CHAPTER ONE  ⨾  The Clowns Here Kill.

BEHIND THE CURTAINS WAS A FESTIVE RETRO CARNIVAL.

People were having fun. They were playing carnival games at different stalls and having laughs. The people of Everlock looked like they were having a simple fun night. As Mat and Vivienne hold hands and warily walked around, she questioned what was going to happen that caused the town to need saving.

"What's there to save? This all looks fun." Colleen questioned, looking around.

"This isn't bad." Matthew said, before seeing a woman with fiery red hair opening her mouth, revealing a spider inside of it. The spider began to crawl on her face.

"Hoping it still isnt bad." Vivienne replied to Matthew who laughed.

"Absolutely not! Absolutely not!" Teala yelled in fright.

Suddenly, a boy with a brown jacket approached the group. "Hey blondie, how are you?" He asked, approaching Nikita.

"Hi, how are you?" Nikita asked with a smile.

"Where are you going tonight?" The man asked, showing interest in her.

Nikita: So some homeboy approached us, A.K.A. approached me, and I'm like, oh my gosh, you're kinda like everything.

"Who are you?" Teala asked.

"I'm Mortimer." Mortimer introduced himself.

"He's lying." Roi immediately pointed at Mortimer jokingly.

"Why don't you just play some games and have a good time before my mom shows up." Mortimer instructed.

"Are you a mama's boy?" Nikita asked.

"My mom is the mayor." Mortimer answered, clearly not knowing what Nikita meant.

"Ohh okay," Joey nodded.

Manny: He's cute, but he keeps talking to us and we're like 'We don't know you though so what are you doing here?'

"Guys, free popcorn over here." Matthew pointed to a popcorn machine.

"Oh my god where?" Vivienne asked, turning her head to where Mat did.

"Literally right over here!"

JC: There's free food, there's free games, I settle down. The problems will come to us, we're fine!

The group splits up to play carnival games.

Matpat: Everyone's happy, everyone's normal, they're all having a great time!

"Hey, Anne, help me win this game!" Matthew grabbed Vivienne's hand, because by now they were less wary and they stopped doing that.

"Sure!" Vivienne smiled. "So what do we do?" Vivienne asked.

"We have to hit the bean bag at two of the standees." Safiya explained.

"Oo easy, let us try!" Vivienne and JC said excitedly. JC threw one and easily hit it.  "Woohoo, go JC!" Vivienne cheered.

"Thanks." JC smiled.

"Ok my turn." Vivienne also threw one, hitting another.

"Go Vivi!" JC and Safiya cheered.

"Yes Anne!" Matthew cheered.

"Oh my gosh, we won!" Safiya said, noticing the man at the stall grabbing a pink horse plushie.

"His name is Blanche." The person running the carnival game introduced to Matthew.

"Blanche?" Matthew asked for a confirmation.

"She belongs to you now." The man smiled.

"Oh my gosh, hey Blanche! Thank you!" Matthew smiles, holding the pink pony.

Safiya: So the guy seems extremely happy, like, I would say questionably happy.

Vivienne: I'm still, like, wary of this whole thing. Sure, it looks fun and the popcorn was okay, but I'm still wondering about what the letter said. And why is no one else cautious?

"Matt, can you help me win a prize now! I wanna win the small elephant plush." Vivienne asked, trying to make the most of this place.

"Alright, sure." Matthew and Blanche in his arm were basically dragged to a stall of a game.

"Hello, would you like to play the game and win a prize?" The woman managing the stall asked.

"Yes please! How do we win?" Vivienne looked at the stall, eyeing the game. It was an arrangement of bottles stacked up.

"You have to knock down these bottles using this slingshot. You get three tries," the woman instructed.

"Okay." Vivienne accepted the challenge, and was given the slingshot.

Vivienne pointed directly at the bottles, usually she never plays carnival games, but when she does, she's amazingly flawless at them.

Vivienne shot at the glass, knocking it over. "Yes! Yay!" Vivienne hugged Matthew. MatPat more so was there for moral support, he thought. But he was simply glad he could spend time with you.

Matthew was also surprised of the sudden hug, but cheered along with Vivienne happily.

"Here's your prize! Thanks for playing!" The woman handed Vivienne an elephant plushie.

