Chapter Text
Derry, Maine. A land of hopelessness where dreams go to die. It physically pained you to be back there after so many years away. You had been one of the few who had actually succeeded in leaving Derry after graduation to start a new life for yourself; one that didn't consist of being trapped in a town where people had a tendency to settle for less than what they deserved. Oh, and there was also the fact that people went missing there more frequently there than anywhere else in the U.S.
You made damn sure to move to the opposite end of the country, knowing that you would never return of your own volition. It had been disheartening to see others from your hometown whom had made an attempt to leave but would eventually return for one reason or another. Most of the people you had grown up with were still there settling into their own lives, forever binding themselves to the seemingly modest town. Marriage, kids, jobs, things that ensured a permanent attachment that was almost impossible to escape.
One of those unfortunate souls was your cousin, Sara. She was the sister that you never had. You were both the same age and literally did everything together. Sara had gotten into journalism at an early age, which didn't take her very far in a town like Derry where pretty much nothing interesting ever happened - apart from the disappearances, that is. One would think that would be significant enough to attract national news, but inexplicably... it wasn't.
You and Sara managed to stay in touch with constant communication over the years, which is why when you hadn't heard from her in over a week, you started to get worried. Sure enough, an emotional phone call from your Aunt confirmed your suspicions and also brought your worst fears to reality.
Sara had gone missing. She was now another addition to the ever-growing list of people who disappeared in Derry, never to be seen again.
There was no way that you were going to let that happen. Not to Sara.
Wasting no time, you booked a one-way flight to Derry, knowing that you would be there as long as it took to find her and bring her home.
Any optimism that may have existed had already dissipated before your arrival. The people searching for Sara seemed even more hopeless than when the search began. No one had seen her or heard from her in over a week. Your family was an emotional wreck and you felt infuriatingly helpless after turning up empty with every possible lead without a single clue as to where she could be.
About a week after you had returned, the Derry Council was hosting their annual Charity Carnival where all of the town vendors got together and set up booths, rides, and attractions to collect donations for the local charities. It was a big event every year and you thought that, just maybe, Sara might make her way there. It was a long shot, but you had to try.
Making sure to dress down, you put on your favorite dark gray hoodie, adorned with holes and frayed string from overuse with your favorite band t-shirt underneath along with tattered jeans and Chuck Taylors. You figured that this was how Sara remembered you best before you left your life behind here and if she spotted you, she could easily recognize your familiar youthful sense of style.
Instinctively crossing your arms in a defensive position, you walked through the busy booths, unable to resist grinning at all of the happy faces that passed by. It was nice to see people enjoying themselves rather than experiencing the sullen demeanor that had fallen over the town after the string of disappearances over the past few months.
A Fun House nearby drew your attention, its flashing lights enticing you to walk inside with nostalgic interest. You and Sara had always loved the peculiarities of fun houses and you thought it would be nice to relive some old memories.
You couldn't help but emit a chuckle as you walked through the spinning tunnels and the constricting hallways until you reached the last part of the attraction: The Hall of Mirrors.
Pausing for a moment, you stopped to glance at your own reflection as the mirrored door shut behind you. Your hair settled in an unkempt manner, almost making it look stylishly messy. Your eyes were darkened underneath from lack of sleep and your lips were in desperate need of some lip balm.
Sighing at your appearance, you tried not to think about how much Sara's disappearance had affected you mentally, emotionally, and physically. You hadn't been prepared for the exhaustion that came with the uncertainty of her whereabouts, and it haunted you at every waking moment. Or rather... it did until you were distracted by a low, dark chuckle echoing throughout the hall.
Turning around hastily, you tried to see where the laughter was coming from but saw no one. "Hello?" you called out, not receiving a response in return.
Glancing around the mirrored room once again you then pressed your hands against the glass hoping to find the way out since you seemed to be stuck in that section. It appeared that you had to use your cleverness to escape. There weren't any hallways leading out of the mirrored maze, so there had to be a secret exit that you had to figure out on your own.
