by C.J. Pike
I hate clowns with a passion. They have these painted faces and it is supposed to be this friendly, happy person that does fun things, but in reality they are the most uninviting looking people that will murder you in your sleep and suck your soul right out of you. They drain all of the happiness out and fill you with terror. I find them to be the creepiest things on this planet and I have seen some things. You know. I’ve told you.
No. I’m not here to hunt a bunch of killer clowns that are attacking people and eating them. I was exaggerating, kind of. I wasn’t really sure what I was dealing with but there was a traveling carnival going around the country and each time they went into a town one or two people went missing. I’m sure you are asking yourself “then why didn’t the police notice?” Well, they did because I could see some sort of agent snooping around, too. They probably didn’t have anything on them yet but like I said, someone noticed.
The weather was nice and warm here in southern California. There were children running around and teenagers, most likely on dates, kicking up dirt as they walked about. Fun games were being played and cheers and screams from the rides filled the air. I wished my life were like that. Although, if it was then I might be the poor sucker that gets snatched up and has who knows what done to them. If they try to catch me I’ll kill every last one of them.
What was weird was that I didn’t feel anything. You know how I can feel it when a monster is near? I didn’t, but something just seemed so off about this place. I shouldn’t say I didn’t feel anything but it was just so faint that it was more of a gut feeling. This might have been something that I’ve never run into before and could avoid my pull. That was a scary thought. I tried to push that idea out of my head but it was hard to come up with any other explanation.
It occurred to me that if there was an agent walking around then there would be a point that our paths would cross and he would notice. I really didn’t need for him to notice me. However, I remembered that I could just erase his memory so that stopped my worries on that matter.
I walked up to one of the games and the girl working it seemed to be very chipper. She was running back and forth trying to grab everyone’s attention. It was the game where you throw a ball and try to knock all of the jars off of the platform. Those things were so rigged.
“Come on up!” she boomed. She had a loud voice for such a small girl. “Take your chance and knock down these empty jars. Guys! Prove to your girlfriends that you are strong. You there.” She was talking to me. “Want to give it a go?”
I walked right up to her. She was kind of cute. She had dark hair and had a lot of energy.
“I can give it a shot,” I said.
“Four dollars for three balls,” she informed me. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
I gave her the money. I had pulled out some cash a few states back. That was something that I would be very grateful for later, but I don’t want to get too ahead of myself.
I threw the first ball and missed.
“Oh,” she said, “so close.”
“How long have you been working here?” I asked her.
“A while, maybe a couple years. I didn’t really have a home, so Renée, the owner, made me feel at home. This is my family.”
“I can respect that. You guys get along good then?” I threw second ball and nicked one of the jars but nothing happened.
“So close. Yeah we get along nicely.”
“That’s good.”
I stood there for a second.
“You going to throw the last ball?” she asked me.
“I’m just warming up,” I told her. “Anything strange ever happen here?”
“That’s an odd question. No. Everything here is normal. Except maybe the Freak Show.”
“Right.” She wasn’t going to tell me anything, if there was something going on.
I took the last ball and whipped it at the jars. It hit right in the middle and knocked all of them off the platform. The girl looked at me, very surprised. I don’t think it was because I had faked that I was bad but because no one was supposed to be able to do that.
“Huh,” she said.
“Beginners luck,” I said.
“Right.”
“Hey you,” I heard behind me. I turned to see the agent coming right for me. “I know who you are.”
Uh oh.
“Do you mind telling me just what you’re doing here?” the agent asked me.
“I uh,” I stuttered. I didn’t want to flash the guy’s memory right in front of everyone so this was a problem.
“I was supposed to be alone on this one. Look at you, fresh out of the academy.”
“Huh?”
“You’re young, so clearly you are new.”
“Oh. Yeah, right.”
“Sanders.” He stuck out his hand.
“Rogers.” I met his hand with mine.
“I’m going to make one thing clear: do not get in my way.”
“I didn’t plan on it. I’m just here to learn.” I needed to ditch this jackass as soon as possible. At least he thought I was another agent and not some nobody interfering.
“I was just asking this young lady some questions,” I said.
The girl was gone and the game was closed. I was confused. For a second I thought I was dealing with a ghost.
“Did you see a girl there a second ago?” I asked Sanders.
“Yeah,” he said. “She just left.”
“Oh, good.”
“What did you think it was a ghost? Pull your head out of your rear.”
“Sorry.” I wasn’t sorry. This idiot thought there were no such things as ghosts and I’m the one with my head up my butt? Ha.
“What did you ask her?” he asked me.
“If there was anything weird going on.”
