FEAR | BILL DENBROUGH [ 1 ]

six | projector

It was the July 4th celebration, and the Loser's club was hanging low by an alley. The band was playing in the streets, and Richie had taken some poor kid's instrument, and was playing badly. They were all staring at a missing kid poster, a new one. A boy by the name of Edward Corcocan, thirteen years old, had joined the missing kids.

"They said they found part of his hand all chewed up by the standpipe.'' Stanley said.

''He asked to borrow a pencil once.'' Ben added.

Bill moved closer and lifted the poster up. Edward's poster had covered up Betty Ripsom's. ''It's like she's been f-f-forgotten because Corcoran's missing.'' he said.

Layla sighed. ''Kids are disappearing daily, they probably can't keep track.''

Stanley stared at the poster. ''Is it ever gonna end?"

''What the fuck dude!'' Richie exclaimed, when the kid took his instrument back.

Eddie returned to the group with two ice-cream cones in his hands. ''What are you guys talking about?''

Richie walked towards Eddie, and Eddie had given him the second cone. ''What they always talk about.''

''I actually think it will end,'' Ben started. "For a little while at least.''

''What do you mean?" Layla asked, intrigued on what Ben had to say.

''So, I was going over my Derry research, and I charted out all the big events. The Ironworks explosion in 1908, The Bradley Gang in '35, and the Black Spot in '62. Now kids being.. I realized this stuff only happens every..''

''Twenty-seven years,'' Bill and Ben said at the same time.

They had moved to sitting in the park, where a circus was going on-stage. ''So, let me get this straight. IT comes out from wherever to eat kids for like, a year, and then what? IT just goes into hibernation?" Richie asked, skeptical on the situation.

The park was filled with blue, red and white decorations. Everyone was in a celebratory mood, except the Loser's Club.

"Maybe its like-- what do you call it?" Stan asked, figuring out what word he wanted to use.

''Cicada's,'' Layla responded. ''The bugs that come out once every seventeen years.''

Mike shook his head lightly, ''My grandfather thinks this town is cursed. He says, that all the bad things that happened in this town, are because of one thing. An evil thing that feeds off the people of Derry.''

"But it can't be one thing,'' Stanley argued. "We all saw something different.''

''Maybe,'' Mike said. ''Or maybe IT knows what scares us most and that's what we see.''

''I-I saw a leper.'' Eddie spoke up. "He was like a walking infection.''

''But you didn't,'' Stan said. Layla knew he was trying to come up with every possible way, that what they saw wasn't real. ''Because IT isn't real. None of this is.''