After hours of reminiscing with Debbie in Josie's, the time rolled around for Lizzy to depart.
Jade of the Orient wasn't hard to get to, the cab driver pointed her in the right direction after Liz sparked a conversation about the meeting point.
"I'll drive you down Pasture Road. You can't miss it, it's a nice little joint - food's really good. Me and the wife went for our 33rd anniversary." The driver made idle chat with Lizzy, she politely nodded along. Pasture Road was where her old school was, it was familiar to her.
"You lived in Derry long? I grew up here." She hadn't seen his face before and Derry was a relatively small town. When she was younger she could practically connect names almost everyone's face whether she'd actually spoken to them or not.
"Nah, moved here with the wife around five years ago. Thought it'd be a nice change of scenery from New York. Especially seeing as all our kids have left the nest." He laughed lightly, Liz' brow furrowed.
"Derry of all places? It's rather obscure is it not?" She politely inquired further, most people had never heard of the town let alone its infamous neighbour Castle Rock.
"That's how I like it. Quiet town life. The obscurer the better." He softly laughed again. Lizzy got the impression he was a very cheery man who probably played board games or fished or performed some other mundane hobby in his spare time. His wife was probably the stereotypical loving grandmother in a Hallmark movie.
"Keep the change." She handed him a fifty-dollar bill. The man wasn't like most people that lived in Derry, he was much kinder and knew how to smile. The singer was lucky enough to have disposable cash, something that couldn't be said for others. Liz was feeling rather generous today, not intentionally, but why not? She was expecting to be dead by the end of the week. Perhaps even by the end of the night.
'JADE OF THE ORIENT' illuminated the parking lot, standing out nicely in the darkness.
The building was tackily decorated with neons, leftover remnants of the 80's impact on Derry. However, it seemed to emit a warmth like no other, and not just because it was designed that way. Fish tanks lining the walls seemed to welcome its customers in to the ornately designed restaurant. Her stomach fluttered in anticipation from knowing she was about to see the faces she had been dreaming about for the past few years. The hostess greeted her with a smile as Lizzy simply asked, "Table for Hanlon?" The woman nodded, still not dropping the smile while replying, "The other guests were expecting you, follow me." Lizzy clutched her purse even tighter, she really didn't know quite what to expect herself. These people she barely remembered yet held so close to her heart. Who were they? Why had they really all been brought back?
When she turned the corner, she was met with a group of adults, all of them seemingly around 40 years old and laughing in unison at something someone had just said. Their eyes quickly made their way to the new figure that had just entered the room, giving her a good look at them all.
"Thank fuck you're here, now we can finally order drinks - I vote shots." Beverly Marsh-Rogan grinned at the girl she was best friends with all those years ago, to be met with one back at her. "I think that's the best damn thing I've heard in a good while, Bev." The group laughed.
"Sorry for keeping you all waiting I didn't think I was late-"
"You're not, taxis just arrived early and such. You don't know how good it is to see you Liz." The man who was unmistakenly Mike Hanlon said, smiling earnestly. He gestured to the empty seat beside him and Bill Denbrough, who grinned back at her. Everyone else seemed happy but it was as if they didn't know what to say. She felt a certain person's presence but was terrified to meet his gaze. She awkwardly took the seat as whatever conversation had been occurring before her arrival continued on. Seemingly, they were talking about how Derry smelled like shit and honestly, Lizzy didn't know whether to agree or disagree.
"It DEFINITELY smells like shit, the second I took my first breath of Derry fresh air I wanted to barf." Eddie Kaspbrak expressed, waving his hands around like a mad man with an exasperated expression. Liz almost couldn't believe how little he'd changed. He went from being a mini Anthony Perkins look-a-like to having all the same features as the late Hollywood actor.
"I wholeheartedly agree with Eds, I almost started choking when I sniffed it. Just feels like I'm breathing in faeces and, well uh, shit." Richie Tozier leaned back one arm over the back of his chair nonchalantly, like he was backing up a business partner in an attempt to sell their invention on Shark Tank.
Hearing his voice awoke something in Lizzy, something that had been asleep for years seemingly. Memories of a crass boy and his coke bottle glasses. She almost let out a chuckle, his voice sounded exactly the same only deeper. She was still too shy to look at him properly.
