Laughter in the Darkness

The asylum...

Bradley and Pippa were both sat at the back of the theatre. Bradley managed to calm her down. Up the stairs, came Kieran and Harvey. "Oh god. They're gonna be mad at me, I know it." Bradley then said, touching Pippa's shoulder, "Hey they won't be mad. They'll give you a chance to explain. I know them." Pippa then asked, "How are we supposed to explain this?" Bradley then said, quickly telling her before the two boys got to them, "Listen, just keep schtum and I'll do the talking." Harvey and Kieran then sat down on the seats next to Bradley and Pippa, with straight faces. "Hey Pippa, are you alright? I mean, what we saw down there..." Bradley then interrupted Harvey, "Don't worry guys she's fine. I managed to calm her down. It's ok, she's not some sort of psycho who has hallucinations." The other two boys laughed. "That's alright. We actually don't care about the performance, all we care about is if she's alright," Kieran said. All four students started laughing. "Hey Pippa! Are you alright now," asked the teacher. "Yeah I'm ok now. Don't worry, everything's alright." The teacher smiled and turned to the other students. "We better get back down there and finish our performance," Pippa said raising from her seat. "Are you sure Pippa?" Harvey asked, looking at the girl. "Don't worry, like Bradley said, I'm fine. Come on, we should show the part where Kieran's about to kill me," Pippa replied with a smile on her face. "That's a good idea. I mean look, we've already got five more minutes left of the lesson, we might as well make the most of it," Bradley told his friends. The other two boys stood up and all four of them walked down the stairs. Bradley told the teacher that they wanted to show their performance again as Pippa was now alright. The teacher said, "Of course you can. We've got only five minutes left before lunch, you might as well show us." Then he told the other students to sit in the seats with their groups and the four students got into their positions. As Bradley walked past Pippa he whispered, "You're sure your alright?" Pippa whispered back, "Don't worry about me." Then the students again showed their performance. After they had finished their performance, the school bell went and all the pupils went to dinner. Pippa grabbed her bag and when the other students had left, she pulled back Bradley so they were stood outside the door. "Hey Bradley, what's your favourite hobby," the girl asked. "My favourite hobby is listening to music, why?" Then Pippa asked with a smile on her face, "Who's your favourite singer? Like, who do you really admire and what's your favourite song from them?" Bradley thought for a minute and answered, getting suspicious, "Michael Jackson is my favourite singer and my favourite song of his is Bad. Why?" Pippa then opened her bag and pulled out a gift wrapped in wrapping paper. "What's this," asked the boy. "You'll see." Pippa replied smiling at Bradley, making him curious about what was in it. He unwrapped the wrapping paper and saw an Xbox game. It was Michael Jackson the Experience. "Oh my god. No way. Ha, it's a good thing I have an Xbox and a Kinect." Pippa then continued, "The best part about it is on the back." Bradley turned the case over and read everything it said. "What's the best part," he asked. "It has something called MJ School on it. You get to learn some moves to some of his songs. You know what that means?" Bradley looked at Pippa. "It means you can learn some of your favourite moves to Bad. I'm so glad you like it." Without thinking, Bradley hugged Pippa. The girl wrapped her arms around him and giggled. "Thank you Pippa. All my life I've been wanting to learn at least some of the moves to Bad. I can't believe you got me this," Bradley exclaimed. "You're welcome Bradley. Come on, we better get to the dining hall before our friends wonder what happened to us," Pippa told him. The girl then walked off. Bradley watched her walk away smiling. He put the game in his bag and went to the dining hall to get some dinner and have a laugh with his friends.

