A fool’s choice to fall in love

*This story is under my folder “Fools of Hallows’ Eve”. Gacha Club character designs are under this forum: https://www.youngwriterssociety.com/topic/117842-my-character-designs-lt-33-3?start=255. Enjoy!*

Introduction 

There was once a teen girl named Henrietta, but most people who knew her called her Henri. Henri loved animatronics, especially clown animatronics, for she could imagine all sorts of wild and macabre stories for them. She also liked Halloween, obviously.

Though she had no friends, there were many who were fascinated and slightly weirded out by her, either avoiding her entirely or giving a friendly wave in the hallways.

Her boyfriend, Andy, did not share her love of animatronics or Halloween. He found it to be rather creepy, but he hoped that she’d grow out of it once they started high school together. He didn’t even have the heart to tell Henri how he really felt about it.

But Henri would have liked to hear the truth from the beginning.

Chapter One

“Are you sure you don’t want to join the Charity Club? They’re going to do a Halloween party for everyone!” Henri beamed.

She was talking to Andy in the football field, for the school hours had ended and the club fair had begun. Of course, she jumped at the opportunity to join clubs, but Andy had to be pressured by her.

And even while there, he was being incredibly boring by choosing not to join any clubs.

“I don’t really care about that stuff.” Andy said with a shrug.

Yeah, sure, that was what he said, but Henri could hear a faltering in his voice that told her he still hadn’t gotten over his fear of other people. There was a time where he didn’t hide it, but he seemed to want to snuff out any real feelings he had as they both got older. 

She didn’t just see it, she saw him inching closer to her, away from the swarm of other students that crowded one another, that rushed to join clubs, to make new friends, caring not for anyone else around them.

“It’s fine. I’m just glad you came here.” Henri said.

Her heart sank with the words, but she’d convince him to come out of his shell. It just took time.

Like all good things did.

Chapter Two 

After the Club Fair had finished, Henri went home, signed up for Drama, Art, and Charity Club, excited for them all, but not as much as the last one.

There was going to be a Halloween party, not just with fast foods and spooky music, but Haunts and animatronics! Henri never thought that such an event would be possible at school and yet, it was going to happen.

Her heart beat fast as she ran up the stairs to her room. After homework, she’d watch Halloween movies for inspiration.

She needed all the inspiration she could for such a thing as the Halloween party.

Chapter Three

Henrietta was walking in a cemetery filled with orange graves, the sky was pure, pitch black with perfectly purple stripes going horizontal.

It was not silent, either. There was distant theme music of working animatronics, mixing in with the sounds of voices Henrietta could not see.

She didn’t know where she was going and yet she did not want to stop, because wasn’t it all so wonderful for it to be spooky? If only Andy were around to see it. Andy…Andy…Andy…

Henrietta’s eyes fluttered open. Her glasses were askew on her face and she could hear her Dad cooking downstairs while the DVD player went on with the movie. Drool was on her pillow.

She had fallen asleep watching movies again.

Chapter Four

“So how was school?” Dad asked.

Henri and her parents were at the dinner table, eating meat that had orange sauce and a side of black beans. She was enjoying dinner immensely not only for the taste, but for the very fact that black and orange were Halloween colors!

“Great! I joined some clubs and one of them is going to have a Halloween party for the school! We’re also going to donate some money to charity and I’m pretty excited about that!” Henri beamed.

“Oh, that’s good. I’m glad you’re excited.” Mom beamed.

“Thank you.”

She sliced her meat deeper, the thoughts of Halloween more loudly joyful than before.

Chapter Five

It was the next day at school and Henri was walking to her class, waving to anyone who waved back.

There were already orange and black balloons tapped to the wall, along with a few ghosts and other monsters drawn by the art classes. The buzz of Halloween was already coming, but she wanted to see if Andy was okay.

He probably wasn’t but she still wanted to check!

Chapter Six

“Hey Andy! How are you?” Henri asked once she got to his locker.

Andy froze. He always did that whenever Henri came up to him, because apparently her voice in the morning startled him.

“I was fine before you started yelling. Could you please not do that? I heard that the school is going to install screaming noises in the speakers for the Halloween season and it’d be nice if you weren’t loud too.”

