What A Time To Be Alive: IT 2017/2019

s i x t e e n

Eddie broke his fortune cookie. "My fortune cookie just says 'Could'" he scoffed. Richie reached forward and grabbed a cookie, snapping it open. "Mine just says 'Guess'" he frowned.

"It" Mike.

"Not" Ben.

"Cut" Bill.

The five men started trying to put the words together, seeming to form a sentence, each man shouting at the other. Beverly opened hers and gasped, a tear sliding down her cheek as she handed Bill the small piece of paper.

'STANLEY' was written on it and the sentence suddenly formed for Andrea. With shaky hands, Bill moved the papers around to form:

GUESS STANLEY COULD NOT CUT IT

Andrea quickly reached forward and grabbed a cookie of her own, hoping to change the message laid out in front of her and she gasped at what hers said:

STILL THINK YOU'RE DREAMING?

She whimpered quietly and covered her mouth, dropping the paper on the table and standing up, tears sliding down her cheeks. "The fuck? What the fuck is going on?!" Eddie exclaimed, moving to hug Andrea but she pulled away.

"What does that mean? What the fuck does that mean?" Richie yelled. "Why does it say Stanley? Will someone fucking answer me?" Eddie said, paling slightly. "How the fuck should I know?!" Andrea yelled and the table shifted.

The fortune cookies on the plate started shaking and quivering. "What the fuck" Andrea breathed. A cookie jumped out of the bowl and Beverly screamed slightly. The cookie broke and a small creature crawled out of it. It was a baby's head on a scorpion's body. "What the fuck is that?!" Andrea screamed as it crawled towards her.

The baby kept crying as it scurried around the table, knocking glasses over and cutlery off the table. A few more fortune cookies jumped out of the plate and started cracking. "Woah, woah, woah" Bill backed away.

Eddie grabbed Andrea's arm and pulled her backwards as an eyeball broke out of one and slid across the table. "Hey! That fortune cookie's looking at me!" Richie cried, backing away as well. "I don't wanna be here. I can't be here! I wanna go home! I don't want to be here!" Eddie cried, trying to protect Andrea. A mini bat broke out of a cookie and started flying at Eddie, Ben and Andrea.

Andrea screamed and moved Eddie out of the way as Ben swatted at the thing. Andrea moved away from the two as the bat flew at her, separating her from the others and she screamed, trying to hit it out of the air. She ended up by the table again and felt something crawl over her hand, causing her to look down and she saw a massive spider with metal-tipped legs crawling over her fingers.

She screamed and dropped to the floor, trying to shake the spider off of her and also keep the bat away from her and Ben ran forward and grabbed the girl's arm, dragging her away from the table as hot black liquid started pouring out of the bowl of cookies. Ben moved Andrea behind him and she crouched down in the corner with her arms covering her head as she sobbed.

Mike grabbed a chair and started smashing it over the table as he yelled "It's not real!" over and over again.

Suddenly, the waitress walked in. "Is everything alright?" she asked. "Yeah, yeah. Could we get the check" Richie said and the waitress glanced around the room before walking away. "Andy? Sweetheart?" Eddie asked and Andrea just sobbed.

"Hey, hey, are you alright?" Ben asked, crouching down next to the girl. "Don't fucking touch me!" she practically screamed, pushing both Ben and Eddie away as she stood up and rushed past everyone outside.

She leant against the wall outside, trying to take some deep breaths but she couldn't stop crying no matter how hard she tried. Finally, after a few minutes, the rest of the group came outside and Beverly was in the process of dialling a phone number. "Andy, hey" Eddie said, immediately standing in front of his wife.