Laughing Ball

Laughing Ball is a scary story about a cute and lovable clown with a smiling face who lives in the circus. It is based on an old horror manga by Hideshi Hino.

Laughing ball was born to be a clown. He was very popular and he always made the audiences laugh. Whenever anyone saw him, they couldn’t stop laughing.

We were freaks, hideously deformed and shunned by society. The circus was our home. Night after night, we would keep the audiences entertained. Sometimes they would laugh and clap. Sometimes they would recoil in disgust.

It was our fate to live in the shadows. We had to stay in the circus. We couldn’t go out walking among the normal people. Living like this, it was hard not to sink into despair.

Laughing Ball always made us feel better. He was able to keep our spirits up and take our minds off our tragic fate.

If we were depressed, he would roll himself into a ball and bounce around the tent, giggling and laughing all the while. It always cheered us up. His smile gave us the courage to go on.

“Just laugh!” he would say. “Always laugh!”

Laughing Ball had a little son. He was only a few inches tall and everybody called him The Kid. He could fit into the palm of your hand. He was so cute and we all loved him.

Then, one day, something terrible happened. The Kid was playing outside when he was stung by a bee. Laughing Ball found him and brought him back inside. The kid was dead.

All of the other freaks gathered around and when we saw The Kid laid out on a handkerchief, we couldn’t stop crying. We told Laughing Ball how sorry we were, but when he turned around, we saw he was smiling from ear to ear.

“Don’t cry folks,” he said. “Look! Even though my son is dead, he still has a smile on his face.”

Then, he started laughing.

“Laughing Ball, you don’t have to laugh,” said one of the freaks.

“For one day, you could let yourself cry,” said another.

But poor Laughing Ball just couldn’t stop laughing.

Night and day, he just bounced and rolled around the tent, laughing and laughing and laughing.

It began to get on our nerves.

“Don’t you have a heart?” one of the freaks shouted. “Your son is dead! Don’t you have any feelings as a parent?”

We were so angry that we stopped speaking to Laughing Ball. We shunned him and acted as if he didn’t exist.

Laughing Ball went to his bedroom and looked at his face in the mirror.

“Now I understand,” he said to himself. “My face is all wrong. My son is dead but I still have a happy face.”

Laughing Ball picked up a knife.

“If only I didn’t have this face,” he said. “Then everyone would like me again.”

The next morning, we heard someone crying. It sounded like Laughing Ball. We all came out of our rooms to see what was going on.

When we saw Laughing Ball, we recoiled in horror. Our cruelty had driven him to this extreme.

But still, Laughing Ball couldnt help himself. He had to laugh.

After that, Laughing Ball never went on stage again. Audiences would be horrified if they saw his face. He can’t make anyone laugh anymore. But he still goes on, laughing and bouncing around the tent as usual. That’s why he’s still called Laughing Ball.