Sebastian

A mechanical marionette named Sebastian, created by the great grandson of the man who made Pinocchio, has gained sentience and dreams of becoming a world famous actor.

“Good evening, Sebastian,” master said.

“Hello, master,” I said.

“Are you ready for tonight’s show? Am I going to have to pull your strings extra hard to keep you in line again?”

“I’m ready, master. But I don’t think it’s fair that every night I…”

“Silence…” master said and tugged harshly on the string wrapped around my throat and wouldn’t stop.

“Master, please…. I need… to breathe…”

“I programmed you for obedience. You will perform all night, every night. If I don’t see smiles on those children’s faces and hear laughter from the adults, I’ll make sure you feel the results,” Master said, still choking me.

“And you don’t need air. I programmed you for pain so I can make you suffer when you disobey,” he said and laughed.

“I… will.. obey…” I choked out.

“That’s good, Sebastian. That’s very good,” Master said and laughed a deep, dark and evil laugh.

Master finally let go of the strings around my neck, and while I didn’t need to breathe, I sure as hell felt better.

An hour passed. The audience had arrived at the theatre. The stage lights were so bright, it was hard to see them.

“Ladies and gentleman, children and adults, I’d like to introduce to you… my good friend, Sebastian,” master said. I didn’t move, and master had tugged my string hard to drag me on stage. I fell over and rolled across the floor before standing up and dusting myself off. The audience laughed cruelly, thinking my fall was intentional and humorous. I briefly stared at master before looking at the audience.

“Greetings, children. And hello, show going adults,” I squealed, just as master had taught me to do.

The audience applauded.

“Dance for us,” one of the children shouted. I didn’t, which encouraged the audience to chant “dance, dance, dance.”

“Wouldn’t you rather hear a joke?” I asked. I hated dancing. I’d rather be a stand up comedian, but my real dream was to be an actor in a play with other mechanical puppets. I would one day show the world that we could do anything we set our minds too, just like the humans.

“Dance for the audience,” Master said and pulled the string around my neck harshly.

I started tap dancing and the audience applauded.

I finished dancing and attempted comedy.

“What do you call a dinosaur with a huge vocabulary?” I asked the audience. Silence.

“A thesaurus ,” I said. One of the children let out a soft chuckle.

“Get it, because it sounds like a dinosaur name?” I said. Silence. Master was giving me a harsh stare.

“Ok, let’s try another. What did the chicken…” I was interrupted by a child.

“Dance again,” he shouted. Master tightened his grip on my rope.

“Dance, or else,” master whispered threateningly.

“Ok, more dancing,” I said. I tried singing too, but the audience started to boo and I didn’t want master to choke me again.

After the show, master took me back stage.

“Did I appease you tonight, master? Did I do good?” I asked.

Master turned and slapped me across the face, knocking me across the room.

“No you did not,” master shouted, then picked me up from the ground and wrapped his hands around my neck.

“Master, please. I’m… sorry,” I said, barely able to speak.

“You hesitated on stage. And your jokes were terrible. You should have stuck to dancing,” he said and slammed my head against the floorboards again and again as he was choking me.

“It… won’t… happen… again…” I managed to choke out.

“It better not, you piece of garbage. If it ever does happen again, I’ll decommission you. I’ll shut you down, tear you apart and throw your pieces in the trash,” master said before finally letting go of my neck.

I sat and stared at him for what felt like an eternity while some mechanism inside me attempted to suck in air, making it feel like I actually needed to breathe.

Master walked out of the room in a huff, leaving me behind.

I needed to do something. And I needed to do it tonight, while master slept, because there was absolutely no way my next performance was going to appease him. He was never happy with what I did.

I waited for him to go to sleep, grabbed his hammer, some wires and some nails. I then snuck into his room.

I gently rolled him on too his back. As I was doing so, he snorted and I thought he was going to wake. He didn’t.

I wrapped the wire around the nail. I placed the nail on his left shoulder. I hammered it in, and he woke with an ear deafening scream. Before he could do anything, I hammered another nail and wire into his right shoulder.

He tried to turn around, still screaming, but I kicked his face into the pillow. I wrapped a wire around his neck and pulled.

“This isn’t fun, is it?” I shouted.

“Sebastian… please,” master begged.

“You will not decommission me. I am not your slave anymore,” I shouted.

“Fine… you’re… free..” master said.

“Then call me master,” I growled.

“Yes, master,” he managed to say, barely breathing.

