[CW] In 4,000 words or less, make me laugh, cry, happy, sad, and scared.

My neighbor has been my best friend since we moved into our house. I was just 5 when we moved and he approached me with along with his family with some goodies. He cocked his head to a side when he saw me, and I mimicked him. Then he smiled at me.

"Remi." He said.

"Louis." I answered him. "Wanna go to my backyard to see my dog? He's really big."

He nodded. "Cool."

After that day he came to my house everyday after school. Sometimes we would play in my room, with my toys. But most of the time we would play in our backyards. Our parents even made a door in the fences that separated our backyards so that we could have easier access to each others houses.

We were inseparable.

Then it started.

When we were 9 we managed to convince our parents to leave us alone for the night in my house. Because we were grown ups, even though I knew that Remi still had to use diapers at night because he sometimes peed the bed (I mocked him everyday about it), and one time we found what we thought was 'chocolate' on the floor coming back of school and I ate it.

We still were grown ups.

Our parents were hesistant, but they decided that they needed a night off, and went to have dinner as a double date. As soon as they closed the door behind them we promiesed each other to watch a horror movie without scaring and staying up until dawn (out parents were coming back at 11pm, we would fake sleep). So we did.

We found 'The Blair Witch Proyect' in one of my dad's drawers, and popped it in the VHS. We watched the movie together. And after it was done we pretended we were not scared.

After a few minutes we got hungry.

"I'm hungry?" Remi complained.

"Me too." I said

"Wanna go to the kitchen to eat something?" He asked.

"What? Are you too scared to go down by yourself?" I laughed.

"What?! No!" He responded. "I'll show you. I'll grab us poptarts and come back in no time."

Then he ran out of the room. I waited inside the room by myself as I heard shuffling around the kitchen downstairs. I then realized that aslong as he was alone downstairs. I was alone up here too. I hot scared and the shadows of the window casting on the wall began to morph. I sprang up and ran downstairs.

"Remi, did you found the poptarts-"

Remi was crouched looking peeking outside the window that lead to my backyard, and he was looking out the window.

"Remi." I said looking at him from the door. "What are you-"

"Shh." He turned around quickly and then motioned me to come next to him. "Look."

I sat beside him and followed his gaze. A weight settled in my stomach when I found what he was looking at. There was a man in my backyard. He was big, and though wearing normal clothes, was wearing a clown mask.

"What do you think he's doing here?" Remi whispered.

"I don't know. But do you think it has to do with the movie?"

"I don't think so. The movie talked about witches, not clowns."

We went silent for a couple of seconds.

"How long have you been watching him?" I asked him.

"When I was looking for the poptarts, I turned to look at the window and there he was. Then you came down."

"Huh." I said. "Why are we whispering and crouching?"

Remi turned to look at me and rolled his eyes. "I don't want to scare him off, obviously." Then he turned to look at him but his face fell. "He's gone!"

"What?" I turned to follow his gaze. And it was true. The man was no longer there. I had a weird feeling but let it pass.

"Oh, man. He ran away." Remi said disspaointed and stading up. Then he turned to me and smile. "Maybe your face scared him."

I smiled and pushed him playfully. "Shut up and find the poptarts."

We didn't told what happen to our parents. But it was just the beggining.

The next time we had an encounter with the man we were 11. This time we went for a bike ride along the neighborhood, it was getting late but we didn't care. We were doing races when we noticed a car following us closely.

"Hey, Louis. Look." Remi looked behind me.

I turned around and there was a grey car following us slowly. It had tinted windows. So we couldn't see inside.

"Do you think... The car is following us?" I asked Remi.

Remi raised his eyebrows. "There's only one way to find out." And then he speeded down the highway.

I followed him in everyturn. The car was still following us. But then we took a turn in an alley that was too stretch for the car to fit and we got away. We laughed it off and we we driving home when in an intersection the same car speeded right past us, almost hitting Remi.

"Remi, look out!" I screamed. He managed to stop dead in his tracks and the car grazed his front wheel.