“You imbecile. Why don’t you just run around waving a big flag?”
I just shrugged my shoulders. My process was to ask questions and draw whatever it was out to me. That way I could deal with it as fast as I could and get out of that place.
“Maybe you could use a little more tact in your questioning?” he suggested with a snarl.
“I’m here to learn,” I repeated. That only made him even angrier.
I spent the better part of the next three hours with him. There was never really a chance to get away. The one time that I did he noticed that I was walking away. I told him I thought I saw something. He told me that if I tried to go off by myself that he would break my nose. There was no way he was going to let someone else solve the case without him. It didn’t matter. Even if I did find something with him I was just going to erase his memory anyway.
It was nighttime now and the place was closed. We hid behind one of the trailers, waiting so we could sneak in and look around when no one else was there. I thought the place was eerie when they were open and in the daylight, but now it was really giving me the creeps. I was waiting for a clown to jump out and try to stab me.
“Keep your eyes open and your mouth shut,” Sanders ordered.
I could knock him out now and wipe his memory but I didn’t know what we were dealing with and I wanted to keep him within my sights. I couldn’t let his death be on my conscious.
“OK,” I replied.
We walked past one of the rides when I heard something off to the side. I took out one of my guns and pointed off in the direction I heard the noise. I wish I had my axes but I couldn’t go back to get them, thanks to Sanders. There was nothing there, though.
Then there was a scream coming from inside the funhouse.
“This sucks,” I said.
“Suck it up,” Sanders spat at me.
It did suck. There was some sketchy stuff going on.
We both ran up to the funhouse and as Sanders began to run in I stopped him.
“What?” he asked, annoyed.
“We don’t know what’s in there,” I pointed out.
Sanders pursed his lips up while he pondered that thought.
“Good point, r
ookie,” he said. “We’ll take this slow.”
Sanders stepped into the building and I followed closely behind. Listen, I’m a paladin and I can defend myself against pretty much anything in the world. There was a whole list of monsters that I have fought and killed, but this is how every horror movie starts.
The funhouse was typical: mirrors and spinning things to throw off your sense of direction and balance. I didn’t like it. Sanders was also making me feel uneasy. I don’t know what it was but there was something about him that was just rubbing me the wrong way.
We passed through the maze of mirrors and ended up in a hallway where the floor was tipping back and forth. It wasn’t on a motor but looked like whoever built it did a terrible job. Not that it was actually built badly but it was supposed to look that way.
I looked over at Sanders and he seemed nervous. He was holding his gun out straight to sturdy his aim and he was sweating.
“Nervous?” I asked him.
“Every time, rookie,” he said.
“Fair enough.”
“We need to find out where the scream came from.”
“Shouldn’t we have a warrant?”
“Screw that. I’d say that scream is probable cause, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, I would.”
We finished going through the tipsy-topsy hallway and ended up in one of those tunnels that spins around a platform. It’s weird how that can trick your brain like that. It wasn’t like the platform was moving but you still have to hold on to the railing to keep your balance.
Right when we reached the end of the tunnel I saw something move behind it. There was a little gap between the spinning tunnel and the wall at the end. I peered a little closer and could see there was a door behind it.
“You see that?” I whispered.
“See what?” he asked me.
I pointed to the door behind the spinning tunnel.
“What about it?” he snapped.
“I just saw it move,” I snapped back.
“Watch your tone, rookie.”
“We need to get back there.”
“How?”
“I think we can lower ourselves down and then sneak behind it.”
“Go ahead.”
I did just that and was able to get to the door, which turned out to be just a thick curtain. The curtain was pushed to the side slightly, letting a little bit of light seep through. I didn’t like that. We both walked through and that led to another hallway. It must have been in the middle of a bunch of the rides because it was tented rooms and we were walking on the ground.
There was another scream further down the hallway. Sanders cursed and we both took off as fast as we could. I obviously pulled ahead of him in seconds. When we reached the curtain-doorway thing where the scream came from I jumped right through, but there was nothing there.
That is when we heard it again, the scream. Only this time it was right behind us in the same hallway. I turned to look and sure enough it was exactly what I thought it was: a killer clown. I had honestly thought when I heard the scream that it was a woman but it was definitely a man. And I knew it was he who screamed because he screamed again right as he charged after us. He wore scary makeup—unless it was his face—had a huge knife, and looked like he took steroids. I tried to figure out what it was but I was going to shoot first and ask questions later.
Sanders gasped and started to shake. I thought he was going to shoot but he didn’t. It wouldn’t matter anyway because it had to be a ghost.
