Chapter 69: Predators and Prey
Pennywise had never imagined it would be stabbed by a human child barely reaching its waist.
The small knife—meant for peeling apples—was now embedded deep in its eye socket like a red-hot poker.
Searing pain and unprecedented humiliation ignited the malice it had accumulated over millennia.
"AAAHHH—!"
An inhuman shriek erupted from its cracked mouth, the sound waves carrying tangible force that shattered the surrounding rotted boards.
Its painted face began twisting and melting, like wax splashed with acid.
Not blood but thick, glowing yellow ichor flowed from the stabbed eye.
Emma, having landed her hit, didn't linger—she bolted back to Lily and hid behind her.
Pennywise clutched its eye, the other intact yellow orb fixed on the three "snacks" before it.
Anger, confusion, and unease it hadn't even acknowledged... it felt its power draining.
Fear. It needed fear! Without fear as fuel, it couldn't maintain this form, much less unleash its "art."
It suddenly stretched out its arm, the limb extending impossibly like rubber, reaching past Lily and Esther straight for the black-clad girl who'd wounded it—Emma.
"Your fear... let me see your FEAR!" Its voice became shrill and chaotic. "You'll see what you fear most!"
But its hand was caught mid-air by another, smaller hand.
Lily's.
Her delicate hand was now like a steel trap, locking Pennywise's transforming, clawed fingers.
"Game's not over yet. No cheating." Lily looked up, smile innocent but eyes gleaming with inhuman light—the light of a demon.
Pennywise tried to yank its hand back, only to find the opponent's strength was impossible.
It felt like it was gripping not a ten-year-old girl but an immovable mountain.
"Then let's start with YOU!" Pennywise roared, concentrating all its mental power on Lily.
The surrounding scene instantly shifted. The dilapidated building vanished, replaced by a space bathed in holy light.
A familiar figure appeared before Lily—her brother, Edward.
Edward radiated pure, warm light—light that, to a demon, was hotter and more agonizing than hellfire.
In his hands, Ebony and Ivory were aimed at her, the barrels condensing power capable of purifying all evil.
"Lily," Edward's voice echoed through the space, carrying undeniable authority. "Your existence is a mistake. Now, accept Purification."
This was the only scene buried deep in the demon's core that could make her feel... uncomfortable.
The possibility of being completely purified by that man was the only outcome she'd actively avoid.
Pennywise waited, anticipated. It waited for screams, for her breakdown, for the sweetest fear energy to flood its being.
But Lily merely tilted her head, looking at the "Edward" before her, her smile not even flickering.
"Fake," she said softly, tone flat as if commenting on tap water. "My brother's Purification smells ten thousand times better than this cheap knockoff."
She extended her other hand and lightly flicked at the phantom of "Edward."
Pop!
The entire space shattered instantly like a burst bubble.
They were still standing in the decrepit house, and for the first time, genuine terror appeared in Pennywise's remaining eye.
How is this possible? She's not afraid? How can she NOT be afraid?! This was the perfect fear it had created from the deepest core of her soul!
"The illusion's too crude," Lily shook her head, disappointment on her face. "Like steak without seasoning. Completely bland."
Pennywise's consciousness—if the collective of deadlights could be called consciousness—completely crashed.
It couldn't comprehend what was happening.
"My turn?" Esther's voice rang out. She stepped forward, the timid expression gone, replaced by Lena Klammer's calculating, adult scrutiny.
Pennywise almost instinctively turned its focus to her.
This girl—her soul was filled with anxiety about exposure and deportation back to the asylum.
Excellent material!
Instantly, the scene before Esther changed.
She was no longer in the haunted house in Derry but back in the place she hated most—the Saarne Institute in Estonia.
Cold walls. The smell of disinfectant. Doctors and nurses in white coats, expressionlessly strapping her to a hospital bed.
"Leena Klammer, you monster! You won't escape again!" A doctor-like figure pulled out a massive syringe filled with sedatives.
This was Leena's nightmare.
But standing here now was Esther, who'd already died once and found a new "family" and "purpose."
She looked at the approaching phantoms and instead of screaming, showed a cold smile tinged with pity.
"Poor thing," she said to the air, as if to Pennywise. "Your intel's outdated. I'm not the Leena who could only run anymore."
She didn't even move, just stood quietly, watching it all with the gaze of someone watching a bad performance.
The contempt and disdain in her eyes were more lethal than any physical attack.
The illusion began flickering unstably, and finally, like TV static, vanished.
Pennywise felt weak—weaker than it had in centuries.
