Note: Wow! Thanks so *so* much for all your awesome reviews, they really mean a lot to me :D It's my first time writing anything for a long time, and it's so great to hear that people are enjoying it. You guys are the reason I'm continuing this fic, so thank you for your support :):) This is a slightly longer chapter, and marks the end of the "present day" alternate ending. It will hopefully answer some questions you have about what the future might look like for the Losers! I have some ideas for a future arc, though they're still forming, so I can't promise that that would come anytime soon (but I'll do my best). I kind of want to finish reading the book before I do though, and as you all know, it's a rather chunky piece of literature ;) Made some good progress on the plane I just got off though! Anyway I hope you like this new addition - look forward to hearing your thoughts :) Random sidenote: why is Georgie's left arm severed in the book, but his right arm in the film? That is such a strange detail to change and really confused me for a bit! O.o
And you thought the lions were bad
Well, they tried to kill my brothers
And for every king that died
Oh, they would crown another
And it's harder than you think
Telling dreams from one another...
- Daniel In The Den, Bastille
They made their way as fast as they could through the sewer tunnels, their feet splashing up droplets of the foul water as they went. Her forehead damp with sweat, Bev shifted the weight of the cradled Georgie in her arms, being careful to be gentle with his injured arm. He was unconscious again, having passed out not long after Pennywise revived him. Given the state of his arm, it was probably for the best. She turned to Ben.
"Are we still heading the right way?"
The other boy nodded firmly, confident in his ability to navigate them out of the murky labyrinth beneath Derry. He'd memorised the maps in his head, and he knew they were getting close now.
"Just another few turns and we're there," he said assuredly. The six of them continued onwards, their hearts heavy, trying not to think about how every step took them further away from the malicious clown... and away from Bill.
They came to a stop in front of the round entrance, the rope that had granted them entry hanging dead still in the murky light of the long-empty well. Eddie was the first to reach the entrance, almost eagerly, his hand outstretched towards the frayed rope.
He hesitated, and turned to look back at the others.
"Are we... sure?" he asked nervously, his gaze flicking back towards the tunnels they'd come from. "About... leaving him?"
The air seemed thicker than normal, making it hard for them to breathe.
"No," blurted Richie, his face crestfallen. "No not at all and not ever. Who knows what that monster is..."
He trailed off, seeing the expressions on the other Losers' faces. The whole journey back through the tunnels, the silence between them had been threaded with the fears and worries for Bill back in the creature's lair, alone and defenceless. Would Pennywise simply kill him? Would he instead play with their friend, like a cat toys with a mouse? What dark things might the clown do to Bill now that they were gone, if the boy was really to be the last sacrifice taken before another 27 years of hibernation?
An image of her father advancing towards her made Bev shiver, and she hoped to whatever Gods might be out there that the clown didn't hurt Bill like that.
"Guys," she said lowly, her voice level. "We're going to come back for him." There was far more confidence in her voice than she felt, but she saw the effect of her words in the relief spreading across the faces of her friends.
"We will?" Mike asked hopefully.
"Obviously," she nodded. "But we need to do what we promised first, and make sure Georgie is okay. Get him to the hospital."
As if he heard his name from his unconscious state, Georgie's eyes scrunched a little, his forehead creasing in pain. His left arm twitched towards his right arm, as if to make a motion of grabbing at it.
"And we need to do it fast," Bev realised, some urgency creeping in her tone.
"Yeah, everything will be a lot harder if he wakes up and is in pain," Stan added worriedly.
With a newfound resolve, his heart lighter knowing they would come back to rescue Bill, Eddie grabbed the rope and pulled it towards them.
"Someone should go first," Mike said, gesturing up. "Then, they help to raise Georgie up, and the rest of us come up after."
"Good point," Ben agreed, looking around them. An old wasted piece of cardboard box was lying on the ground not too far away, and would work well as a makeshift stretcher. He'd always had a bit of an eye for structures.
"You go first, Richie, you're good at climbing," said Eddie, holding out the rope. Richie nodded and, without a word, grabbed it from Eddie and started ascending, grunting a little with the effort of hauling his body weight up. Once he was at the top, he yelled down to them.
