#if were allowed to dress up this year at school ill do clown makeup (just the eyes tho so i can wear a mask) and wear a tutu

[ghosttotheparty]

friendly reminder that its halloween season

[goffilolo]

Demise!Izuku as a Youtuber?

Yep! You heard me right. Demise server is a strange little land, full of strange little ideas, unfortunitely this one idea in particular wasn’t so little. So without further ado here’s all the shit we came up with in the server in regards to izuku as a youtuber within demise!au:

If Izuku was a YouTuber can you imagine the fucking chaos dumpster fire his channel would be

He's be like an edgy twink Jenna marbles(edited)

Doing Me time every damn day

bandit is jennas dogs

tenya is julien

He'd have weird ass videos like dipping bandits feet in red pet dye then putting a sign on him that says "you pet and you'll meet the last person who dared to"(edited)

And he's also make videos about him breaking into UA and interrupting classes and stuff

"hey gamers, today we're breaking into UA to see my boyfriend and read all of my friend's secret files"

And a video just of him filing Aizawa in weird places and at the end putting him on an inflatable mattress and watching him float away 

He wakes up in Canada

They don't know how or why

He just attaches a go-pro to trash bandit and let's him run wild. He probably has a seriesJust letting him loose in weird places

DONT LET TRASH BANDIT EAT AIZAWA'S SLEEPING BAG AT 3AM | VERY SCARY"hey guys so today ill be doing the 'How many bottles of quil can i steal before i get caught by Tsukabitch' challange. feel free to make a video of your own!" 

He probably dyes Bandit according to holidays and puts him as the profile picture. The kicker is, he only does it for holidays that his country doesn't celebrate

Like 4th of july

And Canada day

"Hewo soulless fuckers it is me your overlord, King of the soulless fuckers. Today I'll be going up to people in the streets and telling them that I killed God and Satan. But y'all know me, that's not enough. So I'll be asking them which one I killed first and if they get it wrong I take a shot of quil. The quil I'll be taking is the plain ol kind so don't worry your little marshmallow heads about it." 

He only makes text posts in OwO speak this just makes me realise demise!izuku would make a great youtuber

He would twitch stream all the time doing the weirdest shit for hours on end

"what is up gamews! today i wiww be weviewing the new game cawwed life! i have been pwaying it fow about 16 yeaws now and i have to say it's pwetty bad my guys!"

I feel like he'd be absurdly popular and whenever someone mentions him and they look up the channel they are like "wth have I stumbled upon?!"

I'm just imagining what his front page would look like

The seasonal trash bandit profile picture, the banner would be a flaming hellscape with people he dislikes burning and trash bandit looming on low opacity in the background 

(He made it so that only people who view it on TV get the full experience.)

He probably has his own segment on buzzfeed unsolved

Not talking

Its about him

The intro video would just be him staring into the camera while mixing together a horrible concoction of quil then downing it without breaking eye contact(edited)

His about section is written in 3 different types of code and it's all in owo if you manage to crack it

i love demise|!izuku as a youtube cryptid

Clown Speak and OwO speak mixed together

I feel like in the beginning Izuku was this obscure YouTuber that you only find out about if someone in the know tells you about it until a bigger YouTuber found him out on a deep dive video and just couldn't stop watching yes

i imagine once he gets big people from react channel would invite him to react to videos of people reacting to his videos 

What if in one of his videos he started acting like his old self just to freak everyone out. He didn't say anything about it instead he talked about hero analysis with a bright smile and trail off into muttering a few times only to blush when he realized it. He have his hair in a ponytail with only bangs framing his face and some messy pieces falling out. Also her be wearing something plain but like old Izuku, maybe hero merch or something. The comment section was just people flipping out and shit

He never acknowledges the video after he made it

No matter how many comments he gets he acts like it doesn't exist

omg you know wha tthat would actually allign with the demise and canon swap places for a da

yand you know what that gives me a lot of feels

the millions of subscribers get to see the old izuku

Maybe after a milestone he would post a video he made in middle school of him analyzing a quirk in video format to make sure it wouldn't get destroyed

And he put a couple videos of younger him after it

But it starts being supporting Izuku

And his present and past self and stuff

PEOPLE MAKE FAN ART first Its all full of trash and memes

What if that picture of canon Izuku meeting demise Izuku was a fan art someone made of his old self meeting the new him 

Kids from his class kinda Piecing together they really screwed up?Some even sending in apologies, perhaps

For mental health day I could see him posting a serious video about what he went through and his time in the mental hospital 

And on national stop bullying day he would talk about his decade of abuse including the details of how the school and teachers fucked up and everything aboutbakugou

izuku using youtrube for shitposting and advocating

And for mothers day he features both Rei and Inko?

Endeavor exposure video

What if Rei helped edit or something?To help pass the time for her

Give her something to do

People love the mysterious editor

I feel like villains watch his content like maybe Dabi

rei and fuyumi sometimes make appearances

Dabi just shows up in the videos

Quickly become faves

I feel like Dabi would become a fan and start crying after seeing his mom happy in one of Izuku's videos

"...and this is rei, my hospital mom and this if fuyumi, her daughter so like my sister she helps me keep my shit together and sometimes gives me quil.." 

dabi crying from seeing his mom happy in some lunatic's youtube videos

“...and this is shin, dont let the looks deceive you this man went to jail"

Shin comes in and covers the cameras a lot

FATHERS DAY IS A PICTURE OF TRASH BANDIT WITH HIS DADS VOICE SCRAMBLED OVER IT

“and this is the local florida woman and her alligator

WHAT IF BNHA VERSE HAD QUIRKLESS AWARENESS WEEKizuku would go ape shit during that week

"who needs a quirk when my dad gave me a gun!"

