Alison-1989
The school buses were parked along the road in front of Derry High School, just as all the children were piling out the front doors, anxious to get home, jumping on their bikes and skateboards. All of them in clear anticipation of Summer vacation, as it was only a few weeks away.
Alison, one of the drivers, stood leaning her lithe frame against the bus she'd been hired to drive only several months earlier, her long glossy black hair pulled into a loose low-hanging ponytail, her arms folded as she watched some remaining children still meandering in the school's courtyard. She adjusts the blue baseball cap she had on as she gazed over at the sign just outside the building; 'remember the curfew' written in bold ebony lettering. The number of missing in the area led to the town being put on surveilence. While the excitement of Summer was building, the only damper was the ever-growing number of mysterious disappearances.
So far only one student had made his way onto her bus, carrying a small boom box blasting Technotronic's 'Pump Up The Jam.'
She sighs as she sees four foul-mouthed and obnoxious boys come into view where she was standing. The Bower's Gang, they were once referred to, although she was unsure of which one was Bowers himself. Possibly the one with the mullet and the angry eyes.
They were tormenting a younger boy who seemed to be a favorite target of theirs, snatching his black kippah off his nest of light brown curls.
"Hey, give it back!" Stanley cries out, reaching up as Patrick held it high above his head.
"Take it," he taunts, dangling it in front of Stanley. "C'mon faggot!"
He tosses it to Vic like one would toss a frisbee, who in turn passes it to Belch, as it reaches Henry's hands, he slowly steps up to Stanley, his slightly beady eyes narrowing, pinching the kippah between his thumb and index.
"You want it?" he growls, his breath only a few inches from Stan's face, before he suddenly freezes, taking notice of something just beyond the younger boy's shoulder, his eye sockets now widened, like a deer caught in headlights.
A cop car suddenly pulls up to the other side of the road across from the school. The driver's side window rolls down and Oscar Bowers glowers at his hooligan son, resting his elbow on the door, not uttering a single word. Alison cannot make out his expression behind his dark sunglasses.
Henry stands watching, the air shifting to something more tense, as both father and son engage in an unspoken exchange, before Henry shoves the kippah at Stanley's chest, nearly knocking the boy down.
"Take it." he mutters before motioning for his sycophants to follow him, sending a passing glance back at the older Bowers.
Stanley is subsequently approached by three other boys, with one audibly saying, "F-f-f-fuck B-b-b-Bowers."
The smallest one, a hyper boy sporting a fanny pack, gazes at Alison, a look of apprehension.
He's the one with the over-protective mother. She'd heard one of the other students mention it before.
Scrawny sad little thing.
Alison turns her attention back to the bullies as they make their leave. The appearance of Officer Bowers had altered their personalities. They became quiet, somber as they all jump into a blue Trans Am, speeding off down the road and vanishing around the corner.
What a disgusting boy. All of them.
Maybe I should lure them in next.
Yes, upon her arrival in Derry from the neighboring Bangor-wanting a change after her divorce- she'd been given a special welcome from someone-or something-she didn't know. First hearing the whispers drifting out through the kitchen sink in her modest new home.
We are Legion, the voices chanted.
It wasn't until she'd been drawn to that old strange house on Neibolt Street that she'd made the discovery; a clown. Pennywise, he called himself, that lived beneath Derry, that was feeding on the town's children, along with the occasional adult. Although children were his preference. This thing had promised her a wealth of rewards if she'd aid him in his hunting. With one touch, eternal life could be hers. Money. A bigger, more lavish home. Everything she could want and more.
She'd fed him some children already, and promised him more. A part of her actually liked it, found it thrilling. The choosing of the child and then the luring. Like a spider tempting a fly into its web. He sometimes killed them in front of her.
She enjoyed watching.
Glancing over at the mother of Betty Ripsom, who had been religiously standing outside the school everyday, she felt a small twinge of remorse. Only a little, burrowed deep within the exhilaration. Betty had been her first victim, luring the child to the Barrens and she was subsequently snatched up by Pennywise, dragging her tiny frame down into the depths of the sewers, her shoe falling off in the process.
She pushes any sense of lingering guilt aside as she turns and gets back into the bus as the children all finally take their seats inside. Whispering to each other, staring out the window at the grenery blurring by as the bus picks up speed. One student, however, sits up, realizing that they were taking a little longer to get to the first stop.
"Hey, Ms. Sawa? Where we going?" she queries, brows knotting together as she cranes her neck to glimpse the unfamiliar surroundings they'd entered.
No answer. Alison makes a turn alongside a dirt road that leads to a steep cliff overlooking a murky lake.
She then steps on the gas.
"T-t-t-they h-h-haven't been a-a-ble to-to f-f-find the d-driver," Bill says as he, Eddie, Richie and Stanley linger outside the school the following morning. Police cars were parked along the roadside, with officers swarming around, questioning students, their parents and teachers.
"She's probably dead. None of the kids survived, she probably didn't." Stanley replies somberly.
"I'm telling you guys, there was something not right with that lady," Eddie says, his arm movements spastic as he spoke. "I'm telling you, she did it on purpose. I'm telling you. Nobody goes off a cliff like that on accident. The look in her eyes, I knew she was a crazy bitch!"
