Chapter 57: Team Regroup
The Party and Club race down the hill, through the trees and eventually the quiet streets of Hawkins, fleeing from the sinister voice… the clown… the IT… To Ben, Bill and Beverly, it was their worst nightmare. They thought they'd escaped Derry and all its horrors but now that was no longer the case. It had followed them… IT had followed them, likely seeking revenge for what they'd done over the summer! How IT knew where they went and why IT was going after them was just one of the many questions that raced through their minds as they fled as far as they could.
Eventually, they all ran until they couldn't any longer. They're out of breath and all their muscles are sore. Adrenaline is still pumping through their veins, but their muscles are protesting not to go any further. They had no idea where they were at the moment, but it didn't matter because they all needed to rest.
Mike grabs the nearby chain-link fence and leans against it, trying to stop the blood rushing through his brain, making him feel lightheaded. El goes to her knees and tries to gather her thoughts, sweat beading on her forehead. She wipes it away with her forearm and tries to avoid panicking because she just revealed her powers to the kids from Derry. She wipes her nose, revealing a smear of blood on her arm and confirming her worst fear. She prays that no one brings it up.
Ben is panting and trying to catch his breath, he leans forward slightly to regulate his breathing and let the adrenaline settle. Bill wheezes and looks down at his hands, realizing that he's shaking in fear… IT had truly come back, and it wanted to kill them. Max plunks herself down on the gravel and leans against the fence, trying to stop herself from passing out. Lucas leans forward with his hands on his knees to avoid getting a cramp in his chest while Will and Dustin just try to get over the shock of everything.
No one knows where they were or how far they ran from Weathertop, ditching their bikes and everything else in frenzied panic… deep down they knew it was stupid to run since the voice only came from the radio, but no one knew what IT was capable of doing in that moment besides threaten them. The trio from Derry thought that IT could crawl through the radio like it had the projector screen in Bill's garage. This thing was more than any of them could handle at the current moment.
After a long pause…
"Now do you believe us?" Ben asks.
The group groans in annoyance and glare at him, but they're all too tired to say anything else.
"Did… Did anyone bring their water?" Beverly wheezes. "I can't breathe." She sits down next because her legs are cramping very badly. She can barely swallow due to how dry her mouth is and the humidity in the air did not help. She leans to the side to spit out what feels like sticky bile. Max looks on in disgust but just tries to focus on relaxing herself.
"I think I did," Will says. He pulls his backpack off his back. It seemed that he was the only one to grab something before fleeing in terror. He digs through it and finds a bottle that is only about half full. He hands it over.
After feeling the weight of how much water there is inside Bev says aloud. "I'll take small sips."
"Until we go back for our stuff," Will agrees.
"Do… Do you think it followed us?" Mike asks. He knew it was a dumb question, but he knew nothing of this creature besides its shapeshifting. It was possible.
"I don't think so," Ben replies, before taking the bottle of water that Beverly was offering. He takes a sip. "I think its line of communication was cut."
"Cerebro!" Dustin shouts out, trying not to cry. Gone was the shock, now came the anger. The stages of grief over his best invention had begun. Seething Anger mixed with sadness that his pride and joy have been ruined. How would he talk to Suzie now? Would she assume that when she called and he didn't answer he no longer wanted to be her boyfriend? All these thoughts race through his head as he processes the event on Weathertop.
"Seriously, that's what you're thinking about right now?!" Lucas grunts. He spits on the ground due to the extreme amount of running he's done. "We almost died and that's what you're worried about!"
"We didn't almost die!" Dustin fires back. "Or did all of you forget that it was just over the radio? The clown wasn't there. If it could have followed us, it probably would have done it at the school when Ben and I were there."
"B-b-but it-t knew wh-where we were," Bill swallows.
"True," Max agrees. "IT knew we were looking for it and it taunted us."
"To kill us…" Eleven whimpers. She then glances over at Dustin.
Eleven knows she broke Cerebro and feels awful about it. She knows how much Dustin loved that machine and, in her panic, she not only revealed her powers to the kids from Derry but destroyed something her best friend had worked so hard on. She wished she could take it back, but that voice… that voice… it was so familiar. She'd heard it before.
In her dreams!
She hadn't made the connection at the time, but when Beverly, Ben and Bill mentioned that the creature's favourite form was a clown, she didn't think that it could be the same clown. The same clown who made her dreams nightmares. The same one who tormented her with her past and the voices of her bad Papa. But when she heard IT's voice, she knew it was the same clown.
But how? How could he be on the radio and in her dreams? How powerful was this entity and what else could it do?
Shaking the thoughts from her head, she goes over to Dustin, who is battling tears in his eyes over Cerebro. She tries to keep it quiet, praying that no one from the Derry trio notices her powers in the panic.
"Dustin… I'm so sorry," Eleven whispers. "I…I got scared and… I'm so very sorry."
While he's still angry about it, Dustin knows that El is being genuine and likely felt awful. She just reacted in the moment.
"It's… it's…" he tries to say.
"No, it's not okay," she says. "Friends don't break things, and I did."
"Most friends also don't have superpowers," he mutters under his breath resentfully.
"I'm still sorry…" she says. "I'll help you fix it."
"If it can be fixed," Dustin grinds his teeth.
Eleven just tries not to cry and steps back to give her friend his space. She just hopes that he won't be mad at her forever.
Mike knows how upset El is about the whole situation, feeling guilt over breaking Cerebro. He steps forward and engulfs her in a tight hug. He knew she felt sad, but another emotion was written on her face. He couldn't quite put his finger on it but there was something else there… something thing that she wasn't telling him or anyone else.
"Give him some time," he whispers, patting her back. "He'll come around."
"I still hurt him…" she weeps, wiping away some tears.
"By accident. You were scared."
