Tomes of Nevermore: Shattering Light

Chapter Fourteen: The Children of Petan The Clown

The sound of a mashing piano keys startled Ty awake. Everything around him was blurry and shrouded in shadows besides a thousand green candles lighting up a deteriorated wooden stage. When Ty tried to move he felt the ropes that kept tightly bound to a tree that had been chopped in half.
All around there were children that looked as though they hadn't bathed in their entire young lives. None of the children appeared to be over thirteen, and the majority of the children were a great deal younger than that. The children's clothes were worn and old in all sorts of faded colors and on their faces they all wore dirty colored paint to make them look sort of like clowns.
"Wha..." Ty said, his dry lips cracking as he opened his mouth. Above him was a giant circus tent being held up by sticks of wood whiter than bone with screaming faces all carved up the sides. "What is this? Am I dead? No, no I can't die. What is this place?"
All of the kids spun around, and looked at Ty. Some of them had a thousand eyes, others had none. Some were human, others were from races and cultures Ty had only ever heard his sister talk about from all of the books that she read. The only thing that all of the children appeared to share was a look of horrified misery and the fact that all of them were children.
The gnashing keys of the piano were like needles to the ears. Standing next to a child's piano, crouched with its knees stretching above its head and it's long rotting fingers slamming the keys without the slightest hint of melody. The creature playing piano wore a leather mask all sloppily painted to emulate a clown's make up. He wore a long red and white checkered suite with big red balls like buttons all up the center, though the "white" on the suite was actually more of putrid yellowish brown color.
"That's the same clown face that was on the front of that amusement park." Ty shouted. "Where am I? Untie me! !hat in death's abyss is this?"
All around there were cages with the bones of all different sorts of weird looking creatures, elephants and lions and elephant lions, and giraffe bears and what could only be described as some sort of dog, monkey, bird, fish, with eels coming out where the eyes should have been. The giant tusks of an elephant floated in another cage inside a giant glob of green ooze.
The children all turned to Ty again and put their hands over their mouths gesturing for him to be quiet. Then one of the older girls with dark skin and mutated purple eyes drug her finger around her neck, gesturing that he would be killed if he didn't stop talking.
To Ty's left Alister was lying unconscious shaking like a leaf with his eyes rolled in the back of his head. Ty wanted to scream for him but the children all gave him the same horrified glance. To Ty's right was Aidan all beaten up as though someone had cut him up with knives, Aidan's clothes hung of him in tatters.
"LET ME GO!" Ty shouted loudly as all of the children looked at him in terror. Suddenly the giant clown playing the tiny piano stopped in the middle of his preformance.
If you have ever been too the theatre or a concert, than you probably know how incredibly rude in is to talk during the show. That being said, you should also accept the fact that it would be incredibly rude to shout at the top of your lungs the way Ty just had. Of course that usually entails normal circumstances and waking up in the middle of what appears to be an evil clowns undead circus performance for a bunch of dirty children was anything but normal and thus excused a bit of rude behavior. However, the giant rotting clown in the painted leather mask felt very differently.
Like a dog distracted by a squirrel, the clown turned its head cracking the bones a half dozen times before slowly turning it to the side, also like a confused dog. Frozen the giant clown watched Ty with his creepy painted on eyes as all of the children began holding one another and crying. A normal person would have frozen in terror at this point. But Tywin was a Weird.
"Yeah I'm talking you you big freaky clown thing!" Ty shouted as he tried to squirm himself free of the ropes. "LET ME AND MY FRIEND GO! You can keep that weird guy that's all beaten up but me and the that white haired kid with his eyes rolled in the back of his head has to come with me!"
The children all looked somewhere in between astonished and terrified as they held each other  as they stared at Ty as though he'd just moved a mountain with his bare hands. The giant clown tilted its head the other way as if it didn't understand what Ty was saying. The clown's crooked painted on smily face began to drip with an evil red ooze.
"YOU WILL NEVER ESCAPE ME!" Alister shouted in a voice much different from his own as he began to shake back and forth with a twisted smile on his face.
