Wendel

Noah’s eighth birthday was today, and he just couldn’t feel happy. He was ultimately on edge. All day long felt like the stuff of nightmares. Nothing seemed to be going right at all.

First, his mom overslept and didn’t cook any breakfast for him till 11 AM. So he had to nibble on a cereal bowl while watching his cartoons. Usually, he wouldn’t mind this, but today, she typically would have made him her special chocolate chip pancakes with chocolate gravy for his birthday. Since he only got those on his birthday, he was disappointed that she didn’t have a plate ready when he crawled out of bed.

Then, the internet went down, meaning there wasn’t anything to watch on the Roku box or look at on YouTube. It was down for a solid three hours, and it was the most time Noah had ever had because all he had to watch was those creepy clown shows his mom insisted he liked: the Big Top Gang or something like that.

It wouldn’t have been so bad, but Noah’s dad was stationed overseas and wouldn’t be home this year for his birthday. This birthday was the first year Noah wouldn’t be with his dad, and it made for a sad day.

At his party, there sat the object of many of Noah’s nightmares right there in front of him, making things worse. Wendell, the clown from the videos, was sitting in Noah’s living room, staring at everyone with creepy red eyes and smiling his creepy, toothy grin. Not one person at the party seemed joyful to see Wendell either, for one of his first tricks was to bite the head off of little Jenny Meyers before sticking a balloon sword down Noah’s mom’s throat.