9 Tales Told in the Dark 20 Read online

  9Tales Told in the Dark #20

  © Copyright 2016 Bride of Chaos/ All Rights Reserved to the Authors.

  First electronic edition 2016

  Edited by A.R. Jesse

  Cover by Turtle&Noise

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  9TALES TOLD IN THE DARK #20

  Table of Contents

  THE CAME AS CLOWNS… by Benson Phillip Lott

  THE MIRROR by Kenneth O’Brien

  THE SISTERS IN THE GREEN by Luke Walker

  THE PARANOID OWNER by Sara Ahmed

  INDEBTED TO THE BLUES by Jovan Jones

  THE DATE by Bobby Stringini

  IDOL OF ZITA by Jeffery Scott Sims

  VOID by D. A. D'Amico

  FOOD ALLERGY by Daniel J. Kirk

  .

  .

  TALES

  TOLD

  IN

  THE

  DARK

  #20

  .

  .

  THE CAME AS CLOWNS… by Benson Phillip Lott

  Coulrophobia - noun - an abnormal fear of clowns

  October 1, 2016

  Town Center Mall

  Corte Madera, California

  "Honey, there's a clown over there staring at us."

  Gerald frowns and turns in the direction his wife is pointing. And she's right. There is a clown staring at them. It stands motionless on the otherwise barren sidewalk across the street from the mall parking lot where Gerald and his wife, Colleen and their three-year old daughter (Leanne) have parked their VW, on their way to get a pumpkin inside the crowded Safeway.

  "What the hell?" he says, mostly to himself. And he blinks his eyes in a dramatic fashion, as if he can't quite believe what he's seeing.

  Leanne pops her tiny head out of the unrolled, backseat window. "I wanna see."

  Colleen rushes around the rear of the car to block her daughter's view. "No, no, no, honey." She looks to Gerald for assistance, but he remains locked in a kind of trance, his eyes fixated on the clown who is now raising his left hand and waving at them.

  "But I wanna see-" Leanne shrieks as her mother attempts to shove her head back inside the car.

  "Leanne, sweetie..." Colleen pleads between grunting efforts to restrain her child who begins screaming and wailing.

  "Nnnnnoooo! I wanna seeeeeeeeeeee!"

  "Honey, please stop fighting with-"

  "IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIwwwwwaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnto-seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

  "Gerald! Will you please-"

  The husband blinks and spins around to face his wife, struggling to keep Leanne's flailing hands from hitting her in the face.

  "Leanne, that's enough!" he shouts and the child is instantly subdued by his flash of anger.

  "Will you roll her window up?" his wife snaps.

  Gerald nods, opens the driver's side door and pushes the up-arrow button for the rear window.

  Both parents stop and look at each other, breathing hard.

  "Let's just get out of here," Gerald suggests.

  Colleen is quick to agree and moves back around to the front passenger side door, opening it.

  "You know Chelsea's husband said he saw a clown just like that standing outside their house in Novato."

  Gerald frowns, looking back to the clown who has stopped waving, but continues to stand there, staring.

  "Yeah, I heard," he says finally, ducking back into the driver's seat. "Rick Shamus works with her husband. I talked to him at the game last week. He said there's been a lotta complaints in his neighborhood too..."

  "You're not serious?" Colleen says as she settles back into her seat up front. When Gerald fails to respond she sighs and looks through the windshield at the clown; angrily strapping herself in.

  "Can't believe this," she says through gritted teeth. She turns back and looks at her daughter who's pouting in silence. "I'm sorry honey." She reaches out and rubs her child's hair.

  "Should we call the police?" she says, looking back now to her husband.

  Gerald starts the engine as he considers the question.

  "I wanna-ted to see the clown, Mommy," Leanne whines.

  Gerald and Colleen exchange a look, silently asking each other who should respond.

  It's Gerald who finally does.

  "No, sweetie-pie. That wasn't a nice clown." And with that, he picks up his iPhone, charging on the center console, and dials 9-11.

  "...and in other news; a bizarre story circulating the Internet: Eerie Clown Sightings. Apparently, Wes, there's been a number of random appearances of these, as of yet, unidentified men and woman dressed in a variety of creepy clown outfits, and they're just, well, popping up in places all over the state of California..."

  “So far the sighting is totaled at somewhere near thirty clowns. And Wes, I'm telling ya, these costumes do look creepy...as you can see in some of the posted photos taken via camera-phones by numerous witnesses. I gotta tell ya, I'm getting the shivers just reporting this..."

  "But the questions everyone seem to be asking most are, "Who are these people doing this?" and "What, if anything, are their intentions?"

  "Certainly, Wes, we do have to take into account this is the Halloween month we're in and uh...Well, I for one hope this is just a misunderstood prank, accelerated because of the interest it's attracting on the Web. But, who knows?"

  "Anyway. Just to wrap this up...Police departments in the areas where the sightings have taken place have been notified. There does appear to be some action being taken by law enforcement in certain areas - though no arrests have actually been made, they um, well they're simply stopping people of suspect- um, of a suspicious manner. Although I'm not quite sure what that means exactly."

