Hell Hath No Fury than a Clown Scorned - SCP Foundation

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There was something nice about blankets. The young girl enwrapped in layers of them, sitting on the living room couch, had that thought every time she laid there. They kept one warm, they gave one comfort. And most importantly of all, they could never leave. Because they were blankets.

Those were the thoughts that always swirled around in her mind when she was there. And the only times she was on the couch was when her mother and father were arguing upstairs.

Shouts and shuffling noises came from above, muffled by the thin doors of their bedroom. The little girl cried all alone to herself, embedded deeply in her blankets.

The Television in front of her flickered to life. She poked a little hole through her blankets to see the commotion.

An animated figure of a rainbow-radiant soul hopped onto the screen, a wide smile adorning their face. They waived uncontrollably around, heavy paint coating their face.

”Hey, kids!” they said in an awfully cheery voice. ”Would you like to have fun?”

Despite the situation, the young girl nodded.

”Great! There’s nothing more fun than spending your time with ME!”

A giggle escaped her. It was small, and there was nothing particularly funny about it, but she had to made due with what she’s got. She watched the silly little cartoon for a while longer, never averting her gaze from the screen.

Her mum and dad didn’t seem so relevant anymore.

*

The world flickered with colors of red, blue, green, yellow, and everything else in the visible spectrum. The smells of cotton candy, sugary popcorn, and wet diapers invaded one’s nostrils. But the sounds, oh, the sounds! There were people laughing, clapping their hands away, tears of joy streaming forth like from a river.

And in the center of it all was Icky, adorning her cherry-red garments, the ringmaster’s crown too big for her head. Her black hair trailed majestically behind her back, almost reaching to her knees. Her face and hands a stark white, her lips and eyes being accentuated by pure black lipstick and paint. In her left hand, she held a staff so proudly, it looked like she was about to take on an entire armada.

”And next on the menu, we’ve got one of a kind! She, who has explored the depths of the unfertile lands. Who has not only opposed, but destroyed fearsome machinations beyond human understanding. She, who has not only ventured into the nether-realms to tame a Pegasus, which was a very stupid thing of her to do, but lived to tell the tale, I present to you… the one… the only… Li’l Lollipop!”

The crowd erupted into a tsunami of clapping and cheering. Icky’s eardrums burst into pink confetti, leaking pus out of them. But she smiled and held that staff firmly in her hand anyways, and basked in the joy of her audience.

But the joyous yells quieted down, and Icky found herself opening her eyes and letting her arms drop. She turned her head to the giant curtains, striped with their yellow and purple, and blinked a few times. No one came.

Icky raised her staff again, eyeing between the curtain and the members of the audience. From the faces they made, Icky could tell they were confused.

Clearing her throat, she straightened her suit n’ tie up, to point back at the curtains, the lights eagerly shining at them.

”Hmpf… I hereby present to you the one… the only… who should definitely come through that curtain right now… Li’l Lollipop!”

A wave of joy again, if a bit less now. She could feel the sweat soaking her suit, her grip on the staff less sure now.

She gave off a nervous chuckle. ”There seems to be an issue with one of our performers. We’ll be right back.” She made a dash through the curtains. They hurled into the air, before settling down again.

Icky searched every nook and cranny for her lollipop; she searched under Ed’s cream pie dispenser, which leaked its creamy contents onto the floor. Beneath Noodles’ comically large confetti-cannons that were definitely not filled with confetti. Her search came to a halt in the middle of it all, and she raised her staff high to the ceiling. That seemed to grab everyone’s attention.

”Has anyone seen Lolly?”

An awkward silence permeated through the tent, and she thought she might never get an answer. Noodles raised his finger, though, and pointed at a human-sized, humanoid vase, which had the words ’NO LOLLY HERE’ inscribed haphazardly onto its surface in black marker. Icky approached the vessel.

She tapped her fingers against the vase and it began to shiver, before coming to a halt again. ”Lolly, are you in there?” she asked firmly.

”Lolly isn’t available right now,” a voice that sounded awfully like Lolly’s said, coming from the vase.

Icky snickered, then quieted down. ”What is it, Lolly? Stage fright?”

The vase didn’t respond. The other clowns were just standing around, watching the proceedings.

”You don’t wanna perform?” Icky asked in an understanding tone.

The vase tumbled unmajestically to the floor. A pool of white, pink and red spilled out of the vase, as Lolly’s face — her distinct face-paint and red nose — floated on the surface of the puddle. Her mouth was a frown, but it looked like a smile from where Icky was standing.

”Lolly, is everything all right?”

”No,” Lolly answered, her voice a bubble bath.

”What is it, hun?”

She gave off a sigh, until the puddle was bubbling with purple bubbles. The mass formed back into Li’l ”Lolly” Lollipop, her uncombed red hair tied into two pigtails, reaching all the way down to her feet. Her purple dress came back to cover her slender, stark white figure. Icky couldn’t help, but notice herself taking a small peek.

”What is it, honey? You can tell me.”

”I…” There was a stop in her words, like her tongue crashed into a road sign. ”I… dunno if I can do it… I dunno if I should do it… I dunno if I ever should’ve even thought about doing it! What if I can’t, shouldn’t, should’ve never even thought about do/doing it—”

Icky pressed her finger up against Lolly’s lips. ”Never knew you had performance issues,” Icky said with a sly smile adorning her face.

”It’s not that,” Lolly spoke through her hand that was moving as if mimicking speech, ”I… I haven’t been feeling well as of late.”

”How?” There was a growing concern on Icky’s face. Lolly waived her other hand in a manner that was supposed to be calming.

”Nothing serious! It’s just… have you ever witnessed dreams that felt so real that even when you woke up, you could remember the dream perfectly?”

Icky nodded. ”Yes. I have.”

”Had you ever have it happen to you three weeks in a row?”

Now Icky wasn’t so sure. ”Lolly… whatever it is… You know you don’t have to perform tonight. We can call of the show and—”

Now it was Lolly that was pressing her finger against Icky’s lips. They stared at each other for a while. ”No. Don’t call it off. I can’t let the family stop, just because I’m not feeling well. I can perform. I’m sure of it.”

