Chapter 16: The Last Laugh: Part 1

I Don't Own Ben 10 or Any of the Respective Characters, The Rights Belong to Man of Action Studios and Cartoon Network

Author's Note:

* Hello and welcome to Chapter 16!

* This is going to be another chapter that'll move the plot along a little bit, so I hope you enjoy it! Sorry that there was another gap, albeit a smaller one, in between chapters, but I did the best I could not to make another months' long gap.

* I don't have anything else to say, so let's get on with the chapter!

Ben

Friday, April 13th, 2018

Madison High School

The Friday that Gwen and I were going to the travelling circus and carnival had finally come around. And I must say that while I was still excited to go with her, I still had a nagging feeling in the back of my head. Something was urging me to decline at the last minute all because of my fear of clowns. But I just couldn't bring myself to talk to her in order to cancel and figure something else out to do. I would just have to power through it – for her.

The school day had come to an end and after leaving my last class, I went to my locker to grab anything that I might need for the weekend – be it textbooks, class notes or what have you. As I shut my locker, the girl in question walked up to me.

"Hey, Ben!" she greeted me with a cheery tone. "Are you ready to go?"

"Let me just go home and drop off my school stuff first." I replied.

"Why don't you just put your stuff in the trunk of my car and we go now?"

"It just feels normal to take my school stuff home after the week is over and I don't want to break that routine."

"But it wouldn't be much of a difference."

"True. Oh and I also want to get a quick bite to eat before we go."

She let out a sigh and I detected that I had upset her.

"What?" I asked.

I really thought that she was upset, but as usual, what she said surprised me.

"I won't argue with you, Ben. Go do your stuff first."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded.

"So, I'll meet you at your house after?"

She nodded again.

"Okay, then I'll see you soon."

"Yeah," she spoke in a vaguely sad tone. "See you soon."

Sometime Later

Frank and Natalie Tennyson's House

After getting home to drop off my stuff and get a quick snack in, I headed back out. I parked my car on the curb outside of Uncle Frank and Aunt Natalie's house, as I expected for Gwen and I to take her car tonight. After locking up my car, I walked up to the house and went inside to find her, right after greeting my aunt and uncle. And after that, we were off on our way.

Fifteen Minutes Later

Zombozo's Travelling Carnival and Circus

We had arrived to Zombozo's Travelling Carnival and Circus. I didn't really think the concept of combining a carnival and circus was a thing, but here I was looking at it. Gwen parked her car and we got out. As I shut the passenger door, I marveled at the size of the complex. I could see the big top right in the center and all around it there were game stands, concession stands, and all the other things you'd associate with a carnival. The entire property was fenced off by well, fences, with the ticket booth right in the center of the perimeter fences out front.

"Come on." Gwen's voice pulled me from my thoughts. "Let's go get our tickets and head inside."

"Alright." I said, following her as she locked up her car.

So we approached the ticket booths, bought our tickets and made our way into the carnival section of the attraction. There were all the kinds of things you'd expect to see at a carnival. Ring toss, shooting galleries, knock down the bottles, that one game where you had to fill up an object with a water blaster, test your strength, I'm sure there's some that I'm missing, but you get the gist. There weren't just carnival games, however.

There were rides, too. The kind of rides that shot you up into the air, before bringing you back down, rides where you sat down in a chair on a harness that would then take you up in the air and spin you around its center pole. There was even a small roller coaster. I'm not sure if you would count them as rides or games, but there was also a funhouse, as well as bumper cars. They also had a big ferris wheel.

An Hour and a Half Later

So, we played some games and rode some rides. We bought a thing of popcorn from one of the concession stands to share between us and a bottle of water for her and a soda for me. Before we rode the roller coaster, I made a joke about hoping that I wouldn't get sick after having the popcorn and soda, which earned a laugh out of her. I didn't end up getting sick when we rode the coaster. Once we got off the coaster, we went back to playing some games. But it was odd, what ended up happening.

