6 - Jack-In-The-Box
You wake up one morning laying back on the couch in front of the TV rather than your own bedroom.
Yawning, you sit up and notice that you aren't the only one who fell asleep there.
Sally Williams was asleep on the couch too with her bear cuddle close next to her.
You smile over at Sally and pull the covers on the couch over her to cover her up. You then get up and stalk over to the kitchen to find some food.
When you open up the fridge, you see that it's empty and the only thing left is half eaten block of cheese.
"Damn," you say, grabbing the cheese and taking a bite of it while thinking. Time to go grocery stealing again.
Once you finished the cheese, you floated back into the living room and noticed that Sally was not where you left her; she was gone from where you left her sleeping on the couch.
"Whatcha doing, (Y/N)Man?" A voice suddenly questioned from behind you and you jumped, turning to see Sally standing behind you with her head tilted. "Child. You scared me. What are you doing? Thought you were sleeping..."
"I was! And then I heard the fridge open. I'm hungry!"
"Ghosts can be hungry? That's new."
"Well no...not really but I miss the taste of food. Can I have something to eat?"
You sigh and scratch the back of your head knowing that you had just eaten the last piece of food in your whole mansion. "Yeah, we'll have to go and get some more," you respond, gently patting her head.
You then get a crazy, nonsensical idea. Why not go to a different time and place to go grocery stealing? That way Sally would get to see how your magical mansion works for herself.
"Hey Sally. Want to see something cool?"
"Something cool? Like what (Y/n)Man?"
^^^
You glide out the crowded woods with Sally clinging to your hand as she floated behind you. You had set the mansions location far away from what was normal time again, and Sally hadn't yet seen the difference because the traveling sequence of it wasn't that exciting. But now that the two of you had finally gotten out of the woods, she would actually get to see the changes in place-and time.
Sally looked around with wide, curious eyes at her surroundings; the roads ahead were rocky and unkept. The houses were old-style Victorian colonial houses and the streets were crowded with people.
The people were dressed in a variety of clothes that gave them a status; the rich and wealthy wore sophisticated, vintage clothing and the lower classes wore things from simple middle class attire to poorer dirty clothes.
"(Y/N)Man? Where are we...." Sally asked you, completely confused at how different the world around her looked.
"1800s London. Cause why not? Isn't that cool?" You asked through a wide grin. It was a random choice, but you wanted a taste of what it would be like to visit the Victorian Age today.
"Do they have Lucky Charms here? That was my favorite cereal when I was alive," Sally asked you as the two of you begin to walk towards the busy town up ahead.
"Eh, Lucky Charms don't exist yet sorry. Don't worry, we'll find something worth our time."
As you walked into the town, you caught a lot of attention to yourself because you did poor research on the era and looked for steampunk gear rather actual 1800 attire and was walking around wearing this:
"Are you sure that's what you're supposed to wear here?" Sally asked; she was fine since she was a ghost and no one could see her but she seemed worried about how many nervous glances and quiet whispers you were getting.
"No. But I look metal as heck so I don't really care anymore," You respond with a chuckle. "Also, you don't really expect the one and only "(Y/N)Man" to willingly fully fit in with the people of society, do you?"
Sally chuckled and gave you a soft smile, shaking her head at you.
The two of you continue through the town walking amongst the people and looking at the new-old surroundings. You eventually see a shop you're interested in up ahead that sold stuff like bread and other simple items.
As you begin walking in said direction towards the shop, Sally noticed something a ways off and her hand slowly slips from your grasp. Your attention immediately snaps to her but when you look the goose girl was already done!
"Kids," You mutter, slumping your shoulders as you look around yourself trying to spot the small spirit.
You eventually caught sight of Sally's ghost in the distance walking towards one of the old houses further off from the town centre. "What is she up to?" You mumble to yourself, quickly heading in her direction. You started floating for a bit to follow her but quickly stop when you notice a mortal looking directly at you with huge, frightened eyes.
"Oh shit," You mumble, teleporting yourself away before any more attention could be brought upon yourself. You reappear right before the house that Sally had wandered off to and look at the faded boards of the front door. The house looked a bit abandoned...
You teleport through the door. "Sally? Where are you, you little rascal? I thought you wanted some food," You call out to her, and you hear shuffling come from the upstairs area.
