20
Normal POV
As Bill and their friends began to walk to their cars a silence had flowed into the group until Richie was the first to turn around and face them.
"Okay so what's the real plan?" he asked. Bill and the others, minus Vic and Patrick who had sped off, looked at him confused.
"What do you mean?" Ben asked. Richie gave him a stupid look.
"Come on you don't actually think we can trust Faline now- or Henry and his friends for that matter. Didn't you see the way she was holding that thing? It was like it was her baby!" he snapped. Bev winced.
"Richie how could you say that? Faline is our friend." she defended.
"Yeah and she also created those clowns and basically let that clown out because she couldn't keep her legs closed!" he blurted. Now the entire group groaned and argued back.
"Hey watch your mouth." Mike warned. Richie raised his hands and looked at Eddie.
"Oh come on I'm only saying what we are all thinking. We can't trust her!" he snapped. Bill looked at the group.
"Look we are all just scared. We can't afford to turn on each other." he said.
"I'm not turning on anyone. She is. She thinks she can trust that clown. They're all evil and you all know it. We. Can't. Trust. Her." he said. Mike stepped forward looking at him with hard eyes.
"Maybe you've all forgotten, but she was impaled through the heart trying to protect us. She literally died and was brought back to life in order to save us. And now you're going to stand here and throw her under the bus when she needs us most! Some friend you are." he said. Bill and the rest of the group winced remembering all too well. Bill specifically. He had let Pennywise get into his head and he shouldn't be alive right now. But he was because Faline sacrificed herself for him.
"Hey you want to chase after her because you're head over heels for her, then fine, but I'm not gonna get killed for her or those clowns!" he snapped. In seconds, Mike shoved him and Richie nearly fell but caught himself and moved to push him back. Before the two could throw fists, the group was there separating them.
"Stop it! Okay, just stop!" Bill snapped looking around at all of them. "Mike is right. Faline is one of us. Henry, Patrick, Vic are one of us. We stopped the clown together and we have to do it again, together. Because standing together or being divided those monsters are going to come for us, they are going to try and kill all of us. And I am not going to let that happen. Faline is not going to let that happen. And I am not going down without a fight." he exclaimed. The group looked at him, eyes brightening from his words. Beverly nodded. Faline was the only girl who really saw her, when no one else did. It was time for someone to see her and be there for her. She stepped closer to Bill.
"We are doing this together. No one says you have to baby sit any clown babies, Richie." she said. Richie shook his head looking away. Eddie nodded.
"She's right man. We have a bigger problem then just that one clown." he said. Stanley was looking down thinking of everything they had endured before he started nodding.
"Yes," he said before looking up at them as they all looked at him, "we kill the clowns. That's our priority." he said. Ben nodded in response.
"We know its weaknesses, and it knows that we know. Soon it'll be coming for using those kids first. We have to find it first." he explained. Everyone nodded in agreement. Bill looked at Mike who was looking at Richie and they were both asking if they were cool before shaking hands and nodding.
As the group departed, a pair of gold eyes watched them from the darkness of the forest. Jarred, the oldest watched with a blank stare looing almost unimpressed by the lot. He could sense the strength in them. But how does one break that type of bond? One of them would have to die and he already knew which one would go first.
Faline's POV
As Henry and I lied in bed facing his each other, his hand caressing my face, I couldn't help but think it was time to talk about something else that needed to be discussed. He killed his father. Him. Not the clown or the children, but him. He had said earlier that he had a plan to deal with his father. Was killing him his plan?
"What's going on in that head of yours?" he asked lowly. I looked down unsure if he wanted to discuss what happened that night. But there was no time to hold back secrets.
"You killed your father… how does that make you feel?" I asked. He winced and looked down now.
"At first, after I did it, I was happy. Happy he couldn't use me as his punching bag…then for a split second before that clown took over me, I felt sad. Sad we can't go fishing anymore, sad we can't laugh together anymore. Why did he make me do it, Faline? Why'd he have to hurt me?" he said, lowly and I winced at his words.
"Hurt people, hurt others." I replied as I caressed his cheek and he closed his eyes.
"Just so you know, I don't have a taste for blood or anything. I'm not going to go crazy." he said. I smiled some.
"Good. I don't ever want you to go where I cannot follow." I said moving to run my fingers over his neck. He smiled and leaned into me.
