sunshine. // it 2017

ix.

Their hands swung as they walked, like a very cliquey couple.

"Do you think that stuff about the...do you think it's real?" Lola asked, nervousness in speech.

"After what happened to you, I think anything is possible," Richie's glasses fell yet again and they both stopped. Lola's hand reached to his face and pushed them back on. His eyes growing huge with the coke bottle lenses.

"Stanley seemed so scared, like he could tell that something bad would happen to us."

Their hands reconnected as they started to turn again.

"Nothing is going to happen to us sunshine. We're fine."

As they began to walk again, a woman with a baby stroller walked towards them, a happy baby gurgling underneath a blanket.

"Oh my god you are so adorable!" Lola almost squealed, the lady stopping with a smile.

Lola was always the nicest person in town. Who knew she was the one with the most damage.

"You have the cutest baby ever," she spoke without taking her eyes off the baby, tickling it's sides, making it giggle more.

And Richie just watched from a few steps away, arms crossed across his chest, smile creeping on his face. He loved Lola's genuine smile.

"You two look like a very nice couple," the lady spoke to Richie.

"Oh we're not together. Just friends."

The lady lent in a little to Richie, making sure Lola wouldn't hear while she continued to play with the baby.

"Friends don't look at each other like that. Ask her boy, before she's taken away."

Richie smiled to the woman, holding out his hand to Lola once again, "come on sunshine we'll be late to Bill's."

~

Lola stood as far away as possible from the screen. Her heartbeat was filling her ears and her water line already held tears. She never wanted to be here. As she stared at the blank projector screen, Richie grabbed hold of her hand, bringing her out of her dream state.

"L? You need to stay with me, okay?" he looked over top of his coke bottle glasses, serious written all over his face.

"Yes."

The projector switched to show the Derry town map, red lines coursing through out it.

"Look," Bill pointed to the screen, "that's where G-Georgie disappeared, there's the iron works," pointing out the certain parts of the map, "and the black spot. Everywhere it happens, it's all connected by the sewers. And they all meet up at the-"

"The well house," Ben cut him off.

"That's the house on Neibolt street," Stanley spoke as he looked at the group around him. They were all panicked.

"You mean that creepy ass house where all the junkies and hobos like to sleep," Richie still had hold of Lola's hand as she continued to stare at the screen.

Eddie took a puff of his inhaler.

"I hate that place, it always feels like it's watching me," Beverly spoke as she too stared at the map.

"That's where I saw it," Eddie's breathing was heavy, not yet back to normal, "that's where I saw the clown."

"T-t-that's where IT lives."

Eddie took another puff.

"I can't imagine anything wanting to live there," Stanley spoke again.

"Can we stop talking about this?" Eddie jumped from his spot, "I-I-I can barely breathe. It's summer, we're kids. I can barely breathe. I gonna end up having a fucking asthma attack," he was gasping for air through speech, "I am not doing this."

Eddie turned and ripped the map clean off the wall.

"What the hell? But the map back," Bill demanded but Eddie just shook his head.

Before another word was spoken, the projector slide switched, showing a picture of the Denbrough family on one of their many family trips. One after another, the slides kept changing and the losers began to grow scaredier than before.

"IT's here," Lola said as she continued to stare at the changing slides in fear.
The hair covering Mrs Denbrough's face drew into the outline of the clown that terrifies the children of Derry.

Pennywise.

"What the fuck?!" Richie jumped from his spot, grabbing hold of Lola as she buried her head into his heaving chest.

The rest scattered off of chairs and stools, trying to control the out of control projector.

"What the fuck is that?!" Richie yelled once again.

"I don't fucking know!" Eddie screamed back.

Pennywise's face was clear as day by now, smiling at the panicked children trapped in the garage. Yet Bill still stood, staring into the eyes of the demon that killed his brother.

Only he didn't know that he was really dead.

"Turn it off," Beverly said, slightly calm. That didn't last long, "turn it off!"

Mike sprang into action, kicking the projector off it's pedestal and smashing it to the ground, slides covering the concrete ground.

Yet the projector still showed that terrifying clown. Stanley stood closest to it, while Lola moved from Richie to next to Beverly, grabbing hold of the redhead's hand tightly. They hadn't known each other long, but girl's have to stick together and they automatically became best friends the day they met.

"L? What are you doing?" Richie was panicked, but not for his safety. Lola had seen this clown before, not escaping her own nightmares with it.

The clown disappeared, but then popped back up, like it was crawling out of the screen. The screaming of the losers surrounded into the garage air. The clown crawled closer and the girls backed into the corner. He was growing closer.

"LOLA!! NO!!" Richie screamed at the top of his lungs as Bill and Stan held him back. He would do anything to protect her. He promised her.

The clown's hand reached out to them, almost there. Beverly covered her eyes while Lola buried her head into Bev's shoulder, the tears from her eyes falling onto her friend's pale skin. But then, nothing came. Only the sound of the rattily garage door slamming open. Lola lifted her head up to see the sun pouring in, the clown no longer in sight, and Richie running over to her.

"Oh my god, Lola," he hugged her as tightly as possible as she silently cried into his shirt. Pulling away, he could still see how scared she was, "hey L? You with me?"

His hand cherished her jaw as her sparkly eyes held onto his, "Yes."

He once again held her hand as she was pulled up and towards the opening of the garage. And like normal, she was gripping hold of his arm like her life depended on it.

It almost got her, she was almost gone for good.

"If you say it's summer one more f-fucking time!" Bill argued.

Without hearing another word of it, Bill jumped on his bike and peadled down the drive.

Lola already knew where he was headed.

Neibolt.