Of Nightmares and Spirits, Fiona Estelle Hamilton [the reading strategies book .TXT] 📗

The circus was going alright so far. Aaron appeared to be relaxed. There was no sign of a clown yet. The co-workers noticed how relaxed Aaron appeared to be, but wondered just how long was going to last. During the last half hour of the event, as expected, two clowns finally made their grand entrance. Needless to say, Aaron was not happy. One co-worker laid her hand on his shoulder and assured him everything was going to be alright.

“You’re doing great!” She assured him with a smile.

Aaron did not smile back. The clowns were doing some sort of odd comedy routine. The co-workers thought it was funny but Aaron did not. He hated the way the make-up looked on the clowns. It looked so…malicious. Who knows just what sort of a person laid buried beneath the white face paint, red lips, and squeaky nose? A serial killer? A child murderer? A monster could be lurking just beneath the make-up, ready to come forth and slay the innocent. Aaron shuddered at the thought.

Right at the end of their comedy routine, the clowns just had to come into audience to interact with the patrons. Every thought in Aaron’s mind was telling him to run. Get away. There is danger present. Aaron internally agreed with his conscious and went outside to get away from the madness that was threatening him with an anxiety attack. This was almost too much to bear. Aaron had not been that close to a clown before, and he certainly didn’t want to get that close again. Or rather, allow a clown to get that close to him. A few minutes later, his co-workers emerged from, the circus tent.

“Aaron,” one of his co-workers called, “We have someone we would like to meet.” One of the clowns stepped out from behind the small group. Aaron was suddenly thankful he didn’t have heart problems, because he probably would have had a heart attack upon seeing another clown. Aaron inhaled sharply as he looked at the clown. His co-workers must have known what Aaron was thinking because one of them was trying to convince him not to run.

“He wants to help you get rid of your fear,” The co-worker reasoned.

“Get rid of your fear” Ha! If anything, this clown is going to make things so much worse for Aaron! Aaron really should have ran when he had the chance, don’t you think? Well you know the old saying: “Too bad, so sad”!

The clown was grinning as he got closer to Aaron. Simultaneously, Aaron was trying to back away from the clown. “Stay away from me!” He warned. Aaron’s message hardly did any good. If Aaron didn’t know any better, he’d say the clown was giving him a rather malicious looking grin. Once the clown finally had him cornered, he honked his nose, and then pressed a button on his flower that was attached to his purple suit. The button released a foul smelling gas, which caused Aaron to stagger backwards, almost falling over. The clown flashed his trademark grin, and walked away.

This was not what Aaron’s co-workers had told the clown to do; all they wanted the clown to do was to do a small comedy routine for Aaron, to show him that clowns really weren’t all that scary. Aaron was not pleased so to speak. He could still smell that gas that had sprayed out of the fake flower.

“Who knows what this stuff is going to do to me!” Aaron cried, “It could knock me out or possibly worse!”

His co-workers apologized over and over, trying to explain that the clown was not supposed to do that. Aaron was still not satisfied. He demanded to be taken home, wishing to push the night’s events far out of his mind.

Despite wanting a good night’s rest, Aaron got the exact opposite. His dreams were filled with clowns. You couldn’t even call them dreams. They were more nightmares than they were dreams. Aaron awoke five times in the course of one night, startled out of his nightmares. I knew that gas did something to me. He thought every time he woke up. The fifth time he woke up, he decided to stay up, even though it was only five o clock in the morning. The last nightmare he had was the final straw for him that night. Aaron dreamed he was in a dark building, surrounded by clowns. They were laughing at him, their voices distorted and demonic. They were taunting him as their faces seemed to decay and melt. Skin rotting off the bone, eyes melting from their sockets, until they are nothing but putrid, hideous, corpses.

Some nightmare huh? Hope you’re not too scared, fear seekers, because these next few bits are the funniest—I mean the saddest. Poor Mr. Richards...

Aaron was unable to function at work the next day. His lack of sleep was having an effect on him. The man was barely even able to keep his eyes open at his computer. Aaron’s boss took notice of this and allowed him to leave work early, to get some much needed rest.

On his way home, Aaron stopped at a nearby connivance store, figuring a hot sandwich would do him some good, seeing he had not eaten that much during the day. As he went to pay for his meal, Aaron almost dropped his sandwich when he saw the cashier. The cashier was a clown.

The cashier—clown, smiled at him, revealing ugly, yellow teeth. Aaron blinked. Once. Twice. The clown was still there. Aaron rubbed his eyes. This time, the clown was gone. In place of the clown, was his cashier.

“Sir?” she asked. Aaron apologized and paid for his sandwich. He got out of the convenience store as quickly he could. He figured he was having hallucinations from a lack of sleep. When he thought about it again, however, Aaron thought it was impossible; he hadn’t lost that much sleep. He pushed the thoughts out of his mind and continued to walk home.

