Robert Gray. Pennywise.

The screech of the bus's brakes announced my arrival in Derry, a city shrouded in an atmosphere of gloom and mystery. Maine greeted me with gray skies and the smell of rotting leaves, a far cry from my rosy dreams of a new chapter in my life.

Every day in Derry felt like a page was being torn from the book of life. Children disappeared without a trace, and the police threw up their hands. At school, whispers of a monster, of a curse, were circulated, but no one dared speak out. Robert Gray – Tall, with a shock of dark hair and eyes that sparkled with mischief and something… sinister. He seemed the complete opposite of everything dark I'd seen in Derry. Robert was sociable, witty, and, what disturbed me most, surprisingly knowledgeable about the darker sides of the city's history.

One day, while walking through an abandoned part of the city, Robert took me to an old sewer pipe. "You know," he said slowly, "a boy was once found drowned here. They say he saw something terrible before he died." His eyes became unnaturally bright for a moment, and in that moment I felt an animal fear.