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Chapter 7 is the seventh chapter of The Lonely Ones novel.
Description[]
Ruse, Feast and Mim arrive to an arcade building swarming with living Puppets. In order to reach the lower deck where the yellow blimp was landing, they need to pass through the arcade. But as they figure out a way in and through, Ruse realizes Mim is not acting like herself. Soon, the three of them fall into greater danger the moment the Performer arrives.
Plot[]
Ruse and Feast catch up to Mim at the front of a building with the main entrances blocked, the doors are chained and padlocked and there is no way to go around on either side as the entire building is fenced off. Ruse is certain the yellow blimp landed on the other side of the arcade. They need to get to the other side of the arcade but as she contemplates how they will enter the building, Feast and Mim are already headed towards a broken window while dragging a fallen letter. The three of them position the letter to form steps they can climb to the window sill. Mim hurries up the steps and Feast follows. Ruse follows them but wonders why Mim is so interested in entering the game room, thinking she has not been acting like herself. Ruse carefully steps through the hole of the broken window onto a barrel on the other side, avoiding the pointed glass from the wooden frame. She then notices the loud music that would normally have Mim curled up and plugging her ears, yet she is not concerned over the noise.
Feast follows Mim as she hops down to the deck to walk towards the carnival stands, but the boy is filled with uncertainty. Mim approaches a ring toss booth, reminding Ruse of her father and the vague memory of him explaining to her how the ring toss worked as an excuse for her to not play the games at the Hatefields Fair. As Mim passes the ring toss counter, a living Puppet vaults over the counter and lands in front of her. Mim stumbles back, but Feast catches her, the two of them huddling in shock over seeing the living Puppet for the first time. Ruse had already seen one of the Puppet’s back at the catwalk in the Performer’s theater, but Feast and Mim were down on the stage and had never seen anything like the living doll until now. The Puppet’s curious leering face and careful study over Mim and Feast tell it has never seen anything like them either. As the Puppet approaches, Feast and Mim hide behind the ring toss booth. Ruse runs in the opposite direction, hearing the sound of objects falling and glass shattering as the echo of running footsteps is barely heard over the loud music in the arcade. Ruse slips through the flap at the back of a booth and finds herself at the back of the counter of a bottle stack game, with teddy bears stuffed with needles for prizes. She finds a large wooden ball meant to knock over the stacked bottles, but the ball is light, convincing her it's intended to not knock the bottles she suspects are all glued together. Another Puppet drops from the counter and reaches for her, but Ruse uses the wooden ball to smash his head.
After the Puppet collapses, Ruse makes her way under the canvas wall to the next booth over, where she finds a basket ball net and ball. She bumps against the game as she tries to sneak past and accidentally alerts other Puppets. Ruse ducks under the counter to hide as she hears their footsteps heading towards her. She holds her breath as she sees the shadow of a Puppet appear from the back wall, and waits for it to leave. After the Puppet leaves, Ruse lifts the bottom of the booth's canvas and sees a row of mechanical marble game tables, one of which has a Puppet crouched on the glass top. While the Puppet is turned away from her, she grabs the ball from the baseball booth and pushes it to let it roll and bounce off the edge, distracting the other Puppets who quickly chase after the ball. With the Puppets now preoccupied with the ball, Ruse crouch runs towards the shadow beneath the first marble game and continues to crawl under the row of tables, remaining out of sight from the Puppets who look around for her as they stand around the ball. There are too many Puppets to fight off on her own or with Feast and Mim, but she can't deny how strong she feels when she is with their company. Their only hope of defending themselves is by working together.
