Beverly's POV
I didn't open my eyes when I woke up. I just kept my head under the cover and tried to fall back asleep, but I couldn't. Because today was Christmas Day. I don't normally get hyped for Christmas since we never went anywhere and no presents were given. But this year would be different. I slowly pushed the blankets off my head exposing myself to the cold fresh morning air. I shivered then propped myself up and stretched. I looked out the window to see it still snowing, it had been snowing for almost a week now. All of a sudden a scent came from the hallway, it smelt delicious. So I got up and followed my nose to the kitchen, where aunt Mary was cooking bacon
"Good morning and merry Christmas" she said then came over and kissed my forehead.
"Merry Christmas" I said back
"Breakfast is almost ready then you can have your present"
Once the bacon and eggs were done, we sat down together at the table and ate, a few smokers were shared. We then washed the plates and other dishes as we listened to Christmas tunes.
When I sat down on the lounge Mary told me to cover my eyes, I did. She came back a minute or so later and said "ok open"
I opened my eyes to a red bike. I covered my mouth "no way" I said in disbelief. "Thank you so much!" I said awing at the bike
In a few hours I'll be able to ride it. The guys and I planned to go out and meet at the memorial park after all the munches and churches and family events.
I gave aunt Mary her presents from me- shirts- then we sat around and talked. We had food and watched some Christmas specials on tv.
When 4 o'clock hit I was out in an instant. That's when I realised... I would not be able to take my new bike. The snow was becoming to thick. Stan met me out front his house and we started to walk off to the park.
"Sounds like you had a good morning" stan said to me after hearing about the new bike.
"How about you? What'd you do?" I asked
"We don't really celebrate Christmas. I got a few presents but other than that nothing"
We trudged along in the snow having to lift our feet high. "Snows getting thicker, considering it started this morning" I mentioned
"Yeah"
We were the last to arrive there. I hugged bill who didn't look like his normal happy self.
"Are you ok?" I placed a hand on his cheek
"Hm. Oh y-yeah I'm fine" he gave a small smile.
"Ow! Richie!" Eddie held the back of his head, which was now covered in white snow. He scooped up some snow and formed a ball then pegged it at Richie. Richie easily dodged it. As he laughed at Eddie a snow ball came from the left and hit his shoulder. He was shocked to see stan there trying to act innocent. I laughed slightly. Bill didn't, he just stared and gave small smiles.
As a snow ball war formed I pulled Richie away from it
"What wrong with bill" I simply asked him
"Second year with out georg-" his last words fading
"That would make sense" I looked over to bill who still just stood there
"Bill still doesn't take events like these so well, neither does his parents. Just left a hole in them I guess" Richie explained as I gave bill a concerned look. Interrupting my gaze, a snow ball hit me in the back. A turned around and saw ben holding another snow ball ready to fire. I dropped down and scooped up snow then threw then back at him.
From a fight between Eddie and Richie a snow ball hit bill. He was shocked, but then he grabbed some snow and formed a ball and threw one at Eddie.
"Hey! It was Richie who hit you!" He complainedas he pointed a finger at Richie. I then threw one at Richie. And bill threw one at me. When it hit me I looked at him with a not serious 'how dare you' face. There was a wide grin across his face.
Soon there was two teams. On one side Richie, stan mike and myself. On the other Bill, Eddie and Ben.
There was a mixture of laughter, ow's and ah's during that fight. Soon when the battle field quietened down richie spoke up. "You guys know that small lake in the Barron's?"
"No" Ben answered
"Yes" stan said at the same time as ben
"What about it?" Eddie asked
"I herd a rumour that it's frozen" Richie said
"Where is it?" I wondered
"Down the far side of the barons" Richie replied
We decided we'd go see if the rumours were true or not about the frozen lake. As we walked we went past the empty town, only a few cars pasted us slowly trying not to slip on the icy road. We walked passed a wooden pole that had a poster attached to it.
