Dancing in the Dark

The "check engine" light was the last thing that Valeria wanted to see on her drive. El Paso was still two hours away and the sun would be setting in one. She'd seen a sign a few miles back that the next exit had a service station, so she veered off and down a two-lane highway.

Val was coming from Dallas and had been on the road for seven hours. She'd went to go congratulate her friend on her newborn baby while she was still in the hospital but at that point, she was ready to be home with her own three kids. Her eyes were getting heavy and no amount of Red Bull would help her. Perhaps stopping to get her car checked out would wake her up a bit, make the rest of the drive easier.

A sign passed by her as she approached a little town called Goodnight. Wondering how they got their name, she saw a gas station with a shop in it and pulled in. When she got out of her car and gave a little stretch, she glanced inside the station and almost wanted to scream. Behind the glass was a clown. He was staring at her and he waved with the biggest smile on his face. Val was about to get back in her car and risk it the rest of the way home when another man, who was in mechanic clothes and somewhat normal looking came out of the shop.

"Sorry, ma'am, we're closed up for the night," he told her.

"Oh, please. I'm on my way to El Paso and I just need someone to check under the hood. My engine light came on," she pleaded. "This is my last resort if there's actually something wrong with it."

The man spit a big ball of tobacco on the ground and Val turned her nose up. "Fine. Drive it over to the garage door, I'll open it up."

She sighed in relief. "Oh, thank you!" She opened her door and glanced back toward the inside of the station and didn't see the clown anymore. Maybe she just imagined it. She drove her car to the garage and pulled in, unable to stop thinking about the clown. So she decided to ask. "Hey, is there anyone working inside?"

"Nope, they would be gone by now. Pop the hood, please." She did just that and as he raised the hood above his head, she crossed her arms and kept going.

"I just think I saw someone in there. Someone dressed as a clown."

The mechanic burnt himself on the radiator. "Oh, that. That's probably just my brother, Lenny. He's a little messed up in the brain after he ran straight into a tree when we were youngsters. He's real excited about Halloween."

Who isn't? Val had the best family costumes picked out for that day. Her son was going to be Winnie the Pooh, his twin sister Tigger, and her baby Piglet, while her husband was Christopher Robin and she was Eeyore. Halloween was her favorite time of the year. The only downside is people know how others are afraid of clowns and use that to their advantage. It never didn't freak Val out.

"Well, here's your problem, ma'am. Your alternator is failing, and if that fails, it's gonna mess with your battery as well. I'll need to replace it."

Val groaned lightly. "How long do you think that will take?"

He shrugged. "If I have the part, an hour, two hours tops. If I don't, I'll have to go into town tomorrow."

"No, it can't wait until tomorrow. Please, I'm desperate. I really need to get home." He didn't seem very happy about her begging, but he grunted and nodded.

"I'll try to get it done as soon as possible. If you want, there's a diner up the street you can wait in." She thanked him and grabbed her things from her car that she wouldn't want to leave in there in the first place and started up the road. The sun was barely peeking out and she knew that within a matter of minutes, it'd be gone.

The few signs there were in the town were starting to turn on and she saw the red diner sign and headed toward it. She fast walked toward it but stopped when she saw something out of her peripheral. Red. She turned to her right and saw bright red and orange hair peeking out from behind a tree. It was another clown. It couldn't be the same clown as the one at the gas station. His white face appeared and he raised his hand, holding something. A loud honk filled Val's ears, followed by laughter and she took off running to the diner.

Once inside, she finally breathed. It was after she caught her breath that she realized the entire diner was empty. She called out for someone but no one answered. She stepped further inside, fixing the purse on her shoulder. She didn't even hear banging around in the kitchen area. It was almost too quiet, so quiet it was uncomfortable.

Wham!

The sound of a cleaver slammed down onto the counter back towards the kitchen. Val nearly jumped out of her skin. A hand wearing a white glove was holding the cleaver, and the person rose from behind the counter, and Val couldn't help but scream that time. A clown was smiling back at her and she quickly spun around to the door and ran from the diner as fast as she could.

Somehow, she got turned around and wasn't running back toward the gas station. She was running further and further into town. She ducked behind a Dumpster in an alley and she could hear multiple voices calling out to her.

"Where are you?" It was a taunting, sing-song voice and it made Val's hair stand on end and her skin crawled. "Are we playing hide and seek?" She tried to stand to back up quietly and hurried down the alley to come out behind the buildings. She rounded a corner and ran directly into someone, a girl, but she was also dressed as a clown. Her hair was in pigtails and she had a bright red smile painted on her face. Val opened her mouth but the girl clown put a finger to her lips.

"Shh! You have to be quiet, or else more will come," she told her in a low voice.

"Wha-what do you mean more?"

She laughed and placed her hands on her hips. "You think they're the only ones? Oh no. They're apart of us. Apart of our kind."

"What do you mean, 'our kind?' The only person I've seen in this town who wasn't a clown was the mechanic." She laughed again, rolling her head around and around. Then, she froze as she stared skyward, and slowly lowered her head to Val as her smile disappeared.

"The clowns will come for you." Val took a step back as the clown stepped forward. She crossed her arms like a kid does when they pout. "And I don't like sharing."

She furrowed her brows. "Sharing?"

"Mm-hmm! I hate sharing my meals."

Val had heard enough and put her full body weight into the shove she gave the clown and ran past her, not without hearing her laughing maniacally behind her. She ran and ran as fast as she could, without looking back, and she could hear the laughter behind her.

Her car was still parked on the lift when she got back to the station. She hurried into the garage and saw the mechanic lying on floor. His innards were sprawled across his ripped open torso and his eyes stared at nothing. She held in a scream and saw her keys in the man's hand. As she reached for them, there was rapid footsteps approaching outside. She snatched them up as fast as possible and hurried to her car.

Getting the keys in the ignition fast enough was almost impossible because of how much she was shaking. She put the car in reverse and hit the gas, backing out of the garage and spinning out on the gravel. When her car straightened, the clown from inside the station was at the pumps, holding onto the light pole and spinning around, humming, smiling. Then, he stopped and stared directly at her, still smiling that smile. Val finally snapped out of it and slammed on the gas when he started running toward her.

As she sped down the road, she searched through her purse with one hand trying to find her phone to call the police. She glanced in her rearview mirror and saw multiple clowns, so many that couldn't count. They were all in the street, hugging poles, holding hands, spinning in circles, and dancing in the dark.