Young Writers Society

*From my story “Circus of horrors”. Gacha Club character designs are on my wall. Enjoy!*

In 1982, there was a teenage boy named Charles Larson who performed at a circus as Zippy the clown during his free time.

There was a boy from his school who also performed there as Cookie the clown. His name was Andrew.

Andrew was nice enough, but he didn’t really want to talk to him. Matter of fact, Charles didn’t really want to talk to anyone outside of his job.

The ringmaster was a polite woman named Teresa, there was a kind magician known as Malcom, bold trapeze artists who were twin siblings named Elaine and Miles and a soft-spoken ballerina called Qetsiyah. People he cooperated with but would never connect with.

Well, it was something to do after school. Not only that, but the ghost lady named Miriam didn’t follow him to the circus. That was the one place she wouldn’t go.

She followed him everywhere…

One sunny evening, after dinner, he got a call from Mrs.Wallace, the woman next door. She wanted him to babysit her six year old daughter, Abigail, because he was “so good with kids”.

Charles had gotten this call while Miriam watched with her endless black eyes. She had such a cold, piercing stare…

What else was there to do but agree?

………………………………………………………………

When the first day of babysitting Abigail had finally arrived, her parents went on and on about making sure she didn’t stay up

past her bedtime and said something about her being obsessed with the circus. He had a suitcase with his clown costume in it that he bought with him, just in case.

Then, they left and he was alone with the child.

“Hey, you must be Abigail.” He said.

“Yes, obviously.” She said this while rolling her eyes.

Just like Claire did before-

No. He wouldn’t think about it. She wanted to have fun with him, so he’d have fun with her.

He forced a smile on his face.

“Come downstairs, Abby. I’ve got something splendid to show you.  I can only show you in a super secret room, though. Do you know where that room is?” He asked.

Even when it was just them, he still felt the eyes of Miriam watching.

“Um…follow me…I’ll show you where the basement is, Charlie.”

Well, she seemed just as uncomfortable as he did! At least Charles wasn’t alone.

He followed her to the basement. He couldn’t do it upstairs, then the moment wouldn’t have any magic. It felt more suitable to show her the suit in the basement.

Basements were full of mystery..

Or maybe his classmates were right and he was the weird kid…

“Why are we down here? What are you going to do?”

He flicked the light on and placed the suitcase on the ground.

Abby peeked inside the suitcase.

“Don’t peek. I’ll show you.”

He unzipped it and-

“Why do you have a clown costume?”

“Because I am a clown.”

“WHAT? That’s so freaking cool!”

And that wide smile on her face, the glitter in her eyes, the excitement in her voice…

That was everything to him. That was the light in his life. That look on the faces of children was what kept him going.

“Are you going to tell my parents I said freaking? They say it’s a bad word.”

“Nope!”

“Good.”

“Wait, why are you showing me this?”

“I’d thought we’d be faster friends if I told you that I perform at the local circus sometimes, because your parents told me how much you liked it.”

“Can I talk about this at school? Please? It’s super cool that you-“

“No. You can’t tell anyone. Not even your parents.”

Her parents didn’t know, they just thought that he’d take her to the circus. His parents didn’t know. No one really knew and he’d keep it that way.

But Abby could keep a secret.

Abby is not Claire. Stop treating her like she’s Claire. It won’t change what happened.

Charles wasn’t treating her like Claire. He just wanted her to be happy. That was all.

“What? Why?”

“Because it’s our little secret.”

“Do you pinky promise to keep it our little secret?”

“I pinky promise?”

“Swear on Mac N’Cheese?”

“I swear on Mac N’Cheese!”

“Super triple promise?”

“Charlie! That’s enough, silly!”

And so they had pinkie promised together, right there, in the basement. In the darkness.

She kind of reminded him of his own sister, Clarissa, before she..before…before Miriam got her…

“Why did we go in the basement? We could have done this upstairs.” Abby asked, interrupting his thoughts.

“Because it’s super-secret down here.” He said, smiling at her.

He really wished that it was her.

“Okay.”

……………………………………………………………

Every day, he kept babysitting her. It was one more distraction from his life, one more distraction from Miriam.

It wasn’t like his parents would notice or anything. They didn’t even know he performed at the circus, so why would they about him babysitting Abby?