Ruse reaches the last table and peeks around the edge in time to see Feast and Mim on the other side of the room, they disappear behind a machine that looks like a miniature bowling alley. Feast spots Ruse, his eyes relieved just as much as Ruse's is now that they found each other. Feast nods his head down the arcade to gesture something. Ruse takes a chance to stand up to see Feast was pointing to two double doors on the far end of the arcade, just past a ball pit. Ruse nods to Feast, agreeing to meet them at the double doors. In order for Ruse to get to the double doors, she must get past a Puppet standing in front of a small garden, holding a mallet. Ruse spots a support pillar just past the garden, a place to hide behind if she can sneak across to it. She tiptoes to the garden, but when the Puppet turns around, she hides behind one of the many grubs that pop up from the holes in the ground. The Puppet smashes the grubs to the ground with its mallet. Ruse hears the sound of the machine preparing to retract into the ground, threatening to expose her. With the Puppet inching closer as it smashes the grubs around her, Ruse wraps her arms around the grub in front of her and slides down into the space between it and the hole. She then crawls and squeezes herself through the machinery, narrowly avoiding the grubs the Puppet hammers back into the ground.
The machinery resets to fire another assortment of grubs to the surface again. Ruse figures out she can predict when a grub will soon be lifted to the surface by listening for a unique sound from the springs. Ruse hears the soft click from the grub behind her, indicating it will rise to the surface and grabs hold of it before it is launched up. Now back on the surface, Ruse runs towards the pillar as the Puppet chases her. After Ruse ducks into the shadow on the other side of the pillar, the Puppet runs past without seeing her, but as it continues to run, Ruse notices she can no longer hear the sound of its wooden feet hitting the ground nor the loud sound of the arcade. Ruse speaks her worry of “Oh no”,her voice is silent, upon remembering what such silence means. She looks in front of the pillar she had been hiding behind and sees the Performer’s door painted on the pillar. Ruse knows the Performer has arrived, but is unsure of where he could be, until she notices Mim nearby and out in the open. Ruse runs to the doors at the back of the arcade and while she is grateful the silence is masking her footsteps from the Puppets, their attention is fixated on Mim who is acting out a fighting routine where she is punching and dodging an invisible opponent.
Ruse spots the Performer in her peripheral vision acting out the same boxing routine, it's his routine Mim is mimicking and the Puppets are watching. Ruse creeps closer, beyond the Puppets that remain distracted, and spots Feast by a game that tests your strength, swinging a wooden mallet to defend himself from a Puppet acting out the same boxing routine as Mim and the Performer. Feast manages to hit the Puppet on the head. It collapses to the ground but after a moment of not moving, it stands up again. Feast tries to ready the mallet but is quickly outnumbered as more Puppets appear to join the fight against him. The Performer is walking away with Mim following his direction and routine of forcing their way through a nonexistent gale towards the double doors at the back of the arcade. Ruse considers running after Mim but wonders if she can pull her out of the Performer's control the way Feast had. Although she is unsure of what the Performer’s plans are for Mim, his only intentions are so far to just include her in his act rather than hurt her. Ruse decides to help Feast first as he is in more immediate danger and she will likely need him to save Mim.
Feast fights off the Puppets as best he can until one of them tackles him, pinning him to the ground. The rear doors of the arcade open for the Performer and Mim. Ruse looks through the doors but can only see the empty horizon. Despite her voice being silent, she calls out to tell Mim that she and Feast will find her. Ruse is unsure if it is her imagination but it seemed as if Mim looked back at her as she followed the Performer out of the arcade. After the Performer leaves the room, all sound returns within the arcade. Ruse hears Feast yell out for help as he is tied and dragged by three Puppets to the ball pit near the rear exit. Feast tries to twist and squirm to free himself, but calms down when he notices Ruse sneaking after them. Ruse puts her finger over her mouth to gesture to Feast to stay quiet. Ruse looks at the Ball Pit the Puppets drag Feast towards and her instincts yell from the back of her mind that the Ball Pit is unnatural and dangerous. Ruse can sense that if Feast falls into the Pit, he will disappear into its depths and never be seen again. She panics as the Puppets throw Feast into the Ball Pit, and runs to his aid but is unable to reach him to pull him out. Ruse sees Feast’s terrified eyes before he fully disappears into the bottomless pit.