Ch 7

       The last thing you remembered was eventually falling asleep at some point while the masked kidnapper, Toby, led you deep into the woods, far  far away from the old cabin you had called home for the past few weeks.

       As your eyes fluttered open again, you noticed that your surroundings were now dark, damp, and cold. Your body was slouched uncomfortably against a wall, and as you had stirred your movements came with the sharp sounds of chain metal scraping against concrete floor. You glanced at your arms and legs and saw that they were chained up to a wooden post that was settled in the corner of the dark room you seemed to be in.

       "Toby!!" You croaked out your kidnapper's name, considering he was the last person who had you in his sighs. You only wanted to know where you were and why the strange man had brought you here. You wanted to know what he was going to do Jeff, most of all...

Your body still felt tired and weak, as you'd just awoken from what was probably hours of unconsciousness. You felt like crying, but at the same time you felt completely out of it, worn out the point you couldn't even shed a tear. Instead, you remained slouched against the wall, your head pounding and your heart racing at the fact that you were sitting alone in a very dark room.

       Your ears suddenly detect movement a bit aways from you in the same room, and your eyes widen in alarm. A slow, dark, unsettling cackle begins to arise from the corner, and as your eyes were adjusting to the dark, you begin to see the faint pattern of something black and white that was situated in the opposite corner of the room.

       "What's...this...? Did someone bring lil' old me a new toy to play with? How exciting, heheheheh~!"

       The voice was callous sounding, unhinged, and almost serpent-like. It tipped off an uncomfortable feeling in your young mind and you began to grow distressed, imagining who or what was there, talking.

        You began to hear the racket of chains scraping across the floor on the other side of the room, and the sound of something dragging along the concrete floors. It sounded like it was coming toward you, which sent you into a complete panicked mode.

       Your eyes spotted the figure of a strange being crawling it's way across the floor out of the dark towards you. It possessed sharp, black claws that scraped the ground as it proceeded to approach you, a wide and unnatural grin stretched on its creepy, hellish looking face. The mop of coal black hair that fell from this being's head wasn't enough to hide the emotionless, white shiny eyes it had, nor the protruding cone-shaped nose that slightly bent at its tip, and it's limbs were rather long and unnatural as it appeared, making it look like a very scary and disproportionate clown of sorts.

       The striped arms of whatever this clown-like being had somehow scared you more than it's screwy face, and you began to whimper helplessly as you attempted to press yourself against the wall as far as you could.

       "Trying to play 'run away' are we? Yet, you have no where to run! Hehah! Isn't that a shame...you shouldn't be trying to run from your new best friend...heh, come and say hello~!..."

       "TOBY!!!!" You yelled again at the top of your lungs for the orange goggled man, not once considering the fact that he was definitely the one that placed you here with this sadistic creature on purpose. You were naive and helpless and all you wanted was someone you could trust, someone that you wouldn't be scared of and that would take care of you. That person was Jeff...but Jeff was no longer here.

       "Toby? Toby?" The clown creature scoffed, now only inches away from you. "All this about Toby, but nothing about Laughing Jack, eh? They've forgotten about me here too, heh? Hahaheh! Of course they did! They always forget about LAUGHING JACK! HEEEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!"

       You flinched at the sudden outburst of laughter from the clown-creature, and watch as it threw it's head back cackling hysterically despite the chains situated around it's body, keeping it restrained. You waited a few moments till it's laughter died down and it's head slowly returned to a normal position, it's creepy eyes fixating back on you.

       "Laughing...Jack..." You exhale, trying your hardest to calm yourself despite probably facing the scariest thing you've ever seen in your life...
...well, there was Jeff, but you'd gotten used to his horror display. "Laughing Jack...that's your name?"

       The clown titled it's head and chuckled, "What's it to you, little gumdrop?"

       "It's...I think it's a funny name. I like that name. I like both yours and Jeff's name..."

       A moment of silence settled the air between you two, causing you to grow more uncomfortable. The clown only stared at you with a blank expression, despite wearing the largest grin imaginable on its face.

       "I'm sorry," You eventually utter out again, trying to shift your gaze away from the clown, "I hoped I didn't hurted your feelings, Mr. Clown."

       'Laughing Jack' seemed to chuckle more at this and crooked his head further to the side, "Hurt my feelings you say? Hah! Not at all! But I am curious...does you really like the name I bear?"

       "Yes...?" You respond, confused by his way of wording things.

       Laughing Jack by now was hovering over your small form despite being restrained to a helpless position on his hands and knees. The clown gazed down at you with an almost curious air about him, whilst you glared back up at him holding back the urge to scream. He raised one of his clawed fingers and gently pressed it against your cheek, causing you to squeeze you eyes shut and tremble uncontrollably.

       You eventually heard him release another snicker and scoff in a more enthusiastic tone, "None of the other little 'friends' they've thrown in here with me ever acted as calm as you have. Sure, ye shiver and shake and call to your 'Ticking Toby'. Expected from a young little guttersnipe, but still a less of reaction then I've ever received, heheheh."

       Slowly opening back up your eyes, you look nervously into the white voids that were the clowns eyes and murmur, "What did...what did your other friends do...?"

       "Welllllllllll...they screamed constantly, cried, tried to attack me! HehhehHAH! Could you believe that? Trying to attack ME? What a ballsy move, eh!? Heheh, I sure showed THEM."

       "What did you show them...?"

       "...Heheh, you innocent little tyke. Why, I showed them what their insides looked like! Heheh...HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH!!"

        You weren't sure what was funny about what Laughing Jack had just said, but it was easy to guess that his humor was quite demented. You had the slightest idea of what he meant by 'showing them what their insides looked like,' and your thoughts instantly flashed back to Jeff's grotesque display of your parents.

       It wasn't funny to you by any means, but you were scared and lost and the last thing you wanted was to make Laughing Jack upset. You force yourself to laugh nervously with him and attempt to copy his mannerisms, throwing your head back slightly and widening your eyes to match his.

       Laughing Jack seemed to notice this and his outburst receded, reducing to a light chuckle. "You're a strange little fella, aren't you? Why'd those walking husks of waste bring you here, eh? What's yer name?"

       "Uhm, my names (Y/n) (L/n)...I mean (Y/n) Hodek. Jeff is my dad...I think. But the last time I called him that he smacked me hard and I saw the color red so I don't know. I think my name is also 'Kid' because Jeff calls me that a lot..."

       Laughing Jack nodded his head slowly, "(Y/n) eh? Heheh. Whose this Jeff fella exactly, I've never seen 'em before?"

       "Jeff is really white and he has black hair like you and he looks scary, like a monster but he is nice sometimes but he's also mad a lot. He turns red a lot sometimes but that's because he jumps in a ketchup pool, he told me that."

       "Ketchup pool eh?"

       "Yeah a ketchup pool! I never got to see it before but he say he will show me one day."

       "...What a poor, clueless little guttersnipe you are~."