1 Prologue

At first, it was just a sore throat and a general feeling of being unwell. Only a few days later, Anna developed a painful, but dry cough. She tried to drink more tea, but her throat never more like sandpaper each day. Within a week, she'd developed a high fever and could barely move from her bed. Her grandmother of course knew she was sick, but to Anna, it felt like she didn't care. The woman had already assaulted her within that last month, so why should she. If it hadn't been for another family member's intervention, the old woman would have beaten her teenage granddaughter to death in her enraged state.

She went to sleep hoping for a restful night, but sure it wouldn't happen. The nightmares had started the night of her fourteenth birthday… and never stopped. Anna remembered that day well. There had been a party, her grandmother had invited her friends, and they spent the entire time talking about politics and religion; arguing among themselves. She and her cousin had gone out to get away from it since the party was a verbal battle among the elderly guests whom she barely even knew. They stole one of her mom's million cheap glass lighters and tried to blow it up with solar power, covering it in aluminum foil and leaving it in the blacktop to heat. It didn't work of course but was fun till a cop drove by. That was when they freaked out thinking that they'd run over it and it would blow their tire like in the movies. No one wanted to piss off the police in their city. As soon as the cops left, rushed out into the street to grab the offending glass object. Now years older, she knew it wouldn't have blown up; the memory was wonderful.

Scarcely a moment after the girl's eyes had closed; it appeared like a terrible phantom. That was when she'd seen the masked being. They had no discernable gender, nor any identity that she could tell. The being wore a mask, white as death, with dark swirls of red and black painted upon its face. It was like a medieval jester, only a thousand times worse. It took the appearance of some insane crossbreed between a jester and a demon straight out of hell. The instant Anna saw their face, she felt an utter primordial terror overwhelming her. She didn't have any natural fear of clowns, even after watching several clown horror movies or seeing genuine ceramic clown-faced dolls. Anna never had.

The smiling, mocking, white-toothed grin would remain etched in the girl's memory for the rest of her life. The look they'd borne clearly showed her their thoughts. "I know something you don't and I'll be watching…" It said.

Anna woke up screaming at the top of her lungs, so loudly that she woke her mother sleeping on the couch nearby. Her mother laughed it off and told the girl to go back to sleep. But she couldn't no matter how hard she tried. Every time Anna shut her eyes, the face was waiting for her, so eventually, she gave up staying up the rest of the night. From that day forward, she had strange dreams and nightmares. She would see things, but always they'd appear shadowed beyond recognition. Also in her dreams, Anna would hear strange words spoken, but always too muffled to understand.