VIV. Into The Blind World
Erwin couldn´t sleep, not tonight. It was about time he admitted that to himself, but he had always been stubborn. Nobody nor anything would shake him. The very reason he had felt in love with Karin was that not only had she managed to surpass him in magic duel, but she had also managed to still fear on him for the first time since he was naught but a rookie in the military, fresh out of the academy., yes. That much was true. But this was a little bit different.
A soldier had to have the ability to keep going forward, no matter what happened. If he had learned nothing in his life, he had at least learned that. Being shaken by the de-the murder of his wife and two of his daughters, so much that he couldn´t even sleep, was but a sign of weakness, unbecoming, utterly unthought of. And yet, it was the undeniable truth. He really was getting soft. Family life hadn´t done in much good in that aspect, even though that, because of his position, it was rather limited. He let out a sigh. Well, that was how things were. He couldn´t change that. More yet, he didn´t want to change any of it. If Tristania´s situation grew dire enough to need him, then he would just slip back into his old role, like with a suit two sizes to small. A bit of discomfort, but not big deal. And It, by killing nearly all his family, had just made that easier for him. He had only to worry about Louise now. Only about her.
Erwin laughed histerically, not giving a fuck if anybody hear him, just wanting to get it all out of his chest. His laugh sounded strained, unnatural, just a cheap mockery of the happiness he had been supposed to get when he left the fire and brimstone of war behind, and... it scared him a little. He shut up, and got out of from the bed. Perhaps a glass of wine would do him good. Or two. Or four. Maybe even a whole bottle.
He got out of the room, and wandered towards the kitchen, turning on the lights on his way. When he was about to reach it, he saw Princess Henrietta in the middle of the hallway. His eyes narrowed. What was she doing here? She had told them she was going to sleep by Louise side, so she could calm her down once she waked up. He had agreed, of course, because he trusted her and he thought it was for the best, and yet here she... wait. He was over reacting. Louise had woke up, so Henrietta was going to go back. There was nothing more to it. But maybe... He didn´t even want to think about it, but maybe something had happened to Louise? If was a far off possibility, but it was still possible.
"Your Highness?" he called up to her, his throat suddenly dry. Henrietta stopped, and turned towards him.
"Ah, Erwin. You don´t have to call me so formally, you know. I like to them we aren´t just strangers." Henrietta said. He almost sighed. She didn´t mean anything by it, but as a Princess she had to be careful with her wording. Somebody may overhead, come to the wrong conclusions, spread a baseless rumor and then, just like that, the marriage with the Emperor of Germania would be abolished, and with that also their alliance. This was his home, yeah, but he wasn´t stupid enough to completely trust his staff.
"You know I won´t call you anything else. Is unbecoming."
"Yes, yes, but it doesn´t hurt to try once in a while. Well, sorry. We can talk later. I need to do something."
"What is it?" Erwin asked, as she turned around. He had suddenly realized that, if she had been preparing to going back, the Griffin Knights would already be with her.
"Ah, Louise asked me to get the healers to make several sleeping potions for her."
"I see. I understand she would have horrible nightmares, since it has been such a short time since it happened, but... the funeral is supposed to be today."
"Then postpone it." Henrietta said, curtly, without a doubt nor a trace of remorse. Such authoritative words were so unlike her that it took him a moment to understand her.
"Eh? I-I meant, she is suffering, we all are, but this is important."
"Look, you can´t just push her into dealing with their dead's. And, anyway, this is something she has to do. You can´t stop her."
"What is that?"
"I really can´t not say. If you really want to know so much, then ask Louise and see if she tells you about it."
"You know she won´t. She wouldn´t tell me anything. She...:" he knew it his head, but when the time came, it was surprisingly hard to get those words out. "She hates me. She has long since hated everybody in this family, except for Cattleya."
"I don´t think she hates you." Henrietta replied, after a moment of surprise. He wanted to tell her that she wasn´t from this family, that she didn´t know anything and, in any case, didn´t have any right to lecture him. But he didn´t. No matter what he felt, she was still the Princess. "She is just mad at you... well, at everybody, really. I will pass, if you make an effort. She isn´t going to like you if you act so distant, even when you are at home. Don´t you understand? Louise just needs to felt loved."
"But I... I work hard to ensure our standing, so she can lead a good life. I push her to get better so she won´t be mocked for her difficulties. I love her, I always have. How can she not understand that?"
"Think about it, Erwin." Henrietta replied, with a sad smile. "Just think about it."
