Author's Note: This one was HEFTY! Hopefully, you'll like it!

August 1989

"STANLEY! STAN!"

He was nowhere to be seen.

I immediately started to crawl out of the hole as fast as I could, and although I was slipping at times with my one hand, I was still bursting through and landed ankle deep in some more greywater, looking around at where I was in.

The sewers, right under Derry Maine.

The tunnels themselves were massive, making em so tiny in where I was positioned in the middle of the tunnel. The smell enough was bad, having a squint a few times as my shoes and ankle were getting soaked in the thick slime of the water we were all standing in at this point. Of course, this would be a place for something as evil as a demonic clown to hide in. Plus, if al the stories were true, in these tunnels, a person could get easily lost and die down here.

Perfect spot for children.

Eddie and Ben were right behind me, both of them landing in the water too and Eddie almost gagging as Richie splashed down with Mike and Bill right behind.

"Shit, greywater…" Eddie muttered while we were all grouping together. I was afraid now, since not only were we in the sewers and the clown could come out at any moment, but we were missing Stanley. The one person who was unwilling to come down here but came to be with the rest of us, to be one with the group. Now he was away from us, all alone and away from anyone that could help him. I didn't want to think of Stanley being defense-less, but then again this was not a place to be alone in.

"Stanley!" Eddie started calling out, all of us were in a line following Bill as he was leading the way with his flashlight in front of him. It was harder to run as we were trekking through the water ankles deep, but we were determined to find. It was just us jogging for a few long minutes, looking around at the opening tunnels left toad right of us as we passed them.

I was getting desperate to Find Stanley since it felt like we were getting farther and deeper in the Sewers tunnel system. Something wasn't right, I could feel it in my stomach as we were trying to run at full speed now, looking for him.

Suddenly, we heard Stanley scream in the distance.

"STANLEY!" I screamed in panic as we were now moving faster. It was coming right at a steel door that looked rusty and almost rust short completely. We all grabbed the handle, trying to yank it together as fast as we could since it could only mean seconds. After a few hard tugs and yanks, the door swung open from the inside and we all almost fell in.

It was a circular room, one part had what looked like a draining pool with running water going down and a smaller staircase to another stay door. Not one sign of Stanley.

"Stanley?! Stan!" Eddie called in a panic as he then looked over, I did too. Stanley's flashlight was on the ground, but it was still lit. Eddie and I wished over, Eddie grabbing it with his hand. Once he lifted it, we saw something illuminated right in front of us and we all screamed out.

Stanley's head was almost consumed by a creature.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING?!" Richie yelled in terror. The creature was perched over Stanley's body, who looked limp on the ground and his face was completely covered by the teeth of the creature. The mouth that was sucking on Stanley's face almost looked like a suckling creature from the ocean, the eyes of the creature were circling blue and deep in terror. Something about what Stanley said, back when we were together on the 4th of July, something about the lady that scared him, was this the same thing?

The creature then released its mouth on Stanley, rings of blood droplets were around Stanley's face as he breathed out a shaky breath. The Demon Lady slithered away with a piercing smile at us as I immediately moved over to kneel next tp Stanley and look at the creature in horror. The creature was then moving into another opening of a tunnel, moving away briefly and we were all paralyzed. For a moment there was nothing seen from the opening, but then we saw It.

The clown, grinning at us with blood all over Its face.

We all screamed out before the clown disappeared unto the tunnel again, leaving us in the darkness. I looked down at Stanley, seeing him blinking rapidly and looking up in front of him, Several cuts from the teeth of the creature were indented around his face, almost like a halo, and his face was covered in sweat and blood from the attack.

"Stanley!" The others rushed over to help, but one they were close enough and tried to touch him, Stanley shot up and back away from him, she terror was on his face as hew as screaming and we were screaming too. It was all too much, Eddie trying to calm him down as well as myself and Richie. It broke my heart to see him in this state of mind.

"YOU LEFT ME! YOU LEFT ME ALONE! YOU'RE NOT MY FRIENDS! YOU MADE ME GO INTO NIEBOLT!"

He was screaming through tears and pain as we were trying to calm him down. None of us were expecting this for Stanley, and now we were too crying because we didn't want this for him. Eddie was crying at this point, Richie was hiding his own tears as I was clenching his shirt to get him to look at me. Everyone looked somber now, even Bill was quiet and looked sad.

