broken hearts club! • bill denbrough

thirteen.

"i think our demons were the same and so we decided to search for heaven together."

"So let me get this straight," Eddie sat on the hay bail right next to Bill and Logan, who were sitting on Silver, Bill's bike. "It comes out from wherever to eat kids for, like, a year? And then what? Hibernation?"

"Maybe it's like..." Stanley moved his hand around, trying to think of the word, or at least get someone else to help him.

"Cicadas?" Logan furrowed her brows and shivered under the breeze, once again adjusting Bill's flannel on her arms. The blonde seemed to be the only one feeling the way she did about the cold. Then again, she did have an abnormal intolerance for any temperature below eighty degrees.

"Yeah." Stanley nodded, putting his hands back on his knees. The way he was sitting made Guinevere quite nervous, seeing as he sat on top of the bench, in between Beverly and Mike, who were sitting more comfortably, the normal way people sat on benches. Guinevere began overthinking that maybe he could fall and get hurt and the day would be ruined. Anything and everything made Guinevere anxious, so these thoughts were no surprise. Richie seemed to be the only one to notice her discomfort (he'd calmed her spiraling thoughts many times before), so he put his thin hand on her knee and let it rest there. "The bugs that come out once every seventeen years."

"My grandfather thinks this town is cursed." Logan's head shot up from her combat boots, which were digging into the dirt on the ground, and looked up at the one kid she least expected to talk. She knew Mike was a good kid, and a strong one at that, but he didn't talk much. "He says that all the bad things that happen 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." Logan nodded and grabbed Bill's hand. She found his hand to fit more comfortably in hers than Ben's. Ben's hand was small and his fingers were thick, Bill was the opposite; he had a large hand and skinny fingers. "We all saw something different."

"Maybe. Or maybe it knows what scares us most and that's what we see." Mike squinted at the sun as he spoke. Richie smirked at Logan, using the hand that wasn't on Guinevere to cover the blonde's eyes, once again making fun of her fear of the dark. She quickly slapped his hand away with her free one. The contact made a loud noise before they both went back to listening to the conversation like none of it had happened, except for the fact that Richie flicked his hand back and fourth, trying to get rid of the sting.

"I-I saw a leper." Eddie stuttered, gaining the attention of his friends. Logan knew he was scared of nearly everything, so it didn't come as a surprise that his fear was probably germs. "He was- He was like a walking infection."

"Yeah, I saw- nevermind. It's stupid. Stanley's right." Logan shook her head and looked back down at her shoes, knowing that, now that she opened her mouth, her friends weren't going to continue their conversation before she said what she had on her mind. "Okay, well, I saw- I saw nothing."

"Lo-Logan, it's okay. You can t-t-tell us." Bill held her hand tighter in support.

"That's just the thing." She chuckled slightly and shook her head, still looking down. She was never one for attention, unless it was from Wallace. She knew he wouldn't judge; and now she knew the eight kids around her wouldn't judge either. So, she took a deep breath before slowly lifting her head to look at everyone. "I saw nothing. The lights in the Sunflower went out and all I saw was- was the clown." She shook her head and looked back down.

"I was in the pharmacy and I couldn't get out of the bathroom," The brunette girl nodded as she spoke. "I thought Richie left me, and then I looked in the mirror and saw my mom." Guinevere's voice cracked and a tear rolled down her cheek. She wiped it away quickly and Richie gently pulled her head down to rest on his shoulder once again.

"But you didn't. Because it isn't real. I feel for you, Guin, but none of this is real." Stanley shook his head and averted his attention, making sure he looked at each of the people in the circle. "Not Eddie's leper, or Bill seeing Georgie, Guin seeing her mom, or Logan in the dark; not even the woman I keep seeing."

"Is she hot?" Richie smirked in an attempt to lighten the mood. Serious topics were never really the boy's 'thing.' Even when Guinevere had panic attacks around him, all he did was joke, though his stupid remarks did help her tremendously. They may not have been appropriate in this case.

"No, Richie! She's not hot!" Stanley exclaimed, rolling his eyes. "Her face is all... messed up. None of this makes any sense! They're like bad dreams." He got quiet and looked at his feet, which were resting flat on the bench. It was clear he didn't want to talk about his experience anymore.

"I don't think so. I know the difference between a bad dream and- and real life, okay?" Mike piped up once again. Logan knew she was going to have to get used to hearing him speak, but it still made her feel weird hearing him speak when she'd only ever seen him on his way past the Sunflower.

"What'd you see? You saw something too?" Eddie questioned their new friend, feeling that Mike had seen something similar to what they all had- all of them but Richie.

"You guys know that burnt down house on Harris Avenue?" Everyone nodded. Derry was a small town, after all. Everyone knew where everything was, except maybe Sonia Kaspbrak, who obviously never got up from her livingroom chair. "I was inside when it burned down. Before I was rescued, my mom and dad were trapped in the next room over from me. They were pushing and pounding on the door, trying to get to me. But it was too hot. When the firemen had finally found them, the skin on their hands had... melted down to the bone." His voice had cracked many times while he spoke. It was obvious he was almost breaking down.

Guinevere stood up from her spot on Richie's bike, squeezing in between Stanley and Mike, wrapping her arm around Mike's shoulder and smiling. He cracked a small smile too, before saying, "We're all afraid of something."

"Got that right." Richie nodded and adjusted his glasses, breaking his stare, which started out on Guinevere but, as it always did, ended up on Eddie.

"Why Rich, what are you afraid of?" Eddie asked and furrowed his brows. Everyone looked up at Richie as he looked behind him at the large stage, on which stood a tall man dressed as a clown, entertaining the few people in front of him.

"Clowns." He fixed his glasses once more and turned back around, only to hear Logan chuckle, a little more sarcasm radiating off of her than usual.

"You're in deep shit, Tozier."