Summer of '89 (IT fanfic)

7.

The Losers were in town. There was a festival of some sort about to start. As Richie played with a tuba, the rest of the kids looked at a new missing kids poster on a brick wall. Covering the missing poster of Betty Rimpson.

Charlie and Eddie walked up to them with ice creams in their hands. It was hella hot and Charlie needed the ice cream to save her. She was wearing dark blue jean overalls with a black tank top under, her black high top converse and her usual black baseball cap. Her favorite color was black. She took a big bite of the ice cream and felt a whole lot better, but her teeth froze from the bite.

"Thank you Ms. Thing" Richie said beside her trying to get the ice cream, but she pulled away.

"Uh uh, Eddie has yours" she said as she took another satisfying bite. Eddie handed Richie his ice cream and they listened in on the conversation.

"So I was going over all my Derry research and I charted out all the big events. The Ironworks explosion in 1908, the Bradley Gang in '35, and The Black Spot in '62" said Ben.

"And now kids being... I realized this stuff seems to happen..."

"Every 27 years" Charlie finished Ben's sentence. Ben nodded.

They walked to the park and they sat at a bench. Charlie sat at the edge of the bench next to Mike, in her lazy tomboy sitting position.

"Okay, so, let me get this straight. It comes out from wherever to eat kids for, like, a year? And then what? It just goes into hibernation?" asks Richie.

"Maybe it's like... What do you call it? Cicadas. You know, the bugs that come out once every 17 years" Stanley says.

"My grandfather thinks this town is cursed. He says that all the bad things that happen in this town are because of one thing. An evil thing that feeds off the people of Derry" Mike said.

"But it can't be one thing. We all saw something different" Stan said.

"Maybe. Or maybe IT knows what scares us most and that's what we see" Mike said. Charlie looked down, knowing and remembering what she saw.

"I saw the clown," she said. Everyone brought their attention to her.

"It came out of my fireplace ... it's body was twisted and .. it rearranged itself and ran after me" she said. Mike looked at her in worry.

"I saw a leper. He was like a walking infection" Eddie said.

"But you didn't. Because it isn't real" Stan said.

"None of this is. Not the clown. Not Eddie's leper or Bill seeing Georgie ... or the woman I keep seeing" he says looking down.

"She hot?" Richie says.

"No Richie. She's not hot. Her face .. is all messed up. None of this makes any sense. They're all like bad dreams"

"I don't think so. I know the difference between a bad dream and real life, okay?" Mike says. Charlie looks up at him.

"What'd you see? You saw something, too?" She asks.

"Yes. Do you guys know that burned-down house on Harris Avenue? I was inside when it burned down. Before I was rescued, my mom and dad were trapped in the next room over from me. They were pushing and pounding on the door, trying to get to me. But it was too hot" he says.

Charlie thought back to when they were in Ben's room, Mike didn't like the thought of murders and death for what had happened to his parents.

"When the firemen finally found them, the skin on their hands had melted down to the bone. We're all afraid of something" he finished. Charlie put her hand on his shoulder in small comfort and Mike was grateful for her gesture.

"Got that right" Richie said, turning around.

"Why, Rich? What are you afraid of?" Eddie asked him.

"Clowns"