On his way home, Aaron’s vision was beginning to blur. As he reached his apartment building, a man dropped his key. Aaron picked it up for him, but when he went to hand the key to the man, the man’s face had transformed into a clown. Like the cashier, this clown was smiling at him, only this time, the clown said something: “Don’t worry friend, we don’t bite. Yet.” Aaron turned to run, only to trip and fall onto the pavement.

When he opened his eyes, the man was normal. Nothing about him resembled a clown. Aaron hastily got to his feet, walked into the apartment building, and proceeded to lock himself in his apartment, not coming out for the rest of the day. Occasionally, he would look out his window to see a few clowns walking down the street. Once he would blink a few times, they would be gone. Aaron began to wonder if he was slowly beginning to go mad.

That night, Aaron decided to call one of his co-workers, Mary, and explain to her the situation. She listened intently, and when Aaron finished she said, “So, let me get this straight: You’re seeing clowns? Almost every few minutes? That’s very odd. You said once you blink or rub your eyes, they’re gone, right? I doubt that one night of sleep will do that to you, Aaron.” Aaron sighed in frustration. If only he could make her understand.

A thought popped into Mary’s head a few seconds later, “Aaron, didn’t the clown at the circus spray you with this weird gas? Maybe that’s what causing this mess. I’m sure this will all stop soon. Give it a few days and see what happens.” Aaron agreed to do so, and then hung up. Aaron was not comforted by her words.

The nightmares were worse than the night before. This time, Aaron dreamed a clown was coming after him. It was not chasing him but it actually appeared to be stalking Aaron. The scariest part about this nightmare for Aaron was the fact that the clown was ‘normal.’ No razor sharp teeth, no long fingernails, no distorted facial features or anything like that; it was just a regular clown. Aaron saw that the clown was carrying a large butcher knife. It was out for blood. Most likely his. He hid in a nearby alleyway, in hopes of escaping the clown.

What happened next caused Aaron to almost vomit. (When he woke up afterwards, he was sure he was going to vomit outside of the nightmare as well.) The clown caught somebody and began to kill him. It was disemboweling the man, taking fiendish glee in doing so. It smiled as it watched the chaos around it. People were screaming, crying, and running for their lives. The clown got to its feet and did the same thing to other people. Aaron covered his ears, and shut his eyes, trying to drown out the scene before him. He woke up a few minutes later, trying to wipe the images out of his mind. Seeing no use in trying to go back to sleep, Aaron made himself a cup of coffee and watched the rain come down heavily. Aaron fancied there was a being in the sky that was for whatever reason, weeping.

Fog appeared to cling to the city. It seemed to affect people’s moods. People that day seemed even more agitated than usual. Some even appeared depressed. The city’s buildings loomed over people in an intimidating fashion, alleyways held nothing but darkness, while the sun hid behind clouds, never once showing its face through the course of the day.

Aaron felt sick, so he called into work, requesting the day off. The only reason he left the house was to go to the local market to stock up on food. Often, he would see clowns out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned to look, they’d be gone. At one point, Aaron was sure someone was following him. It was a clown. It had to be. He heard the sinister giggling behind him, and saw the exaggerated steps it was taking from out of the corner of his eye. As Aaron rounded to the next aisle, the lights began to flicker. The clown’s footsteps became quicker and that was when Aaron headed for the bathroom, locking himself in. Aaron became more and more frightened as the minutes wore on. The clown was pounding on the door, making Aaron thankful he was in a bathroom. “It isn’t real…” Aaron muttered over and over again. After about ten minutes, he cautiously emerged from his hiding place.

Aaron saw a man outside of the bathroom, waiting to get in. The man gave Aaron an odd look. “Are you alright?” he asked, noticing Aaron was shaking visibly. Aaron tried to speak, but no words came forth. Instead, he gave a quick nod and hurried out of the market.

I told you those parts were the best! I love when a person loses their sanity. Unfortunately, Mr. Richards is losing his sanity very quickly. I almost feel bad for him. Almost. His co-workers should have listened to him when he said he didn’t want to go to the circus. Perhaps Mr. Richards wouldn’t be six feet under the ground!

Aaron was eventually fired from his job. His sickness and lack of sleep were causing him to miss too many days of work. His boss had no choice but to fire him. Despite his co-workers asking their boss to reconsider, the boss could not. He felt bad about it though. Aaron had been a hard for worker for a long time.

Before Aaron left, his boss took him aside. “Listen,” he said, “maybe you should go and talk to somebody. You need to sleep. You're not sleeping. I don't know why, but you're not. You need some help, Aaron.”

Aaron agreed with everything except for the “needing help” part of his boss's speech. Who was going to believe him? Only Mary it seemed, at this