Day 2 Puppet
You loved your job. You really did.
A lot of people would say that a young lady working as a night janitor at a museum late at night was crazy and you could totally get a different job more suitable like a cute waitress or part time at an office but you didn't mind. You loved working for your great uncle whom owned the museum and for a while lot of reasons. The pay was good. Your elderly uncle got reliable workers. The museum was actually peaceful at night and you loved seeing all the beautiful artifacts from ancient history.
But there was a more important reason why you were here.
The sounds of footsteps and a squeaky wheel of your cart as you pushed your mop cart full of slightly sloshing soapy water past display cases of ancient swords, pottery, a jeweled crest that once belonged to an empress from hundreds of years ago. The darkness casted eerie shadows along the wall and made a creepy atmosphere fill the air. The silence other than your own bodily movements was enough to make it almost seem like a scene from the horror movies at the theater. But it didn't scare you too much as you just pushed your wheeled mop bucket through the halls until you got to one large room in particular. The room was long and dark and what made it most creepy was the fact that it was filled with mannequins.
The darkness chose to make it creepy as you pushed on inside.
The figures were eerily posed in various poses from sitting, standing, mid fight stances- It depends on what they were wearing. After all this room was dedicated to the fashion of the ancient past from a real recreation of what an Oiran would wear right down to your uncle paying the local barber shop to style a wig for the Oiran mannequin to other simpler fashions like what an empress wore in the Hein period to a recreation of a geisha, a Kabuki actors, and even a genuine old suit of samurai armor. You weren't ever bothered by the mannequins since you knew they were just plastic molds in clothes but they still looked creepy.
However you weren't bothered by that. You were here for someone else.
The squeaky wheels stopped at the very end of the hallway you looked up at the stand that beheld the six foot figure before you. The limited light had given way to let you see some.features in the dark but you already knew what he looked like. Pale wooden skin. Eyes with beautifully painted pomegranate pupils. Long mahogany locks made from some material unknown to you and styled up in a long ponytail.
At first glance someone might assume him to be another mannequin but more detailed, however you knew what this actually was. A training dummy. A puppet. Whichever one you wanted to call it. Very detailed and advanced for its time. Hell even for your time now. Whoever made this was a genius obviously. You still remembered the day your Uncle brought it home. It was a Wednesday morning and you had arrived early to visit with your uncle before working that night and was instead surprised to see the older man directing two men in uniform carrying a large and long wooden crate inside the museum entrance. A large delivery truck sitting on the curb.
"Uncle, what are you doing?"
The old man turned and immediately lit up upon seeing his favorite neice standing there, turning to her with open arms. "Y/n! You're early!"
Of course you hugged the older man before turning to watch the delivery men carry the crate through the doorway. "What's that? A new exhibit?"
He smiled wider grabbing your hand and pulling you forward. "Come! I'll show you!"
You followed him inside where he began directing the men to carry the heavy looking wooden crate all the way to the fashion room as you called it and carefully placed it down. You watched as one of the men pulled a crowbar from their side and with insistence from your uncle, jabbed it under the top. The wood creamed as nails were forcibly popped from their places and you nearly shrieked when you first saw it.
A BODY!!
Or you thought it was a body at first before your uncle reached inside to carefully lift up a wooden arm to look it over. It was then you realized it wasn't real and calmed down. But that still begged the question.
"What..IS that thing?," you asked raising a brow and looking it up and down.
It was absolutely covered in dust so it must've been old. But the closer you looked the more weirded out you felt. No wonder you thought it was a body at first. It looked so real!! Wooden eyelids were closed as if it was sleeping in the crate and upon closer inspection someone took the liberty to add bristles to mimic eyelashes which was strange. Lines from the sides of its mouth made it seem like it could also move it's mouth. Even it's ears looked carved so detailed that it looked so real.
"It's an old samurai training dummy!," you uncle said excitedly turning the wooden hand to look at the palm. Someone even took time to car e palm lines in the hand and paint what might've been fake veins on the skin. "Warriors would used them to train for battle but I've seen one this detailed! Or so in tact before! It's remarkable!!"
"A training dummy?" Ok ..you guessed that explained it but it looked more like a puppet than something to fight against. Also why the heck did it have six arms?! "Where did you even get this?"