"Stan! Look at me, come on look at me! You're okay!" I said to him as he was finally calming down. He looked at me with his glistening tears as he was still hyperventilating. Once he was calm enough, I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around him, Ben doing the same as we were just hugging him to calm him down. Mike and Eddie were hugging him too as Richie was rubbing his back, Stanley no longer sobbing but just sniffling.

We were all hunched together on the floor of the sewers, hoping each other close to not only calm Stanley down, but to also regroup together. I felt Stanley's hands carefully wrap around both Eddie and myself as we were taking in some deep breaths. It was broken though when I saw Eddie poke his head up and he looked behind us.

"Bill?"

We all looked, seeing that Bill was now gone, along with MIke's gun. We all stood up, Ben and I were helping Stanley get up from the ground. Ben wrapped an arm around his waist and there Stanley's arm over his shoulder to help him walk as we were then now on another mission to find another member of our group. This time, though, it was our leader.

Once again we were making our way through the greywater and back in the tunnels.

"Bill! Bill!" Eddie called out as we entered another grated gate and walked a few more feet until he tripped and fell in the water. His flashlight went under the water, Eddie now gasping since he was so close to the water.

"Get out of there, dude. It's greywater." Richie warned him as he tried to help him get up, but Eddie looked frantic as he was moving his hands around under the water.

"Where's my fucking flashlight?!" Eddie asked in a shriek. Once he found it, Richie and Eddie screamed. We all looked to see what they were seeing: floating heads that were bobbing like apples along the surface of the water. Richie immediately gabbed Eddie, who was almost thrashing and getting soaked in the water.

"Come on, I got you, I got you!" Richie yelled as he was trying to get Eddie away from the heads. The rest of us followed the pair of them, and I was trying not to look down at the heads that were somehow watching us pass them.

After we walked a few more steps, we stepped into another tunnel, finally getting out of the greywater that was walking in. There was a massive opening, all of us walking carefully unsure of what we were going to find. Finally, something caught all of our eyes when we were getting closer. For one, there looked to be some massive structure in the middle of the large circular room, so big that it reached the ceiling that looked like a dome. What made up the structure seemed like lost objects, anything, and everything in between.

But what caught our eyes, was Beverly's body floating in the air.

"Bev?"

"Beverly!"

"Bev!" I said in horror as we all rushed out into the domed room. We all were shocked by seeing her in such a state, at least twenty feet in the air, and help up by nothing. Her head was aiming at the top of the dome, almost like she was in a trance. We all rushed to stand underneath her, seeing that she wasn't moving or saying anything.

"H-H-How is she in the air?" Richie asked in wonder and shock, all of us were thinking the same question. She was too far out of reach for us to get to her, but Eddie then spoke up in a gasp.

"Guys," He asked out, looking at the structure itself. We all looked, and what we saw was enough to have us all go silent. In what seemed like magic, bodies were slowly floating around the structure in slow, circular motion. The bodies were all in certain formations and positions that seemed almost impossible for someone alive to be in. Some were higher up, others were low to the ground, but they were all turning around the structure and were facing up to the slow dim light that was on the top of the dome room.

"The missing kids…..floating," Stanley said gravely. I felt a new twinge of fear, seeing that some of the children were small and young, others were tall almost teenagers. It was the same message all over: no child was safe from the clown. And this was the place where It would take them to float.

"Just let me grab her," Ben was hoisted by Richie and Mike to grab Beverly by her ankles to bring her back down to our level. Stanley, Eddie, and I were watching them as she was lowered down so carefully, floating along with the process. Once she was at our level, we saw that her eyes were milky white all over. There were no signs of her green eyes, only white, showing that she was in a catatonic state. Ben palmed his hands on her neck, lightly shaking her.

"Bev," he said her name once, nothing happened. She looked had her milky eyes looking at nothing. Ben was desperate at this point.

"Beverly! Why isn't she waking up? WHAT IS WRONG WITH HER?!" He asked all of us, on the verge of tears. We didn't say anything to him, but we felt it too, that thought that we were too late to help her. Even Eddie was about to cry since none of us could do anything while One wrapped his arm around her in hopes that it would help. It was somber for us, but after a few long moments, Ben pulled away and looked at Beverly with a look of determination. Framing her face in his hands, he leaned in.

Ben kissed Beverly.

"Woah," Eddie shot his gaze down, Mike looked shocked and Richie almost said something. None of us saw that coming, and to witness it was another story. In fact, it was almost uncomfortable, it could be worse. I was shocked, almost watching with an intense look s Stanley was feeling a bit sheepish from seeing it too.

