They walked a long way down the mall. Past the theater, the food court, and most of the stores they would normally go to. But when they got to where the store was, it was...gone. There was just a wall. Rose's expression changes to one of confusion.
"What? It...it was right here, though." She felt the wall with her hand, knocking on it to see if it was perhaps hollow. But no, there was nothing there and nothing behind it.
"Huh...you sure we're in the right place?" Carly asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
"No, I swear it was here! Huh...that's...weird. How did I get THIS then?" She looked at the clown horn, examining it. She didn't want her mind to dwell on it, she usually didn't let many things bother her. A lot of weird, unexplainable things tended to happen to her. Which most of the time she would either convince herself was a memory she made up or a dream. But this...this was too weird for her mind to ignore. Especially because she had evidence to prove this was real. "Maybe I am in the wrong place?" She considered. But no. It just...wasn't there.
As her and Carly enjoyed the mall, she couldn't get that interaction off her mind. What did the man mean when he said that? Why did the store just disappear? Why did he just...give her the horn? The thought stayed in her mind as she sat at home later, still examining the clown horn as she sat at her desk. She wanted to honk it, just to see what would happen. But she was kind of scared. So she decided to just obey the old man's orders to only use it if she had to...whatever that meant.
The day went on and Rose eventually headed to bed, the events of the mall swimming in her head until they just became another part of her dreams.
Her dreams.
Rose always dreamed a lot. Almost every night. She didn't remember most of them, but she often woke up knowing she had a dream. Maybe a glimpse or faint memory of a person or place. Most vivid ones she remembered from her childhood. But as she got older, they just became less notable.
Rose jolted up, her eyes adjusting to a bright light. Colors swirled where she sat and she stood up slowly, looking around at her surroundings. It was windy but quiet, like being in a hurricane but somebody hit the mute button. She noticed the clown horn in her hand. Then she looked up and saw... something. A creature? A monster? It was tall and slim with a pointy, almost triangular frame that made up its body. Several dark colored sharp shapes all put together with two eyes and jester makeup. She stared at it for a moment, until it spoke.
"Rose." It said. Not moving, not blinking, not daring to even move it's pupils.
Rose stared for a moment, before speaking. "Yes? What are you? How do you know who I am?"
It stared.
"Rose...do you know who you are?" It asked, every word dripping with inhuman-like emotion. She couldn't tell if the creature was angry or kind of even scared. It just was.
She thought, then spoke. "What do you mean? I'm...I'm Rosemary Taylors. How do you know who I am?" She asked, a grip on the clown horn as if it was a weapon.
The creature stared back for a moment. What little emotion it showed being unreadable.
"Do you know what you are?" It repeated.
Rose tightened the grip on the clown horn and took a step back. "Listen...I don't know who you are but...but I'm not anybody special! If you want to hurt me you have the wrong person! If you want this stupid clown horn you can-" Then she stopped herself. The clown horn. She knew that there HAD to be SOME reason she was given it. There has to be some reason she has it with her at this moment. So there has to be some reason she couldn't just give it away.
The creature grew angry. It's expression didn't change, but it slowly rose over her, the shapes that made up its body changing. The silence grew loud with a ringing noise.
Rose woke up. She sat up in her bed, sweating with her hair a mess. Her shirt stuck to her body as she quickly stood up and turned on the lamp, looking around her room. Her TV was turned off. A few cars scattered the streets outside her window. Her door was cracked open as it usually was. Everything was normal. But she knew she was being watched. She grabbed the clown horn from the top drawer of her dresser where she kept her jewelry, holding it to her chest in protection.
"I'm just being paranoid," she thought, "who even cares about a stupid clown horn?" She stood there for a few more minutes, just looking around her bedroom. It brought her back to when she was little. She was always plagued with strange dreams that would always lead her back to the corner of her room. Hiding.
Suddenly, her closet door opened. She went to take a step back, but realized she was pressed against the wall entirely. The door opened and there stood a creature. It was much like the one in her nightmare, but more...clear. She was able to process how it looked. It's dark grey skin and pinkish red eyes, it's darkly colored clown makeup, and it's black and purple jester hat. It had the same face of no mouth, just wide eyes with no recognizable emotion.
Rose stared at it a moment. What was she looking at?? Surely she was still dreaming. But no, this was real. And she knew what it wanted. She could just feel it. She squeezed the clown horn, expecting something to happen.
She dropped the horn as she realized what was happening. Pink and red sparkles surrounded her arms as she looked at them. She stumbled back against the wall as the sparkles took over her body. She shut her eyes tightly, "Was that some kind of weird ass clown drug?? Is this what it's like to be on drugs??" She thought frantically.
She kept her eyes closed for about thirty seconds before opening them. She looked at her hands, which had gloves on them. She was wearing a skirt and striped leggings and a weird shirt with pom poms on it, and one of those poofy clown collar things. She felt her face and felt a clown nose. She wasn't even that scared. She was just...confused?? She looked back up at the creature, who was still staring at her. But seemed....scared. Angrier, but not knowing what to do. Rose felt the same way. What was she supposed to do? How was THIS supposed to protect her??
Before she could think any more about it, she heard a rock hit her window. Not a large rock, but a pebble. She ran to the window and opened it, hoping somehow someone had came to save her.