"Faeces is shit, dickwad." Eddie exacerbated, turning on him. Richie replied with a smirk and shrugged.
"Absolutely not, Derry smells fine." Mike Hanlon laughed while simultaneously trying to get the waitress' attention. "Yeah exactly, it's just Derry, it smells like any other town I guess." The attractive man on Eddie's left said shyly, scratching the back of his neck. Liz's eyes widened realising that he was Ben Hanscom. Wow, she thought, Hanscom had gotten hot.
"Well first of all, Mike how the fuck would you know man you've been stuck in this place your whole life, and secondly, Ben you look like a hunky lumberjack that probably lives in the deep deep woods and only showers in waterfalls so how the hell would you know what smells good?" Richie ranted, causing the whole group to howl in laughter while Eddie just nodded passionately.
Lizzy decided she needed to take a stand in this debate.
"You guys ever realise that maybe the reason you think this place smells bad is that you two have come back and stunk up the place?" She smirked from her seat, staring at both men while the waitress finally came in and the group tried to hold back their laughter.
Mike made the drink and food orders while Richie and Lizzy's eyes met and remained locked together. He seemed speechless initially, almost as if he was looking at a ghost. Neither saying a word. The tension was so thick you could cut through it with a knife. She caught him looking her up and down slightly and softly smiled.
When the waitress left, Eddie immediately snapped out that it was 'literally impossible' that they were the reasons Derry smelled bad, he was even using his signature Eds hand gestures he did when he was frustrated. Lizzy remembered when they were young Richie would say to her that when Eddie did it, he looked like he was trying to karate chop through his hand into whoever he was complaining to. Lizzy would giggle and explain how she thought it looked like Eddie was trying to cut bread.
Richie still remained quiet across the table from her, as if this was a game of chess and he was planning his next move.
"Let's just address something, Elizabeth, I'm surprised you willingly chose to sit across from me knowing that it's just the perfect spot for me to stare at your boobs during this entire meal," He snarked, waving his hands and eventually directing them towards her chest which made her roll her eyes. This was the first time they'd spoke in over twenty years, and he had somehow managed to make reference to her breasts. "Desperate times call for desperate measures, Richard." She replies, winking after finishing her sentence.
"Well, I'm certainly glad to see you again, Liz." He raises his eyebrow and slightly smirks in flirtation.
Her face read unamused but Richie could tell otherwise when the ends of her lips slightly curled upwards as she picked up her glass of wine that had just arrived at the table.
"I'm certainly glad to see you too." She replied and toasted her glass to him. They couldn't help but break out into full on smiles, they'd only realised until now how much they'd missed each other.
"Fucking hell guys, get a room." Bill jokingly interrupts, getting the entire group laughing again. It was just like old times. Lizzy playfully nudged Bill beside her, something about sitting beside him (and Mike) had taken all her worries away. Bill looked the same only obviously older and with longer hair (and a grey streak through it which Lizzy thought looked rather cool).
"Anyway, SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS!" Beverly laughed as the waitress finally finished bringing a large amount of alcoholic beverages and small shot glasses full of liquid to the table.
The evening continued and as much as Lizzy would hate to admit it she was getting tipsy.
"So, wait, Eddie- you got married?" Richie chuckled, he'd been chugging drinks like it was absolutely no big deal. "Yeah, why's that so fuckin' funny dickwad?" He replied hastily and without hesitation as if he was preparing for an insult. Liz raised an eyebrow at the fourth (or maybe fifth, things were getting hazy) use of that particular nickname in the past two hours.
"What, to like a woman?" Richie's tone was confusing. Half of it sounded like he was insulting his friend and the other half seemed genuinely curious. "Fuck you bro." Eddie had had enough before the conversation even really started. Richie let out his signature chuckle and proclaimed, "FUCK YOU!"
"What about you Trashmouth? You married?" Bill smirked, causing Beverly to slightly laugh. Lizzy fidgeted in her chair, she realised that even though she knew of Richie Tozier in the entertainment industry as his late night talk show persona and for his self deprecating style of stand up comedy, she didn't actually check up on his Wikipedia page to see if he was married or not. "No way Richie's married." Beverly slurred, still holding the same piece of food between her chopsticks that had been in there since Lizzy last took notice five minutes ago.
"No, no, I am. I got married."
Her heart dropped.
Why did it have to do that? Why was she so upset because of this? She couldn't help but look down at her plate.
