A Human in a World of Monsters

The Imaginary Carnaval

It hurt, it really did hurt so much. The pain of remembering, the torment of one's mind. Digging up old memories that he would much rather forget than ever relive or even think of again. But Jeffrey Woods had no choice, he was stuck in an endless loop of remembering. He doesn't know how long it had been, or if he's even really still alive as his whole world for a while now has been remembering that horrible night, the disastrous night where he messed everything up, where he felt the warm blood on his hands for the first time, where he fell in love in the most horrendous way possible. He doesn't want to remember any more, he doesn't want to see the ashen white faces of his parents frozen in a scream, he doesn't want to see his brothers wide green eyes as he comes to the realization of what is happening. Jeff doesn't want to any more, he just wants to go home. He wants to see the sun again, he wants to feel the wind again. He just wants to go home, he just wants to go home....

Jeff shivers, a biting wind claws through his tattered white hoodie, and pulls at his charred hair. He doesn't know where he is. It's dark, but the shapes he could make out looked like circus tents sapped of their bright colors and falling apart, decayed and rotting. He doesn't know how he got there, but the pain of remembering still burns in his mind, and he can feel himself shaking.

He stands still in that one spot, afraid to move, hands balled at his sides jaw clenched and eyes screwed shut...wait. Jeffs head rose from its bowed position, his eyes opened, and he blinked... this wasn't right, he didn't have eyelids. He seared them off on That Night. Something was wrong. Jeff looked down at himself, his white hoodie was tattered, worn but not blood stained like he remembered it had been. His black jeans where not ripped like where before he had to relive his worst night of his life. This was wrong, all sorts of wrong, and he needed to figure out what. So with a determined resolve he started wandering around the decaying circus.

It took him a while to explore all of it, how long exactly Jeff couldn't pinpoint, time didn't seem to move. Even as he came up on the one attraction he had been avoiding for as long as possible, the hall of mirrors, it's walls decaying and once bright paint pealing off and the overall terrifying look of it, he couldn't help but chuckle. It all seems like just a bad horror game. He thought, the atmosphere of the fair grounds had long since worn off on him and in typical teenage fashion he had started looking at the whole situation with a cynical humor. So with his apathetic resolve he dove into the hall of mirrors.

Forcing the heavy metal door open though his apathetic attitude disappeared. The hall itself was nothing out of the ordinary, an old mirror maze with dusty and shattered mirrors, but still, just standing in the doorway and looking in made a chill run down his spine. He grabbed the bottom of his hoodie and rubbed it between his fingers, reminding himself that he was here, that he was strong, that he had to get to the bottom of this. With a new resolve and a rapid heart rate he plunged on into the darkness of the maze.

Jeff counted five minutes, five minutes before he got hopelessly lost in the maze, in some parts it was too dark to see, and in others where the light was just enough to make out some shapes he could only see his grimy reflection and even then it was hardly discernible. "Stupid ass fucking maze..." he grumbled

"The Hall of Mirrors wasn't exactly my first pick either, I'm just going off of what your subconscious will allow me to do." someone giggled from the darkness, but still somehow you could hear the shrug in his voice, yea it was definitely a he that had just spoken.

Jeff spun on his heel, startled. "Who are you?" he didn't have his knife so he just settled for putting his hands out in front of him to blindly grope at the darkness to he wouldn't bump into anything

"I'll tell you who I am if you can find me.~" he taunted, the man's voice echoing around the maze, gawfing in laughter when Jeff tripped over something heavy and round.

Jeff landed with a solid 'Oof' scraping his chin in the scattered pits of broken glass and splinters of wood on the floor, sitting up and rubbing his chin he caught a glint of what made him trip, a metal pipe. A cheeky grin made his scars smile even wider as he got an idea, standing he heaved the heavy pipe up and swung it like a baseball bat, shattering the mirror closest to him. The twinkling of the glass hitting the concrete floor made him feel incontrol for once since the day he moved to that god forsaken town. The man from somewhere in the maze was quiet, and Jeff smiled even wider, swinging and shattering another mirror, and another, and another, and another, any mirror he came across was shattered. His breathing became labored and his arms burned but with every shattered mirror he felt better, he felt a little bit freer, a little bit more like himself.

His rampage came to a jarring halt when something caught his pipe mid swing. Jeff was forced to look up at what had stopped him. The monochromatic clown thew whatever control Jeff felt he had out the window. The clown smiled at him, letting go of Jeff's pipe and letting it fall to the ground with a metallic 'thunk' Jeffs shaking arms to tired to hold up above his head any longer.

"You are clever kid, I'll give you that. Not many people would have thought to break the mirrors to find me, but of course the bad luck won't apply considering this is a dream and all." the clown rambled on as Jeff stared in confusion.

"Who the hell are you?" Jeff asked, cutting the coned nose clown off mid ramble, "And where the hell am I? Did you say dream? Am I still in a fucking coma? Did I just dream about killing my family?"

The clown Pondered Jeff for a moment. "I'm Laughing Jack." he started, "And Yes you're in a kinda coma, I put you in one for your rehabilitation, and yes you did kill your family two years ago."

Jeff's jaw dropped "Two Years ago! I've been in a coma for two years!"

Laughing Jack shook his head, sending his feathered collar and black mom of hair bouncing, "No, No, No you've been killing willy nilly for a year and a half, Slender found you himself and brought you back here, You've only been sleeping for about six months. But don't worry, you're safe where you are," Laughing Jack made a grand gesture to himself, "I'm here to help you wake up when you're ready."

"Then How the hell do I wake up?" Jeff's mind was reeling, all of this was hard to comprehend, but he knew for damn certain he wanted to wake up.

Jack beamed a sharp toothed grin at the teenager, and stepped out of his way to reveal one single solitary mirror, Jeff stepped up to it. The glass was clean, polished, and he stared back at himself. But it wasn't him, it was Jeff from before, Dirty blond, some would say light brown, hair in his usual just-rolled-out-of-bed style, blue eyes wide and hopeful and not burned around the edges, he looked happy.

"That's You. Well, it's the sane you. The you you would be if nothing had ever happened. In a way that is the little part of saity you have locked away to keep safe." Laughing Jack explained from behind Jeff.

"What do I do with it?" Jeff asked, glancing back at the clown.

Laughing Jack shrugged, "It's up to you, either smash it and get rid of the one sliver of control you have left or leave it be, let it have free reign over your actions again and take back your life that will never be the same again, either way I get out of here, so make your choice, and uh, see you on the other side or whatever you kids are saying these days." Just like that, with a blink of Jeff's eyes, Laughing Jack was gone and he was alone with his sanity.

Looking back at the mirror Jeff contemplated the clowns words. He was right, Jeffs life would never be the same again, if what Jack said was true - and he was inclined to say Jack wasn't lying- he had nothing to go back to, he had killed his family, and from what Jack said he had killed others. He was a murderer, what point did someone like him have for sanity? Jeff found himself raising his pipe for another swing to shatter his sanity he hesitated. His sanity was eyeing the pipe in fear, it's expression pleading, 'You're somewhere safe' It had sounded like Jack was offering a way out, a refuge for him a possibly new life, a different way. A way out.

Dropping the pipe with a clatter jeff touched the cool glass of his reflection, his sanity gave a relieved smile, and that same smile spread to Jeff's lips, washing him in warmth as his vision faded to nothing.