Just Another Scary Clown Story

The night it all happened, I was in my driveway after coming home from trick or treat with my grandma.  My mom and dad were out of town with friends, and it was her job to babysit me.  So I dressed up as Garfield, the cat, and she wore my witch hat from my costume from the previous year. 

I knew it would be a fun night with my granny as she was a massive fan of horror movies, and she would often let me sneak down to the family room and stay up late to watch whatever films were on the late-night matinee.

We were coming up the driveway, and many kids were still going up and down our street when I noticed the hearse.  I pointed the weird-looking car out to my granny, who was trying to hurry me up the dark driveway into our very dark house.

“Come on, Katie.” She said to me. “Let’s get something to eat, and we can watch the scary movie festival on tv tonight.”

I stared at the light green vehicle, and it had all these stickers all over it and some strangely blacked-out windows.  I figured it was someone’s Halloween ride for the night, and I thought it was fantastic.  I turned and went up the driveway to my house as it slowly passed our house, driving away.

I thought no more of it as I had my grandma help me get off all my make-up and help me into my pajamas. She prepared some microwave popcorn, a bowl of potato chips with dip, and something to drink.  I sat next to her on the couch as the featured movie came on, “SCREAM.” I had seen it before with my older brother in high school, but my grandma had never seen it, so we sat curled up on the couch watching the scary movie.

After about an hour into it, I noticed my grandma was fast asleep.  I got up to get more potato chips, and that is when I heard it. Someone was twisting the handle on our front door.  Luckily somebody locked the door. But I snuck around to the front door, which faced our big formal living room.  My grandma and I were in the back of the house while we watched our movie.  I heard it again, this time much more insistent, but I did not move.  I was beginning to get scared, and then I heard it.

“Katie! It’s me, Devin! Open up!”  It was my older brother Devin at the door. I sighed and went to open the front door.  He was with his friend Scott, and they had three vast pillowcases of candy. Devin was a little old to be trick or treating, 16, but I was happy he brought his candy home.

“Hey, I thought you were staying at Scott’s house tonight?” I asked in my 3rd grader way of speech.

“Nah, not now.  There is some weird guy in this hearse that keeps driving around town.  It was on the news saying he was dressed up like a clown and carrying an axe to scare people so he could rob them. I didn’t want you guys to be alone tonight.”

I knew the truth; in actuality, he didn’t want to stay by himself with Scott at Scott’s dad’s house because his dad was working 3rd shift, and he was scared for it to be just the two of them alone in Scott’s big empty house. More, the merrier.

He locked the front door and the deadbolt, and he and Scott went straight to the kitchen to get food, then upstairs to his room.

I went back to the family room and sat next to my grandma.  She was snoring pretty loudly now, and I chuckled to myself.  The movie was over around Midnight, and I sat up. I was tired and wanted to go to bed.  I didn’t move my grandma; I covered her with a blanket and went upstairs to my bed. 

I sat up and turned the television off, which was strangely dark and quiet in our family room. There was a large window facing our backyard, and I saw a shadow.  It looked like someone tall and large walking by the back window.  I saw car lights shining, and then I knew it was only shadows. The car light made  a tree in our backyard appear like a person.

I got up and went towards the front stairs that faced our front door.  I decided to peek out the front window before going up to bed.

I felt sick as I looked out the window.  Parked across the street from our house was that same green hearse.  There was something not right about it and I had a sick feeling but unsure why. 

A man, a very tall man, opened the door of the driver’s side and stepped out. He was in full clown garb, and I noticed he had white makeup and a weirdly shaped face.  I figured it was a mask, but you could see crooked teeth, swollen mouth, and an eyebrow that seemed more visible than the other as if it were burnt off.  I continued to watch, and from inside the car, he pulled out an axe.

I breathed in hard as I watched the man descend up the sidewalk to our front lawn, and he dropped something that sounded like a tool of some sort.  The neighbor’s security light came on and, instead of coming towards our house, went in the direction of where my neighbor’s light was shining. I thought that it was odd that the clown went towards the light.

Then the light went out, and after a few moments, I saw the light come back, and the man in the strange costume returned to his car.  Before he got in, I saw him look directly at our house, and I ran into the back of the house to where my grandma was.  I shook her awake and told her about the crazy-looking clown.

She patted my head, and when she got up, she went straight for the front and peeked out the window.

“There is nothing there, Katie; you must have been dreaming. Well, let’s head up to the bed, dear.”

I knew what I saw and when I looked out the window, the car and the weird clown carrying the axe were also gone.

The next day I got up, and being a Sunday, my grandma had all the breakfast fixings ready. There were pancakes, bacon, eggs, sausage, toast, gravy, and potatoes.

As I sat there staring at all the food, trying to figure out what I wanted, Scott and Devin came down the stairs.

“Hey grandma did you see the cop car next door?” asked Devin.

“Cop car? Why no!”

She went to the front door and saw that our neighbor’s house was taped off.  A detective flashing a badge approached our house just then and knocked on the door.

“Hello, sorry to bother you, but we want to know if you heard anything weird last night.”

“Well, my granddaughter said she saw a weird clown or something last night.”

I was just about to answer her; then I looked at the cop. His face looked down at me, slightly annoyed. I was too afraid to tell him what I saw. There was something familiar about his face. I could almost swear he was the clown. Everything terrified me at that moment, so I lost my nerve. “Um, I had a bad dream.  In the dream, I was at a circus, and I was being chased.” I lied.

My grandma looked at me, confused, then looked back to the detective.  “I’m sorry, sir, we didn’t see anything.  What happened over there?”

The detective’s demeanor changed, and he looked away from me. “I’m sorry, but somebody attacked your neighbors last night.  They are dead someone slaughtered them to death.”

My grandma was stunned and very nervous, and for the rest of the day, we were in a sort of shock.

None of us could eat that day. We were all afraid of what happened and wondered if we could be next. That same night, when the cops and the detectives were all gone, I was sitting with my brother when I looked up at him.

“I saw who did it,” I said

“Saw the killer? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because I feared the detective, he looked like a clown.”

“What clown?”

“The clown I saw last night.”

“Katie, you should have said something. Maybe another detective could have helped.”

I shook my head and started to cry.  My big brother hugged me in an uncharacteristic gesture.

Then we heard it.  There was a motor running outside loudly, and we both sat up to look out the window.  The green hearse was parked outside, and we both shook in terror.  Devin made sure he locked the door, and then we saw it. The creepy clown was getting out of his car and coming straight for our house. 

We couldn’t move, we were so frightened.  There was a loud knock on the door, and something hit it.

We were too afraid to open the door. We crouched there for what must have been hours until morning.

When the sun came up, Devin let go of my hand, and he peeked out the window. The green hearse was gone.  Devin saw something waving in the wind and bravely opened the door.

On a white piece of paper in bloody writing was a note.

GOOD CHOICE, it said.

We both just looked at each other.  Over the years, I have heard of a green hearse showing up in neighborhoods in my town.  I always kept quiet about the sightings until now.  I didn’t want the clown in the hearse to hurt anyone else.  It wasn’t just my neighborhood, either. I had seen similar cars in reports in areas like mine and people going missing or showing up dead.

So be careful this Halloween.  Look out for that green hearse.  

Whatever you do, steer clear of it and lock your doors on Halloween night.