Hello!  Does anyone have any exciting plans for this weekend?  I am actually planning on going to a succulent show and sale this weekend so that’s exciting for me!  I can’t wait to see what kinds of cacti and succulents I can look at and possibly buy.

But either way, welcome back to this story.  I’m so sad that it’s over!  I had so much fun writing this story and now it’s just…over and done with.  I hope you enjoyed following Simon and Alice and Christopher in their adventure.  If you missed the last part, click here and get caught up.

This story is labeled as Paranormal.  So get a blanket, get comfortable, and enjoy!  And thank you so much for following along with the story!

The Haunted Circus (Final Part)

Simon sat at his desk, pouring over the contents of the diary.  There was no combination directly in the book. But everything else had been a code in there somewhere, everything else had a combination to it.

Alice wrote all about her time in the circus.  Meeting other people, dancing with her friends, and being a part of the largest circus in the area.  She wrote about how she missed her family and how she hated missing her mother’s birthday. It was such a personal thing and Simon felt wrong reading it, almost like it was too personal for him to know.

“Knock knock.”

Simon turned around to see Brett and Veronica.  He stood up out of his chair. “V! How are you?”  He rushed over to give her a hug.

She giggled.  “I’m good Simon.  How about you? I feel like you’ve been out for a while now.”

Simon blushed.  “Uh…yeah…I have this diary that I know it has a code in it of some sort, but I have no idea.  I got to the last page, but it’s just a…normal diary. I think I went through it twice and I still don’t have anything.”

Brett frowned.  “You looked through every page?”

Simon nodded.  “Yep. Every single page that is written on.”

“What if you check the pages that aren’t written on?  Maybe there’s something written on a page that you haven’t checked?”

Simon walked back to the diary and started flipping through pages again.  He made it through all the written pages and slowly thumbed through the blank pages.  He made it through 10 pages before there was more writing. “What?”

Veronica walked over to Simon to see what he found.  “What is it?”

Simon pointed to the page.  “Look!”

I have to get out of this place!  Frank will not leave me alone no matter what I do or say.  He is trying to force himself upon me and I have had enough.  He has even threatened to kill me. It has become too dangerous for me to be here.  If Frank kills me, there will be proof in a box. The combination is the three things that scare me in alphabetical order.

Veronica stood next to Simon with her mouth agape.  “What did you just find? And what are the three things that scare her?”

Simon started flipping through the pages, his notebook sitting next to the diary.  “I know one of them is Frank. She said that multiple times. So he’s obviously one of the things.  I think she also said clowns and cats?”

“Like house cats?”

Simon shook his head.  “No like the big cats.”  He pointed to a diary entry.  “Here. She says ‘the big cats scare me’.  So I think that we need to see how many lions and tigers there were in the circus.  Uh…” He flipped through some of the pages to one of the first entries. “Here! There were 7 lions, but it doesn’t say how many tigers.  But it does say 37 clowns. So 37 clowns, 1 Frank, and…” Simon flipped through a few more pages. “15 cats.”

Veronica was confused.  “15 cats? How did you figure that out?”

“There’s another entry where she talks about all of the tigers all have T names.  And there’s 8 names. So 7 lions and 8 tigers equals 15.”

Brett snickered.  “I cannot believe you figured that out.”

Simon turned to look at Brett and grinned.  “That’s what I get for reading the diary twice.  But I’m not sure if she classifies the lions and tigers as cats or if they are classified under lions and tigers.”

Brett nodded.  “Well at least you have the numbers.  At least you can try the combination a few different ways.”

Simon turned back to his notebook.  “Yeah…I have the final combination.”

* * *

The rain poured down through the holes in the circus tent but thankfully the roof over the dressing room was still intact so Simon was able to stay dry.  He sat at the vanity with the last box and his notebook. He let out a long breath. “Alice…I may not be able to talk to you again. But I want you to know that I have enjoyed your puzzles.  I am about to open the last box, the proof that Frank killed you. I hope you are okay with that.”

