AN - I hope you're all having a great summer! And honestly between watching IT and reading all of your reviews, which I am grateful for, thank you sagawinchester! And spending the majority of my summer vacation outside, swimming and enjoying what I can, gives me motivation to keep writing this fic.

Out on the lawn, the remaining members of the club each held their breath as they watched the door close. How could they let their friends go alone? Granted if all of them went inside, there was no telling what would happen or who they would lose track of if things went out of control. God knew what was going to happen next and it might have been safer to leave it in his hands.

"They'll be fine", said Beverly as she tried to sound sure of herself. The look on her face said different. She had a tight hold of the key that was on a chain around her neck, her eyes glued to the door. Ben stood beside her as means of providing as much much comfort as he could give her in that moment.

Behind them, the other three stood. All were silent before the sound of somebody sniffling broke them out of their trances.

Stan had his arms folded in front of him. He shook not taking his eyes off of his shoes, whispering for only those closest to him to hear. "I-I can't go in that house. I can't", he softly said. Few tears filled his eyes.

None of them had ever seen him cry. He never had a reason to. Or he never had a reason to in front of someone. His father's voice rang in his ears, imagining what would be said if he saw his son right now. "Men don't cry. That's a sign of weakness, Stanley."

"Stan-", said Nora. She couldn't say anything else, Hell, she didn't know what to say. Instead, her arms around him in a warm hug was better than words any day. Not wanting to ruin anything, Mike stood next to them, equally unsure of what could be said to bring logic and reason into all of this. "Hey", said Nora, backing away slightly whilst keeping her hands on his forearms. "One of these days we should go birdwatching. You could show me the best places to spot them up close."

Stan stared at her in awe; new realization dawning on his face. He'd never actually talked to her about that. It was true. But that didn't mean she hadn't overheard him in the years when they had simply known each other as those two people who knew Richie and nothing else. His eyes fixated on hers, tearing up for another reason. Yes, he had informed his friends that spending his time outside documenting and keeping track of every species of bird he could find fascinated him. They never took interest in wanting to make an afternoon of doing just that. Yes, he made it clear to his father but it was simply brushed off as a useless hobby. But now here was someone who gave a damn about what he liked and offered a chance to partake in it. Stan absentmindedly smiled. The fact that as of right now there was IT in the midst left his mind completely and went back to what he had used to call normal, just barely.

He took a step closer to her. "I'd like that", he whispered, noticing a few dark wisps of hair that fell from behind her ear. Bringing his hand up to gently push the strands back, he let the tips of his fingers caress her cheek, happy that Nora was allowing him to do so before he returned his hand back into his pocket. Both of them smiled. Under any other circumstances this moment would have been blissful. It still was but not as appropriately timed. Four brown eyes met and locked onto each other as the two of them slowly moved their heads together not caring who was watching. Just as their noses touched...

CRASH!

Inside the house, Bill, Eddie, and Richie had been separated.

With two of them having been locked in a room, Eddie was alone as he tried to run. Before he could take another step, the floor began to decay and fall below until a giant hole had made it impossible for him to jump over. "What the fuck?!"

He suddenly felt a cold and clammy hand on his shoulder, turning him around. As he looked up into the face of the leper, Eddie's vision blurred as the creature opened its mouth to show him a red foaming pill as a river of drool cascaded down the front of him.

Eddie succumbed to fainting, falling backwards through the hole.

Time to float...

In the locked room upstairs, Bill and Richie didn't have much luck as they attempted to choose between three doors. They were marked: not scary at all, scary, very scary.

Choosing the latter, the boys ran to the one leaking the least amount of blood on the left. Swiftly opening it, nothing could be seen due to the darkness. The subtle sound of rusty chains could be heard along with a young girl's desperate plea. "Where's my shoe?"

Bill turned on the lightswitch to reveal the torso of a bleeding Betty Ripsom. Her arms outstretched upwards as she hung in chains that were attached to the ceiling. The entire part of her lower body was missing as though it had been massacred. Her ear piercing scream nearly drowned out Richie's.

Backing away from each other, Stan and Nora joined the others once they realized that loud crash came from inside the house and a few screams were heard.

"What the Hell?", asked Nora.

"Bill! Richie!"

