IT - REVISITED AND REDONE
By Jules
CHAPTER THREE - 29 NEIBOLT STREET
Lucas was only just in time to sit at his front row desk when the teacher walked into the room. He gave a huge sigh of relief but then spun around as he felt a tap on his shoulder from somebody.
"Your were cutting it fine Billy me boy," came the smart aleck comment from the boy the SeaQuest crew had come to know as Richie Tozier.
Bill could only nod in acknowledgement as the teacher now began the morning class. All the children looked up and could see a tubby boy standing nervously beside the teacher. The SeaQuest crew recognized him to be the person call Ben Hanscom.
"Class we have a new student at our school today," the teacher said. Ben immediately could feel the redness start at his feet and end up on his face from embarrassment.
"Ben is going to tell us a little of where he is from and a little about himself, so I want you to help him along today until he gets familiar with our classroom."
Ben stood in front of the class, scanning the faces looking back at him for a moment. He was chewing on his fingernails before he started, "My name is Ben Hanscom. My mom and me just moved here from Houston Texas."
After that, all of the confidence he had been able to muster suddenly disappeared through the floor boards and he couldn't think of anything else to share with the class. By all standards he lived a very boring existence, what could he possibly say to this bunch of strangers to make them interested in him or where he came from. By tomorrow, they probably wouldn't even remember his name.
"Welcome to Derry," the teacher now said noting the boy's obvious nervousness. She would have preferred him to share a little more about himself but pointed him towards a chair and desk in the back of the classroom. He was sitting directly in front of Stanley Uris. In front of Ben sat Beverly Marsh and then Bill Denbrough at the front of the room.
The remainder of the morning dragged for Bill and every other student in the room. Bridger and the SeaQuest crew watched on with bemused wonder at what school had been like before their time. Of course most of their attention kept drifting from Lucas's friends to Lucas himself.
Bill Denbrough seemed to have a knack for knowledge almost as good as Lucas Wolenczak did. Bill's only hold back and downfall was his speech impediment.
The bell suddenly rang and all the children ran out of the classroom towards the cafeteria. This was something the crew were surprised about. By the time they all went to school, children were expected to bring their own lunches to school. Today they watched as Bill and his band of five little friends sat at a back table.
The other children from the school sorted themselves out into their various groups and grabbed a table as quickly as they could. There were distinct tables set aside for the nerds, for Henry Bower's group of thugs, the girls and then one or two mixed tables for anybody who didn't fit into any of those categories.
Beverly was the exception to the girls table rule, she preferred to be with Bill and his small group. It was common knowledge that the other more fortunate and wealthier girls made fun of Beverly's clothes and poor upbringing. Her father was the janitor at the school and got by on a meagre wage. Most of Beverly's possessions and clothes came from the second-hand shop or hand-me-downs from generous friends and neighbours.
Ben found himself sitting at Bill's table too because he seemed to fit well into their little mixed bunch. He didn't consider himself a nerd and he definitely didn't like his chances of taking up a seat with Henry Bowers.
Bill had seen him wandering aimlessly for a few minutes looking for a spare seat and gestured for the new student to join them at their table. Ben gladly accepted and sat beside Stanley Uris.
"You not eating, Bill?" came the question from Eddie Kaspbrak as he looked disappointedly at the packed lunch before him. There was some awful pickle and meat sandwich that looked about a week old, a boiled egg and some fruit. His mother was not the best cook in the world.
"Um no thanks, Eddie," Bill said as he looked at what Eddie had for lunch. Richie's mom was able to cook and his lunch actually looked quite edible. Ben's lunchbox looked to be overflowing for the oversized boy.
"You can have my boiled egg," Eddie said with a genuine smile and handed it to Lucas. He didn't have the heart to refuse a second time and showed his gratitude.
"Hey Billy Boy you want to go down to the train tracks on the other side of town after school?" Richie Tozier now asked, changing the topic of conversation.
"You other guys can come too," Richie then added, feeling a little sheepish about forgetting to ask the others at the table.
