15

Hi! Just saying shoutout and thank you to Menzgus, The Tombed Spirit, Agenian, Alice of Scarlet Flames, k1ttycast1300 and ihaveseverejdop. I think you'll like this chapter…

20th December, 1985

People on the street stared. Beverly ignored them, panting heavily, her loafers smacking the tarmac as she ran. A pain throbbed in the centre of her chest.

She had to warn the others. It was coming. And twenty seven years too early.

Richie's house was closest. She pounded on the door, and Richie's mother opened it.

`Beverly, what-' Maggie Tozier never got an answer. Beverly stormed up the stairs and into Richie's room, who was getting changed.

`Jesus Christ, Beverly!' He yelled, yanking his duvet over him.

`Shut up, you have boxers on,' Beverly snapped impatiently. `Richie, it's back.'

His face went slack and pale. `Shit,' he breathed, fear clouding his eyes behind his thick glasses. Beverly nodded grimly.

`Shit, indeed.'

0

Mike Hanlon threw grain out into the coop as Eleven milked the cows. He wondered how long she'd been in the barn, hiding from it.

Well, even if a psychotic being from another dimension was looking for revenge, the chickens needed to be fed. Mike emptied the bag, then walked into the shed to put it back. Mike hummed to himself, feeling hair spike on the back of his neck. Nothing's there.

The rafters creaked ominously.

Just the old wood. Don't turn round, don't turn round…

Mike turned, and looked up. Two red rimmed, glowing eyes stared back at him. And the bird opened up it's beak and screeched.

Mike yelled out, knocked over a bag of grain and slammed his hands on the wooden door, frantically trying to escape the bird that was now scratching his face with razor claws. It's wings smashed into the walls, thumping and shrieking.

There were footsteps running from outside.

`Help me!' Screamed Mike. There was a second's pause. Then

BANG!

The doors burst open.

`Go, go, go!' Yelled Eleven, yanking him out and starting to run. She swore fluently under her breath, words picked up from the Trashmouth.

`We need to hide.' Mike looked for any hiding spot as the monstrous black bird fought to get out of the shed. `Here!'

Him and Eleven crouched behind the dormant combine harvester.

0

Eleven shivered next to Mike H, hidden from the bird. She didn't know what it actually looked like. The most she'd seen of it was a glimpse of it's horrible eye, peering out at her from the shed door. A thick, soupy blackness she supposed was it's feathers surged behind it.

`Use your powers,' Mike H mouthed at her. Eleven bit her lip and shook her head miserably.

`Not on my own. I'm not powerful enough.'

Mike H started to shake, his face going grey. He leant back against the scarlet exterior of the harvestor, and, like it was a magic charm, Eleven started to sing her ABC's in her head.

The bird managed to get out of the shed. It soared into the air, cawing and shrieking like a nightmarish blend of crow and eagle.

And the call was suddenly cut off.

Eleven panted quietly, hoping it couldn't hear her. No sound. She slowly began to move.

Mike H shook his head at her, but Eleven ignored him, creeping round the machine.

`It's gone,' she breathed out in relief. Heart pounding, she leant against the scarlet, unevenly painted combine harvester and laughed hysterically.

0

20th December, 1985

Mike sat upright.

`Derry? Really? Why?' He immediately felt like the world's biggest geek, especially in this van of chain-smoking punk cliches. None of them reacted badly, apart from Axel. He gave a small snort of derision. However, it was Funshine who answered.

`Kali tracks down people who are like her.'

`Careful, Funshine!' Snapped Kali from the front. Funshine shrugged.

`One girl we've been tracking for a while has just resurfaced. Kali considers her a sister.' He raised an eyebrow as Kali blasted Highway to Hell again. Lucas and Dustin woke up with a yelp.

`What does this girl look like?' Mike asked, hoping he sounded merely curious. You've got to be kidding me, he thought.

`Funshine, that is enough!' Shouted the purple-haired driver, smacking the steering wheel with one gloved hand. Mike decided to take a risk. He pulled out the newspaper clipping, which was worn completely through in some places due to Mike constantly taking it out of his pocket.

`Did she look like this?' He tapped on El's crumpled face.

Kali swerved into a hard shoulder and slammed the breaks. Everyone jolted forwards.

`Funshine.'

`Yeah?'

`Take the wheel.'

0

Mike H and Richie sat alone in the Tozier household, Richie's parents gone out for the day. Eleven and Beverly, who now had plasters stuck to the side of her neck, were walking down the street, going to fetch the others. They'd already gone to Ben's house, only to be told Ben and Eddie were both at the Denbrough's. A chill wind whipped through Derry, bringing a slight wave of sleet with it. Eleven pulled her hood up.

