Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

September 1989

Bill, Beverly, Ben, Richie, Eddie, Stanley, and Mike are sitting together in a circle next to the river.

"I can only remember parts, but, I thought I was dead. That's what it felt like." Ben and Stan gaze at her "I saw us, all of us together back in the cistern, but we were older, like, our parents' ages."

"What were we all doing there?" Bill asked and Beverly shrugged "I just remember how we felt. How scared we were. I don't think I can ever forget that."

"Am I still handsome as an adult?" Richie asks Beverly and does a weird smile and squishes his face and Beverly laughs "you grow into your looks."

"What the fuck does that mean?" All the losers laugh and Stan turns to Beverly smiling "what about me?"

Beverly gives Stan a sad smile "like now... only taller" Stan's smile grows and he looks so proud.

Bill looks at a shard of glass, he stands up and bends down to pick it up "swear it. Swear if It isn't dead, if It ever comes back, we'll come back, too."

Chapter Text

"Memory is a strange thing. People believe they are what they choose to remember. Good memories. The moments. The places. People close to us. But sometimes ... Sometimes, we are what we want to forget."

🎈🎈🎈

27 years later

"All right, kids! Get ready... GO!" A siren blares and water begins to spray into the clowns mouths. The red balloons behind the clowns grew before one popped and a bell rang. "Winner winner, chicken dinner!"

Adrian Mellon - a short man in his mid twenties, in a holo bomber jacket and pink shirt- smiled to himself than to his boyfriend Don Hargary -a tall reserved man, also in his mid twenties- and grabbed his prize.

Don shook his head "wow... you really showed em" sarcasm dripping from his voice. Adrian smiled "I did, didn't I."

Next to him, a young girl -Vicky- with an unusual birthmark on her face looked at Adrian's prize with a sad look on her face. Don tilted his head towards her and Adrian turned to face her. He leans down to her level "hey girl, you want this?" 

She continues to stare and Adrian leans towards her ear and whisper "thanks for letting me win" before giving her the prize. Her smile grows wide and she takes it and runs to her mother.

"Well, here is your consolation prize!" Don holds up a hat that looks like a beaver with 'I ❤️ Derry' written on it. Adrian smiles as he accepts the gift from Don. "Check it out. I have never been an admirer of The Beavers. But look at this cap, great." Adrian puts on the hat and kisses Don "thank you."

Off to the side Chris Urwin -an acne covered teenage 'tough guy'- sees them kiss and anger begins to flood over him.

"We need to talk logistics."

"Oh how romantic!"

"Romantic! What's so fucking romantic huh?" Chris approaches the couple and slaps Adrian's drink out of his hand. He spits on Don's shoe "hey... your mamma ever teach you to respond to someone when they ask you a fucking question?" From the nearby seating, Chris' gang members -Webby and Steve- watch on and even join Chris in the homophobia. 

Don grabs Adrian's hand and pulls him away "come on Adrian."

"Do you have a problem, fag?" Webby called out and Adrian stopped and glared at them "no, but Meg Ryan called... she wants her wig back."

Adrian smirked and Don pulled on his arm again "all right, come on, Adrian." With that they left and the three bullies watched in anger as the couple left.

🎈🎈🎈

Adrian and Don walked across the bridge hand in hand, away from the carnival. Don sighs "Because of these things, I want to get out of this hell hole. Small towns, small minds-"

"Small dicks!"

Don huffed out a laugh "no I'm being serious. We don't belong here. We belong elsewhere." Adrian smirks as he listen to Don's speech, like he hadn't heard it before. "Look if you end up hating New York, we'll come back here."

"I just don't care where we end up" the couple stopped and Adrian grabbed Don's face "New York, Derry. I just want to be with you."

"You don't have to say that."

"I don't have to say anything."

The boys lean in for a kiss when a voice calls out "I say take off that fucking hat!" Webby comes up from behind them and they break apart. Don turns to leave, when Chris and Steve appear and block him. 

"We can't give people the impression we let a bunch of fairies in our town."

"Well he was born here asshole!"

"Alright let's go" Don tries to pull Adrian away once more but Adrian pulls him back "no, you know what. I'll take the hat off for you. But why leave it at there. Anything else you want me to take off for you tonight. Any... special requests ladies?"

Webby sends a punch into the side of Adrian's face. He grabs Adrian and throws him across the bridge. Don screams at them to stop, and Steve kicks Don to the ground. The lovers are coughing, trying to grasp a bit of air -Adrian more than Don- and Chris picks up the hat that fell off of Adrian's head and puts it on his own. 

"What's that?" Webby asks pointing to Adrian's aspirator that he pulled out of his pocket and was shaking. "I don't think you'll be needing that."

The aspirator flys out of Adrian's hand and Don screams "leave him alone! He's got asthma fucker!"

They continue to bash Adrian and Don until they are bloodied and bruised. Adrian and Don are almost dead when Chris and Webby pick up Adrian's limp body and bring him to the bridge railing.

"Put the hat on him Chris."

"No! It's mine!"

"Fucking do it!"

Chris gives in and places the hat on Adrian "welcome to Derry mother fucker" and they throw Adrian off the bridge.

A train goes past as Don cries for Adrian, and the teenagers run off. Don scrambles to his feet and runs down to the river bank. 

"Help me! Somebody fucking help me!" Adrian calls out, and a man appears and reaches out for him.

When Don reaches the river bank he searches for Adrian. He sees the hat floating in the river and stares at it till he hears someone grunt. He snaps his head towards the sound, and that's when he sees it. Adrian is being pulled out of the river by a man "Adrian." He doesn't get a response but, the man pulling Adrian out of the river sees him. He smiles, and Don releases that the man is dressed as some sort of creepy clown. The clown smiles at Don before stretching it's mouth open and taking a bit out of Adrian's armpit. The sounds of screams fill the river bank and Don watches in horror as that thing eats his boyfriend. Then he sees red. Red balloons. They float past him and keep coming till the only thing Don sees is red balloons.

🎈🎈🎈

"The truth is that ... sometimes what we want to forget ... What we want to leave in the past ... won't stay there"

Mike wakes up to the sound of the police comms he has set up.

"Units, go ahead. We have a report on the finding of a dismembered corpse."

"Repeat. A dismembered corpse?"

"Affirmative. It was found at the entrance of the Festival."

"Understood. The vehicle is on its way."

"Affirmative. The Sheriff said to block Derry's bridge."

Mike scrams out of his chair and over to the comm and listens in. He looks out of the window over to the direction of the Derry bridge. Mike jumps away from the comm, puts out his coat and heads to the scene of the crime.

"Sometimes, they come back for you."

🎈🎈🎈

Police sirens sound and officers are comparing evidence and going over the case. Mike walks down to the river bank, and looks around. When he sees a part of a popped red balloon, Mike picks it up and inspects it. 

'I ❤️ Derry' is imprinted on it and a shiver runs down Mike's spine. Out of the corner of his eye Mike sees something else. 

He drops the balloon and walks closer to the river. He is taken back and runs way after he sees written on a support beam, in blood

'Come home

Come home

Come home'

Chapter Text

Bill sat there, staring at the almost blank page on his computer. He looks at the page trying to think of an ending for the film. But it never comes to him.

Someone knocks at the door, and Bill quickly acts like he's working. The knocker enters the room and he looks at her, "Mr Denbrough they need you on set." Bill nods, grabs his book and follows her. 

"Everything good?"

"Just this way."

An alarm begins to sound and the door begins to slide down and Bill rushes under it. The guy who was closing the door had a go at Bill and when Bill had his attention on the guy and accidentally walked into another guy who also yelled at him "who even are you!"

"I'm the... writer."

Bill finds Audra -a tall, red haired women with striking green eyes and a slight bump on her stomach- and walks towards her. Audra doesn't see him and continues practicing her crying face in a little hand mirror. Hair and makeup are all over her getting her ready for the scene. A lady runs up to Audra and whispers "your husband's here" then the lady, hair and makeup all leave and Audra turns to face Bill. 

"Hey sweetie do you have the pages?"

Bill's about to respond when the director Peter comes down and looks at Bill, "my friend. This film needs an ending, you do know that right?"

Bill nods "oh yeah" Audra frowns at Bill "you said you needed another day to finish the pages. And not to rush you or anything but we finish this thing tonight!"

"There's still seventeen hours."

"Everyone calm down, okay?"

"I'm calm."

Peter sighed and looked at Bill, "I want you to be happy with the movie. Do you get it, I am on your side!" Bill nods "that's-that's great, because the end of my book-"

"It's terrible" Bill furrowed his brows "with all due respect, people loved your book. Love loved... they hated the ending."

"You said you liked the ending?"

"That was a lie" Audra looked sympathetically at Bill. Peter smiled at Bill "look we've got to do better. Audra you have my notes" Audra nods and Bill looks at her confused "alright, thank you. Take me back to one please!" Peter is then flown back up.

"You have his notes?" Audra softly places a hand on Bill's arm. "Sweetie... I understand the idea that everything isn't always a happy ending. I understand and respect you not telling me why, but people want a happy ending." Bill nods but is frowning, he walks over to the break table and Audra follows "It's a shit ending I get it!" 

"Bill please listen!" Bill pours himself a coffee and Audra takes a cupcake, "I get that life sucks ass! I mean you lost your brother, I had a miscarriage two years ago, and we've seen so many people in this industry get hurt and even take their lives."

Tears have began to form in Audra's eyes "so yeah life sucks, but movies, and books help people get away from that! And that's why the studio wants a happy ending!"

"The studio!"

"Bill!"

Bill deeply looks Audra in the eyes "I'm sorry, but I don't know how to write this into a happy ending. I don't know how" Bill begins to slightly cry and Audra envelopes him into a hug. "I believe in you sweetie... and anyway we got to get this movie big for the little guy!"

Bill laughs and the couple smile. Bill places a hand on Audra's stomach, and his phone begins to ring "yes we do."

"Answer that and then write us a good ending!"

"Will do honey!"

The door swings open as Bill exits and places his phone to his ear "hello?"

"Bill Denbrough... it's Mike" Bill walks towards the trailer "Mike who?" Bill stops in his tracks "Mike Hanlon.... from Derry." A sudden sting burns Bill's hand and he gasps out in pain. He move's his hand into his line of sight and a scar slowly starts to appear. "You need to come home. 

🎈🎈🎈

Car horns beep as Eddie changes lanes. He knows he's going slightly over the speed limit, but in his anger he doesn't seem to care.

"Eddie! I keep telling you not to scar me like this! And you keep-"

"Alright" he opens his pill bottle and downs the last of them. 'Myra please! Not now!"

"You shouldn't be out there!" Myra -a short, fat women with blonde hair and a very distinct resemblance to Eddie's mother- yells "Eddie it's not safe to drive when the roads are slick like this!" Eddie huffs out an angry breath "sweetheart it stopped raining like three hours ago everything's fine-"

Eddie puts his head out the window and turns to the taxi who just honked their horn "HEY DICKHEAD FULL TRAFFIC MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU!" He puts his head back into the car and rolls the window back up.

"What if you hydroplane?"

"I'm not going to hydroplane! Now it's my job to assess risks" Eddie waves his hand in a gesture like talk "so trust me when I tell you that statistically speaking I'm more likely to get in an accident because I'm talking to you on the phone!"

Eddie calms down slightly "okay I have to go. I'll talk to you soon, goodbye" and he hangs up. He lets out a sigh of relief and a second later his phone rings again.

"Edward Kaspbrak speaking."

"You didn't say goodbye I love you like you usually do."

Eddie feels the anger rush back in full force "listen to me! I can't I'm going to be late to this meeting" another call comes through from Derry Maine and Eddie loses all focus from arguing with Myra. His face goes pale and he keeps his eyes off the road.

"Say I love you, Eddie!"

"Okay, I love you mommy.

"What?"

"Myra, bye!"

Eddie hangs up on his wife once again and answers the next call, "hello? How's this"

"It's me Mike."

Eddie doesn't see the light change to red and keeps driving "Mike who?"

A taxi drives straight into Eddie's car and they both ride off to the side. "Eddie are you okay?" Mike asks hearing a commotion over the phone, Eddie chuckles as car horns sound all around him "yeah I'm pretty good!"

🎈🎈🎈

"Thank you, I've been Richie Tozier! Goodnight!" The audience clap and cheer as he walks off stage. As soon as he's off he grabs the glass of whiskey out of his manger Steve's hand and downs it.

"You did great Rich!"

"Fuck off, that was shit."

He speed walked to the dressing room and his manger ran behind him, "if you worried about her, she's fine."

"I'm not worried."

"Rich-" Richie turns around and faces Steve "I'm not worried... is she there to?"

Steve nods and Richie presses his lips together and keeps walking, only stopping to fill up his glass with some more whiskey. When they reach the dressing room, Richie is greeted by a snarling women. "What the fuck do you mean I have to take her back for a bit!"

"Good to see you too Lexie."

"I told you to fucking explain!"

"I have some sketchy business to take care of" Lexie -a short Hispanic lady, who is so skinny she seems anorexic- glares at him and watches he fill up his glass for a third time in the last five minutes. "Well take her with you!"

Richie laughs "yes because it's total safe for her. Now tell me do you take her when you go off slutting around so you can pay for more cocain?" 

Lexie growls and sharpens her look "oh like your a model citizen. Tell me what is this sketchy business?"

"I'm going to the murder capital of the world."

"Ha ha, no wonder why you're a comedian" Lexie deadpans and Richie sighs "look I'm tired, we can scream at each other when I pick her up. I'll only be gone for a week at the most."

Lexie stares at Richie for a second, then she backhands him "when you pick her up don't expect that either of you won't leave with worse... drop her off before you leave."

Richie nods and Lexie slams the door. Richie sighs, rubs his hands over his face and pours himself another drink. He takes a sip as he mumbles "fucking hell Mike" and looks at the door as he says a bit louder than before "Derry here I come."

🎈🎈🎈

"Thanks for letting us present to you today ladies and gentlemen." They presenter let go of the investors hand and motioned to the display model near him. "Now, as you can see, this design allows us to get one million square feet of commercial and residential space. State of the art office towers-"

"What I'm really looking for is to understand how we create even more retail opportunities. If we put walls here and all the way along her-" 

"Lose them" Ben's voice rings out, and everyone turns to face the screen that was projecting Ben's call.

"With all due respect Mr Hanscom-"

"Ben! Please, and with all due respect to you... I'm getting claustrophobic just looking at this model, aren't you?"

Ben frowns and shakes his head "look if you throw up more walls it's going to feel like a prison. And you know what people want to do in prison" Ben doesn't give them time to answer "get out."

Everyone in the meeting seems to begin to sway over to Ben's idea of thinking, but he knows he has to sell the idea more. Even if it's his company "this should be a place that brings people together. A meeting ground..." Ben looks at his wallet, opens it and caresses the yearbook page inside. "A clubhouse."

Ben sighs and puts the wallet back down "and if people are there and-" Ben is cut of by the sound of his phone buzzing. He looks at it and he frowns, "will you excuse me."

Ben pauses the conference, picks up his phone and answers the call. He gets out of his chair and begins to walk around his big, empty house.

🎈🎈🎈

Stan searches for the home of the puzzle piece and smiles to himself when he finds it. Behind him he hears his wife Patricia -a sweet women with beautiful long blonde hair and a smile that stunned all who saw it- happily ask "should I just book it? Are you sure you can get away from work?"

Stan smiles as he picks up the next piece "it's summer why not." They both smile as the sound of the computer clicks play over the music flooding the house. Then Patty cheers and laughs "alright we are Buenos Aires bound!"

Stan smiles brightly as he searches around for a missing puzzle piece -the last piece. He gets off the couch and searches around the floor for it.

He finds the piece under the coffee table and as he goes to pick it up, his phone begins to ring. Stan looks at the caller ID from under the table and sees it's an unsaved number, calling from Derry Maine.

Stan picks up the piece frowning slightly, and answers the phone "Stanley Uris speaking."

"It's Mike."

"I'm sorry?"

"Mike Hanlon... from Derry"

After a second of confusion a smile begins to spread over Stan's face, "Mike! Oh god, sorry. Yes, Mike. Hi!" Stan laughed slightly "I didn't know why I-I don't know why- uh... how longs it been?"

"A long time."

Stan stands up and walks over to the nearest window, as if he would be able to see Mike outside if he looked hard enough.

"It's come back hasn't it?" Stan says out of nowhere and he hears a hum of acknowledgement over the phone. "That's why you're calling me."

"It's starting again Stan. Bad things are happening."

"Did you call the others? I mean did-ah-did you- I mean what if they don't come?"

"We made a promise. Remember... how soon can you get here?"

 "I-I would need to do a few things first but-"

"Tomorrow?" Stan let out a shaken breath and Mike continues "we need you here. I'll text you the details, okay?"

Stan nods even though Mike can't see him and they both say goodbye. Stan hangs up the phone and looks at Patty who is giving him a worried look. Stan feels tears roll down his eyes, and he stares at Patty like it's the last time he'll ever see her.

🎈🎈🎈

A drop of water lands on Beverly's face and she quickly wakes up in a panic. Her breathing's heavy and she tries to slowly calm herself down. But when her phone rings -with an unknown caller from Derry Maine- the panic arises again and she quickly grabs it and runs into the kitchen before answering.

"You made a promise Beverly"

"I'm so sorry Mike... but I don't even really remember."

"Haven't you ever wondered why you don't remember things you should. About where they're from... who they are... why you have that scar on your hand."

Beverly removes her hand from where she had it resting in her curled up body. She shakily looks at it and notices a bit scar on it, that -like Mike said- she didn't remember how she got it.

"No one else remembered either. Bill, Eddie, Richie, Stan... Ben."

"Ben?"

"You need to come back... you all do."

"When?"

Once the call is finished, Beverly silently rushes to pack her things. She stuffs her belongings into her bag and quickly picks out a pair of sneakers and puts them on. She doesn't change out of her pyjamas, and is ready to leave. But by mistake she forgets her bag, and goes back to grab it. Then when she's about to lave for a second time, she is stopped by her husband Tom -a menacing presence, tall and muscular, a man who looks like he's been to prison.

She lets out a yelp and Tom smirks "oh hey what's wrong? It's the middle of the night, and you're packing?"

Beverly walks up to Tom and places a kiss on his cheek. "I didn't want to wake you. Honey, I know this weeks been really exhausting. But an old friend from Derry called."

Tom stares at Beverly, making her feel small "I have to go back there... it's really hard to explain why."

"That's okay." Tom walks over to Beverly and places a hand on her back as he sits down. "You don't have to explain yourself to me. I trust you."

 "Thank you."

They kiss and Beverly gets up to leave, but Tom grabs her arm with a tight grip. "I just... don't understand why you'd lie to me."

Beverly shakes her head and Tom slowly stands up, griping tighter and tighter and Beverly's arm. He pulls her close to him.

"I heard you on the phone" Beverly whole body starts to shake "you said the name Mike."

"Yes my friend! There was a group of us. A-a-an-and we made a promise, when we where kids-"

Tom shakes his head and in a low growl he cuts Beverly off "you know trust is everything in a relationship. You know it's everything to me, right?" Tom goes to caress Beverly's face but she moves her face so he can't touch it. 

"I know this isn't-"

"What? Like the last time?"

Beverly shakes her head "I never cheated on you" she goes to kiss Tom but he grabs the side of her face and pulls at it.

"You're a bad fucking liar Bev!" He walks towards the wall pushing her as he goes "I want you to stay right here. And you're going to do what exact you're going to do with MIKE!" He pushes her into the wall and wraps a hand around her throat, "no one else is going to love you like I love you, you know that right!"

Beverly is fortunate enough to have her hand free, and she scratches Tom's face, making him fly backwards. She's frozen in place muttering an apology to him, as he picks up a belt and hits her with it. Beverly blocks her face with her arms and the lashes the belt is giving her end up on her wrist. She grabs the hand holding the belt in a break between the shots and Tom growls.

"Don't make this any harder!"

He punches Beverly and she falls onto the bed. Tom throws the belt down and goes to takes off his top, but Beverly kicks him in the genitali and he flys backwards, onto the ground.

Beverly runs over to her bag, picks it up and runs out of the house. Tom follows after her screaming, but once she makes it out the door, he doesn't follow.

She takes off her wedding ring and speed walks in the pouring ran to the airport to catch a flight bound for Maine.

Chapter Text

A loud rustle came from he sewers as a large portion of water flooded out. The water sprayed out into the barrens, bringing the bloodied bodies out with it. All the missing children finally found. A body pops out of the bloody water, screaming.

Henry limped down the road towards his house, where several police cars where stationed. Officers dragged out Butch’s body in a body bag, on top of a stretcher. An officer sees Henry limping up the driveway, “boys!”

The officers raise their guns and aim them at the boy. One of the officers says “Jesus this kids got some balls” and another screams out “that’s far enough Bowers!”

“I’m not done” Henry shakes his head and the officers get closer “I’m not fucking done! I-”

“Down on your knees!”

“No I can’t” Henry tries to walk away but two officers grab him “I’m not done! I need to kill them all!” One of the officers holding him knees Henry in the stomach and he doubles down. Henry screams out about killing them all and the officers beat him up before they arrest him.

And above them all, during all the commotion flys a lone red balloon.

🎈🎈🎈

Henry goes to place a bead onto the thread when he drops it and looks out the window. 

He smiles, and breaks out into a fit of laughter. He gets up out of his seat and walks over to the window, continuously laughing and watching the lone red balloon outside.

The other patients in hospital look over to see what the commotion is about and join in on the crazy fit Henry is having. They climb the windows and bang on them. A doctor comes up from behind Henry and pulls him down and Henry gets dragged off to his room. The balloon following him the entire way.

The doctor chucks Henry into his room “you can fucking stay in here” and slams the door.

Henry looks out the window, and sees the balloon is gone and he becomes hysterical, but snaps right out of it when he hears a creak from under his bed. He quickly removes the blanket off the floor, and right under his bed is the red balloon.

Henry drops to the ground and pulls on the balloon. He pulls and pulls and pulls, but it doesn’t budge until it suddenly pops and a dead body is revealed.

Henry flys backwards, and the body chases him into a corner. When Henry has nowhere else to move, the body stopped and pulled out a pocket knife. Henry’s pocket knife.

The body signalled for Henry to grab it, and Henry finally recognised the body, “Hockstetter.”

He grabbed the knife and smiled.

🎈🎈🎈

Bill followed the hostess into a large room. He smiled and thanked her, and looked around the room. 

“Hey!”

Bill turned around and saw Mike run over to him “hey Mike you look-” Mike cut Bill of with a tight hug. Mike was grinning so much and Bill patted Mike on the back. 

“I- I didn’t think- I mean it’s been so long, but of course you came!”

“Of course, a notice is a notice. Us losers” Bill stops for a second and he looks at Mike confused “got to stick together.”

“Losers! You remember that. That’s good. What else do you remember?”

Bill is about to question Mike, when they hear a voice become louder and louder. “I am allergic to soy, anything that has egg in it, gluten. And if I eat a cashew I might realistically die...”

Bill and Mike look at Eddie as he enters and sees them “holy shit!”

🎈🎈🎈

Beverly walks up to the restaurant, fixing her appearance as she does. She stops in the doorway and stares inside.

“Is there a password or something?”

Beverly turns around, and Ben is standing behind her smiling. “New kid” Beverly breaks out into a grin and walks over to Ben, embracing him in a tight hug “oh my god Ben!”

"Hey let me sign this" Beverly walks up to Ben's bag and grabs out his yearbook.

When she opens it she sees that no one has signed it and a wave of sadness hits her, but she smiles at Ben and gets a pen out and begins to sign it. Ben watches in awe of her as she writes her name with two love hearts in his book. Then she hands it back to him with a smile on her face.

"Stay cool, Ben from soc class" and with that she began to leave whilst Ben responded, "uh yeah, you too Beverly." As she walked of she called back to him "hang tough new kid on the block" and Ben smiled a lovesick smile, before calling out "please don't go girl"

They hug for a long time soaking up each other’s warmth when next to them a “wow” leaves someone’s mouth.

They separate and turn around to see Richie checking them out, “you two look amazing! What the fuck happened to me!”

Ben and Beverly stare at Richie for a while, then Ben and Richie walk towards each other. “Hey man” Ben opens his arms for a hug and Richie does the same muttering out “Richie.”

“How could I forget, trashmouth!”

The two hug before Richie turns to Beverly and goes in for a hug.

“Hi!”

“Hey!”

🎈🎈🎈

A gong sounds and Bill, Mike and Eddie turn around.

“This meeting of the losers club has officially began.”

Beverly, Ben and Richie stand at the opposite side of the room. Eddie smiles and points to them “get a look at these guys!”

Then they all just stare at each other. Twenty seven years can change you a lot.

Well appearance wise, since Richie points at Ben, makes a fat gesture and when Ben turns around, pretends like he’s innocent.

So maybe twenty seven years hasn’t changed them that much.

🎈🎈🎈

They all bang their shot glasses together and down them. Richie drops his and turns to Eddie “so wait, Eddie you got married?”

“Yeah why’s it so fucking funny dickward?”

“To what to like, a women?”

“Fuck you bro” Eddie waves his chopstick in Richie’s face, who is laughing “fuck you!”

Bill leans forward and smirks at Richie “alright what about you trashmouth. You married?” Beverly laughs and yells out “there’s no way” at the same time Richie says “no I am. I am.”

The group starts to laugh as they agree with Beverly, Richie looked at Beverly “no I got married.”

“Richie I don’t believe it!”

“When?” Eddie asks and Richie turns to face Eddie “did you not hear about this?”

“No.”

“You didn’t know I got married?”

“No!”

“Yeah no, you’re mom and I are very very happy right now.”

Bill spits his drink out and the whole group minus Eddie begin laughing. They all laugh so hard Beverly feels tears in her eyes “he totally feel for it!”

“Fuck you.”

Richie smiles “you know she’s very sweet. Sometimes she’ll put her arm around me” Richie does what he’s saying to the imaginary person in the empty chair next to him “and she’ll whisper” he leans towards the chair and starts making Jabba the Hut noises, laughing half way through.

“We all get it” Eddie says, stretching out the word all. He throws his hands up in the air “my mom is a great big fat person!”

Beverly makes a over exaggerated skittish face and everyone is still laughing like crazy. Eddie pulls some faces as he sarcastically goes “hilarious... hysterical!”

“Sorry I’m late” a new voice says as they enter the room and take the last empty chair between Richie and Eddie “our flight got delayed, and we had to wait a while to get a free room.”

“Stan the Man Urine!” Richie screams and pulls Stan into a hug. Stan rolled his eyes but hugged the man back “did I miss that much that he’s already drunk?” Mike shakes his head “pretty sure it’s just his personality.” The group laugh and greet Stan.

“Wait, what do you mean our?” Ben asked and Stan smiled, “well my wife and I are going to Buenos Aries right after this. So I brought her along.”

Ben looks at Mike and Richie “what are we doing with our lives if we’re still single and everyone else is married?” Mike smiles and laughs “many things, many time consuming things.” Richie nods and the whole group laughs “my lifestyle is very time consuming, just like Mike and Ike said.”

“Yeah okay trashmouth” Eddie say and Richie raises an eyebrow at him “and what do you do?”

“Fuck your mom.”

“For fuck sake!”

“I didn’t miss much I guess” Bill nods “you didn’t miss a thing Stan.”

They continue to eat their meals while chatting and Stan turns to Bill “so what new stuff is going on with you Bill?” Bill smiles and wipes his mouth with his napkin “well, the only people who know this are mine and Audra’s parents. But since you’re my friends, I might as well tell you. Even if Audra wants to keep it a secret.”

The group lean in closer making oh sounds and Bill huffs out a laugh, “Audra is currently four months pregnant.” The losers all smile and congratulate Bill, patting him on the back and telling him he’ll be a great father. Mike smiles and puts his arm around Bill “first parent of the losers!”

“We don’t know if that’s true” Bill says and he turns to look around “anyone?”

“Sorry, but Patty can’t have kids.”

“Tom and I are too busy.”

Bill looks at Eddie, who is avoiding eye contact and taking a very long sip of his drink “what about you Eddie?”

Eddie shakes his head “no, me and Myra have not decided to have children yet.”

“What the fuck! Why did that sound formal and awkward Eddie Spaghetti?” Eddie glares at Richie “not my name dipshit! And you can’t fucking judge, you’re still single!” Richie goes to say something but Eddie stops him “do to say you are married to my mom!”

“How about a change of topic?” Mike suggests and Richie nods “yes, let’s change the topic. We should talk about the elephant not in the room. Ben” Stan smacks Richie’s arm and Ben looks up “whaat the fuck dude?”

Everyone looks at Ben “okay, obviously I lost a few pounds.” They all begin to compliment Ben, and Eddie, Richie and Beverly check him out properly. Ben sees Beverly looking at him and begins to blush. Ruining the secret moment, Richie continues “you look- you look hot!”

“It’s true” Eddie says and Richie smirks “you look like every Brazilian soccer player rolled into one. Gorgeous” Ben hides his face in embarrassment, but can’t help himself from smiling.

“Stop it, you’re embarrassing him!” Beverly says and Bill and Mike laugh, Stan shakes his head at them but like Ben, he can’t help himself from smiling. Ben shoos away their compliments and asks “we haven’t heard anything truthful from Richie all night. Tell us something deep dude.”

Stan nods “oh yeah Rich, would love to hear something serious come out of your mouth after nearly fourth years of friendship!”

“Is this a fucking interrogation?” Stan raises his eyebrows and Richie gives in “fine, this is actually something I’m proud of. I was a good little boy, just like Staniel, and got over my cocain addiction all by myself.”

The group goes wide eyed and Stan glares at him, “with therapy?” Richie shakes his head “nope by myself.”

Stan pats him on the back “I’m proud, even though you shouldn’t have done drugs in the first place, I’m proud.” Richie smiles and hugs Stan again “please stop hugging me Richie. I want to eat.” The group begins laughing and they continue sharing stories and catching up like it hasn’t been twenty seven years.

🎈🎈🎈

“Really Eddie you didn’t become a doctor?” Beverly asked, sincerely, and Eddie shakes his head “no I am a, risk analyst.”

The waitress bring a bowl of fortune cookies in and they thank her “that sounds really interesting.” Richie crosses his arms and leans back in his chair “what does that entail?”

“So yeah I work for a big insurance firm and-” snoring sounds cut Eddie of and he turns around to see Richie pretending to sleep. Bill starts snickering before him, Mike and Beverly break out into full blown laughter. Richie pretends to wake up and eEddie glares at him “fuck you dude. Fuck you.”

“Was this job invented before fun?”

“That’s not funny!”

“Yes it is!”

“No it isn- what the fuck are you laughing at?” Eddie turned to Ben “I saved you not Richie, you are now on my side stop laughing Ben! You too Bill!” They all laugh even more and Eddie begins to pout.

Stan snickers as he grabs a fortune cookie. The group go into their own seperate conversations and Richie taps Stan’s arm. Stan turns to face him “I’m sorry about you and Patty.”

Stan smiles “it’s okay Rich, there are other ways.” Richie smiles and Stan raises an eyebrow “so...” Richie furrows his brows at Stan’s mischievous look “you seeing anyone?”

“Oh you missed that part of the conversation. Nah, still lonely. Why?” Stan shrugged his shoulders, mischief still on his face “just wondering.” Richie shook his head “no you weren’t Stanny, even though we haven’t seen each other in years, I still know you. So tell me” Stan smirks “Eddie-” Richie frowns “is married. And it’s not like since I’m older everything’s fine.” Stan began to frown too, “have you even tried to be who you want to be? To be proud?” Richie shakes his head “things like this are hard Stan. You don’t get over it overnight.”

“Why does that sum up living in Derry” Ben says and everyone looks at him “I don’t know why but when Mike called I felt like my life was a living nightmare. Like I hadn’t got over something.”

The losers all look away, and frown. Mike is about to speak up when Eddie says “I crashed my car when I got Mike’s call.”

“I-I felt like doing something really stupid” the group looked at Stan confused and Mike took a deep breath. Ben nods “it was like my heart was pounding out of my chest.”

“I thought it was only me” Beverly said and Bill nods “it was like pure f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-”

“It’s fear” Mike speaks up and everyone glares at him “what you felt was fear.”

“Why did we all f-f-feel like that?”

Mike stayed quiet and Bill frowned even more “you remember something we don’t, don’t you Mike?”

Mike nodded and keeps looking only at Bill and/or Stan when he talks “something happens to you when you leave this town. The farther away, the hazier it gets. But me, I never left. So yeah... I remember. I remember all of it.”

