The Secret Heiress | ✔️

5 | 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙲𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚗

[Listen to the song 'Hide and Seek - Lauren Paley version' to get the vibez for the memory sequence]
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☘︎ Jᴇɴɴɪғᴇʀ Rʏsᴏɴ ☘︎

I can hear the clown pounding on every door he passes in the long, endless corridor. His heavy footsteps thud against the floor, reminding me of a hammer banging on a wall.

"Ding dong.
I know you can hear me.
Open up the door.
I only want to play a little."

The clown sings the haunting song, his eerie voice echoing everywhere in the tiny cell-like empty room me and the other four kids my age are hiding in. All of us are balled in on ourselves, squirming to the furthest corner from the closed door.

"Ding dong.
You can't keep me waiting.
It's already too late.
For you to try and run away."

I couldn't understand why we were even trying to hide. We couldn't get out of the warehouse. The clown just liked to play hide and seek for his own twisted delight, knowing he would find us no matter where we hid here in his territory.

The girl beside me starts whimpering, plastering her frail body to mine when the loud footsteps get nearer to our door.

I want to tell her it'll be fine, we'll be fine. But then I see his white face, the ever-present wide red smile painted on his face stretching to his cheeks. Those crazed eyes lock on mine from the little window next to the door and a burst of icy chill seizes me.

"I see you through the window.
Our eyes are locked together.
I can sense your horror.
Though I'd like to see it closer."

Then the iron door is pushed open and the memory shifts to another one.

*

The surroundings change, I'm no longer in the isolated warehouse with the four other kids, the whimpering girl is no longer glued to me. I'm in my father's villa, trying to hide from the approaching clown.

"Ding dong.
Here I come to find you.
Hurry up and run.
Let's play a little game and have fun.
Ding dong.
Where is it you've gone to?
Do you think you've won?
Our game of hide and seek has just begun."

I'm running, running as fast as my legs could carry me through the neverending hallways of the Davidson Villa while the rest of the house sleep their night away.

"I hear your footsteps.
Thumping loudly through the hallways.
I can hear your sharp breaths.
You're not very good at hiding.
Just wait, you can't hide from me.
(I'm coming)"

No one can hear the clown. No one can see him following me. No one realizes he isn't a concoction I've created.

He's real.

-☘︎-

A choked laugh escapes my lips, my eyes staring up at the crystal chandelier above me as the memories rush around my mind like a broken record.

There are so many reasons I hate this Villa. The clown. The incident. The secrets.

Sleep wasn't always my best friend but even if I tried, I could never relax myself enough to loose my mind to an unguarded slumber here. I needed a distraction.