He would give axe sharpening tips

"Remember kids! Society won't help you, so you gotta help yourself!"

he would make 'how to cook videos' except it would only be quil combos

What if one day he just put quil in the ovenand pulled out a muffin

Remeber, don't try this at home kids." makes A horrifying quil combo "rememer never ever do this even if you have a quirk that allows it." downs the horror concoction

"so today were gonna do my boyriend does my makeup challange and since both me and tenya are dumb and know nothing i borrowed my mums makeup..." 

It’s a given he’s gonna do makeup tutorials. The real question is would they be good or absolutely horrendous?

good or horrendous? Both

Amazing makeup at horrendous things? Hmmm interesting

“Hey guys today I’m turning myself into a real like eldrich abomination with the help of eyeliner and glitter!”

izuku has a whole playlist of videos dedicated to tenya and UA

theyre all jsut shitposty compilations of some footage when tenya isnt looking

Even tho it looks like he couldn't give a fuck he is very selective with which footage makes it online. He's very careful at how much is revealed and makes sure no students or secret identities would be in danger with his content

izuku isnt stupid...hes jsut having a good time

Sneaking into UA highschool by hiding in pro hero eraserhead's sleeping bag | NOT CLICKBAIT

Izuku would totally play carefree and childish games while just being Izuku

Like his animal crossing series

Fucking legendary on his channel in terms of gaming

izuku's sims lets play

it's like a 10 generation long telenovela lowkey based off the todoroki family

He has no straight sims, he recreated UA and class 1a in sims

the wedding of sim izuku and sim tenya is like the biggest party in the sim neighbourhood

He creates endeavor just to lock him in a room with 50 ovens

Omg his draw my life has got to be super depressing

He'd be super blunt and monotone during his whole draw my life going through all of the abuse and bullying that he went through because of his quirklessness and also his suicide attempt and all that jazz(edited) 

izuku would paint on a potato

Izuku would make a get ready with me where he does something totally batshit crazy then ends it with "Ah. Yet another day in my life."

Izuku meets Marie Kondo

“Only keep what brings you joy”

“Well this gun from my father sure brings me joy”

Knifemaking videos but with axes

Izuku decided to do a wardrobe tour and like 4 things were bloodstained which he never addressed. The most popular comment was what happened, which of course he never answered.

Izuku does these new year (like all of the questions from last year) or milestone Q+A’s/AMA's which are basically people just asking a bunch of the things he wouldn't answer or address before. A lot of his viewers write down and timestamp when he does something and doesn't address it. If you don't you'll never hear an answer.

He has his boonk gang phrase which is probably like Bandit gang or some shit like that, which he shouts while breaking into places. UA dorm rooms, UA facility office, UA, Hero Agency’s, Endeavour's bedroom (Don't ask), etc. 

He has a variety of videos where he does things from different communities. For example he has a few hair tutorial and following hair tutorial videos. Same for makeup.I feel like Izuku would also have some dresses and slutty Halloween costumes that be put on in a video all while looking like someone who just had finals and was studying for 4 days straight beforehand.

At like 4AM a thought hit Izuku to have Trash Bandit meet Kouta for the first time and learn what his sheep talks about and what he has to say. Needless to say he took his camera, went to UA, stormed the dorms, went up to the shy kid sheep in hand, looked him dead in the eye, and asked “What is my sheep saying.” bandit speaks and Kouta goes from confused and slightly scared to disgusted and horrified. What did Bandit say? Who the fuck knows…

Izuku loves analysis and while he doesn't do it for heroes anymore when he misses it too much sometimes he does it with tv shows or other things.

Idk what yet but Izuku is weirdly good at something and only showed it on camera once. (He's casually known to be a good artist) Whatever he's good at he did it once for a video and it's in one of the most popular compilation videos of him. 15 minutes of Izuku being a cinnamon roll.

Izuku has a shit ton of videos featuring the UA kids. He has some playlists dedicated to certain ones even if all you see is the back of their head.

Any proceeds Izuku manages to get (he is popular but he gets demonetized a lot) goes to different charities for the quirkless.

He made only 1 serious cooking video on his birthday, but instead of using a knife he used an axe.

He has a video called “My sharp things (tour)” where he just shows off all of his knives and axes and shit along with a massive pair of scissors he got Momo to make.

Izuku makes videos of himself destroying endeavor merch while staring at the camera.

[theparanormalperiodical]

Is Stephen King's IT Based On A True Story? The 7 Real Life Stories of Evil Clowns

With autumn just around the corner, that can only mean one thing: Halloween season is finally upon us!

But you can snort your pumpkin spices and layer your scarves all you want. There’s only one thing I am in anticipation for this autumn.

It’s the horror flicks.