Ben pulled away, looking at Beverly for a few long seconds. Out of nowhere, Beverly took in a long breath and her eyes went back to normal, she snapped out of her trance and wobbled a bit on her feet as she pulled away from Ben with a look of shock on her face. They were staring at each other hard like they were reading each other's minds as Beverly finally spoke.

"January Embers," She said in a soft tone to Ben. Ben smiled.

"My heart burns there too," he replied to her. It was almost like a sigh that filled the room, a sigh of relief as Richie wrapped both of his arms around their necks.

"Jesus, Fuck," he cursed with a grin on his face. All of us then went into a hug, all but Eddie. But we were all relieved and glad to have found Beverly, I was glad too since I thought of the worst for her when all of this started and we came into the sewers. First Stanley, and now finding Beverly. But something else was missing, more like someone. Once we pulled away, Beverly looked around for a brief moment.

"Where's Bill?" She asked Mike, then all of us looking around too. I saw Eddie away from us, his flashlight pointing in front of him. He didn't seem scared, but more concerned about how he was standing. It made me worry as I was walking over slowly.

"Eddie?" I called out, following Eddie. The others did too, in which we finally found Bill. But he wasn't looking at us. His eyes were on something else, something was hidden behind some water falling from a pipe into another hole in the ground. We gathered behind Bill and were all shocked to see what it was, or who it was.

"Georgie?"

Present Day

The first thing I saw in the kitchen was Richie on the ground, with what seemed to be a spider-like creature on top fo his face trying to attack him.

It was massive, as large as his face as he was struggling to get it off. Bill was crouched down next to him, holding onto the spider's body as he was trying to get the spider off of his face. Stanley, Ben, and I were frozen at the sight, but I could see Eddie standing against the wall in the corner of the kitchen, frozen in his place and he looked beyond petrified. Ben was about to run over to Richie and Bill as I then quickly grabbed the knife in my pocket.

"Ben," I called, seeing him look over as I tossed him the knife. He grabbed it with his hand as he rushed over and was hunched over the massive spider, suddenly stabbing in its back over and over. I heard Beverly and Mike rushing into the kitchen We heard the sounds of the spider crying out in what seemed to be a demonic and human voice morphing together in the air. I stood still next to Stanley as the spider was then tossed over to the refrigerator, where we could finally see its face.

We thought it was dead.

"Holy shit," Stanley gasped next to me, the both of us looking to see there was a human face on the body of the spider. The face was decomposed, rotted in certain parts and maggots almost coming out of the mouth as it was crawling away slowly to the door that would lead to the basement, the same door Bill ran towards years ago. The face though, it was made us all stop to see what it was.

Stan's face. Or the younger version of Stanley.

Beverly pushed through us to help Richie who was on the ground coughing. She took off her black blazer in a hurry while Ben was being looked at by Mike. Stanley was still looking at the opening of the door that would lead to the basement, almost like he thought this was another trick of the mind like he did before. But he then snapped out of him, looking down at Richie.

"Is everyone okay?" She asked as she knelt next to Richie and used her blazer as a pillow for him. Stanley walked over to help Richie as well, looking around for his glasses on the floor that were not close by. I looked over at Eddie, seeing him on the verge of tears. He was still in the corner of the room, not moving or saying anything.

"Eddie," I said calmly to him as I walked and stood in front of him, trying to get his attention away from Richie and on the ground and over to me with my hand placed on his face. Finally, he looked right at me, having me see that he was itching to get his inhaler within his grasp.

"Hey, look at me. You're okay," I reminded him, "Richie is okay. Take a breath," He shakily took a breath and I smiled kindly at him. But then it was short-lived when I was shoved almost to the side by Bill, who was giving Eddie the look of pure death. I looked at Bill in shock now as he clutched Eddie's jacket within his hands in a tight grip.

"Bill!" I said in shock as I grabbed his arm to get him off of Eddie, but he was only focusing on Eddie with rage in his eyes. Eddie, however, was looking at Richie with sadness and pain.

"He could have f-f-fucking died, man! You k-k-know that, right?" He asked angrily, Eddie nodding his head without a word, "G-G-G-Georgie's dead….t-t-the kid's dead…y-y-you want Richie too? YOU WANT RICHIE TOO?!"

