Chapter 267: The Clown in Town (Part 4)
"What is this!" Beverly was startled inwardly.
She tried to break free, but that strand of black hair was incredibly strong, dragging her hand towards the drain.
Beverly had to use her other hand to try and untangle it. But at this moment, several more strands of hair reached out from the drain, rapidly wrapping around her body.
Her neck, thighs, hair... all the way to her cheeks.
Beverly only felt a painful squeezing sensation all over her body, and a putrid sewer stench rushed into her nose.
Swoosh... Swoosh...
Two more strands of hair shot out of the sewer, wrapping tightly around the back of her head.
The balance of power was broken at this moment.
Beverly's entire body was yanked toward the sink; she could only grip the edge of the basin, struggling desperately to hold on.
"D-Dad... save me!" she whimpered.
In this critical moment, she reverted from that precocious young girl back into a helpless child, instinctively seeking help from her only relative.
But the hallway was extremely quiet, and her cries received no response.
At this time, Beverly heard a "Gurgle" sound again.
She looked tremblingly into the drain; it seemed something was surging up from inside.
She quickly got her answer.
A few streaks of bright red suddenly appeared in the sink, followed immediately by a massive amount of fresh blood spurting out from the drain.
Because she was facing the sink directly, the blood instantly splashed all over her face.
Next was the mirror, the floor, the walls, the ceiling...
The entire bathroom was dyed a bright, gruesome red.
Because of this, Beverly managed to break free from her bindings.
She slumped to the floor, continuously backing up until she hit the wall, then hugged her knees, trembling uncontrollably.
Creak...
At this time, the bathroom door was opened.
"Sweetie, what's wrong?" the man asked in a puzzled tone.
"Can't you... see it." Beverly widened her eyes, looking around aggrievedly.
But her father turned a completely blind eye to this horrifying scene.
"Why did you cut your hair? You look like a boy."
The man frowned and crouched down, gently stroking the ends of Beverly's hair.
Then he suddenly reached his hand towards the girl's chest: "What is this?"
Beverly's body shuddered, and then she realized her father had taken out that postcard.
"That's..." She hurriedly reached out to grab it, but was still a step too late.
Her father finished reading the contents on it, and the bathroom fell into a momentary silence.
"Why are you mixing with those boys?" The man's voice turned cold. "Don't you know what those guys want to do to you?"
"T-They are just my friends."
"Friends?" The man's voice suddenly rose. "You can only be my sweetie!"
Beverly closed her eyes in fear, her eyelashes fluttering slightly, but then she felt a sudden tightness around her neck.
"Look at me! You can only be my sweetie!"
"Your body, your emotions can only belong to me!"
Beverly shook her head with difficulty. In the next moment, she felt a hand grab the hem of her clothes.
"No!"
She swung her fist with all her might, punching the man in front of her right in the face.
But then, her eyes instantly widened.
She saw that face suddenly turn deathly pale, with bright red lipstick smeared at the corners of its mouth.
"Wh... what is this!"
She looked incredulous; her father's face had actually morphed into someone else's appearance, looking like... a clown.
"Beverly, come quickly into Daddy's embrace! Giggle~ Giggle~"
The man's entire face had turned into a clown's guise, emitting rapid, bizarre laughter from its mouth.
Immediately after, the laughter suddenly stopped, and the clown's expression gradually turned cold and sinister.
Drip... Drip...
Drool dripped from the corners of its mouth.
Under Beverly's despairing gaze, the monster in front of her opened its mouth.
An exaggerated angle, a maw full of sharp teeth, and... three glowing orbs floating deep within its throat.
The massive maw slowly bit toward the girl's head.
Smash!
A wine bottle suddenly smashed onto the clown's head.
It turned its head, only to be met with several more glass bottles.
For a time, the sounds of shattering echoed in the bathroom, and the clown was forced to retreat to the wall.
Only then did Beverly look toward the door.
She saw several people standing in the hallway. At the very front was a gentleman wearing a black robe, with a young girl around her age beside him.
Behind them followed five boys, all schoolmates Beverly knew from school.
"You again." The clown by the wall glared resentfully. "Why didn't I sense your approach?"
"Who knows," William said expressionlessly, placing a holy statue by the door.
Right now, from his perspective, he could tell the clown opposite him was not human.
This monster's body was filled with bizarre energy, merely locked within a human skin.
At the same time, feeling the power of Holy Light radiating from the holy statue, Pennywise revealed a ferocious expression.
But the next moment, it froze.
