19
As I drove, I couldn't help but glance back and forth from the road to Axel. His small face was planted in my window, his eyes exploring the trees that past us swiftly. I did not know how dangerous he was, but I had to assume he had enough power like Ajax or Lizzie or even that clown or me. His innocence and his youth could be his greatest weapon. As I turned into my old neighborhood, I noticed familiar cars in my driveway. Bill and the others were here. Even Pat and Vic were here. I slowed my car and parked a few houses away. As soon as they saw Axel they would flip. They would be afraid and try and hurt him and I knew from experience, he could kill the all. I cut off the car and Axel looked up at me with curious blue eyes.
"Axel, I need you to be honest. Would you ever hurt me?" I asked looking at him. He shook his head immediately, a jingle of bells sounding as he did this. I nodded turning to face him and he was small enough to turn his entire body in the seat and look at me. "The creature who raised you wants you to kill for him. My friends, my family, are planning to stop him." He gave a dramatic gasp.
"They want to kill my daddy!" he asked. I nodded.
"Yes, he is our enemy. He wants to kill me and the man who is really your father." I explained. He tilted his head, causing another jingle to sound in the air.
"Kill you? Wait, he's… not my daddy?" he asked. I tensed a bit. How the hell do I even explain this to him. I slowly shook my head.
"No. The creature who raised you didn't create you. You came from my body, my womb." I said placing my hands gently over my stomach. "Even though I did not get to carry you for 9 months, you are still my child."
I could feel the connection we shared, the bond that made me protective over him. Axel looked down nibbling on his hand a bit in thought before slowly crawling over the seats and sitting in my lap.
"I don't care, I just want to stay with you." he said softly. His head leaned into my chest and I sighed hoping he truly understood what was going on. He gripped the fabric of my shoulder that was stained in blood. Slowly, I looked toward my house and saw Henry standing on my front porch smoking a cigarette. I definitely missed the library run with Ben. I flashed my headlights and caught Henry's attention. He immediately jumped off my porch and jogged to me. My heart was pounding in fear as I opened the door and moved to sit Axel on my seat.
"Stay here." I replied and got out of the car. I left the door open as Henry confronted me. Within seconds, his eyes were filled with concern.
"What happened?" he asked his face moving all around me. The worry in his tone brought me comfort. I sighed and leaned into him, his arms wrapping around my hips.
"Got a little sidetracked." I replied and his eyes hardened some.
"The clown?" he asked and I shook my head.
"One of the children. I killed it though." I replied, and he closed his eyes, giving off a sigh of relief.
"Good. We need to get you cleaned up. Everyone's waiting inside, why are you parked so far out here?" he replied. I took a step back toward the car.
"Because of him." I replied, and Henry shook his head confused. Slowly, Axel's clown shoes landed on the street with a bounce and I reached down and took his hand and guided him around the car door. Henry's eyes widened as he looked down at the small clown.
"What the hell?" he whispered, harshly and I raised my hand up toward him.
"This Axel, Henry. This is one of our kids." I replied. Henry looked at me with wide eyes.
"Wh- I-." he fumbled over his words while looking from both Axel to me.
"He is not going to hurt me or you." I said. Axel looked at me as if confused by my words and I slowly picked him up in my arms. Immediately, he wrapped his arms and legs around my neck and waist and I walked up to Henry. He took a step back and I used one hand to grab his.
"He has my human emotions- our emotions. All the children do, but they are too far gone to really tap into them." I explained. Henry's hand was shaking a bit and I could tell he was afraid. I carefully moved up to him, Henry's eyes hard on Axel's form as we drew closer. Axel hid his face into the side of my neck as we were finally close. "Henry… I won't let anyone hurt him."
That was not a sign of needing help, but a bold statement I would stand by and Henry knew this. Henry took some even breaths looking at Axel.
"So you're the trouble maker huh?" he asked carefully and Axel slowly looked at him, his eye left eye staying in place, while his right eye moved down and up to look him over. "Uh… your mom told me you kept her safe from a bad guy who tried to hurt her."