Eddie was shaking his head was trying to talk to Bill and reason with him, but Bill's grip on Eddie's jacket was getting worse and worse as the seconds were going by. Mike rushed over to get Bill off carefully, but I shoved BIll's hand away from Eddie and stood right in between the both of them. I placed my hand on Bill's shoulder to get him away from Eddie, giving him a stern look now as he was trying to breathe now. This was not how it was supposed to go with our group, not now in the house before we could even see a resemblance of the clown.

"Bill," I said to him a low tone, seeing his head snap over to me as he was now slowly calming down from his anger. I said nothing else, the others were watching too as I heard Eddie blubbering in some tears behind me as I wasn't letting him anywhere near Eddie. Bill sighed, slamming his eyes shut in a brief moment before I heard Eddie speak up weakly behind me.

"Please don't be mad, Bill. I was just scared," He pleaded behind me, but my eyes were on Bill who's eyes were getting big in almost regret from yelling at Eddie in front of all of us. No one was moving in the room, they were all watching the conversation and how it was all affecting up. Mike's hand on Bill's arm didn't let up, but mine it slightly, seeing that Bill wasn't angry anymore, but calm once again.

"That is what It w-w-w-wants, right?" Bill reminded him as Mike was about to pull him away, "Don't, don't give it to him," he then looked over at me, his eyes were glistening with some tears about to come out as he sighed, "I'm s-s-sorry Robin,"

"You're our leader Bill," I reminded him, seeing him frozen for a moment when I told him that. I smoothed out the shirt he was wearing carefully as I was giving him a hard look. Even though I knew where he was coming from since we almost lost Richie in the heat of the moment, Bill had to be strong for us, "You need to lead us,"

He nodded his head, understanding what I was telling him. It felt like he had more at risk than us, and the guilt he brought with him, but we were still there with him no matter where this would take us. He walked away, having me sigh and look over at Eddie behind me. He took was on the verge of tears as I reached down to squeeze his hand gently. He squeezed back, silently thanking me as we all then made our way over to the set of stairs that lead down. I walked over with Stanley, seeing him follow the rest of the group as we were the last two to descend the steps.

"It was me on that thing," Stanley said behind me, having me cocked my head slightly at him to show that I was listening.

"What?" I asked.

"On that spider thing that tried to attack Rich," Stanley explained, "It was my face when we were kids. Why would….why would It make the spider look like me?"

"To scare us," I reminded him, "If I was a demonic clown, I would try and scare off anyone getting into my house too,"

"I thought about this a lot when I was at the Inn when I got here," Stanley went one as we were going down the last few steps, low enough to where only the two of us could hear our conversation, "If what Beverly told us was true, and I do believe her, then the clown was trying to get…get me killed."

"I'm not following," I said to him as I was feeling my head hurting from this explanation. Stanley then gently placed his hand on my arm to have me look over at him and not at the others. We were on the basement floor, finally seeing in the very corner the very same well we went down in as children. It gave me the same feelings all over again: fear and a hint of agony to go down there again.

"She told me about what she saw when she was in the deadlights," Stanley explained, my eyes going a bit wide from how calm he was about this and yet confused at the same time, "She saw me dead in my bathtub in Georgia. She saw all of us die…"

"If we didn't defeat It," I added to him, seeing the uncertainty dive him now with how he was standing in front of me, "The others thoughts you died too, but you didn't die."

"Because you stopped it," he countered back, "That was all you, Robin. You stopped me from dying. So maybe…maybe It thinks I'm still dead…."

"Or It didn't think you would last this long," I muttered, though it sounded mean on my end. Stanley said nothing, but he didn't seem and or angry with what I said about him. I felt a bit bad with how I said it to him, and in this time when we were in the basement of an abandoned home about to meet a demonic creature that wanted us all dead, it felt like the wrong time to have this talk with each other.

Carefully, like I did some moments before in front of the house, I laced our fingers together which were caked in grip, dirt, and a hint of blood.

"You need to prove that clown wrong," I reminded him, "You've proven us all wrong at one time when we were kids, Stan. You're strong, real strong, show that strength to that fucking clown."

Stanley stared at me hard, his eyes drilling into mine as the others were getting the rope ready to go down into the well. But then I remembered that moment when I was little, that summer when I had a vivid dream about Stanley and I woke up with his name on my lips. That turning point in my thoughts for him was almost coming back again as an adult. He was still the same Stan to me: rigid and yet gentle along the edges, calm and yet filled with fire when he was pressed to the wall, kind and assertive, and none the less: loyal.

It was barely there, but I felt it.

