Last night, I stayed in my room and slept right away. I was tired as hell. This morning, when I woke up, I was slightly disappointed that I didn't even dream about anything. I was dead asleep.

And now, here I am in the library, staring at the sketch of a clown who's supposedly pictured as how Pennywise looks. The bulging eyes and the baby face kind of resembles his features, though, I'll give them that. But they didn't get his forehead right. I chuckle slightly.

Oh, God, what the hell am I doing? Have I gone crazy? Or am I just really desperate?

"You just don't give up, do you?"

It's Paul. I look up in front of me and see him standing opposite the desk. He looks a little different. I don't know what it is but he seems different.

I slam the book in front of me, "I'm just reading for class..." I say, trying to hide the cover,

But Paul looks around the table with a smirk, then he looks at me. I realize my table's filled with open books about a killer clown. Oh fuck it.

Paul sits at the chair across me, "How much does that clown mean to you, Alissa?"

"I don't have time to play around, Paul."

He looks at me sternly, "Are you going back to the sewers?"

"Why are you asking me this?"

"Alissa..."

"...What? You want the truth? You want to make fun of me because I sound crazy to you, don't I? You won't understand anything, and you'll keep treating everything as a joke because none of this happened to you."

"I just wanted to start again," Paul says,

"What are you talking about?"

"I want to hear more." He tells me and clasps his fingers on the table,

"Why?"

"Because it seems you can't tell it to anyone. You don't have girlfriends, do you?"

I squint my eyes at him and shake my head, "Girlfriends?"

"Parties? Sleep overs?"

I shake my head,

"Well then, fire away. Tell me everything."

"Why do you care?"

"I'm your friend, Alissa. We're friends. Plus, this is fun!" He smiles, "I like secrets."

I look away from him. Should I really keep talking? Maybe he's just really concerned.

He leans in closer, "I saw you last night. You looked helpless. As if you were begging to see the clown. I want to understand why, Alissa. Why do you ask for the demon clown so much if he wanted to hurt you?"

Wow. He sounds like a therapist.

"Because..."

"Go on, I'm your friend."

I clear my throat. I guess this is how it is when you have friends?

"Because I want to see It again."

"To kill him?" Paul sounds stern,

"No! I would never." Paul looks at me dumbfounded, "I wouldn't dare. I know you think I'm crazy, and that the clown would kill me, but if he wanted to kill me, he would have done it. He just wants me to feed him, that's all."

"Could you say...you trust Pennywise?" Paul asks in a teasing tone,

I look at the open book, "Yeah, I guess." Before Paul could say anything, I quickly speak, "But that's because of that. Just because he didn't kill me."

That's true. Just because he didn't kill me. Not because I'm weirdly attracted to his presence nor that I miss being wanted by him, no. I suddenly have flashbacks of him in my head and how he pushed me that one night. Oh, hell no.

"I just want to see It again." I whisper and keep my eyes low, unable to look at Paul in the eye, "I want to see It and tell It that this time, I'm ready."

"Ready for?" Paul asks again with that tone,

Ready to tell It that I'm in, I'll give him names of children, and we can purge this city of bad kids. "Ready to face It." I lied,

"So you're researching where It lives?"

I shake my head, "No, I'm just filling my head with information, so maybe my knowledge and belief in It would bring It back." I turn the pages and continue reading,

"I don't think that'll work..."

"Well it has to." I sternly say and keep my eyes on the book. I sound desperate and crazy, I know that, but Paul asked for it. I don't care if he thinks I am. I look up at Paul who still has his hands clasped, and he moves his eyes up to me,

I can't say anything anymore, so I just glance down at the book again,

"Alissa, why don't you take a break?"

I shake my head without looking at him, "I'm fine."

"Come join me in the dance studio," Paul suggests,

"I have work to do, Paul." I say and keep rereading the lines on the book, "Maybe tomorrow."

"This is..."

I quickly tear my gaze away from the book and at him, making Paul pause, "...tiring." he finishes,

"Take your camera, like the old times. Snap your frustrations away!" He tempts me but I don't fall for it. Doesn't he get that I want to just fill myself with these books? I look around the table and realize I've been feeding myself with so much facts and history. I haven't even eaten.

Maybe he's right.

"I'll go tomorrow." I say, making Paul look at me, "But I'm hungry now."

He smirks, "Well then," he says with such an exaggerated tone of voice, "Off to a restaurant we go!"

Alissa chomps on a strip of chicken, and stabs the leaves off a salad plate, and she placed it all in her mouth then chewed. Paul watches her as she gorges on three plates slowly in front of him. He tries not to look disgusted as she feeds on a lower creature than she was.

Alissa notices this, "What?" she asks with her mouth full,

Paul raises his eyebrow at her, "Nothing. It seems you're enjoying the feast."

Alissa quickly glances at the waitress that approached her. She read her name, "Hi, Delaney, could I get another bowl of this for my friend-"

Delaney's smile turns into a surprised look when Paul suddenly interrupts Alissa, telling her that he doesn't want any. She just nods once and leaves the two alone.

Alissa shakes her head, "Don't you want some?" she sloppily offers him some, and he raises his hands in response and defense,

Pennywise was scared to think she would feed him even the slightest low-class, chicken meat. But luckily, she didn't even insist, and instead, she devoured it all in her mouth.

What an appetite this woman has, It thought to itself.

Pennywise was hungry as well, but not for human food. It was hungry for human flesh. But it had to pretend to be human in front of her,

"You sure you're not hungry?" Alissa asks, her mouth now empty,

Paul shakes his head, "I'm certain."

She pauses, squints her eyes and looks at him sharply, "Are you vegan?"

Paul furrows his eyebrows, "Vegan?"

"Yeah?"

Paul shakes his head, "What the hell's a vegan?" Pennywise suddenly sounded stern, genuinely clueless,

"A vegan's someone that doesn't eat meat."

Deep inside, Pennywise was offended. Him? A demon-alien, child-eating clown, a vegan?

"Well, I'm taking that as a no."

"Of course not!" Paul defends himself,

"Sorry," Alissa starts eating again, "I just assumed because you're an art major. You know. Liberalism and all that?"

Pennywise was definitely clueless. This was alien to It.

"Then why won't you eat?" she asks again,

Paul looks directly into her eyes, "I'm full. I've eaten." Pennywise indeed has eaten. He ate a nice, fresh, eight year old child from the far end of the city. Far enough that Alissa would not bother and would not think It's still alive,

She sips from her straw then sighs, gesturing she's finished, "Alright, then." Alissa takes a tissue to gently wipe the corners of her mouth like a real, posh lady, a lady that she was. But Pennywise observes her. It wonders how humans act. It has never spent such a long time with a human without eating It. But it wasn't surprising, knowing that she was different. She was human, but she was a different being.

Oh, Pennywise could not even say it in its own head. It had to focus on Alissa's mouth as she cleans herself up. It felt that energy whirl inside Itself again. The demon clown had a plan to lure here in, closer than she is to him, now that he was sure of what role Alissa was playing.

The clown was ready to manipulate her.