Darkness Lurks: Killer Clowns in Glasgow (Part three)

Either the janitor’s stern talking to put a few of them off or a few parents weren’t for letting their son or daughter out of the house after the murder and with all the rumours flying about.

Out of the full class who had agreed to it only eight of them eventually turned up.

When the janitor let them in he went over the rules again that if they saw anything or anyone at all even slightly suspicious they were to let him know straight away, and that he would be constantly checking on them and making sure they all got home safe.

Sonny was one of those who turned up, knowing that this was against his best interests and safety and that the smartest thing to do would be to stay away until the whole situation was sorted instead of getting involved.

He knew that would have been the smartest thing to but his curiosity was taking over, plus for any young boy growing up in Castlemilk to be classed as a “shitebag” or a coward was social suicide.

He certainly wasn’t going to lose face with anybody his own age, part of him was still desperate to prove it all wrong and get to the bottom of it.

So after a few second thoughts and much discussion the eight of them agreed to go over and Sonny, Tam, Paddy, Mick, Robert,Nikki, Ashley and Kim all jumped over the fence and made their way up to the red ash pitch at the top of the field.

Everyone of them were probably all feeling as terrified as Sonny, who was literally shaking with nerves, but desperately wanting to know if there was any truth in the stories.

They certainly weren’t getting any information from teachers or parents so they had to at least try and get to the bottom of it themselves.

Sure enough when they got to the pitch there were indeed track marks on it, all over it infact like they had been driving in circles making “doughnuts” on the red ash.

They all stood almost stunned staring at the pitch, there wasn’t even an “i told you so” from Paddy and Tam as even they were kind of hoping they had imagined it.

After it sank in where they were they weren’t wanting to hang around much longer.

They decided they had seen enough and swiftly started heading back towards the school.

It had maybe taken a bit longer than they expected though as the skies of Castlemilk were now starting to get dark very quickly.

Every noise was starting to freak them out as they made their way back across the grassy in near darkness. It seemed to take them longer getting back than it did to go so they were relieved when they got to the backs and the lane leading out to Castlemilk drive.

Their relief was short lasting however and was replaced by shock and horror when the road at the top of St Jude’s became visible.

There was a blue van with its headlights full beam at the top of the school facing right to the lane they were about to pass through almost as if they wanted to be seen.

The van -which was the same one seen by Paddy and Tam on Castlemilk primary pitch- starting hurtling down towards them.

One of them shouted “IT'S THE CLOWNS!” and panic took over and they all turned, running as fast as they could back through the narrow lane, fighting their way by each other.

When they got to the backs they all split up frantically climbing over hedges, fences and into the back gardens going different ways.

A lot of back gardens had large wooden fences separating them and it was now pretty dark so it was tricky.

Sonny ended up himself as he had no time to wait around or try and chap a back door in case he was being chased.

He didn’t know if the clowns had seen them or chased them, but he certainly could hear plenty of commotion and panic coming from behind him. He was jumping over fences through holes and climbing over dykes as fast as he could when he heard a loud terrifying scream coming from a few gardens back.

He instantly recognised the scream as his classmate Nikki’s and he started shouting “HELP...HELP!” at the top of his lungs hoping someone would hear him and help.

When he eventually got to the end of the gardens he met up with Mick and Robert who had stuck together but lost everyone else.

They agreed they heard Nikki scream, Mick said he was sure he had heard Tam struggling with what sounded like an older guy, Robert agreed.

The three of them then ran as fast they could out onto the very bottom of Castlemilk drive.

The streets were still unusually quiet, there was no way of avoiding the road, they headed towards the bottom of the street so they would at least have the best view of all directions. There was no sign of the blue van.

They sprinted towards St Jude's, climbed over the fence straight towards the janitor's house ,that was strangely in darkness, they started battering his door, and shouting as loud as they could to no reply.

Not wanting to split up or hang around the school any longer they decided they would all head to Sonny’s house as he stayed only a few minutes from the school.