"You guys good?" Ben asked, breaking the small trance we both were in. Stanley and I looked over as we saw Beverly's head slowly going into the well via rope. The others probably already went without us, which was fair. We moved away for each other, walking over to the side of the well with Ben as I got my footing ready as I did before. This time it was a bit easier, though the walls of the well were a bit more delicate now because of years of neglect. Ben helped me get try footing on the rope as my fingers wrapped around the rope.

With one last look at Ben and Stanley, I looked down at the well below me. I started my slow climb down.

The sewers seemed smaller since I was a grown adult. But everything else about it was the same.

Richie helped me hope out of the first hole we crawled to into the grey water of the sewers. I had to stop the egg that was wanting to come out as I waited for Stanley and Ben to follow, Stanley carefully finding his footing as he too was trying too hard not to breathe it in all at once. It brought me back to when we were kids running through these tunnels to find Beverly, though now we had to duck a few times.

But these tunnels seemed familiar, too familiar for us in general. The sinking feeling of within those cement tunnels made me think of all those who were leeward down here and veer go tout. But we were all there together, flashiest in hand as we were following Mike and Bill in the front of our line to navigate.

Finally, after some moving to the left and right along the passages, we made it to where we saw the clown last. There was a steel grated gate door swing up already, and the water of the sewers already filled up a third of the room, not like before where there was barely any water. Everything was coming back in my brain: Finding Beverly here being caught in the Deadlights, all of us seeing the clown intimidating Georgie to get to Bill, and then all of us fighting that Clown in what we thought was his defeat.

This time, the once place where we found all of the bodies of those lost children, with the artifacts and trinkets of the children ascending to the ceiling like the Babolian Tower, was all gone. There was no massive evidence of the children that were killed, almost like they were wiped away from the greywater we were standing in. All that was left was a small platform on top of the water, it almost looked like it was floating. But the room itself was just the same, just like what happened to us when we were here last.

"Shit, this is it," Ben said gravely next to Stanley and I. Mike and Bill gave her other a look as they knew were going to have to go through the water to get to the platform at the other end of the room. Mike went in first, the water almost coming up to his chest, as Bill was right behind him with a splash in the greywater.

We were all following one by one, Beverly being the last one right behind me as I was following the others. The water came up right to my upper chest, the feeling of the sticky water against my clothes and skin while I was trekking through the water and trying to look ahead.

"No no no no," Eddie said in a gag as he saw something floating by him on the top of the greywater. Stanley's hands too were up above the water, just like Eddie, trying not to touch any part of the water on his fingers. I didn't blame him since the small alone being in the sewers was slowly getting to my head and I was on the verge os vomiting at any moment. Not just from the scent alone, or even treading through the water, but just being in the waters again and almost reliving a nightmare I thought I have forgotten.

Mike and Bill were the first ones to get to the top of the platform, helping Richie and Stanley along the way. I was almost there next to them when we didn't hear anything behind us, which was odd. Knowing that Beverly was the last tone in our line to walk through the water, both Ben and I looked behind to see her staring at the massive tunnel we came out of. She was still in the middle of the massive pool of greywater, a few feet away from us. Her flashlight was aiming straight into the tunnel, her body was so still.

"Bev, what is it?" Ben asked in a whisper. I saw the others behind us on the platform stopping too, wondering what Beverly was seeing with her eyes. For a few seconds there was nothing heard, she then slowly turned back around and looked back at both Ben and me.

"I thought I heard—"

Something shot up from the water below. Beverly screamed out as whatever it was towered over her and grabbed her face within its fingers.

"BEV!" Ben called out in fear as It looked like some kind of skeleton-like woman. Ben and I swam over through the water to get to her as fast as possible, the towering women seemed at all of us with Beverly's fearful face within its massive hands.

"TIME TO SINK!"

Within moments, she dragged Beverly down within the water. I wasn't thinking of anything else but Beverly, both Ben and I diving into the gray water. I was trying to swim within my now hand, the way as I did when we were kids as I was navigating through the thickness of the water. It was stinking my eyes and my skin as were trying to make it to Beverly, and I could barely see her through the muck. But I finally locked eyes with her as she was still being pulled down more and more.

I made it there first, grasped the fingers of the skeleton women in my own hands as I yanked her hard to get her to release Beverly. I could see through the water the others were there too, trying to do the same as the grip of the skeleton woman on Beverly was almost unbreakable. But we were all rallying to get the grip to loosen up, finally having me see Bill kicked har against the skeleton's head. Beverly as released, I then grabbed her arm and helped her swim back up with the others.