  "Anyway, um, Wes...other law enforcement in, uh, different areas, are still claiming to be investigating these situations, but we haven't been told in what exact manner, uh...police officials have said they will be handling these individuals on a case by case basis depending on, well, I guess depending on what it is they're doing --- which so far seems to be nothing more than just hanging around parking lots and bike trails and other, um...other somewhat common public areas. But as I said before: no one knows who these people are or what they're about...If it's an organized thing of some kind or....well in any case, Wes. I'm spooked that's for sure."

  "I know we have to wrap this story up, but before we do, many of the police investigators I've spoken to have asked me to make one thing clear to our viewers: None of the individuals involved have made any direct threats that we know of at this point.

  "And so far no one has been harmed in any way, but again that's up to this point, um...and of course that's a good thing, but it's without a doubt unnerving Wes, lemme tell ya. Uh, the witnesses posting these photographs and many of the people I've spoken with who reside in the areas where these, um, strange clown-people are being spotted, have told me, they feel very frightened and, um, they believe this may be more than just a harmless Halloween prank."


  “Let’s hope for their sake and mine, that they're wrong. Let's hope this is just the work of some misguided folks with, um, a rather warped sense of humor. Anyway, back to you Wes, in the studio, I'm Josh Voltaire, reporting live...

  You Tube (video posting)

  October 3, 2016

  Clownsinwoods-SCARYASHELL

  Posted by edisded.com

  •10,803,175 views

  •1 day ago

  Warning to viewers: The footage you are about to see is highly disturbing.

  The video starts with someone filming (via iPhone camera) a stoned teenager with a blue Mohawk and a T-shirt that says: "Hate is Love...so why don't I hate you?" and he's forcing himself to drink an entire gallon of milk, vomiting several times in the process while a crowd of his equally blazed friends (six girls, eight or nine guys; all punks with piercings and tattoos) cheer him on.

  At the same time, the group is passing around four or five joints and a mini-bong shaped like a penis, the words Shlong Bong written in black ink on the side.

  This idiocy continues for well over a minute until the show is interrupted by a girl screaming "Oh my God!" off screen.

  "What? Wassup?" the cameraman asks, spinning around to show us another crowd of kids standing at a window (they appear to be inside a large cabin, judging from the post and beam design) and we hear several people all talking at once, excitedly. Some of them are yelling things like "It's them! Holy shit!" and "What the fuck? Did you see that?"

  And now everyone from the milk/puke circle comes rushing over to see what's going on and that's when a few girls looking out the window start shrieking and point outside.

  "Oh my God! Oh my God!"

  The person filming manages to squeeze through the numerous heads all fighting to get a look at what's outside.

  "Lemme see, dude!"

  "Hey watch it, asshole!"

  "Well move!"

  The camera zooms in as the person filming continues shoving his way to the window and now we see an area of dark forest where several men and woman dressed as clowns stand motionless between the trees.

  "Dude, what the fuck?" someone yells off camera.

  Everyone starts tripping hard; some asking if anybody's calling the police. A girl replies, "I am!" And someone shouts, "Dude, fuck that! Don't call the pigs!"

  "Are you crazy?" the girl shouts back. "Have you seen what's out there?"

  "I still don't think you should call th -"

  -BANG-

  (Something heavy hitting the walls of the cabin) Everyone goes ape shit. Totally freaking out.

  "Holy shit!"

  "What the fuck was that!"

  "The hell...?"

  "Ohmygodohmygodohmygod..."

  -BANG-

  -BANG-

  -BANG-

  "Aaaaaa! Oh my God!"

  "Christ!"

  Screams come from everywhere. The camera starts zooming in-out, in-out and the lens blurs until the person filming steadies himself.

  "Wait a minute---look!" someone shouts (we see a blurry image of a hand pointing out the window).

  Finally, the picture clears and outside, there is nothing but forest; darkness. The clowns have completely disappeared.

  "Dude, oh shit! They're gone! They're fucking gone. Oh my god, what the hell is this?"

  "C'mon you guys, let's get the fuck outta here!"

  "Are you crazy? You wanna go out there?""

  "Hey, Jake your dad still got those rifles upstairs?"

  "Yeah, c'mon let's go!"

  "-ohmygodohmygodohmy-"

  -Bang-

  -Bang-

  -Bang-

  "Jeee-sus-Chriiiiiiist..."

  "The fuck is doing that?"

  "-ohmygodohmygodohmygod..."

  We hear footsteps go up and down stairs. The cameraman swings around just in time to catch three young punks racing out the front door of the cabin (and they're all carrying hunting rifles) and we (the camera) rush through the living room packed with screaming idiots, all yelping and hollering and running in different directions. And as we get to the still-open door we see two of the punks with the rifles, standing at opposite ends of the porch, firing out into the trees as the third punk runs into an open area of forest where an army of clowns (at least fifty that we can see) suddenly appear again amidst the trees and heavy brush.

