Young Writers Society

Chapter 24: The Clown's Out of the Bag

As usual, Keith wanted to postpone his confession for as long as possible. With everyone mentally recovering from the void that appeared at the HQ, he had the perfect excuse to hide in the room they had given him.

But, as the forces of this universe would have it, he couldn’t avoid it any longer. After all, a story that was all suspense and no climax was not much of a story at all.

It had been about 30 minutes since they had arrived back at the ship. Sylvie had started it up again, although Keith wasn't quite sure where they were traveling to. He lay on the bed, his hands on his chest. As he stared at the ceiling and walls—which were so bare and so full of thumbtack holes—he idly wondered who could have stayed here before him and what they had done to Rei.

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he heard forceful knocking on the door.

Keith nearly jumped out of his skin. In a matter of seconds, his heart was pounding against his ribcage, and his mind immediately assumed the worst. He knew exactly who was behind that door, and he knew that opening it would lead to nothing good.

The only thing separating him from his impending doom was the door, which was luckily locked.

The knocking continued, this time stronger. The door even seemed to shake in its frame. Knock, knock, knock.

Keith didn’t move an inch. He didn’t even breathe.

After one more set of terrifying knocks, there was a heavy pause. Keith let out a breath of relief. But his relief slowly turned into horror as the doorknob began to shake and glow faintly green.

Miraculously, Rei unlocked the door and let herself in. How did she do that?

When she shut the door behind her, she stood there for a few moments. Those 10 seconds felt like an eternity of suspense.

Keith could not see her face, but he could easily guess what kind of nasty smile was underneath that hood. Her stance was intimidating, like she demanded power and respect wherever she went.

Her footsteps across the room were slow and dramatic. Her many badges jingled with every step. Keith felt like the last person alive in a slasher movie.

“Hello, Keith,” she whispered. Her voice was raspy and condescending, like a boa constrictor for the ears. “How are you today?”

Keith didn’t answer, instead pressing himself further into the wall.

Rei cut right to the chase. “I know your secret, Earthling.” She spat, while also whispering lower than she was before. The way she said “Earthling” made it sound like some horrible disease or some forbidden curse.

And all Keith could mutter in response was: “…how?” He was normally so stubborn, so quick to stand his ground, but something in him told him that it was hopeless. This was his end.

“Do you think I’m an idiot?” She scoffed. She got closer and closer, and eventually, Keith was pressed into a wall. He could smell her breath—it was like wilted roses that were left to rot. And yet, he still could not see anything under her hood. It was like some magical barrier was preventing anyone from seeing her.

Yes, he wanted to tell her, but he held his tongue.

“It’s obvious. I can smell it in your bones—in your blood. Your disguise does not fool me. And besides, you are a really horrible liar.”

Keith's entire body was shaking. She could smell it in his blood? Not only was that terrifying, but it also held a much deeper, much scarier implication:

She had met Earthlings before Keith. And they weren’t here to tell the tale.

Before he could respond, Keith suddenly felt himself being dragged by his wrist. He yelped as he was violently jerked upwards, his arm suspended in the air.

Keith's fight-or-flight had kicked in (and he was prepared to fight), but then he noticed something strange: Rei wasn’t even touching him.

Huh? He thought as he looked up at her. It was then that he noticed the green glow around his wrist and the stronger green glow under her hood.

The same green glow around the doorknob.

Huh. Telekinesis. So that’s what her powers were. Unlike Sylvie and Flax, her powers seemed much less passive—much more direct. Much more powerful.

“You’re going to tell everyone your secret,” she whispered into his ear. She wasn’t just asking, or even demanding—she was saying it as if it were a fact. “You’re going to tell everyone about your intentions. And if you won’t, I will. And I will not be so nice about it.” She closed her fingers, and the invisible force around his wrist became tighter. He winced from the pain.

With the flick of her other hand, the door slammed open. Keith gasped when he saw Flax and Sylvie standing in the hall. Their faces were riddled with concern—or maybe, it was fear. Whether it was fear of him or Rei, he couldn’t tell.

