A/N: "IT" IS OWNED BY NEW LINE CINEMA AND WARNER BROS. STUDIOS! I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING INSTEAD OF MY OC'S!
Well... I'm here, I guess. I kind of lied to you all and never updated my books like I had promised. But I got lazy and school had now gotten in the way. I am so sorry about that, guys. BUT, I have written two chapters of this story and I know where I'm going with it now! And my new plan is to update one book individually until they're all done! So, "A New Family" and "Certain Rules to Survive" will be put on hiatus for now until I'm done with this book!
So, a new chapter! Finally! This will be the first time that Steph sees Pennywise, a scene that is a complete homage to "Scream," then the scene where the Losers clean Beverly's bathroom, then the infamous rock fight scene! I hope you're looking forward to it!
.2021: Yeah, I rewrote it because I hated the original version! But I'm glad you're enjoying it so far!
Special thanks to .2021 for either leaving a review or favoriting/following the last chapter!
Now, without further ado, here is the sixth chapter!
You're a train ride to no importance
You're in love with hell existence
Money is all that you desire
Why don't you pack it in and retire
Chapter Six: The Apocalyptic Rock Fight
The damp dresses, jeans, and shirts billowed in the slightly increasing wind on the laundry cords as Steph sat on the back porch steps, staring into the darkness of the night while her hair was being blown every which way. She couldn't see anything in her line of vision for what seemed to be miles, but she felt as though she needed to step outside for a moment to keep a look out… just in case someone were out there….
Watching her from a distance….
Normally, Jamie wouldn't let her daughter take so much as a tip-toe outside after the curfew took full effect in the evening but, since she was working the night shift at the restaurant, Steph decided to break the rules for once. Even though it would be storming pretty soon, she decided to get some fresh air after all of the thinking she had been doing in her mind. But, after she had sat down on the steps after hanging up the laundry, she couldn't stop the conception of ideas from swarming into her subconscious, even if she so desperately wanted to.
As her hand was combing through the golden fur of Cherokee while he sat beside her, she just kept thinking about what had happened earlier that day, and she was actually interested in all of the possible outcomes that appeared before her as if she were reading a book. Curiosity was poking at her, even though she knew that it always killed the cat to be snooping around when it came to situations like these.
After Ben had told them about the whole 'missing children' fiasco, the seven of them decided to go to the Barrens and hang out, and the boy in question ended up helping them construct a dam in the middle of the small river. When Steph had taken a peek at the layout he had drawn himself, she couldn't help but be amazed at his talent, secretly wishing she had the creativity he had. But she chose not to say that, instead complimenting his work before all of the kids played in the river. It took a lot of convincing for Eddie to join in on the fun because he was scared that he would get pneumonia, but he eventually splashed around with them nonetheless.
That's when the negative thoughts began to overtake her entire experience of what was supposed to be a peaceful night filled with relaxation and bliss. Instead it was filled with concern and immense dread for the future….
Steph had a bad feeling that the events following today would only get worse with time, that the bad occurrences would start off mild and then become severe as the days passed onward. And that made her wish that she could rewind time to the year before, when things were a whole lot better than they were now, but she knew that she couldn't do that. She just had to accept the fact that she was never going to have a normal life.
And, to be honest, that was okay… except for the 'murders and missing kids' part.
Her mind drifted to the disappearances of Betty Ripsom, Veronica Grogan, Velma Daniels, and so on. Although the positive side of her mind prayed that the poor girls would be found sooner than later instead of the police doing whatever and not even bothering to look for them, the negative side was screaming about the fact that she was wishing that she wouldn't end up like one of those younger kids.
All of them lost out there…. thought Steph as she shuddered a little. All alone… probably thirsty and starving… not in the comfort of their own home… probably already dead.
Steph shook her head and let out a heavy sigh at the thought, muttering to herself over and over again. "Nope, stop thinking about this bullcrap," she murmured. "Maybe they're not dead. They're most likely just lost and wandering around the Barrens alone…."
Lost?! entered her voice in her mind once more. Yeah, right, you idiot!
That was when the young girl stood up and decided to go right back inside the house, thinking that it wasn't safe to be on the back porch anymore. She was afraid that any wrong move would result in her untimely demise, so she wasn't taking any chances. After softly calling Cherokee inside and watching the dog trot into the house, panting just a little bit, Steph shut the back door and locked it, hearing it click into place.
She checked the clock that was resting on the kitchen wall, and she sighed just a little bit.
9:30 P.M.
She had yet another half hour before Jamie would arrive home to greet her little girl.
Just thirty more minutes alone in this house, and everything would be fine…
Or so Steph had thought.
She walked into the living room and plopped down onto the cream-colored couch, grabbing the remote to switch on the television. She scanned through the channels, only seeing random comedy shows that really didn't interest her worth a crap, and she was about to turn it off entirely when she saw To Kill A Mockingbird, her favorite movie of all time, appear on one of the channels. And a big grin formed on her face as she set the remote down beside her, her crystal clear eyes set on the electronic set.
As the next fifteen minutes dragged on and Steph kept her eyes on the television, her imagination seemed to wander elsewhere as she thought of something. About the disappearances of the local children of Derry…
Six kids were missing now.
Normally, if one child were gone in the world, there wouldn't be as much chaos as there was at the moment. Steph was surprised that there weren't news reporters and tabloid journalists invading the boundaries of Derry to plaster the information all over the planet but she was slightly comforted by that fact. At least this was pretty much a secret from the rest of society, which was something that she kind of wanted. She didn't need anybody else to know about all of this chaos, because that would only put more stress on her shoulders.
And that was when Steph's jaw tightened at what she was suddenly thinking… she remembered what happened vividly in her mind… almost as it had happened the day before.
It was December. Six months ago.
The sun was setting behind the horizon that expanded over the snowy streets of the small community in Maine. Footsteps were trailed in the white powder all throughout the town and Steph was trying to get home as fast as she could before the 7:00 P.M. curfew. And, although she couldn't bring her bike because the roads were rather icy, she could still speed walk pretty quickly for her liking. And she was practically jogging down Witcham Street after leaving the Denbrough residence, even though she was trying not to slip on the icy roads with her boots against the pavement.
It had all started with Bill asking the girl to come over to his house to hang out.
Steph had agreed and stopped by his house while his parents were away. They didn't do anything besides make some snacks and watch a few Christmas flicks on the television, and the girl couldn't remember what they were for the life of her. But the only thing she could remember was that she had a feeling in her gut that something was going to happen. She didn't know what it would be, but she knew it was something.
She was speed walking down the street and her pacing started to slow when she saw it.
There was something right at the end of the street… right where the storm drain was.
Right at the place where Georgie had gone missing just under two months before.
A pang of dread hit her in the chest as she began to step closer to what it was, seeing that it was what seemed to be a heavy, yellow object just strewn in the middle of the road.
She had the feeling that something was wrong… she knew it.
Her feet slipped on a patch of ice attached to the black pavement and she was nearly sent toppling to the rough ground, but she regained her balance just in time before that could happen. She let out a shaky sigh of relaxation over the fact that she wasn't hurt, just a little startled at the fact that she could've just had a concussion right at that moment. But that wasn't her biggest concern as her eyes widened, coming to a complete halt.
She had finally realized that the massive object on the road was a person. And that was when she saw the large stains of red splattered onto the snow.
"Oh no," Steph whispered under her breath, now sprinting to whoever was lying on the ground with blood surrounding them from all directions. "Hey!" she added in more of a shout. "Hey, are you okay?!"
Then she flipped over the person, and her heart plummeted. Her blood went cold.
"N-No…" she whimpered. "No…" She couldn't believe what she saw before her eyes, brushing back the hair out of the person's open and dead eyes.
What she had seen was a corpse on the ground, long deceased and already rotting, his skin greying as his blue eyes had already dried up from being open for far, far too long. The yellow raincoat had been torn to shreds on the right side, the plastic stained a bright crimson color and a knob of bone where the boy's arm had been was sticking out, which made a wave of nausea overcome poor Steph.
It was Georgie.
The pre-teen girl couldn't scream for help or cry, she simply couldn't. All she could do was stare down at the dead seven-year-old as tears began to pour from her naturally uplifted eyes, and she felt as if her stomach were beginning to form a large hole in her intestines and she felt the urge to vomit. But she wasn't able to even do that, even though she gagged at the metallic, coppery smell of the blood surrounding the young boy's body.
Steph then heard the faintest of whispers coming from just a few feet to her right, and she froze in place. No, it couldn't be. Could it?
"Stephaniiiiieeeeeeee!" the voice mumbled in the softest murmur towards her.
A rush of terror filled her soul as she slowly turned her head in the direction of where the voice was coming from, and her eyes widened when she noticed that it was emanating from the storm drain.
That person that was speaking to her… that thing…. It could possibly be in the sewers, right?
"They float," the thing in the drain crooned in the softest, but most raspy voice any human could ever imagine hearing. Steph began to crawl just a tiny bit closer to the source of the sound, even though she was screaming to herself in her mind to absolutely not do this. Her lips were parted just a little bit out of curiosity as to who could possibly be down in the Derry sewers of all places.
"Hello?" she called out in a quiet and trembling voice, her hands quivering in her violet gloves as she dared place them on the blood-soaked snow below her. She turned her head to where her ear was pointing in the direction of where the words were being spoken from. "Who-Who's down there?"
And that was when she saw the eyes. The golden, evil eyes filled with pure hatred.
Steph lurched back immediately, landing on her back as she gasped. "What the heck?!" she cried out in shock and moderate terror, her eyes the size of saucers at this point as she struggled to get up.
"They float," it snarled in the girl's direction. "They float, Stephanie, and when you're down here with me, you'll float too -"
The young girl glanced down and saw that Georgie's body was gone, and she let out a breath of surprise. But she dared to take one last glance at the storm drain, preparing to see those hateful eyes glaring back at her again.
But they had vanished now.
"Everything down here floats," the voice muttered again, the most bone-chilling chuckle escaping that thing's lips. And that was when Steph sprinted all the way back home, not even caring how many times she slipped on ice after that.
She only noticed that there was still blood on her gloves after she had gotten home.
Steph then snapped out of her thoughts and switched off the television, making the courtroom scene from the movie she was watching disappear entirely. She then wiped the sudden tears from the sensitive skin of her face, sighing as she watched her hands shake worse than they ever had in the almost thirteen years that she had lived in this world.
