love ; bill denbrough

21

Bill

"What the fuck happened here!" I woke to Richie yelling. I realised, I was fast asleep on my front lawn, Cass stroking small patterns into my back with her fingernails. I remembered last night.

"N-nothing, we must've just fallen as-sleep star-gazing." I improvised. I didn't feel like telling the guys what I saw, not just yet. Cass already thought I was crazy.

"We?" Eddie smirked. "It looks like only one of you has slept." 

He was right. Cass didn't have bags under her eyes, she had suitcases. 

"Bev needs us, now." Mike had barely gotten the sentence out before he was riding away again.

"No time, take my bike, I'll bike with Richie." Eddie jumped off of his bike before jumping on Richie's, probably assuming Bill would try and grab his own. I grabbed onto the bike and waited for Cass's grasp to return to my shoulders before riding after Mikey and the rest.

"You sure you're up for this?" I heard a small whisper, as Cass pressed a kiss to jawline from behind.

"I'm f-f-fine, did you sle-ep?" I asked, lifting one hand from the handle bar to grasp hers on my shoulder.

"Yeah," She lied, I gave a small squeeze to her hand. She knew it was okay to tell me the truth. "Okay, no, but I was terrified for you and I wanted to be awake just in case you woke again."

"W-would it hurt to c-care about yourself every n-now and agai-n?" I joked. 

"When it comes to you, I prioritise." She rested her head against my shoulder, closing her eyes and I thought it would be best to just shut up. She was clearly beyond exhausted.

We eventually arrived at Bev's house, and as much as I wanted to let her sleep, Cass had already stirred awake and wanted to come and see the commotion. The grand event that Bev had gathered us all for. It was grand alright. Blood, floor to ceiling. I peered on in horror, her bathroom sticky with the terrifying substance. Richie wasn't present, which was a refreshing change of pace. We made him wait outside, just in case Beverly's dad came home. He'd kill her if he found us in the house.

The cleanup began. Bev told us how her dad had last night seen nothing, not a spec of blood. She had said that the other night when she was cutting her hair down the sink, it had all come up, soaking in blood like hands trying to grab her and pull her in. She heard voices of missing kids too. She didn't know Georgie or Eddie's voice but it gave me great comfort to think about them being alive. She heard them, I prayed she had.

Cass

As exhausted as I was, after cleanup we'd all decided to go swimming in the quarry, to take our minds off of things. Everyone was acting off, whether it be little glances, small yet immensely sad expressions for a mere second, I began to believe we'd all seen something. We'd all seen IT.

We eventually reached the Derry cliff that towered over the quarry below. Everyone began stripping down into their underwear, something my mind didn't think about when I said i'd come with them all.

"Cass, what's up?" Bev asked, drawing the others attention, as I just stood awkwardly and fully clothed. 

"I don't have a swimsuit." I spewed my crappy excuse.

"None of us do, Corcoran. We're just stripping down." Richie stated, looking confused.

Reluctantly, pulled my clothes off so I was left in just my underwear. "Little drool on your chin, B-B-Billy." Eddie teased.

"Let's go, Cass." Bev reached her hand out and the boys cleared out of the way of the cliff edge.

"No way are 2 girls gonna jump this fuckin' thing." Richie shook his head in disbelief.

"Just because they're girls doesn't mean they can't." Mike defended. "Go get 'em, ladies." 

With that, Bev and I gained momentum and jumped from the edge of the cliff, leaving the understandably shocked boys above.

Eventually, they were all in the water with us, laughing and having as much fun as a bunch of 15 year olds should be having during summer. It almost made me forget about IT. Almost. 

We all began chicken fighting, Me on Bill's shoulders, Richie on Stan's, Eddie on Mike's and Bev on Ben's. It was a lot of fun, until I went under.

Desperately gasping for breath as if it were life itself, I struggled with the force pulling me down. The person pulling me down. I looked below me and a withered, decaying version of Teddy was gripping onto my ankle. He was covered in moss and barnacle as if he'd been down here for years. Then, my friends in the same state. Richie, Stan, Mike, Bill, Eddie, Bev, Ben, the whole deal. It was then that I wasted all of my energy on a bloodcurdling but useless scream as I struggled against these monsters. They all grappled at my ankles, scratching, squeezing and tugging. I was truly terrified. 

I eventually freed myself and reached the surface, where I jumped to the nearest person. "Cass? What happened?" Richie asked, it was him I was clinging onto.

"Something d-dragged me down," I sobbed. "It was y-you guys but you wer-re all withered and you were all grab-bing at my ankles and p-pulling me in."

"I'll take a look." Richie kissed my forehead and his loving grasp was replaced by Bill's. A/N: don't get worried, it's a brother sister thing

"It's alr-right. It wasn't r-real." He shushed me.

Richie emerged from the deep quarry, pushing his hair our of his face and taking a deep breath. He looked at me for a moment, before shaking his head. "Just seaweed." 

We all left the water as I continued to spew my excuses, I had not lied and I did see what I think I saw. I knew it. The losers only stared on with looks of sympathy on their faces like i'd gone crazy. Had I?

"She's telling the truth." Bev stated, her eyes wide as she pointed down at my ankle. It was bruising, fingerprints made deep purple marks and three, fingernail like scratches allowed blood to pour.

"Shit, why's it only Cass seeing this stuff?" Richie ran a hand through his hair.

"It's not." Eddie squeaked.