Dare Me (Henry Bowers x Reader)

Ritual

We enter the house, I hold my nose with a scowl on my face, "Well, I love what he's done with the place. Absolutely nothing." "Shut the fuck up, (Y/n)." Richie says from behind. Henry defends, "Beep-beep, Richie."

"Hey, hey. That's the basement, right?" Bill, Eddie, and Richie walk through the door leading to the kitchen, where the basement entrance is located.

Ben grabs at his chest in pain, groaning, and falling to the ground. "Ben?" The three men in the kitchen walk to the door, but it shuts by itself, forcing us to separate.

The three-pound on the door, "No, no! Hey, hey! Ben!" Ben gasps again, screaming out. He lifts his shirt only to see a large H being carved into his stomach. Henry shutters, he grabs Ben's shoulder, supporting him, "What's wrong?" He screams again in pain.

"Oh SHIT!" The carvings on Ben's stomach grow, making letters against his skin, blood dripping from the open wounds.

I look up into the mirror, my blood runs cold. Pennywise holds the knife, carving Ben's skin. Suddenly Henry starts to hold his neck, blood dripping from his finger. He cries out, "Help! Help me!" I gasp with tears in my eyes, "Henry!"

Pennywise holds Henry's head back by his hair, pressing the knife to his neck harder. Suddenly Beverly stands, running at the mirror, and smashing it, causing the illusion of the demonic creature to vanish.

I grab Henry's face examining him. "Are you okay?" He nods quickly. He stands up, dashing through the door as he hears the screams of the others.

In the kitchen, Richie lays on the floor, Eddie in the corner, and Bill attempting to pull a human head away from Richie's face. Henry rushes to the rescue, pulling out his own knife, and stabbing the head several times.

The head falls limp allowing it to be tossed away, "Stan?" I stare at the decapitated head.

——————-

We all climb into the sewer, soaking the bottoms of our pants in gray water. I hold my hand to my nose, "god, it stinks!" Henry places a hand in my back, steadying my pace.

We turn down another pipe, leading to an opening. In the center looks to be a broken wooden structure, a shaft in the middle, only leading down. "This is where it happened." Mike leads the way, jumping in the water up to his chest. "Let me help," Henry says before helping me down into the water and following me.

Bev turns her head around sharply, flashing her light down the long pipe. "Bev? You alright?" I ask her passing in the water. She nods, "I thought I heard something." Suddenly a tall, skinny, old, demented-looking woman rises from the deep. She grabs Bev's face as she screams. The creature turns to us, "Time to sink!" She pulls Bev under the water.

Panic sets in as we try and grapple the water trying to find her. We all grab her arms pulling her back to the surface. "You okay?" She nods silently, shaking.

Richie leans against me, "I feel like crying." I pat his shoulder with as much comfort as I can give.

"Mike. Where do we go from here?"
"In the depths is where It crept In the beneath, to find belief. In the depths is where It crept. In the beneath, to find belief."

Ben shutters, "Is he okay?" Richie looks to his friend, "I think at this point, that's a relative question."

"What's on the other side?"

"I don't know. No one does." Mike leans down to open the port, only silence seeping from the hole. Henry grabs my waist pulling me being him, "Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

Mike starts to descend into the depth, "Mike, don't." Mike sits on the edge of the hole, several unknown feet below him, he looks to us calmly, "Alright. See you down there." He drops down into the hole.

"Mike! Wait!"

Bill nods his head, "Stay together." We all agree, "Okay." Bill steps down, leading into the hole. Eddie shakes his head, "You guys, I can't do it. I can't. You saw what happened up there. I was gonna let you die. I just fucking froze up. If you let me go down there with you, I'm gonna get us all killed." Henry shakes his head. He comes forth in front of him, Henry looks behind him taking one of my extra stakes. He waves it in front of Eddie. "You're telling me I tortured you for years and you're scared of some clown? You have done this once before, and you can do it again." Henry passes the metal stake to Eddie for protection. "You're braver than you think, Eddie."

We all make our way down the tunnel one by one, behind each other. At the bottom is a large rock with other a small sliver in the cracks. "Can you get through that?" "It's the only way. This way."

Once through the small crevice, I stand in shock, staring at the large crash site of IT. "This is where It hid." Large black debris has frozen in the air on the action of impact.

I look at it in wonder, "This is wild," Henry says from close behind, he pulls me close, "nothing going to happen to you, (y/n). I promise." He kisses my cheek, keeping us going.

"So, all this has been under Derry, like, forever?"
"Not forever. Just a few million years." Mike pulls the leather artifact out, setting it in the middle. "It can only be attacked in its true form. The ritual will show us that." I narrow my eyes remembering the visions but never recalling what IT looked like, "what is Its true form?" Richie shakes, "I hope it's a puppy." I smile, nodding my head in agreement. "Like a Pomeranian or... I'll shut up."

Mike stares at the artifact, "It's light. A light that must be snuffed out by darkness." He pours Kerosene in the artifact before setting a match and dropping it in the leather artifact. A flame roars from the center, Mike stands, "Your artifacts. Place them in the fire. The past must burn with the present."

Bill lifts a raggedy, stained, paper boat, making my heart jerk, "This is the boat that I built... with Georgie." Bill smiles at it, then towards me, "he has so much fun with it, thank you, (y/n)." He puts it in the fire.

Eddie holds his token up, "It's my inhaler." Eddie takes one last drag before throwing it in. Bev stares at the card in her hands, "Something that I wish I had held on to." Into the fire, it went.

Ben is next, "This is a page from my yearbook. That only one person signed. I probably should have forgotten it, but I couldn't because I kept it in my wallet for 27 years."

Richie, "This is a token from the Capitol Theater." Eddie rolls his eyes, "You brought an actual token?" "Yeah, man. That's what we were supposed to do, asshole." "Do you have any idea how long that's gonna take to burn?" "Yeah, but so is your inhaler, dude. All the toxic fumes and the plastic and shit, so..." Henry nods, "he's not wrong," Richie points his finger, "that's called being a kiss ass, Bowers."

Mike holds up a rock, dark marron blood stained on the grit, "Look closely, Bev. Do you see it? That's where you hit Bowers." Henry chuckles, "ah shit. That did hurt. Have a good arm, Bev." She laughs, "The rock fight."

Mike smiles in remembrance, "The day these bonds were forged." He tosses the rock inside. "That's not gonna burn, either." Eddie whispers and Richie nods.

Eddie pulls out a shower cap, "Oh, wait. Couldn't forget about Stan, again." He throws the cap into the flames. A silence took over as eyes rest upon Henry and I.

I pull out the chain with the golden ring dangling. "This was a gift... no, no. A promise." I look back to Henry, "We would always love each other." I drop the necklace into the pot.

Henry steps up, "I... I would like to put something in." He takes out his knife, "I caused a lot of pain with this. Most of it is a bad memory, but now set as a reminder, we can all change. We can all... be good." Henry drops the old knife into the artifact.