SMILE

Chapter 2 Balloons

We were trudging in the woods, desperate to find Austin. There was a boy standing in front of a tunnel, like a sewer on the hill. It was Austin... We sprinted towards him. When we were a few meters away from him. He said, ‘Wait stop!’ I’d stopped sprinting towards him. I was confused. I’ve tried digging in my mind of any hint that I can get off what he meant by that. ‘Don’t come near me!’ He says. He didn’t sound like Austin, he didn’t sound like himself. ‘W-why?’ Asked Autumn for me. ‘T-there is s-something here!’ He says as I see him first, with a tear shedding from his eyelids, moreover then spilt down his face on his medium skin. ‘No Austin! There is clearly something here!’ I said. ‘Y-you saw it too?’ He says. ‘Yeah, the clown duh?’ Spoke Autumn.

‘N-no, not that C-clown, t-there i-is something bigger!’ He says in a terrified shaky voice, followed by his statement making me bumfuzzled to the point it began giving me a mild headache. The headache was no headache I have ever gotten; the headache was beating like a heart inside the front of my brain. With a sharp piercing pain, also stinging a bit. And it didn’t make it much better when I was treasure hunting in my mind; in fact, it made it worse. So, then I stopped thinking in my head despite it being pretty serious. I’ve opened my mouth, about to ask him what he meant by that.
But then, I saw something rather traumatizing in the pitch blackness of the tunnel, succumbing and dissolving all the light inside it. I saw something move in there. It was really hard to picture what was in there, considering it was just a shadow or something. I shut my mouth and gulped. My heart began beating faster and faster. And my adrenaline soaked by body as if I jumped into the pool. Because there was a hand coming from the darkness of the tunnel. Slowly reaching out to Austin, I’d tried to speak to warn him, but my mouth wouldn’t move, as if there was an imaginary rope around my mouth, I couldn’t move, or turn my head, all we can do is watch like statues.

The hand had no glove; the claws had paints and splatters of blood on it, as if it ripped up a massive carcass, the claws was long and curving down a bit, Kind of like a cat, the skin was grey, there was a white cuff on its sleeve, as well as the red and yellow striped sleeve just like the clown from the camp. We could hear the grotesque crackling from its arm, slowly slowing down as the hand stops . . . the hand was still . . . It snatched Austin and pulled him into the darkness of the forsaken-looking tunnel.
 I turned to my left and looked at Autumn. She looked at me back and said, ‘W-we need to g-go after him.’ I turned right, looking back at the tunnel, seeing the menacing pitch blackness of the tunnel. I’ve looked back at Autumn. ‘W-what? I-I am not going there!’ I sputtered. Autumn's hand found my shoulder.

‘I g-get you have a fear of the dark. But we can’t let t-that clown get to him.’ She leaped towards me and gave me a hug, her hand on my back. I then wrapped my arms around her, giving her a friend hug. ‘Okay,’ I whispered while my chin was on her left shoulder. We let go. I then looked right, facing the traumatizing tunnel. ‘I will be right behind you,’ Autumn says to my left. We dawdled towards the tunnel, we stopped in front of it.

Afraid I was going to get grabbed by that thing we saw that have grabbed Austin. I loaded my body with air, and sighed, and then we began walking in the tunnel. Shivering in fear of the darkness, not just because of the darkness; what began it, I haven’t talked to my friends about it at all. But when I was twelve-years old, when I was walking down the lonely street on the sidewalk down Cannon street walking back home from my friend’s house. I had a feeling of paranoia, as if someone was watching me. Goosebumps stretched down my back, I turned around and saw a clown peeking a round of the baker’s shop looking at me; where my mom used to go to where she used to buy a choc-chip muffin for breakfast.

Right when I saw the clown, I turned back around in a hurry and sprinted all the way down the sidewalk. I’ve turned right and saw an alley-way on the right-hand side and ran down there. I turned around back around and stood still to see if he walks or runs past the alley-way. My teeth tremble in fear, my goosebumps stretched even more on my back and even on the back of my legs.
But then, I felt someone grasping my right shoulder, digging with their claws into it. I zoned out. My adrenaline was going off of the charts, and my heart beat increased. I could feel my shoulder getting grasped and feeling the claws digging into my shoulder so badly that even today I have a scar from it. And then I could hear the clown’s raspy breathing behind my back, and I could feel its warm breath blowing in my hair. And I heard its raspy voice saying, ‘want a balloon?’ After when he said that, I darted down the alley way turned right and ran back down the street towards home. I was so scared that I didn’t even scream. I was speechless.