Pennywise's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

The three children reached their homes and did not stay quiet. By morning, the whole town knew Pennywise's tricks. The red balloons showed lies, they said. The faces in them were not real. Fear was his weapon, and a warned town could not be fooled twice. Pennywise felt it from inside his tent. The dread that once poured down his shaft had thinned to nothing. His light dimmed. The blood moon was close, and he was starving. He still had Marilyne. She sat in the empty carousel ring, arms wrapped around her knees. Pennywise circled her slowly. "They're telling everyone," she said. Her voice shook, but she lifted her chin. "You can't scare them anymore. They know." Pennywise smiled wider. He needed a new plan. One frightened girl could not feed him. But the town outside had grown proud. Proud people were careless. He would use their own boldness against them. He reached into the air and pulled down a single red balloon. Inside it floated a face Marilyne knew. "Watch," he whispered. Outside the tent, a blond woman in a police uniform stood at the front of a small crowd. Officer Cassidy Brooks had come to end the clown for good. She held her pistol steady and waved the townspeople back. "Stay behind me," she called. "He's just tricks. I'll drag him out myself." Five civilians clustered behind her, pointing at the tent flap, shouting for her to go in. Two men stood frozen at the edge, mouths open, too scared to move. But the crowd's courage pushed Cassidy forward. She stepped through the flap alone. Inside, the tent was dark and cold. Cassidy swept her gun across the ring. "Marilyne? Where are you?" "Here," Marilyne cried. "Don't come closer. It's a trap." Too late. The flap sealed shut behind Cassidy. The dark shaft yawned open between her and the girls. Pennywise stepped from the shadows, smile stretched ear to ear. He held the red balloon out. The face inside was Cassidy's own mother. Cassidy fired. The bullet passed through him like smoke. Her hands began to shake. The proud officer who marched in to save the town was now alone with him, and no crowd could see her fear. That private terror was sharp and real. It rushed down the shaft, and Pennywise's light flared bright again. "Brave," he purred. "So sure of yourself. They sent you to prove I was nothing. Now they'll wait, and no one will come." Cassidy backed toward Marilyne. The two women stood together in the ring, trapped. Outside, the crowd waited for the officer to walk out victorious. She would not. Pennywise fed on Cassidy's fear all through the night. But her fear alone still wasn't enough. He had turned the town's courage into a weapon. Now he had two guests, and a town that believed its bravest had failed. Their new fear was already spreading outside.