Eddie read it out loud "Missing- Makena Pearson. Age 13, seen last on the 23rd of December"
"Do you guys think she got taken by pennywise?" Mike said grimly
"I'm guessing so s-since" bill circled the pole "she's not the only one"
We all did the same to see 3 other missing posters, all kids and teenagers. The two at the top were both boys, one 10 and one 16, neither of them I recognised. But the one below them, a 14 year old girl named Tara curl, I did know. Back when I went to Derry high she was in a few of my classes. I felt a small wave of sadness flush over me as I knew that Tara would not be coming home.
We continued walking and eventually we made it to the Barron's. "I think it's this way" said starting off in one direction
"You s-sure?" Bill said starting to shiver
"I'm 100% sure just follow me and you'll know" Richie shot back
"Okay" bill surrendered
We followed Richie through the trees, bill and I walked at the back linking hands.
He looked a little gloomy as we walked.
"Hey, are you alright? I asked
He shrugged "it g-gets tough w-with out him sometimes" he didn't even need to say the name, I knew who he was talking about.
"I can imagine... I mean, I can't really imagine since I don't know what it's like with a sibling but... I know how hard it is on you. You ever need to talk about it, I'm here" I slightly squeezed his hand in mine.
He looked up at me and smiled.
We didn't notice that the boys had stopped so we both bumped into them slightly.
I looked up to see the small lake, no bigger than a medium sized classroom, was frozen.
"Recon it's thick enough?" Richie wondered aloud
"Only one way to find out" I said starting to slowly walk towards it. When I got to the edge I placed my foot on it carefully and put pressure on it. The ice didn't crack. I started to fully walk onto it and when I started to slide I almost tripped but steadied myself and ended up facing the guys. They all had worried looks on their faces.
"Come on sissys" I waved at them
Richie slid on and so did bill. "Come on Ed's" Richie said.
"What if the ice breaks! It might not be able to with stand you three let alone all seven of us! And and and if it does break then we either get frost bite or drown!" Eddie argued
"It's not going to break... see" Richie bent down to his knees and knocked the ice floor with his knuckles. "See it didn't crack"
Stan and mike slowly made their way onto the ice.
"I'm with Eddie on this one guys, what if it does break" Ben stood next to Eddie.
"It won't, just come" richie complained
"Mm mm" Eddie muttered as he and Ben shook their heads.
"Fine" Richie held his arms up in surrender "but your gonna miss out on the fun".
Bill tried to walk-slide over to me and almost fell when he got to me. "H-h-how do you not f-fall?"
"Good balance I guess" I answered as I held on to his arm so he would not fall.
"Are you guys ready for this!?" Richie said near where Eddie and Ben stood. He then started to run and as he got onto the ice slid very fast, he passed us and held a hand out purposely pushing us over. I toppled onto bill as he fell onto his back.
Bill's POV
I hit the icy floor with a hard thud, before Bev fell straight on top of me she caught herself. There was not much space between her body and mine.
"Sorry" she apologised hold herself up with her elbows. Her necklace with keys dangled so it touched the tip of my throat.
I herd a deep cracking sort of sound. I titled my head slowly to my right and saw a small fracture in the ice. "S-shit"
"What's wrong?" Bev asked. I veered my eyes to the crack and she saw it. "Oh shit"
Stan started to make his way over to us.
"Stop! Don't come any closer!" Bev loudly said.
"Ok jeez" stan backed away. Eddie came over to us from the edge. "Oh fuck. See I told you this would happen" Eddie quietly yelled
They all got off the ice to come see the edge that was braking away, but still we could not move.
I looked back to bev's face, she was not scared. "It's gonna be fine" she said in a not so confident voice.
"Bev, really slowly get up the Bill even slower get up" mike instructed us. Bev did as She was told and slowly rose to her feet. I then started to prop myself up then slowly got to my feet. The ice cracked a bit more.
"Do we run?" Bev asked me
"It's break f-faster if w-we run" I told her.
"Well on 3 take one step" I nodded "1...2...3" we both took a step and the ice started to crack underneath us.
"Just o-one m-more. One, t-two, three" I took another step and made it to hard ground. Bev looked up at me with a hint of terror on her face. The crack was under her foot. I held out a hand and outstretched it from the edge of the ice. She took it then I quickly pulled her to me, she fell into my arms, I stepped back so she would have room to stand on the ground.
