Friday June 27, 1997
Winter laid in her bed and shut her eyes, catching up on her missed sleep as she had reoccurring nightmares of being stuck in the sewers throughout the night. Dreaming of the clowns eyes with the smell of sewage and death that seemed so real that it made sleeping scary to Winter.
After Henry left for school, covered in minor cuts and bruises from a playful rock fight that he said he fell into the middle of, her friends had called her in a panic from a payphone a few blocks away. Winter thought it was a very strange conversation.
"W-W-Winter!" Bill started on the phone.
"WINTER!" Richie and Stan yelled frantically into the receiver
"Winter, we've got to talk to you!" Ben said.
All of them were grabbing the receiver from each others hands, and it was just her name being shouted in a panic with no context.
"Winter! It's Mike! We need to come over!"
"Mike?" Winter said surprised. She wondered why Mike was with them.
Bev sighed in the background, "You guys are being dumb! Someone just talk to her!"
"Winter?" It was Eddie, "Hey, how are you doing?" He sounded calm yet shook up.
"Hey! Edz..." Winter said confused, "I'm doing okay. You guys don't sound okay."
"We need to show you something you really - really - need to see," he said. "Did Henry go to school?"
"Yeah, he did. Can someone explain to me why a rock fight is suppose to be a fun after school activity?" Winter asked, thinking of all the cuts Henry had that she needed to clean up. "It seems like the worst idea in the world!"
"He told you we were throwing rocks at each other because it was fun?" Eddie rolled his eyes. "Let me tell you, Winter! Having rocks thrown at you, hoping they're not going to crack your skull open is not a fun after school activity! Maybe playing cards, music, basketball, doing weird shit - but a rock fight is not something that is fun."
"Yeah, well, apparently it is to you guys. So weird..." Winter continued, "Anyway, if you're coming over, I can't answer the door 'cause of my IV. There's a key under the mat for Henry and my nurse to use when they get here. Just don't forget to put it back."
"Key under the mat... right. Sounds good. We will be there soon."
It wasn't long until Winter's eyes popped open as she heard the voices of a group of teenagers, all of their voices talking over each other in an orchestra of annoying children... Annoying children that caused her to smile as she heard them walking up the steps.
"I'M IN HERE!" Winter yelled out to them so they knew which room to go in.
The door swung open and all of her friends walked in like a parade. There was Bill, Stan, Ben, Bev, Eddie, Richie and Mike... But why was Mike with them?
"Guys!" Winter rolled her eyes as she got out of bed and looked at all their faces individually to see the scraps and cuts, "Why the Hell do you think it's a good idea to have a rock fight?"
"Again!" Eddie said, "It wasn't our idea of 'fun'!"
Winter went up to Eddie, put her hand to his face and tilted his head so she could look at a big scratch from the rock slicing his neck. "Well, fun or no fun, you guys need to be sure your wounds are clean. This looks terrible, Edz! Do you want me to disinfect it and patch it up?"
Eddie blushed and smiled, "No... No, I'll be fine... Maybe later."
"God, Winter!" Richie started, "Don't you know by now that saying things like 'disinfect' and 'patch it up' is basically Eddie's love language? He's probably just getting a boner imagining you in a nurses outfit cleaning his cuts."
"Will you stop being such an embarrassing shit head, Richie?! I'm tired of you always picking on me! If it's not my mom that's apparently giving me boners, it's people who want to clean up my cuts too!" Eddie said.
"Face it, Eddie, you love motherly love! Winter gives you that motherly love vibe. She's nearly two years older than you, and she takes care of you when you're upset or hurt. Your idea of her flirting with you is when she asks if she should bring over the rubbing alcohol and bandaids!" Richie changed his voice to mock Eddie, "'Oh! You're bringing the Hydrogen Peroxide? I must be getting really lucky tonight!'"
"I have never said anything like that before in my life, Butt-tard! I will kill you before the clown does, Richie!" Eddie walked over to him, "Stop making me sound like a dweeb all the time in front of Winter!"
"G-G-GUYS! G-G-GUYS!" Bill held back Eddie. "We have a-a-an e-e-e-emergency!"
Winter sat back down in her bed and put the covers over her legs, "Okay, everybody just chill out, and tell me what's going on! I think that will be a good start." She said, ignoring the argument between Richie and Eddie.
