The Clown

I walked into the amusement park gates. The looks of all the mechanical rides where rusty and worn. I’ve heard of this place in town… but I decided to check it out for myself. No one knows why this place became abandoned… it just did. The leaves that have fallen off the tree covered the ground and crumpled under every step Shawnte, my giant black lab, and I took. I never liked old creepy places, but this place seemed more adventurous than creepy. “C’mon, Shawnte…. We have to hurry before Mama and Papa come back from their meeting. They told us we can’t be here…” I quickly walked towards the biggest ride.

On the top of the ride’s name there was an old, creepy-looking clown’s face. It had a black mouth with only two or three teeth. And not to mention his eyes had smudges over them and was covered in white make-up. But of course it was only a giant face. “I don’t like the looks of that.” Shawnte, my dog, stated, looking up at me with his big yellow eyes. “His smile is almost… sickening. Like he caused all this.”

I flicked one of my dog’s ears. “Shut up! That’s so creepy!!!” I looked at the clown. And I swear I saw one of his eyes move… just slightly. So I ran off to find another ride.

 I soon found one with weird buttons on the control panel. Shawnte followed at my feet, his tail between his legs. “I don’t like this place, Shayne. Let’s just go home.” His voiced whined high, like a four-year-old child. His eyes glistened, causing that puppy dog look. But me, knowing Shawnte since I was a baby, didn’t fall for that.

“Get in the cart. I wanna see if this works.” I pointed to what looked like a roller coaster cart. I knew Shawnte was scared of roller coasters, but I wanted to tease him a bit. Get his mind off of that creeped-up clown.

“Sh-Shayne! Are you crazy?!” He screeched, his tail coming back up. For a dog, he could make great facial expressions. Especially shocked ones. “If it does work, and I die… where are you gonna find another talking dog, huh? That’s right, you can’t! And you can’t tell you mom and dad either. They don’t know about my talking ability because YOU don’t have the courage to tell them!” He huffed and sat down in front of the cart. “I’m not doing it! I’m not. I’m not—“

“I’ll give you a belly rub if you do it.” I said, with no emotion in my voice.

“Oh really?” Shawnte looked at me suspiciously, his yellow eyes twinkling. “Alright I’ll do it~!” He jumped in the cart. “Besides, it’s so old… I doubt it’ll actually work!” He laughed it up.

I couldn’t help but smile. I pushed a couple of the buttons, then pulled a little lever. The creaking sound it made sent chills up my spine. But surprisingly enough the cart started to move.

“WAAAAH~! SHAYNE!” Shawnte screamed. The fur on his tail poofed out and he jumped off as quickly as possible. “Shayne! I was on that thing! ….how does it still work?” His ears slid back and his tail was once again in between his legs. “Whoever left did it in a hurry… didn’t even turn off the electricity…” His voice wavered.

I looked back at the clown. Has its smile gotten… bigger? Wider? “Shawnte?” I started, looking at the dog. “Why do you think everybody left so quickly? I mean, it’s still functional. All that we have to do is clean this place up a bit. We could make a fortune!”

“Shayne…”

“We have to tell mom and dad!”

“Shayne…”

“And also we could go on that vacation we always wanted!”

“SHAYNE!”

“What?!”

“The clown…”

I looked over to the clown again. “What about it?” I asked, staring at it.

“Was it always looking this way?” Indeed the clown was looking at us.

“What are you talking about? O-of course it h-has!” I stammered, trying my best not to be freaked out. To be honest… I had no idea. “Maybe we should check out the ride. Then we won’t be so scared.” I suggested, keeping my eyes on that hideous thing. I could hear Shawnte whimper beside me. I patted his head and walked up to the ride.

The name was partially faded out, but I could read “The World’s Coolest Ride” The clown’s face was in between the words “World’s” And “Coolest”. I looked at my dog and walked in with him at my heels.

As I entered the doorway, it became very dark and seemed as though the walls were closing in on us. For the world’s coolest ride, it was kinda freaky. “I don’t like this, I don’t like this…” Shawnte whimpered. I rolled my eyes and kept on walking. Soon we came up to a door, or at least, I thought it was a door. It was too dark to see. I pushed it open only to see a cart on a railroad looking thing. It seemed to only be able to go into one tunnel.

“Shawnte? What do you think is in the tunnel?” I asked my black lab. I looked at the tunnel but saw white. The light was too bright to even look into. I wasn’t sure whether or not to get into the cart.

“Get in the cart~!” a voice called. A voice that was high-pitched and… cracked. The demand was more aggressive than inviting.

I looked at my dog, and he looked back. He could see the frightened, yet excited look on my face. “No… no …. No! Shayne! What are you thinking?!” He cried, biting onto my pant leg, trying to drag me away from the cart.

“C’mon… the instructor told us to get into the cart.” I said, tying my dark purple hair into a nice ponytail. “It’ll be fun!” I cheered.

But then Shawnte said something to snap me back into reality. “What instructor…?” He asked, his own voice quiet and scared.

We sat there in silence

“Get in the cart.”

What?

“Get in the cart.”

What instructor?

 “Get in the cart now!”

Abandoned…

“I SAID GET IN THE CART!”

Nothing but….

“GET IN- -“

“No!”

I didn’t say it. I looked over to my trembling dog that had said those words. “W-We won’t…” He replied in a shaky voice. “Whoever you are… leave us alone!”

“Oh, but don’t you know where you are?” The mysterious voice asked, just above a harsh whisper.

