Nathan's jaw dropped without making a sound. It looked like he'd scream, but the only screams that were to hear came from the closed door behind the tall maniac. The boy froze in that position, and only his terrified gaze shifted from the cane pointing at him to René's face. The other two stopped to laugh and held their breath, feeling just as startled.
"Your nightmare will be fun~!"
Visibly amused, the man approached Nathan and closed his mouth by lifting the chin with the heel of his cane.
"But maybe we should move to a different location, it's a bit too noisy here..."
René added and turned to the side, heading straight to the exit. He made a hand movement to follow him, so the plushies lifted the boys up by the chairs that they were still tied to.
"He-HEY, HOLD ON! Are you just going to abandon him like that?!"
Mike shifted in his seat, and nodded with his head at the room where Lenny was trapped. René shighed, rolling his eyes.
"The act is over, we're done here." He replied calmly, despite his annoyance.
"BULLSHIT! He suffered enough, LET HIM OUT YOU FREAK!"
Mike continued, struggling against the rope so much that the plushies had trouble to hold him up, and the chair swayed left and right. The ringmaster sighed again and stopped. The toys holding the boy's chair trembled by sensing the mood of their owner and scattered, dropping the chair with a thud. René rotated the cane in his hand, clenched his grip on it and turned around on his heels. A whizz was to hear followed by a slap, as the cane smacked Mike across the face. Before the teenager could recover from the shock, it's heel pressed painfully against his chest.
"Last warning, boy."
The angry man towered above him with a cold, piercing gaze.
"Shut your trap, or I'll make you perform next."
He leaned closer, pressing an inch further with a sadistic smile on his face. Despite being hurt, the boy returned a twisted smirk.
"Bring it on, you old fart. I'm not scared of you."
The tension was high. The other two teenagers didn't say a word, a cold shiver went through their spine. Lenny's begging screams got noticeably quieter and the pounding on the door stopped as he became exhausted physically and mentally.
René was silent, staring into Mike's eyes.
"Hmm... Non. Not yet."
He finally broke the awkward silence and straightened his back, releasing the boy, who immediately gasped for air.
"After all... the main attraction is always saved for last!"
He adjusted his top hat and gave him a devilish smile.
Without wasting any more time, the tall man led his little macabre parade to a nearby hut, which was matching the shabby condition of the whole amusement park. A single lamp post nearby was illuminating it, defining its sorry state even more. The door wasn't even properly closed, it took a slight push of René's cane to open it wide with a typical creak. The Ringmaster crossed his hands behind his back and stepped inside, looking around carefully. The lamp post provided enough light to see what's inside. Judging by the various tools scattered around carelessly the hut must've served as a toolshed, at least back when the place was still in its glory. René raised his head to examine the ceiling. Large cobwebs decorated it like a chandelier. They were so thick from dust, they could be easily mistaken as ragged white sheets just hanging there for no reason.
"Hmm... Oui. This will do."
He mumbled slowly and nodded to himself, then turned around. He put the cane under his left arm to have both hands free and clapped twice. On that signal the plushies placed Nathan in the middle of the room, the other two teenagers were moved closer to the door, enough to have a good view on their distressed friend. Speaking of which, Nathan started to sweat nervously as he looked around, his breath slightly faster.
"Those cobwebs are pretty impressive, don't you think?"
René made a wide hand movement towards the ceiling. He was clearly excited over it, unfortunately his victim was the opposite of enthusiastic. He whimpered pale as a ghost when he looked up, shrinking as he squeezed himself in the seat in a poor attempt to hide. Mike blinked as he realized something.
"Dude, don't tell me..."
He paused and the tall man laughed.
"He won't need to tell you. I will! Act number two - arachnophobia! I'll title it... "The spiders and a small fry".
He announced officially, pointing with his cane at Nathan. The handle pointed in the boy's direction started to glow a bit stronger than usually, as if giving a signal.
A moment later the ceiling started to move. Or more like, it wasn't the ceiling that moved, but the great amount of awakened spiders of various size that covered it started to crawl down the walls or lower themselves on their threads. Nathan squealed in panic.
