𝙨𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 [st/it]

₁₆ . nightmares and rooftops

June 22nd, 1985
3:54 am

A black expanse appeared before El's eyes. She turned around, trying to find what brought her there. Probably Bill, since she found him and Beverley the other night at the quarry. A faint hum came from behind her, so she turned around again, seeing a figure where there has just been nothing.

As el approached the figure, she made out that it was a girl. The girl was looking around in every direction, shaking in fear. Once el got closer she realized the girl was Beverly. El reached out for Bev's hand, trying to comfort her. Of course, she couldn't actually touch her, and her hand fell through Beverly's cloudy body.

"NO!" yelled Bev, "Please don't hurt me!"

"Bev it's okay," reassured El, knowing she couldn't hear her.

Beverly's head fixed on a point. El couldn't see what it was, but Beverly's face filled with terror when she looked at it. El watched as the girl's eyes started changing. Her bright blue irises grew and filled each eyeball. El couldn't look away, she was almost frozen staring at the looming january embers that shone out of Beverly's eyes.

Suddenly, Beverly screamed, not looking away from whatever was in front of her, and she dissolved away in a quick few seconds.

"Beverly?" she said, in a regular indoor volume. El remained standing alone in the void, wondering what the hell had just happened. She blinked her eyes open and sat up, and she was in bed next to Mike.

"El?" asked Mike, opening his eyes.

"Yeah," she responded, tentatively.

"Were you having a dream about Bev?" he asked, sitting up next to her.

"Yeah, a nightmare actually."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," el insisted.

"What happened?"

"It was just a dream mike, we should go back to bed."

"Okay," Mike said, taking a deep breath after.

Mike laid back down, expecting El to join him. Instead, she got out of bed and opened the door.

"Where are you going?"

"To check on Beverly. I want to make sure she didn't have the same dream."

Mike was still half asleep, so El just left the room without him asking any more questions. She cautiously walked down the hallway, trying to avoid creaky floorboards. She carefully opened the door to the bedroom and saw Beverly lying in bed, facing outwards away from Bill. She was peacefully breathing, which assured El that what she saw hadn't been real, just some dark fixture of her imagination.

El made her way down the stairs, knowing that she couldn't go back to sleep. The first thing she noticed when she got downstairs was the glow of the open refrigerator.

"El?" asked a voice in the dark.

"Max?" she said.

"What are you doing awake?" asked max.

"What are you doing awake?"

"I woke up, I'm just getting water."

"Okay, me too."

Max opened the cupboard and got another glass out. She poured water for both of them from a bottle in the fridge.

"Eddie said not to drink the Derry tap water," she said, handing the glass to El.