The two leaned their hands in to mimic a kiss. One long, drawn-out kiss.

A man entered. A man with an upside-down face. ”Some of the audience has begun to leave. We better get going fast or wait here, until the Essie shows up,” Manny said, not really caring of the odd display of love unfolding before him — he had caught those two in much stranger situations.

Icky let go of their intimate display of love with a wet plop sound, before turning to Manny.

Icky smiled. ”They’re all waiting for you.”

*

The sights and smells of the Big Top tent were lingering from beyond the closed curtains. It was breathtaking and Lolly felt herself momentarily taken aback by the wonders. The spotlights shone bright, popcorn and corndogs were littered underneath the wooden benches, the audience waiting eagerly for the next performance.

She peeked between the gap in the curtains, fiddling around with her hands and pigtails.

”You can do it,” it suddenly sprung out from behind her. Icky had placed her hand on her shoulder, warm to the touch.

Lolly smiled a weak smile. Her legs were shaking, her breaths mere gasps for air. Slowly, though, her breathing calmed down. The quaking in her legs stopped and she felt lighter, all of a sudden.

Taking in a deep breath, Lolly ran through the curtains, onto the stage. Dozens of eyes looked down upon her, their dopamine receptors springing back into action. She stopped in the direct center of the stage and took a bow in front of everyone.

”Ladies, gentlemen, everything beyond and in-between, I welcome you to the Circus of the Disquiet—” Lolly fell silent. Her hands were wrapped around her stomach like a christmas gift, as she plummeted to her knees. Her face had taken on a sickly green color.

The audience was already giving each other glances, hushed tones and whispers. Some shifted uncomfortably in their seats, while some were smiling behind covered mouths, giggling to themselves, or else.

”This is my favorite part,” Icky said to Manny, even though he had seen the show as many times as Icky had.

A fountain of rainbow-colored foam erupted out of Lolly’s mouth. It covered every single edge, every single corner, every single guest of the circus. Clothes became wet, and those wearing anything gray or black had their attire changed into vibrant, dizziness-inducing pinks and yellows.

The foam-vomit ceased, as Lolly’s face returned to the paleness. But she didn’t stop. Doing a back-flip, her stilty legs landed gracefully on the sprouts of a wooden ladder, as colorful as her vomit. She held onto the ladder tightly, rising higher and higher to the ceiling, as the ladder phased through the ground upwards. She waived her other hand enthusiastically, the rainbow-colored crowd cheering in awe.

Icky jumped up and down behind the curtains, clapping her hands rapidly. Manny shook his head, but couldn’t help himself, but smirk a little.

Once high on the ceiling, a springboard extended from the top of the ladder, as colorful hoops floated around Lolly in a mesmerizing manner. Those hoops quickly formed a tunnel down, down, down, into a pool of water. Then they were set ablaze. The audience ooh’d and ahh’d at the sight unfolding before them.

There was this gut-wrenching feeling in her stomach again; only this time, it wasn’t part of the act. Lolly looked down, several dozen meters high in the air. She took a deep breath.

”You can do this, Lollipop. You can do this, all right?” she muttered to herself, but from that height, no one would’ve been able to hear her anyway.

She took a step forward, the springboard shaking under her feet. Then she took another step. Then another. And then another.

Icky was clasping her hair in anticipation. ”Come on, Lollipop. You’ve got this!”

”You’ve got this, you’ve got this…” Lolly took a deep breath in… and out. ”You’ve got this.”

With closed eyes, she jumped up into the air, feeling the gentle breeze fly past her arms, her legs, her head. The sweetly sick odor of popcorn and her vomit, she took it all in. And jumped—

There was a stabbing headache. Like someone just hit her over the head with a metal baseball-bat. The pain was deafening, drowning out all of her senses. No longer did she feel the breeze flying by her or the smell of the corndogs and popcorn, but only that singular, all-dominating pain in her head.

The world around her came back, if only for a moment, before she found herself tumbling down. She flailed her arms, but there was nothing to hold on to.

And she fell.

The fiery hoops broke under her weight, as she came down upon them like a boulder. The audience gasped, parents covered their children’s eyes, and Icky let out a hurt, ear-piercing scream.

She felt the hotness scorch through her clothes, the splinters of the hoops embedding themselves deep within her skin. She wanted to scream, but it was as if the air was being sucked out of her lungs. Her vision became blurry, recognizing nothing of her usually so familiar surroundings. She could feel her heart beating rapidly, as if about to burst out of her. That feeling of her veins pulsating against her neck.

Everything stopped. None of the scorch marks or splinters mattered, as her body was enveloped in a wet, cold sensation. Her lungs were no longer filled with air, thrashing around with what little strength remained in her, to fight the sensation of drowning.

The audience was mere silhouettes through the surface of the water, as she plummeted down into the depths of the pool.

And she blacked out.

*

Hours — or was it days? — after, Lolly found herself back in the realm of the living. The only thing she remembered was the searing headache, her fall from the ladder, and nothing else.

Two shadowy figures evaded her view in the corner of her eyes. Without much of a thought, Lolly turned her arm into a carved blade, not too disimilar one’d see from a praying mantis, and slashed at whoever it was that was evading her sight.

The blade stopped mid-air, Icky’s hand firmly on the blade. Icky’s eyes were ablaze in a purple flame — but the absolute terror in her eyes was still visible. Lolly’s heart stopped for just a moment, before she let her arm fall to the floor, and embraced her love in the warmest and tightest hug she had ever embraced her in.

”There’s nothing to worry about, Lollipop,” Icky mumbled through Lolly’s thick red hair. She dug deep into it, taking in the all too familiar smell of her hair.

”W—what… what happened?” Lolly began, ”Where’s the show? Where are the people? Did Essie get us?!”

”No,” Manny said, as he walked into the tent. His head almost hit the ceiling. ”You passed out during your act. We had to literally fish you out.”

”Passed… out?” she said, confused.

”Yeah. You’re lucky I studied medicine up in the ol’ Clown College, or else it would’ve been a lot worse,” Dr. Tinkles sounded from the corner of the tent.

