Some spooky five Richardson short stories

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

1. Annabelle-Lee is all alone

The town of Richardson. More like “The grave of Richardson”. The only people who ever came there were tourists eager for a ghoulish experience.

Annabelle-Lee sighed, staring out of her bedroom window. In a way, it was her fault. She was the Mayor. She never took time to fix the decaying town and she only spoke of the ghost stories. It had seemed like a good idea at first, to advertise it for all the horrible things that had happened there in 1993. Who wouldn’t want to come to a haunted town?

But she sometimes wondered if there was more to Richardson, if it wasn’t just the “desolate, depressing, ghost town”.

Surveying the homes, the streets, everything about it, she realized…

There was nothing more to Richardson. Hell, if her town wasn’t occupied by the ghosts, she would have moved out herself. The ghosts made Richardson. Without them, it would be just another forgotten small town in this big and ever-changing world.

She often felt like a ghost herself. She never had any friends her age, not even when she was little. Her only friends had been her parents and they usually spent their days locked in doors, communicating with the dead.

Annabelle-Lee turned around, studying her dark, shadowed room. It resembled a resting place of the dead, with its deep red velvet curtains, midnight black sheets and black-painted wood walls.

Everything had been nothing but darkness after they had died.

Her parents were her only light.

2. Gabriel’s hair dye

A GIFT FROM A “FRIEND”

Gabriel crouched on the grass at recess under a tree, watching everyone else go about their business, bored out of his mind. William was in the bathroom and William was his only friend and without him, there was literally nothing to do.

And it wasn’t even really recess. He was in high school, so nobody called the free time period “recess” anymore. It had become a time when kids just hung out with each other, having grown “too old” to play and imagine. But Gabriel still called it recess in his mind, for it had seemed like just another bleak part of growing up to call it something else.

“Hey, Gabriel!” A girl’s voice above him called out.

He looked up. It was a girl with long, light brown hair, blue eyes, and she wore a light pastel purple dress..

It was Tonya! The girl who used to bully his little sister, Gwyneth, until he scarred her off. Tonya still picked on him, for she was the girl who giggled and pointed fingers at him with her friends, called him “ugly and strange” when he could hear her “whispering” about him to her friends and always seemed to give him a dirty look whenever she had the chance.

He sat down on the grass and brought his knees to his chest. Gabriel didn’t want to get up, because if he did, she’d make a comment about how tall he was and then everyone would hear her and start laughing about his height and then he would yell at them all and a teacher would come and before he knew it, he would be in trouble with his parents. They were already upset with him about his missed assignments that came from performing at the circus, he didn’t want to hear it from them anymore.

“I’d like to make a peace offering.”

“Peace? No, you’re joking.”

“I’d say you’re the one whose joking, cl-“

“Don’t.”

Only she and her friends knew about him being a main attraction at the circus. They saw him at school and recognized him from the Richardson circus. (How could they not with his eyes?) They were the only ones from school who knew that he was a clown at the Ladouceur circus, besides William. It was supposed to be kept secret. Nobody could know he was there. The good thing was that nobody at his school seemed to care enough about the circus to come. He’d hope it’d stay that way. One comment could change ev-

“Get on with it. What do you want to say?” Gabriel spat out, not caring that he sounded sour. Tonya never really had anything nice to say to him, so he decided he’d just get it over with, partly because he wanted her to leave faster and partly because he was a little curious as to what she would be giving him.

“I’d thought you would like this.” Tonya said, opening up her backpack and pulling out a bottle of red hair dye from it.

Gabriel furrowed his brows, not sure why she would give him such a thing.

“Why would you give me hair dye?” Gabriel asked, because while dyeing his hair was one of the things he always wanted to do in life, he didn’t understand why she’d think to give him that.

“I thought you would like it. I made it myself.” Tonya said, extending her hand that held the bottle towards him, as if it were a peace offering.

“Thanks, I guess.” Gabriel said, taking the bottle from her.