He slowly turned the dial.  “37 clowns, 1 Frank, 15 lions and tigers.”  The lock clicked open, letting Simon open the box completely.  He slowly lifted the lid to see what was inside.

There were letters.  A lot of letters. All of them labeled ‘To My Love’.  There were photographs, creepy photographs of Alice. There was an especially creep photo of her and Frank, but Frank looked like was enjoying it more than she was.  A small box sat with the letters. Simon opened it. Inside was a simple diamond ring with a small piece of paper attached.

If you do not accept this ring I will murder you

“Is this what you wanted me to find?  This engagement ring with a murder note in it?  Is this definitive?” Simon listened for anything.  Any sort of hint. Letters.  He nodded.  “You want me to read the letters?  Okay.”

Simon gently opened the top letter, reading about how crazy in love Frank was.  He opened the second, reading an almost identical letter. Every single letter was written from Frank to Alice talking about how beautiful she was.  It was disgusting. He got to the last letter and there were two pieces of paper. One was a letter from Frank.

The other was from Alice.

To whoever is reading this.

I want you to know that I did not love Frank.  He kept pushing himself upon me and no matter how many times I told him no, he kept coming.  If you are going to show that Frank is my killer you will need to find 2 things: the weapon and the picture.  Frank is so perverted that he would kill me and take a photography of my body as a keepsake. Any other evidence would be in his office, probably hidden in a book.  He was mighty proud of that book. It is The Great Gatsby. He was so proud that he owned two of them. Find them. Find Frank. Find me.

Alice

Simon quickly stood up and closed everything up in the box.  He rushed out of the room and wandered around the backstage, trying to find anything that looked like Frank’s office.  Simon turned a corner and found a big door labeled ‘Frank’. He laughed. “Well isn’t it my lucky day?” He pushed through the door to find an office.

Not much was left in the office.  There was a desk and chair along with a large bookshelf.  Simon hurried to the shelf looking at all the titles. “Come on…come on…The Great Gatsby where are you…”  He scanned every book until he found one copy. He pulled it off the shelf and opened it. It was a full of pages.  He put it back where he found it and was puzzled. He kept looking through the titles but didn’t see another copy.

“Nothing.  Uh…Alice…I could use some help here.”  He sat on the desk and it fell from a weak leg.  Simon fell on the floor and when he sat up he noticed all of the drawers from the broken side fell out.  In the bottom drawer was a large copy of The Great Gatsby.  Simon laughed.  “Alice…you are a genius.”

He grabbed the book and opened it.  Inside the pages were cut out and there was a very old gun and a picture.  The picture of Alice’s dead body with ‘Frank’s Property’ etched into her body by what looked like a knife.  Simon gasped. “Alice…I can’t believe this happened to you! It’s terrible.”

Suddenly the room went ice cold.  Simon’s flashlight flickered, shutting off for a second and turning back on.  The rain seemed to fall harder than it had been earlier that night. Simon felt the floor start to shake underneath him.  “Weird…I don’t remember hearing anything about a possible earthquake.” A loud scream echoed through the entire room. A scream that couldn’t be replicated no matter how one tried.  Simon covered his ears but that didn’t help. Once it finished Simon slowly stood up. He looked around the room. “Alice? Alice was that you?” There was nothing.

Simon ran to the dressing room to gather his things before leaving.  He looked up at the vanity and saw every light bulb smashed to smithereens.  The drawers on the vanity were previously locked and now they were flung open, displaying all of their contents.  The shelf had fallen and so had some of the mannequin heads.

Simon stood in the middle of the room looking to see what had happened.  “Alice. I hope you are happy now. I found the information. I will try to find your family and give them this information.  I will go to the police. I will tell your story Alice. No matter how crazy everyone thinks I am. I will tell everyone your story.  I will let everyone know what happened. The world will know you story before long.” Simon heard a crash and he turned around to watch a door fly by.  He picked up his belongings and ran.