They lowered Georgie onto the cardboard, and Ben expertly tied the rope both around it and him so he would be secured. Then, with some degree of apprehension, they lifted the stretcher into the empty space beyond and gave Richie the signal to hoist it out of the well. Ben winced as the soggy cardboard sagged under gravity, but after an agonisingly long time, Georgie was lifted safely out of the well.
"Got him!" Richie called triumphantly. The rest of them then began to make their way up, with varying degrees of athletic ability. Bev was the last to leave, and she found herself looking at the shadowy tunnels wishing she could run back now and pull Bill from the clutches of the evil clown, hoping against hope that he would be okay until they could return for him.
"We will save you," she whispered to the darkness, her eyes hooded in sadness.
She didn't acknowledge the feeling they had all shared but refused to voice aloud: that this was the last time they would know the way back to Pennywise's cavernous lair, that the entrance would soon become shrouded in the fogginess of a bad dream that one eventually denies was ever real to begin with.
Squashing down the ominous feelings inside her, Beverly Marsh turned and climbed out after the other Losers.
In the burrows of the nightmare, Bill Denbrough was helpless, as Georgie reached reluctantly for the paper boat, running through the rain towards his brother but too late to save him.
His face was pushed in the mud as the Bowers gang attacked Stan.
He was thrown against a wall, as Alvin Marsh advanced on his daughter.
He couldn't stop the werewolf from ripping Richie apart.
Or the mummy from encasing Ben in its bandages, suffocating him to death.
He failed to prevent Eddie from overdosing on real medication.
And Mike's pleading eyes burned into his soul as the giant bird dragged him away.
Please... please make it stop...
An infinite series of horrible scenarios tortured Bill's fragile mind, each one tearing a little piece of his heart away. His friends had always been his power - and now that power was being used against him in the most sadistic way. And while most of the scenarios were about his friends getting hurt, not all of them were. Pennywise had thrown in some where the primary theme was just him torturing Bill, for the fun of it. Those were bad too, as they introduced his innocent young mind to the darkest depths of humanity, drawn from the clown's millennia of experience with how good humans could be at inflicting pain on one another.
But the creature that had come to know itself as Pennywise had never really tortured a human in this prolonged way before, had never had a true nemesis quite so hated, and so the consequences were largely unknown. For all that the clown considered himself an expert in the study of the demented humans that ran rampant across the planet, he was partly wrong in his prediction of what Bill would become by the time he awoke again. Yes, he would be broken by the false memories of what had happened to his friends and family, and he would come to believe that they were truly dead, gone from the world forever, and that it had been his fault. He would harbour a great deal of fear of Pennywise, indeed. But the result of this torture on Bill would also have other effects, ones that Pennywise had not expected.
The human brain is on one hand excellent at dealing with traumatic or painful events, because on small scales it allows for repression, so that it is possible to move on and, to some degree, forget the details of the bad experience. On large scales, when the event is particularly traumatic, the trauma can instead echo throughout a person's life, affecting them daily in various ways such that they never really truly move on. An experience as a child can very likely transform the fate of the adult they become, for the better or worse.
What Pennywise had done to Bill was make him live through horrific experiences on replay, and while they may have been in reality dreams (rather, nightmares), his sleeping mind was unable to tell the difference between what was real and what was imaginary. So with every piece of his heart that disintegrated at the sight of his friends falling before him, it was replaced not with the light that had defined his character, but with fragments of darkness that were slowly but surely changing the boy from the brave yet ultimately naive leader he had once been.
The thing he would become at the other end of all this was far from the beloved and mourned leader of the Losers Club - to those who had known him, he would barely be even a shadow of his former self.
Not that they would remember him, though.
It was not easy to explain Georgie's sudden appearance, back from the dead.
The hospital staff had immediately alerted the Denbroughs, their suspicious eyes trained on the Losers, but to their credit they did rush Georgie to treatment as fast as they could. From the bits and pieces Ben could put together from hushed adult conversations taking place around them, it sounded like Georgie had been stabilised and would be okay. This was a big relief to the six of them, for at least that part of their mission had been achieved now.