`You will stay, right?'

Eleven looked at Beverly. She awkwardly played with her sleeves, tugging them down over her knuckles.

`No,' Eleven said gently. `I can't. Need to find Mike.'

`But aren't you happy here?'

`Yes. Really happy. But I miss Mike, and the rest of the party.'

Beverly glanced away. `I'll miss you. You're the only girl, aside from me. The boys can just be a bit, you know, at times a bit-'

`Mouthbreather,' finished Eleven, smiling. A smile stretched across Beverly's face, despite herself.

`Yeah. A bit mouthbreather.'

They'd almost reached Bill's house. Beverly whacked Eleven's elbow.

`Ow!' Eleven looked round in hurt confusion, and saw Beverly pointing up.

Attatched to the house's antennae was a red balloon.

0

`So you're looking for her too?'

`Yeah,' answered Mike. `We found her in the forest two years ago. A little over two years, actually. But then she- she went away.' He looked down at his lap.

`What number?'

`Eleven.'

A sad smile played around Kali's mouth. `I remember her. We played together in the rainbow room.'

`You said you were looking for people like you,' said Max. `What's your power?'

Kali smiled. Suddenly Max gasped. Her eyes went wide with wonder and she lifted up two fingers, then brought them close to her eyes.

`Max. What the hell?' Lucas was looking more than a little worried at the behaviour of his love interest.

`Can't you see it?' She breathed.

`No. He can't,' answered Kali. `It's an illusion.'

Max went scarlet and sat on her hands. Dustin, Will and Mike grinned at each other.

`Can't you see it?' They mimicked in the same breathy voice that Max had used, before collapsing with laughter.

`Leave off,' Lucas said impatiently, as Max used a few stronger words.

`Anyway, the point is, I'm looking to gather all the people like me I can, to try and bring down the lab. So far, I have located two that escaped.'

`Only two?'

Holly went over to Kali, and climbed onto her lap. Kali continued talking with a serious expression on her face as Holly curiously tugged her purple hair.

`They have to hide well. And the two I thought I traced turned out to be dead. That lab is beyond traumatising. Not all people can escape the memories, even if they escape the lab itself. What do you plan to do with Eleven?'

It was then Mike realised they could potentially become enemies in a minute or less. Unfortunately, never one to button her lip, Holly piped up.

`Defeat PennyRiddle. And Mike wants to keep her okay.'

`So they can suck face!' Chimed in Dustin, before yelping as Mike's elbow connected with his ribs. Dottie chuckled and blew a bubble gum balloon at them.

`What do you propose we do about that, then?' Kali asked, an eyebrow raised. `Seeing as I also want to give Eleven a home.'

`Let her choose,' Mike said calmly. `Simple as that. Holly, stop it.'

Holly left Kali alone, and instead played with her feet, as Kali nodded thoughtfully.

0

Beverly and Eleven pushed open the front door. Ominously, it was hanging off it's hinges.

`Bill? Ben? Eddie?' Eleven called. Beverly put a finger to her lips, shaking her head warningly. We've got to be quiet, she mouthed.

The house was too silent. All sound seemed to be sapped out of it. The two girls crept up to Bill's room. Beverly pushed open the door.

`Beverly?'

Ben's head stuck out of the wardrobe. `Bevvie, you have to run, Pennywise-'

`Is back,' finished Beverly. `It's come after me, Eleven and Mike.'

`We don't know where it went,' wheezed Eddie, who pushed his head out from behind Ben's. `It became a leper then Georgie and then turned into a headless leper in a yellow raincoat. I think it got confused about who to scare.'

There was a bang from downstairs. They all jumped a mile into the air.

`Bill, we can escape out of your window, right?' Eddie said, his voice frantic. Bill climbed out of the wardrobe, shaking his head.

`N-no. Mom and Dad m-m-might cuh-come back. We need to g-g-get it out. Who's w-with me?'

In answer, Beverly reached for Bill's baseball bat. Ben clenched his fists determinedly. Smiling, Bill picked up his penknife. And Eddie looked at them all in horror.

`You can't be serious. No no no. This is not going to go well.'

`Then stay,' Eleven answered calmly. Eddie's left eye twitched sporadically, his mouth twisted, and he took an extra two puffs on his inhaler.

`Screw it. I'm in.'

Bill's alarm clock read nine in the morning. It was unbelievable to think that so much could have fallen apart in such a short time frame.

The four teenagers crept through the house. Eddie had armed himself with a chunky trophy, and tapped it against his thigh.

`Do you think it left of it's own accord?' Whispered Ben. Eddie shook his head.

