The meal had been going great, we'd had a laugh, talked about each other's lives and were just having a great time. I was about to suggest that we make it a yearly thing when Mike grew serious.
"The reason I called you all back here is because I need your help. We all made an oath to come back if... if It ever returned."
"If what ever returned?" Ben had a look of amusement on his face that was quickly wiped away when Mike's eyes settled on him.
"It."
I had been holding a fork loosely between my fingers but it dropped onto my plate with a clatter.
"Pennywise..." Bev stared across the table and I covered my mouth. I hadn't heard that name in so long and I felt my dinner threatening to resurface at the word.
"Pennywise... the clown..." Bill looked frightened and I could tell they were all feeling the same as me. I just hoped no one would say his name again in case it was too much for my body to cope with. I noticed Eddie grip his right arm and the memory of a cast with LOSER written across it flashed through my mind. How did he break his arm?
I finally let out a shaky breath "Fuck..."
"I don't know how to process this..." Eddie frowned, "I don't... understand... the things that I remember... they can't have really happened..."
I looked at him to try and offer reassurance but his expression scared me. It was real alright. It had all happened... I was getting fragments of memories seeping back and I wanted more than ever to leave this fucking town.
There was a bowl of fortune cookies in the middle of the table and Mike grabbed one, "we can talk about all of this. It'll be okay."
We followed his lead and took a cookie each, but I didn't bother to eat mine. I wasn't hungry anymore.
As we looked at the fortunes I noticed that mine only had one word. I scoffed, "great fortune cookie... what the fuck is this shit."
"Mines the same," Bill noted and the others agreed, putting their pieces of paper onto the table.
"I think it makes up a sentence," Mike started trying to arrange them and we tried our best to chip in, but none of the combinations made sense. That's when I saw Bev.
She looked haunted and had tears falling down her cheeks. The others looked up at her too and her eyes met ours one by one. She slowly pushed her slip of paper towards us and we saw it said 'Stanley'.
I knew before they'd put the paper into the sequence that Stan was dead. I felt it in my gut.
Suddenly the cookies started shuddering and one cracked open. We looked on in horror as a small creature dragged itself out; the thing had wings and a slug like body, but most disturbingly it had a wailing baby's head. I was completely horrified at the grotesque little creature and backed up against the wall behind me, letting my chair fall over as most of the others had. Another cookie broke open, a wing dangling from the gap and clawing across the table, just as an eyeball with disgusting tendrils erupted from another one.
The room was alive with the inhuman sounds of the small monsters making their way across the table, as well as our shouts of terror as we tried to kill the little beasts.
I could hear Eddie repeating over and over that he didn't want to be here but I couldn't bring myself to look away from the table.
We began swatting at them, hitting them with anything that might harm them, and Mike started swinging a chair in their direction. It was absolout chaos.
Once he had killed one the waitress appeared and we all looked towards her. She looked at us like we were crazy, and I began to believe her when I looked around the room and saw that there was no evidence that the creatures were ever here.
We left quickly after that, scared and embarrassed, and I glanced over to see Eddie walking away.
"Hey, don't you have a car?"
"Na, I crashed it when Mike called... and my wife needs our other one for work so I got a taxi here."