Lolly slumped into the cushions of the bed, her eyes trained to the ceiling. She didn’t notice, but she was rubbing her temples. Her stare was absent, as if she already had forgotten all about her best friend and lover. Manny and Icky gave each other concerned looks.

”What are these dreams you’ve been having as of late?” Manny asked, slowly, deliberately.

Lolly smiled. ”Couldn’t you just look into my mind to see for yourself?”

”I wanna hear it from you.”

There was a slight faulter in her position. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it as soon as she opened it. Her eyes darted from the ceiling to the floor, from Manny to Icky to Dr. Tinkles. Clenching her fists, she took a deep exhale, and began:

”In my dream, I’m alone. I’m sitting in front of the TV in the living room, back when I was a… a…”

Icky nodded reassuringly. Lolly continued.

”It was strange… I could hear other people out on the streets, but I was never able to find anyone. Not a one, not a word.”

”What happened next?” Manny tried to steer the conversation back on-course. He winced when Icky gave him a light jab in the abdomen.

”As I said, I’m sitting in front of the TV. It turns on. I don’t know why or how. It’s just static at first. Black-white dots dancing around, like there was nothing else more interesting in the world to do.

”But then it switches up… the static turns into a video, the white noise into sounds of laughter and shrieks of joy. There’s still static and white noise, hanging over the new like a thick fog, but you can roughly make out what it is that you’re seeing.”

”And what is it?” Manny asked, leaning in to Lolly’s face, their noses almost touching. Normally, Icky would’ve given him another jab in his abdomen, if she wouldn’t have been so fixated on what Lolly had to tell.

”It’s a…” She rubs her temples. ”A… cartoon? One that I used to watch back then.”

Manny and Icky looked at each other.

”It’s… fuck… I dunno, it’s not as clear anymore. I…”

Lolly clutched the edges of her head, her eyes shutting tightly. A persistent ringing tone chimed rung through her head for just a second, before dissipating into obscurity again.

”You better rest now,” Icky said reassuringly. Manny was already half-way out the tent.

”Wait… where’re you going?” Lolly asked weakly.

”We won’t be long. If there’s anything, Tinkles’ll be here to help.”

There was something else Lolly wanted to get off her chest, but the ringing noise surfaced up again, drowning out her thoughts. Soon, she would find herself back into the abysses of her mind, all alone to herself.

*

The entire menagerie of the circus was sitting in yet another dimensional backwater, far from the reaches of either the Geo Sea or the Essie P. The Kaleidoscope had made sure of that.

The nightsky was black, blue stars shining brightly in the distance. Streaks of green and yellow passed by once in a while. No one ever knew what those streaks meant.

Icky, however, had no time to ponder about yellow-green silly-strings in the sky. She paced up and down the ringmaster’s tent, Manny right to her side.

”What do we do?” Icky asked, still pacing back and forth.

”We gotta head to the Library. I know someone that might help us. ’Tabernackle the Great’ was her name.”

”It can’t be him,” Icky contemplated, ignoring Manny’s words. ”Are you sure it is him?” Icky spoke a little too quick for her liking.

”I am sure, Icky. All signs point to him,” Manny replied, stern and fierce.

”But I thought Fuller and you banished B—”

Manny pressed his dry hand against her lips. ”Don’t utter the name of the One-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named.”

Manny looked all the way in to her soul. The seconds trickled away. The silence permeated. He put his hand down again.

”But I thought you disposed of him!” Icky almost yelled.

”We did. Oh, we did. But he’s come back.”

”How?”

There was a slight pause in his words. ”I dunno. He always was a tricky fella.” And he left it at that.

*

She awoke under a ceiling of bizarre colors, ones she had never seen before. Rows and rows and rows of wooden benches stretched and spiraled off in a circle for eternity. When she looked over the edge of where she was sitting at, there was a round stage in the center.

It dawned on her where she was; back in the Big Top, no doubt, but everything looked… different. That flavor of familiarity wouldn’t leave her mind, but everything looked so unlike she had ever seen, it might as well’ve been alien.

She noticed the figures sitting next to her, and everywhere else. They wore clothes right out of an early ’50s show, black and white, and all. But their faces were obscured. Not by darkness, masks or anything of the sort, but like she was looking at someone through the depths of a lake, all wobble-gobble.

Her own hands and body were of a greyish color, too.

But before she could process any of what was going on, the stage lights flickered on with a loud thud, and pointed straight at the center stage. A bright figure slowly emerged from the floor. With them was a wooden coffin, resting peacefully on a small cart. The figure was so colorful compared to everything else, it strained her eyes to even look in their general direction.

The figure, who was definitely just a man with a clown costume and make-up on, waived his arms frantically. He stopped, not before showing a wide smile from ear to ear, exposing all of his yellow-rotten teeth.

Lolly tried to stand up, search for an exit, but was stuck to the bench. She pushed hardly against the wooden frame, but no matter her strength, she was glued to the bench. Her skin blistered and came loose slightly, and Lolly winced, before giving up.

The clown smiled even wider.

”Hello, kids!” the clown yelled from the bottom of his lungs. His eyes were pointing in seperate directions. ”Wouldn’t you like to have FUN?!?!”

No one answered.

”GREAT!! Then I’d like for a volunteer to come up on stage!” The clown gestured theatrically at the now open coffin.

Again, no one answered.

”Hmm… Seems like y’all’re a bunch of LOSERS! Oh well… I’m sure we can find someone.”

The man’s eyes darted across the big tent, upon the rows and rows of benches, upon the greyish, identity-less humanoids. His eyes darted all around, and Lolly could’ve sworn the clown’s pupils widened upon briefly gazing at her.

”YOU!” the clown whispered. He was pointing at a man in the lower rows, the spotlights trained upon him.

”Me?” the man asked.

”Is there another you in here? Come on! Get on stage!!”

The man did as he was asked, hobbling onto the stage. He was on the heavier side of the scale. His face was equally as blurry as all the rest.

”Step right up!” The clown pointed at the coffin.

When the man was firmly inside the coffin, the clown slammed the lid shut.

”Now that our lovely chap is in, who’d like to guess what I’m ’bout to do?!”

