The Sun is Shining

015

"Sad," Beverly and Stanley said at the same time. Stanley held the container of shower caps in his hands, realizing he would've definitely made a bad mistake if he'd taken his life. This little container reminded him of some of the best memories he ever had in Derry, and all Pennywise did to their good memories was cloud them terribly.

"Alright, Mike. What are we doing here?" Richie asked the question they were all wondering, after a moment of silence.

"The ritual. To perform it requires a sacrifice," Mike answered, as he stood up.

"Sacrifice? I nominate Eddie."

"I nominate Richie," Charlie stated, simply at the same time as the man himself.

"Wait a minute, why me?" Richie spoke up, as Eddie questioned the whole sacrifice thing.

"Because you've pissed us all off about fifty times too many. Give it a rest, or you will be the sacrifice," Charlie said, pointing at him. Richie tried to hide behind Eddie.

"It's not that kind of a sacrifice, guys," Bill spoke, as Eddie moved to stand away from Richie. "Mike?"

"The past is buried. But you're going to have to dig it up. Piece by piece. And these pieces, these artifacts, that's why we're here. They are what you'll sacrifice," Mike explained, "And I thought getting a few group memories back might prepare you for what happens next."

With that, everyone exited the clubhouse, Charlie and Stanley helping Violet. They all sat there, just waiting for what would come next.

"Okay, Mike," Eddie started, "So where do we find our tokens?"

"Yeah, I gotta be honest, man. All due respect. This is fucking stupid, all right?" Richie said, still not fond of actually going through with this.

"It is curious," Charlie interjected, "Why do you guys need the tokens? From what I've gathered, you guys know what happened that summer. Why can't you guys use your strengths to be rid of this guy?"

"We saved Bev, helped Vi with her internal fears, and defeated It. Pretty sure, we're all caught up, Mike." Stanley pointed out.

"Wait, what internal fears?" Stella asked her mom, looking overly concerned for her.

"That's what we have to look for, isn't it?" Violet spoke up, from the tree root she was sitting on. "Everything we're missing."

"Exactly. We fought. But what happened after that? Before the house on Neibolt." Mike asked everyone. With the small exception of Violet herself, everyone began to be unable to connect the dots. "Think."

"We c-can't remember, can we?" Bill asked, by Bev.

"There's more to our story." Mike continued. "What happened that summer. And those blank spaces, like pages torn out of a book. That's what you need to find."

Every Loser looked terrified at the idea of rediscovering possibly bad memories.

"Okay, I'm still confused by one thing." Eddie spoke up.

"Just one thing?" Charlie looked at Eddie, his mind spiraling at this point. Eddie ignored him and continued.

"What about Violet and Stan? They already remember everything."

"Remember everything!? I never got the chance like the rest of you to even remotely forget it all! Don't you dare act like my situation is better than yours, Eddie, because it's not!" Violet practically exploded. Tears ran down her face, as she felt like she was having yet another anxiety attack. "I need my meds. Where are they?"

Rich, Stella and Charlie all searched their backpacks, not remembering who had them this morning. Rich found them in his and immediately handed them to his mother. Violet tossed back about four medications that helped with her anxiety, PTSD, panic attacks, and depression all at once. She was shaking like a leaf, as Ben understood and continued Eddie's thoughts.

"Regardless about how it's worked out, it's a valid point. Violet has remembered everything since the day she moved out of here, and Stanley all of a sudden remembered everything because- what?- Violet called you?"

"Yeah, pretty much. I can't really explain it, but be thankful she got me to not commit suicide afterward." Stanley's words moved everyone to silence for a bit. All they could hear were sounds of the woods.

"So, do you know what your token is already?" Stella asked him. He nodded slowly, making some of the Losers jealous that they still didn't. To be fair, Stanley didn't want to visit where his token was.

"We need to split up." Mike suddenly stated. "You each need to find your artifact. Alone. That's important." Violet gripped Charlie's hand tightly, already panicking at the thought of going alone.

"When you do, meet me at the library tonight." Mike told them, a feeling of unrest and unease settling in to each of their stomachs.

"Yeah, I gotta say, statistically speaking, you look at survival scenarios, we're gonna do much better as a group." Eddie spoke up. Most everyone sighed in relief that they all felt the same about splitting up.

"Not statistically speaking, don't most horror movies end once everyone splits up and dies?" Rich mentioned beside Stella and Violet. 

"Yeah, I agree with both of them. Splitting up would be dumb, man." Richie stated bluntly. "Okay, we gotta go together. All right? We were together that summer, right?"

"No." Bill and Violet shared a look as they spoke in sync.

"Not that w-w-whole summer." Bill said, his mind remembering the fight.

"T-t-take it back!" Bill swung his fist back, before plowing a blow to Richie's face. Richie fell back, not expecting Bill to be so defensive.

"Bill!" Beverly called out, not wanting this to escalate any further. Mike and Stanley helped Richie up as he got more upset.

"You're just a bunch of losers. Fuck off!" This set Bill off even more, as Stanley and Mike were already trying to hold Richie back from attacking Bill right back. Beverly and Ben starting holding Bill back, watching the fight unfold. None of them noticed another member of their party slip away in silence, hating that it had come to this.

"Fucking-"

"Stop!"  Beverly yelled overtop Richie. The fighting only subsided, as the anger between both boys was still very high. Richie pushed Mike and Stanley away from him, not needing their help. "We were all together when we hurt It. That's why we're still alive."

"Yeah? Well, I plan to keep it that way." Richie stated, sounding very hostile, as he ran off. The first- in the rest of their minds- to separate from each other. Others began to slowly drift off themselves, realizing Richie had a point there. Only Bill and Beverly stood there in the end, knowing they both had to do something.

They both took off with their bikes together, walking them through town.

"I'll bet by tomorrow, we'll all be back together." Beverly said, hopefully. It wasn't until she and Bill had noticed everyone leaving, that she realized Violet had already left them. She wanted to check up on her.

"I d-d-don't think so." Bill stuttered out, not necessarily wanting to admit defeat. The way everything went down just made it all feel more hopeless to him.

"Well, if we're gonna stop It, we better be." Beverly insisted, optimistically.

"M-m-maybe Richie was right." Bill's statement made Beverly pause in her step. She practically gave Bill an are-you-serious face. "M-m-maybe we s-s-shouldn't do anything about It, or m-m-maybe we can't."

"Okay, don't let them get to you." Beverly's voice started to waver in her optimism.

"It's a little late for that." Bill thought about what Richie said about Georgie and Ashton. He was really beginning to doubt that they were alive, now that Richie had gone out and said it to his face.

"You should go," Bill told Beverly, "B-b-before your dad sees."

Beverly did just that, seeing that Bill wasn't budging on the topic. She just hoped that Bill would change his mind before it was too late.