Very Short Stories

The Ticket

I

Somebody had given me a golden ticket to some place, a place I've never been to. "Circus of Wonderland" written in shiny, black cursive text. Though it looked intriguing, it was suspicious. "It's a nice place, you better check it out." He said. I didn't believed him, but my mind was so teemed with curiosity, basically exploding at that point, that I had to check it out. It certainly wasn't April the 1st or anything, and in the ticket it didn't gave me any location, or where it was. I wanted to ask him but he looked strange, he stood still, motionless, smiling at me as though I had complimented him a thing about himself that he is most proud of. Upon this discovery he seemed as though he had developed catatonic schizophrenia and then proceed to turn around and firmly walk the opposite way, with an almost audible "Bye!" The exclamation mark was the result of him cracking his voice, sort of. Perhaps it was on purpose, I don't know. But I didn't find it weird or anything, I thought it was because his anxiety had gotten the better of him, or his social battery was low.

I wasn't very well acquainted with the town yet, as I had only moved a few weeks before. I had asked a policeman about the location of the golden ticket, he looked like the kind of person that knows every local place or store in the back of his head, but right as I showed him the ticket, he shook his head. Strange, I thought. A circus is noticeable, obviously for how big it is, and of course, how loud it is. But as I had asked strangers upon where this circus is, all of them had not a clue.

The sun slowly began to crept out and sink in the horizon. The clouds were still and were glowing reddish and orangish, like half painted canvas. It had possibly distracted me but it felt right to admire nature's serenity. Albeit, I got a circus to go tonight. It had already became dark, and I was pretty tired.

I decided not to go to the Circus that night. Since early afternoon, I had travelled every place in the city, and not one sight of a circus. I even checked Google Maps to see if there was any circus around me or in this city, it said none at all. I was confused. Soon I thought it was worldwide, somewhere else in the world other than here. I headed to bed because it was near midnight, ate some bread and drank a plastic bottle of cold water which had been hidden in the depth of the fridge for some time now. After a few seconds, I was sort of disappointed it wasn't here, how many bliss would I have been feeling right now instead of sleeping alone, in my hotel room, which is quite nice but such comparisons can make one feel ungrateful. Perhaps I am being ungrateful. I need to go to sleep.

II

I woke up from a strange sound coming from the window. It wasn't a bird landing on the window to check if I was alive or not, to eat my body. No, it was something else, something like a knock. I woke up half-conscious, gripping my thigh from such an awakening, and turned my head towards the window like a turret spotting an enemy. I observed, analyzed, zoned out for a few seconds, observed again, attentively. The whole room was dark and quiet, and the moon was glistening, hovering the earth, creating a dim, sparkly shine from my window onto the floor of the room. I didn't knew what to do. Should I knock back? Ding dong ditch my window? What a stupid idea.

It was five in the morning, and as the weariness had gotten to me, three knocks were heard coming from my window. I sat straight up, and looked, and something was watching me. It didn't looked human, it was a clown, full of makeup, it was covering half of its face vertically, so I couldn't see his mouth or anything under. It wore a wore out propeller cap, it looked greasy, like its own face. Its eyes was the scariest, which stunt me in an utmost despair, its pupil was small and fully black, and its eyes would cling onto me, motionless, emotionless, corpse-like, it sent a lightning down my nerves, my legs were uncontrollably shaking under the sheets, my whole heart was pumping at high speed, my left side of the brain felt a slight pain like a leprosy, my right eye lid twitched, and my muscles tensed. I was immobile, but inside I was running an entire marathon and doing a staring contest with a creature that could kill me in an instant. We both stood still. My eye brow felt an itch, sweating, and my whole body felt as though something had possessed me entirely.

I saw the sun rises behind it, and at first my inner self was celebrating "YES! YES! GO, YOU GROTESQUE DEMON!" But it didn't go away. It was still sitting there. I doubted, but after a while, alas, it slowly crept down, hiding itself from my sight, I didn't bothered to question it anymore, just to move my eyes were a blessing, and felt so relieved, sort of. It might be still there. But I still couldn't move. I was still shocked, paralyzed, and my eyes were reddened from staring, and as I let my eyes wandered from the window, onto the clear wall the creature were still lingered in my vision, like a blurred, dimmed, translucent photograph. I was so disabled from thinking straight that with some time to reflect, maybe it was the ticket that had made this happened. It tickled me, struck me. After some time now I slowly got up, put on a white shirt, a jean, didn't showered because I was too horrified to, grabbed the ticket and went out to give it to somebody random walking down the street to forever stay away from it.

I should've burnt the ticket.