…
Chester shouted behind himself for every kid to “Get back!!!” He ran into the living room, as both him and Azure both watched in horror. Their on-the-spot prediction came true. The clown was still alive. 
In all likelihood, he was never in any danger in the first place, something that both of them came to assume. The clown had entered the body of Pierre in order to save himself. This was why Azure thought he felt the body was so empty, because it was. And now, in front of them, was the clown itself, or at least, a very nightmarish look of him. He was growing from inside lying Pierre’s own mouth like an alien slug. His body was long, gooey, and mixed with red, blue and purple colors, with an oversized caricature of its face, if you could call it that, adorning the upper tip. Its, the monster’s, body was moving unsteadily from one side to the other, playing around with the captured goose boy that it had wrapped around with its long torso. Matthew, through all of this, would not utter even a single word.
‘WELL, well, well, WELL, well…” spoke the gooey abomination, its voice distorting ever occasionally. “LOOK at what we HAVE here…” The clown dangled the goose’s body over the dinner table that in the dining room. “I GUESS this could have went a lot better..but HEY, MISTAKES into MIRACLES! OI-HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!”
Chester’s jaw was unhinged and his eyes were busy comprehending the monster. What in the world even happened? Did he just waited to be let out, this whole time!?
“Ooooh, THAT look! You wanna know HOW I did it, don’t you? AREN’T you? You really WANNA know how I did THAT? Cause it is so BRILLIANT, I can’t even contain myself! Oh, the look on your face the, OI-HOHOHOHOHOHO!” the clown cackled directly at the young hedgehog.
“Chester!” Azure vied the boy’s attention away. 
Without a second word uttered, Chester nodded and took a fighting stance.
“I wouldn’t do that IF I WERE YOU!!!” roared the clown, barely holding back itself from anger. The house, the ancient thing that it was, nearly collapsed from the shaking caused by the voice. 
Meanwhile, Matthew finally began to speak.
“Please, save me! Someone! Anyone! Everyone! Just do saving NOOOOOW!!!” The goose kept trying to wriggle. Chester checked on him to see if the clown was hurting him, probably tightening his body around the goose. Azure posited, based on his shouts, that Matthew is likely more scared than harmed. 
You sure?
“Affirmative. You do remember that you can trust in me.”
Chester exhaled, feel just a tiny bit more calm. There better be nothing else-
“What is that!?” 
Chester turned around, and saw the round eyes of each and every orphan kid, all of them glued to the monster in the room. The fact that none of them screamed surprised Chester a bit, but it felt like most of them just froze in place.
“All of you, go back! I told you already, GO!” Chester shouted at them, trying to snap them out. No one bothered to respond fast enough to his pleas.
“ACTUALLY…” The voice was low and threatening, causing the spikes on Chester’s back to stand up. The clown gulped a large amount of air into its mouth, before finally letting it all out in a single hissing exhale. The air turned puke-green for a moment, and it smelled like rotten eggs, enough that every kid grabbed their noses. “And now, NONE of you will MOVE an inch from here.”
“What was that!?” Chester exclaimed, nose still plugged. He coughed out three times, thinking for a moment, that the clown was now trying to poison them
“It is a special TYPE of gas…WHICH, don’t you worry, WON’T kill you by poisoning…INSTEAD, it simply ENTERED you bodies…and now, if you dare to LEAVE from HERE, even for a SECOND, it will make you go….BOOM!”
Chester’s eyes turned large. Even Azure, who at this point was analyzing it all carefully, became flabbergasted by this revelation.
“What!? What do you mean go boom!?” Chester exclaimed.
Chester looked at the orphans again, seeing all of them still blinded and coughing from the smell. Everyone complained about the pungency. And then he noticed Mimmy, walking with her hands outstretched towards the door…
“LILY, GRAB MIMMY NOW!”
The young bat, opened her eyes, still reeling back from the smell, oriented herself towards the young hamster girl. She quickly pulled the girl back in, who was rubbing her eyes. Mimmy kept on complaining that she couldn’t see anything at all.
Chester exhaled in relief.
“None of you move from this spot, understand!!?”
The few kids that heard him nodded. Considering what type of monster they were dealing with, he was not going to risk it being a bluff by the clown. They were all in danger now. In complete danger. It was all because of him, because of how stupid he was. Because of how careless he was. Because-
“Chester!” Azure yanked his attention back again. The boy looked at the stern eyes of the blue spirit. 
Chester breathed it all in, and then all out. This was not the time to get swept over his own emotions. It was time to take of that monster once and for all. He stepped over the line one too many times.
The hedgehog turned back to the clown, his eyes now carrying a look of divine fury. The clown, in turn, just laughed.