She pulled her knees up to her chest as a sob threatened to escape from her throat again, but she fought it back this time, refusing to cry. She combed her fingers through her messy blonde hair as she bit her tongue to battle the surge of tears, exhaling as slowly as she could after taking a deep breath. Steph then glanced at the clock: 9:49 P.M. it read now. The smallest smile graced her face at what she saw.
Just eleven more minutes, she thought. Eleven more minutes before Mom gets home. Then you'll be safe.
Steph then saw Cherokee's ears perk up when a knock came at the front door, and she turned her head towards the source out of confusion. She had no idea who could be knocking on her door at this time of night, especially considering the fact that there was a curfew in effect! But, nevertheless, she stood up anyway, beginning to walk towards the front door that was to the right of the large kitchen set up in the house. Maybe it was just a neighbor who needed to see her mother, but she would have to tell them that Jamie was still gone.
But wait. They would already know that, right? Steph thought as she grew puzzled, her eyes narrowing a little bit as she stopped in her tracks.
She thought to herself about what she should do in this scenario: just leave the person on the porch and just go to bed, or actually answer the door like a good samaritan.
Those were the only two options she had….
She decided on a choice that wasn't even one she had thought of, and it made her smile just a bit. She would just look through the peephole and see if it was actually someone she trusted to let inside of her home. Heck, she didn't want anyone to break in and rob her and her mother, or possibly do something worse. A shaky breath exited her lips, just praying that it was her mother and that she would have to unlock the door to let her into their home. But when she realized that there wasn't a voice calling out to her, wanting to be let in, she hesitated for a moment.
Then Steph rolled her eyes in irritation towards herself. If she was going to be a wimp when it came to opening one door, then she didn't believe that would get anywhere in life with that fear.
So, with that, she stepped closer to the white door and peered through the tiny peephole, placing her hands on the wood to better stable herself in the process. If she saw a familiar face with black hair draping past her shoulders, the girl would immediately let that woman into her house; but she didn't know what she would do if it was a complete stranger standing on her front porch. She would probably just leave them out there and go upstairs after turning all of the lights off. She didn't know why she would do the complete opposite of what her normal, kind self would ever do…
Maybe it had something to do with the fact that there was possibly a freaking serial killer out there, mutilating and kidnapping children for their own sick pleasure!
Yes, that's right, the blonde girl thought to herself.
But her face morphed into an expression of disorientation when she saw that there was absolutely nobody outside from what she could see. Steph sighed out of annoyance as she stepped away from the door and walked back into the kitchen to get a glass of Coca Cola. It was probably some stupid teenagers out after curfew playing a prank on her; they were most likely kids playing Ding Dong Ditch to frighten her. And that actually relieved her to know that it wasn't some sick psycho out there waiting to enter the house and brutally murder her.
It made Steph let out a giggle of relaxation because maybe tonight would be a relaxing one after all. There was absolutely nothing to worry about as she took a sip of her soda.
Another knock came from the door that was more of a banging sound, cutting off all sense of safety now.
Steph froze, taken aback by the sudden aggressiveness of this knocking.
She knew it had to be some stupid kids messing with her now. They wouldn't have been able to give up after she didn't bother answering the door.
And that was when the girl should've sprinted upstairs and hid under the covers of her bed, but her fighter mode kicked in. And, plus, she was curious to see who was actually outside at a time like this. That way, if it was some stupid kid, she could get him or her or them off of her property because she had a weapon to defend herself just in case. So, placing her glass of soda on the marble counter, she stepped towards the entry hall separating the kitchen from the staircase by the living room.
She felt her stomach beginning to twist into a knot full of fear as her jaw locked itself into place, and she opened the small closet under the staircase, her hands frantically searching in the dark before she found it. Steph pulled out a wooden baseball bat and held it with both of her slender hands, despite how badly they were shaking. She then stepped closer to the front door, staring daggers out the two side windows connected to it, her eyes filled with only one appearance of emotion: nervousness. She grasped the baseball bat tightly as she moved her left hand to unlatch the chain holding the door back from being opened completely.
If it turned out to be Richie just playing a sick joke on her, she would be completely done with him for a while.
But what if it were someone else?
What if it was actually someone needing something to borrow or to talk to her mother?
What if it was just a neighbor?
Steph ignored all of those possibilities as she unlocked the front door, brushing aside the fact that it could either be somebody she knew outside or someone waiting to snatch her up like the other children. She stabled her quivering hands as she took a deep breath, knowing that she would be making a leap of faith in doing this. The girl knew that she was supposed to keep that door locked to prevent someone from intruding inside, but she didn't care about that right at that moment.
Screw this! she shouted in her head. She grabbed the golden, metal doorknob and twisted it as quickly as she could.
"Gotcha!" she shouted at the top of her lungs as she flung open the door, her baseball bat gripped in her hands as she constructed to swing at whatever stupid person was outside joking around with her. But she slowly lowered the wooden object as she scanned the entirety of her front yard.
Yet again, there was nobody outside….
Steph listened for the sound of movement, her eyes squinting to also see if there was anybody outside, hiding behind one of the bushes next to her mailbox. But all she could hear was her own breathing as well as the sound of raindrops beginning to patter down on the roof of her house. But, just to make sure she was safe, she walked over to each side of the porch to see if there was anybody there as well. She didn't find anybody in those two spots either and she felt a wave of reassurance wash over her as she rubbed her forehead.
It's all in your stupid head, Steph, she said in her mind. It was just her imagination playing tricks
(sick jokes)
on her. She was absolutely fine, which caused her to sigh in relief.
(or are you, stephanie?)
Steph's head perked up a little at the sudden words she just heard in her brain, and she could ever so slightly detect the echo in the question so she knew it was one that wasn't real. But why didn't it sound like her own voice? Why did it sound so distinctly different than ever before? It was a voice she actually recognized, but she couldn't put it to a face she knew or she would've known for sure whose voice it did sound like. She decided that now would be a great time to head back inside; her mother would be home within minutes and she didn't want to be scolded for being outside when she wasn't supposed to be.
She walked towards the front door, which had been left wide open when she had taken a step outside just a minute ago. And, the moment her hand touched the knob, she heard something.
"STEPHANIIIIIEEEEEEEE…."
Steph stopped moving and her entire body became stiff with fear, her breath catching in her esophagus. She felt as though her heart had been torn out of her chest while being strangled with barbed wire… almost like she was actually dying. God, she hoped that she was dead. She pinched her cheek for a moment and felt a stinging pain there.
This was real.
She was hearing the same voice that had been calling out to her from the storm drain half a year ago… only now, it wasn't a whisper. It was an ear splitting scream that nearly made her go deaf, the voice making her eardrums ache with absolute, excruciating pain for only a few seconds before going away. She was wincing with how much it hurt and she sighed with consolation, but what was happening right now wasn't okay.
"Come float with us, Stephanie…" the same voice rasped evilly, followed by a terrifying giggle. "We float down here…. We all float down here, yes, we do!"
The voice was now a low and soft growl instead of a bellowing screech, and it made Steph feel shivers race down her spine over and over again. There's no freaking way, she thought to herself frantically. No FREAKING way!
She didn't move or even give a sign of indication that she was scared, but only because she couldn't find the will to do that. All she was able to do was stand there as the baseball bat she was holding slipped out of her now sweating palms and clattered on the ground with what sounded like several loud, metallic thuds. She felt a lump forming in her throat as she came to the realization that she should have concluded many, many months ago… something she should have most definitely mentioned to Bill and the others.
Whatever was kidnapping the children of Derry and possibly killing them wasn't human at all…
It was something she couldn't even begin to comprehend….
And it was now here… to kill her!
"Screw this," she mumbled to herself, and she dashed back into the house, slamming the door shut. She then bolted it and slid the chain lock back into place, resting her forehead against the white wood as she tried her best to catch her breath. She had completely forgotten about the baseball bat laying abandoned on the porch….
All of a sudden, a loud sound came from behind the girl. She turned around just in time to see the hall closet door flying open and a figure running out at her. She let out a shriek as she ducked her head to avoid the object that the 'person' seemingly had in 'his' hands, and it narrowly missed her by just a few inches. Just as she tried to run, her attacker rammed its shoulder into her, knocking her to the hardwood floor, which made her grunt in slight pain. The girl then looked up and saw that the figure's arm was actually a gigantic claw and that it was plummeting towards her chest, so she grabbed it and held it back from either stabbing or impaling her.
During these few seconds, she had the time to actually make out the figure's facial features. It was a clown, the same clown she had been seeing glimpses of during the past few days and, as she realized while it pinned her to the ground so she wouldn't move, she saw the blood red streaks of what seemed to be makeup curving upwards from its lips to its yellow eyes. Those same eyes she had seen in the storm drain and behind the bush while heading to the quarry earlier that day. And she noticed that its lips were curled into a maniacal smile as it struggled to stab her with its claw, a smile filled with pure insanity and loathing towards her.
Steph's fight-or-flight mode kicked in at once as her heart thumped against her ribcage and she began to thrash violently from under the clown, scratching at it and punching at it, trying to get it to let her go. She shouted in horror for it to free her from its grasp and to leave her alone, her hands flapping all over the place at this point.
She used her knees to try to buck the attacker off of her small body but the clown grabbed her by her short hair and rammed her head onto the floor, making her temples throb with agony, and a pained yelp left her lips as she stared up at the figure that was soon to be her killer. She whimpered a little bit, trying to form the closest thing to a coherent word but her fear held her back from doing that as if she were being held by a leash.
"Wuh… What… Huh-Who are you?!" she let out in a weak gasp, her eyes wide in dread, not able to move anymore.
The clown didn't reply for a moment, instead staring down at her, studying her… observing her before it would inevitably finish her off….
This was it, and Steph felt a few tears fall down her face as she closed her eyes. She was going to die… she was going to end up just another face on a 'missing person' poster. Just another lost child left to be forgotten by the rest of society….
"Glad you could ask, Stephanie!" the clown said, smiling insanely. "Very glad, indeed! Allow me to introduce myself. I am Mr. Bob Gray, otherwise known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown! Pennywise, meet Stephanie Palmer. Stephanie, meet Pennywise. Now that we've got that out of the way, prepare to never be seen again!"
It happened so fast, the action of the clown raising its claw-like arm high into the air. Steph's watery eyes widened as shock crossed her face, and then she shifted back into defensive mode as she saw the razor sharp but jagged object heading straight for her heart. She thought about what to do in the half-second that passed, knowing that if she didn't act right now, she would end up just another corpse covered in crimson red blood.