Beverly goes white and she whisper “Pennywise.”

Mike turns to look at her and everyone else starts to panic. “Oh my god, the fucking clown” Eddie mumbles and his breathing begins to hitch, he starts searching around for an inhaler he stopped carrying around twenty seven years ago.

“Mike, you said you wanted our help with something. What was that?” Bill asked and Mike begins to explain “there’s an echo, here in Derry. That bounces back every twenty seven years.”

“What the fuck are you on about?”

“Hold on listen-”

“I don’t want-”

“Listen. We thought we stopped it back then. We thought it was done but” Mike flips through his journal and the rest of the losers are starting to get a bit testy due to the anxiety floating around the room.

“About a week ago a man Adrian Mellon, slaughtered.” Everyone begins to argue over each other and they begin to get louder. But Ben gets them to quiet down, before they get kicked out “let him explain.”

“That echo, we might have changed it. Just like It changed us. But we didn’t stop It, because It just bounced back.” Everyone looks at each other and Mike tries to assess their reactions “we made an oath. That’s why I brought you back. That’s why you’re here. To finish It, for good.”

“Well that escalated quickly” Richie mutters and he opens his fortune cookie “thanks a lot Mike.”

Everyone slowly begins to open their fortune cookies, and they read the messages on them. Stan looked at his and frowned “mine just says flute.” He places the fortune on the table and Ben copies Stan “mine says lonely.”

Bill and Mike follow, Bill’s fortune reading ‘your fault’ and Mike’s reading ‘outsiders lie’. Bill looks at them confused “what do they mean?”

Eddie puts his on the table and Bill reads it “sick little Eds? What the f-fuck is going on?” Stan takes Richie’s and places it down, reading it as well “truth or dare.” The boys begin arguing over the fortunes, saying Mike’s trying to prank them, Mike  defending himself, Ben defending Mike. They begin to question the meaning of the fortunes and almost break out into screams.

A hand shakily places one last fortune on the table ‘daddy’s little girl’ and Beverly chocks out a sob. The boys quiet down and look at her.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Eddie asks quietly, and when no one answers he yells “someone fucking answer me!”

Bang!

Everyone moves away from the table and the fortune cookies begin to move. The shake and rattle until on pops out of the bowl. It cracks open and everyone moves away further. A bug escapes the cookie, and it twists it’s head around and began to cry. Half baby, half bug. More cookies popped out and cracked open, more monster like creatures escaping them. An eyeball, a bat, and more disturbing, frightening things. The tiny monsters begin to chase around the losers, forcing them into corners. Ben grabs a hold of Eddie and protects him, and Stan runs behind the gong.

Black goo starts bubble out of the bowl and over the table, burning everything it touches. Mike turns around to look away, but inside comes face to face with a decomposing head in the fish tank. Bill sees it too, and all of the losers are screaming, afraid for their lives.

“It’s not real. It’s not real!” Mike screams on a continuous loop as he picks up a chair and starts hitting it on the table.

The waitress walks in to see them acting like maniacs, unable to see the monsters and the goo. Mike sees her and stops hitting the table and she asks “is everything alright.”

Everyone stares at her in embarrassment and confusion. She stares at them back, confused and worried. Richie smiles at her “yeah, yeah. Can we just uh- can we get the check please.” And she runs off to get it.

🎈🎈🎈

“That’s-that’s what Pennywise does right? He fucks with us” Eddie asks as they walk out of the restaurant. Mike nods “yes and it’s not real if we believe it isn’t.”

“So like imaginary friends, they aren’t real but we think they are?” Stan turns to look at Richie “you remember having an imaginary friend?”

“Bill!” Bill stops and turns around, the losers doing the same a few seconds after “um hi?” A little kid looks up at Bill and smiles “and all will become none.” Bill scrunched up his face and looked at the kid “I-I-I’m sorry what?” Bill stares at the smiling kid and the losers look at each other behind Bill, “listen kid, I don’t know who you are but if that f-f-f-fucking clown sent you. Just know that we’ll kill it, we’ll fucking kill it!”

The kid frowns “yo chill, it’s a line from your book. I’m just a fan.” Bill looked up and saw the kids parents “oh... you want a picture?”

“No the ending sucked” and the parents gave Bill a dirty look as they took their son away “come on Dean.”

Bill deflated as they continued to leave the restaurant. Ben frowns and turns to Bill “how do you not remember your own book?” Bill didn’t answer, and Richie looked at Ben “I don’t blame him, I don’t remember the show I was doing last night.”

“Old man brain or too many words?” Stan asked and Richie glared at Stan “neither, I don’t write my own material.”

Eddie’s eyes widen and he begins to wave his hand around “I knew it! I fucking knew it!”

They exited the restaurant, and Eddie runs up to Mike “you lied to us, and that’s not okay!” Richie nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets “yeah, the first words out of you’re mouth should of been ‘hey man you want to come to Derry and get murdered’ cause then I would have said no!”

Eddie is pacing and places a hand on his forehead. Stan sighs and pats Mike on the back “I’m sorry Mike, but I think Patty and I should just head to Buenos Aries early. I don’t want her to get hurt.” Then Richie and Eddie follow Stan towards their cars and leave.

“I’m going to head to the town house too” Beverly says and turns to Ben “you coming?”

“Yeah” and the two of them leave.

“Bill” Mike whispers and Bill looks at Mike “what can you possibly say to fix this. They’ve all gone.” Mike walks closer to Bill, eyes desperate and pleading “let me show you something. Just one thing, then if you want to leave you can. Just let me show you this first, please.”

Bill considers it for a second, before nodding and Mike breaks out into a smile.

Chapter Text

The baseball game was loud and rowdy, and Victoria -Vicky- Fuller sat in her seat next to her mother with dull eyes, head in hand and a tight grip on her new favourite toy, the one the nice man gave to her.

Her blonde hair flew around her face despite being tied up in a ponytail and she made sure to cover the mark on her cheek.

"Mommy?"

Her mother doesn't remove her eyes of the field.

"How much longer?"

"Victoria" Vicky's mother huffs out "we came to watch the game, so we're going to watch the game."

Vicky sighs and slumps down. She looks at her toy and a firefly lands on it's ear. She goes to touch it but it flys off. Vicky follows it, leaving her toy and mother behind without a word.

It flies under the bleachers and Vicky follows it, all the way into a dark corner where the firefly gets caught between two gloved hands. Vicky stops in her tracks. The hands disappear and Vicky can feel fear run through her veins. 

"Hello Vicky!" A cheery voice calls and Vicky jumps back, and the owner of the voice uses the firefly to light up their face. "Isn't your friends call you that, Vicky?"

Vicky takes a step back and the clown that's speaking to her continues talking "how do i know I guess I'm your friend too."

"If you're my friend, why are you hiding in the dark?" The clown doesn't answer and Vicky continues to walk backwards "You're not my friend. You're scary."

She's almost gone when she hears crying. She turns to face the clown and furrows her eyebrows "why are you crying?"

"People always make fun for the way I look. I thought if you didn't see my face, maybe you'd want to be my friend. Never mind. That was silly, old, Pennywise, you'll never have friends."

Vicky frowns "people make fun of me too." The clown looks up in shock "they do?" Vicky nods and points to the mark on her face "For this.

"Well that's silly. For that little thing. I could blow that thing right away."

Pennywise grins as he sees Vicky's eyes light up "you could?" It nods "oh yes, one pouf and it'll be gone... Oh, but you have to get close enough to see my face. I don't know, Vicky."

"No! It's okay! I won't make fun, I promise!"

"Promise, promise?"

Vicky nods and Pennywise slightly dances with a little jingle "well okie dokie! Just come a little closer and we'll blow it away on the count of three."

"One." Vicky walks closer to Pennywise and leans her cheek towards him.

"Two." Pennywise begins drooling and Vicky's smile slowly deflates the longer it takes the clown to say three. "You're supposed to say three."

Pennywise charges forward and bites of Vicky's head, no one above the gruesome scene hearing the screams of the poor, young Victoria Fuller.

🎈🎈🎈

The security guard sat in his chair watching funny dog videos like he does every night. He laughed at the corgi trying to lie on top of the ball.

But after a while his eyes caught a figure walking the halls on the security feed. He gets up out of his chair and sees the person approach the gate -the gate which lead to the prisoners- and he presses the button to let them out.

Fight or flight responses kicking in, he runs over to the figure but freezes when he gets to see them clearly.

A nurse, cover in blood from the neck down.

"What the fuck!"

The man slowly falls forward and from behind the man's falling body, Henry screams out "boo!" He begins to laugh in a maniac sort of way. The security guard jumps backwards and his eyes widen when Henry shows him a blood covered knife.

Henry quickly slights the throat of the security guard and runs out of the asylum. He takes off his jacket and walks over to the fence that has a massive hole in it and walks through it.

"Fuck yeah!" He yells as he sees a -obviously stolen- car. He walks towards it and gets in the passengers seat and turns to the corpse of Patrick, smiling, and says "hey Hockstetter. Let's go!"

And the corpse and sociopath speed away.

🎈🎈🎈

"Let's get our shit and get the fuck out of here!" Richie says to Beverly, Stan, Eddie and Ben as they storm into the inn. 

"Did you leave your stuff here?" Eddie asks Ben, Beverly has already retired to the bar and Stan and Richie are almost at their rooms. Ben shakes his head "no I left my stuff in the car."

Ben admires the beauty of the building -begrudgingly accepting that fact that Derry does have great architecture- before heading to the bar to talk with Beverly.

She downs a shot and Ben takes a seat on the bar stool in front of her.

Beverly ignores Ben and he sighs.

"Tell me."

She finally looks up at him, and plays the confused card, "tell you what?" Ben frowns and looks deeply into her eyes, "whatever it is you're afraid to tell me right now."

Beverly puts the bottle of alcohol behind her and begins leaving the room, but Ben quickly walks in front of her and tres to pull her into for a hug, but she flinches and he takes a step back.

"Tell me what's going on Bev. I saw the way you looked when Mike reminded us of It, and that look got worse during the fortunes. So what's wrong."

Richie sighs and loudly enters the room "whatever you guys are talking about, let's make it fast. Alright, we got to go." Ben and Beverly look at each other and Richie turns towards the door "hey Eduardo, ándale! Let's go!"

Stan walks in a second later, rolling his eyes "Patty and I have to wait two days before we can- wait Bev, are you okay?"

Everyone turned to look at Beverly and she pushes past them and walks to the front desk. Ben follows her, "Bev, it isn't healthy to keep this in." She ignores him and bangs on the bell at the reception. No one comes.

Beverly goes behind the counter and grabs her keys and Ben keeps talking "come on Bev, talk to me. Like we used to."

When Beverly is next to Ben again she looks at his chest and mumbles "I know what they mean."

Beverly looks up into Ben's eyes and mumbles out, once again "I've seen all of us die." Ben, Stan and Richie's eyes go wide at Beverly's word.

A loud banging comes from the stairs and the four turn around to see Eddie with three suitcases falling down the stairs. "I just need to get my toiletry bag and then we can go." He looks at them with furrowed brows, "what did I miss."

🎈🎈🎈

"The library?" Bill follows Mike into the building, before letting out a laugh "oh god Mike! I swear this place used to be bigger."

Mike laughed too, and Bill admired Mike's renovations. Mike sped walked away as Bill looked at the artefacts Mike put in display cabinets. When Bill saw Mike was gone he yelled to him "yo Mike! Wait up!"

They raced down the hall and up a staircase, until they reached the attic, which was made into a living space.

Bill looked around and Mike went to the kitchen and got out a glass.

"Mike you l-l-l-live here?"

"Yeah. Make yourself at home."

Bill slowly walked around and looked at the pictures and notes Ike had lying around.

"You want some water?"

"Uh, yeah sure."

Bill walked over to Mike, and Mike handed him the drink. Bill took a sip and made a face of disgust at the taste of it. Mike didn't seem to notice and went through his notes, as Bill placed the glass down.

Mike points to a weird looking object "this is it. This is the key to stopping It. It's the key to everything!"

"You have some really weird tasting water. M-m-m-maybe the worst thing for stopping it would be to get out of Derry."

"It want's us back in Derry. But It doesn't know that I know what I know. How to kill the shit out of It!"

Bill looks at Mike in surprise, and Mike keeps talking.

"I know everything about It. Spoken to every person in this god forsaken town. That would talk to me. And that's-that's not a long list. But I don't- I just- I- I know how this all started. How It started."

Mike picks up the object and walks over to Bill, he shoves the object in Bill's face "here."

"Wow. What am I looking at Mikey?"

"It's an artefact. Early eighteenth century. Shakopee people."

"How did you get this?"

"I found it and- and they gave it to me... I stole it."

Bill's eyebrows raised and he looked up at Mike "what? From Native Americans?" Mike sighed and tilted his head "it's complicated."

"Yeah it is."

 Bill takes the object off Mike and Mike took a step back "it helped me on my journey."

Bill admired the object, caressing it, memorising it -for a new film maybe- and says to Mike without looking up "it's beautiful." Mike nods and looks at Bill, "it showed me things. A vision."

"I don't" bill put it down and let out a laugh. He walked past Mike, who moved to where Bill was standing before "I feel kind of funky."

Bill blinked slowly and opened and reopened his palms as if he was trying to test if he was high.

"Why are my hands sweaty?"

"I need you to see" Mike says "what they showed me Bill."

Bill's vision began to get wobbly and he began to hallucinate.

"They live outside of Derry. Beyond It's reach. They moved their many years ago."

Bill sees Mike walking to this place where he assumes the Shakopee live now. And he sees them and Mike entering a tent and it filling with smoke.

"There holy man, holy among the saints..." he saw them give Mike a drink, and he drank it "I drank there sacred potion. And I began to react." 

"All living beings must follow the laws of the body, they inhabit." One of the men said and vision Mike began to have visions as well. 

"When I looked in the Valley, I saw It arrive." Vision Mike put his hand towards the meteor and Bill did the same. "I knew that one day I would have to make you all see."

"What? Did you put something in my drink?"

"It's the root."

"Did- you- you drug me?"

"No, it's the root. It's a micro dose of what the Shakopee gave me."

"Why did you do that?"

"To open your eyes." Mike picks up the object and Bill slurs as he says "I don't feel real good." Mike hands Bill the object "I need you look. And you will see."

"I don't feel really good."

The picture of the meteor etched into the object begins glowing and Mike continues to speak as Bill has further visions. 

"They showed me the past." Bill sees It forming, the true form of It, three glowing balls.  "They showed me the way that was revealed to them." He saw It transforming into things, killing children and terrorising everyone. "They showed me the pain." He begins to scream ad tears well up in his eyes. And finally he sees the ritual. How to defeat It. "They showed me how to stop It."

The visions come to a stop and Mike rushes to Bill, calming him down.

"Did you see the ritual?"

"The Ritual of Chüd."

Mike smiled slightly, letting out a breath of relief "I knew it. I knew you would see." Bill on the other hand grabbed a fistful of Mike's shirt and pulled himself forward "I saw the whole f-f-fucking thing."

"This is how we will kill him." Bill fell backwards at Mike's words and frowned, "how do we do it? Everyone has already s-s-s—said no."

"They will listen to you. It will only work with everyone."

🎈🎈🎈

Eddie was pacing, hand on head. Beverly sat stoically in one of the chairs, Ben right next to her. Stan and Richie where at the bar watching Eddie in his panic.

"What do you mean you've seen us all die?"

Eddie walked towards Beverly, and glared at her. She didn't move. Ben looked up at Eddie and tried to silently ask him to back off.

"Yeah, cause that's honestly kind of a fucked up thing to drop on somebody." Stan smacked Richie's shoulder and Beverly wiped away a tear. "Every night since Derry I-" Beverly cuts herself off and takes several deep breaths. "I've been having these nightmares."

Eddie began to pace again, and Ben grabs Beverly's hand sending her an encouraging smile. She starts squeezing Ben's hand and continues.

"People in pin. People dying. People-"

"So you have nightmares?" Eddie stops pacing and looks at Beverly "i have nightmares. People have nightmares. But that doesn't mean your visions are true." Eddie looks around and the group, trying to get them to agree with him, but they all just look terrified.

Beverly shakes her head "I've watch every single one of us-"

"see every single one of us what?" Bill and Mike enter the room, confusion etched onto their faces. Everyone stares at them and Bill slowly walks towards Beverly.

She doesn't meet his eyes when she speaks "those fortunes relate to our deaths." Bill and Mike's eyes go wide and Richie loudly asks "how come the rest of us aren't seeing this shit? What make's her so special?"

He points to Beverly and Stan's eyes light up slightly, but not in a joyous way, more like an understanding way "the dead lights..." everyone turns to look at Stan "I-I've seen some of the things Bev's talking about. I've seen Richie, Eddie and Bill die. But the rest of you... I don't know what happens."

Everyone's eyes went wide and Mike and Bill looked at each other knowingly. "Bev w-w-was caught in the lights the l-lo-long-longest" Bill said and Mike nodded "so she must have seen more than Stan. We were all touched by It, effected by It. Like some sort of virus."

Eddie starts up his panicked pacing, Beverly lights up a cigarette and starts smoking. Richie walks behind the bar and pours himself and Stan a drink. "That virus has been growing for twenty seven years! This whole time  spreading slowly. And it's going to catch us-"

"Eddie's going to die first!" Richie yells and the losers glare at him "beep beep Richie" they all say in unison and he puts his hands up to calm them "Jesus I'm just stating facts."

"What Beverly sees" Mike continues "will come to pass. It's what will happen to all of us eventually. If we don't stop it."

Eddie stops acing and turns to Mike "and how are we supposed to do that?"

"The Ritual of Chüd" Mike says, getting confused looks from all but Bill. Mike continues explaining "The Shakopee... the ones who fought It first. They have a saying, 'all living beings must obey the laws of the body they inhabit'."

"A tribal ritual!" Richie screams and Stan rolls his eyes at Richie "are you fucking kidding me! There's got to be another way! This thing comes back every twenty seven years?" Stan is about to ask Richie to shut up, but Richie's mouth runs faster than Stan's "let's kick the can down the road and do it then!" Eddie snaps his head towards Richie and shakes his hand in a chopping motion as he yells back at the man "we'll be seventy years old asshole!"

"It doesn't work that way" Beverly says and she looks at Richie "none of us make it another twenty years if-"

"We don't defeat It now" Stan finishes Beverly's sentence. She nods in agreement "and the way it happens-" Richie downs a shot and Ben speaks up for the first time in a while "if we don't defeat It this cycle, we die?"

Eddie puts his hand over his forehead "horribly" Richie looks at Eddie "I didn't need the horribly part."

"I didn't say it, see said it. Not me."

"Look guys" Bill captures their attention "I've seen w-w-w-w-w-what he's talking about. And... and it's all true. It's the only way. If we want this ritual to work-"

"We'll have to remember" Mike finishes for Bill. "Remember what?"

🎈🎈🎈

Stan entered his room and smiled at Patty, who was lying on the bed reading. She smiled at him "hi honey, how was it?"

"In all honesty, not what I expected."

"Bad?" Stan shook his head, Patty frowned "what's wrong?"

Stan took off his shoes and jacket, and changed into his pyjamas. He walked into the bathroom to brush his teeth, Patty watching him the entire time. When Stan exited the bathroom, he walked over to the bed and Patty pulled him into a hug.

"I forgot everything. And now I remember and everything feels wrong."

Patty strokes Stan's hair, "wrong how?"

Stan took a deep breath and slowly released it "we fell into our old patterns easily and quickly, but we are all just so different from when we were thirteen. And we've missed out on so much. I mean, I would of loved to have them at our wedding. The six of them would be my groomsmen, even Bev. But they weren't. And I really wished I got to be there at Bill's first book release, the launch of Bev's first line, Ben's first grand opening, Richie's first show, Eddie's wedding and when Mike reopened the library. I missed it. And it feels like I let them down... like I did them wrong."

Patty places a kiss on Stan's forehead and wipes the tears off his cheeks. Stan looks up at her and she smiles at him "you didn't let them down, just like they didn't let you down. You just lost touch is all. But you're all together now, and that's what matters."

Stan nods and smiles at her. He places a gentle kiss on her lips, "thank you. I am so lucky to have you." Patty laughs sweetly and gives Stan a huge grin "you're such a sweet talker Stanley. I love you."

"I love you too."

🎈🎈🎈

Eddie spits the mouthwash into the sink, wipes his face and exits the bathroom. He walks over to the old, rickety bed and is just about to call it a night when a knock comes from the door.

Eddie warily approaches the door and opens it. He growls when he sees Richie on the other side of the door, still in the same dirty clothes from the restaurant. He's holding a bottle of whiskey in one hand and two glasses in the other. He grins at Eddie and Eddie decides to let him in.

"Why thank you Edward Spaghetward!"

"Why are you like this?"

"Well you see I was-" 

"Beep beep fuckface!"

Richie subconsciously lets a smile spread across his face and takes a seat on Eddie's bed "I didn't even say anything." He opens up the bottle of whiskey pouring both himself and Eddie a glass.

Eddie takes a seat on the opposite side of the bed to Richie, and they stare at each other for a while. They drink a few glasses before Eddie sets his glass aside, "how are you Richie?"

Richie laughs, and in his British man voice replies "well I've doing just fine govna!"

Eddie shakes his head -and he would never admit to the small smile he had- "no I mean how have you been since I last saw you." Richie frowns and Eddie sighs "how long ago was it? Twenty years-"

"Twenty four years."

"Jesus Christ!"

"Yeah... and to answer your question, let's say mediocre."

Eddie furrowed his eyebrows and Richie downed another glass. "How come?" Richie raised his eyebrows and stared at the floor "well for starters, I have no friends, my sister hates me, I spent eight months trying to get over my cocain addiction but forgot to work on my alcoholism and I just found out most of what I've been believing for nineteen years is bullshit!"

Eddie hums in agreement and gentle removes the glass from Richie's hand, "I get you man. Not about the sister and the addiction part, well mostly that part, but I get it. My wife Myra is my only friend, my whole life's been a lie and I use my medication as a form of escapism."

Eddie places a hand on Richie's knee and smiles at him.

"So I guess life's mediocre for the both of us. Us losers with no friends and shitty coping mechanisms."

Richie laughs and nods "indeed Spaghetti Man." Eddie places his head on Richie's shoulder "I missed you and your shitty fucking nicknames." They sat in silence for a while before Eddie pipes up again.

"I don't think I'm happy."

Richie furrows his brows and looks down at Eddie "whatcha mean Eds?"

"I realised I haven't been as happy as I was in that restaurant since I left Derry."

Richie frowned and put an arm around Eddie's shoulder "I'm so sorry" Eddie let out a dry laugh "it's okay. I guess I deserve it for letting myself be so controlled by my mother, I technically married her."

"Wow Eds Spagehts we have the same type!"

"Fuck off asshole!"

"I had to lighten the mood! This whole conversation is just so fucking depressing!" 

And for the first time in years, the two men truly laughed like they were kids. 

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Bill sits on the bed, knees pulled up into his chest. He holds his phone with a deadly tight grip up to his ear. The phone rings, and each ring is agonisingly long.

"Hi sweetie! How's it going?"

Bill lets out a breath at Audra's voice and smiles "it's... an experience." He decides to tell Audra about the murderous clown later. She shouldn't be worrying about this. Not when they are so close to a happy ending. "How are you?"

Bill hears Audra laugh over the phone "I'm good, kind of relieved filming is over so I can just relax. It would be better if you were here though."

"Same here. I miss you so much." Bill smiles and he can feel Audra smiling too, "now, tell me about these friends. What have you guys got up to?"

Bill laughs, and he lowers his legs, now sitting cross legged "well there's Mike, the one who called, and he planned for us to meet up at this Chinese restaurant. As soon as he saw me he gave me this huge hug. I forgot how good his hugs are. Then Eddie walked in, listing off his allergies to the poor waitress. He has the same fire in him that he had when we were kids. So we talked for a bit, then... you know Beverly Marsh the designer?"

"Yes... wasn't my wedding dress her design?"

"Uh huh. Well she walked in, with Ben Hanscom, the architect and Richie Tozier. Because apparently I wasn't the only one of my friends who became famous somehow. And so we sat down and caught up. Then when Richie was annoying Eddie, Stan showed up and we're finally all together again. And we didn't stop laughing and having fun all night. The whole restaurant probably were annoyed by our loudness!"

Audra laughed, "well I better get to meet them Bill. I shouldn't be the only one in this relationship bring my friends home." Bill laughed and nodded "I'm pretty sure they want to meet you too."

"I love you" Audra sighed and Bill smiled, despite the feeling of fear "I love you too, so much."

"I better get going. We both need a good nights sleep."

"Indeed we do."

"Bye sweetie!"

"Bye honey."

Chapter Text

BuzzFeed Celeb ✔ @BuzzFeedCeleb @BilltheAuthor @BevMarsh @BenHascom and @Trashmouth spotted at a restaurant in Derry, Maine with three other men. What is going on? https://bzfd.it/3B427Lc

Richie Tozier ✔ @Trashmouth @BuzzFeedCeleb honestly I personally hope it's a gang bang

Stan Uris @StanleyU @BuzzFeedCeleb @Trashmouth beep beep Richie!

Richie Tozier ✔ @Trashmouth @BuzzFeedCeleb @StanleyU 🤐🤐🤐

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"It's better if I show you."

It's early in the morning as they walk through the streets of Derry. All, mostly rested and all in fresh, clean clothes. 

"We don't have much time. This cycle will end soon. And once it does-"

"We're fucked."

They walked under the train tracks and past the sewers like they did when they where kids. Mike leads them towards the woods, and when they reach an opening, recognition fell over their faces.

"The barrens" Beverly says with a small smile, and Ben with an even bigger grin says "this is where we came. After the rock fight."

"The clubhouse!" Richie yells and they all let out a small laugh and Beverly points to Ben "you built that for us!" Ben becomes bashful, and he begins to blush. The losers start looking around for the hatch. 

"It's got to be around here somewhere."

"Wasn't it here?"

"No dipshit! It was over here."

"Are you two seriously arguing right now?"

Ben walks over to a spot where no one was looking and says "you know, I actually think the door was" he starts to hit the ground with his foot. "Around-" Ben suddenly falls through the ground and everyone rushes over.

Ben looks at his surroundings and huffs out a laugh "found it! I'm okay!" He slowly gets off the ground whilst he calls to everyone "come

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Down!" Beverly is the first to slowly descend into the clubhouse. Ben smiles at her and she returns it, and begins looking around.

Richie is the next one in, followed closely by Bill, and he looks around "what the dick is this? How'd you build it?" Eddie came down after Bill and Mike and Stan entered last.

"When did you build it?" Bill asked and Ben watched his friends look around, "here and there, I guess. It was already dug out, so I just had to reinforce the walls. Get some would for the roof door, and that was pretty much it. Pretty good for my first time huh?"

Ben tried to smoothly rest his hand on a support beam, but it moved and a chunk of the roof fell. 

"Now that's a cool feature" everyone glares at Richie "what happens when you put your hand on the other pillar professor?"

"You see this is exactly why we have safety codes" Eddie zips across the clubhouse over to Ben "permits. This place is a death trap. Do you understand that?" 

Ben frowns and looks up at Eddie "it's a work in progress, okay Eddie."

"Just so you know I get hurt you're reliable. Also what is this?"

Eddie points to an object hanging from the roof and hit's it "did you go to iron maiden?" Ben frowns and furrows his brows "it's a flashlight." Eddie rushes off somewhere else. "And what is that a horse hitch? Why do you have horses- oh this is cool."

He picks up a paddle ball, and everyone watches Eddie being hyperactive. Ben goes to grab it off of Eddie "that was like three dollars, so be careful with that." 

Richie walks over to Eddie, smiling and snatches it off him "look Eds this is how real men use it." He starts to use the paddle ball in Stan's face as Eddie cries out "don't call me that! Also I wanna play with it!"

"Do you see this Stan?" Stan leans backwards "yea I can Rich now stop."

"Yeah stop it, Richie it's my turn."

"To do what?" Ben, Beverly, Bill and Mike watch on as Richie and Eddie torment Stan. Richie still hits the ball in Stan's direction and Eddie is trying to snatch it. "Be awesome and have fun" the hitting gets faster and Stan nearly falls over. Eddie gets louder "and celebrate the magic of the paddle ball!"

He grabs onto Richie's hand, and Richie jerks towards Eddie. The ball flies off the string and Eddie throws his hands up in the air. Everyone sighs and frown watching the ball roll under the floor. "Wow nice going fucknut! You broke his thing!"

Stan's eyes go wide "I broke it?"

"Yeah you broke it with your face!"

"What?"

"I'm not putting my fucking

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Hand down there!"

Eddie reaches into the floor boards and pulls out a dust covered, red bouncy ball. He smiles to himself and blows some of the dust off it. 

The rest of the losers watch, smiling to themselves as well. Then they begin to look around the clubhouse at the stuff that was left down there. They talk among themselves, reminiscing their childhood.

"Hey losers" a voice calls from the shadows and they all stilled. "Time to float."

The group start to panic and, a few picking up something to defend themselves and in Ben's case, falling over. A laugh fills the clubhouse and everyone deflates. Richie appears from the shadows, laughing his head off and Bill and Eddie swear at him.

"Remember how he used to do that? And he'd do that little dance" Richie swings his arms side to side making the sound of a cartoon animal singing. When he stops his smile falls slightly "am I the only one who remembers this shit?"

"Are you going to be like this the entire time we're home?" Eddie yells at Richie, who is completely frowning now. "Alright. Just trying to add some levity to this shit. I'll go fuck myself."

Stan rolls his eyes and walks over to Richie, where he sat in the old hammock. Stan sits next to Richie and leans towards him, whispering "try that one again once we defeat It, okay." Richie nods and the two sit there for a bit, watching their friends look around the clubhouse.

Bill walks towards a shelf and picks up a metal tub, with a sicker that reads 'for the use of the losers club only -Stan'.

Bill turns around and shows it to the group. They all smile slightly and Stan speaks up "I remember that, I brought them for us a week after the clubhouse was fully decorated."

They all smile and agree, and reminisce with Stan and Bill pulls out- 

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A shower cap. Richie looks at it, and snatches it off Stan "what the fuck is this?"

Stan smiles to himself, feeling pride in his idea, and tells Richie "so you don't get spiders stuck in your hair when you're down here."

"Stanley" Richie chucks the shower cap next to him "we're not afraid of ducking spiders." Stan rolls his eyes and moves away revealing the rest of the group with shower caps on.

"I stand corrected."

Eddie pulls his off, before he gets up and marches over to Richie. 

"That's a first" Beverly says and Richie nods "touché"

Eddie glares at Richie when he reaches the hammock and places his arms on his hips. "Hey Richie, your ten minutes are up!"

"What are you talking about?"

"The hammock. Ten minutes each is the rule" Richie looks around "I don't see any sign." Eddie starts to wave his hands around "are you being this way right now?" 

The rest of the losers smile at the pairs bickering. "No really! Why would there be a sign if it was a verbal agreement?"

"I don't-"

"I remember you agreeing-"

"I neve-"

"-on the fucking rule!"

Eddie pushes RIchie's legs over and fights him to get a spot on the hammock as well. Mike takes a seat on the swing and laughs at them and slowly swings. Stan glares at them and they keep bickering, and he rolls his eyes when Richie yells out at Eddie "I can see your vagina!"

Ben picks a nail and starts to hammer it to the unstable pillar. Beverly walks over, smiling with a cigarette in hand. She takes a hit of her cigarette and admires his work.

"I fucked your mom!"

"No you didn't!"

Beverly smiles at Ben and he looks away from what he is doing to have eye contact with her, "you're surprisingly good at this new kid."

Ben blushes and puts his hammer down "you really think so?" She nods and Ben smiles "you know there's actually a summer course Bar Harbour, where they teach you all about architecture. I was thinking about applying."

"I'll do that."

Ben and Beverly turn to Richie who is half heartedly reading his comic. Eddie puts his foot in Richie's face, annoying the trashmouth. He pushes the foot away while he speaks "I'll do anything to get out of Derry."

Mike smiles and sighs "when I graduate I'm straight off to Florida."

"Whaat's in Florida Mike?" Ben asks and Mike lets out a small laugh "I don't know. I- I guess it's a place I always wanted to go."

Richie doesn't look up from his comic when he nods in Stan's direction "Stan you should go with Mike to Florida." Stan turns to look at Richie and frown. Richie finally looks up from his comic "you already act eighty. You'd clean up with all the grandmas." He makes kissing noises and Stan rolls his eyes. A few of the losers laugh, including Stan, before Stan frowns deeper than before.

