If We Live: Stephen King's IT {slow updates}

Chapter 31: Home Again

Everything was set. Her belongings had been stowed away into her hotel room and her fees had been paid. All that she was really left with to do was sit and wait until the time to reunite with the group arose. But Amelia didn't want to sit and wait. No, she couldn't. Not under these circumstances. The thoughts in her head were eating her alive, and unless she found a way to distract herself from the dark abyss within her brain, she'd be unfit to attend the dinner tonight, let alone take part in trying to get rid of the thing they thought had been taken care of years ago.
    With this in mind, Amelia decided it would be within her best interest if she got out for a while, maybe re-familiarized herself with the place she once grew up in. There were still so many bits and pieces of her childhood that she had forgotten long after leaving Derry, so many names and faces, things and places. Some of it had come back to her after the phone call, yes, but not all of it. Only the parts of her childhood where she and her friends had been terrorized by that evil clown. The part where she almost died down in the sewers if it hadn't of been for her friends. The part when she promised she'd come back if she had to. She remembered all of it.
She had put some money and her room key in her purse and was now making her way around the town, looking for something to bring back the old memories. But so far, all she had been met with was empty street and a place she no longer recognized as home.
    "Surely there must be something..." she mumbled, gently tapping her fingers against her lip as she looked both ways before crossing the street. It distressed the woman to know that nothing was coming back to her, nothing at all. How could she have just forgotten a big chunk of her childhood? It was bizarre! A literal chunk of her life, gone with the wind. It was just so... so...
Laughter. Loud laughter broke her focus as she gazed down the street to see a group of kids running down the sidewalk. They were a group of six, around eleven or twelve, horsing around and playfully pushing each other as they ran to wherever it was they were going. It seemed like any ordinary group of kids, but the more Amelia looked on the more she was able to notice the two in the back.
A blonde and a brunette, holding hands as they ran behind the group, swinging their arms back and forth, back and forth as they ran. Smiling innocently, looking at each other every now and then only to end up bursting out in laughter. Two young children, in a state of something that could have been love if they weren't so young. It was pure and wonderful, and it made Amelia's heart ache ever so slightly as she was finally hit with a memory of her childhood...
~~~
"What time does the movie start?" Eddie asked as the group waited for ongoing cars to pass so they could cross the street.
    "In five minutes," Stan groaned, impatiently looking up and down the road.
     "What?!" Beverly cried. "We'll never make it in time."
    But as the traffic finally cleared, Richie Toizer- before taking off down the street- shouted, "Last one there pays for the popcorn!"
    And the was off, sprinting clear ahead of the group towards the theater.
    "Hey, no fair! You got a head start!" Beverly shouted, then sprinted after the boy. Mike followed in suit along with Stan.
    "Guys, my asthma!" Eddie croaked, briskly walking after them in a fast pace.
    "C-C'mon, we gotta b-beat them!" Bill cried, taking hold of Amelia's hand as he dragged her with him along the sidewalk. She let out a squeal and began to laugh, giving his hand a gentle squeeze as they ran down the sidewalk together.
    The soft summer breeze blew gently across their faces, letting their hair flow in the wind and keeping them cool as they ran as fast as their little legs could carry them. Nothing could stop them, not when they were together.
    And so, as the movie prepared to start, a girl and boy ran in both out of breath, with their hands still intertwined.
~~~
    It was 2:30 in the afternoon now, and Amelia had slowly managed to recapture what she assumed was most of her childhood memories and dreams. Whatever she hadn't remembered yet she figured she would be reminded of at tonight's dinner. But there was still much time left for her to waste until then, and the woman wasn't quite sure what to do next. There wasn't much left. All that was left was the barrens, but Amelia didn't dare to even attempt to set foot in that place. No way would she remind herself of the evil that had attached itself into her life as a child. No thank you sir, she was just fine without those memories. Really, all she could do now was go to the hotel and maybe take a nap, relax. That's all she could do. So Amelia made her way back to the hotel by foot, but her journey did not last very long.
