"Lyds?"
The Jade of the Orient seemed almost silent as Lyds and Eddie Kaspbrak made their way across the tiled floor, Eddie could feel his wife's hand shake within his grasp and he knew, he felt, just how hard it was for her to be there. From the way her eyes filled with tears to the way her head fell against his shoulder, Eddie felt her pain. Being back in Derry had been hard for both of them, but he knew how hard it was for her, after all she was the one who lost her entire family. But what Eds didn't realise was that his wife's tears were not ones of strife but much rather tears of happiness. Of course, it was the place where all of her bad memories lay, but it was also where her favourite memories did too, and as she stepped across the restaurant she found herself stood face to face with five of those memories.
It didn't seem real, being back in Derry that is, it all felt like some sort of dream, just like the clown had.
"Lyds..." Bill breathed out and before anyone could comprehend what was happening he had swept the woman up into his arms, so her feet barely met the ground, and he swung her around within his embrace.
It was a strange sight to see, but anyone who knew Lyds and Bill knew their friendship had been one based on loss, but that was what made their bond so much stronger, and no amount of money or time could take that from them. They'd felt that same pain.
"Bill!" Lydia began to cry, "I missed you so much, I read your books, I read all of them-"
"How long has it been?"
"27 years." Eddie spoke up, his hand fell upon the shorter woman's shoulder, "It's good to see you Bill."
"Is that a hint of jealousy I detect?" Richie called out
"Fuck off." Eddie snapped, causing both Lyds and Richie to let out a laugh. The dynamic trio had been apart for years and still it seemed as if nothing had changed.
It was only when the Kaspbrak woman pulled herself out of her trance that she noticed a familiar woman with short red hair stood motionless at the other side of the table. It couldn't be.
"Bev..."
"Lyds, h-how are you?"
"Never better." Lydia beamed and once more she was trapped in her friends tight embrace, "What about you? You look great!"
"You know, I just left a dead end marriage, so I don't think I've ever been better either."
"Fuck that guy."
"Yeah, fuck him."
"Talking about Eddie again?" Richie piped up, resting his head upon the blonde woman's shoulder.
"Beep beep Richie." Another man laughed and Lyds suddenly became aware of the man who'd been watching them.
"I'm sorry I don't remember you-"
"L, it's Ben."
"Holy shit!"
"You haven't changed." He chuckled
"Well you sure have... I mean, you look-"
"Not fat anymore?" Rich quirked a brow
"Well I can see someone's still a trashmouth." Eddie immediately rolled his eyes and with everyone reintroduce he thought it would be best to seat himself, and so that was what he did but of course the second he had a moment to himself he began to remember the reason he was there and made a grab for his inhaler.
"Eds?" Lydia sat beside him calmly, careful not to alert their friends as to what was happening, "Are you okay?"
"I'll be fine just give me a minute."
"I'll go get your back up inhaler from the car."
"It's empty." He whispered, his hands found hers beneath the table.
"Well I'm sure there's a late night pharmacy open somewhere-"
"Lyds I promise you I'm fine." The brunette leaned in and lay a soft kiss upon her lips, "See?"
"You know we're here to eat Chinese food right? Not each other."
"Once again, beep beep Richie."
"Or alternatively, fuck off, yet again!"
"Wow you two are a match made in heaven." Bev smiled fondly at the pair, they'd come so far together, it was admirable really.
"More like hell."
"Come on guys let's stop fighting, that's not what tonight is about." Mike shook his head, ushering everyone into there seats, "Tonight is about us, reuniting."
To kill a murderous clown! L thought to herself but she opted to keep her mouth shut.
"To us." She smiled instead, raising her glass.
"To us." Everyone repeated
"Now, who's ready to eat?"
***
"I was not that bad! I really wasn't!"
"Babe, be honest!" Eddie yelled out
"Lyds we tried to teach you to ride that bike six times! You were terrible."
"I wasn't!"
"Six times, Lyds! Six!" Richie threw his head back in laughter, "And how many times did you eat shit?"
"Six." The woman covered her face in embarrassment and bit her lip to try to refrain from laughing at her own misfortune.
