Strange as IT Seems

Chapter 48: Trusted?

Bill drops what he was eating and Beverly swallows what's in her mouth hard. Their eyes go wide in fear, and it feels like their brains twist up into knots. Their heart rates accelerate and they feel lightheaded.

"W-W-W-What did you s-say?" Bill finally manages to stutter out. He then bites his quivering lip and fights the tears trying to well up in his eyes.

"What? About the equipment malfunctioning?" Dustin asks.

"N-No," Beverly stammers. "The..." she swallows. "The floating part."

"It was just a voice saying that it would get you and something about floating... No idea who it was talking about, but Ben here thinks it was coming for him. It's weird, but I've picked up this station before. Carnival music and all."

"Y-y-y-you've heard it b-before?" Bill stammers hard. "W-When?"

"A few weeks back after I finished talking to my girlfriend. I have my own giant radio called Cerebro. This thing is awesome, it can reach Utah..."

Max, Will, and Eleven roll their eyes. Once again Dustin can't help but brag about his mechanical and electrical ingenuity. They tune it out, continue eating their snacks, and observe how the kids from Derry are reacting.

None of the Loser's Club is listening either but for a completely different reason.

Beverly's knees buckle to the point where she has to sit down on the picnic table. She fumbles and pulls out a slightly damp cigarette and her lighter. Her hand shakes violently as she tries to light it. She struggles to get it lit as her hand trembles erratically. Bill leans against the pillar of the covered picnic area. His nails dig into the damp wood, not caring how much it hurts. He can feel the lump in his throat, unable to speak as the wave of everything comes back. The horrors of what they all encountered. The visions of horror, the projector, the battle in the house, what they saw in the sewers. It only seemed to haunt them in their dreams now... but...

IT was supposed to be gone. They'd left that thing to rot in the sewers and now they were a few states over. How the hell did it follow them from Derry? Could it even do that? If it was here, how has nobody gone missing? That was always the first sign of it being here.

"What's with you guys?" Max retorts, not understanding why their fellow companions are suddenly so quiet. "Did Dustin just kill the mood?"

The three don't respond at all.

"Great going Dustin," Max criticizes him.

"What? I was just stating the facts. They're the ones who are acting like zombies," the curly-haired teen protests.

"What are you guys scared of carnivals or clowns or something?" Max murmurs.

"It can't be true, it can't be true, it can't be true..." Beverly hisses.

"What can't be true?" Max presses.

"W-w-w-w-we got IT," Bill stutters, battling tears. His fingers dig even further into the wood, and he bites his lip hard enough to bleed.

"Got what?" Will asks.

Both he and Eleven are more concerned about their friends. They knew that look, like something was haunting them. A horrible memory or a flashback. Both of them got those frequently.

Unfortunately, Max was not as compassionate and was quickly losing her patience.

"Okay, is anyone going to explain what's happening?!" she demands.

"Max!" Will says critically. "How about giving them a break?"

"A break from what? They've suddenly gone into the Twilight Zone, and we need to stand here like a bunch of idiots."

"Max..." El says, glaring at her best friend.

"I'm just saying."

"Well, you're not exactly being the kind of person they'd want to talk to you about it," Will says.

"Because I'm not. I like to shoot straight. No bullshit."

Eleven goes to sit next to Beverly who was trying to get every last drag of her cigarette. Her hand was still shaking, and her eyes were filled with tears. The redhead turns to face her new friends. She sees sympathy and concern for her, which is comforting, but how could they tell them? They wouldn't believe them. No one ever did.

"It's okay," El says quietly. She pats Bev's shoulder to show that she wants to be there for her.

Bev glances at Bill and then Ben. Ben had finally raised his head from the table and just stared out into nothing, past the group sheltering from the rain. He wants to deny it, say it was just his imagination, but unfortunately Dustin was his witness and confirmed his worst nightmare. He glances at Beverly. They share a look. They wanted to talk about it, but it was too out there. Too unbelievable. Too impossible. Ben gives a slight shake of his head to discourage her from saying anything.

Max rolls her eyes, wanting to grab her snacks and bail, but the rain is still pouring down and a clap of thunder seems to spook all of them. She regrets giving anything to them, especially if they were just going to be weird and not tell them why. She grabs a pack of Skittles and finds a separate picnic bench to sit at, facing away from them.

"Whatever it is you've gone through," Will says. "We understand how hard it is."

"How?" Ben says, uttering the first word he'd said in a while.

Will looks at Dustin, Eleven, and Max. He knows he can't say anything specific because then the Derry kids think that they're insane, plus El's powers still need to be kept a secret. He decides to keep it vague.

"We just do," he says.

"The thing is..." Beverly says. "You wouldn't believe us if we told you."

The Hawkins group looks at one another, shocked at this. That sentence was certainly familiar to them. It's what Lucas had told Max when she'd first joined the group, and it's what all of them repeated to themselves. It was like a mantra because no one would believe them and it was a secret that all of them shared.

Dustin is now extremely intrigued by this. His mind races trying to understand what the Derry kids said, and why did it sound so familiar.

"Try us..." he says.

Bill turns to his friends. He wasn't ready to lose a new friend over what they'd gone through, but three out of the four seemed interested in what he had to say. They weren't hiding smiles or laughter like they were ready to humiliate them, they had grave concern on their faces. He looks at Ben and Beverly. The internal debate continues in all of them, worried that they could either be laughed at or called crazy or just dismissed completely, like always.

It was a leap they weren't sure if they wanted to take. Could they be trusted with the truth?

A/N: Sorry if it's a short chapter, but it's leading to what we've been waiting for. Thank you again for all your comments and reviews. I love having the opportunity to chat about what's happening.