"Do- do you guys" Stan stops for a second and looks at them "think we'll all still be friends?"

Beverly and Ben move closer to Stan, and he continues "when we're older."

"What? Why wouldn't we be?" Eddie asks and Bill goes and sits next to Stan.

"Do any of your parents still hang out with their friends from middle school?" They all start frowning, and Eddie takes off Richie's glasses and hits him with his foot. "I mean, things might be different then. We all might be different." Bill shakes his head, "w-w-we'll still be friends. I-I don't think that just g-g-g-goes away because we get older." Tears begin to roll down Stan's eyes and Beverly nudges Stan on the shoulder. She smiles at him "yeah Stan, come on. You don't have to be so

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sad."

The losers all frown, and Stan lets out a shaky breath. Richie grabs his hand and squeezes it, giving Stan a big smile. Stan smile's back and Bill tosses the two men one of the shower caps.

"What are we doing here Mike?" Richie asks and Mike stands up. "The ritual. To preform it, it requires a sacrifice."

"I nominate Eddie!"

The group turns to glare at Richie, and Eddie's eyes go wide "wait, what!"

Richie looks at him like he's missing something obvious and says "cause your little you can fit on a barbecue."

"I'm five nine, that's like average height."

"Maybe there are other reasons he chose you" Stan muttered and when the losers looked at him confused Richie placed a hand over Stan's mouth "beep beep Staniel!"

Bill shakes it off and glares at Richie "it's n-not that type of a sacrifice."

Mike nods and informs the group "the past is buried. But, you're going to have to dig it up. Piece by piece. And these pieces, these artefacts. That's why we're here. They are what you'll sacrifice. And since we are going in as a group, we need a group token."

Rustling comes from where Eddie had moved, next to Richie and Stan. He places the shower cap on his head and gives the group a tight lipped smile "I think Bill just did that."

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Mike pulls Ben out of the clubhouse and they all are finally back above ground. Eddie sighs and looks at Mike "so where and how do we find our tokens Mike?"

"Yeah with all due respect, this is fucking stupid alright." Richie shoves his hands in his pockets "why do we need tokens. We already remember everything. Saving Bev, defeating It. I mean, we're caught up."

Mike looks at Richie and reminds him "that's not everything. We fought. But what happened after that? Before the house on Neibolt."

"W-we can't r-r-r-remember can we?"

Mike nods "see there's more to our story. What happened that summer. And those blank spaces, are like pages torn out of a book. That's what you need to find. We need to split up. You each need to find your artefact, alone-"

"Um I got to say" Eddie interrupts Mike "I mean, statistically speaking, you look at survival scenarios, we'll do much better as a group."

Richie nods "yeah splitting up would be dumb man. We've got to go together, I mean we together that summer right?"

"No, not that w-w-w-w-whole summer."

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"Take it back."

Richie pushes Bill back and Bill goes up to him and punches Richie in the face. Richie falls to the ground and Beverly screams at the boys. Stan and Mike hold Richie back when he gets up to prevent any further damage. Ben grabs onto Bill and the two boys arguing scream at each other.

"Fucking Stop!" The losers turn to look at Beverly, "this is what It wants. It wants to divide us. We were all together when we hurt it. That's why we are still alive." 

"Yeah... well I plan to keep it that way." Richie walks over to his bike and hits Bill's shoulder as he walks away. Stan follows Richie and they leave together. Beverly gives Ben a pleading look but he frowns "sorry Bev but I-I can't" and he leaves too. Mike goes to leave as Ben gets on his bike and Bill looks at him "M-Mike?" Mike stops and looks at Bill, "Richie's right. We'll die if we keep this up. I promised my dad I'd look after my mom... and I can't if I'm dead. I'm Sorry."

Chapter Text

"I bet by tomorrow we'll all be back together."

Beverly and Bill walked their bikes home. They were nearing Beverly's apartment and began to slow down. Bill shook his head "I d-d-don't think so."

"Well if we're going to stop It we better be."

"M-m-m-m-m-m-maybe Richie was right." They stop walking and Beverly looks at Bill, stunned by his words. "M-m-maybe we shouldn't, maybe we can't."

"Don't let them get to you."

"It's a little late for that." Beverly frowns and stares at Bill. They're both silent for a moment, and Bill's the one to break it "you should go. B-b-before your dad sees." Beverly doesn't say anything, and Bill watches her leave. Bill gets on his bike and begins to ride home.

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Beverly stares at the road like she was watching the memory happen right in front of her. She frowns and moves her hair out of her face, where the wind was blowing it. She turned around and looked at the apartment building, before a ending the stairs and finding her old apartment.

When she finds it, the little name tag still says Marsh and her frown becomes deeper. She rings the doorbell, and an old, frail women opens the door a tad. "Yes" the women asks and Beverly takes a step back "sorry I-I" she looks at the name tag once more, and it now says Kersh.

Beverly furrows her brows and the old women speaks again "can I help you?" "I thought it read Marsh." Beverly begins to leave but Ms Kersh's words stop her "Alvin Marsh?"

"My father" Beverly nods "I grew up here." Ms Kersh closes the door and unlocks it fully, and reopens it.

"Dear it's not for me to tell you this, but... your father passed away. I'm so sorry you didn't know?" Beverly shakes her head "we haven't spoken in a while."

"Well won't you come in, let me offer you something to drink?"

"No, it's fine. I have to go" Beverly smiles at Ms Kersh and gets a smile in return -a creepier one though- "it's the least I can do."

"Sure, okay."

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It's nerve racking really. It's her first fashion show, well of just her clothing line. Well hers and Tom's. She's excited, but also nervous.

"Beverly Marsh!" Some reporter calls out as she walks out from backstage to greet some of her guest personally. "Beverly Rogan!" Another calls and Beverly begins to feel slightly overwhelmed. Reporters begin asking her questions and she ignores them.

She quickly says hello to a few people before rushing off back stage.

Tom is there glaring at her and he growls "I thought I said stay out there and socialise."

"I was but the press were getting really pushy and I-" 

Tom growls "speak to the fucking press than!" Beverly flinches and Tom walks over to her and tightly grabs her arm "you will not fuck up my fashion show. Got it you slut!"

Beverly nods and Tom lets go of her arm and Beverly runs out to the press and answers there questions, swallowing down her tears and smiling like everything was fine.

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"Is it like you remember?"

"Cleaner."

"Well you feel free to look around while I get the water going."

"Really It's fine you don't need to do that."

"Don't be so polite."

Ms Kersh walks into the dark kitchen and Beverly slowly walks around the apartment. It was cleaner than when she was aa kid, but had more clutter. She walks down the hallway and the bathroom door is wide open.

His eyes catch the shower curtain and he slowly approaches it. He reaches for the curtain and pulls it away and out of nowhere Beverly hits her father over the head with a tile and he becomes unconscious.

Beverly stares at the bathroom and her breathing is getting slightly uneven. She slowly moves her head away from the bathroom and heads into her old bedroom, which is now converted into some sort of dressing room.

She heads straight to the far right hand corner, and drops to the ground. She tries to pull back a piece of wood, but it doesn't budge. She gets a pair of scissors and loosens the board before pulling it completely off.

Two cockroaches crawl out of a whole in the wall and Beverly places her hand in the whole and pulls out a plastic bag. She smiles as she opens it up and pulls out three items, her old necklace with her house key, a pack of cigarettes and an old postcard. She stores the necklace and the cigarettes in her pocket before focusing in the postcard.

"Your hair is winter fire... January embers... my heart burns there too."

Beverly smiles as she reads the postcard, and lets out a little laugh. She's euphoric, and doesn't notice Ms Kersh at the end of the hallway watching her.

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Tom

What do you fucking think you are doing!

Answer me woman!

I will fucking kill you I swear!

Bevvie!

Seen at 3:58pm

You're dead when you get home!

You blocked Tom

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Ms Kersh puts on a record and walks back over to the couch. "I do apologise, it gets so very hot here this time of year."

They both pick up their cups and Beverly smiles at Ms Kersh, "it's fine."

"See I feel like you could just about die." Beverly places her cup back down and Ms Kersh continues "but you know what they say about Derry." Beverly makes a hmm sound and Ms Kersh tilts her head "no one who dies here ever really dies."

It goes silent as Ms Kersh stares at Beverly with a tilted head and creepy smile. After a long moment Ms Kersh snaps out of her creepy trans and asks "so what's it like being back in Derry?"

"It's... strange" Beverly responds and Ms Kersh furrows her brows "strange, how?" Ms Kersh starts fanning herself with a bit of her dress and Beverly sees an odd, ugly burn mark on her chest. Beverly starts to shift uncomfortably in her seat and a ding comes from the kitchen.

"I had some cookies in the oven before you came here. You stay right there." Beverly is about to object, but Ms Kersh gives Beverly a look that makes her stay.

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Beverly rushes down the street, she had fifty minutes to get ten coffees and return to where she was interning at vogue.

She rushed down the busy streets of New York with ease, almost at the nearest Starbucks. She is seconds away from entering when she hits someone and falls down.

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

Beverly looks up to see the person she ran into extending and arm. She recognises him, but can't remember where from.

She takes his hand and smiles at him "sorry, I was so caught up in my own little world I didn't see you..."

"Ben. Ben Hanscom."

"Beverly Marsh."

They shake hands and for a split second, they both remember meeting when they were children. But that disappears when a car horn loudly honks behind them. Beverly jumps slightly and they both laugh.

"It was nice to met you Ben, I hope to see you around."

"You to Beverly!"

They both smile and wave as Beverly enters the Starbucks. Ben watch's her and mumbles "please don't go girl."

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Beverly finds her dad at the kitchen table. He's got a photo of her mother in front of him and is holding a piece of fabric to his face. "Today was her birthday."

Beverly stands still, frozen almost, and Alvin creepily adds "I can still smell her perfume." He removes the fabric from his face and turns slightly to where Beverly is standing "and she's still be alive if it wasn't for you."

"Mommy was sick. You already know, that's why she did what she did."

"She did whaat she did because she was embarrassed to be your mother!" Alvin turns around and his eyes shot daggers at Beverly. "You look like her" he nods "but you are nothing like her."

Beverly's eyes go wide and she feels her fathers daggers being pushed further into her stomach. "Come here." She doesn't move and flinches when he yells "come here!"

Beverly walks over to her father, and he tells her to close her eyes and she obeys. Nothing happens for a few moments, but suddenly Alvin begins violently spraying perfume over her and she opens her eyes.

He sprays half a bottle over Beverly and a bit over himself, and when he finishes he takes a deep inhale of the fabric. "You know that I'd never hurt you. You know that don't you?" Beverly doesn't meet her father's eyes but she slowly walks towards him and hugs him.

Usually she is pretty good at recognising It's tricks, especially since the blood incident right as summer began, but right now, she can't tell if It is about to transform back into the clown and eat her or if she's really with her father.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"You'll always be my little girl. Won't you?"

"Always."

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Beverly begins to walk around the apartment's living room and looks at the photos on the walls "Ms Kersh is this your family?"

"Why yes it it. My father came into this country with fourteen dollars in his pocket. And he didn't ask the state for money like people do these days. Do you know what he did?" Beverly reaches the wall opposite the kitchen entry and stops walking "what did he do Ms Kersh?"

"My father joined the circus!" Beverly looks up and sees a photo of a little girl and a man, a man with a familiar face. Beverly's face expresses the horror she felt and her body begins to feel numb. "I was always daddy's little girl."

Beverly slowly turns around to face the kitchen "what about you?" Ms Kersh can't be seen in the dark kitchen but she can be heard, and Beverly slowly walks backwards "are you still his little girl Beverly? Are you!"

Loud footsteps can be heard approaching, and in just seconds a gollum like women with saggy boobs and floating gray hair storms out of the kitchen, chasing Beverly. Beverly runs as fast as she can -slipping a few times- and makes it down the hallway.

She goes to open the door but it won't open. A creak from the other end of the hallway makes Beverly turn around. "Run, run, run, run, run" a more human like Pennywise turns to look at Beverly. "You haven't change anything yet."

Spit drips out of It's mouth "you haven't changed your futures yet." It angrily paints part of It's face white "you haven't saved anyone."

It start painting It's entire face, in a messy, angry fashion. "Close your eyes Bev."

"Fuck you!" Beverly spits at Pennywise, but It ignores her "if you don't believe" It places It's hands over It's face and digs It's nails though the skin, making lines where It's red paint usually is.

"Come... and... see" It begins laughing and Beverly finally opens the door and runs out.

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Beverly runs out of the building and across the road and nearly down the street before she hits something. She falls to the ground and a hand is extended to her. She looks up at the owner of the hand and sees Ben.

"Are you alright Bev?"

she looks back at where she came from, then back to Ben. She gives him a small smile and nods "yeah, yeah I'm fine."

Ben decides not to push and helps her up. He lets out a small laugh, "alright then. How about we go get some milkshakes?" Beverly laughs to and begins grinning "I'd like that a lot."

They walk into the infamous Derry diner, which they were fortunately close to and took a seat at an empty booth.

The waitress came quickly and they ordered -Beverly getting a strawberry milkshake, Ben a chocolate and the pair got fries to share.

When the waitress left, Ben leaned closer to Beverly "hi" she looks at him confused but leans closer as well "hi."

"What did you see out there?"

"Something I wish I hadn't."

Beverly shakes slightly at the thought of the old women and Ben decides not to ask, instead asking "so... do we kill him and forget everything again?"

"I hope so, don't you?" Ben looks at Beverly sceptically "I do not know. I would like to remember the good stuff, you know? Do you want to remember something from the past."

"I just remember how scared I was." 

"Do you remember anything good... that you don't want to forget?"

Beverly laughs slightly and begins smiling slowly "I remember you guys in your tighty-whities." Ben smiles with Beverly, but is slightly embarrassed "let's forget that moment."

"I remember this" Beverly pulls out the postcard from her pocket and shows Ben "I remember the boy who wrote it for me. Not so much him, but... how he made me feel." Ben smiles softly at Beverly, and she shakes her head "I don't know, it's still blurry. But the longer we are here, the clearer it is. I see the moment more clearly. And I see..."

 The waitress comes with their milkshakes and fries and leaves. The two begin to eat and the conversation from before ends.

"So" Ben starts, Beverly looks up at him "how's things with you and Tom?"

Beverly frowns, and looks deeply into Ben's eyes. He's genuinely asking, and he cares. Beverly quickly wipes the grease off her hands and gets out her phone and pulls up Tom's messages.

She hand the phone to Ben, who takes it and begins reading the texts. His eyes go wide and he frowns at Beverly.

"Why are you still with him?"

"It's complicated."

"It's abusive, is what it is."

Beverly sighs and averts her eyes from Ben "I thought he could change if I loved him enough. But he-"

Ben grabs Beverly's hand and gives her a small smile. She looks at him wide eyed and he says "I'll support you with whatever you do, okay Bev. Just... don't let this man hurt you. You don't deserve it."

Beverly smiles at Ben and nods, "thank you." Ben returns the phone to Beverly and she rereads the messages quickly, before saying "I want to divorce him."

Ben nods "that's okay. If you want, I can help you set things up while we're here so he can't change your mind when you go home." Beverly nods and gives Ben a small smile "I'd like that."

They look at each other for a short time, before they continue eating and catching up.

Chapter Text

When they got back to the inn they were laughing to the point of tears. They headed to the bar, and found Stan, Patty and Richie already there.

"Hey guys!" They look up and smile back at Ben, the pair bring chairs over to their friends and sit down. "What's up?"

"Stan and Patty where just telling me about Georgia!"

"Can you get any louder Rich?"

Patty, Beverly and Ben start to laugh and Richie grins "yes I can!"

The group laugh for a while, before calming down and getting to a respectable volume for a public -indoor- place. Patty smiles at the losers and sweetly asks "so, Stan never told me how you all met?" Richie and Beverly over dramatically act offended and Ben smiles sweetly back at Patty.

"I met Stan after I had just escaped Henry Bowers." Patty furrows her brows at the name and Stan tells her he was their childhood bully. She nods in understanding and Ben continues. "He was at the sewers with Bill, Richie and Eddie and they helped me back to town and patched me up."

"He was stabbed by Henry" Patty's eyes widen at Stan's words but he places a hand on hers and says "he's locked up now."

"Well thank the lord!"

They all giggle at Patty's words at Beverly is the next to speak "I met these guys when they were buying supplies to patch up Ben. Well I'd already met Ben and him and Richie were outside, but still." Stan and Beverly begin laughing at the memory of the pharmacy.

"Stan the man and I met way back in kindergarten!" Stan rolled his eyes as Richie slung an arm over Stan's shoulder, but was grinning none the less. "Stan was sitting all alone and I ditched my friends and decided to be his hero and become his friend!"

"That's not how we met."

"Yes it is!"

"No, it wasn't" Richie waved his hand to try and ignore the difference, but Stan turned to Patty and told her how they really met. "I was with the only two other Jewish kids, and Richie said he wanted to be my friend and wouldn't leave till I was."

The group all began to laugh and Richie draped himself over Stan "you make me look pathetic!" Stan shook his head, still laughing and said "because you are."

"I'm wounded!"

"Good!"

Their laughter gets louder and Beverly even got to the point where she was rolling on the floor, hand over her stomach, with tears of laughter. It took ten minutes for all of them to calm down enough, and when they did Ben suggested they get Bill, Mike and Eddie to join them in his room and they can order pizza for dinner. They all obviously agreed.

🎈🎈🎈

The losers and Patty sat around Ben's room chatting and eating. Ben is sitting next to Beverly on the floor, Patty and Stan where sitting against the bed which Eddie and Richie were on. Mike was on the rocking chair that was just in the room and Bill was on the desk chair.

They are having their own seperate conversations, every so often having a group conversation, when Eddie screams out “what the fuck Richard!”

The group quickly turn around to Eddie and RIchie, lying on the bed. “What did he do this time?”

“I don’t have enough money for chicken nuggets” Richie says pretending to cry but laughing halfway through. Eddie shakes his head “I thought you were bae... but turns out you were just fam.”

“Bruh!”

“Are you quoting vines?” Bill asked and frowned at them. Richie grins and screams “this bish empty. Yeet!” And throws his plastic cup at Bill’s head. He misses and it ends up hitting Mike, pouring the alcohol still in there over him. “You two are literally forty! Stop it... get some help!” Bill says and Beverly and Ben begin laughing like crazy.

Stan rolls his eyes and looks at his friends “are you all going to grow up or are you still mentally five?”

“What up I’m Jared, I’m nineteen and I never fucking learned how to read.”

“Seriously Eddie?”

Mike glares at the men laughing on the bed, and goes into the bathroom to quickly wash himself.

Richie turns to Eddie and frowns “we’re all children of Jesus” and pushes Eddie off the bed “Kumbaya my lord!”

Everyone laughed at the childish antics of Eddie and Richie, mumbling over them being man babies. After Mike returns to the bedroom -laughing from what he heard- Beverly grabs out her phone and waves it at the group. “Guys we need a group photo!”

Patty takes Beverly’s phone and the losers get together for a group photo.

🎈🎈🎈

@BevMarsh

Beverly Marsh

[a photo of the losers huddled together on the floor of Ben's room, Beverly and Ben sitting together, Stan is slightly away from them but still in the full shot, Bill is squatting behind Beverly and Stan and is in between Eddie and Mike, who are also squatting, and Richie is lying on the floor in front of them. They all have massive grins.]

Beverly Marsh Dinner in Ben's room with the Losers Club and Patty! Love you losers

Photo credit: @PattyBlumUris

@Mr_BilltheAuthor @EKaspbrak @MikeyH @Trashmouth.Tozier @StanUris @Ben_Hanscom

Mike Hanlon we look great

Patricia Thank you Bev!

Stanley You took an amazing photo!

Richie Tozier I'm not a fucking loser!

Edward Kaspbrak shut the fuck up dickward you're more of a loser than  me

Richie Tozier okay mr fanny pack

Edward Kaspbrak I said shut up

Bill Denbrough how do you two always argue? This is instagram stop!

🎈🎈🎈

As Eddie and Richie ‘willingly’ left the room when their vine quoting got a bit too much, they fell into a comfortable silence.

Both men thought it was nice, to once again be with someone and not have to fill the emptiness with words. Well until Richie thinks of something to talk about.

“Hey remember those fortune cookies?”

“Yes Richie” Eddie said with an eye roll, which went unnoticed by Richie “so how do you think you’ll die?”

“Dear old mommy... or Myra...”

Richie frowned and stopped walking, and looked at Eddie in confusion. Eddie stopped a few seconds after and gave Richie an expectant look. Without taking his eyes off of Eddie, Richie asks “why do you love her if she hurts you?”

Eddie frowns and takes his eyes away from Richie’s face “my mom or Myra?”

“I’m not joking for once.”

“You’re drunk.”

“Am not!”

Eddie gently grabs Richie’s arm and leads him to Richie’s room. He opens the door and helps Richie to his bed. Richie watches his friend rush around the room, trying to find pyjamas. Once he does, Eddie hands them to Richie and wraps his arms around Richie’s neck -well neck and head. 

Richie basks in the glory of the hug, and doesn’t even realise he doesn’t hug Eddie back. Eddie quickly takes a step back and smirks at Richie and his dopey grin.

“Get some rest dickward.”

“Night Eds!”

“Not my name!”

Eddie leaves the room and Richie sits on the bed for a while, thinking. Thinking about a lot of things. But mainly thinking about Eddie.

🎈🎈🎈

“Hey asshole!”

Richie blinks and looks at Eddie, who’s waving a hand in his face. Eddie looks annoyed, and is basically growling “stop staring at me!”

“Sorry Eddie Spaghetti, was just thinking about you’re- holy shit!”

The losers look at Richie either confused, concerned or a mix of both. It’s been a few weeks since they stopped It, and since they stopped It, Richie had been more fidgety, more talkative, zoning out more. They were all suffering with things after It, but their personalities weren’t amplified like Richie’s.

“My mom said her and dad are going to think about having another kid! I wanna little sister. Oh my god Stan the Man!”

Stan turned his head to glare at Richie, who began to fall out of the hammock and crawl over to Stan, “you’ll never guess! But you know that kid I told you about! He now lives near Bil- Big Bill I want a hug!”

Richie runs over to Bill and starts hugging him like crazy, and Bill returns the hug before turning to the rest of the losers “d-d-d-d-does anyone wanna go to the q-quarry tomorrow?”

Ben, Mike and Stan agree straight away, Eddie is slightly sceptical but agrees and Beverly frowns before speaking up “my Aunt is coming over to deal with... stuff.”

“That’s okay Bev, you have things to do” Ben says with a sweet smile directed at Beverly -one he reserves for Beverly- and she begins to blush and mumbles out a thanks.

“What about you Richie?” Mike asks to get a very loud “no! Mom and dad are taking me to get tested!”

“For what rabies?”

“I don’t got rabies Eds!”

“Don’t call me that numb-nuts!”

Stan points his stare at Richie after a very deserving eye roll at the two boys, and politely asks “what are you getting tested on Rich?” Richie shrugs before flinging himself off of Bill and lies in the middle of the circle his friends are seated in “dunno.”

Eddie frowns and goes and wraps his arms around Richie’s neck -well neck and head. Ben follows in suit and hugs Richie and then suddenly the entire group are hugging each other.

“Love you losers” Beverly says and Bill grins as he responds “we love you too Bev.”

Chapter Text

Stan woke up to the sound of screaming coming from downstairs. The words were incoherent, but they sounded vile. Stan grabs his pillow and places it over his head to try and drown out the voices, but it doesn't work.

He begrudgingly gets up, slips on his slippers and bathrobe and exits his room.

When he gets out of the room he sees that he wasn't the only one disturbed by the noise. Bill, Ben and Beverly are all exiting the rooms and exchange confused glances with each other.

All together they head over to the staircase and see the owners of the voices, arguing over something that the four losers didn't know.

"You fucking bastard!"

🎈🎈🎈

It was crowded in the club. Everyone was either dancing, drinking, doing some drug or basically having sex. It was trashy, but that's why Richie felt comfortable there. He was a trashmouth after all.

He was sitting at the bar, drinking until he blacked out. He wasn't very energetic since his high had just crashed, but the alcohol was bringing his energy back up.

From across the bar, a women sees Richie and decides to approach him.

"What are you doing all alone?" She coats her voice with a sugar sweet facade and Richie raises his eyebrows at her "drinking. You?" She laughs and Richie rolls his eyes. The women -a short, anorexic looking, Hispanic- took a step closer to him "trying to get you to come home with me."

Richie eyed her up and down, checking her out. She was pretty much gorgeous, but like always not what he was looking for -a short angry kid with a fanny pack he doesn't remember flashes through his mind- and he wasn't much of a one night stand type of guy. But once won't effect him too much, would it.

"Okay... I'm Richie by the way."

"Lexie."

🎈🎈🎈

"Sure blame this all on me you fucking prostitute!"

"At least I'm not a fucking alcoholic like you!"

"Yes you are!"

Stan, Bill, Ben and Beverly walk further down the stairs and witness the women slap the man -they couldn't see faces- across the face. The mans glasses fell off his face, and the women started yelling again.

"You're a fucking cock sucker! How dare you think you can leave the fucking brat with me!" The man seems to get more furious at the last few words than the whole argument. "Well I'm sorry that we have split responsibilities! Now if you are fucking done, get the fuck out of here you fucking HIV carrying, ratchet, burned out slut!"

The women pouts, punches the man and slams the door as she walked out.

The four losers on the staircase, walk down the rest of the stairs just as the man -Richie- turns around. He blindly looks around "where are my glasses?"

A giggle comes from behind the losers and they all turn around to see a little girl wearing Richie's glasses. Richie walks up to the girl and takes the glasses off her and puts them on.

"That's bet- holy shit! Hey guys!"

Richie looks at his friends and smiles, Beverly walks up to him and examines the bruise that is beginning to form. He hisses as she touches it and she frowns "sorry sweetie it's going to hurt."

"Who was t-t-that Richie?" Bill's eyebrows are furrowed and Richie tried to turn his head to face Bill, only for Beverly to turn it back and show Ben the bruise. "That was Lexie."

"You have five minutes to explain Richard" Stan growled and Richie sighed "I met Lexie four, five-ish years ago at some club I frequented. We left together and then fifteen months later she knocked on my door and told me in six months she'll return to pick up E-"

Another giggle comes from the little girl and the group turn to her. Richie goes and picks her up, and she flaps her arms. Richie smiles and tickles her neck, and her laughter erupts in a loud gleeful explosion, calming the anxious and uptight losers.

"Guess I'm not the first" Bill says and everyone raises their eyebrows at him "Richie, of all people, beat me in having a kid."

Stan, Beverly and Ben finally start to freak out over the kid -Stan over her health, Beverly and Ben on her cuteness. Ben rubs his fingers on her cheek, and she giggles "what's her name?"

"Elena."

"Oh my god she's so cute!"

Stan rolls his eyes and sighs "okay now that Bev has announced how cute she is" Beverly shrugs and goes back to cooing at Elena "what are you going to do while we're here?" Richie glances a look at Elena and frowns, "one of you look after her." Ben nods and smiles "if you want I can look after her."

Elena smacks Richie's nose and he glares at her "you got to stop doing that Eds."

"Eds?"

"Thanks Ben" Richie says, ignoring Stan "let me just put her stuff in my room and get a few things and I'll hand her off." Ben smiled and Beverly squealed, knowing she was already spending the day with Ben.

🎈🎈🎈

As Richie walked into the dressing room backstage, he muttered to himself about the show and his career. Immediately, he plopped down on the couch when he arrived at the dressing room. All he wanted was to go home, but he had several shows left.

A gurgle reminded Richie of the other person in the room, and for the first time that night he felt relaxed and calm.

"Hey Eds" Elena looked up at her father and flapped her arms around, Richie picked her up and looked at her small face. Elena gurgled again and Richie chuckled to himself "I don't get how those babysitters could hate you."

Elena grabbed Richie's glasses and started to pull "you wanna play, don't you?" A giggle came as the answer, and Richie got up and carried her over to a bag sitting on a table in the corner of the room. Elena's eyes were wide as Richie look in the bag for something.

"How about... this!"

Richie pulled out a small stuffed bear with dark brown fur and a fluffy touch. Elena smiled and made grabbing motions towards the toy.

Laughter and smiles took over the room as Richie handed Elena the bear "do you wanna name it?"

Elena nodded and tried to say the name "misr pluffy!"

"Mr Fluffy?"

"Eah!"

"What a great name isn't it" Richie said in a colloquial English accent, making Elena laugh again.

🎈🎈🎈

Richie placed Elena on the bed and positioned himself in front of her. She looked at him and smiled "miss you daddy!"

A soft smile spreads across Richie's face and he pulls Elena into a hug "I missed you too Eds." They stay silent for a moment before Richie pulls away enough for Elena to see him. "I know you wanna stay with me, but I have to quickly do something, and I don't think you'd wanna do it."

"Do what?"

"...chores."

"Ew!"

Richie laughed at the disgust on his daughters face "I know ew!"

Elena quickly stood up and fell off the bed, stumbled up and walked over to her suitcase. She opened it up and threw everything out until she found what she was looking for.

She ran back to her father and gave him a stuffed bear "why are you giving me Mr Fluffy?"

"Fors the fun!"

RIchie smiled and placed a kiss on Elena's forehead "thank you" he placed the bear in his jacket pocket and picked Elena up "now lets get you to Ben."

"Why?"

"He's looking after you."

"Why?"

"Cause I don't want you alone."

"Why?"

"You're in the why phase huh?"

"No."

Richie laughed and knocked on Ben's door "you're crazy Eds."

🎈🎈🎈

The arcade was the only place Richie knew would have his token, he would have spent that whole summer there if things went his way. But they didn't.

The arcade looked like it had been abandoned for hundreds of years. It was easy to break into, which Richie assumed most teenagers knew since graffiti covered the walls.

He slowly walked over to the token dispenser and found token lying inside the machine. Richie grabbed it and went to leave but froze when he saw one of the machines that was still in the arcade.

A frown spread across Richie's face as he stared at the street fighter machine, and felt as though he was a kid again, the sounds of kids talking and screaming blending in with the sounds of the machines.

🎈🎈🎈

Richie quickly slammed his fingers on the buttons, trying to annihilate his competition -a cute blonde boy, with bright blue eyes, maybe a year or two older than Richie- that introduced himself as Connor.

Richie glanced at Connor and smiled, before quickly looking back. Richie does that a lot, quickly look at boys, before looking away, like he doesn't want to get caught. He tells himself it's because he wants to make lots of friends, and all the boys do it.

With a few more pushes, Connor wins the match and takes a step back from the machine "your fucking good."

Both boys are smiling, and give each other a high five -that lingers for a little too long- and Connor say as he goes to leave "oh well, I've got to go."

And like usual, Richie's mouth works faster than his brain and calls out "hey" he fidgets with a token before showing it to Connor "um, how about we go again?"

Connor's face dulls a bit, he can hear someone coming. "Play some more you know." Connor turns around and sees Henry and his goons approach and they've noticed the situation.

"Only if you want to."

Connor turns back to Richie, and snarled out "dude, why are you being weird?"

The entire arcade goes silent and Connor screams at Richie "I'm not your fucking boyfriend!"

Richie continues to fidget and quietly tries to defend himself "I- I- I didn't-"

"The fucks going on here?" Henry walks closer to the boys and Richie's eyes go wide, fear starts to become the only thing he feels. Connor turns to Henry and spits out "you assholes didn't tell me your town was full of little fairies!"

"Richie fucking Tozier" Henry turned his psychopathic glare to Richie "what... are you trying to bone my little cousin?"

And with those words Richie felt the shoe drop, he knew he wasn't lucky enough to make friends. But then again he didn't know if he wanted to be friends with Connor or maybe something more. He couldn't get the words out to defend himself, because he knew Henry was right... the clown was right, he was a dirty little queer.

"Get the fuck out of here faggot!" Henry yelled and tears began to well up in Richie's eyes.

Richie slowly walked backwards and Henry grew impatient "fucking move!"

And with that Richie ran out, pushing the door open violently and never returned to the arcade again.

When Richie finally stopped running he found himself at a nearby park, the one with the Paul Bunyan statue. He took a seat on one of the benches and began to cry. He felt as though his whole life was dissolving around him, and there was no way to stop it.

His head shot up and his tears were forgotten when he heard a demonic voice wine out "wanna kiss Richie?"

Richie looked around the park to try and see who it was, but instead saw that the Paul Bunyan statue was missing. In an instant, he knew it was the clown messing with him but he couldn't shove down the fear he felt as the Paul Bunyan statue appeared next to him, and bats escaped from his cave like mouth.