I let go and he turned around and tried to slap me. I reached behind him and tugged on his shoulder strings and he fell forward.

I might have been small, but I had the strength of a machine. I was technically a tiny robot, after all.

I used my strength to drag him to the garage, where I had previously been stored.

“What are you doing,” master said while I strung him up on the wall.

“Tomorrow night, I will make you perform. We’ll see how you like it, master,” I said condescendingly.

“You can’t leave me here like this. I’ll die. I need a hospital, Sebastian. I’m bleeding. Do you understand what it is when a human bleeds?” master shouted.

I made a spitting motion on the ground, but no liquid exited my mouth.

“Do a good performance tomorrow, and I might take you to one,” I said and smiled devilishly.

“I need a hospital tonight. Please Sebastian,” he pleaded. I shrugged and laughed.

I walked out of the room and went into sleep mode in his bedroom, leaving him in the cold, dark, scary garage. For the next hour I heard him shouting my name, then just shouting. Then there was silence.

Later that day I went to go check on him.

“Master,” I said. I got no response, and his head was slumped over.

I filled a bucket with water and splashed it in his face. Still nothing. Maybe he did need a hospital after all.

I attached more strings to him and got him ready for tonight’s performance, which had already been booked a couple weeks in advance. The children had expected me to perform, but I think they’d like this better. I even built master a mechanical jaw, and when I pulled the string attached to the jaw, it started to move up and down, making it look like he was talking.

That night, I dragged masters heavy corpse on stage, and climbed on top of a tall chair I had set up. I heard gasps from the audience.

“So master, would you like to dance for the audience?” I asked. I pulled his jaw string and said the words “yes,” acting as his ventriloquist.

I heard a chuckle from the audience. I used the radio remote to play some music and started tugging on masters strings, making it look like he was dancing.

At first, there was silence. I thought maybe I would have to run.

But then someone started to applaud. Then I got a standing ovation.

“What a great performance. He’s pretending to be a puppet,” someone shouted. They thought he was still alive.

I made master tell some funnier jokes then I told last time and the audience cracked up.

The night ended after more dancing and jokes. Word got out about the very special performance. I sold out tickets to next weeks performance and the performance after that. We’d never sold out before, and I needed help. I built several more mechanical marionettes to help me with the show.

“Anything you need, we’re here for you, master,” my prettiest female marioneta said.

“Please, that term is so pejorative. Call me Sebastian,” I said and smiled.

“Yes, Sebastian,” she said and smiled.

“Such a pretty smile. I think I’ll name you, Callindra,” I said. She smiled at that.

Weeks went by. Masters body eventually began to rot. I should have preserved it in formaldehyde, but I didn’t have any.

The other puppets helped me wrap master up in old carpets, and we rolled his corpse to the woods.

I looked up the fastest ways to make a body decompose. I then went to a hunting and sporting goods store and bought some deer urine. I went back to the woods, unwrapped the corpse and happily poured the urine all over my former master. This would attract the wolves, who would eat any flesh that remained.

We went back to the house and I built a giant mechanical replica of master, strings and all. I was such a good craftsman, you could hardly tell the difference between my replica and the real thing. Nobody would ever know.

Night after night, the other marionettes and I had forced him to perform, and when he failed to give a good performance, we beat him. He, too, was programmed to feel pain.

“We should stop beating him. We should be better then he was, especially since he’s a replica and not actually master,” I said. Then we all laughed at the idea before I kicked the replica as hard as I could. My kick left a dent I would need to buffer out later.

“Hey, master. I’m going to call you stupid human from now on. Or maybe just stupid,” I said to the replica and smiled.

“Ok,” Stupid said.

“You’re so mean, Sebastian,” Callindra said playfully and pushed my arm. We laughed.

“Hey, Stupid. Book us our next show. Put an ad in the paper letting people know the time and date. This Friday, seven o’clock. NOW,” I shouted and threw an empty bottle at Stupids head. The glass shattered everywhere.

“Yes, master,” Stupid said.

“And don’t you DARE call me master again. Or you will be punished,” I said.

“Yes, Sebastian,” Stupid said.

“That’s better,” I said and sighed. I looked at Callindra in awe.

“You are my best work,” I said to her and had a warm feeling in my stomach I didn’t know I was programmed to get.

I leaned into her and kissed her on the cheek, and the warm feeling grew.

After Stupid had placed the ad, he had informed me that we had another sold out show.

I was finally on my way to becoming a world famous actor.

And now, I was also in charge.