Laughter in the Darkness

The first encounter...

It was 9:00 and Bradley's father was in. The boy had stayed in his room all night, he didn't want to go downstairs and see his freaky little sister, who made up imaginary clowns as best friends. His father then shouted, "Bradley! Do you want anything to eat?" Bradley replied, "No thanks! I'm not hungry!" His father didn't reply back. Maybe he did but Bradley didn't hear him, maybe it was due to the fact that he was watching a film and wasn't taking much notice. His tv suddenly went off. Bradley sighed as he got annoyed with the electricity. Normally it would trip and it would have to be switched back on. Bradley sat waiting for the electricity to come back on. When you switch the tv on by the socket, it would come on by itself without having to press the power button on the remote. Then he heard a creak in his room. He thought it might've been his bed since he was sat on it, but it sounded like the floorboards from across the room. He heard it again, it sounded like someone was walking. It couldn't be Bradley, maybe it was his sister pulling a prank on him. But he doesn't remember his sister coming into his room. Suddenly, he heard a click and it startled Bradley. He could hear breathing but it wasn't him. It sounded deep and it made the boy get chills. Then he heard a voice. It was deep and ominous. It spoke, "Hello Bradley. Your sister's told me all about you." Then the boy felt someone touch his shoulder. Hoping that one of his parents put the electricity back on, Bradley shot up and ran to the light switch. He flicked it on and looked around the room. There was no one else in there. The boy looked around his room with a confused expression on his face. He couldn't of been imagining things. It was also weird that his tv didn't turn on even though the electricity was back on. He saw that the socket was switched off, which would've caused the tv not coming back on. He then realised that it could've been the click he heard when the power was off. But how was the socket switched off? Also, who was in the room with him and talking to him? The boy didn't want to stay in his room so he quickly grabbed his phone, turned the light back off and went downstairs. His parents had the Amazon Fire Stick on and his mother said, "Oh Bradley, I was just about to come and ask you if you want to watch a spooky film with us for an hour before you go to bed." Bradley replied, "Yeah I'll watch the film. I wasn't doing anything upstairs. Well, I was watching a film but then the electricity tripped and I didn't want to watch the film again so I decided to come downstairs." His father looked at his son confused, "The electricity tripped? What are you going on about?" The boy replied to his father confused, "What do you mean what am I going on about? The electricity tripped didn't it?" His mother explained that the electricity didn't trip and the power didn't go off. Bradley said that the power went off in his bedroom. His father said, "Well I don't know what could've happened there but the electricity didn't trip." Bradley then sat on the sofa, he had so many thoughts going through his head. He wanted to watch the spooky film to try and take his mind off everything. His father then put the film on and the three of them watched the movie. Ofelia was in bed as she went to sleep earlier than her older brother. Bradley was allowed to go to sleep at 10:00 and Ofelia had to sleep at 9:00. Eventually it was 10:00 and Bradley's mother said, "Come on Bradley. It's time for you to go to bed." Bradley got up from the sofa and said, "Good night dad." His father replied, "Good night son." Bradley then said good night to his mother. "Night Bradley." Then the boy went to his bedroom and went to sleep. Little did he know that this is where his nightmare begins.

Bradley woke up in the middle of the night after having a nightmare. He didn't like the fact that it was really quiet since his parents were asleep. The tired boy wiped the sweat from his forehead and took a big yawn. He then heard sounds in his room. They were creaking noises, the same like he heard a few hours ago. His room was too dark for him to see anything. Maybe nothing was there and his imagination was playing tricks on him after waking from a terrifying dream. The boy layed back down to try and get back to sleep, but he quickly sat back up as he heard chuckling. Then he heard a voice speaking to him. "Bradley, I wonder what dream you were having. You woke up in such a fright." Bradley recognised the voice. It was the same one from earlier on. The voice spoke again, "Let me introduce myself. My name is Laughing Jack." That's when Bradley saw who was speaking to him. Out of the shadows, standing in the moonlight, was a clown. He looked just like the one his sister described. He had black hair that went to his shoulders, he wore a black and white suit, a black and white cone for a nose, arms hanging all the way down to the floor and he had sharp teeth. The teeth that an animal would have. Laughing Jack spoke again, "Don't be scared. We're gonna have lots of fun, just like I did with that friend of yours. What's her name? Ah yes, Pippa. I had lots of fun with her. Oh, trust me I did, and I know I'll have lots of fun with you as well. So let's get to it." Suddenly, the black and white clown reached out one of his arms to try and grab Bradley. So the boy screamed. His parents dashed into his bedroom, turned the light on and saw their son sweating and had a terrified look on his face. "Bradley! Bradley! What's wrong," his mother asked. Bradley knew that his parents wouldn't believe him so he lied, "I had a nightmare." His mother then hugged him. "It's alright dear. We all have them." Then, Bradley and his parents heard Ofelia screaming. Bradley's mum and dad dashed down the stairs, with Bradley following them. Once they got to her room, her father said, "Ofelia what's wrong honey?" Ofelia only just managed to speak as she was crying. "A clown was in my room. He was trying t..." Ofelia couldn't speak so she tried to catch her breath. "Sweetie there's no clown in here. You were probably having a bad dream," spoke her mother. Ofelia then said, catching her breath, "No, it wasn't a dream. He tried to... to... kill me." Her father replied, "Honey, you were just having a nightmare probably." Ofelia spoke before her father continued, "No, no. He spoke to me. He said, that he's gonna kill m-my whole family." Then Ofelia hugged her father and both of her parents tried to calm her down. Bradley stood in the doorway, staring at Ofelia. For some reason he felt, angry. He didn't know why he felt this way but, he just seemed mad at something. Maybe it was due to the fact that Laughing Jack wouldn't leave his sister alone. She was only four years old and yet, he felt like Laughing Jack just didn't seem to care about how old she was. It was like Laughing Jack didn't care how old a child was, he would still tell them things that they wouldn't and never want to hear. Ofelia stared back at her brother. She could tell that he saw the clown too. The way he was looking at her was like he was saying, "I do truly believe you. I saw him too." The young girl had her head resting on her father's shoulder whilst staring at her brother with tears rolling down her face in fear. "Do you want to sleep in our room tonight, sweetie," asked their mother. Ofelia replied, "Yes please. He doesn't appear when I'm with my parents." The two parents looked at each other and went upstairs with their daughter. "Come on Bradley, back to bed," said his father. Bradley turned around but before he walked away, he looked behind into Ofelia's room and at the music box, which was still on the shelf. Then he whispered so that his parents couldn't hear, "What do you want from us?" Then he walked back upstairs.