"A college of mine found it stored away in his grandfather's attic while he was clearing it out after his funeral." You uncle turned to you with a smile. "He had no use for it so I offered to take it off his hands and he was happy to oblige. Don't you think this is a grand find?! Look at the detail of craftsmanship. The details are unworldly accurate. The artist even went as fair as to carve him nails." He held up one of the hands to you directing your eyes to the hand. "It's exquisite."
"Sure is interesting." You looked it over going back to the peaceful looking face. "Who do you think made it?"
"Don't know but what until you see it cleaned up! Then he'll be very handsome."
"If you say so, Uncle."
You didn't think much of it at first until your uncle hired the best restoration expert to shine it up and fix it. Within three days time you came back to find him posed in the fashion room all glowing, fake hair brushed and styled, and new clothes adorning his body. But what you were stunned by was the eyes that almost seemed to be staring into your soul. The deem pomegranate color shiny with gloss painted over the original paint job to preserve it. They seemed to follow you everywhere as your uncle just proudly showed you around.
But that was only the beginning.
The darkness surrounded you still with the face looking down upon you. "...Uta.."
The sounds of some soft sound rubbing against more wood sounded out as four hands reached out for you. You didn't move away from any fear allowing two of the hands to grab your shoulders and the other two to caress your cheeks. A figure hunched over you revealing a face that made a noise when wooden eyelids blinked.
"I'm sorry, Yoriichi. I keep telling you I'm not Uta."
"Not in body..." A fifth hand creaked out to touch where your heart beat. "But I know your soul anywhere. Y/n..My Uta. We found each other again."
You remembered the first time he had come to life. The other janitor had quite after running out screaming claiming he'd seen the giant puppet wondering the hallways but when you'd Uncle camd to see it, he was in the exact same place as he always was. The other janitor had always been one to drink so you chalked it up to him drinking on the job again but he quit claiming the place was haunted. You yourself didn't believe it as the first few nights you worked with the doll being there, nothing absolutely happened. It didn't do anything. So imagine your fear when one day you turned down a hall with a broom in hand and saw a figure in the darkness.
The figure was big and tall looking at a display of old katanas on the wall curiously. The sight made you drop the broom in your hands and the noise caused the doll to look at you. The instant he saw you the mouth dropped open and one word was spoken.
"Ut-ta.."
You ran from him that night and told your uncle. This time he took it more seriously and came to check on it but again found the doll in the same place again. And then he gave you the rest of the week off assuming you were just seeing things out of fear or lack of sleep but you knew better. You knew what you saw. So you didn't saw anything about it again when you went back trying to find him again. Well you did. This time he was in the east wing where your uncle displayed artwork. He was gazing at an old painting of some mountains and a river, but the echoing sounds of your footsteps made him turn to you again.
"Uta!" He turned to you holding up his hands as you jumped in fear. "Please! Don't run away again. I mean you no harm." His mouth opened up and down with each syllable but he couldn't stretch it in a smile or make any facial expressions with it. So it only opened up and down as he talked. "I am unarmed so you haven't no need to fear me."
"Who..a-are you?!"
That's when he blinked. "You..do not recognize me?"
That's the night you learnt that he wasn't really a danger. A haunted doll possessed by an ancient samurai yes, but he wasn't dangerous. At least not to you. In fact he seemed to think you were a reincarnation of his wife which you had tried to convince him that you definitely wasn't but he wouldn't budge. Often calling both Y/n and Uta. You tried correcting him the first few times but quickly gave up when he kept doing it.
Honestly he wasn't a bad person. He helped you clean up when you were on shift which you tried to stop him but he insisted. And he often told you stories of his life and Uta's life in an attempt to jar your memories of your 'past life' with him but you didn't know half the stuff he talked about but you were happy to see him excitedly talk about his past. Even if you weren't this Uta he spoke of, you didn't have any problems listening as it made him feel better. You were a little skeptical about his talk of demons...but you were friends with a haunted doll possessed by the Spirit of an ancient samurai so anything was possible.
"I'm not here though. I don't want you to get your hopes up."
"You won't. I found you once more and I promise you when you leave this world I will go with you and we will truly be together in our next life. I've waited a lifetime and jn death for you. I can wait for you once more."