Axel finally turned his head to stare at Henry and he gave a careless shrug.
"Axel, this is Henry. He helped me make you." I replied in an awkward tone. Henry gave a nervous chuckle and now we were just standing there. I wondered what we should do now. But instead, Axel just shot his hand out and Henry and I both gasped as his white gloved hand just touched Henry's face. The tips barely grazed his cheek, and so I slowly stepped closer, so Axel's palm could fully touch Henry's cheek. Henry just gazed at the child with a light gasp as the two just stared at each other for a moment.
"I feel him… like you I feel you mommy." Axel says gently. I hoped that was a good thing. Henry's hand slowly lifted and I watched as he placed it over Axel's hand. He nodded slowly.
"Yeah… I feel something." he replied lowly. I slowly smiled and leaned in letting my forehead press into Henry's. We were in this together now. Slowly Axel pushed his face between ours, so our foreheads grazed his red locks.
"Now we have to get Bill and the others on board." I replied. Henry leaned back with a wince.
"They're not going to like this. He's still a part of that thing." he said. I looked at Axel to see him looking up at me with traces of fear. My friends wouldn't be wrong for being upset about his existence, but maybe he was the key to ending all of this. With him on our side, we may have some type of advantage.
"They won't have a choice." I said looking up at Henry now. I could tell he was unsure of all of this, but he still took my hand and we began to move toward my house together. Axel remained attached to me as we moved toward my house. I had to remember it was my house. I was in control here.
Within 30 minutes, I was sitting on one of my kitchen table chairs with Axel sitting on my lap. Henry was standing behind me with his arms crossed. Across the room on the couch was everyone else with wide eyes, and tensed bodies. Axel just chewed on his hand a bit looking at them all. I told them everything, from my miscarriage to the children able to possess bodies. I told them one of them attacked Henry and made him kill his father. I even told them what Lizzie told me about how they planned to use adults to lure children in to their deaths.
"So that's the whole story. There are twelve clown children left. If the clown is using them to possess people then that means he is still too weak to hunt. With your help we can take them down quickly before more people go missing." I replied. Gretta and Butch were already gone, but that didn't mean anyone else had to go missing. Everyone just stared at me for a bit and Richie was the first to shake his head.
"This is fucking insane! How do we know that clown isn't spying for that damned clown!" he snapped. Axel let out a growl and hissed lowly at the accusations which made everyone lean back some. I hugged him to me.
"Because he knows my power... he knows if he betrays me what could possibly happen to him." I answered looking down at Axel who now looked up at me with innocent eyes.
"You can kill me." he replied with the same amount of innocence. Henry took a step forward.
"Look guys we don't have that many options. Axel can probably point out any of the monsters in disguise and can kill them. We know how, that never changed. We were sorely outnumbered before but with him here, we may have a chance to stop this before it begins again." he explained.
"It already began when they killed Gretta and your father." Vic said. I looked at Bill.
"You all are my friends and I promised I would protect you, all of you." I said. Bill looked completely unsure and afraid. Axel immediately looked up inhaling the air. He could smell all of their fear.
"How do we know that he won't hurt any of us?" Mike asked on edge, and I leaned over looking at Axel.
"Everyone you see in this room, you are not to eat or hurt ever." I replied. Axel pouted, crossing his arms in my hold and shook some.
"Fine." he said.
"Oh yeah like we're supposed to believe it." Eddie asked.
"Hey! We don't have a lot of options. You pansies want to sit around and piss your pants fine. We'll risk our lives to save this town." Henry snapped. Patrick shook his head walking up to him.
"Hey WE aren't letting you get into trouble alone." he said motioning to Vic and himself. The slender blonde nodded and walked over to us.
"It's senior year. If we're going to get killed it might as well be doing something violent like beating the crap out of a demon clown." he explained. Henry smirked at them both before looking down at me. I smiled at them both.
