When they finally reached the museum, people of all ages surrounded each of the vivid exhibits. The Batter put Zacharie down, trying to avoid his left arm cast.

"Careful, Carefu- Gooooood Batter. Good job!"

Zacharie chuckled, as The Batter led him around the museum. Everyone was hesitantly chattering about what had happened on the roof of the Library. Conversations like,

"Did you hear about what happened at the Library?"

And

"Oh gosh! I need to return my overdue Library book!"

Filled the museum. Security guards eyed the two of them suspiciously, whispering to each other. As The Batter moved on to the next exhibit, kids were staring at Zacharie and The Batter in complete confusion. One of the kids even poked The Batter and asked,

"Did you hear what happened on the roof?"

The Batter was quite for a while before he responded.

"Yes, I did. I was there."

Zacharie shoved him forcefully, not making any impact on him.

"Are you crazy?! You can't just go around a public place with tons of people saying 'Oh, I was at the viral even that has driven EVERYONE CRAZY!"

He hissed. The Batter disregarded him and walked him into an elevator.

"No one here is going to take me seriously."

As they walked in, so did a security guard, who eyed the both of them with an intense stare. Zacharie noticed him, and looked back at him from time to time.

"That security guard is giving me the heebie jeebies!"

He whispered to The Batter.

"Don't talk to me."

"Oh, I see how it's gonna be."

Zacharie humphed, folding his arms. They walked out onto the balcony of the top floor, the security guard right behind them. The two of them walked around a bit, remaining anonymous and quiet. After a long twenty minutes of looking at the same thing, Zacharie dragged The Batter over to a bench and pushed him down.

"I'm dead, Batter. People keep looking at me like they know."

"You don't know for sure. You may just be thinking ahead."

"Thinking ahead?!"

The security then jumped into their conversation after Zacharie's complaint.

"Hello, sirs. I am Benjamin."

He held out his hand to The Batter, who shook it firmly.

"I am The Batter."

"The Batter, huh? Yeahhh, about that. Anyway,"

He turned his attention to Zacharie

. "You, sir, are suspicious."

"M-Me? Why me? I only sell stuff to people! Ha ha ha… I DON'T HAVE ANY DRUGS OKAY? I GET ASKED THAT TOO MANY TIMES."

Everyone in the room froze and stared.

"I don't…!"

He squeaked, looking back at the security guard. The Batter rolled his eyes and crossed his leg over his knee, examining the map on the wall of the First World War closely.

"Well, you're on our radar. We have a policy that specifically states that if you have on a mask or any disguise, we have to keep an eye on you. So, if I were you, I would take off that mask, Puppeteer."

Zacharie winced back, hitting his head up against the wall, cringing a bit in pain.

"How… You… I…"

The security guard took out fifteen fishing hooks from his pocket and laid them on the ground.

"These look familiar to you?"

He asked. Zacharie was quaking with fear. How did they know?

"I… YOOOOUUUU… But I just… How… Why…?"

The security guard lifted up one of the hook strings and plucked it.

"None of this looks a bit familiar? It even has your blood on it."

Zacharie glared at The Batter from the corner of his eye, trying to get his attention, but to no avail.

"Th-That's not mine…. No! Nooooope!"

He picked up Zacharie by his right arm, and The Batter immediately stood up after him.

"Put him down."

He demanded. The security guard didn't listen and went running to the balcony. The Batter followed after him, and people stopped and stared, even people on the lower floor.

"EVERYONE EVACUATE TO THE FRONT OF THE BUILDING!"

Benjamin shouted, as people began to scream and do what they were told. Zacharie was far beyond afraid.

"BATTER IM GONNA DIEEEEE!"

"Don't think about it. Don't make it your main focus. Focus on me, and everything will turn out just fine."

"WHY YOU?! IT'S ME WHO I'M WORRIED ABOUT!"

"Listen to my words of advice. They will be helpful to you."

The Batter stopped running and watched Benjamin run to the balcony with Zacharie.

"BATTER! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

He screamed, as his cries became nothing more than a silent whoosh of wind. The Batter turned around and began walking away, seeming as if that was the end. Zacharie still stared, whimpering The Batter's name. The Batter looked down as he began to walk away. Zacharie had lost hope.

"I'm a goner."

