circinus ( criss )

the dancing clown

about a week had passed since the party, and addie had seen the bowers gang every single day. despite them being a bit rough around the edges, they were honestly a pretty good group of friends. especially with addie's influence on them. every time addie was out with them and they seemed tempted to harass someone, all addie had to do was give them a look and threaten to leave and they would lay off. 

today addie was sitting in her room, trying to think of something to do. she'd already called henry and vic, but they were both busy with their families. stan was over at richie's house, so they weren't in need of a babysitter, leaving addie to figure something out herself. 

she decided to take a walk, and after pulling on her tennis shoes and waving bye to her mom, she left. addie strolled around her neighborhood, still trying to come up with something to do. she turned a corner out of her neighborhood and began to walk along a more commercial street in town. addie remembered that a new movie was showing at the cinema and decided she'd see if it was showing anytime soon. 

the theater was a street or so over, and in an effort to get there quicker, she cut between two shops on the street she was on. the alley was pretty dim light, despite the sunlight outside. it almost had an eerie feel. addie sped up and then heard a crash behind her. she whipped around and saw stan standing there with richie and bev. 

"oh, hey! i didn't know bev was with you guys," addie commented with a sigh of relief as she walked over to the kids. 

they all stayed still, not even turning to look at addie. her steps faltered as she frowned.

"guys? hello?" she called out again. 

addie continued her slow walk towards them and reached out to tap stan's shoulder. he didn't even flinch. addie frowned deeper, starting to get confused. she heard what sounded like a car pulling into the alley and turned to see belch's trans am. she had yet to run into the bowers when she was with her brother and his friends, so she hadn't had to make an excuse for why the bowers were so friendly with her yet. 

"uh, lemme go see what they want," addie said to stan and his friends before walking over to the car. 

she watched the boys all climb out of the car and felt a little hurt when she saw henry and vic. they said they were with their families. were they just avoiding her?

"belch! what're you guys doing down here?" addie asked once she was within ear range. 

just like stan had, belch didn't even acknowledge her. addie waved her hands up in the air, and it was as if the boys were looking through her. 

"seriously, whatever this is isn't funny!" she exclaimed, growing more and more frustrated. 

the bowers walked right past addie, not even sparing her a glance as they headed towards stan, richie and bev. addie followed after them, yelling and grabbing at her friends' arms. 

"guys! i'm right here! god, can't you hear me?" she yelled out. 

henry got to the kids first, "hey dorks," he said with a smirk. 

the kids looked up at him, fear constricting their faces. stan tried to back up, but victor grabbed him by the shoulders in no time. 

addie rushed over, panic started to coarse through her. she had no idea why everyone was just ignoring her, but she couldn't let her brother just get beat up. 

belch went and grabbed both richie and bev. addie ran to victor first and tried to pry his hands off stan, but he didn't budge. then she tried to get belch off, giving her the same results. she ran her fingers through her hair and ran up to henry. 

"henry stop!" she yelled. 

henry once again didn't hear her and started swinging. his fist met stan's face head on and a loud crunch sounded. addie's eyes widened and saw stan's nose was bleeding when henry pulled his arm back. 

addie heard the sound of wind whipping through the alley behind her as she watched stan get pummeled by henry. 

"addie, addie, addie. what's it like?" she heard a voice whisper in her ear. 

she turned around and saw no one was behind her, but the whisper persisted. 

"you can't do anything right now. no ones cares about you," it said, sounding almost gleeful. 

addie felt like ripping her hair out as she clenched her fists by her sides. 

"just stop it!"

"i'm afraid i can't do that. neither can you though ads. you can't do anything to save them. did you really think you could change them?" the whisper continued tauntingly. 

addie's hands went up to cover her ears. at this point, her brother was limp in victor's arms, but henry hadn't given up yet. 

"make it stop, please!"

the whisper make a tsk sound in her ear, just as loud as before. like the whisper was in her head and covering her ear's would do nothing to quiet it.

"that's right addie. you can't stop me, you can't stop henry and you can't save your brother,"

addie closed her eyes tight, thinking maybe it would all just go away. the noise faded and she thought she'd succeeded, until she opened her eyes to see a clown standing a few feet in front of her. she gasped and backed up until she rammed into a brick wall.

"where are you going ads? don't you wanna talk to me?" the clown asked, an overdramatic frown crossing his face. 

"where did they all go?" she asked as fear ran through her. 

the clown cocked its head to the side, "who? there was never anyone here addie,"

addie turned to where belch had parked and saw his car was gone. she looked to where stan was beating beat up by henry and saw no trace of them. 

"wh-what?" she stuttered as she tried to look for some sign she wasn't going crazy. 

"it's so easy for you to just create things isn't it addie. things like friends. do you even have any addie? do you have friends?" she clown taunted her. 

addie gulped and bit the inside of her cheek.

"i have friends. i have stan and bev and henry and vic. and everyone from school," she said more to herself than the clown. 

the clown laughed as he began to stalk closer to her. 

"do you though? are they really your friends? stan is just you brother. he tolerates you!" 

addie shook her head, "no, we're friends! he likes me! so do his friends," 

"no one really likes you addie."

"stop it, please!" addie exclaimed, pressing her back harder against the wall.

the clown had almost reached her, when she spotted an out. she looked back at the clown and within a second she pushed away from the wall and ran. addie sprinted away, not bothering to check if it was following her. she ran back onto the street, but didn't stop there. she kept going until she was back in her neighborhood, and headed straight to her house. 

addie rushed inside and slammed the door shut after her. she leaned her back against it and tried to catch her breath. neither of her parents were home, and her brother was still at the tozier's so addie had the house to herself. she slid down the door and sat down on the ground. as addie continued to stabilize her breathing, she placed her head in her hands and closed her eyes, hoping she could block the day's events out of her mind.