They'd kept their promise to Bill.
They had not, however, been fully prepared for the Denbroughs' inquisition into what had happened. And, importantly, for the piercing questions about where their eldest son was. Ironic really, thought Ben, since they'd barely paid Bill any attention since the disappearance of Georgie. He knew that trying to put his broken family back together had certainly been one of the motivations for Bill to search so hard for Georgie.
The vague answers they could give Bill's parents were hardly satisfying either - they'd already decided amongst themselves that it wasn't worth it to try and convince the adults of the real reason Georgie had disappeared. They'd never believed them before, and they certainly wouldn't now. The grown-ups couldn't even see the effects of It all around them, so how could they possibly understand what they were really dealing with?
The conclusion that the adults came to, on their own, was that Georgie must have been attacked by a wild animal, and washed into the sewers. Then, somehow he survived for months down there, living off of food scraps he found, until the children had luckily found him while exploring. Bill had gotten lost in the sewers, but would likely return soon once he found his way out.
That was their conclusion, and the Losers found it simplest to just go along with it. It wasn't like they could offer a good alternative. It was almost as if the adults had forgotten about all the other kids currently missing, and were so desperate to escape the narrative of a crazed child-abducting serial killer that they would latch on to any other explanation, no matter how fanciful.
Eventually, the six of them were sent home, the questioning finally done. It wasn't until the next afternoon that they could return to the hospital, and wrangle their way in to see how Georgie was doing. The Denbroughs seemed reluctant to let them in, but they finally agreed after seeing Stan's earnest expression pleading with them to allow them to check on their friend's younger brother. Stan always did have a way with the adults, being the most mature of their group.
The afternoon sunlight filtered in through the dusty blinds of the small hospital room, illuminating Georgie's pale face. He looked better than when they'd rescued him, but still worse for wear - not surprisingly given the months trapped down in the sewers with Pennywise. His honey brown eyes, staring out the window with the pensiveness of someone much older than his six years old, jumped to them as they entered the room, searched amongst them for the obvious missing person that he wanted to see more than anyone else in the world.
"He's really gone," Georgie said in a small voice, his blonde hair darker than they recalled. They looked at each other, not sure how much he knew. How much he remembered. He did look a little confused at the six older children gathered around him, and Bev suddenly realised it was because he only recognised a few of them, the ones who had been friends with Bill before... before it all happened. He didn't know Bev, Mike or Ben's faces - only Stan, Richie and Eddie.
So, Bev nudged Eddie forward, as a familiar face that Georgie could relate to.
"Hey Georgie..." Eddie said nervously, sitting on the bed next to him. Georgie's gaze focused on him, his eyes shiny with the threat of tears.
"Where's Billy?" he said timidly, immediately addressing the unspoken awkwardness hanging in the room. It was clear that his parents had not given any kind of decent explanation for his brother's absence. Perhaps they'd even told him that Bill was on the way, in the hope of avoiding the reality of the situation.
"Er... how much do you remember?" Eddie asked, glancing back at the others. Georgie's forehead wrinkled, his eyes filling with fear, as his young mind brought back the last memories before everything went dark.
"The yellow eyes..." he whispered fearfully. "And teeth... I thought it was an animal."
They didn't want to push the boy to relive something that was clearly very traumatic, but somehow in their hearts it was important to know whether he remembered who the yellow eyes belonged to. It was the only way to make sure he would understand why Bill wasn't here with them now.
"The clown," Georgie continued softly, before they could say anything, his eyes welling up. "He said he was my friend. That he'd give me back my boat. But then he-" The boy trailed off, his eyes dropping to his bandaged limb. He shivered. "It was a monster."
"We've seen It too," Richie said quietly. Georgie looked at him with worried eyes, suddenly the threat of the monster clown in the sewers seemed all the more real. His parents had gotten some way in convincing him that actually it had just been a wild animal after all, and maybe his childish imagination had conjured up the creature in the faded jester suit with the glinting eyes.
"Georgie," Bev stepped forward. "My name's Bev, your brother and I were... close friends."