We looked back at the small frozen lake which was now divided into sectors of ice islands.
"It'll be frozen again by tomorrow" Richie waved his hand to the ground. We all slightly laughed.
"We should probably head back up, by the time we get back to town it'll almost be dark" Mike looked up to the sky.
"Yeah" Eddie checked his watch. Next came some murmurs of agreement from the rest of us.
Beverly's POV
We made our way up the slope with bill leading, I was walking slowly backwards so I could talk to Richie and Stan when they came to a sudden stop, I noticed so did the rest. I turned my head behind me to see Bill frozen on the spot. I could not see what he was seeing so I turned around and walked up behind him.
And there stood Georgie.
Bill's POV
I stared in disbelief. I knew he wasn't really standing 7 feet in front of me. Still would have hoped it was though. The fake Georgie looked up at me, yellow slicker hoodie still over his head, with an innocent smile.
"Merry Christmas Billy" he said. My breathing quickened and tears pricked my eyes because even though this wasn't the real Georgie, he was still standing right there.
"Did you get me a present bill?" He walked forward. "Because I got one for you"
"Georgie" I whispered underneath my breath.
"Did you want to see it?" He asked. To many memories were coming back, memories of when Georgie was still here.
"Here's my present to you billy" all of a sudden a red balloon was in his hand, it floated up so it was much taller than the fake Georgie.
I started to become frightened, I hadn't felt this feeling for a while.
False Georgie started to laugh, that's when his right hand disappeared and the sleeve of the yellow slicker started turning red, blood red. The blood seemed to make the end of the sleeves fizzle away like it was a chemical reaction and the blood kept going up the sleeve. The raincoats arm stopped sizzling when it got to his elbow, except there was no elbow just a stump for an arm, covered in blood.
I turned around not bearing to see my brother missing an arm. I hid my face in the crook between Bev's shoulder and neck and put my arms around her waist. The laughing continued and started to twist into a deeper one. Bev placed her arms around my waist, I looked up to her face and saw her shutting her eyes and looking like she was trying to fight tears of her own.
A balloon popped and the laughing stopped. I looked back to where georgie stood, he wasn't there and there was no trace anybody had ever stood there. I felt a hand gently place on my back. It was richie. The rest of the losers did the same as him, except Beverly, who was still holding me in her arms. Now... I let the tears flow.
That's when I realised it was not here to kill us, it was here to taunt and torment us. Then maybe kill us, if it got the chance.
After a while of group hug, we started trudging back uphill and hoping not to see another Georgie.
When it was time to part ways we each said our goodbyes and merry Christmas'. I stared in the direction of my house not wanting to go back. Because i knew what it would be like there. Sad, depressing, lonely.
Someone put a hand on my bicep, it was Bev.
"Did you wanna come stay with me? For a bit?" She asked as if knowing what I was just thinking. I sighed in relief. "W-would that be ok?"
"My aunt will understand" she slipped her hand down my arm and into my hand. We started to walk off with Stan.
We reached Stan's house first and stopped out the front.
"Cya s-stan" I waved
"Bye guys" he waved back.
We then made our way to Bevs house.
Bev and I walked in the middle of the road so we didn't have to pick out feet up knee high, trying to make our way through the snow. We walked into Beverly's driveway then to the door. She opened it with the keys.
"Aunt Mary I'm home" she said putting the necklace with the keys back around her neck.
Her Aunty came around the corner casually bit when she noticed me she looked surprised. "Oh, bill's here. Merry Christmas" she greeted
"M-merry Christmas" I responded.
"He'll just be here for an hour or so, then I'll walk him back to his place" she explained to Mary. She nodded in response and went back to her room.
Bev and I went into her room and she closed the door.
"Let it all out" she said randomly
"W-what?"
"Feelings, what's going on at home. I know something wrong, I saw it in you eyes all day today. So just, lay it all out for me" she sat down on her bed and folded her legs up on it. I sat on the edge, took a deep breath in and started the confession.