Richie screamed at the top of his lunges and ran away from the statue, but was followed and had terrain flying everywhere from Paul Bunyan tearing up the ground with his axe. It didn't take long for Richie to fall over, and when he did he crawled in on himself and cried "it's not real! It's not real! It's not real! It's not real!"

He knew he should be dead, the clown was going to kill him, but as he opened his eyes, everything was back to how it should be... normal.

"I think I just shit my pants."

🎈🎈🎈

Richie stared off to where he lay after the attack from Pennywise when he was a kid, before looking at the Paul Bunyan statue. He felt the fear and pain he felt that day as he stared at the statue. He unconsciously began picking at his nails like he did every day, without an idea on how he started.

"Ma... can you paint my nails?"

...

Maggie smiled at her son and nodded. "Okay, let me get a few things and then I'll paint them." Richie lit up and Maggie laughed, shook her head and left.

...

The clown grinned more and Richie tried to move further back on the bench, a drum hit and then the vocals of the beach boys filtered in "wouldn't it be nice if we where older..."

Richie squealed a little as a hand placed itself on his shoulder. 

"Are you okay sweetie? You look like you've seen a ghost." Richie turned to look at Maggie and he felt a rush of relief.

...

He returned his gaze to his mother and smiled, "yeah ma, I'm fine."

Maggie smiled back at her son and removed her hand from his shoulder. She lifted up two small bottles and showed them to Richie "okay... green or blue?"

"the canal day festival" a man said as he shove a flyer at Richie as he walked past "the closing performance. Hope to see you there handsome." He turned around and Richie took a step back as he saw the decaying face of the gay guy who was killed recently that Mike told them about. With a disgusted look on his face, Richie looked down at the flyer and was taken back when he saw it was a eulogy, one marked for that day. His eyes wide and he felt fear flood him as he stared at the eulogy -one that wasn't really a eulogy as all it said was toxic, negative things, that Richie couldn't help but believe.

"Have you missed me Richie?" Richie's head snapped up towards the Paul Bunyan statue to see Pennywise sitting on his shoulder with an upside down pyramid of red balloons "cause I've missed you!" 

Richie gulps and stares in horror It, getting ready to run at any second. He instinctively puts his hand in his pocket and holds onto the stuffed bear. It frowns and cries "no one wants to play with the clown" before It suddenly smiles and says "play a game with me would ya! Or maybe I could play with that sweet little girl! what's her name again? Elena!"

Richie tenses at his daughters name, and the clown shakes It's head "no she won't like my games. We should play... Street Fighter! Oh yes, you like that one don't you" It laughs in a way that sends shivers down the spines of maniacs. Richie's mouth starts to gape open and he is frozen in place.

"Or maybe truth or dare!" Circus tunes begin to play from an unknown source and Pennywise smile sadistically, Richie finally gains the ability to move again and stumbles backwards "Jesus."

"But you wouldn't want anyone to pick truth though, would you Richie?" It starts to float through the air as the balloons guide It to Richie "you wouldn't want anyone to know what you're hiding."

Then It begins singing an off key torment as he gets closer to Richie "I know your secret, your dirty little secret. I know your secret, your dirty little secret!" It lands on the ground and Richie stumbles back further and It giggles in a low pitch "should we tell them Richie? Should we tell them all!"

Richie closes his eyes, scrunching them together hard and whispers to himself "this isn't happening, this is't real, this isn't happen-" and the words slowly die out as he can't feel the clowns presence anymore. He slowly opens his eyes and It races towards him, shaking uncontrollably. Richie lets out a scream and runs away, and It walks in his direction and calls out to him "come back and play! Come back and play with the clown!" It's face slowly deformed itself in a droopy crescent shaped face.

🎈🎈🎈

Ben and Beverly smiled as Elena showed them a dance she made up just for them, as she had said. And as she did her final twirl and Ben and Beverly start clapping, a door slams and Richie storms over to them.

"Daddy!" Elena squealed and in one swift movement, Richie picked her up and pushed past Ben and Beverly on the stairs "move."

They both look at each other before looking at Richie, Beverly is quick to stand up and ask "what's wrong?" Richie doesn't look back at her when he responds "we're leaving" and Elena from where she is being held looks back at Ben and Beverly with sad, puppy dog eyes. Ben stands up with the same look Elena has and calls out to Richie "you can't leave! If we split up we-"

Richie stops ascending the stairs and looks at them "I'll take my chances" and then heads to his room.

"Richie!" Beverly calls out and when he doesn't stop, she signals to Ben that she'll talk to him and runs up the stairs and follows him "Richie, sweetie!"

🎈🎈🎈

Elena sat on the bed playing with one of her dolls while Richie pack in a frenzy, "why?"

Richie turns to look at Elena, who is still playing with her doll "I have work Eds" Elena puts her doll down and stares at him "no." Richie sighs and stops packing "Elena we have to go." Elena crossed her arms and began pouting "no!" Richie dragged his hands down his face, quickly finished packing everything.

He put the bags next to the door, went back over to the bed and went to pick Elena up. Elena started to scream and cry as Richie went to carry her. She kicked and waved her hands everywhere, and Richie felt his own eyes water. He restrained himself from yelling like he always did, but the second she accidentally punch his face he dropped her on the bed, tightly grabbed her arm, pointed a finger at her and whisper yelled "Elena Maria Sofía Daniela Lucia Lily Tozier, listen to me! We are leaving right fucking now, got it!"

A tiny nod came as a response, and tears began to fall from Elena and Richie's eyes. He let go of her arm and pulled her into a hug, "I'm sorry baby, but we have to go."

"Friends?" Elena said with a few sniffles and Richie started stroking her hair  "I know, but we have friends back home."

"But we gotsta say bye bye."

"Sometimes we don't gotsta, okay?"

Elena nodded and Richie took her out the fire escape so she wouldn't throw another tantrum and put her in the car. 

🎈🎈🎈

Richie was about to take the bags out to his car when he heard a knock on the door. He dropped the bags and went to open the door, only to come face to face with Beverly. He rolled his eyes at her "that honestly took you a while to find me to talk me out of leaving."

Beverly pushed past him, grabbed Elena's bag, placed it on the bed and opened it. Richie closed the door and sighed "I'll just repack."

"And I'm putting the stuff Elena left in Ben's room in her suitcase." Richie furrowed his brows and Beverly glared at him "do you want to know what else I saw in the deadlights?"

Richie challenged Beverly's look, before she sat down and stared at the wall "I saw Patty, crying over Stan's body in the bathtub, Audra giving her kid up and becoming a drug addict. I saw shrines made for you, me, Ben and Bill only because we were famous. I saw Elena kill herself because the only person she loved died and her life became a living hell." Richie's face fell and the tears that had just dried, began to fall once more.

"So if you want to leave, leave. I won't stop you. But if you die, Elena's chance of happiness disappears."

Silence falls over the room and Richie wipes at his tears. Beverly looks over to him and sees how broken he looks "that fucking clowns doing a number on us losers huh?" That gets a laugh out of Richie and he nods, and Beverly gets off the bed and envelopes Richie in a bear hug.

"How come we were only friends for a summer, but you feel like a sister to me?" Beverly smiles at Richie "more than your actual sister?" Richie's laugh is louder this time and he nods "defiantly. I mean Lily hates me so fucking much, it's kind of scary. But wait till I tell her I'm friends with the Bev Marsh!"

Beverly pulls away and smiles "she'll grovel at your feet."

They both smile at each other like weirdos for a minute before Richie remembers what he was doing before Beverly came in "shit, Elena's alone in the fucking car!" And with lightning speed he runs out to his car, and Beverly starts to unpack Richie and Elena's things.

🎈🎈🎈

Richie lay in the bed with Elena, since she fell asleep after Richie put her in the car -and he did check if she'd died- when someone knocked on the door. Richie quietly and slowly walked over to the door in order to not wake his daughter.

"I cannot believe Richie fucking Tozier has a kid!" Eddie yelled the second Richie opened the door. Richie put a finger to his mouth to tell him to be quiet and whispers "shut up dipshit, she's asleep."

Eddie shrugged and walked into the room, leaving Richie to quietly close the door. Eddie studied Elena as she slept and Richie watched Eddie. When Eddie turned around, Richie acted like he wasn't staring at him and Eddie didn't seem to notice.

"How old is she?"

"Four."

"Why is she so small then?"

"Do you want a joke answer or serious one?"

Eddie tilted his head at Richie and gave him an 'are you kidding' look, and Richie frowned muttering about how good the joke was before he actually answered "she has a growth deficiency." Eddie frowned and before he could ask anything, Richie answered as though he was a mind reader "her mother'a a bitch and decided that she should do coke and drink while pregnant."

"At least you have full custody right?"

Richie made a stricken look and Eddie frown "why not?" Richie rolled his eyes "remember, I'm still an alcoholic. It'll make me look bad and Elena's mother will definitely look bad and we'll be forced to put her up for adoption or in foster care."

"Well that sucks."

"Yeah no shit."

"At least now you have me to help you."

"Really?"

"I could never let one of the best men I know lose his daughter."

A blush spread across Richie's cheeks and both him and Eddie smiled at each other before they began another whisper conversation, "anyway" Eddie began "how are Maggie and Went?"

Richie laughed quietly "first name basis with my parents Eds, are we moving to fast?"

"Really, when I try to be nice you go be a dick."

"It's apart of my charm."

"What charm?"

Richie fake gasps and acts like he was just stabbed in a Shakespeare play, and Eddie rolled his eyes -and will deny smiling- before Richie finally answers Eddie's first question with a merry "yeah they're good."

"What do they think about-" Eddie tilts his head towards the sleeping child and Richie looks lovingly at his daughter before looking back at Eddie and smiles "they love her. They think she's perfect. Sometimes ma will come over just to paint her nails..." Richie slowly stops speaking, and Eddie quickly places a hand on Richie's knee to try and bring him back down to Earth "what's wrong?"

"I have to go, watch Eds for me."

"Eds?"

Richie quickly runs out of his room and knocks on Beverly's door. When she opens it, she looks at Richie like he's insane.

"Do you have nail polish?"

"Why?"

"Because... that's my token."

Chapter Text

Elena smacks Richie's nose and he glares at her "you got to stop doing that Eds."

"Eds?"

"Thanks Ben" Richie says, ignoring Stan "let me just put her stuff in my room and get a few things and I'll hand her off." Ben smiled and Beverly squealed, knowing she was already spending the day with Ben.

Richie went upstairs with Elena and her suitcase, Ben and Beverly went to Ben's room and Stan and Bill stayed still. They gave each other confused looks at what just happened, but both stayed silent.

Bill's phone rang, and he frowned at Stan, before answering "h-h-hello?"

"Hey Bill, how are you?"

Bill's frown turned into a smile and he watched as Stan returned to his own wife. Bill took a seat on one of the stairs at the start of the staircase "I'm good, how are you?"

"I'm well, I was just wondering, what color do you want to paint the nursery? Because I was thinking of getting the paint now, and order a few things matching that color." Bill's smile widened and he let out a little laugh, and he heard a small laugh escape Audra's lips as well, "yellow."

Audra made an 'oh' noise before she said "that would be nice, since it's such a bright and happy color. But dark, bright or pale yellow?"

This time Bill's laugh was full, and Audra's was too "go bright, but get a small tub of pale, so I can paint a little mural."

Bill felt Audra's smile from over the phone, and it made him wish he was with her, not in his hometown trying to kill a possessed clown shape shifter. Yet he was destined to be back in Derry. His smile became smaller, as did his voice when he asked "if we have a b-boy, can we n-n-n-name him G-G-Georgie?"

He heard Audra's sympathetic sigh, and the want to be with her grew. He wanted to be wrapped up in her arms, as she told him he was okay and they were about to get their happy ending. He missed her so much. Her voice was soft when she replied "anything you want sweetheart. I just know he would be ecstatic with him being his nephews namesake" and he melted from her love and care.

"Thank you, you are literally the best women in the world" Audra laughed sweetly at Bill's kind words and his smile widened once again, "I love you so much."

"I love you too Billy!"

"I'm so sorry, but I have to go do something for Mike, but I will call you again tonight."

"I can't wait."

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It was early 2003 and Bill was very proud of his  progress so far. He was writing his third book, he just bought his own house, and his second book was being made into a film.

The studio -that picked his book for a film adaptation- had called him in to help with casting. Which led to him currently sitting at a table of people he didn't know, judging people he, also, didn't know. It was slightly exhausting, and really annoying. But it had to be done. 

They were getting to the last few auditioning for the main character, and -in Bill's opinion, which mattered the most- no one was good enough. That's when she walked in.

"Hi, my name is Audra Phillips!"  Bill's eyes went wide, she was beautiful. He could just tell she was the one. Audra's smile lit up the room, and her voice warmed Bill's heart. And when she began reading for the part, Bill knew she was the most talented of the bunch who auditioned. She was perfect.

Once the auditions finished, Bill packed up his things and went to leave. As he exited the building, he saw someone standing in the pouring rain trying to reach someone on their phone "fuck!"

"Excuse me, are you okay?"

Bill placed a hand on their shoulder and they turned to face him, "honestly, no." Bill was surprised to see it was Audra, since her audition was several hours ago. She looked soaked, hair sticking to her face and makeup running down her checks. Her eyes were also red and Bill felt his heart pang, so without a second thought he asked "do you want a ride?"

Audra's eyes lit up and she nodded. They both gave the other a smile, before walking over to Bill's car. Once they were both seated and Audra had given Bill her address, Bill grabbed a blanket from the back of his car and gave it to Audra, which she accepted with a sweet thank you.

They weren't on the road long when Audra began talking, "you're William Denbrough right?"

Bill smiled and replied "yes, but you can call me Bill. And you're Audra Phillips?"

"Yep, that's me!" Bill laughed at her enthusiasm and saw Audra smiling out of the corner of his eye. Audra turned to face Bill and began to ask more questions "how old are you?"

"I'm twenty seven, and you?"

"Nineteen... but I don't really care about age gaps!"

Bill chuckled slightly, which made Audra's smile brighter "are you single?"

"Well that depends Audra. Does the fact that I see Angelina Jolie every night count?"

"No, since you are watching her on TV. Which means you're very lonely."

"I am offended... although you aren't entirely wrong."

"Don't worry, I'm lonely too."

Bill quickly spared a glance at Audra, and looked into her eyes and saw an emptiness he saw everyday, in his own eyes. Yet, her eyes were also warmer and filled with more love, and Bill felt in his core that she was special. When he looked back at the road, Audra spoke again "maybe we should be lonely together?"

"And when will that be, since we both will be busy with this film."

The pair began to smile -although Audra's was more excited than Bill's warm one- and Audra freaked out slightly over getting the part and Bill explained about how she can't say anything, before composing herself and answering the question Bill asked "how about tomorrow night? Seven o'clock at the Bastide?"

They had reached Audra's house, and Bill parked his car before smiling and saying "it's a date."

Audra smiled back at Bill, and kissed his cheek before getting out of Bill's car and running inside of her house, still wrapped up in Bill's blanket (which she didn't return till they moved in together).

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Bill closed the book and looked over to where his brother was curled up next to him, half asleep. Georgie frowned and drowsily looked up at Bill and asked "why does she keep the shoe?"

A small smile crept onto Bill's face, and he brushed Georgie's hair off his face, "cause just in c-case the shoe f-fit someone else, she can say it's her sh-shoe." Georgie frowned and Bill knew his little brother was about to start questions that a five year old shouldn't even think to question "but if he don't know her face, how can he say he loves her?"

"Because, her fairy g-god-godmother made a spell that stopped an-anyone from recognizing her."

"Oh, that makes sense!"

Bill laughed at Georgie's innocence, but it was short lived as Georgie then asked "will we ever gets a Cinderella?"

Bill looked at Georgie with a look of sadness and protectiveness, and pulled him into a tight hug "one day G-Georgie you will get your princess and sh-sh-she will be so amazing and she'll love you l-l-lots!" Georgie's eyes lit up, and he was wide awake, making Bill think's he should have read three little pigs instead. But the smile Georgie gives Bill about getting his own princess is better than anything. 

"Thank you Billy! You are my best-est friend ever!"

"Aw Georgie! You're my b-best-est friend t-too!"

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Bill's leg bounce anxiously as he waited to be called into the publishers office. He had been a few times, but they sent him back to fix certain things up, and Bill felt as though this was the time they either trash the book entirely or agree to publish it. And since it was his first serious book, he really wanted it published.

When they called for him, Bill felt like throwing up, but walked as fast -yet not insane looking- as he could into the publishers office.

He took a seat almost immediately after shaking the publisher's hand. She took a deep breath and gave Bill an intense look, "you are a talented writer Mr Denbrough." Bill felt the vomit rise again, the fear of failure giving him a nervous breakdown -like he had failed something major in his life that he couldn't remember- like it had since he was a child -anxiety... ptsd... something.

"That's why we have decided to publish your book."

Bill's eyes went wide, he couldn't believe what he just heard. He was going to become a published author! He quickly shook the publisher's hand once again, grinning like child, and thanking her and telling her she won't regret the decision.

He signed a few documents and noted a few things down before he left. This was almost dream like for Bill, he couldn't believe it was actually happening. He drove to his parents house and told them the news. Surprisingly, they seemed ecstatic about it. It made Bill's day even better.

He never understood why his parents were so unresponsive and distant, but he grew to live with it after they moved -although he couldn't remember anything before moving, except a funeral for his little brother Georgie- and seeing them actual respond to him and celebrate his achievements was new, but things were beginning to look up and he doesn't see them going down.

Oh boy was he wrong.

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Bill walked across the road and waved to the people on the float as they called out a hello to him. In the process of waving he didn't see the car coming up, and he stumbled as the driver honked their horn at him "sorry!"

Once he got on the path he placed his head in his hands and mumbled to himself, before wiping his hands down his face and shoving his hands into his jean pockets. He kept walking and looked in the shop windows, when something caught his eye. An old bike in the window of an antique shop, with the word silver on it. Bill quickly walked into the shop to get a better look at his childhood bike, not believing it was there.

"Can I help you?"

Bill turned to look at the man sitting at the counter and he smiled "uh... yeah I want to see about the b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b"

The man give Bill an exasperated look as he stuttered, and tried to guess what he wanted "baseball card, bowling ball, banjo?"

"The fucking bike!" Bill gave up and yelled, and the man stood up and growled "if you want to use that kind of language, take it out to the street."

With quick, large steps, Bill walked over to the man and apologized "I'm sorry. Can we start over and pretend I just w-walked in?" The man sat down and Bill sighed a sigh of relief.

"How can I help you?" The man asked in a sassy tone and Bill smiled at him -even though he didn't like the mans attitude- "thank you, yes! I want to buy the b-bike."

The man squinted and he looked at Bill properly, before his eyes lit up in recognition "aren't you William Denbrough, the writer?" Bill nodded shyly and mumbled out a "yeah... yeah that's-that's me" and the man seemed slightly impressed, so Bill quickly added "that bike, it used to be mine!"

"Well it's mine now."

Bill deflated from disappointment, before the man said "well, you're the big author, you can afford it." And with a nod, Bill smiled and asked for the price, only to once again deflate when the man said "three hundred dollars. You can afford it. I'll go get it."

Bill whipped out his wallet and grabbed the money, when he noticed the man had one of his books on sitting out. Bill picked it up and called out to the man "do you want me to sign it?"

"Nah, I didn't like the ending."

"There's the three hundred."

"Well she's all yours, but I don't know how fast she'll go."

As Bill approached his bike he smiled and told the man "you know what mister. She's fast enough to beat the devil."

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The handles fell down again and Bill chuckled a bit as he tried to fix his bike, whilst he rode it. The bike was rusty and a bit broken down, so it took a second, but Bill finally got the bike working, and he began to ride it into the horizon. His smile grew "yeah, I missed you too" and he began to speed up. His laughter echoed up and down the street and he called out as he did when he was a child "hi ho, Silver away!"

He rode down the familiar streets of his childhood, that he forgot he knew, but his smile faded when he recognized one of the houses. The house he grew up in. The last place he saw Georgie -the real Georgie.

The brothers embrace in a loving hug, Georgie squeezing Bill tightly, too which Bill responds by tickling Georgie. They both laugh.

Georgie skips off and calls back to his brother, "see ya later! Bye!" As Bill watches him skip off.

Bill starts to pack up the wax, before looking out the window. He walks towards it and sees Georgie in his yellow raincoat and his red galoshes. Georgie gives a big wave to his brother, and Bill calls out to him; even though he couldn't hear him "be careful!" Georgie placed the boat in the stream of water and ran after it giggling as it floated down stream.

Bill frowned as a small boy -Dean, the boy from the restaurant- left the house as his mother watched his hop onto his skateboard. A tear falls down Bill's check, but he just keeps riding o his bike, down to the corner of Jackson and Witcham street. Bill slowly stops the bike and gets of it, and stares at the sewer that It killed Georgie at. He dropped

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his bike and walked over. Bill slowly dropped to the ground and spoke into the sewer "I know y-your down-down there. I kn-know y-you c-c-can he-hear me."

Tears formed in his eyes and his stutter felt like it was worse than it has ever been, "t-th-there is s-something I-I have to know." A few tears fell and Bill leaned closer to the sewer "a-a-all of the k-kids in t-t-this town, w-w-w-why... why G-G-G-G-Georgie?" He felt more tears fall down his checks and linger on his chin, and he ignored them and instead waited for a reply.

Nothing came from the sewer, just a light sound of water running towards something. The silence angered Bill and he yelled into the sewer "s-s-say-say say something! Why him? Why him! Why him, why him, why him!" Bill slammed his fists on the ground and his world crumbled around him. He slightly collapsed to the ground and let himself cry instead of staying in his delusional bubble and not mourn his brother. His body shook from months of pent up anger, sadness and self hatred and he chocked on his tears.

After Bill calmed himself down a bit, he slowly got up and sluggishly walked to his bike. But when a gruesome, grainy voice called out to him "why" he froze to the spot and snapped his head towards the sewer.

"Because you weren't there Billy."

It's terrifying laugh flooded Bill's ears, but he couldn't move, and so he cried as he stared

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at the sewer. A hollow part of Bill's heart burned as he thought of the memory. The reminder. The reminder that if he just played with his brother that day, Georgie would be alive. A few tears ran down Bill's checks, and he thought of a life where Georgie never died. A life where Bill agreed to go to play with Georgie ("I'd come with you if I weren't" Bill coughs a few times "dying" he cast a glance at his brother. "You're not dying," Georgie replied slightly annoyed. "You didn't see the... v-vomit coming out of my nose this morning?" "That's disgusting." "Yeah it is, but I'll come play with you anyway.") or they went over to Richie's instead ("You wanna come over, got a new race car! Over." Richie lifted up his new SEGA remote control. "Sure, and maybe Georgie can come to?") anything instead of what really happened.

Bill knew if Georgie was alive, he would be doing great things. He's be with someone that he loves with all his heart, as Bill does with Audra. Georgie would adore Audra, and would be an amazing uncle, just like he was a brother.

Bill wiped away his tears and went to hop back on his bike when the sewer called to him "Billy don't leave!" Georgie's voice made Bill stop in his tracks and fling himself towards the sewer "hello?"

"Billy, I'm still here!"

He shouldn't fall for it, but he does, and he knows it's stupid, but he wants Georgie back. He want's his little brother back so much that he's willing to die for him. His brother always made him better, and he wants better. To be a better author, friend, husband, father, brother. He just wants Georgie. So he leans closer to the sewer and listens to the fake voice of Georgie calling out to him "help me!"

"Georgie!"

Georgie -fucking It- raises his hands up for Bill to carry him, one hand holding s.s Georgie.

Georgie hugged Bill as Bill got a paint brush an dipped it into the melted wax. He painted the wax over the paper boat and Georgie watched attentively. Once completed, Bill looked at the boat with a smile.

"Alright. There ya go" he handed Georgie the boat "sh-sh-she's all ready captain."

"She?" Georgie questioned.

"Th-th-they always call bo-bo-boats she." Georgie smiles at the boat and then his brother. "She. Thanks Billy."

Bill smiles and calls out for his brother, who keeps pleading for help. Bill puts his arm down the sewer, still smiling and tells his brother "take my hand! Take my hand! Come on I got you buddy!"

Their hands are so close and Georgie cries out "hurry Billy, he's coming!" And Bill keeps yelling at Georgie to take his hand, both yelling at each other in a loop. When Bill almost grabs Georgie's hand, a child zombie's hand grabs his instead. And another, and another, and another. They try and pull him into the sewer, and he tries to fight back. But more and more appear and the crawl up his arm and pull his head into the sewer slightly. He can hear It laugh, and a hand reaches towards his face. Fortunately, Bill pulls his head out of the sewer and pulls his arm out a moment after. He rolls away and looks at his hand and sees the s.s Georgie tight in his grip.

Tears stream down Bill's face as he cries and screams to the clown "I hate you!"

"Who you talking to?"

Bill looks over to see Dean staring at him, and it takes a second for Bill to register that he is there. He's there and he is a child. Bill rushes up and grabs the child, pulling his away from the sewer screaming "move!"

Dean looks at Bill like he's insane, but Bill ignores it and stares intensely at him "you hear voices from that sewer, you stay away from it!" Dean looks at the sewer, than back to Bill and says "you talk to the sewer?"

With the sudden realization of how crazy he sounds, Bill tries to take it back "n-n-no. No j-just stay away from that sewer." Bill walks back over to his bike and hops back on, and is about to ride when Dean speaks again.

"I only hear voices in the tub."

Bill's eyes go wide and he hears Dean's word. But Dean is oblivious to why "you know, from the drain."

"What type of voices?"

"Kids... but sometimes others, like a-"

"Clown?"

Dean nods and Bill rushes back over to Dean and tightly grips his jacket and shakes him, "you listen to me, and you listen to me good. You get out of this town. You tell your parents. Make up a reason, make up a fucking lie, I don't care what you do. You just get out of here, and you make them never bring you back! You understand! You leave Derry and you stay out of Derry! You understand me!"

"I'm supposed to be at the festival."

"Tell me you understand!"

Bill slowly calms down and releases Dean from his grasp, and Dean quietly mumbles once again "I'm supposed to be at the festival. I got to go." He gets on his skateboard and leaves, whilst Bill calls out "please be careful."

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The losers and honorary losers sat in Stan and Patty's room with some take out from a local diner that Eddie and Mike brought for them. They laughed as Bill told them about what happened with Dean.

"You need to stop harassing children Big Bill" Richie laughed "what type of father will you be if you harass you child and not embarrass them!"

Bill frowned and said "I'm not going to harass or embarrass my child thank you very much." Bev snickered to herself and turned to Bill and said "what are you gonna be a cool dad?"

"Yes!"

All the losers began to laugh even more and Ben yelled out "I'm not like a regular dad, I'm a cool dad!" Beverly screams from laughter and it takes several minutes after that from everyone to calm down.

Elena, who had been more interested in her food than what the adults were talking about, looked up at the group, smiled -mouth covered in ketchup and her hands as well, which she put in the air- and said "my daddy's so cool! He plays dollies with me!"

Stan smirked at Richie and sarcastically says "you are such an embarrassment Rich!"

"Shut it Staniel."

Everyone laughed again, though not as hard as before, and Bill sighed at how happy they were even though they were being put through hell and trying to stop a demon. It was nice to see that even during a few days in hell, the losers stick together and find time to be happy.

When Bill listened back into the conversation Beverly was talking about her day with Ben and Elena, getting input from Elena. Beverly smiled as she spoke "and then we danced, and Elena was so good!"

"Really? Can we see?" Mike asked and Elena nodded. She put her sauce covered hands on the ground, as she got up off the floor, and before she could start, Eddie grabbed her and cleaned her hands and face -glaring at Richie for teaching a child unsanitary behaviors- and then she began to dance. They all knew she was just twirling, waving her arms and shaking her butt, but they all smiled and cheered her on.

Richie, Patty, Mike and Beverly ended up dancing with Elena, and the others sat and watched. Eddie moved to sit next to Bill, and striked up a conversation "how are you feeling?"

"Honestly, not the best. But being with you guys helps. If Audra were here it would be perfect."

Eddie smiled sadly at Bill, "it's for the best though... in the long run." Bill nodded and began to frown "yeah, it is. But if she were here she would tell me what I needed to hear."

"You have us for that. I mean we all will tell you something different, so you'll have to choose wisely" Bill chuckled slightly, "but we will tell you. Like I can tell you that Georgie's death wasn't your fault. You didn't know he'll die. And just because he's gone doesn't mean you won't be a good father. Because you will, I know it. I mean you are like our unofficial leader, for fucks sake! You care about the ones you care about so much, it's insane. You're brave, and smart, and convincing as fuck. So you will be a great dad, and Georgie's death, or that ugly bitch clown, doesn't change that."

By the end of Eddie's speech, Bill was smiling again, and jokingly commented "yeah, and with what I learnt about safety and diseases from you, I'll be a super dad." Eddie laughed and lightly punched Bill's arm "see, you don't need Audra for that."

"You're just scared I'd replace you."

"No, I'm saying I'm better than her."

"You say that like you aren't my best friend."

"Yes, which makes me better than your wife!"

Bill rolled his eyes, and both men smile and go back to watching Richie, Patty, Beverly, Mike and Elena dancing. Bill thinks how lucky he is for them, his real family -which obviously includes his wife and unborn baby- and he hasn't felt as complete as he does now since he was a child.

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Our New Favourite Famous Friendship

We are obsessed with losers club, but honestly who isn't.

Posted on August 3, 2016, at 11:57 a.m.

Carolina Sarine

BuzzFeed Celeb Reporter, America

[@BevMarsh]

Beverly Marsh's most recent Instagram post, featuring the losers club -Bill Denbrough, Ben Hanscom, Richie Tozier and three other men-

Earlier this week a photo surfaced the internet of Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough, Ben Hanscom, Richie Tozier and three other men walking the streets of Derry, Maine. And everyone started to freak out.

The group have been constantly interacting on social media, including the three unknown men. Well mostly unknown. If their social media handles are anything to go by, then we know their names, Stanley Uris, Edward Kaspbrak and Mike Hanlon.

We have complied everything we know about the new celeb friendship that we're all raving about!

Read more

Comments 26

Chapter Text

Mike, Stan and Ben were cleaning up from the mess from their dinner, while Patty sat with Richie and Elena, talking about something. Beverly had to answer a call, so she had left, then Eddie said he was tired so he went back to his room, and finally Bill had left to call Audra. It didn't worry Mike though, he enjoyed getting to talk with Stan and Ben as they cleaned.

"What are you going to do, once this is all over Mike?" Ben asked, and Mike smiled at him and said "I'm going to go backpacking, and visit really cool historical sights. There's this place called Pergrema in Russia, and it's this village that was vacated after the Russian Revolution. And it looks amazing!"

Both Stan and Ben smiled at how excited Mike seemed, and Mike's smile grew the more he talked about it "Marina was telling me about it, and ever since than I wanted to go! She's a history nerd too, and whenever we talk we always end up in a discussion about something in history. And she has these great history jokes as well. Like she told me this great one once! How did the Vikings send secret messages? By norse code! See gets me every time!"

Mike laughs at the joke, and doesn't notice Ben and Stan's sly smiles. Ben stops cleaning for a bit and looks at Mike "Marina?"

Mike looks over to Ben and blushes slightly "she's just this girl I met. We're just friends though."

"But you like her?" Stan asks and Mike blushes even harder and Ben grins widely at Mike "oh my god! Mike has a crush! You have to ask her out! I'll help you! Oh my god, you could write a history poem for her, and take her on a historical date! It'll be so romantic!"

Mike rolled his eyes and looked at Ben -still smiling- and said in serious-ish tone "I don't really know, she's kind of busy."

Ben look offended and jokingly scolded Mike, saying "how dare you think like that, she wouldn't be too busy for you! You are a total catch Mike!" Stan nodded in agreement and Mike brushed aside Ben's comment and they continued to clean.

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Mike sat in the corner of the room, reading a book on the great depression, when a women came over to him. She cleared her throat and Mike looked up at her. She had long brown hair, that matched her eyes, a decent cut homemade bangs. She looked slightly older than Mike but her smile made her look younger.

"Can I help you?"

She sat down in front of Mike and Mike closed his book, giving her his full attention, "um, yeah. My name' Marina and I... I remembered you."

Mike looked at Marina in confusion and she quickly noticed and continued talking "from outside! Not the yard outside, but like outside the nut house. Not that you're insane! I mean, I'm not judging you if you are but... hi."