She didn't notice Ben flinch a little at her words, as her attention was focused on Georgie.
"Hi, Bev," Georgie said warily. It seemed his encounter with Pennywise had reinforced his apprehension towards strangers, probably for the better.
Bev smiled at him sadly, a bittersweet twisting of her lips. She would have liked to meet Georgie under other circumstances, in a different time and place where none of this had happened.
"You were missing for a long time," she said. "Bill was looking for you. Even when everyone else gave up, he didn't. He was convinced you were out there somewhere and we could find you. He was the one who made us go searching."
Georgie looked confused, his head tilted.
"But you found me," he said, suddenly brightly. "So where is he now?"
Bev hesitated, looking to Richie for help.
"Georgie, you remember the clown, right?" Richie started, watching the younger boy carefully. Georgie nodded, eyes wide again with fear. His left hand drifted subconsciously towards his right arm. Thankfully, the painkillers meant that all he felt of his missing limb was a distant numbness.
"Well... uh..." Richie trailed off. "Bill made a deal with him."
"A deal?" Georgie blinked. "What kind of deal?"
They were all quiet then, not really sure how to say the words that needed to be said. Stan bit his lip, meeting Mike's questioning eyes and shaking his head firmly, he wasn't going to be the one to tell Georgie. Finally, Eddie spoke up.
"A deal to save you." Eddie's voice shook a little. They weren't sure Georgie would understand exactly what he meant by that, but the young boy realised instantly the truth behind Eddie's words.
"Billy's with the clown?" he whispered in a horrified voice.
"We're gonna get him back," Bev assured quickly. "We'll find him and rescue him. But he told us to make sure you were safe first, to get you to a hospital. He was really worried about you, Georgie. He told us... he said to say he loves you."
Bev's voice broke off in a choked sob, remembering Bill's last words to them. His green eyes, filled with sadness and determination, as the clown's gloved hand dug tightly into his neck.
"But I lost the boat he made me," Georgie mumbled miserably, eyes dark with regret. "She floated away, and then she was gone. Billy would be okay if I hadn't lost her..."
"No, this isn't your fault," Ben interjected firmly. "This is all because of that thing... Pennywise." He said the last word with disgust, feeling cold hatred for the monster that had stolen so many children from Derry.
Georgie looked up at Ben hopefully.
"You'll find Billy, then, right? You'll stop the clown?"
"Yeah, Georgie," Ben nodded, wanting to believe he was telling the truth. "That's the plan."
"Okay good," Georgie said, suddenly seeming very tired. "I wanna make a new boat with Bill. This time, we'll sail it together..."
He drifted off, his eyes closing. He was clearly still recovering, and their conversation had worn him out. It was unclear to them what would happen to his arm in the long term, and he had suffered a lot of blood loss, but still there seemed no reason to believe that he wouldn't make a full recovery in the not too distant future. They were all very glad about that. Bill's sacrifice had not been in vain - he really had saved his younger brother.
In the days to come, they kept to their word, and they returned to the tunnels again and again to search for the entrance to Pennywise's lair. The sense of being watched and the darkness that had once haunted those watery depths were gone, and sometimes they wondered why they'd ever been scared to be down there at all. But even with the best navigation skills of Mike and Ben combined, they found themselves wandering in circles, unable to make progress and drifting ever further away from their captive friend.
They began to lose hope, and the loss of that hope gave Pennywise's dark magic even more power, and before long they started to slowly forget why they were even searching in the first place. In the weeks following, they gradually lost the feeling of searching for someone, for something at all, and Bill's face began to fade from their memories. They returned for days after that, but their mission down there began to morph into something else entirely, into a quest of exploring and charting the unknown, discovering what lay under the quiet and peaceful town of Derry.
And then, one day, Bill was gone. From each of their memories, even Georgie, who was left only with the vague sensation that he lost something very, very, important to him, something very dear, which he came to attribute over time to the loss of his right arm even though deep within him he knew it was something more than that.
And down below, in the darkest hollows of the caverns beneath Derry, the creature slept on, biding its time until it would be once again stirred from its slumber to feed.