The New Group // Fem Losers Club

Chapter 5

"Beverly!!! Beverly wake up!"

One minute they had been mindlessly arguing about the Beatles, and the next, their new friend was standing in the water with white eyes, not moving a muscle. They had never seen anything like this; she wasn't shaking, not even a little, so they couldn't assume it was a seizure. So, they did what every group of thirteen year olds would think to do.

Kay lifted the girl out of the water and brought her to the shore. She laid her down on the sand and lifted her legs up, as that was what she was taught to do if somebody was unconscious. Nothing happened. Now the panic really set in.

She shook her and yelled, hoping to get some sort of reaction, but her efforts were in vain. Susie and Audra left to go try to get help from somebody, while Myra ran to the nearest pay phone to call 911. Kay was now crying, wrapping her arms around the redhead in hopelessness.

"Beverly please, please just wake up," She cried.

Suddenly, Beverly took in a sharp breath and her eyes returned to the normal pale blue they always were. She looked frightened, but she was awake. She was okay.

Leslie ran up the sand, to where the others went, and screamed to let them know that Beverly was okay. Luckily, they hadn't talked to the police yet.

Audra, Myra, and Susie all ran down the sand to see what was going on.

"Alright, Beverly, what the hell was that? You never told us you had epilepsy," Leslie said.

"I don't."

"What happened?" Kay asked.

"Yeah, we have a right to know. That was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me," Audra added.

"Don't make this about yourself, Audra." Susie remarked.

"What? I'm a theater kid, I can't help it."

"Oh my God, would you guys SHUT UP?" Kay yelled. "Beverly, what happened?"

"I don't know. Actually, I do know. I just... need a minute. Can we go to someone's house or something?"

"Susie's!" Leslie suggested.

"Why is it always my house?"

"Because you're rich, that's why."

"I am not! Audra has like, way more money than me!"

"Yeah, but Audra's British. And I don't know about you, but I'd rather not be served beans on toast for dinner."

"Nobody eats beans on toast for dinner," Audra said. "I'm going to go call my mum now to give all you ungrateful little shits a ride to Susie's."

~~~

"So, can you tell us now?" Kay asked. They were all in Susie's bedroom, The Beatles' Rubber Soul playing on her record player. They all sat leisurely on the floor or on the bed, Beverly being on the latter.

"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me."

"Oh, dear, sweet, Beverly, I think you're underestimating how stupid we are," Leslie commented.

"She's right. We'd believe anything. Especially coming from you, you don't seem like the type to lie," Kay added.

"Um, well, I don't really know how to start. Kay, remember when we first met, and I told you how Derry is a very different town?"

"Yeah."

"Well, basically, when I lived there, I had a group of friends. We called ourselves the Losers Club. Last summer, a bunch of kids started going missing. I mean, like, a lot. It seemed it was someone new every week. And then, everybody started seeing weird things. Things that they feared, specifically pertaining to the person. Like, for example, mine was blood shooting out of my sink."

"Wait, why are you scared of blood?" Pattie asked.

"Oh, just cause it reminds me of getting hurt, and I'm scared of pain. Anyway, there was blood all over my bathroom, and my father couldn't see it. Only my friends could see it. Everybody saw something different, that was their biggest fear. My friend Bill saw his dead brother, one of the missing kids, Ben saw a dead kid from one of his history books, Stan saw a creepy lady, Eddie saw a leper, and Mike saw his dead parents. Richie apparently never saw anything until we went to fight IT. There, he saw Eddie, and was led into a room of clown dolls by him."

"Wait, are you saying that, whatever this thing is, used this guy Eddie as bait for Richie to follow him into a room of scary shit?" Leslie asked.

"Yeah?"

"That sounds kinda gay."

"That's not the point. The point is, when we went to fight IT, we killed IT. We had overcome our fears, and we saw it fade away into dust. But I saw IT again. The clown captured me-"

"Clown?" Everybody asked.

"Yeah, it's default form was a super creepy clown named Pennywise. Anyway, Pennywise captured me, that was what brought the boys to come for me and kill IT. Anyway, when I was in its layer type thing, IT showed me its true form, called the deadlights. When I looked into the deadlights, I saw weird things. I saw the future, I saw death, but the thing is, I felt the same as I did today. I think somehow IT is getting to me all the way in Portland."

They all stared blankly at the redhead.

"You guys don't believe me, do you?"

"No, I believe you, Bev. It's just... a lot to take in, is all," Kay said.

Susie suddenly got off her bed and went to sit at her desk, powering up her computer.

"What are you doing, Susie?" Audra asked.

"I'm researching."

After a while of digging, Susie had pulled up various articles dating back all the way to the late 1800s, of unexplained unnatural disasters and missing kids. Events such as the Bradley Gang, the Black Spot, the Kitchener Ironworks had been documented and Susie was now reading them. It dawned on Beverly that this was probably about as much proof as she had access to. Thank God for Susie. Pretty soon everybody was gathered around the computer, reading about the catastrophes.

"Hey guys, wait, look at that!" Myra pointed at a somebody in a crowd of people in front of the Derry courthouse, a picture dating back to 1908.

"I don't see anything," Susie said.

"Look closer. It's a clown. The clown Beverly was talking about."

"Holy shit, the redhead's right!" Leslie said. "Both of them!"

"That's a fucking clown if I've ever seen one. Beverly, do you recognize this motherfucker?" Kay asked.

Beverly, too, joined the crowd around the computer.

"Yeah, that's him, alright. Pennywise the Dancing Clown." She shuddered.