The Road to Maine is Bloody Part 14

Ashley dipped her fingers into her black slacks and pulled out a small object, dropping it into Stephen’s hand. Stephen looked down to see what it was and his mouth went dry. In his palm was a small piece of red yarn, a part of a bigger piece belonging to something and underneath was a silver metal loop like for a button attached to it.

The back part was broken in half and stained in what looked like blood. Stephen stared at it as if it held all the answers before looking at Ashley with bewilderment. “You didn’t by chance notice anything odd about Pennywise in your dream did you? Like something missing from him or changed.”

Ashley bit her lower lip, searching her mind for some clue she perhaps missed in her dream, then it struck her. “His bottom button was missing, that puffy thing clowns always have and there was a red stain there, like blood.”

Stephen curled his hand into a fist, tightening his fingers around the broken button. “I’m almost sure that this is part of it but how can it be, it was just a dream.” He said that last part softly as if he weren’t sure now and suddenly stood up and walked to the desk, picking up a small sketch pad.

He handed it to her and when Ashley looked at it, her jaw dropped. It was a charcoal sketch of Pennywise and his eyes glowed that same yellow light and his teeth were pointed, soaked in a liquid she knew was blood even though the picture was black and white. And when she looked down, his costume had the bottom button missing and there was the same stain she just described to him. ”Oh my god, that’s exactly what I saw in my dream but how did you know?” She looked at him and back at the drawing, not believing what was on the paper was real.

“That was my first image I had of Pennywise and I drew this a week before writing my novel IT to see if I could capture the picture I had of him. Your mother used to tell me that she often dreamt of Pennywise and in the dream he would always kill her. She said he looked just like this. She also told me she had the same dreams of him when she was a child, same age as your first dream about him.” He told her and Ashley felt sick to her stomach and she dropped the pad to the floor.