PixelJail

Story by Wolvun

“Okay how about you fuck off back to the car and wait for us, we’ll bring you some candy floss back!”

Maria’s glasses fell to the mud as she was shoved over. She looked up to see three blurry people standing above her, three fellow college students she had been invited to the Samhein Carnival with. Seemingly as their designated driver only.

“With all the cute boys around we don’t need some nerd ruining the vibes” One of the blurry people said, Maria couldn’t even tell who it was without her glasses.

She felt about, trying to find them in the mud, trying to hold back tears. Lips trembling as she fumbled across them.

She put them on, watching the three leave her behind in the dirt. Her beautiful brown eyes welled up with tears as she could no longer hold them back. She could feel her mascara bleeding onto her cheeks as she wept. She had made such an effort to look good to spend time with the girls and they couldn’t even keep her around past the carnival entrance. They’re going to have all the fun in there without her.

She walked away from the Carnival, back to the car, through the forest, into the dark, to give herself a moment of privacy and calm herself.

How could this night get any worse, she thought.

And then something grabbed her. 

A sudden arm appeared from behind a tree. Catching her and spinning her around. Leaving her dizzy and adjusting her glasses again to see who the blurry person was who grabbed her

A Clown?

A very lewd, underdressed Clown with makeup even messier than Maria’s.

“I’m sorry, I..I can’t stay here, I’m going home, tonight is a nightmare!” Maria sobbed, ready to walk past.

The Clown shakes her head. Tilting her head then pressing her fingers to Maria’s cheek in a smile.

“I…can’t.” Maria’s tears continued to stream, her mascara completely ruined by now.

The Clown tilted her head the other direction questioningly, an eye full of equally ruined makeup raised in confusion. Maria had been so worried about her own, and the Clown’s makeup, that she completely missed how blank and white the Clown’s eyes looked.

Reaching behind her back, the Clown retrieved five white, wet balls with bright cyan rings and a black dot in the middle, and began juggling them, her smile widening, as if to try and cheer up Maria.

“I’m sorry, but so long as my vision is so bad. So long as I have to wear these thick, ugly, nerdy glasses. I’ll never be able to smile!”

The Clown frowned at this, and stopped juggling, the gooey balls landing somehow perfectly on a stack in one of her hands in a way that seemed completely impossible, but was missed by Maria, too upset to even notice.

A sudden, wide smile spread across the Clown’s face. She raised her finger, then quick as a flash, removed the glasses from Maria’s face. 

“H-Hey!” Maria reached out to take them back but couldn’t find them with her weak eyes in the dark.

The blurry Clown simply patting her head, somewhat mockingly. 

Maria wasn’t sure what to do, beginning only now to feel that something was wrong, and realising how alone she was, how dark it was, and how helpless she was. The Clown sat her down against the tree and began to stroke her head. 

“What are you…?”

The Clown never spoke, she only pressed on Maria’s teary eyelids, implying for her to close her eyes.

…

…

…Schlop…

Shhhk!

…Schlop…

Shhk!

…

Maria sat there, blinking in confusion. She could see so…clearly. Looking up at the Clown, she could see her smiling back clearer even than when she was wearing her glasses before. There wasn’t anything the Clown needed to say, she just smiled that eerie smile.

Maria did not return to the carnival that night. She headed back home, alone. She didn’t need the girls, or her glasses anymore. She felt she could be herself. She could be happy, and she could smile again.

The Clown also smiled, watching the Carnival begin to light up.

Now juggling five white, wet balls, three with bright cyan rings and two beautiful brown ones.