The Haunted Circus (Part 3)

Hello!  Welcome back to this story! I am so thankful that it is Friday because it is I get a weekend and I don’t plan on doing much.  It will be nice to relax for while.

Before I get into the story, I want to apologize for leaving you on a cliff hanger in last weeks part!  Unfortunately, I had to do it.  When I wrote the story originally, I wasn’t planning on having a blog.  So yeah…sorry.  But you can click here if you missed the last part, I’ll wait here for you.

This story is labeled as Paranormal.  So get a blanket, get comfortable, and enjoy!

The Haunted Circus (Part 3)

“Christopher!”

Christopher came out of his room.  “What!”

“Shut up!”  The low growl came from Brett’s bedroom.

Christopher walked over to Brett’s door and gently knocked.  “Sorry buddy. We will try to be quiet.” He walked over to Simon’s room where Simon was standing in the middle of the floor, his hands on his head.  “Simon…”

“Why was Julianna here?!”  Simon was so furious he almost screamed his question at Christopher.

“I…I don’t know…”  Christopher was talking quietly, trying to calm Simon down.  “She just said she was looking for you…I told her you weren’t here.  What more do you want me to do?”

Simon fell onto the bed.  “I don’t know…but Julianna shouldn’t be coming over here!  Ever!” Tears started form in Simon’s eyes. “Sure…we were together for 2 years and she was everything to me.  I thought we were soulmates. I thought we were going to get married. But no. I wasn’t enough for her. I was never good enough for her.  She always wanted more, more more more more more. So much more that I couldn’t give her because of school and work and doing stuff that I loved.  She tried to get me to shut everyone out of my life but I wasn’t going to let her do that to me. I still wanted a normal life. A normal life that included her in the picture.  But that wasn’t what she wanted. Her idea of our future was very different than my idea of our future. She decided to hurt me. She decided to cheat on me with someone that was 1000 times better than me.  I was so hurt and confused and angry and emotional. She hurt me so badly I never wanted to see her again and I told her that. I told her that to her face when she told me what happend. And now she just goes and shows up at our door?  I haven’t spoken to her in months. I have been trying to get over her and move on with my life and do things that I want to do. I thought I was finally getting to a place where I could move on in my life. And now she wants to talk to me?  No thanks. She had her chance to ask for forgiveness and try to get me back into her life. Julianna had her chance to come clean and admit that she was wrong and that she hurt me. But she has blown it all. I will never be in a relationship with Julianna.  It’s over!”

Simon rolled over and let all the tears flow into his pillow.  He didn’t realize how much anger he had pent up inside of him. He was so angry at Julianna and he didn’t realize that his emotions still weren’t in check.  

Christopher sat on the bed next to Simon and patted his shoulder.  “Don’t worry dude. I didn’t tell her where you went. I just said you weren’t here.  She doesn’t know where you went or what you were doing. I’ve got your back. But what I didn’t realize what how angry you still were about the situation.  I know you were badly hurt but you have come a long way. You should be proud of yourself.”

Simon rolled over and looked up the ceiling.  His face was completely red and tearstained from crying, but he didn’t care.  He sniffled. “I actually feel a lot better. Thanks for listening.”

“Of course.”  Christopher stood up and walked to the door.  “Good night buddy. I’ll see you later in the morning.”

Simon watched as Christopher walked out the door.  “Good night dude.” He got up and walked over to the light switch and flipped it off.  He undressed and threw his clothes in the hamper before dressing in pajamas and crawling under the covers.  He looked at his phone and flipped through the pictures he had taken that night. The photo album. The box of light bulbs.  2 more boxes with locks on them. All the newspaper articles. And the vanity that still wasn’t open. Maybe he could take Christopher with him and see if they could both figure it out?

Simon laid there with his hand behind his head, contemplating what he should do.  His head was still spinning from everything that happened that night: finding more clues, finding more puzzles, having Julianna come by the house, and pouring out all of his anger.  He was exhausted from crying and he felt like he his chest had been hit with a ton of brick. Simon closed his eyes and took long deep breaths in and out. And within a matter of minutes, he found himself drifting off into the dreamworld.

 

* * *

 

“Are you sure about this?”

Simon looked over at Christopher who was quivering in the passenger seat.  He put his hand on Christopher’s shoulder. “It’s fine dude. If you get to scared, you are more than welcome to come back to the car and wait for me.  But I really want to find the answers tonight if possible.”

Christopher nodded and looked at Simon.  “Okay…let’s do this.” They both got out of the car and headed toward the circus tent.

Simon lead the way into the dressing room.  He quickly opened the two trunks, revealing the puzzles he was stuck on then opened his briefcase on the vanity.  Christopher looked at the vanity and then into Simon’s briefcase. There was a small cross painted into the vanity.  Christopher looked at the briefcase where he picked up the vile of Holy Water that Simon carried around. The cross on the Holy Water was almost identical to the cross on the vanity and it was puzzling for Christopher.  He set the Holy Water on the cross on the vanity and a drawer popped open. Simon spun around. “What was that?”

