THE CLOWN WAS SHRIEKING , laughing , noise that bulges from a bloody rictus . jeering and cruel while her tongue singes . the teacup , now dangling after long - tined finger , shatters amid the clamour . allows for all too merciful respite . silence . It glances a mosaic of porcelain pieces , slick still with filmy linings of pinkish - red . unblinking eyes , nearly loose as those strewn over the table , reverse into sockets , glinting and pallid as fish bellies . It raises the handle , hooks it ‘tween teeth , sets jaw to gnash and grind .
those chitinous hands retrieve from the clothed surface , glutting mouth with more , snapping now to pulverize porcelain . ( crunch - crunch - crunch ) they populate Its gums and lips , jutting new incisors , and from their slices mock blood spates forth . grunts , gnars , giggles . It aches not . rabid beast shakes stringy mane . bells cried festively from it . lips close over carnage , purse , then rear back like circus curtains to reveal all remnant is swallowed . all gone !
❝ ━━ they just p - p - pop in your mouth , ❞ lingua , dead and fissured as dry season , laps at maimed chops . talon flicks a stray morsel like a marble ; across the table it rolls wetly , and another , all eyes on her . Its own , void of pupil and iris , gauge her too . ❝ try it . you’ll like it . you’ll love it . won’t be solly , cholly . ❞
HER TONGUE COULD’VE BLED just watching the glass cycle ‘round & ‘round in its maw. her throat was accustomed to gravel and sharp bones . but the taste of those were abhorrent ; if charlotte were to endure the taste of dirt, blood, and dead insects - she had better be being buried alive . then, she’d gladly eat the earth. she’d swallow the forest floor whole! would that make her powerful? would that make her a worthy beast? would swallowing glass and chipped porcelain make her any sharper as a creature? one - handedly, charlotte took the lid off the teapot filled with blood and placed in front of the clown.
then, charlotte stuck out the tip of her tongue. the flesh was sensitive to the frigid air, practically steaming with the exposure because it was overly warm and swollen like a balloon . timidly, she pressed the eyeball to tongue’s tip and waited for taste to register ; but it never did. “ no point eating for the first time if i can’t even taste it, ” she remarked, almost disappointed. she rolled the eyeball between deft fingers, made it vanish , then reappear suddenly as it sat between her index and middle knuckles. “ here. ” the eyeball was knocked into the air, caught midway in its upward flight, and then, tossed into the clown’s bloody maw.
“ next time. i’ll try one next time, ” she claimed, but the word ‘ promise ’ was markedly absent. the tea had turned dark and was bitterly aromatic. she filled her cup to the brim again and stuck her pinky finger in ; wincing when she found it just as hot. a loud scrap caused the house to shudder ; the pawn had dragged her chair closer to pennywise. first, she drew the toppled girl - meat off its seat and onto her lap. she posed it as though it were a doll , then picked up the slicing knife off the table. “ so! i’d thought it’d be fun to kill two birds with one stone, right? you can have your snacks and i can practice my carving skills! ” she waved the knife in a large, general circle about the girl’s torso and smiled at It. “ where should i start? ”
