The Jester

The Jester

by: Daryl Barber

Last Christmas I gave you my heart but the very next day you gave it away…crooned the voice from the loudspeaker, as Lacy and John swiveled their hips in time to the music.

“How about some drinks to cool us off?”, asked John, straining to raise his voice over the sound of the song.

“Sounds great!”, said Lacy, giving a thumbs up sign.

She continued to dance, while John made his way over to the refreshment table.

It was a very festive scene. Red and green lights swirled from the ceiling, making colored dots on the dancers as they moved in rhythm to the beat. Christmas trees with blinking lights were scattered throughout the room. The tree lights were synched to the beat of the music, making it a techno Christmas wonderland.

John squeezed through the last set of couples, glad to be able to move his arms freely. He was slightly out of breath, and the crowded room had made him slightly overheated.

“What can I get for ya?”, asked Nate in his classic Boston accent.

Nate was class president and had volunteered to man the drink table at the annual Christmas dance.

“I’ll take some water,” John said, wiping beads of sweat off his forehead.

Nate handed John bottled water. Ice still lingered on the side of the bottle, and the freezing cold sensation made John feel better. He downed the water in just a few gulps.

From the corner of his eye, John could see that Lacy had broken free of the crowd, too. She came over to the table to join him.

“Hi, handsome!”, she said. “Getting a little tired?”

“I just got overheated. The water really helped, though. I think we should down a couple of shots and get back on the dance floor. What do you say?”, John asked, arching his eyebrows.

“Sure,” Lacy said. “Wouldn’t want to waste too much time standing around now, would we?”

Lacy and John bumped their plastic cups together. John downed his shot first. The strong bitterness of the liquid caused his face to contort into a grimace. Lacy downed hers without one change in her expression.

John took Lacy’s hand, leading her back onto the dance floor. Before they merged back into the crowd, he saw something that caught his eye. A person in a white and green jester’s suit had just entered the room. His pointed jester’s hat had golden bells that jingled as he danced his way towards the crowd.

“Who the hell is that?”, asked Lacy with a confused look on her face.

“No idea,” John responded. “Maybe just a student who decided to dress up and have a little fun.”

His colorful entrance had made an impression, because most of the people on the dance floor had stopped dancing. They were staring at him with expressions of amazement on their faces.

“HELLO EVERYONE!”, the jester said in his loudest voice. No microphone for him.

“Who here tonight would like to play a game,” the jester inquired. He put special emphasis on the last two words, making playing a game sound like an enigmatic riddle.

John heard some laughter from the crowd.

“Yeah, we’re all in!”, someone shouted.

The jester bound over to a table with a purple cloth. That’s funny, thought John. I don’t remember seeing that table before. On the table were three cups turned upside down.

“Alright!”, the jester exclaimed. “I have a ball here. I’m going to put the ball under the middle cup. Then, we’ll move things around and see if you can guess the location of the ball. If you guess incorrectly, you must drink what is in the chalice,” he said with a laugh.

Lacy and John looked at each other with worry. Some of the other students standing around looked nervous, too. Someone in the middle of the crowd raised their hand.

“How do we know what is in the chalice?” “What is the prize for winning the contest, the voice asked.

“The prize is that you get to stay alive,” the jester said, his grin widening. “I only need one volunteer.”

There was a surprised silence. Many of the people on the dance floor looked at each other with stunned faces. Then, they began to run towards any open door that they could find.

“Time to have a little more fun,” said the jester waving his hands in the air.

At this gesture, all the doors that were standing open slammed shut. After a few seconds, you could hear the locks turn as they slid into place. Now, there was no way out.

Now, the panic heightened, and some people began to scream. Everyone was getting jostled back and forth as people in the crowd didn’t know what to do

John and Lacy looked at each other with panicked looks on their faces. If we don’t do something, the crowd could go crazy and we could get trampled, thought John.

“I’LL DO IT!”, John exclaimed loudly, so that everyone could hear.

Everyone turned to look at John. John made his way towards the magic table where the Jester was standing. Lacy grabbed John’s arm. She was shaking her head, trying to convince him that this was a bad idea.

“How do you know what you’re going to be drinking. It might be poison! No way!”, she screamed.

“If I don’t do this, someone else will be in danger”, John whispered back to her. “If no one volunteers, he may volunteer someone for us. I think that I can beat him.”

The jester danced a few more jigs and then held up a tiny purple ball. He placed the ball under the center cup. Then, with quick, swift movements, he rearranged their placement on the table. His hands were moving so fast that they seemed superhuman.

Suddenly, his hands stopped. John’s eyes had been unable to keep up with the rapid movements of the jester’s hands. His heart was pounding, and he felt out of breath. With a shaky finger, John pointed to the cup on the right. Slowly, the jester lifted the cup. No ball was there.

“No!”, Lacy screamed.

The jester cackled and said, “Guess it’s time to see you drink what is in the chalice!”

The clown pulled a bottle out of his pants pocket. The bottle was green with a brown cork. It had a skull and cross bones on the label. Above the skull and crossbones were the words DANGER/POISON.

The jester uncorked the bottle…POP! He poured the green looking liquid into the silver chalice that sat on the table.

“Alright, stud. Let’s see you keep your end of the bargain,” he said with a wide grin.

“How the hell do I know you haven’t cheated me? Let me see under the other two cups,” John demanded.

“That wasn’t part of our bargain,” said the green and white clown.

“Still, you should be able to show me which cup the ball is under; if you can’t then you cheated, and our little deal is off!”, John said, his face turning red.

The jester made no move to show John what was in the other two cups. Enraged, John flung the other two cups off the table. No ball to be seen anywhere. John lunged at the clown, who had started to dance up and down. The jester, however, was too quick for him. John felt the jester’s arm grab him from behind and squeeze him into a bear hug. He could hardly breathe.

Without warning, the clown grabbed his hair and pulled his head back. John saw the jester’s hand grab the chalice. He’s going to force me to drink it, thought John to himself. Suddenly, the jester screamed. As the scream pierced John’s ears, he felt himself released from his predator’s grasp.

Lacy stood behind the jester. Her face had been contorted with horror. John could see the handle of a knife sticking out of the clown’s back. Someone had snuck up behind them and stabbed the jester in the back.

As the jester sank to the ground, his body began to sizzle. It sounded like bacon in a frying pan. To everyone’s surprise, the skin on the monster melted like wax. In about a minute, the jester’s body was nothing more than a puddle of mess on the floor. The clothes it had been wearing were steaming hot, giving off a foul smell that permeated the room.

Lacy ran into John’s arms, and they held each other in a tight embrace. In just a few moments, everyone could hear the locks to the doors clicking, signaling the sound of freedom. Some people in the crowd began to cheer.

John looked down at the steaming mess that had been the monster just a few minutes before. They would need to clean up and get rid of the mess. No police officer would believe what happened, he thought.

“Alright everyone, let’s get this shit cleaned up! Maybe this doesn’t have to ruin the party after all!”, John said to the crowd.

In about half an hour, no trace of what happened was left. The DJ put on the music as people began to dance and celebrate. No one at the party ever mentioned it to another soul.  It would be a Merry Christmas, after all.