love ; bill denbrough

25

Cass

Bloodcurdling wasn't a good enough word to describe the scream we'd just heard. It was Eddie, we knew it. I jumped from my position on Bill's lap, running towards the direction of the stairs, Bill and Richie close behind. "Eddie." I called, letting him know that he had his friends with him. He didn't turn, simply keeping his eyes on Pennywise as Eddie reached an arm behind him, desperately grasping for a hand of a friend. Richie took it, crouching beside him, staring at his arm in horror.

"Billy and Cassie. I think that's what they called you." Bill and I both furrowed our eyebrows, wondering what Pennywise was talking about. "Oh," He cleared his throat, mimicking the voices of our little brothers perfectly, the last thing they'd ever said to us to be precise. "Love you, Billy! Bye, Cassie!"

I looked across, Bill was fuming, tears staining his face already. They weren't tears of sadness, they were tears of anger, I could practically see the steam coming from his ears. "Aw," Pennywise mocked. "Billy-Boy's crying. Guess we should call you Girlie-Boy from now, huh?"

"You asshole!" I mustered every single ounce of strength in my body and threw the hardest punch I could ever throw. When my hand collided, I cursed myself for being so stupid, the force of my punch alone was enough to do damage to my hand, but what made me think the this supernatural clown-being had a normal bone structure. I had basically just punched a brick wall. It was like slow motion, I watched the bone in my wrist crack out of place, clenching my eyes shut in pain, the momentum too much to stop my punch, so my arm carried on with it's strike and the damage worsened. I let out a single scream in pain, stumbling backwards into Richie and clutching my arm. Eddie screamed too, Richie just yelled something I couldn't hear. My hand slid, something hot and wet on my arm causing me to open my eyes again. Blood.

"Oh fuck." Bill muttered over and over again, staring at my arm. The bone was visible, standing rigidly and my wrist fell limp, and even with adrenaline coursing through my system, it still felt like hell.

"It's fine," I lied. "I'll feel it later." I lied again, my tears clearly giving it away . I could feel it, I thought I was gonna faint, it just didn't seem real, but from the slobber soaking Pennywise's face as he stared at my injury told me it was. Just then the other's came in, from the doorway behind Pennywise. The arrival distracted Richie and Bill and Pennywise grabbed me, pulling me close with his one, inhumanly strong hand holding me still by my throat and his other gripping onto my bloody arm, ready to feast and making it hurt more than it already did, which I didn't even think possible. He backed away from my friends, each step pulling at my last strands of hope. I was going to die.

"Leave us." He demanded.

"We'll leave with her." Bill stepped forwards, stepping back again when he noticed Pennywise pulling my arm closer.

"Love really does make you stupid." Pennywise teased, before tipping his head back, revealing his other rows of teeth. Bill desperately searched for a weapon, but in a split second, Bev, who had an intense fear of blood and anything to do with it had stabbed a fire poker straight through the Beasts over-sized head, right through the emerald eye. His blood seeming to gush and spray in slow motion, but I was out of his grasp and that was all I wanted. I was coated in a cold-sweat, surely pale from the blood lost out of my arm, the blood soaking my clothes felt like it weighed tons too.

Stan, Mike, Bev and Ben now ran to our side of the room, I did too, still clutching my arm, falling into Mike who gladly supported my weight. Pennywise wasn't finished, which I expected. He slobbered, stepping over to us as everyone screamed, grabbing at each other's arms and hands, any comfort offered was good enough, we were terrified. Finally, he was done, retreating back through a small staircase behind the refrigerator. Everyone stayed put, breathing deeply, but I followed. I ran down the staircase, just managing to catch a glimpse of Pennywise disappearing into the well. I made my way back to the group. They all sat round Eddie, clearly having more chance at helping with his arm than my own.

"Do not fucking touch me! Do not fucking touch me!" Eddie yelled at Richie, who simply didn't listen and cracked Eddie's wrist back into a more normal position, Eddie screaming at the sound. As soon as that was done, Richie piggybacked Eddie out of Neibolt, Ben reached for Bev's hand, which she gladly took clearly trying to avoid looking at my arm. Stan patted Mike's back, throwing a friendly arm over his shoulder. Bill, ignoring my protests, lifted me into his arms like a feather, holding me on his hip like a baby.

"We need to g-get to hospital, before you f-f-finally feel that." He kissed my nose sweetly, despite the fact I was covered in sweat, blood and as pale as a ghost.

"Too late," I winced at the angle my arm was at, but I knew it was just the adrenaline wearing off. It was a 10 on the pain scale, now? A solid 16. I think I passed out.

:::

I breathed deeply, as if air was scarce, my eyes clouded with bright light, nostrils invaded by the scent of antiseptics and such, ears by the sound of a monitor. 

"Hey, she's up!" Richie was the first to notice. I was in hospital clearly because of what Pennywise had done to my arm. All of the losers were present, my mother too. Everyone apart from Bill.

"Yeah, i'm fine. Can't believe I," I searched the boys faces for an excuse. I knew they'd had to make one up to use with the doctor and my mom, no way would they have told about Pennywise.

"Fell off your bike," Stan finished. "Totally unlike you. There was a huge branch and you must've been paying attention to Bill or something. Your arm totally just cracked on the curb." 

"Yeah, then I broke my arm trying to lift you." Eddie waved his new white cast in the air, I could've sworn I heard Richie snigger. It was a wonder that our parents had bought these excuses, but they did and that was good enough.

"Sounds like you're a little too clumsy to be on that bike, Cass." My mom tutted.

"Bill's fault for being cute, totally drew my attention away from the road."

"You were so staring at me..." Richie corrected. 

"Okay, frog-eyes." I teased. "Where's Bill?"

As if he heard his name called, he burst through the door. "Oh th-thank god." He threw himself over to me, hugging me loosely so to not hurt my arm, that was now dressed in a fresh white cast just like Eddie's. 

"Cass, the doctors want to keep you overnight just incase." My mom informed. 

"Yeah and we bought our pillows to stay too." Mike smiled.

"Even Eddie." Bev giggled.

"Yeah, took a lot of persuading but my mom's gonna let me stay." Eddie smiled proudly. 

"You're l-lucky. I just sp-spoke to a doctor and he s-s-said it wasn't ad bad as it looked. They just had t-to stitch it and th-then cast it." Bill smiled, taking his seat beside my bed, reaching to hold my hand.

"Yeah, it doesn't even hurt anymore." I realised, moving the arm.

"Yes, well, let's not strain it, huh?" My mom warned me.

We all continued talking, but I could not draw my mind away from the sight i'd seen at Neibolt house. Pennywise, sinking into the well. I knew, and I would alert the others about what I'd seen, I knew we had to go back there. This time, into the well.