4

It was night time and Charlie was home alone. Her brother had to work another shift so it was another lonely dinner by herself. But she was used to it. She was eating at the table in her sweats and oversized shirt eating her food and reading a book.

As she picked at her food, she suddenly heard a loud bang from the hallway. Not like a gunshot but more as if a thick book was dropped in a silent library. Charlies head shot up and looked around. She sat frozen and stayed silent to see if anything happened but nothing did, she stood up from her seat.

She slowly walked to the hallway and saw a picture frame had fallen from the wall. She picked it up and turned it over to see a picture of herself with her brother and their parents when they were just at a young age. There was a slight crack on the frame from the fall. Charlie frowned. She almost never looked at this picture when she passed by it.

Her parents were cowards and ran away together, leaving their two kids to survive for themselves. Luckily her brother was old enough to take care of her and he bought a small modern house. It wasn't the best living style, but yet again, no one in Derry had the best childhood.

Charlie then heard something coming from the fireplace. She went back to the dining room (which was also the living room) and looked at the fire pit. She placed the broken picture frame on the table and saw dust and tiny rocks coming out from the chimney. They haven't used that chimney since last winter.

She kept going closer and closer until she saw a body fall into the fireplace. Charlie shrieked and backed away. She almost fell to the floor from the shock.

She noticed the body was all twisted. The bones from the arms and legs were all twisted and bent in all different positions and in abnormal ways. The body was in a dirty white clown suit with red pom poms.

Suddenly a head emerged from the body, a white face with red lines coming over it's cheeks with wild red hair coming from both sides of its face. The clown turned its head and smiled creepily at Charlie.

The body then twisted and popped back into place and Charlie backed away from it more and more, but in fear she was still frozen in place. She winced as she heard the bones crack and pop into position.

The clown returned to regular human body form and looked at her in the eye.

"Come join the clowness" he said in a creepy voice.

He then ran at Charlie, yelling in a monster like way with large sharp teeth coming out of its mouth.

Luckily her fear unfroze and instinct kicked in as she ran to her room, slamming the door before the clown could even enter. When she locked it, banging came from the other side as if the clown was thrusting his fists against the door, trying to get in. She quickly ran to the corner of her room and knelt down on the floor, bringing her knees close to her and buried her head.

The banging stopped. Charlie looked up and waited to see if anything happened but nothing did. She was not going back out there, who would? A small sob escaped her lips and tears spilled from her eyes. Never in her life had she been more scared.