The baddest boy of them all

*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=270. Enjoy!*

Introduction 

Andy liked his leather jacket. He liked only talking to his girlfriend, Henri. She was a lot, with her intense interest in Halloween and animatronics, but at least she was always there for him.

In middle school, kids called him a “bad boy”. He wasn’t quite sure why. Maybe it was because he kept to himself and didn’t do well with assignments. But people made him nervous and schoolwork even more so. If he was a bad boy, then he was bad at turning things in on time and making friends.

Henri wasn’t like that. She seemed to always be happy, even with the bloodiest of the animatronics on Halloween. She was always pushing Andy to go to haunted houses, to talk to anyone else. Always urging him to do more, more.

But the high school club fair was only the beginning of Henri’s pushing.

Chapter One 

The yellow sun blazed down on the back of Andy’s head. He didn’t know how to explain it, but he could feel it underneath his black hair. It was hot out and it didn’t help that there were so many people squirming past him, yelling and shouting along with the music that could have been perfectly fine to hear without the speakers.

He was following Henri in the football field for their school’s club fair. She had joined three clubs and Andy did not join any. He wasn’t planning on doing it, he just wanted to make Henri happy by coming along.

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

A Halloween party. That was just what he needed. Too-sweet candy, itchy costumes and screeching animatronics. Yes, he would have so much fun!

“I don’t really care about that stuff.” Andy shrugged, because he wasn’t about to be completely honest with her about that.

As soon as he saw the flicker of disappointment in her eyes, he wished that he was good enough at faking joy to make her feel better. No, he didn’t regret how he felt, but…she didn’t deserve to be upset like that.

“It’s fine. I’m just glad you came here.” Henri grinned, any trace of negativity gone in a flash.

He smiled back, a soft, small one. If she really didn’t feel bad, then he wanted her to know that he was alright, too.

Chapter Two 

AT HOME

Andy sat on the bean bag chair in his room, still wearing his leather jacket. Everyone at middle school used to say that he slept in his leather jacket. He didn’t, but they weren’t completely wrong. He wore it a lot. He liked how it looked on him. He liked that he could wear a shield and everyone would think he was cool for it.

He was reading a comic book. Piles of homework was stuffed into his backpack, but he didn’t feel like doing it. The words all jumbled together into a gray chain link string and he just couldn’t be bothered to interpret it all. He wanted to read about monsters being slayed by someone more headstrong than he could ever be.

“It’s not that scary. You’re just being a baby!”

Henri liked saying that to him. She still kind of said that to him. He tried his best to pretend that he wasn’t still afraid of animatronics.

Andy’s heart felt cold as he thought about what Henri would think if she saw his fear, if she saw him cry. He still cried, when he was alone and-

No. No crying. He was fourteen years old. He was over that.

Chapter Three 

FLASHBACK

Why couldn’t they just give out candy like they did before? Andy was perfectly fine with getting candy. He dressed like a pirate to take candy, not to explore a haunted house.

But the school had decided that everyone was going to go behind the auditorium curtains for a “haunted house adventure”. Andy couldn’t see what was inside, but he heard the screaming and growling. Laughter too, screeching and scratching. It didn’t help that he had to wait in a long line to get in.

There was a girl in front of him. Her name was Henrietta. She was in a pink princess costume and jumping up and down in excitement. She was in his class. She wasn’t afraid of anything.

He didn’t talk to her but she seemed nice. He’d hold onto her when they went inside.

She could protect him!

Chapter Four

THE NEXT DAY

Andy jumped when a wall skeleton squirted fake blood on him from its mouth. It wasn’t an animatronic, but it was close to one.

His school had already started decorating for Halloween, with wall decals and wall skeletons and ghostly music on the speakers. It wasn’t even Halloween week and they started.

Of course, the only person who seemed to not like it was him, because there still was that sinking feeling that something would jump out at him. He could hear bits and pieces of conversation from his peers in the halls, talk about the school installing screaming noises in the speakers. He hoped that it was just a rumor, because if it wasn’t-

“Hey Andy! How are you?”

Chapter Five

Andy froze. He supposed he should have been used to Henri appearing out of nowhere and yelling every word she said, but he never saw it coming and every single time, he’d go completely still.

“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 threw her arms up in the air, her smile reaching far too close to her glasses, “I’m not loud, that’s just how I talk. Have fun in class!”

