The High Order

15. Play with the clown

15. Play with the clown

1. Beside the ruins of the puppet store in the district of Glutton stood the fairgrounds of the Funland circus. It featured a striped red big top and smaller stalls reminiscent of your average county fair or carnival ride. On one of his regular travels while off the clock and out in the city, Dan was looking for peace and something to lift his mood. His parents were in Heaven now, news that drummed through Dan like a freight train, while the carnival circus spiel reminded him of a time long ago. Before he got into the business of private investigation and bounty hunting, Dan and his parents would regularly go to the fair when he was a child visiting relatives up at the beach house in Maine.

 The Madison fair was one of the main attractions, with rides, contests and costume donning clowns. Unlike the other kids in the neighborhood, Dan was not entirely afraid of clowns. He actually thought they were genuinely funny as intended while even adults would be scared to death of them. In Hell, Dan now saw the circus in Funland had its own resident clown, named Chris. Judging from the posters wafting at the entrance to the fair, Chris was a tall red nosed clown with a polka dot suit and fluffy orange hair on top as part of his act. Fairs were good memories for Dan, and in times like this before the coming apocalypse of Blood Moon Day, Dan was looking for something to make him smile.

 Dan could see playful spirits and children darting between the stalls, couples playing for prizes and the claps of the entertained coming from the big top. The sound of carnival music and piano filled the air as a Ferris wheel turned and people screamed down a rollercoaster encompassing the entire park. But upon rubbing his eyes from the haze of a normal carnival, he could see stands in disarray and the entire area in ruins. He approached the deteriorating big top, trying to spell doubt that he was hallucinating, only to find a crying clown on a pedestal in the middle of the tent, shone on by a hole in the tarp letting in sunlight. Perhaps Dan's mind was playing tricks on him. Perhaps it was what he wanted to see rather than what was actually there, a power that could have been a blessing and a curse.

"excuse me?, are you Chris, that clown from the posters?" Dan walked up to the clown.

"yeah. You must be the schmuck Purgatorian who decided to set up shop down here, then?" the clown whimpered.

"where are all the people, I thought this place would be packed" Dan asked.

"business has been slow in these parts for the last while. It just seems that no one wants to laugh at clowns anymore" Chris squeaked his dusty red button nose in despair. It was unknown what he had actually done to be sent down to Hell, or that he was condemned to be a clown for eternity. Possibly because the people had stopped caring about Chris.

"so, what if they don't like clowns nowadays like they used to. What else can you do?" Dan reasoned.

"well, I know you're afraid of rats and spiders"

"how?"

"it's kind of like a power I have. I can sense your fears. I even managed to cure them for some wise guys way back, but not anymore" Chris continued.

"could you help me get over them?" Dan reasoned.

"for a price. Fear therapy isn't free" Chris got up and stood to Dan in the big top.

"you can use this fear ability you have to help people, then they'll be begging to come back here. You could open it up anew, as the Fear Factory or something" Dan proposed

"fine man, I'm sold" Dan and Chris shook hands to ratify their new deal. Dan managed to liberate some money from Lucifer's palace, just enough to hire painters to revamp the Funland scenery and stands, while even hiring a white collar business spokesperson to advertise the Funland Fear Academy and Carnival Extravaganza, FFACE for short. After four or five days, the new advertisement both physically and in spirit appeared to be paying off. A group of a few people soon turned to a crowd of over two hundred who came to seek Chris' guidance on their phobias as well as enjoying the rejuvenated theme park.