Christopher’s eyes widened as he pointed to the drawer.  “I set the Holy Water on this cross and the drawer opened how did that happen?”

Simon rushed over to find the contents in the drawer.  “Well, it is a haunted circus. Anything is possible.” Simon found a box with a dial lock on it.  He let out a long sigh. “Of course it’s a box with a lock. Now what?”

Christopher threw his hands up in the air.  “I don’t know dude! You’re the ghost expert.”

“Paranormal Investigator thank you.  Chill out dude, it was a rhetorical question.”  Simon walked around the room, trying to figure out what he could use to solve the puzzle.

Christopher walked over to the box with the photo album.  Simon had laid the newspaper articles from the shelf in the box next to the album.  Christopher opened the album to see what was inside. More newspaper articles. He flipped through the pages and noticed that there were 3 spaces for newspaper articles.

“Do you think these shoes have anything to do with anything?”  Christopher turned to see Simon holding three pairs of clown shoes that were tied together by their shoe laces.  “I feel like these are supposed to go to something…”

Christopher looked in the box at the small box with a lock.  “What are the shoe sizes?”

“Huh…uh…15…24…9…why?

Christopher tried that combination.  “Nope, not correct. Is there another box?”

Simon spun around to the vanity.  “Maybe that box?” He ran over to it and tried the combo.  The lock popped open, revealing a small barrel cryptic lock inside.  “One box open, another puzzle found.”

Christopher patted Simon on the shoulder.  “That’s okay dude. We’ll figure this out.”  He led Simon over to the box with the newspaper articles and the photo album.  “Maybe you can help me with this? I think the newspapers go in the album, but I’m not sure what to do with it.”

Simon sat down next to the box and flipped through the photo album.  He looked at the 3 articles. “Do you think the combination has something to do with the dates?  Like, maybe in order of the dates that these were written?” They looked at the dates, put them order, and tried the combo on the box from that was next to the photo album.  27-3-14. Click.  They boys gasped!  “I can’t believe that worked!  What’s inside?”

There was a piece of paper with a dancer line up.  Each dancer had a different color assigned to them: red, white, or blue.  They were arranged around the circle that would be the main ring. Simon looked at it and looked at the mirror.  “Hey dude. How many spots are there on the mirror?”

Christopher walked over and counted the spots on the mirror.  “9. Why?”

“Because…I think that we have to match the light bulbs from that box,” Simon pointed to the trunk that contained the light bulbs.  “And put them in the right order on the mirror. So we need 4 white, 3 red, and 2 blue.”

Christopher moved to the box and grabbed 4 white light bulbs.  “Okay, where do these go.”

Simon looked at the line up.  “Uh…spot 1, spot 4, spot 6, and spot 9.”  Christopher did that, screwing in the lightbulbs to be tight.  “Okay…now the 3 red ones go in spot 2, spot 5, and spot 8.”

Christopher screwed the three red light bulbs into place.  “I’m assuming the 2 blue ones go in spot 3 and spot 7?”

“Yes, that is correct.”  Christopher screwed in both light bulbs.  As soon as the second light bulb was screwed in all the way in, the other drawer in the vanity popped open.  They both looked into the drawer.

“A diary?”

Simon picked it up.  He flipped it over in his hands.  “This must have the answers for everything but it’s locked.  I haven’t found a key for it though.”

“What about this?”  Christopher was holding the small barrel lock that was in the other drawer.  “We haven’t figured this out yet. Maybe it’s like her name or something.” He turned the dials to spell out ALICE.  It sprung open revealing a small key. “Try this!”

He handed Simon the key.  Simon put the tiny key in the lock on the diary.  It opened the lock to reveal a book full of handwritten diary entries.  Simon stared at Christopher. “Do you know what this means? This is a whole diary written by Alice.  This could give us the answers we are looking for!”

Home

Christopher froze.  “What was that? You heard that right?”

Simon slowly stood up, setting the diary down on the vanity.  “Alice. I found your diary. Do you want me to take it home and read it?  To try to figure out what happened to you and figure out this last puzzle?”

Home…Go….Home

“Okay.  We will go home Alice.  But we will be back tomorrow to figure this out.  I want to tell your family what happened to you.” Simon turned to Christopher who was still frozen on the floor.  “Buddy…we have to lock everything up. Take the light bulbs out, put them back in the drawer. Put everything back the way you found it when we came in.  I’m taking the diary home to see if I can figure this out.”

They carefully put everything back the way it was and rushed back to the car.  It was a quiet ride back to the city, where the whole world seemed to be asleep.