Prologue

"He had an idea that even when beaten he could steal a little victory by laughing at defeat."

John Steinbeck, East of Eden

The odor under the bridge was bitter. A sickly combination of dirt, alcohol and urine. Clothes from the local homeless scattered along the ground as well as the lingering scent of a bonfire. Some rats can be heard, squeaking as they scurry away at the sight of the three boys; Derek, Stuart and James come tracking through the muddy underbelly of Derry, flashlights in hand. Their sneakers squishing in the mud. The three are hoping to find the last remnants of what had occurred fifty-four years earlier; some nut job in a clown outfit had murdered countless children.

"Through there," Stuart, a diminutive boy with spectacles who probably weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet, points. "He saw it in there."

Derek, leading the way warns. "This better be good."

"Oh it is. I know it's in there. Frankie told me. Right in there." Stuart points, as James gives him a shove as he makes his way past.

"You asshole."

"Yeah, well I'll rip ya' a new one if ya' brought us out here for nothin.'" James hisses as he splashes in a puddle of unidentified liquid. "Ugh, fuck this better not be piss!" he shakes his foot. "Come on, man."

He continues down the darker end of the bridge, the chains of his leather jacket jingling. "Ya' know, they thought it was that Bowers guy who had done the killings,'til they found out it was the clown nut. They never found all the kids' bodies, so maybe we'll find some skeletons down here."

Derek's light illuminates one area in particular, scattering a small mob of rodents. "Alright. where–"

Stuart begins to look around, adjusting his glasses, quickly walking ahead of the other two. "Should be here…the graffiti…"

He stops when he sees something. A bit of movement, far too big to be a rat, or any other animal. Maybe one of the bums who lives here. "What..." he mutters under his breath, as his ears catch the sound of tiny bells as whatever it is continues to lurk in the shadows. His heartbeat is speeding up, thumping against his rib cage as a tightness takes hostage of his chest. Aiming his flashlight, it's shaky beam only catching a blurred flash of gray, or white? He couldn't tell. Whatever it was, it was tall.

"What it is?" James calls after him. "We ain't got all day, you little shit." He gives Derek a knowing tap on his arm as Stuart turns to face them, the flashlight's yellow stream pointed under his chin flooding across the growing panic on his features.

"There's something in h–"

An impossibly large black claw-like hand jerks him back into the darkness, curling around his face. His flashlight flying to the ground as his screams echo throughout the concrete chamber.

"Fuck me!" James accidentally knocks into Derek as he turns to run. "Let's get the fuck outta here!"

Just then, he's thrown back by an invisible force, his head cracking against the side of the concrete tunnel. "Aw fuck…!" He places his hand to his temple, everything is spinning as the warmth of fresh blood courses down his forehead.

"What the…fuck." He looks up to see a fuzzy image of Derek, being held up by the nape of his neck, the culprit is too dark to see, but his eyes are two burning spheres of golden-yellow.

"Shit…"

The figure, still clutching Derek by the neck bends down. "Didn't your Mommy teach you not to use that type of language? It's rude," The being's voice then changed to a female one-one that made James' body tense, his fingernails dig into the soil.

"James, sweetie, didn't I tell you gentlemen don't use that kind of talk? You don't want me to wash your mouth out with soap now?" It steps closer, the voice becoming more shrill and monstrous. "Or beat you with my belt!"

A throaty evil laugh ripples throughout the area. The being closes in and James now gets his first glimpse of their attacker; a clown, towering, a shock of flaming orange hair, white face with crimson stripes spiking through it's eyes and a devilish grin displaying a row of razor-sharp incisors dripping with red and torn strips of skin.

The creature then digs it's teeth into Derek's jugular, tearing away the flesh, blood streaks splatter across James' face.

He jumps to his feet, his lungs managing to force a scream out. Still dizzy from his injury, the pain ripping through his skull, he attempts to run the other way. His path however, is blocked. There stood a full skeleton dripping with bile and blood. It's pupils mimicking that same golden-yellow. It spoke.

"What's wrong?" It says in a crackling voice, deep and baleful. "Ya' know, I think your skull is fractured Jimmy-boy," It takes a few wobbly steps."You wanted to see a skeleton, didn't you? Have a look!" It leaps with it's maw open and James screams, thrusting his arms across his face as he tumbles to the ground. The sounds of his wails are abruptly cut off.

On the lower half of the wall, near a pair of blood-stained spectacles is graffiti written in vibrant red paint : PENNYWISE LIVES.