"That was cool," Vivienne said, "Kinda small though." Vivienne looked at the child-size plushie. In comparison to Blanche, it was tiny.

"It's okay, we can trade." MatPat offered.

"Nope, you keep Blanche. I have my blue elephant." Vivienne softly smiled.

Matthew and Vivienne saw Rosanna with Colleen. Those two were also with Manny and Teala.

"Oh my god hey Viv! Seen you won some prizes."Colleen hugged the girl. Vivienne laughed and hugged back Colleen.

"Yup, I'm good at these games," said Vivienne.

MatPat began conversing with Teala and Manny during the whole interaction.

"Okay, so I was like talking with these two, and we're here to save the town, how can we use our talents to help? Because like as a dancer, I don't know what much I can do." Colleen explained.

"I can mix things..." Manny said.

"I can design clothes? Or other things?" Vivienne also answered.

"I do detective work a lot." Matthew added, only with his theory videos that required much mental power and over analyzing.

"Yeah, like Teala, have you ever done spy work before?" Colleen asked Teala.

"No, this is my first job." Teala replied.

"So we're screwed." Vivienne said sarcastically.

"Unfortunately," joked Rosanna with a nod.

After some conversations, the group of Matthew, Rosanna, Vivienne, Roi, and Colleen notice a woman in dark clothing.

Roi screamed suddenly, and the group looked at him in confusion. "I'm sorry, she just scared me!"

The woman looked like a wanderer.

Rosanna: I thought, let's use my social skills as a jet-setter to see what's going on here!

"Hello! Bonjour!" Rosanna walked up to the woman.

"The stars..." the woman said.

"The stars?" Vivienne asked in confusion.

"She's talking about the stars..." Matthew noted.

"The stars have been talking to me." The woman pointed to the sky.

"So what are they saying?" Rosanna asked.

"All kinds of secrets," she answered.

"Are they friendship secrets, lighthearted secrets, or...oh! Dark secrets?" Rosanna tried to guess.

"He's coming." The woman said, like she was warning.

"Who's coming?" Vivienne questioned.

Roi: She's talking about the stars, or someone is coming, he's coming.

"Who's coming?" Roi asked.

The woman grew interest in Rosanna's purple stuffed animal, and petted the dog.

"That's blueberry." Rosanna introduced.

"Blueberries are coming?" Colleen stupidly guessed, making MatPat and Vivienne hide a laugh.

Colleen: I don't know what she's talking about, but this girl is crazy, and I want nothing to do with her.

After the weird interaction, Vivienne spotted the Ferris wheel. "Oo, Ro! Matt! Let's go on the Ferris wheel." Vivienne pointed.

Matpat: I'm a roller coaster enthusiast, sign me up for any carnival ride I am there, front and center.

Rosanna: I cannot remember the last time I've been on a a Ferris wheel. They are adorable!

Vivienne: Come to think of it, I never actually went on a Ferris wheel. Hopefully my first time won't be my last?

The three went up the small stairs to get on the Ferris wheel.

Rosanna: We get on the ferris wheel, there's an adorable little blanket, so we get comfy with Matt sitting in the middle with all our plushie prizes, Vivi then discovers there's something under the blanket. A newspaper.

"You guys?" Vivienne asked, holding up the newly found newspaper.

"The clowns here kill." Matthew read.

The two girls gasped. "Oh my god! This town does need saving!" Vivienne exclaimed. "I was right!"

"The killer clown clan strikes again. Much to no one's surprise, four major players of the clan shown here, be warned." Matthew read off the paper.

Rosanna: The clown who welcomed us into Everlock...front page news for being a murderous clown.

Vivienne: Oh, so that's why that girl was laughing so weirdly. I don't know how Mat finds those things likable.

The three all then call for the people beneath them to try and warn the others about the clowns. "Guys! Don't trust the clowns!" MatPat yelled.

"What?" Colleen asked in confusion.

Rosanna: We realize we are not having fun. We are in trouble and the ride stops.

"Are you stuck?" Colleen and Roi ask.

Vivienne: We're stuck on the ride, trying to warn our friends, they can't hear us, and if you move at all...