This time, she used the heel of her right foot and plowed it into the foot of the figure above her; hearing it howl in pain, she then slammed her knee into its stomach, knocking it backwards and it crashed onto the floor. Steph took that opportunity to sprint for the front door, undoing the bolt and opening it… that's when she remembered that she slid the chain into the latch moments ago and the door caught on it. "NO!" she cried out, glancing behind her.
The clown had already gotten back up, and was running towards her with the claw for an arm. She would have no time to unlock the door now, so she settled on her only escape plan out of panic: the staircase.
She dove to the side, causing the clown's talon to strike the frame of the front door, missing her by centimeters. She then dove for the staircase after running to the living room, rushing up the stairs as fast as her legs would let her, and she could hear the stomping footsteps of the assailant behind her and her adrenaline made her go to her bedroom and quickly shut the door. She then locked the door, suddenly thinking to move her dresser in front of it to block out whatever that thing was; she then covered her mouth to muffle any scream that was to come out.
There was a short few seconds of silence… horrific silence. And it didn't last long.
The door was burst open by the clown, but it was stopped by the brown dresser Steph had put there as her barricade, and she sighed with just a little bit of relief. She saw the attacker's claw slip through the crack in the door, slashing through the air as it roared with frustration directed towards her. Steph backed away as the salty tears streamed down her cheeks, knowing that the dresser wouldn't hold it off for very long, so she had to come up with a plan.
She dashed to her landline and picked it up, preparing to call the police. That was when she recalled the realization that police officers wouldn't be able to stop anything supernatural. So that was a no-go. She threw the telephone back onto the receiver, growling with mad anger as her eyes darted around the room while hearing the continuous thudding of the clown hurling itself against the dresser.
The window! Steph thought, which made her giggle out of nowhere. But now was no time to laugh, considering that she could die in the next thirty seconds, so she went to the window and unlocked it. She then heaved it open, hearing the wood scrape against the drywood wall as she put one of her legs through the opening. Her heart began to race faster, considering that she was terrified of heights to the maximum, and her hands held onto the window framing as tightly as they could for support.
She lifted her head to face the bedroom door, hoping the dresser had held her aggressor back for long enough, but she stopped short when she saw that it was gone.
The only sound she could hear was her heavy breathing and her heartbeat thrumming in her ears. She slowly eased herself back into the bedroom and inched closer to the door, looking to see if the monster that attacked her was really gone, and she saw that the hallway was empty. Her heart then uplifted when she heard the front door being opened, only for it to catch on the chain latch again. She heard Jamie's voice calling for her to unlock the door for her and she began to move the dresser out of her way.
A hand clamped down onto the girl's wrist as if it were an iron chain digging into her skin, and she let out a heartbreaking scream of terror, spinning around like lightning.
The clown had, somehow, gotten into her bedroom, and it was giggling as it held Steph in its grasp.
"EVERYTHING DOWN HERE FLOATS!" that rotten, horrible voice yelled in her face as it jerked her down onto the floor, beginning to pull her to the closet at the other end of the room.
"MOM!" Steph screeched as loudly as she could, the fingernails of her free, left hand clawing at the wooden panels of the floor as she felt herself being tugged towards the closet, where she would most likely meet her end. "HELP ME, PLEASE!" she added in a scream as her legs flailed around, and she tried to break free from the clown's white glove that had a hold of her wrist in a painful way, but it wasn't going to be letting go anytime soon. She could just barely hear the sound of her mother's panicked cries right as she turned and bit down on the hand keeping a hold of her; she could hear the monster shouting in agony as she stood up, finally free from it.
She then moved to the bedroom door and moved her dresser out of the way just in time for her mother to barge into the room with wide eyes, her sea green ones meeting her daughters midnight blue ones.
"Oh, my God, honey!" Jamie mumbled with worry but also relief that her little girl was safe and in her arms as she pulled her into a hug. "Are you okay?! You were screaming for me! A-Are you hurt?! What happened to you?!"
Steph put her hands on Jamie's shoulders to calm her down, her eyes calmer than they would have normally been in this situation. "Mom! Mom, calm down!" she exclaimed. "I'm okay… I was just…" She then turned her head around, only to see that the clown was no longer in her room; it had completely vanished. Her eyes narrowed with a bit of confusion, but she knew that it was supernormal, so she knew that she shouldn't tell her mother what had happened. She, unfortunately, had to lie.
"You were just what?" her mother asked with a trembling voice. "Stephie…?"
Steph turned her head back to her mother to stare into her eyes for a moment. "I just had a nightmare," she breathed out in a quiet tone. "That's all." She hated that she was lying to her own mother, something that she would never do. "I had a nightmare that I was being taken from you… that's why I screamed for you…. Everything's okay now."
No, it freaking isn't, Steph mumbled to herself in her head. I was attacked and nearly shredded to bloody bits by a clown.
Jamie slowly nodded, although she had that look in her eyes that told Steph that she didn't entirely believe her. But the woman didn't want to pressure her daughter into telling her the truth, so she chose to believe her story for the time being… at least, until the girl was ready to admit what actually happened. "Okay…" she replied. "Well, I was going to tell you that I had gotten home from work. Then I heard you screaming for me so I had to burst through the front door to get to you. Are you sure that you're -"
The telephone then began to ring shrilly all throughout the house, the sound only coming from the nightstand in Steph's bedroom. The blonde girl jumped and spun around to face it, suddenly afraid to answer whoever was calling her house at past ten o'clock at night. But, mustering up the only bit of bravery she had left, she stepped over to the device and picked it up gingerly, silencing the ringing and putting it up to her ear.
"Hello?" she mumbled in a meek and scared voice, skipping the politeness she always had when it came to answering the phone.
Once she began to listen to the hysterical sobbing of the person on the other end of the line, she felt her stomach sink as she gasped. She put a hand over her mouth in shock after she heard what the person said, and she nearly hung up the telephone right there. But she listened to the woman on the other end, nodding to everything she was saying as Jamie watched the whole time. "Okay, Rachel," she said in a collected voice, although she tried to prevent a sob from bubbling up in her throat. "Yes… Mom and I will be right over, okay? Just hold on and focus on the kids. Mom and I will be there in just a second. Bye…"
She then hung up the phone, a shaky sigh leaving her thin lips.
"What is it, what's wrong?" Jamie's voice came from just mere feet away.
Steph looked over at her mother, her lips quivering as she began to cry again, these tears from grief this time.
"Rachel just called…" she whispered weakly. "Daniel's dead."
The following afternoon consisted of Steph pedaling over to Beverly's apartment as quickly as she could, her curiosity poking at her while her friends shouted from behind her to let them catch up. She ignored the exclaims and, much to her surprise, went even faster just to spite them. Her hair, that was tied up into a ponytail today, was still being gusted behind her as the wind combed through it and made it even more tangled than it already was normally. The girl could point out the soaked streets of Derry due to the huge storm that had happened the night before.
Right after Steph had been attacked by whoever had decided to break into her house the previous evening, she and Jamie had rushed over to the O'Connor residence, not even caring about the rain that was pouring down onto them as they visited the family. Rachel was in hysterics and she couldn't remove the expression of sorrow from her eyes as she sobbed uncontrollably, all while her two children were rather silent, too stunned over the news that the police had given them. And, Steph and her mother were also in utter shock that whatever happened to the father of the four had happened.
Daniel O'Connor had died in a brutal car accident just mere minutes before Steph was attacked in her own home. According to Rachel, he had called her moments before it happened and said that he would be home as soon as he could because he had worked a later shift than usual at the police station. He had been turning the car into the neighborhood that Steph lived in, only for him to suddenly hit a large tree in the middle of one of the sidewalks, and he was killed instantly. "At least he didn't suffer," Rachel had mumbled to the young girl and her two kids.
Steph cried for a long time as she consoled the older woman and hugged her, allowing her to let everything out as she held her. She couldn't believe it…. Daniel dead? The idea sounded almost absurd, but it was true. He had been killed five minutes before Steph had been attacked by that… that thing that had entered her house. She did, indeed, find that just a tiny bit suspicious, but she knew that now was not the time to mention that out of fear of the adults in the room finding her to be crazy. She didn't want to be sent to an asylum for the rest of her life, now did she? She certainly couldn't imagine that….
About an hour after Steph and Jamie had shown up to the house, the O'Connor's telephone rang in the living room. Rachel had hesitantly gotten up to go answer the phone, putting it to her ear; moments later, she had turned to the pre-teen girl in front of her and handed the receiver to her. It had been Beverly on the other end of the phone, mumbling to the blonde that she needed to come to her apartment tomorrow afternoon while her father was at work, and that she had already contacted the boys and asked them the same thing.
Steph could detect the shakiness in the redhead's tone, and had asked her if she was okay. Beverly had said yes before bidding her farewell and hanging up the phone before she even had the chance to reply.
And that was what led her to where she was now, flying on her bicycle down Orange Grove Avenue, Cherokee sprinting by her side like he sometimes did when she would take her bike for a ride through the streets of the small town. She smiled down at him for just a moment before looking back at the road, and she crossed an intersection as she finally saw Beverly's apartment complex come into view. She had obviously been here before, since the redhead was her very first friend before all of the other Losers about four years ago.
She examined the aging brick walls and the overgrown weeds that surrounded the structure, and it made her grimace just a little bit at the fact that Beverly had to live in such a place like this. But that was really due to the fact that her best friend had to have such a creepy prick for a father, and she wished that Jamie would take her in as her own, but she was too scared to ask the woman. Steph personally believed that it was alright if you were poor, as long as you had great parents and love surrounding you in the process; she thought that it was okay to live in a neighborhood like this if your family wasn't terrible.
And, although Steph did find the middle-to-upper class life to be slightly overwhelming at times, she at least had her mother by her side to bring her back down to reality. She knew that her mother didn't really want to live in a luxury like they had, but she wanted the best childhood for her daughter, so Jamie was going to give that to her. And the young girl really respected that and loved her for it. But she couldn't help but feel sympathy towards Beverly for what she had to go through, even though the redhead very rarely brought up her home life to the girl.
Steph pulled up to the back of the apartment (something that Beverly had instructed all of them to do) and waited for the boys to catch up to her. She began to hear bickering coming from behind her just as she saw her closest friend beginning to run down the stairs of the building and, despite the fact that she was smiling at the girl, she had to resist the urge to shout at the others closing in from behind her.
