Schooled [Laughing JackxReader]

9

At the sound of the gun firing you instinctively squeezed your eyes shut and waited for the end. Several seconds passed and, much to your surprise, it never came. You opened and your eyes again to see the attacker looking down at his gun. He also seemed pretty surprised that you weren't dead. Or at least you assumed he was. The man's face was hidden behind a black cloth mask with red eyes and a long red frown. The rest of his head was concealed by a honey-colored hoodie.

You took advantage of the confusion and smacked the gun out of his hands. Compared to the monster you'd just locked in the closet, a man in a mask didn't seem that intimidating. He was about to dive down and grab it again, but you swiftly kicked it and sent it skittering into the kitchen. The man responded by pouncing on you, pinning you to the ground. You really wished you'd hung onto your baseball bat.

The hooded man pulled back his fist, supporting himself with only one arm. You took your chance and used your freed hand to push him off balance. He landed flat on his back and you scrambled to your feet. Not sure what else to do, you grabbed the gun and aimed it at the attacker, who was starting to get to his feet. He paused when he saw the gun pointing at him, and you tried to disguise the way your hands were shaking. The blank expression of the man's mask was unnerving. If one more crazy thing happened tonight you were going to have a heart attack.

"Put down the gun." The hooded man said in a cautious tone. His voice was quiet, and slightly muffled by the mask.

"N-no thank you." You squeaked pathetically. You cleared your throat and tried to put on a braver face. "Who are you?" You demanded. He didn't answer, so you tried again. "Are you working with the clown guy?"

Chilling laughter erupted from behind the closet door. Both you and the hooded man looked over at it. You couldn't see his face of course, but you were guessing he was as startled as you were. Your mouth went dry. The clown was awake.

"Hoodie? Puuuh-lease. Hoodie's not fun enough to hang out with me." The raspy voice mused from within the closet. "I prefer a good....conversationalist."

You looked back at the hooded man, apparently named 'Hoodie'. The clown seemed to know him, but wasn't working with him? You weren't sure if having two independently operating psychopaths after you was better or worse.

"Who are you?" You demanded again.

The clown giggled. "Might as well tell her, hmmmmm? You're gonna kill her anyways, right Briaaaaan~?"

Hoodie tensed up and there was an audible smack from within in the closet, as if the clown had slapped his hand over his mouth. "Oh silly me~ I've ruined the surprise. Oh well~ You can take that awful stuffy mask off now, kiddo!"

For a while no one moved. No one said anything, just waited for someone else to break the silence. Finally, you did.

"T-take off the mask." You told the hooded man, your voice was hoarse and barely more than a whisper. There was only one way to know if the clown was telling the truth. Brian didn't move. "TAKE OFF THE MASK!!" You screamed, and in an act of pure instinct, fired a warning shot at the ground. You could've sworn you heard the clown snort.

Reluctantly, Hoodie's gloved hands lifted to the mask and pulled it off of his face. You wanted to scream, you wanted to cry and thrash around and demand to know what the hell you did to deserve this, but you did none of those things. You just stood there, and looked at Brian. And he looked at you.

"(Y/n)," Brian held up his hands, "Just let me explain. I'm trying to help you-"

"Help me?" You asked, incredulous. You gestured to the gun in your hand, "You tried to shoot me!!"

"Shooting you would be a kindness compared to what he's going to do to you!"

Immediately the clown scoffed. "How dare you accuse me of such a thing!" He had the sort of over-expressive tone of a disney villain as he spoke, "I wouldn't hurt a hair on this young lady's head~"

"Don't listen to him (y/n)." Brian pleaded, and pointed accusingly towards the closet, "He killed that kid and he's going to kill you too. You're a witness, it's what he does!"

"Says the guy who just tried to shoot her." The clown responded.

You didn't know who or what to believe. Was Brian lying, or the clown? Or both?

"You're insane." You backed towards the open door, keeping the gun on Brian, "You're both insane!!"

You fled out into the hall. You could hear Brian chasing you, and knew it wouldn't take him long to catch up. None of your neighbors had their lights on, ruining your plan to seek refuge and call the police in another apartment. Now you were running short of breath as well as options. Brian was gaining on you, and there was only one thing you could do. Abruptly to stopped, turned, and pointed the gun at him. Brian slowed to a stop a few feet away from you, and once again you were at a stalemate. Brian would pounce at the slightest opening, you knew that. All you needed to do was shoot him in the knee or something, you didn't have to kill him. Still, your hands shook and your finger refused to put pressure on the trigger. Brian must have sensed this, because he began to edge towards you. You both were so occupied with eachother's movement, that neither noticed the thin, grayish smoke that crept along the floor and circled your ankles.

A sweet scent reached your nose and you began to feel lightheaded. The sensation grew stronger as the smoke rose and rose, until the hall was completely filled with the gray haze. You tried covering your nose and mouth, but it was too late. The world was spinning. The sickly sweet smoke filled your lungs and you felt like you were suffocating. You dropped the gun and crumpled to the floor. Brian, on the other hand, seemed unaffected. He was looking around, searching for something in the smoke. When his eyes fell on you again he froze. Steadily his eyes moved upwards, and fixed on something behind you. You didn't know what it was, and you weren't sure you cared too. At this point your limbs were too heavy to lift anyways.

There was a sound like the rustling of cloth, and two striped arms whooshed past you from above. Brian turned to run from the attack, but it was too late. The clown's arms coiled around him like snakes as you watched helplessly. The monster held Brian up in the air as he struggled, legs thrashing but finding no purchase. Your senses began to fade as the clown drew Brian closer, and by the time he was overhead, everything was black.