He winced as she slapped her hand on his shoulder. She wasn’t particularly athletic and yet she was still insanely strong.

She laughed at that too before walking off, a little bit faster than everyone else, because Henri wanted to dance.

She liked the attention.

Chapter Six

“I know that Halloween isn’t for a while, but it’s still spooky month, so we’re going to watch a horror movie!”

Andy said nothing. The teacher smiled as she brought in a box TV on a rolling black table. It was English but she never wanted to teach, she just wanted to throw parties most of the time. The class cheered as she slipped the DVD in. It was a wonder she still had her job.

He put his head down. Maybe he could go to sleep with the lights turned off and the jacket on him like a blanket.

Chapter Seven

He couldn’t hear Henri’s voice, but he knew she was ahead of him. She was running too fast. His hands shook as he walked close to the wall. It WAS a wall, it had to be. Andy couldn’t see well in the dark.

Sometimes there would be blinking white strobe lights and then someone would scream. He couldn’t tell if it was human or monster, animatronic or living. There were hands pulling at his sleeves. Long fingers that grasped as if they wanted his blood. They probably did, so he had to get out! He punched and kicked, but his foot slipped and-

A firecracker of white light. It was not a wall. It was a web of green slime and red blood, interwoven together in a mockery of veins. It spilled onto the floorboards, the clowns and the witches and the zombies and the vampires and every other awful creature screaming and laughing and clawing, just like Henri, who had a cackle that bit and sucked like a leech, who was ahead of him, always ahead of him, never waiting…

Andy’s eyes felt heavy, but he felt more alive, so he was awake. There was static and itching screaming on the speakers. The school really had installed screaming sounds, just like everyone said they would.

He was awake. He was alive. He was okay.

Chapter Eight

“How was school?” Dad asked from the couch.

The school day had ended. Andy was back home, away from all that Halloween. Well, for the most part. His house had a little bit of decoration but not much. It wasn’t obscene, either.

“Fine. School was fine.” Andy shrugged. He plopped down next to Dad to watch the TV.

If he was going to press, then Andy wouldn’t answer. There was no need for him or Mom to know that what he really felt about all of that.

But Dad didn’t ask any other questions. There wasn’t a horror movie on, either. Just a sitcom.

Good. Andy had more than enough of all that scary stuff.

Chapter Nine

FLASHBACK

The light of the auditorium was getting brighter. Andy held onto Henrietta tighter, excited for it all to end, to get out, to-

“It wasn’t that scary.”

Henrietta laughed a little when she said that, her brown eyes sparkling even more with the light that reflected off her glasses. Andy wasn’t sure how, but they were sparkling.

Though his heart sank that she was laughing at him, he smiled at her. She seemed nice. She didn’t push him off.

He wasn’t going to get mad at the one person who seemed like a good friend.

Chapter Ten

Andy blearily opened his eyes to the morning sun. It would be another day at school, thankfully the last day of the week.

He did not hate school. Nobody made fun of him and nobody talked to him, except to compliment his jacket. It was a good jacket.

But the thought of animatronics being around to possibly grab him like they did at the haunted house thing in elementary school made his skin feel like spiders were skittering inside of him.

They were just animatronics. They could not hurt him. He had to remember that.

Chapter Eleven

BACK AT SCHOOL

Andy had eaten his breakfast and sat in the car as Dad drove him to school. He had hoped that it wouldn’t be true, but as he walked through the halls…

Animatronics all throughout the walls, reaching with their claws, cackling in low quality. Some of their eyes even glowed red.

He stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets and didn’t look at anyone. Some of them weren’t too scary but that didn’t change the fact that they were there and loud.

Andy could do it. He could walk through it all. He just didn’t want them to touch him like they did at the haunted house thing, as if they wanted to crush his bones. That was all:

Pleasedon’treachoutatmePleasedon’treachoutatmePleasedon’treachoutatmePleasedon’treachoutat-

Chapter Twelve 

The claw of some kind of bone creature gripped Andy’s shoulder, its cackling rising and falling as it did so.

His parents were ahead of him, he just had to follow the path. They wouldn’t leave him there. It was supposed to be for families.

Andy tried to move away, to push it off, but it held on. Why did it held on? He hoped he wouldn’t bleed. His legs were starting to feel too heavy to move.