There was no sound comimg from the hundreds of onlookers. Twisted calliope music came out of broken speakers. The scent of cotton candy and vomit reeked through the air.

The clown snickered, for a moment only to himself, before retrieving a rusty hacksaw from behind his back.

”That’s right, kids! The good ol’ B-Man will perform the age-old bisection trick! Won’t that be fun?!” He placed the teeth of the hacksaw in the middle of the coffin. The man inside shifted slightly. ”Open your eyes to those who don’t have eyes, and those who do can enjoy the show!!!!” the clown yolded into the ceiling-covered sky.

With a swing and a saw, he brought the hacksaw down by a few centimeters. Then he went back to cut even deeper. Then forth again, then back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth.

Each passing moment, the teeth dug deeper. Each passing moment, they neared the man inside, until—

Until it reached him.

The clothes were the first things to peel away. The skin tore right off, too. A bellowing screech of agony emanated from inside the coffin. The lid came loose and the clown jumped on top of it, while never relenting his sawing.

”It’s all part of the show, kids! Nothing to worry about! Family-friendly fun at Herman Fuller’s Circus of the Disquieti— WOULD YOU STOP FUCKING MOVING, YOU FAT RETARD?!”

Lolly watched in horror as the hacksaw made its way half-way through the coffin. The squealching, tearing noises were accentuated by the howling, muffled screams, and liters of blood pooling out around the clown and his circus act.

He transmuted his hand into a mechanical drill to drill the lid shut, as the hacksaw neared toward the end.

Finally, the saw came all the way through, its rusty blade covered in blood, viscera and white bone dust. The coffin came part ways, and the entrails of the once-alive man fell to the floor with a wet, snaky plop. Lolly could see into the corpse, its organs and bloodvessels a crimson red, as the blood rained onto the floor. The spine, where it had been cut, was fully exposed, raw marks of the saw’s teeth visible upon squinting one’s eyes.

The clown pat away some of the blood on his clothes, the red liquid turning into dust in the process. It whirled around him like a swarm of mosquitoes.

”Thank you! Thank you!” He took a deep bow.

In the utter silence that came upon her, Lolly noticed that all the humanoid figures formerly on the benches with her had disappeared. Like they never existed at all.

The thumping in her heart grew stronger, faster, as the cheery calliope music ceased, the speakers blew, and the lights turned everything into a deep crimson red. Suddenly, nothing was joyous anymore, and she found herself helpless again.

The clown held up his hacksaw, his face reflecting in the drenched blade. He opened his mouth to lick off the blood with his tongue. The tongue moved along the sharp teeth of the saw, cutting into its soft, pink flesh. It went further up the teeth, his tongue parting in ways no human’s should. Until he let the saw clatter to the floor and hissed like a venomous snake.

He turned to look at her, his neck twisting into an unnatural, lethal angle. He smiled.

”Wouldn’t you like to be next?” The clown tilted his head to the side, his eyes mere pits of pure, inky blackness. His mouth was wide open, contorted into a crooked smile, and his teeth now ended in pointy, sharp ends. Lolly’s pupils were wide. Her breathing stopped.

In the blink of an eye, he lunged forward.

*

”… her name is Tabernackle the Great,” Manny repeated. ”She specializes in all sorts of dream magic and mind-fortification spells.”

Icky let herself fall into a chair. She let out a relaxed sigh. ”Thank god…” She uncapped a bottle of clown milk and swallowed the contents whole.

Suddenly, a piercing scream filled the air as Icky let her bottle of milk clatter unceremoniously to the ground. Manny shot up from his hunched stance and immediately ran out of the tent alongside Icky.

Barging through the curtains, their fabric fluttering high in the air, Icky sprinted full force to the bed Lolly was lying in. Lolly was convulsing and screaming in her bed, being in a struggle for life or death. But her eyes were closed tightly, as if still resting. A barrage of other clowns, of sizes big and small, round and slender, were huddled around Li’l Lollipop. They were all running about, looking onto monitors, trying to keep her down.

”I’m having trouble waking her!” Dr. Tinkles uttered in his rectangular tongue.

Icky tended to Lolly’s side, the clowns on her path quickly parting ways. Manny had finally caught up to her, his look the same Icky just had.

She knelt down next to her lover’s head and whispered into her ear. ”Lolly! Listen to my voice. Just listen to i—”

She was cut off when a finger of Lolly’s grew into a pointy spike. It pierced through the blank screen of one of the monitors, sending sparks flying. One of the clowns underneath it transformed into a ball in retreat.

Icky looked horrified. She had her arms tightly around Lolly’s wrists, but even with her strength it wasn’t enough to keep her down.

”Manny! I—I need help here!” she almost cried out. Manny got out of his stupor and rushed to Icky’s side.

He spent a few seconds observing what was going on. He spent a few more seconds to ready himself for what he was about to do. Manny clapped his hands four times, before settling them over Lolly’s head.

”Wait!” Dr. Tinkles yelled against Lolly’s cries. Manny looked at him. ”You don’t know what’s in there! What if it is some dream-o-vore? Or a nightmare ghoul?!”

Manny exhaled deeply through his upside-down nose. ”I have to try. I have to.”

Dr. Tinkles gulped. He knew that it might save Lolly. But he also knew it had an equal of a chance to do more harm than it could do good. He stepped a few feet away from the bed and gave Manny a nod.

He nodded back.

With that, Manny concentrated all of his might into the procedure.

*

His mind wandered into the depths of Lolly’s, reaching into the far corners of her conscious and unconscious. Her life after becoming a clown, her life before becoming a clown — he could see it all.

There was a living room. A young girl sat in front of a blocky Television. He could tell it was Lolly, because, although she wasn’t in her clown make-up yet, he could recognize her giant red pigtails. The TV flickered on to a show — a children’s cartoon — everything in it so joyous, lush and full of life. Not unlike anything the circus was and stood for.

But the lush scenery soon shifted into that of a rocky, ablaze landscape. Hundreds of metal spikes poked out of the earth into the sky, red and filled with black clouds. The young girl still seemed to enjoy the show, though, not faltering in her posture in the slightest.