He said to himself before letting Benjamin take him away to the balcony. Everything grew quiet in the building, aside from The Batter's deep growling. He lifted his head up and let everything take place. He quickly turned himself around, roaring torturously at everything in front of him. The Bad Batter had come into play. Zacharie heard the roar and immediately felt relieved. At least he had something to look up to. Benjamin let him go, and cut off the sleeves of Zacharie's sweater with a pocket knife. Wounds from that day were still entirely visible, and his skin was stark white. The wounds were black circles, almost like the dimples on Zacharie's cheeks. Small holes remained from where Dedan had hung him that day with the same hooks Benjamin now had. Everyone stared up at the balcony, not knowing what was up there. Benjamin gently pushed the hook through one of the black circles on Zacharie's right arm, pushing it through the other side like a pin. Zacharie cringed and fell forward, Benjamin keeping him up. A bead of blood slowly made its way through the hook, as it soon began to ooze down the side of his arm. Thinking that the rest of the procedure was going to be a piece of cake, Benjamin shoved in more of the hooks into their places, soon to see blood streaming down the man's arm, and blood bubbling around the metal, clearly showing that Zacharie was reacting to the metal through an allergic reaction.

"We're going to have a problem with that cast of yours…"

Benjamin spoke up, readying his pocket knife.

"Just get it over with."

Zacharie said, inaudibly because of the strong winds coming in. Benjamin cut through the cast and grabbed ahold of more hooks he was provided with.

"You know, we had these hooks on a damn display."

He said, continuing what he did with Zacharie's right arm.

"Did you… Now…?"

He managed to say, feeling the other five hooks get shoved through his skin like pins. Benjamin proceeded to Zacharie's right arm once more and shoved one of the remaining five needles into the back of his hand, where an IV might be inserted. Zacharie screeched, as he felt Benjamin do the same procedure to his other hand.

"You…. Have three left…"

"Yeah. I do. Two of them go in your cheeks, and the other one goes behind your neck."

"I know…. W-Well enough…"

Benjamin grabbed one of the hooks and gently tried to push them through his cheeks. They wouldn't go through like a pin, but it would dig into the skin to where he could feel it in his mouth. It would slice straight through the skin like a butcher cutting meat. Zacharie's left arm was in more pain than it was before he broke it, now because it had six hooks pinned through it, and because it was broken. Benjamin inserted the last hook into the back of Zacharie's neck and brought him over to the balcony, still keeping him hidden.

"Everyone, behold!"

Benjamin began, attracting everyone's attention up at him.

"The villainous Puppeteer!"

Everyone gasped in horror, as Benjamin dangled Zacharie over the side, his arms being forced up in an awkward position. Benjamin moved the string tied onto the hook on Zacharie's neck upward and forced him to look up at the sky.

"Look at what you have made of our world!"

He shouted.

"I didn't do it!"

Zacharie screamed, struggling under the strings and hooks. What made it worse that he didn't want to smile. It was not that he didn't want to, it was because if he did, something not so good would happen, and he felt the foreboding that it was going to happen this day, this second, now. Benjamin gave him a chance to look back down at the screaming people. Some were screaming in protest, and others were screaming in complete terror. He shouldn't have to be going through this, it was all Dedan and Japhet's fault. Zacharie looked at his arms both spread apart, noting a strange red fog emitting from his hands.

"Sir, can you uh… Stop? I think there's something wrong with me."

"There's definitely something wrong with you!"

He howled, as everyone underneath jousted angrily. He felt like he was about to cry. He struggled to keep a smile from growing on his lips, but strangely enough, Benjamin wasn't forcing him to smile. Then he remembered. Dedan had said that day,

"The smile cannot be forced. Therefore, you must wait for it to happen. It will eventually! AHAHAHA!"

Zacharie shut his eyes tightly, trying to signal out that thought. Benjamin, from time to time, would pull on the strings on his arms, making it seem like he was leaning to one side. Out of the blue, there was a large crash, coming from the glass windows of the upper floor. A roar followed, as the Bad Batter tried to rip the strings from Benjamin's hands. The string connected to his neck was pulled up forcefully, lurching his neck back. He saw the Bad Batter and smiled.

"Batte-"

Before he could finish his sentence, his eyes were forced to look forward, his neck out of his control. The strange red energy growing around his hands emitted into two large beams, as the clouds grew dark and grey. His eyes widened, and the smile on his face stayed. He couldn't do anything about it. A high pitched sound echoed through the town, just before a shockwave of red lightning swept through the town, and probably even closer areas, or even the world. Benjamin and the rest of the humans below were sizzled into nothing more than skeletons. The Bad Batter grabbed ahold of all the strings and pulled Zacharie up quickly, figuring out that he was unconscious. Almost immediately, the Bad Batter turned back into The Batter, and he held Zacharie in his arms. He-as gently and calmly as he could- pulled out each of the hooks, covering up the wounds left behind with ripped up shreds of cloth from Benjamin's shirt. He put pressure on each of the wounds individually to stop the bleeding. He stood up with Zacharie in his arms, looking up at the blackened sky and the burnt skeletons below. He was speechless.