Girl Clown Hatchet: A Novel (Girl Clown Hatchet Suspense Series Book 1)

by Mav Skye

  Neither Chloe nor Dan laughed.

  “Come on, guys. It’s funny.”

  Dan said, “I don’t think you should talk about Mama Nola that way. I think it hurts Chloe’s feelings.”

  Dan’s sincerity caught Chloe off guard. Apparently, he was not familiar with Yo Mama jokes. Dan nodded at her, and she nodded back. When he looked away, Chloe flared her nose at Joey. Take that.

  He rolled his eyes and tossed his hand at her. “Whatever.”

  At the trailer, Chris and Mama were playing hearts, which led to them all playing hearts, and then onto a game of devil’s bridge. That was a new card game for Chloe and she quite enjoyed it, especially since she won the first round, and the second round. On and on they played through lunch and dinner to early evening when they all retired to the living room while Mama Nola retold the story of the snake boy. Joey helped Chloe serve blackberry pie.

  It had been a lovely afternoon of storytelling, sharing, and laughing. Dan was like a long lost uncle, and Chris an adopted cousin. All the windows were open, and a delicious breeze filled with the scent of late blooming jasmine kept them cool despite the hot temperatures outside. Nothing could have been more perfect, well, other than Shirley and the twins weren’t there. Everyone had voiced out loud how much they were missed at least once, except Dan, who must have said it half a dozen times. Joey had run over to the Pratt’s twice to see if they wanted to play cards, but there had been no one home.

  “You sure do make the best pie, Chloe.” Dan had shoveled through two servings heaped with vanilla ice cream. He was handing Chloe his empty plate, and she was handing him another with the very last slice of blackberry pie when Mama Nola rose from her rocking chair, pointed her cane in the air at Chloe like a wizard, and commanded, “Put that down.”

  Chloe and Dan froze in mid-exchange, both of their hands on the plate with the last slice of pie.

  Chloe tried to interpret her mother’s facial expression, but she was drawing blanks.

  Dan said, “Pardon me, Ma’am. You’re welcome to the last—”

  “Chris! I said put that down.”

  Spine-tingling chills prickled down the back of Chloe’s neck. She hadn’t been able to find Chris earlier to give him his pie. When she had asked Dan about him, he’d said he’d gone to the bathroom. He had been gone for an awfully long time.

  Dan dropped his side of the plate. “Chris!”

  The boy spoke, “Become the beast!”

  At the words, Chloe turned.

  She saw Chris, tall and lanky in his yellow t-shirt. Chris, with his wide blue eyes and sweet freckles, was wearing a pair of old raggedy bunny ears on his head. Bugs Bunny loving Chris held a hatchet with both hands above Chloe’s head.

  “Son? Now, son, put that down, buddy…”

  Chris said, “We trixied the eyes, but not the heart.” And then he swung down with the might of three men.

  Chloe jumped back just in time for the hatchet to slice the last piece of pie instead of her skull. The pie and the plate split into two perfect pieces. She dropped the plate halves and screamed.

  Chris didn’t have time to raise the hatchet again; Joey and Dan tackled him. The only noise that could be heard above Chloe’s scream was the sound of Mama Nola crying.

  17

  Mystery Solved

  IT WAS PAST MIDNIGHT. CHLOE PACED back and forth in the small living room. The smell of pie still filled the air. It made her nauseous. “It’s solved then: Chris is Mr. Jingles.”

  Joey laid on his back on the couch with his arms under his head. “No.”

  “How can you say that after today? How dare you say that after today—he had the bunny ears on. He had the hatchet! It makes sense, Joey.” It’d been a long evening. Dan had taken Chris home immediately. It had taken three hours for Joey to calm Mama Nola and put her to bed.

  “It doesn’t make any sense. Think about it, Chloe.”

  “What do you think I’ve been doing for the past four hours! You might see things a little differently if a giant blade was constantly being thrown at your face.”

  Joey sighed. “That’s why you aren’t thinking clearly. You are scared. One can’t make logical decisions when one’s scared.”

