a-coffee-book’s Reviews > The Puppeteer > Status Update

Cora fights off Simon when he was on top of her. She is terrified of what happened and whispers Duncan. When she wakes up from her terror, she finds Simon continuously slamming his head to the wall, saying sorry, Suzanna. Cora confesses that Duncan raped her when she was drunk.

On her second night, she shares a dream with Simon's shadow who uses this chance to manipulate her into a kiss. The shadow is a nice, helpless version of Simon. Cora allows him to kiss thinking he's cute. Simon felt that kiss and breaks into her boxcar. He chases the shadow away and finds Cora still asleep. She calls his name in her sleep so he takes a kiss from her.

When the Faire is not around in the human world (abandoned), they are inverted (alternate world). The Ringmaster/Turk and Amanda are a thing. Rick, the acrobat, and Donna are married. They are all gathered for beer.

Simon puts Cora on his lap as she sobs. They have some more heart to heart. She rejects her growing feelings for him. During his tour, Simon's shadow pets her shadow's hair, strokes her shadow's arm, and snuggles her shadow's. So funny hahah.

Simon is jealous of Jack who is sweet and sane to Cora. He continues to scheme to get Cora and take revenge on Ringmaster. Cora sees Lisa, Trent and Emily, but of course they don't recognize her when she tries to tell them the truth. Simon breaks down and tells her that he was with his fiancé at the Faire when the soothsayer put a piece of herself in him. His fiancé ran away when he turned in front of her.

Simon admits that he's only nice to her because he can feel her pain which she groans in response. He add that he also wants to do dark sexual things to her. They must feed on the seity of the customers to stay alive or you become a shell of a person like Ludwig. Simon uses his invisible strings to control her and enjoys her resistance. He gets hard thinking about how her body will look as the contortionist.

Cora wakes up with Jack and Simon in the room. Pissed off, she swings at Simon with a cast iron, breaking his nose and sunglasses. Only he feels pain when she's hurt, not the other way around. She goes in for the second swing, but feels bad when Simon doesn't fight back. Finally, she admits to him that she's one of them now.

Cora feels a pull between her and Simon, that's new, like she's supposed to be next to him. She slaps him when he teases her attempts to escape. Cora goes to see Ringmaster to see if he has any idea if she can undo everything. Simon shoots Cora in the heart using her pistol. She dies in Ringmaster's arms as he soothes her. Jack came to the Faire willingly because his mom Maggie, the soothsayer, is stuck here.

Cora is born in 1994, 26yo. She remembers her dad bringing her to the Faire when she was a child.

Amanda, the aerialist, and Donna, the flyer, bring Cora her breakfast. They offer to help her acclimate to the new environment. They hate Simon as much as everyone else. Everyone else has sponsors except Simon. When you sponsor someone you lose a part of yourself. Ludwig sponsored the most out of everyone since 1826. He is slowly dying. The youngest member is the fire-breather in 1992.