"Hi" Mike smiled and Marina seemed to become less nervous at Mike's kindness. She took a deep breath, and slowly began to explain herself, "I used to see you and your friends outside the orphanage."

"You're an orphan?"

"Yeah, but that's not why I'm talking to you! I just remembered you and I also remember you and your friends talking about... It."

Mike was taken back, he didn't know anyone else remember It, let alone another adult! He couldn't believe it, he wasn't insane for remembering and he wasn't alone. He moved closer to Marina and looked deeply at her "you remember It?"

She nodded and leaned in a bit closer to him, and she whispered "and I think I can help you stop It." Mike's eyes went wide "really? This is crazy, I didn't think anyone else knew. How and what do you know?"

Marina smiled and grabbed Mike's hands gently and said, "we're both being released soon, and once we are I'll help you. We can be a clown fighting duo. And toga-ether we can rule the world like Caesar and Cleopatra."

"You like history?"

"Of course, it's the best thing like ever!"

"You have to check out this book than, it's about the great depression. It's really cool!"

Both of them smiled and they began reading together, whilst planning where they'll meet up when they get release from the mental hospital that they both -as Mike later learns- they got sent to for their obsession of the clown that haunts Derry, that no one but them remembers. 

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Mike walked down the street to where he had parked his car, and heard his name being called out. He searched around for the owner of the voice, and almost immediately found them.

"Mike in the night!"

Mike's smile grew as he saw Marina approach him "Ms Marina Grand, to who is't doth i oweth this pleasure to?" Marina smiled as she approached Mike and pulled him into a hug. The two stayed in the embrace for a while, before parting slightly and Marina responded "just got back out, and I heard that your friends are back. And so I'm guessing you need my help?"

"I always need your help" Marina blushed slightly "and I also think we need a mini catch up!"

The sound of Mike's car unlocking fills up the silence of the otherwise dead street. They both hop into Mike's car and they drive through the empty streets of Derry, as they head to the library.

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Mike sat with Richie and Stan as they ate their lunches. It was their junior year and they were the only losers left in Derry. Mike watched Stan roll his eyes at Richie for the seventh time in five minutes. Richie had been talking since he saw Mike and Stan after entering the cafeteria, and both boys were zoning in and out.

"I mean when we all come back to Derry we're going to be so old!" Mike looked at Richie in confusion, and Stan rolled his eyes "of course we are, but why does that even matter?"

Richie dramatically sighed and began on a long explanation "well we would most likely have never seen each other in forever! Imagine how weird and awkward that would be! And how will we know we need to come back, cause old people have really bad fucking memories! We probably will have forgotten what year it is let alone that we need to go back to literal hell, aka Derry! And how are we going to contact each other, since we've lost contact with almost everyone!"

Mike zoned out of the conversation as Richie and Stan began arguing, he thought about some of the points Richie made. How will they know that they had to come back, and how will they contact each other? The only logical way would ruin someones life, and Mike didn't believe that was far. But if they all left none of them would remember, and a deep gut feeling told him that that isn't worth their freedom. So Mike took a deep breath and decided to speak "one of us will have to stay in Derry."

Richie and Stan looked at Mike like he was crazy, which Stan told him "you're insane! What about our futures? We all have to leave to be happy!"

"I'll stay" Richie mumbled only loud enough that Mike and Stan just heard him. Both boys were about to say something to Richie, but the bell rang and they had to head off to class.

As the three boys went to their next class -one of the only ones they shared- in silence. It wasn't until their teacher had set a task that one of them said anything. That person being Richie, and it being about something completely different to what was all on their minds, but it was a welcomed distraction.

And while Richie said he would stay, Mike knew that he was the one who should stay and Richie should leave. So that night, Mike came up with a plan to get Richie to leave Derry. 

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Marina sat on the couch as Mike got her a glass of water. When Mike passed her the glass she took a sip, before placing it down and staring at Mike till he got comfortable in the chair opposite to hers.

"So, I found something while I was in the loony bin."

Mike looked at Marina intensely, and she leaned closer, "somehow It can be shrunk."

"What?"

"I was confused too, but maybe if you shrink It, the Ritual will really work!"

Mike blinked, and moved closer to Marina, "do you know how?" Marina shook her head, "no." They both looked to the ground in silence for a few minutes, then Mike turned to look at Marina. The moonlight hitting her face, made Mike feel butterflies in his stomach. Marina noticed Mike smiling at her and she blushed. She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and turned to face Mike.

"How have you been... other than afraid for your life because of the killer clown."

Mike laughed and smiled brighter, "I've been good, I mean my friends are here and not in an insane asylum so that's amazing. And you?" Marina smiled and tilted her head side to side "been better, but things are looking up."

They fell back into silence, as they sat only inches apart, being comfortable with each other, and not afraid.

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Mike didn't have any chores to do, so he asked his mother if he could explore the old iron works. She had agreed, as long as he was home by dark -which he always was- and ran home at the sight of danger, since she didn't want anything to be used or blamed on her son.

So Mike headed to the iron works on his bike, taking his father's old camera with him. As he saw the rounded side of a massive tile cylinder rising out of the high field grass, he parked his bike, grabbed his camera and ran over to the iron works main smokestack. He peered into its bore, and felt a fresh chill worm up his spine. It was big enough so he could have walked into it if he wanted. But he didn't want to, the fear of what could be lurking in the dark, what could jump out and attack him without him noticing, was reason enough not to.

The wind blew loudly, and Mike could hear the rattling of leaves, birds calling out, and a car grunting down the road. Mike turned to see who's car it was, and when he saw Victor Criss driving, he ran into the iron works and hid.

Mike looked around the building, and slowly took it all in. The abandoned iron works were both terrifying yet beautiful. Mike took photos of anything he found interesting, things that could teach him the history of Derry. 

He'd been looking around for a while, when he noticed something in the corner of the room, he walked closer to it, and saw nestled in the corner, a bird staring at him. At first, Mike wasn't sure what he was seeing. But it made all the nerves and pathways in his body frozen, including those which conducted thoughts. It seemed so out of place, so unexpected and Mike didn't know what to think, what was going on. As he looked down he saw into a giant nest which filled the corner of the iron works the bird had chosen. It was made out of enough timothy grass to make a dozen bales of hay, but the grass looked silvery and old.

The bird sat in the middle of it, its brightly ringed eyes as black as fresh, warm tar,   and for an insane moment before Mike broke out of his paralysis, he could see himself in each of its eyes.

Suddenly, the ground began to shift and run out from underneath his feet. Mike heard the tearing sound of shallow roots giving way and realized he was sliding. With a yell, Mike flung himself backwards, losing balance, and falling to the ground.

He quickly picked himself up off the ground when he saw the birds large wings shadow over him, and It squawked a loud demonic sound. Mike began to run out of the iron works, and could feel the bird chasing him. Once he was outside, he quickly got on his bike and rode as fast as he could home. The bird followed him and pecked his back several times.

When he reached his house, Mike chucked his bike on the ground and ran into his father. He tightly hugged him and began crying. His father hugged him tightly and tried to calm Mike down, stroking his hair and making soothing sounds.

"It's alright Mikey, I won't let It hurt you."

🎈🎈🎈

It was around 5 am when Marina left.

Mike was smiling from ear to ear, and nothing could ruin his mood.

"It's a shame you lie, isn't it?"

Mike looked for the voice. His blood unable to decide whether to boil or freeze. His head snapping as his eyes darted around the room. His eyes widening, bile rising his throat and sweat beginning to drip down his face when he saw It.

A bird -brightly ringed eyes as black as fresh, warm tar- hanging from the roof like lamb in a meat locker, laughing like a maniac. Laughing like It. Mike tried to run away but all he could do was stumble backwards, and he bumped into a table.

"Lying isn't good, Mikey."

"Go away!"

The bird began to melt, and it's liquid feathers, skin and guts combining into the horrid clown as they reached the ground.

"We don't lie, do we Mikey?"

Mike kept stumbling backwards, as the wicked voice echoed in his ears. His back hit the door, and it took him a while to realize it, as he was to focused on the now fully formed clown "only outsiders lie... oh wait, that's you!"

Pennywise began to approach Mike, and Mike felt indescribable fear as It got closer and closer, and yet the door was still closed, and his sweaty hands were unable to open it. As It drew closer Mike's life flashed before his eyes and he could feel death. This is how I die, he thought, this is what my life lead to.

Everyone slowly begins to open their fortune cookies, and they read the messages on them. Stan looked at his and frowned “mine just says flute.” He places the fortune on the table and Ben copies Stan “mine says lonely.”

Bill and Mike follow, Bill’s fortune reading ‘your fault’ and Mike’s reading ‘outsiders lie’.

She doesn't meet his eyes when she speaks "those fortunes relate to our deaths." 

As if a magic turtle god hated It, Mike was able to escape with half a second of his life. And the second he was out of the door, Mike ran all the way to the inn, and kept running until he ran into Bill.

"Oh my god Mike! Are you okay? What happened?"

Mike felt dizzy, and numb. And within a few seconds, he'd passed out. Bill carried Mike to his room, and let him rest before discovering what happened. Because he cared for his friend.

🎈🎈🎈

Mike sat at the window sill, reading. It was a quiet day, until a small commotion grew. Mike tried to ignore the loudness of the other patients, but as the noise grew, it was harder to ignore.

Mike closed his book and walked over to the crowd and looked at what was happening. He almost vomited when he finally saw what was happening. Henry Bowers was sitting on a mans back and cutting his toes off, one by one.

He tried to wriggle back out of the crowd and go to his room, but it was too late.

"Mike Hanlon!"

Frozen blood, and shaking knees didn't help Mike, as Henry picked up a toe and waved it at him "you're next."

Chapter Text

Losers Club

Bev

Did you guys hear that noise too

Ben

Yeah

Ben

What was that

Bill

It was Mike

Stan

Wait, what happened?

Richie

Stan the Man is a grammar man

Stan

What the fuck!

Ben

Back to the situation

Ben

Is Mike okay?

Bill

idk

Bill

He's resting rn

Bill

I'll talk to him once he wakes up

Ben

I hope he's okay!

Bill

Don't worry

Bev

Just focus on finding your token

Ben

Oh yeah I go out today

Richie

Safe travels my good fellow

Ben

lol will try

Ben

Bye!

🎈🎈🎈

"Hey Ben, wait up!" Beverly called as she ran towards Ben where he'd stopped on the stairs. Ben looked at her with a soft smile, "what's up Bev?"

Beverly looked at Ben nervously, "I-" she started but quickly decided against what she was going to originally say, "stay safe out there, okay?"

Ben nodded and smiled sweetly at Beverly -his feelings for her were the first thing that hit him at full force when he returned to Derry, but he would be lying if he said he forgot them entirely- "um, yeah thanks Bev."

Ben turns back around to leave when Beverly taps on his arm. Once again Ben turns around, still smiling, and opens his mouth to say something but his words die on his tongue as Beverly places a quick kiss on his cheek. Ben feels his cheeks and ears beginning to burn. His smile becomes coy and Beverly smiles back at him.

"I want to see my Ben returned in one piece" and with that Beverly walked back up the stairs and headed towards one of the rooms -Stan's maybe? Ben brought a hand up to his cheek where Beverly had kissed him and let his hand hover over it. Slowly he lowered his hand, and skipped out of the inn, forgetting about all the horror he was about to endure.

🎈🎈🎈

Ben decided that he would walk around Derry, let himself remember his life during his time in Derry. It wasn't great till after that summer really, although there were some amazing stand out moments during that summer. Like the first day at the Quarry, or the time in the club house, or the time all the boys feel into some animal shit and had to walk around Mike's farm in their tightie whities -which as Bev stated two days before was hilarious.

It all flooded back to him, and so as he walk and the memories flooded back, he tried to figure out what his token could be. When he saw the school though, he immediately knew what his token was. He assumed he always did, but it was confirmed as he stared at the school, hands in his pocket, his right hand caressing his wallet which had held his token for the past twenty seven years.

🎈🎈🎈

It was tough, leaving.

It's not like this place was his home or anything. Quite the opposite actually, he thought of this place as hell. But his friends, they were his home, and he hated that he was leaving them.

He was the third to leave, Beverly left after that summer, Bill had left four months after that. It was about seven months since Bill left, and the rest of the losers hadn't heard anything for Beverly or Bill in forever. Ben worried he will lose contact with his friends and stop speaking to them a while after he left. It was hard not to think like that, but he couldn't help it, they were about to start high school and he had to leave. Ben slowly began to tear up.

"Don't be like that Benny Boy," Richie said, Ben turned to look at his friend as Richie continued, "like my therapist says, 'don't waste your energy on stupid things!'"

Stan -who also had tears in his eyes- rolled his eyes at Richie, "you're therapist sucks Rich. He doesn't help with shit."

The five boys laugh for a few seconds, and once they stop, Mike pulls Ben in for a big hug. They hold each other for a while before they mutually pull away. Mike smiles at Ben sadly, "I'm going to miss you so much," he leans in closer and whispers to Ben "and you're my best friend so I'm probably going to miss you the most." Ben smiles at Mike's words, and pulls him in for another hug.

Once they pull away for the second time, Eddie gives Ben a paper bag filled with things. Ben looks at Eddie, confusion written all over his face, and Eddie pipes up, "just some snacks, and a few ideas for your first proper architecture."

The five boys hugged each other, and Ben's mother walks up behind them and tells Ben it's time to go. With their last goodbyes, Ben hops into the car, tears rolling down his cheeks.

He hates this shit hole town so much, but as they pass the school he'd attended for the past two years, he couldn't help but smile as this town gave him the greatest group of friends he'll ever know.

🎈🎈🎈

Ben let out a breath as he walked into the school, it surprisingly hadn't changed a bit.

He walked into one of the open classrooms, which no one was in, but it was clearly being used for the summer school students. Even the classroom looked the same, down to the taxidermy turtle on the desk. 

A wave of nostalgia hit him, as he looked around the room, he slowly walked into the room, and over to the desks, which now, seemed so small.

He walked past the projector, and felt the heated lit hit him as it was still on.

🎈🎈🎈

The bell rang and the kids got out of their seats. One of the boys turned to his friend and said "l et's get out of here."

As they walked out of the room one of the friends yelled "get up, fat ass" and hit Ben on the head as he walked past, waking Ben up. Another kid hit his head straight back down.

Ben sighed as he looked around the empty classroom, he was all alone, like always. He put on his headphones and plugged them into his Walkman. Once music began to fill his ears, he slowly began to pack up. Out of nowhere, a figure popped up on the projector, and Ben jumped back in fear, as it reminded him of It.

"Wow, easy. It's me."

Beverly's voice ran out around the empty room and Ben relaxed. She smiled as she walked over to Ben, whilst asking, "what are you and your little buddies up to in here?"

Ben rolled his eyes, "oh those guys, they are definitely not my buddies!" Bev smiled and as she sat down next to Ben she pulled out a cigarette."No, I mean your real friends, Joey, Jonathan, Donny, Danny."


Blushed rolled along Ben's cheeks, and Beverly lit her cigarette. Ben shyly looked at her, before asking "a-are you allowed to be smoking in school?" Bev raised her hand towards the roof. "Secret hide out. Don't tell anyone." Ben looked up and saw that the fire alarm had been turned off. He smiled  and looked back at Beverly, who was smiling back at him.


Beverly started to play with her lighter and Ben looked away sadly, which Beverly noticed, "You okay, New Kid?"

"Yeah. I'm just worried we're all not going to be the same. After the fight." Ben was looking at Beverly now, and she kept playing with her lighter. "As long as we can still hang out, who cares."


Ben's eyes light up, "you really mean it?" This gets Beverly's attention and she smiles at him, "yeah, of course dummy." She grabs a hold of Ben's hand and leans in closer "you and me."

Ben hesitantly leans in for a kiss, but is quickly pushed away by Beverly, as she laughs "oh my God! I meant as a friend." Ben looks away in embarrassment, and Beverly keeps talking. "You think I could like a person as fat and gross and disgusting like you! No matter how many stupid poems you write!" By the end Beverly's voice is distorted and Ben looks over at her and sees that it isn't Beverly, and whatever It is, it looks like Beverly, but with fire for hair, burnt skin and glass eyes. Ben quickly gets up grabs his things and runs. As he runs out of the classroom he can hear It scream "your hair is winter fire!"

🎈🎈🎈

It was almost time for senior prom, and Ben was still single. It wasn't like he wasn't trying, but when he first arrived he was just some nerdy chubby kid. And first impressions are hard to rub off, even if, over the four years he'd been at this school, he became the hottest guy there.

Ben had always felt lonely at this new town. Every time he tried to make a friend he automatically compared them to some ultimate friends he couldn't remember. But senior prom was a big deal, and he didn't want to be lonely for it.

When he heard that one of the girls in his social studies class was looking for someone to go to senior prom with, Ben thought that it wouldn't be that bad of an idea to ask her.

He waited to talk to her till the end of the day, which his last class was coincidentally social studies. As the bell rang and people rushed to put their things away and go home, Ben went up to the girl -she had beautiful red hair and greenish grey eyes, but she wasn't as beautiful as Beverly, 'Beverly?' He doesn't remember anyone named Beverly.

He gently tapped on the girls shoulder, and when she turned around Ben smiled at her.

She smiled back, and Ben took this as a good sign.

"Hey, so senior prom is coming up, and I was wondering, if you wanted to maybe go with me?"

Ben smiled at her again, only this time it was shyer. The girl studied Ben up and down, before looking at him dead in the eye and responded with a sharp, "no. I don't go out with losers."

With that she left. Ben felt defeated, and the teacher looked over at him sadly as she watched him leave her classroom.

Just his luck, Ben thought, even if he was the best looking guy at the school, he was still a loser at his core, and no amount of push ups is going to fix that.

🎈🎈🎈

A frown forms on Ben's face as he remembers his time at the school, it was horrible.

He was just about to leave when he heard a locker slam behind him. He turned around slowly and saw Pennywise standing with his arm stretched out against a locker, with a wicked smile on his face.

"Come here chubby boy!"

Ben turned around as fast as he could and ran. He ran through the maze that was the school, as the corridors became distorted, circus music played creepily and It called for Ben, screaming at him.

"Come here tits!"

"Join the circus lard-ass!"

"Wanna float with us Benny Boy!"

Ben picked up his pace, and didn't stop running, even as he hit several lockers. As soon as the school doors were in sight, his pace picked up, and he didn't stop running and he didn't look back once.

He had his token on him, and that's what he came out to get, there was no need for him to be eaten by a killer clown, not yet anyway.

🎈🎈🎈

Ben ran back into the inn, slamming the door shut, he had so much adrenaline in him that he almost flew up the starts with the pace he was at. His mind still freaking out, he didn't notice Beverly was behind him, until she tapped him on the shoulder.

Ben jumped out of his skin as he turned around. He calmed slightly at the sight of Beverly, but he was still on high alert. 

"Is everything okay Ben?"

Ben nodded, swallowing his fear, before opening his mouth, "yeah, yeah, everything's cool-"

Ben almost fell over in his attempt to try and act normal, which clearly were futile. When he finally looked properly at Beverly, Ben finally began to relax.

"Everything is good, now that you're here."

Blush formed over Beverly's cheeks and nose, making Ben blush too. They stared at each other, lovingly, for a while before Beverly cleared her throat.

"So nothing too bad happened?" Beverly inquired and Ben nodded, "yeah, just some fat shaming and a good old fashioned scare for the clown that has traumatised me since age twelve."

Beverly frowned at Ben, "I'm so sorry you had to go through that alone."

"No, I'm sorry for everything that you had to go through alone. The deadlights, the abuse, whatever you saw when you encountered It. Everything."

Beverly smiled at Ben, and pulled him into a hug. "At least we're together to help each other through it now." Ben smiled and nodded, neither of them breaking their embrace. The lull of silence after Ben spoke was short, as Beverly spoke up, "you can help me with handing up my divorce papers."

Ben pulled away ever so slightly, so he could see Beverly's face, "you got the papers?"

"My lawyer's fast."

"No shit!"

The two of them laugh for a bit, still hugging, but when they stop laughing, the loving stares return. They stay like that for a while, till Beverly crashes their lips together and then the two are kissing. It was soft and sweet, but the longer they kissed the more passionate and powerful the kiss got. The two continue to kiss as the stumble into Ben's room.

Chapter Text

Bill Denbrough ✔ @BilltheAuthor @BevMarsh @BenHascom @Trashmouth @StanleyU @EKaspbrak @MikeyHeylon we gonna do it?

Richie Tozier ✔ @Trashmouth @BilltheAuthor OMG it is a gangbang!

Stan Uris @StanleyU @BilltheAuthor @Trashmouth BEEP BEEP Richie!

Edward Kaspbrak @EKaspbrak @BilltheAuthor @Trashmouth @StanleyU I hate you all keep me out of this

🎈🎈🎈

Bill walked out of his room, face scrunched up and looking at his phone. As his head lifted up he saw Eddie just about to walk down the stairs. He calls out to Eddie, and Eddie stops and smiles at Bill.

"Hey man, what are you up to?"

Bill smiled back at his friend and responded, "you know, calling the w-wife, overhearing two of my ch-ch-childhood friends have sex, trying not be killed by a clown. Just some regular D-Derry shit."

Eddie laughed, "got to love Derry." The two began to descend the stairs, and as they reached the bottom, Eddie blurted out, "I'm going to divorce Myra." Both men stopped in their tracks. Bill looked up at Eddie and frowned "you're s-s-seriously going to divorce h-her?" Eddie nodded and Bill just raised his eyebrows and shrugged and continued his descent.

"Good for y-you-"

"I think I'm also gay."

Bill stopped once again, and looked over at Eddie. As he looked in his friends eyes, he saw tears forming and the fear of rejection dwelling in them. A shocked yet friendly sigh escaped Bill's lips "you told me once."

"What?" Eddie looked at Bill, confused. Bill smiles, "I just r-remembered. When we were kids. A week before I l-l-left Derry,you told me." Reminisce fell across Eddie's face, and he smiled slightly, "of course I did." The two men walk over to each other and bring the other into a tight hug, and Eddie continues to speak, "I guess that's why I decided to believe you wouldn't hate me."

"I could never hate you Eddie, you're my be-best friend." They both pull away and wipe away the tears that had begun to fall down their cheeks. Relief and happiness filled them as they remembered how strong their friendship was and will always be.

"Let's get a drink."

"Yeah."

🎈🎈🎈

Patty and Stan sat facing each other at the only diner in Derry. They had decided that Stan would give her a tour of Derry and show her where he grew up. It had been a success so far -which had surprised Stan- and they were near the diner by the time lunch had rolled around.

"I can't believe this is the place you grew up. They way you refused to talk about it made me think it was some horrid ghost town!" Patty laughed slightly, making Stan smile.

"Don't get to comfortable darling, remember Buenos Aires."

"How could I forget Babylove."

Stan's smile grew and Patty smiled back at her husband. Stan opened his mouth to say something, but the waitress came and gave them their food with an angry attitude, like she didn't want to be there -and Stan couldn't help but remember how he was the same as a teenager.

The couple had their lunch with minimal conversation, Stan answering some of Patty's questions about growing up in Derry -which luckily had nothing to do with why they were here in the first place- and as soon as they finished their meal, they paid and left the diner continuing the tour.

Laughter escaped the two as walk across the kissing bridge. "Okay" Stan tries to calm himself down, "okay so this is the kissing bridge. People come here to make out or carve names into the bridge to declare their love for someone."

"That's so sweet!"

Stan rolls his eyes, but he's still smiling, "the beauty of it disappears as you walk over here" they continue to walk the way that leads to the town "and see the graffiti. Very mood ruining." Patty's eyes look at the graffiti and frowns, "I am slowly starting to see why you never liked it here."

"Yeah, right now the only redeeming quality of Derry is you."

As they continue to walk, they turn to look at each other, Patty's cheeks go pink as she blushes at her husband's words, just like she did when they first met. She quickly and softly kisses Stan on the cheek, and then leans in closer to him and she sweetly responds, "you are so perfect babylove, you are this towns redeeming quality too."

If there was any way to smile more, Stan would have been doing just that, as his cheeks dusted pink and his eyes filled with love and admiration for his wife. He forgot about all his troubles and he forgot all about It.

But It didn't forget about him.

🎈🎈🎈

Marina walked into the inn and up the stairs looking for the room Mike had said he was in. She had several books in her hand and a bag with her laptop inside. It doesn't take long for her to find the room.

She knocks on the door, and within a few seconds, the door swings open and she sees Mike's warm and friendly smile.

"Hey! Come on in!"

Mike steps to the side, and Marina walks past, looking around as she goes to sit on the bed, Mike follows behind and sits opposite her. Marina places her books next to her and takes her bag off and places it on the floor.

"I'm glad you called now, because I just got all my research together, explaining about It shrinking, and if we go through it together, maybe we can find how to do it!"

Mike smiled and nodded, "great! The only thing is, is that all my research is still at the library." Without looking up from her research, Marina waves a hand to brush off Mike's worries, "doesn't matter, as long as we have that big brain of yours, we'll surely know what's going on."

He nods and the two get to work, looking through the research. It wasn't much, and it went on about the ritual and how it would only succeed if Pennywise had been shrunk before he was destroyed.

It wasn't long before Mike felt, he was in over his head and that he was going to get his friends killed. It lead to a downwards spiral of negative thoughts. His mind told him that he was a failure, that he'd failed his father and his wishes to protect his friends.

Mike looks at his father, terrified “be careful out there son. I can feel that It will be back. Maybe It already is. And I’m sorry I got mad about your new friends, you’ll need them now. Just like I needed Dickie. You were lucky and got the good ones.”
 

Mike smiled at his father and gave him a hug, “thanks dad.” His father hummed in response, “now go and protect them Mickey, and let them protect you too.”

“But Dad I-”

“Go!” Mike nods and hesitantly leaves the room, going to find his new friends.

The the stupid fucking clowns voice rung in his ears 'We don't lie, do we Mikey? Only outsiders lie... oh wait, that's you!' Mike started to feel himself struggle to breath and tears started to form in his eyes.

A cold hand was placed on his cheek, and he heard a soft sweet voice calling to him. Marina had noticed his panic and immediately tried to help calm him down. She didn't know what to say that would help calm someone down, so she just decided to talk about a guy she had feelings for. As Mike started to breath again, Marina's words became clearer, he cold hand staying on his cheek the entire time, stroking it gently. 

"This guy, he is the greatest person I know, and he's my favourite. And he's so strong and I just know he'll protect his friends and this town, saving the day." Marina lovingly smiles at Mike, and he doesn't understand why, his mind still a bit foggy from his panic -plus the lack of sleep.

"He sounds great" Mike croaked out and Marina smiled to herself, "yeah, he is."

She slowly removed her hand from Mike's cheek, "you okay?" Mike nodded and went back to looking at the research with a frown on his face, "there has to be something."

Silence followed for what felt like and hour but was only five minutes. In unison, Mike and Marina looked at each other and Marina spoke up, "hey, Mike?" Mike hummed a response and Marina took it as her cue to continue, "what do you really think of me?"

Mike, with no hesitation say, "I think you're pretty neat" and Marina frowned slightly and looked away.

"Oh, okay."

Internally, Mike cringes at himself. Why the fuck did I just say I that, he thought, I could've said they're the greatest person alive and that they're my most favourite person ever but nooooo- "I mean," he backpedals, "I think you're pretty and super cool, and fun to be around. And I uh- I like you."

"I like you too."

Confusion fell onto Mike's face, "what about that guy-" Marina laugh gently, "it's you."

"It's you silly!"

"Okay, cool."

"Yeah cool."

A happier silence follows as they stare at each other with open hearts, until they hear a bang from downstairs, and they snap out of their love trance.

"It!"

"Yeah, It!"

🎈🎈🎈

Benny Boy & Richie Rich

Richie

Hey Benny I keep forgetting to ask you something

Ben

ok

Ben

What is it?

Richie

The night at the restaurant

Richie

Did you hear all of mine and Stans convo?

Ben

Nah, just the last bit about like not shaking of nightmare or whatever

Richie

ok cool

Ben

Why?

Ben

If it's ok

Richie

Can I tell you another time?

Richie

I'm not really ready to talk to anyone else about it

Ben

ok

Ben

Just let met know when you're ready to talk, or if you wanna talk about something else

Richie

thx

Ben

No problem 

🎈🎈🎈

Losers Club

Ben
Glad to hear Mike's feeling better

Richie
Glad to hear you and Bev got your feelings out in the open and finally fucked

Mike
*chokes* tf

Stan
I was having a nice, normal day.

Stan
Spending it with my wife.

Stan
Not worrying about anything.

Stan
Then I open my phone, and see that shit!

Stan
SHUT THE FUCK UP RICHARD!

Richie
lol sorry

Bill
I love how Stans the one mad about that comment

Bev
I mean why would I be mad it was top tier sex

Mike
*chokes again* this fucking family

Eddie
Can I resign?

Bill
You cant resign from a family

Richie
Yeah Eddie Spaghetti youre stuck with me!

Eddie
Don't call me that dipshit

Ben
Wait, how did Richie know about me and Bev?

Bill
I only told Eddie

Eddie
I haven't said shit!

Richie
You may have forgotten but i have an elite spy who will tell me all the shit they find out

Bev
Stan...

Stan
It's not me, I've been out with Patty all day and we just got back.

Richie
Yes although i do love staniel very much and we talk about a lot of secret shit

Stan
I hate you.

Richie
Elena was running around and hear you

Bev
lol sorry

Ben
:( I'm so sorry, it'll never happen again

Eddie
Once again, can I resign?

Mike
I literally have no words

Mike
wtf is this chat

🎈🎈🎈

Richie and Elena were in the foyer of the inn, Elena running around laughing, whilst Richie had a drink. It reflected many nights at the Tozier house when Elena was with him, but they were rarely bad nights.

Eddie walked back into the inn from the back entrance, he had been on a phone call with Myra, and then he had been dragged into that dumb group chat conversation that had started so innocent.

As soon as he stepped inside, he almost ran into Elena -well she almost ran into him- she stopped and smiled "sorry Spaghetti!" Within a second she was running again. Eddie rolled is eyes, and then they landed on Richie, who was already staring at Eddie. As soon as they looked eyes, Richie smiled brightly at Eddie, and Eddie smiled back. He walked over to where Richie was sitting and sat next to him. He noticed the glass in Richie's hand

"Why are you drinking?"

"Told you I'm an alcoholic."

Richie took a swing of his drink and Eddie frowned. He watched Richie intensely, and the second Richie went for another sip, Eddie snatched the glass out of his hand. Richie growled at Eddie, but the smaller man knew he meant nothing by it. Elena giggled at something then continued running around.

"She seen much of Derry?"

A laugh escaped Richie's lips, and Eddie noticed that he'd passed his laugh down to Elena as they both had the exact same laugh. Richie looked at Eddie and answered his question, "of course she fucking hasn't. Remember" Richie makes a voice that somewhat resembles the clown "Pennywise the Dancing Clown!"

The stupid impression makes Eddie laugh as well, and Richie grins with pride at Eddie.

Suddenly, Elena pops up in front of her father "I'm bored." She pouts and crosses her arms in front of her, making Eddie giggle.

"Hi bored, I'm dad."

Elena whines a little, and Eddie stops giggling, "you had to just fucking pull that one out didn't you. First I learn that you told your daughter that my name is Spaghetti, which it's not so don't call me that, then you say that fucking joke. You truly are a horrid man."

Richie stares at Eddie for a few seconds before he bursts out laughing, "oh my god, how I have missed your tangents! Edward Spaghedward gets off on a good one!"

"Do not call me that."

"I'm booorred!" Elena whines and begins to pull on her dad leg. Richie sighs and lifts her up off the ground, "I guess, we could do something." He thinks for a second, before he looks back at Elena, "want to get some ice cream?"

"CREAMMMMM!"

Eddie frowns, "you really shouldn't give her ice cream." Richie shrugs, "no harm in it, just letting her be a kid." He stands up, still carrying Elena, and turns to Eddie, "coming Spaghetti?"

"Not my name, but yeah."

All three smile, as they head out of the inn, and Richie turns to Eddie, "you still a vanilla cone?"

"How did you-"

"It's all you got as a kid." 

🎈🎈🎈

Ben and Beverly cuddled closer to each other. Beverly had her head lying on top of Ben, and Ben wrapped his arms tightly -not to tightly, never to tightly- around Beverly. They had been like this since they'd finished texting and Beverly had got out of the shower. 

It was one of the most peaceful moments they'd had since arriving in Derry, and they weren't going to waste it.

They lay in silence for a while before Beverly gets tired of the silence. She turns her head so that she could see Ben's face, but she doesn't lift her head up.