It saw that several iron nails had been driven into its chest at some unknown time, currently dissolving its power.
"Trespasser, this is my territory!"
Pennywise roared, drool continuously dripping down.
Immediately after, its body suddenly swelled into a ball, then shriveled up again.
During this time, its appearance also changed continuously.
A woman with a crooked face, a patient covered in sores, a zombie, Beverly's father...
At this moment, the clown was like it was performing a magic trick.
The children aside watched with surprised faces.
A moment later, the clown returned to its original appearance: red hair, a deathly pale face, and a ridiculous outfit.
Its eyes were filled with panic, constantly using its hands to pull out the iron nails in its body, but the next moment a burning sound echoed in the air.
Seeing this, Beverly hurriedly scrambled up and hid behind Judy.
"Where are the missing children," William spoke.
The clown opposite pointed at the sink.
"I bit their bodies in half and fused them all together. Giggle~ Giggle~" It actually laughed out loud after saying this.
"Georgie..."
Hearing this news, Bill clenched his fists, shouting as he was about to rush forward.
"Young man, I haven't finished asking yet." William held the boy's head down.
The clown opposite put on a "scared" look, but its gaze toward Bill was still full of greed.
"You say this is your territory, hehe..." William smiled. "Could it be that you haven't heard the name of our Wings of Vengeance?"
Judy looked weird upon hearing this, but she controlled her facial expression.
"Wings of Vengeance... I'm going to eat you!" The clown suddenly revealed a fierce look.
But under the effect of the iron nails, it could only flail its arms a few times.
"This monster doesn't have any evil aura inside its body, and I haven't found any traces of that organization along the way. Plus, there aren't any sacrifice or summoning powers around..." William thought inwardly.
"Looking at it this way... those guys really aren't in Derry town."
"What... is it." Beverly aside suddenly spoke up.
"An evil monster." Judy turned to look at the others. "The weird things you encountered before were all done by this guy."
The kids looked at each other in dismay.
Earlier, when they heard William and Judy discussing these things, they felt something was off.
"Do monsters... really exist."
Judy nodded: "Besides this kind, there are also evil spirits, demons... In short, these guys are very dangerous. If you run into them, you'll very likely die!"
Getting the truth from Judy's mouth at this moment, the children found it hard to believe.
On the other side, William took another bottle of Holy Water out of his pocket.
After pulling out the stopper, he poured a portion of it onto the clown's leg.
"Ugh... Ahhh!"
A miserable scream rang out again, but William turned a blind eye to it.
He hovered his hand over the clown, sensing the flow of power within the other party's body.
"Pity... these energies don't seem to belong to Source Power, so they can't be used to practice Holy Arts." William thought it a pity inwardly.
"Judging from its activity, this clown should also be just an energy aggregate, and all its power originates from underground."
He followed the power channel and looked toward the sink, also quickly understanding what had just happened in the room.
"What is your purpose in coming to the human world?" William said.
"The human world... purpose... Giggle~ Giggle~"
The clown seemed to have heard something ridiculous, clutching its stomach as it lay on the floor.
The children instantly felt their blood run cold, unconsciously huddling together.
Unlike them, William noticed an anomaly.
"Oh? Just before this guy opened its mouth, the energy in its body suddenly became unstable." He narrowed his eyes.
To confirm, William brought up keywords like the sewers and fear multiple times, and finally even asked about the Deadlights.
And the result held no surprises; the clown seemed unable to speak about information regarding this.
What William didn't notice was that deep inside Pennywise's throat, the three floating light orbs suddenly spun together.
Even stronger abnormal energy spilled out from them and vanished into the clown's body.
"Looks like I can't get anything out of it." William decided to give up after trying for a bit.
Next, he just needed to purify this monster and then find those missing children in the sewers... who were probably corpses now.
William sighed inwardly.
After that, he should be able to report back to Archbishop Matthew.
But before that, there were still some things to do.
William stood up and waved to the kids at the door.
The latter looked at each other and slowly moved closer.
"Judy already told you what this guy is earlier. The zombies and the crooked-faced woman you've encountered... these were all transformed by this guy."
William said as he picked up a broom in the bathroom and handed it to Bill.
"This monster feeds on human fear, which is why it keeps seeking out the children of Derry."
"Before officially purifying the monster, I can give you a chance to overcome your inner fears."
"As for those children taken by it..." William narrowed his eyes. "I roughly know where they are. Dead or alive, I will bring them back to the town."
The reason he did this was partly out of a casual act of kindness.