"Exactly! You were fucking horrible at it, there was the time you rode it in front of a car and Eddie had to patch you up - that other time when you rode it into a wall, and Eddie had to patch you up, and my personal favourite, when you rode it down the hill into the barrens and catapulted yourself into the water."
"I was a kid!"
"You were nineteen and we were visiting Derry for the weekend jackass! We had to take you to the ER because you broke your elbow!"
"Did that really happen Lyds?"
"Sadly yes." Lydia cringed and hid her face against Beverly's shoulder, the red haired woman took another sip of her beer and chuckled at her friend. She really hadn't changed.
"She still has the scar to prove it." Eddie joined in, making a grab for his wife's arm, "Its on her elbow."
"Get off! You're getting grease all over my jacket - that's disgusting Eddie!"
"So- wait? You guys got married?" Rich practically cackled
"Yeah why's that so funny dickwad?"
"I don't know seems to me like she hates you."
"Isn't that what all marriages are based off? Mutual hate." Lyds joined in, the woman was just glad to not be the one being teased for a moment.
"Hey what about you trashmouth? You married?" Bill called from the other side of the table.
"No way is Richie married!"
"No- no! I did get married, you guys didn't hear this? You didn't know I got married?" He turned to Eddie
"No!"
"Yeah, me and your mom, we're very happy together."
The table instantly broke out into a chorus of laughter all except for Eddie who sat back in his seat with a look on his face that could only be described as pure unadulterated rage. That didn't matter to Lydia though, she tried her hardest to hide her laughter from him but it was much too hard and she was much too drunk.
"We get it! My mom is a great big fat person! Hilarious! Hysterical!" Eddie threw his hands in the air and Lyds immediately threw a protective arm around him.
"Come on guys, quit bullying my husband, let's talk about something else."
"Thank you." The man half smiled and kissed her cheek.
"Okay! Let's talk about the elephant not in the room... Ben. What the fuck man?"
"Okay, obviously I lost a few pounds."
"A few? You're hot! You're like every Brazilian soccer player wrapped up into one person."
"Leave him alone you're embarrassing him!" Beverly shook her head
"Come on, Lyds back me up here!"
"I would say Ben is hot but I'm married to an incredibly jealous risk analyst so I'm not going to involve myself."
"She agreed! That's two votes for Ben is hot."
"Stop it, come on!" Ben desperately tried to turn the situation away from himself but it seemed he had picked a sore topic, "Is Stanley coming or not?"
"Stanley Urine? No, no he's a fucking pussy he's not going to show up!"
"Actually he isn't a pussy Rich."The Kaspbrak woman cut in, "It's my fault that he isn't here, Eds and I made the mistake of bringing our son to Derry and Stanley took one for the team and got him out of this place. That's why he isn't here tonight, not by any fault of his own."
"You have a son?" Beverly rose a brow as did Bill, the only other person at the table who had had no idea about the newest addition to the losers club.
"Hey! Why would you want Stan here anyway? Was I not the one who pretty much performed surgery on you after Bowers cut you up? Holy shit, that's right!" Eddie spoke, completely ignoring his wife and her desperation to protect her friend.
"Okay lets all be calm." Beverly shot a look at the other woman, "Eddie...so what is this job you do? You're a risk analyst? So you never became a doctor?"
"Nope I'm a risk analyst. It paid better somehow."
"Oh and what does that entail?" Richie asked with wonder in his magnified eyes.
"Yeah so I work for like a big insurance firm... and uh-"
The Kaspbrak man found himself stopping short at the sound of Richie snoring, everyone began to laugh once more but Eddie didn't find it funny in the slightest. He was beginning to get sick of being the butt of the joke.
"Fuck you dude, fuck you."
"Eds..." Lydia mumbled wrapping her arms around his "Its okay, it's just a little fun."
"Was this job invented before fun?"
"Oh that's so not funny!"
"That is funny!"
It seemed Ben found it the funniest of all as the man reared back in his seat, trying ever so hard to quiet himself but failing miserably.
"What the fuck are you laughing at?"
"Babe it's okay." His wife laughed once more pressing another one of her gentle kisses to his cheek, "Isn't this great?"