  “Like you’d know.”

  “Hey,” Joey sat up on his elbows.

  Chloe stopped in her tracks, surprised at the edge in his voice.

  He said, “I do know. Remember who I live with?”

  “Oh,” Chloe said, “Yeah, I suppose you would.”

  “Could you stop pacing? It’s driving me batty.”

  Chloe paused. “Do you think he’ll bring him in?”

  “Who will bring who in?”

  “Dan. Do you think he’ll turn Chris in to the police?”

  “For fuck’s sake, Chloe. Why would he do that?”

  “He’s tried to kill me!”

  Joey leaped to his feet. “No one is trying to kill you! No one wants to hurt you, Chloe. We love you.”

  “But, Mr. Jingles—how can you say that?”

  “Do you want to know what will happen if Dan brings Chris to the police and you spout off about Mr. Jingles? They’ll put you on the meds again, Chloe. Maybe lock you up in the crazy house for good this time. Do you want that?”

  Stung, Chloe closed her mouth and drew back. He never went there, never. She swallowed hard, and said quietly, “I’m not crazy, Joey.”

  Joey shook his head and flopped down on the couch again. He grabbed a pillow and put it over his face. “I give up.”

  Chloe said, “I’m tired. I think you should leave.”

  “I’m staying.”

  “I just asked you to—”

  He rolled over and faced the back of the couch, his face still buried in a pillow. “I’m staying.”

  Chloe scoffed and stomped to her room where she slammed the door, marched over to her bed and felt beneath the mattress. No one had asked where Chris had gotten the hatchet. Dan said it was one from his shed, but Chloe knew better—or at least she thought she did. Her fingers touched smooth wood. Surprised, Chloe pulled out the hatchet.

  Unreal.

  Chloe shoved it back underneath and rummaged around under her bed for her Fear Diary. She found it and flipped through the pages until she found a blank one. She paused long enough to touch Godzilla and collect her thoughts, before bringing the pen to paper.

  She wrote in it as if it were the last time.

  And it was.

  Part IV

  Her Fear Diary

  September 1st, 1990

  This is what I know about fear. Fear changes you. Fear rules your life. Fear drives you crazy. It does all these things until you conquer it. If you do not conquer fear, it will conquer you.

  Here is something else I know now. To conquer the beast one must become the beast.

  I have to become the beast.

  I have to become the beast, but I’m afraid. I wish I could forget everything that has happened this summer. No one is who I thought they were. Not even me.

  I won’t run anymore. Even if I have to get a hatchet of my own.

  His Journal

  September 1st, 1990

  We tricked the eyes, but not the heart.

  The truth comes out eventually, and when it does, there will be hell to pay.

  And more.

  By then, I’ll be long gone.

  Will she go with me?

  18

  Transforming

  CHLOE AWOKE AT DAWN. SHE TOOK her time in the shower letting the hot water wash the nightmares away. Fresh and dressed, she decided to forgo tea and made a pot of coffee in the kitchen. She peeked around the corner into the living room, expecting to see Joey on the couch, but he was gone.

  When had he left?

  Chloe was hoping he’d be with Mama Nola when she awoke this morning. She had to leave soon to watch the twins. She decided she would make the phone call to her aunt then bring the twins to visit with Etsi. Perhaps her mother would sleep in and wouldn’t e
ven wake until she was back.

  She poured herself a cup of coffee, left a note for Mama Nola by the coffee pot, then slipped on her shoes and stepped outside onto the porch.

  “All ready?” Joey sat on the porch steps, looking as if he hadn’t slept a wink.

  “You look awful.”

  “I feel it, too.”

  Chloe said, “Do you want to…talk?”

  He said, “Went over to check on Dan and Chris.”

  “And?”

  Joey shook his head. “Dan looks like hell, but Chris? He’s perfectly fine; as if nothing ever happened. He won’t answer any questions, though, except one. When Dan asks him about the circus, he starts to dance.”

