Serial Saturday: Willie the Clown, Part 6 by Rachael Chang

Willie the Clown: Part Six

CHAPTER 11

 I stare at my father’s dead, lifeless body as he continues to bleed out on the couch. A smile forms on my face, and pretty soon, I’m grinning from ear-to-ear. 

   My father is dead. 

  That bastard that ruined my childhood, my entire life, is finally dead. I still couldn’t believe it. 

  Adrenaline courses through my veins as I stare at the body. My chest heaves with my heavy breathing as I try to figure out what to do next. The knife, which I’m still gripping in my hand, is drenched in blood. Blood soaks my hand, so I throw the knife across the room and proceed to wipe the blood all over my clothes, and even my face. It doesn’t bother me that it’s everywhere on me now. When I glance down, I realize that the blood on my clothesactually gives it a more sinister, scary look. 

   Which is perfect for Halloween. 

   I clap my hands together giddily as I laugh. Only one thing was going through my mind as I searched my home for a plastic bag. 

   IT’S TIME TO GO TRICK OR TREATING!

    Hurriedly, I scrounge around my house and look for a plastic bag or anything really, to use as a Halloween candy bag. Finally, I pull a plastic bag out of the trash and set off outside to start trick-or-treating.

   Walking around in the dark, looking at other kid’s costumes, I’m very pleased at how well I blend in with all the other costumes. People have blood on theirs too, even though I knew it was fake, it didn’t matter. I was still part of the crowd. 

   It gets a little boring going door-to-door by myself asking for candy, so I decide to find a group of kids to go with. I find a large group of maybe about fifteen kids, so I sneak into the middle of them, not saying anything. As we walk, I listen to their meaningless conversations while we make our way towards another house. 

    The night drags on and on. When I finally have a full bag of Halloween candy, I decide to ditch this random group of kids and start to head home. I suppose I should do something with my father’s body. Get rid of it somehow. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do that exactly, since I‘d heard on TV that dead bodies are pretty heavy, and I had no muscles. Oh well, I was going to have to do something about it sooner or later. 

   Finally I arrive home. But I stop dead in my tracks when I see about five police cars surrounding my house. Quickly, I duck behind a bush, trying to control my anxiety. What the hell…how did anyone find out about the murder already? Did they…did they know who did it? I shake my head. No, idiot! There’s no way they could know that. 

    My eyes pan around, trying to take in the scene. I see several cops walking around the perimeter of my house, going in and out of it. Another one of them is placing yellow caution tape around, blocking it off completely. As my eyes scan the area, I spot something. Our neighbor, Mrs. Norris, is speaking with a police officer. She seems frightened and panicked as she talks to him. Confusion sweeps over me as I watch them talk. What was she doing here? 

   Then, out of nowhere, it hits me. She must’ve been bringing us something for Halloween, gone inside our house since I’d left the door unlocked, and found my father’s dead body. She must be the one who’d called the police. 

    Damnit!

    I don’t know what to do. Panic overwhelms me as my mind races, trying to figure something out. I knew I couldn’t go back to my house, they’d probably figure out that it was me who committed the murder and arrest me. Policemen were smart. It wouldn’t take them very long to figure out I did it. Shit. I don’t have anywhere else I can go. Guess I’d have to find somewhere else to live.

    Taking one last look at the chaotic crime scene, I grab my candy bag and set off to find myself a new home. I didn’t know much about finding somewhere new to live, but I just wanted a roof over my head. Didn’t really matter where it was. I just didn’t want to be around anybody else, and I especially didn’t want to live in a homeless shelter. 

   I walk for what seems like endless hours, until my feet begin to hurt so bad that I have to take a break. Exhausted, I sit down in a grassy bank area, trying to catch my breath. Sweat pours from my forehead, soaking my clothes. My stomach growls with hunger, so I dig into my Halloween candy, since it’s the only source of food that I have. 

   As I wipe sweat from my forehead, I glance over to my right and see what looks like an old sewage system. Curiosity gets the better of me so I get up and head over there to examine it. 

    When I approach the tunnel, the sewage smell is so intense that I gag, but I force myself to get used to it. I peer inside the tunnel, a little nervous to go inside since I don’t like tight spaces. But when I take my first steps inside, I realize that this could potentially be my new home. It would be perfect. A roof over my head, and nobody around for a good couple of miles. 

    It was exactly what I wanted. 

    I walk further and further inside and as I go deeper in, I notice a lot of creepy graffiti spray painted on the walls. There are several pentagrams, weird quotes, and many clown drawings. And as I continued walking, the clown drawings got even more scarier and creepier. But I loved them. To me, they were a beautiful work of art.    

    Masterpieces. 

   The tunnels begin to expand, making my claustrophobia much better. Pretty soon, I find a decently-sized cave. Water drips from the ceiling, reverberating off of the cave’s walls. It’s a little chilly down here since I’m so far deep into the tunnels. But…as I look around, taking in my new surroundings, I take a deep, relaxing breath.

    Finally, I’d found my new home. 

CHAPTER 12

 At some point, I must’ve dozed off because I begin having a dream. A nice dream; one that I wish I didn’t have to wake up from. 

   I dream that it’s prom night, and I’m at prom with Cameron. Paige is there too, dancing alongside us with her date. We’re slow dancing, swaying gently to slow-paced, romantic songs. I’m not very good at dancing, especially to slow songs. But Cam doesn’t care. He leads, guiding me, taking most of the pressure off of my shoulders. 

