He watched as cold blue eyes narrowed dangerously on him before they shifted, taking in the stack of pavers to his right, thedumpster filled with old horsehair plaster and the rotted boards they tore out of the basement to his left before her gaze landed on the hose that one of his cousins used to mix cement last weekend.
He thought about what she did the last time she got her hands on a hose and-
It didn’t matter what she tried to do with that hose because he deserved it, Garrett reminded himself as he watched angry blue eyes land back on him before the muttering began. That was followed by glaring at him while she made her way down the stairs, stumbling, cursing, righting herself, and then, storming off all while grumbling angrily to herself.
“Oh, you mean like that time when I threw a book at your head and told you that you were being an idiot and should talk to her? Do you mean like that?”Kenzie demanded, making him wince as he watched Kristen trip over her own two feet, stumble, right herself, release a frustrated growl that he probably shouldn’t find adorable, but did, and continued making her way across the street.
“You could have tried harder,” Garrett said, watching as Kristen stormed up to her front door, grabbed hold of the doorknob and-
Definitely pissed, Garrett thought, absently nodding as he watched her give up trying to break her front door open, turn around and…stumbled back against her front door with a horrified expression on her face.
“I could have, but I wanted to see how this played out,”Kenzie said, reminding him that his baby sister was a Bradford while he stood there, watching Kristen’s terrified gaze lock on something to his left. Frowning, Garrett followed her gaze and-
“Oh, fuck.”
-realized just how badly he’d fucked up.
CHAPTER 3
This wasn’t happening, Kristen kept telling herself as she stood there, blindly reaching back and tried desperately to get the doorknob to cooperate while she watched as a freakishly tall clown with smeared makeup, thinning red hair matted against his balding head, and a stained outfit at least two sizes too big for him stepped out of a black van covered in dents and rust and-
Released a whimper when bloodshot eyes landed on her.
Really hoping that this was just a bad dream, Kristen watched as lips smeared grotesquely with red paint pulled up into an evil smile, revealing two rows of yellow teeth before a flash of movement to her left drew her attention to a single red balloon floating above his head. Swallowing hard, Kristen slowly, ever so slowly, turned her head and forced herself to meet bloodshot eyes only to forget how to breathe when he shot her a wink.
She-
“Shit!”
-found herself watching in fascinated horror as Garrett, who kept sending her hopeful smiles, tried to stop the clown from crossing the street and making this day even more memorableonly to end up releasing a muttered curse and was forced to take the clown down with a headlock when he tried shoving past him.
“That is, without a doubt, the creepiest thing that I’ve ever seen,” came the softly murmured words that had her nodding solemnly as what she was really hoping was a double-chocolate milkshake was held in front of her face.
“Thank you,” Kristen murmured absently, unable to look away from the disturbing scene before her as she accepted the milkshake from her assistant and took a sip only to release a satisfied sigh when the creamy chocolatey goodness hit her tongue.
“What did he do to piss you off today?” Amber asked, taking a sip from her water bottle as they watched the clown that could have only come from the bowels of hell give up trying to break free from the chokehold that Garrett had him in and-
“This isn’t enough?” Kristen asked, gesturing with the delicious milkshake that was already making this horrible day better towards Garrett as the evil bastard was forced to give up his hold so that he could press his hand against his stomach when the clown that was determined to get to her brought him down with an elbow to the gut and-
“It’s definitely creepy,” Amber murmured as they watched Garrett stumble back only to release a curse as he threw himself back at the clown.
“You wouldn’t by chance have the spare key that I gave you, would you?” Kristen asked as they watched the clown struggle to break free only to give up, reach down and pull off one of his oversized red shoes held together with duct tape and-
“Never leave home without it,” Amber said, reaching into her oversized handbag and pulled out the key that Kristen gave her a year ago when she started to work for her while she stood there, unable to help but wince when the clown gave up trying to beatthe shit out of Garrett with his shoe only to rip the red ball off his nose and tried to shove it down-
Deciding that it was probably for the best if they went inside now, Kristen cleared her throat and murmured, “Please open the door,” when the clown managed to break free. She watched as he dragged himself to his feet, his bloodshot eyes locked on her as his red-smeared lips pulled back up into that deeply disturbing smile.
“I’d really like to go inside now,” Kristen mumbled weakly as she stood there, struggling to remember how to breathe while she watched the clown that would no doubt star in every single one of her nightmares for the next fifty years, make his way across the street and-
“Bless you,” Kristen mumbled when Amber grabbed hold of the back of her shirt and dragged her inside just as Garrett managed to get to his feet and stumbled after him.
Within seconds, she had the door shut, locked, and was debating barricading the door with the couch when she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Swallowing hard, Kristen found herself looking towards the large bay window to her right and-
“Beep, beep, Kristen,” came the slurred words as Kristen found herself looking into bloodshot eyes staring at her through her window and-
“I’m never going to emotionally recover from this,” Kristen mumbled weakly to herself as she watched Garrett slam into him before deciding that it would probably be in her best interest to close the curtains for now.
Ignoring the pained grunts and muttered, “Son of a bitch!” Kristen turned around to find Amber watching her curiously. “Why was the bastard-that-I-swore-I-would-never-speak-his-name trying to stop the demon clown from stealing your soul?”