"When?" Liz asked softly, it slipped out of her mouth without her even realising. "Yeah, when?" Eddie was genuinely intrigued, he'd watched a good few of Richie's comedy specials and one of the constant running jokes was how Richie thought he'd be forever alone due to his 'massive dick' scaring potential male and female suitors off. "Did you not hear this?" He ignored Lizzy and directed his response right to Eddie, who again responded with a genuine 'no'.
"No, me and your mom are very happy right now."
Bill spat out his drink, Beverly spat out the piece of seafood that she'd finally put in her mouth, Mike had to cover his mouth from the laughter and Ben raised his eyebrows (he knew it was coming, but he wouldn't admit it - he just liked seeing his friends happy.) Lizzy was almost embarrassed to let out a sigh of relief and laughed along with them, now directing her attention to Eddie who was dumbfounded but let out a, "fuck you." Richie went on to make a joke about Eddie's mom being Jabba The Hutt which sent the group into another frenzy. Lizzy couldn't help but take notice that this was the first time in as long as she could remember that she was genuinely, extremely, wholeheartedly happy.
"Oh my god, Liz, congrats on like everything?" Beverly got really excited and wide eyed and Lizzy couldn't help but smile so wide that her face hurt. "Stop it, I'm blushing."
Ben raised an eyebrow, "I know it's not everyday you get to meet the Lizzy Dwyer, singer extraordinaire." She blushed and took a large gulp of her drink. "Yeah, holy shit man, your stuff comes on in the car all the time and it's great, it's super fuckin' depressing man, but great!" Eddie enthused. Bill nodded and slightly toasted his glass filled with beer (Lizzy wasn't sure if it was his fifth or sixth one).
"I wouldn't know, she's always turning down requests to go on my show," Richie faked being upset, taking a drink and flickering his eyes across the table to take in her reaction. Lizzy laughed, and Richie couldn't help but smile because he knew he was the cause of it. "I like talk shows where the hosts actually let the guests talk." The table erupted into 'oooooo's and Lizzy rolled her eyes at them trying to stir the pot. "Hey! I'm a great host!" He defended himself and Lizzy raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah, to other people, but if I came on your show you KNOW you couldn't go two seconds without a crude comment or sexual advance at me. I'd leave that interview with you practically humping my leg like a small dog." He seemed like he didn't have a response while the others giggled. After a few seconds of them smirking at each other
"Okay. You got me there." He threw up his hands in defeat while their friends cheered and Bill and Mike patted Lizzy on the back. "Speaking of talking, you're quieter than I remember Liz." Eddie smiled at her, a hint of wistfulness in his voice. For a second Lizzy wanted to cry, she didn't see an older man she just saw the young boy that she was so fond of all those years ago. Liz shrugged, grabbing her drink. "Everything I say nowadays is in the music, man." Richie rolled his eyes at that. "What are you? Fuckin' Jimi Hendrix?" The brunette only responded to this by throwing a shrimp in his direction which he attempted to catch in his mouth.
"Anyway lets talk about the elephant not in the room, Ben - what the fuck man?" Richie gestured towards the extremely handsome man and Lizzy chuckled. "Yeah okay, okay obviously I lost a few pounds." He waved his cider around while trying to down play the glow up he had.
"Yeah! No shit you lost a few pounds!" Eddie was talking as if he was Ben's dad that had just caught him doing something bad and wanted an explanation. "You're like, uh, you're hot!" Richie couldn't help but check him out to which both Eddie and Lizzy joined in.
"Guys stop, you're embarrassing him." Beverly smiled, and Lizzy jokingly nodded.
"Okay, okay, alright please! Is Stanley coming or what? Someone save me." His sentence faded off after he realised what he was saying. For the second time of the night Lizzy's heart dropped. How could she forget Stan? Sweet Stan Uris. Stan the Man. Her Stan. The empty chair beside Eddie just seemed even emptier now. She felt sad.
The others look just as shocked as she did as they all started reciting their nicknames for him including but not limited to 'Stan Urine'. "No he's a fuckin' pussy he's not gonna show.
"Why would Stanley save you anyway? Was I not the one who basically performed surgery on you after Bowers' cut you up? Holy shit, that's right!" Eddie grabbed Ben's arm and smiled. But Lizzy's eyes still lingered on the chair. "Please tell me you became a doctor, Eds." Beverly was starting to lull, deciding that maybe she should slow down with the beers. "No, I ended up becoming a risk analyst."
