Buttercup | r. tozier

↠ bill denbrough

The Next Day

I was preparing the slides after the eight of us already gathered around a projector inside my house's garage. I put in the film slide that Ben gave me inside the projector. While the others went away to sit down, I was making sure that the slide could be seen clearly. I pointed out to everyone towards the enlarged map.

"Look...that w-where Georgie disappeared," I said as my body trembled. "There's the Ironworks the Black Spot, and also where Auntie Lily disappeared too, as Jasmine had told me. Everywhere IT happens is all connected by the sewers. And they all meet up at..."

"The well house," Ben interjected.

"Is it the house on Neibolt Street?" Stan questioned.

"You mean that creepy ass house where all the junkies and hobos like to sleep?" Richie said as Eddie began to make a nauseous gesture.

"I hate that place," Beverly sighed. "Always feels like it's watching me."

"That's where I saw IT," Eddie stuttered. "There I saw a clown."

"Tha-tha-tha-that's where IT lives," I told everyone of the new fact.

"I can't imagine anything ever wanting to live there," Stan said.

"Can we stop talking about this?" Eddie screamed as his breath became much faster and more erratic. "I can barely breathe. It's summer, we're kids. I can barely breathe...having a fucking asthma attack and fuck doing this." He then quickly ripped the map off the projector wall, making me slightly mad.

"What the hell! Put the map back!" I instructed, but Eddie refused to do so.

"Eddie, chill," Jasmine tried to calm Eddie down, even if worry was obvious in her words. "There's nothing to be afraid of as of now..."

Click. Click. Click. They were then followed by a few more clicks.

Our eyes were glued on the flashing slides by the wall, startling us. The slides were none other than the photos of me, mom, dad, and Georgie in the good old days. I smiled before I realized that it wasn't me who moved the projector. I knew there must be something wrong about this.

"What happened?"

"What's going on?" Stan asked, fearing for the worst.

"Guys..." Mike began to speak. "Look."

"Jinjja...geuge Georgie ya!?" (1) Jasmine gasped deeply, still shocked by the horrifying discovery.

"Yes, it is Georgie," I affirmed to her as I looked at the projector, which showed my family and I on a Sunday afternoon at church. The projector then repeatedly clicked towards Georgie and my mom, whose face was covered with her hair. Not long, after several more ticks, we could see a face of a clown appearing out of the slides. We immediately backed off with fear filling our minds and hearts.

"What the fuck!" Richie screamed, grabbing onto Jasmine's left side. "What the fuck is that?"

"Nan mollayo!" (2) Jasmine uttered frantically. She then looked around before quivering out a question. "Eddie, neo eodiya!?" (3) Upon that question, Eddie swiftly clung onto her other side, planting his face on her neck to find comfort. The rest of us continued to panic, not knowing what to do or how to react properly.

"Turn it off," Beverly boldly spoke up. "Turn it off!"

The screams still ensued before Mike kicked off the projector, finally turning the slides off. But a second of relief could not pacify this situation as the silence was replaced with more clicking sounds. Stan stared at the screen in disbelief before the clown revealed himself to us with his treacherous grin and his sharp, misshapen teeth. It was way larger than he was before, making us scream on top of our lungs out of shock and horror.

"Run Stanley!" Richie shouted. Stan ran to our side as the clown looked at us from a few feet away.

We quickly went over to the garage door when the clown tried to pounce on one of us. However, before the clown could do anything worse, Eddie, Mike, and Ben opened up the garage door, shining some light to the garage. It was then revealed that the clown was gone for good, finally bringing true relief to us. Beverly went to me and hugged me tight as Eddie began to speak up.

"IT sees us. IT sees us and IT knows where we are."

"IT always knew us," I replied, breaking off from the hug. "Alright, guys, let's go."

"Go? Go where?" Ben asked.

"To Neibolt," I responded. "That's where Ge-Ge-Georgie is."

"After that?" Stan pointed out.

"It's summer. We should be outside," Richie spoke.

"If you say 'it's summer' one more fucking time," I said before I went over to my bike. Out of annoyance, I rode away.

"Bill, wait!"

-

Note

(1) "Jinjja...geuge Georgie ya!?" (진짜...그게조지야!?) translates to "Really...is that Georgie!?"

(2) "Nan mollayo!" (난 몰라요!) means "I don't know!"

(3) "Eddie, neo eodiya!?" (에디, 너 어디야!?) translates to "Eddie, where are you?"