Creatures On Fire

I'm Not Afraid of You (IT)

Jenna Hill

"Finally."

Jenna let out a long, exhausted sigh. The last day had been pretty stressful for her, and all she wanted to do now was push all thoughts out of her mind and just rest. Moving to another city is difficult, especially if you were going to stay there for a while, maybe even live there.

This was her first night in Derry. Jenna hoped the next day would go better than the first one.

She had to move to this town because of work. Jenna had been trying to apply for a job in many places, but each time she got a negative response, or didn't get one at all. She put her CV on several employment websites and waited for someone to contact her, hoping for the best.

The only thing that didn't make her too happy was the population, so typical for a small town. There were too many curious people around, and soon after her arrival, Jenna had so many visits from her new neighbors, who came to greet her and then bombard her with questions about where she came from and what her life story was.

Jenna sighed. This was making her tired. Sure, those people were friendly, but all those visits were starting to annoy her.

But that wasn't the weirdest part, though.

Almost everyone she spoke to looked baffled by her arrival to Derry. Judging by their looks, they thought moving to this town was a crazy idea. And each time Jenna asked for a reason, all she got in response was stuttering and a swift change of the topic.

To hell with all of it, Jenna thought. If they didn't want to talk about it, she wasn't going to pry. It pretty much looked like a superstition, so she would just ignore it. In small towns like this, superstitious people weren't a rarity.

Later things got even weirder. As Jenna was on her way to a new workplace, she spotted a strange guy in a white clown costume. He was holding a bunch of red balloons in his left hand; and although a large distance separated them from each other, Jenna knew he was looking at her and waving. She smiled and waved back.

Great. One more weirdo in this town. What's going to be next?

Strangely enough, no one was paying attention to the clown. People passed him, and no one even turned around. It almost seemed like the clown was invisible to them. It was all so bizarre. But whatever. Jenna shrugged and continued her way. She didn't want to be late. If she created the best impression about herself, it would only play in her favor.

But as she arrived to her new place of employment, things got clearer and creepier. Jenna had to meet her new boss in person and get everything prepared, so she could start working on Monday. The boss, Mr. Mulligan, seemed to be a pleasant person. He was happy to have a new employee at his company, so he was eager to meet Jenna and discuss all the important things she would have to do.

Jenna smiled to herself. It seemed like a good start. But then things changed. As all the paperwork and other formalities were out of the way, Mr. Mulligan said he was, in fact, surprised that she'd chosen to come to Derry. Jenna rolled her eyes. Here we go again... She was already fed up with the strange behavior of the locals, so she dared to demand explanations. Just like the others, Mr. Mulligan knew something. It was clear to Jenna that something was obviously going on in Derry, and the townspeople were either embarrassed or scared to talk about it. Mr. Mulligan then opened one of the drawers and silently handled her a newspaper. Jenna took it, giving her boss a suspicious look. The article on the first page made her raise an eyebrow.