Town of Richardson (A smattering of five short stories)

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

1.Secrets at the circus show

Lucas Ladouceur sat on the bleachers, watching the carnival show unfold. There were acrobats doing death-defying acts, ballerinas that twirled as though they were spinning top toys and clowns who made the crowd roar with laughter.

Sitting there, on the bleachers, watching the performance with everybody else, he could almost forget what happened four years ago, when he was seven years old. He could almost forgot how his Mom tripped on their hike and fell into a darkened pit, her screams echoing as she fell, sounding so close, yet falling so far.

He could almost forget. Almost.

But like every time that he visited the local carnival after that terrible day four years ago, the kids watching would leave with their families and then, Corrine would have to take him home. Corrine, the ringmaster’s friend, who was so nice and friendly, who took care of him…yet he didn’t know much about her. He didn’t know much about Mr. Sillynoodles, the ringmaster, except that Sillynoodles probably wasn’t his real name.

What would Mom think, if she were alive? Would she like that Lucas lived with a woman whom he only trusted just because the ringmaster liked her? Would she like that Lucas sat on the bleachers, watching a circus performance, while Corrine went and did whatever? Would she like Mr. Sillynoodles?

Well of course she did, you ridiculous boy! She liked him so much that she went ahead and had a kid with the guy! Mr. Sillynoodles isn’t even human, he’s a monster and so are you. Deep down, you’ve got all of this evil inside of you that needs to be let out…that needs to wreak havoc…come on, Lucas…don’t deny it…it’s there…inside of you…waiting…

“Come on, Lucas. The show’s over. It’s time to go.” Corrine said.

Lucas blinked, shocked back into reality. Moments ago, he had heard strange, wheezing, whispering voices telling him that Mr. Sillynoodles was his Dad. The voices came only at the circus and disappeared once Corrine grabbed ahold of his arm and told him to go.

At the center of the circle stage stood Mr. Sillynoodles, waving goodbye with a gloved hand to everyone as confetti rained down him. His smile was wide and his blue eyes shone under the white string lights.

As Lucas got up and followed Corrine out, he wondered where the voices were coming from and why they were talking to him. Maybe he was imagining it. After all, it was pretty ridiculous to think that voices were talking to him and that smiling, eccentric Mr. Sillynoodles was a monster! Seriously, a monster? Monsters didn’t exist and even if they did, Mr. Sillynoodles definitely wouldn’t be one.

Lucas wouldn’t think about it too much. He’d just follow Corrine and then relax at her house.

He loved Corrine, but not as much as he loved Mom. Her house didn’t yet feel like home.

Would it ever?

2.The audience that really matters

Gabriel Edwards took a bow as the audience clapped, confetti raining down on him. He had just finished up a juggling act whilst balancing on a unicycle and that, he knew, would impress them. It felt like nothing to him, for he was so used to it, but to the audience, it still looked fresh and new.

When he stood up from the bow, his eyes caught sight of Denise Mason, his girlfriend. Her brown eyes seemed to sparkle even more after seeing his performance and he couldn’t wait for her to talk to him backstage, for them to have their designated time together before Mr. Ladouceur showed up to insult Gabriel and make him feel bad. Why he did it remained a mystery to Gabriel.

At least Mr. Ladouceur was busy talking to people outside about how grandiose his carnival was, because if he was in the circus tent while Gabriel was performing, he would have encouraged the crowd to throw their popcorn at him and they always, always listened.

Denise participated in throwing popcorn at him too, but she said that she felt bad doing it, that the crowd was pressuring her. Gabriel wouldn’t hold it against her, the pressure from the crowd could be a lot for someone. She just had to learn how to confidently express herself. She just had to get away from her shallow friends.

And Gabriel knew just how to help.

………………………………………………………………….

“That’s really amazing, how you can juggle all those pins in the air! While riding a unicycle, too! You didn’t even drop one!” Denise beamed as she pulled open the flap of the backstage tent and walked inside.

“It’s called “clown magic”, Denise. Here’s a balloon dog, since your parents won’t give you one.” Gabriel said with a proud smile, handing her the purple balloon dog he made while waiting for her.

Denise’s eyes lit up once she saw the balloon dog and she gushed:

“You really are wonderful!”