A figure appeared. A man. Dressed in typical clown attire — nothing Manny hadn’t seen dozens of times prior. But there was something… strange going on with him. The man’s teeth were red gnawing on the head of a human infant, his eyes like flickers in their sockets.

Once he had peeled all the flesh away, he threw the head to the side, it splattering wet against the ground. The clown turned to look at him. He was difficult to focus on, like a blur, like some sort of vivid hallucination.

But Manny knew who he was. And he knew who he was. He smiled.

”Nice to see you again, Manny,” the clown spoke, until everything turned dark.

*

Manny got sent hurdling through the tent at phenomenal speeds. Icky let out a fearful shriek, as Manny’s body tore through the light fabric of the tent. She held onto Lolly’s hands more tightly.

Dr. Tinkles and the others ran to Manny, who was lying in the cold dirt. His eyes were shot wide and he was looking absently into the nightsky.

”Manny!” Dr. Tinkles shouted. ”Oh, my god… Manny!”

”It’s him,” was the only thing he could utter forth from his strawberry lips. ”It’s him.”

Icky, her eyes back on Lolly, leaned back into her ear, and whispered: ”You’re my lollipop. My little, sweet lollipop… you’re strong… you’re brave. You’re the greatest person I could’ve ever hoped to meet. And I…” She held back tears. ”I don’t want to lose you…”

The jerking stopped. Lolly rested peacefully in her bed again. Icky looked up, her hand intertwined with that of Lolly’s, surprised that her words had any effect. Lolly shifted in her bed a bit, her eyes opening.

”Lolly?” Icky asked.

”I—… Icky?” Lolly stammered, her body cold to the touch.

Icky embraced her in a tight hug. Her warmth relaxed Lolly.

They stared into each other’s eyes.

”What’s wrong with me?”

”There’s nothing wrong with you,” she replied.

”Where’s Manny?” Lolly asked weakly.

Icky’s head shot up and she turned to look over at Manny. Dr. Tinkles, examining Manny with a comically large stethoscope, saw Icky and gave Icky a thumbs-up. That seemed to calm her down a bit.

”He’s doing fine. You should rest now.”

Icky loosened her grip. Lolly, however, only exasperated it.

”Icky, please tell me what’s going on with me.”

Icky remained silent.

”I need to know. I’ve seen this figure, this clown. But I don’t know who he is or what he wants from me.”

”…”

”Please…”

”…”

”I know you know what’s going on! Tell me!”

”…

”Decades ago, before either you or me were in the circus, there was a man. A very, very twisted man. He was a clown, like us, and got along with Fuller. He practised new acts with him and even devised new business ventures together with Manny. Some even say that the circus would not have performed so well, wouldn’t it have been for his ideas.”

”What happened to him?” Lolly asked.

Icky did not answer. She didn’t even look her in the eyes.

”Icky, tell me what happened to him!”

”… He was a troublemaker. Always had to one-up himself with everything he did. The circus was small in the beginning. But as Fuller’s greed grew, so too did the One-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named’s shenanigans.

”When the list of attractions grew, he had to make his shows the most breathtaking and awe-inspiring of all… he started to involve the audience in his performances more and more, became crueler with every single show, until Fuller had enough.

Icky snickered slightly. ”Fuller said that what he was doing was ’bad for business’, said that they’d make less profit, when they slaughtered each of their customers upon each show, that sonuvabitch. He reprimanded him for it. That, of course, didn’t stop him. He continued, until he broke Fuller’s patience.”

”What did Fuller do?”

”He fired him. Simple as that. Left him behind on the road and acted like he never existed. Surprisingly tame for Fuller, but he was way younger back then, less…”

”Fuller,” Lolly finished.

”In a sense. He was enraged, though. The circus only became as popular as it did because of him, and throwing him out was the greatest disrespect he could’ve ever gotten. And so… one night, he found the circus again. And he set fire to the tents, burned every single one to the ground. And when somebody tried to flee, he’d slice them up with a butcher’s knife, hang their limbs from hooks and used what remained of them to spell ’GUESS WHO’S BACK?’ on the ground. Directly in Fuller’s view. Over half of all clowns, freaks and performers died that night. The circus never fully recovered.”

”What came next?”

”Fuller and Manny banished him. Used the Kaleidoscope to throw him in some place beyond dimensions, where the laws of reality didn’t exist… and him as a result.”

”How is he back?”

”I don’t know. Maybe he never truly left.”

”How do you know all of this?”

She lightly tapped against her ringmaster’s crown. ”I’m the ringmaster, Lollipop. I gotta know every dark secret the circus has ever had.”

Lolly remained silent. ”Can we get rid of him?”

Icky looked her partner in the eyes. She gave her a kiss on the forehead, leaving a mark with her red lipstick. Lolly wrapped her arms around Icky’s waist.

”I hope so, babe.”

*

With the flick of a few levers, the Kaleidoscope rotated in several twisted, non-Euclidean ways. Icky had been fortunate enough to see the magic of the device hundreds of times already and each time was more wondrous than the last. The individual rings and magnifying glasses pointed in a line straight to the sky, the orb in the center, surrounded by all the machinery, glowing a bright white through the gaps. Icky had to cover her eyes.

A jet of luminescence shot up high, and a Way formed right beside them. It was as if the portal was printed into reality, like it had always been there, just unseeable through any of their senses. When the Kaleidoscope finished, Icky and Lolly approached the doorway. Dr. Tinkles stood right beside them.

”Don’t forget Manny’s instructions on the sticky note,” Dr. Tinkles said.

Icky held the note up in her hand. ”And don’t you forget to send the Kalediscope to Mr. Chan at Emcee D.”

Dr. Tinkles just nodded.

Turning back to Lolly, Icky gave her a kiss on her rosy cheeks. ”This entire nightmare will be over soon enough,” Icky reassured her.

Without any more seconds to spare, the two opened the doorway and stepped through it.

*

The smell of old books immediately became apparent, as the Way shut behind them. They looked up to see hundreds upon thousands of rows of bookshelves stacked on top of each other, stretching on forever. Above them were thousands of levels, the trillion books conglomerating into a giant heap of visual strain that even Icky couldn’t look at for too long.

