Lydia and the losers club fought pennywise back in the summer of 1988.
They were done.
Or so they believed.
27 years later they had all moved on in life, separating from each other along the way and forgetting all the troubles they had that summ...
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Have you ever been at a family reunion, and someone just said something really awkward, and the whole room is silent, all just sorta avoiding eye contact and hoping for the moment to end?
Well, that's exactly what it felt like right now, as the whole losers club stood around a room in the B&B they were staying at, Richie stood near the bar, glaring at Stan anytime Lydia couldn't see him.
"So..." Bill trailed off, looking between everyone
"The clown." Lydia spoke sternly, as if letting everyone know to not ask Stan or her questions
"Right, the clown... when was he last seen?" Eddie asked
"Well- no one knows that for sure... the ones who have seen him recently are dead." Mike answered
"Wait.. none of you have seen him? In like- dreams or something?" Lydia asked, looking at them all confused
All of them slowly shook their heads
"Did you..?" Stan asked her
"Oh, no.. no, I was just asking.. just incase" she lied
Mike stood up and moved around to face the group "Look, we were all touched by IT, changed, deep down, like, an infection or- or a virus... a virus, you understand? Slowly growing..." He spoke, turning to Eddie at the end but he held his hands up and walked away from him
"That virus, its been growing for twenty seven years, this whole time, metastasing!" Mike continued
"Well, why did it try go for Stan first? Try get him not to come?" Ben asked
"He's the weakest." Rich answered
"Jesus Christ, Richie!" Bill mumbled. Lydia rolled her eyes and glanced over at Stan, who actually didn't seem that bothered.
"I mean, he's not wrong..." Stan spoke
(possible TW in the next paragraph, as Stan taking his life is brought up)
Everyone looked at him confused, and so Stan explained more in detail "well, I almost didn't come to this. At all. When I got mikes call, I was going to uh- actually I was going to take my life... suicide. I just- I knew I was the weak one out of you all.. and I didn't want to hold you guys back, so I wanted to make sure I couldn't but uh... well it clearly didn't happen..." he told them, avoiding eye contact, especially with Lydia.
Lydia zoned out halfway through Stan talking, well actually, she zoned out as soon as he said he was going to take his life. The clown didn't lie. What Lydia saw was real. It was what actually would have happened. Why did she see it? Why only her? Why Stan's death? Would the clown show her more things...?
Richie quickly looked over at Lydia once Stan finished speaking, expecting to see her react but his face scrunched up in confusion when he saw her sitting staring at the table in front of her, clearly deep in thought. She was hiding something. He knew it, and he was pretty determined to find out what it was.
By the time both Richie and Lydia tuned back into the conversation, they had somehow already moved on, clearly they had been zoned out for a while.
"We have to stop it." Mike spoke sternly
"How the hell are we supposed to do that?!" Eddie asked him, prancing back and forth a bit
"The ritual of Chud." he answered
Richie's face immediately went from one of confusion to looking at Mike as if he was the dumbest person alive. Although, to be fair, everyone in the room, except Bill, had done the same.
"A tribal ritual? Are you fucking kidding me man?! Alright, there's gotta be another way, okay? This thing comes back every, what, twenty seven years? Lets just kick the can down the road and do it then." Richie spoke
"We would be seventy years old asshole." Eddie told him angrily
"And Connor and Mia, Rich... Connor would be thirty eight... and Mia would be thirty two.. I don't want them dealing with this. No matter their age. Because, what if they have kids then? and they're our age when IT first messed with us? I don't want it happening ever again. To anyone. People are dying in horrible ways because of this clown." Lydia told him
Richie stared at her, before pouring himself a shot and downing it
Ben spoke up from the corner of the room "so if we don't beat it, beat this cycle then..."
"Then young people, possibly even our own kids are going to die..." Lydia finished
"Horribly." Eddie added
"Yeah I- I don't think she really.. needed the 'horribly' part.." Richie told him, shaking his head a bit
"I didn't say it, she said it. Not me." Eddie retorted, pointing at himself then Lydia
"Alright guys look, I've seen w- w- what he's talking about and its- its all true.. Its the only way. If we want this ritual to work.." Bill trailed off, looking over at Mike.
"We have to remember." Mike finished.
Eddie looked up towards Mike with a panicked look as Richie spoke up
"Remember what?"
"It's better if I show you... we don't have much time, this cycle will end soon, and once it does-" Mike began
"we're fucked?" Eddie interrupted, with his usual gleeful attitude
Mike didn't answer him, instead ignoring him and picking up his coat, walking towards the door "come on, I want to show you." he spoke to them before leaving.
Sadly, Lydia knew this wasn't even the beginning.
A/N: I am so sorryfor such a slow update, I'm back in school super early and I've had no time.
Not only that but this scene was actually so hard to write, as they bring up the death of Stan and what it meant for the future, and about Beverly being in the dead lights and seeing everyone's death, all of which I obviously had to avoid writing out and figure a way around, which I really struggled with, so I'm sorry if its not the greatest!
Don't forget to vote and comment, I have really enjoyed reading everyone being active and commenting on the first book, as I always reply and actually use to write things into these chapters, I've actually planned to add something from a specific comment in an upcoming chapter :)