  Chloe frowned and tugged on Godzilla.

  “There’s coffee inside if you want some. I’ve got to go over to Shirley’s.”

  “I’ll walk you over.”

  “I’m fine to walk by myself.” His words the night before still stung, but what hurt even worse was his continued disbelief in the clown, in her.

  “I know you are. I just. I need…” Joey squeezed his eyes closed and pressed his hands to his forehead.

  Chloe was startled by this. He was worse off than she was. She decided to put her hurt aside. Neither of them had been their selves lately. She decided to use a bit of humor. “Fine. Don’t you dare pull a fast one on me, Joey Parker, like that time when you hid behind the tree.”

  Joey grinned faintly, a ghost of the boy Chloe knew. “Why would I want to do that?” He opened his eyes and looked at her. “You’re too dumb.”

  “Not as dumb as you look.”

  He took a whiff of his arm pit. “At least I smell good.”

  “You wish.”

  He threw a piece of gravel at the third step. It bounced off the wood onto the dirt. “Why wish when all my dreams have come true.”

  “Shut up.” Chloe bent down and kissed his cheek. “I’ll go grab you some coffee.”

  Chloe was in and out of the kitchen in less than a minute. She handed him a mug, and they walked down the stairs together, skipping the third step.

  Chloe said, “A few nights ago, when I came over to your house—”

  Joey sipped his coffee. “Oh yes, the storm before the storm.”

  “This is serious, Joey. The reason I came over…it wasn’t just because she was crying. There’s more.”

  Joey remained quiet.

  “I don’t even know how to say it. We were making dinner together, and she started crying, but then the smoke alarm went off because, well, dinner burned.”

  “Typical.”

  Chloe resisted the urge to tell him to shut up. “The noise scared her or something, and while I was trying to turn it off, she started screaming, ‘Become the beast!’ just as Chris did last night.”

  Joey murmured and waved at her to continue.

  “She was crawling on her hands and knees with her hair hanging in front of her face. She kept snapping her teeth together as she crawled toward me.”

  Joey touched her arm. “Geez, no wonder you were so scared.”

  “I was on a chair. I couldn’t get the smoke alarm to turn off, so I…I was trying to hit it with that hatchet.”

  He said, “Hold up. Where did the hatchet come from?”

  “I don’t know. It appeared beneath my mattress that morning, the morning before Etsi went…crazy.”

  “You didn’t tell me about this.”

  “You saw it when you came over.”

  “But under your mattress?”

  “I don’t know, Joey. But I haven’t told you the worst part of that night.”

  They had just left Goose Avenue and were turning down Gander Avenue. Joey waved at Mrs. Price who was watching them from her kitchen. She waved back.

  “The worst part is that while I was trying to get the alarm to stop, the storm blew the electricity out, then she crawled up to the chair and bit my pinky toe.”

  Joey smirked.

  “No, like, she tried to rip it off and then she pushed the chair over.”

  “Shit.”

  “She kept whispering, ‘We trixied the eyes, but not the heart.’”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I don’t know. But then she raised the hatchet over my head like she was going to chop me to bits.”

  Chloe went quiet.

  “What happened next?”

  “I must have hit my head pretty hard, because I don’t remember anything else. I woke up later in bed. I thought it was a dream, but my toe, it was bandaged up.”

  “Where was Mama Nola?”

  “Crying in her room. She’d changed her clothes.”

  Joey didn’t reply.

  Chloe asked, “Do you think she hurt someone, Joey?”

  Joey looked at her. “Your mother won’t swat flies; that’s why there are so many bugs in your garden.”

  “Shut up. You know what I mean.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.”

  Chloe changed the subject. “Do you want to stop off at your grandpa’s to get fresh clothes?”

  Joey shook his head. “I’d rather be poked by the devil’s fork.”

  “That bad, huh?” They walked by his grandpa’s trailer. As usual, all the curtains were closed. His old truck sat in its spot.

  Joey nodded. “Not for much longer.”