She turned, and went away, leaving him on the hallway, wondering what she meant by that. Thinking about what happened at breakfast, just hours ago. About Louise´s curling herself into a ball, trembling, her broken gasps. Henrietta leaning over her, and screaming her name. The moment she passed out. He thought about this long at hard, not even noticing the passage of time.
All alone.
Louise felt sleep surprisingly easily, all things considered. And when she once more was enveloped by that all to familiar feeling of being outside of herself, suddenly presented with unfamiliar scenery, she easily settled down into it with grim determination, wondering only what she would see this time. The overlooking view of a town, of Derry, suddenly blurred past her and when the image settled down, she again sensed she was inside of another person´s body. Beverly´s body.
Beverly, together with a quite old looking woman Louise guessed was her mother, changed the beds, washed the floors and the kitchen. Thankfully, Beverly never had to approach the bedroom door. She wasn´t sure she could handle the girl breaking down on her, since she couldn´t do anything about it. After they had a short talk about people she didn´t know about-some drunkard that had got into a car accident, whatever that was-, the woman picked up the purse and went to the door. Beverly asked her if she had seen something funny in the bathroom, and Louise involuntarily held her breath, waiting for the answer. Frowning, the woman repeated that word. Funny. That was all the answer both of them needed.
The little girl feed her that excuse she had come up with about the spider, and asked her in her father´s hadn´t told her. The woman answered with a question of her own, that if she had got 'daddy' mad with her last night. Irritatingly, Beverly covered for him, and asked her again if daddy hadn´t told her about the spider. The conversation keep like that for a minute or so, with the mother talking awkwardly, like she was trying to get off something from Beverly. That made Louise hate her. She knew it, she knew that bastard was like that, and yet... yet...! Then, after asking if her father hadn´t got mad with her once again, she followed it up-her lips pressed tightly together and a strange expression on her face- with something that shook her more that it should have:
"Beverly, does your father ever touch you?"
"What?" Beverly answered.
(What does she meant? God, my father touches me all the time)
That foreign thought, full of confusion, made her fell sick. Thankfully she knew it wasn´t how it sounded, that Beverly didn´t know what sexually meant much less that her mother was asking her about that, but it still was unpleasant to heard. And also, considering how that man had acted back then, he may try it in that sense in the future. Worse, he may succeed.
"I don´t understand what you mean." she continued. The other one just waved her question off, and Beverly didn´t insist. They said their farewells, and when her mother went out of the house, she got back to her room to watch her through the window, until she turned she disappeared behind a corner. The little girl got out of the room, and started cleaning the windows, twitching every time she heard a noise, looking constantly at the bathroom door. No, she couldn´t po... ah, shit. Of course she was. She approached the door, opened it and looked inside.
The blood was there, of course. It still repulsed her, but it obviously didn´t cause as much surprise and, yes, fear as that time. Not only because this time she was expecting it, but because most of the blood was already cleaned, leaving only a few trances. The only thing she feared right now was that It would come bursting out of the sink, in whatever shape, and grab her, tear her apart in front of her very eyes. But she seemed oblivious to that danger, almost like she had planned on going inside from the very beginning. She was staring at the mirror in front of her, watching her own face with a sort of horrible fascination. Louise would have thought that Beverly was pretty, and indeed she was, but all the blood on the mirror marred her beauty. It almost made almost made it seem like Beverly´s face was bleeding.
A horrible chuckle came out of the drain, starling even her, even though she had been kind of expecting it.
Beverly screamed, and slammed the door shut. She went back to her work, shaking all over, desperately trying to forget that horrible sound but knowing that she couldn´t, because there were things in life you could try to ignore, like the bruises your own daddy gave you when he felt like it, but at the end of the day they would always be on your mind. This time Louise didn´t heard Beverly´s thoughts, but she was sure they were something like that.
Things speed up after that, a flash of imagines she could only barely understand, and then stopped. Beverly bumped into a boy that, apparently, both of them knew. Eddie. And behind him, there was a Ben and a boy she didn´t really know. They talked about inconsequential things, and played some sort of betting game she hadn´t never heard off. Beverly ended up winning by a landslide, and the boy Louise didn´t know accused her on cheating, talking somewhat strangely. Not like Bill. Just... strangely.
Ben intermediately stood to Beverly´s defense, and Louise intermediately wondered how could she not realize that boy
(your hair is winter fire)
was desperately, hopelessly in love with her. The other boy tried to intimidate him, but Ben stood firm, and even smiled. Beverly intervened then, told Ben that it was alright, and gave the money back to that asshole. She didn´t think she should have done that. The boy, whoever he was, had entered the betting game willingly, knowing that there were risks. But well, is not like she couldn´t change anything from here.