"Oh that sounds really interesting, what does that entail?" Richie faked interest before immediately pretending to sleep when Eddie spoke. "Fuck you dude, fuck you." He narrowed his eyes at the bespectacled man. "Was this job invented before fun?" The boys began to bicker before Lizzy was finally snapped out of her trance by Eddie turning to Ben and exclaiming, "WHAT THE FUCK are YOU laughing at?".
Beverly had noticed her old best friend's silence. In fact, despite being rather drunk (which he had intended to be due to the general uneasiness she felt about this reunion and the fight with her now ex-husband earlier) she had sensed something off about Liz the entire time.
"I propose a toast, To the Losers." The ginger girl smiled, eyes directing towards Lizzy who smiled right back at her. They all clinked their glasses together and finished what ever drink was left in them before ordering another round.
From that point on, they all continued to goof around with Beverly pretending to lean in to kiss Richie but then putting some seafood in his mouth at the last minute, to Richie and Eddie participating in an arm wrestling match.
By the time the waitress from earlier came out with more food and drinks, they'd all broken off into separate conversations. Currently, Bill, Bev and Liz were discussing Rogan-Marsh, Beverly's fashion company she co-owned with Tom Rogan. Lizzy had moved her chair to be more involved in the conversation while Richie, Mike and Ben discussed how they believed Eddie was the biggest hypochondriac they'd ever met.
During the conversation, Bill drifted off into thought while looking at the two women in front of him. He saw Beverly Marsh, his first crush, who's hair was just as red as it was in the drawings he'd done when he was younger. And Lizzy Dwyer, the closest thing he had to a sister, the girl who knew what it was like to go through what he'd went through with Georgie. He couldn't say his memories of them were particularly easy to remember until tonight but in the years apart from them he had thought of them in small moments. Bill remembered Beverly smiling to him outside Keene's pharmacy and Lizzy holding his hand at Georgie's funeral. And now here they were. All grown up. It was bittersweet, he couldn't help but think what his life - what all the loser's lives - would've been like now if they all hadn't drifted apart.
Lizzy, as observant as ever, noticed his vacant gaze as soon as he faded off. Although he was smiling at them, she could see a slight sadness in his eyes and could sense a longing behind it. "What?" Beverly broke him out of his trance.
"Nothing. This is just weird." He sighed, Lizzy couldn't help but nod in agreement. "Just all this, all these memories and people that I don't even remember forgetting." Bill continued while Bev nodded. Lizzy took note of how his stutter had gone.
Huh.
Bill's stutter.
Just another thing on the endless list that she'd remembered at this table. And what was it that Eddie had? He was always ill wasn't he? Was it migraines? No! Asthma! That was it. But it wasn't even real asthma. Was it?
"Every time someone opens their mouth I feel such a strong deja vu, hearing about memories I never even knew I had, I feel like a character in a story that's being rewritten with a different backstory all at once. I didn't even remember the summer of '89 being as important as it was until I walked in here and saw everyone's faces." Lizzy played with her hands and stared at the table so intensely that she felt like she was trying to burn a hole into it. Bill's face softened and Beverly met eyes with his. Lizzy could tell they agreed with her, they didn't even need to say anything.
"It's weird isn't it. Now that we're all here everything just comes back faster and faster. I mean, all of it." Ben had been listening to them for a while and agreed with them. His eyes meeting Bev's, who nodded in agreement and softly smiled at him.
"Y'know, when Mike called me I threw up." Richie admitted.
Lizzy's mind went back to the phone call. Even the sound of the phone ringing had made her stomach churn. As if it was destiny telling her that something seriously bad was going to happen. As nice as it was to be here, sitting with her old friends, reliving their past - she almost wished she never took the call.
"I mean, I feel fine now - I feel very relieved to be here with you guys." He finished his anecdote with an awkward smile. Yet again, Richie's eyes met Lizzy's own and all he could read from them - as well as the energy from the room - was dread. "Why's everybody looking at me like this?"
Lizzy felt her chest tightening up again. She had to grab on to the table, her knuckles turning white from the strength of her grip. She couldn't breathe, she needed to get out of there. Anything the losers were saying right now was complete white noise.