He felt his face redden at the compliment, but didn’t know how to respond, what to say. Should he respond? Was it one of those moments where he would have to say something or should he just be quiet? He only started dating Denise in the middle of April, he still got all flustered around her as if she were talking to him for the first time, as if-

“Aren’t you going to kiss me?” Denise asked in her lovely soft, lilting angel voice.

Of course she knew what to do. She always did. Without a word, Gabriel swept her into his arms and kissed her, not minding how his lipstick was ruined.

With Denise, he didn’t feel like a 6’8 fourteen year old freak. He felt like a boy his age, so free and hopelessly in love.

Which reminded him-

“Do you ever think about joining the circus?” Gabriel asked once they finished kissing.

Denise blinked at him with wide eyes, then she shook her head and smiled, saying:

“Me? Join the circus? No, I’d rather be designing fashion than be a clown.”

“Why not? You’ve got the confidence to be in a circus and you’ll be at the stage. You wouldn’t be able to do that designing fashion, would you? Plus…”

Gabriel swallowed hard, embarrassed about what he was going to say next. No circus should be in the state that the Ladouceur Family Circus was in, not at all.

“Plus, I’m the only performer here. William and Mrs. Ladouceur help around, but they’re not performers. They just help. Mr. Ladouceur doesn’t want to hire anyone else and I don’t know why! It confuses me, how-“

Denise interrupted Gabriel with a kiss, which wasn’t very considerate of her, since he was in the middle of talking, but…her kiss was so nice…and it wouldn’t hurt a bit to not think about the circus…about the fact that she wouldn’t join him…that she didn’t want to spend more time with him…no…that wasn’t it…she just…didn’t like the circus…nothing to do with him…nothing…

“Gabriel, the circus is not for me. I’m a girl cut out for the fashion scene, for the city lights. I’ll be leaving this town when I’m older to pursue something more. You’ll always be my silly clown boyfriend, though!” Denise grinned after they were done kissing.

Gabriel knew how much Denise liked fashion, how much she liked to create her own clothing designs. She never actually made any clothes before, but she wanted to, when she got older. Just like she wanted to move away from town too.

He’d join her. They’d move away together. He would work at the city’s circus, if they had one and she would be a fashion designer. Together, they would be unstoppable. He’d show everyone in Richardson and to himself that he deserved Denise, that he was worthy of Denise, that-

“Can you please put me down? I’ve got to go home now.” Denise said.

Gabriel put her down, pushing away his thoughts of the future and watching her leave. He’d have plenty of time with her, they both loved each other very much. The future was far away from, he wouldn’t worry about it yet.

He was worthy of having a girlfriend like Denise.

3.It’s never too late

Why did he go out at night to make fun of a dead person? Why did he go to that carnival? Why didn’t he run when the ghost told him to? Why didn’t he just stay at home?

Those were the questions that ten year old Samuel Clarkson asked himself as he sat in the backstage circus tent, huddling his legs close to his chest, black tears streaming down from his eyes.

Ever since that night when he snuck out of his house to make fun of the ghost of Gabriel, he had been trapped as a demon and trapped in the town of Richardson, asking himself why, why he made the stupid mistakes that he did.

While Samuel was at the carnival, making fun of Gabriel, Mr. Ladouceur had appeared to Samuel as a demon and after he killed Samuel, he became human and then Samuel became a demon. Mr. Ladouceur had made him a monster and Gabriel tried to warn him! Gabriel tried to warn him and Samuel didn’t listen, because he was too busy trying to “seem cool” out of some dare his friends got to him do. Because of it, Samuel would be ten years old forever and a monster that nobody would like. Only his seven year old sister, Melinda Clarkson, could see him and not fear him. But then, what if Melinda grew up and started to hate him? What if-

William walked into the tent, Gabriel’s arm around his shoulder. Gabriel had undergone many mutilations from being murdered, one thing being that his mouth was sewn shut, so he could only speak telepathically and another of which his right leg was chopped off, so he had to have the help of others if he wanted to walk.

He was a bloody, bleeding, gorey mess, but his appearance didn’t scare Samuel. Not after Samuel saw himself as a demon. No, Samuel was just confused as to why William and Gabriel were going in the backstage tent, where Samuel was sitting. Didn’t they not like him? Didn’t they think he was annoying? Wasn’t Gabriel made at Samuel for picking on him? Why-

Gabriel reached into his pants pocket and took out a pipe cleaner stick person and held it out towards Samuel, as though he wanted Samuel to take it. Samuel didn’t, for why would Gabriel want to give that to him?