  “What do you mean?” Chloe looked at him sidelong.

  “What I mean is that I won’t be there much longer. He’s got this new job—”

  “That’s good.”

  “No, it’s made everything worse. He drinks more. I think he might be doing something else on the side… It’s like he wants me in the ground.”

  Chloe put her hand on his shoulder. “Joey, I’m sure deep down Pop cares about—”

  “He wants me dead. And… and—”

  Chloe grew impatient with him trying to spit it out. “And what?”

  “I want to fight back. I want to hurt him. Hurt him like he’s hurt me.”

  “You would never hurt him, Joey, not like that.” His words scared her. Where was the guy who told knock-knock jokes and calmed Mama Nola?

  “There’s always been this struggle inside, you know,” Joey pointed at his heart, “the dark and the light. But lately, I feel chained in this darkness where there is no light. Hurting him is all I can think about at night. I try to think about other things, people—like you.”

  Chloe couldn’t help but let out a surprised, “Me?”

  They stopped on the bit of road between Shirley’s and his grandfather’s. He touched her face, “You have to know by now.”

  Chloe thought of their kiss the other night and nodded shyly.

  He said, “I feel like I need to end it all. It’s the only way I can be free.”

  Both of their worlds had been spiraling apart, and yet Chloe had been trapped in a selfish haze, not even noticing that Joey had been dealing with his own troubles at home. Whatever else was between them, he was family. He’d been there for her, for her mother, but who had been there for Joey?

  No one.

  “You mean leave?” Chloe glanced back up.

  Joey touched something tucked under his shirt. He didn’t reply.

  She said, “Where will you go?”

  “I was hoping…”

  “What?” She raised her eyebrows waiting for him to finish, then realized what he left unspoken but implied. “Oh…Oh!” she said again, reaching for Godzilla, then stopping herself and putting her hand down. “Of course, you can stay with us.”

  “No, that’s too close. It needs to be far away from here.”

  What he said reminded Chloe of the story of the snake boy. He was transforming, becoming…into what?”

  “Will you come with me?”

  Chloe’s mouth dropped in surprise.

  He said, “I didn’t think so.”

  “But what about Etsi?”

  “We’ll bring her, too.”

  “And school?
”

  “I don’t know.”

  “What do you mean you don’t know. You’ve got to finish; there’s only one year left.”

  “Chloe! Joey!” The twins stood on the back of the couch in the open living room window. They could hear Shirley in the background, “Girls! Get out of that window before you fall out.”

  Sharon laughed and started singing, “Joey and Chloe sitting in the tree,” Erin joined in.

  Joey said, “Lively bunch today.”

  Chloe said, “Looks like it.”

  “Well, I’m off to work.”

  “Dan’s working today?”

  “I don’t think so, but he asked me to do a few things. I’ll check in on Mama Nola in a bit. Catch ya later.” Joey turned to go, and Chloe stopped him. Emotion filled her voice. “Thank you for everything and I’m sorry I haven’t been there for you with your grandfather.”

  He shrugged, “You’ve been there for me more than you know. You’re family. More than family.”

  Their eyes met and heat passed between them.

  He touched her cheek, letting his thumb slide down her cheekbone. “I love you, Ayita Sevenstars.”

  When Joey said the words, they brought a gift even more than their intended meaning. They brought clarity to Chloe, for the first time in years. She loved him, too. Not the way she thought she had loved Donny—that was a school girl crush. This was more. It was so much more. She opened her mouth to speak, but before Chloe could say a single word, Erin screamed, “Kiss her if ya love ‘er!”

  Sharon repeated, “Yeah, kiss her if ya love ‘er!” The twins broke into hysterical laughter, then chanted so loudly that the whole Misty Goose neighborhood had probably heard.

  The moment was gone.

  Chloe pointed at Shirley’s trailer and the chanting twins. “I gotta—”

  He walked backward, a carefree grin lighting his face before the shadows stole it away. “And I gotta—” jutted his thumb toward the road.

  19

  The Crypt Keeper