Creatures of all shapes, sizes, and nature roamed between the shelves, sat at tables or were crawling or flying along the massive pillars. The two just stood there, taking in the sights and wonders of the Wanderers’ Library.

Little gremlin creatures scurried across the marble floors, each with a page of a book in hand. A centaur walked past them, their face deeply entrenched in a scroll of an unknown language. A giant centipede, as big as a skyscraper, crawled along the bookshelves, while a Pterodactyl-looking fella, donning thick glasses, breezed past them high into the air, becoming a mere dot among other dots up above.

Hooded figures in long wool robes, their faces obscured by smooth granite masks, sat at a table, speaking hushed tones. Books floated around a blue blob, the pages of the books flipping rapidly, while a man in a suit, whose face was the right-side up, but the rest of the body wasn’t, simply ’walked’ past the duo.

It was Icky who snapped out of it first. ”Lolly,” she said, snapping her fingers directly in front of her beady eyes. She awoke, as if from a deep slumber. ”We gotta get going.”

Lolly nodded in agreement, and together they trudged forward. Lolly could never fully avert her gaze from the sights of the library, though.

*

The library got darker the further they went in. Like venturing the bowels of some unknown beast. Wouldn’t it have been for the lantern bearers climbing the endless stacks above with their arachnoid legs, it truly would’ve been pure darkness.

Icky, however, didn’t see it that way.

Her eyes were fixated on the sticky note. She held it firmly her hands, moving it around and positioning in all kinds of angles to better read the letters in the lanterns’ far-away lights. Icky grounded her teeth.

”Are you sure this is it?” Lolly asked. She quaked slightly with every step she took. Her eyes darted between the shelves and grimy old books constantly. She felt like somebody was following them. She felt cold.

”I’m damn sure! Manny is the best cartographer there is.”

”But what if he was wrong,” it just popped out of her. ”He didn’t even move after he… he…”

Lolly collapsed onto her knees. She stemmed her head into her hands and began to cry. Icky stopped right in her tracks. ”Oh, god… This is all my fault!”

Icky tended to her side, an arm around her cold body. ”Hey, hey,” she said in that ever-so comforting voice of hers, ”Don’t blame yourself. We’re going to get you help and everything that happened will just be like a bad dream.”

She wiped the tears from her eyes. ”And if we make it through this, I’ll have a special performance just for you.”

Lolly snickered. She pressed her body tighter against Icky’s. ”You always know how to cheer me up.”

She dug her face deep into the fabric of Icky’s clothes. So deep that she could feel the warmth of her body radiating outward, hear the rythm of her heartbeat deep within her chest. She smelled of roses with the taste of clown milk.

”I love you, babe.”

Icky stroke through her hair, slowly and deliberately. ”I love you, too, sweetbuns.”

They remained in this stance for a while longer. Only the warmth of their bodies, their in-sync heartbeats and the smell of… of rotten, decaying, decomposing flesh and bone…

”I love you,” Icky said again, ”I love your voluPTUOUS TITS AND TIGHTLY KNIT PUSSY!”

Her head shot up immediately to stare straight into the hollowed-out eyes and rotten yellow teeth of him. He bared his teeth out at her, smiling a twisted smile. Static started to form around his figure, growing in size and intensity, as he simply stood there.

Lolly freed herself from his arms and scurried backwards, her heart going a thousand miles per hour. Her eyes were mere grains of dust, trying to focus on the clown.

One by one, the lanterns up above went out. Lolly came back to her own two feet and ran somewhere. Anywhere. But regardless of where she ran, the pure darkness slowly crept up closer to her, until it enveloped her body fully.

She cried out for Icky.

*

”Lolly!” Icky cried out in pain. ”Lolly! WAKE UP!”

The lantern bearers up above slowly climbed down to check out the commotion. Their long, hairy legs went in between the tightly pressed together books, their heavy chains rustling with every movement of their bodies. Their lanterns’ lights shone brightly.

Icky pressed her ear against Lolly’s chest. There was no heartbeat. ”Fuck… FUCK!” She felt the tears welling up inside her ears. They streaked down, warm to the touch, before dropping onto Lolly’s dress.

”You can’t give up now,” a voice in her head rang out. ”She believes in you. You’re her only hope.”

She stood up again. ”There is still hope.”

The lantern bearers were so close that they were like stars shining straight upon her. Their lights now shone into every corner, every crevice of a book. She could see her path clearly.

She tossed Lolly’s limp body over her shoulder, took a moment to shift her weight, and made a dash for it. The rows of shelves weren’t so endless anymore, as she came closer and closer to her destination.

*

Nothing. Nothing for miles. The void consumed everything as far as the eye could see. For a moment, Lolly thought herself to be in the space-between-dimensions, but there was another sensation than pure dread that filled her every headspace — the coldness.

She felt each and every single hair on her body stand up. Her arms wrapped around her small figure to provide any sense of warmth, but her skinny arms weren’t enough.

She collapsed onto the ground — or the equivalent of it in this place — and hunched up tight, as her entire body was shivering.

There was a flicker, the droning sound of static. The screen of a small Television set illuminated the void in front of her, as well as her own frail body. The static soon faded in coherency.

The TV showed her images. Pictures of a young woman. One she did not recognize at first, but as it flipped through the pictures, not unlike on a slideshow, the woman in them grew older. It was her mother.

Then it changed again. Now it was showing pictures of an infant. It had some sort of tumorous growth extruding from its face, the right leg was a mere stump from what it was actually supposed to look like. Lolly hadn’t even noticed herself having stood up, but was now mere inches away from the TV screen.

The whole void was filled up with the noises of beeping monitors and the clattering of metal instruments. The heavy gasps and ragged breaths of the woman were heard all throughout. The sound of the infant, so inhuman, burst out from the Television. The woman’s gasps stopped, before screaming and incoherent yelling erupted. Several indistinct voices tried to calm the woman down, as the wails of the infant permeated through the scene.

The sound a door opening. Heavy footsteps. The woman cried and cried.