"We should've gone the other way," Eddie had decided to say out of nowhere.
"No," replied Stan, "we gotta go through the alleyway!"
"The alley takes way too long!"
"No, the alley is so much faster!"
"The alley is more dangerous and it's disgusting!" protested Eddie with a bitter tone to his voice.
Steph turned her head in the direction of the arguing boys, her eyes filled with utter exasperation as she shook her head at them. She mouthed to Stan to quit quarreling with Eddie, since he would never win, and he tried to listen but the shorter boy kept on going and rambling nonetheless so the Jewish kid had to continue.
"How is it more dangerous?" Stan asked the boy, extremely confused now.
"It smells like crap and it's gross," Eddie answered with a sigh as he kept on pedaling his bicycle forward.
At this point, Beverly had already greeted Steph with a hug and a smile, and the blonde had gotten off of her bike and let it fall to the ground this time as they talked.
"Oh, my God!" exclaimed the slightly taller boy. "The side streets are the same! They all smell like crap!"
"Okay, okay," Eddie grumbled under his breath as he began to slow down. "Can you just tell me what she said exactly?"
"She didn't say anything," Stan responded with a roll of his brown eyes. "She just said that you guys need to hurry over."
"She didn't say anything," Eddie repeated with a faint scoff. "Okay. Okay."
"Guys, I would really like it if y'all stopped arguing for once," Steph spoke up, glaring at them as she did so. She then turned back to Beverly with a kind smile as she put a hand on the redhead's shoulder to provide her comfort. She could sense the other girl's hesitation, but she finally said something after a moment.
"You made it. I…" she stopped for just a moment to catch her breath after sprinting down those stairs for a full thirty seconds. "I need to show you something," she added promptly.
"What is it?" Ben asked in a careful voice.
"More than what we saw at the quarry?" Richie continued for the boy in question with a playful smirk on his face.
Despite the fact that she wanted more than nothing to tear Richie's head off for saying that to her best friend, Steph remained calm and just turned to face the boy with the coke-bottle glasses framing his young face. She let out a sigh as she looked directly into his dark green eyes, letting him know that she was about to say something; she could notice the look of slight alarm in those eyes, but she knew that she wouldn't be screaming at him, no matter how much she desired to.
"Okay…. Listen to me, Richie," she said in a quiet voice. "I know that you like to joke around in order to lighten things up in the group and, sometimes, I don't mind doing the same thing with you. I like to make jokes as well, you understand? But give it a freaking rest! Now is not the time to be messing around, because something serious could be happening and you probably don't give a crap! Just shut the heck up and let the lady speak!" Steph then rounded her body to face Beverly again with a big smile. "You may continue," she added. "You were saying?"
Beverly nodded slightly as an anxious look formed in her spring clover eyes, and she drew in a sharp inhale. "My dad will kill me if he finds out I had boys in the apartment," she stated rather nervously, her hands slightly shaking as she locked eyes with the smaller, blonde girl. Steph felt sympathy towards her best friend right away as she reached out to take her hand into hers to provide solace, which she appreciated.
"Wuh-Wuh-We'll leave a lookout," Bill assured the redhead with a kind smile. "Richie, st-stuh-stay here." The rest of the ground dropped their bicycles, except for Stan (who put his kickstand down like he always did), and followed Beverly and Steph towards the apartment stairway. The latter girl froze halfway up the first flight once she heard Richie speaking to the group.
"Woah, woah, woah!" Richie shouted over to them. "What if her dad comes back?!"
"Do what you always do: start talking!" Stan retaliated in response, rolling his eyes as he turned away and followed the others up the stairs.
"It is a gift!" Richie shouted at them, and Steph couldn't deny the fact that the statement made her giggle just a little bit.
"Hey, at least you have Cherokee can keep you company!" Steph shouted down to him and he nodded in reply as she heard her dog bark a little bit.
After the group of six traveled up the many, many stairs and after Beverly had opened the back door to her apartment, they cut through the living room and then ended up in the hallway. Steph didn't really have to examine the place, since she had (unfortunately) been here before when she had sleepovers with Bev; let's just say that the place creeped her out to no end and that it always had. The peeling and browning wallpaper disgusted her and she had to look away so she wouldn't be too grossed out at how filthy the place looked. Looked like a certain parent didn't bother with keeping up with his own home… and being a janitor was really freaking pointless in that case.
The girl turned the corner and stood beside Beverly, her eyes taking a glimpse at the bathroom door that stood right at the end of the hall. She noticed the other girl tensing up beside her, which made her give her a look of concern. "What's wrong?" she asked her in a faint whisper.
"In there…" Beverly replied rather quietly, the words directed towards all of them.
"What is it?" Stan pondered.
"You'll see," Beverly said in a fearful tone.
Steph's breathing began to tremble as she took a hesitant step forward, her left hand tightening around the strap of her purse that hung from her shoulder. The girl could see the red tint around the door very clearly and it made her dread what she was about to see behind it as she followed Bill, grabbing his hand out of instinct. He squeezed her hand in return as he gave her a look that told her, "It's alright, you're safe." And it made her nod in response.
"Are you bringing us to your bathroom?" Eddie asked in a shaking voice as he began to overreact to the entire situation. "I just want you to know that eighty-nine percent of the worst accidents at home are caused in bathrooms. And… I mean… that's where all the bacteria and fungi are and i-it's not a really sanitary place…."
The blonde girl slowly reached behind herself with her free hand and placed it on Eddie's shoulder, whispering to him that it was okay. At least, she thought everything was okay…
She was dead wrong.
The moment Bill opened the bathroom door and Steph saw what was inside, she had to fight the wish to puke all over the place.
All she could see, from the top of the bathroom to the bottom, was blood. A horrid, maroon shade of blood that covered the mirror and wallpaper and literally every. single. inch. It still looked and smelled fresh, which made nausea crawl up the poor girl's ribs as she grabbed the collar of her t-shirt and covered her mouth with it to cover any gagging sounds. "Oh, my God, that's freaking disgusting…" she murmured under her breath as she looked away for a moment, the stench of metallic copper stinging her nostrils.
"I knew it!" Eddie whimpered, taking a step back as he audibly gagged.
"Do you see it?" Beverly inquired in the most hopeful voice she could muster, and Steph hummed in response while nodding.
"Yes," came Eddie's whispered reply from right behind Steph.
"What happened in here?" Stan mumbled in a quivering tone, which made Steph glance at him with concern laced in her eyes, sighing a little bit.
"My dad couldn't see it, I thought I might be crazy," Beverly answered vaguely, hugging her arms to her chest.
Ben let out a light chuckle as he shrugged his shoulders a little. "Well, if you're crazy, then we're all crazy," he mumbled softly just as Steph bravely took a glance back into the bloody bathroom, ignoring how disgusting it looked to her. A trembling breath left her lungs as she stared down at her feet, lucky that she wore older shoes today.
"We c-c-can't leave it like this," Bill whispered as he took a courageous step into the room with a curious look in his blue-green eyes. Steph looked at him as though he were crazy for a moment, but she soon entered the bathroom after him, not letting him be alone in this.
After Steph had left her purse hanging from one of the chairs in the kitchen, she had grabbed every last cleaning supply that she could find below the sink before going back to the inevitable room. She put on the yellow gloves that would protect her hands from the filth before beginning to scrub at the walls, her eyes scrunched with revulsion, but at least Beverly's stereo that she was playing throughout the house kept her at comfort. Many songs by different bands began playing, such as Into the Fire by Dokken and Dear Mr. Fantasy by Traffic, which were among her absolute favorites.
She looked around the room to see Beverly wiping the mirror, Stan cleaning the window above the bathtub, Ben and Bill washing down the other wall in the room, and Eddie mopping the wall while wincing every time blood got anywhere near him. Steph couldn't help but smile at all of them, happy that she wasn't alone in this situation, grateful that she had friends in the first place. If she didn't have them, she wouldn't know what to do with herself or her life because it would never have been the same at all.
Over an hour later, memories of what happened the night before came back to the girl and she stopped what she was doing for a second as she stared at the mostly clean wall. She could still feel slight pain in the back of her head from where that clown had slammed it down onto the floor with more force than any normal person would have used, and she felt her right arm hurting out of nowhere. She looked at it but she didn't see anything, so she had to assume that she had only pulled a muscle from pushing her dresser in front of her bedroom door.
Steph squeezed her eyes shut for a moment to rid the vivid images from her head as she tried to forget about it, shuddering a little bit from the horror of it all. She just went back to scrubbing the wall again until it was completely clean, not even observing the fact that a certain someone was looking at her with a worrisome expression in his gentle eyes.
Yet another hour passed and the Losers were finally finished with cleaning the bathroom, and Steph grinned at how clean and neat it looked now, putting both of her hands on her hips. "Good job, children!" she congratulated her friends. "Now it doesn't look like a murder scene anymore, thanks to y'all."
"Thanks for helping, guys," Beverly replied with a cheerful smile on her freckled face, and everyone replied with "You're welcome."
Beverly Marsh was officially a part of their group with that small exchange.
And with that, all that was left was to take out the trash bags piled up with bloody washrags and paper towels; so Ben, Beverly, Eddie, and Stan were left with that job while Steph and Bill were tasked to dump the buckets filled with the eloquent blood. The two helped each other get the job done pretty quickly and then got lost in a conversation about the local fair that would be happening within the next few weeks and then continuing into September. They ended up laughing together in the middle of the chat when Bill brought up an funny experience at said fair that involved Richie doing stupid stuff, like always, and it made Steph giggle out of amusement.
Steph then walked over to Bill after washing her hands, smiling over at the boy as she felt a feeling of nervousness settle in her stomach. That was when she realized that she was alone with him in the bathroom now, and she felt just a tiny bit awkward. But she pretended that nothing was wrong whatsoever as she glanced back at the clean bathtub, biting her bottom lip shyly.
"How a-a-are you doing today?" Bill asked all of a sudden, glancing over at the blonde girl with those familiar eyes of his and a small smile on his face.
Steph looked over at him again, a half-smile on her face that was mixed with a frown. She hesitated on whether she should tell him the truth or not, considering the fact that her best friend was already going through a lot at the moment and she didn't want to add onto that stress; but she also remembered that Bill would find out about what she wanted to tell him soon enough and she couldn't hide it forever, no matter how much she wanted to.