    As we dance, Cam whispers in my ear, “Hey, Maddie? If we get married sometime in the future, would you want kids?”

   The question takes me by surprise, but I think for a minute. I never really thought about having kids. The thought never really crossed my mind. But, I suppose that if I had kids with Cam, I wouldn’t mind that. 

   “Yeah, sure. But that’s so far into the future though,” I clarify. 

   Cam nods, “Yeah I agree with you about that. I was just curious,” he says, smiling. Cam then leans in and kisses me. 

    Suddenly, I hear heavy footsteps again, and I know that I’m about to wake up. 

   No, don’t do it! Don’t wake up! Stay here, in this moment! Because if you don’t, you’ll be back there again. With that goddamn clown. Don’t wake up! 

    But I can’t help it. I feel myself getting pulled out of the dream.. 

   When I wake up, my head is resting on my knees which are pulled up against my chest. I glance around, then jump as I see the clown pressing his face against the metal bars. He stares at me with curiosity in his eyes. Instantly, I back further up into the cell, my heart racing wildly with fear. 

    “Good morning, little kitty. You were talking in your sleep.”

    I feel my eyebrow raise up in confusion, “I-I was?” I ask.

   “Yes. You said, “I want to be with you forever. Who were you talking about?”

   I blink, trying to snap out of my grogginess as I try to remember when I said that. I don’t remember saying that in my dream, but I probably did at some point. Also, the only person who I’d want to spend forever with was Cam. But he was dead now. 

    “I must’ve been talking about Cam. My boyfriend. But you killed him.” I point over to where Cam’s lifeless body is still slumped over in his chair. 

   “No I didn’t,” the clown says, shaking his index finger in my face, “I just made him go to sleep. But you don’t need to spend forever with him anyways. You can spend it with me instead!” The clown says excitedly, bouncing up and down a little. 

   A cold shiver runs down my spine at the thought of spending the rest of my life with this psychotic clown.

    Desperately, I try to think of something that could maybe make the clown let me go. Not knowing what else to do, I use the fact that I’m his “little kitty” to my advantage. 

   “But…but your little kitty wants to go home. She’s not happy here. Don’t you want your little kitty to be happy?“ I ask, trying to sound as cute as possible. 

   The clown pauses for a long while, and my heart begins to race. Maybe if he sees me as an actual kitten, it could be my only chance to get out of here. 

   “But…but I want you to stay here. Forever. You’re such a good little kitty.” The clown pauses again, as if trying to think hard about something. 

    “Hey…do…do you want to dance? Since you’ve been so good, I’ll let you out and we can dance for a little while,” the clown says, as if dancing is some kind of reward. 

   At first the question takes me aback so much that I don’t know what to say. Dance? With this creep who killed my boyfriend and best friend? Hell no. 

   But…if I do dance with him, maybe it’ll help me earn his trust more. Maybe it would make him give me more freedom. Even though I hated the idea of dancing with him, I decide that I have no choice but to do it. 

    “Uh, sure. Yeah, let’s dance.”

   The clown claps his hands and jumps up and down a few times giddily as he digs the keys out of his pocket. He fumbles for the key that unlocks the cage, but finally, he finds it and releases me. 

    Then, the clown extends his filthy, blood-covered hand and I take it. My hand is trembling in his, but I try not to make it too obvious how terrified I actually am. 

    The clown leads me over towards an old record player that sits on a little table in a corner of the cave. He starts a record and it squeaks to life, playing a slow song called “Just the Two of Us by Bill Withers”. As we walk towards the center of the room, I’m forced to step over Paige’s lifeless body that lays in a crumpled heap on the ground. The clown puts his hand on my waist, then lifts my right hand a little bit into the air. 

    And we begin dancing. 

    I desperately want to punch the clown and run away. Sprint down into the tunnels and run until I find my way out. But…I know that’s not a very good plan. My punches probably wouldn’t do much to harm the clown, since he was so much bigger than me. As I get a better look at him, I realize he must be about six feet high, maybe even a little higher than that. He seems pretty overweight too, on top of his tall stature. I’m not sure how fast he can run, but since I was his favorite “little kitty” I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t let me get away that easily. 

    “Are you having a nice time, kitty?” The clown asks as we’re about halfway through the song. 

   As badly as I want to say no, I force myself to nod, “Yes, this is nice. I’m having fun.”

   The clown smiles widely from ear to ear. I try not to throw up as I get a whiff of his awful breath that wafts into my face. I don’t remember a time in my life when I’ve smelled anything worse than his breath. 

   We continue slow dancing for what seems like a century. Whenever the clown isn’t looking directly at me, I glance around, desperately searching for a way out. My mind races wildly as I try to come up with a good enough escape plan. Since this is the first and only time I’ve been let out of the cage, I realize that this could be my only chance of escaping. 

    It was now or never.

   Beads of sweat drip down my forehead as I continue looking. My eyes dart all around me rapidly until finally I see it. 

   There, in the clown’s pocket I find a weapon. His taser.

    When my eyes lock on the taser, my heart rate instantly accelerates. Adrenaline pumps through my veins so much that I act without even thinking. 

   In one swift motion, while the clown is distracted, I reach down and grab the taser as discreetly as possible. Then, I use my elbow and uppercut him as hard as I possibly can, making my hand go completely numb. I fumble for the taser until I have it firmly in my grasp. The clown screams in agony and stumbles backwards.

    Then, I run like hell.