She looked down and saw a group of people, all looking like clowns standing there. The tallest one yelled to her.
"Go down the fire escape and jump!!" He yelled.
"What do you mean?! Who the hell are you?! And I'm kind of in the middle of some-"
"JUST DO IT!" He interrupted.
"I'LL FALL, DUMBASS!" She yelled back louder. She wasn't worried much about waking her family up. They were use to her staying up late on the phone. The clown groaned, mumbling something into his hands. He looked over at another person.
"Cherry. Go...I dunno, put something down so she won't die." He said, looking at a clown girl around the same age as Rose. She nodded, running over next to the ladder of the fire escape and standing there.
"Okay, just jump down, you're good!" She said, smiling.
Rose stared at her. "But-"
"IS THERE OR IS THERE NOT A DAMN DEMON CHASING YOU RIGHT NOW?!" The other clown yelled. Rose groaned at him and just decided to trust these people. She climbed into the fire escape and pushed down the ladder, climbing down it and jumping off. The girl managed to kind of catch her, still stumbling against a wall and hitting the back of her head as they both fell. Rose looked down at the clown girl that she had fallen onto. The other clown sighed.
"Didn't I say to put something down-? Nevermind, just take her to the car." He said, pointing at a small clown car, about the size of a twin size bed. Rose stared at it, even more confused.
"How are we all supposed to fit in there??" She asked, "And WHO ARE YOU?? And why the hell am I like this-" Before she could finish her questions, the creature jumped down from the fire escape, charging at her. Rose screamed and Cherry grabbed her hand, running with her to the car. The door was easy to get in, and surprisingly the car wasn't small. Far from it. The inside was a whole room. A whole house. Maybe bigger than Rose's own home. She looked around, confused. Cherry pointed at her.
"Okay, Rose, go to the front of the car and hit the jester dude with anything we've got! Just buttonmash, okay?!" She explained. Rose nodded. She barely cared at the moment, she wanted that thing dead. She ran to the front of the room, which was a control panel with a window looking out of the car and a few seats. She stood above it, just blindly slamming the colorful buttons. The jester looked at her, still charging towards the car, then stopped. It got hit with a item that looked like a small jack in the box, and it quickly exploded into colorful sparkles, melting the creature into nothing but black goo and dust. Rose stared ahead at the empty street.
The other clown walked back in, looking at her as Rose just stared ahead. She killed it. She didn't know what it was or why it wanted her. The clown man stared at her for a minute before speaking.
"So....I'm sure you're...confused." He said nervously, smiling nonetheless.
Rose turned around, and stared for a few seconds before yelling, "CONFUSED?! YEAH, SOMETHING LIKE THAT! WHAT'S GOING ON?! WHO ARE YOU?? AND- AND HOW DO I CHANGE BACK?!" She screamed.
"Listen, it's fine. It's all hard to explain. I'm Leo. You've met Cherry, and the others aren't here right now. But basically... you're not like other people." He explained. She was still confused, not understanding what he meant. Before she could ask, though, Cherry spoke up.
"Listen, it's all really weird and complicated. Even Leo barely gets it. But basically, some bozo decided it would be a good idea to assign a bunch of people who haven't even finished high school the job of keeping dangerous crap out of the human world." She explained, trying to make it sound simple.
Rose stared ahead. What did any of that mean?? "So I'm some CLOWN?? Do I even get to change back?!" She asked, not anywhere near calm.
"Yes. Yes, okay? You can change back whenever. But just...you have a responsibility now-" Daisy started, but Rose interrupted her.
"I didn't ASK for this!! I don't want this!!" She yelled. She was overcome with stress and fear. It was only about 3am. She was exhausted and confused and scared, but she didnt want to cry, so she just put on an angry face and stared at the two clowns.
After a moment, Leo spoke up again. "Listen...it really isn't...that bad. You still get to have a...kind of normal life? But...it wasn't really a choice. None of us chose any of this, y'know." He explained, trying to sound sympathetic.
Rose stared for a second. Of course she didn't want this. Who WOULD want this? She was scared. She thought for a minute, then spoke again. "How do I change back?" She repeated.
Leo looked at Cherry, who then looked at Rose as her expression softened.
"Use that clown horn again. Simple as that." She explained, pointing at the rose gold clown horn that Rose had forgotten was in her hand.
Rose immediately squeezed it without hesitation. Pink sparkles seemed to float out of her body and she shut her eyes again. When the dark veils of her eyelids rose she was herself again. Leo looked at her and then at Cherry.
"Go walk her back up to her doorstep, kay?" He suggested, "I'll take you home after. Sorry about this late adventure. I guess someone thought it would be a good idea to use the clown horn at ONE IN THE MORNING...." Annoyance was present in his voice, and his mumbles as he walked back to the front of the car.
Cherry walked out into the sidewalk, as Rose followed. The air felt awkward as Rose studied the glow of the neon ship lights reflecting off the rain puddles from earlier that day.
"Y'know...." Cherry finally spoke, "don't listen to Leo. He didn't mean that last thing. He's glad you used the horn. It'd suck if a clown died because they were too scared to use that old thing..."
