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.
I am sure it is my last time seeing it; but it was probably not his last or first time seeing me; I was talking about it every day, at school, and at home, going to sleep. He could’ve been watching my every step, anywhere and probably everywhere I went. That’s the scary thing for kids like me walking down the streets alone. That is why I’m afraid of the dark; it’s all because of that dumb clown. And that happened and how I gained my fear of the darkness. I felt someone’s arm around my shoulder. ‘I-is that y-you?’ I said. ‘Y-yeah, it’s me.’ I took a silent sigh of relief... as we kept venturing in the colourless tunnels, scared if we bump into a wall. When we went down another tunnel, we saw a ball of light. ‘What is that?’ I asked slowly. ‘Light?’ Autumn spoke. We began walking towards the light cautiously, and we walked closer... ‘A yellow balloon? A glowing balloon?’ I said. Autumn sauntered towards the balloon, but not in a relaxed manner, more cautious than relaxed. Her hand reached out, and she grabbed the string.
An idea popped into my head like a text message. ‘We can use it as a torch,’ said Autumn. ‘That’s what I was thinking.’ Autumn put her arm around my shoulder and we began trotting further in the tunnel, continuing our more single egg hunt for Austin in the darkness; darkness has all kinds of meanings: a shade, absence of colours, and lack of light. But to me, it is fear. As most kids; has darkness as fear. I’d seem to recognize it differently than a usual kid would. To me, it isn’t just not knowing what or who is around me . . . It is what it represents, and I have a feeling . . . I don’t have the full meaning of what darkness.
Means to me. I will figure it out, eventually; my cousin whom is very young, he fears the dark just like me. Despite him being pretty much as fearful as me, he fears the meanings; mourning and death; it makes him think that something in the future that is going to happen and he cannot stop it, or someone in the future of his family would sadly pass away. My cousin and I aren’t the only people in our family who fear the dark. My grandma was; ever since she was fifteen or younger, she was terrified of the dark. It scared her because she doesn’t know who or what is watching her, not by what I think. She was pretty much just like me and my cousin. We turned our first corner in the forbidden tunnels. I’ve began getting worried about Austin, and that we didn’t know how to get out of the tunnels. Well, we can just head back, but it isn’t the best way. We can’t only rely on one thing, whether it will be hope.
We can’t rely on will; because we do not know that it will happen. Whether, if Austin will be alright, or we will get out of this clown manor. It’s sure terrifying if you don’t know where you are going. We are pretty much in a dimension; not knowing where to go and not being able to find anyone to help us find our friend. We heard some faint footsteps in the distance. ‘Hello?’ I said loudly, whilst my voice began making multiple copies of itself, repeating what I’ve said, as it fades down in the tunnel. Autumn and I began walking slowly towards it. We have a voice. It was hard trying to work out what it was in my head, but it sounded like Austin. Autumn and I’d ran towards the sound, thinking it was Austin. ‘Austin!’ I yelled, sure that it was possibly Austin. It wasn’t raspy like a clown’s voice; so it can’t be that.
So it must’ve been Austin then. And it is likely, what other kid knows about this place? We ran towards where Austin was in the distance down the tunnel. Sprinting towards him, thinking of him began pulling back memories. So I can focus on trying to help ourselves find him. It’s a mission, but I don’t know how long this mission is, possibly. It could take days to find him. Well, we are on a time limit, because we are likely to find him alive, whereas if we only find him in two or more days. He could be dead or even for hours. ‘Austin!’ I shouted under pressure, worried if we will not find Austin. Autumn stopped walking, and I stopped walking as well, looking at her face, still looking worried. She was trying so hard to not have her face succumb to worry.
‘Summer, stop shouting for Austin. We will find him.’ ‘What? I have to shout at him for him to know where we are.’ ‘he isn’t the only one who will know where we are,’ she whispered. We looked at each other blankly.
We heard another voice coming down the tunnel again sounding like Austin’s deepish voice, ‘help me.’ Autumn and I turned to look down the tunnel of the voice, turning us on. I’ve tried not to yell out his name. We then followed the voice in the tunnel of desperation. Running as fast as we could, trying to get to him as fast as possible. A fifty percent chance of me going to scream his name out. What was keeping me from screaming out was something rather obvious. The egg hunt is now an egg hunt with invisible duct tape on our mouths. Or of what that seems like at least. I don’t mind how long it takes to find him, as long as we will find him and leaving this place. Are all what matters at this point.