As they got over the fence at the back of the school and started heading towards Sonny's house they noticed there was some commotion down at the bottom of Castlemilk drive with police cars, and ambulances congregating.

Instantly they thought the worst. had the clowns caught one of their classmates?.....

They hesitated for a minute not sure whether or not they should head towards the police.

They were at this point too far away so decided it wouldn’t be worth the gamble, now they were so close to Sonny’s house. Just as they turned and started running towards the lane that would take them towards Sonny’s house they heard an engine rev up at full speed behind them.

Robert, who was much smaller and had fallen behind shouted “RUN” and not even wanting to stop for a second to look behind them they started sprinting away.

Sonny just kept running and running leaving the other two behind, as he was halfway down a path he heard the car or van pull up and a door slam.

This made him go even faster and he hardly even touched the ground until he reached his close and ran up the stairs, Mick was just behind and he shouted on Sonny as he came upstairs behind him.

There was to be no sign of Robert though as they got in the house and straight for the window.

Still out of breath they both tried to explain to Sonny’s dad, who had just woken up from a drunken sleep, what had happened.

Although still a bit drunk and half sleeping he took a couple of minutes to get his head around it before agreeing to get ready and go out with them to look for Robert.But just as he was getting his trainers and jumper on there was a loud chap at the door.

Sonny and Mick took a sharp intake of breath but it was Mr Brennan, the janitor who was at the door looking a bit flustered and out of breath.

Sounding like he was trying to hold in intense anger, he was asking where they had got to and why they had left the school.

They tried to explain but he told Sonny he would see him in school and said he would take Mick home.

When they tried to explain that they had got split up and the others were still out there the janitor was just saying: “everybody else is fine….. it was only you two we couldn’t find” he told Sonny’s dad they had all disappeared from the school and he agreed that Mick should go home and told Sonny he would be grounded for being so stupid after what had happened to young Donna.

Mick left with Mr Brennan, who was saying he would get him home safe and sound. Not wanting to get into more trouble Sonny decided not to say anything about going upto Castlemilk Primary or why they went up.

So he just had to take Mr Brennan’s word for it that everyone else was ok until school the next morning.

After Mick and the janitor left, one thing the janitor had said really stuck in Sonny’s head. When the janitor had said that everyone else was ok, how could he have known that when Robert had only been with them two minutes earlier.

That night there was a load of stuff running through Sonny’s mind; what had happened to Robert? What had happened to Nikki when they heard her screaming? Why were the police and ambulance there? Who was Tam struggling with? The tracks on Castlemilk primary pitch they had all been obsessed with earlier on now seemed insignificant. Sonny was just hoping everyone else was ok. Including Mick.

He had started to think about the way the janitor was acting, and how he thought it was weird, how his story about knowing everyone was fine was clearly flawed and why he wasn’t in when the boys had been rattling his door.

Then he started wondering why his family never moved in with him and realising all this stuff with the clowns just started when he had just joined the school.

The more the night went on the more it seemed to make sense, had Sonny just sent Mick away with a mad man? He just kept reassuring himself if anything had happened he would have heard of it by now. As his older sister had just got home from her job in a local shop and would have heard if anything bad had happened.

The next morning Sonny was up and ready for school quicker than he had ever been despite not getting much sleep, he couldn’t wait a second longer to find out what happened.

When he got there Mick, Paddy and Tam were already in the playground discussing the previous night’s antics.

Tam, who had been heard struggling with someone, was grabbed by a guy who stayed in one of the houses. The guy had seen Sonny or Mick charge through the back garden and when he came out Tam was right behind them so the guy caught him and took him in the house.

He struggled with Tam before getting him inside and demanding that Tam wait there while he phoned the police on him. As soon as the guy was on the phone Tam was out the front door like a shot and just kept running until he was in the house.

Not sure if the guy tried to chase him or not but knew he had definitely phoned the police.

Paddy had run the other way when they saw the van, he went right up the backs towards his house up on Tarren Road getting home safely.

Mick said the janitor dropped him straight off and told his mum what had happened, getting him grounded.

