"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°•
We finally were able to find our way out from all these tunnels. There were so many twists and turns, I felt like we were trapped in some weird maze.
The sight in front of us was even worse than I could ever imagine. A scream came from my lungs, and I covered my mouth in shock because right in front of me, one of Pennywise's arms pierced right through Eddie.
Pennywise lifted him up into the air, swinging him around like he was some sort of rag doll, laughing, before throwing him aside. He rolled into one of the many exits.
"No!"
"Uh-oh."
"No!"
While Pennywise was still stuck in the spikes, we ran towards where Eddie was, still avoiding its arms trying to get to us.
"Eddie!"
"Eds!"
We ran down, making our way to Eddie, who was lying on his side, pain evident on his face.
"Eds! Eds!"
"Eddie!"
"Eds, come on, man," Bill said, helping Eddie sit up straight and lean against a rock. Eddie groaned in pain because of the movement.
"Be careful! Be careful!" Ben said to those who were helping him. Looking down at his wound, there was a hole right through his body. Eddie had pulled all his courage together to save Richie from the Deadlights, only to end up getting hurt very badly.
Pennywise got free from the spikes and tried his best to get to us from the opening, making rocks fall down on us. "Come out and play, Losers!" it yelled out in anger.
"He's hurt. He's hurt really bad. We gotta get him out of here," Richie said, taking off his jacket and throwing it over Eddie's chest to try to stop some of the bleeding.
"Rich, how are we going to accomplish that with that thing trying everything to get to us? I mean, he's out to kill us this time," I pointed out sadly. I wanted nothing more than to get Eddie out of here, but it was true that we were stuck for the moment.
"I almost killed it," Eddie spoke up weakly, grabbing our attention. "The leper. My hands around his throat, and I could feel him choking. I made him small. He seemed so weak." Eddie told us, but I wasn't sure what he meant by that.
"The Shokopiwah. All living things must abide by the laws of the shape they inhabit," Mike spoke up. I wasn't entirely sure, but I thought I knew what he was talking about.
"Guys!" Ben called, coming from one of the tunnels. I only realized then that I hadn't noticed him disappearing. "There's a passageway. Through here," Ben stated.
"The damn tunnels, of course. That damn clown has to make himself small to go through the tunnels and the entrance of the cavern," I stated. Mike nodded his head as Bev spoke up from next to me. "Okay, so if we get back there, we can force him down to size."
"Yeah."
"We can make him small enough to kill him," I added. From all their expressions, I already knew that everyone was in on the plan.
"I can smell the stink of your fear!" Pennywise shouted from above, still breaking the entrance to get to us, making more rocks fall down towards us.
"Let's go! Go!" Mike yelled. Richie and Bill picked up Eddie, carrying him, and followed Ben.
"Come on! Come on! It's tight. It's tight. Ben, careful!" Ben shouted. We followed him and were able to get to another opening out of the tunnels. From where we stood behind a rock, we could see Pennywise, who thought we were still there.
"I need a little rest. Oh, thanks," Eddie groaned out as they sat him down against another rock.
"Hey," Richie said, sitting down in front of him.
"Hey, Richie? I gotta tell you something," Eddie said weakly. It hurt my heart to see him like this.
"What? What's up, buddy?" Richie asked, not looking away from Eddie, gazing at him the way a man would look at his lover.
"I fucked your mother," Eddie stated. Richie's expression fell, making the injured man start laughing, coughing in between.
"Losers out!" Pennywise shouted. We got ready to run, hoping for the best, and started running.
"Go, go, go!"
Pennywise did notice us, and he came charging straight at us, just as planned. What we didn't plan for was for it to run across the walls just to jump in front of us, stopping us from going any further.
"Gotcha!"
"Whoa!"
"You filthy little children," Pennywise stated, laughing.
"You got a plan B, man? What the hell do we do now?" Ben asked, but instead of Mike answering, Pennywise spoke up. "You die. That's what you do."
"Mike?"
"There's more than one way to make someone small," Mike stated.
"Oh!"
"Make him believe that he is," Beverly said.
"W-what?" Bill asked, confused.
"Make him believe that he is," Mike said.
"Oh? Me? Small? I am the Eater of Worlds," Pennywise asked, laughing, probably thinking we wouldn't be able to do it or that we weren't capable.
"Not to us, you're not. You're just a clown," Mike stated, which had it staring at him dumbfounded. So it tried going after someone else, which was Beverly. "You're a weak old woman," she said, making him retreat.
"The Eater of Worlds," Pennywise said, going to the others, only to be stopped in his tracks once again as Ben said, "A headless boy!"
"Imposter!"
"You're a mimic!"
Pennywise didn't seem to take it too well that we were actually not scared of him, not anymore. As we kept on telling him he was an imposter, a clown, a mimic, a bully, a stupid mummy, he slowly started growing smaller, backing away from us.
He moved backwards, but we kept on pushing forward, telling him what he was from our perspective. He didn't stop trying to attack us, but with each word leaving our mouths, he grew smaller and weaker.
Pennywise had crawled his way to the middle of the spikes, where we did the ritual, and still, in his weak state, he tried to attack, but it was pointless.
Richie was even able to pull one of his arms from his body. It was like everything about him had gotten weaker. At some point, it was like he was starting to melt into the ground, becoming part of it.
"A clown, with a scared, beating heart," Mike said. He slowly lowered himself down, reaching towards its chest. Pennywise tried one more snarl; it made Mike jump back, but it didn't make him afraid. So he went in again, his hand going through its chest. Pennywise tried pushing his hand away, but he wasn't able to stop Mike from pulling out his heart.
Mike held out his hand with the heart still beating in it. One after the other, we placed our hands around the heart. "Look at you. You're all grown up," Pennywise said, laughing weakly. Together, we squeezed the heart until it was in complete pieces. The Deadlights started getting dimmer and dimmer until Pennywise completely became one with the ground, as hard as a rock. The pieces of its heart started floating upwards as the Deadlights disappeared for good.