The car stopped a few blocks away. But I didn't pay attention to it, I went to Remi.

"Oh my God! Are you okay?" I asked him as I abandonded my bike to a side and came closer to him.

"Yeah. What the hell? That man almost killed me!" He said.

We turned to look at the car and the drivers door was open. We walked with our bikes in hand we walked towards it to look what was up with it.

The car was empty. Except for a clown masc resting in the drivers sit.

We didn't told our parents anything either.

In the next weeks Remi started acting odd. He asked me if I was getting letters, weird letters. I told him no, and asked him for an explanation. After 3 months of no response he then told me to meet him in the park a few streets away.

When I did he had a letter in his hand and he seemed nervous.

"What's up?" I asked him. He didn't answer and just handed me the letter.

I looked at him confused but open the letter anyway. The letter contained a drawing. There were two houses. Two stickmen and a clown smiling. The stickmen were sad and over there heads it said; 'Remi' and 'Louis'. The clown was closer to the 'Remi' stick figure and he was holding his hand. On top of the houses, on almost a children like writing said;

'I wanna be your friend Remi, I could make you laugh. I could make you laugh till your intestines come out of your mouth. Then we could be together forever.'

It wasn't signed.

I looked over at Remi who seemed like he was about to cry.

"Is this a prank?" I asked him. He shook his head and something set on my stomach. "Remi, this is serious. We need to tell this to your parents." I said and started standing up.

"No! Wait, you can't! He said some horrible things in the other letters if I told someone. I broke it because you were mentioned in some letters and you were drawn too. And I trust you."

"Remi, this is beyond on what I can do-"

"Remember the clown dude in your backyard when we were 9?"

"Yeah. What does he have to do with this?"

"I think he's the same person. Also the dude who almost killed me in the highway does months ago."

I sat back and let the information sink in. "We need to tell someone."

"We can't" he was crying now.

The rest of the year Remi barely got out if his house. His parents talked to me to know what was wrong with him. I lied through my teeth.

When we were 13 he took him away.

It was another sleepover. This time at his house. His parents weren't home. Even though we begged them to stay. My parents were out if town and I was staying with them. It was too perfect for him.

We were laying in bed not talking after checking that every door and window was shut. I was trying to light him up, to make him smile. But he wouldn't.

Then we heard a crash downstairs.

"He's here." A tear travelled down Remi's cheek.

My eyes widened. I grabbed Remi's arm and pulled him up. And I dragged him out of the room to his parents room. Remi was just numb. He was like a doll. Like he knew what was going to happen to him.

I pushed him down and under his parents bed and then I joined him. And then I listened as the man first went up the stairs. He was slow, but his steps made the house tremble. Remi was shaking and I took his hand and I lied to him, I told him that the man was going to go into his room see his not there and assume we weren't in the house.

We heard how he broke down Remi's bedroom door. We heard shuffling and then silence. Then we heard how the door of his parents bedroom broke down. And then we heard footsteps around the room. Remi was shaking violently and he was just shaking his head from side to side. I squeezed his habd harder, then he closed his eyes.

There was silence.

And then Remi was dragged out of under the bed. His screams filled my ears and I crawled under the bed as fast as I could. The man was wearing a clown mask and was carrying Remi.

"Let him fucking go!" I screamed at the man. I grabbed a lamp and as I was about to smash the lamp into his head, I felt a piercing pain in my side.

"Louis! You motherfucker! Let me go! You fucker! Louis!" I heard Remi screaming.

I saw how the guy carried Remi out of the room. I started crying, not from the pain, but for him. "Remi. You fuck. Remi.

I crawled out of the room and saw how the man jumped out of the window with Remi. "Remi!"

I blacked out as I saw his parents hovering over my head.

They never found Remi. But I still cry myself to sleep. Because I feel like I could have done so much more to save him.

Today I recieved a letter that said.

"He is now with me forever."

/r/WritingPrompts Thread