Ben said that he had promised to go home straight after school to help with the unpacking. Beverley told them that she had chores to do after school before her father got home. Stanley said he was going to one of the town parks to go bird watching.
Eddie didn't say anything about going but the slightly embarrassed look on his face gave his true feelings away. Mrs Kaspbrak thought her son was too sickly to play roughly with the other boys from the school and wouldn't allow him to play with them for the most part. The only time he got to see his best friend Bill Denbrough was at school and one Saturday out of every month if he was extra lucky.
"Sure, Richie," Bill answered. "I'll have to check with my mom first after school, but she's probably sitting at the kitchen table still reading one of her romance novels, so she won't mind."
The bell rang again signalling the end of the luncheon break. The afternoon was no quicker than the morning, but soon 3.00pm came around and the children filed out of the school building one after the other.
Bill said goodbye to his friends Eddie, Stanley and Beverly, telling them that he would see them again tomorrow. He made an attempt to say goodbye to the new student Ben Hanscom, but Ben had left quickly and was already half way down the street.
The only one left now was Richie. Bill now climbed aboard his bicycle, ready to ride home. Richie Tozier didn't have a bike of his own and climbed on behind Lucas. The two boys were slim enough for the metal frame to be able to take both of them.
Bill now rode back up the hill towards home. On a couple of occasions, he and Richie had to get off the bike and push it up the hill because they didn't have the leg strength to keep the pedalling going on the steep incline.
Lucas got off the bike and dumped it on the lawn outside his house. He and Richie Tozier now went inside the house.
"I'm home, mom," Lucas yelled at the top of his voice as he walked into the kitchen and plonked his bag of school books on the kitchen bench. He now went to the fridge and poured a glass of milk for himself and Richie.
"Hello, Mrs Denbrough," Richie said cheerfully, but all he got was half a grunt as Sharon Denbrough tried to drag her attention away from her reading. She quickly glanced up with a frown at her son's loud arrival from school but quickly buried her head in her book again.
'Me and R-Richie w-were going t-to g-go down by the t-train tracks mom," Bill now said, hoping that his mother would show some sort of interest in what he had planned for the rest of the afternoon.
He just shook his head in disappointment as Sharon Denbrough remained emersed in her romance novel as dinner cooked in the oven.
"See, told ya," Bill said as Bridger and the rest of the crew followed Lucas and Richie back out of the house towards his bicycle again. They could feel the pain that Lucas felt when his mother ignored him. He was crying out for someone to love him and show him some affection. Since his brother's death though, Bill's family seemed to be drifting more and more apart rather than closer together.
The SeaQuest crew watched as Lucas and Ritchie once again mounted together on the small silver framed bicycle and headed in the opposite direction this time, towards the town railway tracks. They were a little bit out of town, so the ride took a little over ten minutes of furious peddling for them to reach their destination. When they got there though they were smiling. The place was deserted. Nobody about to tell them what to do. Nobody to hassle them.
The two boys got off Bill's bicycle and left it on the other side of the train track before continuing their way by foot. Richie walked down the middle of the track, Bill was trying to be a little bit more adventurous and was walking along and trying to balance on the thin track itself. He had his arms outstretched on either side of him and was pin wheeling them on occasions to keep his balance.
A couple of times he failed and found one stray foot hitting the inside of the track. He didn't give up though and started the whole process over again until the next time he lost his balance or concentration.
These were the sort of afternoon's that Bill liked. Just one on one with him and Richie. Richie didn't bombard him with questions like Eddie sometimes did. Richie was more on the same wave length as Bill. He was just looking for a bit of boyhood fun.
Throwing rocks across the canal down at the barrens and just fooling around with friends. Bill didn't really like the crowd thing and preferred there to be only one or two friends to muck around with at a time.
Richie had found a stray stick and now walked along the track, poking at various things on the track as he went along. For the longest time he and Bill didn't say anything to each other. Richie knew that talking was sometimes and effort for his friend and so he was just his friend.
A couple of time they looked at each other and almost burst out laughing to no particular reason. There was just something special about the friendship between these two boys. Even the SeaQuest crew watching secretly could see the rapport that Bill and Richie had. None of them had any idea when Richie came aboard the SeaQuest that Lucas and the kid with glasses had ever been such close friends.
