Image by @nubellorona
Bob was an 11-year-old kid living with his parents in Miami. He was the third of four children. The first child was Judith, the next Mark, Bob, and Mary (the baby of the house). When Bob was born, his grandparents moved in to live with them at their house in Miami.
During the summer of that year, Bob’s parents decided they would all travel to Australia, their ancestral hometown, to attend the yearly Lupa carnival held at the summer time of the year. They decided they would all stay in Bob’s grandparent’s house, which had not been inhabited for some time now. This particular house had been in the family for generations.
The family house was located next to the town’s main street. The main street was used for special events like parades and festivals, especially in the summer. The Lupa carnival was held on the town’s main street.
The Lupa carnival included a circus, roller coasters, music, dancers, drinks, food, and so much more. Bob and Mark loved carnivals a lot.
On this particular trip, (Bob had just turned 11 years old at the time) Bob and his brother were sitting on the roof of his grandparent’s house to see the circus parade passing in front of the house.
His grandparent’s house was a two-sectioned bungalow located on the elevated part of the main street, with one section having the structure of a tower, built with stone. It had three windows facing the main street. At night, you could see through these windows that the house was lit inside with yellow bulbs. There was a street light directly in front of the house, and it was lit with a yellow bulb as well. The house had a roof that was not too high, and served as an elevation for the kids whenever they wanted to have a view of the town. It was on this roof that Bob and his brother had sat on that carnival day.
On the carnival day, Bob and Mark chose to stay at home in anticipation of the parade that would pass in front of their house, while his parents and two sisters went to the town’s market to get some groceries. His grandparents were inside the house resting.
While sitting on the roof and watching the parade in excitement, one of the circus carts carrying the clowns lost control, and tossed all the clowns in front of the house. Mark, Bob’s older brother who was 14 years old at the time thought it was part of the show, and hence started to laugh and point. Bob joined him because it all looked staged. They climbed down from the roof to take a closer look at the accident, and to their horror, they saw a pool of blood on the floor. The clowns were all dead. The next thing they heard was the siren of an ambulance approaching to take the clowns away.
At that time, Bob’s parents had arrived, and Bob had run inside to narrate the incident to his parents. Suddenly Mark ran inside extremely scared. Bob asked him why he ran inside scared, and Mark said,
“One of the clowns who had his head dangling on his slit throat looked at me and winked his eye”
Meanwhile, the organizers of the carnival came to explain to Bob’s parents what had happened, and asked for their prayers for the clowns. They said all the clowns were killed on the spot.
Mark immediately told them that that was impossible because one of the clowns turned his head, looked at him and winked. But because Mark was always sarcastic, his parents did not believe him.
Bobs grandparents had this ugly old dog that stayed with them all the time. The dog was a huge friendly hairy black dog. All the children loved him very much, and he had become a good companion for them as they explored the whole town.
Bob’s grandfather was a tough retired military man, who always carried a gun, and was not scared of speaking his mind. The children’s room was located opposite the grandparent’s room. All the rooms had metal doors that locked from the inside. The children’s room also had a huge wooden door with a baseball size hole that opened to the kitchen. The door was really heavy, but it was easy to open. Just a push was enough to open the door.
The night after the accident, Mark had asked his elder sister Judith to allow him and Bob sleep with them on the girl’s bed, because he was really scared of the Lupa clown. She agreed.
At around 3am in the morning, Mark woke up to a cold sweat, so he asked Judith to go with him to the kitchen to get some water. Judith was really tired, and so said no. But with much pleading and persuasion from Mark, she decided to go with him.
Bob was still in bed with his little sister Mary. Mark’s consistent plea for Judith to go with him to the kitchen had awoken Bob. From his bed, he could see into the kitchen through the baseball hole in the wooden door.
When Judith opened the kitchen door, they all saw it. At first, because Bob was still feeling sleepy, he could not make out what he saw in the kitchen. The moment he saw the figure, his sight became as clear as spring water.
What did they see? They saw a man, sitting on a chair in the kitchen, looking towards the kitchen wall. He had on a clown’s suit, with big shoes, and bright white hands stained in blood. He looked dirty and wet. Judith and Bob screamed and slammed the door. They both leaned against the door to prevent what was outside from getting inside.
Suddenly, something pushed the door with a force that moved the wooden door so violently that the door cracked and snapped. Bob, jumped from the bed to go help them keep the door closed. At this point, Mary the last child began to cry and scream.
Judith began to cry and scream for their parents to come to their rescue. Next, it seemed like whatever was outside had put his bloody hand through the baseball hole on the door, trying to reach them. Then it stopped, and they could see its bloody eye through the hole of the wooden door. It looked like a bloody grey marble.
The creature said,
“Let me in children, I just want to play, don’t laugh at me”
Suddenly, Bob’s grandfather came out of his room with his shotgun and released his big dog. The thing outside the door stopped pushing the door, and they could hear the dog fighting with the thing in the kitchen. Then they heard a whimper and everything went quiet.
Bob’s grandfather walked into the children’s room and opened the big wooden door. The only thing the children could see was the body of their old dog lying on the ground, with its head chopped in half. Then they heard a large crash through the window facing the street, like something had broken away through the window to the street.
Neighbors heard the noise and called the police, only for them to arrive to find no broken windows or door. All the windows were intact, and the doors still locked from inside.
Whoever came inside the house, did break in, but was already in the house. But that would be impossible because the dog would have smelled him out. The kitchen smelt like a dead animal, and the seat it sat on was covered in black liquid.
Later that night, Bob overheard his grandfather telling the police that he saw a man dressed in a clown’s costume soaked in blood. But this was impossible because all the clowns died in the accident. The police investigator told Bob’s parents to pray, because what they saw might have been the devil.
Bob, his parents, and his siblings never returned to their grandparent’s old house again.