The Jester | K.TH

Chapter 1 Harriotsville

"Did you hear about the sighting last night?" The cashier asked me as I threw my Snickers bar onto the counter to purchase it.

"No, I didn't. What sighting?" I asked, trying to be polite.

"You're not from around here, are you?"

"No, I'm not. How did you know? It is that obvious?"

"A little. Everyone around here knows about him."

"Him?" I asked clearly confused.

"The Jester."

"The Jester?" I questioned while laughing, amused at what I thought surely was a joke.

"I know that sounds crazy, but he's real. I promise. I've seen him with my own eyes." the cashier responded. "I'd watch my back if I were you. You seem to be his type."

"His type?"

"Yeah. Female. Beautiful." He said as he looked me up and down with a smile that made me uncomfortable.

Something about what he was saying amused me, but another part of me was beginning to be intrigued, despite it being something I typically didn't believe in.

"So, tell me about this Jester then." I said, trying to carry on with the small talk.

The man leaned over the counter, and brought his face closer to mine.

"It all started years ago. They say he traveled in the shadows. Went and kidnapped the mayor's daughter from her bedroom. The girls parents were awoken that night by the sounds of eerie laughter and the odd sound of bells jingling. They heard the screams of their daughter slowly fading into the darkness. They did everything they could, but she was gone. Vanished without a trace.
Stricken with grief her parents could do nothing but look endlessly for her. They sent out search parties into the woods, but nothing. Nothing but the still and dark presence of the dense forest. Days after her disappearance, the Mayor and his wife heard laughing coming from their daughters room, seemingly similar to the eerie laugh they had heard once before. They ran to her room as fast as they could. They threw open the door to see their daughter sitting on the floor. They ran up to hug their child who they thought was surely dead only to find that she had returned not as the girl they once had loved so dearly. She had gone crazy..... just as the Jester himself."
He whispered, while he randomly looked over his back, clearly nervous, almost as if someone was watching us.

"Uh-huh. That's a very, uh, nice story."
I responded, trying to placate the stranger.

"Now listen here miss, don't discount things just because they're out of your norm. The world is a very cold place and not everyone is as lucky as you seem to be."

I nodded my head, not knowing how to respond to the man who so strongly believed the story in which he was trying to convince me of.

"Well, I better get on my way. Thanks for the warning. I'll be sure to keep an eye out." I said as I grabbed my candy off of the counter.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes as I walked out of the convenience store. "I don't understand why people believe such stories. A crazy Jester that lives in the woods? Where is the logic in that?" I thought to myself.

I walked down the cold and wet street toward the hotel I was going to be staying at. "What a beautiful little town." I said aloud as I walked past the closed shops that lined the streets.

Harriotsville most definitely had somewhat of an unsettling aura around it, but I chalked that up to the fact that no one was out walking around like they did where I was from. Even during the night, my hometown was full of life and vibrancy, which was vastly different from where I was currently.