Finally Richie decided to break the silence between them, "So what did you think of the new guy today at school?" he asked his friends. Bill had still been trying his balancing act, but now stopped and faced Richie to answer his question. He had a thoughtful look on his face:
"I don't know. He seemed a bit shy. I guess he was okay. Didn't say too much at lunch," Bill replied.
"Bit on the large size too didn't you think," Richie said stating the obvious about Ben's bulk.
"I guess so, but that doesn't mean anything" Bill said truthfully. He had never been one to judge somebody by the way they looked. He had seen many fat people in his life. It didn't mean that they weren't good people on the inside.
Ben must just like his food. Bill liked his bike. Maybe it was the same sort of fascination for Ben with food. Richie had a fascination for making jokes, although not very good ones. Everybody had a secret love. That's what made each person different.
"Yeah but didn't you think………….," Richie started to say when both of them were startled by a voice in front of them.
"Well look at what we have here boys," came the mocking laughter from Henry Bowers. Henry and his gang were about 100 metres in front of Bill and Ritchie on the train track. Seems as the train tracks was a familiar haunt for some rather unsavoury characters from Derry as well Bill told himself in disgust. He felt very annoyed that somebody else had found their play area and were intending to disrupt their quite and peaceful afternoon.
"We had better get out of here, Bill," Richie said, not wanting to be on the receiving end of a fight with Henry Bowers. At the moment he and Bill were out numbered. But even if they weren't, the odds of Richie or Bill beating Henry in a fight were not very good.
Bill nodded his head without saying anything and the both of them quickly turned and started at a jogging pace back the way they had come. They hoped to reach Bill's bicycle that was left down the track before Henry and his gang caught up with them. Once on the bike, Richie knew that Bill was extra fast and they should be able to easily out run Henry and the others.
"Get them," Henry roared at Victor and Belch, egging his friends to catch up with the geeks first.
The roar of Henry's voice sent Richie and Bill into a faster run. This was one side of Lucas that the SeaQuest crew were also surprised to see. Usually back on the boat, there hadn't been many occasions where Lucas was required to run at any speed or any amount of time.
They didn't really know how Lucas was at running. Now upon seeing him and Richie running, it was obvious that Lucas could run a little bit.
Bill could feel the wind blowing in his face as he kept looking back to make sure that they were sufficiently ahead of Henry and his friends. He was a bit alarmed to see Victor Criss quickly gaining ground on him so faced forward again and put on another surge of speed. The adrenaline from the running and the fear of Henry Bowers was pushing both of the smaller boys.
Bill was the first to reach his fallen bike. As he righted the bicycle and mounted, he found himself screaming at Richie to hurry up so that Victor Criss wouldn't reach them. It was touch and go as Victor neared the fleeing pair. At one point, just as he neared the bike, Richie stumbled and almost lost his glasses.
The delay almost allowed Victor to grab a hold of the back of Richie's shirt. Thankfully Bill was there to pull his friend onto the bike. Bill was already pedalling before Richie could secure his arms around Lucas's waist.
"Hi-Yo Silver Away!" came Bill's catch cry as he tried with all his might to put as much distance between him and Victor Criss.
Victor Criss now stopped running and bent over as he caught his breath, watching the two geeks get the better of him and Henry and ride safely out of reach and down the street. Henry was cursing and yelling various threats as the pair rode away.
He saw a missed opportunity to pound some younger boys, but promised his gang that there would be another chance very soon to extract their revenge. Derry was a very small town. There weren't two many places for the nerds to hide for too long he reminded Belch and Victor. The trio then went back in the direction they had just come from.
Bill didn't know how far they had ridden before he and Richie had pulled up and fallen over onto a grassy lawn. They both laid on the soft grass laughing out loud at their near miss. The thrill of actually getting the better of Henry and his friends was too much at the moment and they felt upon top of the world. The bike lay were it had fallen after the two tumbled onto the grassy lawn.
