𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐃 // 𝐈𝐓 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟕

s e v e n

stan runs after me as i walk out of the library.
"kat! wait up! wait!" he yells behind me. i feel him grab my hand and turn me towards him.
"what happened? you just went into a trance, then walked out!" he questions. i shake my head and try to turn away again, but he pulls me back.
"you can tell me." he whispers. i look into his eyes, and almost get lost in them. they were chocolate brown. they were so welcoming, the brown seemed to swirl around his pupil, like chocolate coating the tip of a strawberry. i look down again. he puts two fingers on my chin, meeting my gaze with his. "you can trust me."
"i don't know where to start..." i say, shaking my head.
"start from the very beginning." he says. i look down to our fingers, which were still interlocked. i tell him everything. about the date, the dress i wore, the things he called me, even the car. when i finish, stans mouth was hanging open.
"that's awful..." stan mutters. "why did you walk out, though?" he asks.
"you said when you do the speech, you become a man. henry's friends called his a 'man' when he had done that to me." i admit. stan chews his lip.
"you can't tell anyone." i panic.
"i won't. i promise." he holds out his pinky, and i wrap mine around his. we seal a promise, one that, i hope, will never be broken.
"you're the first person i have told." i laugh slightly.
"you haven't even told your parents?" stan asks, his eyes wide with shock. i shake my head.
"he said if i told anyone, i'd be dead meat. so i kept it to myself." i admit.
"oh my god..." stan shakes his head. his eyes stay locked on me. those chocolate eyes.
"can we change the subject? it kinda makes me uncomfortable." i ask, wriggling around. he nods, and opens his mouth to say something, when we hear;
"what's up, motherfuckers! we're going to your house, kat, to look at some shit i don't really know much about." we both turn around to see richie and eddie approaching us. stan and i quickly untangle our hands.
"everything alright?" eddie asks, eyeing us suspiciously.
"fine." stan replies. i smile and go to grab my bike from the rack outside the library. i return, wheeling my old bike along the path. they immediately stop talking, and they all smile at me. i frown.
"what?" i ask. they all shake their heads, looking around.
"okay..." i mutter. i get onto my bike, and stan runs over to grab his. he comes back and we all bike to bills.
———
bill slots the picture into the projector, and a map of derry appears on the wall. another map appears over the top, and bill reaches over to align the two.
"okay... this is a map o-of derry and the sewers. t-t-that's it. that's where it lives." he explains. i frown, and glance at bill. stan looks at me, and then back to the screen. eddie takes a huge breath from his inhaler.
"can we stop talking about this?i can barley breathe! it summer! we're kids, i can barley breathe! i'm having a fucking asthma attack and i'm not doing this." he says, and stands up, in front of the screen. he rips the map off the wall.
"sit down, eddie." i say.
"what the hell? put the map back."
"nu-uh." he gulps, as the screen flicks. the wall is now covered in just white. then the projector flicks again. a picture of bill, georgie, our parents and i on a water ride. i remember that day. we all came off that ride soaking wet. i've never laughed so much before.
"what happened?" bill asks, tapping the projector. the projector flicks again, and again, flicking through our family pictures. i just sit there, entranced by the happy memories of our family days out. the screen then flicks to a picture of georgie. he's holding our parents hands, on their wedding day. my mother's face was covered by her hair, and georgie was giggling. the picture seemed to zoom into my mother's face. and it flicks. and flicks. it soon begins to change quite quickly. the figure of my mother changes to a more bulkier one, still with the same red hair. the hair begins moves out of its face, and i could tell what it was.

the clown.

i hop out of my chair, knocking it back. the picture was revealing the twisted face of the thing. i grab onto stans hand.
"turn it off!" bev yells.
"what the fuck is that? what the fuck is that?!!" richie squeals, grabbing onto eddie.
"i don't fucking know!" eddie yells back.
"oh my fucking god!" i scream, as the face is fully revealed. mike kicks the projector, and it falls to the ground with a crack. the pictures keep flicking, and then the clown disappears. i sigh with relief, and run a hand through my hair.

i wasn't relieved for very long.

the clown seems to pop out of the wall. a much bigger version. it reaches out its hands and grabs at us. we all scream and run to the garage door. it grabs my arm, and i yelp out in pain. we all back up against the door of the garage and it crawls towards us. i fumble around for the cord to open the door. just as it reaches us and it's breathing down bevs neck, i find the cord, quickly pulling it down and opening the door. the clown disappears.
"fuck."