And now there are five more Richardson short stories!

*This story is under my folder titled “Town of Richardson”. Gacha Club character designs are under my forum titled “My character designs<33[2]”. Enjoy!*

1. Melinda sings sometimes

Melinda had to practice her singing voice while it was still night. She wanted to sound spectacular. Amazing. Fantastic.

She was the ringmaster of the Richardson circus, but also the singer. Her friend Gwyneth was the clown.

It was just them in the circus no one ever participated in. Well, people came. Only because of the ghosts that once lingered there.

The ghosts have passed on. The circus’ original walls were torn down. Replaced.

Melinda supposed she should just let Annabelle-Lee, the mayor, get rid of it for good.

But there were too many memories. Too much of her brother taking her here when she was little. She just…

It had to stay. It couldn’t go away.

Not now. Not ever.

2. William’s thoughts

In death, one has a lot of time to think about things.

Like how thirteen year old William thought about how much he loved his parents in life that he would slip into that innocent childlike love and call them “Mommy” and “Daddy.” Gabriel never made fun of him for it. That was why he was such a good friend. He was kind and genuine and lovely.

He was also REALLY tall. Like abnormally tall. To be exact, but height was 6’8, but the clown shoes he wore added an extra two inches. People made fun of him for it, but not William. Gabriel simply didn’t deserve to be picked on like that.

Ah yes. The circus in which they performed in. William’s father’s circus. How William was the ringmaster and Gabriel the clown.

And how his father selfishly murdered them, taking their lives away, destroying the image of the circus William and Gabriel were both so proud of-

-No. That was the past.

The boys were alright. They had each other.That was all that mattered.

Not that his father betrayed and hurt them all. Not that he took away any chance they’d ever have to become fully fledged human beings.

They would always be there for one another.

Always.

3. Gwyneth’s nightmare

Gwyneth blinked her eyes.

She was standing in the Ladouceur circus, only, the night sky darkened the world around her. The cold air nipped at her ankles, there was this scary loud noise-

She turned towards the sound. It was coming from the gate.

It took a few moments to realize it, but when she did, Gwyneth backed away in horror.

It was her big brother Gabriel, dressed in full clown costume, screaming, crying because he could not climb up the gate. His clown shoes wouldn’t let him, he kept slipping down.

Gwyneth turned to look at what he was screaming at…

She clenched her jaw, not minding the pain that came with it.

It was that stupid girl, Denise, whom he was screaming at. That girl who was his girlfriend. The person who made her brother not pay attention to her.

She was laughing at him.

“Hey! Stop that! That’s not nice!”

But they didn’t hear her.

Denise walked away, leaving Gabriel behind…

Somebody grabbed his shoulder.

Gwyneth couldn’t see who it was, but she knew the person wanted to hurt him. It was a feeling the burned deep inside of her. The feeling told her that the person who was now pulling Gabriel away wanted to hurt him. She was certain of it.

She ran after them, to see what was going on. She followed them to a circus tent and-

No. It couldn’t be.

But it was.

It was Mr. Ladouceur.

The ringmaster of the circus.

No…no...no!

He…was…so…nice…he…gave…her…candy…no…no…NO!

Mr. Ladouceur pushed Gabriel to the ground, who didn’t scream, didn’t run, didn’t do anything!

Gwyneth walked towards him, legs shaking, heart beating rapidly.

“W-W-W-Why aren’t y-y-you r-r-running?” She asked as best she could.

Gabriel didn’t answer her. He wasn’t even looking at her. He was only looking into the eyes of Mr. Ladouceur.

Then, a flash of blinding light white and-

“STOPPPPP!”

She screamed, but the scream wasn’t her own. It was…Gabriel’s.

“It’s too late to cry out for help, clown boy.”

Mr. Ladouceur. Smiling down at her. Trapping her.

He raised…a…a needle...in his hand…

“NO!”

She tried to run, tears streaming down her face, but he already forced her down.

“This ought to shut you up.”

Swipe

Something glued a part of her lip shut.

Gwyneth tried screaming again.

She found that she couldn’t move her lips.

“You always talked too much, anyway..”

