Pennywise's Neverland

Chapter thirty: Full circle.

Billy sat at the edge of the quarry, the gray November sky reflecting in the still, murky water below. The air was cold and damp, clinging to him like a second skin as he waited, his mind churning through the same questions he’d turned over night after night since Georgie vanished. It had been weeks, and despite all his efforts—searching the woods, the riverbanks, every hidden spot he and Georgie used to wander—he’d found nothing.

Footsteps crunched behind him, and he looked up to see his friends approaching. Richie, Stan, Ben, Eddie, Mike and Bev; all of them approaching, all of them with faces drawn and their jackets pulled tight against the chill. Richie had his hands shoved in his pockets, his usual smirk replaced with a somber frown. Eddie clutched his Pipe of Peace inhaler tightly, his face pale. And the rest just sat beside him, not saying anything.

Richie was the first to speak, his voice low and hesitant. “Billy… I don’t know how much longer we can keep doing this.” He paused, glancing at the others. “We’ve searched everywhere. We’ve gone to the sewers a dozen times now, every nook and cranny. We’re not… we’re not finding anything.”

Billy clenched his fists, his jaw tightening. “Georgie’s out there,” he insisted, his voice hard, fierce. “I know it. He didn’t just… disappear.”

Eddie shifted, glancing at the others, his voice wavering. “Bill… it’s been weeks. Even… even your parents have stopped looking. Everyone thinks…” He trailed off, wincing as he met Billy’s gaze. “You know what they’re saying.”

Billy’s gaze flicked to the ground, the weight of his friends’ doubt pressing down on him. He knew what they were all thinking. He’d seen the way people in town looked at him now, their pitying expressions, the way they’d stopped mentioning Georgie’s name, as if they’d already buried him in their minds.

But he couldn’t give up. Not when he knew, deep down, that Georgie was still out there, waiting for him.

“Fine,” he muttered, getting to his feet, his fists clenched at his sides. “If no one else will help, I’ll figure it out on my own.”

Stan gave him a worried look, standing as well. “Bill… where are you going?”

Billy’s gaze hardened, his mind made up. “To my father. He was the last person who saw Georgie that night, and he hasn’t said a word about it since. He knows more than he’s letting on.”

Mike and Ben exchanged a glance, each of them uneasy, but they followed as Billy set off back toward town, his determination unwavering. They all heard the rumors about Billy’s father—how he’d been quiet, tense, and on edge since Georgie’s disappearance, snapping at anyone who brought it up. Even Billy’s mother had stopped asking questions, her face drawn and tired, as if she couldn’t bear the weight of whatever secrets their family now carried.

---

When Billy got home, he found his father sitting in the parlor, staring into the dying fire with a distant, haunted look in his eyes. The room was cold, dim, the kind of chill that settled deep in the bones, and Billy could feel his pulse quicken as he stepped inside.

“Dad,” he said, his voice firmer than he felt. His father didn’t look up, his gaze fixed on the smoldering embers, but Billy pressed on. “I need you to tell me what really happened that night. When Georgie went missing.”

His father’s shoulders stiffened, his jaw clenching, but he didn’t answer, his silence thick and unyielding.

“Dad, please,” Billy insisted, his voice cracking. “I need to know. If there’s anything… anything you haven’t told me—”

“What good would it do you?” his father snapped, his voice cold, sharp. He turned to Billy, his eyes hard, a flash of something dark, almost haunted, in his gaze. Billy knew that look, he'd grown familiar with it over the past month he'd first tried talking to him about it. At first, he tried to respect it, seeing it as his father grieving. Now he wasn’t so sure.

“I just wanted to ask. I checked the butchers where you sent him but Mr. Tomas said he never even saw him and I—”

“He’s gone, Bill! You can’t bring him back by digging through the past.”

“But I can find him,” Billy shot back, his fists clenching at his sides. “I know he’s out there. And I know you’re hiding something”

His father’s face darkened, a flicker of anger flaring in his eyes. “Let it be, boy. There are things in this world… things you don’t understand. Things you’re better off not knowing.”

Billy’s breath caught, a chill creeping down his spine as he took in the look on his father’s face—a mixture of fear, guilt, and something else, something far more disturbing. “Dad… what did you do?” he whispered, his voice barely above a breath.

For a long moment, his father didn’t answer, his gaze shifting back to the fire. When he finally spoke, his voice was low, hollow, as if each word weighed more than he could bear. “I didn’t have a choice,” he murmured, his voice cracking. “Debt… you know how things were. Times were hard, Bill. Harder than you’ll ever understand.”

Billy stared, a sick realization dawning on him, each word tightening around his heart like a vice. “You.. you killed him?” he whispered, his voice strangled.

His father’s face twisted, his hands clenching into fists. “No. No..” he muttered, his voice thick with self-loathing. “Just a… transaction. We needed the money.”

Billy’s vision blurred, his body trembling as the full weight of the truth crashed over him. His father, the man he’d trusted, had sold his own brother, sent him off to… to what? Where had they taken him?

The room spun, his mind reeling as he staggered back, barely able to process the horror that had unfolded in his own home. “You let him go,” he choked out, his voice breaking. “You let them take him, and you did nothing to stop it.”

His father’s face crumpled, his own guilt stark and unhidden now, but Billy couldn’t bear to look at him. He turned, stumbling out of the room, the walls pressing in around him, his breath hitching as he ran into the cold night air.

He didn’t know where he was going, or what he would do. All he knew was that he couldn’t stop, couldn’t let himself fall apart. Georgie was still out there, somewhere, and now he knew that his brother’s fate was tangled up in something far darker than he’d ever imagined.

I’ll find you, Georgie, he vowed, his voice a whisper in the cold, empty street. "I’ll find you… no matter what it takes."