Chris Sheffield grunted as Rachel stepped on his foot. Again. She grimaced. "Sorry."

"That's alright," Chris chuckled as he and Rachel danced. "I know this is rough for you."

Rachel shook her head. She glanced down briefly. "And this dress isn't helping either."

This was their first full dress rehearsal. They had four more days left to go until the big premiere. Chris spun Rachel around and her shoe snagged on the bottom of her dress. She stumbled, but Chris caught her. Another dancing couple bumped into them.

"Cut! Cut!" Mrs. Tunstall yelled from the front row. Everyone stopped. Rachel fumbled with her fingers. She shook her head. "I am never going to get this," she whispered.

Chris put a hand on her back. "Yes, you are."

Mrs. Tunstall stood at the front of the stage, leaning on it. "Rachel, Rachel." She shook her head. "We have four more days left. This is the most pivotal scene in the play."

"I know. I'm sorry," Rachel said desperately.

"You need to get this right," Mrs. Tunstall told her. She went back to her seat. "Let's take it again from the top," she hollered.

After practice, Rachel sat on bench behind the stage, tying her sneakers.

"You know she's like that with everyone, right?" came a voice on her left.

Rachel turned. Chris was standing with his hands in his pockets.

She finished tying her shoe. "I know. But she knows how much I struggle with ballroom dancing."

Chris sauntered up to her. "And she wants you to be the best."

Rachel stood up. "Right. Little Miss Graceful me." She waved her hand in the air.

Chris was right in front of her now. "You're gonna get it."

"I don't have much time left," Rachel responded.

Chris leaned in towards her. "Maybe you just need to find someone you like dancing with." He patted her on the shoulder and left.


Rachel thought about what Chris had said as she drove. Find someone she liked dancing with? Did he mean find someone else to practice for the play with? Or did he mean something else? She did like dancing with Chris. And acting with him, even though they just had a couple of scenes together. They hadn't really talked that much since they had been cast as Cinderella and the prince, but he seemed very nice. Even in school he seemed like he had been a nice person. Fullback on the football team. Popular. But he had never been what she would call 'boyfriend materiel'. Not for her anyway. Rachel was quiet and reserved, until she got up on stage anyway. That was her place. That was her home away from home.

She pulled up at the Denbroughs. Aunt Susan had invited her to dinner after practice. She was in the dining room setting the table when Rachel walked in.

"Hey, Aunt Susan," Rachel said cheerfully.

"Hey, hon," her aunt replied. "Good gracious, what happened to you?" she said when she glanced up and saw Rachel.

"I wrecked my bike."

Aunt Susan came over to inspect Rachel's arms, which sported a few bruises. Some of the cuts still lingered. "You must have fallen down somewhere rough."

Rachel folded in her lips. She gave a curt nod. "Yeah. You can say that."

Bill and Georgie walked into the room. Rachel smiled and held out her arms to Georgie. "Hey bud, come give me a hug."

Georgie ran up to her and she squeezed him tightly.

"Hey, cuz," she told Bill.

"Rachel, I need to t-talk to you."

She could tell on his face that something was wrong. "Okay."

Bill glanced at his mom, and Rachel followed his gaze. "N-not here," he said.

Rachel followed him into the living room. "What is it?"

"Did you h-hear about Patrick?"

Rachel took a deep breath. "No. What happened?"

"He went m-missing."

Her eyes grew wide. "What? Since when?"

"Since Sunday."

Rachel started wracking her brain. The last time she had seen Patrick was on Sunday morning when he jumped over the bridge to go after the boy from the library. Three days ago. But of course she couldn't tell Bill about that. Not without telling him everything else that had happened afterwards.

She licked her lips. "There could have been a lot of things that happened to him."

"I know. And I still w-worry about Georgie too. Ever since the s-storm last week, h-he doesn't like to play o-outside much. It's like he s-scared of something."

Rachel raised her eyebrows. No guessing as to who, she thought.

She put her arm on Bill's shoulder. "I'm sure Georgie will be ok. Patrick too. Let's go get ready for dinner. We can talk about this later."


Rachel lay awake that night, her senses overly alert. Patrick Hockstetter was missing. Had Pennywise had anything to do with it? Every time she would close her eyes she would see intense yellow ones staring back at her. And those red lips. She closed her eyes and tried to think of something else. She saw herself dancing with Chris, his green eyes shining down at her as he twirled her around on stage, him in his royal overcoat and her in her shiny blue gown. She smiled. She finally fell asleep.

She was surrounded by satin. Like she was inside a large parachute. She tried and tried to climb up out of it, but it just kept closing in around her. She pulled and pulled, sinking farther and farther. She called for help, screamed. All of a sudden, the parachute started pulling away. She could feel it sliding down her, until it was gone, as though someone had yanked it out from underneath her.

Then she was floating. The air was still around her and it felt so light. She felt light, weightless. Her hair even floated. Everything felt so calm, so peaceful. She felt something gently grab her leg and slowly pull her down. It was Pennywise. She landed almost flush up against him. He put his arms around her waist. He was so much taller than her, she had to crane her neck up to look at him. His chest felt so firm, solid. She put out a hand to touch it. More satin. He leaned down towards her. His eyes were a silvery yellow.

"Did you like floating?" he asked.

"Yes." Her voice was an echo.

"Would you like to do it again?"

She nodded slowly.She felt so drowsy, like she could just sink into sleep.

"You can do a lot of things, Rachel. If you come down here. You can do a lot of things with me."

"Mmhmm."Her eyes started closing.

"Come to the well, Rachel." His voice sounded distant now. "Come to the well."

Rachel felt something rubbing against her arm. She moaned. The rubbing stopped. Something snaked around her waist. She opened her eyes. She was laying on her left side facing the wall. It was still dark. She reached out to touch the arm that was around her. Firm satin. She smiled. He was here.

She rubbed his arm. "Hmm… why is it that every time I need you, you show up?"

He leaned over and started nuzzling her cheek with his nose. "You needed me, kitten?"

"Well… not really needed. I was just having a nightmare. It started out as one, but then it actually got kind of…nice."

"Reealllly….How so?" She could hear the amusement in his voice.

Rachel rolled over on her back. Pennywise settled his hand on her stomach.

"It was silly actually." Now that she thought about it, it was kind of silly. "I was… in some kind of parachute thing." She waved her hand about as she explained her dream to him. His mouth went into an "o" shape when she got to the part about the floating.

"And did you enjoy it?" he asked eagerly.

"Yeah, I actually did," she admitted. "It was like there was no gravity, like absolutely nothing holding me down. I was just…floating. It was really peaceful."

"Then what happened?"

She grinned. It was like she was telling an exciting story to a little kid.

"Then you pulled me down. And I was in your arms." She put her hand on his wrist and started playing with his ruffle.

He put his face down to where it was inches from hers. She could smell his sweet cotton candy breath. "And did you enjoy that?"

Rachel sighed. "I always enjoy that. I just wish…"

He brought his hand up to stroke her cheek. "What do you wish? Tell me."

She took a deep breath. "I just… I wish that me and you could just…hang out together. You know? You could come visit me at the library. We could go to lunch together. Go to the park, just," she shrugged her shoulders. "Something."

Pennywise brought his hand down to rest on her shoulder. "If that is what you want, then it is mine to give you."

Rachel's heart started pounding in excitement and eagerness. "I do want that. I really, really do. It's just… what are people going to think of us?"

Pennywise put his hand on her neck gently. "My dear, sweet Rachel, do you not trust me?"

She sighed. "I do trust you." Yet inside she was thinking 'what in the world is he going to do?'