Ring Tossed Clowns Are Freaky by Kris P. Kreme
A cursed ring has bounced around from hand to hand in the city, corrupting the lives of those who dared touch it in ways more and more extreme. But nothing as freaky as what’s about to happen has happened yet.
When a down on his luck clown named Jacko finds the ring on a subway car, little could the man behind the makeup know that his skills are about to be perverted to bring more than smiles. As Jack Owens is taken over and the cursed ring embraces his alter-ego Jacko, two social media stars that hired Jacko for a photoshoot will find more than their egos inflated.
Jacko the Clown was always great at making balloon animals… but will balloon girls be even more of a party?
A cursed ring has made its way through a city that too often treats people merely as objects, as little else than a thing, one often in their busy way. But today that ring may just find a new owner to embrace the madness it releases within the mind of a man who despite a painted smile has plenty to frown about.
Jack Owens isn’t a costumed hero by any means, but he does dress up as his alter-ego for the purpose of making people feel better… in a world that rarely makes him feel the same. That’s because Jack is also known as Jacko the Clown, and these days people just don’t have as much fascination, imagination, or use for a talented performance clown anymore.
It wasn’t long after the pandemic hit that Jack chose to become Jacko, figuring everyone needed some smiles, a little cheering up, and maybe for a short while his idea worked, but the amusement faded and in the city that never sleeps, selfish disinterest returned, along with frequent mocking and embarrassment for Jack when he found himself in a crowd.
Jack Owens had always thought he had a great talent, even inventing his own little compressor hidden beneath his clown outfit, hoses extending from beneath the colorful jacket he wore, able to instantly make beautiful and detailed balloon animals for kids on the go. But these days parents are so distrusting they rarely let him even get close enough to ask what animal a child would like, leaving his quickdraw inflation skills untapped and unappreciated like the rest of him.
Spending times in the downtown subway stations, Jacko can sometimes perform and raise enough money to get by, regular jobs seeming more and more rare these days. But after a particularly sad day of only raising four dollars, Jack Owens is taking the subway home and just trying to ignore the ridicule of a crowded subway car.
That is when he finds himself at the last car on the train, police tape for some reason blocking it off, even though he can clearly see the car is perfectly normal looking.
Sighing and pushed past his limit, Jack ignores the tape, crossing in and finding himself alone in the last subway car. It looks pretty much normal, but he does recall some story about a weird subway orgy stopped a couple weeks back by some transit authorities. Maybe this was that car, though why it was still blocked off, he has no idea. Whatever the reason, Jack needs the peace and quiet, only a little metallic rattling somewhere on the floor as the subway train speeds along.
When his buddy Greg calls, saying he booked Jacko the Clown an actual paying gig, Jack figured maybe his luck is changing, but little does he know there’s something else on this subway car with him about to bring new meaning to clowning around.
Greg says he has booked a job with a couple of teenage social media stars. Apparently they are doing photoshoots for their social media and needed a skilled clown for the photos. As Greg puts it, these two girls Courtney and Cora, can make Jacko the Clown famous online, and that can’t hurt his situation at all.
But Jack has more on his mind than just the fancy loft apartment address he’s been given, having spotted the source of the metallic rattling, a fairly nice looking man’s ring bouncing about on the floor of the subway car. Naturally curious Jack picks the ring up, looking for an inscription or any other markings, and that is when a voice suddenly speaks up.
It seems that according to the voice, it was never noticed while all the torn clothing was cleaned from the crazed orgy that took place on the subway car. And this voice has just been waiting to have some more fun. By the time Jack realizes the voice is somehow coming from inside his own head, that he has just slipped the ring onto one of his fingers, it’s already too late to prevent his own truly freaky fears from coming true.
As the cursed ring puts it, he won’t be the first clown to turn psycho; after all the horror movies have to get the inspiration from somewhere.
Slowly but surely as the subway car speeds along towards its destination, the voice in the ring is making it clear that Jack cannot resist what it will make of him. And it even points out that there are better ways of handling those social media sluts than merely performing with them… like performing on them, inflation quite possible thanks to the curse corrupting the very fabric of reality around Jack.
But as much as Jack Owens wanted to be a positive uplifting performer who brought smiles… it isn’t Jack Owens that leaves the subway that day. Jacko the Clown is in control, or more correctly a certain ring worn by Jacko the Clown has him ready, willing, and more than capable of giving those social media stars one hell of a twisted send off, inflating more than their egos for the photoshoot at their fancy rich loft.
And upon meeting the two rich stoners who live on the same floor as Courtney and Cora, Jacko the Clown is making more money than he ever has, promising the two guys just what they ask for… balloon girls that look like the hot babes down the hall.
Will Courtney and Cora see more than their social media career popped? Will Jacko the Clown be unleashed upon an unsuspecting city that always called him names, creating a sinister name for himself? And will the crowded subway cars have a surprising new form of regular entertainment? Find out as Ring Tossed returns one last time for the new year… but there’s no telling where or when that cursed ring may return again.
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