After a few more moments of half-assed attempts to locate your way out, the lights unexpectedly went out, shrouding the reflective room in darkness before the red glow of the emergency lights came on, blinking on and off, making it that much harder to find the exit.
"Oh, great," you sighed to yourself, not at all thrilled about how difficult the obstacle had turned out to be. You simply didn't have the mental capacity to solve the increasingly complex maze, and you regretted going in there in the first place.
Pressing your hands against the cool glass, you continued to walk around the room, trying not to trip on the floor every time the red lights dimmed. You didn't feel like you were getting anywhere and started to become irrationally angry when a voice once again pulled you from your forced concentration.
"Lost, are we?"
You whipped around, looking for the source of the strangely high-pitched voice to no avail. "Who's there?" you called out, eyes darting around the room.
"Poor lost girl. Can't find her way. I can help you..." You felt a chill crawl up your spine at the last phrase as the high-pitched and cheery voice seemed to drop to a dark, hungry growl, indicating malicious intent.
Panic started to course through you as you glanced around the mirrors, hoping to catch a glimpse of who the eerie voice belonged to. The lights dimmed once again and that was when something caught your eye.
In one of the mirrors, two little yellow orbs seemed to be swaying back and forth enticingly. You turned to see where they were coming from but saw nothing. Glancing back in the mirror, you raked the glass with your nails softly over the glowing orbs, trying to determine the origin of them.
A cool breeze caught you off guard as you hastily turned around in the darkness. The red lights slowly illuminated the room and what you saw made your breath hitch in your throat. A horrifying figure stood before you in the reflection of each mirror. Allowing your eyes a moment to adjust, you could see that the figure was a demonic-looking clown. His wide, malevolent grin sent shivers down your spine and you couldn't bring yourself to look away.
Shaking your head to break focus, you spun around, trying to determine where he was standing amongst the mirrors. The lights faded again as you started to step backwards, trying to distance yourself from the creepy clown in the dark void of the room.
Your hands searched blindly behind you, ready to feel the hard surface of the glass, however, surprise overcame you when you felt a soft, silky material instead. Before your mind could register what you were feeling, you felt your back press up against a taut and rigid body.
Eliciting a shocked yelp, you flipped around just as the red lights returned to face the menacing clown. He towered over you, his back hunched creepily as he eyed you hungrily. "Hello," he cooed before addressing you by your first name. He took a large step forward then, distracting you from his greeting as you began to back away.
You blinked a few times to adjust to the low lighting, allowing yourself to take in the clown's entire appearance as he stood before you. His previously yellow, burning eyes were now a bright blue, and his demeanor seemed to be that of mockery and intrigue.
That's when it suddenly occurred to you how absolutely stupid you were being. "Holy shit," you breathed followed by a small laugh. "They really outdid themselves this year! You seriously scared me!" You approached the clown with confidence, reaching up towards his puffy collar to run your fingers along the smooth silk. "This costume is amazing by the way."
Your eyes glanced up to his own piercing cerulean ones. He had a slightly perplexed expression on his face while his red lips curved into a sly smirk as his eyes searched yours in return. You pulled your hand back and tucked your hair behind your ear awkwardly. "Uh, sorry. I don't normally approach and touch random strangers... I just think that you look really cool."
Again, the clown offered no response to your casual conversation and continued to stare at you. An uneasy feeling fell over you as you remembered something odd. "Wait, how did you know my name? Have we met before?"
The clown laughed lowly, almost to the point of a growl as he crept towards you, a predatory look in his eye before reciting your name three times in a mocking manner. "Oh, I know all about you. You're here to find sweet Sara, yes?"
Crossing your arms defensively, a twinge of anger sparked at his audaciousness. Everyone obviously knew why you were back, but no one spoke so candidly about your cousin. In fact, most people were afraid to bring it up. No one really talked about the people who went missing in Derry outside of the designated search parties. Too much emotion was involved, something that you were never really good at handling.