Before we started riding rides and once we got back to playing games, we hardly won any of them. I mean, like any of them! I mean, I knew that a chunk of carnival games were rigged in some sort of way, but this was kind of ridiculous. I would wager that we didn't win about seventy five percent of the games that we played tonight. It certainly made me have some thoughts, but those thoughts weren't worth sharing. As we walked away from one of the knock down the bottles stands, we talked about each of our poor performances.

"You saw that, right?!" I said as I laughed.

She nodded as she laughed, too.

"You totally hit one of the bottles! But it didn't even budge! It's like it was adhered to the other bottles!"

I continued laughing.

"I was thinking the same thing! I honestly think that we're just getting robbed with some of these games!"

"I can see why you would think that!"

Our laughter died down to chuckles after that and then silence. She wasn't silent for long, though.

"Hey, Ben? Remember when you were afraid of clowns when we were kids?"

That question hit me like a God damn truck. Why did she have to ask that question? Yes, of course I remember when I was afraid of clowns, because I'm still afraid of clowns! I eventually forced a chuckle as I nervously scratched the back of my neck.

"Oh, yeah totally! Good times! It was just a childish phobia that I had no reason to have!"

She just looked back at me as her smile began to fade.

"Ben, you're not still afraid of clowns, are you?"

Damn it, I thought. She hit the nail on the head, just what I was afraid of. But I can't admit that she's right, she'd just make fun of me. And I know that she wants to be here. Admitting that I'm still afraid of clowns might make us have to leave. So, I'll just have to suck it up and try to pretend that I'm not actually afraid. For her.

"Are you kidding?! I conquered that fear years ago! Pennywise the Dancing Clown has got nothing on me!"

I thought that I would have to do more convincing than that, but she surprised me when she smiled again.

"Well, that's good! I'm glad you were able to get over your fear!"

Wow, she was easy to convince. Too easy, actually.

After she said that, someone in a wheelchair approached us.

"Hi, Gwen!" she said in friendly tone.

"Oh hi, Emily." She replied before she turned to me. "Ben, this is my friend Emily from school. Emily, this my cousin, Ben."

"Hi, nice to meet you!" Emily replied as she reached her hand out.

I took her hand and we shook.

"Likewise."

"I've been looking forward to meeting you. Gwen talks about you all the time."

I cocked an eyebrow at that as I turned to look at her.

"Oh, does she now?"

She just looked back at me with a slightly nervous smile, before looking back at Emily.

"So, what're you doing here, Emily?"

"I'm here with my friends. There's not a lot that I can do, but I just like to see the sights and I occasionally like to people watch."

"That's cool."

As they started talking, I looked around us. We had just walked away from the game stand toward the big top tent. Right now we were close to the backside of the big top, right around the backstage area, I guess you'd call it. As I looked around, I noticed a small, lone tent that had a small sign hanging from it, labeled "Keep Out". But it was slightly was open, with light coming from inside. I allowed myself to be drawn to it as Gwen talked with Emily. I approached the tent and looked inside once I reached it. And what I saw shook loose an old anxiety of mine. Sitting at a chair in front of a lit up mirror, was a pale skinned clown with wiry crimson hair, with a smile full of crooked, yellow teeth.

"H—H—H—HOWDY FOLKS! Are ya ready to laugh?" he exclaimed while looking into the mirror. "Perfect. You're gonna knock 'em—"

He put his jet black top hat on as he spoke.

"—dead!"

He let out a sinister sounding laugh as he opened his mouth wide and licked his yellow teeth with a disgusting long pink tongue. After seeing this, I felt sweat begin to bead up on my forehead and I felt as though I was on the verge of a panic attack. So, I turned away from the tent and ran as fast as I could. I bolted around a corner and immediately ran into Gwen, who had been heading in my direction. I knocked both of us over, with me landing on top of her. Due to my slightly panicked state, I didn't even register that I was on top of her. I just stood up and helped her to her feet.

"Sorry." I said as I helped her up. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

"That's okay. Where were you?"

"I just wandered off into an area that I probably shouldn't have been in. So, I panicked and tried to get back to you."

"I see."

As I calmed down, I now noticed that her friend wasn't with her anymore.

"Hey, where did your friend, Emily go?"

