"300 dollars, and not a dollar less." I said, in my big person form, my hand stroking Cure's pretty neck, the stomach stored gold in my hands.

The man, greasy dreadlocks flowing over his head, tattoos across his arm, leaned over the counter of knick knacks and odd things in his pawn shop and sighed, put his hands out as though going what am I meant to do, and took out the cash.

"You're screwing me, but I guess I can go that high. Fine. Oh wait- I don't have that much cash on me- I just have 200 dollars. But I have that now." He held it out to me, offering.

This was worth more like 600 dollars, accounting for inflation, according to a pro Addison had set me up with, even in pawn markets. He could sell it for quite a bit more. He was screwing me over, big time. But two could play at that game.

"That's fine, we could make it up in some store items. A mutual trade."

He grinned. "Sure, that seems fair. See anything you like?"

A lot of pawn shops, from my long experience, had an official price and a baseline price, generally 10% plus what they cost. These ones had that. Old tvs, guns, jewelry, all sorts of random junk that people had tossed away. And, guns. A lot of pawn shops had them. Yay america. You buy a gun for self defence, you fire it a few times for the thrill, toss it in a draw. Then a few years when times are tough, what do you pawn for a bit of extra cash…

Anyway, he had a code. In small letters below the price was a short code, uovdiImsce with the letters I was pretty sure none of my gamer powers would have been able to do it directly, but I loved puzzles and codes and tricks back home, and his code was pretty simple.

I had noticed that a lot of the more expensive items had either four letters, or started with a v, and a very few six letter combination items started with a v. So, v must be the start of the code. I was pretty sure based on the minimum letters being 3 letters for cheap looking items that it was a simple alphanumerical swap. After that I had worked my way among the items, and found that after v the next most common five character starting letter in that sort of price range was i.

I couldn't appraise jewelry well, so it was hard to go much beyond that, but it was pretty simple after that. uodImsce? musIc stood out in there, and that left the first word as video. videomusIc, 1234567890

This gun had a price label of 523 dollars on it. A ruger 22. It had the code vumsc written in tiny letters below that price. 176.80 dollars, as the base price he would sell it for.

"This gun looks a bit overpriced. Quite a bit wear and tear on it. How about this ruger 22 and that cash, and I walk out."

"That's 500 dollars!" He said, faking shock. Cure replied by walking behind my legs. "Perhaps we could do a trade of the gold for the gun though..." He said, a hint of greed on his voice.

He had pushed a bit too far. This was a valuable bit of gold. 176+200 was well below what he'd get for it.

I took the golden necklace, and shrugged. "Maybe I can find a better price for it elsewhere." I started to walk off.

Just as I was at the door, he held up his hand. "Wait! I guess, since it's you..."

I gestured at a case of .22 LR ammo, and a gun maintenance kit, and a bag. "Toss in those and you have a deal."

A little later, both of us feeling we had screwed the other over, dissembled in a bag, I had my gun and 100 bullets. My inventory was sadly inaccessible. Pennywise had locked that down hard, because, I sensed, something was trying to get out. Eve probably didn't like being eaten. I could feel that box of horrors shaking in my head, the black acid blood of pennywise slowly degrading it. It was a pity. I had 4 of my 7 remaining magic healing potions in there, along with more guns and stuff. And, a flesh eating zombie and a protagonist.

I had bought a few other odds and ends, and was ready for my trip. Not a moment too soon. Not enough for a car though. So, I was hitchhiking. I was hoping Pennywise's reach didn't stretch this far, and if not I could jump out. I just needed enough strength and equipment to get to Needful Things. Then the pain could end, and I could be better. I just needed to push a bit longer. I had a gun, I had some bomb making chemicals. I could do it.

"Why don't you just steal a car? You have mad mechanical skills." Asked Georgie.

"If the police reported it, I could get chased down soon after. I don't want to leave an obvious out for sewer clown to come after me. I doubt he can make everyone murderous."

"My mom said never to hitch hike."

"Did your mom have experience with sewer clowns?"

"Maybe she did!" He said. "I never asked her. When we get back I need to ask!"

I bought a few more items. Some supplies, some sugary food, some potassium nitrate for gardening. Normal stuff.