Stubborn as you were, you decided to indulge his dedication to his method acting. "It's not really fair that you know so much about me, but I know so little about you. What's your name?" you asked softly, daring to step closer to the clown.
His smile widened to an impossible length as his eyes darted from your face to your feet, taking your confidence into consideration as he answered. "Why, I'm Pennywise, the dancing clown!" He paused for a moment to turn smoothly in a circle, indicating that he lived up to his name. He stopped as he outstretched his arm, lifting his palm towards the ceiling and took a slight bow for his short-lived performance. "And I'll tell you a secret about your little Sara. Come closer and I'll tell you."
Your eyes narrowed at him, not sure what game he was trying to play. This was beginning to get a little awkward and slightly inappropriate. You were beginning to wonder what kind of psycho these people had hired.
Hesitantly taking a step forward, you arched your brow at him, silently requesting if you were close enough. "No, no, no," he insisted in his sing-song voice. "Come closer."
Huffing with impatience, you'd had enough of his teasing. You took three large strides towards him before coming to a halt, your left hand on your hip, lifting your chin defiantly as you were now mere inches from his face.
The smell of him was almost overwhelming as he started to lean closer to you in return. The scent of sweets and kettle corn made you want to inhale him, despite his creepy appearance. Ignoring the enticement, you forced yourself to remain steady as he inched closer. Despite your mind telling you to step back, you refused.
His lips were practically resting against your ear, his red hair brushing your cheek as his cool breath rushed over you. "I know where Sara is," he whispered mockingly.
You pulled back, suddenly livid. You couldn't control your impulsiveness as you set your hands on his wide shoulders, pushing him away from you with a furious grunt. "Screw you!" you shouted. "How dare you? I don't know what you were instructed to do to try and scare people, but have some class! There's some lines that you just don't cross!"
The marks etched in his pale makeup indicating where his eyebrows would be were raised in both surprise and intrigue. He laughed boisterously, which only angered you more. "Oh, don't you worry. I'll take you to her. I've been taking good care of her! She floats, they all float, and you'll float too!" He threw his head back in another round of eerie laughter.
That did it. You ran forward, swinging your arm back as you readied yourself to hit him right between his eyes, but before your fist could come in contact with his face, he caught it effortlessly in his soft, gloved hand, holding it tightly.
"Piss off!" you yelled as you tried to pull your hand back. "Let go of me!"
"Don't you want to float with me?" He asked mockingly, tilting his head to the side in false innocence. "It would be such a waste...," he trailed off, his eyes tactlessly raking over your body. "Maybe... just maybe, you don't float."
He twisted your body around before you could even comprehend his movements. Your back was now pressed against his chest as he held his strong arms over yours, his cold cheek flush against your own hot one. "What are you doing?! Stop!" you demanded, attempting to pull away to no avail.
Goosebumps lined your arms and the back of your neck as you felt him inhale deeply into your hair, giving you an idea. You thrust your head forward before quickly snapping it back with all of your strength, hitting him right in his nose, causing him to cry out and release you from his grasp.
You spun around, trying to ignore the resulting headache, to find him clutching his nose with his hand, stumbling back a few steps in surprise. He then dropped his hands and wrinkled his nose in discomfort before smiling wickedly once again. "So bold," he hissed in a dangerously low voice. "You're not afraid."
It wasn't a question. You eyed him with confusion before scoffing and saying, "Look, asshole. I don't know what you're trying to do, but this is extremely unprofessional and I've had enough. Go fuck yourself," you spat angrily.
Before he could get a chance to respond, you heard a girl screaming from somewhere back in the Fun House. You turned instinctively, looking towards the direction of the scream but saw nothing. When you shifted back around, Pennywise had vanished, and in his place was an opened door behind one of the mirrors.
Knowing that's where he must have gone, you chased after him through the door and followed it down a dark, narrow hallway. At the end of the hall was another door, which you opened with haste, hoping to catch up to the clown to give him a piece of your mind, but instead, the door led outside of the Fun House, indicating its end.