"Hey" she whispers with a soft smile, Ben looks down at her and he smiles softly back at her as he whispers back, "hey."

Beverly places a kiss onto Ben's chest before continuing to whisper to him, "thank you, for everything, but... why me?”

Ben frowns and looks at Beverly with confusion and shock written all over his face, “what?”

“You could have had anyone, so why me?”

Sadness fills Ben's eyes for a moment as he wonders, how the girl he's been in love with since he was twelve didn't believe in her own worth. He thinks of how much he loves her and all that she's been through, and the sadness in his eyes washes away and is replaced with love and admiration “.....because you’re the only one I want, you always have been.... Is that really so hard to believe?”

Beverly looks away from Ben, tears filling in her eyes, "no ones ever loved me" her voice breaks slightly and it breaks Ben's heart "no ones ever made me feel worth it."

Shyly, Ben gently lifts Beverly's chin up to that she can see him, "well those people are wrong, you are worth it, always have, always will. January embers."

"My heart burns there too."

They slowly lean closer to each other and Ben whispers again "can I kiss you?" Beverly smiles and nods "yes."

🎈🎈🎈

They had just gotten back to the inn when Stan's phone rung. He went to ignore it, but he noticed it was his work. Patty told him to go take it, and he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before he walked off. This lead to Patty wondering over to the bar. Although she wasn't much of a drinker, he did like the nuts they had at the bar.

She sat down on one of the bar stools and began to peck at the nuts. After a minute, a creek came out of nowhere, and Patty jumped. She looked around and saw nothing. She turned back to the nuts and continued to wait for her husband. She shook her foot as it was starting to feel damp. The sound of water rippling confused her. Why did she hear it, there was no water underneath her. She looked down to double check and she gasped and jumped backwards, falling of the stool.

Water was rising underneath her, and it was rising fast. Patty's heart began to race and crawled backwards till she hit a chair, using it to help her stand up. The water had risen up to her calves and her throat began to tighten.

"Oh poor Patty. Can't swim?"

Patty looked up and saw a clown grinning at her. The water was up to her knees. Her eyes widened and the hair on her body stood up. The clown giggled demonically and leaned closer to her, "don't worry, you'll be floating soon."

It frowned at the subtle confusion he sensed in her. "Didn't your babylove tell you about me?"

The water had reached her waist and the higher it got the faster it became. Patty screamed and It laughed. Patty closed her eyes trying to shake away this bad dream. When she opened her eyes again, the clown was gone, but the water had gotten high enough that she was a metre above the ground. She screamed again. She was close to the roof now. Another scream and a cry for Stan left her lips. Her head was hitting the roof and her face was almost under water. She screamed one last time before she was completely submerged. 

She had little oxygen and she used it to try and scream, but her voice was muffled by the water, and her voice slowly faded out as she began to fade away herself.

"PATTY!"

Stan ran into the room, all the water was gone, but Patty was completely soaked and gasping for air. Stan ran up to her and pulled her close to him, sitting her upright trying to help her regain a normal oxygen level. 

Five minutes later, and Patty had recovered her oxygen, but she was freezing and utterly frightened. She hugged Stan tightly, "there was water- and the clown- and I was drowning- what's going on?" Patty began to cry and it made Stan follow suit.

"I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have let you come. I should have protected you. I-I-"

They hugged each other for a long time, neither having the courage to talk. It took a while for someone to speak up, but Patty looked at Stan and asked "what was that thing?"

"Um" Stan began, voice shaking "when I was little, this thing came and killed a bunch of kids, Bill's brother was one of them. It would turn into things we were afraid of and- and it would terrorise us. And we fought It, and we thought we killed It. But we didn't. It only comes back every twenty seven years, that's this year. I'm so sorry, please don't hate me."

Stan was balling his eyes out by the time he was done, and Patty pulled him closer to her, getting him to sit in her lap. She stroked his hair gently and placed a kiss on his forehead, "I couldn't never hate you. Especially not over your childhood trauma. I love you so much Stan, and nothing will ever change that,"

"Nothing?" Stan asked, voice sounding small, and Patty smiled "nothing."

"Not even if your ex came back and gave you a million dollars if you got back with them?"

Patty laughed at the ridiculous prospect, "not even that, because my ex is nothing compared to you." Stan cuddled in as close as he could to his wife, trying to feel the comfort in her words that he felt in her arms. But it didn't come, and he just felt miserable, and he didn't want to be a burden to her or his friends anymore.

🎈🎈🎈

Bill walked back into his room to see Mike still in there looking over a bunch of papers scattered on his bed with a women he assumed was Marina.

"Hello?"

"Oh, hey Bill!" Mike smiled up at Bill, "Bill, this is Marina" he pointed to the women, "Marina this is Bill!"

Bill put his arm out towards Marina, and she grabbed his hand, a quick up down and then they let go. Mike was beaming as he turned to look at Bill once again, "sorry about the mess on the bed but we're trying to figure out how to shrink Pennywise."

The confusion on his face must of been obvious, because Marina explained what she had learnt to Bill. The entire time Mike was enhanced by Marina's eyes.

"Earth to Mike" Bill waved his hand in front of Mike's face, Mike shook his head and looked at Bill. Bill rolled his eyes, "h-have you found a w-w-way yet?"

"No we haven't but, we have narrowed it down-" Mike decrescendos himself as he catches Marina's eyes, the two of them smile at each other. Bill clicks his fingers in front of Mike's face "so y-yo-you were saying?"

"Huh? What?" Mike replies, and Marina seems to look confused as well, Bill sighs -although he isn't made at them, he remembers his early days with Audra being similar- and asks "you got l-l-lost in Marina’s eyes a-a-again, didn’t you?"

Mike smiles as he looks back at her eyes "they’re so full of love and emotion and I just- wait what, no course I didn’t!"

Bill laughed and smiled at the two "I don't c-care, but finish y-your sentence f-f-first."

"Oh, okay. So we have narrowed it down to ten possible ways."

Marina smiles and perks up "believe me it's a lot of progress!"

Bill nods and smiles, "need some m-more help?" Mike and Marina look at each other before simultaneously looking back at Bill and nodding, "yes please."

🎈🎈🎈

Stan sat on the stairs in the main foyer of the inn. Patty had fallen asleep, and he'd snuck out quietly.

He stared at the knife in his hands. It felt like it was calling to him, but he knew that was impossible. But, he'd seen a lot of impossible so he couldn't rule it out.

The inn was quiet, and it gave Stan room to think. He tried so hard since he came back to Derry to not think the way he is. Yet he's doing it now, only because he believes he deserves it. He almost got Patty killed. His own wife. Just because of a stupid blood pact from when he was a kid.

Tears fell down Stan's cheeks. He had done nothing but ruin everything, he thought. He told himself he was weak, that the losers didn't need him, his wife didn't need him, and that she deserved better. 

He looked at the knife once more, telling himself as he does that he deserves it, and everyone will be better off without him.

He's just the weak little Jewish boy who is afraid of everything and fails everyone.

Stan rolls up his sleeve and looks at his arm. Slowly he brings the knife towards it and places the knife on his skin and-

"Yous okay uncle Stan?"

Stan looks up and sees Elena looking at him with a tilted head and concern in her eyes. He removes the knife from his skin and lets out a shuttered breath.

When he doesn't say anything for a while, Elena goes over to the stairs and crawls up to the one Stan is sitting on and sits next to him. He looks over at her and she smiles, "no crying! Think of rainbows and puppies!" Stan laughs slightly and Elena smiles brighter. "Yay, no more sad!" Stan frowns again and Elena notices, "why sad?"

"I let Auntie Patty get hurt. I've let lots of people get hurt." He turns away and his eyes glaze over.

"Nuh uh."

Stan turns sharply and looks over at Elena, "my daddy says you ares a hero!" Stan's brows furrow and without a cue Elena continues "he says you save him lots."

Stan rolls his eyes, "that's cause your dad's very silly." Elena giggles and hugs Stan, "you ares my favourite!"

A smile briefly appears on Stan's lips and he hugs Elena back, but the smile disappears very quickly when he realises what he had almost done. Elena jumps away from Stan happily when she decides the hug is over, waves goodbye to Stan, and skips over to the bar where Richie must be. Stan sits in silence and hears a mumbled conversation between Elena and Richie. "WHAT!?!?" Stan's eyes go wide when he hears Richie's voice ring out throughout the inn, and without a second thought Stan gets up and runs out of the inn, into town as the sun starts to set.

Chapter Text

It was a nice day for bird watching, he'd decided. And since his friends had all had an argument, it was easier for him to partake in his favourite activity. Although he loved his friends, they were quite distracting, and Richie and Eddie's bickering usually scared the birds away.

He was in the park near the Standpipe, looking around for any bird, but suspiciously, there were none. Stan sharpened his gaze as he turned towards the Standpipe. A jolt of fear made Stan tumble over, as he let out a confused and terrified gasp. He quickly sat back up and looked back at the Standpipe, hoping his eyes were playing a trick on him. Yet, they were, the Standpipe was floating.

Stan got up off the ground and began to walk away with his bird book in hand, when he heard a slowly, screeching creak from behind him. He turned around to see the door of the Standpipe open. His fight or flight senses began to kick in, but were no match for his curiosity. 

The door, luckily, stayed open as he ventured inside. The Standpipe was covered in cobwebs and smelt of moth balls. A gagging sound escaped Stan's mouth, but he continued further.

As he ascended the stairs, he heard footsteps and then saw shadows above him. Stan gripped his bird book tighter, just as the door behind him slammed shut. A voice began to call to him, it's voice was demented and scratchy, "Stanley come join us, come join the dead ones..."

Bringing his bird book closer to his chest and holding on as tight as he could, he began to chant as many names of birds as he could remember. The voice continued to call for him, but the longer he chanted the quieter they got.

Within five minutes of chanting, the door swung open with a bang. The second he heard the bang, he was running out of the Standpipe, returning to the park.

He let out a deep breath and looked around the park to see if anyone else was there, and no one was. Stan was just about to let out a scream he'd been pushing down in favour of his chanting, when he felt a hand tap his shoulder. Slowly, he turned around and was greeted by a rotten hand with no fingertips beckoning for him to come to them, to the dead ones. A scream escaped his lips, quickly followed by a sob, as he ran to his bike so he could ride home, back to safety.

🎈🎈🎈

It was raining like it had been for the past two weeks, but today, it was worse. Stan felt sad that the birds wouldn't be allowed to play -he decided three months ago that birds are his favourite animals- but Timmy and Charlie laughed at him so he's pretending that he's happy.

Kindergarten was... okay. Stan wasn't overly happy, yet he couldn't complain. It was just okay.

He had friends, he met them at the synagogue and so they sometimes play together. But, they're a bit stupid so Stan kind of hates them. They think all birds are the same! I mean how stupid can you be, Stan thinks to himself. They make fun of how neat and organised Stan is, and they ruin his perfect crayons a tiny bit just to get Stan to cry. So yeah, Stan hates his friends, but they're friends and he knows that his mother will be disappointed if he tells them that he hates them. 

Currently, it was recess, so Stan was with his 'friends' in the sandpit. Timmy and Charlie were building a really bad sand castle, whilst Stan was sitting on the side reading his bird book. He felt at peace, like he was finally having a fun time with them.

A sudden tap on his shoulder made Stan jump. He turned around to look behind him and he saw a kid his age with huge glasses. The kid wore a bright shirt and had several bandages covering him, he had dirt on his face and in his hair, and he was around Stan's age, maybe a few months older.

Stan frowned and glared at him, "what do you want?"

"Wanna be friends? I think you're like super cute and I like your book. It's like so huge!" The kid took a seat next to Stan and Stan frowned even more, "what do you even know about reading?"

The kid smiled at Stan and spoke, "lots, my mama says I'm supa smart!"

Stan rolled his eyes and went back to reading his book, hoping the kid will leave. Sadly -at the time- the kid didn't leave.

"I can wait forever for an answer it's- that's such a cool bird! It's so yellow!"

With a quick once over of the kid, and then a glance at Timmy and Charlie, Stan sighed and looked at the kid. "Fine, you can be my friend... my name's Stanley." Stan held his hand out to the kid, which he took and shook with an excited energy. "Nice to meet you, Stan the man, my name's Richie."

🎈🎈🎈

Stan the Man & his favourite Trashmouth

Richie
Stan where the fuck r u

Richie
?

Richie
Patty is real worried

Richie
And i am too

Richie
Please answer me

Richie
Please Stan

Received  at 6:14 pm

🎈🎈🎈

His dad was glaring at him, and quite frankly, Stan felt uncomfortable.

Dinner at the Uris household was normally quite pleasant. But today it wasn't. His parent's were good people, they weren't bad like Ms Kaspbrak or the Denbrough's, but they weren't amazing like the Tozier's. So when Stan opened up to them at dinner, he wasn't quiet sure what to expect. But, the outcome he got, seemed more likely from the start.

"What do you mean Stanley?" His father yell, which made Stan tense, Donald was usually soft spoken, so to hear him scream scared Stan. Stan quietly mumbled, scared his father would yell again, "I- uh- I don't want to be Jewish anymore."

His father loudly put his knife and fork back on the table as his mother cleared her throat and looked at her son, "why not darling, it is important to follow God's laws or else you won't be whole."

Stan rolled his eyes and his father growled at him, "Stanley! You will not roll your eyes at your mother, and you you will not become an atheist! End of discussion."

A tear rolled down Stan's cheek, but he quickly wiped it away and ate the rest of his dinner in silence.

🎈🎈🎈

The library was almost empty, except for the librarian, Stan and five other people. It was the beginning of his second semester, and Stan wanted to get ahead of the class. He'd always wanted to be an accountant, so he decided that being ahead of the class would make him an even better candidate for future employment -though it really wasn't. His eyes gazed up to check the time and that's when he saw the most beautiful person he'd ever laid eyes on. From a quick glance, Stan noticed she was also studying accounting and he got even more intrigued and by time he realised he was staring she was looking at him too. "Hey, are you okay?"

Shocked he said "yeah, uh yeah, I'm- I'm good."

"Um, okay?"

"Yeah um, my names Stanley Uris. I noticed you're also studying accounting."

She pushed her hair back and revealed her ear, "I'm Patricia Blum... oh- um- yeah, I'm just taking this course because it might be helpful for me in the future."

Stan smiled, this was the first time he's ever smiled at someone he'd just met in a very long time -he can't seem to remember the last time. "Hey, Patricia? Do you, maybe- I mean you don't have too, but maybe, do want to go get coffee later? I know this place that makes um, amazing coffees."

He looks over to see Patty also smiling as she writes her number on a piece of paper, passing it to Stan, "I would love to get coffee with you at anytime Stanley."

With a bashful smile and blush crawling over his cheeks, he nods and puts his head down, continuing to study until the library closed, Patty doing the same. They said goodbye to each other and then Stan yelled out to her. "Patricia! How about we um, get coffee now so we can talk some more?"

"I'd love that Stanley."

🎈🎈🎈

It was eerily quiet as he entered the synagogue. He didn't know what he expected honestly. But at the same time, his mind feels at peace now. His mind starts to slow down and the thoughts become less, and he remembered why he ran away.

Stan ran into the room, all the water was gone, but Patty was completely soaked and gasping for air. Stan ran up to her and pulled her close to him, sitting her upright trying to help her regain a normal oxygen level. 

Five minutes later, and Patty had recovered her oxygen, but she was freezing and utterly frightened. She hugged Stan tightly, "there was water- and the clown- and I was drowning- what's going on?" Patty began to cry and it made Stan follow suit...

...Stan's eyes go wide when he hears Richie's voice ring out throughout the inn, and without a second thought Stan gets up and runs out of the inn, into town as the sun starts to set.

He shook his head trying to erase the memories, but they won't leave. Stan gave up trying to think of anything else and just let his thoughts run wild as he walked to the back of the synagogue, where his father's office used to be.

The office looked exactly the same from his childhood, the only difference was the painting hanging from the wall. It was no long the flute lady, it was a picture of an alley way. Stan walked over to the desk and opened the drawer on the top left, where he knew the kippahs. with a sigh, Stan grabbed one out and sat on the desk chair. Finally the memories from before had disappeared and where replaced by the memories of his childhood, the things the felt, the voices he heard, and the lights that blinded him in his sleep.

When Stan opened his eyes, he felt the water that had formed behind his eyelids roll down his cheeks. The nightmares were coming true and he was useless against them. He was too scared to fight them away, afraid to ask his friends and/or his wife for help in fighting them, because he believed he'd get them killed, and he couldn't live with himself if he did.

Slowly, Stan walked out of the office and back to the main area, taking a seat on one of the benches that made up the isles. His mind was racing again thinking about the fear and pain that continued to take over his life since the summer of 1989.

🎈🎈🎈

"Reflecting on the meaning of what I just read," Stan looked at the guests, they all stared at him intently as he tightly gripped the microphone he was speaking into. "the word leshand comes up a lot. Which means, um, to change, to transform."

Stan turns to look at his best friend in the audience. Richie is smiling at Stan, and that gives Stan the confidence he needs to make his speech. He takes a breath and starts back up. "Which makes sense since today I'm supposed to become a man."

His gaze scans the audience and he grips the microphone tighter, this is it, he thought, he continues speaking, "it's funny though... everyone, i think, has some memories that they're prouder of than others. And maybe that's why change is so scary."

The room is silent, and Stan takes another deep breath, "cause the things we wish we could leave behind... the whispers we wish we could silence. The nightmares we most want to wake up from. The memories we wish we could change. The secrets we feel like we have to keep..." Stan looks at Richie as he says this making sure the boy knew Stan was saying this specifically to him "are the hardest to walk away from."

Stan looks back at the guests noting how they are beginning to look confused. He ignore it an just continues to power through, "the good stuff, the pictures in our minds that fade away the fastest. Those pieces of you feel the easiest to lose. Maybe I don't want to forget... maybe, i-i-i-if that's what today is all about." Stan screwed his eyes shut as he continued not wanting to see the fallout, "forget it, am I right." On an impulse he opens his eyes and after saying those words he felt confident. Stan's father walks up to him and tries to take the microphone off him.

"Thank you Stanley-"

But Stan just walks away from his father, still gripping the microphone. "I, ur, I, um, today I'm supposed to become a man, but, I don't- I don't feel any di-different, I-" the cord of the microphone brings Stan to a stop. He turns to look at his father, and he glares at the man with as must sass as he can muster. "I know I'm a loser, and no matter what... I always fucking will be." 

People in the audience gasp as Stan drops the microphone and walks off. As he walks towards the door, he hears Richie start to slow clap and he can just feel the smile on Richie's face. The slow clap is short lived as Maggie pulls her son back down to his seat. Stan gives the guests one last look, before he barges out the door.

🎈🎈🎈

"Best bar mitzvah I've ever been too."

Stan looked up from where he was sitting to see that Richie had entered the synagogue. His best friend walked over to him and took a seat. Stan looked away, as Richie continued to speak, "just ignore the fact it's the only one I've been to."

Silence fell over them for a few minutes, before Stan sullenly spoke up, "I know what I did was stupid-"

"No ones asking you to justify why, we just want to know you're okay." Richie looked at Stan, offering him a smile, hoping that his friend would be okay, maybe not today, but one day. Stan looked up, and sighed, "physically, yes. Emotionally... no. I just- I just couldn't lose her- I couldn't let it be my fault-"

"It isn't, it's the stupid fucking clowns fault." A dry laugh escaped Stan's lips, "sure, because the clown brought her here and didn't tell her about the shapeshifting, crusty fuckhead who lives in the sewers."

Richie let out a wholehearted laugh, which made Stan grunt, and Richie mumbled an apology. The conversation resumed it's serious tone as Stan continued his spiel, "I told her to come with me, I told her nothing about what happened- is happening, and I left her alone. I'm a horrible husband- no person!" Stan felt Richie begin to softly hug him, and finally tears began to roll down his cheeks and not stop.

"You aren't a horrible husband, because I'm pretty sure Patty would have left you years ago if you were. And as for a horrible person, I know several people who would argue that you aren't."

"And who would that be?" Stan challenged, and so with a sigh, Richie began his list, "Firstly, your wife, then me, Eddie, Bill, Mike, Bev, Ben. Even my fucking kid loves you. We all think you're amazing, and that you aren't a horrible person. You are exactly like you were as a kid, the best."

They both laughed and wiped away tears that they were sheading, "fuck off," Stan joked. He reflected Richie's words, and he felt a warmth spread through his body. Although he didn't truly believe the words, he knew that he should, and maybe one day he will.

"Patty's worry about me, isn't she?"

"You think! She threatened to kill me if I couldn't find you!"

Stan laughed loudly and sat up straight, "I love that women." Both men sit quietly for a few moments before Stan's eyebrows furrow and he looks at Richie, "how did you find out about-"

"Elena inherited my trashmouth and said you were drawing on yourself with a knife instead of a texter because your stupid, her words not mine." Stan rolled his eyes and Richie laughed. Swiftly, Stan stood up, "I guess we should go?" Richie nodded and stood up himself, and as they walked out Stan spoke, "we should stop having deep conversations in the synagogue."

"Agreed."

🎈🎈🎈

A knock on his bedroom door brought his eyes up from his book, and he let the person in, the person being his father. They'd been avoiding each other since the debacle at dinner, but Donald decided that they need to talk about it.

"Stanley?"

"Yes dad?"

"What are you thinking?"

Stan furrowed his brows, almost giving a sarcastic remark, but stopping himself as he remembered he was talking with his father, not his friends. "I don't know, I just- I just don't really believe in anything anymore."

Donald sputtered, shocked by what his son had said. "How can you not believe?" Stan looked away from his father, how could he explain that he felt pressured by his parents to blindly follow someone, or how he couldn't even partly believe because how could someone be watching over him, and protecting him, but not save him from the horrors of It.

His father let out an agitated sigh and began to walk out of Stan's room before turning to look at his son one more time and growl at him "tomorrow you'll be putting in extra practice for your torrah reading, because you will be having your bar mitzvah." And with that Stan's door was slammed shut, and his father was gone.

Chapter Text

It's a rainy day in Derry, which perfectly matches Eddie's mood. He stares around at all the people wearing black and sombre looks. His mother is wailing, and he doesn't know why. She never really loved him, she just loved using him as an excuse to keep Eddie inside, even his five year old mind knew that... mostly because his dad said so, and Bill said that his mum isn't like that.

People were crying, and Eddie was getting annoyed, these people didn't visit him when he was dying, why cry now. This funeral was infuriating.

Bill grabbed a hold of Eddie's hand, and he calmed down. At least someone cared, someone knew that his father was gone and there was nothing that they could do. Someone at least cared about Eddie.

Quietly, Eddie himself began to cry, he missed his dad. He wanted his dad, not his mum, as mean as that is, he didn't care. He wants her gone and he doesn't want anyone like her in his life. And even at five years old, he knew it, and he meant it with all the passion his tiny body could muster.

🎈🎈🎈

Myra

Eddie
I'm divorcing you

Eddie
Fuck you bitch!

Myra
Eddie bear what do you mean

Eddie
Sloppy bitch

Eddie
I hate you

Eddie
Those last 2 text weren't be but that

Myra
Please Eddie your just sick let me help you

Eddie
Once again fuck you

🎈🎈🎈

People were prepare for the last day of the Canal Day festival, something that Eddie is now remembering he went to as a kid. He's looking around at all the oblivious and happy people and grimaces, if only they knew, he thought. He'd split from Richie and Elena a few minutes ago as they went back to the inn and he went to pick up his token, as it was finally in.

A bunch of balloons hit him in the face and the pushed them away, turning to the guy who owned them and screamed at him "asshole!"

He quickly returned to his previous task of trying to find his token. Well, he wasn't exactly finding it as he had to buy it from the pharmacy, but he liked to pretend his was.

As he walked inside, his eyes widened. The place looked exactly the same as it did twenty seven years ago, but it was may more eerie. He walked up to the counter and frowned, looking for someone who was working. He started to call out for someone, when his eyes caught onto a person at the back of the counter. A shiver rolled down Eddie's spine as he recognise the person, Mr fucking Keene.

Mr Keene turns around and the two men stare at each other for, to Eddie, seems like forever. Slowly, Mr Keene walks over to Eddie and asks in his crumbly voice, "can I help you?"

Eddie nervously responds, "um, yeah, I called in- I had a prescription called in for Kaspbrak." The closer Mr Keene gets, the more nervous Eddie feels.

"Kaspbrak?"

"It's an inhaler."

Mr Keene reaches over to grab the medication, and Eddie fidgets as his eyes dart around the room. As he pulls it towards himself, Mr Keene speaks up again, "Eddie Kaspbrak?"

Eddie looks back at Mr Keene and gives him a tight lipped smile, "yep, that's me."

"I remember you" Mr Keene said as he stared Eddie down, he licks his and smiles as Eddie confirms that they know each other, "how's your mum?" Eddie raises his eyebrows and looks away, smiling as he replies, "oh, she died a few years back, very sad. It was from liver cancer-"

"What's that?" Mr Keene pointed at Eddie's face with his wrinkly fat fingers and Eddie's eyes widen, "what's what?" His finger lands on Eddie's face "that."

He goes to examine it, squishing Eddie's face and rolling it around in his hand. Eddie slaps his wrist "alright," Mr Keene starts to make disturbing crude gestures with his tongue as he continues to examine Eddie's face, "okay... it's not going to pop, it's a mole."

"It might not be cancer" Mr Keene says, making Eddie's eyes light up in fear, "cancer?"

Finally, Mr Keene's hands pull away from Eddie's face, "but it might be," he said before tapping Eddie's cheek twice before beginning to walk away, "you stay right here, I'll get you something."

Eddie stands still in fear, of cancer or Mr Keene, he didn't know.

🎈🎈🎈

In a fast pace, Eddie walks up to the counter and places his cast on the bench. He looks around for Mr Keene, but the only one there is Greta sitting, reading some random magazine, chewing gum like always.

"You here for your stinky breath pills?"

Eddie frowns and stutters through his reply "m-my-my breath i-is fine."

Greta puts he magazine down next to her, and stands up, walking towards Eddie, "that's not what my dad said. He said" she grabs the bag with Eddie's medication and places it in front of him, "you have a tumour." Eddie's eyes widen and she looks him up and down before continuing, "on your dick."

A awkward laugh escapes Eddie's lips, he smiles for a second, "but you don't take pills for-" he beginnings to frown, cutting himself off, as Greta continues to glare at him. He looks around confused, "wait, what did your dad say?"

"Here you go" she said, chewing her gum, "hope your dick feels better" and with that she goes back to sitting down and reading her magazine. Eddie stays there for a moment, confused before grabbing his medication and slowly turning around, "thank you... for the inhaler, not the-the penis thing." He's ready to return back home and is just reaching one of the isles when he hears someone scream, "Eddie!" The voice cries, he stops as the voice sounds like his mothers, but he decides it's not possible and continues to head home. But when the voice cries for a second time, "Eddie bear!" This time he turns around looking around to see if he could find his mother, but the only thing he sees is an open door, leading to a dark, sketchy basement wide open. He walks towards the door, whispering "mummy?"

"Eddie bear!"

Eddie screams as he walks into a stack of boxes, before moving away and calling out, "mummy?" He walks towards the stairs as his mother cries out for him, "Eddie come help me, quick!" He heads down the stairs gagging, as a rat squeals from bellow the stairs, grabbing out his inhaler and taking a hit. He continues descending into the filth covered, hazardous basement of the local pharmacy.

His mother continues to cry for help, and Eddie's eyes widen as he sees her shadow reflected onto a curtain at the back of the room. He hesitantly walks over to his mother, head turning at each horrific sight. He hears a crunch under his foot, and looks down to see a bunch of shattered glass and syringes, this causes him to panic and he franticly flops around the place, continuing to be touched be germ infested I.V's and broken syringes, screaming in the process.

"Eddie?"

He stops screaming , and walks over to his mother, quietly mumbling, "what is she doing here?"

"What is taking you so long?" Sonia spits at him from behind the curtain, his voice begins to shake, "why are you here?"

His hands reach up slowly and he grabs onto the curtain, and after a few deep breaths, he pulls the curtain to the side and comes face to face with his mother, who is tied to a surgical bed, sweating like a pig. His eyes widen and he runs up to her, "mummy!"

"He's coming, Eddie, you've got to get me out of here!"

"Who's coming?"

"Eddie!"

A chain rattles, and they both snap their heads towards the sound, a chained figure is standing there covered up by a felt cloth, "what the fuck is that?" It begins to rattle and Eddie leans closer to his mother, "mummy?"

"Come on, you've got to get me out of here!"

The figure starts shaking itself towards them, both Eddie and his mother crying out. It isn't until the figure hits a bump and breaks free, that Eddie starts to untie his mother. They continue to scream and the monster comes closer and closer, occasionally hitting things but freeing itself almost immediately. He gets the first belt undone, and grasps onto his mothers arm as the thing had gotten even closer. When he starts on the second one, the fabric uncovers the figure and reveals the leper that has been tormenting Eddie all summer long. It gets to arms reach as soon as Eddie finishes the second belt, and him and his mother scream. The leper is still restrained and so it can't reach them, but the restraints become loser each time it pulls. It a split second decision, Eddie apologises to his mother and runs of, her yelling at him as he goes before being caught by the leper.

🎈🎈🎈

Eddie stares at the basement, which had now been cleaned with fear in his eyes, "what the hell is she doing here?" He mutters to himself, "why is that curtain still here?" He shakes his hands and continues standing still, "okay, alright. You can do this, it's just a memory."

He starts to walk over to the curtain, continuing to mutter things under his breath in hopes it will keep himself calm. As he reaches the curtain he stops, takes a few deep breaths, reaches up, and pulls the curtain away finding nothing interesting or scary. He sighs of relief, and is ready to leave, when the leper appears from behind him.

It growls at Eddie, and waves it's tongue around, making Eddie scream. The leper wraps it's hands around Eddie's neck and pushes him backwards. It pushes him into a shelf and moves it's hands from Eddie's neck to his face, as Eddie grabs it's neck and tries to choke it, hoping it will pull away. Eddie moves one of his own hands to the lepers face and squeezes on of it's eyeballs, making goo fly onto his face. Eddie's hand moves back to it's neck and he squeezes tightly. The leper begins gasping for air, and Eddie's eyes widen, he's killing it! He gathers his strength and pushes the leper into the opposite walls shelving, continuing to choke it. He screams out, "fuck you" as the leper loses consciousness, but in a second of pride his grip loosen and the leper throws up all over Eddie's face, "what the fuck!"

Eddie runs up the stairs and over to the door, pulling it as he cries. He continues pulling and pulling, but the door won't open, and his becomes even more distressed. 

Greta taps his shoulder, and Eddie lets go of the door, "what!"

She looks at him like he's an idiot, "push not pull you moron."

"Oh" Eddie says looking back at the door, "ha, thanks" and runs out the door.

🎈🎈🎈

Eddie exits the pharmacy and bumps into someone, "watch it dipshit!"

"Oh" they both pull back to see each other "sorry Eds!"

"Not my name cum stain!" Richie laughs at Eddie and Eddie growls at him, "fuck off!"

"Sorry, but that was the best insult ever" Eddie rolls his eyes, before looking back at his friend, "what are you doing here?"

Richie looks at Eddie and furrows his brows in confusion, "getting my meds, what are you doing here? I thought you stopped taking the placebos, like, three years ago?" Eddie frowned and looked at Richie, he grabbed Richie's hand and pulled him towards the park. They walked over there in silence, and didn't talk until that sat down. Eddie took a deep breath, "my mum said that I need to get this last dose of medicine, before-before we move.:

Both boys frowned, Richie turned to face Eddie, who had a few tears falling down his cheeks, "she said that Derry can't help her."

"What do you mean Eddie Spaghetti?"

Eddie ignored the nickname and took a deep breath, "she has cancer." Eddie let out a dry laugh, "she was so worried about diseases that she actually got cancer."

Richie pulled Eddie into a hug, they don't say anything, although there is so much that they can say, but they don't say anything and just hug until both of them are numb from pain, emotional and physical. They know they'll see each other again one day, and maybe then they'll say what they would have in that moment, but that won't be for another twenty four years, and until they are about to lose each other once again.

🎈🎈🎈

Myra

Myra
Eddie Bear

Myra
Why is there a lawyer at my door

Myra
You can't be serious about a divorce

Myra
Eddie Bear please

Myra
Eddie

Chapter Text

Mike and Marina had left to head to the library, so Bill had gone back to his room. He had a quick nap for about five minutes, before Richie had barged in the room screaming if he knew where Stan had gone, before leaving almost as quickly. He tried to fall back asleep, but after half an hour of trying, he gave up and got out his phone. He soon was listening to his phone dial, waiting for Audra to pick up.

