The group gathered at the entrance to the sewer on a wasteland. All seven children were standing around the ajar hatch, from which they were pulling with dampness and something unpleasant.
- So, what do we know? - Bill began, laying out several books from the library in front of him.
- Every twenty-seven years, children disappear in Derry, - Ben listed. - Since the 1700s.
- And a clown always appears before that, - Beverly added.
- Or something that looks like a clown, - Alexander corrected her.
Stan skeptically shook his head:
- You're all crazy. Clowns don't live for three hundred years.
- That's right, - Alexander agreed. - Because it's not a clown.
Everyone looked at him.
- Then what? - Mike asked.
Alexander was silent, picking up the words. It was time to tell them the truth. At least partially.
- An ancient creature. Very old. It may have come from space millions of years ago. It feeds on fear, especially children's - it's more pure, concentrated.
"I hope they won't think I'm completely crazy," he added mentally.
- How do you know that? - Stan asked suspiciously.
- I'm a hunter of such creatures. I've met similar creatures before.
- And how old are you really? - Stan didn't get out of it.
Alexander looked at him:
- Physically - fifteen. From experience... much more.
- What does it mean?
- It means that I'm not an ordinary child. And I have knowledge that shouldn't be.
Beverly took a step closer to him:
- You speak in riddles. Explain normally.
"She's standing too close," Alexander said to himself. "And she doesn't look like a friend."
Recently, he has noticed changes in Beverly's behavior. She was looking for reasons to touch him, looking at him when she thought he couldn't see. Classic signs of a teenager's love.
"And this is a problem," he thought. "It's a big problem."
- There are things that are better not to know, - he replied evasively, stepping back.
- I'm not a child! - Beverly flashed.
- You're a child, - Alexander said harshly. - And the sooner you understand it, the better for everyone.
Beverly grimaced painfully at his tone, but Alexander forced himself to ignore it. It's better to hurt now than to let the situation develop further.
"She's beautiful, smart, brave," he admitted to himself. - "In another situation, if I were really a teenager... But I'm not a teenager. And I have no right to even think about her in such a vein."
- Okay, enough lyrics, - Richie intervened. - What's up with this well?
Ben pointed to the sewer diagram:
- All tunnels lead to one point. An old stone well under an abandoned house on Neybolt Street.
"The same house where I saw the clown," Eddie added.
- So we should go there, - Bill said decisively.
- Wait, - Alexander stopped him. - Just going to the monster's lair is a bad idea. I need a plan.
- What's the plan? - Mike asked.
- First of all, weapons. Ordinary weapons may not work, but iron may injure it. Secondly...
Alexander didn't have time to finish. The air around them suddenly gain weight, the temperature dropped by several degrees. The smell of rot and death was pulled from the sewer.
- What's going on? - Eddie asked scared.
"He's coming," Alexander whispered.
Laughter was heard at first. Childish, but too loud and unnatural. Then a red balloon began to rise from the hatch.
- We're all swimming here! - a voice came from below. - We're all swimming here!
And HE appeared.
First there was a white glove in red pompoms, then a hand in a silver suit. Gradually, a CREATURE rose from the hatch.
It was definitely not a person. Height about two meters, unnaturally long arms and legs. The face was white as chalk, with bright red lips stretched in a creepy smile. Orange hair was sticking out in all directions. But the most terrible thing was the eyes - yellow, with vertical pupils, like a reptile.
- Hi, kids! - he sang in a voice that made the blood freeze in the veins. - How delicious you all are!
The children retreated in horror. Eddie began to choke, grabbing the inhaler. Stan is as white as chalk. Richie took off his glasses with trembling hands.
Pennywise turned to each of them, and his appearance began to change.
Looking at Bill, he turned into a little boy in a yellow cloak:
- Billy! Help me! I'm here, in the sewer! - Georgie's ghost cried.
Bill took a step forward:
- Georgie?
- Don't come near! - Alexander shouted, blocking his way. - It's not your brother!
