Hubert

It was three years ago. I was 20 and couldn’t keep a job. I was just too lazy, I guess. I finally got one, though. It was at the Hubert Amusement Park, I was Hubert.

Being the park’s mascot wasn’t a high-paying job, but at least I could live dressing up as a clown. Every day, I would dress up as Hubert and go to the park. Like any clown, Hubert had pure white skin with red markings on his face, frizzy blue hair, a squishy red nose, and baggy rainbow overalls.

Anyway, I would arrive at the park at 6:45 to get ready, and greet people at the entrance. I made adults and kids alike smile. And sometimes make the little children cry too.

Even though the job was kinda boring, the place was exciting for the people. Flat rides, roller coasters, railways, water rides, dark rides, haunted houses, Ferris wheels, transport rides, and more, there was just so much to do in the “wonderful place”. I went on some of the rides as Hubert. It was fun, except that I went on the fastest rollercoaster and threw up during the ride and since there was a loop, it all fell on the rest of the riders. I’m pretty sure those 12 aren’t ever coming back.

I would also sometimes go on stage and do these “concerts”. I would have to sing, just like Hubert does on the kid’s TV show. I mean, I thought it was kind of stupid, why would anyone want to come and watch a weird clown singing pretty badly? But apparently, I was wrong. So many people bought tickets to these things.

Slowly I started losing more and more sleep. One day, I couldn’t fall asleep and in the morning I was very tired. I would keep having this insomnia problem. I started seeing things and yeah, I confirmed they were just hallucinations, probably caused by my lack of sleep.

Then one day, I had a nightmare, I usually didn’t get those. There was a dark shadow quietly zipping through the forests around the amusement park. He was making this peculiar noise, then I realized he was laughing. The dark shadow got closer in my nightmare, but I still couldn’t tell what it was. Though I couldn’t make it out, something I did notice was that it was carrying a pretty big sack.

The dark shadow stopped moving. It threw the sack on the ground and pulled out a knife. It glinted in the darkness, and in the reflection, you could see blue hair. The shadow then unfolded his hands, revealing 7 more knives from the crevices of his fingers. It threw them one by one into the heart of the sack. The dream shifted to a dark room. A dark shadow was hanging from a rope attached to the ceiling. There were knives stuck in its back and blood on the walls.

Then I woke up. It was 4 in the morning and I couldn’t sleep anymore, so I just sat there thinking about the nightmare. It was so…detailed, it was so…real. I decided to walk to work that day just to clear my head.

I went into the changing room so I could change into my Hubert outfit. I saw a newspaper lying on the table. I still couldn’t get whatever that thing was out of my head, so I thought to hopefully not think about it while reading the newspaper. Stuff about famous entrepreneurs, car companies, TV shows, robberies, protestors, and a guy going missing. I remember very well that the person missing section caught my eye. Joe Sampler, that was his name.

The day was just like any other, I was finally starting to forget about my dream and having fun as Hubert. And every day after that was the same, being Hubert, having fun, being tired because of not having enough sleep. Sleep wasn’t that important, I’d just drink a coffee or something.

Then a week passed by, then a month. There was a lot of drama about people going missing. The police sucked, somehow they still didn’t know how people were going missing. Anyway, I went home and cooked myself a tasty dinner. Then, there was a weird noise.

Thump…

It came from my basement. I decided to go check it out to see what happened. I walked down the stairs, not prepared for what I was going to see. I turned on the lights, and for some reason all but one light was off. And then, I saw… it?

There was blood splattered on the walls, and just like my nightmare, things were hanging from the ceiling… people were hanging from the ceiling. All of them looked around the same age. They looked worse and worse the farther I walked down the line. Eyes gouged out, tongues cut in half, teeth gone, hair pulled out, knives in their back, toes and fingers cut off, gashes, and stab marks everywhere. I immediately ran up the stairs and vomited from the sights.

Then, it came to me. I put the pieces together. It was me. I killed all these innocent people, that nightmare I had, wasn’t a nightmare. It was real. I disguised myself as Hubert and kidnapped these “missing people” on the news and murdered them. But why would I do that? I couldn’t believe it, I would never do anything like that. Was I… crazy?

Out of panic, I called the police because that’s how I was taught as a kid. I then realized that was a mistake. I wasn’t thinking right, I just hung up. I froze, I couldn’t move.

The police came and asked me what had happened. I didn’t know what to say. Then they saw the open door and descended the basement stairs. I told them it couldn’t have been me, it must’ve been someone or something that had framed me. But in reality, I didn’t know if it was me or not. They handcuffed me and put me in the police car. Then… I saw it.

Right when the car started moving, I saw Hubert. He held knives in one hand and waved to me with the other. I didn’t know what Hubert wanted to do with me, but I knew then that it wasn’t me. I frantically told the police that I just saw the killer, but they just told me to shut up. They all thought I was mentally insane, but I know what I saw.

They put me on trial and I was put in this prison. I hate being here, I don’t know for sure if I’m mental or not, but I do know that Hubert is real.