"dee? are you awake honey?" delilah heard her mother's voice through her bedroom door. delilah had been up a short while now as she assumed she would be doing something with beverly and the losers club today, which was confirmed when she got a phone call from a distressed beverly.
cassandra's question was answered when her daughter opened her bedroom door, smiling.
"i've got something to tell you." cassandra said to her daughter, trying not to let on the sadness in her voice.
"what is it?" delilah asked.
"your letter came, from the competition. i'm sorry honey, you didn't get it." cassandra told her daughter whilst handing her the letter that came in the mail this morning.
it took delilah a few minutes to process what her mom had just said to her. "oh." delilah opened the letter wanting to confirm what she had just been told. "well, that's just another thing i'll bury in my dungeon of sadness next to my daddy issues and ballerina dreams". delilah threw the letter onto her bed.
"don't be like that, dee." cassandra pleaded.
"i'm fine mom. i'm going to bev's." delilah said closing the door.
failure was another one of delilah's fears and she'd just experienced it first hand. she didn't know what to do. all delilah did was let a few tears roll from her eyes and then compose herself quickly. delilah only cried rarely she cried in a single situation, if one of her friends or family members got hurt. she had no memory of ever crying at anything else. she climbed out of her window, not wanting to face her mother trying to console her, and went to beverly's.
after her experience the previous day, delilah made her way to beverly's very quickly and when she got there she saw richie standing outside beverly's apartment on his own.
"hi, lilah." richie called to her when he saw her.
"hi, rich. where is everyone? bev said it was an emergency." delilah asked, confused.
"they're inside. i don't know why. i'm a look out incase beverly's dad comes back." richie explained.
"well, i'll just stay out here with you then. keep you company." delilah gave richie a slight wink, making richie blush slightly for the first time in his life.
delilah sat on the metal stairs that led up to beverly's apartment and pulled a cigarette packet and a lighter from her pocket. she lit the cigarette and took an intake of it before offering richie one. delilah had never seen richie smoke but she'd never spoken to the boy properly until a few days ago, so she offered anyway. richie took one and delilah lit it for him. as richie breathed in the smoke he tried so hard not to cough and embarrass himself in front of delilah, not that she would've cared anyway.
"so, lilah?" delilah asked.
"huh?" richie was confused.
"earlier, when i arrived, you called me lilah." delilah elaborated.
"oh yeah. it's just a nickname, unless you would rather me call you something else, babe." richie smirked.
"no thanks, rich. lilah will do just fine." delilah said taking another intake of her cigarette.
as if on cue the rest of the losers club came down the stairs. "dee?" beverly asked as she neared the bottom of the stairs.
delilah just smiled at the group. "what's going on?" delilah was still confused as to what she was doing here.
"let's go on a ride, we'll explain on the way."
the group rode their bikes around, not heading anywhere in particular whilst explaining what had happened and what they saw. beverly was doing most of the talking, seeing as she had experienced it. once beverly finished talking, richie started.
"no, i love being your personal doorman, really!" he said sarcastically, whilst riding his bike around the group instead of next to them. "could you idiots have taken any longer?"
"shut up richie!" eddie said, evidently getting annoyed at his friend
"yeah, shut up richie." stan agreed.
"oh okay, trash the trashmouth, i get it! but hey, i wasn't the one scrubbing the bathroom floor and imagining that her sink went all 'eddie's mom's vagina on halloween". richie commented, still not really believing what they had supposedly seen.
"she didn't imagine." bill defended beverly. "i s-s-saw something too." he added, stopping dead in his tracks which made everyone else do the same, in order to listen to bill.
"you saw blood too?" stan implored.
"not blood." bill said whilst shaking his head. "i s-saw g-g-georgie."
at bill's confession, delilah gasped. if bill had seen his little brother could that mean that she had seen her father? richie took a glance at the girl just to make sure she was okay. he caught her eye and then furrowed his eyebrows as if to ask if she was okay, delilah replied which a small reassuring smile.
"it s-seemed so real. i mean it seems like him but there was this..." bill stopped and it wasn't due to his stutter, he seemed scared to say it.
"clown." eddie finished for him after a moment of silence. "yeah, i saw him too."
bill looked around the group, seeing that ben nodded slightly and stanley gave him a look that told him they'd both seen something. bill looked at delilah as if to ask whether she'd seen or experienced anything strange.
"i might've seen something." delilah added, catching the groups attention. "i thought i saw my dad, yesterday morning, but he's, you know." delilah stopped slightly. "i guess it could've been something else, a hallucination or whatever."
"wait, can only virgins see this stuff? is that why i'm not seeing this shit?" richie asked, seeming to actually be serious. delilah tolled her eyes, but still laughed slightly at his questions.
the groups thoughts were interrupted by shouts and screams coming from an opening behind them.
"oh shit, that's belch huggins' car." richie informed. delilah felt herself subconsciously shiver when she heard the name, knowing that means henry was near.
"we should probably get out of here." eddie said, not wanting to run into henry or any of his friends today, not after the morning they'd had.
"wait." bill said, making the group stop and turn to him, "isn't that the homeschooled kids bike?"
"oh yeah, that's mike's." delilah knew mike from seeing him doing his deliveries, he'd always been kind to her and she'd always been kind back. delilah realised that the screams they were hearing were coming from mike.