"Okay, who's going to tell her?" Bev asked.
"Ben, show her!" Stan said to Ben who was holding a book.
Ben sighed and sat on the bed. Bill, Richie, Eddie and Bev sat on the bed as well, while Stan sat in her studying chair and Mike remained standing. "Winter, has Henry told you anything that's been happening at school?"
"No. Nothing out of the usual anyway," she answered.
Ben hesitated but continued on, "The jacket that he's been wearing. It belonged to..."
"Ace, I know that part," she said.
"Right, but there's more to it. We think the clown gave him the jacket. Every time he puts it on, Ace takes over. Like his spirit's possessing him. Once Mike explains what he knows, you'll understand why the jacket and the clown is making him do this, but he's been trying to kill us."
Winter stared at him in shock, "What are you talking about? Henry can't even hurt a fly..."
"Until he's possessed by a psychotic spirit..." Ben continued, "Show her, Richie."
Winter looked over at Richie. Slowly, he lifted up his shirt and exposed his circular burn under his ribcage that was red and yellow.
Winter went up closer to him, "Richie, that looks infected!" She grabbed her Hydrogen Peroxide bottle that she was using to clean her own wounds and a cotton ball from her night table. "Henry did this to you? My boyfriend? Henry Bowers?" she asked as she dabbed the burn.
Eddie backed away from Richie, "Don't touch me if you have an infection..."
Richie sucked his tongue back, "Fuck off! When they pulled Winter out of the sewers and she had contagious Phenomena and infections, you were walking with her to the ambulance right beside her trying to hold her blood-covered hand."
Eddie frowned and blushed, "That was different! We all thought she could have been dead! Plus she's my best friend and she was traumatized. I wanted her to know that she was okay!"
"Uh-huh!" Richie exclaimed over-dramatically. "Hey, Eddie! Why don't you tell Winter why we found you passed out in the library a couple of weeks ago topless. I'm sure since she's your best friend, you would want to console in her about your traumatic experience."
Winter turned her head to Eddie, "What happened in the library?"
"Don't say a fucking thing, asshole!" Eddie exclaimed.
Bill punched Richie's shoulder, "W-What's wrong w-w-with you?"
(That part of the story will be revealed in Chapter 2...)
Winter shook her head, "Okay! Back to Henry, guys! You're saying Henry did this to you? He burnt you?"
Richie nodded, "But it wasn't him. He didn't seem like Henry at all."
"My black eye was from Henry, too..." Stan said.
Winter looked over at him and remembered he told her that he hit his eye on a table when he fell. No wonder all of them were so awkward on Saturday when they bumped into each other at the Barrens.
"And if you don't believe any of that..." Bev looked over at Ben, "Show her what he did to your stomach, Ben."
Hesitantly, Ben lifted up his shirt, exposing the name 'HENRY' carved into his stomach.
Winter put her hand to her mouth in shock, "Oh, my God... Ben... I'm so sorry that I had no idea..." She was flabbergasted. She didn't understand how all this was happening, and how Henry could have been hurting all of them so violently while being a whole different person when he was with her.
"Y-Y-You got to re-re-remember it's not H-H-Henry doing these th-things, th-though, Winter..." Bill told her as he put his hand to her shoulder reassuringly. "He doesn't wa-want to do what h-he's doing..."
Mike spoke up, "The clown chose Henry when he was a baby to kill us before we go and kill the clown. It was the same with Ace in 1958. Ace's story was he was trying to kill seven people when he was in high school, and the funny part about all that is he was trying to kill our parents and grandparents, anyone who lived in Derry that were our ancestors. The clown knew that we were going to be the ones to kill It, so It tried to change the course of the prophecy early. When Ace didn't finish the job, the clown killed him. We needed to know for sure, so we asked our family members, and they said that they were all taunted by Ace."
"Okay, guys! This is heavy!" Winter said as she tried to process everything, "But Henry is nothing like Ace! Ace was psycho!"
"That's why the clown gave Henry Ace's jacket... So Ace could take over for Henry. According to this journal..." Mike put down an old vintage journal on the bed, "The first chosen one took something that the clown gave him as a baby, making him become the psycho that he became. As far as we can tell, Henry was given the same thing as a baby to make him go crazy, but for some reason, Henry never took it. Henry still has some darkness from the clown inside of him that he's been struggling with his whole life, but he doesn't have the full darkness of the clown's madness."