As he neared the front of the tent a wind picked up and pushed him out.  He landed on his face, briefcase still in hand. He crawled toward his car and turned around in the knick of time.  The circus tent collapsed taking everything down with it. A bolt of lighting came down, striking the tent as it collapsed.  The books, the vanity, the dresses, the tent, everything was coming down to the ground in fire and fury.

Simon opened his briefcase and pulled out the EMF reader.  He quickly turned it on. “Alice…if you can hear me. I just want to let you know that I care about you.”

Thank……you

“You’re welcome.”  The rain started to become lighter, moving from intense showers to a light drizzle.  The smoke from the fire was heavy but it was being drowned out by the rain. By morning there was going to be nothing left.  Alice would make sure of that.

Simon smiled knowing that what he had done was right.  He didn’t have the evidence, it was destroyed in the falling and burning of the tent.  But that didn’t matter to him. He knew the truth. Alice knew that he knew the truth. And that was all that really mattered.

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.

Hello!  It is finally Friday and I cannot be more ready for the weekend.  It has been a very long week and I cannot wait for a break.  And even though I will be busy, it will still be relaxing.

But either way, welcome back to this story!  I hope you are ready to continue reading and see what happens next because it is about to get more exciting!  If you missed the last part, click here because you will want to read it.  I’ll wait here…don’t worry.

This story is labeled as Paranormal.  So get a blanket, get comfortable, and enjoy because this is another long one!

The Haunted Circus (Part 2)

The sun shone through the windows of Simon’s room.  Simon blinked as he tried to wake up. What time is it?  He grabbed his phone and opened it.  12 pm. He rubbed his eyes and sat up before starting to look through the photos that he had taken the night before.  2 trunks both with locks on it. A box full of shoes. A vanity with 2 locked drawers. Dresses. Mannequin heads. What could this all mean?

There was a knock on the door.  “Come in.”

The door creaked open.  “Finally decide to join this living instead of the dead?”  Simon looked around his phone to see Christopher standing in his doorway.  He was fully dressed but he had a cup of coffee in hand.

Simon stretched.  “I guess…I thought you don’t drink coffee past 10 am?”

“I don’t.”  Christopher set the coffee cup on Simon’s side table.  “It’s for you.” Christopher pulled out Simon’s desk chair and sat in it.  “Any luck last night?”
Simon picked up the coffee cup, took a sip, and winced.  “You didn’t add enough cream to this but it will do. Uh…last night, yeah I had some luck.  I think I actually talked to Alice, the dead dancer. She told me to go to the dressing room which I did.  But I don’t know what to do with any of the stuff in there. Here.” He handed Christopher his phone to look at the photos.

Christopher sat back and flipped through the photos.  “I didn’t know they had this kind of lock back in the 1920s.”

Simon almost choked on his coffee from laughing.  He swallowed his coffee and snickered. “I said the same exact thing last night when I found it.  I just don’t know where to even start with combinations or anything like that.”

Christopher frowned.  “This is a four digit combo right?”  Simon nodded. “What if this is the year?  What year did this happen?”

Simon looked closer at the phone.  “1926, how did you think of that?”

Christopher shrugged.  “I don’t know, it was just a suggestion.  Is that a bad thing?”

“No no it’s great.  I don’t know how I didn’t think of that last night.”  Simon quickly pulled the drawer of his side table open and grabbed a notepad and pen.  He jotted that down while Christopher looked at another photo.

Christopher turned the phone to show Simon a picture.  “What are these?”

Simon looked at the photos of the dresses.  “Oh, that’s just a bunch of dresses. I didn’t know what they have to do with anything but I didn’t really investigate them.”

“Do you see this?”  Christopher zoomed in onto one of the hangers, revealing a small letter H etched in on it.  “There’s an H on. Maybe the other hangers have letters on them too. Maybe that will give you something?”

Simon was shocked.  “I totally didn’t realize that last night.  Maybe you need to come with me to look at stuff.”

Christopher chuckled.  “Maybe. But I don’t really want to talk to ghosts.”