“Hello there! So glad you could make it!” Rei said to her friends. Her voice was shaky, and it almost sounded like… she was having second thoughts.

But the stubborn part of Keith’s brain (which was most of it, actually) wouldn’t let him accept it. She was a monster. That’s all she was.

And then, she turned to Keith. “So, Keith, would you like to tell everyone what’s been going on?”

She forced his hand to go back to his side. Keith expected to be let free, but he was shocked to find that he couldn’t move at all. The green glow had surrounded every part of him, and his whole body was frozen—everything except his head.

For a moment, everything was silent. The air hung thick with suspense.

Sylvie’s ears were pointed downward, but she didn’t look fearful—it was more like uncertainty, like she wasn’t sure how to feel about Keith. But her imposing stance, as well as her slowly wagging tail, suggested that she was ready to take action if she deemed it necessary.

Flax had little swirls of illusions floating nervously above his head, which he didn’t seem to be aware of. His face was riddled with fear, and maybe something of guilt too. His legs were all tied together, and he idly fidgeted with a steampunk gear toy.

And Rei? Well, she looked excited to watch him suffer. But Keith could never be 100% sure with that veil over her face.

Keith took a breath, but he didn’t feel prepared at all. “Alright,” he muttered to himself, “here we go. The truth is… I didn’t have memory loss.”

Sylvie’s face shifted from uncertainty to an emotion that Keith couldn’t identify. Was it… surprise? Betrayal?

Flax’s expression didn’t change; he was as worried as ever.

“I knew where I was from the entire time. But I just didn’t want to tell you because… well, to be honest, I’ve heard some pretty nasty things about you guys—about people outside of my home dimension.” If he was going to die today, then he was at least going down with some snark.

They all seem shocked at this. Even Rei was a little taken aback.

“I’ve been told that people across the multiverse aren’t so accepting of where I’m from—of who I am. But I can’t hide it any longer. You need to know the truth.”

He took a big, big breath. His insides were doing barrel rolls. His hands were cold and shaking. He could barely breathe, especially with Rei constricting him. But he had to say it—no matter what it meant for his future. No matter if he would end up dead in a ditch or in a maximum security space prison.

“I am from Earth,” he finally said. “I am an Earthling.”

Everyone went silent. You couldn’t even hear anyone breathing.

Through the silence, everything seemed to come together in Keith’s mind. Every event in the past few weeks had led up to this moment. The factory exploration. The notes from the two different scientists. Meeting Molly, and rescuing her from the rabid dog. The giant bull in the middle of the streets. Meeting Flax, and getting him back to his friends. The first night on the ship. The memory lab.

And now, he was here. He was terrified of what was to come, but he also felt… triumphant. Proud. Determined, even.

Sylvie’s soft and forgiving face twisted into anger. And, Keith noticed, she grew a little more wolf-like; her normal hands suddenly looked more like claws, and she hunched forward as if she were ready to get on all fours.

It was the first time Keith had seen her angry. But… it didn’t seem directed at him. Her head snapped over to Flax. “Wait a minute, you knew?” She interrogated.

Flax took a few nervous steps back. “It was for good reason! I knew how you would react if you knew right away! But Earthlings aren’t as bad as you think, I promise!”

Sylvie looked like she wanted to believe Flax. Her wolf-like features returned back to normal. But as she looked into Keith’s eyes, he could see that she was skeptical.

Keith expected Rei to squeeze his throat shut completely, or at least laugh in his face. But instead, she waited, like she was expecting him to say something more.

“Anything else?” She asked, her words like sharp icicles. Her grip got stronger, but it didn’t feel like a threat to his life—more like a warning.

A chill went up Keith’s spine. He had purposely excluded any information about the factory, or his transformation. Did she… know somehow?

Keith knew that his life was in danger, but his curiosity had never stopped him before. “Like what?” He asked. He could feel himself turning blue from the lack of oxygen. Come to think of it, he might have actually turned blue; he could never outrun those cartoon physics.