She was just like Claire, always wanting to play games. He loved making her smile…every day, he couldn’t wait to see her! He couldn’t wait to see the girl beam, to see her glow from within. To see what he lost.

Of course, she could be a total brat sometimes, like stomping her feet and screaming loudly when she didn’t get what she wanted.

But that was Claire too.

……………………………………………………………….

Today was Abby’s seventh birthday. Her parents had the circus all reserved for her. They had invited “friends” over, but from what she told him, she didn’t really have any friends.

He and the rest of the circus crew would make sure that it went perfectly, that it went wonderful.

At least Abby would have a seventh birthday.

…………………………………………………………..

It was already the afternoon and Abby was having a grand time at the circus. He could see it in her face throughout the day.

That was, until she disappeared. Everyone searched everywhere, but she was nowhere to be found.

Charles wouldn’t give up, though. He wouldn’t give up on finding her.

She was alright. She just got lost, that was all.

…………………………………………………………..

Charles opened the flap to a circus tent. Nope, nothing there.

A little girl was giggling.

His blood boiled when he realized who it was.

In the far corner of the tent was Abby, giggling and grinning. She thought it was funny, didn’t she? To scare everyone? To scare him?

His thoughts stopped when he noticed Miriam standing right next to Abby. A gun grew out of her hand.

She pointed it at Abby.

Charles ran towards her-

“Charlie, what’s wrong?” She asked, confused.

“Get down!” He yelled desperately. There was no time to ask questions.

“Why?”

“Just do it!”

She still didn’t do it. She just crossed her arms and glared at him.

It was infuriating, how much she was like his sister. She didn’t listen when she was supposed to. Maybe if Claire didn’t anger Miriam, she would still be alive.

But there wasn’t time to think about Claire.

“Damn it, Abigail!”

He grabbed her and-

The sound of death crashed into his ears.

He fell to the ground…he saw her face..it was a little blurry…but he saw Abigail’s frightened expression…just like Claire…

Then, darkness.

……………………………………………………………..

Charles woke up in the darkness of the tent, standing behind the bleachers. At first, he thought maybe he somehow fell asleep in the tent and missed out on her birthday.

But then he remembered dying and Abby looking scared-

Abby?!

Charles looked down and saw Abby sleeping. Only, she had no mouth, her hands were claws and there were wings on her back. Also,the blood from the shot must have traveled through her head to the rest of her body, because her legs were covered in blood.

Charles looked at his own hands and saw claws, ferocious claws.

He searched for the cracked mirror someone lost at a circus once that was behind the bleachers since then.

Charles finally found it, on the floor.

He picked it up and-

“Wow, my eyes are blue. I have snake pupils, too.”

He also appeared to be a whole lot taller than before…the clown costume made him look taller in life…but..he had become ridiculously tall.

Charles was 5’3 in life, the costume made him look 6’3. After death, he appeared to be 10’8.

What had Miriam done to them?

“Maybe people just look weird after they die.” Charles said. Maybe it had nothing to do with Miriam.

Abby was beginning to stir. He waited for her to wake up.

When she opened her eyes, he noticed that they looked like monster eyes, inhuman and black. Just like Miriam’s eyes.

She didn’t seem to be afraid of his height, at least. She just stared at their dead bodies from behind the bleachers and asked:

“Charlie, is that us?”

Charles noticed that her voice sounded echoey, as if it came from inside her. Maybe she was speaking with telepathy and she didn’t know it.

No matter, he’d tell her later.

“Yes.”

“Why are we on the floor?”

“Because we’re dead.”

“We…we died?! We’re ghosts?!”

“Yes, Abby, we are.”

“What are we gonna do?! What about Mom and Dad? My parents, will they be okay?!”

“Don’t worry, we are the only ones who died.”

He didn’t sense death in everyone else. He only sensed that he and Abby were dead.

“Oh…alright.”

There was a heavy silence in the air. Miriam was probably watching them. Maybe she found a way to get to the circus. Maybe she was laughing at them in the shadows.

“I’m scared, Charlie. I don’t want to be dead.”

Neither did he.

“I know. Don’t panic. Stay with me and we’ll figure this out together.”

“But-“

“Shhh. It’s going to be okay.”

“Is it?”

“Yes, it is. I promise.”

He’d do better this time. He’d keep her from Miriam.

He would protect her.