Instead of just taking it back, he struck the pennies from her hand, scattering them all over the floor. He stopped at an intersection, turned back to the stunned group and screamed:
"You're jutht a little bith, that'th all! Cheater! Cheater! Your mother'th a whore!"
Beverly gasped. Ben ran towards Brandly, but he was long gone by them. He went back to her. Both of the girls saw the concern on his face. She felt Beverly opening her mouth, closed it then burst into tears. She covered her face between her hands. Footsteps approached her. Louise hadn´t no doubt that it was him, Ben, even before she heard his voice.
"Cheer up, Beverly." Ben said, in an awkward tone, but it was also soft, full of love and unshakable admiration for the crying girl in front of his eyes, and Louise found herself desperately wishing somebody, anybody, would love her half as much as that. She felt his hands, delicate and warmn, on her-Beverly´s shoulders. He intermediately took them away, embarrassed.
(january embers)
"Cheer up."
Beverly took her hands from her face, and cried out: "My mother is not a whore. She... she´s is a waitress!"
Things moved, again. The scene this time was a grassy meadow, not too much after that happened. Beverly said: you stood up for me. Then kissed Ben on the cheek. He blushed brightly. Louise wondered if Beverly knew what she was doing to that poor boy, or if the gesture was merely innocent. She had no doubt that, for Ben, this moment would been a treasure he hoard forever, even to his deathbed. An inane conversation between all three of them followed, and then the subject of It came up again. Just after that Stan came on the scene. She told what happened to her to the two boys, expecting to be laughed off, but when she looked she only found expressions of fear without ounce of disbelief.
They went to Beverly´s house, to see the bloody bathroom. And yes, every last one of them saw it. Eddie even started sucking on his aspirator. Beverly almost cried again, out of relief and a strange sense of gratitude. When she voiced her fear of going to the bathroom, Stan suddenly suggested that they help her clean the place up. They did so, and they took the rags to a 'coin up-laundry place'. She didn´t how the they think it would work. Would those serve agree to clean something that they thought wasn´t´stained? But when they entered the building where the laundry was, there was only one woman in a nurse uniform, and a ton of machines. She couldn´t image how one person did... wait. The children activated them on their own, and put the blood stained rags inside while the woman watched on without doing a single thing. Louise was baffled by all of it, but none of the children muttered in indignation, so she thought that this was how things were here, no matter how strange it was.
The machine that had be chucking noisily suddenly stopped. The woman took her clothes out, put them in a bag, and left. So she wasn´t even a servant from the place. Uh. Well, whatever worked for this place. She really hadn´t no reason to complain. She wasn´t stupid, she knew there was something about this whole system she was missing
Almost immediately after the nurse left, Ben ended up telling Beverly about George photograph album, and his own story, the mummy standing upon ice with balloons that floated against the window. Eddie retold his story to Beverly, and then Stan finally told his own story, hesitant at first but growing assured as he talked. From a birdbath he had heard a strange, loud noise and followed it into the Standpipe, a local abandoned building and saw that its supposedly looked door wasn´t open. He could barely felt the wind, so he quickly came to the conclusion that it hadn´t been blow open. Somebody had to have pushed it open. So entered, he descended inside with some trepidation, and he began to notice the smells of a carnival. All that could have been his own imagination, but there was also music played from somewhere down below.
What found him in the darkness of the basement were the foul smelling, water drenched corpses of kids only five or six years older that himself. The door locked behind him, hearing only the thing´s muddy footsteps, he had felt as good as dead. And then, just like that, he had grabbed his book and put it in front of him like a crucifix.
"Robins...! Robins! Gray egrets! Loons! Scarlet tanagers! Crackles! Hammerhead woodpeckers! Red-headed woodpeckers! Chickadees! Wrens! Peli-" the door gave out behind him, and he stepped back into the misty night air, utterly terrified and crushingly alone. And in that hazy light, he saw the corpses beyond the door. He clutched the bird book against his chest, weakly muttering species of birds she didn´t recognize, and then ran for his life.
As on cue, the machine stopped when Stan finished his story. They all believed him, of course. Eddie said that they had to tell Bill, because he would know what do. Beverly and Ben agreed with him, but Stan wasn´t having any of it. He just wanted to forget it, not involved himself with it any further. Louise could understand that. She didn´t like, but she could understand it. She herself was utterly terrified of It, and she had magic to back her up, even if it she was limited to making explosions and that strange spell, Dispell, that she didn't know how to do again. Stan didn´t even have that. None of them did. He screamed at Ben: You think so? Write me a book! Write me a fucking book! And then Ben answered that it was Bill who was going to write the books.
