"…Like what's up danger?
Like what's up danger?
Can't stop me now!"
—What's Up Danger?, Black Caviar & Blackway
Following the incident with their individual token hunt and stab-happy Bowers in the bathroom, the remaining Losers found themselves marching through the doors of the old town library. Typically the building would be locked at this hour, but Mike had made sure to leave it unlocked for them when they returned with their chosen items. And when they did, they sight they came upon was not one any of them had expected.
"Mike!" Beverly called, leading the way "HEY MIKE!…AH! OH MY GOD!" She gasped, her hands slapped over her mouth at the sight she beheld. Both Mike and Richie were rising to their feet relatively unharmed, though Richie was vehemently wiping his mouth on his jacket sleeve—probably something to do with the pile of vomit off to the side—and an adult Bowers lay crumpled at their feet with an old axe lodged in his brain. Katherine vindictively noted that the black eye she had given the man a few days prior was still there, brilliantly purple and practically swelled shut.
"…Are you alright?" Ben questioned.
"No I'm not alright!" Richie snapped, "I just fucking killed a guy!"
"I was…talking to Mike…"
"Speaking of, Mikey" Katherine cut in, hands on hips as she turned to the elder Loser "What the hell is this damned ritual you want us to do? Huh? We what? Burn tokens? Strip naked and dance around in the dark? Sacrifice a lamb? Just what the hell are you wanting us to do, Mikey?"
"Look, I told you the ritual of Chüd—" Mike began to reply.
"—Yes, yes, the ritual of Chüd! Face our fears, and all that! But you haven't told us what the fuck that involves! C'me on Mikey! I wanna know what we're facing here! How the hell is the ritual s'posed to be any different than last time, huh? I don't wanna walk into the dark on this!"
"She's got a point, Mike" Richie turned to the librarian as Ben began to bandage his wrist. "You haven't really told us anything"
Mike floundered for a response, his face contorting into strange expressions as he tried to come up with something to pacify the group with. Luckily for him however, Katherine's ringtone for the Winchester's, chose that specific moment to blast from her pockets. Carry on my wayward son. There'll be peace when you are done…"Of for fuck's sake…" Katherine growled under her breath as she whipped out her singing phone and scrunched up her nose at the ID caller plastered across the screen "I gotta take this—" She excused, before pointedly glaring at Mike, "—I'm not done with you"
Stepping outside, Katherine braced herself for the call she was about to receive. "Let's get this over with…" She sighed and pressed the call button. "Hello?"
"KATHERINE AGNES URSA! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Dean bellowed through the phone, making Katherine wince as she snatched the device away from her ear at the volume.
"Jesus Dean! Could you be any louder? I don't think the Hell could hear you" She sassed, wiggling a finger in her ringing ear.
"You listen here, you little shit—Hey!" There was the sound of grumbling and rustling on the other end of the phone as it changed hands; presumably snatched by Sam.
"We're s'posed to be calling her not interrogating her!" Sam's scolded his brother, his voice faintly heard through the phone over his brother's grumbles.
"Hey Sam" Katherine sighed tiredly, fiddling with her pendant as she did so. "What's up?"
"Katie, where are you? You weren't answering our calls or texts or anything!" Sam sounded concerned and a little annoyed—probably at his elder brother's antics.
"I told you, there was a family emergency and I had to come home" Lie. Lie. Lie.
"You left us a sticky note in glitter pen that you stuck to the fridge"
"What's the difference?"
"Look if you're in trouble, we—we can help…just let us know where you are"
"Cas can't find me, can he?"
"…No"
"Yeah, there's reason for that…and it's not the angel deterrent"
"What?" Dean's voice perked up at that, notifying her that she was probably on speaker phone.
"Not important" Katherine shook her head as she straightened up, "Look, I can't talk long, I'm at a funeral" Kind of.
"Oh…" Sam sounded a little surprised at that. "You—you could've said so, we wouldn't have stopped you from going"
"C'me on Sam, you and Dean are a giant pair of mother hens—"
"—Hey!—" Dean's voice sounded from the background.
"—Don't deny it" She smiled, "Sides, if it wasn't you guys, it would've been Jody or Foxy, and they're both just 'bout as bad as each other…" She spared a glance over her shoulder back through the library doors where the rest of the Losers were gathered, " I shouldn't be much longer—maybe a day or two and then you can mother hen me as much as you want"
"…We are not mother hens!" Dean grumbled.
"Oh yes you are" Katherine smiled, thankful that the boys had believed the lie. "Look, I gotta go…"
"Bye, Katie" Sam replied.
"See ya" Katherine ended the call, mumbling to herself as she flicked a text to Castiel letting her know she was okay, now that she had talked to the Winchesters. "Now, I just gotta hope that they don't talk to Gar"
Creeping back into the library, Katherine was met with Mike's questioning gaze that flowed over each of them. "Where's Bill?" She seemed to have missed something.
"There was a kid…" Beverly murmured, her face growing pale as she replied.
"What?" All eyes turned to her as Katherine came to lean against one of the large oak tables scattered around the library.
"He said there was a kid—he's lives in Bill's old house—said IT was taunting him…how he couldn't save him or-or…"
"Or?" Mike pushed as Ben pulled him over to the adjacent table and began to bandage the cut on his arm.
