"You guys finally meet," the voice of that cat sounded so happy. "It was not for nothing. That boy has been waiting for so long, His trust on you is paid off now,"
"Tha," That marionette could talk, too. He walked to me stiffly, while I could do nothing but frozen. "I am so happy to see you now," he caressed my hair so carefully with his awkward movement. "You remain the same. No change at all, it is just you are a bit taller now." His voice was so familiar to my ears. My brain worked to process, to recall who the owner of that voice was. "I was so glad you visited Tohron," the next moment, he sounded about to cry. But his doll face remained leveled with mysterious smile. "I saw you coming to my cemetery every day. I made breakfast for you every morning. I hate my footsteps. It scared you off. Mickey encouraged me to learn to wear shoes. I really wanted to stay near you so that we could be like we used to be. But you are afraid of me. Tha, the most painful feeling is when you are hated and someone you like is afraid of you."
I did not know what to do. Did I have to believe him? Or it was also another magic. I only looked at him, the every stiff movement of that doll, holding Mickey and standing in front of me. Physically he was not Zie, not even close. .
Zie did not have wooden body like him, his black hair, pale skin, and a pair of sapphire eyes. But there were certain things that made me want to believe that he was really my late best friend. His eyes and the way he treated me, the way he spoke to me, all belonged to Zie. Without me knowing, my eyes got wet
"Zie,"my voice was hoarse. I could not describe it precisely what kinds of feeling mixed up in my heart. It was just like you had a very valuable thing, it was gone and it was impossible to come back, but finally you got it back one day, right in front of you.
His body was cold and hard like wood. I touched his face and looked at the finger joints with my puffy eyes. "I am confused" I said while crying. "Is it Zie I am talking to? Or it is just my hallucination?" I wiped tears on my face. My heart said to believe that he was really Zie, but logic reminded me that it was magic, and I was not supposed to be like that.
I studied his fingers, playing with them in my hands. I smiled of happiness, even though at the same time I could not stop crying. "Zie, this is Zie, right?" I was still trting to convince myself. "Am I dreaming? Is it an illusion?" I hardly believed what I faced that morning.
Zie did not reply me. He looked at me with his expressionless face. But in his doll body, I heard his voice was laughing.
"It is me, Tha. I am Zie. Trust me. This is magic, but I am truly," he was trying to make me believe him. I pulled his hands, playing with his fingers, admiring the carving done finely by Mr. Stone that I could hardly see the connection between finger joints.
"Is this true, Zie?," Honestly, I still could not believe it. My voice was hoarse, somehow, I asked him the same questions if it was really Zie.
I and Zie went to the same school. I used to be a very naughty girl, brutal, and rowdy. I could not remember how many times what kinds of disciplines I had crossed, started from skipping school for a month, being absent from the lesson of that days, and fighting. It was all ordinary things for me.
Zie used to be called the 'tamer', yes. It was only him could tame me.
One day, Zie had a girl friend. She was a beautiful girl from another school. I was so happy for him at that time.
I was happy to see him smile anytime he told me about his girl friend and when they were together. Until one day, I knew that girl was having another date with another boy. I was so outrageous. I beat up that girl and made her face disfigured. Zie was not angry to me because he had known the truth.
There were words from I always kept in my mind. "I admire Tha, because you can always express whatever in you. You hear what your heart says and dare to do that," that was the sweetest appraisal I ever got. Since then, our relationship was not more than a tamer and his little monster.
We always spent time together, watching fireworks in independence festivals, visiting museum, being partners in games we were playing. I liked him for a simple reason, he was so patient dealing with me.
I brushed some hair off the forehead of that marionette, or I called him Zie—since then, making sure no bullet hole there. That moment was still shadowing me, when I saw red liquid flowing from a hole on his forehead, and he fell down in front of me.
"This is really Zie, isn't it?" I asked again. I still wanted to make sure that it was really that young man. "I saw blood at flowing from this point, there was a hole in your forehead,"
"I am Zie, Tha. Trust me," he replied me convincingly.
I tried to hold tears for coming down again, trying to convince myself it was him. Zie brushed my cheek like I was a child. My face was puffy and my eyes felt heavy, perhaps due to crying for a long time.
Mickey asked us to follow him. I and Zie walked slowly behind him. It turned out that he took us to a small stall selling snacks. It was on the outskirt of the market, which was a bit quiet.
I knew what that fat hairy animal meant by going into that food stall and ordered some food. . While waiting for our orders to be ready, we were playing chest provided by that place.
It was a very old memory. I understood how that Doraemon (fat poached cat) could gain so much weight. It was just Mickey did not have a blue magic poach, but both were fat because of eating a lot and had brilliant mind
We played chest until late afternoon. We ordered snacks several times anytime we ate up what were on our table, while hoping time stopped tickling. Then I remembered Kerbaros's plan. I stopped my movement and looked at that hairy animal in front of me seriously. "Mickey, did you do magic to Zie?"
All at once our fun time was changed. Mickey went silent.
"This is a black magic," It was not Mickey that replied, but Zie. "I have died, Tha. I am not supposed to be here," his voice was calm and sad.
"Kerberos is here," I told them. "I did not know that this marionette was Zie. He is looking for the lost spirit. Right now, he is in my father's house. I am so sorry but yesterday night we prepared a trap to catch Zie, so that Kerbaros can take him back. We planned to catch you, Zie" I looked at him. Remorse occupied me. "I am sorry, I really did not know. I was so afraid, I thought it was Antonie who sent you to kill me," I explained the whole things.
I told them our plan to catch Zie, I still did not know where to stand. My logic told me that Kerbaros was right. The dead did not belong here. But my ego wanted to stick with him although the magic did not last long, I wanted to have the second chance while the magic was still working.