"They're right." Ben said catching all of our attentions. We looked at him now. "It's back and we were stupid to think it wouldn't come. Faline risked her life for us last time. I could at least risk my life for her."
Mike nodded crossing his arms.
"Me too." he said. Beverly and Bill looked at each other, their hands curling together before looking at me.
"We're in." Bill said. Eddie and Richie looked at each other before Richie groaned.
"God your mom owes me so many chocolate chip cookies!" he replied and Eddie nodded.
"Let's do it." he said. Now I looked at Stanley. His eyes were still wide, body still as he just looked at Axel. He was completely traumatized and there was nothing I could do to help.
"Stanley, I won't ask you to do anything for me that you don't want to do. It's okay to be afraid." I replied. Stanley finally closed his eyes, tears streaming down his face. Axel shook his head staring at him in confusion.
"If I back out now... it'll probably come for me first." he said. I didn't have the answer to that, but I wouldn't be surprised if one of the clowns did. "We need to just go to the sewers and destroy it this time. For good. Forever." I looked up at Henry and then looked at Bill.
"Agreed." I replied. Ben took a step forward.
"I found some books in the library about voodoo magic and blood magic. Maybe tomorrow you and I can figure out everything you can do to stop the creatures without you getting hurt." he said.
"And the rest of us will come up with a plan to kill It and the other clowns." he said.
"It will be expecting us in the sewers so if that's the plan we need to be smart about how to deal with the kids." Bill said. Mike raised his head some.
"No more wooden bats or sticks. I have something better we can use from work." he said. Axel tugged at my hair getting my attention.
"What can I do?" he asked. I looked around at the others to see them lean back, a sign they didn't want anything to do with Axel. I smiled softly.
"You can point out anyone who is possessed by your siblings." I replied. If he could point them out, then I could try and remove them and destroy them.
"God this is just too much. I gotta get out of here." Richie said. I winced and stood up, holding Axel to me.
"Hide your fear." I said suddenly. He paused in front of my door and turned to me. I stared at him with worry and care.
"We have no idea we are facing until we are right in front of it. Be on guard." I replied. Richie bit the inside of his cheek looking at Axel before pointing at him.
"We're dealing with that." he said. Axel's eyes faded over gold in warning as he held on to me. Richie just shook his head and headed out the door. "They ALL need to die!" Eddie moved to the door as well.
"I came here with him. We need to stick together." he said before walking out. I could tell their trust in me was fading and I sighed sadly at this fact. Beverly moved over to me and I looked at her.
"We will be okay. I'm going to go to Bill's tonight." she said. I nodded.
"Once you guys find something come see me," Bill said. "We can think of a plan then. Until then, everyone be careful." he said and I nodded.
"You too." I replied. Ben left the books he found with me and the house emptied in seconds. Now it was just Henry, Axel and I. He was looking out the window now and hissed some.
"The light comes." he says and began to walk over to my closet.
"Where are you going?" I asked and he looked back at me.
"Into the darkness. I need the darkness." he said lowly. What did that mean? Was he going back to the sewers.
"Wait Axel." I called out following him to the closet. He had already closed the door. Once I opened it, I saw nothing but my jackets and coats. I looked up into the dark ceiling.
"Let him go, Faline." Henry said and I looked at him confused. What if he got hurt or Pennywise saw him as a traitor? Henry moved over to me and placed his hands on my hips. "I know you care about him, but you have to remember he isn't one of us. Sure he has feelings, but that seems to be all he inherited from you. I mean he can do what all those other monsters can do. He is a killer." I winced at his words and looked away.
"He chose me." I said and he nodded.
"And you chose your friends. What will happen if he's the last one left and his instincts and nature start to kick in. He smelled everyone's fear today. He's more of that clown than us." he said.
"What are you saying?" I asked with a mild frown. He gave me a firm look.
"I'm saying if we keep him alive, he grows up and matures into that clown that nearly bit your hand off two years ago... will you be able to stop him?" he asked. I stared up at him with fear in my eyes. I couldn't even answer him right now.