Steph, just tell him! Just get it over with that way you won't have to suffer with keeping it a secret, one side of her mind was shouting as loudly as it could.
I don't think it's a good idea, though, the other side of her mind spoke. I don't want him to be more upset than he has been since last October.
After a full twenty seconds of not speaking, the girl finally opened her mouth.
"Actually…" she mumbled, sighing a little bit and just deciding to cut straight to the chase. "I'm not really doing that good…. I hate to tell you this but, um, Rachel called my mom and I last night and told us that Daniel died…"
Bill felt surprise cross his face as his grin turned into a frown of sadness, and he put a hand on Steph's shoulder to provide comfort. He honestly didn't know how to react to that, since he knew how much Daniel meant to the girl, being her literal father figure and all. And only to now lose him… he couldn't imagine how that must've felt. A normal, sane person would believe that he had gone through the same type of loss, but he kept believing that Georgie was still missing, so those people would be wrong.
He felt Steph put a hand over his and squeeze it gently as a way to thank him for being by her side through all of this. And he thought she was going to break down into tears, but she didn't; she just remained stone-faced and emotionless after saying those words.
"I-I'm so sorry, Steph," he whispered to her and she shrugged a little bit. "I r-r-really am. How did he duh-die…? I mean, i-if you don't mind me a-a-asking…."
"Car accident," Steph answered right away, looking over at him with a look of pain hidden in her ocean eyes. "Rachel said it was a horrible car accident, too. God, I can't imagine the grief her kids must be going through… I mean, they lost their own father. I know what that's like, and I wish they didn't have that happen to them, you know?"
Bill nodded out of understanding as he began to rub her back in a comforting manner, a look of pure sympathy on his face. He had completely forgotten that he was just a foot away from the girl he liked very much, since all he could see was a person that needed support and care for the time being and he was going to be there for her no matter what. He wasn't going to let his feelings towards her get in the way of the act of helping her through something so horrible and heartbreaking.
"The funeral's on Sunday," Steph added as she directed her eyes back towards the bathtub, running a hand over her tired face. "I have to take Amber and Justin there since they're coming to my house for a sleepover tomorrow night, because Rachel has to work all night at the hospital."
"Being a r-ruh-registered nurse must b-be difficult," Bill said with a slight chuckle and this managed to get a real smile out of Steph, one that reached those delightful eyes of hers.
"Yeah, it probably is," Steph replied with a soft giggle, before hope began to fill her eyes as she turned back to face Bill. "But I would really appreciate it if you guys came to the funeral. You know, to remember him for who he was. I mean, I know Ben didn't know him, but he could probably still go."
Bill's head bobbed up and down as he smiled at Steph, a smile filled with care and reassurance. No words needed to be said in that moment, all the girl needed was one look from him and she knew his answer. It helped that she could read his mind and know what he was meaning to say if he had spoken. And it made her smile back at him before looking away with a small blush, unaware that the pink color on her face had caused the boy's stomach to do somersaults in happiness.
"Okay, okay," the girl mumbled, sighing just a little bit. "Can we talk about something else to get my mind off of the stress? Please?"
Bill chuckled a little, his hand dropping from her back as he nodded, not knowing that she missed his touch. "Sh-Sure," he responded, thinking for a little bit before having a thought in his mind. "Um, can I-I tell you something that huh-happened when we first b-b-became friends?" he added with a bright look on his face. "Suh-Something that you might n-n-not remember…?"
Steph smiled as she glanced over at Bill with interest in her eyes, nodding just a tiny bit. "Yeah, sure," she said out of curiosity. "Most of the past is kind of a blur anyway, so go ahead. Tell me."
Bill grinned at her as he looked down for a moment, the lightest blush covering his face as he stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Wuh-Well, about a m-month after the Losers and I met y-y-y-you, I wanted you to meet my puh-parents. D-Do you remember that?" At her nod, he continued what he was saying. "So, I brought you o-o-over to my house after sc-school one day and they loved you… but I remember Juh-Juh-Georgie standing behind Muh-Mom and going, 'Mommy, is that an angel?' He wuh-was only three y-y-years old…."
The pre-teen girl felt her heart go soft at what he had just said, and those words made her miss Georgie even more, but she did smile at the memory. What Bill had reminded her of now gave her a little bit more of determination to help him find the poor boy that was lost out there, all by himself and very lonely; if she had to die in order to confirm that her best friend's little brother was found alive, then so be it. She didn't really care.
All she wanted was for Bill to be truly happy again. No matter what it took.
She hadn't seen him talk about Georgie in a cheerful way since he had disappeared, and it made her heart flutter when she saw him smiling again, and all she wanted was to hug the boy tightly to her and never let him go. But she didn't dare move towards him out of fear of suddenly making him uncomfortable in her presence. All she did instead was smile over at him fleetingly as she nodded a little bit.
"I actually kind of remember that," she said with a big grin on her face, chortling a little. "I swear, he was the most adorable kid I had ever met. I'm not even lying to you…."
The two chuckled together for a little while before a small bit of silence fell upon them and it was kind of awkward for them, since they didn't know what to say. Steph's hands began to slightly shake and she hid that factor of her actions from Bill, instead smiling and putting her hands on her hips.
"Aren't you glad we don't have to look at that disgusting mess anymore?" she inquired, looking over at him.
The teenage boy turned to her with a twinkle in his gentle eyes, nodding a little bit as he giggled softly. "I-I was surprised th-th-that we were able to c-clean it up to begin with, b-b-b-buh-but yeah, I'm g-glad we don't have to l-luh-look at it again," he replied, and Steph's head bobbed a little bit in response.
"It looks really good, by the way," Steph said, beaming as she nodded to herself. "I'm proud of you guys. You did great."
Bill felt his stomach flip yet another time when he saw that beautiful smile of Steph's adorning her face as he looked at her with a look of nervousness on his face. "Y-Yeah, I-I think we did good, t-t-too," he replied, secretly fidgeting with his hands. "Th-Thank you."
"It's no problem," Steph said in response, shrugging her shoulders lightly. "Can't help but compliment a friend." She then glanced at Bill, quietly observing the pink tint on his face and the fact that he looked a tiny bit embarrassed, which she found rather cute as she grinned. But then her smile faded to a half-frown after a few seconds, beginning to think about something that the boy next to her obviously didn't know because he couldn't read her mind. "You know, I thought this was going to be a horrible summer, with the Bowers Gang running around, causing mayhem and all," she added. "But this summer is actually going really great because I have you guys around…. Y'all don't make me feel alone."
Bill could feel his heart leap at those words and he grinned at Steph, although a lot more shyly than before. The supportive, strong side of him had vanished, replaced with a timid and vulnerable side, but he also felt a bit of sympathy towards the girl. He had no idea that when he and the others weren't around her, she felt all alone; she pretty much meant that she didn't deserve to be friends with them, and he wanted so badly to tell her the opposite. He wanted to prove that she had every right to tell him that she felt lonely when the Losers weren't around her, and he wanted her to know that she was loved by everyone around her, that she was cared for very deeply.
And, most importantly, he wanted to hold her close and whisper to her that she meant everything to him. But he definitely couldn't do that; he didn't want to ruin what they had between them. He didn't want to poison their friendship with the romantic words that might cause her to run away from him forever.
So, instead, he said something else to her.
"H-Hey," he spoke up.
Steph turned to look at him.
"Y-Y-You're not alone… You'll a-a-always have us. Please d-duh-don't worry, okay? W-We couldn't b-be any more lucky to have y-you as a f-f-friend…." He had said the word 'friend' with the slightest amount of distaste in his mouth, since he really wished that it could be more between him and the beautiful girl named Stephanie.
Wow, way to go, you freaking idiot, he thought to himself. You could not have said that in a much lamer way. Now, she definitely doesn't like you in that way.
But, when Bill looked back up at her, Steph was smiling rather timidly, her face a little red from the sugar sweet blush as she looked down at the floor. Her fingers were intertwined together from her trembling hands, her nerves out of control at that moment; the boy could notice the look of shyness in her eyes and it made him grin from ear to ear again, confidence filling his heart at the idea that the girl appreciated what he had said. At least, he hoped that she did.
After Steph got over that bit of embarrassment and mumbled a "Thank you," she looked over at Bill, an expression of concern in her own eyes. She was curious as to how he had been feeling emotionally lately, so she took a daring move on her part and gently took his hand into hers, her heart beginning to race a little bit against her ribcage. But she remained calm, taking a deep breath and looking right into his eyes. "I haven't gotten to ask you this in quite a while but…" she whispered. "...have you been doing okay recently? I just want to know."
Bill stared at Steph for a long moment, a lot going through his mind as he let out a shaky breath. First of all, his thoughts were going insane at the feeling of her hand encased in his, her fingers brushing against his out of comfort. Oh, my God, she's holding my hand! She's holding my freaking hand! he was frantically thinking to himself. But secondly, he was pondering over whether or not he should tell her the truth or to just lie and tell her that he was perfectly fine. But he didn't want to deceive her and not be truthful with his best friend that pretty much told him everything, especially considering that he knew that he wasn't okay.
He remembered what he had seen in his basement the night before and it made him shudder with fear, but it was barely noticeable. He looked away from Steph as he took a deep breath.
"S-Sort of," he replied truthfully. "I-I don't know a-a-anymore. It's just…. I-I-It's just been d-d-d-difficult. I've buh-been going through so much s-st-stress lately and I d-duh-don't know what to d-do with muh-myself anymore, you know?" His voice was lightly quivering as he sighed gently, looking in the opposite direction now as he felt stupid for what he had said. He shouldn't have even spoken those words aloud, since he didn't want to look internally exposed to the girl that could read him like a book.
Steph's expression of concern transformed into one of sympathy as her lips curled downward and into a frown. She had been wishing that the boy beside her hadn't gone through this unbelievable tragedy and, since she had recently suffered through something eerily similar, she couldn't help but feel empathy for him after putting herself into his shoes in a situation like that. Bill had lost someone very close to him, his own brother, and Steph couldn't even imagine how terrible that must've been; but she herself had just lost the person that was the only father figure in her whole life, and she knew that she wouldn't get him back. She just had to suck it up and move on… but why was it so difficult?
She felt very bad for Bill at that moment, the secret desire of taking his place so he could be the happiest boy in the world seeping into her thoughts. She wished that she could be the one that suffered instead of him, since he was the sweetest boy in the world and he didn't deserve the pain that was brought upon him and his parents. But, then again, his parents didn't even pay attention to him anymore; heck, they practically acted as though he didn't exist at all.
