User blog:1dra7/Storytime with Dra - 01 - The Clowns

My name is Henry. I'm fourteen, and I'm terrified of Clowns. Do you know why?

I'll tell you why.

It was 2008. I was in my cousin's home, Maxie's home, when this happened. Maxie is my best friend and cousin, and her parents invited us all over to spend the weekend at her house. Our parents let us sleep in Maxie's room, in different beds of course.

I remember, as soon as I walked into this 2-storey townhouse, I felt something evil.

I sat my stuff down for the weekend. You know, my gameboy, clothes, whatever. I happened to glance up to Maxie's shelf near her closet door. The brown shelf seemed to be broken slightly. A piece of wood was on her white carpet next to the white walls near her closet. I looked up to find a small smiling doll with a string attached to it.

It was a clown doll. "Eeuh..." I moaned at its sight. I had to sleep in here with that thing? Anyway, I grabbed it and pulled the string.

"I'm slappy, and I love you!" It said in a cute voice. I smiled slightly, and put it back. I emptied out my luggage, and stuffed it next to the air matress I had to sleep on.

When night time came along, our parents called the two of us down to dinner. In the midst of our eating, we heard a small laughter coming from the stairway.

"Do you hear that?" Maxie asks her mother.

"Hear what?" She asks back. I look at Maxie and nod slightly. The laughing stops.

We continue eating, until we're all full. We go up her short flight of stairs, and get into our beds. She turns on her TV so we can watch some stuff like George Lopez before we pass out.

Before I know it, Maxie's asleep, it's 3:00, and I'm awake watching her TV.

All is quiet in the house.

There comes the laughing again. This time, however, only I hear it. Her door is shut, its pitch black inside here except for the small light the TV gives off, and something is laughing at me. The TV suddenly goes to static. I, scared, close my eyes and try to go to sleep.

The next night, I share my story with Maxie, who doesn't believe me.

"What about the laughing we both heard?" I ask her.

"I dunno." Maxie says.

"Well, can we move out that clown doll on your shelf? It creeps me out." I say.

"What clown doll?" Maxie looks up to her shelf. Nothing but old nick-nacks.

"...The...clown doll. 'I'm slappy and I love you'?" I ask her, my face turning pale.

"...Who told you about slappy? Did my mom tell you? I told her that nobody was to ever fu-" Maxie says to me, but is stopped by her mom walking inside.

"Did you tell him about slappy?" Maxie asks her mother.

"...I haven't heard that name in years." She says. We're all three paranoid by now. I tell her mom about the clown doll, and the string I pulled when I got up here.

"YOU DID WHAT." Maxie says with horror.

"What's wrong?" I ask her.

"Slappy the clown was my childhood nightmare. I pulled his string once at a store and asked mom to buy it for me. After that, over the course of a week, it haunted me. Its speech would change, it wouldn't leave me when I threw it in the garbage, nothing. It was always there until we burned it." Maxie says.

The door slams shut behind her mother. She turns around to open it back up, but it doesn't open.

"I'm slappy the clown! AND I LOVE YOU!" A cheerful voice calls from somewhere in the room. Maxie turns pale and falls over on her bed.

"Maxie!?" Her mom says, full of fear. She runs over to Maxie's aid, to find that she passed out from fear. The door suddenly opens, then shuts, then opens, then shuts. The TV turns on and off. The house suffers a huge power surge, until it all goes out. Only the light of the moon can be seen in here. Everything is pitch black. The door opens finally, and everything remains quiet. My mom, dad, and Maxie's dad are nowhere to be seen.

The lights turn back on, and Maxie isn't there.

Her mom reluctantly walks over to her closet. She slowly opens it, until she sees Maxie inside. Standing there. Emotionless. Her eyes are black.

"G...Get out..." Her mom says. She and I run out of the room, and down the stairs to find our parents on the couch, watching TV.

"Everyone, get out now!" Her mom says.

"Why?" My mother asks.

"Did you not just experience a power surge?" She asks my mom.

"Um, no." My mother says. Maxie walks down the stairs holding the small clown doll.

"Hi Henry. Hi mom." She cheerfully says. She walks over to the couch. The two of us back away.

"Wow, honey...You have a new slappy doll?" Her dad asks.

"I'm slappy! And I love you!" It says.

That night, I ask my mom to take me home, or at least let me sleep in their room.

"No...why would you ask?" Mom says to me.

"That doll is evil." I say.

"No it isn't, honey." Mom smiles and giggles.

"What about HER mother?" I ask.

"Dunno. Why?" Mom asks.

"She and I are horrified." I say.

"I'm slappy the clown!" A voice calls, "I'm slappy the clown! I'm slappy the clown! I'm slappy the clown!" Each time, with the voice getting deeper. I reluctantly walk over to the steps with my mother. There's Maxie, holding the doll. She's floating in the air, and her long black hair is over her face.

"Maxie?" My mom asks.

"I'm slappy."

"And I hate you."

"January 9th, 2008. Recent reports have come in about the murders of several people. Maxie Dillard, a teenage girl, was found at the bottom of a flight of steps, holding a clown doll with a broken neck. Sherri Dillard and and Sam Dillard were found in their beds, dead of what seems to be a heart attack. Henry Ford and Sierra Ford were the only two survivors. It seems the father, Terry Ford, has gone missing. We suspect foul play, but have no known suspects other than the shaken survivors."

That was the news report we found on our doorstep this morning. Slappy the clown was found in Maxie's arms. It's still out there. It knows I'm alive. It knows a lot of things.

It also knows, that we have to bur-