Of time. Our panting began getting more and more severe every step we take forward. I slowed down my pace. Seems like the clowns aren’t the only ones who are against us. Unfortunately, it is something that will always stick with you for your entire life. I then saw something laying on the ground. I walked slowly towards it. I knelt down. It was an A4 sheet of paper on the ground; it looked like it had some kind of text and image on it. But because of the great darkness, I’ve had some mental errors trying to make up what the words says and the imagery.
So I called Autumn; ‘Autumn, I need light here for a moment.’ ‘What is it? What did you find?’ Autumn said whilst running straight towards me. The closer she gets, the more I’d could see on the sheet of paper. It was a missing poster. ‘A missing poster?’ she said kneeling down beside me. In the missing poster was a boy. The whole missing poster was black and white, and grainy. The boy had dark grey hair, a light-grey face, dark grey eyes, fossil-grey lips that are lighter than dark-grey, a straight nose and a black jumper with white stripes going across it. Above the boy’s head on the missing poster was a big bold title saying, ‘MISSING’ at the top. As well as at the bottom of the page below, the boy was a phone number for the AMBER Alert.
With an award of thirty-thousand dollars in bold in-between the boy’s picture and the MISSING at the stop. ‘We need to continue to look for Austin.’ ‘We need to help this kid if he is missing too!’ I said. ‘We can look for him after Austin. Maybe we could accidentally run into him.’ Autumn ran away in the tunnels. I snatched the wanted poster, folded it in a small square and I put it in my pocket. I’ve begun running after Summer. ‘Wait up!’ I’ve said.
The thought of Austin slightly lit up more than the missing poster. What makes that missing poster so significant to where it is also making me think about it so much? I don’t know why it has to engulf my head of a pretty simple object, whereas there is something that is more important that we will need to be doing. I bit my tongue on purpose, trying to suppress the thought of that mysterious missing poster. I don’t know why that missing poster is so mysterious to me. Maybe there will be further hints on the way? Or perhaps an answer.
The significance of the thought dimmed. Maybe what made that missing poster spark in my mind so much must be that once me, Austin and Autumn were lost once, but not that length to where we had missing posters of us scattered around of kids;
I feel like the worst has already happened; the clown picking us one-by-one like nothing at the camp. Really can’t imagine what that place looks like now. We are not heading back there, unless we can get some help from the teachers, well, if they are alive. They are most likely not. We turned a corner down the next tunnel, as we saw a flash. It was a yellow circle-shaped light coming from the distance in the tunnel in the pitch black. Me and Autumn wandered up to the flash.
Realizing it was coming from our light because of the light becoming bigger and bigger and less dim as we walk closer to it. ‘I will stay back,’ Autumn says. She stayed in the distance behind me. We were a couple of meters away from the light. It wasn’t just a ‘light,’ it was a balloon; instead, for this time, it was red and looked just like an ordinary balloon.
I reached out my hand towards the balloon’s string. And then after when I was a finger away from it, the balloon gotten yanked backwards aggressively into the darkness in front of me . . . My eyes widened, and I froze, assuming that it was a clown; well, of what I think it is. And then we heard ugly, playful giggles coming from the area where the balloon has gotten yanked. In the darkness.
I turned around and ran as fast as possible. I didn’t even need to tell Autumn to run. All I’d needed to do was just show. I looked at Autumn, glaring at Autumn in her eyes. Showing her sign language but with my eyes, by widening them from the clown and the darkness. As I run towards Autumn.
She then turned around and bolted. We were heading for the exit; the entrance that we came from. We ran at a staggering rate, trying our best to get away from that clown and the harmless poison called darkness. Well, at least to me it is. To Autumn it isn’t. To her it isn’t harmful, but to me, it is . . . rather harmful in a different way. Not to where it hurts, it feels like my body is having some type of pressure squeezing me. All around my body . . . We have finally lost the clown successfully. I don’t know how we did. We were just bolting our way down the tunnels.
