The sky was filled with stars by the time the losers emerged from those damned sewers. Exhausted and beat down after defeating IT. That horrific monstrosity from another plain disguised as Pennywise the dancing clown. After being it down and showing no fear it fled down the drains. They were sure enough IT would starve after fighting it back from taking more children. Saving Beverly after its last attempt to feed, survive, before the inevitable hibernation.

Too tired to speak with one another they just gave each a look of relief. 'We did it and made it out alive.'

However, consequences were waiting back home for each of them.

Bill's parents told him off for being out so late. giving no mind to how dirty or the vast injuries over him before grounding him to his room. Richie and Stanley's parents are doing similar. Eddie got it twice as bad. Being lucky to ever be able to step from the front yard again. Mike was grounded to stay home and work off all the bolts he "lost while playing around with the gun." Ben managed to sneak in with little complications as his parents were out late on a business meeting.

Then there was Beverly's consequence. Cars awaiting her to return home covering the place in blight flashing reds and blues. She walked up, expecting to tell her side of the story, to be asked why her father was dead with a cracked skull.

That didn't happen.

They grabbed her and threw her into a police cruiser. Everyone knew Beverly Marsh the trouble maker and her lovely father who worked hard to provide. To the police it was a shut case on who was in trouble here. The trouble maker who killed her own father in cold blood. Taking her away to the department. There, she cried and pleaded with them to listen to her side. That her father was a cruel man who did things to her behind closed doors. They told her to shut up and refused to listen as they went through the booking process. Shoving her into a cell with a planned court date. She couldn't even be bailed out. She had no one accept the guys who couldn't possibly have enough for bail money.

Her one phone call was spent on informing Ben. Wanting someone to know and get some comfort that she wasn't alone in this. In the end there was nothing he or the others could do. Their parents didn't approve of her and believed she did commit the murder out of hatred. The only one who was able to sneak into the court was Bill as his parents didn't keep the best track of him. Watching the process go through up to the sentencing.

Guilty of murder. Shall pay in prison for her crimes for the next 25 years. No chance of parole.

It was a soul shattering announcement to Beverly and bill. They could do nothing meanwhile the town cheered for this psychotic child's imprisonment. Even if she did go free an innocent the town would be her prison from then on. Nobody liked her, but the guys and also the only ones to believe her father had attacked her that day.

Escorted by guards she was taken away to the back of the court house. Flashes from news cameras snapping her for the TV stations to report on later. A murder in small ole Derry never got so much attention. Why? After so many children went missing that a curfew had been put into effect. Was it because IT was gone and no longer blinding adults to the deaths? These questions didn't matter enough for her to question them. Her life was over and by the time she would be free again she would be 41 years old. Living her younger years in a cell and orange suit. Already gotten used to it as they brought her in shackles to a transport bus. Already on the road off to her new prison home.

She was quiet on the bus a few rows back sitting alone. Only the driver and guard up front behind a cage were with her on this ride. The jail was far off alone in the Derry country. Gazing out on the empty fields colored by the last sun set she would see from a window. The last bit of sun disappearing just as the bus suddenly chugged at the engine. The headlights flickering along with the lights lining the inside. The bus dying completely in a plume of smoke blasting from under the hood. That, forcing the driver to park on the side of this dirt road in the middle of nowhere.

"ah shit." the driver grumbled. "this thing definitely ain't moving. Gonna have to call another bus."

the guard shooting him a questioning look. "another bus? Hah! Derry doesn't have one." already sounding frustrated. "call a squad car, that's the only way she's reaching the prison now." he huffed.

The driver nodded and picked up the radio. Speaking into it then waiting for a response. Nothing came, so he tried a second and third time to reach someone. Fiddling unsuccessfully with the rodeo to get something other than annoying static. "I can't get nothing on this danged thing!" the driver huffed and gave up trying to call.

The guard attempted to use his own radio. "let me try." his calls going unanswered as well. "the hell? Maybe it's the bus?" he looked at the driver. The doors opening for the officer to step off. Trying his radio a few more times.

It only took a moment as the driver and Beverly took her eyes off the officer. His scream shooting there gazes back over. Seeing him gone and nothing but a dust cloud drifting from where he once stood. Beverly looked further from her window to see what could have happened. Noticing a red smear on the glass with more strips lining the side of the bus. Something big had grabbed him with no evidence suggesting it to be humans doing this.