Then they all jumped a mile into the air.

`Fur Elise,' said Bill, his voice cracking. The piano was in the living room. `Let's take it by surprise.'

So they did.

Eleven got herself ready for anything as they clattered through the house, down the stairs and then burst into the living room, holding aloft their weapons of war-

Nothing was there.

`The piano…'

No sound. Actually, everything seemed too muted. Like they were underwater.

`It's still h-here,' Bill said. `It can p-p-play with your senses.'

The lid of the piano shattered, a gout of wood exploding into the air.

Splinters of wood rained down, and Pennywise jumped up onto the ruined remainder of the lid.

It grinned. Eddie dropped his inhaler.

`Here I CO-OME!'

The clown leapt off of the lid. It's spine and bones were twisted and poking through the skin. White. Red. Black webbing covering the lot. Eleven felt nausea shoot up to her throat; so, so much worse in daylight.

She tried to focus all her energy on throwing it away but it was too powerful, weight tied it to the ground. Her psychic energy alone wasn't enough.

And she'd been still for a second too long.

It reached her, knocked her over and pinned her down, hands at her throat. Her hockey stick flew across the room and thunked into the wall, useless. Eleven punched him repeatedly and thrashed wildly as it's black saliva dribbled around her head like chocolate sauce on an ice cream. Ben and Bill launched themselves at it and started hitting it with their weapons.
But Eddie thought faster.
He grabbed a splinter of broken piano lid and stabbed it through the one solid eye the clown had. It froze for a second, mouth gaping as blood spurted around the splinter of wood. And it's mouth turning into a O rimmed with teeth. At it's scream, Eleven felt as if her stomach had fallen away with shock.

She wrenched herself free and broke one of the legs off of the coffee table, catching it in the air. She wiped away the nosebleed with a finger, then lifted it up, ready to hammer the splinter in like a nail. The clown held up a hand to stop her.

`Girlie, girlie,' it coaxed, as if the wooden splinter blinding it was no longer worth attention. `Wouldn't you like to come with ol' PennyRiddle? Come on,' it urged, grasping the splinter and beginning to tug. `I have the power to give you whatever you want. If you let me go.' The chunk of wood came free from it's eyeball with a sickening sound. Dark red blood was sprayed up the length of it. `Whadda ya say?'

It transformed itself into Mike. No sickening wounds, Mike as she remembered him. Smiling at her, eyes full of love.

Eleven smashed him across the head with the coffee table leg. Mike fell to the floor, blood leaking from his skull, and flickered between monsters- leper, headless nine year old, armless six year old, a middle aged man, and finally it splashed into a puddle of the black, soupy oil that dripped off the side of the clown's face.
It slithered down the skirting board, dissapearing from sight in seconds.

All of them dropped their weapons and ran away.

When they reached Stan's house, Eleven realised she was bleeding quite a lot. The clown, or PennyRiddle or whatever it was calling itself, had managed to scratch her down the face. In the adrenaline rush it had gone completely unnoticed.

`Will Stan have- have-' Damn, what was the word?

`Band Aids?' Suggested Ben helpfully. `Yeah, he will.' For the meantime, Eleven took off her jacket and pressed the sleeve to her face.

`I'll take the blood out. Promise.' Beverly gave Eleven a friendly nudge.

`Don't worry about it.'

And then Eleven turned to Eddie. She hugged him tightly. `Thank you, Eddie. You saved me.'

`Oh, uh, you're welcome.' Eddie looked very flattered as Bill rolled his eyes and knocked on Stan's door. It creaked open on the chain. Stan's eye appeared in the crack.

`You can't come in.'

`Why not?' Demanded Beverly. `Listen up. Eleven warned us in August about Pennywise coming back, and it just happened. It's come back, it's even worse, and we need to stop it.'

`I said, you can't come in!' Stan tried to slam the door, and found he couldn't. And then he found that the chain had come undone and the door was flying open.

Eleven wiped the blood off of her top lip, hearing gasps of breath from around her.

She snapped her head up, expecting to see the clown again.

Instead, she gasped herself.

Stan had a square of bloodstained gauze taped to his face, and his arm was in a sling. She leaned forwards and gently touched the gauze. A little red smeared on her fingers.

`What happened?'

`The- the flute lady. I know Pennywise is back, it came for me last night and I'm sorry I didn't say but I can't do it, I can't. If you make me, I swear to God I'll kill myself. Don't put me through this crap again.'

Bill's face twisted, his hands twitched and he stormed away down the drive. One after the other, they followed him, Eleven last. She looked at him.

`You promised them,' she said quietly. Then turned away, back to the Tozier's house. Even if she was going to die, she was not breaking her promise.

