the lies continue on

Chapter Four

A/N - Just a quick FYI, this book is gonna be a bit shorter than the first book. 12 chapters to be exact. I finished writing it all last night and bawled my eyes out for majority of it, if you know what I mean. I hope you guys enjoy! Feel free to yell at me in the comments <3

Song - "Saturn : Sleeping At Last"

    On our way out of the restaurant, Eddie tried to make sense of everything that had happened in the last hour. "That's what Pennywise does, right? He fucks with us. So, Stanley's probably fine." He wasn't though. I felt it in my gut. Something was wrong. His call and now this? Something was definitely wrong.

"I'll call him" I said, quickly grabbing my phone out of my jacket and called his number once we all got outside. The panic and fear seemed to only be getting worse. Hearing his voice would be the only thing that would be able to calm me down. After the longest time, someone finally picked up. "Stanley!" I sighed in relief. That relief was soon cut short by someone else's voice.

"Who is this?" A woman asked.

"Uh...sorry. I-I'm y/n, I'm an old friend of Stan's." I explained. "Who...uh...who am I speaking to?"

"His wife."

I did my best to hold back my tears and tilted my head back. "I'm...I'm sorry to bother you, Mrs. Uris, but I was wondering if I could talk to your...husband." The word felt wrong to say about him as it left my mouth. Almost like a sin.

She sniffled, "Oh...he...he passed." My hand flew to my mouth and my stance became weak.

"W-what?"

"Last night" She explained. "It was horrible, the way he died. His wrists..."

    "...the bathtub" I whispered to myself. "I'm sorry to have bothered you, Mrs. Uris." I quickly hung up. When I turned around, Richie was the one to pull me in before I could fall. I cried heavily into his chest. The crying became painful as I replayed old memories in my head. His way with words were enough to throw me over the edge...

"I won't let him hurt you", "If I loved you any less, I might be able to talk about it more.", "You must allow me to tell you how much ardently I admire and love you".

His call from last night was starting to make more and more sense. If I had said yes to England, maybe he'd still be alive. I knew this was how he would die, though. I had seen it 27 years ago, but over the years the vision became a blur and I no longer knew what it meant until tonight.

"I'm so sorry, y/n" Mike tried to rest his hand on my shoulder, but I quickly brushed away.

"This is your fault, Mike! If you had never called us in the first place, he'd still be alive. We'd all still be at home not having to worry about a stupid fucking clown!" I yelled.

"We made a promise"

"Fuck the promise. I'm going home."

"Me too" Richie and Eddie both agreed.

Mike tried to grab my hand but I was quick to retract it and strike him across the face. "Don't touch me!"

    Everyone but Mike and Bill headed back to the inn. Richie said for everyone, "Let's get our shit and get the fuck out of here." He and Eddie bolted upstairs while Ben, Bev, and I headed to the bar.

As she and I poured ourselves a few drinks, Ben sat before me and said "Tell me."

"What are you talking about?" I sniffed.

"Whatever it is you're not telling us."

"I can't do this right now." I started to walk away and he only followed me.

    "Y/n. Y/n" He stood in front of me, blocking me. "Back, at the Jade when you were on the phone with Stanley's wife" hearing the fact he had a wife made me sick to my stomach and he then became cautious with his wording. "She told you that she found him in the bathtub, but, Y/n, I saw you. I heard it. You said it first." Fuck. I was really hoping to avoid this conversation forever.

    Richie then interrupted. "Whatever you guys are talking about, let's make it happen faster, all right? We gotta go." He then called up to Eddie. "Eduardo, andale! Let's go!"

"Y/n, there's something you're not telling us." I felt like I was being back into a corner. "You knew how Stanley died. You knew."

"Wait, what?" Richie and Bev asked in confusion.

Ben held my hand. "Please, just talk to us."

    I scoffed in disbelief. "You want me to talk to you after I just found out the only person I have ever loved just fucking slit his wrists?!" I shook my spinning head. "You wanna know how I know, Ben? I saw it. I've seen every single one of us die." They all just stared at me in horror, along with Eddie as he walked into the middle of the conversation. "Happy now?" I then grabbed my glass from the bar and sat myself down on the couch.

"I-I'm sorry. What do you mean you've seen us all die?" Eddie freaked out as I took a sip.

Richie added, "That's a fucked up thing to just drop on somebody."

    I cleared my throat before explaining it all. "That day Bev and I wound up in the sewers before the rest of you found us, It knocked her out. Me, on the other hand, he made me see things." I sniffed and looked to everyone with care. "I watched every single one of us..."

"You've seen every single one of us what?" Bill asked as he and Mike entered the room. He sat down beside me and took my hand in his.

"The place that Stanley wound up...that's how we end."

"The Deadlights" Mike sighed. "You were the only one of us that got caught in the deadlights. We were all touched by it. Changed. Deep down. Like an infection or a virus. Slowly growing for 27 years. This whole time, metastasizing. It just got to Stan first..."

"Because he was the weakest" Richie finished for him. Bill held tighter to my hand to comfort me.

"What Y/n sees, it will come to pass. It's what'll happen to all of us, eventually, unless we stop it."

"How the hell are we supposed to do that?" Eddie asked.

"The Ritual of Chud." Mike explained. "The Shokopiwah. The first ones who fought it, they have a saying. "All living things must abide by the laws of the shape they inhabit.""

"A fucking tribal ritual?" I scoffed. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

Richie agreed with me. "This thing comes back, what, every 27 years? Let's just kick the can down the road and do it then."

"We'll be 70 years old, asshole." Eddie mocked.

It didn't work that way though. "None of us make it another 20 years in the way it happens."

"So, if we don't beat it this cycle, then..." Ben trailed off.

"We die" Bill added. "Guys, I've seen w-what he's talking a-about and i-it's all true. It's the only way. If we want this ritual to work..."

"We have to remember" Mike said.

"Remember what?' Richie asked.

"It's better if I show you. We don't have that much time."