The Puppeteer Ch 04

"I can't believe this is happening again," Sarah exclaimed. Her demeanor had quickly gone from worried, to at peace, and now appeared to be at fully mentally exhausted.

The new clone spoke up quickly, "There's 3 of us now? I just got used to you being here," she stated matter-of-factly.

"You just got here," Amber was quick to remind her.

"Yes, but I still remember everything from before that, just like you did."

Zayne piped in here, seeing that there were now 3 versions of Sarah about, he didn't need them fighting, "Ok stop. Sarah, I'm sorry this is happening, I really am. Unfortunately, we have to move past this quickly. Mom's still coming home tomorrow, and I stand by what I said, our family has grown in an unexpected way."

Sarah sighed deeply, a couple tears having streamed down her face, resolved that her brother was right. She didn't know what was happening. But it had happened, and at this point, she just needed to move forward.

"You're right," she acknowledged, defeated, drying her eyes. "Well, first she needs a name... and clothes!" She shot an irritated look at her brother.

Zayne rolled his eyes, brushing off this look as he made seemingly his first real eye-contact with the new clone; sensing that there might be a connection similar to what he has with Amber, he spoke to her in a low voice, "You're obviously comfortable naked; I don't understand how that works yet, but do what makes you happy when Sarah isn't around."

"Oh I don't cover myself because I like being naked, silly. I don't bother to cover up because I can tell you like it," the new clone says, to Zayne's surprise. "You can be pretty oblivious sometimes, you know that?"

Zayne rolled his eyes for the second time; he'd heard Sarah tell him that before. Which reminded him that this second clone still needed a name.

"Okay, so I'll make this easy, we picked an 'A' name for the first clone, so I'll pick a 'B' name for you...Brenna. Brenna it is. Is that ok?"

"Brenna?! That's a horrible name." Sarah said, rejoining them and handing the new girl a set of shorts and tank top.

"I love it," she said, putting on the clothing, winking at Zayne. "It's decided, my name is Brenna."

"You heard her," Zayne shrugged at Sarah, and turned to hug Brenna, welcoming her, a gesture followed by both the other two.

As Zayne lay in his bed, Sarah in hers, and Amber and Brenna sharing the pull out couch, he thought about the conversations he'd had with the clones. Both had basically said they wanted to do what he wanted, specifically that they wanted to be naked because he liked it. He wasn't sure what to make of that. Would they do other things he wanted them to? Were the clones here because of him? Only Sarah has been cloned so far, he thought to himself, and both times were right after we made physical contact.

Zayne concluded that this was most likely based on all that had happened, but he would need to experiment more to see for sure. He could try giving Amber and Brenna tasks to do, things people normally wouldn't. But to see if he was causing the cloning he'd need to try to do it again, but without Sarah.

Zayne fell asleep wondering who he knew that might let him clone them.

Susan Whitaker considered herself a modern business woman. No, she wasn't a CEO or any other title with fancy initials, but she worked hard at her job and made enough money to continue to support herself and her two kids since her husband passed away. She knew how to laugh and have a good time with friends and family when it was time to, and she knew how to switch over to all-business when she had to. She's fairly average for a 48 year old brunette, not fit, but slim with that extra bit of age-weight that just won't go away. She could train to run a 5K if she needed to, but that wasn't one of her interests, especially at this moment as she was leaving the airport to go home.

She'd spent the week at a work conference, so she was eager to get home to see her son and daughter; as much as she was committed to her job, she cared way more about her family, and was eager to get back and hear about what they'd been up too while she was away. Getting into her car, she turned over the ignition, and set her phone to call Sarah and let her know she was on her way and would be home in about an hour and a half.

"Mom's home," Sarah told everyone as they heard the door close. Zayne and the girls had all gathered in his room while anticipating their mother's return, and now was the moment of truth.

Zayne and Sarah got up first, as they had discussed; they knew they wouldn't be able to hide two additional people, so they had decided to face this head on. They greeted their mother in the living room.

"Hey mom," Zayne said, hugging his mother. Sarah greeted their mom similarly then asked her to sit down.

"Something...weird happened while you were gone," Sarah started explaining. "We still haven't figured out quite how or why, but- well it'll probably be easier to show you. Come on out!" She shouted the last part towards to hallway.

Susan let out a loud gasp as Amber and Brenna came out from around the corner -- the sight of two people who were identical to her daughter was not a feeling that could truly be described.

"What-...How?..." was all Susan could recognizably get out, and she listened while Zayne and Sarah shared events from the last few days, the shock never leaving her face. After composing herself, she asked to speak to the clones alone.

Later that afternoon, Zayne and the girls are watching a movie in the living room, with Amber and Brenna sitting on either side snuggled closely to him, and Sarah across the room in a lounge chair, when Susan enters the room calling for a family meeting.

"We need to discuss some things as a family. I don't disagree with you- Sarah, Zayne -- that Amber and Brenna must be included as part of our family."