Lucas looked back to see where they had actually turned up to. He gulped a little out loud though as he turned to face the house and recognized the address of 29 Neibolt Street, Derry. There were many rumours going around the school and town about just who lived at this address. Many of the rumours were of sinister goings on and all sorts of haunting ghosts and goblins that had taken up residence.
Richie had been still laughing at his and Bill's good fortune until he turned to look at his friend. He saw the smile disappear from Bill's face as they looked at the face. The smile quickly went from Richie's face as well. He too had heard all the rumours and talk about the Neibolt Street house.
Bill had been trying to figure out whether to get on his bike again when he thought he heard a voice whispering to him from the house. He had to listen a second and third time to work out whether there was indeed a voice talking to him.
He thought he had heard his brother George's voice whispering him to come in and play with him. But that couldn't be right……..George was dead. It couldn't be George talking to him could it?
Lucas started to take a step towards the front porch of the house when he felt the hand of his friend trying to pull him back "You're not going in there are you, Bill?" Richie asked in nervousness.
All of the cockiness of beating Henry and his friends now ebbed away at a frightening pace leaving Richie only with his fear of the unknown. He didn't know what was in that house but he was equally sure that he and his friend didn't want to find out.
"This is where they say the guy is that killed my brother George," Bill said in a determined but still scared sounding voice. If there was something in there about his brother's murder, Bill wanted to find out. Bill just wasn't so sure he was ready to face whatever was in there yet.
"You don't know that for sure, Bill," Richie said, trying to use reasoning to get his friend not to go any closer to the house.
"You don't have to go in if you don't want to Richie," Bill told his friend, see his apprehensiveness. He couldn't blame his friend, his own stomach was tied up in knots from the fear he was feeling at the moment.
"I am not letting you go in there alone," Richie now said in a firmer voice. He wasn't about to leave his best friend go into such a place on his own, no matter how scared he was.
The SeaQuest crew just wished they could physically pull Lucas away from this place. They didn't know what was inside, but they felt the same hesitation that caused the boys to pause before going any further.
"You really don't have to do this, Bill," Richie said, pulling on Lucas's shirt again as Lucas took a few steps closer.
"No you don't, Lucas," Tony said out loud, knowing that his friend couldn't hear him, but saying it anyway.
Bill turned to face his friend Richie but Tony felt that Lucas was actually looking at him as well when he answered.
"Yes I do," Lucas said in a very adamant voice. He meant every word he said. Both Richie and Tony and the SeaQuest crew knowing that they weren't about to change their friend's mind. Especially where it concerned his brother George.
Bill felt responsible somehow for Georgie going out that day and he needed to prove to himself that there wasn't anything he could have done to save his younger brother from being killed.
Richie now walked with his friend to the porch at the front of the Neibolt house, hoping somehow to talk his friend out of going inside. The SeaQuest crew were also relying on Richie to convince Lucas not to carry out his words.
To Richie's horror when they got to the porch, Lucas now bent down in front of the porch as though to go under the house. Richie had been scared enough about going up to the front door and looking inside the opaque windows, but now looking as Bill appeared to be wanting to crawl underneath the creepy looking house, now Richie was just plain terrified.
"You're not..." Richie started to say, not really knowing what his objections were.
"Wh-What?" Bill stuttered, his voice betraying a little of his annoyance at his friend's tactics to stall him from doing what he felt he needed to.
"Wait for me," Richie said as he rolled his eyes to himself and gave up trying to stop Bill. He knew that this was a bad mistake and he was going right along with it.
Once they had crawled a good distance, they came across the window to the cellar. The window itself was broken, by what they didn't even want to speculate.
Bill was temporarily trying to look about the room in the cellar to see what was down there. It wasn't until he saw his friend Bill's legs disappearing through the broken window that he caught himself and screamed at his friend:
"What the hell are you doing, Bill?" Richie said in panic. He had gone right along with this whole thing up until now, but he knew that it was definitely a bad idea for them to be thinking about going inside the house. His emotions towards his friend were getting the better of his rationality.
