Chapter 4

                               Laugh Like You Mean It

            Laughter is always thought of as a happy thing; some have said that laughter is happiness. But what of mad men? They laugh when they commit acts that bring despair to others, no laughter does not always mean, or bring happiness; it is far from synonymous to the word in the case of mad men. Especially in this case; these circus freaks laugh because they’re psychotic, they’re mad, far past borderline. So I’ll hear it, if they want to laugh, I’ll make them laugh; I’ll make these bastards laugh like they mean it.

                “Quite silent around here is it not?”

                “You jinxed that on purpose, didn’t you Arc?”

                “Naturally so.”

          And with that, a bone chilling mad cackle filled the air, belonging to a being whose mind was not just cracked, but fragmented into millions upon millions of tiny little pieces, which can mean only one thing; it’s a clown. I looked around for the twisted source of the laugh, and saw only a shadow jumping from the top of a tent and out of sight. As soon as it disappeared, I heard more laughs from broken minds. I looked around and found, to my dismay, a large group of the circus acts. You name an act, it was there, from the maddened rubber man to the psychotic bearded lady, from broken minded trapeze artists to crazy lion tamers with their trusty, and rabid looking, lions at their sides. And but of course, the worst of them all, the devil’s advocates themselves; the twisted clowns. Their make-up varied from smiles to tears, though they all had that same damned twisted smile as the rest of them, their teeth horrible and rotten, large rubber shoes worn out, the classic water squirting flowers, some had the good old rubber nose with a broken honk, and ridiculous clothing of varied colors.

                “I will be honest with you Wesley, did not see that coming.”

                “Arc, about all of them appearing out of nowhere,”

                “What about it?”

                “I blame you.” And with that, I readied the knife for the hoard of enemies as Arc just sat down on some boxes.

                “Really? No help at all?”

                “You want to make an old man exert himself? I daresay Wesley, that is quite rude of you.”

                Before I had time to retort, the charge began. I ran at them, ducking under closed fists flying at me through the air and slashing them with the knife. The bearded lady threw her beard at my legs and wrapped it around my leg to trip me.

                “Oh, that was brilliant! Did not expect that did you Wesley?”

                “Not the time Arc.” I took the knife and cut the beard from my leg, just in time too, because the rubber man came at me. He stretched out his arm to hit me as I barely got out of the way of it by rolling away to get up on my feet as soon as possible. When he punched again I grabbed his arm and pulled him to me and stabbed him with the knife a few times as he turned to ash like the strong man did. The bearded lady came howling at me, hitting me in the jaw. I slammed my fist into her gut to make her double over and slit her throat; and like her friends, she too turned to ashes. Out of nowhere I felt a large force hit me from the back and knock me down. I felt a large mass on my back while I was on the ground, so I turned my neck to find a lion facing me and giving me a fierce roar. His tamer came up with a chair in his hand and slammed it down on my head. The impact was fierce and my head was throbbing furiously, as I felt some blood flow from the back of my head. Barely getting my arm out from under me, I grabbed the tamer’s leg and knocked him down. I got my other arm free from under one of the lion’s claws and stabbed down on its paw, causing it to get off of me while it roared in pain, for enough time for me to get out from under him. I ran at the tamer and connected my fist to his face, causing him to recoil while I slashed the knife through the air and his flesh; I turned around to look for the lion, so it wouldn’t get another surprise attack on me, but found it had turned to ash along with its tamer.

                I fought the rest of the acts; the contortionists dodge my blows until I finally got frustrated and started to grab them to use my new knife friend on them. Trapeze artists flew down at me from the top of the tents, more tamers charging at me with their lions; they were all starting to come at me at once. The worst part of it though, as you’ve more than likely guessed, was the clowns. The bastards used knives on me, actually nicking me a couple of times, they threw spiked balls that crushed me in the stomach and pushed me back a couple of times, and even flew at me with their fists. The bastards even had their flowers squirt acid, rather than water, at me; nearly got me a couple of times. I had to get on my board at one point to get a breather, as I dived down to deliver swift death to a couple of acts while I weaved between them and turned my board as sharp as I possibly could to avoid the occasional acid or lion flying at me. Finally, after a long and grueling amount of time, I got rid of all of them.

                “Nicely done Wesley. Starting to get the hang of it now, are you not?”

                “Damnit Arc, I nearly died!” I managed to get out as I breathed for air desperately.

                “You get used to it, and I daresay, you are learning quite quickly though; an astonishing rate, really.”

                “So, what now?”

                “Well first off—“                                                                                   

                Arc was cut off by the mad cackle we had only heard twice before; the laugh from the silhouette. I hurriedly looked around for the source, nothing. And by nothing I mean that Arc was gone; in the place he was standing, there was a bloodstain on the ground. ****, looks like he didn’t leave me of his own free will this time. I noticed the bloodstain had friends; friends who led off to a tent in the distance, the largest tent in the whole damned place. I followed the red liquid bread crumbs right to the candy-clad house where my friend was likely being cooked by a witch.

