PLSPLSPLS dont censor it gridpaint :(

I had followed my friend into a circus tent. The smell was horrid, it was dark, too dark to see. The ground made squelching sounds with each step. But it wasn't mud. It smelled ever so heavily of copper...Perhaps blood. A light within the tent had come on. There she was. Strapped to a spinning wheel. Her face deprived of color. Her face wet with tears. Her eyes...Open, yet lifeless. Then I stepped closer to get a better look. Knives everywhere in her body. Her blood splattered around the tent as the wheel was spun by a pale, skinny hand.

"What a shame. I expected you to last longer than the others. I had many, many plans for you, my dear." The owner of the hand would say.

I was sick to my stomach. The sight of her corpse, the words he had said...All so sickening...I couldn't make a run for it. He'd hear me. No, I have to tell the police. He looks fast. He'll get me too. I couldn't move. The weight of this decision...Felt like it was crushing me. So I didn't. Not a single movement was made in my state. The killer then stepped closer to the vanity on the right side of the room. Directly near where I had been hiding. The killer was one of the clowns we met earlier...Peruno, I think the kids called him. But what really matters is his REAL name! What was I to do? As I thought, the man began removing his clown makeup...His true features began to show...Crooked nose...Slight tan...Black eyes...A small burn mark on his chin. That face...I've seen that on the news...Bruno Oscura...The infamous Carnie Killer...There was no mistaking it. I've heard about his murders before...Especially the one where he had left a woman's head on the saddle of a carousel horse...her detached body impaled on the post. I gasped in disgust in fear. But louder than anticipated. The curtain hiding me moved aside. He grinned down at me. His face was all too unsettling...

"Don't be shy, little one. I don't bite. That's the job of my piranhas over there." He joked. His laugh was joyous, almost childlike. I grew increasingly uncomfortable.

"Come, come! Would you like to join me for target practice! I gotta work on my bad aim." He stated, his unnerving grin still plastered on his face.

I shook my head violently.

"What have you done...You...You killed her." I muttered, stepping back.

"Well, It wasn't intentional! I just suck at knife throwing!" He laughed.

"No, no...This isn't okay...I have to tell somebody." I said.

He grabbed my wrist roughly as I turned away.

"I don't remember saying you can leave. That's not how you ask, is it?" He questioned.

"May I...May I please leave?" I ask.

"Of course! But first, I need you to do something. Tell me your name." He ordered.

"Poco...It's Poco..." I said.

"Poco. Tell me, can you keep a secret?" He asked me, his eyes not leaving me.

I nodded shakily.

"Good. Now, you won't tell the police about this." He stated. More of a demand than a suggestion.

"What? No way!-" I shouted.

He wrapped his hand around my mouth.

"Careful now, we wouldn't want you accidentally getting caught in the cotton candy machine, would we?" He asked.

And then he released me. I haven't spoke a word of it since.

#mnm-shortstories