Before Bradley went back into his bedroom, he went into his parents' room and asked "Can I talk to Ofelia for a minute?" His father replied, "No Bradley, not now. We can't have you telling her creepy stories after she's just had a nightmare. Maybe tomorrow." Bradley nodded his head as he understood, with a little smile on his face to show that waiting until tomorrow didn't bother him. He walked back into his room and stopped. He looked all around before turning the light off. He didn't want to go to sleep again, but what choice did he have? He turned the light off and got under his duvet. He didn't close his eyes as he kept looking around his room. Then he heard something that terrified him. At first, it was a snigger. Then it was a chuckle. Then, it was laughing. It was so ominous that it scared Bradley. He couldn't see anything in his room, he could only hear it. The laugh seemed to be echoing in his room. The boy then pulled the duvet over his head and turned over so he was facing the wall. He didn't think he would be able to sleep after hearing constant laughing. It was like trying to sleep with a wolf in the room. So loud that you couldn't even shut your eyes and relax. Hopefully Bradley would be able to get to sleep, but at this point, he didn't think that it was possible. Until it stopped. Nothing could be heard in the room except from the clock ticking above the bed. Slowly, Bradley pulled the duvet down and looked around his room. Nothing. That's what he was hoping to see. He got so tired that he knew he had to sleep, especially with school the next day. The boy closed his eyes and drifted off into a sleep. He didn't have another nightmare, thankfully, instead he had a dream about Pippa. Good thing that it was a good dream about her, not a bad dream. Bradley slept the whole night without waking up. He always tossed and turned causing part of his plain, blue duvet to be on the floor. He's been doing this since he was young. Ofelia was never really a toss and turner. Once she found a comfortable position, she always stayed there until she woke up. The next morning, Bradley's mother woke him up. It was Wednesday, it wasn't Bradley's favourite day, but yet it wasn't his worst day. Once it was 7:35, Bradley left to go to school. Once he got to the gate, Kieran and Harvey ran over to him. They always ran over to Bradley as soon as they saw him, which made him never think that they had something important to tell him. "Dude, I heard you were with Pippa yesterday," spoke Harvey with a grin on his face. Bradley responded, "Oh yeah, I was with her." The boy spoke a little dull. His two best mates looked at each other. Kieran asked concerned, "Bradley are you alright? Did she say something? Is she already going out with someone? If she is, tell me who he is and I'll knock him out for you." Kieran tried to lighten the mood. But the atmosphere around Bradley was still negative. "Ok bro, what's going on? You're not normally like this. Also, what's with your eyes?" Bradley looked at Harvey confused. "What do you mean what's with my eyes? My eyes are fine." Kieran said, "Well they're kinda, red. They're not very red, just a bit, but if they're not hurting then you should be alright." Bradley then recalled that he didn't get such a good sleep last night. Then he saw Pippa out the corner of his eye. Without saying anything, Bradley walked over to her. "Oh, hey Bradley. Is everything alright," the girl asked. Bradley seemed nervous and asked the girl, "Pippa, can I talk to you? It's kind of important." Pippa nodded and asked what he wanted to say. However, before Bradley could say anything, the bell went. "You're gonna have to tell me at break. I gotta go to Science." Bradley watched the beautiful girl walk away. From behind, Kieran whispered, "Were you gonna ask her out?" Bradley took a minute to answer. "No I wasn't going to ask her out. Just leave me alone will you." Harvey and Kieran both watched Bradley storm to his lesson. "What's going on with him," asked Harvey. "I don't know. Was it something I said?" Harvey shrugged his shoulders and both of them walked to Life.