  There's a scream coming from behind us. A bright flash. Heavy gunfire.

  The camera swings around and suddenly a girl rushes up to us; face splattered with blood and she's screaming, "Help me! Help me!" and the person filming cries out "Oh my G-aaaaaah-!” And the camera-phone drops to ground.

  (-Flash-)

  The screen fills with static.

  -tssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss-

  -sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss-

  -sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss-

  -sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss-

  -sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss-

  -sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst-

  (-Flash-)

  The camera is on again. Only now we are inside a dark bathroom, the lights above short circuit, flashing on then off, on then off, on then off... And now we approach the mirrored medicine cabinet above the porcelain sink; the reflection is of a clown, holding the iPhone camera that's filming the scene. There's a scuffling sound and suddenly a young girl is shoved in front of the camera and forced to her knees directly beneath the mirror and sink. The clown zooms in on the young girl (thirteen at most) who's bound and gagged with silver duct-tape; whimpering as she breathes heavily through her flaring nostrils.

  And the clown zooms in further as he leans down and slowly licks the side of the girl's face.

  The girl quivers in terror, snorting mucus out her nose; her whimpering turning to stifled shrieks and long, horrific moans.

  The lights continue flashing on-off, on-off...

  A knife appears at the young girl's throat. Instantly she panics.

  And the camera keeps zooming in as the girl twists and shrieks, practically hyperventilating as we keep zooming in closer... and closer...and closer until, finally the girl's face is nothing but trembling blur.

  The lights flash on...then off...on then off....

  On…then off…

  On...

  Off.

  The YouTube video stops.

  For more videos like this go to edisded.com

  October 5, 2016

  Piedmont High School

  Seattle, Washington

  Private recording (via a student's cell phone) of a discussion in a class of juniors.

  (Recording begins...)

  (Sounds of many students talking at once, the teacher calling for everyone to raise their hands)

  (Overlapping voices subdued)

  (A name is called by teacher, discussion resumes)

  "I think it's sick. A bunch of idiots probably stoned outta their minds trying to make a name for themselves by scaring the Hell out of people..."

  "Sure, blame it on the stoners!"

  "Yeah, what's up with that?"

  "Yeah, what'd we do?"

  (Scattered laughter)

  "I'm not blaming it on anyone! If you'll let me finish..."

  "Reefer Madness!"

  "Excuse me! I was talking-"

  "Devil weed smokers! Marijuana is the work of Satan!"

  "Very 1950s of you, (name bleeped out)"

  (Sounds of laughter, overlapping voices, shouting matches, several people clapping)

  "Alright, Class! Everybody stop talking..."

  "It's all just a hoax!"

  "Dude, I know, right? Like, this is such a fuckin' government study. They're just fuckin' with our heads, seein' how we react!"

  "Class, are we stopping the cross-talk?"

  "Illuminati!"

  "Aliens!"

  "Attack of the lizard-people!"

  "Attack of the liza
rd clowns!

  (Laughter mixed with angry sh-shing noises)

  "Class! I want silence now!"

  (Immediate silence followed by a few muffled sounds and one or two whispers)

  "Now, if we can't hold this discussion is an orderly fashion and behave like the adults I know you are all trying so desperately to prove to your parents you are... (scattered laughter) Then we'll just resume my lecture on Washington's Farwell Address instead of continuing this open discussion and maybe we'll do some text book reading while we're at it and I know you guys don't want that..."

  (More laughter)

  "Got that right."

  "Ah, c'mon teach, don't hate. We're just clownin'."

  (Roars of laughter)

  "Very funny (named bleeped out) but (name bleeped out) has the floor. And I believe she was expressing a very earnest and extremely enlightening opinion. So, if you and the other class clowns are finished.”

  (Scattered laughter)

  "Okay, (name of student bleeped out) if you would please continue..."

  "Well, as I was trying to say...I don't think, what I believe are just a bunch of stupid pranks, are in any way shape or form appropriate or acceptable. It's not funny at all! It's just stupid! And I'm not blaming anything on marijuana, okay you guys? I'm just saying the likelihood of this being a dumb joke at the hands of a bunch intoxicated frat boys is extremely—"

  "Oh so, wait a second! Now they're intoxicated...? I thought they were stoners not drunks!"

  "Yeah, why you blaming beer girl?"

  "Class, I said: no cross-talk!"

  "What is this an AA meeting?"

  (Scattered laughter)

  "Will you guys all shut up? God! I'm not blaming anything on drugs and alcohol so stop putting words in my mouth!"

  "I'll put something in your mouth!"

  "Hey! Another remark like that from you (name of student bleeped out) and you're outta here!"

  (Sounds of students making sarcastic "ooo-oooooh!" noises)

  "Hey. You guys. I'm very serious. I will not tolerate that kind of behavior in my classroom."

  (Sound of a student rises from their chair)

  "Excuse me, Mr. (teacher's last name bleeped out) can I say something?"