The rest was a foggy blur. She thought that she must be dying. She felt like she was breaking up, turning into just a pile of flesh and blood and all things horrid…

…………………………………………………….

Gwyneth opened her eyes.

She looked around.

She was safe in her bed, not a scratch on her body, as Mommy would say.

Yet she still felt bad.

Gwyneth sat up from bed and…

and there he was.

Gabriel. Bloody. Dead. Makeup smudged…and what was up with his mouth? He looked like…like a monster.

Gwyneth bit her lips back from screaming, crying, or doing both. She didn’t want to wake her parents up.

He reached a hand out to her.

This…this was her...her brother.

“What happened to you, Gabriel?” Gwyneth asked quietly.

He didn’t answer. Why wasn’t he answering?

He pointed to her, then to himself.

Gwyneth crawled out of bed and walked up to him and-

His mouth. His mouth!

It was stitched shut! The stitches looked like something she might find carefully crafted on a quilt. Blood dripped from his lips and…

“Oh, Gabriel!”

Why did this happen to him? Why did…

Denise. She left him there. She-

“I-I-I-I’m sorry!” Gwyneth cried. He didn’t deserve any of this…no...he didn’t-

“Gwyneth? Why are you up?”

He was gone.

“Mommy-Gabriel-he-“

“It’s just a bad dream. Go back to sleep, sweetie. Princesses need their beauty rest.”

“He-he-he-“

“He went missing. But we’ll find him.”

“He’s dead!”

“Maybe he seems dead to you-“

“No! No! I saw in a dream…Mr. Ladouceur-he-he killed him! He sewed his mouth shut! Denise-she-she just left him there! I saw! I saw! I sa-“

“Gwyneth Mary Edwards. You will not talk like that. Mr. Ladouceur and Denise are very nice people. You know it-“

“But I saw-“

“Back to bed. Now.”

“Mommy-“

“Now.”

Gwyneth walked back to bed, pulling the covers over her eyes. She listened to her Mommy turn off the light and then walk away.

Poor Gabriel…Poor Gabriel…

She squeezed her eyes shut. She shouldn’t cry. Gabriel wouldn’t want her to cry…

It was too late.The tears were already falling down…

4. The temptation of giving up

There was something itching inside of Gabriel, something deep inside of him that was telling him to abandon all of his memories, to give in to darkness and to let the rage consume him.

He’d kill Denise with that fury, but he’d lose himself. Gabriel would lose his true soul. He wouldn’t be any different from Lucas. He didn’t want to lose himself, but sometimes, he could feel it calling out to him, tugging at the little bits of light he had left. Every day at the decayed circus that no one but heartless, thoughtless ghost seekers and teens visited was another day that Gabriel just wanted to snap, that he just wanted to teach them a lesson and show them what real fear and pain was, but…

He wouldn’t. He couldn’t. He was a good kid. Always had been, always will be.

After all, it was the job of a clown to represent joy when times were tough.

5. The glory of giving up

Gabriel peeked behind the flaps of the circus tent. Did anyone besides his family, William, and Isabella care about him? Was he just “Bubblegum the clown” to them? Was he anything at all?

Was that his eternity? To rot away in the circus? Alone?

He had his friend, William. He had the others, too. But they would never understand. He would always be alone.

Gabriel knew that he and William had a wedge between them when Denise came along. William knew that he didn’t want a “mean girl” around, a girl who was friends with bullies but who acted nice around Gabriel.

But he had loved her! Loved her! He thought that she had loved him, that she was different from her friends, that…that…

Sometimes Gabriel thought that he still did, even after she left him for dead.

Maybe that’s why he was so angry with her. Maybe that’s why he wanted her to die. Because there were instances where he felt a burning desire for her to love him, to care for him, even after everything, he could never, ever, no matter what, fully hate her.

He closed the tent flap and with much difficulty (His right leg was sliced off) sat down on the dirt floor.

There he would rot and there he would stay. There he would let the darkness win and deform him into an awful creature, the circus was where he would lose himself, and after the last of his heart died away, he would make them all know his name!

He laughed, but it was a strange gurgled noise, due to his stitched lips and slashed neck.