Hello again. Ruxandra broadcasting.
To keep with all previous episodes, check them in here
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/vzxear/helena_of_obor_part_1/
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/w0q4xv/helena_of_obor_aka_helena_the_clown_part_2/
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/w1hxgy/helena_the_clown_part_3/
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/w2bh0i/helena_the_clown_part_4/
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/w34src/helena_the_clown_part_5/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Helena_The_Doll_Clown/comments/w74gdz/helena_the_clown_part_6/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 (Part 6 outside of Nosleep)
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/w74tza/helena_the_clown_part_7/
Yes, Targul Mosilor, the fair, the carnival of Obor, I never thought it was so fun. I do not know what year it was I end up there, I found myself at the gates. A lot of mud, I have to tell you, but the carousel was there, just outside the gate. Looked fun, but I did not dare to go into it. So, I got in. It was dusk. But people were filling it, it seems it was going to be a long evening.
I have not seen anything like that on Romanian soil since I was a child, in the 1990ties. Yep, now they were the 1920ties or the 1930ties. Do not ask how I end up here. I do not know. And I did not care, for the moment. Barbecues. Children. Carnival. Folk music. And mud. Most of this place is in 2020ties a parking lot. Pathetic. Now, it is an open space. Back in the days, when I was walking, it had small alleys and shacks. Popcorn is really good. This what people would call bio, in the 2020ties. And, oh yes, braga is very tasty. Sweet. Braga it is a type of sweet beer, alcohol free, that was cheap. Even children drank it a lot in Romania, in the elder days. Western styled, modern beverages have long removed it. Most Romanian children never actual heard of it, the name only remains only in the expression ”cheap like braga”, but they do not know what it means. Too bad. All in all, life is good for me, right now. Night is young, summer is here. Sky seems clear. Why shall I care about my life, anyway?
Yep, there is a freak show. But I do not want to see it, my modern mindset considered this an abuse. One circus found its way in here, a little boy with a dirty grey shirt tries to shell a newspaper. I refuse, then he says: ”Ma„am don„t forget to see Ceacanica. He is the best clown ever, I swear.” I smiled to him: ”The best ever? Are you sure?” ”Yes, ma„an. You can go to Helena too, but be careful. She is scary.” A chill took me, in all the summer evening night. The boy left. Yes, he is right, she is scary. She asked me too if I am naughty.
Suddenly, at the beginning of an alley, I see a young gentleman. Dressed in what seem to be old stage clothing, for dancers, like Fred Astaire, but worn down, a bit. Yep, he has some clown makeup on his face, in dark colors. Not the first time I see this color scheme, but now is more discrete. He greets me with his hat, silently, then he shows me an alley to enter. He seems polite, but the expression is weird. Hard to comprehend. He seems benevolent, so I follow him. I get to a place where the alley meets another alley. I stop in my tracks, something in the back of mind tells me to stop. People start to be less and less. The clown gentleman stops and makes a sign to proceed. He does not like it that I stop, but he does not do anything. In my right, I see another clown. A woman, this time. White, dirty dress. Hard to pinpoint the style. Blonde, she has dark eye makeup, really dark and heavy that makes a clear contrast with her, virtually, white skin. Almost shines. She looks, somewhat, like porcelain. Like Helena looks like wood. Her expression looks a little frustrated, anxious, but braces herself, looks at the gentleman, having a short eye contact. They have some gestures one towards the other, then both show me to walk on. What do they want? Folk styled carnival music still heard in the background.
Suddenly, someone grabs my left arm, from the side. Startled, I look and I see a male clown, in his forties, who looked grotesque. Some wrinkles, somewhat angry, dirty, strong. He has typical red hair on a partially bald head you see in some clowns, but this is natural on him. I do not scream although I had got the impulse. With a raspy and impatient voice: ”We are already late. Get on with it.” The clown gentleman speaks in an unnatural voice (how else), but calmly: ”She will go. There is no escape. She shall face her.” ”Face whom?” I ask, in a nervous tone, even if I know almost certainly who I was about to see. ”Whom?” answers a little edgy and astonished the blonde woman. ”You shall face our queen. Our mother.” They signal me to get going. I continue, although fear seems to rise in my heart more and more. We get to a tent. A circus tent. It did not look very large from the outside, but on the inside it looked much wider. The interior was a small arena, decorated by the crimson velvet or velvet imitation of the the walls of the tent. The stands were empty. In the middle, there some other clowns, some darker, some weirder, but also were frightful. They were gathered around the throne. On the right of my sight and the left of the throne there was a barbecue prepared, but no meat on it, yet. There were some folk music players, the type that in Romania are called lăutari, playing the weird music I have mentioned earlier. They were frightened as well, of course, but they kept going. Also some barrels of something alcoholic. And, close to throne, some tools. Knives, forks and others. On the throne, in the most majestic way I ever saw her so far, there was Helena. She wore a different dress from she different wore, more formal, more imposing. She had some kind of discrete crown on her head, hard to describe.