"It is when I'm not being bullied at 40 years old."
"Okay! I propose a toast!" Beverly was the one to cut through the laughter and childish antics, she did always have a way with words, "To the losers!"
"To the losers!"
***
"I am so stuffed... I feel like I'm pregnant again, jesus!"
"I can't believe you guys had a baby."
"Yeah he's-he's great... perfect actually."
"He have all his toes?" Richie asked
"Yes?"
"All his fingers?"
"Yes he has those too."
"That's good! He look like Eddie? Because if he does I think that's where the problem is."
"First of all, fuck you. And second of all I think he looks more like Lyds but obviously she thinks-"
"No way! Sebastian looks exactly like you in all of your baby pictures, he's got the same nose and hair-"
"But he has Lydia's eyes."
"You're right Lyds, he does sound perfect." Beverly beamed, "He have any god parents?"
"It was just Stan and then Richie too, but that didn't feel right to me, and I was hoping that if it were okay with Eds, that all of you guys would be. After all you seem like the best candidates."
"Wow, five god fathers and one god mother, that little brat sure is going to get spoiled at Christmas." Richie began but his attention was quickly turned on the fortune cookies being delivered to their table, "Here we go!"
"Thank you." Everyone smiled
For a while everyone silently picked at their fortune cookies, listening in on Bev and Bill's conversations about his latest book and movie, it was a peaceful bliss, that was until Ben brought up the unspeakable.
"It's weird right? Now that we're all here, everything comes back faster and faster, I mean all of it."
"You know when Mike called me I threw up?" Richie chuckled to himself, "That weird? I got nervous, I got sick and I threw up. I feel fine now, I feel very relieved to be here with you guys... Why's everyone looking at me like that?"
"When Mike called me I went out and I crashed my car. Sebastian was in the back seat and everything, Lyds went crazy. I left her on the phone with Stan for five minutes and I crashed our car."
"Really? I hear ya, I mean my heart was literally pounding out of my chest."
"I thought it was only me."
"It was like pure f-f-f..." Bill stuttered for the first time in what seemed to be years.
A certain tension filled the air and whilst everyone focused on their own traumas, Lydia began to notice Mike's as he sat at the table motionless, his head was bowed as if he was going to cry at any second and Lyds wished more than ever that she was sat next to him and holding his hand. She knew her friends hadn't meant to hurt him, but the girl knew from the simplest of looks that their words had gotten to him unlike ever before.
"Fear." Mike snapped, "It's fear you felt."
"Why are we all feeling that way? You remember something we don't, don't you Mike?"
"Mike? Is everything okay?" L forced out, but the feeling in the pit of her stomach told her otherwise.
"Something happens to you when you leave this town... The further away, the hazier it all gets, but me, I never left. So yeah, I remember. I remember all of it."
"Pennywise." Bev murmured
"The fucking clown." Eddie breathed out and made a grab for his inhaler, that was nowhere to be found.
"Eddie." Lyds began to worry, "Breathe babe, you have to breathe."
"Mike you said you wanted our help with something, what was that?" Bill asked
"There's an echo here in Derry that come back every 27 years-"
"What are you talking about?" Eddie spoke with venom
"Hold on, listen, we thought we stopped It back then, we thought it was done but-"
"Mike."
"A week ago! A man, Adrian Mellon, slaughtered. A girl, Lisa Albron, there's already been deaths and there will be more!"
"Mike this is bullshit."
Mumbles of protest echoed around the table but Lydia Kaspbrak found herself silent, everything that Mike was saying made sense to her and the harder she thought about it about the deaths and the echo, the more she began to remember.
"Every twenty seven years." Ben and Bill's voices echoed in her mind. Mike was right.
"Calm down dude!"
"Let's just get another drink-"
"Hang on, let him explain." Ben pleaded with the group
"That echo, we might have changed it, just like it changed us, but we didn't stop it because It just bounced back. We made an oath, that's why I brought you back, that's why you're here, to finish It, for good."
"Well that shit got dark fast."
"Thanks Mike."
The table fell into silence once more, and the only sound that filled the air was the cracking of Eddie's fortune cookie.