Winter picked up the journal and flipped through it. She saw some drawings of the universe with an astroid hitting the earth. As she flipped further, there were drawings of birth charts and astrology, as well as mythology.
"Show her, Ben..." Eddie said, watching Winter flip through the journal as he looked from her face to the book in her hands.
Winter looked over at Ben who laid down a yearbook.
"This is the Derry High School yearbook from 1958..." He looked deep into her eyes, "This is going to shock you. I saw it last night and showed everyone this morning right before we called you..."
Winter thought about the guys shouting her name in a panic when they were on the phone with her.
"Okay..." she said to him, scared of what he was going to show her.
Ben had the page bookmarked. The first photo she noticed was the black and white photo that Henry showed her with his new friends, Victor and Belch.
Winter's eyes went wide and she grabbed the book to look at the photo.
"How the fuck is this possible?" she said, her anxiety building in her stomach as she looked at the picture. "Guys! How the fuck is this possible?" she nearly bursted into tears with anxiety.
"The jacket puts him in an alternate universe. He time travels to 1958 whenever he puts it on, and that's why he dresses like a greaser. Those guys, Belch and Victor, they died before Ace did. They were Ace's friends and followed him like a God wherever he went. They're trying to help Henry out with the stuff that the clown wants him to do..." Mike said.
Winter's hands were shaking as she held the yearbook.
Eddie responded quickly and sat close to his best friend, "It's okay, Winter. We're going to fix it," he put his hand to her back and rubbed up and down, "Don't cry. Please."
Winter hugged her friend, trying to keep herself together as she processed everything. She closed the yearbook and gave it back to Ben, "I don't want to look at that again."
Eddie continued to rub her back as Mike continued on.
"The clown told him that if Henry didn't do as he was told, to kill us, that It was going to kill you. It's the reason why the clown let you live. It was keeping you in the sewers for as long as it could until you got too sick to survive any longer. It wanted to drive Henry insane before giving him the jacket. Henry feels trapped and he's scared that It could still try to kill you."
"We're not going to let that happen, Winter," Eddie said, holding her close. "We're going to make sure you and Henry are safe."
"Who wrote this journal?" Winter asked.
"I don't know. The author is unknown. It was written in the 1800's, and the person who wrote it saw everything when he drank Ayahuasca tea, the Shamanic tea. It opened his third eye and he saw everything from the clown's force landing on earth, in Derry, on an astroid that landed deep into the ground in the Barrens. He explains he drank the tea for four days and saw everything from the arrival to the death."
"The death of who?" Winter asked.
"He doesn't know. He's not sure if the clown dies or if it's the Lucky Seven that dies. The way he saw it, it's either the Lucky Seven dies and It continues to feed for as long as the earth is still around, or the Lucky Seven kills the clown, but..."
"But, what?" she asked.
"It's predicted that two of the Lucky Seven will die..."
Although Mike had told the six of them everything, it still scared them to hear it. They all sat in silence and looked at each other, wondering who the two would be.
"We know we're the Lucky Seven, because of Ace trying to kill our ancestors and Henry trying to kill us now. Also, that concert you, Bill, Eddie, Richie and Stan did during Christmas time... We all saw each other as adults..." Mike said.
"But then how come Henry and I saw you guys as adults too?" Winter inquired.
"I'm thinking it's because he has a part in this, too. He's suppose to kill us, and you're used as his trigger..."
Winter blinked, "This is so fucked up."
"He's not even finished yet, sweetheart!" Richie said dramatically, feeling the anxiety creeping into his stomach. "Keep going, Mike."
"The journal goes on about light and dark, kind of like God and the devil. The devil being the force that is the clown, but the light talks about it being in the form of a turtle..."
Winter, Eddie, Richie, Bill and Stan looked at each other, and then looked over to the turtle in Its aquarium on the table across the room. It almost looked like It was glowing with a white light as It looked at all of them. Looking at them as if It knew them and was listening.
Winter thought about the turtle saving Robert. The turtle under the stage during the concert and Eddie and hers dance routine. How It made them see each other in the future and feel emotions that didn't exist yet.
She looked at Eddie who was still rubbing her back, recalling the emotions she felt during the Dirty Dancing routine... Whatever that was.