Simon threw the covers off of him and stood up quickly.  He grabbed some clothes and headed toward the bathroom. “You don’t really talk to them.  You can hear them through the EMF reader. Or you feel a chill. It’s hard to explain. Either way, I need to shower so you need to leave.”

Simon showered and quickly dressed before heading downstairs to the kitchen.  He turned into the kitchen to see his best friend Brett sitting at the table. Brett waved.  “Hey buddy! How was ghost hunting last night? I heard you come home at what, 3 am?”

Simon laughed as he opened the freezer, grabbing the chocolate chip waffles before closing the door.  “Yeah, it was about 3 am. It went well. Christopher was helping me decipher some of the things that I found, but I still don’t know everything.”  He threw the waffles in the toaster. “What did you do last night?”

“Oh…I studied for a while, then I watched some more Game of Thrones.  I have work in an hour so I better get going.” Brett stood up from the table and started out of the kitchen.  He stopped and turned around. “Hey…do you remember Kurtis from high school?”

Simon buttered his waffles before pouring syrup over them.  “Kurtis Vonberg? Yeah, why?”

“He, uh…he was killed yesterday.”

Simon dropped his knife.  “What? Kurtis died? What happened?”

Brett shrugged.  “I’m not sure. Veronica told me last night.  I thought maybe you could look into it if they don’t find the murderer.”

“Veronica was here last night?  When did she leave?”

Brett shrugged.  “Maybe 8? She didn’t stay too long this morning because she had work.”

Simon sighed.  “I feel like I never see her anymore.  I would be nice to see her again.”

“Well…she might be coming over again tonight.  You gonna be here?”

Simon shook his head.  “No. I’m going back out to the circus.”  He poured himself a glass of milk. “I wish I was a happy as you two.”

“Why do you say that?”

Simon turned around with his breakfast and started to walk to the table.  “I don’t know. You two are always together, either here or at her house. You are so happy together.  And don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for you two. But I just wish I was in the same position.”

“Dude.  You were badly hurt.  Just take some time for yourself.  Don’t rush into something that you aren’t ready for, you know what I mean?”

Simon nodded.  “I get it. It’s just super hard.”

Brett sighed.  “I know buddy. But I just want the best for you.  I want you to be happy. And sometimes that means just taking some time for yourself.”  He patted Simon’s shoulder. “I’ve got to get ready for work. If you need anything, you know you can always text me.  Be safe tonight, you hear?”

Simon snickered.  “I’m always safe. But thank you.  I appreciate it.” He watched Brett walk up the stairs before sitting at the table and finally delving into his waffles.  He sifted through the pictures that he took from the circus, trying to find anything that might lead him to finding answers.

 

* * *

 

“Alice.  I’m back.  I hope you don’t mind that I have returned to look around.”  Simon was back in the dressing room with his briefcase open on the vanity.  He sat down by the trunk with the combo that Christopher had suggested. “Okay so it could be 1-9-2-6.” Click.  “Oh my gosh!  I got it. Thank you dude!”  Simon took the lock off of the trunk and opened it revealing 2 boxes.  One had a dial lock and the other just had a lid. Simon slowly reached for the unlocked box and found a dozen light bulbs.

“Light bulbs?”  Simon stood up and looked at the vanity.  There were places for 9 light bulbs. Simon grabbed the EMF reader and turned it on.  “Hey Alice. I got the first box open. But now I have these light bulbs and I know they need to go on the vanity but do they need to go in a certain order?  Or can I just put them in willy nilly?” Order.  Simon nodded.  “Okay, order it is.  Thanks Alice!”

Simon walked over to the dresses and looked at the hangers.  H A A R E N D E C. Each hanger had a different letter on it.  “Haar endec? That doesn’t mean anything. Alice…if you have any clues, that would be great.”  Nothing. “Okay…I guess I’m on my own.” Simon took a step back and looked at the dresses. “3 red, 1 orange, 1 yellow, 1 green, 2 blue, 1 purple.  Maybe I need to put them in color order?” Simon started taking them off the rack and rearranging them in order like the rainbow. N D A C E R E A H.