Henri blinked. Yes, her boyfriend was scared, but he never once suggested that she be quiet before.

“I’m not loud, that’s just how I talk. Have fun in class!” Henri beamed, slapping his shoulder.

He was ridiculous for ever saying something like that!

Chapter Seven

FLASHBACK

Henrietta walked through the dimly glowing red light path, jumping from the animatronics and fake blood effects every so often, but it was one of the most fun things her school ever did!

She couldn’t run away because of the way the path was structured, but that was alright. Henrietta liked seeing the claws reach out.

A boy from her class, Andy, held on tightly to her. She talked to him sometimes but they weren’t that close of friends.

He was a lot more scared than she was!

Chapter Eight

Spanish. The last class of the day. Only a few more minutes and then Henri could go to Charity Club. They’d have their first meeting.

Pumpkins and ghoulies and witches alike, all to be talk about, all to bring to life. She couldn’t wait for it to start.

Because Henri was in high school and nobody had been mean to her there.

Chapter Nine

Room 241. 2:30 PM. It was where the Charity Club was meeting. Henri walked inside and saw other kids talking with each other. The smartboard was turned on, playing music.

“Hi Henri! It’s so nice to see you again!” Moriah, the club president, beamed.

Henri smiled and sat down next to a different girl. There were mostly girls in the club, but only a few boys. That was fine. They were all still more friends to make.

And the presentation was starting!

Chapter Ten

“So! Any ideas for charity organizations we should donate to? Or things we can do to help the school?” Moriah asked.

Henri blinked. She had listened, but most of it sounded like noise to her, aside from the mentions of the Halloween party. It was all that she could think about.

But there were people coming up with ideas before her, so once they were done, she’d bring up her own.

Chapter Eleven

Everyone was done with talking about charities, so Henri was ready to bring up her ideas:

“Why don’t we have a splatter station where guests could get splattered by fake blood? And then what if we had scare actors following guests outside of the Halloween party, like following them up to the front door of their house, to really let it sink in?”

Everyone was silent, probably thinking about how good Henri was at planning Halloween. She waited for Moriah to compliment her and-

“That might be a little too much. Any other ideas?”

Chapter Twelve

BACK HOME

Henri did all of her homework already and with her free time, she wasn’t in the mood to watch Halloween movies. Her heart burned with a mixture of sadness and embarrassment after what happened back at the club, so of course, she was telling Andy all about it in a phone call.

“…I just wanted to make the Halloween party seem more fun and lifelike and they all thought it was “too much”! TOO MUCH?! How is fake blood too much?! We’re not babies, we can all handle gore! Now I feel like I can’t say anything because they’ll just call it “too much”!”

And the worst part of it all was that she felt tears coming down. Tears she never wanted to come out again after she graduated eighth grade. She hoped Andy wouldn’t say anything about that.

“Would you want to be followed home by a scare actor?”

Henri paused. He wasn’t…there was no way…he had to be on her side…

“It’s not like they’re actually going into their houses or anything!”

“But would you want to be followed by them?”

“I wouldn’t care because it’s fun! It’s for Halloween! You’re not-you’re not agreeing with them, are you?”

Andy sighed. A long one, too. What, was he getting tired of her? Annoyed, even? Did he not like her?

“No, Henri. I’m just showing you a different perspective.”

She took the phone away from her ear, staring at it for a bit. That was not what she needed. Henri knew that they were all scared. Everybody was scared. She had thought that maybe Andy would understand that she just wanted to make the party better, but…

Henri hung up on him. He wasn’t going to understand, so there was no point in continuing the conversation.

At least she could cry in peace.

Chapter Thirteen

FLASHBACK

Henrietta’s heart raced as she ran towards the light, running from a wrinkly moaning and groaning clown. It didn’t help that Andy clinging onto her was dragging her along, either.

But the exit was right there and-

They were out! Andy’s gray eyes were watery with tears and worst of all, the tears had gotten all over her pink fairy costume!

“It wasn’t that scary.” Henrietta said, because it was true. Yes, it did scare her a little bit, but she wasn’t crying.

And Andy wasn’t supposed to be crying either.