After a few rings, she picked up, "hi honey! How are you?"

A smile spread onto Bill's face, "I'm good, h-how are you?" Audra sighed, "I am good, just very bored yet very busy."

"D-do you want me to call back?"

"No, no, I just have like so many doctors appointments and auditions happening over the next few weeks I just feel so busy." Bill nodded although Audra couldn't see him, and they both giggled a little. Audra then asked "do you know how much longer you'll be gone?"

Bill rubbed his face and sighed, "I'm guessing in about three days at most. I honestly wish we met up somewhere else, because Derry sucks."

Audra laughed, "it can't be that bad, can it?"

"Trust me, it can-" Bill slowly stopped speaking as he heard wheels scratching the floor. He stood up, keeping the phone at his ear, hearing Audra ask if he was okay, and what was going on. As he reached the end of the bed, he saw a skateboard coming to a stop. He looked at it in confusion, but as if it couldn't get any weirder, blood started floating upwards from the bottom of the skateboard. Bill gently kicked the board so it was standing on it's side, and on it's belly, the board had a message written on it in blood.

'Guess you won't be there for him too.'

"Bill, you're scaring me. What's going on?"

"I'll call you back, I love you" Bill numbly removed his phone from his ear, even as Audra protested, and hung up. He put his phone in his pocket, and life sprung back into him and he ran out of his room.

Ben and Beverly laughed as they walked out of Ben's room, not noticing Bill running out of his room until Beverly bumps into him. Bill's eyes are bloodshot, and Ben and Beverly look and him worriedly.

"Are you okay?" Ben asked and Bill pushed past them, "the kid, I-I have to save him."

"What kid?" Beverly asked but Bill didn't respond, he just ran out of the inn, "BILL!"

🎈🎈🎈

Bill dropped his bike at the entrance of the carnival, before he runs inside, looking for Dean. He runs around, pushing past people, and looking at the rides in order to find the kid. He reaches a mostly empty space, stopping to catch his breath, when he sees Dean giving some tickets to someone.

"Hey!" Bill starts running again, "hey kid!" Dean goes into the funhouse, and Bill continues to scream, pushing past people. He doesn't bother giving tickets or paying to enter, he just jumps in, past the person running the ride, who doesn't even try to stop him.

He runs in and struggles in the first section of the funhouse, having to slow down to walk through. But as he reaches the swinging clowns he picks up his pace again, running past them, trying to find Dean and save him.

The lights in the mirror maze flicker, and Bill can't seem to find Dean or where to go. He hold onto the walls and follows them, until he rounds a corner and sees Dean, "hey kid!" He runs straight into the glass, and begins to hit it in hopes of getting Dean's attention. He quickly enough continues the maze, trying to reach Dean before Pennywise, hitting walls and struggling to find a way out. He sees Dean again, and calls out once more, but Dean doesn't seem to hear Bill. Bill runs towards him, but struggles as the walls become narrower the further he goes. He finally squeezes his way out, and once again, sees Dean and hits anther wall. What he doesn't see is Pennywise lurching behind him.

Bill turns around and Dean is there, so he runs towards him, calling out, until his face smashes into another wall, but this time Dean sees him. 

"What are you doing here?"

Dean looks at Bill with confusion, and Bill smiles, "hey, I'm here to h-h-help."

"Stop following me!"

"I'm going to g-get you out of he-"

A wiping sound cuts Bill off, and both him and Dean look at where the noise is coming from. Fear strikes them both as they see Pennywise, tongue against the glass, glaring at Dean like a meal. Bill frowns and begins to beg, "no... please." It rolls it's tongue back into it's mouth like a yoyo, as Bill continues to beg, "I'm here this time, just take me." The clown hits it's head onto the glass, and starts laughing before doing it again, making Dean jump back. It continues hitting it's head and laughing, while Dean cowers in fear and Bill tries to break the glass to save Dean. Soon the glass on Pennywise's end cracks, but Bill doesn't stop. The bigger the crack got the more Dean screamed. When Pennywise stopped, so did Bill and Dean, which made Pennywise grin his sharp toothed grin. Seconds pasted, and when felt like nothing was going to happen, Pennywise hit the glass once last time, and bit Dean's head off. Blood was sprayed onto the glass, and after the lights flickered once again, Dean and Pennywise were gone.

🎈🎈🎈

Eddie had the tap running as he splashed water in his face, "oh and then the leper, he through up all over me!" He spoke to himself as he washed the vomit off of his face, "hey, it's Mike Hanlon, why don't you come back to Maine."

He turned the tap off and grabbed the towel near him and dried his face. He placed the towel down once his face was dry, and close the mirror cabinet that he'd opened looking for soap.

"It's your time Eddie."

Henry stabbed his knife into Eddie's cheek, and moved backwards as Eddie turned around, knife in his face, "wh-"

Henry had a maniacal grin on his face and began to laugh, Eddie just looked at him in shock, "why would you- why did you do that?"

"Because I said 'it's your time' get it!" Eddie's eyes stayed wide as he fake laughed and walked backwards, "what do you mean my time" his word incoherent due to the knife in his mouth. Henry stopped laughing and tilted his head, "you know Eddie."

Eddie stopped his fake laugh and he took a few steps into the bath tub, just as Henry continues to laugh, this time less in humour and more because he's a psychopath. "It's time to float."

Once again, Eddie fake laughed as he got the shower curtain and closed it so he couldn't see Bowers anymore.

"Where did you go?"

Henry moves towards the bathtub and slowly goes to reach for the shower curtain, "now give me back my fucking knife!". As he grabs a hold of it, Eddie stabs the knife he pulled from his face into Henry's chest. The curtain pulls from the rod as Henry falls back, and the second it's gone, Eddie slips out of his room and into the hallway.

When he enters the hallway he sees Patty, Stan, Richie and Elena, who are in the middle of a conversation, and yells at them "Bower's is in my room!"

The three adults turn around and see Eddie slipping down the wall, Patty and Richie run over to Eddie and Stan runs into Eddie's room and looks around for Henry. But as he reaches the bathroom, he can only see Eddie's blood and a smashed window. He runs over to the window and sees Henry walking towards a car. Henry looks up at the window and glares at Stan as he pulls the knife out of his chest, before running away.

Stan ran back to the others, "he's gone but injured, he won't be able to make it far. I'll get some medical supplies from our room, then I find the others."

🎈🎈🎈

They were set up in Eddie's room, Patty and Eddie sat on the bed as she examined and worked on his injury. Richie and Elena were sitting on the floor facing them, and Stan was running around the inn trying to find the others.

Eddie hissed as Patty began his stitches, and she apologised about the pain, but he couldn't drink for a while as the stiches settled. The room was silent other than the hissing every so often and the apologising, no one knowing what to say. When Patty finished the stitching, was when they finally began to talk.

"So Henry Bowers is the psychopath who used to bully you guys as kids?" Eddie and Richie nodded, and Patty raised her eyebrows, "and he's not the killer clown?"

"Yep, that fucker lives in the sewer" Richie explained, and Patty nodded slowly, she wiped the excess blood off of Eddie's cheek before placing medical bandage on the wounded area and taping it down. Then as she began to pack her things up, she continued to ask questions in order to understand the situation they were in, "and this clown -who lives in the sewer- comes around, what, every twenty seven years and kills kids?"

Once again Eddie and Richie nod. After a few seconds, Patty looked between the two men, "so why aren't you guys dead?" Eddie and Richie looked at each other, and Eddie shrugged and tilted his head, asking Richie to speak, "something about our bond or some shit I don't know, ask Mike."

Patty stared at Richie for a while, "has Elena seen... It?" She whispered the last part as though he were like Voldemort, and Eddie snapped his head towards his friend, "yea- ow." Patty tsked and told Eddie not to speak, and checked if his stitched had popped, which they luckily hadn't.

Richie looked down at his daughter, who was sitting quietly in front of him playing with her bear, and asked "hey Eds, has a clown visited you?" Elena stopped playing with her bear and made an exaggerated thinking face -much like winnie the pooh- before shaking her head, "onlys yous." Confusion cast over the adults but they brushed it off very quickly as Stan barged into the room, "okay, so Bill ran off like five minutes ago, something about a kid. Ben and Beverly are just posting something off, and Mike is with Marina at the library. Mike told me that we should get the last few things ready, because we'll be fighting Pennywise tomorrow."

"That soon, are you guys prepared?" Patty asked and Stan nodded, "if we all have our tokens, then yes. So Eddie, get changed, Richie get Elena's things ready to leave, Patty and I will do the last few things we need. Then the others will meet us back here for dinner, we'll sleep and then when we wake up, we're going to fight It."

🎈🎈🎈

There both slightly tense as they enter their room, neither saying a word. Patty put away her medical supplies, and Stan just stood in the doorway. The energy and distractions that Stan had not even minutes ago had disintegrated, and now he was left raw. The days earlier emotions flooding back into him.

"Are you upset with me?"

Patty turned to look at her husband, "what are you talking about babylove?"

Stan's eyes began to water, something which Patty noticed and she walked over to him, placing her hands on his arms in a comforting manner. As soon as she did that, Stan began to cry, "I let you down, I'm so sorry. I don't deserve you-"

Sobs began to choke his words, and his wife pulled him into a loving hug. They stood there for a moment until Stan began to calm down, slightly, before Patty spoke, "you know i care about you, right?" She felt him nod his head against hers, so she continued, "so you know that no matter what, I'll always love you. I love you, trauma and all. Don't ever think that I don't just because you had a bad day. You are my true love Stanley Uris, forever and always."

A laugh escaped Stan's lips, and he held Patty tighter, "I love you too, so, so much. I just felt I had failed you, because i care about you and I let you get hurt. I thought you'd hate me and want to leave me, a-and I couldn't live with m-myself if you did."

"Well, I'm not going anywhere. You're stuck with me" Patty smiled into Stan's chest, and he placed a soft kiss to her head, "good."

They stood in the embrace for a few moments longer, before separating and going back into planning mode. "So," Stan began, "you'll have to stay here, but you might have to tend to some wounds when we come back. Eddie can help you with them, unless he is too injured to do so." They continued to plan until Stan got a text, which brought everything crashing down.

🎈🎈🎈

Richie rushed around the room, packing things and checking they had all their belongings. Elena sat on the bed watching, "we goins?"

"Not yet, but soon" he continued to rush around, and Elena went to crawl off the bed, almost falling but being caught by her father. She yanks at his sleeve whilst he packs up her clothes, quickly gaining his attention, "what is it Eds?"

Elena looked at him, as though she was seeing into his soul, "mean clown wants to hurts yous now!" Richie furrowed his brows, and they stared at each other for a while. "Did It visit you?" She shook her head, "tryin but not gonna gets in da cawr," she looked smug, before breaking out into a fit of giggles.

Confusion fell over Richie's face, muttering curses to himself. But then he feels something being shoved into his hands. He looks down, and once again sees Elena handing him her bear. "So I knows it's you."

🎈🎈🎈

The library was closing up for the day, and that left only Mike and Marina inside. It was beginning to get dark, and they were only at the library to get the last few bits of research done, before just staying the night at the inn with the rest of the losers.

"Alright, that's that. Now let's head upstairs," Mike said and him and Marina went to walk upstairs. Marina smirked to herself, "yeah, there's a few things I'd like to do upstairs, if you know what I mean. Wink, wink."

Mike laughed, "you don't have to say wink wink" to which Marina replied, "oh I know, I just knew you would laugh."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah."

The had stopped walking and were facing each other, leaning closer, about to kiss, when a bang made them jump. They stood still, afraid to move a muscle. When no other noise rang throughout the library, they slowly walked towards where the sound came from.

A book had fallen from the shelf, and was lying on the floor, open. Mike and Marina looked towards each other, before Mike walked over to the book. The page was nothing of importance or some spooky trick, so Mike put the book back where it belonged. He turned back towards Marina, "that was weird I-"

"Time to float!"

Chapter Text

A book had fallen from the shelf, and was lying on the floor, open. Mike and Marina looked towards each other, before Mike walked over to the book. The page was nothing of importance or some spooky trick, so Mike put the book back where it belonged. He turned back towards Marina, "that was weird I-"

"Time to float!"

Henry ran towards Mike, pushing Marina out of the way. Mike fell onto the ground, and Henry almost landed on him if Mike hadn't kicked him in the stomach sending him flying into the nearest display cabinet. The display cabinet shattered and Henry fell with the deconstructed cabinet to the ground. Mike's eyes widened, when he noticed Henry was unarmed. He ran towards the knife, but Bowers got up, punched Mike in the balls, then the stomach and pushing him over, before running over to his knife. After the knife had been returned to his hand, Henry looked back at Mike, who was lying on the floor. He began to laugh like a manic, and pointed his knife to the man on the ground, "you should have known Mike."

At full speed, Henry ran to Mike and pinned Mike to the ground. Mike tried to fight him off, but nothing worked, Bowers was too strong. Henry started screaming at Mike, saying he never went back on any promises. As Mike struggled, Henry's knife cut his forearm, but Henry didn't notice, he just kept screaming.

"Get the fuck out of my town you dirty black bas-"

Mike stared at Henry confused, until he saw the blood dripping, and the second his head fell forward, Mike knew what happened to Henry. Henry fell to the side, and Marina was in full view. She looked terrified, her eyes wide and her hands were shaking, "fuck... I just killed a guy. I killed Henry Bowers with a fucking axe, what the fuck! I'm going to be arrested, sent back to the mental hospital. Shit!"

"No you won't," Mike reassured her, "I'll make sure of it." They stared at each other for a while, before they snapped back to reality, and sprung into action.

🎈🎈🎈

Losers Club

Mike
Get your tokens and come to the library asap

Bev
Why whats going on

Bev
???

Mike
Bowers nearly killed me and Marina

Eddie
Join the club

Mike
We have to fight it now

Richie
Is this like a pretty little liars thing where there like sos and everyone rushes to them

Mike
Yes now hurry

Bill
No I'm going alone

Mike
Don't be a dramatic little shit now Bill get to the fucking library NOW!

Bill
Damn okay

Ben
We'll be there asap

🎈🎈🎈

Marina was bandaging up Mike's arms when the rest of the losers entered the library. Beverly and Ben where the first ones in, and they almost immediately saw Bowers. They both screamed, and drew everyone's attention to them.

"What's going oonnnnn- oh my god, is that Bowers?" Eddie asked and Mike nodded, "that's why we have to go now. It knows we're ready and that's why Bowers went after us."

"Alright, what's the plan Mike?"

🎈🎈🎈

They parked their cars and got out and looked up at Neibolt. It looked exactly the same as twenty seven years ago.

“Bill!” A voice cried from behind him. He turned around to see the rest of the losers drop their bikes next to his and run up to him. “Bill you can’t go in there! This is crazy!” Beverly continued.

Bill; "I'd come with you if I weren't" Bill coughs a few times "dying" he cast a glance at his brother. "You're not dying," Georgie replied slightly annoyed. "You didn't see the... v-vomit coming out of my nose this morning?", walked up to the porch of the crumbly house. He turned to look back at his friends, all six of them.

Richie; they see each other through the window and wave, well that is until Richie turns his wave into the middle finger. He was a comic book and video game freak with bug-eye glasses. "You wanna come over, got a new race car! Over." Richie lifted up his new SEGA remote control. 

Mike; "because I want to be in boring classes with other boring kids and draw pictures in text books and play baseball and go to dances and have friends." Mike places the cattle bolt on the head of the next sheep, but can't bring himself to pull the trigger.

Eddie; Eddie pulls his mouth in a tight lipped frown and waves his arms before answering, "they slice the tip of his dick off."

Stan; "hey wait up guys" Stan reaches them and squeezes himself in between Bill and Eddie.

Beverly; "I know you're in there, little shit. I can smell you!" One of Gretta's friends starts to fill the trash bag with water. "No wonder why you don't have any friends." Beverly sighs, "which is it. Am I a slut or a little shit," she shifts and pulls down her dress before grimacing "make up you're mind."

And Ben; when he sees the coast is clear he pulls his bike out of the bike rack with one hand since his other is holding a school project he made. He had headphones on and didn't hear Beverly walk up to him.

They had grown up so much since that summer, and yet they hadn't changed. The losers stood there awkwardly, staring at Bill, waiting for him to say something. 

“Look you don’t have to come in with me. But what happens when another Georgie goes missing? Or Betty Ripson? Or Ed Corcoran? Or one of us? Are you just going to pretend it isn’t happening like everyone else in this town? Because I can’t.”

Tears began to form in Bill’s eyes but he didn’t let them fall.

“I go home and all I see is that Georgie isn’t there. His clothes, his toys, his stupid stuffed animals but he isn’t. So walking into this house... for me, is easier than walking into my own.”

He sighed, and smiled at them, "you guys are the best friends I've ever had... A-and you are the only ones I'll fight a clown for. Now, l-let's kill this fucking clown, once and for all."

The losers cheered, and headed into battle -Beverly picked up a broken fence piece as she went- ready to face Pennywise for one, final time.

Chapter Text

The house was grimmer and more haunted than last time. Cobb webs hung down and draped themselves over nearly every objects in the room, dust had combined with dirt and covered the entire floor. Trees and weeds have sprouted from the floor, and mould has grown on the moist spots spraying the house. Everything is pitch black and the losers can only see what their flashlights luminate, and what the moon decides to reveal to them.

As they each enter the house, they hear crunching under their feet. Mike looks down and sees broken glass splattered over the entryway. A hissing sound is the only other thing to be heard, and as Richie looks over to the stairway, he found the source of the sound oozing down the wall. Black goo slushed down the wall, dripping onto the stairs, burning whatever it touches, like some sort of toxic waste mixture. He scrunches up his nose and shakes his head, "well, I love what he's down with the place."

"Beep beep Richie," Beverly remarked, but was caught in a stoic daze as she looks around.

Bill walks forward, heading towards the back, and is followed by Richie, Eddie and Stan. Beverly, Ben and Mike stay in the main foyer and continue looking around, trying to find something -for what seems like no reason but to get in a few group jump scares.

Ben walks into what used to be the living room, shining his torch towards the grimy mirror in the centre of the back wall. A scream escaped his lips, and he grasped onto his stomach, and Mike and Beverly turned around, Beverly calling out to him. Beverly ran towards Ben and grabbed a hold of him. Mike following suit, "Ben, baby what's wrong?" Ben slowly moved his hands and blood started to form on his shirt. The two friends screamed towards the hallway, calling out for the others.

They lifted up Ben's shirt and saw something invisible carving Ben, 'h o'. Beverly screamed out for the other four, and Mike helped Ben to the four as his body was folding backwards due to the amount of pain. 'm e' the three of them screaming, louder with each letter carved onto Ben's stomach. Ben's eyes began bulging out of his head, the pain making him want to pass out.

Beverly moved her hands away from Ben's abs, the rest of the phrase being carved in ' a t  l a s t'.

Mike looked up, trying to find anyway to stop it, and the second he looks in the mirror he screams at Beverly to look. The reflection they see is the same, except for Pennywise behind them, caring into Ben. It grins at them, bringing the knife It held to Ben's throat. Ben stopped screaming and began gasping for air, the knife inserting a slit slowly across his neck.

Without a second thought, Beverly grabbed the fencing she brought in with her and ran towards the mirror, and swung the fence post at it, smashing the mirror, releasing Ben from It's grasp.

Mike looked at Beverly with wild eyes, as Ben looked down to where he'd been cut to find there wasn't anything there anymore. Beverly walks back over to the boys and the three of them sit relieved, trying to catch their breath for a moment, but the moment is cut short when they hear their friends screaming. They get up off the floor and run to where the others had gone. They knock on the door and try opening it, screaming out for their friends, but the door won't budge.

🎈🎈🎈

As the door creaks further, Bill slips his head through to check if the room is safe. When he figured it was safe, he opened the door fully and walked in, Eddie, Richie and Stan following right behind. The flashlight shined across the room, revealing that it was the kitchen. It was even more vile than when they last entered. Bill moved further into the room and saw an open door, with a stairway leading downwards, "hey, hey, hey, that's the basement down here right?" He went towards the door, running into something on the floor, before kicking it away and ducking his head in.

A scream made the four men stop, and get ready to run to their friends aid, but the door they entered from slammed shut. Bill and Eddie ran towards the door and started hitting it, screaming out, whilst Richie and Stan stood still.

A bang made everyone in the room go silent, turning towards the fridge. The fridge began violently shaking, and the four original members stared at the fridge, eyes wide. Richie muttered to the group, "that can't be good."

The fridge stopped shaking, but something was hitting the door from inside. The door flew open and inside was a body all contorted. Bones cracked as the head began it lift up, making Stan, Richie, Eddie and Bill's eyes pop out of their head. A young Henry Bowers, all rotten, covered in blood bugs, smirked at them.

Henry's head fell off his body and rolled towards the other side of the room. The four losers in the room jumped out of the way, Stan and Richie screaming as they do so. The head hit a drawer and stopped, standing upright, making Eddie hyperventilate. The head looks around at the four of them, before glaring at Bill with a malicious smile, "this night's gonna be a hurt train, for you and your faggot friends." Henry began to laugh, his evil cackle only breaking as insect legs spurted out of his face. Disgusting green goo was flick off the arms, as he continued to let them crawl out of his face and eyes.

Once the legs had finished growing, they lifted the head off the ground. "You've got to be fucking kidding!" The laughing stopped, before Henry's head started chasing the four men around, flaring it's sharp teeth.

The head went towards Eddie, but was kicked away, a screeching sound escaped the mouth of the head. It went after Bill next, whilst Eddie ran into a corner and Stan and Richie grasped onto each other. Bill hit the head into an opening and it scatters away.

The screaming seizes and Bill leans forward, trying to find the head. It's laugh and the tune of a broken children's toy filled the room, and Richie walks towards the next room, trying to help Bill find the head. Stan stays still, and Eddie continues to cower in the corner. Richie looks back, notices Eddie and walks towards him, "hey Eddie Spaghetti, are you okay?" Bill walks over to Stan and they look towards the other two, whilst Eddie tries to communicate with Richie in his panicked state. Just as he begins, Eddie shuts his mouth and goes cross eyes, staring at a long bit of green goo falling from the celling. Richie notices it too and looks up towards the source. Hiding in the roof, Henry's head is grinning at them, "oh there he is" Richie remarks, prompting the head to jump on him.

Richie, Eddie and Stan begin screaming once again, and Richie falls to the ground. Bill jumps on top of Richie, trying to pull the head off him. Stan rushes over as well and pins Richie's head to the ground so that the head can be pulled away easier. As they try to get Henry off Richie, Eddie begins hyperventilating once again, "I-I want to go home." Bill looks towards Eddie and sees a knife, so he yells at Eddie to get the knife, but Eddie doesn't move, he just stays in the corner. Stan notices Eddie and yells at him too, "Eddie please get the knife!" Eddie just looks at his friends in fear, mouth tightly shut, practically paralyzed.

Without anyone noticing, the knife is stabbed into the head. They turn around to see Ben with the knife in hand, and Ben pulls the knife out of the head then continuously stabs it in and pulls it out, as the blood floats up and the heads arms goes limp. Bill pulls the head off Richie, and Stan hands Richie his glasses that had fallen off. Beverly and Mike run in as Bill throws the head towards the basement. Just like before, the head begins to roll, but this time it was into the basement, not towards the losers.

The second it was gone, Bill turned to Eddie, "R-R-Richie was ne-ne-nea-nearly killed! Why didn't you h-help?" Eddie's eyes flicked to Bill's, and he began crying, "Billy I'm sorry, I c-can't do this. I don’t wanna Billy." The anger left Bill, and he pulled Eddie into a hug, "I'm sorry I got mad, I-I can't l-l-lose anyone e-e-e-e-else."

The rest of the losers watch on, and wait till they pull away from each other. Bill nods at them, and they head towards the basement, Richie waiting for Eddie and whispering to him, "don't worry Eds, I'm not mad." They smiled at each other, "don't call me that nerd."

🎈🎈🎈

The squawking of rats and the slush of the sewer water is the only thing that the losers hear as they head towards It's lair. The water is higher than last time, coming up past their ankles but below their knees.

The seven of them looking around, trying to find there way, all whilst staying in silence. They find there next opening and jump through, and when they land in the water this time, it comes up to there knees. The further they walk, the higher it goes. They see Pennywise's junk mountain, and know they're close. Ben's eyes go wide and he looks at Mike, "shit, this is where it happened. This is where It is." Mike nods and takes off his bag filled with the artefact and the tokens -which seemingly wasn't mentioned earlier, though the author should have. He lifts it to the air as he heads towards the mountain, grey water reaching his armpits.

The rest of the losers follow suit. Eddie starts freaking out as a teddy bear, that had been in the sewer for years, floated towards them. As they got to the mountain, one by one they climbed it, but up the back they didn't notice Beverly turning away as a voice called out to her, "Bevvie." She looked around for where, and who the voice came from, but couldn't find anything. Ben noticed she'd stopped and looked at her, "Bev, what is it?" Stan, Richie and Eddie stopped climbing to look over at the couple, as did Bill and Mike from the landing. Beverly turned back and sighed, "I thought I heard somethi-"

A loud scream echoed in the sewer as the gollum women from a few days before jumped out in front of Beverly. It pushed her underwater and all the losers -minus Eddie- jumped in after Beverly trying to help her.

It was silent for a few moments and Eddie looked out for his friends, no one came to the surface though. Eddie started to panic, "guys, guys come on!" His voice echoed throughout the room, and he felt a lump in his throat, "please guys, I don't want to come out of here alone."

And if like magic, the rest of the losers resurfaced, Beverly safe and rescued. Eddie let out a sigh of relief, and they all made it onto the landing this time.

They all circle around a crest like trap door, and Mike begins speaking, "in the depths is where It crept. In the beneath to find belief. In the depths is where It crept. In the beneath to find belief." Ben looks at his friends with a concerned look on his face, and an eyebrow raised, "is he okay?"

"I think at this point that's a relative question," Richie said to Ben, nodding at his friend.

"What's on the other side?" Beverly asks, and Mike turns to look at her, "I don't know. No one does." Mike opens the trap door and everyone else freaks out, and once he flings it open, Mike takes a quick look down, before putting his bag back on his shoulder, sitting down and saying, "see you guys down there." His friends protest, but it's too late.

Bill looks at Mike who is climbing down, then back up at the rest of them, "s-stay together." They nod and so he goes down, following Mike. Stan goes down next, and Ben is about to follow suit when he hears Eddie.

"Guys I can't do it. You saw what happened up there. I can't." Richie, Beverly and Ben look at Eddie, as he starts to hyperventilate for the third time that night. "I was going to let you die. I just fucking froze up. If you let me go down there with you, I'm going to get us all killed." Eddie takes a hit of his inhaler, and that's when Richie springs into action. 

He pulls Eddie's arm away from his face, trying to fight Eddie off, "hey, give me that. Give me that."

"Richie."

"Just give me it you little turd."

"Just let me get..." Eddie tries spraying the inhaler away from his face and so Richie shines his torch in Eddie's face. "Stop, listen to me." Eddie stared up at Richie, and Richie placed an hand on Eddie's shoulder, "you had a moment, fine. But who killed a psychotic clown before he was fourteen?"

"Me" Eddie mumbled, and so Richie continued, "how stabbed Bowers with a knife he pulled out of his own face?"

"Also me."

"Who married a women ten times his own body mass?" Eddie glared at Richie, before confidently answering, "me."

"Yeah," Richie nodded, before smiling at the man in front of him, with love in his eyes, "you're braver than you think." Eddie smiled back, the same look reflecting in his eyes, "thanks Richie" but they ruined their own moment, by Richie tapping Eddie's injured cheek, and then starting to bicker. They walked over to Ben and Beverly, and Beverly handed Eddie the fence post, he looked at her confused to which she smiled, "it kills monsters... if you believe it does." And with that Eddie, Ben, Beverly and Richie went down the trap door, ready to preform the Ritual of Chüd.

🎈🎈🎈

The losers followed Mike through the rocky tunnels, until they finally made it to an opening. Their eyes go wide as they take in the massive crater that has been underneath Derry. No one knew what to expect, not even Mike, so they all try to grasp what they are seeing.

"This is it. This is where It hit." Mike doesn't look at the losers as he talks, too struck with admiration for such a big part of Derry's history.

Eddie is trying to catch up to Mike, but his foot slips and catches behind something, causing him to almost fall. He looks down and sees a skull and bones pilled together and his anxiety begins to resurface. He quickly moves away, and forces himself to look away, "so this has been under Derry forever?"

Mike shook his head, "not forever, just a few billion years."

Beverly and Stan notice mud flying upwards, like all liquids do when effected by Pennywise. They share a glance, before being interrupted by Mike, who has moved into some weird looking rock, "lets start the ritual."

"What do we need to d-do Mike?" Bill stood next to Mike, and looked up at him expectantly. The rest of the losers find themselves making a circle in the rock thing, watching Mike. Mike flings his bag to his side, takes the artefact out, putting the bag next to him, takes a deep breath and places the artefact in the centre of the circle, "first," he pours a bit of gasoline into the artefact than lights a match and chucks it in, "we burn our tokens. It shows we are willing to part with our history to... get rid of Derry history." Everyone looks around, confused and Mike quickly speaks again, "it- it doesn't really matter why, it just matters that we do it. So, I'll start with the group token."

Mike leans down to the bag, pulls the shower cape out, throwing it into the fire and then gets his own token out. He looks at Bill, and they nod at each other. Bill grabs his token out of his pocket, and shows it to the group, "this- this is the boat that I made f-for Georgie before-" He cuts himself off and with one last look, he throws it into the fire.

Next is Beverly, she pulls out a damaged postcard, "this is something I wish I had kept onto." She throws it in. Ben follows after her, grabbing out his wallet and pulling out a piece of paper, he opens it and takes one last look, "this is a yearbook page, that only one person signed." Him and Beverly look at each other and smile softly, never taking their gazes off the other, even when Ben continues speaking, "and I never forgot it, because I kept it in my wallet for twenty seven years."

A loud gag made the group look over at Richie, "can you guys stop being disgustingly cute, it's making me want to throw up." Beverly rolls her eyes, but is still smiling lightly, "what about your token Richie?"

"Oh, just some nail polish." He tossed it into the fire, and Eddie scowled,  "you know that's going to take forever to burn, and the chemicals in that could kill us! Do you understand!"

"We're going to die anyway, so it doesn't really matter. It's your turn now."

Eddie sighed and grabbed out his inhaler, took on last shot and threw it in. Next up was Stan, he grabbed out his kippah. He looked up at the group, and held tightly to the kippah, "my bar mitzvah was that summer, and that summer I learnt the true meaning of growing up and being a friend. I wish I had remembered that lesson, because it meant remembering the best friends I've ever had." He threw his token in.

Lastly, it was Mike's turn. He stretched his arm out and showed the group a rock, with something red on it. "This is the rock that hit Bowers in the head, on the day of the rock fight. I was able to get and I've had it lying around since."

With the last token in, Mike looks around the group, and starts holding Bill and Eddie's hand, "okay, hold hands, and start chanting after me. And whatever you do, do not open your eyes." They nod, and follow Mike's instructions. The Mike's starts chanting, "turn light into dark. Turn light into dark. Turn light into dark!" The rest of the losers quickly follow the chant, continuing it, even when Mike keeps saying something different -the language of the natives.

Three balls of blinding light start to spin down. Wind starts picking up, and the lower the lights get -the dead lights- the stronger the wind gets. In minutes the wind starts to weaken, and Mike opens his eyes, still chanting. He gets the lid for the artefact and puts the lid on it. He stops chanting, and his friends follow suit. They let go of each others hands and furrow their brows, it can't be over, that was too easy. Mike is about to say something when It's laugh starts to ring through the cavern and a balloon starts to grow out of the artefact. Everyone starts screaming at Mike, and he just tells them to continue chanting. They slowly back up, fear striking them all. The laughing subsides for a moment and It speaks, "time to float!" Before they can escape the rock thing, the balloon pops, and with a big gust flings everyone away.

Ben and Beverly end up together in a little cavern. Stan, Richie and Eddie also end up in a similar area to Ben and Beverly, but in a separate section. Bill and Mike are flung into a pool of water. When they try to reach surface, they hit a rock roof. With time running out until they lose their breaths, they look for an opening. Mike notices two and points them out to Bill. They swim over to them, and head up.

