It was the July 4th celebration, and the Loser's club was hanging low by an alley. The band was playing in the streets, and Richie had taken some poor kid's instrument, and was playing badly. They were all staring at a missing kid poster, a new one. A boy by the name of Edward Corcocan, thirteen years old, had joined the missing kids.
"They said they found part of his hand all chewed up by the standpipe.'' Stanley said.
''He asked to borrow a pencil once.'' Ben added.
Bill moved closer and lifted the poster up. Edward's poster had covered up Betty Ripsom's. ''It's like she's been f-f-forgotten because Corcoran's missing.'' he said.
Layla sighed. ''Kids are disappearing daily, they probably can't keep track.''
Stanley stared at the poster. ''Is it ever gonna end?"
''What the fuck dude!'' Richie exclaimed, when the kid took his instrument back.
Eddie returned to the group with two ice-cream cones in his hands. ''What are you guys talking about?''
Richie walked towards Eddie, and Eddie had given him the second cone. ''What they always talk about.''
''I actually think it will end,'' Ben started. "For a little while at least.''
''What do you mean?" Layla asked, intrigued on what Ben had to say.
''So, I was going over my Derry research, and I charted out all the big events. The Ironworks explosion in 1908, The Bradley Gang in '35, and the Black Spot in '62. Now kids being.. I realized this stuff only happens every..''
''Twenty-seven years,'' Bill and Ben said at the same time.
They had moved to sitting in the park, where a circus was going on-stage. ''So, let me get this straight. IT comes out from wherever to eat kids for like, a year, and then what? IT just goes into hibernation?" Richie asked, skeptical on the situation.
The park was filled with blue, red and white decorations. Everyone was in a celebratory mood, except the Loser's Club.
"Maybe its like-- what do you call it?" Stan asked, figuring out what word he wanted to use.
''Cicada's,'' Layla responded. ''The bugs that come out once every seventeen years.''
Mike shook his head lightly, ''My grandfather thinks this town is cursed. He says, that all the bad things that happened in this town, are because of one thing. An evil thing that feeds off the people of Derry.''
"But it can't be one thing,'' Stanley argued. "We all saw something different.''
''Maybe,'' Mike said. ''Or maybe IT knows what scares us most and that's what we see.''
''I-I saw a leper.'' Eddie spoke up. "He was like a walking infection.''
''But you didn't,'' Stan said. Layla knew he was trying to come up with every possible way, that what they saw wasn't real. ''Because IT isn't real. None of this is.''
''I almost drowned, Stanley. I was going to take a bath and I heard voices coming from the tub. I got closer and when I did, hands grabbed my head and pulled me under. I couldn't breathe, and when IT let me go, it was laughing. That experience was real. This, is real.'' Layla explained, and she could still hear the high-pitched laughter.
Bill grabbed Layla's hand gently, and she smiled softly at him. He brought her comfort, and she felt safe with him.
''It can't be. It can't be real. Not Eddie's leper, or Bill seeing Georgie, Layla almost drowning, or the woman I keep seeing.''
''Is she hot?" Richie asked.
''No, Richie. She's not hot. Her face is all messed up. None of this makes any sense. They're all like bad dreams.'' Stan said, trying to convince himself that IT wasn't real.
''I don't think so,'' Layla interrupted, fiercely. ''I know the difference between a bad dream, and real life, okay?''
Mike nodded his head towards the female and she looked at him. ''What? Did you see something too?"
''Yes.'' He said. ''You guys know that burnt down house on Harris Avenue? I was inside when it burned down. Before I was rescued.. my mom and dad were trapped in the next room over from me. They were pushing and pounding on the door, trying to get to me. But it was too hot. When firefighters found them, the skin on their hands had melted down to the bone. We're all afraid of something.'' Mike finished.
Layla's heart hurt for Mike, to lose both of his parents the way he did. Layla lost her mother as a child, and Mike lost both in a horrendous way.
''You got that right.'' Richie said, turning around to see the a clown giving balloons away.
''Why, Rich? What are you afraid of?'' Eddie asked.
Richie pushed his glasses back on his face. ''Clowns.''
They travelled back to Bill's house, where Ben had brought slides for the projector. Stan and Layla were helping covering the windows up with blankets, while Bill put the map of Derry on the wall.
Ben handed Bill a set to put in, and it was a map of Old Derry. Bill focused the projector, and began speaking. ''Look.''