"No way dude. I've been wanting this game for such a long time but I never found it in any of the shops I went in. I can't believe you got the game before me," exclaimed Kieran, looking at the game. "I can't believe Pippa gave you this Bradley," said Harvey. "Did she say why she gave you it?" Bradley replied, "She never said, but I don't care." Harvey then said, "We told you she was right. You's aren't even dating and yet she's still giving you things." Bradley smiled at both of his friends. "Are you coming out tonight," Kieran asked. Bradley pulled a face as he remembered he had to go out with Pippa. "Sorry, I can't tonight. I'm going somewhere, maybe another day." Both of the other boys sighed. "Oh well, maybe another day then," sighed Harvey. The both boys went to the lunch queue to get some dinner. Bradley always got his lunch when the queue was gone, he never liked standing in a queue for a long time. He saw Pippa sitting with her friends. She looked at him as she noticed him looking at her. She smiled at him and he smiled back. Hopefully Pippa didn't get the idea that Bradley liked her. Bradley was hoping that the plan to go to an asylum was a good idea. Hopefully this girl called Nona wasn't completely insane like most of the patients. Bradley really hoped that saying he and Pippa were her cousins would work. Suddenly, Bradley heard chuckling in his ear. "Don't lose your head over her, Bradley." The boy turned his head and saw the killer clown. Bradley looked back at Pippa, who was no longer looking at him. "She's stuck in your pretty little mind, just like me." Bradley felt the clown put his hand on his shoulder. "You can't help her. There's no way to help her," spoke the clown. "Why don't you just..." Bradley stopped as the clown was gone. He looked again at Pippa and saw Laughing Jack standing behind her. He closed his eyes for five seconds and opened them. He was gone. Bradley looked around the hall to find him, but he was nowhere to be seen. The boy put his elbow on the table and rubbed his eyes with a sigh. He started to get really fed up with Laughing Jack. He thought he was going crazy since nobody else saw him except from Pippa. The sooner they found out how to stop him, the sooner he could stop this madness. Bradley was then startled as Kieran put his tray on the table, alongside Harvey. "Dude, you alright? You look like you saw a ghost," said Harvey, cutting his chicken with his shiny knife and fork. "Oh no, I'm fine honest. You guys just startled me when you put your trays on the table," replied Bradley. Kieran replied, "Oh ok. Aren't you going to get any dinner?" Bradley looked at the lunch queue, which was no longer out the door, and replied, "I think I'm gonna pass. I don't feel really hungry." Bradley looked at the time on the clock, then with a blank face he put his arms on the table and rested his head on them. The boy felt like dozing off when all of a sudden, he heard a whisper in his ear from behind, "Remember Bradley, you can't spell slaughter without laughter." Bradley turned around in a hurry, which caused him to get a head rush. There was no one behind him. The boy put his hand on his head and complained, "Oh man, I think I turned around too quick." He heard laughing in his ears, but every time he turned around, expecting to see the clown, there was nothing. "Where am I Bradley? Hahahahaha! You can't see me. You really think you can see me? Haha, you fool," cackled Laughing Jack. Bradley heard his friends talking to him, but he felt like he was going to faint. "Bradley, are you alright? You look like you're gonna throw up," spoke Kieran, looking at Bradley. Then it all went black. Bradley woke up to find himself in the nurse's office. "What's going on? What happened," the boy asked, putting his hand on his head as he had a headache. He saw the nurse sat in front of him holding a cup of water. "You fainted in the dining hall. Your friends said you started acting all weird. You had your hands over your ears and you kept looking around you. Do you remember that happening," the nurse asked. Bradley could remember, but he didn't want to answer with yes. He didn't want to tell the nurse about what was going on, otherwise she'll think he and Pippa are really crazy. "No, I don't remember that happening," the boy said. The nurse then handed over the cup of water. "You have a drink of this, it'll do you good and no, it's not alcohol," the nurse laughed. Bradley laughed. "Don't worry, I didn't think it would be alcohol." Bradley took a drink of the water and the nurse said, "Once you've drunken that you can go to your next lesson. Do you know what you've got?" Bradley nodded, "I have Music. I think it's my third favourite lesson. My favourite is PE, then Drama and then Music." The nurse nodded and grabbed a pen to write a note saying why Bradley would be late to Music. "Take this, it'll stop you from getting a detention," the nurse said, handing over the note. Once Bradley finished his water, he looked up to see Pippa in the doorway. The nurse looked at her and said, "Oh hello Pippa, is everything alright?" The girl replied, "I'm fine. My teacher told me to come and get Bradley." The nurse then told Bradley to go with her to Music so Bradley got up and both of them walked to Music. "Is everything alright? Do you remember anything from when you fainted? You didn't tell the nurse about all this, did you," asked Pippa. Bradley replied, hoping to calm her down, "Yes I do remember what happened and don't worry, I didn't tell the nurse anything." Pippa sighed, "Thank goodness. I couldn't have the nurse knowing about all this and thinking we are crazy and make us be put into an asylum." Bradley then asked, "What is it about asylums that just don't sit in your comfort zone?" Pippa took a minute and replied, "I don't know. I... the patients..." Pippa stopped as she couldn't explain it. "Are you trying to say you're, afraid of them," asked Bradley as they walked down the stairs. "Y-Yeah, that's the reason. I don't know, I just start freaking out when I see an asylum patient. I understand that they have something mentally wrong with them but, sometimes they scare me." Bradley understood what Pippa was saying and replied, "Don't worry, remember I'm going with you. You don't need to be scared, just remember to focus on why we're going there." Then Bradley asked, "What are we doing in Music?" Pippa replied smiling, "We're making our own music. We got put into groups and your in mine. I got us into the room with the grand piano and drum set." Bradley smiled and said, "Oh, you're gonna be good at this. I mean, you have a keyboard at home." Pippa giggled. When they got to Music, Pippa showed Bradley to the room their group was in. It was big with a grand piano at the back and near the window, (that when looked through you can see the other group) was the drum kit. "Ok guys, let's get started," Pippa said as she sat on the stool at the piano. Then the whole group started to come up with ideas for their music and gave it a run through to see what it sounded like.