All of them looked gobsmacked at that, Ben included. Louise immediately felt full of an existential terror that would surely crack her spirit. The meeting of these children, the Loser´s Club, hadn´t been by chance. None of it, even their future, would be by chance. There was a powerful hand guided them, molding them them into a weapon against It. An Other with power that dwarfed anything else. She should be reassured by that, but she didn´t. She just felt tiny, inconsequential. Powerless. And she wondered, just for a moment, that if they had An Other guided them, did she have somebody to? An unmeasurable existence pulling her strings?
(Ma...)
Louise felt herself waking up, drifting off the dream like she was being carried by the waves of some unmeasurable sea back into shore. She opened her eyes slowly, blinking back tears. She let out a sigh, and looked to the clock. Seven. She had gone to sleep again at six, so she had only sleep for one hour. Damn. She noticed it, then. Three sleeping potions had been laid out at the desk, bubbling quietly. She take a sip, or more, and learn what she had to. But not yet.
She sat up, yawned, and clapped twice. The lights turned up. She got out of the bed, and walked to the bathroom in the room with bare feet. It was kinda cold, but bearable all the same. She turned on the lights in the bathroom as she stepped inside. A strange noise ran in the darkness, making her freeze up. Ah, calm down. It was the wind, just the wind. There was no reason to be afraid.
She looked at her reflection on the mirror. She looked prim, proper, but inside she knew she was a real mess. Her eyes were mainly it. Okay, everybody well knew that she was far for well adjusted before It had throw all her life into disarray, she wasn´t going to lie to herself about that, but this was different. It wasn´t about her feelings of inadequacy in magic, body and personality, about being a total zero, like everybody else said, that had only grow as she grew up. And, besides, those things had stopped mattering. No matter how weak and useless and everything she felt, she knew everybody else was as fragile as her. No. What mattered now was that, reflected in the iris of her eyes, she could almost see that final shape beneath all of Its smokes and mirrors, the... the deathlights. Yes, that was it. She knew that this time it was only her imagination, but she couldn´t keep that out of her mind.
Louise washed her face carefully, and her hair too. She didn´t look any better. She closed her eyes, let out a deep breath and opened them again. This was no time to think about that. Tomorrow would come, and other after that, and things were no going to get any better if she was just whining. She had something to see, at the end of all those visions. Something important. Maybe not what she wanted, but something important all the same. So, she had to see it.
She walked back to her beside, grabbed one of the potion bottle, popped the lid and drank half of it in one gulp. She tugged herself into bed, and fell sleep again almost immediately.
It watched on, satisfied. The war for Albion was coming to a close. It watched the last rites of the downtrodden three hundred soldiers that, while knowing that they couldn´t possibly knew, were still preparing to carry on for honor. Ah, just imagining what would happen to their minds once the despair on feeling life got out of their bodies would settle over them, the kind of fears It would feast upon. There was still some time before it happened, but a day and a few hours were a trifle time to an eternal existence such as Itself. It would have spend things up, if It so wanted, but It didn´t really have a reason to hurry. There wasn´t a need to waste Its time if everything would go as It wanted without needing to do anything. And besides, waiting had a worth as of itself.
Time passed. Day turned to night, and the sun soon rose again. Today, the war was going to end. Wardes couldn´t go as Reconquista´s agent, since he had to go with that little girl who was a ruler in name only, so for the mission only the Princess most trusted person had gone to Albion. A pity, really. It would have liked to see Wales die at the hands of somebody he thought he could trust, without achieving anything but a dog´s death, and feasting on him as he died. But this was fine, too. This wasn´t about him, in the first place, nor about any of them. This was about that girl, that insolent little bitch.
At that time, with Henrietta´s agent already gone, Reconquista descended on Albion, covering up the light of the sun with their ships. Wales men fought as well as they could, which was not much. They were outnumbered, without much time to prepare. Reconquista had every possible advantage over them. With every one of Wales men, fell three of Reconquista´s soldiers. Wales himself lasted more that all of them, despite that he always put himself in more danger, but in the end even he was defeated. His head was cut off, and put on a spike. Just a crude way to instill fear on their opponents, but at least they were trying. Now, they were going to learn their lesson.
