July 1989

This was bad, this was bad.

Eddie's arm was severely broken, and after escaping from Niebolt House we had to get in contact with his mother. We made it to another neighborhood street, meeting up with his mother. She was engaged, blaming us for what happened to Eddie and how fragile he was. Even when we were trying to explain to her what actually happened, she wasn't going to listen to any of us. So, with one last nasty look at all of us, she sped away with Eddie in the front seat, all of us watching with worn looks on our faces.

I was still recovering a bit with plenty of scratches along my arm and legs. I was still shaking for what happened with me in that house, being that close to the clown and how he was almost trying to taunt me with only having one arm. It felt so heavy in my head, way too heavy. We were all quiet there on the street, not having Eddie with us, and trying to digest what just happened.

Once the car was out of sight, rolling down the street and turning the corner, Bill red back around and looked all of us.

"I saw the well," He started, "W-W-W-We know where it is, and…and….and next time we can we better prepared," He looked at all of us as if we were going to agree with him. But not a single person agreed. In fact, we were all stunned by what he said. I was next to Ben who was clutching his wounded stomach and was giving Bill a shocked look when Stanley finally spoke up in fury.

"NO!" He screamed, all of us looking to see the heartbroken look on his face as he was staring down Bill, "No next time Bill! You're insane!"

"Why? We all know no one else is going to do anything," Beverly said back to Stanley, clearly showing she was on Bill's side with his argument.

"Eddie was nearly killed!" Richie explained to Beverly as he gestured to the direction where Eddie's car went, "And look at this mother fucker! He's leaking Hamburger Helper!" He pointed right at Ben, who looked hurt that Beverly was siding with Bill. I gave Bill a hard look as I shook my head, seeing him give me a pleading look.

"No way in hell," I said back to him before he could say a word to me. I knew it sounded bitter, almost beyond angry in such a low voice, but it was the truth. I couldn't go back there instantly after what we saw and what just happened within those walls.

"We can't pretend that this is going to go away. Ben, you said it yourself, it comes back every 27 years!" Beverly pleading now to Ben, who was still giving her a hard look himself.

"Fine! I'll be 40 and far away from here," Ben answered with a shrug of his shoulders, sounding nonchalant about it, "I thought you said you wanted to be out of this town too."

"Cause I wanna run towards something…not away!" She corrected him in a softer broken voice.

"I['m sorry, who invited Molly Ringwald to the group?" Richie scoffed as he pointed at Beverly. She then turned held up her middle finger to him, glaring hard. Stanley then shifted as I then looked over at Richie, seeing the hurt and pain on his face though he was angrier.

"Richie…" I started.

"No, Robin. Let's just face facts, real world! Georgie is dead, stop trying to get us killed too!" He said in a huff. Bill's face contorted into anger as Richie was about to walk past him to get to his bike when Bill stopped him with a hand on his chest.

"Georgie is not dead!" he stated, Richie was taking a step back as they were sizing up each other.

"You couldn't save him," Richie stated softly, no longer sounded angry but just stating his opinion, "But you can still save yourself," he tried moving back Bill again, but Bill once again stopped him, looking enraged.

"No! T-t-t-t-take it back!" We were all shocked from where we were seeing, Bill was bot on the verge of tears and was getting so close to Richie. I took a step forward in case I had to do something, but Stanley grabbed my hand to make me stay there. This wasn't right: Bill and Richie should not be fighting like this, "You s-s-s-scared and we all are, but take it back!" He shoved Richie hard int he chest, Richie backing up a few steps and he too was getting angry.

"Bill!" I said in anger to him as he did that to his friend. Richie pushed him back, a bit harder, and now both of them were getting angry. But the tension broke and erupted when Bill punched Richie hard and Richie fell to the ground.

Ben and grabbed Bill to back him back as Mike and Stanley tried to stop Richie from getting closer to Bill. It was almost a full-on fight as Richie was screaming, trying to claw at Bill, and Bill was trying to get to Richie.

"STOP!" Beverly yelled finally, both boys moving away from each other as the mood in the air was so heavy with hate that it was seeping under our skins. Beverly was shocked by what happened, but she stayed in the middle as I was off to the side with Mike. This was all too much for me, since seeing two of my friends act like this almost made me break down in tears.