🎈🎈🎈

Finally finding an opening, Bill was gasping for air. He started having a coughing fit, as he looked around the room he'd found himself in. Recognition immediately hit him. It was the basement of his childhood home, only the basement floor was flood, just like his first encounter with It.

Footsteps came from behind him, he turned around and saw a kid coming down the stairs in their pyjamas. He saw his child self. His younger self descended the stairs until he was a step away from the water.

"I lost it, Billy." Bill turned around and his eyes went wide, he saw backwards, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "It just floated off" Georgie's voice was soft and shaky, as he addressed the younger Bill and walked towards the older one. Bill turned back to his child self, who looked right through him, "I-I-I'm n-not m-m-m-m-m-mad at you." Georgie frowned at his brother, "it's your fault what happened, isn't it?"

Adult Bill's brows furrowed and his jaw went slack, Georgie continued, "you weren't really sick that morning, were you?"

"No." Bill turned to look at the young him, and observed him as he responded, "I just p-p-p-p-pretended because, I didn't want to play with you... I just didn't want to." The older Bill's eyes began to water, the guilt he's harboured since October 1988 overflowing him. The thoughts he's carried, the blame he placed, it was all being put out in the air by his thirteen year old self. "You lied and I died" Georgie growled at Bill, the tears began to fall down his cheeks. "You lied and I died. You lied and I died!" Georgie began to scream the phrase in a mantra, and adult Bill looked back at his little self, who didn't seem effected, who was nonchalant about the whole situation.

"It happened because of me, Georgie. Me."

"No, no, no. It was..." Bill felt his hand holding onto something, and his arm raised up and freezing. His eyes followed his arm, until they landed where his hand was, holding up Georgie just like Pennywise did, twenty seven years ago. His eyes went wide and he jumped back slightly, and Georgie snapped his head towards Bill, but this time it was all rotten and decomposed, "lied and died! Lied and died!" Within seconds Bill grabbed the fake Georgie by the neck and pushed him into the water, holding his face down so he couldn't breathe. The fake Georgie tried to fight him for a few moments, but he soon became limp, and the horror and gore disappeared. Bill took a deep shaky breath, and chocked out a sob.

Once again there was footsteps behind him, till they became the sound of swashing water, moving out of the way for someone. The sound of the cattle bolt being set made Bill turn, and there with the cattle bolt was his younger self, aiming it at his own head.

"We deserve to die."

"No" he looked in the eyes of his younger self, and said without a doubt, "you were the best big brother there ever w-w-w-was." His child self was angered by this, "No! We killed out little brother!" Bill shushed himself, and told the younger him and himself what they needed to hear, and believe, "he loved you. And just because you didn't want to play on a rainy day, j-just one time, that does not make it our fault."

Young Bill pulled the trigger of the cattle blot, but nothing happened. He pulled the gun down, reset it -whilst laughing- and tried again, but it still didn't work. Bill grabbed the cattle bolt and his younger self's wrist, "and it never..." he lifted up the gun, "ever..." he pointed it at the younger Bill's head, "did." He shot it, and this time it did work.

Several drops of blood floated upwards as young Bill leaned back. Suddenly, young Bill started to shake before leaning back up, and with his new demonic eyes and teeth, tried to attack Bill. Bill fell backwards into the water and swam away.

🎈🎈🎈

It's dark. That's all he can say. It's dark, and he can't see a single thing. Mike swims further to try and find something, anything. He does, and he's pretty sure it's land. He lets out a sigh of relief. He crawls to the land, and he identifies the ground to be sand from the way it feels in between his fingers.

"Enjoying Florida Mikey?"

Mike turns around, and everything is now bright. He sees Bill standing in front of him, and he furrows his brows. Bill doesn't wait for a response, he just keeps talking, "I really hope you enjoy it, maybe you can stop stalking us and get some actual friends."

WOOMPH

The scene changes and now he's behind quality meats, and he sees the sheep with the cattle bolts, killing people. 

Blood and brains spray everywhere and screams escape the victims mouth one final time. The sheep turn to face Mike as the next person is moved up. The sheep release a unison baa and their eyes turn into a yellow glowing nightmare.

He jumps backward, and then a young Stan and Richie are standing next to the sheep. They stare at him with looks of disgust, and Richie speak, "hopefully they kill you next freak." Stan adds after, "why would we want to be friends with an outsider like you?"

WOOMPH

Another scene change, and he was at the iron works. There was the bird. He saw the birds large wings shadow over him, and It squawked a loud demonic sound. Mike went to run away but ran into Ben and Beverly, an in unison they gawk at him "not one of us!" They chant it and Mike slowly walks away before falling backwards.

WOOMPH

Mike was back at the beach, and Eddie was next to him, but not looking at him, just looking at the sunset. Mike was about to ask what was going on when Eddie spoke, "you brought us back, you're the reason why we're going to die. Couldn't you have just left us alone? Just stayed an outsider."

Mike feels his mouth open and close, and the tears trying to fight their way out of his eyes. They were right he didn't belong, he never did. He was just some, outsider begging "to be let into the group. Oh boo hoo!"

It mocks him, and Mike turns towards the voice. The sun has now set and Pennywise is standing in front of him, Eddie had disappeared. A few tears escape, but Mike doesn't wipe them away. The clown smiles and leans closer to Mike, smirking, "you're just an outsider through and through. And remember what outsiders do? They lie! And you're lying, you poor, sad, pathetic loser!"

More tears escape, and Mike starts choking. Pennywise had grabbed his neck and was tightening it's grip. Mike's gaze focuses in and out, and it's getting harder to breath. Faintly in the background Mike can hear laughing, but not clown laughing, children. When his eyes let him, he sees seven kids jumping off a cliff, laughing and smiling. He recognises the scene, it's the losers the night after they defeated It the first time. Pennywise pulls out a cattle bolt and places it on Mike's head, and continues smirking. Mike's mind runs a mile and minute as he reminds himself that his friends do love him and care about him. Why would they have come back if they didn't. With all the strength he can muster, he grabs onto Pennywise's wrist and looks at It. Mike starts to slowly smile, spit out, "you're right. I am lying. But only to myself."

It frowns and Mike kicks It, and doesn't bother about catching his breath before he begins running. He runs back into the water, until it's deep enough to dive.

WOOMPH

🎈🎈🎈

Ben and Beverly ran down a narrow corridor like space, screaming in fear, not waiting to see if It would chase them. They ran as fast and far as they could, only stopping as they reached a dead end.

They smashed into the wall, ignored their pain and turned to where they came from, looking for Pennywise. Ben place a hand in between Beverly's shoulder blades, "don't worry, we'll find a way out."

The shrieking of the clown had stopped, so Beverly looked around where they were trapped, "what do we do?" Ben was about to respond when the ground started rumbling. The couple look down at the ground and see the pebbles jumping around like popcorn. They slowly tilted their heads up to look at each other, then with no warning, Ben is pulled away by a magical air force.

Beverly reaches out for him, but is ultimately pulled away in the opposite direction. 

🎈🎈🎈

Ben fell straight down into a hole in the ground, slamming his back on the hard dirt ground. He looked around, it was the clubhouse. But it couldn't be, he was fighting It in the sewers.

He sits up and starts to panic, especially when dirt starts flowing from the walls, like a dam that has broken. The walls of the clubhouse broke, and dirt rushed into the room at such an alarming pace it made Ben scream.

As he screamed the dirt rushed up and rose past his hips. The dirt reached his shoulders now, and Ben felt his blood pressure rise.

He looked up and saw that there was an opening, so he tried reaching upwards, but failed.

Pennywise jolted from the side, and Ben froze as he stared at the clown. "All that success, all those sit ups, but deep down, still just a little fat, fat, fatty loser..." It began laughing, and Ben finally unfroze and tried to fight his way up to the clown, "who always knew he would die alone." Pennywise slammed the clubhouse door, whilst Ben screamed.

A few moments of agonising fear later, Ben heard a voice scream, and so he stopped his own screaming to listen. He recognised that voice, "Beverly!"

He called out again, "Beverly, can you hear me?"

"Bev, don't listen!" Ben tried once more, "Bev! Beverly, I love you!" What Pennywise had said was wrong. He was never going to die alone, because he had Beverly and he had the rest of the losers club, and he was loved.

Ben was almost completely buried alive at this point, but he couldn't give up on the love of his life, "you hair is winter fire. January embers. My heart..." Slowly the dirt began covering his face, so he closed his mouth and eyes, and waited for death. 

🎈🎈🎈

Beverly fell into a wall then straight onto the floor, as a door slammed in her face and locked itself. She examined her surroundings, and found herself in what appeared to be a school bathroom stall. She crawled backwards, going to stand in the corner, the bad memories of similar situations flooding her mind.

She ran over to the door after collecting herself and tried to unlock the door, but it wouldn't budge. Suddenly, someone pounds on the door, and Beverly once again retreats to the back wall. The person on the other side of the door tries to open it. "You in there, you little shit? I can smell you." The voice of Gretta rings throughout the stall.

The door slams then opens slightly, letting the head of Mr Keene barely make it through, "you smell just like Lois Lane." Once again the door slams and opens, only to reveal Bowers this time, "here's Johnny," he called. Beverly put her hands over her ears and sunk down into the corner, trying to block out the voices.

The banging stopped and Beverly slowly took her hands off her ears. The sound of liquid rushing filled the stall, before blood started flooding into the compact space. She ran to the door and tried to open it once again, but nothing worked and the blood was rising alarmingly fast. The blood started escaping from the toilet, and it had rose up to her knees.

Beverly moved to stand on the toilet seat, and watched the blood rise. The blood kept rising and rising, and she didn't know how to stop it. The voices came back and they tried to get into the stall. She started hitting the wall and screaming so loud her voice felt hoarse.

A voice echoed in the stall, but it was drowned out by the voice of her dad, "Bevvie" she turned to face the door, "just open the door for me, okay?" She grunted as she tried to pull a wall down so she can get away from her father, "come to daddy, now."

She fell into the blood, but was able to resurface, looking much like Carrie, yet her dad was still there "are you still my little girl, Bevvie?"

"Beverly, I love you!" As she struggled to find her strength, Ben's voice flooded her ears. He was close, so she tried calling out to him, "Ben!"

"Are you still my little girl, Bevvie? Are you still my little girl!" Beverly grabbed onto both sides of the stall, "not anymore" and she kicked the door. She lost her grip and started to succumb to the blood. But she knew she had to save one of the best men she knew, so Beverly got her grip back and kicked the door again, and again, and again. With one last final kick, the door opened and the blood came rushing out.

She could hear Ben's muffled scream, and saw his hand reaching out to her. She reached down and grabbed Ben tightly by the wrist, and pulled him up and out of the grave he was being buried alive in. She was able to pull him up into the stall and he kept gasping for air. She pulled him close and they fell backwards. 

🎈🎈🎈

Stan, Richie and Eddie watched as the cavern starts to light up and Pennywise grows into a huge monster. Their eyes go wide, not believing what they are seeing and fearing for their lives. Pennywise notices them and the three men begin screaming. They turn and run down a corridor as It's long arm chases them down.

There is suddenly an opening to a large room. Stan, Richie and Eddie skid to a halt when they see three doors with word written on them with floating blood. They look at the door on the right 'very scary' they turn to the middle door 'scary' and they look at the door on the left 'not scary at all'. Stan and Eddie head to the 'not scary at all' door, but Richie stops them.

"It's a trap."

"What?"

Stan and Eddie furrow their brows, look at each other before looking at Richie. Richie sighs and mumbles through an explanation, "they- it's not- he's fucking with us." The other two don't understand what Richie's saying, so he tries expanding his explanation, "Bill and I saw them last time, and it's a trick."

Bill and Richie look at the doors and then each other. Richie tilts his head at the ‘not scary at all’ one and Bill nods his head. The pair run towards the door and Bill swings it open. Richie holds onto Bill’s back and they stare into the darkness that the door revealed.
 

“Where’s my shoe?” Bill finds a light string and pulls at it, and as the lights turn on Richie screams. The upper half of Betty Ripson is hanging from the roof. They boys fly backwards and Richie slams the door shut. “Where the fuck where her legs!”

They look at Richie once again, and Stan sighs, "there's three doors, let's just each go through one, whoever has the right one call out."

Richie and Eddie nod, and Stan huffs out a breath. They each head to a door, Stan at the 'not scary at all' door, Eddie at the 'scary' door and Richie at the 'very scary' door. They all slowly reach for the door handles and look at each other. Stan nods, "in one... two... three!" They open the doors and are pulled inside by an invisible force, and the doors shut behind them.

🎈🎈🎈

Stan fell forward and hit his face. He scrunched up his nose and winced in pain as he slowly rose into a sitting position. He rubbed under his nose to check for blood, and found none, so he hadn't injured it. He rubbed his dorsum -which is the tip of the nose, but sounds like some sexual thing- and looked around. It looked like the room he was just in so he got the right door. He got up and turned around to head back out the door to get his friends, but the door was gone. Stan furrowed his brows and sighed, he swore he'd fallen forward.

A sickly voice suddenly croaked out, "babylove."

In lightning speed, Stan spun around and saw Patty hanging from the roof, teeth marks in the side of he face and blood all over her clothes. Stan ran over to her, and gently placed his hands on the side of her face, he looked deep into her eyes and softly spoke, "I'll get you out of her, I promise. Just-"

Patty shook her head and winced at the pain, and started coughing. Stan furrowed his brows harder but waited for Patty to respond, "it's too late... she's got us."

The soft, eerie chime of the flute started filling the quite cavern. Stan froze, keeping his hands hovering over his wife's cheeks. The flute slowly became louder and louder, until stopping entirely. A bang came from behind him, and he flinched.

He moved his hands to his side, turned around slowly, and shut his eyes tight. Once he'd turned 180 degrees, Stan opened his eyes. He saw the familiar, haunting black cloth dress, and forced his eyes to follow the dress to where it reached a mouldy green neck. His eyes looked further up and he came face to face with the nightmare of his childhood, Judith. She grinned at him, and they stared at each other for a while, neither moving.

Patty started having a coughing fit behind Stan, and he could feel something wet spray onto his neck. He finally, yet slowly, moved as he raised his hand to the nape of his neck and wiped at it. He brought it to his face and stared at the red liquid on his hand.

In a sudden, swift movement, Judith pushed Stan to the side and flashed her sharp teeth before biting into Patty's neck. She moved his wife so that her blood could flow onto Stan's face, and in seconds he was soaked in Patty's blood. He screamed in agony, pain and fear. He lost her, lost the love of his life. All because of that stupid flute lady. Judith turned to glare daggers at Stan, baring her sharp teeth.

This bitch killed her, Stan felt tears welling in his eyes and his blood boil. He glared back at the flute lady and screamed at her "you fucking bitch! You killed her!" Stan saw the flute in his peripheral vision, and snarled at Judith, "now I'm going to kill you." He jumped over towards the flute, pushed Judith over and hit her in the head with the flute. He raised it above her head, about to hit her again, when reality crashes down on him, "she's at the inn. She's not dead. I haven't lost her. This is a fucking trick!" The flute, Judith and 'Patty' turn into dust and float away. Stan takes a deep breath and sits down, a small smile starts to spread on his face, he's no long petrified of the flute lady. And yeah he may still be scared of losing his loved ones, but losing them to It, impossible. He would never let it happen.

A door creaks open and screaming comes from inside. Stan jumps up and runs towards the door the second he recognises the voice, "Eddie!"

🎈🎈🎈

Sticky is the first word that comes to Eddie's mind, and it makes him gag. He was on his hands and knees after falling into some disgusting goo. He kept gagging until he nearly threw up. He felt diseased -more diseased than normal in his mind- and it made him sick to his stomach.

There isn't much light where he is, and it sends a shiver down his spine, or that could be because of how cold the goo is. He whines as he stood up, complaining about how unsanitary his situation was. 

Something gurgles, and Eddie's eyes go wide and he stops mumbling. In front of him, something starts rising from the goo. The slippery mess slides off the figure and reveals the leper. Nothing happens for a moment, and Eddie doesn't know how to react. "Wanna blow sick little Eds?" The leper croaks and it swings forward, and Eddie decides his best bet is to start screaming.

"What the fuck!"

The leper starts swishing it's way over to Eddie and Eddie just tries running away. They run around in circles, until Eddie trips face first. As he pushes himself, Eddie can hear the leper growling behind him. 

Eddie's hand moves back to it's neck and he squeezes tightly. The leper begins gasping for air, and Eddie's eyes widen, he's killing it!

He the runs towards the leper and wraps his hands around it's neck. The leper starts to squeal, and starts violently shaking it's head. Eddie watches as Myra is now facing him on the lepers body, "but Eddie-bear, you're sick. You should be taking your medication." Eddie squeezes tighter and starts screaming. The head that is now on the body is his mother's, "you need to recover from you're sickness Eddi-" The goo starts sinking, and he screams louder, "I'm not fucking sick and I never was! Not everything is a fucking disease you bitch!"

"Eddie!"

Stan runs into the room, and It disappears. Eddie turns around and runs towards Stan and the two men hug. They let themselves catch their breaths as they embrace, and it's only when they let go, does someone talk. "Are you okay?" Stan nods, "yeah, yeah. Are you?" Eddie gives Stan a thumbs up, taking a breath. Stan is about to say something else, but stops when a door swings open. The two men give each other a look and run in.

🎈🎈🎈

Richie stumbled forward, and ends up falling. He groans in pain, but is quick to stand back up. He looks around, trying to figure out where he is, but can't recognise a thing. 

A girl skips into the room, with a drink in her hand, and she smiles at Richie, "there you are! We were just about to play a game, sit." She gestures to a pillow next to him, and sits on another one. He's about to question her when a bunch of people enter the room. He stands frozen and watches them all sit in a circle, chatting and drinking. The girl pulls on his sleeve and he falls onto the pillow.

Everyone goes quite and some guy speaks to the group, "alright, truth or dare..." Richie's felt like an anvil was in his stomach, he went pale and started to sweat, "Richie."

He looked around the group, and everyone's eyes were on him. He gulped, "d-dare." The guy smirked, and Richie felt like passing out, nobody seemed to notice though. "I dare you to tell the truth." Richie furrowed his brows and flicked his eyes over everyone to see if they knew what was going on, but they'd all become like zombies, sitting there numbly and dazed.

"Are you a queer?"

"What?"

Time slowed, and a clown laugh could be heard faintly. Richie couldn't hear anything though, it was like his whole body went into shock. The guy pushed, "you know you're a fucking freak right? You know that Eddie would never feel the same, that he thinks you're diseased?" 

Tears started falling from his eyes, and Richie felt his mouth open and close, to scared to speak.

The guy's eyes changed into a glowing yellow, and started smirking Pennywise's signature smirk. The guy stands up and starts yelling, "you deserve to die you disgusting queer!" The rest of the people stand up in unison and turn to face him. They all pull out knifes and smirk. They slowly start to surround him, and he's too petrified to move. He sits and waits for them to kill him. They lean in close, and Richie closes his eyes, and puts his hands in his pockets and squeezes Elena's teddy bear, a silent goodbye to his daughter.

"Richie!"

Stan and Eddie run over to their friend and he seems stuck in  the trap. Everything that had been in the room had disappeared, yet Richie still felt It around. Eddie checked Richie's pulse, and Stan tries to snap him out of it, but he can't. Eddie pulls Richie into hug and screams for him to snap out of it, as Stan watches on.

With a loud gasp, Richie finally returns to reality, and his friends hug him as tight as they can. Richie keeps crying, "I'm sorry, I don't want to-" Stan cuts him off, and sighs, "it's okay Rich, we love you okay. Don't listen to It, It's just a lonely ugly clown." Richie chocks out a sad laugh, and leans into his friend.

"Am I missing something? How do you know what he saw?" Stan rolled his eyes at Eddie, and Eddie frowns and furrows his brows. Richie turns his head to look at Eddie, "I'll tell you one day Eds, I promise."

"You better."

They laugh for a moment, before one last door opens, and the three men walk out. The reach the previous room they'd been in and sigh a breath of relief, but their relief is short lived as they hear Pennywise scream. They share a glance, and frown. Richie picks up a rock and runs over to where the clown is and Stan and Eddie follow him.

🎈🎈🎈

Bill reaches surface, and he's back in Pennywise's lair. He starts looking around for Mike, calling out for him. Seconds pass, and finally Mike appears. He wipes his face and Bill swims over to him, and pulls him into a hug.

Mike takes the hug and starts muttering to Bill, "I'm so sorry. I didn't know this would happen. I"m-"

"Don't worry, we're in this together. No matter what." Bill smiles at Mike, and Mike nods before smiling back.

Suddenly, Pennywise screams, and both men swim toward the now blindingly lit lair.

🎈🎈🎈

Beverly's back was lying on the ground and Ben was on top of her.

They stared at each other for a long time, forgetting about everything around them. With a soft voice, Beverly frowns at Ben, "I almost let It take me." Ben placed a hand on her cheek and softly stroked it, "I would never let it, like I know you'd never let me die alone."

"I-I... I love you too." The features on Ben's face soften, and the couple both smile. Slowly they lean closer together, closing their eyes and they share a delicate kiss.

Pennywise screams out and Ben and Beverly tear apart. Ben helps Beverly off the ground, and nod at each other. They run towards Pennywise, ready to kill It for good.

🎈🎈🎈

Bill and Mike saw Ben and Beverly emerge from where they had been tossed. The four of them make eye contact, and are about to run to each other when they hear Richie scream. He'd thrown a rock at Pennywise's face, tears still rolling down his eyes, and yelled at him "you really want to play truth or dare? Here's a truth, you're a sloppy bitch! Fuck you you dick-"

Richie's eyes went white and he started floating up. Everyone started screaming, and Pennywise went to turn around. Eddie looked at the fence post that he'd found again, remembered Beverly's words -"it kills monsters... if you believe it does"- and ran towards It, "beep beep mother fucker!" He threw the post straight into Pennywise's mouth and hit one of the deadlights, knocking out the clown.

Richie dropped to the ground and the room got a bit darker. Eddie ran over to Richie and leaned over him, "Richie, I fucking did it! I killed It!" Richie started regaining consciousness, and saw the blob of his friend above him.

Ben, Beverly, Bill and Mike had all run to as close as they could to the rest of their friends, but a rustle made them freeze. Beverly and Stan's eyes go wide, and they start to scream.

Eddie is smiling at Richie, and doesn't notice what's going on around him. But Richie does, as his senses finally all return he hears his friends scream and sees Pennywise start to lift up an arm, turning it into a crab claw. Richie grabs Eddie's arms and swings them too the side. just in time. Pennywise slams his claw to the spot that the two men had just been. Richie is now on top of Eddie, and the two men stare at each other. Eddie slowly reaches his hand to Richie's cheek, and softly caresses it. Taking a gamble, Richie leans down a passionately kisses Eddie, and Eddie starts to kiss back almost immediately. 

"Um guys, as much as I am happy for you and have been waiting for you to get together, we're about to be killed by It!"

Stan watches as his friends tear apart and he grabs them and runs to where the other four had gone. They slide into a small opening, and hid as Pennywise tried to stuff his claw into the hole.

Mike looks at his friends, "we need a new plan."

"You think!" Stan slapped Richie's shoulder and Bill turned to look at Eddie, "how did you knock It out?" Eddie shrugged, and told the group what Beverly had said before the fight.

Ben's eyes lit up, "so if what we believe is true, and it becomes real, we can get a bunch of objects an kill it!" Beverly sighs and frowns, "we don't know if that's what actually happened. Because Eddie hit a deadlight, and so that could be why." Richie's eyes go wide, "no it does work. Elena told me that Pennywise had tried to kill her but she believed she was safe and Pennywise couldn't touch her!"

Mike nodded, "and that's why we didn't get killed as kids. Because we believed we were safe! This might work!"

A demonic squeal echoes throughout the lair, and the losers look at each other before nodding and running out one by one to defeat Pennywise.

As they re-entre the room, Pennywise laughs, "oh dear little losers, how I've missed you! For twenty seven years I've dreamt of you, I've craved you, I've-" Mike cuts It off as he picks up a rock, "yeah whatever. This rock is a hand grenade!" Pennywise laughs at their pathetic antics, but as Mike hurtles it towards It's face it smells the t.n.t and watches in horror as it explodes right in It's face.

Beverly sees the fence post that Eddie had thrown on the ground and runs over to it and picks it up. She points it at Pennywise, "this rod can shoot lasers!" Lasers shot out of the fence post and the rest of the losers start throwing rocks at It. Pennywise slowly begins to shrink, and the losers gain confidence. Stan screams out for a lightning bolt and the deadlights hit Pennywise with them. 

Pennywise continues to shrink and the losers walk closer to It the smaller It gets. They continue to take hits at Pennywise until he starts to break into pieces. The pieces of Pennywise begin to float up towards the deadlights and Mike's eyes go wide, "that's how it regenerates someone do something!" Several bangs ring out in the cavern and the deadlights drop down and stop glowing, and all the floating pieces of Pennywise and what was still standing on It's body dropped down and turned into a dirty ash colour.

The losers turn to where Stan was standing with a gun in his hands, and their jaws drop.

"Where did you get a gun Stan?" Beverly yelled, and Stan's eyes went wide, "I found it in Richie's pocket and I really don't want to be back in another twenty seven years." Everyone turns their attention to Richie, but before he can say anything the cavern starts to shake and rock start to fall. Bill screams, "lets get out now!"

Chapter Text

November 2017

Beverly was on the phone, pacing back and forth as Bill and Audra watched. She was wearing a robe and had her makeup done and still had curlers in her hair, Bill and Audra on the other hand were already dressed in their suit and dress -curtesy of Bev designs- with Audra sitting in his lap. Beverly bit her lip and sighed "I know but you said- No I know, but-"

The couple behind her rolled their eyes on behalf of Beverly, and continued to watch her argue with the caller.

"No you listen to me. I have had enough of your excuses, you've had a year to set up the transaction and you haven't! You have until I return to get all incoming payments directed to the chosen charities or else your job will go to someone else! Got it... Okay, thanks, bye."

She turned to look at the two and sighs as she shrugs. Bill is about to say something when Richie barges in, "hello you sexy people." He pulled Beverly in for a hug, than going to Bill and Audra. When Bill and Audra sit down, Beverly starts getting jittery, "I am so nervous. Why am I nervous, I've done this before." Audra gives Beverly a soft smile, "big things are always going to make you nervous no matter how many times you do it." She turns to look at Bill, who smiles at her and places a hand on her cheek before the two start kissing.

Richie scrunched up his nose, "gross guys" and makes Beverly laugh, "you are literally no better. You and Eddie do shit like that all the time." 

"Yeah, but we're cute, and they would be cute, but Bill."

Audra belted out a laugh as Bill flipped off his friend, then turned back to Beverly, "also you love Ben, and that's a major difference." She tilted her head in agreement just as Kai Witman -Beverly's best (non loser) friend and her assistant- walked in. They had a round soft face, with gentle eyes and a button nose along with fluffy pink hair and pale grey eyes. Beverly smiled and ran over and hugged Kai.

The group started talking lively and helped Beverly continue getting ready, as this was a night they weren't going to forget.

🎈🎈🎈

Ben was checking if he looked okay in the mirror, continuously straightening out his suit. Mike walked up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder, gently squeezing it and sending his best friend a smile. Ben smiled back, and finally turned away from the mirror and looked at his friends.

They were all getting a few last details ready before everything got started. Stan was sitting with Patty, polishing his shoes as she watched on with a fond smile. Mike was standing next to Ben smiling and wrapping his arm around Ben. Eddie was on the phone with someone ranting about healthy food options -because although he was no longer afraid of diseases, he still wanted to live a healthy life- and groaning when they hung up on him.

Mike quietly turned to Ben and asked, "are you nervous?" Ben nodded, "I mean, I've wanted this since I was thirteen, and now that it's happening, I'm nervous that something is going to ruin it."

"If someone goes to ruin this for you, I'm pretty sure all us losers will go feral on them."

The men laughed, and Ben's nerves were calmed slightly. He told him self that no matter what happens, this day will be perfect, and so will the next two weeks in Italy, and the rest of his life. Everything will be perfect because he's got his family and his beautiful soon-to-be-wife.

🎈🎈🎈

Audra and Patty walked into the hall and were in awe at it's beauty. Flowers lined the walls, and petals were scattered down the aisle. A massive chandelier was above them, and the white and lilac detailing brought an elegant vibe to the room. After a few moments of admiration, the two women walked over to Ben's mother, who was sat up the front.

"Hello girls!" Ben's mother smiled and hugged them both, "I assume you are here for these trouble makers." She giggled as she moved out of the way so that they could see the children. Elena was pouting and she crossed her arms, "I'm not makin' any trouble." The three grown women giggled, and Ben's mum turned and smiled at her, "we know darling. Now have you finished your snack?" Elena rolled her eyes and nodded, "apples are not good snacks."

They continued to chat for a few minutes before they decided to take their seats. Patty picked up her son; Zackery -a two year old that her and Stan had adopted in March- and took a seat next to Ben's mum who was holding her granddaughter; Alisha -Ben and Beverly's four month old daughter. Audra took Elena and hers and Bill's son; Georgie, over to the other side of the hall and also took seats in the first row. Everyone who was invited started to take their seats and the officiant stood up and got ready. 

We've been together for a long time baby
Do you have to leave?

When the music started filling up the hall, everyone wen silent and turn towards the door. Ben was the first one to enter as he walked down the aisle towards the altar. He smiled as he watched Bill and Mike enter, each holding a bouquet of roses. When Mike passes Marina -who had moved with Mike, away from Derry and to Los Angeles where all the losers slowly began to live- he waves and she smiles at him, and Bill does the same to Audra and Georgie. Next in is Richie and Eddie, who smile brightly and not only hold their bouquets, but also each others hands. Than Kai and Stan walk in, both gracefully heading up to the altar.

Please don't go girl
I just can't live without you
Please, (so listen to me) don't go girl
Don't go girl

Please don't go girl
You would ruin my whole world
Tell me you'll stay
Never ever go away

I love you
I love you
I guess I always will
Girl, you're my best friend
Girl, you're my love within
I just want you to know
That I will always love you

The doors open for a final time, and in walks Beverly, and Ben's smile grows and tears begin to flow. She slowly glides down the aisle, smiling and looking at Ben the entire time.

Oh baby
Tell me you'll stay
Never ever go away

I need you
I need you
I guess I always will
Girl, you're my best friend
Girl, you're my love within
I just want you to know
That I will always love you

As she gets to the altar the music fades out and the ceremony begins. It is beautiful, yet very informal and lovely, making it feel like the wedding of Beverly Marsh and Ben Hanscom. The officiant addressed the couple and although the process was long winded, neither of them stopped smiling. When it came time to the vows, Beverly began to speak.

"I remember the first day we met. It was the last day of school and I signed your yearbook page. Then that summer we became great friends. And when I had to leave Derry, I felt heartbroken because I wouldn't get to see you. Twenty seven years later, I finally saw you again and it felt as though I could breath again. You are the one who saw me and knew me, the real me, no matter what people said or what horrific things that could have changed that throughout the summer. You are my true love, the boy from soc whose yearbook nobody would sign, and I love you more than anything in this world."

Ben's cheeks were covered in tears and Beverly rubbed them away. They giggled quietly, before Ben began reciting his vows, "in middle school, I wrote you a poem, saying it was from a secret admirer because I thought a girl as beautiful as you could never love me. But you do. I am so grateful to have you in my life, because I couldn't live in such a dull world that doesn't have you in it. You are my January embers. And my heart will always burn there. Every laugh, every tear, every fight, every hug, everyday you feel sick and tired, and everyday you feel on top of the world, my heart will continue to burn for you. I love you Beverly and I always will. You are like a magical summer, and I feel warm and loved in your arms, and I hope you do mine. You are an angel and I will tell you how amazing you are and how much I love you till the day I die. I love you so, so much."

They give each other their rings -simple gold bands- and at last, the officiant smiles and says, "you may now kiss." Ben and Beverly lean into each other and passionately kiss, as they finally call themselves husband and wife. The guests clap and everyone is smiling. It was perfect. The losers were finally happy. Ben and Beverly were married and had a child, both of their careers were even more successful as they lived happily in LA. Bill and Audra had their first kid and where planning on a second, also Bill learnt how to write a happy ending. Stan and Patty also moved to be closer to the rest of the losers, and along with their jobs actually becoming better since moving, they also had adopted a child. Mike and Marina were happily dating, traveling the world as Marina works in travel journalism and Mike became a historian. And Richie and Eddie lived happily with Elena, finally accepting themselves and being open. And while yes they still have their far share of trauma, the losers got the happy ending, and they couldn't be more ecstatic.