With them assured of their reign over Albion, their absolute victory, It descended hard and fast upon them, wrapped in the same of a huge colossus carved in stone. To still fear in those people, the best shape would have been an Elf, but It couldn´t fake the use of what these people called Ancient Magic, so it wasn´t an option for this kind of thing. This shape would do, too. This colossus were an old legend of their people. They said the colossus were prepared as a container of the souls of criminals, and used as guards for the king of ancient tribes in the time of the Founder, that they surpassed even the Elves. The Colossus hadn´t not real basis in reality, in none of the realities, and no many people knew about them now, but it didn´t matter. Even so, it was an effective shape.
At first, they tried to dismiss It as some kind of illusion. That lasted until It crushed about thirty soldiers under Its foot, killing them in an instant. Fear and disarray spread among them, and they tried in vain to bring It down. It roared, smashing and kicking Its way through the army, towards the main ship, the one where Cromwell was. Their dying screams were piercing, full of terror, a feast to Its very soul. He was a mere puppet-first of Joseph and now of Sheffield despite that she now lacked her power- but getting rid of him was still necessary.
It got near the ship, and jumped. It landed on the top of the ship, breaking it apart and sending the people inside screaming through the air and into their certain death. It let Itself fall too, instead of jumping back to land. It hadn´t no intention to kill them all right there, right from the beginning. No, It wanted something different. As damaged as they had been left, they would surely seek an alliance with the other countries. Tristania would accept, and It would make sure Gallia and Germania felt into line too. Then It would set up a fight between them, giving them hope they would win against, and then utterly crush their bodies and their spirits. They would accept It as their supreme emperor without question. It had previously thought of throwing the Elves against them and causing a war, but It had thought better of that. It would get rid of them later, when everything else was finished. But now, the presence of the Elves would only been a needless complication to Its plans.
When Its colossus shape fell into the sea, It let its shape crumble away and reporting back inside the palace, already in the process of assuming Its favorite form. It left a short message there, written in Its own strange blood, to announce Its arrival then started to teleport away towards Germania. In less that half an hour, It was already in the royal palace, inside the king´s chambers. The shape It chosen this time was of a musty skeleton. Its sudden appearance waked the king up, and he stood up, got at good look at It, then slammed his back against the wall, trembling from head to toe.
"Guards!" he screamed, not even knowing it was already useless. It dragged itself towards him, Its jaws opening and closing slowly with a shrill creaking noise. "Get away from me! I don´t want to die, don´t want to die, don´t way to die! Guards, Guards!"
"They are not coming." It said. "They can´t hear you. Nobody can heard you here. Nobody can interfere with death."
"B-but I-I still... I..." It teleport, cutting in off, and suddenly It was on Its hands and knees, over the king´s body. It let out a throaty, low laugh and held the king´s head between Its hands.
"Doesn´t matter. We all float down here, down in death and soon you will float too." Before he could react, It snapped the king´s neck. "You were as good as dead as soon as if I send my signs on you, stupid human."
It tore his head off with a quick, powerful move. Blood gushed out. It hit the walls, his corpse, the bed and also Its shape. It dipped Its finger on that blood, and wrote a similar message on the wall in front of It. It shrieked, and for an instant Its laugh resonated in the king´s chambers. At the next moment, It was gone.
Still images went past her like pieces of a broken puzzle. Such a thing should have left her confused, only vaguely aware that they were connected to each other, grasping for what was really happening, but it didn´t. Along with each image, came knowledge about things, people, places that she shouldn´t know about. That should have send jumbled her mind, but it didn´t, either. She only felt strangely contempt, full. It was like this was what she had waited for all her life.
There was Henry Bowers, that sadistic little shit, utterly out of his mind with anger about losing a rock fight with the Loser´s Club, pursuing them into the sewers, the dwelling of It, with a switchblade and his two companions tagging along. He wasn´t smart, and he didn´t have somebody to show him like Eddie to show him the way, but that didn´t matter, because It was guiding them with Moon Balloons, to send the three of them lose on the Loser´s Club like attack dogs. And then there was Tom Rogan, Beverly´s abusive husband, pursuing the same children, now grow up, in the sewers, guided by the same light that had guided Henry Bowers all those years ago.
They as adults finding the decayed skeletons of Victor and Belch; dragging themselves through the darkness with only their memories, Eddie and a pack of matches to help them along. Then children again, finding It, this time a grotesque, gigantic eye for some movie floating a few from them and
(I'm doing the Mashed Potatoes all over It AND I GOT A BROKEN ARM!)
and fighting back. Going onwards, and finding It once more, only in the shape of a bird. Stan managed to drive him back. They escaped from then and found a door, a fairytale door, surrounded by the small bones of all the children It had taken from this town and stepped into Its lair, utterly terrified but ready for was to to come come.
