"I have to go,too," I spoke up, my voice barely above a whisper. "My mom's waiting for me." It was only half the truth.
I went around the circle, giving each of my friends a tight hug, saving Ben for last. I tried desperately to keep the tears from...
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•°Corinne's POV°•
After our heavy discussion at the festival, we split up with instructions to meet at Bill's garage in two hours. Ben and I went to his house, stealing a precious moment of normalcy. We lay on his bed and talked about anything that wasn't involved with It-music, stupid town gossip, anything to forget the pattern of death we'd just uncovered.
When it was time, we took the projector slide of Derry's map that Bill had asked for and made our way to his house. We were the last to arrive, not that it bothered me in the slightest. The mood was already grim.
Mike closed the garage door behind us, sealing us in. I saw that all the windows had been covered with blankets, plunging the space into an eerie, artificial twilight. Ben handed the slide over to Bill, and we took a seat next to Beverly.
"Okay, look," Bill began, projecting the map onto the wall. "That's where Georgie disappeared. There's the ironworks, and the Black Spot. Everywhere it happens, it's all connected by the sewers, and they all meet up at the..."
"The well house," Ben finished, his voice sure.
"It's in the house on Neibolt Street," Stanley said.
"You mean that creepy-ass house where all the junkies and hobos like to sleep?" Richie questioned, his usual bravado tinged with real fear.
I'd always felt a deep, primal dread from that place, a sense of pure evil festering inside. I never thought I'd be right.
"I hate that place. It always feels like it's watching me," Beverly stated, shivering. I put a comforting hand on her shoulder, knowing exactly how she felt.
"That's where I saw it," Eddie said, his voice tight. He was struggling to breathe, fumbling for his inhaler to take a desperate puff. "That's where I saw the clown."
"That's where it lives," Bill stated, the realization hitting him like a physical blow.
"I can't imagine anything ever wanting to live there," Stanley murmured.
Eddie suddenly jumped up, scaring me half to death. "Can we stop talking about this? I can barely breathe! This is summer! We're kids! I can barely breathe. I'm up here having a fucking asthma attack!" he yelled, his panic boiling over. He turned and ripped the map off the wall. "I'm not doing this!"
"What the hell? Put the map back!" Bill said, his tone harsh and commanding.
Eddie shook his head, but our attention was ripped away by the projector. It started clicking rapidly on its own, flipping through family pictures of Bill's life.
"What happened?" Bill asked, confused, staring at the wall. "What's going on?"Stanley asked as I gripped Ben's arm tightly. "I got it.Hold on," Mike said, checking the machine. He yanked the plug from the wall, but the projector kept running, the images still flashing.
"Guys..." Mike said, his voice low with dread. I was starting to really, truly hate this thing.
The slideshow stopped on a picture of Bill's little brother. "Georgie,"Bill whispered.
"Bill?" Beverly's voice was small.
The clicking grew more frantic. The image changed to one of Bill's mother, her hair covering her face. The projector zoomed in closer, and the face became clearer. But it wasn't Mrs. Denbrough.
It was the clown.
Its face filled the entire wall, a grotesque, mocking smile smeared across its features, yellow eyes gleaming with malice.
"What the fuck!" Richie yelled in shock. "It's It!"Bill shouted, though we could all see that for ourselves.
Ben helped me to my feet as we all backed away. "What the fuck is that? What the fuck is that?" Richie screamed, clutching onto Eddie for dear life. "I don't fucking know!"Eddie screamed back.
"Turn that damn thing off! Turn it off!" I yelled, my voice a mixture of pure fear and furious annoyance. "Yeah!Yeah, turn it off! Turn it off!" Richie echoed, but he was frozen in place. It was Mike who finally acted, kicking the projector over with a crash.
One moment there was no clown. The next, it was in the garage with us. Its eyes were insane, thick drool running from its mouth. It let out a guttural growl and charged straight at us.
"Run, Stanley!" Richie yelled. The boys scrambled back, pinned against the garage door.
Beverly and I were on the opposite side of the room, and we became its new targets. I held onto Bev, bracing for impact. The last thing I saw was the clown's grimy hand reaching out for us. I squeezed my eyes shut.
I heard the door burst open. After a few heartbeats, I dared to peek through one eye.
The clown was gone.
Bev pulled away from me and dashed straight into Bill's arms. I walked slowly toward the others, my legs like jelly. Ben didn't say a word; he just pulled me into a tight, safe embrace, and I buried my face in his chest, never wanting him to let go.
"It saw us! It saw us and it knows where we are!" Eddie said, his freak-out reaching a new peak.
"It always did," Bill said, his voice cold and resolved. "So let's go!" He made his way out of the garage. "Go?Go where?" Ben asked, his hold on my waist tightening.
"Neibolt. That's where G-g-georgie is," Bill stated. This guy had to be crazy. He wasn't thinking straight.
"After that?" Stanley snapped, gesturing wildly at the ruined projector. "Yeah,it's summer. We should be outside," Richie said softly, his voice pleading.
"If you say, 'it's summer' one more fucking time..." Denbrough didn't finish his sentence. He just grabbed his bike, got on it, and rode away, leaving all of us behind.
"Bill! Wait!" Beverly yelled after him.
Of course, all of us ended up following him anyway. We couldn't let him get himself killed. "Bill!Bill, you can't go in there! This is crazy!" Bev told him, throwing her bike to the ground. The others did the same, except for me and Stanley, who were still hesitating.
"Look, you don't have to come in with me," Bill said, turning to face us all. "But what happens when another Georgie goes missing? Or another Betty? Or another Ed Corcoran? Or one of us? Are you just gonna pretend it isn't happening, like everyone else in this town? Because I can't. 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, it's easier than walking into my own."
He finished his speech, his chest heaving. A stunned silence fell over our group.
