Sweet Gumdrop| ARCHIVE | (Laughing Jack X Reader)

Laughing Jack

(Author's note:

Hey... you might be wondering why you couldn't get the names of (Y/N)'s bullies. Well I thought that I could make it that she does know their names and will mention that later. But enjoy reading the next chapter 😁😉)

___________________________________

I woke up with a pounding headache." What happened?" I thought to myself as I held a hand to my forehead. I opened my eyes to find myself in my room. I was confused. Was it all a dream? Wait, what time is it? I was about to reach for my phone, but it wasn't on my nightstand. I felt my phone was in my back pocket. Odd. I took my phone out and the time red

12:28 PM Saturday.

I stood up from my bed and I was in the same clothes as I was before the-... Wait... I came out of my room to look for my parents. As I walked through the hallway I noticed that their door was open. I walked into their room only to find a note on their bed and red it:

"Dear (Y/N)

Your father and I have to go on a business trip so we'll see you in two months. We already took care of the food for you and remember to lock the doors whenever you go out and at night. Love you sweet and be safe.

~mom xoxo"

Just great. I am now all alone in my house with no one to help when I'm in trouble. Guess that is some preparation for when I move out. I sighed and gone downstairs. As I was about to go to the kitchen, something caught my attention. On the dining table was a straw basket with all sorts of candy in it and on top of it all, a black and white striped bow. I slowly walked towards the basket and inspect it. There was no note to say from who it came from, and it wouldn't be my parents that left me this. The candy in it was colourful and some wrapped in colourful, unique wrapping. I took one Gumdrop and took a bite. It was as sweet as you can get and the flavour burst in my mouth. My face began to warm up as I smiled a little, enjoying the sweet taste. I then heard a loud THUD that came from upstairs. I stared at the staircase, wondering if I should take a look of what made that sound. Paranoid, I took a knife from the kitchen drawer and slowly walked upstairs. I stopped when I saw my bedroom door closed. Thoughts gone through my head. This is odd. What if someone broke into the house? What if it was just the wind? Would it cause something to drop that heavy to make that sound? Impossible! I then heard something shifting in my room. I tensed up. Wait!, what if there is some rodent or cat snuck in? I don't remember leaving my window open!... I slowly reached for the door nob and counted to three. 1...2...3!

The door swung open and I held my knife in the air. I saw the curtains flow from the wind coming in and I look to my nightstand to see the lamp on the floor. But there were no animal of some sort coming in. I brushed off that thought and picked up the lamp. I put it back in place and closed the window. As I turned around and were about to walk out of the door, I tripped over something and broke my fall with my hands. I took a deep breath seemingly that I was lucky. If I didn't heald the knife upside down it would've surely stabbed me if my hands didn't broke my fall, rather give me another black eye. I turned to see a box under my foot that tripped me. That wasn't there before. I came closer and sat on the floor as I examined this box. It had pictures of festive and cheerful clowns on it. It had colours, but looked like it faded from ageing. It seemed old, as if it could break easily. It had a crank on the side of it. It was a Jack-in-the-box. It had dust on top of it. I thought if  I could get the dust off I could see more properly, so I whipped it off with my shirt. The crank look a little shinier and I saw something on top of the lid. I read it out loud. "L-Laughing J-ack in t-the box". I could've barely read it. Then I thought to myself, I never had a Jack-in-the-box to play with. I thought that since I have it I can give it a try.

I took the crank and pulled it towards me and it stopped. I laughed nervously seemingly I didn't completely know how it worked. I then turned the crank away from me and I could hear an off tune of 'pop goes the weasel' play. At that last part I mumbled and sang along,"Pop, goes the weasel." I flinched as I saw the lid swung open. I expected something to pop up but... nothing. I took a look inside of it. All I could see is darkness. I couldn't see a thing. Gently, I closed the lid and put it on the foot of my bed.

I was about to walk out of my room to put the knife back, but before I could, the door swung and slammed shut. Almost hitting my face. I jumped and looked back. My eyes widened as I saw black smoke coming out of the Jack-in-the-box. My bedroom turned darker as the smoke covered the floor. Soon it covered my whole room and I heard the off tune of 'pop goes the weasel' again. My heart pounded. I held my knife in the air as I was trembling. The smoke cleared and I saw something... Or as I say... Someone, standing on my bed. It seemed to be a tall clown... But he didn't had any colours to be seen. He was completely monochrome. He had messy, black hair and white skin that looked like rubber. His eyes and mouth were covered in black make-up. He had a black and white striped cone nose. His white eyes glowed as I could see a black border around his irises. His arms were extremely long that it looked like he could drag his hands across the floor when he walks with black and white striped sleeves. His hands were black and bandaged with long claws. He had a grey shirt with is waist bandaged to the bottom of his chest. Black pants to his knees and black shoes. He had black and white striped socks from his shoes to his knees. I looked back up to see his sharp teeth revealed as he smiled. He then spoke excitedly,"Come one! Come all! Whether big or small! See the one! The only! Laughing Jack!" I recognised that raspy voice. I remembered. I realised I was talking to him at the park. I froze. I just stared at him while holding the knife in the air.  I jumped when he spoke again,"Oh come on kiddo I won't harm you." I still stood there. I didn't move. I still stared at him.

He stepped off my bed and slowly walked up to me, not wanting to frighten me, but it didn't help. He slowly moved his hand towards mine. He gently took my hands with the knife. He noticed that I was shaking. He carefully took the knife from my hands,"Here, let me take this " he then carelessly threw it across the room and it landed on the floor,in the corner of my room, causing me to flinch. He then led me to my bed with his hands on my shoulders and I sat down on my bed. He took a step back so that I can get a little space. "Sorry to startle you, I thought it would worked out differently", he said as he rubbed the back of his neck. I took a breath and calmed down a little. "S-so you were the one I-I talked to at the park?" I asked and he nodded. "A-And you k-..." I didn't want to say it but he knew what I ment. He looked to the floor and told me," I saw they were taken to the hospital ". I didn't want to cry. But I was thankful there was no murder. I was encountering a murderer. What if I was his next victim? "I-... I couldn't stand you getting beat up anymore. If I hadn't try to stop them... You shouldn't have been here (Y/N)." I looked at him. How did he knew? Was he there while this happened? Or
before? "Th-Thank you..." He looked at me, surprised as I spoke. "F-for saving my life..." I continued as a tear escaped my eyes. I thought back to my past. It saddened me as they beat me up and called me names. Jack was in panic, he stood on his knees and whipped away my tears,"Don't cry... Don't cry." I stopped when he said that. I was confused. Why would he be that nice to me? I looked at him and asked,"W-Why do you care?" He seemed surprised. He looked away for a bit and looked back at me. "I uh... I don't know... There is something, special about you... That I can't make out..." He said. Special? What is special about me? I'm just an outcast!. I eventually asked,"What makes me so special?" His eyes widened and look away,

"I don't know..."