Dani is a psychic medium and witch, giving her the ability to talk to spirits and ghosts. When an eccentric new family moves to her small town of Silverwick, she finds herself caught up with their mysterious son, Neil, and she's thrown into the worl...
After driving home from the clown incident, I'm too exhausted to keep my eyes open.I collapse onto my fluffy bed and dose off into a comforting sleep. A good night's sleep will cure all of your problems.
I awaken to String lights and carnival lights softly glimmering around me. The screams coming from the rollercoasters serve as a continual background track. Even with all of the noise going on, I can't help but notice how eerily empty it is.
Everything is moving and operating as a normal carnival but there's not a single person in sight. A pit starts to form in my stomach, and I begin to wonder if I'm truly alone.
"I brought you something," A whisper comes from behind me and every hair on my body stands up as if saluting to a drill sergeant. I whirl around and my creeping suspicions are confirmed.
Neil stands so close to me I can feel his warm breath tickle my cheeks.
"I just thought I'd get us some refreshments," He says with an wicked smile and delighted tone. It's only now that I look down at what he's holding. A bag of popcorn and a stick of cotton candy.
Upon looking closer I notice that the popcorn seems almost alive. Writhing around in the popcorn tub are hundreds of little maggots. Although they look pleased with their meal, I am anything but. I let out a blood curdling scream.
a plastic grin stretches across Neil's face making his teeth appear jagged and crooked. In this moment, he reminds me of one of the clowns I'd seen in the horror movies.
His mismatched eyes skim over me and it's only now do I realize what I'm wearing. A pastel colored clown dress with pom poms for buttons and fluffy pink bloomers. Black Mary Janes adorn my feet and frilly socks hug my ankles.
Okay, this outfit is cute, but definitely not my fucking colors. I would never wear pastels.
"You forgot this-" He shoves the cotton candy at me and as I look down a centipede scurries out of it, up my arm and begins dancing across my face.
If anyone knew how deathly afraid of bugs I am, it would be him. He seems to know other things about me that I'd never told him. I hate him, I would give anything to wipe the laugh right off of his face.
His maniacal laughter echos above the carnival noises, and that same oddly harrowing grin spreads across his chiseled face.
The longer I stare at him, the more I notice that something about him doesn't look right. Doesn't look like Neil.
Slowly his face begins to mold and shift like Clay until I realize this isn't Neil at all.
Perfect pink lips turn into lips lined with black makeup and tan olive skin turns to cakey white face paint.
Staring back at me is exactly what I'd been trying to escape from by falling asleep. The same clown from earlier in the day stares back at me as if taunting me, daring me to throw a shoe at him now.
He grabs me by the throat and digs his finger nails into the soft flesh there. His face is too satisfied, it's sinister.
In a millisecond, his smile fades and is replaced by a look of intense pain and mortification.
He stumbles back a few steps as if I'd scorched his skin. This is when everything stops.
The carousel ceases to spin, the rollercoasters and their screams come to a creaking halt, and each light in the carnival begins to flicker before burning out at last.
This is when I sit up huffing and clutching my chest. Overpowering relief floods my chest and relax my tensed muscles, still panting.
The relief is short lived when I realize that not only did the clown harass me in real life, he also has the ability to do that in my nightmares too.
All I can do is hope and pray to every deity I've ever worked with that this what just a one time occurrence.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
