Derry Maine was it's own special kind of fucked up during any day of the week, and just like any other small town in any other state in the US of A you'd come to quickly find out that Derry wasn't all it appeared to be on the surface. At a glance it was a quaint, picturesque, even lovely little town in the beautiful East coast state of Maine.
Below the surface though, it was stained with a horror so deep it was imbedded in the very roots that bore it. Derry since the very beginning of its creation was cursed. It was soiled by a being so ancient, so powerful, and so dangerous there was very little that could tame or control it let alone make it go away for good.
Yet for every mighty creation of power in existence there is a weakness. For every danger there is always someone or something even more dangerous to be weary of.
And at the end of the day everyone dies
Even the immortals.
Bang!
Ophelia winced as the door to the cabinet slammed shut with a bang. She kept her head down and her eyes focused on her plate of uneaten food she had been moving around with her fork for the last fifteen minutes as her mother stomped about the kitchen slamming this, throwing that, banging this and tossing that.
Ophelia or Lia as she preferred took a very quite and deep breath as she slowly took a sip of water before pushing her chair back and grabbing her shoes from the corner to put on. Glancing over her shoulder she saw her mother's emotionless expression and felt her insides twist into knots again.
Her father hadn't come home again last night. Her mother Ruth RunningHorse was well aware of her husband Nigel Quinn's late night activities, the kind that caused him to keep very odd hours and to miss special events while coming home uninterested in anything at the house. The kind of activity that caused him to come the family's home smelling like another woman's perfume.
Her father was having an affair and had been doing so for the last year and a half, it wasn't until the last half of a year though he decided to stop making effort to hide it or deny it or show he cared. Lia's mother was utterly devastated and to say things at home became a ticking time bomb would be an understatement. Her mother was always empty and when her father was home he couldn't care less about anything involving her life or her mother's.
With a heavy sigh Lia turned and headed out the door and out onto the street making her way at a slow pace with her hands stuffed in the pockets of her jean shorts with no real destination in mind. Blowing a raspberry she caught a loose strand of her shocking rich deep burgundy colored hair making it fly up into the air before crashing right back into the same place it had been.
She heard faint thunder in the distance and took a deep breath smelling the not so far off smell of rain clouds moving in. Derry hadn't had rain in a while and from the news a down pour was supposed to be on the way. Glancing around Lia noticed she had quickly gone several miles already from her house all the way to a small park tucked away in the corner of the town.
She grabbed a swing and sat down, giggling as a strong wind blew through and caught her long hair and whipped her braid around her face.
The feeling of larger hands covering hers on the chain of the swing pulling her back and letting her go with a whoosh caused her to look quickly over her shoulder in surprise.
She shouldn't have been surprised to see him. He always had a way of simply finding her even when she didn't want him to but most times she didn't mind. In terms of his behavior she knew he was horrible with how he treated everyone else but with her she had never seen such behavior.
At least not being directed at her.
Lia knew Henry Bowers better then anyone. She knew he had a fuck ton of trauma and as a result he had horrible rage issues and had a need of some sort to bully and put people below him. It made him feel better about being utterly helpless and defenseless at home when he was all alone at the hands of his abusive father, Sherif Bowers of Derry.
Lia and Henry met as small toddlers, their mothers used to be best friends back before Henry's mother passed away. Lia and Henry grew up as sidekicks, two halves of a whole, partners in crime. Lia didn't make Henry feel like he had to act a certain way to be valid and he told her all of his thoughts and secrets.
She was his walking journal.
"Rough morning?" Henry questioned with a bite of his lip as he pushed the swing further so she'd pick up speed.
"Dad didn't come home."
Henry didn't say anything after her reply. He knew what that meant.
If Lia was his journal, he was her diary.
Grabbing the swing beside her Henry wordlessly threw himself into the seat and pushed off the ground lightly with his boot clad feet. The pair lightly swung back and forth in silence for several moments before Lia gasped in horror as she caught sight of his naked bicep.
A giant molted black and violent purple bruise had knitted across the skin of Henry's bicep with various smaller purple bruises littering down his arm.
"Henry..." Lia whispered breathlessly
"He was mad because i forgot to turn the dryer on." Henry chuckled humorlessly casting his eyes to the sky as he swung higher.
A hateful smirk tainting his youthful lips with lines that would last for years to come.
Lia didn't bother to speak. She knew there was nothing she could say that would make things better for him but she knew that her presence alone would bring him a small amount of comfort and that alone lightened her devastated heart just a little bit. A thought crossed her mind causing her to jump to her feet surprising Henry who looked at her bewildered for a moment before frowning confused at the look she was giving him.
"Come on." Lia held her hand out, her shocking lilac eyes were incredibly warm making them appear like liquid depths of moving purple water.