Its proud abilities were child's play to these three girls.
Their souls were hardened, dark, self-contained—they simply didn't fall for its tricks.
They themselves WERE fear incarnate!
"Now... it's my turn, right?" Emma, who'd been silent, spoke softly.
Pennywise whipped its head around, looking at the black-clad girl who'd first attacked it.
"Let's see," Emma's lips curved into a wider smile beneath her hat brim. "What can you show me?"
Pennywise used its last reserves of strength to peer into Emma's mind.
What it saw was a void.
No love, no hate, no joy, and no fear.
Nothing. Only cold, absolute darkness and silence.
Like a black hole—any emotion entering would be swallowed without trace.
Pennywise completely broke down.
It wanted to escape. Its ancient instinct from the macroverse screamed that these three "children" were purer predators than itself!
"Leaving already?" Lily's smile became radiant. "Leave the candy behind!"
The hand gripping Pennywise's arm suddenly tightened, her five fingers sinking in.
Pennywise's body—made of light and shadow and energy—was given actual wounds by her.
"What... what ARE you?!" Pennywise shrieked in terror.
"We're here to collect," Lily said, opening her cherry-like mouth.
An irresistible suction force emanated from her.
Pennywise felt something being violently ripped from its body.
Its most precious sustenance—pure fear energy absorbed from countless victims in this town over centuries!
Countless twisted, screaming soul phantoms were torn from Pennywise's form, forming a gray-black torrent that surged into Lily's mouth.
That energy was Pennywise's power source, but for Lily, it was supreme delicacy.
"Mmm... so rich... lots of vintage terror mixed with modern anxiety... aged nicely..." Lily let out a satisfied sigh, her small face flushing unnaturally from absorbing massive amounts of negative emotions.
Pennywise's body shriveled and dissipated at visible speed.
Its clown form began collapsing, transforming into a mummy, a werewolf, a giant spider... all the forms it had used to terrorize—but now their appearance only represented instability and weakness.
Finally, all forms disappeared, leaving only an indescribable orange-yellow glowing substance—a faint projection of deadlights.
"We'll meet again... you'll all float..." A faint, resentful voice echoed in the space.
Then the ball of light rapidly dimmed and finally vanished completely into the air.
The entire decrepit building fell silent.
The centuries-old stench of decay and malevolent aura dissipated with it.
Lily let out a satisfied burp and wiped her mouth.
Emma tucked her paring knife back into her pocket.
Esther walked to the window, looking at the still-bustling street outside.
"Alright," Esther turned back, smiling. "Our trick's done. Time to go home."
MEANWHILE
Edward's Fenrir roared down the street toward Neibolt.
He could feel the dark energy signature—ancient, hungry, malevolent.
Pennywise. It's gotta be Pennywise.
And three other signatures he knew all too well.
Those three idiots found IT. Or IT found them.
He twisted the throttle harder, the engine screaming.
As he rounded the corner onto Neibolt Street, he felt the ancient presence... flicker. Weaken.
Then vanish entirely.
Edward slowed the bike, confusion replacing urgency.
The house at 29 Neibolt Street stood there—still decrepit, still ominous.
But the malevolent aura that had hung over it for over three decades was... gone.
Three small figures emerged from the front door, walking down the rotting porch steps.
Lily, Emma, and Esther.
All three looked completely fine. Lily was even humming to herself.
Edward pulled up and killed the engine, staring at them.
"What the hell did you three do?"
Lily looked up at him with innocent eyes and smiled sweetly.
"Trick or treat, big brother! We collected lots of candy tonight!"
Emma said nothing, just adjusted her hat.
Esther smiled that angelic smile that never quite reached her eyes.
Edward looked from them to the house and back again.
The house that had terrorized Derry for centuries. The lair of an ancient evil that fed on fear itself.
And these three had just... what? Walked in and cleared it out like pest control?
"You know what?" Edward said finally, shaking his head with dark amusement. "I don't even want to know. Get on. We're going home."
As the three climbed onto the bike behind him, Edward glanced back at 29 Neibolt Street one last time.
Wherever Pennywise went—if it's even still alive—it picked the wrong goddamn town this time.
The Fenrir roared to life, carrying the four of them away into the Halloween night.
Behind them, 29 Neibolt Street stood empty and silent.
For the first time in over thirty years, it was just a house.
Nothing more.
[Reader Event Active]
500 Power Stones = +2 Extra Chapters
10 Reviews = +1 Extra Chapter
Thanks for reading!
20+ advance chapters on P2treon DarkFoxx