"Bobby I need you to just take a seat and try and calm down." Linda guides me back to a my seat. I'm still shaking like a leaf caught in a summer storm, but at least I am able to breath more normal again.
"We need to try and think this over and through before you start to panic any further." She spoke clear and calmly to me and the children. I try to listen the best I can in my current state of mind. She continues to rub circles on my back as she continued to speak.
"Now, what we need to do first is figure out some things." She looked to the children, speaking firm, but some how still soft.
"I need you all to tell me what happened and how you over came this thing."
Their tale of what happened felt like such. A tale, a myth, a story, but I know from the looks on their faces it was nothing but truths.
"After we beat him, he fell into a hole near the tower." Bill explains with a solemn tone as he comes to the end of their experience.
"He disappeared from sight, as if scattering into pieces as he went. It was too dark to see what was left of IT. We got out of there as fast as we could and went to the hospital. They were the ones that called the police."
Linda had a look of thought, deep thought at that, on her face.
"He fell into a hole… how many holes where there down there?"
The children looked at each other confused before they answered, "There was only one ma'am." Bill spoke with a look of concern on his face, "Why?"
Linda turned to look at me and I looked at her confused.
"W… what?" My voice went up a pitch as I suddenly stuttered.
She looked at him worried and a bit something else. I wanted to say I didn't know what it was, but that voice that had been so silent in the back of my head this long knew. It said, 'FEAR."
"Bobby… you told me that you climbed your way out of a hole before coming upon that tower with the dead children scattered around it. Correct?" She speaks calmly, though I thought I heard a bit of a waver in her voice.
"Y… yes. I.. I.. I did. W..ww… why?" Why was I stuttering so horribly now? I never stuttered like this before, nor ever in my whole life until now. Why suddenly is it becoming more and more of a habit?
"I.. I th.. thought I… I w…was being ww.. watched."
Linda nodded taking my words in, "Bobby… how long have you been having trouble talking."
She'd noticed as much as I myself have.
"A…a..after…I…I..I came b..back.. home." I swallow hard, my own worry growing and a feel of fear clawing it's way up from the pit of my stomach. Digging it's claws deep into my throat.
Bill seems to notice how odd it is now that Linda has brought it up.
The other children just look confused while Bill looks to Linda and back at me.
"I have a stutter… but… it hasn't been as bad of late. Not since IT disappeared."
Linda starts tapping her fingers on the table between the group of us. Looking like she's connecting pieces to an invisible puzzle before her. One that she alone can see.
"Did any of you see or hear Bobby at any point while this monster was after you all?"
I feel as confused as the children look now as I try to put together what she is seeing and we can't.
"No ma'am. At least I don't remember ever seeing or hearing him." Mike speaks up and the rest nod in agreement.
"We only ever saw IT and what creatures IT wanted us to see. Mostly a Clown." Beverly confirmed for the group.
"IT goes after children, rarely adults…" Linda begins to let her thoughts wander a aloud, share them as she let the pieces connect.
"Both Bobby and you all saw the children, but the difference has been that when you saw them they had been floating and when they descended from above to the ground. Bobby saw them only after they where laying on the ground. You say that they began to float down after IT had disappeared…. is it possible that Bobby was floating up there as well? You spoke of how IT had done a similar thing to Beverly, could that have happened to Bobby?"
The children take this new question, muling over it a bit, but it's Richie that speaks up.
"We didn't see him up there… but from what you said… maybe he was in the hole the whole time. Like a zombie or something?"
The children seem to think this possible. They had explained Beverly was very much in a zombie like state before they could wake her from whatever Pennywise had done to her.
Could it be possible this thing had done a similar thing to me?
"But why would he need Bobby? Why would he suddenly be having issues like stuttering?" Richie was asking good questions and I couldn't think of anything that would make sense to answer them with.
"Before he disappeared…IT began to stutter…" Linda and I look at Bill confused.
"Bill's right." Eddie added, "We all heard it. IT was losing. IT actually looked afraid and was starting to stutter. He was, he was quoting that thing Bill always says."
"'He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts'." Bill spoke softly, not a single stutter.
"They're right…IT was saying it… quoting me… stuttering…"
"Could what he did with Beverly, have been done to Bobby and affected him? Transferred those issues to him before he could be woke from IT's spell?" I can hear the urgency in Linda's tone of voice.
The children looked lost. They obviously didn't know the answer to anything like this.
"Linda..." I try to speak softly as I reach over to touch her shoulder. I don't usually touch other people, but in this moment I feel I need to do so to help calm her.
"Linda... they don't know. They, … they only kn…know a little more then w..w…we did until now."
She looks at me, I can see moister collecting in her eyes. She looks like she's about to break down. I can't help the look of concern and confusion that appears on my face.
"This bo..bothers you th..this much, wh…what happened to me?"