“Is that for me?” Samuel asked, just to be sure. When Gabriel was alive, he’d give out pipe cleaner stick figures to people along with glitter beaded bracelets. He gave them out to everyone, even if they were making fun of him. But that was when he was alive. He wasn’t obligated to give those out anymore, especially those who had been nothing but rude to him.

Gabriel nodded. William didn’t say anything, only watched silently, as though he was judging the whole thing. Samuel sometimes saw William give dirty looks to the people who picked on Gabriel. Though William never said anything, he must have known. He must have known that Samuel didn’t deserve the pipe cleaner stick figure, that he didn’t deserve Gabriel’s forgiveness.

“Why? I was mean to you. I came out of my house at night and ran off to the carnival just to make fun of how you died. That’s messed up. I don’t deserve forgiveness. I don’t-“

Don’t talk like that. You’re only a kid, Samuel. You felt insecure and wanted to seem cool, like everyone else. You weren’t the one who murdered me. That’s not to say that your words didn’t hurt, because they did. It’s just that they didn’t hurt as much as the words from other people in my life. The important thing is that you learned from your mistakes and that you feel bad about it. I wish you didn’t have to die for you to learn, but there’s nothing we can do about that.

Samuel felt a smidgen of hope blossom in him. Sure, Gabriel wasn’t saying that he entirely forgave Samuel, but he didn’t hate Samuel, either. It was a start!

Samuel accepted the pipe cleaner stick figure from Gabriel, promising to cherish it as much as he could, that he’d be careful not to crush it in his claws and then, Gabriel and William sat next to him, conversing of mundane things as though they didn’t care that he was around.

Samuel didn’t get up and leave. No, he stayed right where he was, letting the noise of their voices, physical and telepathic, drift all around him.

There was a certain comfort that came from listening to people talk. It was like he was alive again, like he was included in a big, bright celebration. At family functions, everyone would be talking to one another about anything and everything, their voices connecting one another. Even if Samuel was just listening in and he often was, for he liked to play instead of talk to the adults, he still felt included just by hearing them talk, he felt loved by the flow of voices.

It was also just nice to not be alone.

4.Wow, what a clown

Denise stood up and clapped as Gabriel bowed, her heart surprisingly full of very real, brimming happiness that felt like it was going to explode out of her skin.

She had just started dating Gabriel, the town weirdo, because her friends, Tonya and Renèe, had thought it’d be hilarious if she did so. Denise knew very well that Gabriel had an obvious crush on her, from how he would glance at her in the very few days that he was at school to how he’d “whisper” about her to his friend, William. Her friends would constantly tease her about it, laughing about how the “overgrown clown freak” wanted to kiss her and not moody, leather-jacket wearing Trevor, who didn’t seem to care what people thought of him, but in a cool, quiet, mature way, not in an annoying, loud, childish way, like Gabriel. Plus, he was much, much, much better-looking than Gabriel.

But Denise had agreed to date him just so her friends would shut up about how much he liked her. She’d only have to date him for the months of April, May and June. Then she’d break up with him on July, tell her friends all the embarrassing things about him, then they’d tell everyone else and when the school year came around again, everyone would know how much of a joke he was even more and would pick on him even harder. At the time of the plan, Denise thought that he deserved it.

There were good things about Gabriel, though. He was sweet, he cared about her. She just needed to get him to be more mature. Maybe, after she was done dating him and told her friends all about him, she could inspire him to change.

His clown tricks were amazing, but certainly, he wouldn’t be a clown forever! He’d have to grow up and start doing more adult things, so she would help him.

It was what a good girlfriend would do, right?

………………………………………………………………….

“That’s really amazing, how you can juggle all those pins in the air! While riding a unicycle, too! You didn’t even drop one!” Denise beamed once she stepped into the backstage circus tent. She and Gabriel always met at the backstage tent after every show.

“It’s called “clown magic”, Denise. Here’s a balloon dog, since your parents won’t give you one.” Gabriel said with a smile as he picked up a purple balloon dog on a table and handed it to her.

Yes, she had told him that she wanted a dog, but she didn’t expect him to go and make her a balloon dog! It really was the cutest thing ever, even though it was going to deflate eventually.

“You really are wonderful!” Denise beamed as she accepted the balloon dog from him. With all of his shortcomings, at least he was nice.