The adults they would become finding It in the shape of Georgie, still in his bloodstained rain slicker, Bill struggling with himself, with his own terrible past but managing to drive him back. A city, Derry, ravaged by natural disasters. They stopping to send their energy to Mike-another of them that she hadn´t really saw yet-to save him. That fairytale door, again, just like it had be back them and together they stepped into the lair. And saw It, wrapped in the skin of the form closes to Its real one, the giant spider that had scared her half to death not too long ago.
Bill stepped forward, towards him, full only of anger and she suddenly she saw the kids again. Stan was there, and just then she realized, with a strange sadness, that Stan hadn´t been there before and that was Because he had killed himself when Mike called all of them back to remind them of the memories all but him had lost, terrified of what he had remembered, something the other´s had been spared for: the form she was seeing in front of her own eyes now, in all of its terrible glory. And as Bill continued advancing towards him, the visions of them as kids and as adults constantly overlapped.
"You k-k-killed my brother, you fuh-fuh-fucking BITCH!" he bellowed, both the kid Bill and the adult one.
It´s reared up, and closed Its legs around Bill. Then Chub, the two rituals that had decided the fate of the very multi-universe, of the Dark Tower itself, began to unfold in front of her stunned eyes. The kid Bill was free, as brave as he had always been despite everything, facing It head one, alone, in the darkness of a void. The darkness of an macroverse.
(I am eternal. The Eater Of Worlds) (Well, you´ve had your last meal, sister)
He fought hard, so hard, but he was overwhelmed and nearly thrown right into the hideous, sickening light that was It´s true form. In the macroverse he had saw the Other, Maturin the Turtle, right at his breaking point, but that Other had only offered it vague advice. Still, Bill had endured, like he always did. He screamed for all the things he believed in, for all the broken people It had left in Its wake, and mortally wounded It. The ritual ended. They had chosen to believe, desperate as they were, that It was dying and chose to not chase after It. Even Bill, who the Turtle had warned personally in the macroverse.
And then the second ritual began. Adult Bill was bald, lankier but somehow still the same as back then, as strong and brave, still their Big Bill.
(you killed my brother and you killed Stan the Man you tried to kill Mike) (this time I am not going to stop until the job´s done)
With a horrible feeling of satisfaction plain in Its tone It mocked Bill, and told him that his old friend the Turtle was dead, that he had chocked on a galaxy or two. Still, Bill didn´t hesitate. Not in spite of what It had told him, but because he hadn´t believed It. But it was true: Maturin the Turtle was dead and gone, floating in the darkness of the macroverse. Bill tried to trap It once again, missed completely and
(the Turtle is dead oh God the Turtle really is dead)
realized the horrible truth.
Bill had lost against It in the Ritual of Chud, but not everything was lost. Richie intervened, covering up his nervousness beneath a handful of jokes, got in the void and managed to trap It. That had taken that thing completely by surprise, since It hadn´t even thought It had to dealt with anyone else, and was utterly incapable of stopping him.
(he's dead, you're all dead, you're too old, don't you understand that? now let me GO!) (hey bitch you are never too old to rock and roll)
Richie held on, and managed to pull Bill away before he went through the deathlights, but he couldn´t do it alone. Eddie intervened, next. He ran to It and used his aspirator on It, his childish belief in the medicine coming back to him and making it so that when it struck that Thing, it struck like acid. His arm slipped into the Spider´s mouth, but he didn´t care. He keep on shooting that acid down It´s throat. Then Its jaws closed and ripped of Its arm at the shoulder. While he agonized on the ground, Bill and Richie had come back from the macroverse. None of them could save him.
Richie, Bill and Ben went after the retreating It while Beverly stayed back, crandling Eddie´s corpse. They found Its eggs, thousand and thousands of eggs. Ben stayed to take care of them, and the other two continued on. They cornered It, and It was forced to turn back and try to fight, despite Its pitiful state and the knowledge that even Its eggs, the backup plan, were being destroyed.