"You see clown you big dumb clown?" Ty shouted. "I don't know what this place is, I don't know what's wrong with Alister, and I don't really care at this point. My point is I'm a squire, I've got things to do. So just untie me and I won't have to whip out my crazy intense knight skills on you. Really dude, it's not something you're gonna want to deal with. I've done all types of things, slayed all types of monsters, look at me I'm a monster myself. And you look like a monster too, but then again I think everyone has a little bit of monster in them. Am I right kids?"
The only way to explain the expression on the children's faces was one that you might have if you watched a person walk barefoot on the blade of a knife the way a trapeze artist would walk across a narrow rope. The mere thought of doing it was enough to send that tingle of danger through your body, but the sight of it could make someone with a weak stomach fall out of consciousness. That was the way the children were looking at Ty, and he was about to rest all of his weight on the blade of the proverbial knife.
The clown slammed both of his fists down and smashed the children piano to bits. A raccoon looking child holding its long fluffy tail like a blanket let out a terrified scream as the clown threw the piano off of the stage. All of the skeletal animals began to light up with red light bubbling from their eyes, thrashing their bleached bones against the bars of their cages. In a single swipe the clown clawed at the fabric of the tent and began stomping up and down like a toddler.
"HEY!" Ty shouted. The clown froze again and slithered its way over to Ty with even using its giant arms and legs. It looked Ty in the face with it's horrible painted on smile staring deep into Ty's soul. "Yes clown I'm talking to you! I don't know what your game is or why I'm here but let me go! I'm not going to tell you again! I'm too busy to watch you put on this terrible show!"
The clown reached behind its back and all of the children hid their faces in fear. Alister began thrashing his head against the log he was tied to, screaming things in a language Ty couldn't understand. Furious, the clown touched Alister's forehead and Alister froze in place and his tongue slagged out of his mouth. For a moment it appeared as though Alister had died but then he began taking deep breaths and blinking a thousand times a second as he coughed up a foul looking black light.
"What in death's abyss?" Alister said looking at the painted on face of the clown. "It can't be you're Peten the Quite One. Lesser god of silence, the undead, and children."
"Children?" Ty said. "Wait did you say god? This freak can't really be a god. Honestly if he is I must say I'm not impressed. So far he hasn't even done anything cool."
The clown reached behind it's back and all of the children shrieked in fear again. Even Alister and Ty both flinched as they prepared to be smited down. But instead the giant clown pulled a tiny wooden box gesturing as though he'd just performed a magic trick. Carefully clown did a weird little dance and lied the box on the ground.
"What kind of stupid joke is this?" Ty said becoming even more agitated. "I don't care about your stupid box! This entire act is terrible and nobody likes clowns! And personally I don't like the gods because they don't seem to like me. So untie me I have things to do, people to see, and none of them are you."
"Are you trying to get us both killed?" Alister whispered in a panic. "You can't speak to a god like that!"
"I thought you couldn't be killed. I know I can't be unless Tarah dies, and Tarah isn't here. So listen you giant... ugly... clown... bug... god... thing let me go!" Ty shouted kicked his bony legs.
The clown bent down and began cranking the lever on the side of the box. "Dum, dum, dumdumdum, dum, dum, dum, dumdumdum," the box played in a haunting rusty whistle.
"You idiot!" Alister said. "He's the god of the undead! For all you know he can take away whatever cursed force is keeping your empty skull alive! I don't know about you but I don't intend to be spending my eternity or even the rest of my day in this dump! Just play along I have a plan and try to stop saying such stupid things!"
"Oh well." Ty said smiling. "If I die here at least everyone knows how I felt." Everyone stared at Ty in amazement, even Alister. "But I'm not going to die here."
The box popped open and miniature version of Petan the clown god came out laughing like a madman. Everyone flinched in terror except for Ty, who simply narrowed his eyes and looked up at the clown in disapproval. The clown began to give himself a round of applause and dance around, before looking back at all of the children and scaring them into clapping as well.
"That was dumb." Ty said. "Can I go now?"