"My fortune cookie just says could."
"Mine just says guess."
"Hand them here." Bill called out, realising that there was some sort of pattern involved, a dark one.
"Mine just has a question mark." Lydia mumbled, unsure of what it all meant. Bill instantly snatched it from her hands.
"It's a message." Mike spoke up once more
"When it says it, is it talking about It? Is that what it means?"
"No it's guess it could not cut!"
"Did you fuck with the fortune cookies Mike?"
"This is what it does it's trying to tear us apart!"
"I need my fucking inhaler!" Eddie yelled out before he turned to his wife, "Lyds-"
"Shut up Eddie." The woman whispered upon seeing the terrified look painted into Bev's face as she stared down at her own fortune. "Bev? What does it stay?"
The red haired woman didn't speak a word, instead she slid the paper across the table until it was situated right in front of Lydia, she could've sworn she'd never felt so sick in her life.
"Fuck." Tears burned her eyes and before she even knew what she was doing she had thrown herself into her husbands arms, "Eddie..."
"What the fuck does it say Lyds?"
"Guess Stanley could not cut it?" Richie read a loud, "The fuck does that mean?"
"Why does it say Stanley? Will someone else fucking answer me?"
But it seemed Eddie had found his answer because the moment he stopped talking the table began to rattle and each of the fortune cookies began to crack open, until what looked like a worm with legs and wings, and a baby's head was lay on the table right in front of them, crying.
"The fuck is that?"
"Woah!"
More and more of the fortune cookies began to crack open until there was almost a creature for each of the losers. An eyeball made its way across the table towards Lyds and Richie and the pair both let out screams.
"Hey! That fortune cookie is looking at me!"
"Lyds come here!" Eddie called out and the woman was immediately at her husbands side. "I can't fucking be here, I can't!"
All in one moment another one of the creatures began to fly at Lyds, Ben and Eddie and the three of them let out cries as the monster tangled itself in Lydia's hair and black tar began to burn its way across the table.
"Get it off! Get the fuck off of me! Eddie do something!"
"I don't want to touch it!"
"Eddie fucking grab it!"
"I don't know what the fuck that thing is!" The brunette cried out, "Ben, help!"
"I'm not touching that thing!"
Lydia Kaspbrak let out an angry sigh and with no options left, she hit her own head against the wall, stunning the unknown creature before she took ahold of it, untangled it from her own head and threw it across the room.
"Bunch of pussies." She blew her hair from her face
"Holy shit." Ben's eyes widened
"Lyds! Come squash this eyeball! It's won't stop fucking looking at me!" Richie yelled but the anger quickly fell form his face, "L... don't turn around."
"Why? What's the problem- Holy shit!" Lydia screamed upon seeing a head floating in the fish tank right behind her
"Fuck!" Eddie quickly grabbed ahold of the woman, pulling her out of harms way for the first time that night.
"Oh, now you care!" She glared
"Now is not the time Lyds!"
"It's not real!" Mike called to his friends, as each one of them grew more terrified and frantic by the minute.
"Guys listen to him!" The blonde begged
"It's not real!" Mike practically screamed, over and over again as he smashed a chair into the table, over and over again.
"Mike stop it!"
Beverly Marsh cowered in the corner, hiding her face in her hands as her body shook. Eddie Kaspbrak clung to his wife. Richie yelled out for help. Ben hit out at the creatures. Bill did the same. But Lydia was frozen solid, she'd never felt quite so terrified before, not since she was kid, perhaps it was the way Eddie grasped onto her in desperation, or the way she couldn't help each of her friends, or maybe it was the way the creature that had a baby's head had changed to have her sons face.
"Is everything okay in here?" The waitress spoke upon seeing Mike smashing the table and the rest of the losers close to tears.
"Yeah... Can we get the check?" Richie composed himself
"The fuck was that?" Lyds mumbled and fell to her knees, Bev and Eddie were immediately at her side, "It had Seb's face... And the fortune..."
"It isn't real." Eddie repeated her words from so many years ago, but that wasn't how it felt to Lyds.
To her, nothing had ever been more real. And just like that she felt the scars of her past beginning to reopen.