"3…2…1...ready or not, here I come!" Cassie squealed in delight as her hands flew away from her face. She sprinted along the corridor and up onto the top deck of the cruise ship, still giggling with glee.

It was night, and Cassie and her sister were bored now dinner was over and the childrens' entertainment was finished for the day. She practically had to beg her mother to let her and her sister play hide and seek. Her mother had eventually relented. A little time without the girls would give her some time and space in the cabin alone to get a handle on her seasickness. Or the two bottles of wine she finished over her meal.

As Cassie burst onto the deck the sea breeze roared her white blonde hair into a flurry of frantic movement. They were still in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, not yet near the many destinations in Europe she was dying to see. She began to run about the deck, eyes scanning for any movement or a flash of red fabric from her sister's dress. Of course, there weren't many places to hide on the top deck besides the loungers and tables, but the ship was so big there was plenty of room to run around and miss each other. It was more a game of creeping around to catch the other. The only rule was you had to stay on the top deck.

It had been at least ten minutes and Cassie was beginning to get frustrated. Surely her sister Daisy hadn't broken the rules and crept down below deck to cheat. She pouted and crossed her arms, looking out over the side of the ship. Across the distance where the sky met the sea the world was so black it was possible to believe that there wasn't a horizon at all. For all Cassie could have known they could have been still in a starless sky, lost in space.

She heard the lilting jingle of a bell behind her. She spun around and locked eyes with a clown lying beneath a deck chair who waved jovially at her with a pristine white glove. He wasn't like any clown she had seen before, he looked somehow old worldly. He certainly didn't look like any of the clowns that performed in the shows on board. His painted red grin travelled all the way up to his eyebrows, pointing to his bright orange hair. The light bounced off his shiny silver suit, making up for the lack of a moon in the cloud smothered sky.

"Hi there, Cassie!" The clown chimed, his smile wide and his intense blue eyes gleaming. "Are you looking for Daisy?" Cassie's eyes widened and she gawped, "You know my sister?"

"Yes!" The clown giggled, "We're good friends, good friends, Cassie. She let me join in the game, but I guess you found me." Cassie smiled a little upon hearing his words, feeling the warmth of pride bloom in her chest. "I did, I found you. And who…are you?"

"Pennywise," The clown chirped with a shiver of glee, "Pennywise the Dancing Clown." Cassie smiled back, "Okay, Pennywise, let's go find Daisy." The clown's grin instantly fell like a down-turned horse shoe. "Oh, well it's your game, Cassie, you've gotta find her on your own. But I can give you a clue, that is, if you want one?" Cassie bobbed her head up and down expectantly and took a step towards him. She couldn't let her little sister win the game, especially since she was so far ahead in finding the clown as an extra perk. There was a brief pause. "Well, you'll have to come closer than that if you want to know!" He giggled, "Wouldn't want anyone hearing you cheating now, would you?"

Cassie could feel something thick and heavy sliding into her gut as she got on her hands and knees and slowly crawled towards him. The closer she crawled the more she examined his features, the oddly sharp teeth, the discoloured frills around his neck, the eyes she thought were blue were glowing amber, one veering off the line of sight. She crawled until she was inches away, until she could feel his hot breath on her face. "Pennywise," Cassie whispered, "Where's Daisy?"

"Come closer," Pennywise purred, "and I'll tell you." Despite her heart hammering against her rib cage she leaned in, tilting her ear towards him to hear him better. She felt something warm and wet drip onto the side of her face. A clawed hand burst out and seized her wrist. Before Cassie could scream it pulled her in and pressed down onto her mouth with its opposite hand, cackling manically as it crushed her airways shut. Tears of terror flooded her face, mixing with the monster's thick drool that looped from its ever hungry grinning lips. It burst into high-pitched jeering, face hovering directly over hers, rows and rows of teeth fillings its whole mouth. It spat out the words, "Daisy's legs are in the engine room. Her arms are in the store. Her skin is in my stomach, and what's left of her is floating like all the others, and Cassie…oh Cassie, you'll float too!"

Cassie didn't make a sound when she died, or before when she was slowly devoured alive.

When her mother awoke sprawled on her bunk in a drunken haze she cast her eyes over the dark cabin. She couldn't see her girls, so it couldn't be too late. She was sure they'd be somewhere, getting up to mischief as usual. She was lucky she had such independent daughters, and she could always trust them to look out for each other. She turned and faced the wall, letting herself fall into a strangely dreamless sleep.