Every October, a chaotic mix of horror films hit the cinemas, leaving us paranormal fanatics spoilt for choice.

But only when you cut out the rushed screen time plays that were written purely to coincide with the most wonderful time of the year, that is.

I’m not here to talk about crap, however.

I’m not here to bitch about clunky jumpscares, and the movies with more holes in a plot than in your prep school tights (“Mum, they’re fine!”).

I’m here to talk about IT Chapter 2.

The IT sequel – alongside Stephen King’s other horror hits – is set to complete one of the cinema phenomenons of this decade, and its influence on pop culture is just one echo of the incredible story the movies tell.

If you’ve been trapped in the sewers with Pennywise for the last 27 years, let alone the Clown Craze that’s followed us in and out of cinemas, here’s a quick rundown of the book/film:

A rag-tag group of misfits start noticing odd patterns in their small town. Namely, kids start to go missing. And this tends to happen roughly every 30 years, just like clockwork. Cue some freaky shenanigans evoked by an evil entity who is represented by an image of a clown/whatever you fear, and here we are.

Now, the book/films sits on this 27-years rule. It’s set between when they were young, and when they were several decades older and once again face It.

We last see It half kinda dying (but if there’s a sequel y’all know that’s BS) in the midst of the 1980s. And the new film brings us screeching back to the phenomenon that is once again haunting Derry. 

Like I said – and as you will well remember – when the last flick came out, there was a Clown Craze. There was this cultural obsession, even a criminal wave using clown masks and attire to scare the innocent bypassers. Viral videos were scored with Pennywise-esque thumbnails.

(I’m pretty sure I even went a club night that was clown themed…)

So, it got me thinking: have evil clowns ever actually existed? Has anything ever emulated the character that titled one of Stephen King’s most famous books?

Unfortunately – in more than one case – the answer is yes.

Why does the answer have to be ‘yes’.

In today’s edition of the Paranormal Periodical we are going to be discussing why we all hate clowns, the cases of actual evil clowns, and urban legends that echo these cases.

Let’s get spooky.

Why are we so afraid of clowns?

I’m pretty sure that no one in the history of ever has liked clowns. In fact, that’s actually a key part of the book.

Pennywise supposedly thinks children love clowns, and that it will entice them so he can take them away for his feeding purposes.

And believe it or not, Stephen King wasn’t the first guy to write an evil clown into literature.

Clourophobia – or the fear of clowns – is a common phobia, and has been played upon since the 19th century by the king of horror himself, Edgar Allan Poe.

And only a decade before King published It in the 1970s, several mock comic books hit the stores with ‘Evil Clown’ blaring across the cover. ‘Frenchy the Clown’ as he was known might not be the malovalent entity that is core to King’s novel, but he does echo the dark themes we pick so easily out with clowns.

Even academics have outlined our unease when it comes to these supposedly comical figures.

The University of Sheffield did a study which confirmed this universal fear of clowns today.

In particular, they deduced that children don’t like clowns as they are unknowable. The thick layers of makeup, the potential threat that could be disguised by jokes and silly clothing.

And why wouldn’t they be?

*Ok, this has nothing to do with like spooky shit but can I just air my thoughts right why and how do clowns exist now like surely we teach kids not to talk to strangers who act weird and you don’t know and that’s literally the purpose of clowns and like yall can say I’m a trigger libtard whatever but a lot of the basis to clown makeup must be based on blackface look at the lips and the hair or even trying to mock disabled people by how they act*

Even academic figures lie Wolfgang M. Zucker take this point further. Zucker claims there are strong similarities between clown figures and the cultural depiction of demons and other terrifying creatures.

Deathly white faces, the freakish features.

This is what makes Pennywise the Dancing Clown such a standout character.

And it’s also what makes the following real-life stories of evil clowns quite so distressing.

Here are the 7 cases of Evil Clowns that you have to hear about:

This might be the Paranormal Periodical, but there is nothing supernatural here. And its probably the lack of ghost-based legend that makes these evil clowns so like Stephen king’s iconic character.

And we start with probably the most horrific case: John Wayne Gacy, aka Pogo or Patches the Clown.

From 1972 to 1978, John Wayne Gacy murdered, tortured, and raped over 30 underage and young adult men. Most of the bodies were buried around his home, and some were even disposed in a nearby river.

He even made plans to fill the crawlspace in his home – where he had crammed over 20 corpses – with concrete and essentially make a new mass grave on top of it.

This twisted and depressing tale carries further into the innocent image his community impressed upon him.

Gacy frequently performed as his clown alter-egos at local parties, charity events, and at children’s hospitals. Even outside of this, he met a First Lady, was active in politics, and was even awarded the title of Precinct Captain for his services to the community.

And if all this wasn’t terrible enough, the reasoning behind his clowning days further darken his tale:

Gacy claims his clown alter-ego allowed him to regress into his childhood which was fraught with emotional and physical abused from his father.

And so, the ‘Killer Clown’ label has been bestowed upon this case.

Interested in hearing more? Check out the full story here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne_Gacy

Our next evil clown doesn’t stray too far from the predatory behaviour of John Wayne Gacy.

The man behind Klutzo The Clown – A. Paul Carlock – was charged with the possession of child pornography and of child molestation back in 2007.

