Phantasm 》It Chapter 2

Eight (3rd POV)

Mike waited for everybody at the library. He nervously glanced at his watch occasionally, his leg starting to shake as time passed. The Loser Club shouldn't have separated because that's what It wants. With each moment passing, he feared that the dancing clown was getting to them.

He thought he should meet them at the front door. Mike passed one of the shelves, but stopped when a book fell right behind him. Yet, how could that be if no one else was inside the abandoned library? He turned to pick it up, revealing an old news article from the open book about the fire that killed his parents.

Two Crackheads Dead in Harrison Avenue Fire is what the title read along with a photo from when he was a toddler.

The memory is still clear in his mind, whether it be the work of Pennywise or not. His parents were at the front door of the burning building. They pounded on the door and screamed for Mike to let them out. But he was just a kid, he didn't understand what was going on at the time. Yet, the memory still haunts him to this very day. Mike could recall his mother's screams, the smell of burning flesh, and the bright orange glow in the back with smoke coming through the cracks of the door.

Mike lowered the book, only to hear a battle cry from Henry Bowers. Bowers held his knife high up with a murderous glare in his eyes as he charged at Mike. Mike dropped the book to grab Bower's shoulders before he could get stabbed. It caught him by surprise momentarily as he skidded back. Mike gripped Bower's shoulders before tossing him over toward an old display case. Their eyes locked on the knife.

Mike reached for the knife, but Bowers quickly sat up to punch him in the gut before uppercutting Mike's chin. Mike fell back with a hard thud. Bowers found this all amusing. He laughed while picking up the knife and pointed it at Mike.

"You should have burned, Mike," Bowers said before he yelled and charged at Mike again. Bowers lowered the blade. Mike brought his wrist up to push against Bowers's to at least block him. Bowers growled, punched Mike across his right cheek, and gripped the handle of the knife with both hands. He began pushing the blade toward Mike's face. "Just like your druggie parents. Can you see them yet? Crisping?" Bowers kept adding more weight. "Like fried fucking..."

Bowers groaned when he felt this sharp pain on the back of his head. His eyes rolled to the back of his head as Richie pushed Bowers off of Mike, revealing a tomahawk lodged in his scalp.

"I guess you could say that was long overdue," Richie tried to find the light of things -- despite him panicking on the inside. "Get it? 'Cause we're in a library." A metallic taste filled Richie's mouth as he began retching. "No." He doubled over and puked next to Mike, just missing him by a half a foot.

The doors to the library open. "Mike?" Beverly's worried voice called out upon arrival.

"Hey," Ben said soon after they and Eddie rushed inside.

"Hey." Beverly spotted Mike on the floor. "Oh, my God." She screamed when she saw Bowers on the floor. Her hands flew to her mouth and she began panting from the shock.

"Are - Are you alright?" Ben asked.

"No, I'm not all right. I just fucking killed a guy," Richie said in a way of saying why would you ask that? There's a fucking dead body on the floor!

"I was talking to Mike."

Mike looked up and noticed someone was missing. "Where's Bill?" he wondered.

》》》》

Bill was trying not to lose his fucking mind. Pennywise devoured another child and he just saw his dead older sister in a goddamn mirror in a funhouse! His cellphone rang.