A red line ran through the map, a place called ''Storm Drain.'' Layla recognized it to be Bill's handwriting.
''That's where Georgie disappeared. There's the Ironworks, and the Black Spot. Everywhere IT happens, it-it's all connected by the sewers. And they all meet up at the-''
''The well-house.'' Ben said, staring at the map.
''It's the house on Neibolt street." Layla said, her skin crawling.
''You mean the creepy-ass house where all the junkies and hobo's like to sleep?" Richie asked.
Eddie took a gulp of his inhaler.
''I hate that place.'' Beverly said. ''I always feel like it's watching me.''
''That's where I saw It. Where I saw the clown.'' Eddie confessed.
''Tha-tha-That's where IT lives.'' Bill concluded.
Eddie took another gulp.
''I can't imagine anything living there. But, it actually seems fitting for that clown.'' Layla said, her stomach feeling queasy.
Eddie stood up, and turned around quickly. ''Can we stop talking about this? I can barely breathe. It's summer, I can barely breathe! I'm having a fucking asthma attack, and fuck doing this!'' Eddie ripped the map off the wall.
''What the hell! Put the map back!'' Bill yelled at Eddie, who just shook his head no.
The projector started clicking by itself. It was clicking to different pictures of Bill's family, and pictures of Georgie. ''What happened?" Bill asked.
The projector kept clicking, and nobody was touching it. It stopped on one picture, of Bill's family, ad his mother's hair was blowing in the wind.
It was getting closer to Georgie's face, and Layla whimpered, ''Bill?"
The clicking increased rapidly, towards Bill's mother. The more it began to click, the more it started turning into the clown Layla saw in her bathtub. Her heart was beating rapidly, and she could feel chills going down her spine.
''WHAT THE FUCK!'' Eddie screeched.
''WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!'' Richie yelled, grabbing onto Eddie as the projector kept clicking, and Mrs. Denbrough had become IT.
''Turn it off! Turn it off!'' Layla screamed, and she grabbed onto Stanley, for they were closest to the end.
Mike had kicked the projector, all of the slides falling out and scattering across the floor. It was still clicking, and the picture had been disfigured now, and clicked a few more times. Suddenly, the clown wasn't in the slide anymore. A long pause went by, before the projector clicked again, and suddenly, the clown popped out of the wall.
IT was enormous, and you could see each row of teeth, and just how sharp they were. The clown turned it's attention towards Layla and Stanley, before the Loser's yelled for them.
''Run, Layla, Stanley!''
They took off, but Layla tripped over the projector and slammed onto the concrete floor. She tried to get up to run, but something grabbed her ankle. She was screaming at this point, for she could feel herself being dragged backwards. Her knee's were bleeding and no doubt leaving a trail.
''Bill!'' Layla screeched, like a banshee. Her scream echoed throughout the garage, before the garage door was opened, and the clown was gone.
Layla turned her body around so she was sitting upright, and she was five inches away from the wall, where IT was. Her heart was about to burst out of her chest, and her ankle was throbbing. Her ankle was basically purple, and black.
She stood up, her breath shaky. She saw blood on the floor, from where she was being dragged. The Loser's were looking at her in shock. Layla was so close of being another missing kid.
Bill was the first to rush towards her, and wrapping his arms tightly around her. He couldn't get her screaming his name out of his head. He had almost lost her, like he lost Georgie. Layla let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding, and hugged him back.
Layla let go and walked towards her friends, Bill following.
''IT saw us and it knows where we are.'' Eddie gasped.
''IT always knew.'' Bill said, pushing past the club. He walked towards their bikes, ''Alright, let's go.''
''Go? Go where?" Ben said.
''Neibolt.'' Bill answered simply. ''That's where G-G-Georgie is.''
''After that?" Stan said. ''After Layla was literally dragged across the floor and traumatized.''
Layla couldn't speak, but she agreed with Bill. They need to stop IT from taking any more kids, and before it took any of them.
''Yeah, it's summer. We should be outside-'' Richie started. The word summer began to be his catchphrase because that's his excuse for everything.
''If you say it's summer one more f-f-fucking time.'' Bill cursed. Suddenly, he stopped speaking, but he grabbed his bike and took off.
''Bill!'' Layla called after him.
''Wait!'' Beverly said, and looked towards the entire group. They knew exactly where he was going. He was going to Neibolt house.
a/n ; thank you so much for 1k reads!! next chapter is my absolute favorite and I cant wait to write it!