"(Y/N)Man look! Come up here!"
You spot a ladder and climb your way to the top floor, having used a bit too much energy teleporting the last two times already. At the top, you see Sally seated on the floor surrounded by a bunch of old toys. (Old in the sense the 1800s was neither the two of yours era, and old as in the home seemed to have been left alone for a while with all things inside untouched.)
The area looked to have been a small area in which a child must have once stayed in. Sally was playing around with the old toys, smiling brightly, "I don't why but I felt drawn to this place for some reason and for a good reason! Look at all the toys!"
"I see. Looks like a jackpot to me Sal," You smile at the child beneath your mask, glad to see her having fun. Sally put down the wooden toy soldier she was playing with and stood, looking around the room.
"I feel though that there's something bigger in here that I'm missing. I don't know what it is...but there's something in this room that I really want and I can't find it..."
You tilted her head, curious as to what she meant by that. She did say she was drawn here by something-maybe there was another entity in here that was calling to her?
Sally's eyes suddenly dart to a shelf at the back of the room and she floated over to it quickly, looking at its contents.
There wasn't much placed on the dusty, cobweb covered shelf besides a few old books, some jars, and what looked to be a dusty old painted rainbow striped box...
"Oh my gosh! It's so pretty...." Sally exclaimed, reaching for the box and holding it in her hands with a smile. "Oh, I think it's a Jack-In-The-Box! That's so cute!"
"Sally, I'm hungry," You sigh, pretending to look at an imaginary watch on your hand. "You can take some of the toys with you, if you want doesn't look like anyone will be missing them anyways."
Sally was too fascinated with the box to pay attention to your complaints and she eagerly begin spinning the lever. A broken, distorted sounding version of "Pop Goes The Weasel!" seeps out from the box, and for a second you were caught off guard by how off-key it was.
"Pop goes the weasel!" Sang Sally at the ending verse, and she closed her eyes waiting for the big pop up finale....
....Except there was no pop up finale.
Sally frowned and shook the box, "Oh no, it's broken! Is it...is it really broken (Y/N)Man....?"
You walk next to her and place a hand on her shoulder, "It's probably just messed up Sal. Who knows how long it's been sitting there unused and picking up dust. Let's just leave it alone and you can grab some of these other toys, then we can go and get some grub, sound good?"
Sally was hesitantly about to agree with you when she suddenly froze, feeling the very box shake in her hands. It didn't feel like a natural shake that you would expect a normal small toy about to pop out of it.
Sally placed down the box and it continued to shake. She held on to you and the two of you watched with wide eyes as the box began to shake violently. Your senses picked up a rather strange, dark aura you never felt before, and your aura-like tendrils begin to sprout from your back in precaution.
Next thing you know, the box stops shaking but the top flips open casually, like a door. You notice something black and what looks like claw-like hands appear from the box, slowly grabbing the sides. Next, something arises slowly; you see what looks like a pitch black mane of low hanging hair and the head of something rise from the box, and then a body, a very tall ...creature? Beast? Whatever it was, it was unnaturally tall and dingy, wearing striped, monochromatic themed clothing and it had long black claws and long striped arms as well.
The being, once done pulling itself up stepped out of the box and stood like a frail beanstalk, slightly swaying from side to side. You notice beneath the the mop of hair that there was an elongated smile on the creatures face with sharp, crooked teeth and there was a sharp pointy thing coming from where the creature's nose probably should be...
"Who...what...who...eeeek?!?" Sally squeaked, her arms wrapped around you tightly as she watched the being in fright.
You faced the creature that was much taller than you with a straight face. The being chuckled softly, then the softness turned into a rather cruel sounding, psychopathic cackle. It tossed its head back and slapped one of its hands over its face, crowing with laughter as you and Sally watched it in utter silence.
After a while, it's laughter died down and the creature pulled it's head back up to a normal position, revealing the monstrosity that was its face. Wide, freaky colorless eyes and a pale face with a cone shaped striped nose. And the same creepy crooked smile.
It was a whole ass killer looking clown.
"Heh...heh....h-how do ye, ki-kiddies....heheheheh~...?" The being chuckled, eyeing you and Sally down with a dark, paralyzing gaze.
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