(let me go! let me go and you can have everything you've ever wanted-money, fame, fortune, power-I can give you these things)
(I can't give you eternal life but I can touch you and you will live long long lives-two hundred years, three hundred, perhaps five hundred-I can make you gods of the Earth-if you let me go if you let me go if you let me)
They both ignore Its words, and attacked It just like that, barehanded but full with a power beyond even her sudden compression. It hurt Richie, but Bill ripped out Its heart and destroyed It with his own hands. It was gone, the long darkness was gone now. It was dead. Or so they thought. But what mattered was that they had won. Bill when back to the others, holding the unconscious Richie. They wanted to get Eddie out with them, but it was too dangerous because the place was falling apart, so they
(It's too dark, you know... it's too dark. Eds... he...)
were forced to leave him behind. They put it dow. Richie kissed him on the cheek. The group went back through the door, and Richie closed the door with a fierce kick. Bill asked him why he had done that, and he answered that he didn´t know, but, oh, he did. Both of them did. Beverly called up to them, and that was when she herself saw what Beverly was looking him. The symbol at the door had disappeared...
Some unimaginable presence broke into her dreams, and that Other´s life force enveloped her, warmed her, send her heart ablaze and then the Other´s voice, thundering inside her head
(Stand up, Maturin)
Louise opened her eyes, feeling strangely calm. She didn´t know what that Other had been, but he knew that creature had been talking to her. That Other had called her Maturin, the same name the Turtle that had guided the Loser´s Club through it all. She didn´t know why, but the meaning behind its words were clear. She had to stand up, and fight. Now.
She got out of the bed, searched in the drawers for the money she kept in her room, opened the box about half of the money-just to be sure- in a bag. Then, she went out of the bedroom and to look for a servant. Any of them would do. She found a maid cleaning the desk in the living room, and touched her lightly on the shoulder. The maid almost jumped, then turned around.
"Lady Louise, what is it?" she stammered out. Louise lifted her right hand, showing her the bag
"I want to go to the capital, find the best blacksmith and ask him to make me an armor. You should already know my measurements."
"A-h, yes, Lady Louise, I do remember, but you may have grow a little since the last time, so the armor may not been exact."
"Is fine. It wasn´t that long ago anyway, so I don´t think is going to be a problem. Take this bag of money, and go for it." she told the maid. The other woman took the bag out of her hands.
"Uh... Can I ask you something, Lady Louise?"
"Go ahead."
"Why don´t you go? I-I mean, I am perfectly happy to do it, but I thought you would prefer to take care of s-stuff like this by yourself."
"That´s right, but I don´t want my father to find out about it." Louise sighed. "Almost forgot. If father sees you, just tell him I send you to the capital to pick me some cake. Buy a cake for real, any will do. My father may not ask to see it, but is just to be safe. If you don´t have much remaining after buying the armor, just pick the cheapest one that still looks like it has some quality. I make some excuse if I asks me about why I would pick such a cheap cake if he asks me about it. Now go, okay?"
"Yes, Lady Louise." the maid said, and hurriedly went away. It was almost cute, really. Must be a new acquisition. Most of the staff were pretty calm around her family, even though they were nobles. Then again, her nervousness may just be because of It´s attack.
Louise went back to her room, locked it, laid down on the bed and fixed her eyes on the ceiling, waiting for the moment where she could do something about all of this mess.
It didn´t take her much. The maid came next morning, discreetly went to her room and gave her the case where the armor was keep. Louise took it and the bag of money out of the maid hands. She put the bag in the pocket of her dress, and stuffed the case inside her wardrobe. It wouldn´t do much to hide it, but she didn´t think there was a reason to do so anyway. Nobody came into her room, except for the servants in the morning and sometimes Cattleya. She would send the servants away if they even came, and her secret would be as safe as it could be. She would only have to worry than that maid would spread the secret to the rest of the staff, and one of them would go and tell her father, but it wasn´t likely. At least, she liked to think so.
What plan she had left was just sleep has much as she could, hoping the visions would show her where It was and how to get here, but she didn´t have any luck. Nearly a week passed. Most of the nights, she didn´t dream, not that she remembered anyway, but on some nights she dreamed about Cattleya sudden, violent dead. She had her doubts about it for the beginning. The visions were of something that had clearly already happened, so there was a good reason to believe they could also show her something that was happening right now, but still she couldn´t give up hope. What else did she have? Nothing. Nothing but waiting for It to come back, that´s it.
At the four day, she waked up from an uneasy, thin sleep in the middle of the night and went out to get herself a bottle of water and maybe something light to eat, since it didn´t look like she could manage to sleep again tonight. When she got near the living room, she saw her father run past her, panic clearly written on his face. Her heart nearly skip a beat. She hated her father about as much as she had hated her mother, but that didn´t´mean that she didn´t respect them as mages. For him to look panicked... She ran up to him, and grabbed his wrist. He stopped.
"Wait! Father, was going on?"
"It killed Gallia´s king, nearly killed all of Reconquista´s army and killed the emperor of Germania. An alliance was established because of that, and now It is throwing down its gauntlet. I going there too. Now go back to bed."