He stood in the middle of the gym. The music and the talking and the animatronics, those animatronics that watched with too much life, they were all crumbled together like a demon that was waiting to kill. He couldn’t move. Tears welled in his eyes, his chest felt too tight-

“BLOOD AND GUTS GALORE!”

Chapter Thirteen

He was back in the hallway, Henri’s hand gripping his shoulder so tightly it almost felt like she’d break the leather.

“LOOK AT ALL THIS BLOOD AND GUTS GALORE!” Henri screeched, waving her free hand in the air to gesture at all of the other animatronics. Everyone else was walking past them both as if she wasn’t screaming, as if they didn’t hear her at all.

Andy’s ears were ringing, echoing her shouts throughout his mind.

He pushed her hand off him and briskly walked to class, trying his best to not run. He didn’t want anyone to see him run.

Chapter Fourteen

The miserable school day had finally ended and Andy was back home, running up the stairs to his room.

He had had it with Henri! All she wanted to do was scare him and laugh at him when he reacted the way he did! She was always strange and annoying, but she used to be nicer. She used to not frighten him as much.

Andy slammed the door to his room. He had to talk to her. He had to tell her, in person. He had put up with it long enough and thought that she’d realize. She didn’t.

He’d tell her as soon as he saw her.

Chapter Fifteen

Shadows, demons and ghouls reached out at him, from under the ground, in the walls. Andy couldn’t see anything but a dim red light glowing in the distance.

If there was a light, then maybe there was an exit. He ran on the muddy, slick-slime ground, his legs shaking like they were about to come apart…

But they were. He could feel the flesh tearing apart, could hear his own bones cracking, like the candy he used to eat when he went Trick-or-Treating and a flash of light-

Andy awoke. His legs were intact. There was no blood, no cracked bones.

Nevertheless, he touched them just to be sure.

Chapter Sixteen

FLASHBACK

Andy picked the dead skin off his finger, intent on getting all of the white crust out. He didn’t want it there anymore and he wasn’t going to wait for it to go away.

Henrietta sat next to him, writing a story in her sketchbook. It was one of those moments in recess where they didn’t want to talk to each other but still wanted one another’s company. Andy liked those moments. Henrietta wasn’t so loud then.

“I think I want to be called Henri.”

Andy stopped. He didn’t expect her to say anything then.

“Why?” He asked, looking up at her. She didn’t look away from her paper.

“I don’t know. I just think it sounds cooler.” Henri shrugged.

“Okay. I’ll call you Henri.” Andy beamed.

If Henri wanted a nickname, then that meant they were more than friends-they were best friends! Maybe she’d want to…

No, he’d wait. He needed to spend more time with her before he started to entertain THAT idea.

But the nickname was a start!

Chapter Seventeen

“Are you excited for tonight?” Henri asked.

He and Henri were sitting in the bleachers at gym, waiting for their turn to join the game. Neither wanted to play, so they both hoped they wouldn’t get picked, Henri’s sketchbook opened for her to write and Andy doomscrolling on his phone.

“What?”

Andy had no idea what Henri was talking about and wasn’t certain if he wanted to find out.

“Tonight is the Halloween party! I’ll be decorating and you’ll be coming!”

“Yeah, I am.” Andy said. He wasn’t going to bring it up yet. That would have to wait until it was right.

The basketballs bounced throughout the floor, echoing throughout the gymnasium, but at least it wasn’t the hollowness of the animatronics, which looked and sounded almost human, but not quite.

Chapter Eighteen

AT THE PARTY

The time had come. Andy was standing in the football field at the Halloween party, Henri at his side. She was dressed up as a skeleton-clown, whatever that was supposed to be and she clung onto his arm, no doubt ready to show him all the animatronics that were not installed all the way, shaking and jerking as if ready to pounce on the families that mixed together.

“This will be good for you, Andy! You’ll make new friends.” His father had said. He told his parents he was going to the Halloween party. Neither of them protested. They wanted him to act like the teenager he was supposed to be, do the things they did when they were his age.

“Yeah, sure.” Andy had shrugged. He wouldn’t say more.

“It’ll be more exciting than you think!” His Mom had exclaimed, hugging him the same way Henri did, tight enough for bones to break. He kept telling them both to stop and they never listened. It was a joke to them.

Excitement wasn’t what Andy needed. It was the last thing he needed and he wasn’t going to hold back anymore.