A moment like that would call for a kiss, so why waste Gabriel kissing her? Didn’t he know how to treat a girl? Why waste he just standing there, looking at her? He made her a balloon dog, but she wanted a kiss! A kiss to solidify how much he cared! A kiss to-

“Aren’t you going to kiss me?” Denise asked, trying not to sound too mad, but hoping that he would get the message.

Gabriel blushed even harder than he did at her first compliment, but he brought her into his arms and kissed her, just like he was supposed to.

His kisses were soft, his kisses were delicate, but they were still covered in goddamn artificial, synthetic, cotton candy-like clown lipstick. Certainly, she didn’t want to be kissing clown lips for the rest of her life!

“Do you ever think about joining the circus?” Gabriel asked once they had finished kissing.

What? That was what he wanted to say after they kissed? Why was he looking at her with those joyful, expectant eyes? Did he know her at all?

“Me? Join the circus? No, I’d rather be designing fashion than be a clown.” Denise grinned as she shook her head, for really, it was such an absurd thing of him to ask!

“Why not? You’ve got the confidence to be in a circus and you’ll be at the stage. You wouldn’t be able to do that designing fashion, would you? Plus…” Gabriel trailed off, swallowing hard as though he were going to say something particularly unpleasant. Knowing Gabriel, the only unpleasant he could do was keep on persisting with that in-your-face positive attitude.

“Plus, I’m the only performer here. William and Mrs. Ladouceur help around, but they’re not performers. They just help. Mr. Ladouceur doesn’t want to hire anyone else and I don’t know why! It confuses me, how-“

“Gabriel, the circus is not for me. I’m a girl cut out for the fashion scene, for the city lights. I’ll be leaving this town when I’m older to pursue something more. You’ll always be my silly clown boyfriend, though!” Denise said, forcing a smile on her face as she kissed him on the cheek. She was well aware that Gabriel was the only person performing, but she didn’t care enough to join him. She never would, so why did he ask? Also, she’d be much more successful as a fashion designer than if she joined a circus. Didn’t he know that? Didn’t he know how successful people in fashion were? Didn’t he know anything about her at all?

“Can you please put me down? I’ve got to go home now.” Denise said, for Gabriel was still holding her, still grinning that irritatingly elated smile. She said he’d always be her “silly clown boyfriend”, but she didn’t mean it. She hoped he’d understand that he shouldn’t be a clown for the rest of his life.

Gabriel put her down and with that, Denise walked away, hoping that Gabriel would eventually learn to grow up.

She shouldn’t have to tell him how to be more mature. That came with learning and if he never realized that, then she wouldn’t feel bad about it.

There would always be cooler boys out there for her.

5.Sleep tight

Gwyneth Edwards lay in bed, staring at the corner of her room where the ghost of Gabriel would visit her. Gabriel said that nobody else would be able to see him and that even if they did, they’d be terrified.

Nobody but her and the other circus people knew that Gabriel was killed by Mr.Ladouceur. Everyone else thought that he was missing. Gwyneth tried telling people the truth, but nobody listened. Nobody believed her.

If Gwyneth hadn’t seen Gabriel get brutally murdered in a dream, then she wouldn’t have believed it either. Mr. Ladouceur was always smiling, Mr. Ladouceur always seemed to be good. He even gave her candy a few times!

But Gabriel never lied to her and if he wanted to show her that, then it was important. He said that he just wanted her to know what happened to him, so she wouldn’t be left in the dark, but why couldn’t anybody else know? Why couldn’t the whole town know?

It was in days where she was alone at recess and nights when she was wide awake that she thought of how Gabriel was always there for her, always kind to everyone else, never got angry and got laughed at and murdered in return. She wanted to set things right, she wanted people to do a whole investigation in the circus, to bury Gabriel and the others properly, but no one listened. Not even her parents.

She didn’t feel quite safe in Richardson, either. Like somebody was watching her, waiting to tear her apart. Gwyneth wanted to run, she wanted to hide and Gabriel told her to. Gabriel told her that when she got older, she should leave town and never look back. Not even for him.

But she couldn’t just leave her brother and everyone else to suffer, either. She had to make things right, no matter what happened.

As Gwyneth pulled the blanket further up her head, willing herself to go to sleep, she knew that she’d never be truly happy until justice was brought against Mr. Ladouceur.

She’d fix everything. One day.