"Where is it going to be?"
"In a cave below La Ro... wait, why do you want to know?"
"Do I need a reason to worry about you?" she said, blushing slightly. Partly because of the embarrassment of having actually said it and partly because it was a bold faced lie. She worried he could die-and if he went there, he would surely die- but her main concern was finding up where It was so she could use the Ritual Of Chud to bring It down.
"Louise..." his face softened, for an instant, then turned hard again. "No, no. Do you think I am stupid? You may been truly worrying about me, but you intend to do something else, right? You wouldn´t have asked me where is it going to be otherwise. Don´t you dare. You can´t put your life at risk stupidly."
"Thats..." she mumble, trying to find a good excuse. She came out blank. Therefore, she decided to change tactics. "You are the one who is stupidly risking his own life, so don´t you dare lecture me. It is everything It said It was. You must understand. What else could have done everything you tell me It did? If you go, It is going to kill you. It is going to kill every last one of you."
"We have made an alliance. I underestimated that thing heavily, I admit as much, but that doesn´t meant It can stand against the might of the four countries."
"It can, and It will. You don´t understand anything, none of you do. I have to do it. I am the only one who can do it."
"What nonsense are you talking about?" her father was growing more furious by the moment, but she didn´t really care. She couldn´t allow anybody to intimidate her, not if she wanted to throw weight upon her shoulders.
"Chud. I am talking about the Ritual of Chud. Is the only way to beat It, and I am the only one who knows how to do it."
"And why is that?"
"Because of a vision."
"Yeah, right. Give me a break. " Erwin replied, and huffed. That should have offended her, but honestly, it surprised her more that anything else. That he would suddenly stop being calm and composed was not normal. "Look, I am going. Even if I didn´t want to go, is my duty. I am going to tell the servants to not let you get out of this house, and when I get back we talk about this. Okay? Okay."
Then, without wanting for an answer, he stormed out of the house. Louise sighed, just sighed. Well, it wasn´t really a problem. She had her wand on the pocket of her dress. If the servants became a problem, then that would swiftly dealt with it. Just the threat of falling victim to one of her explosions should make them stand back. She put her body against the front door, and looked through the spyhole. She didn´t see very well because of the darkness and that the glass was slightly blurry, but she saw well enough for her purposes. Father made the servants prepared his personal carriage, and then when away. When the carriage disappeared into the forest, Louise took the wand off from the pocket of her dress and went back into her room. She garbed herself in the armor, and then went back. She carefully opened the door, so as to not make much noise. No servants were in sight.
She slipped away into the darkness, towards La Rochelle.
Louise walked on for hours, seeing only a few feet in front of her. It was a pain, but there was nothing she could do about it. The servants wouldn´t accept her order if it mean disobeying father, since he was the head of the household now that mother was dead, so this was her only choice. She gripped her more tightly. Bandits may be a problem, too. Getting to La Rochelle would take nearly a day on horse, so there was a good chance she was going to get assaulted. It would be fine if they were commoners, but if she stumbled upon a gang of disgraced nobles she wasn´t sure she could manage it.
At noon, she saw the carriage of a merchant in her way. She payed it to take her to La Rochelle. More that she should have, really. He was blatantly ripping her off, but she did care. What mattered was getting to It as earlier as possible. If he had asked for all the money in her bag in exchanged, she would have given it to him. They reached it in the afternoon. Apparently, it had been evacuated. She dropped down from the carriage, and ran to find the cave. She couldn´t heard the sounds of battle, and she hadn´t never be there, so she could only find it by pure chance.
(come to me come to me come to me you foolish little girl)
Louise groaned, and brought a hand to her head. Her vision split off. On one side, there was the empty La Rochelle, and in the other was the familiar darkness of a cave. She felt herself being pulled upwards rapidly, until she was seeing the outside of the cave from up high. Ah, so that was where it was. Her vision went back to normal, and broke into a run again, towards that cave. She went to the edge of La Rochelle, and carefully went down among the slippery dirt and the jagged rocks, with the sounding sea roaring beneath her. She nearly felt once, but managed to hold on by grabbing the wall. In a couple of minutes, she was in front of the cave. She stared at that final darkness, knowing that It was there, expecting her.
(who is that trip-trapping over my bridge)
She shivered, despite herself. She could almost feel Its hand closing around her neck, digging into her skin. She took a deep breath.
"Here I come." Louise breathed out. "You better be ready for me, you bitch."
And with those words, she stepped into Its lair.
