Strings of Guilt

I returned to the Ashford Theater exactly one year after the fire. Forty-three people

burned alive during my final performance. I built a new marionette from what remained—their bones,

their silk dresses, their wedding rings melted into the wire. I rigged the strings

and began to perform. But my hands... they weren't moving anymore. The marionette was.

It jerked violently, clawing at the air—recreating how they'd died. Scratching at locked doors.

Shielding invisible children. Burning. Then it stopped. And pointed backstage.

I followed, strings dragging behind me. In my dressing room, I found a newspaper

I'd never seen. The headline read: "Puppeteer Marcus Chen Dies in Theater Fire - All 44 Dead."