It was within 10 feet from us and I couldn’t wait any longer. I pulled the trigger and hit him right in the chest. Surprisingly, he fell to the ground with a thud. It was a pretty disgusting scene and my heart started to beat real fast.
“Is he dead?” Sanders asked.
“I don’t know, Sanders,” I replied. “Why don’t you go check?”
He walked up to the thing, whatever it may be, and put his hand on its neck.
“He’s dead,” he said.
“Say what now?” I asked. “What do you mean he?”
“He. He is dead.”
“He’s human?”
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t he be?”
I was not expecting that.
I had to say that I was pretty confident that the clown was some sort of ghost or whatever. I didn’t think that he was actually a human. Did that mean that there was something here and some crazy guy in a clown suit, too? Needless to say I was very confused.
Sanders stood up, slowly. He looked very scared. It wasn’t something I would expect from a seasoned veteran of whatever agency he was from.
“I really thought he wasn’t human,” I said.
“What did you think he would be? A ghost?” he asked me.
“Yeah. I did.”
“You’re crazy.” His voice was shaky. “There’s no way you’re on the force.”
“Which force would that be?”
“The, uh.” He stuttered and didn’t come up with an answer.
“I didn’t think so. You better start talking fast.”
“Why should I tell you anything?” He started to back up and pointed his gun at me. “You lied to me, too. And you just killed someone.”
“It was us or him.” I did feel really weird about it. I had never killed a human before and I really hadn’t planned on it.
“Why shouldn’t I shoot you right now?”
I jumped to the side as quick as I could, which was much faster than he could think. Then in one fowl swoop I kicked his gun out of the way and brought mine right to his head.
“Because you don’t have a gun,” I said in a deep, stern voice.
“How did you move that fast?” he asked me, barely able to get the words out.
“You first.”
“OK. Can you get the gun out of my face first?”
I pulled the gun back. I didn’t really need it against him anyway.
“My name is Luke,” he began. “My sister went missing when this place came through my town. I have been trying to follow them ever since. No one seemed to care about it enough to do anything, something about jurisdiction or whatever, so I decided to take matters into my own hands.”
“I can understand that,” I said.
“Why are you here?”
“I hunt monsters and I think there is one here. Although, now I’m not so sure.”
“Ha. Right. What do you really do?”
“I hunt monsters.”
“Kid, you are even crazier than I am.”
“By then end of this you will believe me. Then again, you won’t.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. Let’s get going.”
We started walking back toward the funhouse when something caught my eye, in one of the doors of the tent area we were in. I looked in saw a girl, but she wasn’t alive. That clown had killed her and it was the scream I heard the first time. This was a very bad place.
We left the funhouse, heading back out to the main area of the carnival. The place was like a ghost town—something that I was familiar with. I had a very strong feeling that just because we killed the murdering clown that didn’t mean there wasn’t any more crazy people here. It could be a possession, too. That might explain why I didn’t really feel a strong wave of monsters when I got there. Maybe possessing a human dampened that feeling. It was a false hope but I held onto it. The other explanation was less pleasant.
Sanders was feeling very similar, I think. He didn’t look any more relaxed now than he had before the clown. I have to say I was a little aggravated that he wasn’t who he said he was but then again, neither was I. Plus if I were put in the same position then I would want to do the same thing. There were answers and we were going to get them.
All of a sudden all of the lights turned on and the rides activated. Someone knew we were there and they wanted us distracted.
“We’ve been spotted,” Sanders pointed out.
“What gave it away?” I asked sarcastically. They obviou
sly knew the moment I fired my gun.
“Should we hide?”
“I really don’t think that would do any good.”
“What do we do then?”
“The same thing we would do if the place wasn’t lively, look around.”
“What if there is more of them?”
“Then we’ll deal with it. Let’s just hope that they don’t have a gun and shoot us in the back.”
Sanders didn’t like that comment but it was true. It wasn’t like I could just let him go and get the cops by himself or even with me. If I went it would be a lot harder for me to cover my tracks—that was going to be the case anyway—and if I let him go by himself then he might get caught before he even reached the parking lot.
We kept walking down the dirt pathway, avoiding being too close to any of the rides or attractions. I still wanted to know what was happening here but I had to keep Sanders safe. He was really cramping my style.
There was a growl off to the side, by the Teacups. We both whipped around. I had expected for Sanders to jump behind me and hide but he held his ground. He might be afraid but he wasn’t going to cower.
I started walking toward the ride.
“Wait,” Sanders whispered. He grabbed my arm.
“What?” I asked him, annoyed.
“We don’t know what that was.”