He smacked his hand against his head.  “That still doesn’t make any sense. I put them in color order, but maybe that isn’t right?”  Simon started paging through the dresses like they were pages in a book. “N, D, A, C, E, R, E, A, H.  That doesn’t make sense. Wait…cer…with a d…maybe dancer?” Simon flipped the first dress to be the third.  “Dancer EAH. Wait, Alice…Alice Elizabeth Hewitt. Dancer AEH. Okay…now what does that mean…” Simon looked down to the trunk with the three number combo.  “A…E…H…1…5…8…” Simon grabbed the lock and turned the small dials to 1-5-8, opening the second trunk.

“Alice!  I did it!  I opened the second one and it has…”  Simon opened the trunk to see what was inside.  “Another box with a lock and a photo album?” Simon took a picture of the contents in the box to see if maybe Christopher could make something of it.  As he stood up something caught his eye. 9 pictures hanging on the wall above the box. Each photo was of a different dancer with their name on it. Nadine, Emma, Alice, Anne, Deborah, Hannah, Colleen, Elizabeth, Rachel.  Simon turned around and saw the mannequin heads on the shelf, each one with a name underneath it.

Simon looked between the photos and the shelf.  Every girl had a photo and a mannequin head. But each girl was facing a different direction.  “Do the mannequin heads move?” Simon grabbed one of the head and it turned. Simon gasped. “That worked!  I can’t believe that worked! Okay…now I guess I have to match the heads in the pictures with their mannequin heads.  Maybe that will open something…”

After what felt like forever Simon was finally onto the last mannequin head.  He turned it to the left and a small compartment opened from the bottom of the shelf.  Simon grabbed what was inside, 3 newspaper articles. He scanned through the articles quickly, trying to see what they said.  They talked about the circus and the owner Frank Wilson. “Alice, this Frank guy sounds like a douche.” As Simon was walking around trying to decipher the newspapers, his phone started to ring.  He pulled it out of his pocket and saw Christopher on the screen. “Hey Christopher, why are you calling me at…” Simon took his phone away from his ear to look at the time. “1 am?”

“You need to come home.”

“Why?  Do you miss me too much?”

Christopher snickered.  “No. But…uh…I someone might be coming out to the circus.”

“What do you mean someone might be coming out to the circus?  Like, police? Or someone else? Like how worried should I be?”

“Uh…”  Christopher paused.  “Like…really worried.  Like you should leave as soon as possible.”  Simon could heard Christopher swallow on the other end of the phone.  “Someone came looking for you, someone who you can’t stand.”

Simon’s heart sank all the way to his stomach and his mood changed from concerned to furious.  “Julianna is coming here? Why!?”

“I don’t know!  But she came here looking for you and I told her you were gone.  I didn’t tell her where, but she muttered something about trying to find where you were when she walked away.  So I would try to get home as soon as possible.”

Simon started to hastily put things away.  “Why is my Julianna coming to the house? I told her to never show her face to me again!”

“I don’t know!  But what I do know is you need to leave there NOW!”

Simon quickly started packing up.  He put the stuff he knew back in boxes and put their locks back on.  He knew the combos so it wouldn’t be hard to reopen them. He mixed up the dresses and moved the heads all back to the forward position.  “Alice…I’m leaving. I hope to be back tomorrow. Maybe I can figure it out tomorrow.”

Good morning!  Welcome back to a normal Friday post.  I’m hoping to get back into the schedule of Mondays and Fridays and maybe get some more stories in the middle on Wednesdays.  Let me know what you think!  All I know is that I want to write more.

This is a start of another long story so I hope you are ready.  I put a lot of heart and soul into this story and a lot of thought went into it.  And just to give you a heads up, each part is going to be 1500 words or more.  So this is a very long story.

This story is labeled as Paranormal.  So grab a blanket, get comfortable, and get ready for a long story.  Enjoy!