Chapter Nineteen

Henri started talking about showing him candy, but Andy had to say it:

“You’re genuinely freaking me out.”

She blinked as though she couldn’t believe what he just said. In one hand she held a plastic bag full of candy that he wasn’t in the mood for.

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

She handed the plastic bag to him, but he swatted it away. Candy-corn and sweets in plastic scattered the football field, almost matching the Halloween confetti.

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

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

He grinned because he couldn’t quite yell at her yet. Not too long ago, she had a phone conversation with him lamenting about how the Charity Club wouldn’t let her have fake-blood covered scare actors chase guests and now she wanted to act like she cared about the children?!

“Yes and you wanted to go full out on the gore here! To give them an experience.”  Andy cackled. He didn’t want to even look at her, so he started walking as fast as he could. People stared, he ignored them.

“That’s different!” Henri cried out.

Was it? Was it? Just how was Henri’s idea of fun different from giving people nightmares? 

He shook his head, still smiling, “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?!” Henri shouted.

Andy stopped. She was standing in front of one of the animatronics, those terrible creatures that touched and jeered every second they moved. But he wasn’t afraid. Not anymore.

He laughed.

“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!” 

He could see it right then and there. She didn’t love him, she just saw him as helpless little scared creature, still too young for anything. She wasn’t the one for him. She never was.

“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-“ 

Anything else that she wanted to say never got out, for she was moving her arms too much and the animatronic that was behind her-a clown-began to tip over.

Andy ran as soon as he knew what would happen.

Henri was not very lucky. She was crushed under its weight.

Well. At least she got to die during her favorite time of year.

Chapter Twenty

“Are you okay?” Henrietta asked.

They were both outside during recess, sitting on a bench. It was Valentine’s Day and neither of them had a valentine.

But that was going to change. Andy had been thinking about it all night and the time had come.

He turned to look at her:

“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?” 

He took out a crumpled dead rose from his jacket pocket. Water leaked from the frayed petals, but it was still the kind of flower she liked. He hoped that she would accept it.

She stared at it, kicking her legs, seeming to think…

“Yes! Yes, I do!”

She hugged Andy before he could say a word, squeezing him just like she always did. But he didn’t push her away.

She loved him! She really, truly, LOVED him!

…………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………

“…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”!” Henri shouted.

His cell phone wouldn’t stop ringing and as soon as he got home, he picked it up and was greeted with Henri screaming about how the Charity Club wouldn’t let her have gore-covered scare actors follow people home.

Really, that was what she was so upset about.

“Would you want to be followed home by a scare actor?” Andy asked, because he wasn’t about to explain to her how that was wrong. She should have known that.

Henri didn’t say a word. Andy walked throughout his room, anxiously waiting for her answer.

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

Alright, just as he feared.

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

“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. There was an air of fury in her tone that let him know that she didn’t really want to hear what he had to say. She wanted to complain and then have him say yes. It was no use explaining to her, but still…

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

She hung up on him. Of course. Why would she want to understand?

…………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………

Andy couldn’t sleep, memories from his moments with Henri screeching in his mind. It had been a month and a week since her death. She didn’t even have an open casket funeral. Her body was too mangled for that to happen.

In all the time he spent with her, he never kissed her. It didn’t feel right. It never felt right. He tried to show her his love as much as he could and he did a pretty good job doing that. At least, that was what he thought.

The orange-gold sunlight flooded his room. It was a weekend, so he wouldn’t have to come to school with his heavy eyelids. Not that anyone would notice anything anyway. They’d like him more because of his eye-bags. It made him look more appealing.

But there was a sound like wires and metal dragging on the ground, clinking and clacking…getting closer…no, wait…it couldn’t-

“GOOOD MORNING, ANDY! You don’t look too good, eh?”

Andy’s heart split into the insides of his arms, for right outside his shattered window was Chuckles the Clown, sticking his head out from the gaping hole, turning his mechanical head so fast it looked like it was going to come off, perfectly 360 degrees.

“I-what?”

He scrambled farther away and fell off the side of his bed, bruising his arms in the process.

“Don’t you remember me? I just want to have fun with you! Good ol’ fashioned Halloween fun with lots and lots of SPOOKS AND SCARES!”

The clown laughed, jagged and sweet…just like…

“Henri?”