But regardless, I was sitting by the side of the road, in my little yellow raincoat, hoping for a lift. The road was a bit rough and weathered, clearly not well maintained, and I was sticking my thumb out and hoping for the best. Pennywise had never shown much influence outside of his town. Plus, I could escape from a moving car if I had to. It had worked well so far. I gave some sob story, me and cure and my bag of parts and food went on, and onwards the trip went. My scarce supply of cash stayed safe, and I had avoided too much notice.

Eventually, I got lucky. A black oldsmobile. License number, pdm42. I said my thing and got in.

Guy was nice. Heavyset man with greying hair. Looked trustworthy. I gave him a quick once over with Survivor, and it didn't set off any red flags.

"How did you get here? And your eye- what happened to it"

I looked sad "My parents dropped me off to wait for my aunt, but she never came. Trying to get home to Illinois. I lost my eye in a paintball accident. Could you help me sir?" I asked, doing my best to look pitiful, wet, and unhappy, which Georgie definitely was.

The man backed his bat seat. "I've got some plastic wrap back there. Lay that down for your dog, and you can come right on in."

George spoke in my mind. "He doesn't smell right."

"Corrupt democrat?" There were some political stickers on his car.

I set up some of the plastic wrap and patted the car. Cure growled at the man.

I looked back and forth between him and Cure. Cure grabbed my leg with his mouth, tugging me back. He had some weight, now I was six.

"Looks like your dog doesn't like me." He said.

The relationship system had been busted with the inventory. But… Cure seemed really angry. And Georgie could smell something off. Something was wrong. Last time, I had trusted the wrong person and been fucked over. This would be a lot easier with that system but…

I backed away. "Sorry. I'll find someone else..." I said, backing away with Cure, him growling by my side.

The man stepped forward, a slight frown touching his face, then a broad smile. "It's ok, you can trust me. I'm surprised you haven't heard of me. I'm the mayor of Illinois- I was just coming back from a trip." Something was eating away at me. I didn't quite know. A twisting of my stomach, and an awful sense of wrongness.

He stepped forward again. I looked backwards. Sharp drop behind me. Not a great place to flee. Maybe I could drug fueled strength get across. I could try and grab his car.

He smiled at me again, showing more teeth than lip. "I know just what can help. I can show you a magic trick." He reached into his pocket, looking for something. I was not liking this.

I had prepared something that might help. 3 parts potassium nitrate, 2 parts sugar, heat them, wrap them in aluminum foil, and then set it on fire and you have a smoke bomb. I had made sure to get matches this time as well.

I reached into my bag to grab it- and moving faster than I would have expected, he grabbed my arm, stopping me, and had handcuffed my arm. "Magic trick!" He said. And he started to drag me behind him into his car.

I pulled on drug fueled strength for a moment, along with my huge boosters, and tried to yank my arm away. It wouldn't budge. But I had the smoke bomb. I looked up, and saw a man in clown's makeup. Blue eyes, white skin, choppy red paint that looked like teeth. A red hat with a black circle on it. And a sinister look. Then the makeup flashed away. And he overpowered me. He laughed, and laughed.

I grabbed the smoke bomb, ripped off some of the foil, and tossed it into his eyes.

He coughed and spluttered at the dust in his eyes, no doubt taking some blindness debuff that would show up if the system was working, and tossed me in the car. I rolled to a painful stop.

Cure was standing back, not quite willing to engage this monster, growling and barking loudly.

"Pennywise promised quite a price for you." He said. "But after that maybe he doesn't need all of you. I'll give you the show of your life. I have my own makeup. I'll show you why clowns are always laughing."

I had an ace. I had Break It Down. I grabbed the seat of his car, braced myself, and activated Break It Down. The strain made my head hurt, but I managed to kick open the other side's door, cracking the lock. I rolled out, slamming on the concrete road. "Cure!" I called out, and I ran off, limping on my leg.

I wished I had my system back.

"I told you!" said Georgie. "I told you he smelt bad."

"I should have trusted you."

"I'm worried." Georgie said. "I… think I saw Pennywise."

I looked around. "Where? On him? We left him. He wasn't chasing us."

We were near some… bushes? I don't know plants. Green ones with leaves. Next to the road. A while away from the clown.

