𝐌𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐋𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐒 [R.Tozier]

XVI. Traumatic Treat

The eight losers make their way over to Bill's house, setting up a projector in the garage and sticking Bill's father's map onto the wooden walls. At the pull of the garage door, they all gather around the projector and sit down.

"Look." Bill ponts ahead. "That's where G-G-Georgie disappeared. There's the Ironworks. And the Black Spot. Everywhere it happens, it's all connected by the sewers. And they all meet up at the-"

Ben cuts in, making a sudden realization. "The well house." After a moment of silence, Stanley speaks up in worry. "It's in the house on Neibolt street."

"You mean that creepy ass house where all the junkies and hobos like to sleep?" Alisa and Richie say once again in unison, high fiving amongst themselves a moment later, quickly stopping as they notice Eddie take a nervous puff from his inhaler.

"I hate that place. It always feels like it's watching me." Beverly says, staring directly at the white projected light. "That's where I saw it." Eddie trembles. "That's where I saw the clown."

"Th-th-that's where It lives." Bill confirms. "I can't imagine anything ever wanting to live there." As soon as Stanley finishes his sentence, Eddie shoots up, standing in front of the projector. "Can we stop talking about this? I can barely breathe!" He begins gasping for air, clutching his inhaler in his hand.

"This is summer. We're kids. I can barely breathe. I'm up here having a fucking asthma attack! I'm not doing this." He grabs the map, aggressively pulling it down and holding it by his side. "Eddie!" Alisa calls out. "What the hell? Put the map back." Bill shouts, pointing to the wall.

"Mmm-mmm." Eddie shakes his head as the projected map behind him suddenly stops projecting, turning into a blank rectangle, clicking on and off repeatedly. Soon enough, it begins projecting family photos of the Denbrough family and the Parker family. Especially ones of Georgie and Amber.

"What happened?" Bill asks in confusion, looking down to the projector. "What's going on?" Stanley asks. Eddie slowly backs away back towards the others in fright. "I got it. Hold on." Mike says, leaning forward to figure out the issue. When he plugs it out, the projector continues, that's quite unusual.

"Guys." Mike says, eyes wide. The projector continues clicking, causing Stanley to tense up, Eddie to grasp his inhaler with much strength, strong enough to break it, and Alisa to lean in a little closer to Richie to feel safe.

The projector reaches a photo of the Denbrough family, along with the Parker family, in front of a church, and stays focused on that photo, yet decides to zoom in on Georgie on each click. "Georgie." Bill watches in fear and confusion. "Amber.." Alisa mutters.

"Bill?" Alisa asks. The photo continues to zoom in until it's focused only on Georgie, then begins panning over towards Amber, who was holding on tightly to Georgie's hand, all happy and joyous.

It now begins moving up more rapidly to Bill's mother, who's face was covered in her red locks of hair. Slowly, the photo moves, and the hair flows in the wind. Once the hair moves away from the woman's face, she is no longer Bill's mother, but that horrifying clown.

Alisa takes this opportunity to grab Richies arm, holding it tight as he wraps his arms around her. "What the fuck!" He shouts. "It's It!" Alisa responds.

"What the fuck is that? What the fuck is that?" Richie continues screaming, his grip tightening on the red-head beside him. "I don't fucking know!" Eddie screams, joins in on their little 'hug'. "Turn it off!" Beverly shouts, having had enough of simply standing and staring at the sight.

Mike jumps in, kicking the projector down, knocking over all the other slides. The projector was now towards the wall where Stanley was standing, but the clown was completely gone. That is, until it flashes once again, yet the clown is less clear, as if the photo was taken when the clown was in motion.

After clicking on and off multiple times, it returns back to a plain background, Pennywise is gone. The sigh of relief, thinking that it was over. Alisa and Richie loosen their grip on each others' arms. Just one second later, a gigantic version of the clown appears out of the wall and begins crawling towards Stanley, who was standing right beside it. "Run, Stanley!" Alisa calls out, her voice cracking.

Stanley listens and quickly runs off towards the others. The clown takes its opportunity and crawls towards Beverly, who stands still in fear. Alisa looks to her side, noticing a hammer. She grabs the hammer and whacks it at the large clown, which to her dismay, didn't affect it at all.

It only angered the clown. It grabbed the red-head, holding her up to his face as she cried out in pure fear. "Alisa!" Richie screams. "Open the fucking door! Open the door!" He begins shouting to mike and Ben, who quickly open it, causing the infamous clown to disappear completely.

Alisa falls from the height, feeling a sharp pain in her wrist as she lands. "Holy shit!" Richie screams, running over to the girl and crouching down beside her. "Ally, are you okay? Did you hurt yourself? Holy- fuck! All-"

"R-R-Richie. Rich- I-" She stutters, crying out in shock, shaken. "Am I okay? Am I dead?" She asks, holding her wrist as she sits up, looking to the others. "You're okay." Richie gives her a sad smile, then hugs the girl tightly.

"M-my wrist. I think I fractured it." She says, bringing up her left hand and showing the others her shaky wrist. "It's alright, Eddie can help you." Richie says, taking the girl's right hand and helping her up.

Her arm wrapped around him for support, the two walk back towards the others who were standing by the entrance. "Ally- thank you." Beverly says, hugging the girl and then looking to Bill and giving him one as well. It was quite obvious the two had a connection.

"It saw us." Eddie speaks shakily. "It saw us, and it knows where we are." Eddie still holds his inhaler with no intention of letting it go. "It always did." Bill says, beginning to walk through the crowd of losers.

"S-s-So, lets go." He begins, reaching the bikes. "Go? Go where?" Ben asks. "Neibolt. That's where G-G-G-Georgie and A-A-Amber are."

"After that?" Alisa cries out, holding her wrist in shock. She wanted for more than anything to find her sister, but they had gone too far, and she had lost too much hope. "D-D-Don't you wanna find Amber?" Bill asks. "Bill, they're dead. I don't know what to tell you, but I'm surprised that we're still alive." Tears form in the girl's eyes once again as she looks directly into Bill's eyes. "Yeah, it's summer. We should be outside." Richie says.

"If you say it's summer one more f-f-fucking time!" Bill snaps, looking right back to Alisa. "I expected more from you." He glares at the girl, who's face is now hysterical from all the crying.

"Hey! Don't speak to her like that! Bill! You're gonna get us all fucking killed!" Richie yells as Bill walks to his bike. Richie begins making his way towards the blue-eyed boy, but is pulled back by Alisa, stopping him from making a bad decision. "Bill!" Beverly calls out as the boy begins to ride away.

"Wait!"