"Why do we all fuh-feel like that, Mike? You remember something we don't, d-don't you Mike?" Bill's expression darkened, his hands shaking. Bill hadn't stuttered in over 20 years, in the past few sentences he'd spoke he struggled through them. Mike fidgeted in his chair, he looked like he was thinking carefully about his next few words.
"Something happens to you when you leave this town, the farther away the hazier it all gets. But I stayed so, yeah, I remember. I remember all of it."
"Pennywise." Beverly whispered, hand immediately dropping to meet Lizzy's, interlocking them like they did when they were young girls. It was like a bomb had been dropped on the room just from her saying that, everyone was clearly disturbed by the mention of his name. "Oh the fucking clown-" His breathing was struggled, he felt like he was having an asthma attack. Out of habit he pat down his jacket, looking for an inhaler to stop the feeling.
"Mike you said you wanted our help with something, what was that?" Bill looked terrified. Lizzy wished they'd all just stop talking about it, her grip on Bev's hand getting even tighter. Not that Beverly even noticed, she was lost in her own scared thoughts. "There's an echo here in Derry that bounces back. Every 27 years." Mike began to ramble.
Eddie tried to interject, but he continued none the less. "Hold on, listen, listen, we thought we stopped it back then - we thought it was done but-" He brought out a notebook filled with messy scribbles and incoherent writing. "Mike, c'mon man." Richie objected, eyebrows furrowed but his entire body locked in place out of pure panic. "This really isn't cool, man." Lizzy intended on her voice coming out more assertively but all that she could manage was a whimper as her eyes began to water. "A week ago, Adrian Mellon slaughtered. A girl, Lisa Albright-" Mike continued on, tapping on the table with his finger. "Dude-" Richie glanced at Lizzy, taking in her dishevelled appearance and saw Beverly beside her dart her eyes around the table nervously, trying to form words but not having the strength to. Everyone around the table started trying to cut in, with Ben insisting that the others let Mike explain his point.
"You made an oath. That's why I brought you back, that's why you're here. To finish it for good."
After a few seconds of silence, Richie was the first to break it (as usual). "Well that shit got dark fast, thanks Mike."
Looking for something - anything - to distract them, their hands scrambled for the fortune cookies placed in front of each of them. Except Lizzy, she was still focusing on getting her breathing pattern back to normal. Eddie clicked his tongue, a dissatisfied sigh escaped his mouth while he shook his head. "My fortune cookie just said 'could'."
Richie squinted at the small piece of paper in front of him. "They don't know how to do fortune cookies here, mine just says 'guess'." He showed it off around the table. Bill leaned forward, "You mind throwing that over here?" Richie complied, prompting Eddie to hand it over.
It seemed that every one of them only had a single word, and so Bill decided to unscramble the message.
Guess, could, it, not and cut.
After much debating, it soon became apparent that there was still a missing piece. Bev's hand trembled, eyes welling with tears from the sheer shock of seeing what was on the small piece of paper. Lizzy glanced down at it only to gasp in horror and jump back. Silence filled the room again as they stared at the woman. She gently placed it on the table in front of them.
Stanley.
Bill's jaw clenched. This was twisted and sick. But none the less, he began to move the words around once again.
There was only one clear result of what it could be.
'GUESS STANLEY COULD NOT CUT IT'.
Lizzy wasn't sure what happened next, panicked looks, Eddie shouting for an explanation. She looked at her palms and saw bleeding nail marks from how tight she'd clenched. She needed to get out right now.
Until, her attention was diverted.
The bowl of fortune cookies began to shake, as if they were eggs hatching. The woman almost couldn't believe what she was seeing, was it a tremor? Maybe she'd just had one too many drinks and they were all frightening each other. She inched closer towards the table after jumping away from it moments ago and closely inspected the lone fortune cookie closest to her that she'd neglected to open. Looking up, she saw Richie looking at her with worried eyes and an air of hesitation around him.
A cracking noise emitted from the cookie, and again and again. Until from out of the fortune cookie, a spider-like-creature's face emerged.
Out sprung one of its legs, that ended in a sharp talon that swiftly started piercing the table in order to pull itself forward towards her as it spread a trail of blood with it.
Lizzy tried to speak, tried to warn the others to stay back, and yet all that left her mouth was a scream.