Buttercup | r. tozier

↠ prologue ↞

August 1988

Fireflies were dancing in circles around the garden, illuminating the soft hues of the flowers and bushes in the middle of the twilight that gradually darkened. Jasmine admired the dreamy atmosphere as the violets, trillium, columbines, lupines, asters, and lilies were slowly closing their petals to sleep and the moonflowers were awakened by the touch of the moonlight. Not long, Auntie Lily was back from her kitchen, bringing two glasses of lemonade on a tray to wind down this very hot day. The two then sat on the crisp grass like they were on the picnic. It felt like home to Jasmine, and the feeling of loneliness about her parents on a mandatory business trip to the other side of the world was just gone the moment Auntie Lily was in her presence. It was heaven for her, for as long as she can remember.

“Auntie Lily, what are we going to do now?” Jasmine asked, not knowing what to do next. “Are we going to learn a new plant?”

Auntie Lily, as jolly as ever, replied with a raspy, but kind voice, “Ah, Moony, you are one curious child, my dear. You are growing so fast, and you will be twelve in a few months. And of course, you are going to learn a new plant today.”

“So what is it, Auntie?” Jasmine's inquisitive eyes glimmered with interest. “Is it a flower?”

“No, but good guess,” Auntie Lily answered as she showed Jasmine two poison ivy plants, “we are going to learn about the poison ivy plant and its leaves.”

“Poison ivy?” Jasmine asked as her brow furrowed, “I never heard of that before, so tell me about it.”

Auntie Lily let out a gentle cough before speaking. “The poison ivy plant is a plant that is pretty common here in Derry. It is famous for giving an unlucky person painful itches.”

“Ouch, that must hurt for them,” Jasmine said with a grimace, “Can the rashes get worse?”

“As long as you have lotions and creams for rashes, you should be…”

All of a sudden, the fireflies were no longer hovering around above the garden. Gusts of wind began to blow from all directions, and the warm summer air quickly turned cold. Strange noises could be heard from anywhere as they invade the peace that Jasmine and Auntie Lily experienced.

Sensing something very sinister was lurking behind their backs, Auntie Lily, without a second thought, whispered to Jasmine, “Go now, Jasmine. Go back to your home.”

Jasmine didn't quite understand what had just happened, but time did not give mercy for her brain to process. She did what Auntie Lily told and quietly ran away from the house through the front door.

Auntie Lily looked to her back and saw a pair of gangling red eyes glaring at her. She tried to remain composed, but was terrified internally. Despite all that, she was ready to fight the mysterious creature.

She said sternly to the creature, “If you take another step, you will surely get hurt.”

However, Auntie Lily did not expect the creature to transform into a clown in the blink of an eye. She was shocked by it, but she refused to express any feeling of fear on her face.

“Oh, it’s you, Pennywise, what are you doing here?”

“It’s good to see you, Lily. And what am I doing here? I am here to tell you that me and my circus are blown away by a windstorm. Would you like to go there with me? I promised to give you the best flowers that you have ever seen,” Pennywise replied as he handed out a bouquet of poppies from out of the blue.

Auntie Lily gave a second to think how to respond before she boldly refused Pennywise, rubbing the leaves of an ivy plant on its hands and neck, inflicting red blotches that began to take on the clown’s pallid skin. Pennywise shrieked loudly in pain when Auntie Lily’s hands held on to the poison ivy leaves, preparing to harm the creature further. Auntie Lily then approached the enraged clown, making a tight fist with the leaves in between.

Auntie Lily voiced her anger towards the clown, “I don’t care if I die, but if you keep on hurting these children, I’m telling you, you’ll be dead in their hands!”

She went on to punch Pennywise’s nose, spreading the itch to its face. However, when her fist first landed on its nose, the clown revealed its foul mouth that contained its nightmarish teeth. In an instant, the clown forcefully grabbed her arm and viciously bit it off. A barrage of screams escaped Auntie Lily’s mouth as the clown continually attacked her. The clown once again devoured her other arm from her torn body. The echoes of her yelling in terror were further amplified as there was no rain.

“Pl-please let me live…” Auntie Lily’s voice croaked as death was putting her into an eternal sleep. Pennywise then dragged the old lady’s corpse to a nearby sewer when the rashes started to hurt him inside out.

At a safe distance away, Jasmine was running with all her might, away from the horrors happening in the usually blissful place. She stopped and silently panted, looking back to see if there was someone chasing her. She saw no one, but a bloody hand poking out of a sewer several yards away. It was covered with blood, and holding an ivy plant. At that moment she knew that Auntie Lily was forever gone as tears built up in her eyes. However, what horrified her the most was the blood mixed with the leftover rainwater from hours ago. The ferrous liquid sent her mind into an uncontrollable frenzy. Several pants slowly escaped from her lips. 

"An dwae!" (1) she murmured as her breathing became heavier.

"I must get back home soon, no matter what," Jasmine quietly told herself when a bout of seizure suddenly hit her. Her legs kept on running, even if they were jaded from the previous run. Her eyes were set on her home, which was not far away from where she was. After her last foot set itself on her home, Jasmine then collapsed due to the overbearing exhaustion shown on her aghast face. She knew she was at last home when she saw a silhouette of a man and a woman in their uniforms running to get her before her eyes slowly closed.

-

Note

(1) "An dwae!" (안 돼) means "Oh, no!"