Maybe that's why he always comes to my house and talks to Mom, Steph thought to herself. He needs a true parent figure.
Steph looked out the window for a moment, seeing the rest of the boys already outside and conversing with one another, and she could see how cheerful they were acting. She really hoped that Bill would finally smile openly soon enough, that he could be as happy as their friends were, like he used to be. If she had the ability to drain his sadness completely for him, she would in a heartbeat. Of course, that was not physically possible but she would try her absolute hardest to cheer him up whenever he needed it most.
So, with that thought in mind, not caring that her heart skipped a beat while doing so, she squeezed his hand softly while holding it tightly in hers.
"We'll find him, Bill," she whispered soothingly, looking right at him now. "Don't worry." This time, she wasn't lying to her friend whatsoever, unlike all of the other times that she had reassured him this fact. She was telling the complete and honest truth, not hiding inside of her shell anymore. She gave him a look that told him, "We're in this together, no matter what. No turning back now." Steph even took a deep breath so she could feel a lot more confident about the whole situation that they were now stuck in. She couldn't change anything about it from now on.
Bill stared back at Steph in complete and utter awe, in immense appreciation of how supportive she was towards him. He felt as though he didn't deserve her comfort at all, but he secretly appreciated it, knowing that the words that she had spoken were truthful; and that relieved him. He couldn't stop his heart from leaping once more at her words of solace, and he let out a shaky breath of nervousness. But he bravely stepped forward and hugged the girl tightly, ignoring how much he was blushing and the urge to kiss her right there. He would have time for that someday in the future… hopefully.
"Thank you for being a great friend, Steph," he murmured without stuttering one time.
Steph was surprised that Bill had hugged her so suddenly, since she felt as if she didn't do anything that deserved that. But she hugged him back just as tightly, her face turning just as red as his, if not more. To be honest, she really needed the hug at that moment, since she needed something to ease her soul at the moment, especially after all of the emotional and physical exhaustion that had affected her over the past twenty-four hours. So, she held him tightly as she smiled just a bit, feeling a little better than she felt earlier that morning. "It's no problem," she replied in a gentle tone, resting her forehead on his shoulder as she felt butterflies in her stomach.
The two stayed in that embrace for a lot longer than they would have thought, since they wouldn't be hugging for this long in the first place. But something about the empathy they shared for one another kept them close to each other, feeling as though each one needed the other with them at that moment. They didn't want the hug to end or to be ruined by something else happening. They just wanted to stay there forever in the comfort of each other's arms.
But a few soft knocks on the bathroom door interrupted Steph and Bill's moment.
The two reluctantly separated from the hug and turned to see Beverly looking at the both of them with suspicion in her eyes. "Am I intruding on something here?" she asked them in a cautious manner.
Steph simply shook her head slightly, feeling a little nervous to be truthful towards the redhead. "No, you're not," she lied. "We were just talking."
Beverly narrowed her eyes ever so lightly, tried her best to hide a knowing smile. But she nodded her head regardless before shrugging her shoulders. "Anyway, we're about to head out, so you two may wanna tag along," she mumbled.
Steph nodded a little, watching as Bill walked out of the bathroom and into the kitchen. Once he was out of her line of vision, she glanced over at her redheaded best friend, only to see a tiny smirk on the girl's freckled face. Her expression became one of confusion as she tilted her head a little bit. "What?" she asked innocently, giggling faintly.
"I'm onto you two, Steph," she said teasingly, her smirk growing into a huge grin.
"Oh, shut the heck up," the blonde responded as she blushed furiously, ducking her head down out of shyness.
"Hey, it's okay," Beverly whispered in reply, chuckling softly as she placed her hands on her hips. "But just be lucky that I'm a good friend that keeps secrets…. If not, you two would've been sold out a while ago."
Steph raised her head and glared at the redhead, her face even more crimson from embarrassment. "You wouldn't!" she playfully scolded her best friend.
"Oh, I would!" Beverly taunted jokingly. "But I know you'd hate me forever if I did, so I won't."
"You better not!" Steph replied, giggling a lot now. "Hey, just wait for me outside for a minute, though. I need to wash my hands and face a little bit."
After she saw Beverly nod a little and exit the room, Steph then turned to face the mirror attached to the wall. Taking a deep breath, she turned on the faucet of the sink and washed her hands thoroughly before splashing some water onto her face. After drying her face off, she looked into the mirror, sighing just a little bit with stress. Memories of the night before came back in flashes, which made her squeeze her eyes shut for a moment, shivering a little bit with fear. She ran her hands through her hair as she recalled a voice that she had heard in her head as she was falling asleep in the safety in her bed, long after coming home from the O'Connor residence.
You'll die if you try to fight me, it had told her, which had made her eyes widen in the darkness of her bedroom.
A stinging pain in her arm brought her out of her thoughts once more, and she winced with slight agony. She looked down towards the source of where it was hurting, and her eyes became the size of saucers from what she saw.
(we all float down here)
A gigantic bruise in the shape of a handprint was resting on her forearm right below her wrist, and seeing that made her heart sink to the bottom of her stomach. The bruise was now a violet shade of color, and Steph didn't know how she possibly wasn't able to see it last night. It was unlikely that she wouldn't notice it, but that was maybe because it hadn't been there until just now. It almost felt as though the handprint from where the clown had grabbed her in her bedroom was burned into her skin, since it stung really badly whenever her fingers brushed against it. It felt as though she had scalded it on a scorching hot stove.
(we all float)
Steph kept thinking about the words that the gravelly voice had echoed in her mind the previous night and she tried to shake her head to get rid of them, but she was unable to. She tried to use her shine but to no avail…. It just wouldn't freaking work today for some reason, and she was incredibly frustrated.
(and when you're down here with me, you'll float, too)
"SHUT UP!" Steph screamed at the top of her lungs, tugging at her hair to the point that she was close to ripping it out of her skull. She was so relieved that nobody else was in the apartment with her, or there would've been some explaining to do.
But the voice was finally gone, much to her delight, and she relaxed.
After splashing her face with water one last time, Steph exited the apartment.
Steph pulled her bike down the barren Elm Street as Cherokee trotted alongside her, wiping perspiration from her forehead with her free hand as she stared down the road and into the distance. She had lost all acknowledgement of her six friends surrounding her, either pushing their bicycles forward while walking or biking around her in circles like Richie was doing. She was trying her hardest to stay in the best mood she could possibly muster up, sighing a little bit to herself out of frustration because of the blabbering that Richie was letting out.
After the girl had finally followed the others outside, Eddie had begged her to let him put hand sanitizer on her hands, and she allowed him to despite giggling at his frantic behavior and mentioning that she had already washed her hands. Soon after that, she put an arm around the shorter boy's shoulders and started joking around with him and Richie to the point that every member of the group was laughing hysterically. Little did she know that Eddie Kaspbrak felt extremely grateful for her presence each time she hung out with all of them. She truly felt like the real mother figure that he needed in his life, because she treated him with such care that a great mother would have.
But he, of course, would never want to tell her that, since he was too embarrassed to.
And now, although his best friend had actually made him laugh minutes before, both Eddie and Steph were getting quite annoyed with Richie's bantering. They both noticed that the bespectacled boy seemed quite cheerful, almost as if he hadn't helped the others clean up a bathroom covered with blood. Well, that was true; he never did that. He had just stayed outside with Steph's golden retriever until they were done and, when they all left, he went right back to his usual joking self.
But the problem was that the rest of the Losers had to endure Richie's trash mouth.
"No, I love being your personal doorman, really!" he stated sarcastically, while Steph tried her best to just ignore him for once. "Could you idiots have taken any longer?!"
"Shut up, Richie!" Eddie shouted back at him in an angry tone.
"Yeah, shut up, Richie," added Stan in an annoyed voice, rolling his eyes.
"Oh, okay, trash the trashmouth, I get it!" Richie retorted sourly. "Hey, I wasn't the one scrubbing the bathroom floor imagining that her sink went all Eddie's mom's vagina on Halloween!"
"Beep beep, Richie," Steph sighed as she glared at the boy with the coke-bottle glasses framing his face and, fortunately for her, he finally shut up for a moment.
"She didn't imagine it."
The familiar voice speaking up made Steph slow her walking pace to turn to look at the boy who had said those words. She stared at him incredulously, almost not believing the sentence that Bill had spoken aloud but she somehow still trusted him with her gut. She tilted her head as her eyes widened with curiosity, her hands lightly trembling as they gripped the handlebars of her bike firmly. "What do you mean?" she mumbled as quietly as she could possibly muster.
"I s-s-saw something, too," Bill answered her in a voice that was shaking badly. Steph noticed the hesitance with how he had said this much quieter than he normally would have spoken. All she wanted was to step forward and hug him again, but something held her back from doing that; she didn't know if it was either fear or uncertainty but something in her mind told her that comforting him probably wasn't the best idea. All she needed to do was to let him continue what he was saying.
"You saw blood, too?" Stan mumbled, his voice cracking with terror because he didn't even realize that his best friend had seen something as well. He remembered the lady in the painting from where he had been at the synagogue two days prior and a chill went down his spine.
Bill paused a little bit as he looked towards Stan and shook his head lightly, taking a breath after struggling to say what he had said mere seconds ago. "Not blood," he whispered out of distress. He then lowered his gaze a little, trying to hide his anxiety from everyone else, but Steph could see right through him and he knew that. So he looked at her and her only, which made them lock eyes for a moment. And then the boy took a deep breath, getting ready for the bomb that he was about to drop on the other members of the group.
"I saw… G-G-Georgie…." he finally murmured under his breath.
Steph already knew that Bill would say that, since she had heard those words in her head right before, but that didn't suppress the shock that was planted on her face. She didn't tear up like she was expecting, but rather looked down completely, trying to register the words that her friend had just said out loud. After a long time, she glanced back up at him with incredulity on her face. "Are you serious?' she mouthed to him, and he nodded.
"It seemed so real," he continued nervously, his voice quivering with unease as his hands tapped his bicycle handlebars repeatedly. "I mean… it seemed like him but there was this…" He then stopped speaking, not even knowing how to describe what he had seen in his basement the night before. Steph kind of had an idea of what he wanted to say but she couldn't bring herself to say it for him.
