Chapter Three: Believe in the Beast

"I thought something happened to you, Mom," I said, weakly.

"No, I was in the kitchen the whole time," she said. "Making a grilled cheese sandwich. Because I need something to eat before going to bed at night," Mom continued. I didn't know what to believe. She looked like my Mom. But there was something about her that seemed different.

She looked a little pale, and it seemed her color in her face had been drained. "You shouldn't play here in the basement by yourself, kid," Mom said. "You could get hurt or worse," Mom said. She walked down the steps quickly. Mom reached out a hand for me to take.

Mom helped me to my feet. My back popped as I stood on my feet. Lightning flashed again making shadows dance around the dark, eerie basement. "Come on, let's go get something refreshing in the refrigerator before it's time for bed. Are you in the mood for something sweet or fruity?" Mom asked. I didn't know how to respond. I wasn't really all that hungry at the moment. I lost my appetite after the little scare with the mysterious marionette clown doll disappearing again.

Walking up the basement steps slowly, Mom smiled at me and wrapped me in a warm, friendly, comforting hug. "You're my special boy! Nothing will keep us separate," Mom said. I hoped she was right! I took one last look down the basement stairs. It was empty. For now, I didn't know.

I turned off the lightswitch. The basement got dark again. Lightning flashed out the window. I shivered again. Then, Mom quickly grabbed hold of me and pulled me out of the basement. And back into the kitchen, where it was safe.

Mom locked the basement door with a key. Then put the key aside. "Okay, so don't stay up too late. Tomorrow, you've got school. And I've got to interview some kids at counseling who might be suspects about the burglar entry last weekend at the mall," Mom said.

I nodded and yawned. It was getting late. I didn't feel like drinking any soda pop. I just needed to get to my bedroom. Before anymore clown dolls start appearing out of nowhere again. To scare the daylights out of us. I couldn't believe how things were going with us thus far at our new rental house in Supernaturalville.

I started to walk down the hall to get to my bedroom. When suddenly, Mom and I both stopped and listened again. Laughing…coming from somewhere in the kitchen. Mom slowly grabbed a little butter knife from the table drawer next to the refrigerator.

The laughing stopped almost immediately. It got quiet. Lightning from the thunderstorms made the lights flicker. But they stayed on. Then, something moved down the hall next to the bathroom in the kitchen. While it was laughing again.

Suddenly, the bathroom door in the hall next to the kitchen slammed shut. Mom raised the butter knife at her side. And edged closer to the bathroom. When suddenly, the cabinet doors in the kitchen opened up by themselves!

Lightning flashed out the window again. Appearing in the shelves in the cabinet were tiny, stuffed little clown marionette dolls, holding a razor blade in their arms. Shining the flashlight on the cabinet doors, the little scary clown marionette doll tossed their small, sharp razor blades at Mom's right hand. Knocking out her flashlight she held in her hand. Knocking her skin, making her fingers bleed.

Mom and I screamed as we watched the toy marionette clown dolls come after us.

I slowly opened my eyes. I found myself still lying on my back in my basement. My eyes adjusted to the dimness in the shadows of my dark, empty basement. I turned and looked in the direction up the locked door to the basement.

I started to get back up again. When suddenly, the basement door flew open. A rush of chilly wind forced me to fall back down on my back again. I groaned and slowly looked up the stairs.

At the top of the stairs, I saw a figure standing in the frame of the door. "Kid, are you okay down there? What are you doing here in the dark basement all by yourself?" It was Mom! She turned on the lightswitch next to the wall on the basement stairs next to her.

Lightning flashed outside the basement window. Mom's shadow stretched on the walls as she went down the stairs to check on me. "I thought some marionette clown dolls jumped off the cabinet shelves in the dark kitchen. They started coming after us! We backed up against the kitchen island bar. Where Mom left an opened bread package where she was making her grilled cheese sandwich.

The stuffed clown marionette dolls jumped on top of the kitchen table. They were angry little toys, who wanted to come after us with razor sharp knives! They were laughing and getting ready to tackle us down.

One of the stuffed clown marionette dolls, opened the kitchen refrigerator door. Then, another clown doll walked over to him. They started grabbing cold food items out of it. They smelled a couple of spoiled red delicious apples out of the bottom of the fridge door in its plastic packaging.

 They both cringed and tossed the half-eaten red delicious apple aside. Then, they came across a slab of raw half-used hamburger meat in a plastic wrapping. The two clown dolls quickly ripped open the hamburger meat wrapping. 

And immediately pig into bloody red meat. Letting blood drip out on the sides of the plastic wrapping. "What are these things, Mom?" I asked, uneasy. I let out a scream of surprise! A laughing, stuffed clown marionette clown doll hopped from the kitchen table. And jumped on top of Mom's shoulders.

Screaming, the crazy, out of control clown doll was madly thrashing about kicking and squirming to choke Mom's life out with his clay white-gloved hands. "Mom! Don't let it hurt you!" I shouted. Looking around the kitchen, I could swear these little clown dolls were hyper and excited they had raided our kitchen like they planned it.

Trying to keep the razor blade from slicing Mom's throat, I grabbed the hot saucer pan Mom was using to make her grilled cheese sandwich. And smacked the hysterical, wild clown marionette doll from choking and slicing Mom's throat.

The razor blade fell out of the wild clown's hand. It went under the white refrigerator. Mom struggled to free herself of the demonic clown doll, trying to strangle her to death. It was thrashing its ceramic wooden legs against her back. While I desperately tried fighting off the other wild clown marionette dolls from humping my legs. And jumping on my back. 

They were hyper and getting too loud and noisy to fight them off. The clown dolls kept tossing items out of the kitchen cabinet and making a mess. Trying to find something to eat. While they kept raiding our refrigerator, it seemed they were interested in raw meat and blood.

"There's too many of them, kid!" Mom yelled at me. Trying to face off with a couple of mischievous, laughing clown marionette dolls from poking Mom's feet with their razor sharp blades. The clown dolls were stabbing Mom's feet quickly with their sharp objects.

Suddenly, I jumped and leaped over the kitchen table. I tackled Mom down to the ground. We bumped our heads against the kitchen table. From the naughty, violent tempered, out of control, mad clown dolls from tossing white china plates at us! From the shelves in the open cabinet in our kitchen.

Laughing and giggling, they seemed to be having fun destroying everything we owned in our kitchen. "We have to get out of here," I said, nervously to my Mom. I was careful not to let my hands get cut by the broken pieces of white glass from the kitchen plates.

I grabbed Mom by her arms. While we moved our way to the bathroom door, to avoid being attacked by flying dishes from the shelves thrown by the crazy, stuffed clown marionette dolls.

We stopped and we reached the end of the kitchen bar table. I turned and noticed the two little hungry clown dolls raiding our fridge earlier, were still devouring our raw, bloody hamburger meat out of its packages.

After they finished devouring the bloody meat from its packages, the hungry clown marionette dolls drank the blood from the meat packages. Blood dribbled from their mouth, their eyes glowed icy blue. They turned to look and noticed Mom and were watching them.

I put a hand over Mom's mouth. A couple of laughing marionette clown dolls held a brown burlap sack in their hands. 

Before Mom and I could get away to safety, the two clown dolls jumped off the kitchen table bar quickly. And pulled the burlap sack over our heads. Everything went dark.