promise. (Bill Denbrough)

chapter 8

The group made their way to Bills house, after stopping by Ben's to get slides for the projector. They huddled into Bills garage, he and Rose hung up a Derry sewer system poster.

Everyone helped out in making sure there was no light except from the projector. Bill put the first slide in, showing the trials of the sewage system.

"Look. That's where G-georgie disappeared. There's the iron works, and the Black Spot."

Eddie took a deep breath, Rose put her arm around him and gave him a reassuring hug.

"Everywhere it happens, it's all connected by the sewers. And they all meet up at-" Bill was cut off by Ben this time.

"The well house."

"It's in the house on Neibolt street." Stanley spoke up, but his voice was hushed as though he were whispering.

Eddie began to slightly gasp for air. He pulled put his inhaler and took a puff, Rose rubbed her arm up and down his back whispering to him.

"hey it's okay, just try to take a deep breath."

Bill felt warm as he saw  happy to see her care for her friends like that.

"I hate that place. It always feels like it's watching me." Beverly shuddered.

Rose was still calming Eddie when he spoke.

"That's where I saw it.  That's where I saw the clown." Eddie hid his face in Roses hair as she continued to hug the boy.

"Then that's where it lives." Bill concluded. Eddie took yet another puff from his inhaler and stood up.

"Can we stop talking about this? I can barely breath. This is summer. We're kids. I can barely breath. I'm up here having a fucking asthma attack. I'm not doing this." Eddie spoke 20 words per second it seemed like.

He tore down the poster. "Eddie come on put the map back." Rose begged.

Suddenly the projector began to change slides by itself. Rose stood up and backed away towards the garage wall.

"Guys what the fuck." She started.

Pictures of Georgie and his family members began to flash up on the wall. Everyone was just confused but Rose did not like this one bit.

Her eyes glazed over as Beverly walked over to give her a hug. Bev knew how much Georgie ment to her. As more pictures clicked by, each one zoomed in on Georgie. Until it focused on the face of Bills mother. With each change, her face slowly began to morph into a clown... it.

Everyone stared in shock as they all began to speak Bills name. Rose stood there frozen in fear against the garage door as everyone jumped from their seats.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?" Richie and Eddie yelled in symphony.

Richie grabbing Eddie and pulling the wheezing boy towards him.



"Turn it off!Turn it off!" Beverly yelled.

Mike reacted and kicked the whole projector over. The screen went black for a second but it continued to flip through pictures.

This time it was of the clown, just the clown. Each time the projector would flip, it would appear. Until on one slide, it disappeared. Rose swear her heart stopped through that time.

As it went dark yet again, there was one final projection. Only this time the clown came out from the screen. It turned it's head towards Stanley.

"Run stanley!" Beverly yelled.

The clown crawled out and made its way to Rose. As the light went out and flashed back on, the clown was less than a foot away from her face.

It grabbed onto her body and held her up, shaking her as though she was a prize he was just won in a claw machine. It's teeth were razor sharp, she attempted to pry the fingers from around her waist but it didn't budge.

It opened its mouth and began to pull her in. Bills stared in shock as Rose cried out for help. Rose squeezed her eyes shut, not prepared for the pain.

All of a sudden  Eddie, Mike, and Ben opened the garage door. Rose made contact to the hard cement, her body making a smacking sound. She laid there for a second trying to catch her breath from crying.

Bill pushed away from the group and ran towards the girl lying on the floor. He got right next to her and pulled her into the tightest hug possible.

"Shhh it's okay Rose. I got you its okay." He ran his fingers through her hair and allowed her to cry into his shirt.

"It.. it got me Bill." She whimpered as she clutched the back of his shirt. He pressed his lips to her forehead and lightly grabbed her chin.

"Rose listen to me. We are going to get through this together. I will be right here by your side no matter what. I promise." He stuck his pinky out, Rose latched hers around his and melted back into his arms.

Bill was confident in what he said. She hugged him and whispered "thank you so much Bill."

The 2 continued the hug and one by one the rest of the group turned it into a group hug.

"It saw it. It- it knows where we are." Eddie began to panic even more than he was.

"It always did. S-so let's go." Bill walked towards him bike.

Ben spoke for everybody when he asked "Go where?"

Bill took a deep breath and spoke.
"Neibolt. That's where G-g-georgie is."

"Bill you know you're one of my best friends but look at what the fuck just happened. Look at Rose!" Stanley yelled pointing to the girl who still had tears slowly rolling down her cheeks.

"Yeah it's summer. We should be outside." Richie said.

Bills face turned an angry shade of red. "Richie if you say it's summer one more fucking time."

Bill proceeded to his bike. Rose followed after him and got onto her bike.

"Bill! Rose! Wait!" Beverly yelled after the 2.