Chapter 266: The Clown in Town (Part 3)
"Stanley, where did you go! I thought you got dragged off for a circumcision and were stuck in bed now!" yelled a boy wearing glasses.
"Don't... don't talk nonsense, Richie! I had a special mission!" Stanley straightened his back and secretly glanced at Judy.
Judy lowered her head and curled the corners of her mouth up, then resumed her calm expression when she looked up again.
At this time, the boy with glasses also noticed the new girl and froze in place.
The other two boys also seemed a bit nervous.
"Uhm... Hi, are you new here? I... I'm Richie."
"I'm B-B-Bill."
"I... am Eddie."
The three introduced themselves in turn.
"Hello, my name is Judy." Judy brushed her hair and smiled in greeting.
Thump-thump... Thump-thump...
This scene made all three boys' hearts race.
"I'm not a student here. I came with..."
Judy turned her head, but couldn't spot William. After looking around, she finally saw him near the small slope by the drainage outlet.
"I came with my b—friend!"
She pointed at William. She originally wanted to say 'brother' but changed her words at the last second.
"We are here to investigate the disappearances in town."
The word "disappearances" made Bill's heart sink.
His younger brother had gone missing a few months ago. The police concluded he had fallen into the sewer and closed the case as a death. Even his father had given up searching.
But Bill hadn't given up, continuously trying to find traces of his brother.
He did this because his brother's disappearance was largely his fault.
It was pouring rain at the time, but his brother still wanted to go out and play with a paper boat, so he asked Bill to make him one.
If Bill hadn't folded that boat, maybe his brother wouldn't have...
Bill took a deep breath, looked at Judy, and said, "D-d-did you guys find anything?"
"Hmm... You'll have to ask Will to find out!"
Judy opened her mouth, but remembering William's usual instructions, she ultimately didn't tell the boys about the exorcism.
So, the group walked together toward the figure squatting at the base of the tree.
When William turned around, he just happened to meet the gazes of these children.
"You want to go into the drain to find someone?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Y-y-yes." Although Bill stuttered slightly, his eyes were very firm. "A-a-according to the structure of the town's s-sewer system, if someone fell in, they'd v-very likely be washed... to this place."
William nodded thoughtfully: "A very reasonable deduction."
Bill's eyes lit up upon hearing this.
He had brought this up with his friends and his father multiple times, but none of them believed him.
"But do you plan to just go in like this?"
William's next words quickly deflated Bill's mood.
"Since this is a drainage outlet and it's located on the edge of the riverbed, what if the water level rises after you go in?"
"Have you prepared a map for exploring the town's sewers? What if you get lost?"
"Food, water, light sources... how will you save yourselves if you get trapped? What if it's filled with toxic gases..."
Following this string of questions, Bill and the others realized how reckless their plan was.
The boys were instantly left speechless.
Judy giggled secretly from the side.
"I know all these 'safety measures'!" she thought to herself.
William was indeed dissuading these kids.
He knew his brother's disappearance had a huge impact on Bill, but straightforward dissuasion would only backfire.
Of course, normally he would only offer a word of advice, and whatever happened next had nothing to do with him.
But right now, the abnormal energy inside the drain was highly active. These kids going in would be no different from throwing their lives away, and it might even increase the clown's power.
When he came down the slope earlier, he had already set up a few magic arrays nearby to prevent any sudden outbursts of power.
Judging from the original plot and his observations of the scene, this was definitely one of the entrances leading to the clown's lair.
Seeing the kids stay silent, William ignored them and waved Judy over.
The two quickly walked to the woods opposite the drain and each took out a monocular telescope.
"What do you see."
"Hmm... There's a lot of debris at the entrance, mostly clothes and stuff... The missing people are very likely inside..."
"The power in the tunnel is very likely to affect the body. If we choose to enter from here, we must first test the consumption rate of the holy artifacts..."
The boys had followed them over.
Hearing the two discussing profound and obscure topics, they immediately felt a sense of awe.
Especially Judy—her expert-like demeanor left a deep impression on the boys.
"...That power seems to extend outside too, but I... I can't see it clearly," Judy pouted in frustration.
"You'll be able to see it after cleansing your eyes for a bit longer," William smiled.
"For now, you've done a very good job."
"Thanks for the compliment!" Judy's cheeks flushed slightly.