The five of them ran onto the porch. Mike yanked on the knob but it was as though it was bolted shut even though it had been opened not even ten minutes ago.

"Open it!", yelled Beverly. "We never should have let them go in alone! Open it!"

"It's locked!", yelled Mike as he tried to bust it down.

"What do you mean?", asked Ben.

Nora threw her arms up in frustration. "Do you need a Q-tip? He said it's locked!" She looked around the yard for anything useful. There was broken glass, a deflated basketball and a steel spike! She ran as fast as she could to pick up the spike from across the yard. Running back toward her friends, she pointed it towards the sky. "Marsh!", she yelled, getting Bev's attention. Throwing it at the redhead who caught it, Nora reminded herself to admire Beverly later. Her cousin was in trouble.

Sticking the spike in between the doors, Beverly managed to maneuver it perfectly so she could pry it open with one move. She was successful. The door swung open.

Running inside, was a blur as the dust flew everywhere. Screams and that terrifying roar could be heard. The sound of something being driven into caused a shriek.

Once everyone gathered into the room, all anyone could stare at was the familiar demon whose face looked unbelievably distorted considering the spike that was driven under his eye and down its throat. IT still smiled and laughed at the kids, sending shivers down their spines. This thing was no man...

As IT staggered about the room, they all backed away. Its hands transitioning from fingers into claws. Richie, Bill, and Beverly sprinted to Eddie who sat clutching his arm, screaming his head off. He was alive at least...

With another shriek, IT swung its ugly head to look at the ones near the front door, causing the spike to mercilessly slash Ben in the stomach, blood splattering onto the floor in the process. As he fell back, gasping for air, Mike had caught him in the nick of time.

"Ben!"

Nothing else was said, and nobody was sure if just one heard it, but each kid could hear what they suspected was IT talking to them privately. The whisper rang loudly in their ears. "Tasty, tasty, beautiful fear!"

Before anyone could react to what IT was about to do next, they were shocked and relieved to see it slinking out of the room and into the darkness. Was it going to trick them into a false sense of security before killing them?

Nobody moved, out of fear it would pounce on them any moment. That horrible face flooded their minds...

"Don't let it get away!", yelled Bill chasing after it. He ran down the same hall IT had chosen to take refuge.

"BILL!"

"DON'T BILL!"

"ARE YOU CRAZY?! COME BACK!"

"ED? ARE YOU OKAY?!"

"FUCK!"

Richie shook a screaming Eddie to get his attention on him. Eddie's right arm appeared to have snapped. While some were yelling they had to get it and go for help, Bill had returned and knelt next to Eddie as he continued to clutch his arm for dear life.

"Eddie, look at me!", yelled Richie, grabbing his closest friend by the face.

"No! Nooooo, Nooooo!"

"Shut up! I have to snap your arm in place!", explained Richie. "I have to!"

"Do not fucking touch me!", screeched Eddie as he gave his bespectacled friend a look that would kill if only they could.

Richie ignored the pleas of everyone else demanding he wait until they reached a hospital. He grabbed the broken arm. "I'm sorry, Ed. One, two, three!"

There was another loud, disturbing crack.

Eddie went wide eyed with unbearable pain, unable to scream anymore.

"Mike! Pick him up!", ordered Bill.

Mike ran over and leaning over, he did his best to carry the smaller boy in his arms until they ran outside and reached the bikes, placing him in the basket he used to make his deliveries.

"I'll ride his bike!", said Nora. She did her best to steady herself. It was quite small.

They were off.

After they reached the Kaspbrak residence, they kind of expected her reaction to be...unreasonable...

"You! You did this!", exclaimed Mrs. Kaspbrak, her hair in a bun looking as though it hadn't been brushed, as she dragged a wincing Eddie to her car and put him inside. He dared not look at anyone. "You know how delicate he is."

"He's stronger than you think", muttered Nora under her breath.

Bill cautiously approached the agitated mother. "We were attacked, Mrs. K-"

"No, don't, don't try to blame anyone else...", she muttered, trying to collect herself, dropping her keys in the process.

Bev stooped down to assist but was swatted at. "Get back!", said Mrs. Kaspbrak. Once she saw who the girl was, a nasty look in her eyes almost as ugly as her smile, made her relish this opportunity. "Oh, I've heard of you Miss Marsh. And I don't want a dirty girl like you touching my son."

