Ep 56.5 (Extra). Clown Jester
A woman ran as fast as her legs could carry her, ignoring the trail of blood that her bleeding feet were leaving behind. She couldn’t let the pain slow her down – not with her little daughter, barely a year old, in her arms. She screamed for help, but her words were soon drowned out by an even louder voice behind her.
Her husband chased after her in drunken steps, swinging his emptied bottle of ale like a club. His slurred, anger-filled shouts echoed through the night, but not a single villager came to the woman’s rescue.
Someone else will look. Someone else will check. Surely, someone else will help this poor woman and her child.
“But they don’t, do they?”
When the woman abruptly turned a corner, standing before her was another child. His voice was young and immature, and yet, he clearly wasn’t an ordinary child of the village.
He was slightly shorter than the woman herself, and looked no older than maybe thirteen or so. However, decorating his body were lavish, presumptuous items that no villager could ever afford in these parts; his oversized, blood-orange overcoat was adorned in intricate patterns and decorations of gold, being worn over a violet linen undershirt whose fabric seemed to glow in the dark. A pretentious hat of the same orange hue was over his head, adorned with several feathers of sparkling rainbow colors.
When the boy tipped his hat slightly, the woman could see a pair of mesmerizing green eyes, gleaming in the dark. She remained standing without even realizing that her running had ceased – and soon, her husband was behind her, approaching threateningly with his swinging bottle.
“YOU BITCH!! HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME RUN?!”
The woman didn’t seem to pay her husband any mind. Instead, her eyes remained locked with the boy’s before her.
He held out his hand with an expectant grin.
“Go. You can do it.”
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The woman slowly nodded as she handed her babe over to the boy. He gently embraced the child with both arms, and the woman turned around to face her approaching husband. Her eyes gleamed in an eerie green light as she met the man’s angry bursts head-on.
“KNEEL, BITCH! HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN YOUR PLACE?!”
When he was close enough, the husband raised the glass bottle into the air, swinging it down into the woman’s head. If this killed her, then she deserved it.
But contrary to the man’s intent, his wife stepped to the side all too easily. His swing fell on nothing as the man fell forward, losing his balance from the unexpected lack of impact. The glass shattered against the street’s barren floors, and his face fell right into one of its broken shards.
A horrifying scream filled his throat as the broken pieces scraped against his eyes and face. But before he could get up, the woman plunged one of the broken glasses into the back of his throat, creating a fountain of blood as her husband soon fell limp.
“My, look at your mother. Isn’t she brave?”
The boy gently cradled the daughter in his arms. Her delightful laughter filled the night, almost as if the baby knew that her biggest threat in life was no more.
When the mother turned to face them again, a horrifying, bloodied face was all they could see. But when the baby began to tear up in fear, the boy gently tapped her forehead, melting away the fear in the child’s eyes and replacing it with another series of delightful laughters.
“There, there. Be nice to your mother.”
The boy offered the babe back, but the woman took no action to retrieve her daughter. Instead, her face also contorted in fear as she slowly backed away from the grinning boy before her.
“Who…are you? What did you do to me? I, I just…my husband, he…!”
“My, my. Why so scared? This is what you wanted all along.”
“That’s not true! What sane woman would want to kill their husband?!”
“Apparently, you.”
“You did something to me!”
“I did. I urged you to do what you wanted to do most.”
“No, that’s not true. There’s no way this is what I wanted. I…”
“Come, smile. Today’s supposed to be a joyous day, filled with laughter.”
As soon as the boy finished his sentence, an involuntary smile spread across the woman’s face. Her fear and horror soon melted away as she beamed back a motherly grin.
“There, isn’t that so much better? I’m sure your daughter appreciates it. Here, you can take her back.”
“Oh…thank…you…”
The woman retrieved her babe, cradling the little girl as she began to walk back home.
The boy remained standing in place with the woman’s abandoned husband, bleeding away in the middle of the street. Soon, the dogs and ravens would come to feast on his body.
The boy’s lips curved in a snarky grin as he looked to the warm corpse.
“Even I didn’t know she’d go THAT far. You’re quite the scum, aren’t you?”
The boy laughed at his own words as he crouched down, staring into the dead man’s lightless eyes. He solemnly closed their open eyes before turning around to leave.
“It was just a jest, my friend. I am a Clown – surely you understand.”