Huffing dramatically, you tried to calm yourself after realizing that hunting him down was a lost cause. It wasn't worth your time anyway. If you were being honest with yourself, you were just looking for an outlet to release the pent up anger that had been bottled up with the frustration you felt over Sara's disappearance. What would you even do if you caught up to him? Yell at him? Try to break his nose again? Report him to whoever hired him? There really wasn't any point in dwelling on it, so instead, you started walking away from the Fun House and towards the closest bar to drown your sorrows. You really needed a drink after that. Your emotions couldn't handle searching for Sara for the rest of the night anyway.
About an hour later, after three shots of tequila and two very strong long island iced teas, you weren't feeling well and knew that you needed to get back to your Aunt's house before you were added to her list of concerns.
Gulping down the last of your drink, you paid your tab and sauntered out of the bar with a strong buzz, making it difficult to even walk, resulting in a lot of stumbling. You should have just called a cab or something, but you thought that a walk might help you sober up a bit before you had to face your Aunt, letting her know that once again, your search came up empty.
It was late. Much too late to be walking home alone, but that thought didn't occur to you during your drunken stupor. You started to think about the events that occurred in the past few days, which took up most of your limited brain capacity while you were ridiculously intoxicated.
Lost in your own thoughts, you didn't realize that you were being closely followed.
Your sorry state of mind left you completely clueless to the multiple pairs of footsteps behind you. By the time you had sensed that something was off, a hand was already covering your mouth and the feeling of a cold blade pressed against your throat stifled any form of protest.
Before you could comprehend what was happening, a husky voice whispered in your ear, "If you scream, you die."
You thrashed against the threatening stranger, showing little concern for the blade pressed against your neck as you struggled.
"Hold her still!" the stranger covering your mouth demanded. Multiple pairs of hands were now constricting your movements, shuffling away from the public sidewalk and pulling you towards a dark alley up ahead.
You were then thrown harshly against the stone wall of the alley, your arms gripped tightly by two men, holding you in place as the third man with the knife positioned himself in front of you. He rested the blade on your throat once again, caressing the side of your face with his hand. "Hey there, beautiful," he breathed in your face.
Taking a few shaky breaths, you then swallowed hard, utterly at a loss for words as your head swam from the alcohol. All the while, you were trying to figure out how the hell you were stupid enough to get yourself into this situation.
"What's a pretty thing like you doing out alone this late at night?" the predator asked, moving the blade so that it was grazing your collarbone. You turned your head to the side, looking down the alley to see if anyone could see what was occurring. You inhaled deeply, readying yourself to scream for help before you felt a sharp blow to the side of your face.
The man who backhanded you laughed as you turned back to face him, your eyes fiery with determination and bitter anger. "You better keep your mouth shut if you don't want this knife lodged in your throat," he threatened, earning the low chuckles of the other two men pinning your arms to the wall.
"Come on, baby. Just relax. We'll make you feel so good," he promised, unzipping your sweatshirt down the front before leaning closer and placing a sloppy kiss on the side of your face. You gagged at his rancid breath and looked away, turning your head in the opposite direction, desperately searching for anything that could help you.
Seeking any kind of aid, what you saw instead made your breath hitch in your throat.
Two glowing orbs were gleaming in the darkness, slowly making their way closer where they held you captive. As they grew nearer, the silhouette of the familiar creepy clown emerged. You didn't know whether to be relieved or even more frightened as he approached, still going unnoticed by the men who held you against the wall.
When he came into full view, your eyes locked and he smiled as he placed a gloved finger to his red lips in a silent "Shhh".
You quickly shifted your focus back to your assailants, wondering if they had any inkling of his presence, but it didn't appear that way. When you turned your head back, you saw that the clown had seemingly vanished into thin air.
Your concentration was cut off when the blade made its way from your collarbone down your shirt, slowly dragging between your breasts. The stranger licked his lips with anticipation as he allowed the knife to linger there before hooking the blade into your shirt and ripping upward through the material, exposing your bra to the chilled October air.