The boys stared in a daze; they had never been treated like this.
"Then... are we going in to do the experiment now?" Judy looked at William and asked.
At this moment, a voice suddenly echoed from the drainage outlet opposite them.
William instantly frowned.
"Help me... Merciful Father... Help us..."
"Beautiful lady... can you help me..."
Judy also looked serious, her hand instinctively gripping her crucifix tightly.
The boys behind them also heard the abnormal sounds.
"Bill? Are you out there..."
Bill's heart immediately leaped, and his breathing grew rapid: "Georgie?"
"Hey Ben! Do you want to explore with me? I want to write about our adventure together in the high school yearbook..."
Ben narrowed his eyes, wondering inwardly: "That sounds like Beverly's voice."
She was Ben's classmate and the first girl to ever initiate a conversation with him.
It seemed everyone heard the voice they desired most in their hearts.
Seeing this, William activated the power of the magic array.
A flash of holy light swept past, and only the sound of flowing water remained in the surroundings.
"Georgie?"
Bill looked frantic, standing up to rush out.
"Before you go in, aren't you going to say a final goodbye to your friends?" William said in a flat tone.
"What?" Bill turned around in confusion.
"The voices coming from inside are clearly abnormal, just like those weird things you've encountered before."
Golden patterns surfaced in William's eyes as he carefully observed the people present.
"If you insist on seeking death, you might as well say a proper goodbye to your friends first. That way, when your life comes to an end, you won't have any regrets."
Bill instantly froze in place.
"Bill... The voice I heard was my mom's. She said I sneaked out behind her back to a place full of germs again..." the boy Eddie said, "But no Georgie."
Ben hesitated for a moment, then also spoke up: "I heard Beverly's voice."
"I didn't hear Georgie either..."
With the corroboration of his friends, Bill finally regained his calm.
"Then... what should we do." He looked disappointed.
"Find the police," William said.
The voices just now were clearly a bait cast by the clown. But aside from that, these voices were also meant to cover up something else.
William looked toward the corner of the entrance.
There was a slender channel of spirit particles there, extending underwater all the way towards the center of the town.
And right now, a chaotic energy was transmitting outward from within it.
It seemed the clown was also selecting a new target while dealing with them.
William guessed that perhaps their encounter when he first entered the town had made Pennywise vigilant, which was why the entity hadn't acted rashly along the way. But after he found the drainage outlet and set up the magic arrays, the other party suddenly launched this low-level bewitchment.
Could this mean Pennywise had some apprehension towards Father William?
Or... was the Deadlights' power behind it not enough to deal with Church holy artifacts yet?
Regardless of whether these guesses were correct, William didn't plan to enter the sewer right now.
Instead, he activated the magic array again, completely sealing off the power fluctuations at the entrance.
This way, Pennywise had one less "hole" to use.
William wanted to force the other party step by step, making this clown react first.
After ensuring there were no problems with the surrounding arrangements, he looked in the direction the energy was moving.
"Now... let's go see which victim it chose."
Derry Town, Residential Area.
A teenage girl was walking along the road. She had a pair of blue eyes and long brown hair that shone smoothly in the sunlight. Just looking at her, one could feel the aura of youthful vitality.
But pedestrians on the sidewalk gave her strange looks as they passed by, covering their noses and distancing themselves.
The girl looked gloomy, constantly wiping stains off her long dress with a tissue.
"I'll have to get a new dress again, but maybe it's better to just go home like this..." Beverly sighed.
Recalling earlier, she had been smoking in the school bathroom. But Greta, the school's queen bee, actually brought her gang of followers and found her.
The other party's words were full of insulting terms.
The reason...
Naturally, it was saying she had no friends, had slept with many boys in school, was a slut, a bitch...
But Beverly knew very well that Greta was just secretly jealous.
Thinking of this, Beverly's eyes grew disappointed.
"Is it... really wrong... that I like to dress up..."
After wiping the surface of her backpack clean, she slowly unzipped it.
"Phew... Thank goodness it didn't get dirty."
Inside lay a pack of sanitary pads, which she had bought with money she had carefully saved up.
She hadn't had a mother since she was little and had always lived with her father.
The money her father gave her was pitifully little, let alone for things only girls would encounter.
Therefore, Beverly could only eat less and use her saved-up pocket money to buy the things she wanted.
As for those cigarettes...
