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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/GeneralP123 on 2024-09-14 22:30:14+00:00.

Many people are afraid of spiders or heights, my phobia is a fairly common one as well, you see, I am afraid of clowns.

When I say I’m afraid of clowns, I really mean it, I can barely even look at the most benevolent clown for more than ten minutes without screaming and crying, trying to watch any killer clown horror movie would probably cause my premature death.

That being said, I’ll tell you about the time that I tried confronting my fear, I doubt telling you this story will help me get over my fear of clowns, however, it might make you afraid of them, so don’t continue reading if you don’t want another phobia in your life.

The story goes as follows…

A couple of months ago I was enjoying the weekend with a friend in his house, only he and his cat live there, so his house is pretty much the perfect hangout place.

We were playing video games while my friend’s cat was curled up in my lap, usually cats hate me, but Bob always had a soft spot for me, he loves to follow me around everywhere I go, he especially loves when I use his fuzzy back as an arm rest.

After a couple of hours we decided to buy some whisky and coke from the nearby supermarket, we quickly exited the house and walked towards the supermarket which was only around three minutes away.

Unfortunately, our trip wasn’t as simple as I originally anticipated, standing right next to the supermarket, we saw the one thing that makes my blood run cold, a clown.

A panic attack hit me as soon as I saw the clown, even though every clown creeps me out, there was just something about this one that made me extremely uncomfortable, he looked like a Ronald McDonald copy, although a very bad copy, the clown was sickly slim and short, his costume had many rips and tears, the makeup on his face was horribly done, it was so awful that his face looked like someone threw a couple of buckets of random paint on it.

Even though the clown’s appearance alone was frightening enough to ruin my day, what scared me the most was the way he looked at me, even from a distance I could tell that he was staring straight into my eyes, he was smiling so hard that it looked like the skin on his face will get ripped off by his unnatural smile, worst of all, he wouldn’t stop smiling at all, his smile seemed to widen with every passing second.

At this point, I was completely frozen in place, my friend tapped me on the shoulder and said “Let’s just go and grab the drinks, you don’t have to look at that weirdo.”

I somehow powered through my panic attack and said “Sure, but I’m gonna stare at the bastard, can’t be a coward forever, it’s about damn time I try doing something about my problem.”

My friend gave me a reassuring look and replied with a simple “Alright.”

Another even more potent panic attack hit me as soon as I took only two steps towards the clown, I started crying, embarrassed, I barely mustered the strength to tell my friend that I’m going back to the apartment.

I speed walked back to the house, I collapsed on the couch in tears as soon as I entered, Bob rushed to cheer me up by jumping on top of my back and purring.

It didn’t take more than thirty minutes for my friend to return, he was proudly carrying two bags full of drinks and snacks like they were trophies.

He put the bags on the nearby table, then cheerily, he started talking “You know, that clown wasn’t that bad, one guy gave him some money and then he…”

Before he finished his sentence, annoyed and exhausted, I said “Please, let’s just drink, I don’t want to hear about it.”

He nodded understandingly and went to grab the whisky glasses.

Hours passed, after some time of heavy drinking we fell asleep on the couch, it wasn’t an enjoyable nap for me, because a nightmare involving the supermarket clown which I would rather not describe woke me up.

I groggily went to the spare bedroom, but before going to bed, I realized that neither of us locked the front door, who knows how long we were asleep, it’s not like this is a crime-free neighborhood, anyone could’ve entered the house.

I walked as fast as I could towards the front door, I checked it and as expected, it wasn’t locked, so I immediately locked it.

I reassured myself that no intruder entered the house, then I went bed.

While lying in bed, morbid thoughts started attacking my mind, what if someone entered the house? What if the clown we saw earlier followed my friend home and is waiting for the opportunity to surprise us?

The sequence of disturbing thoughts was instantly stopped by the sound of soft meowing.

I was shocked to hear meowing coming from under my bed, but that shock was immediately replaced by a feeling of relief, even though Bob was just a cat, knowing he’s here to protect me while I try to sleep was oddly putting my mind to rest.

After some time of rolling around in bed, I finally fell asleep to the sounds of soft meowing and purring.

I woke up early next morning, considering my paranoia from last night, the sleep itself wasn’t too bad.

I found my friend playing with Bob in the living room.

I immediately told him “Bob’s a real lifesaver, If it wasn’t for him, It would’ve been damn near impossible for me to get some sleep last night.”

He looked at me in confusion and asked “Whatcha mean?”

“Bob was keeping me company, he slept under my bed last night.” I said with a smile.

“Nah, he was here with me, he slept right next to the couch.” my friend immediately rebutted.

“I heard him meowing in my room.” I responded.

“I know Bob thinks you’re cool and all, but he always sleeps next to me, it’s like a ritual of ours, you see…” He stopped mid-sentence, his calm demeanor was rapidly substituted by absolute fear.

“Please, just trust me, follow me and don’t ask any questions until we’re out of the house.” he said with an unusual shakiness in his voice.

He picked up Bob and ran towards the front door, I followed him as he hastily unlocked it, he barely gave me enough time to put on my shoes before pushing me out of the house and then immediately locked the front door behind us.

He rummaged through his pockets trying to find his phone, he quickly realized he left it inside the house so he turned towards me and said with noticable urgency in his voice “Give me your phone, we have to call the police.”

I gave him the phone, but before he could use it I asked him “Can you at least tell me what the hell is going on?”

“You really wouldn’t want to know.” He brushed me off.

I snatched the phone out of his hand, with visible annoyance on my face, I said “I do want to know, I’m not giving you my phone before you tell me why you’re acting like a mental patient.”

“Fine, I’ll tell you, but please stay as calm as you can.” He told me before taking a deep breath.

“Yesterday, you cut me off before I could tell you why I didn’t think the clown was so bad, you see, some guy gave him some money then the clown gave the guy some cards with pictures of animals on them, as soon as the guy picked the card he wanted, the clown would mimick the animal that was on the card, he imitated a frog, then a dog, the croaks and barks were exactly like the real thing, If I closed my eyes I wouldn’t notice that a human being is making those sounds.”

“Yeah, so?” I asked, very confused by his story.

“Well, he could also do a cat impression.” he said with a defeated look on his face.