A small rounded pebble skipped across the water four times before dropping beneath the surface with a splashing sound.

"Only four? What is this pre k? You're slacking dude." Lia teased from her blanket on the ground her mouth occupied with the pack of skittles her friend brought for her.

Henry scowled "Stop! I'm just warming up!"

Lia giggled maniacally before nodding in agreement causing Henry to pout before flinging another pebble, watching it flick across the water six times before sinking. He made a gesture and facial expression of I told you so causing his female companion to smirk from behind her pack of candy.

The pair spent about two hours goofing around at the Quarry before Henry sadly had to leave his friend and head home to meet his dad and help him with some things so he didn't get in any kinda trouble. Bowers made sure he watched his friend begin in the direction of her own home before heading in the direction of his. His mind thinking about his cash stash and how he couldn't wait to get his car so he could drive Lia home without having to worry about her having to walk by herself.

Little did he know at that moment he'd have something to actually cause concern for his dear friend.


Lia kicked the same chunk of asphalt for the millionth time before she even bothered to look up and see where she was, and when she did, man oh man, was the young girl in for a hell of a surprise.

Lia wasn't any where near her home but was in fact on the other side of town and was standing directly in front of the old,run down house known to the community as Niebolt House. A very old ruin of a giant Victorian styled mansion. The house was rumored as haunted and had every rumor in the world attached to it including ghosts and a crack den for druggies and the homeless.

Why was Lia here? How did she get here? What could of possibly brought her all the way out here?

Glancing down at her watch she noticed she had lost a hour of time. It would have taken her twenty- five minutes to walk back from the Quarry to her house but some how she was here and had no memory of it. A hour of her memory was simply black, full of nothingness.

Empty.

She took a slow ragged breath into her lungs from deep down before slowly letting it out, she was getting real sick of all the strange shit happening in this town.

Determined, Lia carelessly swung the gate open and strolled forward not bothering to even look back to see if it the gate shut behind her. She made her way up the steps and threw open the raggedy front door before walking in as if she owned the place. Once inside she felt the energy around her shift and she could of sworn she heard those god damn bells again but saw nothing out of the ordinary for the inside of the run down old building.

Slowly but surely she took a step forward only for the front door to swing shut behind her with a mighty SLAM that shook the ground beneath her.

Turning so fast she nearly fell side ways she saw nothing. Her heart raced but not from fear, from something she could only describe as excitement. Adrenaline. Instinct.

Jingle

Lia stopped and listened.

Jingle.

Jingle.

JINGLE!

Spinning around Lia felt her self fall back as the presence behind her caught her off guard causing her to fall flat on her behind with a sudden thud.

Slowly raising her head she took note of the massive figure that stood towering over her. A large and very tall masculine build encased in an old silvery-grey Victorian clown suit, skin of crushed white chalk with lines of crimson formed curving lines etched deep into the flesh of the brow bone where traditionally eyebrows would be all the way down the cheeks to the corners of the mouth and encasing it giving off a childish and yet sinisterly overdrawn mouth. The chalky white skin was flaky and cracked, creased,and stretched over a large head before it was met with bright orange ginger tinted hair that puffed out around it like a ballon animal almost.

Yet it was the eyes, the eyes that let Lia know exactly who and what stood in front of her.

Eyes of feral golden living light encased within the large clown's eyeballs.

Dead lights.

"Well, I think this is a new one." Lia softly spoke gesturing to the form the being in front of her took.

The last form she knew the Deadlights was taking was a humanoid form of a man in his late thirties or early forties named Bob Gray.

The large clown's lips curved up at the edges on one side before his face went blank again but he held out a large hand down to the much smaller female who took it without hesitation. She knew the powerful being had no intention of hurting her.

Deadlights walked over to a dusty Victorian era couch and plopped down on the dusty floor in front of it before looking up at her. His wild eyes glowing softly in the dim lit house.

"What name do you use in this form?" Lia questioned bending down to sit on the floor across from the clown.

Deadlights watched her every move with a predator's observing gaze as she took her seat. His eyes held no ill intent or wish for harm, surprisingly not even a flicker of hunger as he raked his eyes upon her current form. And he was always hungry.

The last time he laid eyes on her was over three hundred years ago, over eleven hibernations and eleven awakenings during that time. Time usually meant very little to him but for some reason the time between when he could eat and when he could see his old friend seemed to be entirely too long for his liking. Not that he would ever voice such a thought out loud, yet something inside the clown's head told him the red head already knew such a thought existed within his mind.

"Pennywise. Pennywise the Dancing Clown."

Jingle, jingle, jingle.

Lia held back a smirk. So the bells were his doing, which meant he had been in her house and had left the bowl of skittles for her, and the red ballon.

"Pennywise. It suits you."

The two said nothing more but stared at one another before Pennywise found himself asking the questions he didn't really want to know but needed to know in order not to cause any unneeded harm where his only friend was concerned.

"What do you remember?"the clown questioned almost childishly, his eyes so dim the edging had faded to a startling and very beautiful shade of blue.

What did Lia remember? The answer is nothing much exactly she just knew she was different and knew things but didn't know how. She understood the creature in front of her was not her foe where as he would be considered so for every one else who came in contact with him. Lia had dreams though, from different periods of time, some times she was other people yet she was always her self in some way if that made sense. Her eyes though when she caught her reflection were always the same color.

Lilac.

"I'm not sure.." Lia mumbled causing the large clown to frown deeply.

Could it be possible that this time around his old friend knew even less then before?


After admitting her lack of knowledge Pennywise stayed in silence and in the blink of an eye disappeared into the shadows. Lia could sense an opening beneath the ground where she could feel the large extraterrestrial being slink beneath her feet into a very deep very large hole into the ground beneath the house. Something about the mere thought of the hole didn't frighten her at all but brought her warmth and comfort, security and safety.

Like a clubhouse.

Like what home was supposed to feel like.

Lia waited till the sun dipped below the horizon before she began to make her way from the large abandoned building but when she opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch she found another gift it would seem from Pennywise.

This time around it wasn't her favorite candy.

Bending down to pick up the palm sized stone she smiled brightly at the beautiful coloring of it.

Little did she know deep beneath her feet a behemoth of a clown smiled brighter at her joy over the small treasure.

It didn't matter how many years passed or what form they took, a crow is always a crow.