Like Gacy, he was a force within the community, working as a police officer and a volunteer for the Big Brothers/Big Sisters scheme. It was even noted when he was alive that he had a fondness for children.

In fact, he was categorised as a ‘Christian clown’ before the accusations were brought to light.

He was hired as a police officer in 1973, yet they only found evidence (pictures on his laptop when he returned from an overseas trip) in 2007.

Upon finding the evidence of his predatory and paedophilic behaviour, he immediately began to show signs of illness, dying 39 days after his arrest. And its for this reason that his case is seen in a different light to mine.

The disgusting details tend to be overlooked as his death brought in a lawsuit regarding whether he was neglected and mistreated after his arrest.

Following on from this, we have Martin Evanick.

His clown alter ego, Vlad, certainly expressed a killer-clown vibe synonymous with Pennywise, but it seems his intentions didn’t actually stray to far from the character he sought to emulate.

This metal-band drummer pleaded guilty in 2013 to creating child pornography. He was also found prior to this to be a child molester and rapist.

Another clown to fit the bill of evil is actually a relatively recent case.

Back in 1990, a woman opened the door to a clown who promptly handed her balloons and a floral gift.

The clown then proceeded to shoot her, leaving her for dead.

For 27 years, there was no answer for this bizarre and deadly attack.

Well, until now, that is. Sheila Keen was charged with first-degree murder. She married the husband of the victim, and the later developed DNA evidence provided the key to the case.

Unfortunately, evil clowns don’t always act alone.

And it’s these next cases that vouch for this.

Across many countries in the last few years we have witnessed random groups of people dressed as clowns or donning clown masks who chase, harass, and even attack innocent people seemingly in broad daylight.

One of the most documented cases of this is actually from France. Back in 2014, the French were apparently terrorised by a group of clowns who physically attacked anyone who just so happened to get in their way.

One of these clowns was arrested for beating a pedestrian with an iron bar whilst clad in a clown costume.

A student even had a severe cut to his hand whilst defending themselves from a clown wielding a axe, and Schoolchildren were eve chased down the street by a clown following close behind with a chainsaw.

Shit bro.

But it was only in 2016 that the phenomenon was fully realised.

The 2016 Clown Sightings – which even feature on Wikipedia, now – summarise the frequent reports of people disguised as evil clowns.

However, as this is evidently a broad case, we cannot pinpoint the extent or nature of the ‘evil’.

For some it appears a practical joke, possibly even playing on the build up to the 2017 release of IT.

But the original cases have actually been traced back to 2013, from which a creepy clown was spotted in Northhampton. It was eventually found out to have been created by filmmakers to drive up traffic and fame for their Facebook page. In fact, they used the ‘sightings’ to evoke the fame they sought.

From scary clown pranks littering Youtube, to urban legends feeding on upvotes from Reddit, it appears it has not been grouped as an ‘evil’ or ‘criminal’ set of occurrences.

Even on October 25, news outlets in the US reported on threats of a potential ‘purge-like’ event carried out by clowns on Halloween. The only attack resembling this – which I assume was merely a hoax – was an attack carried out by 20 people in clown masks on a family in Florida.

No arrests were made.

There were many cases in the UK, but these only amounted to petty crimes, threats, and scaring people passing by.

But the widespread nature of it certainly confirms it as a phenomenon. 80 percent of US states witnessed this phenomenon, and the Wikipedia page is crawling with country-by-country listings of ‘killer-clown’ cases.

Do you remember the Clown Craze?

And do you have a personal tale to share about any creepy ass clowns?

Make sure you let me know!

[wolfofansbach]

vignettes from a Riverdale/IT crossover

I saw IT Part 2 the other day and felt compelled to write at least a little bit. 

“Come on, Jughead! You promised!” Jellybean whined.

“Go away,” Jughead whined right back in that equally plaintive, commanding tone specific to twelve year old boys. He threw a pillow over his face.

Jellybean huffed and crossed her arms. She stuck her bottom lip out in that quintessential six year old pout.

“You said you’d come catch lizards with me!”

“I know,” Jughead rolled over in his bed. “But my head hurts.”

Her lip quivered. “But—“

His eyes softened. “Look, just go get started, okay? I’ll come out in a little bit. See how many you can catch without me.”

Her face lit up again.

“‘Kay!” She turned around and bounced out of the trailer. He collapsed back onto the bed and grumbled.

Jellybean raced down the trailer’s steps, and into the muddy, drecky wonderland of Sunnyside Trailer Park in the wake of a brutal northeastern storm. Puddles dotted the driveways and rusty rainwater dripped from pipes and shingles. She could smell the storm. She breathed in deep. She liked this kind of weather. All kinds of little animals came out. Salamanders, toads, worms.

No one much was outside, which was fine by her. She worked best in solitude. Jellybean walked along the rows of trailers, keeping a sharp eye out for any flashes of scaly, slimy movement under boards or along walls. She stopped at a particular wide crack in the sidewalk, a little off to the side, that she knew often contained little critters that preferred dark, damp spaces. She bent down. A light drizzle started up again, plinking off of her parka. Something darted through the dirt. Long and wriggly. A salamander. Her eyes lit up. She shot a hand out. Missed it. Clutched a clump of grass and mud.

“Darn it!”

