Hesitation

At the Prime Peak Hotel, in room 204, Linda slowly opened her eyes to the sound of bells. As she sat up, her eyes adjusted to the light filtering through the curtains. Confusion and fear began to settle in as she looked around. The room was unfamiliar.

Then, finally...

"You woke up at last. Bringing you here while unconscious was harder than expected," said the clown, who had been waiting patiently for her to wake up, sitting by the door, his one leg crossed over the other, sucking on a purple lollipop.

It then dawned on Linda the thing she had done just before fainting. Her eyes widened in disbelief and horror, but before she could even open her mouth, the clown spoke.

"You're searching for the corpse? Look to your left, it might just be there."

Having heard this, Linda seemed to have swallowed a knife as she slowly turned to her left. And there it was, leaning innocently against the wall near the window just below the TV: a black trash bag with a pink polka dot pattern tied with a red lace ribbon. Her lips quivered.

"Wh-hat were you thinking? Th-th-that shouldn't be here!"

Seeing her reaction, the clown started to frown.

"Hmm… You didn't like it? Disappointing. I even researched what women like on the internet. It said you all like presents and stuff. I even put a ribbon on it. Patterned trash bags are hard to find, you know?"

"What a-a-are you talking about?" she stuttered while clumsily adjusting her glasses.

But the clown just frowned even more. Linda had always been scared of clowns since she was a kid. She never liked their huge smiles and exaggerated movements. But seeing a frowning clown was even more frightening.

Then the clown snapped his fingers three times, making her focus on him.

"Anyway, we're running out of time. You hear the sirens outside? I bet they're the police. Actually, Linda, while moving you to this hotel, a lot of people saw us. One of them must have reported us. Could it be the woman at the front desk? Heh! Should I kill her?"

Linda shuddered even more.

"W-who are you?"

"Eh? Must a clown have a name? I didn't know about that. I'll tell you once I decide on a name. By the way, what do you plan on doing now? You just killed a person, you know? Do people still get burned at the stake these days for a first degree murder? I checked the corpse. You stabbed it multiple times the face could no longer be identified. Will you be okay? I don't think the police will believe it was self-defense by how you basically destroyed him. No cameras in there, I checked. You got yourself a smart stalker. He busted em all."

And when Linda couldn't respond, the clown continued, "Fortunately, I have the solution just for you. Care to listen?"

***

Brad simply watched Marty sign all the pages while only reading the first page. He felt bad for Marty. Even more so since he knew he was partly to be blamed as well, influencing Marty's emotions and stuff. He also knew that nine more people were being influenced at that exact moment.

He bit his tongue, his eyes observing the red dot flickering from his watch.

"Marty," he called out. "You sure you ain't regretting this?"

As he asked this, he almost had the urge to punch himself in the face.

'No backing out now, you fool! You must remember why you're doing this,' he scolded himself.

"I'll do it," said Marty, his face turning languid by the second.

Brad grinned at him and handed him a thumb-sized bottle. His grin looked forced for a second. "Show me your resolve."

Without hesitation, Marty downed the bottle's content. The burning liquid seared his throat as it went down, causing him to wince in pain. The room began to spin, and Marty's head pounded with a relentless throb.

As the liquid coursed through his veins, Marty's vision started to blur. The surroundings morphed into a hazy, dreamlike scene, and strange shapes danced in front of his eyes. He staggered, feeling the room waver and tilt around him.

And next thing he knew, he was already in another place facing a human-sized rabbit along with ten more other people. Five women and five men including him.

As Brad watched Marty disappear right in front of his eyes, he downed his coffee in one go and smashed the mug on the counter, breaking it to pieces. He then pushed a button on his watch and all of a sudden, a translucent screen monitor appeared in front of him. He pushed another button and a translucent keyboard showed up as well.

Then he began typing. He was making a report to a person they refer to as The Higher Up. And when he was done, he noticed a pair of eyes looking at him from the back and a shield instantly surrounded him as his right arm turned into a bazooka and pointed to the said person.

"And here I thought I finally caught you off guard," said the clown. The same exact clown who was with Linda just a few moments ago. "Surprise?"

"Yeah. So surprised I almost shot you."

"You're scaring me. By the way, you need any help over here?"

"Just the corpse and I'm done. You?"

Brad took back the shield and the bazooka.

"Eh, I think mine's scared of me." The clown complained. "And I even covered up for her. I wonder what I did wrong." 

"Why don't you ask her?"

They were now climbing up the stairs going to Marty's grandma's room to dispose of her corpse.

"You see, whenever I ask her, she would just degenerate into a stuttering mess! Would you believe this? The first time she saw me, she immediately fainted so I thought I should prank her when she woke up to cheer her up but she didn't seem to appreciate it. I don't understand."

Brad sighed upon listening to this. "And that's exactly the problem! Anyway, since you went through all the trouble coming here already, why don't you dispose mine this time? I did yours last year."