15
I stared at Henry's back as I gently ran my fingers over his sensitive flesh in the shower. The water helped wash away the blood and I hummed gently as I listened to him sniffle and sob quietly. I knew he was hurting, hurting for the loss of his father.
'He was an asshole- a sadistic fuck, but he was still my dad'
I gently ran the lathered wash cloth over his flesh. His back tensed, but he didn't move. He didn't make a sound. I gently turned him and he just silently faced me and looked down with dead eyes almost. I gently ran my fingers over his chest and neck and he just stood there. I didn't want to ask him what he was thinking, I didn't want to ask him how he felt. I knew he would tell me when he was ready. After we were both clean, Henry just sat on his bed looking down at his hands while I was on the phone with Pat.
"Can you come over? It's bad." I said lowly.
"Yeah, I'll go grab Vic and we'll be over." he said.
"Thank you." I said and moved back into the living room. Henry had managed to hide a pair of my shorts and a shirt from months ago, so I wore them. I moved back over to his bed and squatted down in front of his legs slowly taking his hands and looking up at him.
"Hey," I said gently and he halfway glanced at me before looking back down at our hands, "you are not responsible for any of this." He had to know that. He shook his head.
"Before that thing took over my body, I had killed him. It was all me." he responded, his tone flat and emotionless. I looked down some thinking of his words. "Even as I heard the voices in my head, it was still me." I inhaled softly and nodded standing up and gently pulling him into me hugging his body some. His arms wrapped around my waist quietly and he just sighed as he nuzzled into my body.
"What's done is done. Someone asks about him, you haven't seen him." I replied and he just nodded quietly not saying a word. Once Pat and Vic were at the door, I let them in and they both walked in wearing ripped cutoff jeans and t-shirts. Once they saw the living room they both paused, eyes widened as they stared at the pale corpse of Butch Bowers.
"Oh damn." Pat said and Vic looked at me.
"What happened?" he asked.
"The children got to Henry and possessed him. Made this happen." I replied. I figured they didn't need to know the order of which everything happened.
"Where's Henry?" Pat asked and coming down the hall, was Henry in a red sleeveless shirt and jeans.
"Right here. We gotta move the body, burn it, make sure there's no way anyone can find him. Faline, there's bleach and towels in the kitchen. Wipe everything down. We'll burn the towels too." he instructed. We were in a split daze for a moment not expecting commands to be given so quickly. Henry looked at his friends.
"Move your fucking asses." he said and Pat and Vic nodded and we began to move. Blankets and gasoline were gathered. That's as much as I could see as Henry and Vic carried the corpse to Pat's truck.
"So these kids, they can possess people now?" Pat asked me as I scrubbed the floors which were doused in bleach. The smell was thick. I nodded.
"If you're not careful yes, but I can remove them." I assured and he crossed his arms and nodded patting my shoulder some.
"If things get too ugly, with Henry I mean, you know you can come to me, anytime right?" he asked. I lifted my head in thought of his words before looking up at him.
"Yeah." I replied softly and he nodded.
"Pat, let's go!" Henry yelled from outside and he looked over his shoulder and sauntered outside. Henry was in the door way and I looked at him.
"We aren't going too far." he said and I nodded.
"Be careful." I said and he nodded.
"You too." he said and closed the door. I left the windows open as I cleaned the entire living room and kitchen and hell the entire house. With two guys living here, it wasn't necessarily sanitary. Since Henry was gone, I waited for him to return before burning the clothes in the sink.
"We should get together with Bill and the other's tomorrow," I said to the three. "We won't tell anyone what happened here tonight, because it will not change anything. The clown is back and he has help. We are going to stop it. Stay safe, keep any weapon you can. They still need fear to survive, without it there's no hunt. Stay in groups if you have to. It's easier for them if you're alone." Pat and Vic nodded before saying their good byes and heading home. I hoped they survived. Once everything was quiet, we just moved back to Henry's room and shut the door. Everything was locked and all the lights were out. It was just darkness now. I slid off my pants and slid into the bed with Henry and we just embraced each other in the warmth of his bed.
"Why don't we just run away." he said softly and I looked at him with gentle eyes.
"And go where?" I asked and he shook his head.
"Anywhere. We just buy bus tickets, pack some bags and just leave Derry." he said and I stared at his face for a moment caressing his cheek. It would be so easy, but who is to say the clown won't find us.