Rei made a vague hand gesture. “Oh, I don’t know… maybe your plan to kill us all, or kidnapping children… something like that?” She tilted her head to the side. But she didn’t say it with as much confidence as Keith expected; it was as if she didn’t fully believe it herself.

Keith’s mouth hung open in confusion. “Huh?” He asked before he could even think about what she was saying. Where did she even get such an idea from?

All of a sudden, Rei let go of him. Keith fell to the ground, air rushing back into his lungs. Judging by the way she looked down at him and laughed, she wanted to see him suffer. But the shakiness in the laughter suggested that she wasn't completely sadistic.

Or, maybe, she was just insane. That explanation was better for Keith's ego.

Sylvie and Flax were about to rush into the room, but they were pushed back as Rei outstretched her hand. Now, there was a green forcefield in the doorway, preventing anyone from coming in or going out.

"Rei, what is the meaning of this?" Sylvie demanded, pounding her hand on the forcefield.

Flax wasn't so aggressive, but he was concerned nonetheless. "Let us in, please!"

"No," Rei snapped. "I'm keeping you safe from him."

Keith nearly blew a fuse, right then and right there, but Rei twisted her hand, and suddenly his entire body was weighed down by her invisible force.

Rei began to pace around the room, not letting go of him.

“Everybody knows about Earthlings," she began. "Who wouldn’t? What other race in this multiverse is more hateful? What other race has had more pointless wars? What other race has committed more unspeakable atrocities against their own kind? None. No other is as horrible, as scummy as yours. Why do you think we avoid you like the plague? Why do you think we dump our old garbage tech into your dimension, and wait for some big shot to claim it as their own invention?”

Her voice started out a little weak, like she was still trying to convince herself that this was the right thing to do. As she spoke more and more, though, she got louder and more confident with her words.

But of course, Keith ignored the small details in favor of the big picture, which painted Rei as the monster she was.

Most of her speech was old news to Keith, but that last statement was new to him; it replayed over and over in his mind. Now that he thought about it, it made sense as to why Flax was so interested in “old tech.”

She suddenly stopped pacing to look him in the eye. “We know what you’re doing here, outside of your home. They have trained you for it, haven’t they? I’m talking about your government, your leaders. They have given you some sort of disguise to mask your identity and give you powers that you naturally lack. You’ve been specifically trained all of your life to infiltrate, to destroy everything good in this multiverse. To corrupt our worlds and to create chaos.” She raised her voice. “But it’s not happening. Not again. We will send you back to that cesspool you call home—or, better yet, remove you from this universe entirely.”

Keith felt her telekinetic grip around his throat, tighter than it had ever been. He felt his eyeballs bulge out of his skull, which would have looked funny on a TV screen but was actually very unpleasant to experience.

Sylvie and Flax were shouting for her to let go. She didn't listen.

In his final moments, he contemplated her speech. He had expected some tragic backstory, something like “earthlings burned down my childhood village,” but… nope, she was just racist—or, was it ‘species-ist?’—and a conspiracy theorist. Both of those things were bad enough on their own, and to combine them was even worse.

“So, let me get this straight,” Keith choked, “you think that the government is conditioning all eight billion of us to kill all of you?” He knew it wasn’t funny, but he almost wanted to laugh at the idea; it was just that preposterous.

The force around his neck suddenly went slack. Rei’s voice softened. “Eight… billion?”

Keith’s eyes widened as he realized he may have a chance to live. “Y-yeah,” he continued, slowly rising to his feet, “eight billion. And, pray tell, which government do you think is organizing all of this? Because it’s not just one ‘big bad government’ that mind controls people; no, there are hundreds of countries on Earth, all with their own separate governments. Also, I didn’t even know that other dimensions existed until recently, so how could I be training to do anything outside of Earth?”

After a moment of silence, Flax interjected. “That last part is true,” he said, his voice muffled by the forcefield.

When he finally had a second to process her words, Keith felt anger bubbling up inside of him. "And, tell me, do you think we’re all just heartless murderers? You don’t think we have compassion? You don’t think we have—oh, I don’t know—families? Friends? Pets? What about hobbies or interests? You don’t think we have parties, or funerals, or jobs? You don’t think we cry, or feel pain, or go through life-changing tragedies?” He got closer to Rei with every step.

