Promises-Laughing Jack

~Chapter 1~

*DISCLAIMER: I do not own Creepypasta, nor do I own any of the characters except my own. I don't own the cover cosplay for this story either, as I did not make or do it. The only thing I own is the story itself. Please read at your own risk, as there will be strong language and gory scenes. There will be no sexual activity in this book. Please enjoy*

13 years later (Jess is 18 yrs old)

~Jess~

"Jess, clean your room!!!" My mom shouted from downstairs. "Alright mom!" I shouted back. Phsssss, like that'll happen. I laughed to myself as I shoved all my stuff under my bed. Call me a mess but I never clean my room. If I can get away with it from the age of 5 to 18 then I could get away with it forever. Hell, I barely even opened my closet. There's just a pile of crap in there too. My room is my domain so why should it be to a certain standard of anyone else's liking? After my *clears throat * cleaning, I hopped on bed and put in my earbuds. I blasted Discord the Living Tombstones remix, and drifted off to sleep. I didn't generally have the best dreams. After the car accident with my father that I managed to live through, my dreams were often plagued with ambulance sounds, loud crashing, and smells of burnt rubber that made them feel so real. It was a very rare occasion that I was blessed with moderate to acceptable dreams of blank fields and sunlight. So they weren't perfect, but at least they didn't consist of me having to relive the worst part of my life over and over again. "Jess wake up honey. You can't sleep all d-" I woke up to my mom's voice and a loud crashing sound. I hopped out of bed, my messy dark hair flying everywhere. "Mom? Mom!" I quickly made my way to where she was laid out across the floor. I shook her and her eyes fluttered open. "Oh God it hurts." She hissed in pain. I started to panic immediately. "Mom what's wrong?" I had hoped she would answer me, but of course with my luck, that didn't happen. My mom began to fade away before she finally passed out in my arms. You better believe that I freaked out. "MOM!?!?" I quickly stood up nearly stumbling over something, and tried to get to my phone.

"911 Emergency, how may I help you?" The dispatcher asked me calmly. "My mom f-fell and passed out!" I waited for their reply. "The EMT's are on their way ma'am. Is she breathing?" The dispatcher asked. I crawled over to mom and waited until I saw her chest rise gently. Yes oh thank God! "Yes!" I quickly answered the question. The dispatcher then told me to stay calm and wait for someone to arrive. I hung up the phone and crawled back to mom. I looked back to see what she fell on and realized... My room is a fucking mess! There was a number of things to see her fall on. Mom could've fallen and broken her neck! I started to immediately feel guilty. When the EMT's arrived and put her on that stretcher realization hit me. This is all my fault. I got into the back of the ambulance and rode with mom to the hospital. WHAT A WAY TO WAKE UP! I was surprised that I didn't panic over the sound of the ambulance. I was slowly healing over my father's death, and sure enough, it felt like my mother was next. I took a deep breath, prayed, and waited patiently for us to arrive at the hospital. We made it inside and before I knew it, I was in the hospital room anxiously awaiting the doctor to come back in with the test results. I've been here since 9:00 am and its 2:00 pm now. Mom's been sleep the entire time. I silently broke down and finally cried while holding her hand and squeezing it gently. "Mom. I'm so sorry. I promise you that I'll clean my room. I promise!" more tears began to fall and the doctor entered. I quickly tried to gather myself and waited for his reply. "Well miss Mason, I have good news and bad news." He announced with a soft expression.

Uh oh. It's never a good thing when doctors say that.