The driver nervously worked to close the door. No matter how hard he pulled the latch, it refused to budge for him. Stepping forward to physically grab the door was his last mistake. Something large in all black like a void grabbed him with long fingered hands. Clawing into him to yank him out into the darkness outside. A single scream was the last thing Beverly heard from the driver before it was shortly cut by what ever had grabbed him.

Beverly was now entirely on her own on the dark bus. Shackles tied to the floor prevented her from being able to do anything. Even if she managed to slip free she would then have to get past the locked cage door at the buses front. She sat there in accepting her fate, however it could be at this point. Would she be stuck on this bus all safe until maybe someone happened upon it? The jail would surely notice the bus going quiet and late to its arrival time. Or would whatever is out there try to reach her inside?

Getting one of her questions answered as it stepped onto the bus. Causing the whole thing to lean suddenly under its weight. This black monstrosity shifting its multiple dark hands onto the cage door. Pushing it down to crush the blockage as if it were made of tinfoil. She sat there watching it as still as she could preparing for her death.

As the monster stepped closer she looked over the details she could see more clearly. Spiders like legs climbing over the seats to come closer over to her. Long slender arms with sharp slender fingers. A large pair of jaws looming over her with a mouth full of rowed teeth. Head stretching from its neck circled by sharp large scales. Down to a bulky body going along the whole length of the bus with many legs like a centipedes. Not even the whole form was able to step onto the bus before the creature reached her.

Its looming face gave her a strange sense of deja vu that she was confused by. Realizing why after barely making out the dark red markings lining its lips. curving off its ends to shift forward in looking like a pair of fake eyes on is pail, eyeless, face.

She knew what this thing was now. "IT." she thought. Her body was hit by a wave of exhaustion in dealing with the clown. What did he want with her now? To torture her on the bus?

"hiya Beverly!" it greeted in that high pitched voice that shortly warped into something deeper and guttural. Needing to shift its jaw around as if fighting to keep its voice understandable rather than twisting more into animistic growls.

She took in a tired breath going along with whatever he was doing. "hi." her voice coming out softer then she meant.

IT let out a growling hiss before its voice clicked back into something more human. " HHhhhaaaa-ving trouble?"

"sure."

ITs voice grumbled in its throat for a second. "Grrrrr – rrrahh – hate it here?" IT asked. She could hear mixed clicks to gurgles coming from his throat. Another thing he was doing to keep his voice? She wasn't sure nor did she really care.

Wanting to get to the bottom of this over strange small talk. "what do you want?" flatly asking.

Hissing again for the start of its forming sentence. "hhhhrrr- you." it answered before continuing. " hhhgrrr – suffocating? Don't like it here?" his questions grabbing her attention a little more now.

"suffocating?"

"grrahhhh- hrrr- air. Too heavy? Everything suffocating you like a falling weight?" he managed to speak out a sentence aside from strange small noises.

She swallowed down nervously. It had been feeling like she was suffocating or being crushed under a blanket of snow. She passed it off as stress, but it had been constant since that time down in the sewers. After being awoken from the deadlights. Seeing what he truly was it was both nerve wracking and yet … peaceful.

The feeling started out as a horrible burn, like throwing your face into an oven. She struggled, but against what she wasn't sure. There was no physical force to push against. It was all around her and no exit was in sight to aim for. Then those three glowing orbs came to her floating around her as if watching. They didn't speak in any language known on earth, but she somehow understood. "you can't escape." IT wasn't happy to see her struggling so much. Hidden teeth ripping into her soul that she had no chance to fight against. She was being tortured in the hellscape in an attempt to make her fear for her life.

Instead of panicking like IT wanted, she let go. Accepting her pain that would bring death upon her soon. The pain all washed away in a wave of numbness. The swirling lights burning bright in angry confusion. Looking around her in examination on what to do. The lights paused over her then dimmed at realizing there was nothing they could do. She wasn't scared enough to bring forth a force of pain. The lights slowly fading away to leave her back in the strange darkness.

Then there was a slow shift as if being weightless. an eerie comfort of her body working stress free. Her soul floating on some hidden cloud holding onto her gently. No more heartbeat thudding in her chest, air going in and out without much force needed. It felt like her body was running so easily in the strange void. Body easing back to rest in this void she looked around in. noticing things from the corner of her eye she could not see when looking right at it. A glowing orange brightness like a fire. Something massive circulating around with many legs. Twisted around her was a black tar like webbing sticking to her. Part of her mind refusing the comfort being provided. She was being used for some ill purpose. A prisoner in a spider's web with false security to keep her from fighting.

