Alicia sat on the bank of the creek and pulled out her sketchbook and pencil kit. She promised herself she would celebrate the beginning of summer by trying to draw something new. She'd always loved water and the way it moved so she wanted to try to capture it on paper. But as she pressed the pencil to the paper, she was filled with a sudden dread. She closed her eyes and took a couple deep breaths to steady herself.

"You're going to have fun this summer," she promised herself before opening her eyes and starting to sketch.

She started out with the little pebbles that made up the creek bed, then moved on to the ripples and crests that made up the creek itself. She felt that familiar calm settle over her. The muscles in her hand instantly recognized what it was they had to do until it was almost as if they were moving of their own accord. She finished drawing the creek and began drawing the bank opposite her and the grass and trees beyond it. Her hand moved in an endless string of motion, etching a dark circle on the page and retracing the lines ferociously until Alicia found herself staring at a dark orb that grew blacker and blacker with each stroke of the pencil. Her fingers closed increasingly tighter around the pencil and sweat broke out on her forehead. She leaned further over her work until her nose was almost touching the paper. Suddenly her pencil snapped under the pressure of her hand and she jerked upright, sending her sketchbook flying onto the bank. She stared at it for a moment, breathing heavily. Then, casting aside her now useless pencil, she went to pick it up. She looked at the drawing for a second. She had drawn a sewer tunnel; it was one that she had passed earlier. She figured her subconscious must have regurgitated it onto the page. She closed the sketchbook and started trudging back up the creek. She didn't feel like drawing anymore.

It was when she was passing the very same sewer tunnel that she had drawn that something happened. None other than Patrick Hockstetter emerged from the trees.

"Well, well," he said, locking eyes with Alicia, "Look who it is. Creep."

Alicia turned to run but Patrick jumped forward and caught her by the hair, yanking her back. Her sketchbook fell from her hands into the creek.

"Aw, what a shame about your drawings," Patrick said, craning Alicia's neck back until she was looking straight up at him. "Tell me, you wouldn't have happened to see anyone come by here, would you? Any fat, roly-poly kids?"

"What are you talking about?" Alicia demanded, trying to ignore the biting pain in her neck.

"Don't give me that," Patrick hissed, "You know you're still just as pathetic as he is! Now tell me which way he went!"

Patrick yanked a little harder on her hair. Alicia bit her lip to keep from screaming. Her eyes flitted toward the dark sewer tunnel on her right. Patrick followed her gaze, his eyes gleaming suddenly.

"Is that where he went?"

He loosened his grip and Alicia's knees buckled, landing her up to her hips in the cool, clear creek water. Her gaze immediately snapped back toward the dark tunnel. She genuinely didn't have a clue as to who Patrick was after, but if he went in the sewer...

A horrible feeling came over her as she focused on the blackness. It seemed to be drawing her forward, like a mouth preparing to swallow her whole.

If Patrick went in the sewer...if he went in the sewer...

He'd never come out.

"Well, creep, you going to answer me or do I have to persuade you a little more?"

"Yes," Alicia said, "Yes, he went in the sewer."

"Good girl."

Alicia reached to pick up her sketchbook resting on the creek bed but she was suddenly yanked back to her feet by a fierce grip on her arm.

"Hey, I told you—"

"I know," Patrick said, "But I figured you should come along for the ride just in case you weren't being entirely honest."

He chuckled, and panic seized Alicia. She tried to pull her arm free but Patrick wouldn't let go.

"Wait, wait!" she protested as he dragged her steadily closer to the dark opening.

"What? Not afraid, are you, creep?" He let go of her arm and shoved her into the sewer tunnel. She tripped, putting out her hands to brace her fall. The stench hit her immediately and she nearly choked on it. She struggled to her feet while Patrick pulled out a lighter and a can of aerosol.

"You can go first, creep. And don't even think about trying to run away, or I'll light your hair on fire."

"Are you crazy?" Alicia snapped, "I can't see!"

Patrick shook up the aerosol can and held up the lighter in front of it, creating a burst of flame.

"Good enough for ya, creep? Get moving."

Alicia turned to stare into the passage before her, her heart thudding in her chest. It took nearly all her willpower to take the first step. She knew she had no choice but to move forward. So that's what she did. She sloshed down the tunnel, thinking she could almost hear her own heartbeat echoing against its walls. Eventually, Patrick seemed to reach a point where he felt certain that she wouldn't attempt to run away on her own and decided to take the lead. Alicia followed him; she figured it would be better than trying to find her way out on her own. The thought of being alone in those tunnels seemed like a worse option than her current situation.

"I hear ya," Patrick said suddenly.

"What?" Alicia asked, confused.

Patrick merely shushed her.

That's when Alicia saw the shapes. They looked like children, but Alicia felt there was something ominous about them. She instinctively backed away as Patrick moved closer to them.