As Tonya walked away, he thought about how nice and yet awkward she had been, as though her head was swimming with many, many doubts before giving it to him. Maybe she was just nervous. Maybe he was too mean to her and had to give her a chance.

He could see William entering what the school called “the outdoor gym” because nobody wanted to call it a playground anymore and so, he thought that maybe, Tonya just wanted to be one more friend to Gabriel.

THE RESULTS

One week had passed. Gabriel’s hair became a dark red, but it also became all mangled and stringy, like TV wires tangled together.

His hair didn’t get back to its normal, non-stringy state when he went in the shower, either. It stayed the same. The exact same.

He thought about dyeing his hair to its original black color, but didn’t bother as he didn’t think it would do anything to help. He knew that hair dye wasn’t supposed to make hair stringy, so what did Tonya put in the hair dye? What kind of chemicals did she mix together?

It didn’t really matter, in the end, because at the moment, Gabriel was lying in bed late at night, staring at the ceiling, thinking about how stupid it was of him to accept a gift from his bully. How he thought they could actually be friends despite it all.

At least his hair was a nice, different color. He couldn’t be too upset. He had to look at the positives, for there was a good part to every bad situation and he wouldn’t get through life with a negative attitude, would he?

3. The skeleton in the closet

Willam smiled (or least, he tried to with his bony mouth) at his skeletal appearance reflecting from a nearby window as he thought deeply of being a frightening, gruesome creature. Sometimes, he followed Gabriel into Madeleine’s house just so he could watch the flesh fall from his body.

Madeleine was a human girl who moved into the town with her family, who was living in Gabriel’s old house. Like all human teens, Gabriel and William took the time out of their day to scare her, for it was quite fun to watch her eyes go wide in terror! Sometimes, he went into the house with Gabriel as a skeletal creature, but for the moment, he was outside, staring at his reflection in a nearby window of the house, waiting for Gabriel to return. Madeleine had a little eleven year old sister, Elaine, who was also in the house, probably talking to Samuel, the demon who kept visiting her and wanting to be her friend. Madeleine and Elaine’s parents were out for some work thing, so it was just the two girls in the house, no adults in sight!

He had a secret that no other ghosts but Gabriel knew. If he really wanted to be scary, if he really wanted to instill fear in others, then he would imagine himself as a bony, leering skeleton.

He was considering telling his Mom about it soon, but for the time being, he wanted to admire his pointy claws and his sinister grin all by himself, for it made him feel powerful, more than what he was, like he could take down anything. It was better than feeling trapped with the memory of his murder. Scaring teens and becoming a ghoulish version of himself made him feel as though he were alive again and not some tragic tale.

He heard Madeleine scream from her bedroom window and he felt the rib cage that used to hold his heart grow warmth, for Gabriel had found happiness in his afterlife.

4. Gabriel gushes about Denise to William

The circus show had ended for the day, Denise had told Gabriel after the show that she liked liked him and so, when they were both in the backstage tent, getting their backpacks from the cubbies, Gabriel just had to tell William the wonderful news!

“William, Denise likes me! She really does! She told me so her-“

“I don’t know. I just have a really bad feeling about her.”

“Why? She’s just different, that’s all. She’s not bad. She’s a nice person, once you get to know he-“

“Do you actually know her? Or are you only justifying her actions because you really really like her?”

“Of course she’s sweet! Everybody deserves a chance. You gave me one, didn’t you?”

“Gabriel, you were never a bully. You were just picked on and didn’t want to be friends with most people. Denise is a horrible person and she’s been picking on you for years-“

“Because Tonya made her! Tonya is the problem, not Denise!”

“Denise still participated in hurting you. She seems to enjoy it as well. If anything, Reneè is the most innocent of them all. Please, Gabriel. I don’t want your heart to get hurt.”

“I’m staying with her. I like her. She likes me. There’s no reason for us to not be together.”

“Alright. If that is what you want. I’m always there if anything goes wrong.”

“Nothing will go wrong, you’ll see.” Gabriel said as he walked out the tent, William fussing with a zipper on his backpack that was stuck.