“Oh, how EXCUSITE! Oi-hohohohoho!” The clown lowered his head, lean closer to the hedgehog. The ever unflinching smile of his showed nothing but contempt towards the boy. “I am not letting YOU out…you BRAT. You were SUPPOSED to be CAPTURED by me…led to THAT place first, while I was leading you on by using the body of your FRIEND and the soul of your OLDBAG. I could have thoroughly USED you, against that good for nothing, self-centered, pissing-his-pants baby LORD VACO…but NO, you HAD to be a snivelling little HOG, and make it HARDER for me to make you a HOSTAGE! I thought ABOUT making your life a living HELL…but now, hohohohoho, now I am PISSED! You DESERVE to be TORTURED, by ME!”
The monstrous clown raised the body of Pierre off the ground, now holding him on the same level as the whimpering Matthew.
“Why are you doing this?” Chester exclaimed. “Why are you so obsessed with me? Am I pawn or something, or-”
“YOU RUINED MY LIFE!!!” The monster’s voice shook the unstable core of the house again. If he were to do another, there was a very high chance it might bring the house down completely.
“Since when!?” Chester narrowed his eyes and then shook his head. This did not make sense to him. “I never met you! I don’t even-“
“It’s because of you…It’s because of you, SUDDENLY deciding to go into the SAME place, to get that SAME bag, and then release all of the SPIRITS within…and now, I, have been TURNED into THIS! I was MADE because of YOU on THAT DAY! All because of YOU, MAL and BUBON!!!”
Chester furrowed his brows, then looked away for a second and scratched his temple. He heard those names before.
“Chester…” Azure leaned in over him. “Every one of his curses should have some form of cure. We must find it.”
Well, great thing that we don’t know what it could be!
“There must be something,” egged on Azure, turning his head away. The orphans have stopped pinching their noses, as the smell became less prominent than before. They were also getting anxious by the second, asking what was going on, who was the monster, what happened to Mister Goose and Pierre, what was going to happen…
Chester shook his head. Well, what if we don’t find it? Chester was looking straight at the spirit’s eyes, but the latter didn’t seem confident enough to look back.
“Then the alternative is frankly about destroying the monster, no second guesses about it. But, damningly, how could we do so, without risking the lives of those two?” Azure of course pointed to the two bird boys in the air.
Chester thought about it for a moment. The monster was really had it out for him, almost obsessively too. If he was going to get out of this mess, he needed to have some form of a plan. Attacking him outright did not seem like a smart idea. Could they somehow make him decide to let go of the two? Sounds like a pipe dream…unless…
“WELLLLLL??? Do you have to say something, MAGGOT!?” The clown dangled the two bodies of the bird boys in the air, causing one of them to make loud honking sounds, which came across more horrifying than funny. “Because I will not LET you go that EASY…you WILL do what I tell you to DO. Are PREPARED for it, huuuuuh???”
“How about we make a bet.”
“…What?” The clown became dumbfound enough to stop swinging it’s body.
“Pardon?!” Azure asked in tow.
Just leave it to me! “Let’s play a game,” Chester uttered, before letting all air out of himself. Even he had hard time believing he was doing this. “I know that you always like playing games against me, so how about we just finish this whole thing off with a game, huh? No more running away, no more swinging with the swords or mallets, just good old test of skill. What do you say?”
The clown looked down on him and narrowed its eyes.
“What do you have in mind?” he growled in a heavy voice. It felt no different than listening to a car motor.
“Let’s play something simple, where we can bet on something. I dunno, maybe cups? The point is, if I win, you will leave all of the orphanage alone, leave me alone, and never show your face in this town again. You win, you can do whatever you want to me, no questions asked. I can even help you get my friends.”
The clown kept its eyes narrow, then tilted the head contemplating.
“Chester…” Azure muttered, in small disbelief.
“C’mon, you know this is an easy win for you, isn’t it?” Chester kept on goading. “We can do whatever, shuffling, guessing, both eyes closed or something like that…Just state what you want, and we can do it.”
The clown tilted its head, its face shifting around in contemplation.
“I get to play the GAME…by MY rules.” He looked over where Azure was. “That spirit of YOURS, that ALWAYS hovers over your head, should NOT be PART of it at ALL! If I see you cheat even a little bit, say goodbye to him,” he said, bringing up Matthew, who was still making honk in between his whimpers. Surrounding him with his long, ebony body, the sounds of the goose’s cry slowly disappeared, as in his place, emerged the form of a doll. It was the as the goose in every way imaginable, except made of textile instead of flesh. 
The kids behind Chester gasp. He himself didn’t say anything, while perfectly following his gaze on the doll.
“Alright, we will do it your way then…But, I get to CHOOSE what type of GAME…MAYBE a simple one…MAYBE, exactly…THAT…oi-hohohohohohohohoho…” The clown busied himself revolving around his own body, looking very excited by the prospects granted to him out of nowhere.
