Many more five Richardson stories

*This collection of five short stories is underneath my folder titled “Town of Richardson”. Gacha Club character designs are underneath my forum titled “My character designs<33[2]”. Enjoy!*

1. A visit from a loved one

Gwyneth and her friends, Monica and Sunny, were watching a TV show on teenage girls who went to parties, had boyfriends, and always wore the prettiest of clothes. They couldn’t quite remember the name of the show, as they had watched many similar shows together, but they still enjoyed it just the same.

There was one other person sitting next to Gwyneth whom her friends didn’t see, their eyes too glued to the TV screen to notice. Gwyneth didn’t say anything about it either, because she didn’t want them to be freaked out by the presence of her older brother, Gabriel, a clown with stitched lips and many bleeding wounds on his body. He visited her sometimes, especially when she was watching TV with Sunny and Monica, but he disappeared right before anybody else could notice him.

She wished that he didn’t feel like he had to hide from others, like people would look at him as some malformed, malicious creature.

But Gabriel said that once someone became a ghost, most people could only see their horrible deaths and not the person underneath the blood and scars. He told Gwyneth not to worry about it and that the important thing was that she wasn’t afraid of him, that she saw him as a person.

She wished that it weren’t the case, but truly, what could she do about it?

2. Denise’s dreary dream

Denise woke up with a jolt from her bed, her pale blue nightgown sticking to her with sweat. Her window was open a crack to let in the cool air, but still, she couldn’t quite feel it.

She could, however, feel the chilling grip of fear clutch at her heart. When she blinked her eyes, she could see Gabriel’s bleeding body right in front of her, his stitched lips upturned into a disquieting smile. Denise could even feel a weariness in her lips and cheeks, like they were stitches that were sewing it together.

It was only a nightmare, though. It wasn’t like she had actually been back at the Ladouceur circus and it wasn’t like Gabriel was trying to stitch her lips shut, either. Gabriel wouldn’t do that. He couldn’t do that, he was dead. Ghosts didn’t exist, but…

Denise looked at her nightstand, where her purple desk set phone resided. Should she turn the dial and call her friends? Tell them about her nightmare? But would they hang up if it got to be too much? Would they laugh at her? Would they even believe her if she said that she thought she was being haunted by Gabriel? Or even worse, would they not want to be her friends anymore? Would she become “weird” to them with just a few words?

As much as Denise wanted somebody, anybody to confide in about her fears, she simply pulled the covers up to her face and tried to go back to sleep.

Maybe she’d have better dreams, but she couldn’t talk to anybody about the dream with Gabriel. They wouldn’t understand and if she just stopped thinking about him, then she’d stop dreaming about him.

Because that was what it was, right? A dream, a nightmare…right?

3. He’s just not the one

Tonya, Renèe, and Denise were watching Bubblegum Hopscotch Fiddlesticks perform at the Ladouceur family circus.

They knew who he was, for he also attended their school.

He was the tall boy with the unusual eyes and the annoyingly optimistic personality. He was too sensitive and too gullible, and that made him all the more undesirable, in their eyes.

He was Gabriel Edwards, the boy who smiled far too much for their liking.

As a matter of fact, they hardly liked anyone, for most people aggravated them, but it was him they liked the least.

Maybe it was because he was happy when they weren’t. Maybe it was because his glitter-and-sweets personality disgusted them. Who knew?

As they all watched him, Tonya turned to Denise and asked:

“Wouldn’t it be funny if you just dated him?”

“Ew! Why would I do that?”

“He obviously has a crush on you. I’ve seen him stare at you in the hallway. He talks to his friend about you.”

“Why would I want to date him?”

“You wouldn’t. It’d be for a few weeks and then you tell him how you really feel.”

“Wouldn’t that be kind of rude?” Denise asked, for while she was all for making him feel as how he should feel, she didn’t quite see the point if it was just to break his heart.

