'39 [Stanley Uris]

18: Gods Of War

"No, I love being the personal doormat, really! I mean, could you idiots have taken any longer?!" Richie complains, glaring at the group.

The losers ignore as Richie circles around them in his bike.

"Shut up, Richie," Eddie grumbles.

"Yeah, shut up, Richie!" Stan adds.

"Okay, trash the trash mouth, I get it. Hey, I wasn't the one scrubbing the floors and imagining Bev's sink went all Eddie's mom's vagina on Halloween."

"She didn't imagine it." Bill defends.

They all come to a stop, gathering around to look at him. Seriousness coats the boy's tone suddenly.

"I...I-I saw something, too."

"You saw blood?" Stan timidly asks.

"Not blood. I saw G-G-Georgie. It seemed so real. I mean, it seemed like him, but there was this—"

"The clown..." Eddie cuts in, breathing deeply. "Yeah, I saw him too."

Fear lingers in the air, and the asthmatic boy's eyes stay glued to the floor below him. Bill shivers at the memory of it. He remembers going straight to Georgie's room and sleeping with him the rest of the night.

The next day, Georgie was mysteriously sick.

"Wait, can only virgins see this stuff?" Richie asks with sarcasm dripping in his tone. "Is that why I'm not seeing this shit?"

Suddenly, loud ruckus causes them to shift their attention in the direction of the source.

A car is parked on the side of the road.

Belch Huggins' car.

"Oh shit," Richie mutters, "that's Belch Huggins' car."

"We– we should get out of here," Eddie stutters, he and the others quickly begin to climb onto their bikes.

"Wait, isn't that the home-schooled kid's bike?" Bill recognizes.

"Yeah, that's Mike's," Eddie realizes, slowly connecting the dots in his head.

A few moments of silence pass before Bev speaks up.

"We have to help him."

"We should?" Richie questions.

"Yes!" She insists, hopping off her bike and throwing it aside.

The other boys immediately follow, tossing their bikes aside and running after Beverly. Stan, however, makes a point of setting it on it's kickstand before following.

Once everyone is down the rocks, they come face to face with pure ugly.

Henry Bowers and his goons are gathered around poor Mike Hanlon, holding him down and nearly beating him to death.

Just as Bev goes to grab a rock and throw it, Andi arrives just on cue.

"How many times do I gotta teach you this lesson?" She groans, coming up behind the asshole and his friends.

Henry jumps away from Mike, genuinely afraid at this point, and his friends follow. Mike takes this opportunity to stumble across the stream to safety.