"Now listen, it wasn't the fall that landed her here. It was the way she fell. The bad news is that your mom is in a chemically induced coma so she'll have to stay here for a few weeks." I felt my heart sink. What will I do without mom? "Now the good news is that she'll wake up during her time here and you're very lucky her landing wasn't way worse. Now my suggestion for you is to go home and get some rest." His approached me and patted me on the back gently. From him, I got a soft fatherly vibe...just like my dad used to care so kindly for me. "Yes sir Dr.Barron." I nodded and smiled before standing up and kissing my mom's forehead. "Please call me Jordan." He smiled at me, his light blue eyes twinkling. I liked my mom's doctor. He was kind and neat, and extremely respectful! His light blonde hair always neat, and a small pink tint to his cheeks. I trust Jordan more than anyone else in the hospital. "Bye Jordan." I waved at him as I exited the room. Each check up that I ever attended with mom, doctor Jordan was there for it. From what I can tell, he's obviously an angel given to my family from heaven. With this mindset, I had a comforting feeling as left the hospital and went straight home to keep my promise to mom. "Don't worry mommy." I said while bringing cleaning supplies from the kitchen to my room. "I'll make you proud." With that, my newfound motivation fueled me to get the job done. It must've taken me at least 5 hours to clean my room! Now I see why mom was always bitching about it. It was a mess!!! I sighed opening the closet. "The last mission." I said to myself. When I opened the closet all the way, I was bombarded by junk. "This place is a fucking death trap!" I angrily dug myself out of the pile. I kicked numerous objects on top of the hill before something caught my attention. An old familiar dusty box. I walked over to it and sat down. I fumbled with it for a bit before reading the words engraved on the side of the box. "Laughing Jack in a box?"  Suddenly memories flooded back to me all at once.

I remembered cranking the box up again when I was finally alone and the babysitter had fallen asleep downstairs. "Pop goes the weasel! " I would always sing the very last part of the song when I was cranking the box. There would be colorful smoke that would appear before my best friend in the whole world...Laughing Jack. Sure now it seemed like a dream to me, but there was always so much detail to this memory of him. His rainbow clothing, colorful cone nose, and red hair was enough to make my boring days in to something much more fun. I remember that Jack would always grab and spin me around each time he'd appear. We would stay up playing, laughing, and joking until my mom got home from yet another failed date with some random guy. Of course I  never understood the whole dating thing after dad had died because I was too young. My mom would call me for bed when she was downstairs, and Jack would always ask the same thing each time: "Promise me we'll always be together?" Of course, being the loyal girl I always am, I'd reply to him with full honesty: "Always and forever!" Jack would then hug me tightly and poof away again until next time. From what I remember, he couldn't get out again unless the handle was cranked. Eventually I stopped playing with him less and less...and here I am. To be honest, this all seems too real to me, but how could it be real?! I mean, it was literally a thought about a 6 foot clown that came out of the box. Maybe I used to have hallucinations about this kind of stuff after dad died, or maybe I had an active imagination? Or just maybe, this kind of stuff might have been real in a way...

I sighed and stared at the box for a bit, then I turned my attention to the handle. Well, I guess I can pay a little attention to my imagination for now. It was just a box. It was even empty when I shake it, so why not do this for the hell of it. I slowly reached for the handle and began to crank it. As I cranked the handle carefully the offbeat Pop goes the Weasel was very unsettling to my ears. I supposed it was because the box was so old. Part of me thought it was getting too creepy, but my curiosity was overwhelming so I continued of course. When the song finally reached it's climax, I quickly gave it one last crank and hopped back when the top popped open. "Huh?" I kicked the box to the other side of the room then walked over to it. "Nothing happened." I tilted my head to the side a little. I laughed loudly and realized just how stupid I could be sometimes. "Well what did I think was going to happen?" I said to myself as I started to finish the last of the cleaning. "My imaginary friend the clown would come out and play like he did when I was little?" Boy I was and over imaginative little girl. I chuckled and finished the room. When I finally finished, I stopped and looked back at my work. "Took forever but it wasn't as bad as I thought. Hmm." I  walked over to the old item, picked up the dusty old box, and went down the hall to the bathroom. I got a wet rag, closed the top, and cleaned the box thoroughly. I sighed and finally finished before taking a shower and going back to bed. It's only 8:00pm but I'm just way too tired to stay up any later. I tucked myself into bed after locking up the house and setting the security system. Surprisingly, I had a fairly good dream when my eyes shut. I slept with the most peace I had in a long time.