"I've realized that..." he started, then took a shaky breath. "Earlier today, when Stanley pulled you aside... seeing you two so close and secretive, I hated it." The words tumbled out in a rush. "I don't like how others make you smile..." He traile...
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°•°Vanessa's POV°•°
"Shit! Shit!" The word was a useless mantra against the towering horror before us.
"Oh, did it work, Mikey? Did it work?" Pennywise's voice was a singsong mockery, its laughter a physical thing that ricocheted off the cavern walls, scraping against my nerves. "Tell them why your silly little ritual didn't work. Tell them it's all just a... What's the word, Eds? Gazebo?" The clown's grin widened, a crimson slash in the pale flesh of its face.
"Mike, what's he talking about?" Eddie's voice was a blade of betrayal, aimed at the friend who had led us into this trap.
"M-Mikey?" Bill's question was a low, dangerous growl. Mike remained silent, his head bowed.
"Oh, Mikey, you never showed them the fourth side, did you?" Pennywise crooned, a parent chiding a naughty child. Eddie's arm wrapped around me, pulling me tight against his side. I sank into the solid, terrified warmth of him. "Didn't want them to know what actually happened to the poor Shokopiwah? Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum." The creature smacked its lips, the sound grotesque.
"Fuck, Mikey. You lied to us again?" Bill roared.
"No! But they didn't believe! They didn't believe they could kill it! That's why it didn't work back then!" Mike's defense was a desperate, stammering plea.
"Are you fucking kidding me, Mike?" Richie's shout was pure, undiluted disbelief.
"We hurt him!"
"Fuck!"
"Fuck you, Mikey." Bill's condemnation was final. My eyes were locked on the monster, watching it shift and move behind the petrified spikes of its nest. "I needed something, anything for us to remember. Anything for us to believe," Mike begged, his voice breaking.
Our fractured shouts were nothing but entertainment for the thing we sought to kill. Its laughter boomed, and above us, the deadlights reignited, now a chilling, electric blue, circling each other like malevolent twins.
"The deadlights, don't look at them!" Beverly screamed. We all flinched away, squeezing our eyes shut. I made the mistake of opening mine a sliver. I wished I hadn't.
"For 27 years, I dreamt of you." The voice was a intimate, horrible whisper that seemed to come from right behind me. I shuddered, ice flooding my veins. It stepped fully into view, its form a blasphemous fusion of clown and giant spider, limbs jointed all wrong. "I craved you. Oh, I've missed you!"
"Mike! Move back!" Eddie yelled, his grip on my arm vice-like as he hauled us backward.
"Waiting for this very moment."
"Mikey! You gotta move, Mikey!" Bill shouted. But Mike was a statue, paralyzed by guilt and fear.
"Sorry. I'm sorry, guys," he mumbled, a broken record.
