L I A R - it 2017

f i v e

     Macy walked out of her house the next day without a second thought. This time knowing her incoherent mother wouldn't think twice about her. The dark-haired girl ran to her bike without a word to her mother and raced like hell to meet her friends.

The group had landed in an alley while waiting for Eddie to come back. Macy was fixated on watching Richie annoy a member of the marching band, a laugh leaving her when he tried to play the instrument. Watching this in front of her made it easier to ignore the missing poster of Eddie Corcoran that the other losers were fixated on.

" They say they found part of his hand all chewed up near the Standpipe. " Stan said nervously, shaking his head at his sentence. Macy finally turns her attention back to her friends. Now knowing there was almost no escaping the missing posters that were riddled around Derry.

Bill then walks up to Eddie Corcoran's poster and flips it back, revealing Betty Ripsom's missing poster. Macy flinches at the poster in front of her, feeling her sister's eyes staring right back at her. " It's l-like sh-he's be-been for-forgotten be-because Corcoran's mi-issing. " Bil says sympathetically, making Macy look down at her feet. She felt a hand rubbing her back, she knew the hand belonged to Mike but simply couldn't bring herself to look up.

" Is it ever gonna end? " Stan questions, asking what was on everyone's mind. But before anyone can answer, Eddie reappears, trying to figure out what his friends were talking about. Taking the other ice cream out of Eddie's hand, Richie also rejoins the group. " What they always talk about. " He answers while taking a lick of the ice cream Eddie had bought for him.

" I actually think it will end. For a little while, at least. " Ben reveals. Leaving everyone confused, causing only Beverly to speak up. " What do you mean? " Ben looks at the losers before taking an almost shaky breath. " So, I was going over all my Derry research and I charted out all the big events. The Ironworks explosion in 1908, the Bradley Gang in '35 and The Black Spot in '62. Now kinds being..." Ben stops his sentence trying to think of the right words to say in front of Macy and Bill.

" I realized this stuff seems to happen... Every 27 years. " Ben explains, with him and Bill saying the final three words in synch. " This is all creeping me out. I at least wanna finish my ice cream before we continue this horrible conversation. " Eddie pleads, making the group relocate from the eerie missing posters to a more populated part of the park.

Now sitting on and around a bench, the subject of Derry quickly gets brought up again. " So IT comes out from wherever to eat kids for, like a year? And then it just goes into hibernation? " Eddie questions Ben's logic not understanding the logistics of what he was saying. " Maybe it's like, uh cicadas. You know the bugs that come out once every 17 years. " Stan says trying to relate to the situation, but falling flat.

" My grandfather 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. " Mike interjected, keeping his eyes glued to the chains of Bill's bike.

" But it can't be one thing. We all saw something different. " Stan pointed out. Mike was quick to back up what he had just said before. " Or maybe IT knows what scares us most and that's what we see. " Macy's hand began to get clammy as the memories come back to her. Eddie thinks back to the leaper and shakes his head as he begins talking. " I saw a leper. He was like a walking infection." Eddie confirms, almost gagging at the thought.

" But you didn't. " Stan reminds, knowing there was no way what everyone saw was real. " Because it isn't real. None of this is. Not Eddie's leper, or Bill and Mace seeing Betty and Georgie, or the women I keep seeing. " Stan insisted with fear lingering in his shaky voice.