Niebolt House like any other time of day was utterly silent except for the small creeks and groans of the building settling and the wood shifting with time, for any one passing the old house they would just assume that no one would dare enter such a place except for the homeless and the druggies. Yet they would be so very, wrong.
Niebolt House was the surface home of an ancient evil who pulled the strings to everything in Derry, below it, deep beneath the surface down under ground was the being's actual birth place. Where the Deadlights arose up from deep within the formation that crash landed here all those years ago and came alive as a monster unlike anything the humans had ever seen.
Yet, once the Deadlights feasted upon the flesh of Man for the first time they evolved and grew and became something far more dangerous. And with time, with each hibernation and awakening, with each feasting and round of mayhem they caused Deadlights grew to immeasurable power and capabilities.
Although Deadlights was a being of immense fortitude and danger, there was someone, something, who held more power in their pinky finger then Deadlights ever could imagine to possess, a powerful being so incredible The Great Turtle couldn't even fathom her beginning or extent of her own capabilities.
The Crow. She had taken many forms over her plane of existence but one thing always stayed the same regardless of the shape she took. Her eyes. Lilac eyes that turned as black and depthless as glossy pools of the blackest ink. The Native Americans called her kind Bird People, really there was no original name for her for she was the mythological creature that the mundane birds in the human world were all descendants of.
Regardless of their vast differences Deadlights and The Crow, or Lia and Pennywise were indeed the greatest of companions over the vast years they had known one another. Lia didn't shy away from the childlike innocence warped around the horror that created his very existence out of a desperation to survive a never ending hunger he had no control over and Pennywise never blamed Lia for her often strange and odd behaviors that when she tried to fit into society would leave her most times feared and outcasted nor did he allow her one fear to ever feaster or grow.
To be left alone, unwanted.
To him, she was perfection. She was his. And he had full intentions of keeping it that way until the end of time as they all knew it.
Lilac and black murky eyes stared widely up at mischievous bright blue ones who stared down at her with a permanent twinkle in their depths.
Lia couldn't believe her eyes. Pennywise had shifted forms yet this time it was into a young man who looked to be between the ages of 18-22. His overall appearance fit in ok with the time and his handsome features would bode him well in society she realized his features for the most part were fairly similar to his clown form just less exaggerated and ridiculous and more handsome and ethereal. The only thing she noticed that seemed to stay the same was very faint thin white lines that ran like scars down his face through his eyebrows, over his eyes, down his cheeks, and into the corners of his mouth. When she traced the pattern with her eyes she realized the red lines of his clown makeup were those same lines.
"Pennywise?" Lia questioned breathlessly
He giggled, and Lia heard those god damn bells again. She tried to ignore the flutter around her heart when she heard them but it just proved what she already knew.
Pennywise had really become a weakness of her's.
"Yup! Whatcha think?" Human Pennywise puckered his lips up in a duck face and did a few playful modeling poses causing Lia to laugh.
"You look great Penny."
Pennywise seemed to grow serious at Lia's soft tone and smile and just calmly gazed at her, his eyes twinkling in the low light with a deep seated fondness and adoration so intense it caused Lia to softly gasp.
The blue eyed being stepped into her personal space to such a degree they were almost chest to chest, Lia felt her cheeks flush down her neck and she knew even though she had tried to catch the reaction she missed it judging by the way that Pennywise's hungry gaze followed the blush over her skin. Lia swallowed hard. Was this always like this between them? Had things always been so red and fiery to this degree? She wasn't blind. She saw the looks that Pennywise gave her when he thought she wasn't looking but she didn't react to them. She couldnt, could she?
She got her answer when Pennywise reached out and pulled the towel from her hair letting the wet crimson strands fall around her, his gaze watching the messy curls like a small child finding something so simple utterly fascinating. Lia couldn't help but feel her stomach overflow with a hoard of butterflies.
Pennywise wrapped a strand of crimson hair around his finger loosely and twirled it ever so gently giving it the softest little tug causing Lia to swallow hard to keep from turning into a puddle at his feet. Gazing up at him from underneath black lashes she saw the fondest look she never knew a living being could possess being directed at her by Pennywise and she knew in that moment, she didn't care if she was 16 years old or 16 million. It didn't matter if she was human or something far from it.
Her heart belonged to a being whose eyes were made of living light, but she should have known that nothing ever really is as simply as one would hope.
After all, isn't it funny how the warning signs feel like they're butterflies?
Two weeks passed by in the blink of an eye. Lia had been avoiding Henry like the plague and it was about to catch up to her.
The rain belted down on her as she hurried across the sidewalk to her house. She had just reached the top of her front steps when she was forcibly grabbed by an unseen force and slammed into the side of the covered porch closet to the front door away from prying eyes.
Lia's head slammed so heavily against the side of her mother's house she felt her skull bounce and her brain rattle, she couldn't help the cry that escaped her mouth at the intense bolt of pain that surged through her skull at the impact.
The strong hand covering her mouth and the hard body pining her to the corner should have terrified her but thanks to the blow to her head she was confused and disoriented. Her vision finally settling she frowned deeply looking up into the eyes of none other then, Henry fucking Bowers.
"You got some explaining to do." Henry sung slowly his voice frightening his gaze staring at her yet daze and seemingly not really there.
Lia couldn't reply, she felt sick and she knew as her stomach lurched that she had a concussion. Her swaying vision took in Henry's appearance and she was horrified to say the least, he was dirty, scrapped bruised, and bleeding. His bottom lip was swollen black and purple oozing and blooding steadily down his jaw and onto his chest. His shirt and jeans were freshly ripped and covered in mud and rain and he had molten bruises on his arms, neck, sternum, cheek, and from the hole in the side of his shirt his torso was ravaged with black and purple. Lia never knew she could hate a color more then she did the color purple after that moment.
"Henry.." Lia breathed behind her friend's hand causing his hand to lazily slide from her mouth to her jaw where he gripped it tightly.
"One of these days it's gonna be him or me." Henry started swallowing hard "One of us is gonna die. It's gonna be him or me and I don't think I'm strong enough I always get so god damn scared."
Lia gently took her hand and laid it on his cheek catching him by surprise, Henry's eyes were as wide as saucers and his jaw clinched so tightly Lia could hear his teeth cracking and the sockets of his jaw popping.
"It'll be him." Lia promised "You're stronger then you think."
Henry looked like he was gonna cry after that "What do I gotta live for Phia? I'm a no one! A fuck up with no family, a dead mom, a dad who hates me and no future! What good am I?!?"
Lia felt his agony and his hysteria and did the only thing she could do, she trusted her instincts.
The red head yanked the slightly taller boy closer to her and ever so gentle put her mouth to his before slowly pulling back.
Henry's mouth had healed and looked like it had never been hurt and slowly all the bruises began to vanish as if they were never there to begin with.
"When the time comes, you'll choose you." Lia ordered a soft echo to her voice "When the time comes you'll kill him and you'll be free."
"How do I know when the time comes?" Henry dazedly questioned.
Lia smiled like she knew all the answers and softly brushed his hair back from his face affectionately.
"You'll see the red ballon."
Henry beamed like a small child on Christmas morning. He slowly pulled back from Lia and slowly began to walk across the porch and down the steps into the yard into the now slacked up rain to head home back to the Bowers' farm.
No one but Lia noticed the strange murky tint of yellow that had coated over Henry's eyes the moment his lips touched hers.