The Haunted Circus (Part 1)

Simon Norch looked in the mirror and let out a sigh.  He thought he looked funny, dressed in all black; he had such fair skin and almost white hair, the black made him look like he was trying too hard.  He thought he looked like he was trying to impress the emo crowd. He shook his head and snickered. Mostly, he was trying to not be seen while doing something possibly illegal.  He had been planning this for a while and he wasn’t going to back down now.

There was a knock on the door.  Simon turned, he wasn’t expecting anyone tonight.  “Come in?”

The door slowly opened and a face came through the door.  “You going somewhere tonight?”

Simon relaxed.  Christopher was one of his roommates and one of the only people who understood what he did for fun.  “Dude…you know what I’m doing tonight. I’ve been talking about it for weeks now.”

“Oh!”  Christopher smacked his forehead.  “Of course. I forgot you were going to the circus tonight.”

“It’s not just a circus.  It’s a haunted circus. It’s freeing a spirit that has been trapped in the same circus for almost 100 years.  I have to try to talk to her and see if I can figure out what happened.”

Christopher chuckled.  “Do you really think you can free this spirit?  It’s been forever since this chick died.”

Simon grabbed a black baseball cap and fit it to his head.  He turned toward his bookshelf and took the handle of a briefcase before laying it on the bed.  His fingers slid against the locks, unlocking it so he could check the contents. An EMF reader, a camcorder, night vision goggles, holy water, salt, a wooden stake, and a thermal thermometer.  Simon slammed the briefcase shut and locked it. He looked back at Christopher. “Just because she died doesn’t mean she died fairly. I want to figure out who killed her and try to show the world who the killer was.  That’s the reason I enjoy doing this in my spare time. I want to find the truth.”

Christopher leaned against the doorframe and smiled.  “That’s why I like you Simon. You are always looking out for other people and trying to find the truth.  That’s awesome.”

Grabbing his keys off the dresser, Simon was ready to go.  He picked up the briefcase and walked toward the door. He stopped in front of Christopher.  “I always want to find the truth. It’s just something that comes with being a criminology major.”   Simon pushed past Christopher and walked down the stairs to the front door. He opened it, waving goodbye to Christopher as he slipped out into the darkness.

The air was cold and crisp at 9 pm.  It was very clear outside, perfect for doing some investigating.  He looked up to the sky to see there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, he hoped that helped in his investigation.  Simon walked to his Chevy Malibu, opening it and sliding into the front seat. He set the briefcase on the passenger seat and turned on the car, ready to go on his adventure.

As Simon drove out of the city, he thought about this investigation.  He was visiting the haunted Wilson circus to try to talk to a ghost. The circus stopped almost 50 years ago because too many patrons were complaining about seeing a ghost.  There was a murder in 1926 at this circus. Her name was Alice Elizabeth Hewitt and she was only 22. She was one of the dancers who had only been with the circus for a few months; no one knew what happened to her and her body was never found.  Her family had so many questions that weren’t answered and Simon really wanted to be able to give the family the answered that they deserved. The other dancers said Alice had kept a diary, but the diary was never found. Other paranormal investigators had visited the site but no one was ever able to come up with some evidence, causing the family to be quite discouraged.  But Simon was different than the other investigators; he wanted to bring them hope.

After an hour of driving and contemplating the case he finally arrived at the circus site.  He pulled up to the site and parked his car before getting out and quickly locking it. The wind picked up as he stood next to his car, blowing his jacket up and almost blowing his hat off.   Simon looked up at the disheveled tent; it was a miracle that this place was still standing after being closed for so many years. He was sure that teenagers had tried to destroy it but the tent was somehow still pretty intact.

Simon slowly made his way toward the front of the tent, trying to be respectful of Alice and the circus.  He set his briefcase down and opened it, grabbing his thermal thermometer. He quickly turned it on and did a reading.  67 degrees. Simon checked the weather app on his phone. 67 degrees. Oh good.  This is working just fine.  Now, let’s see if we can talk to Alice.