"Never." he replied, and I smiled and curled into him letting the darkness take me. The next morning, Ben and I drove to the library in search of anything that could help us stop the clown or the children. Henry, Patrick and Vic were at the junkyard looking for anything they could to make weapons to prepare for any run ins with the clowns. Bill and the others met up at his place to prepare plans for how to trap or lure a clown themselves.
"So we're clown hunters now." I said moving through the different aisles of books.
"It's sad it's come down to that." Ben said.
"You find anything?" I asked lowly.
"No. There's only information on Derry, the history of Derry, important people born from Derry." he said as if bored.
"Well there's got to be a section not connected to Derry." I said, my eyes scanning the many black books in front of me. Ben finally came around the front of the bookshelves and looked at me.
"What about your place. Maybe your mom has some stuff from her childhood that could be connected to your powers." he said. I thought about it. I had never seen Mom with anything from Louisiana. But maybe
"Hm, maybe. It's worth a shot." I replied. As we moved down the aisles, I paused as I looked around at the empty library. All the tables were empty, minus one book that was on the table furthest from us. Ben looked around.
"Where is everyone?" he asked. I looked around wondering the same and slowly moved toward the table with the book on it. Ben remained close to me as we neared it. Once at the edge I slid the book over to us and we looked over at it. There was a woman on the front, her hair wrapped, and her eyes showed culture and focus.
"Marie Laveau: The history of Voodoo." I said stiffly before looking at Ben. He looked stunned as we both sat down. I opened the book to it's first few pages to the beginning.
"It is believed that Marie Laveau was born in the French Quarter of New Orleans. When she was born was not recorded, but by doing some research and math, it has been deduced it was in 1801.
Her mother, Marguerite Darcantrel, was a freed slave and mistress of her father, Charles Laveaux, a wealthy mulatto businessman. Marguerite gave birth to Marie at her mother, Ms. Catherine's home, and then returned to her relationship leaving her baby girl with her mother.
Marie Laveau was the first born free in her family. It is said that Marie's great-grandmother came to New Orleans as a slave from West Africa in the mid-1700s. Her grandmother, Catherine, was purchased by a free woman of color. Catherine was eventually able to buy her freedom and build her small home in the French Quarter, where Marie Laveau would live and become the legendary Voodoo Queen of America." I read.
Before we could read anything else, the book's cover flapped open. Ben and I jumped as the pages began to flip furiously, flapping back as if a hard gust of wind were hitting it wildly. We just leaned back with wide eyes and watched it unsure of what page it was stop on. But finally, the book stopped, the pages falling flat now. Ben and I looked at each other with worry and slowly and carefully looked over the book. The pages were a faded brown color as if made from parchment. On the two pages showed a ledger.
"It's the Laveau Bloodline." I said lightly. We read the different last names together wondering how far this list went. The old cursive started to transition into a different form of handwriting as if someone else had written the words. Finally we got to the Belloquet family which was on my mom's side of the family. My eyes suddenly widened as I saw Vivian Belloquet, Faline Belloquet, Jarred Belloquet, Collete Belloquet…
"Avery Belloquet, Ajax Belloquet, Lizzie Belloquet, Tomas Belloquet, Abigale Belloquet, Dante Belloquet, Eloise Belloquet, Abraham Belloquet, Lydia Belloquet, Crow Belloquet, Maja Belloquet, Pierre Belloquet, … Axel Belloquet." I read the fifteen names almost in horror as the names were writing themselves in the book. All were under my name to signify their meanings as my children. Only Lizzie and Ajax's names were crossed out. I shut the book hard and pushed it so hard and it flew off the table. I covered my mouth in absolute horror.
"Oh my god, it's them. It's all them. It's all me." I said almost as if I were hyperventilating. Suddenly my shoulder is touched, and I jumped and yelped loudly as we both looked to see it was the librarian looking at us sternly.
"Young lady, we do not throw books in this library. I hope you plan to buy the book since you have damaged it." she said. I was panting quickly before looking at the book nodding.
"Yeah." I replied just wanting to get out of there. We hurried and paid for it and left to my car, the book tucked under Ben's hand.
"Okay so we head to my place, go through my mom's stuff to see if we can find anything that goes with this book." I said. As we closed in on my car, the blarring of the town's fire truck was sliding into my ears. We looked up to see the truck flying down the street and we both looked to see it turning off the street to the left. Ben and I looked at each other.
"A fire in Derry?" he asked with disbelief. Something was wrong. I could feel it. We got in my car and quickly turned and began to follow after the truck.