The salamander disappeared into the grass.

She followed the road a little longer. Jughead always told her not to go more than five trailers away from theirs if she was alone. Her parents didn’t much care. And Jughead would be out, soon, anyways, so it should be okay, she figured.

She almost caught a frog under a long-collapsed telephone pole, but it managed to slip—literally—through her fingers.

Jellybean turned a corner. There was a wide, empty lot at the northern end of Sunnyside. It was paved, but the grass had long since cut up through the splitting concrete, because they’d decided not to ever build anything, there. Jellybean thought that seemed like a waste of a lot of space. She could think of plenty of cool things they could build here.

Ringing the lot were a lot of old, big trees, and past that, Jellybean knew you could walk to Sweetwater River in about ten minutes. She was pretty sure she could hear it now, because it had rained so hard the river was swollen.

Something rushed over her feet. She squeaked. But then she looked again. It was another salamander. A big one, this time. Almost the size of her hand. She rushed after it, rubber boots pounding on the mud and slick cement. “Come here!” she shouted. The salamander paid her no mind. It made for the trees. She picked up speed. The little beast was quite nimble in this rain-soaked world.

It leapt into the tree line. Jellybean said a word that, if she were the child of a different family, might have made her parents angry with her. She slipped into the trees. Jughead would tell her not to go in there.

She already knew she’d lost the salamander. But she didn’t want to admit it to herself yet. Her eyes were getting hot.

Jellybean looked around through the dripping trees for a hint of movement. She saw a bird hop overhead. No salamander.

Her cheeks were burning. She’d been at it about twenty minutes, now, and not a lizard, salamander, or toad to show for it. She felt about ready to cry, but she wouldn’t allow herself to.

“Looking for this little guy?”

Jellybean gasped. She spun around. At first, she thought Jughead had somehow caught up without her noticing. Someone slipped out of the shadow of the trees. But it wasn’t Jughead.

It was a clown.

Jellybean blinked, as if expecting it to disappear in a flash, like the little squiggles in the corner of your eye. He didn’t.

The clown was tall, dressed in a puffy circus suit, with lots of ruffles and frills. He looked like an escapee from the circus. Jellybean had never been to an actual circus. This was certainly no circus. And so it seemed odd that there would be a clown, here.

His face was painted white, flanked by tufts of faded red hair, lips and cheeks decorated artfully with similar crimson paint makeup.

In his hands he held her elusive salamander.

For a moment, Jellybean forgot the awkwardness of the situation and exclaimed: “you found him!”

“I guess I did!” the clown giggled. “Would you like to hold him?”

Her first instinct was to enthusiastically say “yes!” But then she thought about the peculiarity of the situation, again—that she was in the woods right after a thunderstorm talking to a clown who had no business being here. Still—he did seem friendly enough, didn’t he?

“M-my brother tells me not to talk to strangers.”

“Well, it sounds like your brother is a sharp lad, isn’t he? I bet you’re a smart little girl, too, aren’t you?”

Jellybean shrugged. She didn’t want to brag.

“I dunno. Maybe.”

“Where are my manners? I’m Pennywise the Dancing Clown!” he said with a flourish, and Jellybean almost fancied she could hear the tinkling of circus music somewhere off in the distance. “And you are—“

Well, now that he’d introduced himself, it seemed rude not to do the same.

“I’m Jellybean,” she said, meekly.

“Jellybean! Isn’t that a lovely name? I love jellybeans! Don’t you?”

“Well, it’s not my real name. But I don’t really like my real name.”

She figured ‘Pennywise’ probably wasn’t the clown’s real name, either. Maybe he didn’t like his real name.

Pennywise proffered the salamander again.

“Why don’t you take him? You came all the way out here looking for him, didn’t you?”

The poor little thing wiggled madly in his immaculate white-gloved hands.

Jellybean wavered. Maybe Pennywise wasn’t so bad. But maybe he was.

“We—why are you out here in the woods?” Jellybean asked. “In the rain?”

“I like the rain,” he said. “Don’t you? It’s like a big shower! It cools everything down! Cleans everything up.” Pennywise looked down at her. His eyes were deep and weird, almost like he had a lot of eyes pressed down into two. He smiled, wide and sharp. A bit of drool dripped out over his bottom lip.

Since Jellybean didn’t seem interested in taking the salamander, Pennywise ever so slightly opened his hands, and the little creature slipped away into the wood. She hardly noticed.

“I—I should probably go,” she said.

“Before you go—“ Pennywise said, almost desperate. “How about a balloon?” And suddenly, there was a gleaming red balloon in his hand, pulled seemingly from the ether in a wondrous slight of hand. Stenciled across the front were the words ‘I Love Riverdale’, with the ‘love’ artfully instantiated by a heart. Jellybean was a little old for balloons, in her own opinion. But again, it seemed rude to turn down a gift. And it was a pretty balloon.

“M-my broth—“

“Oh, I could give him one, too! Do you think he’d like that? Where is he?”

“H—he’s still in the trailer. He said he’d come outside with me in a little bit.”

“He sounds like a nice boy.” Pennywise held the balloon out further. His smile widened, and Jellybean almost thought she could see his thick white teeth lengthen. But that was silly.