"Before that. In my house. I went to the basement. I felt something like that there. It was weird. I could feel his eyes on me, watching. Or someone's eyes. I think he can see us here." He said, speaking faster and faster.

"He'll be able to see my brother."

Before I had told a little fib to Georgie. Pennywise was definitely watching them early. You could see pictures of him in the art, see him in the basement when Georgie went down. Twice, with glowing eyes. Later you could see him in graffiti, in clowns, in lots of places. Pennywise spied on them a lot.

I suspected I knew why. The loser clubs were psychics, a common thing in the Stephen Kingverse and Pennywise liked nomming psychics. That's why they had been able to summon the divine turtle for help.

Oh yeah, that's why they won. They got a magic turtle to give them aid when they had the psychic fight with IT over their fears. The Aslan of this world.

Bill was a powerful psychic. He had sent power to his friends, made a deadbolt gun work when it shouldn't. His brother Georgie, well. He'd made Pennywise vulnerable to lies and fire and cold iron. Psychic might seemed to run in the family. So long as he believed-

"Believed in your lies"

Wait he could hear me monologue? He couldn't hear me monologue.

"Yes I can!"

I couldn't hear him monologue- oh. Yeah. Psychic. Bill had been able to see through illusions as well.

"He saw sewer clown too?"

"I err… how much did you hear?"

"All of it. And I'm not stupid. I knew you were playing me. I know fairies aren't real. But I trusted you had a reason. And it was all a lie?"

"And you didn't tell me?" I was still processing.

"It was helping. I get why you lied. Belief hurts the fairy. But I can't let it hurt my brother. We have to go back."

"You can sense my thoughts. You know I'm gonna go crazy if I have to endure this much longer. If I'm not there it might infect you."

"We're psychic right? Maybe we can resist it together." We don't need you.

Maaaybe. Ah, web of lies, you come back to bite me. Maybe the truth would help. I was completely fucked, as he knew from my thoughts, if they abandoned me. But I did want the best. Maybe I could try something.

"He's not gonna attack. Probably. I'm from another world where your world is a book. There, he kills you and toys with your friends. He has the todash darkness magic. The magical clown fails though because your friends have a magical bond and a magical turtle which protects them. They're safe so long as they trust the turtle."

Georgie was taking a while to absorb this.

"That said, if you start things early I don't know what will happen. Maybe the rails of canon keep him safe- or maybe success was unlikely, and they just got lucky there. For most of the film he didn't really try, and just fucked with them and let them go, but later on he got serious. He went after Bill in the flooded basement and if he'd been faster, he might have got him. Bill and Richie almost get killed after he separates them in the abandoned house and breaks their psychic connection, but they manage to overcome their fears enough there. After that he stops jobbing and goes full speed, making a crazy kid attack them. He might succeed this time. If we start it early-"

"What's the Todash darkness?"

"The space between worlds, filled with demons and monsters."

"God is real?"

"Not the Christian god, Christianity is false in this multiverse as far as I know. Gan is the supreme being."

"Who played me in the film?"

"I'm not actually sure, I'm not great with names. He was in Locke and Key I remember, but I never watched much of that, it wasn't very good." I was rambling.

"Would I know if… Bill was hurt. With my psychic powers?"

I nod. "I think so. He knew from the books. We have the phone calls from the hobo later, but you should sense if he's in major danger. Maybe you can even send some mental strength."

This would be a lot easier with system prompts for when my gamer's mind was being breached.

"I'll help you. But you have to be totally honest. Will you do that?"

"I will." Uh oh. I'm in danger. I just had to hold it together for a bit longer. I needed strength to face Jigsaw. To protect my family. To create a universe where everyone has what they need, level appropriate challenges, death is defeated, and I am god king. I would have to work with Georgie openly. I could do this.

"Yes you can."

Whelp.

This was meant to be the power restoring chapter but Georgie ran away from me and used his psychic powers.

Also, if anyone can guess which clown just attacked them (not from Stephen King) then, congrats.

Normally I do reviews, but I just rewatched IT to find out all the secret appearances of IT, and, and I am now seeing spooky eyes and Pennywises in the corner of my vision, so, I am off to bed before he gets me. Enjoyyy.