Unlike previous times, she wasn't forced back to her room after eating. This time she was free to roam the levels.

Her father still kept his eye on her as she took joy in leaving his sight.

He stood by the entrance of the dining room as he watched Charlie happily skip down the hallway.

She skipped past the rubbish of the tampon wrappers; she hid her laughter behind her smile as a plan cooked in her mind.

---

Charlie stood in the dark room as she blindly pulled the bedding from the shelf, she felt it brush against her legs as they fall to the floor. She blindly ran her hands, reaching for the syringes; she could feel the plastic wrappers in her hands as she stopped.

She listened to the sounds outside the door. Her eyes flicked down to the crack under the doorway, seeing the light from the hallway trying to break through.

She felt her heart race against her chest as she listened.

Charlie quickly moved her hand away from the tray of syringes, she slowly knelt down on top of the pile of bedding. She rested her body against the bedding as she tried to peek under the doorway.

She waited and listened; she couldn't hear any sounds. That was normal. His hospital was always eerily quiet even though she sensed she had heard something that was out of the normal.

She couldn't see anything, she tried to keep her focus under the doorway as she waited.

Charlie slowly and carefully rose to her feet, she reached for the door handle as she tried to calm the beating of her heart.

She listened to the sounds as she carefully opened the door. Charlie didn't move as she waited, waited for something.

She cautiously took a step out of the room as she moved her attention around the hallway, she was standing alone.

Charlie ran her hands up her face and through her hair as she felt paranoia wash over her. She kept herself alert as she turned her back to the hallway, shifting her attention to the bedding on the floor. She bundled as much as she could in her arms before dragging it out into the hallway, she softly kicked the door close as she struggled to carry the bedding down the hall.

Charlie let the bedding drag across the floor as she moved along the hallway.

She stopped in front of the elevator as she thought for a moment.

If her hands weren't full of bedding, she would've run her hands over her face again instead she closed her eyes for a moment as she tried to regain her plan.

Charlie let out her breath as she opened her eyes, she dragged the bedding away from the elevator as she went to find the stairs.

She tried not to let the plan leave her mind as she struggled with the bedding in her arms, trying not to trip over what was dragging on the floor as she heaved the bedding up the stairs.

Charlie stopped at the top of the stairs as she looked around, she dropped the bedding on the floor as she sensed someone watching her.

"I could do with a friend." She toyed with her words as they lingered in the air. She reached down and randomly picked up one of the sheets as she let it drag behind her as she stalked down the hallway. "Friends are the best thing someone could have. Will you be mine?" she teased her words as she pressed her back against the wall.

Charlie listened. Listened to the silence. Listened.

Charlie stayed still as she kept her focus around her.

"Friends aren't toys." She heard a voice call out.

"No, never toys. Toys always end up broken." Charlie responded.

"People are like puppets...."

"The puppet master knows when to control and when to loosen." Charlie finished the sentence.

She heard a door slam shut, she tried not to break her concertation as she focused, keeping her back against the wall.

"Are you the puppet master?" Charlie called out.

"I am merely the puppet." The voice responded.

"Well, Puppets can be just as fun without the master around." Charlie smirked as she noticed the lights turn off.

"Only a master would say that."

"I'm no master, I'm just the string amongst the mess." Charlie watched as a door opened.

"You're his string?"

Charlie hated that question; she tightened her grip on the sheet in her hand.

"Silence is a weakness."

"He clearly didn't teach you that." Charlie turned her attention down the hall as she kept alert, she wanted to know where the voice was coming from.

"Selective hearing is a strength."

"No." Charlie spat "Your just the wrong type of puppet." She gritted her teeth as she heard a door close.

The voice didn't respond.

"Are you going to come out and play or does the puppet master have to find you?" Charlie called out, she twisted the bedding tightly around itself as she moved her attention up and down the hallway.

"if you're not the puppet master than why should I come out." That wasn't a question, it was a statement.

Charlie watched the hallway.

"You're not finding me?"

"I don't chase." Charlie calmly called out "The puppet master teaches their puppets to never chase."

"Only to stalk their prey."

"Then pounce when their distracted." Charlie felt like the voice was coming from different parts of the hallway, she struggled to find where exactly it was coming from. She couldn't even tell if it was male or female, she just knew it was a voice. She knew it didn't sound like her father's voice as she stepped down the hallway keeping her back against the wall.

"Are you distracted." Another statement.

Charlie didn't respond.

"You don't respond to statements."

Charlie cautiously focused on the doors as she moved past them, she felt like the voice was behind her as she moved her attention around the hallway, there was no one. Just her.

"Are you distracted?"

Charlie didn't respond.

"You didn't respond."

The bedding dragged against the floor as she stayed silent.

"Your just a string amongst the mess." The voice called out.

Charlie ignored it as she focused down the hallway, she could make out an emergency sign above a doorway.

"Strings always get cut down."

She looked at all the door handles, she struggled to think of a new plan as she stopped moving "Where are you?"

The voice didn't respond.

"There's an exit at the end, if I can reach it before you than you can kill me." Charlie challenged the voice.

The voice stayed silent.