“Jughead’s pretty cool,” Jellybean said. “Don’t tell him I said that, though.”

The balloon danced in the clown’s hand.

“Go on. Take it.”

Jellybean paused. It couldn’t do any harm. If Pennywise had any ill intentions, he would have acted on them by now, right? She reached out, carefully. The clown smiled wider. She closed her little hand around the string of the balloon.

And then Pennywise’s own hand shot out and caught her around the wrist.

“Hey!”

Pennywise smile exploded into a hideous, inhuman maw ringed with rows of jagged fangs. Somewhere in Jellybean’s splintering mind she thought of the sharks on TV, opening their mouths wide to swallow hunks of raw beef. She screamed so loud birds flew from the trees. Pennywise’s radiant eyes split and multiplied. Burning terror flared in her chest.

The thing that had until recently been a clown lunged.

And that was the end.

“My mom left,” Jughead was saying. His voice was cracked and raw. He had no appetite for the tray of stiff cafeteria food in front of him. Betty looked at him with big, sympathetic green eyes. She rubbed his shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Juggie.”

“Cause Jellybean—“ his voice broke. He shook his head, and decided he didn’t want to talk about it anymore. Betty acceded, and they sat in silence for a few minutes. Then Archie, Veronica, and Kevin came along, obliviously insensitive of Jughead’s pain.

“I’m telling you,” Veronica was insisting. “I did see it.”

“You thought you saw it,” Kevin insisted right back.

“I believe you, Ronnie,” Archie said brightly, always eager to stay in the pretty new girl’s good graces.

Betty lifted her head. Jughead listened up, less than interested.

“Believe her about what?” Jughead asked.

“I saw slenderman,” Veronica said.

Jughead rolled his eyes.

“You saw slenderman?” Betty asked.

“Hand to God.”

“You saw slenderman?” Jughead asked. “Fictional, overplayed creepypasta character slenderman?”

“Yes,” Veronica hissed. “Under the old bridge between here and Greendale. I swear.”

“Okay,” Jughead nodded, not in the mood for argument about something so banal. He thought of Reggie Mantle’s insistence he’d been attacked by mothman on the way to school the week before, and Ethel Muggs swearing up and down her house had just recently become haunted. But considering his little sister was missing, probably dead, Jughead couldn’t really be bothered to care.

The story used to scare the hell out of Veronica when her mother would tell it. La Llorona. A story from old Spanish Mexico. The Weeping Woman, clad in grave clothes, drifting along the banks of the river, searching into eternity for her lost children—the children she herself murdered.

But it was just a story. Scary when she was five, sure. But she was twelve, now. That wasn’t scary anymore. She wasn’t a fucking child.

That’s what she told herself as she ambled down Sweetwater River, towards the Pembrooke, casting regular glances over her shoulder. The last of the sunlight was gone.

And then she heard it. Far away, over the water, rippling in the thin fog.

“Mis hijos! Donde están mis hijos?”

Veronica’s hair actually stood on end. Her skin prickled. She walked faster. Because she was hearing things. It was just some night bird, obviously. Jughead and Betty were wrong. Archie was wrong. Cheryl was wrong. They were wrong about Riverdale being the nexus of some horrible supernatural conspiracy. All the missing children, going back centuries, corroborated by reams of records in the public library was just a coincidence. Had to be. And that clown they claimed was now stalking them—they were just seeing things.

And it came again: “donde estan mis hijos?” The cry of La Llorona

Veronica began to jog. She saw the bridge over Sweetwater River loom up in the distance. There were lights up there. It made her feel better. A little bit. She leaned her head into the breeze and sped up.

Closer, now. Almost in her ear: “Mis hijos!” Veronica whirled around. And there she was. In all her impossible horror. A half-rotted woman’s corpse, flesh tumbling from the grayed jaw, empty sockets gazing off into blankness, a worm-eaten, threadbare white gown hanging from the rattling bones and slithering muscle. The ghost stretched her horrid mouth into a devil grin and loomed closer.

Veronica opened her mouth to say something and could only squeak. She wanted to run and found that her body had ceased to heed her brain’s orders. La Llorona crept nearer, and she could smell the grave on her.

“N-no,” Veronica gasped. “You’re a fucking fairy tal—“

One of the phantom’s bony talons seized her by the throat. She felt her feet leave the ground as the thing yanked her up in the air. She found herself staring into the blank, horrible sockets. There were slashes all around the bone, as if the eyes had been carved out. She gagged. Her chest felt like it might implode. Every nerve in her body burned, blazed, begging her to be free, to run. Her mouth hung open in sheer disbelief. There were no ghosts. No phantoms. And yet here she was.

The ghost’s own jaw dropped, unnaturally low, unhinging like a serpents. The loosened, decaying teeth rattled behind rubbery black lips. Veronica felt the hot tears searing her cheeks. It drew her nearer, like it was going to eat her alive.

And then suddenly there was a flash of rage joining the terror in her chest. The hell with this. She was not going to die to a goddamned campfire story. In that moment, there was no fear, she kicked hard and her foot connected with the ghost’s bony chest. There was a loud hiss, like a serpent uncoiling, and then Veronica fell back to the ground. She blinked, and La Llorona was gone.