“Yes, that’s true. And we’re not going to find out what it is until we go over there and look.”
“Right.” His voice was shaking.
“Just stay here.”
“OK.”
I moved toward the giant, spinning cups with my gun forward. Whatever it was behind there I was ready to shoot it. The ride was spinning around but none of the cups were really moving because no one was in there to spin them. I went around the whole ride and there was nothing, so I decided to jump on the ride and check all of the cups. When I got to the fourth cup something jumped out at me with a roar. It was a werewolf!
I tried to shoot the monster in the head but it knocked the gun out of my hand. It managed to scratch my face before I threw it off me to another ride across the way. It hit the gate surrounding the ride with a sickening crunch. It was a lot lighter than I expected.
As quickly as I could I stood up and readied myself for another attack but the werewolf wasn’t moving. As I got closer to it I could see that it wasn’t a werewolf at all.
“How did you throw him that far?” Sanders asked me.
It was a him. He must have been part of the Freak Show or something. It was another human. What was going on with this place?
“You killed him,” Sanders whined.
The thing, or guy, was really trying to kill me. I had no choice. I was right that there were monsters at this place. The only problem was they were all human.
“You killed him,” Sanders repeated.
I didn’t bother responding. I was feeling a little weird about killing two people, having never killed one in my life. I know he was trying to kill me, but it still felt weird.
“How did you do that?” he asked me. “You threw him over 20 feet?”
“I’m a paladin,” I told him. I was going to erase his memory anyway.
“What does that mean?”
“It means I’m really fast and strong. I hunt monsters. It’s in my blood.”
“So these are monsters?”
“I thought they were but I was wrong. They’re all human.”
“And you just killed them?” He backed away a little.
“That clown was the first human I’ve killed. Feeling pretty weird about it, so relax. I strictly hunt monsters.”
I wasn’t ready for this. I dealt with monsters all the time and I understand why they do what they do. It’s in their genes, programmed into their brains. They have to do it. But these people, they were just sick.
“I feel like it might be time to call the police,” I said.
“I like that idea,” Sanders agreed.
We both were walking back to the front entrance when we heard another blood curdling scream. I really wish that I hadn’t heard that. If I had just left a little bit sooner, then I could have called the police and got the heck out of there. I couldn’t let whoever that was get hurt.
I started walking back.
“It could be a trick,” Sanders pointed out.
“I know that,” I said. “But I can’t take that chance.”
“OK. Let me at least call the cops.”
“No.” I ripped his phone out of his hands.
“What the hell? You just said you wanted to get the cops.”
“That was when I thought I was leaving. I can’t have them come here and see me.”
“Why?”
“Do you really think they would accept my story?”
Sanders didn’t respond to that.
“I thought so,” I said. “Just stay close.”
We continued back through the carnival, heading in the general direction that the scream came from. Honestly there was no telling where the sound actually came from. Then we heard the scream again, but this time it sounded like it was coming from behind us.
“How did it come from over there?” Sanders asked.
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
“You know, this really feels like a trap.”
“I agree.”
“Should we leave?”
“Probably.”
“Are we going to?”
“No.”
“Please?”
“Look,” I started, but that was all I got out. Someone came up from behind me and knocked me right in the back of the head. It was just in the right spot too, because I was out cold. Who the hell hit me?
I was confused. There weren’t any monsters in the carnival yet, I was knocked out, sucker punched in the back of the head. I was a little confused by who could have done that. I’ve been attacked by werewolves and come out on top.
Wearily, I stood up and tried to search for Sanders but he was gone. How did I always manage to let everyone get captured? You would think by now I would learn. There was a scream that sounded like it would come from Sanders. I could hear exactly where it was coming from, too.
I ran through the entire carnival until I came up to a large tent where the circus must have been held. They were all in there, waiting for me. Sanders’ face had a large cut on it—probably why he screamed—and I realized then that I didn’t have my guns on me. They had taken them.
The girl that I had first seen at the game with the balls and jugs—keep it together—was standing in front of him, smiling at me. It was kind of unsettling. I put all of the puzzle pieces together in my head.
“Renée?” I asked.
“You are smarter than you look,” she said.
“I happen to look very smart. You look stupid.” I don’t know why that bothered me.
“If you insist.”
“What is this crap hole?”
“We entertain people. We do a lot for others at our own expense. We deserve a little bit of fun.”
“Fun? You call torturing people fun?”
“Yes.”
“You’re all sick.”
“To each their own.”
I scanned the crowd of people and the only one who looked innocent was Sanders. One of the guys there looked like a 1920’s strong man. He was bald with very large muscles and he wore one of those ridiculous tank top, onesie things. I was sure he was the one who knocked me out and I could see why.