The clown smashed the box in its hand and started leaping up and stomping the ground. All of the children scattered screaming and Alister just watched in interest.
"He wants Ty's approval?" Alister thought. "What in death's abyss is wrong with this god?" Then it all clicked.
"Petan!" Alister said making himself intangible and freeing his arms so that he could clap. "That was amazing Petan!"
"No it wasn't." Ty said not understanding the situation in the slightest. "This big dumb deity just thinks that he can dance around smashing on keys and opening boxes and I'll be entertained? I have standards, and I won't sink them down to this clowns level of performance. I'll tell you what clown, I'll give you a two out of two million just for your creepy amount of effort."
The clown got very close to Ty's skull and Ty's bored expression didn't change in the slightest. The clown raised it's hand as if it was about to strike the log Ty was tied to.
"No!" Ty said firmly stopping the clown in it's tracks. "Bad clown god thing! You're scaring the kids. Don't you see that they're just clapping for you because you're terrifying them? You're a big scary monster, don't you get that? People are afraid of you."
The clown tilted its head confused.
"Alright." Ty said even more annoyed than he was a moment before. "I have a really funny feeling that you have no idea what I'm talking about. So untie me and I'll show you what real entertainment looks like."
The clown looked at Alister, who looked terrified, then at all all of the children cowering in the corner. With his giant finger nails Petan the Quiet One cut Ty's ropes and Ty fell to the ground.
"This kid isn't even an idiot!" Alister thought. "He's bloody insane!"
"Ready?" Ty said looking up at the giant clown. "Watch what I do. I'm funny."
Ty began stepping back and forth dancing around humming a song. All of the children watched confused. Once Ty was sure he had everyone's attention he pretended to slip and fell backwards. Suddenly a silent chuckle could be heard from the cowering children.
Then Ty put the upper half of his body back together still humming and dancing around. He took the bones from his legs and began juggling them over his head hopping around to each child to make sure they were happy. Then Ty pretended to slip a second time and allowed all of the bones to come crashing down and bonk him on the head one at a time.
All of the children erupted in laughter and Alister's jaw practically hit the floor with amazement. Petan however looked extremely interested, watching Ty and the reaction's of all of the children carefully. When all of the children began to clap Petan also began to slam his giant fingers together leaping up and down with excitement.
"Now you try?" Ty said gesturing to the clown. "Children of all weird races and origins! Gather around for the greatest show that the world has ever seen! I give you all Petan The Quiet... clown... bug... god... thing!"
Petan took one giant step with is long crane legs and let himself fall backward, shaking the ground from his enormity as he slammed into the dirt. One child began to chuckle and the clown looked at Ty for approval. Ty gave a nod and Petan stood up and pulled a thousand knives from behind his back. All of the children fell silent, but Ty just gave another nod and Petan began hopping on one extended leg juggling his knives over his head. Then Petan allowed himself to fall the same way Ty did. At first each knife bounced off his head and all of the children laughed, then one stuck directly in Petan's head and he fell back.
The children who were laughing moments before fell silent. The clown reached up and pulled its head clean off by the knife and went back to juggling, this time with his head as well. The children went wild leaping up and clapping their hands, skipping around and singing a haunting song.
"Petan, Petan, Peten The Clown, Take the children when they frown. Petan, Petan, Petan The clown, comes to put bad parents down. Petan, Petan, Petan the Clown, a baby boy who lost his life. Petan, Petan, Petan the Clown, rose from the dead with father's knife. Petan, Petan, Petan the clown, saves the children full of writhe."
The song went on and on as all of the creepy little children skipped around their eerie god singing. Suddenly Petan's head, that he was juggling in the air, began to spit out candy. Laughing hysterically all of the children began to play as they stuffed their mouths with sugary delights and skipped around holding.
"Well this is cute, disgusting, and horrible all at the same time." Ty said fed up with the entire situation. "Ok clown. You're funny now and a great deal less annoying, the kids love you, time to take me out of your creepy sideshow."
Petan the Clown took a single look at Ty and the entire world vanished into a single flash of blinding white light.