"Get out of there, Bill," Richie yelled again towards a pair of legs. Bill was squirming backwards and forwards on his stomach, trying to wiggle in through the window frame. There were shards of broken glass around and Kristin had to shield her eyes at the thought of Lucas actually cutting himself on the glass as he slid through the window.
Bridger was just white with fear for Lucas and the dangerous actions he seemed to be carrying out. Tony was more vocal than any of them and just like Richie was yelling at Lucas to get the hell out of there and leave things alone that he didn't know about.
This whole new brazen side of Lucas was one none of them had enjoyment watching. At the age of eleven, these kids just didn't seem to sense the danger or know when to leave well enough alone.
Bill was all the way inside. Richie was now sitting down just outside the window underneath the house. He had been too busy trying to calm his nerve down to see Lucas reach out and touch his legs from inside.
Richie just about screamed blue murder when he felt the hand on his legs, not knowing who or what was trying to grab him.
"You bastard, Denbrough," Richie yelled not caring about his obscenities.
Lucas had a slight smile on his face at the unintentional fright he had given his friend. Richie really did have a scared look on his face. Bill immediately regretted not having warned his friend first before touching him.
"You coming in?" Bill asked his friend.
At first Richie was shaking his head and about to tell Bill in no uncertain terms what he thought of that idea, but then Richie caught himself looking around at this current surroundings. The dim, darkness and scary space he was in wasn't much better, plus he was all alone if Bill went on his own inside.
"Okay, but I hate you," Richie said mockingly. Richie now laid down on his stomach and edged himself through the broken window, wincing as he tried to keep out of the way of the broken glass. Lucky we are both skinny he thought to himself as he noticed how narrow and small the opening was.
Richie felt Bill grab a hold of his shoulders once he was almost in and helped him stand up in the cellar. Richie stood for a moment dusting himself off and looking around the darkened room trying to gain his bearings.
"Which way do you want to go?" Lucas now asked, planning for the pair of them to go off in different directions. His logic told him that they would cover more area of the room that way.
"Stuff you Bill. I am right behind you," Richie said with no intention of leaving his friend's side while they were in this dark, moist crypt of a room.
Lucas now led the way with Richie holding onto the back of his shirt. Richie had his eyes shut the whole time and Bill almost lost his balance on a couple of occasions when he felt the tug on his shirt being a bit more forceful. A couple of intend glares from Bill and Richie was apologizing and promising not to do it again.
Lucas was just about to start off again towards one end of the room when the door leading from the cellar to the inside of the house flew open and banged loudly against the wall at the top of the stairs.
Richie and Bill screamed at the top of their lungs. Richie was afraid he was going to pass out from the fright. His heart was slamming into his chest. Lucas couldn't hide the fact of his own fear at the moment.
The two boys hadn't heard the screams emitted from the SeaQuest crew. They had been following the boys in their invisible form but were a little afraid themselves.
Kristin had grabbed a tight hold of Nathan when the door slammed and Tony almost literally jumped a foot high and into Ford's arms. He apologized to the Commander but got a sly smile from Jonathan in return saying it was okay. Tony knew he would never live that one down if they ever got back to the boat.
If they thought their fear was evident before, now they couldn't help but utter heart felt screams of terror as they watched in horror as two legs now started to descend the stairs from the house.
Lucas and Richie were now scrambling over each other to get back to the window and escape. The SeaQuest crew almost found themselves wanting to escape this haunted place. Their fear was greater than their sense of reasoning at the moment. They had momentarily forgotten that they couldn't be seen or heard by anybody.
Richie had overtaken his friend was halfway through the small window opening by the time Bill was behind him. Bill turned around and screamed again as the feet and legs got closer to the bottom of the stairs. He pushed Richie from behind and then tried in haste to scramble through the window himself.
Richie had managed to crawl all the way out and turned around in time to see his friend Bill emerging behind him. Richie was about to turn and crawl back out from underneath the house when he was called back by the screams of terror from Bill.
"RICHIE HELP ME!" Bill screamed as he felt the person inside the house now behind him and trying to pull him back in through the window. "IT'S GOT ME RICHIE, HEL-HELP!"