"we've got to help him." delilah said.
"we should?" richie asked. richie didn't want to get beat up for trying to help someone else, unless that person was delilah, then he would make an exception.
"yeah!" beverly said incredulously, finding it hard to believe that richie was thinking about not helping. beverly ran toward the opening with the remainder of the group getting off their bikes and following closely behind her.
beverly had just thrown a rock straight at bowers, causing his head to bleed, when the rest of the group caught up to her.
"nice throw" stan said.
"thanks."
mike crawled through the stream over to the losers club. it took henry and his group a while to gather themselves and help henry up. when they did, henry had the same cocky smirk as always, the one that made delilah feel sick to her stomach.
"you losers are trying to hard. she'll do you, you just gotta ask nicely like i did." henry then made an obscene gesture. "but pretty girl over here, i can't say anything. but her sister, that i can tell you about."
after henry had finished speaking ben screamed and threw a rock directly at his head causing henry to mutter "what the fuck." the rest of the losers club proceeded in throwing rocks at bowers' gang.
"rock war!" richie screeched and then fell down after being hit with a rock in the middle of his forehead. no one seemed to notice other than delilah who offered him a hand and helped him up.
rocks continued to be thrown back and forth from each side of the stream. the losers club had the occasional hit but every rock they threw hit one of bowers' gang. eventually victor and belch ran back towards the woods and henry remained face down in the floor.
one by one the losers club left the stream whilst helping mike. as delilah was about to leave, she noticed that richie hadn't left yet.
"go blow your dad you mullet wearing asshole!" richie shouted across to henry whilst flipping him both of with both hands. delilah laughed and made her way through the opening with richie following close behind her.
"you guys shouldn't of done that. he'll be after you now." mike said.
"who? bowers? oh, don't worry he's always after us." eddie laughed slightly.
"welcome to the losers club, homeschool." richie said with a smile whilst patting mike on the shoulder.
The losers club returned to where they had left their bikes and got on them before continuing their way into the centre of the town to the 4th of july parade.
a marching band passed the group when they finally arrived. they entered a small alleyway because a new missing poster had attracted the groups attention. delilah was lent against a wall just next to the alleyway, watching richie try and steal one of the instruments from the marching band. delilah was half paying attention to the conversation the others were having.
"i-it's like she's been for-for-forgotten b-because corcoran's missing." bill said whilst looking at the newly placed missing poster. delilah didn't really want to hear about missing children at this time, so she turned her attention back to richie.
"what the fuck dude?" richie complained as the instrument was snatched back by the trumpet player. richie began walking towards the group.
"is it ever gonna end?" stan asked. he didn't get an answer because eddie soon interrupted.
"what are you guys telling about?" eddie had returned with two ice creams and passed one to richie.
"what they always talk about." richie replied whilst taking the ice cream out of eddie's hand and returning to the group.
"i actually think it will end, for a little while at least." ben said, finally replying to stan.
"what do you mean?" beverly asked confused.
"so i was going over all of my derry research and i mapped out all of the big events. the iron works explosion on 1908, the bradley gang in '35 and the black spot in '62 and now kids being-" ben paused after his explanation and looked towards bill before continuing. " i realised this stuff seems to happen,"
"every 27 years." bill said with ben. the group went silent after this and delilah felt a shiver run down her spine and richie pulled her into him.
the group decided to move onto some benches near to a stage where there was a performance going on. they were sitting in silence until stan suggested something.
"maybe it's like, what do you call it, cicadas. they're bugs that come out once every 17 years."
"my grandfather thinks this towns cursed." mike said. "he said to me that all the bad things that happen in this town are because of one thing, one evil thing, that feeds of the people in derry."
"but it can't be just one thing." delilah said
"yeah, we all saw something different." stan finished for her.
"or maybe it just knows what our worst fears are and that's what it makes us see."
"i saw a leper. it was like a walking infection." eddie said.
"but you didn't." stan interrupted, "because it isn't real, none of this is. not eddies leper or bill seeing georgie or the woman i keep seeing." stan got uneasy when he mentioned his vision, which caused delilah to place her hand in his shoulder and giving it a squeeze. when richie saw this he felt the need to say something that would most likely annoy stan.
"is she hot?" richie asked.
"no richie! she's not hot!" stan raised his voice at richie. richie's idea to annoy stan has worked. "her face is all messed up. none of this makes sense. this is all like a bad dream!"
"i don't think so." mike interrupted. "i know the difference between a bad dream and real life, okay?"
"what'd you see?" eddie asked at the same time that delilah asked, "wait, you saw something too?" it was strange to delilah that each of them had a vision, except for richie, even mike who most of them hadn't spoken to until today. it seemed as if they were all being targeted by the something.
"yeah. you guys know that house that burnt down on harris avenue?" mike paused and delilah nodded her head slightly but everyone else stayed silent and still. "i was inside when it burnt down. before they rescued me, my parents were trapped inside. they were in the room next to mine, pounding on the door trying to get to me. when they found them, the skin on their hands had melted through to the bone." mike sighed and then said, "we're all afraid of something."
"you got that right." richie agreed.
"what're you afraid of, rich?" delilah asked him.
"clowns." richie answered and then looked at the stage behind them where a clown was standing handing out balloons to come children. a shiver seemed to run down everyone's spine.