"So, Mister Robert Gray..."
"He prefers Bobby." Linda spoke up where she was leaning against the interrogation window.
The male detective sighed before correcting himself.
"Bobby Gray. It says here in your statement that you do not know how you came to be in the sewers. You say here that you woke up in a hole where you then proceeded to climb out of. Upon doing so you found the bodies of the missing children. Where you preceded to vomit. Is this correct."
I nodded, fidgeting in my seat. My hands on the table, twitching as I found it hard to make eye contact with this man. His attitude was making me unnerved and reminded me at all the other times I had reported and was turned away. The only difference this time was that I hand Linda on my side, standing near by giving me support the whole way through.
Clearing my throat I nodded, "Yes, that is correct."
"And you also say that the bodies that you could see that they appeared to have been eaten?" His brow rose as this, staring at me as if I was mad.
Again I nodded, "yes... that's correct. They appeared to have been. I... I'm no expert. It just looked like some creature had went at them... or some crazed mad person." Remembering how pieces where missing from different parts of the children brought bile up. The worst was the child I'd seen with no face at all. I feel a hand placed gently on my shoulder, turning to see that it is Linda, smiling softly at me.
My body must have given away what horrors I was relieving as I saw my own reflection behind her. I was paler and my eyes looked like they had hollowed with sudden dark circles around them. I looked like I'd seen a ghost and trying to look like one myself.
"Do you need a moment Bobby?" Linda asks me softly. I looked back to her and shake my head. "I... I want to get this done with... s.. so I can move on."
Linda nodded, giving me a supportive smile.
With a deep breath I turn back to the detective and focus on his face, a look of concern that soon turns to something of uncertainty. I can no longer keep myself looking at him directly and take to looking at my hands as we continue. He has me tell him again what I have written and reads it to me once more.
"Alright, I think we have what we need from you Bobby. You can go. I'll be in contact if we find out anything more about how you got there. Until then, it appears there is no need to worry about it happening again. We currently have a suspect and there is no way he'll be getting to you now. You can go." He picks the papers in front of him up and taps them lightly on the table to straighten them out before he stands to leave. I look at him surprised, but also relieved, standing as well and letting Linda help lead me out of the interrogation room.
I'm surprised to see the children from the hospital seating or standing outside of the room. Another child had joined them, this one sporting gaze around his head and around his chin and face. They all looked as I had upon coming in to give my statement. They look at me and must read the look on my face and take it as an ill omen.
"I'll be talking with you lot next shortly." The detective stated before going to take my file and most likely put it away in the file cabinet Linda had spoken to me of.
"He didn't take you seriously did he." The one I believe I remembered to be called Richie more stated at me then asked. I can't help but shrug.
"I can't really say. Though I doubt it. The people in this town... they just shake it off and act like nothing strange ever happens here."
"Excuse me?" Linda pipes up behind me, crossing her arms and giving me a questioning look.
"That is everyone but you Lin." I blush a bit embarrassed for making it sound like she hadn't taken my side. "You are the first person to ever listen."
"They won't listen to us either." Richie grumbled. "They're blaming Henry Bowers for all the murders. Guy was crazy, but he didn't kill everyone. He was too stupid." The others in the group nodded in agreement.
"Henry didn't kill those kids." Bill reaffirms, "I don't doubt he killed his dad and his gang members, but the clown got the others."
My throat tightened upon his words.
"C...clown?" My words stutter as I ask, as if the thought of that monster in my nightmare has shaken me to the point of struggling to speak.
The children looks at me as if they aren't sure if they should say anything more, or said too much already. Linda looks confused by it all, but stays quiet, observing for now.
"P..p...pp...Pennywise?" I struggle to even name that mad crazed specter. A fear builds in my chest, constricting my insides, I struggle to breath as I wait for an answer.
Their eyes widen with surprise and is then even dread?
"How do you know that name?" The one with a cast that says loser, scribbled into love, asks just as panicked as me. He takes a hit on his inhaler as he stares from me to the others.
"Adults don't see him. They never believe us cause he makes them ignore him, invisible to them. Anything strange as well for that matter." The larger set child informs me.
"He filled my bathroom with blood...my father couldn't see it at all." The young red headed girl pipes in. "Only these guys could see it like me."
I turn to Linda who is in shock of what she's hearing.
"L..L..Lin..." She has to be connecting the dots like I am. She looks at me and I can see she has.
"Have any of you experienced black outs?" I'm thankful she's asking for me. I struggle all the more to speak as this news unravels before us.
"Wait a minute! You tell us how you know that assholes name and then we'll talk." Thick glasses Richie barks at us in the most demanding manner I think I've heard a child speak to an adult. With a deep breath, I fidget as I try to push the answer out.
"N..nn..nightmare." I can feel myself pale remembering what I had so happily forgotten.
"He..He ... in my n.. la..last .night." The image of Linda's severed talking head bring bile up in my throat, "He...he told..me."
Everyone now is looking at me shocked. As if I'm suddenly speaking nonsense and I fear now is when everyone will say it's my imagination. Like all the times before. They'll say 'That's a mighty big imagination you got there Robert my boy.' Or 'careful what you say. They'll put you in the loony bin son.' I screw my eyes tights, tensing for the verbal blow. But it doesn't come.