"Clown…" Eddie finished for Bill, making Steph's head snap in his direction out of surprise. The smaller boy had spoken up very quietly and meekly, and he was refusing to look at anyone else out of fright. He sighed a little bit once he realized that all eyes were on him now, before nodding a little bit, his hands gripping the handles of his own bike tightly. "Yeah, I saw him, too."
Steph closed her eyes for a moment as she turned her head away from everyone else, covering her arm with her free hand. But she knew that she would have to say something sooner or later, so she finally said something after what seemed like ages of time. "Me too…" she mumbled, and everyone was looking at her now, which made her anxiety skyrocket. "He was in my house… You guys probably just saw him, though. Not me…. He attacked me, like, physically. It was like he was trying to kill me or something. And… he, um… he left something on my arm."
After putting the kickstand of her bicycle down onto the ground, she steadily uncovered the magenta, handprint-shaped bruise on her arm and showed it to everyone. When she heard everyone audibly gasp in horror, she winced a little and immediately lowered her arm to put it out of sight. But Eddie was by her side in seconds, grabbing her arm and examining the mark. "What the heck happened, Steph?" he asked her faintly, looking right at her with panic in his brown eyes.
The blonde girl shrugged as she pulled her arm out of his hands, looking down. "I didn't even know it was there until after… after we cleaned the bathroom," she admitted timidly. "Like, I didn't even see it, it wasn't there until I looked. And then it was suddenly there. I know it's insane, but I'm serious."
"A-A-Are you okay, Steph?"
She looked over at Bill, who had a look of pure concern in his eyes, since he didn't know this had happened to the girl. His mouth had dropped open in trepidation when he saw what was on Steph's arm, since he hadn't seen anything like it in his life, since he had never believed in the supernatural… well, that was until he had seen the clown holding a puppet that eerily looked like Georgie in his own flooded basement. It was all too real to him now, but the fact that his own best friend and crush had been attacked on the same night and had almost been killed (according to her, anyway) made anger surge through him because she had been hurt. He had never wanted that to happen to her but he had to tell himself that it wasn't his fault that it happened and it wasn't hers either. He didn't want to blame himself for not being there with her, since he knew that Steph would protest against his guilt.
But Steph nodded after a very long moment, taking a breath that she didn't know that she had been holding in as she locked eyes with the boy. "Yeah, I'm okay," she replied, being honest with him. "It still hurts a little, but I'm okay. Let's just be lucky that it wasn't worse than this."
That was when Bill scanned the expressions of everyone else in the group and he easily noticed the terrified and dreaded appearances of their faces. He didn't even need to ask them any questions, already knowing what the impressions in their eyes told him: they had seen the clown as well at some point or another recently. He was, at least, glad that he wasn't alone in all of this even though he hated the fact that his friends all seemed to be scared of whatever they saw over the course of several days. At least he was crazy.
None of them were.
"Wait, can only virgins see this stuff?" Richie commented in a skeptical manner, looking around at all of the others. Steph rolled her eyes at the remark, but nobody noticed. "Is that why I'm not seeing this?!"
Steph wanted to yell at Richie, but she knew she couldn't since what he had said meant that he hadn't seen anything strange, unlike they had. Although she was curious as to why nothing had happened to him since the summer began, she decided to be calm and cool about it, but she couldn't help but open her mouth to speak. "Oh, come on, Richie," she deadpanned with a chuckle. "You're probably the most obvious virgin of us all, so you shouldn't be the one talking."
"Solid burn, Steph," Richie retorted bluntly, shaking his head in disbelief.
Steph giggled a little before moving a little, about to get onto her bicycle before glancing at Beverly. She saw that the redhead was still looking at her arm with apprehension, silently wanting to know if there was any way she could help her closest friend. She felt that she was stupid for not knowing how to help, but the blonde gave her a look of commiseration, smiling over at her. "I really am okay," she mouthed to her, and Beverly nodded, beaming with relief.
"Oh no, that's Belch Huggins's car!"
The blonde girl perked up almost instantly, glancing in all directions, wondering if what Richie had said was actually true. But her midnight blue eyes eventually landed on the same blue car that infamously belonged to the Bowers Gang, and she noticed that it had been parked thirty feet away from the group this whole time. She was suddenly relieved when she saw that nobody was in the car, because if she and the others were seen, they were dead meat. However, she was pretty confused as to why the car was parked at the very edge of the woods, and that's when she noticed the abandoned bike laying discarded a few feet away from the vehicle.
"We should probably get outta here," Eddie added in a shaky voice and Steph hesitantly nodded in agreement, hopping on her bicycle. She had a bad feeling about leaving regardless, and she was very lucky when she heard Bill say something that pretty much answered her silent questions.
"Wait, isn't that the huh-homeschooled kid's bike?" he questioned, pointing at the bike that Steph had seen moments earlier.
The blonde then focused her attention back on the object just as Eddie confirmed who it belonged to, and her heartbeat kicked into overdrive out of trepidation, since she knew that somebody was in danger. Sure, she didn't know Mike Hanlon very well, but she had run into him a few times throughout her life; she knew that he lived on a farm just outside of Derry and he would often come into town to deliver meat to the stores that needed to sell them to the citizens of the town. She also knew that he was often targeted by bullies for the color of his skin, especially Bowers and his crew; one day, while they were talking outside one of the stores he had delivered meat to, Steph had assured him that she didn't see him any differently because of his race.
Unbeknownst to Steph, Jamie had raised her to treat all people equally, no matter what their race, gender, or sexuality was. She had learned that the hard way from her own mother when she had not done the same thing during her college years, and the same with Sue when it came to the whole Carrie White incident; and she was now determined to have her daughter be the opposite of how she had been, to at least have her be a good person. She didn't want her going down the same pathway she had.
But, to Steph, everyone in the world had already been equal to her because she was a kind person out of nature, not nurture. All she knew how to do was give so she just kept on giving and giving her goodwill to others, not wanting to receive anything in return. She just wanted to provide good in the world to anyone that really deserved it, and she knew that the most good-natured people really needed that in their lives; she counted her friends as absolutely being in that category for her.
"We have to help him," Beverly said a few seconds after Eddie had made it official that the bike belonged to Mike.
"We should?" inquired Richie, making Steph scoff at him as she quickly got off of her bike.
"What do you think, idiot?!" she retaliated, dropping her bicycle to the ground without giving a crap. "Yes!" she added at the same time Beverly said it.
Steph then began to sprint towards where the car was, going deeper into the woods with Beverly as she heard the sound of angry yelling and grunts of agony growing closer and closer by the second. She tripped a little when her foot found a small hole in the ground that she had failed to see but she regained her balance quickly before she could have the chance to fall and kept going. Her arms swatted at leaves and tree branches that were in her way, that way she could get a better look at what was going on when she saw a horrific sight.
The Bowers Gang were surrounding a boy around her age on the other side of the small river in front of her, pressing his face into piles of raw meat as he growled in pain. The sounds of the boy screaming at Mike, forcing him to eat the disgusting, non-edible meal made Steph feel sick to her stomach. But she couldn't move. Instead, she found herself frozen in place, not able to do anything just yet. She could distinctly sense Cherokee walking up beside her, so she quickly made sure that the dog was hidden behind some bushes, not wanting the psychos to hurt her pet.
She was reminded of a time just less than a year ago when she had been cornered in a hallway of the middle school right before Science class. The Bowers Gang had caught up to her after she had tried to avoid them and had dragged her away from the classroom door right before she could make it inside. She had tried yelling for help, but Bowers had covered her mouth as the boys dragged her outside of the school to torment and bully her even more than she could ever imagine.
God, she was glad that she couldn't see Patrick Hockstetter amongst the group. In fact, she was hysterically grateful that she knew that he was missing because she never wanted to run into him after what he did to her that day. She could still remember being pinned to the ground as Henry, Victor, and Belch beat the ever-loving crap out of her, all while she felt unwonted hands where they shouldn't be. She vividly recalled screaming uncontrollably, fearing that the same thing that had happened to her mother in college was going to happen to her as well. But then Beverly found her and saw what Hockstetter was about to do to her, and let's just say that she was not happy.
And neither was Bill, come to think of it.
Every other day, Steph's mind would harken back to that day and she could think of Bill's reaction to what Beverly had said to him, informing him of what had happened to his own best friend. He had come very close to losing his sanity when he beat the life out of Hocketetter and Steph had to physically stop him from killing the guy, although she felt as though the older boy really did deserve it. She personally wouldn't have minded if Bill had killed him, but she didn't want him to go to jail for someone who wasn't worth it.
Steph was suddenly brought back to reality when she saw Mike get a foot in the face after being momentarily distracted by something the girl couldn't even see. But one thing observed right away was the fact that Mike seemed to look scared by what little bit she saw of his facial expression. She wasn't sure why just yet, but she kind of had a guess as to what had frightened him so much to give him the sudden burst of energy to try and escape his attackers. But that adrenaline was short-lived.
The blonde girl began to panic when she saw Bowers pinning Mike to the ground and raising a large rock over his head. When she realized that he was preparing to cave the poor boy's skull in with it, she nearly screamed in horror but she focused on trying to figure out a way to stop him before it was too late.
But, when she saw Henry reeling back and thudding against the ground from a sudden rock slamming into his forehead, her eyes scrunched up in confusion. She knew that somebody else had thrown it and it seemed to have come from her side of the river, so she turned to her left and saw a certain redhead lowering her arm, a look of fury in her bright eyes. Steph's jaw dropped in shock that her own surrogate sister even had the guts to do what she had just done, and she couldn't help but stare at her out of admiration.
"You did not just do that," she mumbled out of amazement.
"You shouldn't be surprised that I did do that," Beverly retorted playfully with a smile.
"Yeah, you've got a point," Steph replied with a soft giggle.
Steph then heard the frantic footsteps of the other Losers from right behind her, but she wasn't focused on that, instead seeing Mike trying to cross the river to get to them and be safe. She stopped everything she was doing and instantly reached her hand out to him, which he took and pulled himself over to where she was. She helped him up and guided him over to where the bushes could conceal him from sight. "You're okay, Mike," she whispered to him out of comfort. "Everything's gonna be alright. I won't let them hurt you again, you hear me?"