”What is it, Deli—” The man’s words were stuck in his throat.

The woman continued on. ”No! No, no…”

The howling whines became only louder in the void. Lolly didn’t want to listen to any more of this — she couldn’t. When the sounds grew louder, she covered her ears, but even that was not enough to drown out the sounds.

”Stop…” she uttered to herself. ”Please, stop…” The sound only grew louder and louder. ”Stop it!”

With a well-placed kick, the TV screen burst into millions of tiny fragments. Streaks of fire rised high up from the inside of the TV, and Lolly could’ve sworn to have seen some faces in the flames.

Lolly was back in her old house. She didn’t even notice the change. Everything was at its proper place, exactly where she remembered everything to be. She could feel the arrythmic thumping of her heart stuck in her throat.

”That’s pretty messed up,” a tiny voice sounded. Lolly’s heart stopped for a moment to spot whoever had said those words, finding no one.

”And, considering my reputation, that says a lot about those chaps. Let me tell ya’.”

It came from the TV. Its screen was no longer smashed, and an animated clown was sitting at a table inside it. ”Sorry. Bit personal, I’d imagine? If I’ve overstepped any lines here, just tell me. I’ll gladly take your wishes into consideration.”

Lolly didn’t speak. She didn’t even do so much as twitch.

”What? Is this not comfortable for you? Oh,” he scoffed, ”I can make this more comfortable for you!”

He pushed the table to the side with such great force, Lolly could hear it slam through a concrete wall. The chair the clown was sitting on turned into a cloud of confetti.

He reached out a hand at the screen, as if to grab her, and he began to move through the screen into a three-dimensional form. The screen had taken on a watery appearance, as more of the clown’s body came through. His body contorted in mind-bending, painful ways, but throughout all of this, the clown held a plain, unmoving expression.

He stood, patted some dust off his too vibrant attire, and stared straight at Lolly. There was a clown-shaped hole in the TV screen behind him, quickly overtaken by static. He sniffed the air immediately upon his arrival.

”Hhm… Wow. No wonder that other one is so all over you!”

Lolly took several steps back. He didn’t notice. ”You’re…” she stammered, keeping a watchful eye on his every move.

”In the flesh! Well, not yet. You already know about my li’l… incident,” he said that last part through clenched teeth. Such clenched teeth that his gums started to bleed.

”No bother now! I’ll be with the circus soon enough…”

He jolted up without any prompt and continued as if nothing had happened.

”The Kaleidoscope. Oh, yes! That little magicy-doohey device. It’s my key home. Back to all my wonderful little friends and freaks! Oh, how I’ve missed the—”

”I’m not going to help you.”

There was a brief pause where only the static of the TV was audible. The clown hunched over, before exploding in a fit of laughter. His laughs and knee-slaps shook the entire house, as it looked like his eyes were about to pop out of their sockets. A thick, rainbow-colored fluid seeped from his eyes and mouth, which melted the floor below.

When the laughter quieted down, the clown stood upright again. He wiped away some of the fluid with no effort, and stood straight again.

”You’ve been mistaken, missy. There is no wiggle room for you to wiggle in.”

”Fuck you,” Lolly spoke defiantly.

He sighed. ”There I thought everything would turn out smoothly. I guess you never can trust a clown.”

The TV changed its channel. Random images of heaven and hell, angels and demons, the clear blue sky and a barren concrete cell. And then it changed to a circus tent. A man was lying on a bed. A man with an upside-down face.

”Seeing a familiar face? HA!” the clown held up his little finger, ”Little did ol’ Manny know that he had let me in! That frail mind of his! Always overestimated himself.”

She hurried toward the display of horror on the screen. Her hands went all over the device, before a spark of blue electricity zapped her hand. The pain was only momentary and faded as she shook her hand.

The clown’s face changed. What little joy had remained seeped out of his face, as it turned into a cold, uncaring expression. ”I could make him experience pain that you could only imagine of.”

Absolute terror riddled her face. No words came out of her mouth.

He snickered. ”I don’t care if you think I’m bluffing! Your little upside-down fuckface is gonna feel his brain oozing out of his ears, his limbs scorched under a thousand suns AND BEG FOR THE SWEET RELEASE OF DEATH THAT’LL NEVER COME.”

Clenching his hand so tightly, his fingernails dug through the fabric of his gloves, right into the soft flesh of his palm. Blood dripped along his hand, and gave off an almost inaudible wail.

Manny’s eyes shot wide open. His limbs flailed about in all directions. Something was thumping inside his chest, as if about to shoot out of it. His eyes, though — a spark was missing from them. Foam leaked out of his mouth, his eyes, his nostrils that covered his entire body.

Lolly looked at the proceedings, horrified. ”No! Stop!” she yelled that her throat hurt. Tears streamed down her rosy cheeks.

When the clown didn’t loosen his grasp, his grin growing wider, she said: ”I’ll do it!” That caused the clown to immediately unclench his hand, Manny to fall into the peaceful oblivion again, and the TV to turn off.

Shivering, yet stern, she looked the clown directly in his eyes. He pointed at the door behind him. It opened up to reveal a well-furnished corridor with floors of marble, and curtains of red and purple velvet.

She then looked back at the clown. The clown exposed his yellow teeth in a wide grin.

*

She made her way up some spiraling stairs, up into the top rows of the library. The weight of Lolly’s unconscious body weighed down on her. Her legs felt like they were turning into jelly and her lungs were about to implode in a vacuum. But she continued on, her heart still beating.

Icky arrived at a small tent, not too disimilar from the ones over at her circus. She was briefly reminded of the smell of black cotton candy, the sound of calliope music and the warm taste of clown milk on her tongue. All of those thoughts were pushed aside, as Icky made her final stretch toward the tent.

Inside, it was dark. Except for a small blue orb, no, a rhombicosidodecahedron floating on a table like there was no tomorrow. Three sets of eyes, or a rough approximation of it, stared at her. The first were two spider looking people, all hairy, big mandibles and giant, reflective eyes. They had meathooks for hands and their entire torso was one giant grapefruit composed out of smaller grapefruits. They smelled of cinnamon.