                When I finally got to the entrance of the tent, I heard the annoying circus music from inside. The tent itself towered over the rest of the area; guess it’s time for the main event. I walked in and saw a large stage, and on that stage was a giant colorful spinning wheel, and on that wheel was Arc, and on that Arc was a wound that was seeping his blood, which left a sort of spiral of his blood on the wheel.  I called out to Arc as I ran at him, but it seems he was unconscious; I need to get us out of here quick.

                Suddenly, a voice from a source unknown said “Looks like your friend doesn’t have much time. You should hurry and die with him so he won’t go alone.” And following that sentence was the silhouette’s laugh. I turned around and finally saw the former silhouette in the light. Knew it, clown. Not just a clown though, this one was deformed, its arms at crooked angles, its head cocked to the side every now and then, an unnaturally wide smile on his face never broke, its eyes were black, a rancid smell rolled off from his body and seeped into my nostrils, and it carried with it a long and jagged blade, clad with both old and new blotched stains of blood.

                “The hell are you?”

                “A very pissed off clown who just lost all his friends. But they don’t matter now, I have some new toys to play with, some toys that me and my sharp little friend here can carve up as much as we like; yes, these toys are very fine.” The clown cackled some more, and I stood silent. This bastard is going down.  “Time to play now.” smiled the clown as he charged at me, raising his blade up to ready it to rip through my flesh. I ran at him and just barely side stepped the blade, and attempted to cut him with my knife, but to no avail as the he slammed the back of his hand into my face. He turned around and brought his blade up to stab down at me while I rolled to the side multiple times to dodge, as he repeated the same stab over and over again. After four or five narrow escapes from getting a new hole through my body, I waited for him to stab again and rolled to the side, when he started to lift his blade up to stab again, I shifted my weight as hard as I could and slammed my legs into his; knocking him over. I jumped back up and slammed my foot on his chest. Just as I was about to end it with my knife, he threw me off of him.

                We both got up and ran at each other again, I ducked his blade and slashed mine, which he dodged by stepping back. This process of swing-and-a-miss continued for awhile as we both desperately avoided getting cut open and have our blood spill like candy from a piñata; all the more reason he should be the one cut open, seeing as he is the one with all the flamboyant colors. I ducked another slash from his blade and slammed my foot into his still moving arm, knocking the blade out of his hand. He leaped for the blade as I ran after him, he grabbed his blade and quickly slashed it at me. I felt the blade rip through my stomach, the pain unbearable as I screamed out in pain. His blade flew through the air at me yet again as I caught his arm and slammed my knife into it as the blade dropped from the clowns hand yet again. I pinned him down with my foot on his chest and went in to deliver the finishing blow. That’s where the clown quickly reached for the flower on his chest and shot the liquid from it into my eyes.

                My sight faded, my eyes burned as if they were thrust into the flames of a hell that even a demon would scream in agony that the flame’s heat would bring to them. I fell down, my sight blurry, that damned annoying music rang through my ears. The clown walked closer and closer to me and picked up his blade with his other hand. I could barely see the clown through my blurred vision as he began to cackle as he got closer and closer while my consciousness faded in and out, his laugh becoming louder and louder; he was savoring this. He raised his hand, and I panicked; trying to think as quickly as possible. His blade came hurtling down at me, so I slammed my foot into his shin, causing him to lose balance. I rolled to the side so that his blade wouldn’t hit me. I twirled my body around and swept him with my legs, knocking him down as I got up with the twirl I quickly moved down at him and grabbed him by the hair so that he lifted his chin.

                “You want to laugh you bastard? Then come one! Laugh like you mean it!” and then without a word more, I slid my blade across his throat. His blood spewed out and then he turned to ash.

                My vision grew yet blurrier, the wounds from both this and previous fights throbbing and oozing my precious red liquid of life. I heard my name called from afar, the voice getting closer and closer and I could only assume its owner was the Reaper, as all went black. Death? Maybe. I tried opening my eyes, it was blurry at first as light slammed into my eyes, and the voices calling my name came more and more into focus.

                “Wake up, Wesley.” Came Arc’s voice.

                “Arc!? I thought you were dead, hell I thought I was dead.”

                “It was only a simulation of death, Wesley. Most of us end up dying at the end of the test. We kill, so we must first know what it is like to be killed. Not many kill the enemy before they die though, the last ones to do that was Lynx, and before her, Hex.”

                “That rare?”

                “Yes, but you have something in your test that beats everyone else’s.”

                “And what’s that?”

                “Well, Wesley. That was quite possibly the most **** up thing I have ever seen. I’m old too, that is saying quite a lot.”

                “What now?”

                “We were in the hypnosis for hours, get to bed.”

                And without a word more, I did just that. I navigated through the base off memory to get to my room. As I entered, there was a vase of flowers on the stand next to my bed with a card that said ‘Congratulations’ in front of it.

                Those flowers better not spit any acid at me.