Red as Blood

(Note: This chapter is a bit more MATURE than the last 3. Rated Teen and up!)

IT was awake – thanks to a fire that consumed an apartment complex. Seven adults and five children had perished, giving Pennywise a surge of energy only 8 years after the battle with the Losers Club. And, now that it was awake, it was eager to torment them once again. Especially its LITTLE BUDDY.

A grin spread over its ruby lips as it rose from the depths of the well. Stepping down, it

S

T

U

M

B

L

E

D

HEAD over HEELS,

landing hard on its stomach. A growl tore from the clown's throat as it picked itself up on unsteady legs. Those – CHILDREN – had done this! Its strength was still mending, along with its most beloved form.

The ancient creature cast its golden gaze over its lair. The mountain of trophies had crumpled to the ground without energy to sustain it. Its little floating companions were nothing more than bones and dust. IT was furious, but well aware of its current, weakened state. For now, it would focus its attention on gathering its strength in ways that did not draw too much attention.

The man had followed him out of the bar, Bill noted. He smelled of beer and arousal, but was clearly not too overly intoxicated. No, this construction worker was simply used to getting what he wanted whenever he wanted.

Bill shoved his hands deeper into his leather jacket pockets, ducking his head to avoid his stalker's gaze. It didn't work. The man's footsteps didn't falter, and he heard the guy shout, "Hey, kid!" at the exact moment he slipped into the dark alleyway behind the long-since boarded up meat shop.

"Hang on a sec, darlin'." Bill turned, his green eyes adjusting quickly to the darkness around him. The older man stepped into a patch of moonlight, a lazy smirk on his lips.

"I told you I w-wasn't interested," the young man insisted, wincing internally at the stutter in his own words. It always made self-absorbed men like 'Dave' assume he was younger than his license said he was.

"Don't be like that. You wouldn't have been in that kind of a bar if you weren't lookin' for a good time," the man stated, his hand drifting down to grab his crotch through his jeans.

"You're awfully p-presumptuous," Bill snarked back.

"Tell you what, cutie. You give old Davie a nice little blowjob, and he won't have to mess up your pretty face. What do you say?"

Bill grit his teeth, feeling the bile rising up in his throat at the thought of submitting to such an arrogant prick. But this wasn't the first time a guy like this tried to follow him home. Might as well get this over with.

Deft fingers slid the zipper of his jacket down, before slipping it off his shoulders. With a sigh, he tucked it around the other side of the garbage bin, in the cleanest spot he could find. "I hate to get this jacket dirty."

"That's more like it," the older man chuckled, already undoing his belt as he walked closer.

"Well, I do hate to harm children," Bill announced, shrugging his shoulders. "I'd much rather DEVOUR assholes like you!" One of his eyes turned as black as night, the only color coming from his now-glowing crimson pupil. Tendrils of what looked like raw muscle burst from his back, tearing through his shirt with ease.

"Y-you're a-a-a GAACK!"

"Actually, it's pronounced ghoul, Dave. Did you really think anyone would be stupid enough to let themselves be… oh, you're dead." Bill glanced around for any witnesses, before wrapping his arms around the man's limp form. He dragged the man close to the boarded-up back door of the meat shop. To outsiders, it seemed completely sealed. Thankfully for Bill, he'd managed to break in a while ago, and had been using it as his personal feeding room ever since. It was the perfect place to dispose of the blood and body parts, along with his ruined clothing.

"I need a better job. I go through more shirts than any guy I know," the young man grumbled to himself, as he slid open the door and yanked the man's corpse inside.

There, in the darkness, surrounded by the smell of old meat and bleach, Bill cast aside what humanity he had left. There was no one to judge him as he ripped open the man's chest and began to pull out the tastiest of organs. If he was careful, he could make this meal last for a month before having to hunt again.

A rustle from behind him was the only warning Bill had before long arms wrapped around his chest, yanking him back against the tall form of someone that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"What the hell?" Bill swore, struggling against the other person. The familiar scent of decay and blood, peppered with hints of popcorn and cotton candy, permeated his overly-sensitive nostrils, bringing with it the memory of his little brother's killer.

"Hey, Billy-boy. Long time, no see! What's a nice boy like you doing in a place like this?" the clown asked, its voice slithering up Bill's spine.

"P-Pennywise. I t-thought you w-were…"

"Dead?" A clawed hand tightened around the young man's throat, forcing him to freeze in place. "Not by a long shot, little buddy. But what new development is this?" The ancient creature grinned at the body ripped apart on the floor in front of them.

Bill jerked back, only managing to push closer to monster, as the clown's other hand turned his chin to the side, fingers brushing over his blood-stained lips. The crimson liquid soaked into its ivory gloves, but Bill could see, from the corner of his eye, that Pennywise was amused.

It released his chin, and proceeded to drag its hand up to its mouth to suck at the blood-covered fingertips with a gusto. "Delicious."

"S-shut u-up! I d-don't h-have a c-choice, like y-you do. At l-least I d-don't eat kids!" Bill hissed, trying to shove the other creature off of him. It didn't work. The clown wrapped its arms around him again, like an anaconda squeezing its prey.

"Didn't answer my question, little buddy. WHAT are you?" the monster asked, a rumble of amusement building up in its chest as it held Bill close.

"I'm a…" Bill's eyes widened as a stray thought lit up in his brain. Perhaps he was finally strong enough to defeat the creature. Tendrils burst from his back as his eyes bled to black and crimson, once more.

"Ooooh, how fun!"

"What the fuck?" Bill turned to see that the clown had slipped away at the last second, and was now clapping its gloved hands at the sight before it.

"Ghouls don't live in Derry. They're normally scared away by my presence. They are such lovely creatures, aren't they, Billy-boy…" Pennywise purred, teeth sharping as it studied Bill from afar.

"I b-bet I can k-kill you now," Bill stated, his tendrils writhing in anticipation behind him.

"Silly child. Not even a ghoul can kill me. But you are a much more appealing prize than you were as a human. Almost worthy of MY attention," the ancient creature insisted, stalking close enough to loom over the shorter man.

"Appealing? Wait! Are you hitting on me?" Bill asked, hoping that he was just reading the situation wrong entirely. Please let me be wrong, he thought to himself.

The clown just smirked, showing off row after row of razer-sharp teeth, before it trotted off to rip the arm off the dead man on the ground. "Thanks for the meal, little buddy. Let's go on another date soon."

"This wasn't a date! And its gone… typical," Bill grumbled as the clown disappeared into the shadows at the other end of the room. His still-dark eyes drifted to the corpse on the ground, before he started searching for his hidden bag of plastic containers. If he was lucky, Pennywise would forget about him, and go back to sleep for another 25 years.

Note: I took another shot at the ghoul-Billy request