At her feet, a strange huge lack hound, with red eyes, was sitting. He started to growl at me, but Helena petted him on the back and calmed him down.
She looked at me like she was piercing me with a spear. I knew this was it. She called to me in a cold, calm voice: ”Come closer.” I started to shake. because I was sitting idle, she continued, a little more authoritatively: ”Now”. I went there shaking. Fear was getting deeper on me, I executed, I knew it was, probably, too late. Helena spoke: ”Remember what I told you when we met? What you promised?” I was shaking. I could not say anything. She continued: ”You know it very well. So, it does not make any real sense that the real court should loose to much time. You have not kept your promise. I pronounce you guilty. The sentence is death. It shall be executed now.” Yes, that was it.
She came down from the throne and called the bald wrinkled clown: ”Gâlmă!” (”Gâlmă in Romanian means hillock) grab her left.” Then she turned to the porcelain female clown: ”Zerva! take the blood bowl and grab her right!” They complied and took me to her front. We met in between, Zerva put the bowl on the ground. ”On your knees!” almost shouted Helena, making me break and scream. Gâlmă forced me on my knees. Helena took the bayonet from the belt in her right hand, pushed my head into the ball and whispered like a ice snake: ”You had your chance. Now you are gone.” I felt the cold blade touching my throat, my whole being scream and then I woke up.
Adrian came fast to the bed, I was shaking, crying and covered in sweat. He later told me I was sickly pale. He embraced me and tried his best to comfort me. It was one of those nightmares that I could not shake of saying to myself: ”It was just a dream.” It felt strong, like a new warning or something else. Perhaps I need to keep my promise to Helena. And probably a break from work, due to medical reasons. For the next day, I looked at myself, I was indeed pale and looked sickly.
I think I need to share with you what I had discovered in an archive of newspaper a few days ago.
But first, I need to tell you that, at some point, the burned remains of Laie were discovered under some power lines in the north of Bucharest, near Crângași. The power plant of Grozăvești was just to the south, and the power lines of immense voltage, some 60000 volts, I remember, were close. One night, something was heard high, on the lines. Like something was burning, roasting up. The next morning, the charred remains of Laie were found at the ground. Somehow, like made his way up, to the lines, or someone dragged him or his corpse up, to fry him at 60000 volts. If he was still alive, it was one of the most horrific deaths possible, worse then being burned alive. My guess is that Helena did it. She was able to drag him up and electrocute him. I guess she was able to avoid being electrocuted herself, I do no think, no matter has hard it was to kill her in her undead, unhuman state, that she would survive that kind of electric power. The last entry in his diary was that Jameson was preparing for a new experiment., to extract bile from living human bring through tubes, like they do on black bears in China. Helena promised a surprise for her ”beloved uncle”, she said.
There was a oil refinery just north of the city of Ploiești, a zone highly rich in oil reserves. The director of it, Mărculescu, an aspiring cabinet minister, had made some dirty contracts that allowed several foreign companies, one at the time, to actually extract oil without paying anything to the Romanian state. More then that, all of them sold it back to Romania, at a higher price. First the soviets, then the germans, then the americans. For years this went on, there were some scandals in the press, the official explanation was: ”The general public, the public opinion, whoever is not a specialist in high economy, can not understand why this is necessary. ” Some kind of inspector turn a blind eye on this, although he knew. He gave to the newspaper an interview, where he explains who he lost his eyesight in a traumatic experience. He and Mărculescu were kidnapped during a visit in Bucharest, knocked unconscious and brought to ”some king of circus tent, where there were some monstrous clowns”. The settings and the beings involved looked, more or less, like what I so my nightmare.
Helena came from her throne, in her cold authoritative state, and stated: ”You have been brought here to be pronounced guilty of your despicable crimes. I shall convict you, of course, but we need to make some things clear at first.” Then she said to the inspector: ”You knew all it happened. All that this scumbag did. You said nothing.” ”No, that is no true, I could not have done it….” started to lame a bit the inspector, Helena silenced him: ”You are not fooling no one. It is well known, I know the documents. The judges released because they were bribed. By here is a new court. That can not be bribed. You shall be sentenced to death. Anything you want to say in your defense?”
”I do not know what you want, who you are, but I do not care.” The tone was scared, but also deeply arrogant. ”You circus freaks, you abominations of nature, dear to judge me? The jandarms will come of shoot you all. Abominations! You who I am, freaks? If you dear to touch me one more time, I shall…”
Helena stopped him with anger: ”Listen up, you scumbag. Until they came, we shall be finished. We have a barbecue tonight and we are just waiting. It is be delicious for all us clowns in here. Both the queen and her subjects. But, yet, I wonder, how could you live with yourself, dirtbag? Traitors like you destroy the lives of the people, steal the future of children. How can you live with yourself? Explain to me!” Helena seemed less calm then I knew here, like she was unleashing something tormenting her from inside.
