Lily Pugh's bed had become a portal to hell.
She didn't know this, of course, or else she would have found another room to sleep in that night. Instead, she made herself a cup of tea, played some soft music on her bluetooth speaker, and read a book until late at night. It was a mostly-nightly ritual of hers, a turn down from the night and a focus on preparing herself for sleep. It wasn't too long ago that her nights were spent out in bars or clubs, drinking $20 watered down drinks and dancing with sweaty, handsy strangers. She would go to bed drunk and wake up sick and dehydrated, or even still drunk some mornings. But she was 40 now, by all accounts an actual grown up, and had decided she needed to start acting like one.
It was... good, actually. She enjoyed the quiet time by herself. She was happy to start reading again, and loved waking up actually feeling rested the next day. She loved coming in to work and listening to her younger colleagues talk about their underwhelming nights out and remember that, not too long ago, she was in their same shoes.
It was later than usual, and Lily was still awake. It may have been a good thing she wasn't in bed when it became a portal to hell, or maybe it would have made no difference. There was no sound, no noise, no trumpets and wailing and gnashing of teeth or flames coming up from the floorboards. If she had been in the room staring at the bed when the transformation occurred, she may not have noticed anything at all. She wasn't, anyways. Instead she was in her living room, only a few chapters away from being ready for bed. Those chapters turned into a few more, and those turned into the rest of the book.
It was Friday night, and Lily had no reason to wake up early. She was also unembarrassed to admit that her Friday night excitement was staying up a few hours later than usual to finish a book she was reading. When she had read the last word on the last page, she closed the book with a satisfying thud, turned it over to the cover, flipped through a few pages, and finally set it next to the empty glass of tea on her side table. She stood up and stretched before shutting off the music and turning the lights out as she walked back to her bedroom. She made no notice of her bed. She brushed her teeth, took half a melatonin and climbed into bed.
She was asleep quickly, within minutes. Underneath her bed, from absolute darkness, It came.
You see, that's what most people misunderstand about hell. And it's all due to a single Italian man from hundreds of years ago: Hell isn't bright, hot flames dancing around and casting shadows. It's dark. It's like a cave, miles from the entrance. It's like a room of vantablack. It is the literal absence of light. If someone were to have been standing in Lily's room when the portal opened and It began its ascension upwards, they would have assumed her room was basked in bright, harsh light compared to the darkness that It came from.
It had no beginning, and will likely have no ending. It had no real form that humans could see or comprehend, and certainly no motives or goals beyond human suffering. Or maybe the suffering was just a side effect? Maybe It didn't even realize it was causing suffering in It's actions. It was Lovecraftian, without the casual racism. It was horrifying, fantastic, unusual, the greatest and worst thing to ever traverse Earth. And It was now in Lily's bedroom.