I looked around. I saw some newspaper clippings on the walls that I hadn’t noticed before. I went up to one of them and read it out loud so Shawnte could hear. “The World’s Coolest Ride has been shut down for… mechanical problems…?” I looked at my dog and he just looked back at me in utter confusion. I started to read again. “Ever since this place was created this ride has excited many people. A fun ride full of cute little dolls that sing a song about it being the best ride, then you get to go on a little roller coaster. Candy drops on you and you get to see all of the hanging strings from the ceiling. If one falls on you, you get to pick out anything from the gift shop for free.” I looked at my dog. “If it’s so good… why is it shut down?” I questioned.

“Keep reading…” Shawnte demanded.

I sighed and looked at the paper. “Ugh.. okay. Umm…. So one day the ride broke down. In anger a kid vandalized the clowns face. Big mistake. The ride itself became more aggressive, more… evil….” I gulped. “But that was only after the ride was fixed by the clown’s creator… Who was then killed by his own hands?” Suddenly everything around me looked, darker…. Scarier. “Shawnte, let’s go!”

I ran for the door but it wouldn’t budge. I kept trying even after tears started to fill my eyes. My legs and arms trembled.

…No way out.

“Get in the cart. Let me take you for a ride~” The voice whispered in a taunting tone. “I make sure you have a… hell of a time. You’ll be… dying for more. Don’t worry, I won’t leave you… hanging! WAHAHAHAHA!” the laugh was sick and cracked.

“SHUTUP!” I screamed, falling to my knees. I had snapped. I was trapped. I couldn’t open the door, couldn’t get out!

Shawnte came up to me to help me. “C’mon… let’s just go on the ride.” He urged, trying to get out of this mess.

“I’ll kill you like the rest~” the voice sneered. “Want to know why this place is abandoned? Go on the ride~” He cheered.

I brushed myself off and looked at Shawnte. “Let’s go.” I sniffed, knowing I had no other choice. I patted him and got in the cart. My black lab… my best friend got in and lay down in my lap. “I love you Shayne…” He sighed.

I sniffed and kissed the top of his head. “I love you too, Shawnte.”

“How cute… Let’s go.” The voice growled, starting the cart with a jolt. And soon we got sucked into the bright light.

I could hear the singing. “Enjoy it while you can. Cuz if you don’t you’ll zzzzz…. And zzzzz…. And don’t forget if you zzzz…. Zzzzzzz….DIE!” The song went. Well… that’s how it went now from it being so old. Soon we got to see all the dolls. All of them looked deformed in some way. Either the doll had no eyes. No mouth. An extra body part that didn’t seem like it should have been placed there. Melted on, stapled on, sewed on…. Almost…. Realistic.

“Like my song?” The voiced hissed.

Ignoring it, we went on with the ride. Some slots in the ceiling opened and something was thrown down at us, causing my ponytail to become undone. As that happened the lights disappeared, so now it was blindingly dark. “C-Candy…?” Shawnte stammered.

I paused before answering him. I touched one of the “pieces of candy” and felt it squirming beneath my fingers.

“No.” The voice and I said at the same time.

I squirmed, but didn’t make a sound as I felt the creatures that were covering us bite me and dig into my skin. I couldn’t let this…this… thing know that I was freaked out. Apparently, it could only hear us. Shawnte tried his best to hold in his whimpers… but failed horribly.

Soon we were brought back into light… but the creatures were gone… the bite marks remained though. Shawnte licked my wounds, trying his best to keep me safe. I started to cry. “Shawnte… I want to go home. We should have listened to mama and papa!” I clung to my dogs fur and dug my face into his back.

“Sh-Shayne…” He said, looking upwards and completely ignoring what I had said. “I know why people went missing a few years back…” His voice wavered and shook, he sounded as if he were going to cry. So I looked up to see what he was so freaked out about. As soon as my eyes hit the ceiling, I screamed and cried and screamed some more.

There were several people hung by their necks, by the strings that would drop on people so they could get a prize. Several people... “OH MY GOD!” I screeched, my voice echoing throughout the tunnel. “THEY’RE ALL DEAD!!! MY GOD! MY GOD! AHHHH!!!” Tears ran down my face like crazy and I thought I was going insane. Shawnte nuzzled his head into my lap. “Oh my god… we’re going to die too. He’s going to kill us!” I grabbed Shawnte’s head and hugged him super tight.

“Shayne… I love you. I just want you to be safe!”

“I love you too Shawnte!”

"Shayne..." The dog said, still a small wavering tone in his voice.

I cuddled him. Next thing I knew a body of what I think was supposed to be a teenage boy snapped off the string and landed on top of us.

I covered in ears in a panic as I heard a high pitch scream pierce my ears, only a few seconds later did I realize the scream was coming from my own mouth. I quickly covered my mouth and stopped my cries of stress.

Shawnte grabbed the boy with his mouth and flung it off the cart. All I knew was that whatever was going to happen next, was going to be the end of us.

~X~

“The clown.”

I looked over to the clown again. “What about it?” I asked, staring at it.

“Was it always looking this way?” Indeed the clown was looking at us.

“What are you talking about? O-of course it h-has!” I stammered, trying my best not to be freaked out. To be honest… I had no idea. “Maybe we should check out the ride. Then we won’t be so scared.” I suggested, keeping my eyes on that hideous thing. I could hear Shawnte whimper beside me.

“Or…” I said, slowly turning away. “We can go home… forget everything that I said. This place was abandoned for a reason, right? Maybe we shouldn’t be messing with anything.” I laughed nervously and stared at the clown.

“Okay Shayne…. Let’s go make some hot chocolate and chase some squirrels.” Shawnte squealed, his tail wagging excitedly.

I looked at my dog and laughed, patting his head. Then I looked at the clown. But this time instead of a smile, he had a demented frown. I had a feeling that my thought process of what could have happened was a bit too extreme… but now, I see I was right on track. I walked to the gate, where my black lab was waiting excitedly. Heh, there’s not way in hell that I’m ever coming back here….

~FIN~