simple. And it looks very dangerous. Hunting season for the monkey is opened... That's interesting. Do you want to rehabilitate after Jenny's help? Or are you waiting for something from Matt ? Why are you back, Ryan?

12

13

She tries to talk to me.

How many people already know who am I? The Feather, Jim, Jenny, even Jack and Isami... I think I know who's stolen the diaries. That means this another man knows that too.

How can I be the Puppeteer for them if this girl calls me "John" in front of the cameras?

I have to brace myself, to parry this strike. To punish them, dammit!

Her words are like poison.

John Fall ...

No. That cute boy she knew would not leave so many corpses behind.

14

"There were 50 people in the first act. But I remember them all. They left the prison, and were caught here immediately. The jury... they were so surprised, these respected jerks that were absolutely not adapted to life. Nerved prosecutors trying to recognize my voice, I remember all who were put to jail. And people from circus, whose route crossed with the line of deaths.

Samantha the magician. Too many traps for one girl. Her hat is still here."

15

"The old man Barney was gutsy, but a bit cranky. He was the only one who thought not only about escape plans. From his dossier I've learned, he was involved in some intelligence operation back in 1988. It seems he didn't succeed. And here he delved with the papers in the library with such a passion that I threw him some data. Everything I got while was preparing the first act.

He recognized me on the first day and he never said a word."

16

Emily, blonde chubby circus girl, juggling clubs. Grain by grain, and the girl fills her belly... A knife, a sleeping bag made of blankets, sheets torn to bandages. So quiet, so soft, she reminded Jenny to me. She quickly realized she would not live to see the end, but she died the last of them. She broke her leg and asked Isami for an overdose of sleeping pills. Why didn't I get her out?

I could do that but i preferred to bury her in the grove, under an old cherry tree. There's a graveyard now...

17

Freedom is all we have. All we have been given. Everything begins with freedom and ends on it, the baby and the dead man are absolutely free, and a man should keep what was given to him. We need to carry our freedom through life like a banner. And that's what i teach them, and they will be free - some when, somehow...

I believed it then. And what's about now?

Do I still want to teach someone something?

Or I'm just acting out of habit, like the whirling dancer who will not stop until it runs down.

18

Isami and Feather are walking through the rooms on the first floor, looking for something. I listen to them - like someone talking on the telephone? There is only half of the conversation. It’s strange. They look like someone's answering them. But who is it?

Last time when I came down, I saw some haze creeping on the floor, and sticking to people's feet... I've never seen it on the cameras. Was that what Jim had been talking about?

19

Have I ever considered Alice being prudent? Ha! Notes from an unknown sender - that’s what turned her on. Who would dare to play my game? To take the threads of my puppets, the most faithful, though the most stupid ones? It is a challenge. I finally found myself a challenge.

20

While I was searching for some items for a new challenge in the last room, I came across the letters that Alice has brought me. The letters to some girl in Paris... I never thought, Jack can be such a romantic.

I envy him. His Eugenie - she's a dream come true, and even if it doesn't, it would still leave fond memories. Eugenie or Jenny… No-no-no... I shouldn't think of that.

21

Past takes its vengeance, scattering, and intoxicating the present. The past must stay in memories, just in memories. Then you're can still be yourself…

But was I?

I learned to fight, I was looking for the enemy, and I found my goals. Freedom is the lodestar… How many people have I made to believe that? How many of them have died for freedom? For my freedom!

It's nonsense. What 's happening to me?

22

Old papers in a closet - these are remains from my preparations for the first act. All who were mentioned there, found themselves in this house two years ago, but Bill is trying to extract something else from these cases. Why would he? Does he hope to find out the reason for me to start all that? To find out who killed my family?

That does not matter. The killer was someone from the first act, and he's already dead.

23

There is an empty room on the screen, plaid is thrown on the table, candle forgotten. Her candle that she's never left even for a moment. As if she hoped to find me, to light me with its light. I hid myself in the shadows, i did everything to put this light out, but now when I did it ... I'm scared.

24

25

Ryan did it after all. Fuses from old grenades, soporific, gas tanks that have exploded in the winter garden. An interesting diagram for a shocker — I have copied it from the camera recording. If I were still making traps for the puppets, I’d make one like this. If I were the same person that was starting the first act…

26

27

The Feather has only one key short. Last time I made a real obstacle course with deadly poison, now it will be easier. I’m giving hints, I can’t resist it, even though the room is not ready yet. It wasn’t in the first act, I had to make a trial on the run. The cache of my father’s study, current typography. I need a little more time to finish it.

28

Matt. The third disciple is causing too much trouble, he’s always making excuses and survives all the tests. "I was only trying to help..." He’s written notes, dug out some garbage from act one… And the worst is that it wasn’t me to figure out the forgery.

29

It’s good that I’ve connected wiring to the hatch, or else this play would be cut in the middle. Jack has no shortage of persistence, he could break the hatch open without a key... And I’ve just been watching, waiting for him to speak first, in some kind of a strange stupor. It was the first time for a puppet to get this close. Something between a hit at the back of my head and a huge cup of coffee. In such moments I want to live again.

30

31

Looks like I’m falling asleep in front of the monitors again. I had a vision of Sam. He has a T-shirt with words “Bang-Bang” on it and he’s talking about everyone who had once lived in this house. He’s asking me not to die. And there’s some kind of defender… Isami will soon convince her to forgive me… And everything will be better than now. I should sleep more and think less.

32