Henry didn't hesitate to grab ahold of her hand and let her drag him off to God knows where.
"Can I open my eyes now?" Henry groaned as he stumbled over a rock causing Lia to giggle.
"Almost there." The red head teased before leading him to a sudden stop.
Suddenly her hands were removed and his eyes subconsciously flickered open due to the bright light shining down on his face.
Henry was shocked to put it lightly at the part of the Quarry that Lia had some how lead him to in a short amount of time. He had been coming here all his life and he had never seen the half-rock like cavern he stood in the opening of that had a massive opening at the top where the last rays of sun shine in the area were warmer then ever as they beat down on his face, the rain clouds coming up in the distance just behind it. There was a small running spring of some sort that ran through the rocks and the water for some reason was the brightest and clearest shade of blue he had ever seen in his life.
"What the hell.." Henry mumbled in shock
"I found it last year. It's been my thinking place when I need space but I know if any one could use the safety this place provides it's you." Lia grinned sweetly up at him
He could only shake his head in shock.
The two best friends spent the next several hours in their little hideaway listening to a mix of the running spring and the rapidly approaching thunder as they spoke softly to one another about things only they could ever speak to each other about.
Lia walked in the storm un-effected as the water belted down on her form as she walked back home much later that evening. Henry and Lia parted with a long drawn out hug and soft smiles before waving and taking off in a jog in opposite directions from one another.
Lia looked over and squinted noticing she was coming up on Jackson St and knew she was just a few streets from her house when she stopped short in the downpour as she noticed a small child dressed in bright yellow crouched down by the sewer drain where all the rushing rain water was running off the road into. Lia was suddenly overcome with the feeling of her skin being set on fire from intense heat, as if she was standing face first in front of an oven and just opened it and all the heat and steam just encased her all at once in a cocoon of humidity and boiling droplets of water.
Lia subconsciously walked closer to the little kid only to stop short again once she could identify the smaller child as George Denbrough or Georgie as everyone called him. He was Bill Denbrough's little brother Bill was a kid in the year below her in school.
Lia looked over into the large opening and felt her breath leave her in a whoosh so sudden her lungs screamed in agony as she shockingly gawked at fierce golden light filled eyes that were peering out of the sewer up at Georgie with amusement, mischief, and hunger..
The look of a predator gazing upon it's prey.
She focused her hearing on the conversation the little boy was having with the creature in the sewer and stepped forward un-noticed by both.
"Can you smell the Circus, Georgie? They've got peanuts, Cotten candy, annnnnnnnd-" the creature drawled out only for Georgie to excitedly finish "Pop Corn!"
"Pop Corn! Is that your favorite?" The creature asked Georgie with equal excitement and an underlining feralness to its words.
"Uh-huh!" Georgie nodded his head
"Mine too! Because it pops! Pops! Pops!"
Georgie and the creature began to laugh and repeat pop over and over again until suddenly the creature stopped short and stared dazed at Georgie. The smaller Denbrough boy gulped at the sudden change in the air and timidly spoke again
"I think I should get going now.."
The creature swallowed hard "Without your boat?" IT held it up at eye level "You said it yourself. Bill is gonna kill you... here.. take it.."
Georgie tentatively reached forward to retrieve the paper boat not noticing an ounce of the danger he had unknowingly put his life in.
Lia was close enough now to see clearly the creature in the sewer was some type of man dressed as a clown unlike any clown she had ever seen before but those eyes, those eyes she knew with out a doubt were not the eyes of a human being. Lia's gaze of shock turned to one of astonishment as she watched the clown's mouth turn into a large gapping jaw of countless teeth before chomping down mercilessly onto Georgie's arm and ripping the whole appendage clean off.
Georgie screamed in terror and agony as his arm was ripped from his body and his blood squirted from his small torso rapidly blending in with the water leaving a puddle within a puddle. Georgie screamed for help but no one helped, no one listened or heard his cries. And no one saw the very long arm stretch out from the sewer drain to snatch The small boy by his ankle and yank his body into the curb his last yell a horrified "BILLY!!!"
Lia had fallen hard on her behind before rapidly splashing forward to try and grab the small boy but missed him by inches. Breathlessly, Lia found herself with her face right at the edge of the sewer drain laying in the bloody water where Georgie Denbrough had been just mere seconds before.
Gazing deeply into the darkness of the drain she saw those golden light filled eyes gaze back at her before being joined by a bloody savage smile and then the creature was gone without a single trace, all in the blink of an eye.
Scrambling backwards Lia stood and took off running down the street not once looking behind her as she ran for her house.
Her mind only full with one thing
The Deadlights have come back to Derry.