It's her turn to look at me with concern and confusion. I must have said the wrong thing cause the dame finally breaks and the tears begin to flow over and fall.
"H... how can you ask that Bobby Gray? You've been my best friend ever since I met you after moving here. You're like a brother to me. I worry about you no matter how small the issues you have. Someone hurts you, I'd hunt them down to the ends of the earth and beyond if I am able."
I can feel my eyes grow wide as my shock of how much she really cares about me really hit home. I'm speechless as my mouth hangs open. I had felt this way about her so long. How could I have the feeling she did feel the same about me? Why suddenly had I felt upon any moment this all could have changed? I should never have let myself believe that at some moment if things got too crazy she would dump me and run. Call me crazy or say I imagined it all.
I feel my own tears form as springs, trickling slowly down my cheeks. I never actually thought that or felt that. That isn't what I think of over. A false feeling of betrayal had mad it's way there in one sitting and a handful of frightening moments.
This monster was not only messing with my eyes and ears, it was messing with my thoughts and truths I knew of Linda, my sister.
Linda suddenly wraps tight around me, holding me to her as I listen to her labored breathing. I feel her warm breath brush my neck and ear as hot tears wet my shirt.
"Bobby, I will never leave you. I love you, you silly ass. I'm not some random person in your life. I'm not those people that have always told you it's all in your head. I never will be Bobby."
She leaned back, smiling at me with glistening eyes, she leans in and kisses my check softly.
I can't help the smile that forms on my face.
"I love you too Linda. You've always been like a sister to me...I.. I don't know why I ever would let myself even think you would ever change. That you would ever leave me like everyone else. This thing is messing with my head…I'm so sorry."
Linda just snorted, laughing through her tears.
"You idiot." I don't even resist as she puts me into a headlock, rubbing my head half heartedly.
"This asshole won't strong enough to break us up."
"Ma'am, Bobby… I had a thought." Bill looked sorry for interrupting our moment, but we just smiled at him. Linda nodded for him to continue.
"What would that be Bill?" Linda sniffled, rubbing what was left of the tears away.
He looks uncertain to say what he is thinking now, but I can see when he decides it was best to just go ahead and say it.
"We haven't been seeing IT, Pennywise, I mean when he shows up to torment Bobby…"
The others, including Linda and myself are now giving Bill our full attention.
Bill swallowed, now looking all the more nervous.
"IT Said it was going to sleep… but Bobby didn't see IT after he woke… w.. what if there is a reason for that?"
It's my turn to feel uncertain and nervous as they all now stare at me. I look all the more confused by what he might mean.
Linda looks like she is thinking his words over seriously, while the other children now seem to want to step back and away from me.
"W… what?" I feel my chest tighten at all their reactions. 'Fear.'
"Bill… are you suggesting that this creature, Pennywise, IT, may have hidden away inside of Bobby?"
I can't keep my jaw from dropping at the words, my forgotten panic rising again.
Could it be that monster had hidden in me? Hiding from his bitter end like a coward, only to torment me?
"It… it could be possible… I mean we don't know that much about IT." Ben speaks up softer, uncertainty and fear present in his voice.
I feel bile rise to my throat before I can stop it. It's fast and I can't get up and away in time.
I lean over and retch what was inside. My breakfast making itself visible in a new form to the world. I feel dizzy and suddenly the world is blacking out as I feel heavy.
"BOBBBY!" I can feel Linda's hands on me, pulling me to her as she keeps me from falling backwards, or worse into the vile mess I've made.
"Bobby, you need to breath, please. Count to ten and breath." She's trying her hardest to sound strong, but I can hear the strain in her voice.
"Can you kids help me get him back to the car? I want to get him into some AC."
I feel Linda's strong hands pulling me up to host me so she could walk me to the car. I'm assuming it's Bill that I feel helping to take my other side as they both hold my arms behind their heads, over their shoulders and pretty much drag me to Linda's squad card.
I hear the door click open and feel them help me into the front passenger seat. Linda runs to the driver's side and starts the car, blasting the AC and pointing the vents towards me.
"It'll take a while to get it cool enough. Just keep breathing Bobby." I can hear her voice growing with worry.
"Bill, thanks for helping me get him here."
"It's no problem ma'am." He sounds like he genially means it.
"I shouldn't have said anything. We don't even know if something like that could happen."
"I know Bill. You just are trying to help."
I grunt in agreement, though it sounds more like a moan.
"See even Bobby agrees." I hear Linda's voice lighten knowing I was alright.
"I'm sorry I upset you so Bobby…Please feel better."
I manage to crack my eyes open with a strained smile. "It's… okay."
He smiles to see I'm not upset. Nodding before he heads back to his friends.
"You stay here while I talk to them." Linda makes her way out of the car and down to the kids.
Today has been such a mess, but at least we have gotten more info on whatever this thing is. Though now, I have a new worry.
Could I be trusted?