"This is what it wants! It wants to divide us!" She explained, looking at each of us, "We were all together when we heard It, that's why we're still alive!"

"Yeah, well I plan to keep it that way!" Richie said in a huff as he walked past Bill, shoving his shoulder in the process and getting to his bike. Stanley followed, giving me one before he went. I didn't know if he thought I was going to stop him, but nothing was making me wish he would stay. I knew where Beverly was coming from, but most of my thoughts and recollections were coming back to when I was alone with the clown and it terrified me.

I didn't want to do that again.

"Mike…" Beverly called out to him weakly as he turned around and faced Bill and Beverly.

"Guys, I can't do this! My Grandfather was right: I'm an outsider. I gotta stay that way," he stated, giving me one last look too before he went off on his bike. I was still left, almost rooted to the ground and I finally moved my hand up to shove a tear away and walk over my bike that was left in the grass.

"Robin!" I froze when Bill called for me, having me sigh and shakily turned to face him. I could see it written all over his face: hurt from what he felt because of Richie's words about his brother, determination to end It, and remorse for what just happened. He was only left with Beverly, but the way he looked at me was enough for me to see that he was hoping I would stay too.

"I'm sorry, Bill," I apologized, breathing out deeply as Beverly too was seeing the hurt on my face, "I can't go back in there again."

With that, I grabbed my bike with my one hand, kicking off with my feet and rode down the street with no looking back. I rode back home with tears on my face, and a broken heart from our broken Losers Club.

It was the start of the longest isolation that summer.

Present Day

He had one hand on my throat, almost cutting off my breathing as the other that was holding the knife was dangerously close to my face as he was glaring at me with big murdering eyes. His face showed the same kind of evil that he had when he was a teenager, almost like he was a maniac as he wasn't letting me go. I tried to punch him with my own arm, but he had me pinned down hard with his body. I could feel some of the dark liquid that was on his chest from some kind of wound getting onto my shirt and skin, having me almost feel nauseated.

"ROBIN!" Mike said in horror as he ran over. Henry looked up right in time for Mike to punch him hard in the jaw, then shoving him off of me. Henry staggered back, putting enough space between both of us. Mike instantly grabbed my jacket, hauling me away from him and getting me back on my feet as I was coughing to get breath back in my lungs.

We both looked, seeing Henry stagger a bit. I grabbed Mike's shirt in panic.

"Go, run!" I said to him as we both then broke into a run to the other end of the massive room in between the aisles of books. The only thing that we could do was get away from Henry, he was the one with the knife in his hand and neither one of us had a weapon ourselves. I didn't think of what I was going to do as soon as I got there, and now we had a lunatic who was after us I was somewhat regretting what we were doing in that massive room.

I didn't know where Mike was in the room, where he was hiding, and how well he was hidden. Once again, the room was silent, having me trying to calm down my breathing so that I wasn't too loud in how I was sounding. There was carpet on the floor, so trying to hear Henry's feet and where hew as was a bit harder for me to pinpoint. I was pressing my back against one of the bookshelves, slowly inching back away from the middle of the room and over to the walls, hoping that it was the right move to make. Those few moments of pinpoint silence were the worst for since I didn't know where to go. I didn't know where Mike was and if he was okay since he would be the bigger target at this point.

"You fucking Losers need to die!"

He roared in the room, making me shutter as I was standing so still now and looking petrified. Even as an adult almost like us Losers, with a voice change, he was still the same. I never thought as a grown adult that I would have this kind of fear with another human being. Pennywise was a different story, that was something else that was beyond logic. But Henry was all human, and there had to be some kind of chemical imbalance within his brain.

I moved down a bit more, along the wall as I could then almost head Henry, who was also coming towards us but he was right in the middle of the sidle. He sounded haggard, in the way he was almost staggering on the carpet floor and his breathing was now lathered and heavy like he was on his last limbs of holding upright. I finally made it down to the end of the room, tucking myself behind one of the horizontal shelves that shielded me away from Henry.

Looking down at the other end of the room, seeing that Mike was thinking the same thing. He was tucked away too, looking so fancied as we were locking eyes with each other. I carefully made my way over to him, staying against the wall with my back and almost staying low to the ground so that I wasn't in Henry's line of sight. When I was halfway there, there was a loud noise in the room, having me freeze. Even Mike threw out his hand for me to stop, in which I looked through the books to see right in the middle of the room.