"Georgie" Beverly's voice was nary above a whisper, but it echoed throughout the library like it was bellowed. Hope and dread blossomed in Katherine's heart, for all the while Beverly recounted her tale, Katherine had been staring into the eyes of the Denborough Reaper. There was hope that whomever Bill was looking for would remain unharmed, but dread for those who remained in the library alongside one of Death's couriers.
Who is it? Her eyes seemed to say, Who of us is going to die? Katherine wasn't stupid, she had noticed the abundance of Reapers popping up around the town throughout the day. Most were gathered around certain spots like the Neibolt house or the park; some sat on roofs or lounged on park benches as they waited for the inevitable death that was to follow. They were like vultures waiting for their next meal to fall into their laps. But for one to follow them specifically, even with their previous earthly attachments? Reapers weren't known for their sentiments, it was only a matter of time.
"Bill" Mike's strong voice pulled Katherine from her thoughts as he called the living last member of their group. He hadn't put the device on speaker phone, but the volume was turned up so loud that it may as well have been, for Katherine could easily hear the faint replies of Bill as he strutted through the active fairgrounds. "We're all at the library, where are you at?"
"He took a little k-k-kid, Mikey! He took a little kid! Right in f-fucking front of me!" Bill stammered, his voice thick with emotions.
"No, no, no, no!" Mike jumped to his feet as he tried to persuade Bill to stick to the plan. "Just—just come here to the library. We can talk about the plan—"
"—I'm gonna go kill IT!" Bill replied, making Katherine tense at the firm declaration. This was not something he could do alone.
"Bill—!"
"—Don't want a-any of you to get k-k-k-killed with me!"
"Bill! Bill!" Mike shouted into the phone, but he only received the dial tone in reply. "He's gone to fight IT alone" Mike threw his hands up in exasperation, turning back to the others.
"What?" Richie hissed.
"Alone" Mike reiterated as he pulled out an odd-looking container and slammed it down on the table in front of him to emphasise his point. Slipping from the table, Katherine padded over to the container, Mike had set down and flipped it over, trying to study all the different carvings engraved on the four sides. Gar was right, this does look native, maybe even tribal…Katherine mused as Richie peered over her shoulder at the container. At least until Mike snatched in out of her hands. "It's about the group, the ritual doesn't work without the group!"
"Mike, did he tell you where he was going?" Ben asked.
"If he really wanted to kill Pennywise, there's only one place he'll go" Beverley whispered, her vacant look turning into something filled with fear.
"The same place the ritual needs to be performed" Mike added.
"Here we go again" Katherine sighed, running a hand through her messy locks.
"Oh, we're not gonna like this, are we?" Ed sighed dejectedly.
"Heh…Fuck" Ben murmured, echoing what they were all feeling.
Much like the Bowers' house and the ruins of Old Derry, not much had changed about the house on Neibolt street. It was still overrun with decrepit flora that climbed through every crack and cranny it could find; really at this point, the only thing keeping it still standing was the ivy interwoven with the scaffolds. It's a wonder it had stayed standing for as long as it did. The garden—if you could call it that—was overgrown as well, by this point it was mostly brambles bushes and tangled weeds, like something out of a fairy tale or a horror movie. Remarkably, the path up to the house remained untouched (save for the cracked terracotta tiles that lined the way) and carved a route up to the creepy house.
"BILL!" Beverly screamed, racing up the path and stopping the man on the front steps. The rest of the Losers came to a stop behind her.
"N-no! You guys! No!" Bill cried when he spotted them, "I s-s-started all this, th-this is my fault that you're all here. This curse, this fucking…thing that's inside you all, i-it started growing the day I made you go down into the m-m-made you go down into the Barrens because all I care about was finding G-G-Georgie…"
"Well, unless you're the one killing kids, Billy, I think you're talking outta your ass" Katherine sassed, hands on hips despite the fear that was racing through her. All these years later, Katherine still found a sense of dreadful fear curling up in the pit of her gut, that threatened to envelope her. Bill (along with the others) appeared surprised at what she had said or even how she had said it, but he was adamant in his resolve.
"Look, I-I'm gonna g-go in there, and I don't know what's gonna happen. But I c-can't ask you to do this! It's—" He trailed off as Beverly knelt down and plucked a rusty iron pike from the dead grass at their feet. One that looked familiar to the brunette, for some reason.
"Well, we're not asking you either" Beverly retorted, gripping tight to the iron pike.
"Bev—"
"—We didn't do it alone then, Bill" Mike interjected, "And we're not gonna do this alone, now"
"Losers stick together" Ben added.
"…So does somebody wanna…?" Ed awkwardly piped up, "Say something…?"
"Richie said it b-b-b-est when we were here last" Bill admitted.
"I did?" Richie puzzled, "I don't wanna die?"
"Not that"
"You're lucky we're not measuring dicks?" The others shared a disbelieving look at that, a couple even raising eyebrows at the very-Richie comment.
"No"
"Uh…" Richie paused for a moment as he searched his memories, "Let's kill this fucking clown?"
"Yeah" Bill grinned wickedly.
"Let's kill this fucking clown!"