AS THE FOURTH OF JULY PARADE SLOWLY MOVED DOWN THE CONFETTI FILLED STREETS OF DERRY, THE LOSERS STOOD IN A NEARBY ALLEY, SIMPLY IN SHOCK AT ALL KF THE MISSING CHILDREN POSTERS. Eyes traveled from the joyful bright parade to the missing kid posters on the dark brick wall and the mood instantly changed from happiness to confusion then to sadness. It was strange, usually on Fourth of July, Atticus would be holding hands with Josephine as they ran beside the parade trying to catch candy to satisfy their sweet tooth's. But now she stood with her hands in the pockets of her denim jeans in a dirty smelly alleyway, with seven other teens she never thought she'd be friends with. It was weird, even sickening in a way. It made her feel cold inside as she thought of the memories of Josephine catching different varieties of candy that were being thrown at her. The thoughts were easily snatched out of her flustered mind as the familiar stutter of Bill Denbrough filled her ears. "It's like she's been f-f-forgotten because Corbin is missing." Atticus sighed knowing that all the stuff going on around them didn't matter to everyone else, the citizens of Derry were clueless.
Stanley huffed in a mixture between fright and annoyance, "Is it ever going to end?"
Eddie crept up with two vanilla ice cream cone and handing one to Richie, "What are you guys talking about?"
"What they always talk about." Richie said as he snatched the delicious white cone from Eddie's hand. Right before Richie could get a lick, Atticus quickly swooped in and took a little chunk off the top. Richie didn't care at all and went back to enjoying it with a small smirk playing on his face.
"I actually think it will end for a little while at least." Ben informed and Atticus furrowed her eyebrows in confusion at his statement.
"What do you mean?" The blonde-haired girl and the red-haired girl said in sync as they both trailed their eyes onto Ben.
"So I was going over all of my Derry research and I charted out all the big events. The ironworks explosion in 1908. The Bradley Gang in 35'—" Atticus interrupted Ben finally realizing the pattern to all of the events, "and The Blackspot in 62'."
"And now kids being—" Ben paused for what seemed like hours yet only seconds, "I realized that this stuff seems to happen—"
"Every twenty-seven years." Ben, Bill, and Atticus all stated in unison.
"Holy shit." She breathed out and started fiddling with her hands, out of a nervous habit. What the hell was happening in Derry? she thought.
...
"Okay so let me get this straight. It comes out from wherever to eat kids for like a year? And then what? It just goes into hibernation?" Eds quizzed the seven other teenagers as they sat on a green wooden bench in the middle of the parade.
"Maybe it's like... whatever you call it? Cicadas. You know the bug that only comes out once every 17 years." Stanley specified.
Mike shook his head slightly, "My grandpa thinks this town is cursed. He says that all the bad things that happen in this town are because of one thing. An evil thing that feeds off the people of Derry."
"That thing sure as hell feed off of my family damn good if that's true." The golden-haired girl's raspy voice called out. Richie snaked his arm around the girl's shoulder, delicately, and pulled her in to his side a tad bit closer than before.
Stan frowned, "But it can't be one thing. We all saw something different."
"I don't know. We all saw something completely different, but all of us saw one thing in common—" Atticus paused and Mike jumped in, "—A clown. Maybe it knows what scares us the most and that's what we see."
"The leper. He was a walking infection." Eddie cringed at the thought of the creature he had encountered the night before.
"But you didn't. Because it isn't real. None of this is. Not Eddie's Leper. Or Bill seeing Georgie and Atticus seeing Josie. Or the women I keep seeing." Stan the man squinted one of his eyes due to the sunlight beating down on his pale face as he faced Eddie.
"Is she hot?" Richie exclaimed suddenly peaking interest in the Jewish boys fear. Stanley briskly shot Richie down, "No Richie. She's not hot. Her face is all messed up. None of this makes any sense. They're all like bad dreams."
"I can tell when i'm dreaming and when i'm not. Josie and that-that thing were on that bridge with me." Atticus sounded crazy, like she was going mad.
"I'm with Atticus. I know the difference between a bad dream and real life, okay?" Mike backed the girl up. Eddie was curious of the way Mike was acting, like he knew why Mike was so skeptically about all of this stuff so Eds asked, "What did you see? You saw something too?"
"Yes. You guys know that burnt down house on Harris Avenue? I was inside when it burnt down. Before I was rescued, my mom and dad were trapped in the next room over from me. They were pushing and pounding on the door trying to get to me. But it was too hot. When the firefighters finally found them, the skin on their hands were melted down to the bone. We're all afraid of something." Atticus reached for Mike's hand and gave him a reassuring smile. She knew that all of her newly founded friends deserved better, but there was nothing she could do. She felt completely and utterly useless.
"You got that right." Richie noted, the small muscles in his arms tensing up and a line of thick watery sweat started to line his dark hairline. Everyone of the losers noticed how uneasiness the boy with glasses looked as they watched him slowly turn and look to the stage, where a clown danced. This clown was different from the one Atticus and the others saw. Much different. The clown on the stage had a red and white puffy suit, close to the other clown's. Instead of dark red blood stains, the clown on stage had red stripes that had been hand stitched into the soft material of the suit. The smiles on the two clowns were completely different - one was actually a real genuine smile and the other was so fake that it made shivers run up the back of your spine. The main difference was that this clown was full of life and had real blue cotton candy eyes instead of those dark yellow demonic ones that had locked with Atti's blue eyes on the bridge. They were so similar and yet so different at the same time, Atticus had to look away. Her stomach churned at the slight thought of what she had saw the other night on that bridge.
"Why Richie? What are you afraid of?"
Richie turned to his fellow friends in a swift motion, a look of fear washed over his face as he spoke. "Clowns."