Chester just side-eyed it all. “You gonna hide it behind your back, or what?” 
“Well, now, I am NOT that unoriginal…” He said, finally stopping right. He then revealed a growth on its gooey torso, resembling a hand, with which he procured three cups. They were normal looking, plastic cups in blue, red and purple color, with clown’s variety of laughing faces plastered on their bottoms. “But I AM going to have some fun…” he added, and then hovered towards the table.
He first put down the doll of Matthew and covered it with the purple cup. Chester’s moved closer, brows furrowed, having hard time believing that this was the challenge the clown was going for. The clown, however, only giggled, evilly as always. He then grew two more hand protrusions, with which he then began to shuffle the cups left and right, somewhat awkwardly, and frantically, raising up the speed as he did.
The rest of the orphans moved closer behind the hedgehog, peeking in over to the table. Seeing how some of them turned inquisitive about which cup had what, they probable gotten into the game as well. Chester didn’t mind that, saying nothing to them, nor to Azure, who was mutual with him. The clown then finally stopped.
“That’s it?” Chester scoffed, giving it all one more look. The clown’s grin was wide, almost predatory, but he said nothing. Chester tilted his head, scratched one of the pines on his back, and then pointed to the purple one. 
“Are you sure?” the clown asked coolly. It was so ominous, that Chester felt for a moment, that something went wrong. He considered for a moment if he was wrong, but then pointed to the same cup again. 
The clown raised, revealing him to be correct.
“Well, well, WELL, well, you followed that DOLL perfectly,” the clown admitted. He then pulled away the other two cups. Chester exhaled, while the kids behind him cheered in celebration. “You are the best Chester! Whoo-hoo!” were the gist of what he kept hearing. But the clown then continued, “Just so you KNOW, if you have chosen WRONG, you would either get a BOMB that EVISCERATED you, or another BOMB, that would’ve EVISCERATED mini-maggots behind you! Oi-HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO ISN’T THIS FUN!?”
The clown continued on his maniacal laughter, while all of the kids turned quite. Chester gulped a suddenly formed lump in his throat. He was definitely gambling quite a bit in here.
“Are you sure this is the right idea?” Azure asked him, leaning in over his ear.
The clown suddenly stopped his laughter, and then slammed his hand-growth on the table. “NO cheating!”
The spirit moved back, along with startled Chester. The clown narrowed his eyes to Azure, hovering around the spirits place. 
“YOU will do no cheating whatsoever,” he said, to both him and Chester, “I may not know WHAT he SAYS, but I know WHERE he is STANDING, that spirit of yours. If he does even a little bit, a TINY of a cheat here, you…will automatically LOSE!”
The clown returns back to the table, and then throws the doll once again under one of three newly procured cups. However, unlike the previous ones, they were not made in simple red, blue, purple color, but instead, a gradient mixture of all three on each. The clown faces on the bottoms were all wearing the same type of grin now, though they appeared for some reason, more alive. One face was an exception, looking more menacing grin instead. Chester thought it was staring directly at him. Considering the clown put the doll not under it, at least it made the guessing easier.
“Are you ready? Follow the DOLL…”
He then immediately procured seven more cups and places them all on the table. All of them had the same faces as the other two, and same gradient colored bodies.
“HEY! That’s not fair!” Chester exclaimed, but then the shuffling began.
“No ONE said how MANY cups there should BE!” The clown triumphantly laughed then, as his movement reached insanely high speeds. Chester’s eyes were trying to follow them, but the task just proved itself to be literally impossible. Not only did the colors blended in, it felt the colors were moving themselves around the cups like liquid. Meanwhile, the clowns on the bottoms began to laugh in that same deranged “OI-HOHOHOHO” manner. Their faces were moving, taunting, especially the one who had the most devilish look to him, whose eyes were staring directly at the hedgehog. It was like it was trying to get his attention, despite clearly being the wrong one. 
The clown kept shuffling them, until finally stopping, leaving Chester’s ears still ringing from all the laughter. As the monster clown left the cup for him to guess on, the rest of the kids began to murmur.
“Which one is it?”
“I think it’s the right one!”
“No way, I saw him move it to the other side…”
“Those faces are scary…”
“What if that’s wrong?”
“I’m so confused!”
“Are we going to explode?”
“Anything but that!”
The kids kept on whispering to themselves, making it harder for them to get ignored. That said, Chester just stared at the cups, eyes jumping from one to another. He really was making a rather risky gamble in all of this.
“Chester…” Azure uttered, barely moving from his spot.
“What’s WRONG, lost your NERVE?” taunted the clown. “Couldn’t follow it at all?” 
Chester wouldn’t answer back, making the clown once again giggle.  
“Oh WELL! I guess in the END, you were just a simple, stupid, slimy, little bitty BRA-“
“I know the answer.”