Henry at this point was throwing books onto the floor in bangs, grunting, and yelling as he went. I could tell he was on some kind of rage as he was looked around like a frantic animal. At this point, I was scared that there was a point of return with Henry. I looked over at Mike, seeing him give me a look of concern. We both tried to think of what we could do, but I then pointed to his pocket, seeing him give me a confused look before he reached in and took out his phone.

I tried to show with my fingers to text the others, Mike got it within a second and was doing just that quickly. I looked back ahead of me, trying to keep my eyes on Henry. But when I was looking through the books once again, Henry was nowhere to be seen. I froze, thinking that he was somewhere else in the room. A moment of pure silence was in the room, and once I lost my breath.

A hand flew though the books, barely getting me in the face as it was holding the knife. I moved back just in time, the tip of the knife almost hitting me made me gasp as I was seeing it trying thrash around. But I grabbed his wrist hard in my hand, yanking him hard and feeling him fly against the other side of the bookshelf. I was holding him in a death grip, though at times I felt my own grip on him slipping. But I was thinking about Mike, seeing him look at me in concern as he was about to come over to get to me to help. But I hook my head, yanking Henry's arm even harder as he grunted in pain. His other hand was punching the bookshelf to get me to let himself go.

"Get out of here, Mike!" I grunted to him, seeing him gaze at me with conflict and worry all over his face. I shook my head at him, seeing that he was about to argue with me. But I was giving him an open chance to get out of the room and over to safety since he would be the main target and interest in Henry.

I was trying to buy him time.

"GO!" I screamed as the group on Henry was almost slipping. I had to think of something else to do since I was only holding him with one hand and Henry had some strength on his side of the shelf too. He could yank me back and brake my arm of he could.

But then I thought of something I did before, that I did plenty of times. If I was lacking one arm, I still had my legs. Now that I was an adult, with all the training and running that I've put myself for, I knew the strength in my own legs and how to use them. I did it once when I was younger with Pennywise at Niebolt house, I used it against Stanley's front door to get to him within seconds.

And now I was going to do it again.

Leaning back against the wall that was so close to me, I placed one foot against the bookshelf, gripping Henry just as hard within my fingers. I took a deep breath, before getting the grip fo my back against the wooden wall panel. Within a second, once I knew this was now or never, I got both of my feet against the bookshelf and shoved hard.

For a second, I felt the bookshelf give in front of me. I was still holding onto Henry's arm as the bookshelf was falling on top of him in such chaos. I was going forward with the fall, landing on top of the other side of the shelf as it was collapsing on top of Henry. Once minuter I was against the wall, and then a second or two later, I was horizontally on top of the shelf that was smothering Henry.

I was shocked, my body slammed against the damaged books when I looked up and around. Dust was flying up in the air from the impact the booming sound was melting away as I blinked and looked around. Things were calm and quiet, and yet the electricity of the mood was still high in the air.

"Robin!" Mike said in worry, having me look to see him on the other side of the room with wide eyes and a stiff stance. I crawled over the top fo the bookshelf that I was perched on, seeing no sign of Henry since he was underneath me, "You okay?"

"I'm good!" I said in a cough as I finally Once I was off the bookshelf, dusted myself off as I was about to step off of the books and back not solid ground, but a hand was wrapping around my ankle and yanked me hard to fall on the ground.

"Oh, Shit!" Mike said as I felt my head slam on the ground and I was being yanked backward, books slamming into my body on both sides. The hand that was on my ankle grabbed my arm and whirled me around on my back, and for a split second, I saw Henry hovering over me as I did before. His knife was held high, right by his head as he looked down and started to drive the knife down to me, right at my upper chest.

I had a split second.

I threw up my prosthetic arm to cover my face, feeling the hard impact of the knife slamming into my prosthetic. it shook me so hard as the blade went right through the plastic, ultimately making the knife stuck in my arm. Henry grunted when his knife got stuck, trying to pull it out as I was still staying on the ground. It felt like I was going to have this struggle with Henry since he was now yanking me with the handle of the knife somewhat attached to me. But then I heard a whoosh of air, something being lodged, and I felt a splatter of blood hit my face.

Henry, frozen above me with wide eyes, had a few droplets of blood hitting his face.