Ben stepped forward, fists clenched. Richie held him back.

"Ms. K, I-"

"No, you are all monsters, all of you! Eddie's done with you. You hear, done!", she huffed as she somehow stuffed her ass into the car. It took a minute for it to start but once the engine roared, she made a U-Turn and quickly floored it down the street and out of sight, leaving the kids to inhale the fumes. Maybe if they all had been high an hour ago they could have convinced themselves what they'd seen wasn't real.

"I saw the well", said Bill. How could he be so positive? "W-w-w-w-we know where it is and next time we'll be better prepared."

"NO!", snapped Stan, his voice shaking. At least one of them had the courage to say something to their leader. "No next time, Bill. You're insane!"

Beverly was disgusted. "Why? We all know nobody else is going to do anything." God, she was as stubborn as Bill.

"Eddie was nearly killed! And look at this motherfucker", yelled Richie as he gestured to an injured Ben Hanscom. "He's leaking hamburger helper!"

"We can't pretend it's going to go away. Ben, you said yourself it comes back every 27 years", Bev reminded them.

Nora finally let that sink in. 27 years. Was it possible? It had to be. It all made sense. The one thing in her life that she was sure of was correct.

"Fine! I'll be 40 and far away from here", said Ben, causing Nora to come out of her heartbreaking mindset. "I thought you said you wanted to get out of this town, too", he said, grasping at straws.

"Because I want to run towards something, not away", said Bev.

"I'm sorry but who invited Molly Ringwald into the group?", said Richie. Bev whipped him her middle finger. "I'm just saying, let's face facts! Real world!", he announced, turning to Bill. "Georgie is dead, stop trying to get us killed too!"

Bill looked outraged. He was never going to let go was he? "Georgie's not dead!", he yelled getting closer to Richie.

"You couldn't save him but you could still save yourself", protested Richie. He was shoved a bit by Bill.

"No! T-t-t-take it back! You're scared and we all are but take it back", he yelled as he shoved Richie again.

"Don't touch him!", scolded Nora, coming to her cousin's defense.

"Shut up!", pleaded Bill, rounding on her.

Stan stepped forward. "Don't talk to her like that."

Richie proceeded to push Bill until the two of them started to go off against each other which ended with one of them getting punched in the face.

As the others did their best to hold back the boys, it was hard to believe that any of them would fight each other.

"You're such a loser! Fuck off! You're a bunch of losers, you're gonna get yourself killed trying to catch a stupid clown!", yelled Richie.

Mike and Stan held him back as Beverly got in between them. "Stop!", she shrieked as everyone tried catch their breath and calm down. "This is what IT wants, IT wants to divide us. We were all together, when we heard it. That's why we're still alive! Why can't you see that?"

"Yeah, well I plan to keep it that way", said Richie as he shoved Bill aside, retreating to his bike.

One by one the friends did the same as they followed the Tozier boy leaving Bill and Bev by themselves. Neither one knew just how long they would need to talk to their friends again. They couldn't stay mad at them forever. But now wasn't the time to try and convince them to follow IT down into the well, either.

All they could do was wait. Attempted murder was enough for one day.

Instead of going back to his house or dropping her off at the Tozier's, Nora suggested they go to the Quarry, where they had recently jumped off of on their last day of school to escape the heat of summer.

The sun was setting and what perfect way to spend the rest of the day than by possibly taking a dip?

Parking his bike, Stan kicked the peg down and they got off. He was still fuming and the expression on his face made it pretty clear. He followed Nora to the peak and sat down next to each her, allowing their legs to hang over the edge.

They sat in silence, listening to the water ripple from below, the trees swaying in the wind, and the birds chirping. As close as they were, it was the uncomfortable silence that made it slightly awkward.

"Are we really not going to talk about what happened?", asked Nora as she looked at him.

His eyes remained focused on the pebbles he was tossing over the edge. "I'd rather not. Right now...I'd rather just have peace and quiet", he said stubbornly.

Nora chuckled. "That's shit. Because you're one of my favorite people to talk to...", she said smiling as she grasped his hand in her own and rested her head on his shoulder.

He felt himself smile.

To Nora, that was the view that was the most priceless.

AN - Don't worry, this last scene will continue into the next chapter!