Once she was answered with an exhausted nod, Steph slowly turned her head around to face the Bowers Gang, the leader of the group getting up after the painful blow that he had received to the head. She saw a tiny gash in the skin from where the rock had made a direct hit, and she couldn't help but smirk to herself out of satisfaction. She stood on her feet after grabbing some rocks, ready to fight, stepping in front of her friend group to keep them shielded from their enemies. She would rather take damage for them instead of seeing any one of her friends get hurt.
"You losers are trying too hard," Bowers said, which made Steph glare at him, although she felt uncomfortable because of the expression in his dark and malicious eyes. "She'll do you," he added, obviously referring to Beverly, and the blonde beside said girl gritted her teeth in pure rage. But she turned her head away out of revulsion after seeing Henry grabbing his crotch in a sexual manner while saying, "You just gotta ask nicely, like I did."
"Okay, Bowers, enough!" Steph shouted angrily, sighing exasperatedly. "We've all had enough of you going after us for literally nothing, and we have never even done anything to you! You're only going after Mike because your scumbag of a father is racist and hates people who look different than him!"
"You do not talk about my father like that!" Henry snarled at her in outrage, not even expecting her to say something like that. But she had, and that made him want to literally be rid of her for good.
"Oh, I am, though!" Steph replied with a nasty smile on her face. "What's wrong, Bowers? Are you mad? Do you need me to come over there and knock some sense into you with these rocks?! Because you kind of deserve it after what you did to Mike, you freaking dickhead!"
"Shut up, Palmer!" Bowers screamed, his fists shaking with fury now as he took a step closer. "You're the most brainless girl I've ever some across, and you don't even freaking realize that! You know what? It was a good thing your father died, that way he wouldn't have to deal with a worthless brat like you!"
Steph's heart sank into her stomach as her eyes filled with tears of hurt and surprise; she couldn't believe that he had just said that to her. Her hands began to tremble with pure rage as she started seething at him, gripping a single rock into the palm of her hand as her fingers enclosed around it tightly. Her eyes bored into his soul with utter hatred and loathing, the usual beautiful color in them disintegrating to a much darker shade that nobody would ever recognize. At least, that was how it was to her.
Had she been younger, Steph probably would have burst into tears and cried like a small child or just run away while sobbing. But now, while she did feel the salty substance stinging her eyes, she was filled with the most terrifying kind of rage anyone could have ever imagined. All she could see was red as she scowled at Henry Bowers, no longer afraid, but really freaking pissed at him.
"You unimaginable bastard," she said in a low voice, quivering from head to toe with anger.
It was all chaos from there.
After both Ben and Bill had hurled rocks towards Henry out of anger for insulting both of the girls that they were close with, and the bully had let out an exclaim of shock while stumbling backwards toward Victor, Steph took a rock of her own and flung it towards Belch. It hit him square in the stomach, making him grunt from the aching that it had caused immediately and he had tumbled to the ground for a moment before getting back up.
That was when everyone had started gathering rocks to fight with, including the bullies.
"Come on, get 'em!" Bowers furiously barked to Victor and Belch, picking up some rather large ones. "Now!"
Steph picked up three rocks and threw them all towards the other group on the opposite side of the river, howling with rage and fearlessness. She was completely done with their bullcrap after so many years of her and her friends being tortured to the point that they had lost all hope; she herself had been one of the very first kids of Derry that the Bowers Gang began to target on a regular basis, almost daily. She would often come home with a bruise on her face or arms and Jamie had tried to get the gang locked up multiple times but Henry's father (who was a police officer himself) wasn't having any of it, not believing her stories.
Steph had been scared of Bowers and his cronies for longer than she had ever wanted but, today, she was finished. She didn't feel any more fear towards them and she didn't need anyone to protect her from their danger anymore; she was finally teaching them the lesson that they deserved to learn, even if she herself would get physically hurt in the process. She didn't really care, though.
"ROCK WAR!" Richie screeched at the top of his lungs but he was cut short when a stone made a direct target at his forehead. He instantly fell to the ground, groaning in pain as he clutched the area above his eyes.
Steph saw this and literally screamed with anger, taking a few steps forward and tossing rocks in the gang's direction. She saw Eddie jumping into the river out of the corner of her eye, letting out cries of frustration as he threw even more stones than she could have imagined, his face contorted with fury. She stepped beside him and began to help him out, cackling with amusement whenever each rock hit one of the gang members; she was so grateful that they were starting to back away from them out of fear.
"Yeah, run away, you little babies!" she shouted towards them, still laughing hysterically. But her eyes then widened when she saw Bowers directing a rock right towards her shoulder, and it made contact with her collarbone. She let out a small cry of agony as she hit the ground, putting her hand over the spot that was throbbing with immense pain.
"That'll teach you, you stupid brat!" Bowers yelled towards her.
Bill saw what had happened and looked towards Bowers with bitterness in his usually soft eyes, and he sprinted forward, hurling rocks more forcefully than anyone else. "YOU. DO. NOT. HURT. STEPH!" he bellowed without stuttering one time, his hands clenched into fists as he just barely held himself back from tackling Henry to the pebbled ground and beating him to a bloody pulp. He knew Steph wouldn't approve so he had to restrain himself from doing what he had desired to the most. He just kept throwing rocks until he saw Victor and Belch begin to take off running into the woods, all while Steph watched him the whole time, admiring him, although he didn't know this.
After about five minutes, the apocalyptic rock fight was finally over.
Bowers had been put to the ground by the many, many rocks that had pummeled into him, and he was left in a dazed and confused state. He just looked around at the group, giving up for good. At least, for now. He couldn't believe that they had had the courage to fight back against him, since he thought himself to be stronger than all of them combined; to be proven wrong completely baffled him in the worst way, and he didn't like it one bit. He liked to prove that he was stronger than he actually was, and he wanted those losers to fear him to the point that they were driven away from Derry once and for all.
He targeted Steph specifically because she was the most frustrating one and she was the smart one; sure, he always called her stupid, but he knew of her ability to think outside of the box. And, while the tiniest part of him wished that he could be like her, most of him hated that because he knew that she was more intelligent than he was. That was why she always tried standing up to him: she knew that he was too stupid to even try to do anything to hurt her anymore. But that didn't mean that he stopped trying, he had tried many times but kept failing. That was because it was always like Steph had some sort of sixth sense whenever he tried to sneak behind her to bully her. She always knew he was there, seemingly out of instinct, although he didn't know that it was much more than that.
But he knew that, one day, that wouldn't be happening. He would get to her when she least expected it, and she wouldn't be able to stop him; she would finally be gone once he had his way with her, since he just wanted her to be rid of for good.
Once Steph had come back to her senses, she slowly stood up, a hand still over her collarbone from where the rock had hit her. She hissed with slight pain when she put pressure on the spot, but she was relieved that it didn't hurt as bad as she thought it might have. She relaxed a little bit for only a moment but her sympathy from a mere hour ago returned tenfold when Bill rushed over to her with worry in his eyes, putting both hands on either side of her face.
"Are y-yuh-you okay?!" he asked frantically, his hands trembling as he tried his best to hold himself back from stuttering too much, but it was difficult. "He h-h-h-huh-hurt you… H-He hurt you and I-I-I couldn't even duh-do anything! I-I-I-I'm so sorry…!" He attempted to hold back tears but failed after one managed to fall down his face, and he looked down out of guilt, sighing a little bit.
"No, no, no!" Steph exclaimed, looking at Bill as she gave him a reassuring smile. "I'm okay, Bill, don't worry. You don't have to worry about me, I promise. It doesn't even hurt that much. See?" She pulled back a part of her shirt to reveal her collarbone and Bill was surprised to only see a scratch there; no bruise or blood, just a minor scrape and nothing else. She patted her best friend on the back to comfort him even further, giggling a little. "Don't worry about me so much, okay?"
Bill nodded lightly, sniffing as he wiped his tears away, taking a deep breath. "O-Okay," he stammered. "Sorry…"
Steph shook her head as she grinned at Bill, rubbing his back soothingly. "It's okay," she murmured to him, blushing ever so slightly as she took a step back from him; had she not done that, she probably would have kissed him but she was way too scared to. After moving away from him, she shyly rubbed her arm out of awkwardness, smiling faintly.
"GO BLOW YOUR DAD, YOU MULLET-WEARING A-HOLE!" Richie screamed before holding his hands up, intentionally putting his middle fingers up for Bowers to see from a distance. Steph couldn't help but giggle as she began to walk out of the area by the river, following Eddie, Beverly, and Mike away from the others; she called Cherokee over to her, to which he was by her side immediately, making sure to not take off into the distance and leave her. She could notice Bill following behind her, which made her grin as she started appreciating the cool breeze of the summer air on her face.
After a little while, as Steph heard a train passing by far behind her and the other Losers, her hands brushed against the weeds as she trucked down a small hill with her friends, a permanent smile on her face for the time being. At this point, she was the one following Bill as he walked behind Eddie, who was surprisingly the leader of the line of kids while going to the Barrens to hang out. She could tell that Bill was still a little upset over the fact that she had gotten hurt but the fact that he felt a little more cheerful made her feel better about the whole situation.
And, for that, she was consoled by this.
"Thanks, guys, but you shouldn't have done that," Mike said suddenly, a bit of concern laced in his voice. "They'll be after you guys now."
Steph could briefly glimpse the sight of Eddie turning around to look at Mike with a nonchalant smile on his bright face. "Oh, no, no, no - Bowers? He's always after us," he casually replied before looking back ahead, trying his best not to trip on anything.
"I guess that's one th-th-thing we all have in common," Bill added, a friendly beam on his face as he also turned to Mike.
"Yeah, homeschool! Welcome to the Losers Club!" Richie proclaimed with a small chuckle, and Steph felt a sense of pride travel through her heart. She had the feeling that their group was now completely whole for good, that eight was a great number for the club that they had created themselves. For that, she was immensely happy with the result of all of this, and glad that the rock fight had actually taken place.
Unbeknownst to her, had it not been for the fact that she and her friends had saved Mike, all eight of them probably would not have survived the rest of the summer alive….
A/N: And that is the end of another chapter! We have officially reached the halfway point of this story! This chapter is EVEN LONGER THAN THE LAST ONE?! Well, I never would've thought!
What did y'all think of this chapter? I hope you liked it! What did you think of the first scene and the rest of them? What about Daniel's death?! Feel free to let me know in your reviews!
Also, Steph and Bill are absolutely pure and adorable!
I guess that's pretty much it, guys! Be looking forward to the next chapter coming out very soon! Have a great day, and until next time!
- Hermione Romanoff