He continues to comfort El as the others gather themselves up further, the fear and adrenaline dissipating within them.
"We need to go back," Beverly finally says.
No one responds. They know she's right; they just don't want to hear the truth. What if this thing tries to activate Cerebro again? What if it makes do with IT's threats? What if it gets one of them?
"I know we're all scared," Bev says. "But that's what it wants. IT feeds on our fear and that's how he grows stronger. But our weapon is when we're together, IT doesn't have power over us."
She turns to Bill and Ben.
"You guys remember in the Neibolt house and down in the sewers. We hurt it when we were together, and we almost killed it."
"A-Almost," Bill emphasizes. The time that they thought they'd killed it felt like a pleasant memory now.
"It can't be very strong right now if IT's coming through the radio. If IT were strong enough, IT would have faced us with confidence. IT is afraid and I want to keep it that way."
Bill and Ben look at one another doubtfully. Beverly certainly liked being the optimist of the group when it was needed. She was the first one to overcome her fears of the entity from Derry and that's why it tried to kill her first, taking her into its lair beneath the sewers, but she still managed to come through it all on the other side stronger. The two boys who'd known her the longest had to admire her tenacity and fiery spirit. It sometimes felt that she was the glue that kept the group together… sadly it wasn't strong enough for the Loser's Club to implode… but she was still going to protect the people she cared about and do what she can to stop IT.
"O-Okay," Bill replies after a long moment.
Ben nods as well.
The trio from Derry turn to those from Hawkins. Reluctance still lingered as it would, but beyond the fear was determination. They truly were coming together. Both of their enemies had reappeared and threatened all of them and their families. They were in this together… a true team.
"IT won't hurt us if we stand together."
"Somehow I don't find that reassuring," Lucas says sarcastically.
Max stomps on his foot to get him to shut up.
"Ow, what the…"
"Let's go back, get our stuff and call it a night," the other redhead agrees. "We can go through all this later."
While Dustin doesn't want to see the damage to Cerebro, he needs his backpack again as it has the latest X-Men comic that he was planning to read over the weekend and then talk to Suzie about it on Monday. While the last part of his plan was completely ruined, maybe reading the latest issue of his favourite comic would help him through his grief. The others stand up and prepare to head back to Weathertop, together as a team.
…
As they walk, Bill falls behind to talk quietly with Beverly and Ben. He wanted to ask them a question. To see if they'd seen what he had. At first, he thought he was imagining it in the frenzy of them fleeing for their lives, but now that he's had the time to process it… nothing made sense and it kept nagging his thoughts.
Up on the hill, Jane was having a panic attack, and she threw her arms up as if trying to fight off something… but nothing was there and somehow the radio tower had snapped in half. Was it just a coincidence? Was she pushing something away from her? Did she see something that they couldn't? Why would Cerebro break like that if no one touched it?
Still second guessing himself, the former leader of the Loser's Club needed a second opinion.
"D-Did you guys s-see what happened-d before we ran?" he asks in a whisper. He occasionally glances forward to see if anyone from Hawkins heard him.
"What do you mean?" Ben replies.
"When I-IT was taunting us… saying IT was g-going to kill us and then Jane sc-screamed and the radio t-tower fell."
"You saw it too!" Beverly gasps. She tried to keep her voice low but was relieved that someone noticed it. It was so weird. She held out her arms in front of her and the metal structure snapped like a twig. It was so bizarre, and Bev was just convincing herself that she was just imagining it in the panic of the moment.
"Y-Yeah… w-what's that about?"
"It snapped with such force, and I know it wasn't that windy up there," Ben adds.
"Could it have been IT's power coming through?" Beverly suggests. "Causing the break."
Bill shakes his head. "A-At the s-same time Jane threw her a-arms out?"
"It could be a coincidence, but it feels like there's more to it," Ben ponders, his brain analyzing every aspect of what they saw. "But…"
"So what? Jane has superpowers?" Bev jokes.
The trio smirk and quietly snicker at the thought for a brief moment. A few glances from the Hawkins Party are directed at them, but think nothing more about it. Their smiles fade as interdimensional beings exist in Hawkins and shapeshifting clowns live in the sewers of Derry, why couldn't someone have superpowers… They all gaze at the back of Jane's head as she holds hands with Mike. In the light of their flashlights, they can see something etched on her arm… a tattoo of some kind. While Jane acted differently from the others, those from Derry just assumed that she was shy and socially awkward. From what Bev had learned, she'd had a rough upbringing which likely made her the way she was. Different did not equal superpowers in any way.
As they reach the top of the hill, all their things are where they left them. The entire team looks at the downed radio and the hushed silence seems symbolic of losing a member of their team… at least for Dustin. Not wanting any more encounters with IT, everyone gathers their things and carefully heads down the hill towards their bikes.
"Let's sleep on it and regroup later," Max says to all of them before they head towards the safety of their homes, leaving nothing but a breeze to drift over the location of their latest encounter… and it would not be their last.
A/N: Sorry for the delay on the next chapter (almost exactly a month). I had this nasty cold that lingered for a long time and in turn, I didn't feel like writing, just trying to recover. Thank you for your patience. Bill, Ben and Beverly suspect something is up with Eleven. No longer are they Loser's Club or the Party... they are a true team. Just need to gather the last few members.
Larry: I will try to incorporate that if I can.
jackie: Me too. It will be interesting what fears Pennywise might morph into.
Little Liar: Here it is. Thank you for your patience.
GlaringEyes: Yes it is certainly a dangerous combination. You are correct that they have no idea how they are going to battle something they can't see or know where it is. They are also only going off of Georgie's drawings about the Demogorgon, but now they have concrete proof that IT is working with the Mindflayer. The combined powers of both entities leave the team in serious trouble. Thanks again for your support.
Jr: That will happen.