"Since last year when Georgie went missing, nothing been the same. When it hit our first Christmas with out him, it was hard. Dad started drinking for a bit and mom just didn't talk at all. Then as the year went on it got better, until pennywise happened. Then this Christmas was even worse" I paused, Bev looked at me with curiosity. I continued "this morning it nothing went into place, there was food and presents but almost no interactions. Then when someone did speak, which was me, my mom didn't take it well, then left and my dad went off at me too..."
"What did you say?" Bev came and hung her legs over the side next to me
"I s-said This f-family sucks without Georgie" I reluctantly.
"You said that" she was shocked
"It true. Now that g-g-georgie's gone my family's fallen apart" I put and head in my hands.
"While I can't exactly put myself in your shoes, i can already tell it'll get better over the years" she brushed my hair with her hand.
"Maybe it will... over the years. Why can't it just be alright now" I complained already knowing the answer
"Because, georgie denbrough was an important kid to you, your mom and your dad. Can't forget that kind of love" she said gently. I faced her with tears forming in my eyes.
"It'll get better" she told me confidently cupping one of her hands to my cheek.
After that we sat in silence staring at each other. "T-thanks for that" I broke it.
"For what?" She took her hand away.
"A-always knowing the r-ri-right thing to say"
She smiled.
"Wanna go outside?" She asked
"Sure"
She lead me to her backyard. It was not big but neither small. I couldn't tell to much because of all the snow covering the ground.
Snow was falling from the sky as it started turning dark.
She walked out to the middle of where there should be grass and lied down on her back letting the snow fall on her face.
"Come look at this" she waved me over
I did the same and put my back against the snow and looked up to the sky. You could see the white balls of snow slowly falling towards you as the sunset coloured sky changed to darker blues.
"W-w-woah" I awed
"Pretty, huh. I did this yesterday too" she told me.
As the sun had fully disappeared and some stars could be seen I propped myself up so I was just sitting in the thick snow. Bev did the the same, she sat across from me and gazed at me. She laughed a little "you got a little..." she said pointing to her hair. I ran my hand through my side fringe and felt the cold snow fall out. Bev then leaned near me and reached her hand out to my head, she ruffled my hair to get the snow out. "There" she leaned back "that's better"
"T-t-Th-thanks" I grinned
I looked into her eyes once again being reminded of the summer sky. I leaned closer and so did she, our lips met and I closed my eyes, once the kiss ended she leaned her forehead on mine as I cherished the moment.
"Merry Christmas Bill" she whispered.
"M-merry Christmas Bev" I said back. After a moment of silence I spoke up "I s-s-should probably g-get going"
"Yeah, uh- we can drop you off" bev said as she got up, she then dusted the snow off herself. I got up and did the same.
We went inside and felt the warmth from an electric heater by the kitchen.
"Hey Mary, can we go drop Bill off quickly?" She asked
"Yeah of course, grab the keys for me would ya and I'll meet you outside" Mary said back
We did as we were told and got the keys. Bev started the car then we sat in the back. Mary came out a minute later and drove off slowly.
I could feel the tyres underneath trying to grip to something then slightly sliding on the icy road.
Soon we were at the front of my house, bev exited the car first. "T-thanks fuh-or driving me" I said to her Aunty
"All good, merry Christmas" she gave a small wave
"Merry Christmas" I said as I got out of the car.
It was dark out so I could only see part of bevs face, the rest was covered in shadows. She came closer and hugged me "night bill" she said over my shoulder. All I did in return was hug her tighter.
"Cya in a few days" she pulled away from the embrace. She smiled then went back to the car and sat in the front. As they drove off I watched Bev as she lean her head on the window.
I went inside to my mom sitting in the lounge room reading a Christmas special magazine.
"Hey hun, how was your day?" she said blandly
"Fine" I shrugged
"Ok, well I think you should go to bed now it's pretty late" she never once took her eyes off the magazine. I nodded to myself and went to my room. I got changed and fell right on my bed sinking into sleep as my eye lids gre heavy. The year is almost over and so is pennywises reign.