"Last night?" Bill speaks calmly as he asks. I peek, relaxing a bit as I nod. The children look suddenly deathly pale. Those who were standing now take to their seats.
"Y...yes." I look at them all worried. Bill looks worn as he seems to take in what I've said. All seem to have fallen into a depression.
"IT's not dead then..." Bill states to the group. "IT will be back, but until then, It can't hurt us or anyone else. you remember what IT says, IT's hibernating. We just have to be ready for it when the time comes."
"But how long?" They all seem to be thinking this, though it's Stan that says it.
"I saw us as adults the next time IT's here." Beverly speaks up calmly. "Until then, IT's weak and will not be able to come after the children of Derry."
The group seems to accept this answer, though I have little understanding what they mean.
Where they trying to say that clown in my nightmare was the thing that attacked and ate all those children? I rush to the closest trash bin just in time before the bile I've held back this long forces it's way out. Linda rubs my back softly as I heave. Hoping it will stop soon as it started.
"But...why would IT be bothering him?" I'm not sure who asks, but I can hear it is Bill that answers.
"I'm not sure...but maybe, we can find out. They seem to believe us. They're not like the other adults."
"You're right about that kid." I look up as I finish to see Linda smiling at the children.
"I think we need to all talk and figure this out. Not here though." She looks around as if to make sure no one has started to listen in or stare.
"Where can we met and talk where no one will be snooping?" I look at her curiously. Did she mean to find out what she could from these kids and see what it had to do with me?
They group seems to think this over, chatting quietly amongst themselves before answering Linda's question.
"Quarry. We can meet there and talk. Well bring what we know if you bring anything you know as well."
I watch the exchange curiously as Linda seems to act like she's thinking this over. As if she's trading governments secrets between countries. I can tell though her mind was already made up the moment she asked where we could meet in private.
"Alright. Agreed." She smiled at me assuringly before seeming to remember something. She returned her attention to the kids.
"I'm sure you weren't going to already, but just in cause, my advice is not to mention the clown. Bobby and myself have reasons to believe you, but they sure as hell won't believe one word. If you can, build it up on the Bowsers kid. Make him the fall. You've already confirmed what Bobby and I already wondered. The people of Derry are bewitched and have no clue what's going on."
They all agree to do as she's suggested. I'm not even upset they will. For once I'm not the only one that knows something is very wrong with this town and now I'm not longer alone. The others can stay in their oblivious state. I have people I can trust and tell what's happened to me and know they won't tell me I'm imagining things.
I feel the tension in my body begin to fade and in so long I feel calm. But I fear it won't last. Not when I'm suddenly staring at Georgie Denbrough. His smile full of holes where baby teeth have come free. He's stands still, dressed in a yellow rain coat and boots. A red balloon in one hand. A bloody stump of muscles and tendons where his other arm should be. His coat is streaked with the bright red blood. Dripping and pooling on the floor. A puddle forms, a mix of blood and water. His coat looks like he just came in from the rain. I take a peek outside, but it's clear.
He seems to smile all the more as I look back to him, paling as he watches me. His skins slowly deteriorating before my eyes.
"They'll float soon..." Black like sludge comes dripping out as he speaks. "If you don't stop soon."
I'm about to question him when the lights behind Georgie seem to flicker, a dark tall figure appearing behind him. Lacing his hands around Georgie's shoulders before the rest of him becomes visible.
"Old Pennywise is still hungry. You wouldn't want him snacking on your little friends, now would you?"
My mouth goes dry as I watch Georgie's flesh just slides away like slime. There is nothing left but a Skelton of the boy I had seen. Pennywise grins, picking up what's left of Georgie, as if the boy were but a doll, holding him like a puppet.
"You don't want Bill to end up like me, do you?" Georgie's skull appears to move on his own as it speaks. A sick version of a ventriloquist act.
"He'll float too. He'll float too. HE'LL FLOAT TOO!"
"NO!" I don't even register what I'm doing. It's as if I'm only watching what happens next. I've picked up a chair and before I can stop myself, I've hurled it at the clown.
Instead of hearing a cry of pain or surprise, I hear that disturbing clown laughter as the sound of breaking glass reaches my ears moments later.
Everyone around me has frozen. People from other rooms look out to see what the noise is about.
I slowly relies that I've thrown a chair at a mirror and what left of it my own shocked reflection shows back.
I'm shaking as I'm taking in deep breaths. Confusion plan on my face as I look to the group. They all look frightened, as if they've seen a ghost. As I look to Linda, I see concern and the same confusion as my own.
"He...he wa..was m.. me." I already sound like I've been crying before the tears begin. "G..Georgie...he..." I can't finish it. Sobs rack my body.
"He did that to me too." I looked startled to Bill. That clown used Bill's own brother to torture him?
"He'd show up..but it wasn't him." I didn't even register that Bill had come over and placed his hand on my arm, trying to calm me.
"We all saw him do it the last time." Bill says looking so broken.
"It's not Georgie. It's not real. Nothing IT shows you is real."