Rosanna leaned forward, and so did the Ferris wheel seat. "Oh my god Jesus!" Matthew exclaimed. "Okay so don't lean forward!"

Vivienne: Yup, this Ferris Wheel ride will be my first and last after this experience.

Roi: I totally think the crazy lady is responsible because she was putting her hands in the sky to the Ferris wheel. I'm pretty sure she has some physic super power.

Vivienne leaned her head on Matthew's shoulder, she felt scared how she couldn't do nothing to help her friends. Rosanna looked down at the ferris wheel nervously knowing what was to come.

Vivienne noticed the same murdering clown invite Joey and Teala near her.

"No Joey don't trust the clown!" Matthew yelled.

"They won't hear us." Vivienne sighed in defeat.

The three watch as Joey makes conversation with the clown as she hands him a box with a star on it.

JC: So we're all kinda gathering around because Joey gets this box. People say to open it, some say not to open it. He's trying to decide what to do all of a sudden—

A loud horn could be heard. "What the hell!" Vivienne yelped and covered her ears. "Oh it's just Mortimer's mom." Vivienne then saw, making Matthew laugh.

"How is that his mom? She looks fabulous she doesn't look old enough to be his mom." Rosanna speculated as Matthew and Vivienne nodded in agreement.

"Thank you all for coming to our carnival. It's our life blood!" The mayor announced.

"I think you mean it's sucking our blood!" The odd woman from earlier spoke.

"Huh? What'd she say?" Rosanna asked.

"I don't know, but girlfriend thinks she's doing something." Vivienne replied.

"I'm just in to see what happens before I form any biases," told MatPat, watching the whole thing.

"The spell won't last forever, and then you know who is coming back." The peculiar woman continued.

JC: And I'm like, we don't know who, but that doesn't sound good.

The mayor sighed, "I wouldn't listen to her words, please avoid this woman and her nonsense. She's Gypsy trash who lives on the outskirts of town."

"Damn she got her there." Matthew watched.

"Right!" Rosanna and Vivienne nodded.

"Never willing to join us. She's not to be trusted." The mayor added.

"Where did you get that?" The woman then pointed to the star box Joey held.

"I won it. It's mine." Joey said.

"Calliope—"

"Not today Janet!" The woman now known as Calliope interrupted the mayor.

"Better shut that mouth, Janet." Vivienne muttered.

"Do you know what that is?" Calliope asked.

"Hah! It's a toy." The mayor tried to speak.

"No! That is one of the Carnival Master's wicked artifacts!" Calliope explained.

Joey: So apparently this box is some weird artifact I shouldn't open. But, at the same time, I kinda wanna open it.

"It's a harmless carnival prize! Please just open it and put this woman's hysteria to rest!" Mayor spoke.

"Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it!" Teala warned.

"I agree I think we should open it." Nikita said.

"Guys! What should I do should I open it?" Joey asked. "I'm gonna open it." Joey said.

"No, dumbass!" Rosanna, Vivienne, and Matthew yelled out of frustration.

"God were so useless right now!" Matthew yelled.

"It's okay Matt. We'll get through whatever dumbass decision Joey is making." Vivienne assured.

Joey slowly opened it, a jack in the box opened it along with screams. Screams the trio stuck on the ferris wheel could hear.

Safiya: As soon as the box opens, and I see that jack with the knife in its head, I'm like, yeah we probably just unleashed something evil.

"Now nothing happened everything is fine!" The mayor said.

"Nope, we heard screams." Vivienne commented.

"Just enjoy the carnival honestly!" The mayor said, before getting grabbed by a clown and falling to her death.

"Oh shit!" The trio yelled.

"His mom just died!" Rosanna said.

Everyone heard gunshots, it was clowns. The murdering clowns on the newspaper. "I told you the clowns!" Matthew flicked his newspaper in frustration, putting his hand to his chin.

Teala: Oh my god clowns are my biggest fear and all of a sudden there are like hundreds of clowns.

Manny: Pandemonium, honestly, we're all shook.

The clowns start to kill most people in the carnival. Mortimer tries to usher most of Joey's friends into a building, Joey making sure everyone was in before him. Vivienne sees Roi and Colleen calling for help.

"Roi!" Vivienne shouted to try and see what was going on.