“You know steroids are bad, right?” I asked him. “I’m guessing that you are the one that hit me from behind?”
He just smiled at me.
“I’m going to get you back for that one,” I promised.
“I don’t think you are in any position to be making any threats,” said Renée.
“Under normal circumstances, yes.”
“Normal circumstances? We outnumber you by a lot. And we have your guns.”
“True. But I’m not normal.”
&n
bsp; “I know.”
“You know?”
“Yes.”
I was surprised that she would know what I meant. Then I thought about it and realized that she didn’t mean what I thought she meant, but thought something else entirely. Sorry. The last sentence might have been confusing. If so, deal with it.
“You’re an outcast,” she said. I guess she was kind of right. “Not accepted by society. Under ‘normal circumstances’ I might have asked if you wanted to join us. But you killed Hector and Wolf Boy. I suppose that makes you think you are invincible.”
“They did try to kill me first,” I pointed out.
“I’m going to enjoy watching you suffer.”
“And I’m going to enjoy beating you up.” I said something way worse. There might be kids reading this.
“Kill him.”
I was actually going to enjoy this.
They all converged on me at once. That was smart, not like you see in the movies where the bad guys attack the good guys one at a time. That never made sense to me. If everyone attacks at once it would be much harder to fight them all off. But these guys weren’t going to be able to fight me off.
As they all closed in I jumped and did a barrel roll, clearing right over them. As I landed on the ground I punched the closest person in the back, right in the kidney. They dropped like a fly and didn’t get back up. I had to give them one thing: they didn’t give up. If I were human and I saw someone do flip like that I would probably run, but they didn’t.
The strong man was the first one to attack me. He brought his arm back and threw it at me with amazing speed for a man his size. It wasn’t fast enough, though. I caught his fist with my hand and squeezed. He groaned and tried to hit me with his other hand but I swatted it away. I could feel his bone crack as I squeezed even harder and he let out a wail. He fell to the ground and everyone else took that as a sign to walk away. I wasn’t a relatively large guy so I don’t seem intimidating but when they saw me overpower that guy they were clearly afraid.
“What?” I asked. “Are you guys all done?”
They all looked at Renée. She pulled out one of my guns and aimed it right at me.
“I think you’ve done enough,” she said. She was scared but she held the gun steady. Something told me that she wouldn’t be prepared for the recoil, though.
Right as she took the shot I jumped to the right to avoid getting hit. The gun recoiled and smacked her right in the face, just like I expected. I then flashed everyone with a bright light, temporarily blinding them, and took them all down with lightning speed. They were all pretty much unconscious.
I ran over to Sanders and untied him.
“Thank you,” he said.
“Don’t mention it,” I replied. “We have to get out of here.”
I went to grab my guns but could only find one.
“Have you seen my other gun?” I asked him.
“I think she put it over there,” he said, pointing to the other side of the tent.
I walked over but didn’t see anything.
“I don’t see it,” I said.
BOOM!
There was a loud gunshot.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.
Sanders had my gun and he was shooting them.
“Stop!” I yelled. I darted across the tent and ripped the gun out of his hand.
“They killed my sister,” he cried, tears streaming down his face. “They tortured her until she was dead. I had to. I had to.” He crumpled to the ground.
I couldn’t blame him. I got some of my revenge and would do it over and over again, not that I feel any better about it.
I stepped up to try and comfort him but right then I saw flashing blue lights and could hear sirens.
“Crap,” I muttered.
I looked at Sanders. There was nothing I could do to help him. I flashed his memories of me and woke up Renée—the only one he didn’t kill—and flashed her, too. I then punched her in the face, knocking her out. They’ll find him and figure out it was self-defense. I couldn’t let them find me.
I darted out the back of the tent and made a big loop to the parking lot. There were at least four cop cars and two of the policemen were still by the cars. I snuck up behind them and knocked them out. I felt bad but I needed to leave before more of them showed up.
I pushed my bike far enough where I could start it and get away. I wondered how they got there since no one called them, but maybe someone might have been nearby and heard the gunshots. I’ll never know.
That day was known as the Carnival Massacre. Kelly had questioned me about it but I lied and told her I wasn’t there. Apparently, though, they can monitor my card and see that I was way out of the state when I last pulled out cash. I wasn’t too happy that they could do that. I couldn’t let them know I had killed some humans. They would have thought I killed all of them for sure. Even if they were bad it was the principal of it. I just couldn’t take that chance.
I spend my life hunting monsters and I’m used to it. I never thought that some of those monsters would be human.