“HA! Sure, Henri. Or am I Chuckles? Oooh, that’d ought to frighten you, wouldn’t it? If CHUCKLES came to life! Honestly, I don’t really know WHAT I am! But yes, Henri sounds more like it.”

Andy sat up from the floor, standing up, his bed the only thing between him and Chuckles-no, Henri-Henri?

“Oh, calm down, Andy! I’m not going to hurt you! I just want a kiss!” 

What…what?

“What…what do you mean?”

Chuckles cackled, his red eyes glowing more brightly as he did so.

“One on the lips, a romantic one, like in the movies! I think that’s fair, don’t you agree? One kiss and I’ll leave.”

Lips? What lips? He had no lips, there were only rows of sharp white teeth held together by cords and bolts.

“I don’t want to.”

Andy backed into a corner, wishing that he could melt inside the walls of his room. The clown was still there, following his movements with red eyes.

“Oh? You don’t want to? Then I’ll come upstairs and kill your Mom! I could do it so easily too…you and your father wouldn’t know what to do!”

At that, Chuckles raised his claws up to his face, as though inspecting the damage they could do. Andy’s pajamas felt hot, too hot, too much. Sweat ran down his back.

“You wouldn’t do something like that. You’re not like that. Please Henri-“

“Please is soooo boring. Just leaving without a kiss would be boring too! How do YOU know I won’t kill your Mom? You don’t! You don’t know anything, you silly boy! So stop being a baby and give me a kiss! You can do it, I know you can!”

Andy rubbed his eyes, slapped himself a few times. The orange-gold of early dawn was still there. The clown was still there. His mirror was really broken. It was all really happening.

“You’ll really go away if I kiss you?”

“Yup! Just gimme a kiss, ya bad boy! No one’s looking!”

He walked around the bed, taking small and slow steps. Chuckles tapped his claws against the windowsill, watching with a pointed, gleeful grin that was all teeth and no lips.

It would be quick. Just one kiss and then Andy would run.

He stood face to face with the clown. Well. There was no use stalling. The quicker he did it, the faster Chuckles would leave.

Andy closed his eyes and leaned forward, puckering up his lips and-

Teeth clamped down on them, digging deep into the skin, drawing blood. He could taste it. He could smell it. Hot and flavored like the inner lining of his tongue, pink, wet, and slimy.

He couldn’t move. He couldn’t scream. He squeezed his eyes shut tighter, squirming as the clown bit deeper. How much farther was he going to go? Would Chuckles want his teeth? What then? Andy couldn’t give that much of himself away.

But eventually, Chuckles let go, liquid scarlet dripping from his teeth. Andy put both hands on his bleeding, barely-there mouth. He was mostly teeth, just like Chuckles. What was left of his lips were pieces of skin hanging loosely and fragmented over his white teeth.

“Hmm…exciting, isn’t it? Probably the coolest thing to ever happen to you! Well, I’ve got to go! Thanks for the kiss!”

Chuckles drew back from the window and turned around, walking farther into the trees. Andy didn’t move from where he was. He couldn’t.

He watched as the clown’s form shook the backyard woods until even his silhouette had disappeared. Nobody else woke up. Nobody else seemed to notice.

The clown’s voice sounded almost girlish and nasally, but not quite. It couldn’t be. But then…she was always wanting more, always pushing for things…yes, it had to be…but…but…

Andy stumbled backwards into his bed, his legs twisted with the comforter. Yes, it could be true that it was Henri, but he didn’t want to think about it anymore. His mouth burned and he didn’t know how to fix it. He didn’t know how to make himself better.

His eyes closed slowly while the back of his head rang.

Epilogue 

He couldn’t tell his parents what happened. Not that they would believe him, anyway. They thought that some crazed maniac had broken into his room and destroyed his mouth, demanding that the police search for the culprit while Andy lay in a hospital bed.

They’d think he was crazy if he told them the truth. 

The doctors took flesh from his face and the back of his head, using that skin to patch up the wounds. Only his parents and some other relatives came to check on him. Andy didn’t have any other friends. He only had Henri.

The clown was always laughing. The beeping of the machines turned to cackles. His scar was the mark of the clown. He’d always belong to her.

His eyes were too heavy to stay awake, but when he’d close them, the laughter would get louder.

Everyone said he’d get better quick. He’d be alright.

At least he wasn’t dead.