"Oh, she went back to find her friends. She thinks that they're going to be leaving soon."

"Oh, well that kind of sucks. I'm glad you got to see her, at least. She seems really nice."

"Thanks, she'd really appreciate that. So, it's almost time for the show to start in the big top. Do you want to get tickets and head in?"

A chill went down my spine at the mention of the big top. The big top meant that the Zombozo the clown would be there and the clown meant…

"Ben?" she said my name in a worried tone.

"Um, yeah. Sounds great! Let's go!"

She smiled at me again.

"Alright, then! Come on!"

We approached the entrance to the big top, bought our tickets and entered. I had to admit that I was pretty anxious about this, but I was doing my best to fight the bad feeling in my gut. But I would fight through it, because I knew that this was something that Gwen really wanted to do. We found our seats, which surprisingly, there were not a lot left of. We sat down in our seats and only a few minutes later, the Ringmaster strolled over to the center of the tent with a microphone in his hand.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Children of all ages!" he boomed enthusiastically into the mic. "Zombozo's Travelling Carnival and Circus is proud to present: 'The Sultan of Smiles'! 'The Crown Prince of Chuckles'! 'The Grim Tickler' himself, the star of our circus: ZOMBOZO THE CLOWN!"

After that, a small clown car sped into the center of the tent as the Ringmaster began backing away to make room for said clown car. It eventually came to a stop and out stepped the grotesque clown that I had seen in the tent only a few minutes before we entered the Big Top. As he spread his arms out in a presentation pose, the sound of cymbals crashing together could be heard.

Everyone in their seats, including Gwen, were already laughing. Everyone except me, that is. I couldn't see how anyone found this funny. I was already beginning to break out into a cold sweat, I could feel my body beginning to slightly tremble, to put it simply, I was mortified. Just then, the clown car suddenly sped to the other side of the tent, as if it had a mind of its own. It came to a stop and turned to face Zombozo, almost like it was trying to challenge him.

In response, the clown beckoned to the car with his hand and whipped out a red cape, holding it as if he were a professional bullfighter. The clown car revved its engine again and zoomed toward him. I thought that I was about to see this clown splattered by the car, but to my surprise, as soon as it made contact with the cape, it just exploded into confetti. And everyone just ate it up.

"If you love clowns, then this is the place to be!" Zombozo spoke for the first time. "You're gonna die laughing! That's a Zombozo guarantee!"

I had had enough of this. I just couldn't do it. I felt like I was going to have a panic attack and even though I had tried for Gwen, I just couldn't do it. I had to get out, at least until the show was close to over.

"Hey," I spoke to Gwen as I stood up, trying to come up with the best excuse that I could. "I'm gonna go get some popcorn!"

I expected her to see right through my excuse, but she didn't seem phased in the slightest.

"Okay. Can you get me some, too?"

I tried not to stare at her for too long.

"Sure thing."

"Thanks."

I turned toward the nearest exit.

"No problem."

I then exited the Big Top tent as quickly and as discreetly as I could. Once I was outside the tent, I ran until I was a fair distance away and finally allowed myself to stop and catch my breath.

"There is nothing funny about clowns!" I said to myself.

That's when I looked up at my surroundings. When Gwen and I had went into the Big Top tent along with everyone else, there had been a bustling carnival and circus outside. However, now the game stands, the concession stands, the ferris wheel, the roller coaster, everything was gone. I was staring at an empty lot before me.

"Where did everybody go?" I asked as I looked around me. "Bingo?"

Author's Note:

* And that's it for this chapter! I hope you all enjoyed.

* Clearly, this is an adaptation of the Last Laugh episode from the original series. I'll get into more details in the finale of this three part story arc, but for now I wanted to say that I know that it was only a circus in canon, but I liked the idea of it being combined with a carnival and I thought just a circus would make for a basic chapter, so that's why I changed it.

* Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the first part of my version of Last Laugh. I'm going to go though, so have a fantastic day and bye.

Next Chapter: Ben finds two circus freaks attempting to loot the cars of the carnival and circus' customers, where he runs into an old foe. Later upon doing some investigating, he stumbles upon some displeasing information.