We breached the surface, all of us gasping for air as we were all swimming to Beverly to check on her. She was frightened, shaking like a leaf in the greywater as I was looking her face over for an injury It all happened so fast, none o bus saw it coming. It took us a few moments to finally calm down in the greywater, moving our way over to the platform where Stanley and Eddie were waiting for us.

I was climbing up the platform, my legs shaking as I made it to the top as Stanley made his way over to me. He scanned my face with his fingers to see if I was hurt.

"You okay?" he asked, I coughed a bit to get my lungs to work. I nodded, seeing his face loosen up a bit.

"I'm fine," I reassured him, almost seeing a smile on his face as we were regrouping with the others on the surface of the place.

"Mike, where do we go from here?" Richie asked in hesitance, looking over at Mike since he knew what to do from here. Mike walked over to the middle, all of us following him over. He was looking down at what seemed to be some kind of wooden trap door. It had a marking on the top. Mike was saying something under his breath, maybe to us, Ben then gave Richie an uneasy look.

"Is he okay?" Ben asked in worry.

"I think at this point, that's a good question," Richie answered.

"What's on the other side?" Beverly asked as she was shivering, only in her white tank top and her hair was matted to her face.

"I don't know. No one does," Mike answered, all of us looking at him in shock as he then knelt to grasp the edge. He then opened the door, we all moving back in a jump as there was another slimmer hole. Unlike the well walls, this one had edges and rocks to hold onto as Mike then threw his legs over to dangle into the hole. This all seemed too much, and how Mike was determined to keep going was making me uneasy.

"See you down there," He said to us, pushing up and then almost slipping completely into the hole. We all panicked, rushing over.

"MIKE!" We yelled, looking down thinking that he fell to death. But he was still there, holding onto the rocks along the sides of the hole. I sighed in relief as he was climbing down,. Bill then swung his legs over too, looking at all of us.

"Remember, s-s-stick together," Bill reminded us all. He then slipped into the hole with Ben right behind him. Stanley reluctantly was going to follow when we both heard Eddie, seeing him stammer a bit and looking afraid again. I was squatting next to Stanley as Eddie was huffing a bit.

"You guys, I can't. I can't, you saw what happened up there. I was…I was going to let you die," Eddie said to Richie as he then quickly went into his cooker to get his inhaler. Richie walked over in a few big strides as he tried to pull it away from Eddie. Beverly, Stanley, and I were watching both of going through a bit of a scuffle before Richie grabbed the inhaler and glared at Eddie through his messy glasses.

"Listen to me: you had a moment. Fine. But who killed a psychotic clown before he was fourteen?" Richie asked, Eddie then pausing and thinking to himself while he bit his lower lip.

"Me." He answered.

"Who stabbed Bowers with a knife and pulled it out of his own face?"

"Also me," Eddie answered again.

"Who married a woman ten times his own body mass?" The last question almost threw all of us off as Eddie looked at him dead in the eyes.

"Me." He answered finally. Richie giving him a kind smile before placing his hand on Eddie's shoulder. Their relationship together was always good, though most of the time they would bicker. I knew Eddie and Richie, deep down, cared for each other.

"You're braver than you think," Richie reminded him calmly and softly. Eddie seeing it on his eyes. Eddie nodded at him before Richie accidentally tapping his wound on his cheek. Beverly then walked over to Eddie to talk to him as Stanley gave me an uneasy look.

"I'm right behind you." I reminded him, seeing Richie walk over to stand next to me. He kneeled down too, almost giving the same look to Stan as he did to Eddie. Although Richie had his relationship with Eddie, I knew he was just as glad Stanley was here with us as I was.

"You got this, Stan the Man," He said to Stan too, "And with that, you're not getting any more free compliments from me today,"

"Thanks," Stanley dryly replied, then slowly and carefully making his way down into the hole. I waited a few more seconds before I placed my legs over the edge and was about to go when Richie stopped me.

"You going good?" he asked, almost hesitant to ask. I nodded, seeing him look down a bit into the hole where Stanley was and then back at me, "I'm glad he's here….even when we might go to our deaths and all this shit will blow up in our faces. Either way, If I'm gonna die down here, I'd die with you guys than anyone else. Stanley included."

I paused, wanting to smile as both of us were having a small moment. I finally smiled at him.

"I'm glad he's here too," I replied, seeing him pat my arm before I looked down. Grasping one side with my one hand and both sides with my shoes, I took in more breath.

I started to go down.