Most of the rest of the class turned up apart from Nikki who everyone had agreed on hearing screaming when they were being chased, and Robert who had last been seen by Mick and Sonny when they were being chased.

The janitor had promised Robert was home safe and sound. So they started to wonder why he wasn't in school? Robert's parents were really strict and there it would usually take something drastic to keep him off school, something wasn’t right.

Sonny and the rest of the class were asking the teacher about Nikki and Robert without trying to give too much away about what they were up to the night before. But the teacher would only say they would both be off for a while but refusing to go anymore into it.

There was a look on her face suggesting she was hiding something and the kids were sure of it.

Come Friday there was still no sign of Robert or Nikki in school and still no info given as to why they were off. On Friday morning a hoax clown sighting sent the place into uproar. A young girl pupil said she saw a clown at one of the windows, a comment that a few weeks before would have been brushed off as an obvious hoax, but this time it caused a huge stir.

The teacher marched the whole class down to the headteachers. The head teacher called another emergency assembly to warn the kids about the dangers of believing and spreading lies. Adding that anyone else who continues to spread these stories or mention anything about clowns will be put in detention. The teachers' reactions only strengthened their belief that the teachers and adults were involved in some kind of cover-up.

It wasn’t just the younger kids that were affected with the hysteria as the stories had also reached the local secondary schools St Margaret's and Castlemilk high.

Some pupils there had even started wearing clown masks about the schools as a sick prank.

On Friday Morning the head teacher at St Margaret’s was forced to put out a tannoy announcement expressing his disgust at the heartless behaviour of some pupils adding words to the same effect as the St Jude's headteacher about spreading rumours. He was saying that anyone found with a clown mask or anything similar will be instantly expelled and reported to the police.

He sternly warned them all that there would be no more talk of clowns or killers and stressed that they were all to have a quiet weekend.

Some of the pupils had a different idea however.

A whole load of high school pupils, including rival gang members, had decided to meet up that weekend and hunt down any creeps or weirdos that could be classed as a suspect.

The police weren’t doing enough and they decided it was time to go down the vigilante route.

Sonny however was just glad when that school week was over.

He was looking forward to a relaxing weekend with his feet up playing games on his computer, watching t.v, reading comics and ideally not leaving the house until it was time for school again on Monday. Hopefully by then any killers or psychopaths would be caught.

Apparently the police would be stepping up their investigation that weekend, words that never usually filled most people in Castlemilk with any great confidence, but this time it was different and Sonny was hopeful something would get sorted.

There was certainly no way he would be going anywhere near Castlemilk Primary or the grassy field that weekend… Or so he thought anyway.

His planned weekend of lounging around watching cartoons or reading comics hit the first hitch when his mum told him he would be spending Friday night down at his grans.

Something he would usually have welcomed as he liked spending time with his Grandparents and uncles.

Plus they had Sky TV and an Atari computer,

This weekend was different however and he dreaded being anywhere near there or even leaving his house until the killer had been caught.

After the initial feeling of dread he decided to himself he would make the most of a bad situation.

His uncles would be out on so he would have a free role of the television and computer.

Maybe a night tucked away safely watching whatever he wanted wouldn’t be so bad after all.

But when he arrived at his grans, right away he had a feeling things weren’t going to work out the way he had planned.

He was quite wary of the fact both his teenage uncles were still in for a start. They were saying something about staying at a friend's house, two brothers who stayed just up the street.

Sonny knew they were up to something..

Then he heard his gran saying they couldn’t go, because she was going out for a few hours and someone had to stay in with Sonny.

Right then and there he knew he was going to be dragged into being involved with whatever ploy they had planned to get up to that Friday night. So when one of his uncles said “we can take him with us” and his gran asked him “is that ok with you Sonny?”, he knew there was no point trying to fight it and grudgingly agreed.

The brothers stayed two minutes up the street and if they were just going there for a sleepover that would be fine, but Sonny knew his uncles too well to believe for a second that's what was happening on a Friday night...