We kept running further away from the clown, making light steps so we don’t make too much noise so it doesn’t act as a notification for the clown when we run in the depths of the tunnel. The running that we were physically doing reminded me of my dad; loving to watch the horse racing; a tear slipped down my face from knowing an image of my dad. And thinking about him makes me want to see him again. We are by ourselves, far from completing school. It will be quite hard for us to make strategies on how to survive; well, we are stuck in the tunnels, so our best bet is just to find our friend. We have no plan to even get out of this place.
I don’t want to stay in the tunnels anymore. My fear could just eat me alive before I even get used to it. Lucky for Autumn, she doesn’t have a fear. Well, everyone has a fear of something. It is also what makes us different and special. Autumn hasn’t been overly terrified of something. The clown? Everyone would be insanely scared of a murderous or cannibalistic clown by just seeing it. A fear can’t be achieved, except it can be discovered. You learn about yourself in so much ways. This is one of them; it takes time to learn about yourself. Darkness is the only fear I have that I have known so far. Autumn is just lucky that she hasn’t discovered her fear. I don’t think Austin has discovered his yet . . .
Since everyone has a fear, I wonder what their fears are.
Once Eva couldn’t do ziplining at a past camp in grade one. Since she was terrified of heights, the distance just makes her nerve-wracked from the far drop. And tears were sliding down her face . . . Besides that; where are Eva and Jack? Are they still trying to look for Austin? I hope they are okay from the clown, and that they either found him or they’re safe from the thing that is lurking around, smiling.
There are two clowns by what we’ve known of: the one that has grabbed Austin and the other that was at the camp terrorizing, ripping, eating, and killing kids. And if there are any other kids alive, the clown will make them the clown’s nightmare, and possibly fear. How could we possibly stop this clown? After we find Austin, we will probably need to beat this clown; something so monstrous, and seeming to be impossible to beat, just makes it more believable to the part that it is impossible. If there isn’t any way to beat this clown, we will need to make our own way to beat it ourselves. That is the least of our aim for now. We need over two people to possibly beat this clown. We don’t know still what he is fully capable of; there is still so much that we do not know about this clown.
‘Where are Eva and Jack?’ I asked with udder worry in my eyes. ‘Oh yeah, where are they? I hope they’re okay.’ ‘They wouldn’t be in the tunnels, will they?’ I asked, still wide-eyed from the experience of the clown. ‘I don’t know, possibly not.’ ‘What if they already found Austin?’ Asked Autumn. What Autumn said rattled my head; maybe they have, but we don’t know if that would be the case or not. I believe not most likely; we saw Austin get grabbed and get yanked in the tunnel. There is absolutely no reason he is not there. ‘No, but we saw Austin get pulled into the tunnels,’ I’ve said. ‘Yeah, he has to be here . . . somewhere.’ ‘We screamed his name out multiple times, and the tunnels are echoey. It is no way he can’t hear us,’ said Autumn.
‘That . . . is quite true . . . is he even here?’ I asked. ‘He wouldn’t toy, or play with us,’ said Autumn, while blinking twice quickly after. ‘Yeah, like he should be somewhere-‘ ‘here,’ whispered a voice. It was Austin’s. Well, of what it sounded like. ‘There are the whispers again,’ said Autumn. ‘That was Austin, right?’ Asked Autumn. ‘It sounded like it.’
We followed it, and then later on he said, ‘Help me please!’ Yelled Austin. The sounds of his voice echoed and made me turn on. We then ran towards him. And then, there were giggles in front of us; why would Austin laugh? We ran further, in panic, ‘Austin!’ I yelled . . . ‘That is not Austin!’ warned Autumn. What she said just made my eyes widen and I froze still. And then there was a clown, standing in front of us. Back turned towards us. We froze in fear, Autumn’s balloon illuminating the clown's back as we see him standing deadly still in front of us; he wasn’t the only thing that was in front of us getting illuminated from our light. We saw lights from our balloon be lighting up all around us. But as the light comes closer to us, the more we realize it isn’t a light. It was balloons; all red . . . ‘Can I offer you guys one thing?’ Murmured the clown, with ugly, repulsive, guttural giggles after. ‘W-what is that?’ I asked . . . ‘Smile,' it says in a demonic, deep and repulsive voice.