"I don't know if you guys knew... I know you knew that the Bower's and the Hopper's had some issues and you weren't suppose to talk about the missing kids in Derry to them because it upset them, but when Henry was one years old, his older brother Robert..." she paused to correct herself, "I mean, Kyle, was stolen from the backyard. The clown took him. He was found in the Barrens beside the storm drain I was found in and that turtle was with him keeping him safe."
"Henry had an older brother who was stolen?" Stan asked, surprised. "We never knew the story."
"Yeah, and you know Robert? That's Henry's brother. He came back after fifteen years of being missing..."
"The clown did it to start Henry's emotional problems right as a baby..." Mike said, as he continued to put the pieces together.
"I still don't understand why the dark force is in a clown form that's basically seven-fucking-feet-tall, and the light that protects us is a little fucking turtle!" Richie said frustrated. He turned his head to look at that turtle, "Sorry... Don't hate me. Still protect me."
"It's from Hindu and Chinese mythology. It's believed that the earth is not a round planet, but we are all living on the back of a cosmic turtle as it floats through space. The turtle's shell is what protects the turtle, and we're riding on Its back, just floating through the cosmos," Mike said.
Winter, Bill, Stan, Richie, and Eddie all thought the same thing back from the concert when they turned into adults, "We're riding on the turtle's back!"
"The guy who wrote the journal also noted that the seven are all from different walks of life. We all are very different and possess a different force that compliments each other and will beat the clown's force..." Mike continued on, "It goes into astrology, too. That can probably prove how different we all are... I'm a Leo. I'm determined and not afraid to speak up." He looked over at Bill, "What's your zodiac sign?"
"C-C-Capricorn."
"The determined, ambitious leader." Mike said. He looked at Ben, "Ben?"
"Cancer."
"The one with the most emotional-depth." Mike looked at Bev, "Bev?"
"Aquarius."
"The independent humanitarian." Mike looked at Richie, "Richie?"
"Gemini."
"The loud, energetic, fun one who can keep us laughing even in tough times." Mike looked at Stan, "Stan?"
"Aries."
"The one who loves adventures, but retreats when he feels danger." He looked at Eddie, "Eddie?"
"Virgo."
"The analytical and critical-thinker." Mike looked at Winter, "What are you, Winter?"
"Pisces."
"The kind and compassionate dreamer." He continued to look at her, "What's Henry?"
"He's a Taurus."
"The practical, stubborn one who craves security. That's why he's so scared of losing you. You're his security blanket. You take him in another world that he feels love and all the emotional baggage the clown passed onto him disappears when he's in the world around you. He's doing everything he can to protect the world you guys created."
"How is it possible that we are nine people who all have different signs?" Stan asked.
"Just like the prophecy says... We are all different and complement each other," Mike shrugged.
"Now what do we do?" Eddie asked.
"W-We go k-k-kill It," Bill said.
Winter pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes, "You guys have no idea what it's like in the sewers, around that piece of shit clown. The sewer is literally It's playground!"
"We have to, Winter. If we don't It's going to try and kill you, Henry, and us..." Eddie said, his hand on her back the entire time they all had been talking.
She looked back up at her friends, "I'm going with you. This thing is playing Henry like a puppet on strings, and I think I know my way around the sewer to get to It's feeding grounds."
"I don't know how Henry would feel if you went back into the sewers, Winter..." Stan said.
"You're still recovering..." Eddie pointed out.
"And you're not apart of the Lucky Seven..." Richie mentioned.
Winter began, "One - We need a plan to get Henry to come with us. We are definitely not separating especially now that the secrets out and I know everything. Two - I'm better enough that I can do this. I'll bring the medical supplies as well. And three - Sometimes the prophecies are not one-hundred percent accurate... I just need to wait for the nurse to come check on me, which should be in the next fifteen minutes. Someone stay with me as the others rip that jacket off of Henry and we all meet in the Barrens. We will take the turtle, too, just incase he's needed."
Bev looked concerned, "Are you sure, Winter?"
"Yep! This fucker brought Henry and I into this, so let's surprise It with two people It didn't expect to show up in this prophecy party. If this is the day the clown dies, I want it noted. What's the date today?"
"June twenty-seventh," Ben said.
Winter nodded, "Well, look at that... twenty-seventh... Two plus seven equals nine. Let's kill this bitch!"