Chapter Fourteen

“The circus looms over the children, its ripped canvas a cloak to the darkness that waits…”

Henri paused, resting her pen on her journal pages. She was writing a story and she wanted to make sure that she described the clown perfectly, but the excitement of creating all the scenes was making it quite difficult to write it.

And she was still annoyed at Andy for agreeing with the others, for not seeing her side.

Maybe she’d get some ideas after she ate dinner.

Chapter Fifteen

“So we’ve been thinking of going to Ghoulies Park on Halloween. What do you think, Henrietta?”

Henri set her fork down. She was at the dinner table with her parents when Mom suddenly brought up the theme park where it was Halloween every day, where the monsters lurked and there was non-stop thrills!

“That sounds amazing! I’d love to go. Can I wear a costume?”

Mom smiled, “Of course you can. Just no mask and heavy makeup.”

That made sense.

“Right. Got it.”

“You can even bring a friend if you want. Just one, though.” Mom added.

Huh. A friend. There were some people at school she kind-of knew, but not really. And they probably wouldn’t get it, anyway. As for Andy…well, he definitely wouldn’t like it.

“I’ll think about asking a friend.” Henri said, because she did not want to talk about what happened with Andy over the phone.

Her parents wouldn’t get it either.

Chapter Sixteen 

Henri lay in bed, staring up at her ceiling. There were haunted doll and evil clown animatronics in her room that went up to her knees, because the bigger animatronics weren’t allowed. The lights were off but some of her monster posters were glow-in-the-dark. She had toys that looked creepy in a cute way and toys that genuinely looked possessed. Her bed sheets were white with fake blood splatters as the printed design.

Her room was a horror, but not always. There was a time when it was pink. When there were sparkles and princess dolls. That was a long time ago and she had changed since then.

Not much. You’re not any stronger for liking this stuff. You never took Andy to your room.   Does he even want to hang out with you? Maybe he doesn’t like you, just like the others. Maybe-

No. That was not true. He liked her very much. She just had to sleep and not worry.

She just had to sleep.

Chapter Seventeen 

THE NEXT DAY

“Have a good day at school!” Dad said from the car before driving off.

It was a new day at school, except, there were animatronics outside. Clowns, witches, dolls, any horrid creature of any kind thrashing and screeching precariously on the school’s entrance.

Henri smiled. The animatronics were a nice touch, especially since the sky was all cloudy and dark. She’d talk to Andy all about the gory and glorious wonder of it all.

But of course, she would have made it better with her own ideas.

Chapter Eighteen 

FLASHBACK

Henrietta tried her best to ignore all of the other girls with their heart-shaped balloons, roses and chocolates, but it was difficult to do that when they were EVERYWHERE.

She might have been one of the only few sixth graders who DIDN’T get a Valentine. Yes, she knew it wasn’t more important than scaring people, but it still kind of hurt. She wanted to be loved like that too.

But at least she and Andy could laugh about it together at recess. She was going there right at the moment, to the same bench where they always sat.

…………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………

There was something different about Andy. He was always pretty shy, but he seemed too quiet on that bench.

“Are you okay?” Henrietta asked.

Andy looked at her directly in the eyes, gripping the bench as if to stop himself from running away and said:

“Henrietta, you may be frightening to others, but you’re cool to me. You’ve always been there for me when no one else was. You know how to make the scary fun. And I…I want you to be my girlfriend. But do YOU want to be my girlfriend?”

From his leather jacket pocket, he took out a dead and wrinkled black rose, its petals crushed from being stuffed in there.

Henrietta looked at him, then back at the rose. Andy wanted…to be her Valentine? He LIKED her?!

Her heart raced, because she thought about what it’d be like to date him from time to time, but she never imagined that he’d…that he would…

“Yes! Yes, I do!”

And she hugged Andy, happy that he was her boyfriend.

Chapter Nineteen

The days had snapped as quick as a jumpscare and it was October 29th, the day of the Halloween party. Henri was wearing a simple skeleton-clown costume, walking in the fluorescent lights of the football field, where the party would be held.

She was going to make sure the animatronics were all in their right places. They weren’t very expensive, so they weren’t made the best. She had to be extremely careful with them.

The party wasn’t looking too bad, even if there was a severe lack of gore.