"You found us, Patrick."

Alicia felt the hair on the nape of her neck stand on end. The voice was just a whisper, but in that moment Alicia firmly believed that what was standing before them was not children.

Patrick raised the lighter and lit up the tunnel.

Both his voice and Alicia's rose in a simultaneous scream. The children's clothes were tattered and grimy, their skin grey and decomposed. Their eyes were red and their pointed teeth were bared in horrifying smiles. They instantly leapt at Patrick, shrieking. Alicia stumbled back, tripping over her own feet and landing in the disgusting water. Patrick's screams reverberated down the tunnel; his arms thrashed wildly in an attempt to defend himself. Alicia somehow found the strength to get to her feet and start running. She had no idea which way they'd come and she wasn't about to stop and try to recover her memory. She picked one path and ran as though all hell were behind her. She didn't get too far before she was abruptly barrelled over by Patrick. He shoved her from behind and raced past her, moaning in terror.

"Patrick, no, wait, please!" Alicia cried, but he was already gone.

She looked behind her, expecting that at any moment a group of undead children would descend upon her and devour her. But all was silent. Alicia shakily got to her feet again and staggered down the tunnel. When she came to another spot where the tunnel diverged into two, she stopped a few seconds to consider which one to take. She was on the verge of breaking down into tears, but she pushed forward.

Suddenly there was a scream. It was coming from ahead. Alicia broke into a run again.

"Hello? Patrick!" she yelled.

She cursed herself for lying to him. How could she have ever wished such a horrible death on anyone, even someone like Patrick Hockstetter? If she had just told the truth, she never would have been in that terrifying situation.

"Alicia, help!"

Patrick was pressed against a thick metal grate, his face covered in blood. Alicia thought it funny that the only time he would use her name was when his life was on the line.

"I can't," Alicia said, her own calm surprising her, "You have to go back the way you came."

"No, I can't! Please!"

"There's nothing I can do!" Alicia shouted.

She froze suddenly, her eyes fixed on something just behind Patrick.

"What's that?" she hissed.

Patrick turned his head slowly, his eyes filled with utter terror. A red balloon was floating leisurely toward him. It came closer...closer. Patrick was holding his breath, and the resulting silence was sickening.

Then the balloon burst, rending the silence like a gunshot.

In a split second, Alicia was plunged back through time to a year ago. She stood in a rain-flooded street stained with blood, staring into a dark storm drain with two yellow eyes staring back at her.

It was a clown. And yet it wasn't. It was something demonic. It...

It.

It came at Patrick like a bat out of hell, its mouth opened wide to reveal rows upon rows of needle-sharp fangs. It sank its teeth into Patrick's throat, silencing his screams in an instant. Patrick dropped like a lifeless doll, all while Alicia stared in wide-eyed shock.

Then Its eyes fell on her. It grinned suddenly, blood dripping down its chin.

"Alicia," It said.

It knew her.

Alicia tried to back away but her legs folded underneath her.

She opened her mouth but it took a while for anything to come out.

"Wha-what are you?" she stammered.

"What am I?" It laughed, "I'm a dancing clown. Pennywise is my name."

Alicia crawled a little further away. The clown laughed again, its voice oddly high-pitched.

"Don't worry," It said, "We're friends, aren't we?"

"F-friends?" Alicia choked.

"I've seen your room. You're just obsessed with me, aren't you?"

"You killed Patrick." Tears started pouring from Alicia's eyes. "You killed Betty Ripsom. You...you killed Georgie Denbrough."

"And sooooo many others. They're all floating now. Everyone floats in the end. Would you like to float too, Alicia?"

It burst out into a horrific cackle. Alicia jumped to her feet and took off running, her hands clamped over her ears in an attempt to shut out the horrid noise. She ran on blindly, her vision blurred by tears. She kept on tripping but each time she fell she would get back up again. She surged onward until she realized she could feel the sun on her face again. She looked down at the creek bed and saw her sketchbook lying next to her feet. Sobbing, she knelt beside it and picked it up, flipping through the soggy pages. Every single drawing depicted the exact same thing.

Pennywise.

He was the thing that adorned the walls of her room. He was the thing she saw each night before she closed her eyes. He was the thing that invaded every corner of her mind when she was both awake and asleep.

"We're friends, aren't we?"

One thing was clear to Alicia. He wanted something from her. No, It wanted something from her.

She tucked her knees under her chin, rocking back and forth while sobs racked her frame. She wished it would end. She wished she had never come to Derry. She wished that she didn't have to spend each night afraid.

Her mind's eye showed her an image of Georgie Denbrough staring up at her with pleading eyes. She wondered if things would have been different if she had just reached out her hand and helped him.

She wondered if it was her fault he was dead.