After all, teenagers' minds are not yet fully mature, and this was North America, a place rampant with evil.
Intense stimulation from fear would impact their psychology. If they grew up and were guided by some evil entity, North America would very likely gain a few more potential societal dangers.
William was essentially averting this risk in advance.
The other reason was for the subsequent purification.
The clown's power hadn't been completely cleared out yet. If these kids were bewitched by fear midway, they would very likely become dead weight.
William naturally wouldn't sit idly by and let that happen.
After he finished speaking, the air grew quiet for a while.
Everyone looked at Bill; after all, he was the only one present who had lost his brother.
The latter took the broom and gripped it tightly, veins bulging on the back of his hands.
Although no one explicitly said it, everyone, including Bill, believed that his brother Georgie was already dead.
It was just that Bill himself couldn't let it go.
William naturally knew what the boy was thinking.
Even though this was a reality Bill had to experience, William wouldn't expose it directly.
"By the way, when I first arrived in town, I saw a kid lying by a sewer drain. She said she was looking for her family cat," William suddenly brought this up.
"She said someone found her cat in the sewer, and as long as she got close to the drain, she could get it back..."
"At that time, that guy looked exactly like this clown right now..."
"Ahhh!"
As soon as his voice fell, Bill swung the broom and rushed in front of the clown, hitting it over the head again and again.
At first, Pennywise revealed a ferocious expression, but then it found that it couldn't sense any fear from the boy.
This time, it was the one who panicked.
Accompanied by muffled thuds, the clown's head caved inward.
It tried to recover several times to no avail, and could only stare deadly at William.
It wasn't until he was sweating profusely all over that Bill finally stopped, panting heavily.
"From beginning to end, I never thought your actions to find your brother were wrong. If he's alive, you must see the person; even if it's just a corpse, you should let his soul rest in peace." William patted Bill's shoulder.
Hearing this, Bill suddenly felt a certain place in his heart become a bit lighter.
"But... the police and the others have already given up."
"Don't worry, I will make those adults believe it." William's tone seemed quite certain.
"Then, next." He pointed at Stanley.
"M... Me?" Stanley waved his hands. "Maybe we should just forget it."
"If you want to become a Holy Clergy Member, courage is the most basic quality!"
William handed the broom to him, and then pulled the boy in front of the clown.
"But... it..."
Stanley pointed to the floor. At this time, the clown was already somewhat deformed.
"Hmph, relax, this guy has thick skin and tough flesh." William said as he injected Holy Power into the other party's body, interfering with the flow of abnormal energy.
A moment later, a crooked-faced woman appeared on the floor...
Before long, all the boys present were sweating profusely, sitting against the wall.
Beverly had been watching from the sidelines; she had already wiped the bloodstains off her body with a towel.
This was her first time seeing such a strange priest.
Instigating little boys to beat up monsters... he really came up with that.
But Beverly was somewhat envious. She felt an emotion called "Respect" from this priest.
"Your turn."
At this time, William suddenly called out.
Everyone looked at Beverly.
"I... I..."
She hesitated to act.
Recalling the scene in the bathroom just now, Beverly didn't want her friends to see that sight.
Just as she was hesitating about how to refuse, the priest suddenly walked over.
"Boys, come with me. You wait here for a moment," William waved.
"Judy, I'll leave this clown to you for now."
"Okay! I won't let it run away!"
Beverly looked confused and secretly poked Judy: "What does he want to do?"
"I don't know." Judy shook her head frankly, but there was no trace of doubt in her tone. "Everything Will does definitely has his reasons."
Seeing the unspoken understanding between Judy and the priest, Beverly felt even more disappointed.
A moment later, William returned alone.
Judy and Beverly looked over curiously.
They saw the former bring back a man wearing a worker's uniform, tied tightly all over with rope.
"Dad?"
Beverly was even more puzzled.
She had been wondering earlier—with so many people coming into the house, her father actually hadn't tried to stop them.
It turned out he had been tied up long ago...
"I've already asked the boys to wait outside. Now it's time to have a chat with this gentleman about the correct way of 'parenting'." William rolled up his sleeves.
He grabbed the collar of Beverly's father's shirt, then raised his hand.
"You don't mind if I wake him up, right?"
Before acting, William looked at Beverly again to seek the young girl's opinion.
"No... I don't mind." Beverly hurriedly waved her hands.
For some reason, she suddenly found this scene somewhat comical.
"That's good."
William wore a smile on his face, and then slapped the man hard across the face.
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