4. The mystery with-in

Mike and Henry decided to go to Mike's apartment to get all the equipment that they would need. On the way there, both of them could clearly hear fait little chuckles coming from the drains. Neither spoke of this and were silent for the whole journey until they got to a flat with a door hanging open, and written on the outside walls in big capital letters was the word 'It'. The word was written in blood. Blood, which had once belonged to an old man named Ralph Roberts. Henry started to scream.

Jonsey was amazed how many books were in this library. He also didn't have to worry about finding just the one book. Bill gave him a book tilted 'The Mystery With-In'; it was dedicated to a man called Ben Mears who had once lived in a town known as 'Salem's Lot but disappeared along with all the other residents who had lived there.

The book had everything you needed to know about Derry and everything surrounding it. From any tiny little rumours like; the Tommy Knockers taking over Haven, to every unexplained death.

Jonsey put down the book and looked up at Bill. His lips were trembling.

"There's one answer to all these incidents isn't there? It. The only question is, who, or what is It?" His voice was barely even a whisper.

"There's no easy answer to that question. It is whatever he wants to be. He usually takes the form of a clown, but that's just a disguise. That isn't our problem though. We can kill It, or at least send it to sleep for another 28 years, but to do that someone has to die. You have to sacrifice yourself while performing a very sacred ritual, called the Ritual of Chud,"

They sat in silence.

It watched them. He hated it when they called him that. Pennywise was his name and eating people was his game. Pennywise never understood human relations. They eat, sleep, have sex, break up and then die, or he would kill them. Yes. Yes he liked that. Eating people was good. It meant that he was in control, and as he listened to these two humans talk he was now in control again. They would come. They would try to kill 'him' but that wouldn't happen because he would be ready for them. In the darkness of the second floor bookcases, marked 'fiction-horror' a face appeared in the dark. The face was smiling a big evil grin; the face belonged to a clown.

Henry kept screaming 'till he ran out of breath. A voice in the distance told him to calm down. It came from Mike but Henry wasn't listening. Once again his mind went back to the day when evil slipped through. Up in those snowy mountains, where the old Overlook hotel once stood, three of his friends ha died. Henry focused his mind back to when he and Pete had crashed their Land Rover on the snow-covered road. What did he see just before the car went swerving into the trees? As the car started to lose control he glanced to his right to see Pete, just to make sure his life-long friend had his seatbelt on. Pete had, but what he also saw was a balloon in the reflection of Pete's eye. Why had it taken him this long to realise this? He didn't know but that wasn't his main concern. If It was there that day then that would mean that It had, in some way, known about the invasion of the shit demons and had planned for Pete to die. A hand fell on his shoulder. He jumped but then realised it was just Mike. His mind returned to the present and he was just in time to see Mike go into the apartment. Henry called after him but it was too late. Henry fainted.

As Mike entered the apartment he suddenly realised that he would never see daylight again. The lights went out. Mike squinted to see what was going on. What he did see was a figure in a silvery overcoat. The face was smiling. Mike froze. His mind told him to run but his legs wouldn't move. It cam toward him. It was smiling. Mike looked around for a weapon but he couldn't see anything. Before he new it, Pennywise had knocked him on the floor. Mike tried to sit up but the clown stomped on his face and broke Mike's nose. Mike screamed with pane but it was too late. Where was Henry? He didn't know. It's foot, flew, through the air and hit Mike's back with the force of ten tones. Two of Mike's ribs broke instantly and suffered a burst lung. He blacked out. It and Mike suddenly vanished.

When Henry came to, there was blood on his shirt. He had had a nosebleed.

"Shit, oh my god, where's Mike? MIKE! MIKE! Where are you?" Henry shouted so loud his nosebleed happened again. That didn't matter. Ever since he was a kid, he would get them. So had Jonsey. It took him a long time to pluck up the courage to go into the apartment but when he did, all he found was a spot of dried blood on the floor and a balloon hanging over it with one word written on it. The word was cold and to-the-point.

It read: 'prisoner'. Guilt finally got the better of Henry; he collapsed on the floor and wept. After his weeps started to fade he took an oath. No matter what happens he will destroy the monstrous creature you readers have come to call as It. Even if that meant him dieing, in the process.

Henry left the apartment and started for the library. His head was low but he had one thought in his mind. Revenge and like the old saying goes, revenge, is sweet.

Jonsey and Bill were sitting in the Derry public library having said nothing for about 30 minutes when Henry came in with blood all over his face and down his shirt. He spoke with exhausted tiredness but Henry got the message across.

"Mike is a prisoner. We must finish this now. There will be help for us. Although there are three of us at the moment, I somehow know that there will be another person to help fight evil."