"Vivi, help us!" Roi yelled, as if they could do anything.

"Joey!" Rosanna yells seeing her captured friend.

"Don't worry they're just taking it to the murder van." Matthew said.

"They got Joey! They got Joey!" Rosanna repeats.

"That sounds so comforting, Mat." Vivienne said, sarcastically.

"This is terrible." Matthew sighed.

"Oh why don't we try to distract the clown so they can get out the van?" Rosanna suggested.

"Yes! Perfect Ro," Vivienne nodded.

"That's not a bad idea." Matthew said.

"Right like what do you think? You pretty impressed?" Rosanna said. "Throw something to distract them." Rosanna instructed, trying to get any of her friends to throw a plushie.

"I'd rather not, Rosie. We're not throwing our plushies we just won!" Vivienne said.

"If you two won't do it, I will." Rosanna held her dog plushie. "Bye blueberry." Rosanna said and threw her stuffed dog.

"Oh my god what are you doing, no!" Matthew exclaimed as Vivienne's eyes widened.

"Aw! A gift! It's a puppy! Hahaha!" The red clown with abs said and hysterically laughed. "Let them down! Now!" She noticed you three.

"Okay, I think we're gonna die now." Vivienne spoke.

"Matt, Viv, that's—that's us now!" Rosanna said, immediately the Ferris wheel turns back on, the trio doing down.

Rosanna: Our cart is slowly coming to the ground, and she is dead center, waiting for us.

Vivienne: She also has some sick abs. That's a strong woman right there, and if she's a clown who murders, that's the worst can of worms yet.

"I wanna taste you!!" The clown shouted.

Matpat: I got some experience from my detective training. I'm not afraid of conflict.

"See the sledge hammer!" The clown said while spinning her weapon, the trio was finally fully down.

Matpat: Maybe a little bit.

"Oh! Getting out of here. Ohhh this is so hard. Ohh we're not stalling at all!" Matthew jokes as the three slowly made way off the ferris wheel.

Vivienne: All of a sudden, I think her name Calliope? Comes out of no where and like starts beating down the clown with a crowbar.

"Oh yea! Thank you!" Matthew said.

"She's a huge bitch." Calliope sighed. The trio ran to the nearest tent.

"Hey! That was good! Thank you." Matthew hugged calliope.

"Matt, let's put our plushies together to save for later!" Vivienne said as Matthew agreed, putting Blanche and the yet to be named elephant down.

Matpat: We rush into the nearest tent, still holding the blanket, and the newspaper. On the newspaper, there's these weird jester symbols.

"There's a bunch of joker hats, there's four joker hats." Rosanna said.

"What would that mean?" Calliope asked.

Rosanna: I'm looking around this tent, and there's tons of boxes, there's a toilet, and it's very odd.

"I got one symbol! It's actually not a hat, it's a symbol." Matthew said, holding some pillow.

Matpat: Ro finds a piñata that is larger than herself.

"Yeah let's do this!" Rosanna grabbed a bat.

"Rosanna has some repressed rage from being stuck on the Ferris wheel. I wouldn't mess with her I would watch out." Matthew warns.

Rosanna hit the piñata with force. "Good swing, Ro!" Vivienne complimented.

"That's for taking Joey!" Rosanna swung at the piñata.

"There it is, there it is!" Calliope said.

"Do one for blueberry!" Matthew said. "Or for ruining Anne's first experience on the Ferris wheel!" Matthew added as Vivienne giggled.

Matpat: We find a small wooden piece, that tells me we need to look inside the objects.

The trio were opening a pillow full of feathers. "Wait wait wait wait!" Matthew went through feathers and found another wooden piece.

"Yes!" Vivienne cheered.

Matpat: We find our second piece of whatever this thing is. There's a mysterious piece off of one side of the tent. There's certain sections that are missing in the design. We start placing them and lights start to illuminate over the top of the mirror.

"Yes see! The light!" Calliope pointed.

"Okay that's two." Matthew said.

Vivienne gasped. "Third! It's inside! Here it is! Mat! Ro! I found my first one!" Vivienne held up the wooden piece.

"Awesome! Good job, love!" Matthew accidentally let the pet name slip.

