As the festivities came to a close and the parade was over, the Losers went their separate ways.
Clowns…seriously, I think that—
"Will you shut it!" Richie harshly said, "What did you want me to say?"
You know your true feelings, Richie…it won't be much longer.
"Yeah, right, and I'll be a millionaire before anything happens."
As the teen made his way home, he parked his bike and entered his house, where his father was there to greet him.
"Hey there," Wentworth said, "how was the parade?"
"Eh, it was nothing out of the ordinary, but it was still good to see my friends."
His father nodded, "It's always good to see them…you guys have been friends for quite some time; I don't think anything is going to break your bond."
"You can say that again," Richie said.
Oh, just you wait…
The teen's eyes went wide hearing his conscious.
"Are you okay?" his father asked.
"Oh…yeah, I'm fine…just thinking about some…things."
"…Like, what?"
As Wentworth approached his son, Richie clamed up, as though he had nothing more to say.
"You know you can talk to me about anything, right?"
Richie nodded to his father, then excused himself and headed straight to his room, shutting the door behind him and laying on his bed.
Smooth move, Richard…now you got your old man feeling worried about you. When will you learn…?
As Richie heard this, he began to cry, allowing tears to fall from his face.
"I don't know," he whispered. "Why is this…this s-so difficult?"
It'll get worse before it gets better…just remember that.
At that thought, Richie decided some rest was much needed, so he retired for the night, not wanting his thoughts to win.
"Guys, pl-please come over to m-my house as soon as y-you can; my parents aren't h-here, and I have some-something important to sh-show you all; bye."
Each of the Losers received Bill's voice message, and they were all assembled together inside of his garage within a half hour.
When they entered, they saw the windows were draped with dark curtains. There were a couple of chairs surrounding a projector that was turned on, which was facing a poster of Derry.
"Ben?"
"You need this?"
Ben held up a small square, which resembled a slide that would fit perfectly within the projector.
"Thanks," Bill said as he placed the slide in the projector, which helped darken the map that outlined Derry.
"So, there's a f-few things I want to ad-address; please co-come over."
The gang all walked over with the exception of Mike who was busy closing the garage door; once done, he joined the rest in sitting on one of the chairs.
"Look," Bill pointed to a circled mark with the words 'Storm Drain' next to it, "That's wh-where Georgie was last se-seen."
"And then you have the Black Spot there," Stan said, seeing another marked location on the map.
"And the Ironworks building that exploded," Mike commented, seeing the old building.
"Ye-yeah, all of them lead dir-directly to—"
"The well house!"
As Bev pointed out the house, Stan commented, "That's the rundown house on Neibolt."
"No fucking way…" Eddie whispered as he made a grab of his inhaler, sucking in air.
"Ye-yeah…that's where it lives."
"…It?" Richie asked Bill.
"It…t-the clown."
Another suck from his inhaler and Eddie was determined to end this foolish debacle.
"Okay, can we please stop talking about this!"
He stood up, his hands trembling in fright.
"It's summertime…we're kids…talking about this clown, and I'm about to have an asthma attack! I'm not doing this shit anymore!"
With that, Eddie ripped down the poster from the wall.
"Eddie! Put it back!"
Bill's order fell on deaf ears as Eddie shook his head.
The projector started to act weird, switching slides on its own.
With each flip, pictures of Bill and his family showed on the wall behind Eddie; when he saw the projector flip, he immediately sat back down.
"Something's going on…" Stan said slowly as he continued to watch the slideshow.
Eventually, the projector stopped on a picture of Bill's family standing outside of a church.
"Georgie…" Bill said, looking at his beaming younger brother.
The projector flipped, focusing on Georgie, and then with each flip, it slowly inched its way towards Bill's mother, whose hair was blowing in front of her face.
"What's going on?" Ben asked, his voice shaky as he stood up – the rest of the group followed suit and backed away from the projector.
With each flip, the projector was moving faster and faster over the same picture, and then the picture started to change.
Almost like real-life, what used to be Bill's mother with gust-moving hair slowly morphed into…
It
"What the fuck!"
Richie was the first to react, grabbing Eddie and shaking the youngster in absolute terror.
"What the fuck is that?" Richie asked.
"It's the fucking clown!" Eddie answered as he shook Richie back in fright.
The picture of It continued to haunt the group as they all were terrified.
"Turn it off," Bev said quietly, and then more assertive.
"Turn it off!"
Mike was the first to react as he kicked the stand that the projector was lying on, allowing it to fall onto to garage cement.
"Holy shit," Stan said as he saw the projector flick back to It.
Another flick and the clown was gone; everyone breathed a small sigh of relief.
Bev felt uneasy, almost like the episode was not over.
And it wasn't.
On the very next click, It popped out of frame, its lifelike appearance petrifying the Losers.
Bev locked eyes with It, unable to move, as the rest of the Losers scampered over to the garage door, trying to open it up.
'This is it…this is how I go…'
Bev's thoughts vanished as she heard the garage door opening, allowing the sunlight to enter and causing It to disappear.
"Thank you, guys."
After a few seconds of silence, Bill started to walk over to his bike.
"Where are you going?" Mike asked.
"Neibolt. T-that's where G-Georgie is."
Eddie approached his bike and turned it a complete 180 degrees, away from Bill.
"Have fun."
"Eddie, wait! You can't go."
The youngster turned towards Stan and said, "Oh, really? Explain to me how going after some clown is going to enhance my summer experience."
"If you go, others will go," Ben explained, "and right now, we need to follow a leader."
Eddie shook his head as a few seconds of silence passed before Bill offered a question.
"W-what's awaiting you a-at home?"
Eddie grimaced, knowing that Bill had a point.
"Look, if your scared…h-how do you th-think I feel?"
"Then why go through it?" Eddie asked Bill. "Why not—"
"Because I'm not stopping until Georgie is rescued. Who knows, maybe we'll rescue others along the way."
As Bill took off, Eddie followed, and the rest of the group hopped onto their respective bikes and pedaled after the duo until they all reached the rundown house on Neibolt Street.
"He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts," Bill whispered as he made his way up the stairs.
He turned around when he reached the top of the porch to see the others have joined him inside the gates. Bill gulped and looked out at his friends.
"Nobody else needs to come in here, nor need to explain why; if I did, maybe it'll get you all to think."
A couple of seconds of silence went by before Bill continued.
"Every time I'm at home, I see Georgie's room a crack open, I see his stuffed animals, his books, his toys…and it pains me that he's not there. So, doing this, going into this house to fight, is much better than going home."
'Not one stutter in that whole speech,' Bev thought as she approached Bill.
"It takes courage to say what's on your heart at the moment – you go make your brother proud."
"Thanks, Bev."
A couple of seconds of silence went by before Stan asked, "So, is it going to be half in and half out?"
"…Who wants out?"
As soon as Bill asked, all but one hand shot up, surprising the leader.
"Eddie?"
"As you said, there's nothing back home for me."
As the youngster made it up the steps of the porch, Richie looked around, and slowly lowered his hand.
Ah, good…because it may be the last time you two are together…
He shook off his inner monologue and raced up the steps.
"We'll holler if we need help," Richie said to the rest of the Losers before the trio embarked inside the Neibolt house.