The creature laughed and turned to Eddie. Now it looked like a leper tramp:
- Eddie... You got infected... You'll die of illness... - the monster wheezed.
Eddie fell to his knees, breathing convulsively into the inhaler.
Turning to Richie, Pennywise looked like a mummy:
- Be afraid, boy... Be afraid of the dark...
He appeared to Mike in the form of burning animals from his farm. Benu is in the form of a headless boy. Stan is like a distorted picture from his religious books.
- Enough! - Alexander barked, stepping forward.
He took out his black sword. The runes on the blade lit up with a red light.
- And you... - Pennywise turned to him, and his appearance became clownish again. - You're interesting...
The creature tilted its head, studying Alexander:
- You're not a child. There's something else in you. Something... old.
"Maybe," Alexander replied coldly.
"Let's look at your fears, baby," Pennywise grinned.
His eyes flashed, and he tried to penetrate Alexander's mind. But nothing happened. A second, two, three...
Pennywise frowned:
- Strange... Where is your fear, boy?
"But this is interesting," Alexander thought. "He can't read my thoughts."
"Maybe I have nothing to be afraid of," he said out loud.
- Everyone is afraid of something!
- Not all, - Alexander raised his sword. - Especially those who saw real horrors.
Pennywise tried again, but again to no avail. Something like anxiety flashed in his yellow eyes.
- What are you? - he hissed.
"I'm the one who will end you," Alexander replied.
He waved his sword, and the blade passed an inch from the monster's face. Pennywise jumped back with inhuman dexterity.
- It hurts! - he screamed, although the sword did not touch him. - What kind of weapon is this?
"You'll find out next time," Alexander promised.
Pennywise looked around a group of children who were gradually recovering under Alexander's protection.
- Interesting... Very interesting... - he muttered. - We'll meet again, strange boy.
He began to dissolve in the air, but his voice echoed in the area for some time:
- I'll find out your secrets... I'll find out everything...
When the monster disappeared, the children slowly rose from the ground. Everyone was shaking, some were crying.
- What was that? - Stan whispered.
- What I told you about, - Alexander replied, hiding his sword. - An ancient predator. Fear eater.
"He... he turned into our nightmares," Beverly said.
- Exactly. He reads your thoughts, finds the strongest fears and uses them against you.
- Why couldn't he read yours? - Bill asked.
"Good question," Alexander thought. - "Perhaps because my soul belongs to the Devil. Or because I've already seen the worst thing you can see."
- I don't know, - he lied. - Maybe my mind is somehow protected.
- It was my brother, - Bill said quietly. - I saw Georgie...
- No, - Alexander replied harshly. - It was an imitation. Your brother is dead, Bill. And the sooner you accept it, the better.
Bill winced painfully, but nodded.
- What now? - Mike asked.
- Now we're getting ready for war, - said Alexander. - Because this freak has just started playing with us.
"And I need to figure out how to kill him," he added mentally. "Because the usual methods obviously won't work."
Beverly approached him:
- You saved us, - she said quietly. - Again.
- I'm just doing my job.
- Alexander... - She put her hand on his shoulder. - I...
- Don't," he abruptly inded, withdrawing. - Don't say what you'll regret later.
- But I...
- Beverly, you're a child. You don't understand what you're saying.
- I understand! - she flashed. - Do you think I'm stupid?
- I think you're too young for some things, - Alexander said tiredly.
"And it's not about your age," he added mentally. - "It's about me. I'm thirty, damn it. I don't even have the right to think of you as a woman."
- But I'm already fourteen!
- And I have much more. And there is a chasm between us that cannot be jumped.
Beverly was going to answer something, but Bill intervened:
- Maybe we'll discuss it later? We need to decide what to do on.
Alexander nodded gratefully to him. The conversation with Beverly became more and more awkward.
"I need to keep my distance," he decided. "For her own good."
- Bill is right, - he said out loud. - Now the main thing is to survive. And everything else later.