0

Richie's parents phoned to tell him his Aunt Denise had died.

`We'll be there for the arrangements. You go to the neighbours if there's a problem. See you tomorrow.'

The answerphone beeped.

Eddie grinned, seeing his chance. `Hey, Richie-'

`Beep me one more time, any of you, and you'll prefer facing off with Pennywise to me.'

Eleven sat in front of Maggie Tozier's make up mirror, clumsily applying Band Aids to the four gouges across her forehead. She'd grown used to minor scratches and cuts from living in the Barrens for four months, hence had never really learned how to use Band Aids. Five of them were stuck across one scratch, with a considerable amount of her hair trapped underneath the top ones.

Jesus Christ. She went back downstairs to ask for assistance.

None of them really wanted to be alone, so the Losers and Eleven piled up blankets, pillows and mattresses, scattered them in the living room, and set up a guard at the door. Bill knew from unfortunate experience that Pennywise had full access to their houses.

Eleven felt jumpier and jumpier as the night wore on, for no reason she could explain.

`Will you stop that?' Snapped Eddie at her the fifth time she peeked out of the curtains. `If that clown's coming tonight, and let's face it it probably will, when that clown comes you don't want to give away where we are!'

Too many words to process. Eleven ignored him and paced the floor constantly, to the point where even Beverly and Mike H were beginning to get annoyed.

She felt such fluttering anticipation in her stomach, Eleven couldn't even bring herself to eat an Eggo.

0

December 21st, 1985

Funshine was much more controlled with the brake.

The van came to a steady halt in Derry Highstreet, illuminated by flickering lamposts in need of an electrician.

`We're here,' Mike said softly. `Guys, wake up!' He shook everyone's shoulders. `Get up! We've made it.'

`What time is it?' Dustin groaned, rubbing his eyes. Kali answered.

`Two thirty a.m. Traffic. Funshine isn't willing to weave through cars.'

`Hey. I drive to arrive, not to end up in the emergency room.'

Holly was completely out of it, but sleepily walked through the street, clinging to Mike's hand.

0

Eleven looked out of the window yet again. The Losers had given up complaining to her and were asleep. She'd offered to take guard the entire night, somehow knowing she wasn't going to sleep.

Ben gave a loud snore, before rolling over. She made a shushing mime at him, wholly aware it was useless but doing it anyway. The lamposts flickered.

0

`Do you want to see your friend alone?' Asked Kali. Mike nodded.

`Yeah. Thanks. We'll get you tomorrow, if you want.'

`That's fine. We'll wait here.'

Axel leaned out of the van. `We aren't gonna sleep in here again, are we?'

Kali shot him a vicious look, and he got back in.

`Tell her Eight is here.'

And the doors to the van slid shut.

0

Something was moving in the dark.

Eleven pressed her eyes to the glass, narrowing them to see better in the dark.
It was coming from the highstreet. Eleven shook everyone awake.

`Highstreet! Something coming!' She gabbled, forgetting all her learned vocabularly. Her finger stabbed the cold glass, leaving little dots in the mist. Bill roughly pushed her aside and looked out himself.

`C-c-can't see what form it is,' he stuttered.

0

`Is someone looking at us?' Asked Max, rubbing her hands together. White steam puffed from her lips as they walked over the icy tarmac. Lucas peered into the dark.

`Where?'

`I think I saw curtains move. On that house.' Max pointed to a fairly fancy one on the street, the only one without christmas lights turned on.

`Yeah… you're right. Maybe we'd better go somewhere else. This town can't be that big. And we have three days to look for-'

`Eleven,' Mike whispered softly.

0

`Stop it! Stop!'
The others were in battle position, holding knives and bats, ready to charge out into the streets and tackle the thing. Eleven, without really thinking what she was doing, froze them all in their tracks. `Don't,' she said, her voice breaking. No, it couldn't be him. No chance. None whatsoever.
But still she kept her friends trapped in her telekinetic field, leaving them shouting after her as she opened the door and walked out into the street.

0

Mike's eyes were wide, wet glimmering at the edges of them.

Silence fell over the group as Mike passed Holly over to Will. And started to walk towards the figure on the street, then run, and then flat out sprint.

The figure at the end of the street began to run too.

And Eleven and Mike collided messily in the middle. Both were in tears, smiling and crying at the same time. Eleven held Mike's hands in hers, and lifted herself up onto her tiptoes, and pressed her mouth to his.

She kissed him, their cheekbones colliding.

Something warm and solid filled Eleven's chest, something that was almost painful because finally finally finally, he was there, Mike was there.

And he kissed her back.