Richie was frozen to the spot by his fear as he watched his friend try and struggle against the person trying to pull him back inside the house.
Bill screamed again. The SeaQuest crew were trying in vain somehow to make themselves able to help Lucas physically. As the situation turned more desperate and they found they couldn't help, they found themselves screaming back at Lucas as they told him to hold on. They told him that they were going to help him, but in truth they really didn't know how they were going to achieve this.
Richie freed himself from his spot and now grabbed a hold of Bill and tried with all his might to pull him back through the window. He grunted and gritted his teeth as he pulled and pulled at his friends arms. Bill thought he was going to split into two as he felt something pulling on his legs in one direction and Richie pulling his arms in the other direction.
"Save yourself, Richie," Bill now shouted as he felt himself slip back towards the cellar. He didn't want his friend getting hurt. He couldn't bear the thought of someone else getting hurt because of him. Just like Georgie.
"No you can't have him you bastard," Richie yelled at the top of his lungs. He wasn't about to lost the one true friend he had in this world.
Richie now readjusted his grip on Bill's arms and gave one more almighty pull. Bill was now all the way out of the window. Both of them paused for a second, looking at each other's dirt smeared face and trying to figure out what just happened to them. A roar from whatever it was inside brought them back to reality though and both of them now crawled as fast as they could back towards the front porch.
Bill's arms were sore from all the tugging and pulling but he barely gave that a thought as he scrambled out from underneath the house into the bright afternoon sunlight. He quickly looked behind him to see if Richie was behind him. He was relieved to see Richie getting to his feet.
Bill now rushed over to his bike again with the feeling of this had happened once already today. Here they were he and Richie, scrambling to get away on his bike from a more powerful adversary.
He was already mounted on the bike and yelling for Richie to hurry up. "C-Come o-on R-Richie."
Both of them looked back to see if the thing in the house had followed them outside. They couldn't see anything at the moment, but that didn't lessen their degree of fear any.
Bill didn't even shout his cry of victory as he started pedalling. He was too busy trying to catch his breath. A breath he almost didn't have. He had almost been pulled back into that house. God knows what would have happened to him. Maybe he would have had one of his arms pulled off just like Georgie.
Neither Bill nor Richie dared to look back to see if anything was chasing after them. Somehow running from Henry Bowers and his gang earlier in the day seemed like a piece of cake now they were trying to get away with their lives. They would have been completely thankful if they ran into Henry right now and had the stuffing knocked out of them.
At some point as they pulled into a street near Bill's house, the bike started to topple with both of them on it. Richie had felt himself falling off the back of the bike, but didn't have the strength to right himself quickly enough. Bill was able to stop himself falling in a heap, but not before the bike tumbled against the side walk again.
Bill and Richie found themselves lying on the hardened concrete of the footpath this time. No soft green grass. Both of them lay spread eagled as they tried to catch their breath. Their eyes were still darting about with fear, looking to see if anything was still after them.
They both sat up and looked around with the same wary expressions on their faces. They then looked at each other, still no words between them. Then without any warning, the two friends hugged each other. Hugged each other because neither of them had felt so scared in all their lives. Hugged each other because they were almost killed. Hugged each other because they didn't have the words to express how they felt right now.
After an hour, Richie and Bill got themselves under control enough to part company and head to their homes for the night. Neither of them had the stomach for food tonight and they laid awake for most of the night trying to come to terms with what had happened that afternoon.
The next day, both of them held a haunted look that their friends couldn't explain. Richie had told the others about Henry and his friends chasing him and Bill down at the railroad tracks and that seemed the most likely of explanations for their subdued actions today. Richie and Bill made a pact between each other that they would never tell another soul about what had happened at 29 Neibolt Street. Both of them knew that they would never forget.
The school bell rang signalling the beginning of another day at Derry Elementary school. Richie and Bill took their usual places in the classroom, but stole looks at each other throughout the morning. Eddie couldn't be totally sure, but he saw these stares between Bill and Richie and somehow knew that something had occurred the day before. He couldn't put his finger on what it was, but he knew that Bill and Richie had become closer friends because of it.
to be continued...
JULES