The clown raised an eyebrow. The kids stopped talking, turning to him silently. Chester took a deep breath. Here we go, he thought. 
“Alright then…” The clown took a glance at the spirit, who did not move an inch. He then grew one of his wicked wide smirks, hovering away from the cups and up into the ceiling. He hanged his head right above Chester’s own, as if he was ready to shut his jaws over the boy’s skull as soon as the chance comes. “Make your choice…which one is it? Remember, wrong choice, and all of them will go boom. So, which one? Oi-Hohohohoho-” 
“None of them,” Chester said flatly.
The clown halted his laughter. “EXCUSE me?”
“None of the cups have it. You hid it behind your back while shuffling.”
The clown blinked a second time. “You really have such a low opinion of me? Are you sure you want this as an answer. Because I CAN give you-“
“Wow, so original!” Chester scoffed, blowing raspberries right after. “Caught in a lie, now trying to backpedal! You are so corny for a monster! Even worse, a General Monster! Where did that Lord Vaco get you, the bargain bin inside Principal’s Vulpine’s closet?” Chester looked up to the monster to shake his head at him.
“BITE YOUR STUPID TONGUE, you stupid CHILD!” The clown, growling, slithered back to the table again. “You think I wouldn’t play by the rules, huh? You think, I am SUCH a cheater, that I WOULD-”
“DUH! You never play by the rules!” Chester exclaimed, making the clown’s face cringe. “You always break them, that’s what makes you so LAME! I dunno how to tell you this, but not only are you unoriginal, your attempts at cheating are the first thing they teach in a book! I don’t even go so far as to stoop to this tactic, after I turned two!”
The clown stared directly at the hedgehog. His grin was straining itself from morphing into a scowl, while his nose flared purple streaks of fire. The eyes were similarly deranged.
“Oooooh,” one kid went. Everyone quickly shushed him.
Chester instantly continued,
“Actually, forget that! You are literally two years old! How could I forget! You yourself said you were made because of me! No wonder you are so bad, you are a literally toddler!” Chester slapped his cheeks in amazement. “Oooh, does the poor monster wanna binkie-binkie?”
Several kids began to giggle right behind him. Meanwhile, the black goo that the monster was made up off turned red.
“LISTEN HERE!” The clown grabbed the hedgehog by the collar, making everyone fall dead silent. “I’ll give you one MORE chance…because of how GENEROUS I am…but, then again, I can JUST as much take your ORIGINAL answer. If you say I cheat so much, maybe we should…TEST that!?”
“Oh yeah, sure,” Chester rolled his eyes, “let’s do that, and after you put it ‘discreetly’ under the third upper right cup! Wow, so amazing! It’s not infantilizing or anything!”
“WHAT!?” He looked down at the table, where none of the cups were touched. He glanced to the kids and the spirit, but all of them were in their places. “HOW-Why did you say THAT?”
“Because you don’t pay attention,” Chester pointed over the clown’s head. 
The monster turned his head, and saw a table-top mirror, leaning on the window. It was an old, with golden sheen of its floral patterned frame peeling away in several places, and even a small crack found running to the left. It also showed clearly how the doll of Matthew was being held by a hand protrusion below the table, and right under that third upper cup that Chester said. The monster’s face turned from anger to pure horror.
“Since WHEN there WAS a mirror! YOU CHEATED!”
“Nuh-uh! The mirror was there this whole time! Right everyone?” Chester said, looking back.
All of the kids looked at each other, and then nodded in unison.
“And besides,” Chester continued, folding his arms, while still dangling in the air. “I guessed the first time correctly, didn’t I?”
“I…” the monster huffed, having a hard time reconciling such an awful screw up, “IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-WE NEED TO DO IT OVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAGH!” The clown’s roar rang through the house, once more, making it shake like no other.
“Can’t take a loss, or something?” Chester rolled his eyes, despite rising higher into the ceiling, as the clown was growing in anger. “You are just a baby throwing a temper tantrums! You are exactly the type of monster who would cheat all the time! Exactly the type of cheater who never follows principles, only to do whatever they wanted to! And that…makes you the lamest, least threatening general of Vaco’s Army!”
“AAARGH!” The clown roared once more, lunging forward to bite on the young hedgehog. And then, something cut his eyes. “GYAHHH! WHAAAAT!? IT’S THE WIND! THE WIIIND! DAMMIT, BUBOOOOOONN!”
The creature flailed around, trying to hit somebody with its massive body. The house was shaking and the kids were screaming still. All he wanted, was to destroy it all, erase everything from ever existing!
And then a blade slashed across its neck.
The monster could not do anything, but let out a roar. The eviscerating blessed power that were given by the spirits had finally managed to destroy his body. He cursed everyone and everything: Lord Vaco, the brat, those kids, the daggers, BUBON and MAL. 
And thus, the game, was finished.
…