Strange as IT Seems

Chapter 55: One Last Swim

Life drifts on. As the end of summer approached, Hawkins was experiencing summer weather and the warmth lingered as September soldiered on. The day after the big storm brought sunshine, warmth and some humidity and it carried through until the end of the week. The leaves on the trees would soon show colour and drop, but until then, everyone enjoyed the heat.

It could be assumed that after a chaotic August, all those who had moved to Hawkins either from Derry or elsewhere settled into a routine, making their lives as comfortable as possible, but it could not be further from the truth. The Denbrough family seemed to adjust as best they could, and the world seemed to feel more normal. Joel Rogers had not been heard from and had allegedly been seen in Miami Florida for some reason, allowing Mia to feel safer.

All this comfort and normalcy was an illusion in Bill Denbrough's eyes... His whole world had collapsed into one of his favourite fantasy mixed with horror books. Otherworldly creatures stalked in the shadows, and he was rebuilding his view of the world based on what he knew. The warm weather had put a stall on Bill's plans for putting a heater or a space heater in Georgie's closet as it was hot enough to keep the Demogorgon at bay for the time being... a creature with no face and existed in another dimension. The windows in the house were left open to allow any cool breezes through and just for safekeeping kept his brother's closet open the entire time to allow the humidity to permeate the room. It was their weapon against this being with no known origin and this monster was working with IT. It was quite overwhelming to imagine, and it would take Bill some time to get his mind around it all.

However, if his little brother came to him in the middle of the night because he was scared, he allowed him to sleep on his bedroom floor.

Thursday night, Bill watched as Georgie curled up in his sleeping bag. He reached down and touched his brother's head.

"I-I promise. I-I won't let anything happen to you."

A vow he was going to keep with every last fibre of his being. And he would continue to fulfill that promise with their friend group's plan.

"We meet Friday night, meet inside the school playground. By the baseball diamond." Mike's voice echoes in Bill's head as he sits on the couch in the living room shortly after school had let out for the weekend. "7:00 and don't be late."

"Bring supplies, we might be out there for a while. We need to be in a safe place where no one can hear us and see if we can pick up the signal again," Dustin had added.

Bill can barely focus on the book he's reading for school as his mind is buzzing with what they are going to talk about. Dustin had mentioned something about a Cerebro and a "Weathertop." It all sounded gibberish to those from Derry, but Bill, Beverly, and Ben trusted those from Hawkins and said that they had some plan ready.

"Bill, are you sure you don't want to come?" Sharon offers as she packs the towels and her sunglasses. She then leans down to put sunscreen on Georgie's face.

"Come on Billy!" his little brother begs.

"Thanks, but I'm g-good," he says, looking up from a book he had to read for school. "I have to r-read three chapters-s for school."

"All right, suit yourself. You can always bike over if you feel like it," Sharon shrugs.

"Also M-mom," Bill says.

"Yes?"

"M-Me and a couple of my f-friends were going to go star...g-gazing tonight. Is that okay?"

"Some of your new friends like that Will Byers?" Sharon asks.

"Yes," Bill answers.

This delights the mother to no end that her eldest son is finally being social and has new friends. It's the happiest she's seen him in months.