He set the thermometer down and slowly stood up.  “Alice. My name is Simon Norch. I am a paranormal investigator and I want to find who killed you to give your family answers.  Can you hear me?” Simon listened carefully, but all he heard was the wind whistling around him. He nodded. “Okay, maybe you can’t hear me outside.  I’m going to go inside the tent to see if I can talk to you. Would that be okay?” Simon listened again but still only heard wind. He slowly moved toward an opening in the tent.  He ducked inside and felt a chill.

Inside the circus tent felt eerie.  The only light was from a large cut in the top of the tent, revealing the bright moon in the dark night sky.  It felt like there should’ve been 1000 people sitting in the audience watching girls dance, lions jump through flaming hoops, and clowns juggle bowling pins.  There were plenty of benches for audience members, but most of them were broken or graffitied on. The circus ring was still there, mostly intact, but still disheveled.  

Simon walked into the center of the ring, standing where a ringmaster would stand to conduct the circus.  He quickly pulled out his EMF reader and turned it on; the clicking started right away, flipping through radio stations faster than one could by hand.  Simon slowly turned in a circle, observing the entire room. “Alice. It’s me, Simon. I am here to get information about who killed you. Is this a good room to speak in or should I go somewhere else?”

He listened to the EMF reader, trying to find anything in the readings.  Dress—ing—dress—room—.  Simon nodded.  “You want me to go to the dressing room?  Is that correct?” Nothing came over the reader except the sound of flipping channels, so he turned it off.  “Okay. I will find my way to the dressing room. Thank you.” Simon picked up his briefcase and made his way out of the ring.

Walking out of the ring, Simon made his way to the back of the circus tent and through the very dusty curtains into the back of the stage.  There was a lot of items that had been destroyed, except for one door. A door that had the word DANCER on the door. “Is this the place you want me to go?”  Simon listened to see if he heard anything. He shook, a chill moved through his entire body. He whipped around and saw nothing. “Okay Alice. I’m going to go into the dressing room.  If you need to tell me anything else, let me know.” Simon reached out for the door and pushed.

Inside the room, everything was pretty intact.  There was a vanity and a stool, a shelf with 9 mannequin heads on it with various head wear, 3 chests, and a rack with dresses in various colors.  Everything seemed like it had been untouched, except for the vanity which had two drawers missing. Newspaper clippings and photos hung on the walls, but that was about it.

Simon looked at everything in the room.  It felt very cold, and he didn’t know where to start.  “Alice…is there something I should start with?” Nothing.  Simon nodded. “Okay. I’ll see what I can do.” He set his briefcase on the vanity and opened it.  He pulled a pair of gloves out of his jacket pocket and snapped them on as he walked over to the first chest with a lock on it.   Simon snickered. “I didn’t know they had locks back then. Too bad I like to preserve everything and I don’t carry bolt cutters with me.”  The lock had a four digit code. The second box had lots of shoes inside: dance shoes, clown shoes, even ringmaster shoes all in one box. The last trunk had a 3 digit lock on it.  It was very old and rusty, but Simon was able to turn the numbers on it.

Simon stood up in the middle of the room as he tried to take in anything and everything in that room.  “Where do I start? How do I start? Try to keep everything intact, don’t break anything. Maybe I should just take notes and see what Christopher has to say.”  Simon reached into his back pocket and grabbed his phone. He pressed the home button to open it and looked at the battery percentage. 25%. He looked at the time.  “2 am! How have I been here for that long? I better hurry up and get home.”

Methodically, Simon went to each item in the room and took multiple photos.  The locks, the trunk the lock was on, the shoes in the box, the dresses, the vanity, the shelf, all the photos, and the newspaper clippings, all photographed so Simon could look over it later.  He gathered up his things and started to leave the dressing room. “Alice. I’m leaving for tonight. But I want to come back tomorrow. Would that be okay?” Yes.  Simon turned around as fast as he could to see nothing behind him.  “Was that you Alice? It’s okay that I come back tomorrow?” Nothing.  Simon nodded as he turned back to the door. “All right Alice. I will talk to you tomorrow.  Have a good rest of your night.” Simon found his way out of the circus and back into his car.

And with a final goodbye, Simon started on his long trek home.