Scary Stories and Urban Legends

The Show Must Go On

This story concerns a young girl named Julie Bloom. Julie was a new student at Gregory Doyle Elementary School, and she was in the eighth grade. The school went from Kindergarten to 8th Grade.

The school was preparing for a Halloween Concert complete with acting, singing and dancing. Julie was new and she didn't have a part, but the school wanted to accommodate and include her in the curriculum. It was decided Julie was to perform in a ballet number, for she was a talented dancer.

Julie had come to live with her mother, Alice. Alice was president of the parent's council and organized everything for the extras like concerts, teams and recitals.

Alice decided to hire an entertainer for the young children to keep them busy before their turn to perform. She hired a clown named Arthur Lee, who was supposedly new to the business and hadn't really had an official gig. He was hired to entertain the preschoolers from 7:00 pm until they performed at 9:00.

On the day of the show, which was three days after Julie's first day at school, Arthur arrived. He was a friendly, decent looking man. He was tall and had short blond hair that peeked out from underneath his multicoloured clown wig. As Julie shook his hand, he said, "Good afternoon, Ms. Bloom." His breath smelled terrible, and Julie barely resisted offering him a mint because she didn't want to seem rude.

It was soon 6:30, and the show had begun. All went smoothly. After Julie's routine at 8:45, she went down to the lowest floor where the preschoolers were. She barely knew her way around school. The school was large and complex, and to get from the gym to the preschooler's classroom she had to go down two staircases, through 7 Halls and she got lost three times.

Finally, right on time, she got to the classroom. She pulled open the door. She peeked inside and gasped. There were twenty children in the class, but only five were in the room. Blood was splashed on the walls, and the five bodies were torn and tattered. One was in the sink, another stuffed in a desk, two laying in the reading corner and one tossed against the fan. Blood flew with the wind.

Julie screamed, but her voice was stuck. She couldn't make a noise. She backed out and ran. She tried to find her way outside or to the gym, but she kept coming to dead ends. The classes were empty because everyone was up at the concert. Julie tried to find her way back but found herself in the library. She was about to run through it when the elevator opened and seven bodies were seen inside. They were mutilated beyond recognition. Julie nearly fainted and back up until she fell through a swinging door. She fell onto the pure white tiles and saw she was in the bathroom. Blood was spattered on the wall.

Whimpering, Julie pulled herself up. The blood was still running down the wall. This had happened very recently. She crawled over to the sinks and used the counter to stand up. As she glanced in the mirror, she could see behind her the blood on the wall. But it formed words. Words you could only see in a mirror. It said in messy scrawl, "The show must go on..." She was about to really faint, and as she slipped down, the last thing she saw in the mirror was a pair of oversized, red clown shoes stepping out from one of the stalls.