"We don't get to turn our backs on those who need us the most." I said gently lightly kissing his lips. For once he gave a sarcastic chuckle and it was progress nonetheless.
"I knew you'd say some smart shit like that." he said caressing my body some. I nodded and chuckled.
"I know things are scary now, but we know how to kill them, the children, the clown, anyone who comes against us." I said and he nodded, with sad eyes.
"Yes, you. You're our secret weapon which that fucker knows. It's going to be coming after you with everything it's got." he said and I nodded leaning in to him.
"And I will be ready. Right after school, I plan to take Ben with me to the library and see if there's anything we can find out. After that, we get together with Bill and the others to devise a plan. Together we are all strong so we know he will try and get to us one by one to separate us." I replied gently. His eyes were drowsy and I could tell he was exhausted.
"No matter what happens, I just want you and I to come out on the other side." he said and I nodded.
"And we will." I replied and we closed our eyes and let sleep embrace us.
'I am so proud of you my child. Every day, you grow stronger, every day it grows weaker.'
The next morning, we got up, ate cereal, and drove to school in silence. Henry was blasting my radio and I just let him. However, it was absolute craziness once we arrived. Police were standing in front of the school talking to teachers and our principal. Henry and I were walking towards the school doors and slowly our hands curled into each other as we walked in, faces calm and collective as if nothing even happened. We stopped by my locker and Henry just looked around.
"What the hell is this?" he asked looking around at the cops walking about. I inhaled slowly.
"Probably here because of Lance." I replied. Henry looked at me curiously.
"Something happen at that party I should know about?" he asked and I removed one of my textbooks and nodded.
"Our youngest son, Axel, mauled the fuck out of him and ate his face at the party last night." I said in a pretty self-explanatory tone. His eyes widened now and he leaned in to me.
"What the shit? When were you going to tell me this?" he whispered harshly and I looked at him.
"When things calmed down… besides he deserved it." I said and he sighed.
"I didn't like the guy, but no one deserves to be killed by that thing." he said and I shrugged.
"He attempted to rape me. Axel was protecting me." I said and Henry just stared at me for a moment before slowly running his hand down his mouth looking around more.
"So when do I get to meet our little pride and joy?" he asked and I just glanced at him before suddenly seeing Mike and Beverly approaching us.
"Ya'll hear what happened?" Mike asked and Henry stood beside me now as we both faced the two.
"What?" he asked. Bev lifted her head some, eyes big.
"Lance was found dead at Sally Weather's party last night." she said. Henry just had his hands crossed.
"Huh, well that's a damn shame." he said and Mike looked him over suspiciously.
"You don't seem too upset." he said and Henry shook his head.
"Nope." he replied.
"Look we all know you didn't like him, but you could have a little compassion." Beverly said with attitude. Henry scoffed.
"Sorry, but I'm all out of fucking compassion right now." he said aggressively before walking off down the hall. Bev and Mike watched with shock and then looked at me. I could tell he still had some raw emotions hidden deep down inside him about his dad. He was a walking fuse.
"What the hell was that all about?" Mike asked.
"We had our own run in with the clown last night. We're okay, but we're just on edge, it attacked us at Henry's place." I replied and that's all I would say on that. Bev just hugged me now.
"Oh my god. I totally understand." she said pulling back and looking me over. "You were at the party last night. Did you see any of them, the clowns?" I looked down avoiding her face. I couldn't tell them about Axel either, not yet at least.
"No. I left once Gretta started to annoy me." I lied, and she nodded looking down some with anger in her eyes.
"Fucking Gretta." she whispered. The bell rang and we all looked up. "I'll see you guys at lunch, we can talk then." Without any other words she walked off. I closed my locker and turned to see Mike still standing there, his eyes upset.
"I never thought of you to be a liar, Faline." he said. I looked him over some.
"What are you talking about?" I asked and he shook his head.
"Come on, Fay. I can see it all over your face something happened at that party, hell maybe it had something to do with whatever you said happened at Bower's place. You can talk to me. We are all in this together." Right now, the less people know about what happened with Lance and Henry's dad, the better.
"Nothing happened. Right now you just gotta trust me, the least you know, the better." I replied. He sighed and looked away before shaking his head some more. "I care about you Mike, I care about all of you." He nodded slowly.
"Yeah, I care about you too." he said before we embraced each other.
"Come on kids, get to class." A teacher called out and we broke our hug and separated.
Author's Notes
hope everyone's enjoying. Coming up soon we get to see Faline vs. Possessed Gretta.