She scanned the foaming riverbank desperately, scanned the tree line. The ghost was gone. Veronica leapt to her feet and took off running. The tears had stopped, and now they were drying on her cheeks. So maybe she was a believer now. At the very least, she was going to take Betty’s advice. She was going to ask her mother exactly what had happened twenty-seven years ago in Riverdale.

Veronica raced past the bridge, and then: “oh, Ronnie!”

She spun around. And there he was, sitting on the railing of the bridge, kicking his legs above the whirling water like a little kid. A fucking clown. A full on, honest to God fucking circus clown in white makeup and a frilly suit.

“Stay the hell away from me, Weary Willie,” Veronica hissed.

“Oh,” the clown giggled. “You’ve hurt my feelings. I’ve already met so many of your little friends—I’ve been looking forward to meeting you, too!”

Something shifted in the shadows under the bridge. It slithered out into the moonlight—a balloon. A red balloon. The balloon bobbed briefly in the air, and then floated up overhead, its shadow sliding over the clown, and then clambering up towards the heaven. Veronica watched, uncomprehending. The clown laughed, again. Another balloon drifted from the blackness beneath the bridge. Then another. Then two at once.

Until a steady stream of bright red balloons was pouring out from the murky shadows under the bridge. Veronica shook her head, stomach coiled in terror. She backed away.

“Ronnie!” the clown called. “Come back!” Then it’s plaintive voice dropped a few octaves. “You’ve had such a rough few years haven’t you? Your father gone! All that nasty business with your mother! A new town! How about a balloon?” Veronica turned. She began to run, as well as she could, head light with terror. “I’m sure it’ll cheer you up!” the clown went on. “You see how they float? Come with me, and you’ll float, too! You’ll all float!”

The mad, alien giggling chased her all the way home.

Jughead clapped his hands over his ears. It was no use. The entire house seemed to be lilting on its axis. The old wood groaned underneath him. Pennywise’s laughter filled the hallways, crept into every room, through every door. He heard Veronica scream, somewhere. He wanted to call out for Betty, but couldn’t get his throat to work.

Archie was gripping his shoulder for dear life.

Jughead blinked.

And his mother was there. Standing right there. He knew it wasn’t really her, of course. But it looked just like her.

“Jughead…” Gladys Jones said, softly. “Jughead, it’s alright. I’m right here.”

“No,” he said, biting his lip. “No you aren’t.”

He scrambled backwards. Archie was still clutching his arm, teeth chattering.

“Jughead, it’s me, baby,” Gladys said, sweetly. She held out her arms, and he had a rush of memories. His mother holding him after a bad day of school. His mother fixing him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. His mother making him and Jellybean homemade Halloween costumes. He hiccuped and sniffled.

“Why did you leave?” Jughead asked.

“You know why,” Gladys said, still softly, sweetly. “I left because of you, sweetheart.”

“No—“ Jughead choked, forcing back tears. Archie was shaking, now.

“Because of what you did,” his mother went on. “Because you killed your little sister.”

“I didn’t mean—“

“You should have been with her, Jughead,” Gladys growled. “You should have been watching her. But you weren’t. And now she’s dead because of you.”

He felt like his chest was going to cave in, and his heart was going to pop from the guilt. And then Archie squeezed his shoulder and managed to struggle past his terror and say: “it’s not real Jug. It’s not her.”

That galvanized him, and he looked his ‘mother’ right in the eye and said “you’re not real.”

Jughead blinked, and ‘Gladys’ was gone. Pennywise was back, wild golden eyes sparkling, unnatural shark’s grin gleaming.

“Not real?” Pennywise said, like his feelings were hurt. He lurched closer, dropping his craggy-toothed jaw. “I’m not real enough for you, Jughead? This isn’t real enough?” He paused for a moment and giggled. “It was real enough for Jellybean!”

[socialattractionuk]

Woman’s rare brain disorder made her believe she was the Messiah

(Picture: PA Real Life)

A council worker has relived the moment she woke up from a coma thinking she was the Messiah after a rare brain infection turned her into a ‘different person’.

Convinced she was ‘a messenger from God,’ despite not being religious, Evie Moore, 23, from Cirencester, Gloucestershire, spent two months in hospital being treated for encephalitis – a serious inflammation of the brain.

She remembers lying on the floor next to her hospital bed, creating the sign of the cross.

She even temporarily forgot who her parents were after the condition – which causes the body’s immune system to start attacking healthy brain cells – struck.

She said: ‘When the junior doctor came to see me, I’d say, ‘Hello, I’m a messenger from God and I’ve been sent from heaven.’’

Despite no longer experiencing religious delusions, Evie says encephalitis has changed her personality – making her less inhibited – and also blames it for ending her first serious relationship.

She said: ‘It’s very upsetting, because I feel like I am better and I am back to normal, but I know that something has changed and my mum and dad sometimes comment on things that I might say that before I wouldn’t have done.

‘And, after the breakdown of my last relationship, I stopped looking for love because I was worried that my illness would mean we just broke up again.’

Before September 2015, when she was diagnosed with encephalitis, Evie was a fit and healthy young woman, who ate well and visited the gym regularly.

(Picture: PA Real Life)

Living happily with her then boyfriend, who she does not wish to name, and working as a customer service assistant at an energy company, she started experiencing out-of-character feelings of jealousy and paranoia.