“Ugh! Why do you care? It’d be so funny to see him upset. Right?” Tonya asked, her eyes uncharacteristically glittering with joy.

Renèe appeared not to be paying attention to the conversation Tonya and Denise were having, a conversation of which Denise did not entirely understand.

“Right?” Tonya repeated.

Denise looked over at Gabriel, who had stopped his juggling act and instead began to make balloon animals. He knew how to make the crowd laugh and cheer with them, he knew how to hold their attention, but goodness, the fact that every day at school he kept looking at her like he had a chance with her, like he was good enough for her, like she and him could be something, it was just…it wasn’t right. There were many other boys at school that she would date and Gabriel was just not one of them!

“Okay, sure. Why not?” Denise said, a grin on her face.

“I knew you’d say yes!” Tonya beamed, her eyes sparkling more so than the string circus lights in the tent where they watched Gabriel perform.

It may have not been the nicest thing to do and Denise didn’t understand where Tonya’s idea for her to pretend to like Gabriel came from, but in the end, Gabriel had to learn that he was way below her level and it had to be learned the hard way for him to fully realize it.

Also, it’d just be satisfying to watch all his dreams of a future with her crumble, because then she’d know that he’d stop looking at her with a glimmer in his eyes full of ideals that would never happen.

So with that new happiness in her heart, Denise watched the show with Tonya and Renèe, waiting until the end to tell Gabriel that she “liked” him.

4. Not as soft as it used to be

“I know that Dad is the reason for all of this and it’s not like I miss him or anything, but don’t you wish sometimes that things were back to the way they used to be? No, I’m sorry, not how they used to be, but how they were when I was little? Before Dad’s circus really took off?” William asked.

He had walked into the circus tent of props and instruments, where his Mom was, looking over at all of the items as though she wished that they weren’t covered in dust, that they had been given more color, more life.

William was just thinking about the past, thinking about how he wished that none of them were dead, that they were alive, and that they were all happier. It had surfaced into his head and he knew that he had to talk to Mom about it, that he had to stop it from haunting with just a talk from someone he was sure would understand.

Mom stood still for a moment, as though she were thinking over what to say to him and then, she turned around, her bloody face facing William’s scratched up one and said with a bittersweet smile:

“Of course I sometimes think about the past and what could have been. No one is really ready for death and I wish every day that things were better when we were alive. But wishing isn’t going to help us. Moving forward is.”

Yes, that was true, but how could he move forward when everything was a reminder of the life and opportunities that he lost, a reminder of all that he would never be able to achieve, to experience, to-

He walked up to Mom and hugged her, smiling to himself as Mom hugged him back, for at least that hug between them felt as love-filled as it did back when they were alive, before everything changed.

Maybe one day he’d be able to move on, but for the moment, he just wanted to find solace out of the sorrow.

5. Gwyneth and Melinda take over the circus.

Gwyneth wished that the ghost stories would just stop. They weren’t helping anything.

Why did the ringmaster, Mr. Ladouceur, have to kill everyone? Why did he cause those tragedies? Why did-

If it weren’t for him, her brother would still be alive. Her then fourteen year old brother Gabriel would have still been here today.

But he wasn’t. He was dead.

And now she would perform as a clown, taking his place.

One thing she gained from his loss was a new friend. Melinda, who lost her older brother Samuel to Mr. Ladouceur as well. They bonded over the loss.

One would consider them friends. Maybe that was what they were. Gwyneth wasn’t sure. They weren’t best friends, but they certainly weren’t enemies.

Melinda took the place of the ringmaster.

It was just them.

Why they continued to perform in the circus when people would only come because it was a “terror circus” remained a mystery to them. Was it in memory of their brothers? An attempt to keep the circus alive? Both?

She sighed as she slipped on the pastel purple and pink clown costume.

Either way, she wouldn’t stop. She’d do it till the day she died.

Gwyneth had a feeling Melinda would do the same.