"Don't," you drunkenly pleaded, all of your previous fire dying away as you realized just how helpless you actually were in this situation.
You struggled against the hands that were starting to lower themselves to your pants, fumbling with the zipper before a familiar voice cut through the alley. "Well, well, well! What do we have here?"
All three hands retreated from your body at once, causing you to slump down the wall, landing on your butt with a painful thud. "What the fuck...?" one of the men uttered in confusion, looking down the alley towards the tall figure.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Pennywise scolded as he wagged his long finger in disapproval. "Didn't anyone ever teach you not to touch what isn't yours?" His sing-song voice was contradictory to the menacing look in his unnatural yellow eyes.
"This doesn't concern you, freak," the assailant with the knife spat. "Move along and take your ass back to the circus where you belong."
Pennywise laughed gleefully while edging closer to the nervous men. "How about a nice balloon? That ought to cheer you up!" Without waiting for a response, Pennywise pulled a flaccid balloon out of his pocket before blowing into the end to fill it. Within an instant, it had formed into a long red tube, ready to be shaped. Pennywise turned around and whipped his arms around in an overly dramatic manner as he worked the ballon. When he turned back around, it had been formed into what seemed to be a headless stick figure.
The three men exchanged confused expressions with one another as Pennywise extended his arm, offering his gift to them. When they didn't move or speak, Pennywise retracted his arm, a false look of grief etched in his face. "No? Hmm... what a shame. However, while I may be okay with sharing my balloons, I'm not okay with sharing my meals. So, I'm afraid our playtime has come to an end."
The man with the knife stepped forward, pointing it at Pennywise threateningly before stating, "You're gonna wish that you stayed at the circus, you piece of shit."
There was a glint in Pennywise's eyes as his gaze traveled from the knife in his hand to the other two men before his sight rested on you as you stayed huddled on the ground, unable to grasp what was unfolding before you.
He gave you a wink before he blew a puff of air towards the only lamp post towards the end of the alley, somehow extinguishing it from where he was, shrouding everyone in darkness. Now unable to properly see, you listened closely as you recognized the sounds of a scuffle, screams, and some sort of liquid hitting the pavement.
An overwhelming and sickly sweet metallic-like smell wafted in your direction, giving you pause. It was then that you realized it was the scent of blood in the air, causing you to instinctively gag. Your fight-or-flight response then finally kicked in as you lifted yourself up from the wall, stumbling forward while trying to focus on getting out of there as quickly as possible.
You barely made it a few feet before the alley light turned on once again. You turned around and elicited a choked sob at what you saw. All three men lay lifeless on the pavement, their heads removed from their bodies, their limbs torn to shreds, and their blood splattered across every surface of the alley.
You lifted a trembling hand up to your mouth, covering it in shock, not able to fathom what you were seeing. Your entire body went into shock as you started to stumble back, your head swimming and your vision blurring with tears you hadn't realized were forming.
A long, bony arm suddenly snaked its way around you, holding you steady. You turned slightly and glanced up to see Pennywise's familiar face, beaming at you with pride at his work.
"W-what did you do?" you barely managed to utter, your voice shaking.
"Shhh," he cooed as he grazed the side of your face with his lengthy, gloved fingers. "You're not meant to float, my dark one. You're meant to sink. Sink with me," he urged softly as he smiled widely, revealing his now sharp and jagged teeth.
"Oh my god," you uttered, trying to step back and distance yourself from him, but he gripped you tightly, holding you close. "What are you?"
He hummed happily as his eyes searched yours, relishing in the fear that he so desperately craved. "What I am does not matter. It's what you are that entices me."
With your head still fuzzy from the alcohol and the trauma, you couldn't help but ask in a fog, "What... what am I?"
Leaning in close to brush his lips against your ear, he breathed wickedly, "Mine."
Before you could respond, your body and mind gave out as you faded into the blackness.