He released the knife handle and collapsed next to me on the ground, having me look over and see his head next to me. There was a massive ax coming out of his head, blood all over the ax, and on top of his head as his eyes went dead. I was frozen in my spot, seeing the dead body next to me as I then slowly looked back in front of me, wondering show did that.

It was Richie Tozier.

He said nothing, but he was breathing so heavily and looked like he was on the verge of collapsing on himself from what he just did. I was gasping at him, so shocked that Richie did something like that for me. He looked at the body for a few long seconds, blinking behind his glasses before he finally looked at me, his face went from blank to concern as he saw me on the floor.

"Holy shit, Robin you okay?" He asked me as he leaned down to grab my one arm. Helping me up carefully, he maneuvered me away from the body, Mike rushing over to look at me up and down. I gulped, saying nothing but nodding my head as I looked back at the dead body. It was shocking, to say the least.

"You're not hurt are you?" Mike asked as we then heard the front doors below us open and slamming against the wall.

"No, I don't think so," I said, looking down at my body before I then heard Richie almost gagging. I looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "What?"

"Your….your arm is…umm.." He stopped, Mike also looking at what he was looking at. His eyes were big, not saying anything, but he wasn't as bad as Richie, who was looking a bit green.

I finally looked down at what they were seeing: my prosthetic arm with the knife still poking out of it. Of course, I felt nothing, but it did look pretty nasty. The knife's actual blade was halfway in the surface of my prosthetic, the handle sticking out. I held it out in front of me, right in front of Mike and Richie too as we were all looking at the knife.

"Mikey! Where are you?!"

"Mike, you okay?"

Voices were heard as the sound of feet was climbing up the stairs. All three of us were focusing on the knife as I slowly popped off my prosthetic and held in my good arm. I let it fall to the floor, which was the signal for Richie to lean away from Mike and me to vomit onto the floor from all that just happened.

"What the fuck?!"

Mike and I turned, having us see who to were that climbed the steps. Ben, Beverly, and Eddie were there, looking shocked and confused at the sight in front of them. Eddie had a massive gauze on his cheek, his eyes were big at seeing not only Henry dead on the ground with an ax in his head but a knife in my fallen prosthetic. It seemed a bit too much Richie stopped vomiting and was wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"You guys okay?" Ben asked, sounding beyond concerned as they were walking over towards the three of us.

"Yeah we're good," I said to him as I then looked over at Richie, eyeing him up and down and he till looked bit disgusted from vomiting. I felt a wave of adoration towards him since he saved my life with Henry. I gave him a warm look, going over to him and I gave him a side hug. He hugged me back without a second blink or thought.

"Thank you, Rich," I thanked him as I had my head on his jacket. He rubbed my arm with his fingers as he hugged me.

"Not gonna let that creep kill one of my friends," He muttered as we released each other and he eyed me with a raised eyebrow, "Although, you did kick his ass."

"And you threw an ax into his head, so we're even," I countered back, seeing him almost snort but he was still a bit out of it. I grinned, then looking at the others as we were all mostly back together. Beverly smiled at me, walking over to give me a warm hug.

"I'm glad you're okay. Richie told us what you were doing and we had to come over," She explained when she pulled away, I smiled at her too. Ben was consoling Richie as Eddie made his way over, first looking at Henry's dead body and then looking at me. I was now seeing how big the gauze was on his cheek, which made me immediately placed my hand on his cheek to get a better look. It looked precise, the dressing that was on his skin. He had to have done that himself since everything looked perfect against his cheek.

"It's okay," He reassured me, placing his hand on top of my hand and lacing our fingers together to squeeze it, "It only hurts a little bit but I can deal with it."

"And you let one of us dress it?" I asked, almost in a coy manner. He then grinned widely, almost like he was beyond happy with what was on his head as he nodded his head slowly. I cocked my head at him, not knowing why he was making a face.

He then looked over towards the opening of the massive room we were in. I could then see there was someone there in the shadow, slowly coming into the light of the room with a sheepish look on his face. As soon as I saw him, my voice was lost and my eyes were big in shock and disbelief. It was such a dream, it had to be a dream. Something inside of me was going so fast, perhaps it was my heart, and my head was going crystal clear.

It was the same look I saw when we first met so long ago. I only uttered his first name in softness and shock.

"Stanley."