Chapter Twenty

AT THE PARTY

Finally, the time for the Halloween party had begun! Henri was in her skeleton-clown costume and Andy wasn’t even wearing a costume at all, like always. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying the haunted houses and the animatronics, but Andy had said nothing to her the whole time, drawing in on himself with every second that went by.

Henri walked over to the candy corn stands, collecting candy corn to give to him, because he seemed to like the candy. But when she turned around with the stuff-

“You’re genuinely freaking me out.”

She blinked. Andy had just said that out of the blue and she wasn’t even trying to be scary.

“Uh…how? I’m just getting candy for you.”

She handed the plastic bag to Andy, but he swatted it away, causing a mess of orange and yellow on the turf.

“You have this look in your eyes like you want to kill-“

“There are children here, Andy. Please don’t use that word.”

He smiled, his gray eyes lighting up like the malicious red eyes of a clown animatronic. But it wasn’t even a fun evil, it was just…evil.

“Yes and you wanted to go full out on the gore here! To give them an experience.”

“That’s different!” Henri cried out.

Andy shook his head, smiling. Some of the people were starting to stare at them, which was really making Henri want to run.

So she started to speed walk, but Andy was catching up with her.

“You always want to scare people! Every. Single. Time. If I’m scared of something then I’m a baby, right? I’m the one who needs to grow up and-“

“Where is this coming from?!”

He laughed, sharp and jagged, like a chainsaw. Henri’s heart raced with confusion and a small bit of terror. She was not sure whether to laugh at him or to cry.

She did neither.

“Where is it coming from?! From you, obviously! I thought that I could trust you, but now that I’m here, I see that you’ll never care how I feel! You’re always going to push me to places I don’t want to go to, make me do things I don’t want to do, because you want me to be like you!”

Henri stopped. Her blood went cold. She turned around-

“I just want to do fun things with you! If you felt that way then why didn’t you tell me?! It’s your own fault that-“

But as she threw up her arms in exasperation, they hit the clown animatronic right behind her, which was just barely standing up straight…

Andy was lucky to enough to back away. Not Henri. It fell on top of her, crushing her underneath its weight.

It was still somewhat cackling, even as Henri’s blood pooled on the ground.

Epilogue 

It had been a month since Henri had died. When she woke up in the body of Chuckles the Clown, she was more upset about how she couldn’t go on the Halloween trip her Mom planned than she was about being dead.

The football field was littered with candy corn, confetti, and lost children’s toys, but they managed to take out most of the animatronics and clean up Henri’s blood. This had bothered her, but not as much as Andy’s sudden outburst. It was as if he found her to be revolting just because she was the way she was. Like he was both afraid and repulsed by her.

And how could he think that about her? She had done nothing but love him and all things spooky! What was there to be worried about? He just seemed to be frightened of everything to the point of driving it all away.

If he really did mean what he said, then there was one thing Henri had left to do. 

It was the early orange-gold dawn of the hour when Henri had made her slow, staggering walk to Andy’s house. If anybody had seen her, then they must have acted like they hadn’t, because nobody was around to stop her. She found that she didn’t care much, either. It was as if her feelings had somehow gotten all twisted-up in the wires, giving her nothing and everything at the same time.

Once she had made it to Andy’s backyard, she crept up to his window and gave a knock. What a surprise he got when he found her, grinning at him with her newly sharpened teeth!

Since he had never given her a real kiss before, it was only fair that she demanded one from him then! Of course he couldn’t say no, she’d kill his Mom if he did!

About the killing his Mom part, Henri didn’t know if she’d actually do it. A part of her was furious enough to commit such an act and an even bigger part of her just wanted to scare him.

Andy did not know that. He didn’t know anything about her anymore. Perhaps he never really did.

He gave her a kiss, squirming with discomfort as he did and thus, she was gone.

Well…some people speak of a mechanical clown’s laughter late into the night, all year long. They say that there’s a spark of life within the cackles, as if it’s gleefully anticipating its next victims-whatever it is.

But maybe it’s a schoolgirl, giggling about how her mischief finally gave her the kiss she always wanted. It’s quite odd how we cling to those we think we love, even if they don’t understand.

Ah, perhaps it’s a fool’s choice to fall in love.