Arrival (Pennywise x OC)

Chapter 4

The sky was void of any cloud coverage, and the sun shined brightly in their faces as they walked to the grocery store the next morning. The environment around them appeared to be delightful and unassuming, no initial signs apparent of what had taken place only hours earlier. It was only when they got closer to downtown and could see the black smoke curling towards the clear blue sky that there was evidence of anything amiss. Ana had every intention of trying to find out more about the school fire once she and Robert got into town. Derry being a rather small community, she assumed that almost anyone they came across would probably know some more details about the disaster.

They had only made it to the first aisle of the supermarket before Ana overheard a conversation about it. Two elderly women were stationed in front of the canned soup section, not bothering to lower their voices or try to keep their murmurs private.

"The fire marshal has never seen anything like it, I heard. Nothing this tragic in his twenty-five years."

"Well, it's not a very common thing, is it? For that many to go missing from one building? Where could they possibly have gone to?'

"Janet threw out the possibility that maybe they just burned up and turned to ash. If the fire was hot enough - "

"That's absurd. They'd still be able to find teeth, wouldn't they? Greg heard from his son-in-law, who was there pulling out bodies, that there was nothing of the sort."

"But it's only morning, isn't it? Maybe they just need more time to look."

"I think, if there were remains left from that many missing bodies they would have seen it by now."

Ana was unabashedly staring at the women by this point, her mouth hanging open in shock in that revelation. "Excuse me, ma'am," she said, walking closer to them and addressing the last one who had spoken, "I was eavesdropping, I admit, but I haven't heard any of this. How many kids are missing?"

"Oh, you young kids shouldn't get up so late in the morning, wastes your whole day away. If you get up early like we do, you would know this stuff already," the old woman replied, her wrinkly face scrunching up in obvious disapproval.

"Now, now, Karen," the other one butt in, looking first at Ana and then at Robert, who had slowly followed Ana over to where they were standing. He was staring at the row of canned chicken noodle soup, appearing to be completely disinterested in the entire conversation. "Maybe these youngsters were enjoying their morning, as young married couples do. You remember what that was like, don't you? Or has Floyd been dead for too long?"

Karen was now outwardly frowning at Ana. "I don't recall seeing you two around here before. Did you just move to town?"

"You could say that," Ana replied dryly. "But the children, how - "

"You are married, aren't you?" Karen continued, and Ana could feel her patience wearing dangerously thin. The geriatric eyes were now traveling to Ana's left hand, then to Robert's, who had abandoned reading the can labels and was glowering at the judgmental pair.

"We're shacked up in the old house on the end of Neibolt street," Robert said, and Ana gave him a surprised side glance. "We host orgies there every Wednesday night. You aren't our normal age demographic, but we're always open to new types of kink, if you ladies would consider joining us." He flashed them his handsome smile, and both Karen and her companion let out of sounds of apparent disgust as they turned away.

Ana smacked his arm, swallowing down the laughter that was threatening to bubble up from her throat. "Where did that come from?"

"The one with the bad perm participated in many sessions of group fornication when she was younger," he replied, not bothering to lower his voice. A middle-aged man with a green smock looked at Robert in curiosity, obviously overhearing his derogatory declaration, and nearly crashed into a customer's shopping cart.