‘In the three months before encephalitis hit me, I was becoming paranoid and was getting worked up about things that wouldn’t normally bother me,’ she recalled.

‘For no reason at all, I was getting really worried about my boyfriend at the time speaking to other girls, which never used to bother me before.

‘And looking back now, that was clearly the beginning of it.’

Her condition deteriorated rapidly at the end of September 2015, when Evie caught the flu and was confined to her bed for a week.

At home on her own while her boyfriend was out one evening, she called her parents and, sensing something was wrong, her orthopaedic engineer dad Ivan, 53, immediately drove to her house and brought her back to the family home in Tetbury, 11 miles away.

‘Mum and Dad knew something wasn’t right with me, as I was very distressed and out of sorts,’ she said.

‘It was becoming apparent that this wasn’t just flu. They were on tenterhooks.’

(Picture: PA Real Life)

Then suddenly, Evie, who at the time was 20, started having a seizure in their living room, her eyes rolling back into her head and her mouth foaming.

Frantic and unable to bring her out of the seizure, her parents called an ambulance and paramedics immediately defibrillated her once she was in the ambulance to kick-start her heart and bring her back to consciousness.

Evie was rushed to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital 20 miles away in Gloucester, where she was put into an induced coma for 48 hours to reduce the damage to her brain caused by the seizure, which doctors were unsure of the cause of.

‘My memory from then has all pretty much gone and I’ve had to piece it together from what my parents and younger sister Ruby, 19, have told me,’ she continued.

‘But I do remember coming to and looking at the catheter bag at the end of my bed, thinking, ‘How strange, I wonder what could have happened?’ and then feeling a horrible pain from where I’d bitten my tongue during the seizure.’

When her family came to visit her she didn’t recognise them and was barely able to form sentences.

Gradually, over a week in hospital, her memory and faculties returned with the help of steroids to reduce the brain inflammation and Evie was allowed to return to the flat she shared with her then boyfriend, having never been given confirmation of what had prompted her mysterious seizure.

Still confused, she was advised to have someone with her for the first two weeks and could not leave the flat without quickly becoming so overwhelmed that she had to flee back indoors.

(Picture: PA Real Life)

‘I started becoming delusional, too,’ she said. ‘Once, I was watching the news on TV completely petrified, as I thought that I was there in the war zone that they were reporting on.’

Things came to a head a week after going home when, lying in bed beside her boyfriend one night, she believed her mother was dead.

She recalled: ‘I sat bolt upright and was totally convinced she had died, as if someone had just told me, and started getting ready to leave the flat and go to my parents’ in the middle of the night.

‘It was clear then that I needed to be back in hospital again.’

Readmitted to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, Evie was diagnosed with psychosis, a common symptom of encephalitis, which usually develops a few weeks after the initial seizure.

She was was eventually diagnosed with encephalitis after two weeks back in hospital under observation.

Evie continued: ‘I had no knowledge of who I was anymore.

‘The medics put me in a room on my own and I could see the birds flying outside and thought that I could, too.

‘I was desperately trying to jump out of the window and fly and my dad using all his force to pull me back.

Evie with her new boyfriend, George, on holiday in the Lake District (Picture: PA Real Life)

‘I turned around and just shouted ‘f*** off’, and I remember seeing him tear up at those words.’

Despite the sudden change in Evie’s behaviour and personality, her parents tried to be as comforting and helpful as they could, visiting her every day.

Unfortunately, her relationship did not survive, as two weeks before the end of her nine week stint in hospital, her boyfriend confessed he could not cope with the change in her.

‘The illness had really altered who I was, and I think for a young relationship that was too much of a strain,’ she said.

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‘He came to visit me and started crying and we both decided it wasn’t right any more.

‘He left and I closed my curtains and just started sobbing my eyes out.’

When she was finally discharged, Evie moved back in with her parents and, while her psychosis diminished, she couldn’t work for 18 months because of exhaustion and disorientation.

‘For a long time I had to rely on my mum to help me get dressed in the morning and put my makeup on,’ said Evie.

‘I felt so tired all the time, but my parents were amazing in getting me up and doing things so that I didn’t just sit around and wallow. And that really helped me get off my feet both emotionally and physically.’

At first taking a part-time job as a shop assistant, in November 2017, Evie was able to go back to working full-time as a sales consultant at travel agent Thomas Cook.

(Picture: PA Real Life)

Then, in February 2017, despite vowing not to get involved with another man, she met sales assistant George Moore, 25, who had been in the year above her at school, although they had never spoken before.

Initially finding each other on Snapchat, the pair clicked and met up for a coffee. They dated for a while and then moved in together six months later.

Evie said: ‘I told him all about my encephalitis and what had happened to me on that first date.

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‘He was brilliant and really encouraging. I fell in love with George and he made me feel so much better.

‘He’s really tried to change things for me and help me to recover. That has been so important in getting over this nightmare.

‘Sometimes I might seem a little strange, but he just said how brilliant he thought I was to have come through it all, and that made me feel really good in myself.

‘Now that I am recovering and have George at my side, I am completely comfortable in myself again.’

To find out more about encephalitis and World Encephalitis Day on February 22, visit the Encephalitis Society’s website.

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