The quietness of the space broken by many voices flooding in. asking who she was and each talking about themselves. Almost all of them sounded like children. It was extremely overwhelming at first until they slowly filtered. Despite all the talking at once she managed to catch a lot of what they said. The longer she stuck around the more comfortable it felt. Being welcomed into some large cluster of bright friendly souls. Feeling at peace she forgot all her problems waiting for her.

Her father, all those bully's calling her a slut, the world eater that trapped her here in the first place. It was the first time she had no worries and could actually be free. All of that dropping like a ton of bricks when she was kissed by Ben. Her floating soul was now being crushed back into her body. Remembering what happened to her she was at first thrilled to be back. Be free from that clown who stole her away to desperately try devouring her. How the guys all came to save her despite ITs aggressive threat of them not to come help.

Working with the guys to beat this evil being to its death. To free Derry of this curse or at least that's what they believed. After all, IT was still here in front of her. Since then it was like she never felt the same. Her lungs could never pull in enough air. Her heart ached to beat as if it never did and was now forced to. Gravity itself feels twice as heavy with her body reacting to it as if a foreign thing.

Thinking through her responses before finally answering ITs question. "why do you care if I feel it?"

its throat hissed and crackled in stretching to be closer. Its jaws full of teeth almost touching her face at that point. Its voice speaking in that strange language that resonated through her core in a hidden connection. "you weren't supposed to leave. You joined us."

she swallowed heavily again. "us?"

her understanding what IT said causing IT to perk up. Continuing to go on its language. "us, the lights. We are all one and live as one. You left before your body could be separated. You weren't supposed to leave, it hurts us."

"all of us children. That you ate." she snapped. How dare it act like those other souls joined it happily. She wouldn't have even joined if he hadn't dragged her down there. "that separation of death. Right?"

"no one who dies in Derry, ever really dies." it spoke in a thousand voices.

"what happens to those who stay? There not really in charge are they?" confronting him further. "you're using them to stay alive. Eating them until what? They dissolve in that void you make to fake comfort. You want me to go back and die in that prison?"

"to fade away is life. All must cycle back into the cosmos. You will eventually go anyway, right? Back to the earth and roots." bring up the point of her mortality. "Come back to us. Free-er than the prison you are heading toward."

she looked away in thought. Gaze glancing at the shekels on her. He would be right about dying eventually along with being in the deadlights would feel far better then a lonely cold jail cell. Still, there was one detail she didn't like.

"did you really come for me? Or because I am an easy meal that could stop you from starving?"

"you, I wont die without you. We keep each other alive, but weak during sleep. It hurts to be separate. You feel the weight. The gravity of earth. The suffocation you are no longer meant to handle. You weren't meant to leave us." sounding confident in what it answered. "Do you want to come back?" it strangely ended up asking.

Why wasn't it just doing it? It wasn't hard for it the last time. "why don't you just suck me in?"

"acceptance." it answered. "fighting will break you. You accepted and joined us." it answered.

Beverly remembered back to when first entering that void. Lots of pain until she gave up to let death take its course. She thought "must be the closest to accepting as you can get. Every other soul was based on if it fought or not. The deadlights were all the ones that accepted IT. The rest were devoured both soul and flesh.

"do you accept?" it asked.

Beverly contemplated what her choices were. Join ITs deadlights and have possibly saved IT from starvation to go on and devour more children. To be free of going to prison along with this crushing sickness that could follow her for the rest of her life. Or reject and go on to the prison, possibly facing more charges with the dead guard and driver on top of a destroyed cage gate. Her being the only "violent" prisoner on the entire bus. Unable to give an excuse to why they're missing or what happened while she was still shackled down.

"...yes." she answered in foreign tongue. Watching as ITs large jaws slowly opened. The rising lights coming forth to fill her vision.

The joining this time wasn't nearly as long or harsh. A light wave of warmth brushing her face as she joined back to that relaxing void. The cluster of voices happily greeting her back as she adjusted. The voices clearing for her to understand each of them. The suffocation completely gone with the crushing feeling sickening her body. She took her first easy breath to relax back. Letting her worry's fade away as her last connection to earth was severed by ITs jaws. Crushing the useless vessel for a small meal before heading back down below for its long rest.

a short one shot i made based on the idea of if the dealdlights wernt completely horrible (although in my other storys they absolutely are). instead being something somewhat inviting.

didint want to go too deep into how the deadlights work or how the other souls an such feel about all being eaten and dead. just meant to be a fun little thing for me to write. :V/