"I want my mommy!" A small voice weeped, causing Amelia to halt in her tracks. The forty year old woman slowly peered over her shoulder to see a little girl, no older than three years old, frantically looking around the streets for her mother. Little tears dribbled down her chubby little cheeks as she continued to cry for her birth giver. Amelia couldn't help but to make a dead sprint towards the little one.
"Hi," Amelia spoke gently, causing the little girl to look up at her. "I'm Amelia. Are you lost?"
The little girl nodded, and Amelia now crouched down in front of her so she was eye level with the child.
"Okay, then we'll just have to find her then, won't we?" Again, the child nodded. "What's your name?"
The little girl shook her head, stray blonde wisps of hair from her braids flowing along in the wind with her movements. Her puffy blue eyes continued to produce tears as her red little nose sniffled slightly. The poor thing was a cute little thing, and it made a small part of Amelia ache. She had always wanted children, and even almost had one, but we all know how that story ended...
In fact, what was so strange about the child was that she almost looked like the product of something that Bill and Amelia had made... Amelia's eyes and nose, Bill's hair color and lips. The facial structure, the dimpled chin... And the little birth mark on her right cheek.
Amelia was a bit dumbfounded, and honestly, a bit uncomfortable. But this was no time for weird personal theories. The child needed help.
"It's okay," Amelia encouraged, "you can tell me your name. I want to help."
The girl, again, shook her head. Amelia sighed.
"I can't help you if you don't give me your name. Why won't you tell me your name?"
And in response, the little girl opened her mouth to speak. But instead of words, blood slowly oozed it's way out of her mouth and splattered onto the pavement and onto Amelia's clothing. The woman let out a startled cry, immediately falling back on her bum and staring in pure horror as the little girl continued to pour out blood. She never broke eye contact with Amelia, and she almost fainted as the little girl's pretty blue eyes rolled over white like some type of devil child.
"Oh my god!" Amelia cried, backing away as quickly as she could. But the blood continued to spill from the little girl's mouth, creating a large puddle on the sidewalk that was beginning to seep its way onto the road. Amelia was covered in it, her hands sinking in to the warm crimson liquid as it surrounded her body in a literal blood bath.
"Stop it!" Amelia shouted, finally managing to stand up on her unsteady legs that trembled with fear.
"Die," the little girl sputtered as the blood flow slowly began to stop. "Die. Die. Die."
She wiped her mouth with her dress sleeve to rid the blood as she inched her way closer and closer to the helpless woman.
"Get away!" Amelia weeped. "Y-You're that, that thing!"
"Die, die, die Amelia, die."
She turned and sprinted down the road, both blood and tears streaming down her body as she ran. Taunting laughter filled her ears, causing her to shut her eyes tight and cover them with her hands. The laughter, so familiar and so terrifying.
"Amelia," It taunted."
"Stop it!" She shouted. "Shut up! Shut the fuck up!" The clown only laughed louder now.
"I'm back Amelia," he teased. "And I'm gonna make you wish you had stayed home with your lover boy."
She shrieked at the mere mention of her own personal terror at home mixed in with the unnatural terror of her childhood. Both the real world and the world that shouldn't have been brought to reality haunting her all at once.
And by the time she got to the hotel, a screaming, sobbing mess, she collapsed into the arms of the bellhop boy.
~~~
A/N: hello hi it's been forever! As some of you may know, I was dealing with some personal emotional problems and was having a rough time. But I'm okay again and back at writing! I can't wait for what this book has in store for you guys :)) The remake of It is out now and I'm so excited to go out and watch it! I've heard great things about it already!
I also wanted to thank you all for 9k reads. 9k! That's insane! Thank you all so much.
Anyway, I'm glad to be back and I hope I can update more frequently now. Enjoy the new chapter
~melissa
postscript; if you like tom holland you should check out my tom holland imagine book. it's good i swear ! lmao but rlly please if you guys could check it out that'd be great! thank you all so much💗