Tears streamed down his face, but he didn’t wipe them. He wanted her to see his pain. He wanted her to know it. All those tears he’s cried—all those sleepless nights—all those hours he spent wishing he could change the past—all those years he had spent pretending to be okay—were they all for nothing?

Rei was speechless. Her precious plan—the shield she had used to hide her deep mental issues—had shattered.

And, for once, the veil on her face seemed to let up a bit. He could see the vague outline of her face. He could see her eyes and her mouth, but no nose. Her skin was some shade of green, and he thought he could see something on her cheeks… were they scales?

There was something of guilt on her face—something like regret. And, for just a moment, Keith wondered if there was more to Rei than meets the eye. Maybe she was more than a mentally unstable bigot—maybe she was tired and hurt, just like he was. Maybe she didn’t know how to cope and was blaming someone else for her pain.

Briefly, a name crossed his mind. Juniper. That person, whoever they were, was clearly responsible for Rei’s mental instability. And Rei’s words also popped into his head: "It’s not happening. Not again."

Maybe the question wasn’t "Who was Juniper?" But rather, "What was Juniper?"

But these thoughts were silenced when he remembered what she had said earlier: "…your plan to kill us all… kidnapping children…"

When the implications finally set in, he was furious.

“And what exactly did you mean by 'kidnapping children?!' Because if you meant what I think you meant, I’m going to be livid.”

Rei stood her ground, but he could tell she was terrified. She couldn't even use her telekinesis. “The girl,” she muttered, “the girl isn’t yours.”

If Keith wasn’t trying to prove himself to be innocent—if he wasn’t trying to defend the human race—he would have punched her right in the face. And, given his new cartoony powers, he had a feeling she would have gone flying across the room. Things like that always happen in cartoons. In fact, he saw something like that in The Misadventures of Wacky Wally, the underrated show he had binge-watched.

It was tempting, sure, but he resisted the urge.

“So you think I kidnapped her?!” He yelled. Smoke billowed out his ears, but it quickly dissipated.

He didn’t care if Rei choked him to death. He didn’t care what happened to him at all—bringing Molly into this was a step too far. “Oh, you are sick—so sick. I’ll have you know that—”

Just as he was about to go on a 12-hour rant, he heard a little voice come from the hall.

“Hello?” Molly said, talking entirely too loud. “Whatcha’ guys talking about?”

She stood at the foot of the door, a big smile on her face. It was then that Keith noticed the small hole in Rei’s forcefield—small enough for a shapeshifter to squeeze through.

And she did just that. Not even bothering to read the room, she pushed right through the hole and let herself right in. “Hi, Keith!” She called to him with a little wave. “What’s going—”

But she stopped. Maybe she noticed that Keith was upset, because her brows furrowed and her mouth curled downwards. She jumped in front of Keith, her arms spread wide as if she could protect him. “What did you do to my friend?” She demanded.

And, before Rei could answer, Molly transformed. Her body twisted and morphed, changing colors and even textures, until she was no longer just a little blob. She sprouted long legs with hooves, a sharp horn and feathery wings, and bright cartoon eyes.

In a matter of seconds, Molly had transformed into an alicorn, much like the ones in The Magical Adventures of Sparkle Hooves. But the details weren’t quite right; she had a zig-zag colored mane, four eyes with star pupils, and a pointy tail that was vaguely shaped like a knife.

Even in her more serious moments, some things never changed.

“Your… friend?” Rei asked, now hesitant about Molly’s new appearance. She leaned down and reached her hand out, probably to stroke her cheek. “Child, he is not—”

Rei reeled her hand back and shrieked as Molly bit her finger. No, wait, she didn’t just reel back—she was launched back a couple of feet. Rei let out an oof as she landed on the floor. Everyone gasped.

At first, Keith thought that Molly was just really strong. But when he saw a flash of light for just a split second, he understood what had happened: Avery had intervened, pushing Rei away from the one they held most dear.