She "stole" them from those grown-up uncles.
Beverly had noticed some things a long time ago; those uncles always stared at her with weird looks.
This made her feel very uncomfortable.
To vent her frustration, Beverly chose to take their cigarettes away.
After all, those uncles seemed to really like the stuff.
Later, she also tried it out of curiosity.
At first, it tasted terrible! Beverly found it hard to imagine anyone liking this taste.
But gradually, she seemed to understand something.
Whenever she was bullied at school, or when she was usually alone.
Or... when she was at home.
Cigarettes could always make her temporarily forget her troubles.
Thinking of this, she lit another cigarette.
"Phew... I hope he's not home."
...
Not long after.
Beverly arrived in front of a house.
She took a deep breath and gently opened the door.
After putting her backpack down, she took out the pack of sanitary pads, and then tiptoed across the hallway.
As she was about to pass the living room, Beverly's heart beat faster and faster.
"Not home... not home..." she kept muttering to herself.
Then she slowly peeked her head out. Only the TV was on in the living room; there was no one on the sofa.
Beverly instantly breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly walked quickly towards the bathroom.
Just as she reached the door, a figure suddenly appeared in front of her.
"Hi... Dad." Beverly's heart instantly skipped a beat.
"Hi, sweetie."
A man with short hair blocked the light in the hallway, half of his face hidden in the shadows.
But from the other half of his face, one could see the man staring straight at Beverly.
"What are you holding?" The man noticed the thing in the girl's hands.
Beverly glanced at her father, then lowered her head, forcing herself to say: "Just... some stuff."
"What stuff?"
The man seemed dissatisfied with this answer and snatched the item from the girl's hands.
After reading the words written on it, the man suddenly smiled.
He stared at the girl for a while, then gently placed one hand on her neck.
Beverly's body trembled, but she didn't dare to move.
Immediately after, the man's other hand grabbed the back of her head.
Hiss~
A strong smell of alcohol rushed into her nose. Beverly felt her father's deep breathing from above her head.
Just as she was at a loss for words, she heard her father cough.
"Why did you get yourself so dirty!" the man scolded.
"Go wash up immediately!"
The man frowned, pushing Beverly's head and shoving her toward the bathroom.
Pant... Pant...
Beverly faced the mirror, her hands trembling constantly.
Her eyes in the mirror were red and teary.
Even though there was a weird smell in her hair, if you ignored that, this head of brown hair was still very beautiful.
But... Beverly didn't feel happy. Perhaps it was exactly because of this long hair that she was bullied by Greta at school, and let her father...
Thinking of this, she picked up the scissors nearby.
Snip... Snip...
Before long, the sink was full of fallen hair.
The running water washed these strands of hair down the drain, and teardrops also flowed from the corners of Beverly's eyes.
She dragged her heavy body and sat in the bathtub, taking a postcard out of her pocket.
She had found this in her textbook. Beverly didn't know whose prank it was.
But after reading the words on it, she was suddenly stunned.
"Your hair is winter fire, January embers. My heart burns there, too."
This was obviously from someone with a secret crush on her.
Beverly had never received such a poetic letter, and it was about her hair.
In the past, when walking in school, those boys' gazes were only on her chest and thighs.
She clutched the postcard to her chest, fantasizing about the writer's appearance.
"Should I... not have cut my hair..." she muttered.
"Yes!"
A response suddenly echoed in the bathroom.
Beverly's body instantly shuddered, and she hid the postcard behind her back.
She looked toward the door; her father wasn't there.
"We are down here!" The voice rang out again.
Beverly looked in the direction the sound came from; it seemed to be coming from the sink.
"Beverly, help us..."
"We all really want to see you..."
"We all float down here..."
Beverly looked down the drain; it was pitch black inside.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"Veronica... Betty Ripsom..."
Beverly frowned.
She was very familiar with these names; they were all kids who had recently gone missing.
She pondered for a moment, then tiptoed to the living room to fetch a measuring tape.
But even when the tape measure reached its maximum length, it didn't touch the bottom of the drain.
So Beverly had to pull the tape measure out.
But to her surprise, the bottom of the tape brought up a clump of bloodstained hair.
Beverly immediately frowned.
But the next moment, that clump of hair seemed to come alive.
A pitch-black strand of hair extended from it, wrapping around Beverly's wrist like a tentacle.
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