Why did William have to be so negative about Denise? Sure, she was friends with Tonya, who permanently ruined his hair, but she was still a nice and pretty person, the one person who he felt really understood him and though Reneè was the friend of Denise and Tonya who bullied him less, she still wasn’t all that interesting.

If Denise liked it when he blew balloons and smacked lemon meringue pie on his face, then what was there not to love about her?

5. Gabriel’s diary entry

SUNDAY, JANUARY 10th, 1993.

Gabriel twirled a lock of his black hair. He couldn’t help it, really. Whenever he thought of Denise, he twirled his hair. He had to do something with that excitement and twirling his hair was better than jumping straight into her arms without any sort of warning.

He was supposed to be asleep. He wasn’t supposed to be hiding in his closet with a diary and a pen.

Actually, it wasn’t his diary, not really. Gabriel didn’t want to ask his parents for one, because goodness gracious, he didn’t need to be embarrassed again. He already had to deal with enough of that at the circus and school from people judging him without knowing him first.

The diary was Gwyneth’s. Mom had gotten her a diary for her eighth birthday party last year. She despised the pink, glittery, blank-page book for not being an actual book. In fact, claimed to be “the most boring present inthe world!”

So, when Gabriel told her that he wanted the diary for himself to write in, she gave it to him.

He didn’t really care that it was covered in the most cheap glitter known to man, for it was much nicer than any plain, solid color to look. He just didn’t know if his parents would be mad that he took a gift that was supposed to be for Gwyneth.

Gabriel pulled on the pull chain hanging in his closet, which left a dim white, fading glow inside.

He held the pen up in front of the blank page of diary and began to write:

“1/10/93

I’ve got wonderful news. Denise Elisha Mason LOVES ME!!!

She said so herself! After my performance at the circus, she came up to me and told me how much she REALLY liked me, in front of everyone! (Yes, even those children. I swear to god they couldn’t stop giggling. Even GWYNETH, the little brat.) I guess I kind of blushed really red, I don’t know. Or maybe the idea of me finding love is just soooo funny.

No matter! Who cares what a bunch of silly little humans think? (Well, not just the kids actually. The adults too. I mean my parents weren’t super close to where I was, so they didn’t hear any mocking tone in how the people were “giggling” or whatever, but I’m not going to tell them about it because I don’t really feel like it.)

I knew that she liked me! I knew it! William says otherwise, but I always knew that she liked me! Why else would she have smiled whenever she saw me?

Or maybe it’s because I’ve had this crush on her ever since I was little and she probably doesn’t actually like me.

No, no! NOOO! That’s negativity talking. No negative vibes allowed. She totally likes me and I like her. I can’t wait to see her again at school tomorrow! Oh my gosh, it’s going to be so freaking AMAZING!

We’re a couple!

-Gabriel”

Did he really need to sign it? It wasn’t like he was writing a letter or anything.

He didn’t need to at all, but signing his entry was felt like it needed to be done. It felt like he confirmed what happened to him really happened just by writing his name.

He liked to hide in his closet late at night when he wrote in his diary because it felt like he had more privacy in the world than being in his bed, more secluded from the outside world. It made him feel calm.

So Gabriel closed the diary and set the book and pen beside him, turned off the light and slept in the dark, cold closet, his thin pajamas just barely giving him warmth. He had to curl himself up into a tight ball against the wall, because he was much too tall (6’8, to be exact) to be in a comfortable position in his closet. He usually came out after he wrote a page in his diary, but his head was swimming with so many emotions shrieking at him that he didn’t think that he’d sleep well with the sound of the branches against the wind.

Gabriel wished that he weren’t so tall. At least then he wouldn’t have to curl up in a ball in his closet. He knew that it wasn’t a wish that would come true, but he still sometimes wanted to be what people would call “normal”.

But Denise loved him for who he was. He’d go to sleep on the bed when the thoughts stopped screaming at him, when his emotions stopped swirling, before one of his parents came into his room to wake him up in the morning.

Gabriel was perfectly fine, he just wanted a moment to himself.