Charlie started to run down the hallway as the bedding trailed behind her, the lights in the hallway flicked on as the door under the emergency sign opened.

She stopped as she noticed a person dressed in black clothing with a full black face mask.

"Are you going to kill me with that?" The voice spoke.

Charlie shrugged a little as the person stepped out of the doorway.

"I won." The voice spoke.

"Puppets don't take pride in winning." Charlie stated.

"They take pride when the master says so."

Charlie stood still as the person stepped towards her.

"You said you aren't the puppet master, but you look like it. Speak like it." The voice continued "Knowing all the right words, knowing all the rights moves. Are you thinking like a puppet master?"

Charlie stayed silent as the person stood mere steps from her.

The person looked Charlie up and down "You're the string, we can both see that. The string that he loves to play with."

Charlie felt her jaw tense.

"You're his string."

Charlie watched as the person studied her.

The person raised their hands, showing their empty hands, raising their arms chest high.

Charlie raised her free hand chest high as she kept her other hand on the bedding.

"I thought I was allowed to kill you, if I won?"

"Your already dead." Charlie smirked as she watched the person tilt their head to the side.

Charlie couldn't tell what reaction they were giving under their mask, but she sensed they were confused.

She felt hands rest on her shoulders, she didn't need to look to know who it was.

"Puppets aren't for killing. She is not for killing." His breath pushed onto the side of her face.

Charlie kept her focus on the person in front of her.

The person and Charlie both lowered their hands to their side as he watched them, keeping his hands on Charlie's shoulders.

"What were you going to do with the sheet?" He asked his daughter.

Charlie's voice felt empty as she spoke "I was going to hang them."

"From where?" Her father asked her.

"The thirteenth floor." The emptiness continued in her voice.

Her father moved one hand off her shoulder before forcing his daughter to let go of the sheet in her hand.

Charlie glanced down as she released her grip on the sheet, she watched as it dropped to the floor.

The person standing across from her kept their focus on Charlie and her father.

With his hand on Charlie's shoulder, he forced her to turn around and face him "off you go."

Charlie didn't say anything as she left her father alone with the person. She calmly and quietly walked back to the bedding she had left on the top of the stairs.

She scooped the bedding back into her arms, not caring that it dragged against the floor as she went to find the elevator. She carefully balanced on one foot as she used her other foot to press the down button for the elevator.

Charlie watched as the elevator doors opened, she stepped inside and pulled the bedding in before allowing the doors to close.

She pressed the number 13, she stared at the numbers as it travelled upwards.

Charlie pressed the emergency button which forced the elevator to stop moving.

She sat down on the floor of the elevator as she thought about her plan.

Charlie untangled the bedding, she looked up at the roof of the elevator as she tried to find the opening of the emergency panel.

She jumped up to her feet as she tried to reach the emergency panel, she carefully jumped trying to touch the panel. Charlie continued to jump as she tried to touch the panel to open it, she smiled in relief as she managed to push it slightly open.

She grabbed a sheet from the floor and tried to throw it through the gap of the emergency panel as her plan ran through her mind.

Charlie managed to get the sheet through the gap as she focused her attention on trying to blindly move the sheet on the outside of the elevator, she needed to figure out a way to conceal it from her father.

She let the end of the sheet she was holding onto dangle inside the elevator.

"CHARLOTTE!?"

"Let me die in peace!" She called out as she tried yet struggled to close the emergency panel.

"CHARLOTTE!"

Charlie scrunched up her face in annoyance as she tucked the sheet dangling from the top of the elevator into the emergency panel.

"CHARLOTTE!?"

"I'm dying!" She huffed as she finally managed to hide the sheet in the emergency panel before turning her attention to the buttons on the side of the elevator, she pressed number thirteen again.

Instead of continuing upwards, the elevator suddenly stopped, and the doors opened.

Charlie saw her father standing outside the elevator, his arms folded across his chest. She beamed happily at him as he scowled at her.

"Told you I was dying" She giggled.

He let his eyes wonder in the enclosed space trying to find anything out of the ordinary "Why do you have all these?"

Charlie shrugged as she picked up the sheets, fitting as much as she could in her arms.

"Charlotte."

Charlie walked past her father; he placed his foot over a piece that dragged on the floor. She felt the small tug before turning her attention to him.

"Answer me. Why do you have all these?"

"What happened to asking, how did you get these?" Charlie looked down at sheet squashed under his shoe before looking up his face.

He held his impatience back as he tried to figure out what she was doing, he thought he knew what Charlie was doing but she was doing things that he hadn't calculated for.

"Did you kill my friend?" Charlie asked.

He shook his head.

"You let them go?"

He nodded his head.

Charlie playfully shrugged before turning her back on her father, she loosened her grip on the bedding in her arms as she started to walk again, she let sheets fall from her arms as she refused to acknowledge her father standing on the sheet.

"Where are you going?"

Charlie shrugged again.

"Charlotte."

Charlie stopped as she looked at the few bedding remaining in her arms before turning her attention to her father.

"Pick all these up." He stepped off the sheet.

Charlie followed his instructions as she bunched everything back into her arms before carrying down the hallway.