Matpat: I don't know why I let the stupid pet name slip from my mouth, unless she notices, and for the bit, I'll continue that. But anyway, Anne found her first piece!

Vivienne: I hear the pet name slip out, and I'm slightly surprised but I also secretly like it? I'll pretended I didn't hear it and see what he does. But anyway, there's one more jester hat for us to find!

Vivienne attached the wooden piece and a light bulb turned on. "One more." They all noticed.

Rosanna: We're looking for the last piece and there's one place we haven't checked.

Rosanna gasped. "Do we see anything in the toilet?" Matthew asked, lifting up the lid. "Aww!" Vivienne gagged at the sight.

Rosanna: No no! PU PU. This thing is rank!

"Aww but there's a clue." Matthew said.

"I'll keep watch." Calliope spoke, watching outside and clearly not willing to stick her hand in there.

"Yeah now you're gonna keep watch." Vivienne and Matthew say.

"It's gotta be in there." Vivienne groaned.

"It does." Matthew replied.

"But why don't we all do it!" Rosanna suggested.

"Really?" Matthew and Vivienne asked incredulously.

Rosanna: I really wanted to share this crappy task and be a team player.

"I can get dirty!" Rosanna assured. "Ouuu!" Rosanna said.

"I'll take off my jacket for this." Vivienne said and took of hers, revealing a small sweater and rolled her sleeves up.

Rosanna: I am gagging.

"This is teamwork." Vivienne tried to assure herself.

"Okay let's do it." Matthew started. "1, 2, 3."

They all counted and dug their hands in the mystery texture. "Disgusting!" Vivienne whines.

Matpat: Well, the clues have been inside things maybe I need to start like squeezing the turds.

Matthew and Vivienne were complaining at the texture and how smelly it was. "I got it. I got it." Matthew held out the final wooden piece as Rosanna and Vivienne had a coughing fit.

"Bless you, children." Calliope spoke, turning around.

"No problem." Matthew nods.

Matpat: We got our four pieces.

"That's the last light." Calliope pointed.

"Why does it have to be installed this way." Matthew said, walking near Vivienne.

Suddenly...Vivienne felt some hand touch her. "Oh oh, oh no!" Matthew laughed as Vivienne looked livid.

"Did you just get that on my new pants!?" Vivienne gasped as her friends could only laugh.

"I'm sorry, my love, I'm sorry!" Matthew laughed.

"Matthew did you just get that on my new pants!" Vivienne turned around.

"I'm sorry it was totally not on purpose." Matthew laughed.

"Why would you do thst to Vivi's cute outfit!" Rosanna said beneath her giggles.

Matthew: Vivienne had a small, but cute, fit about it, and as much as I wanted to help her, she was distracted as I complete the mirror.

"Yes! Oh it opened something!" Matthew noticed.

"It's a note and a key." Vivienne picked up the items and put it on the mirror.

Matpat: You know, I guess we could've found a stick or something, but. you know. Yeah, in retrospect we could've found a stick.

"You're good Anne, your butt and your new pants are clean!" Matthew assured as Vivienne wiped her butt on a chair and put on her cardigan.

Rosanna walked out and was suddenly met with clowns, her scream could be heard. "Go! Go!" Vivienne and her friends ran, losing Calliope with them in the process.

Overall, the group failed to run, and got tied up to a carousel. Vivienne was shocked and all she could hear were screams and clowns.

Safiya: I'm wracking my brain to figuring out like how could we not be killed by these clowns right now, and I've got nothing.

Roi: It's terrifying, you know?

Manny: We're gonna get killed.

"We want our box back. You filthy cretin." The clown spoke menacingly.

"We don't have it." Joey said, as Mortimer did.

"You stole it from us!" The clown pointed.

"Who has the box!" Joey asked.

"Mortimer!" Most answered.

"We're gonna roll our dice of death and whoever's number comes up, I gut em! I gut 'em right here! In front of your friends! Unless, unless! Luke rolls a twelve! And then! And then! I let one of you go!"

Manny: I'm like please roll a twelve, please roll a twelve, I'm like freaking out, freaking out!

"Do you feel lucky?" The clown asked, pressing a button making the carousel spin.

Joey: Thus is it. One of us is going to die. Right here. Right now.