Becoming a Creepypasta

Prologue

"Gather round, gather around. Are you all ready for the main event?!"

The clown's voice echoed over the carnival music. The children, as well as the adults, all screamed with joy as they were all very entertained with the performances of the clowns and other carnies. Soon, the lights dimmed, and the spotlights were on.

The ringmaster appeared from a cloud of purple smoke and began to announce the final performance of the night, the cage. The cage was an act where the individual rode around the steel cage on a motorcycle, the cage would be lit on fire, and the bottom removed with no safety net underneath.

It was a rather bold act as the cage would also be suspended in the air. One mistake meant certain death. It was rarely ever performed because of the casualties of those who performed it. The audience cheers began to fade as they awaited the start of the act.

And there, at the bottom right of the audience stand, sat a little girl. Both her parents were talking about the night, and so far, this circus was very enjoyable.

The little girl wore a red dress with a bow and black shoes, her short dark brown hair was tied into pigtails, and her face was painted to look like a tiger. Not an ounce of her chocolate-colored skin remained.

She sat there quietly while others made noise, she wasn't having much fun from where she sat. She enjoyed the rides and food, but she mostly just wanted another balloon to play with. Her parents had taken her almost all over the fairgrounds tonight, and after this stunt, they'd head home.

While the stunt was being performed, the girl felt uneasy and slipped away from her seat, heading towards the exit. She then saw one of the clowns leaving with balloons in hand. She felt relief and followed after them. Neither of the parents had noticed that the little girl was gone.

She stood outside the tent and looked about the semi-empty area.
She sat on a hay bail staring into the crowd, wondering where the clown from earlier went.

She looked at the string tied around her wrist from her first balloon, nothing attached to it as it was popped by some rude teenager. She pulled at the strands of hay under her, dropping them as they felt prickly.

After some time, the sounds of the carnival started to fade around her, footsteps, voices, even excited shrieks vanished for the child. Soon, faint whispering sounds started to flood her ears as she looked around frantically for where it came from.

She wanted to follow them but knew she shouldn't go far from her family. Even so, the voices continued, and the girl started to follow them only to stop when they suddenly went silent.

She was near the forest at the edge of the fairgrounds, a shady figure blending in with the trees reaching out a hand for her to take. Before she could reach out for it, it disappeared as another hand touched her shoulder.

She turned around and met with a tall figure in a colorful suit, a smile on his mask-like face. The little girl stared at him as the whispers died, and the sounds of her surroundings came flooding back into her ears.

As the girl's mind cleared, before she could scream, the man handed her a balloon. She was surprised but happily took the balloon from him. She was so focused on the balloon that she hadn't noticed that the man picked her up.

The man was rather too tall, possibly on stilts, but he moved naturally. He took the girl back towards the crowds of people and away from the woods. He looked back at the woods and frowned slightly as if glaring at someone or something that no one else saw.

With how wide his steps were, he brought the girl back to the hay bails and sat her down on them. No sooner than he did, her parents rushed out of the tent to look for her only to see that their little girl was playing with a balloon all alone, the tall clown like figure gone without a trace.

Soon, it was closing time, the final night of the McCoy Family Carnival. The little girl was with her family, and they left the grounds with the crowd. The sounds around her once again dulled as they entered the parking lot, her eyes going towards the forest.

The same dark figure was there calling to her, but it was stopped by the same clown that gave her a balloon. She stared at them before waving towards the figures as she was placed into the car and strapped in, her parents seeing her wave but seeing no one in particular assumed she saw something but it was already gone.

On the drive home, she saw a few more tall figures alongside figures of various shapes and sizes, but they never left the forest they just watched the people.

That was 10 years ago. So let's fast forward a bit.