Mărculescu cried in anger: ”Shut up! You are lying, al those are lies made by crooks!” He was shouting, he only made it worse for him. ”You know.”, said Helena, ”I wanted to kill you pretty swift. Now I think I shall split you open first and get your liver.”
Then, the inspector started crying. ”Yes,, I did it.” he said. ”I turned a blind eye. I cover all he did. Please do not kill me… IU have got a family at home…” Helena stood quit for a time, thinking. Then, she continued: ”Continue with details. Tell how you did it.” The inspector started describing the process in chaotic, but conclusive manner. Mărculescu started shouting at the inspector to shut up, to stop lying. Gâlmă went to him and silenced him by force.
Helena deliberated some minutes, then came out to the and to the inspector: ”You admit your guilt at least. This is why I shall let you live. But you need to be punished nonetheless. You decided to turn a blind eye. So you will be bling to the rest of your life. I sentence you to have your eyes removed. This is the first thing that it will be put into action.” Then turned to Mărculescu: ”Because of traitors like you, the country falls apart. People loose their income, they loose then homes. And not just in this country. Without the ax handle, the forest could not have been brought down. At least not too easily. So I sentence you to death. As I said, you shall get your liver removed as you are still alive then, after you expire, you shall be eaten.” She paused for a bit. ”I know very well how to make a delicious barbeque. I use to have an uncle who was famous for his sausages, kebabs and other works. So, let us get into action.”
”Zerva!” she pointed toward the inspector. ”Remove his eyes and place them on the barbeque”. The inspector started screaming, Zerva came to him with some kind of scissors or forceps,l screaming in a deafening way. She proceeded in removing the eyes ruthlessly. The inspector screamed in pain, the blood was covering his clothes. The crushed eyes went into the barbecue. The inspector no long saw anything by now,, he was in great pain, but he still heard some of the things that went next. Helena commanded: ”Gâlmă and Zerva, get this basted face up, down on the floor.” Mărculescu kept shouting, but at no use. Some horrible scream was heard, his abdomen was cut open, it seems, the liver removed and placed on the barbecue. ”Yes, some work needs to be done” All of us shall help each other in doing it, lets not let just Gâlmă and Zerva at this.
They slaughtered him there, then started the barbecue. At some point, one fierce hand grabbed the inspector, pushed out of the tent and let him on the alleys of the Obor carnival.
All the other clowns appeared after Laie was gone. Who knows, maybe Jameson needed some new henchmen. Their exact number is not clear, some testimonies speak of more clowns, some of less. They did not seemed to have been modified to look like ventriloquist dolls, it seems. The female Zerva was, somewhat, modified to look like a doll, it is not sure why. Some of them were seen working at other circuses and fairs in Bucharest. I am pretty sure all of them used to be human, at some point. I do not know how similar were to Helena in nature or modifications from humanity, but it is interesting that they called Helena their queen and mother. There were seen alongside Helena on her murderous ”missions”, some did not seem to be justified as assassinations, like first killings connected to Helena.
One incident I think it was interesting. Back in the 1930ties, there used to be on Calea Plevnei, near the Romanian Opera House, on the back, two football (soccer) stadiums at some point. Both stadiums were demolished later on, one of them was replaced by a park, the other of buildings of the campus of the University of Bucharest. Corruption charges and involvement in criminal activies were present regarding the two sports club. As you might expect, sports hooligans were present back in the day, and that lead to fights. One evening, after a match being finished, the publc was coming out, some fight between the hooligans was, probably, about to start, when someone noticed a group of strange people waiting at the other side of Calea Plevnei. Their descriptions match Helena and the others. Zerva was seen, Gâlmă was seen, the gentleman-like clown was seen, also others. They held some guns, it was not clear where did they got them from. Some hooligans were scared, other angry, some both. The clowns started to talk to each other, the hooligans as well, it seems some hooligans were ready to gather a crowd and confront the clowns. Helena made a sign towards the others and they left the area, going toward the Cișmigiu park. It seems they were afraid. Perhaps the crowd was too big and things could easily go wrong. They might have been monsters, but they were not stupid. At least Helena was not.
Later, in the evening, Adrian brought me a tea and we started to think what to do. ”You look sick. Something has happened to you. I wonder what. Perhaps you should go to a doctor?” ”No, I do not think a doctor could, truly, help me. I don„t know.” Adrian thought a bit then, with a changed tone, he said something I could not have imagined he will say: ”You know that priest. That father, the exorcist, who made headlines a few months ago. He is an village in Ialomița, not very far from Bucharest. Father George Baka. You went to him as a reporter. Perhaps he can help you. Perhaps he can help us”. I turned to him, looked in his eyes, contemplated the idea, sigh and said: ”Ok. We shall do it. But next morning,” I placed my head on his chest and closed my eyes.
The story continues in here https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/wbdlfg/helena_the_clown_part_9/
For now, Ruxandra out.