Judging by everyone’s reactions, nobody else seemed to notice Avery at all. Maybe it was because they had appeared so quickly, or maybe only Keith could see them.

“Yes, he is!” Molly protested, her lips peeled back in a snarl. It was weird to hear a child’s voice come from this pony-beast she had become. “He feeds me, and he gives me a bed to sleep in, and he saved me from a scary dog, and he hugged me when I was sad! And, from what I’ve seen so far, you’re a big meanie who hurt his feelings—and I will not tolerate big meanies!”

After she growled and wagged her knife tail defensively, she transformed back into her regular blobby form. She then climbed up Keith’s body until she was sitting on his shoulder.

Without warning, she hugged his face. “It's okay, friend,” she said, “it’s all gonna be ok!” Keith felt tears well in his eyes again, but they were tears of joy this time. They had not known each other for long, and yet she somehow trusted him with her life.

He wasn’t sure if he was ready for that responsibility just yet, but he knew one thing for sure: he had to protect her adorable smile at all costs.

There were a million things he wanted to say to her, but instead, he just stroked her head. “Thanks, Moll,” he said, his words muffled from having his face squished.

Keith looked down upon Rei, a sense of determination glittering in his eyes. “So, what now?” He asked. “What are you going to do to us, now that you know our secret?”

Judging by her silence, Rei had finally realized how nonsensical her whole argument was. She finally realized that she was just taking all her mental issues out on some random guy.

…Right?

Rei got back onto her feet. “Your story is… believable, but I still don’t think you are innocent.”

Keith completely disregarded where he was or who he was talking to, because he just had to groan. “Ugh, can’t I just go home already? I’m done with all this multiverse-dimension-space-time-continuum junk.”

But now that he thought about it, what would ‘home’ even look like anymore? How had the people of Earth been affected by all the madness? Had any of them been displaced to some other dimension? Had any been injured—or maybe even killed—by the portals that kept popping up?

And what about the creatures that had found their way to Earth? Had they been rescued by the organization that Sylvie, Rei, and Flax worked for? Or had they been captured by the government, strapped to tables, and hooked up to scientific machines?

Would Keith be able to return to a normal life at all? Some people had already disapproved of him when he was “normal”—the way he dressed, the people he liked, even the shows he watched or the hobbies he enjoyed. Now that he was a mutant superhuman clown and a living cartoon character, people would have even more of a reason to ostracize him. Would he be able to go to the store, hang out with friends, or go to doctor appointments without constant questions, finger-pointing, or possibly even threats?

Would Keith even have a home to return to?

“No,” Rei continued as she went back to pacing. “I have been training under great psychics for years, and although I cannot predict events clearly just yet, I have been getting visions. I sense impending doom for all sentient life."

Psychics, huh? He thought. Keith remembered those times when she seemingly read his mind or finished Sylvie's sentences. Maybe it wasn't just an annoying quirk; maybe she had actually predicted what they were going to say.

She pointed to him, which sent a chill up his spine. "And, what do you know? You happened to show up right as the space-time continuum is ripping apart. And I sense something dark about you—something mysterious that you aren't revealing."

She shrugged. “But, as I’ve said, I am not a great psychic. However, I have good relations with some of the most powerful people in our organization—who also happened to be psychics.” Rei tilted her head up. It seemed like she was smiling. “We’re on our way to their council right now. They will determine if you are truly as innocent as you say you are. If they find you guilty of anything—which I know they will—there will be consequences.”

Sylvie and Flax both looked at each other in shock. Sylvie spoke up before Flax. “Wait, Rei, how—when—what?! You don’t have the authorization to change the route of—”

The ship suddenly lurched forward, making everyone fall over. No, wait, it felt like something had grabbed the ship. Whatever it was, it was huge. Rei was the only one who hadn't fallen over. Keith saw that she had stuck her shoes to the floor using telekinesis.

"They're here," she whispered, as the whole ship began to rock from the weight of its new passengers.

~~~

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Next: to be announced