The third and last in the room was a bit different. She was a levitating, humanoid construct made out of 456 hands, with limbs made up of 1098 fingers of various animals, glowing a bright yellow. Her head was that of a housecat and as big as one.

This was Tabernackle the Great. Icky knew it the moment she laid eyes on her, as the thought got engraved into her mind like one of Lolly’s songs she never stopped to pester her with.

Tabernackle rose and the crumbling of a hundred icebergs rung out in Icky’s head. The thought of Lolly’s predicament was washed away for just a second.

Tabernackle opened her mouth, formed out of a thousand toes, and spoke: ”Erm… can I help you, miss…?”

Icky slammed the body of Lolly onto the jaded table. The two spider people immediately ran out of the tent.

”Please help her,” Icky said, desperation in her voice. ”Please…”

”… Do you have an appointmen—”

”I don’t have a fucking appointment! Please… just… she’s dying!”

Tabernackle the Great gave out the rough approximation of a psychic sigh. ”The previous customers ran for their lives, so I guess I better do this…”

She spread out her limbs to create symbols even unknown to Icky. ”But don’t you pull such a stunt again,” Tabernackle admonished, ”otherwise I’ll rip your consciousness out of you and encase it in a jar of greenbeans.”

Icky held Lolly’s hand firmly in hers.

There was an odd tingly sensation all over her body all of a sudden. A brief flash of white light that blinded everyone in this small space, before their eyes adjusted again. When they did, Lolly was gone.

Time slowed to a halt. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t breathe, her heart stopped for just a second. Icky looked over at the table, then at Tabernackle.

Tabernackle put up her hands defensively. ”I didn’t do anything!”

Icky felt her stomach twist in all directions. Then the faint laughter of him rippled in the crevices of her mind. It sickened her down to the bone.

*

Red carpets. Purple curtains. Golden corridors. Lolly never had the feeling of familiarity and unfamiliarity clash so intensely against each other that her head was spinning. Literally.

Those past few minutes felt like a dream. Maybe it was, but now she had woken up again. The worst hangover in years hit her, or at least it felt like it, as she could hear indistinguishable words being uttered all in unison.

Then the whispers stopped. The memory of Manny snapped back into her mind. His limbs spazzing helplessly. The foam seeping out of his mouth. His grin.

Without any hesitation, Lolly made her way down the golden corridors, hell-bent on one goal alone.

*

There were three things Senior Security Chief Matt Mattson was afraid of the most: First, it was spiders. He grew up in Australia and these little critters roamed around everywhere. His sister had told him stories of them crawling into people’s mouths when they slept and laying eggs underneath someone’s tongue. Matt never slept with his mouth open after that ever again. Of course, years later, thousands of miles away from that red island, inbetween the walls of an MC&D storage facility, he realized that the story was just there, so he would stop snoring all the time. He shared a room with his sister in his early years. No matter now, though. He still hated spiders.

Second, it was the ocean, or more the vast expanse of the ocean. There were millions upon billions of lifeforms deep within it, some small and harmless, some gigantic and deadly. It didn’t help that a majority of Earth’s oceans still went unexplored. Of course, knowing what he knew as a member of one of the most influential anomalous agencies on the planet, he knew that there a lot more scarier beings than a kraken or some prehistoric mega-shark to be worried about roaming in the dark depths of the oceans. He had even heard rumors of some giant creature in the middle of the Atlantic sea. He shivered and shook that thought away.

And last, what he feared most, was losing the love of his life that was snoring away on the couch in the corner of the room. Her name was Lyly Crevali, and he met her on a cold night — as cold as the nights can be in Australia — in the Winter season. In a café. It was magical, he always feels all fuzzy inside every time he thought of that moment. He couldn’t bear to live without her — not look into her eyes, feel her warm hands in his. And she kept snoring on that couch, unaware of his thoughts.

There were always supposed to be two staff members on duty. But Lyly awoke with a headache and had hours worth of assignments today that she just gave a little ”hi”, weak wave with her hand and plunged into the soft cushions of the couch. And that was fine. Matt didn’t have much to do anyway today, so he relegated the task of watching the live feeds for any oddities to himself.

Like most nights, nothing was going on. A few of his colleagues strolled down the corridors and flipped him the finger every time they passed a security cam, a wide grin on their faces. Matt smiled back and flipped a finger back at the screens.

Nothing odd was going on, until 01:34 in the night, when a lanky figure appeared on the cams and made her way through the halls of the compound. Matt was perplexed. He didn’t know whether he should be confused, in awe or straight up terrified at the sight of this knock-off Pennywise/Harley Quinn creature.

He didn’t know what to think, so instead he called out to Lyly, who, after just a few seconds of hustling, awoke from her slumber. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and strolled over to Matt.

”Matt, what is it—”

Immediately upon the sight of the creature, Lyly shot awake. She rubbed her eyes again just to make sure she wasn’t in some kind of weird, twisted, perverted dream concocted by her own mind. To her dismay, she wasn’t. ”What the fuck is that Pennywise/Harley Quinn knock-off creature?”

Forgot to mention: There was also a fourth thing Matt feared the most. Clowns. He fucking hated clowns. Hard.

*

Dr. Tinkles wiped away the foam that was coming out of Manny’s mouth and nostrils. He could feel the wet sensation through the cyan, green-dotted cloth.

He positioned Manny to the side of his abdomen — just like how they taught him in clown college. The foamy substance already began to pool all around him.

Manny’s hand shot up and wrapped around Tinkles’. He would have winced, if it wouldn’t have been for the utter shock when he looked into those upside-down eyes. They glared back at him.

”He’s— he’s…”

”Shh!” Tinkles finally said, after what felt like an eternity, ”We’ll get that stuff out of your system with some good ol’ medicine, Mr. Man. You just try to rest a littl—”

Manny clenched his hand a bit tighter now. Now Tinkles winced.

”He’s back…” he almost whispered.

Tinkles couldn’t ask. His head was on different topics right now than to concentrate on whatever blubber Manny was rambling on about.

”Bobble’s back.”

And he collapsed back into the sweet, sweet oblivion.

*

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