𝔸 ℝ𝕠𝕤𝕖 𝔹𝕪 𝔸𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣 ℕ𝕒𝕞𝕖 - reddie

#𝟙𝟟: 𝕀 𝕃𝕠𝕧𝕖 𝕐𝕠𝕦, 𝔹𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕪

"G-G-Georgie..." Bill whispered breathlessly, his mouth dropping completely open, almost skimming the flame he held in his hand.

A moment of realization hit Beverly; she spoke up, a tremble in her voice. "Bill, wait-"

"We'll look for my boat together."

Bill's legs were trembling so hard, he almost looked like a drunk high school girl. He came face to face with the rotting, decayed remains of what his brother used to be. His brother. The one that had gone missing off the face of the earth about 27 years ago, at age six. The brother that he ended up finding, dead, in the sewers, after the first Pennywise battle.

I never thought I had to see Georgie's face again, but here I was; I would've thrown up if I wasn't holding my lips together so tightly.

Its hair was dusty and drenched in sewer water. There wasn't much left of Its face, mostly just maggots and flies skimming around Its doey flesh, that reminded me of sticky cake batter. Moldy patches covered Its fly-infected lip, and half of Its eyeball had been turned the wrong way into Its head. Its raincoat was splattered with subtle blood droplets, and a large tear could be seen where Its arm should have been. But it was merely bone now.

Still, despite all this, It was smiling. It was actually smiling.

I knew this wasn't really Georgie; I wasn't stupid, and neither was Bill. But the pain and torment from his past seemed to attack him all at once when their eyes met.

"Just come with me, Bill.. your friends can come, and we can all go together, how does that sound?" the sweet, yet utterly haunting sound of Its voice echoed off the walls. It sounded like a child, sure, but there was an eeriness to It. It didn't sound like a kid after a while, It sounded like a monotone recording. It didn't sound authentic. It was disturbing and childish, almost like a voicebox inside a stuffed animal. "We'll all float."

I was there, as a seventeen-year-old, when Bill had asked a huge favor of the losers. He wanted us to come and help him clean out some of Georgie's belongings for donation. At that point, it had been four years since Georgie had been murdered, and Bill's parents had been flexible and accepting to letting some of the stuff go.

I understood the hesitation; giving away Georgie's things was like... giving away his existence. Giving away his memory. Giving away him. 

Of course, no one wanted the stuff. No one wants a dead kid's toy chest full of legos. Still, Bill was determined to move on a bit and do something with his life, now that he had closure. He didn't stop crying until we left though. Not real crying, simply tears. No noise. And we understood. 

"You like popcorn, don't you, Bill?"

Bill let out a painful sobbing noise at the sound of this. It sounded like his chest was struggling to let out air. 

"I like popcorn. And cotton candy, and Pepsi..."

It was true. Georgie did like all these things, and it only let Bill's tears flow more. Georgie had always wanted Bill to take him to amusement parks. Ever since his death, Bill never went to another one again.

"Why don't you join the circus with me?" The thing held out Its only intact arm. It kept a daring, double-sided, back-stabbing grin on Its face. "We all float down there. Lets float, Billy."

Bill had slowly migrated down to his knees, his chest fluttering up and down in an uncontrollable manner. He seemed so torn; does he kill the demon that's pretending to be his brother? Does he beg for mercy? I knew I wouldn't do the right thing if Pennywise had turned Itself into Eddie.