Demons | Bill Denbrough

8. American Horror Story

A few weeks later, it was time for the Fourth of July parade. The band from Derry High school were in the streets, citizens were marching with them.

All of the losers except for Richie and Eddie stared at the new missing person's poster. "They said they found part of his hand all chewed up near the standpipe, " Stan stated.

"He asked to borrow a pencil once, " Ben spoke sadly.

Bill lifted the missing poster up to reveal Betty Ripsom's missing poster. "It's like she's been f-f-f-forgotten because Corcoran's missing."

"That's depressing, " Katherine states.

"Is it ever gonna end?" Stan asked as the baritone player pulled his instrument away from Richie.

"What the fuck, dude?" Richie asked him but walked away.

Eddie approached the group with Katherine's ice cream cone and his own. "What are you guys talking about?"

Katherine thanked Eddie for the ice cream as Richie also approached,  saying, "What they always talk about."

"I actually think it will end, for a little while, at least, " Ben spoke.

"What do you mean?" Beverly asked him.

"So I was going over all of my data research and I charted out all of the big events. The Ironworks explosion in 1908. The Bradley Gang in '35 and The Black Spot in '62. And now the kids being..." he trailed off, looking to Bill. "I realized that this stuff seems to happen every..."

"27 years, " Bill finished with Ben.

Shortly, everyone sat near or on a bench close by. "Okay, so let me get this straight, " Eddie began. "IT comes out from wherever to eat kids for, like, a year and then what? IT just goes into hibernation?"

"Sounds like it, pretty much," Katherine answered.

"Maybe it's like...What do you call it? Cicadas," Stan answered, "You know, the bugs that come out once every 17 years."

"My grandfather thinks this town is cursed," Mike says. "He says that all the bad things that happened in this town are because of one thing. An evil thing that feeds off the people of Derry."

"But it can't be one thing," Stan replies. "We all saw something different."

"That's a theory, " Katherine uttered. "Or maybe IT's like a shapeshifter and knows what scares us most which is what we see."

"I-I saw a leper," Eddie says anxiously. "He was like a walking infection."

"I saw the kid Seth sold drugs to only...he was skinny. A tweaker for sure." Katherine rubbed her arms anxiously. "He tried to get me to shoot up heroin because he thinks I will end up like my mom." She took a deep shaky breath causing Bill to look at her in concern. "I really don't want to be him or see him again."

"But you didn't. Because IT isn't real. None of this is. Not Eddie's leper or Bill seeing Georgie or the woman I keep seeing..." Stan trailed off.

"Is she hot?" Richie asked.

Stan looked immediately at the boy. "No, Richie. She's not hot," he snapped, letting Katherine squeeze his hand for comfort. "Her face is all messed up. None of this makes any sense. They're all like bad dreams."

"I don't think so, I know the difference between a bad dream and real life, okay?" Mike says softly.

"What did you see? You saw something too?" Eddie asked Mike.

"Yes," Mike answered with a sigh. "Do you guys know that burnt down house on Harris Avenue? I was inside when it burned down. Before I rescued, my mom and dad were trapped in the next room over from me. They were pushing and pounding on the door trying to get to me. But it was too hot. When firefighters found them, the skin on their hands...melted down to the bone. We're all afraid of something."