"No sir, please, don't so it! I-I will never go to any abandoned places after midnight again, I SWEAR! Please PLEASE don't call the spiders- AAAHHHH!"
The teenager screamed as one of the spiders dangled on a thread just in front of his face.
"AH-HAHA! Why should I? Besides, I think they like you, look!"
More and more of the eight legged terrors started to dangle on their webs and crawl the wall, and it took only a moment for them to surround the ground around Nathan and René in a neat circle. The boy squirmed trying to free himself, but the rope was holding him tight in place. Since his legs weren't tied, he tried to desperately stomp those that were close enough to him. The phantom clicked his tongue.
"Now now, that's not how you treat new friends. Or they might get angry and bite a bit... oh, did I mention that some are... venomous...?"
Rene chuckled while petting a spider with his index finger, it was sitting on top of his cane.
Nathan screamed louder, but quickly shut his mouth as he felt the spiders crawling up his body, around his neck and cheeks. He was afraid some might enter his mouth, and he blew air trough the nose nervously when they seemed close to his nostrils. Needless to say that he was whimpering, trembling and squirming in agony while at it.
"You freaken MONSTER!" Mike snapped. "Nate, keep calm, they aren't venomous, that idiot is trolling you just like he did with Lenny! Just stay calm, dammit! Maybe they aren't even real and he fucks with us all!."
The boy trembled, focusing on holding his mouth and eyes shut, one could see he was in great pain facing his deepest fear, the crawling on his body being highly unpleasant. He jolted at random when he felt little stings on his skin, tears started to drip from the corners of his eyes. René just stood there, enjoying the view from up close.
"I don't hear you laughiiiing..."
The man said slowly tilting his head back, peeking at the other two with narrowed eyes. This made Kyle remember how scary Rene was just a bit ago with Lenny's agony, so he didn't hesitate to fake a laugh this time.
"Ahaha, t-this is grand! Oh god, a-ahh-hahaha so funny! S-sir, if I'll keep laughing, will you set me free?"
"K, you bastard!"
Mike couldn't believe it.
"Hmmmm, maybe. After all, those who laugh live longer, you know..."
The Ringmaster mused, setting the spider from his cane on the ground. With that answer Kyle continued to laugh, almost trough tears, just to be in Renés favor.
"The fuck, Kyle?!"
The snappy boy barked at his traitor friend.
"Hmmmmm... Seems like your friend doesn't want to live long..."
René glanced over at Mike with displease.
"Mike, just deal with it and laugh, maybe at least the two of us will survive!" Kyle begged.
"I won't!"
"It's decided then!"
Suddenly René was in front of him, the heel of his cane against Mike's chin, tilting his head back. The two exchanged a glare and the tension rose again.
"Hater's gonna hate, non? In that case, you earned yourself a little... time out."
René made his creepy smile and leaned back taking the cane away. He tapped the ground with it twice. A teddy swiftly climbed the chair and put a blindfold on Mike's eyes.
"What the-!?"
Before the boy could end his sentence, René ordered the plushies to relocate Mike to the highest place in the park. And then he ordered to release Kyle from his chair. Once the ropes were off, the phantom laughed and clapped his hands.
"Bravo, bravo, you did so well, mon ami!"
"I... I did?"
Kyle stuttered and blinked.
"Didn't I say it before? Those who laugh, live longer. Come on now, this asks for a huge celebration!"
"B-but what's whith-"
"Don't worry, they will be fiiiine!"
René slowly closed the door to the hut with terrified Nathan still inside. He then used his cane to push the boy in front of him forward and put the other hand to his mouth, ready to announce something out loud.
"Onward to the snack bar!"
The plushies started to bounce happily and ran along the alley. They made a faint noise, something like a muffled chuckle. Kyle just smirked nervously, not really understanding what's going on but trying to play along.
"I'm in the mood for a mad tea party!"
René exclaimed with joy. Something felt amiss in that sudden friendly attitude of his.
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