"W-w-we d-d-don't k-k-k-kno-" Bill begins before he's cut off by Officer Bowers.
"You four." he says, as he gestures them over to where he's standing near the curfew sign, slipping off his shades. They heed, charily approaching him, Bill leading the way as Stan dawdled behind, as he usually did.
"What can you tell about Ms. Sawa?"
"W-w-w-we d-don't r-r-real-ly -k-know h-her." Bill manages as Oscar looks more than a little perturbed at the rate in which Bill is responding. He glances to Richie.
"How about you? All of you?"
"No sir." Richie shakes his head. Stanley and Eddie mimic him, both uttering 'no' in unison.
"Well, run along then." Oscar slips his glasses back on and saunters off.
All four boys speedily make their way inside the school entrance.
Beneath the town Alison had taken refuge within Pennywise's lair-at least she thought it was his lair. It certainly looked like it with the pile of trophies along with the corpses of the town's missing floating above it at the tip. Almost peaceful. Whatever he was, he clearly possessed great powers. Abilities that she had only caught a brief glimpse of. It excited her to think about what else he could do.
He'd not appeared when she first left the scene of the accident and fled to Neibolt under the cover of night, at first hiding in a dilapidated old shack in the Barrens, listening to the sounds of the sirens blazing.
It looked like a mere accident, under Pennywise's influence, she won't be discovered. Just an unlucky woman, but the high she'd felt driving towards the edge of the cliff was unmatched, only perhaps by the high that she'd felt knowing he'd been there.
She just did something unspeakable. For him.
Pennywise was around she was sure. Lurking, probably off hunting. As she sat on the wagon emblazoned with 'Pennywise The Dancing Clown,' her ears pricked at the sound of diminutive jingling bells and a small smile blooms across her features.
There he stood at the bottom of the junk pile, his off-white suit highlighted by the minimal light creeping in from above, gazing up at her with a neutral expression. She hops down and tracks across the various items, stepping over a soggy dirty mattress, as she comes to a halt before his massive frame.
"They're looking for me I'm sure, but they won't find me here," she smiles up at him, his mien still stoic, unresponsive. "They probably think I'm dead, but I can just stay here..."
As she talked, It studied her. It knew what kind of human she was. It had in Its millennia of existence came across these types. Desperately searching for some meaning in their life. Lost, pathetically needy souls. Willing to kill their own mothers for some kind of acceptance.
She was, as It saw in her diseased mind, looking for something beyond being what she currently was-a tool. A game. A pawn.
The thought disgusted It beyond belief.
However, it had also made it fairly easy to manipulate her. It had not even influenced her to drive that bus off the cliff. She'd done it on her own. While it was soaking up the sorrow now washing over the town over the children's deaths, it was also disgusted; good meat had gone to waste.
"So, I know you're alone down here." Alison reaches up to touch his white face, only to have him grip her wrist before her fingertips can touch his white cracked cheek.
Pennywise doesn't respond, he just moves in, quickly grabbing her about the throat, giving a raspy cackle, the sound echoing throughout the cisterns around them. She coughs, her air cutting off, reaching up to try to pry his bony fingers from her neck.
"I am alone and I prefer it that way. I've no use for attachments," His eyes glow brighter, a stunning shimmery yellow-gold. "Especially not to a parasite like yourself. I did nothing. I did not influence you. You did it of your own volition." he growls, his teeth now pointed and shark-like. She shrieks as he buries them into her shoulder, ripping away the flesh, the sensation like daggers, sharp burning and painful. It throws her to the ground, watering, stunned brown pupils glued on him.
She holds her shoulder, mouth gaping, silent. The pain she was feeling physically was nowhere close the emotional agony and humiliation that was searing through her. Almost as if it was setting her insides aflame. A single tear cuts down her milky cheek
No, this was not how it was supposed to be.
Pennywise kneels down by her. "Somebody has to take responsibility for the crash. When they find you, they will know. I will not aid you." he peers in her face, the scent of blood on his breath.
Her blood.
Alison screams as Pennywise grins, displaying his crimson-stained incisors. "How can you do this to m-" she's cut off by him gripping her cheeks, squeezing.
"I did nothing, it was all you," he replies, standing and looking down at her, lip curling as his teeth shrink. "Pathetic."
It influences a student from Derry High School to point in the direction of Alison. Saying he'd overheard her expressing contempt for the rowdy children she drove home. Her actions will not be viewed as a mere accident. The truth to be unveiled about that crash. Humans have no patience for ones like her. She will be seen as the true monster.
The next day, the town is abuzz with news of the seemingly innocent new arrival who had intentionally crashed a school bus into a lake off a cliff. She was found, half-crazed, down in the Barrens, bleeding profusely from a wound no doubt given to her by some kind of animal, possibly a rabid coyote or dog. She rambled endlessly about a clown monster killing the town's children, but no evidence was found to support her claims.
Only days later, the horrific accident and the insane bus driver were soon pushed out of Derry's collective consciousness.
She currently sits in Juniper Hill Asylum.