it.c.t
" treat yourself. take a bubble bath, drink tea... defeat a murderous space-clown from hell. it's called self-care ."
the thrilling sequel to the not-so-tragic story of losers, loss and love , or
in which derry's local losers come home for on...
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CHAPTER ELEVEN lost a friend.
...
Well that wasn't what Nicole was expecting.
Mike, who had assured them that the ritual hid and would work... that they only had to believe hard enough.
"It was all bullshit." Nic was the first to speak after Pennywise called out Mike's mistake. He had neglected to tell them... that this ritual had not worked. They had basically walked straight into their deaths.
"N-n-no, guys. If we believed enough, it was supposed to work." Mike scrambled for an explanation, turning his back to the clown to see his friends. Nicole shook her head, tears springing to her eyes. She couldn't help but think that she was never going to see her daughter again.
She was going to die down here.
Everything happened so fast and Nicole had been in her thoughts as it flashed by, but she finally blinked into reality as Mike scrambled from the dirt and the others turned around to run. Bill grabbed her wrist and suddenly she was running, too. The clown, which had grown huge and shaped into a spider-crap hybrid, pursued them with a laugh.
The ground jolted like they were in the middle of an earthquake and Nicole suddenly felt worried that the roof would collapse.
Before she had much time to worry, Bill stumbled away from the spider-clown's claw and toppled over a rock. Attached at the wrist, Nicole followed him into the depths.
Her scream cut short when she plunged under the water, but Bill's presence kept her rising panic at bay. They swam for moments, then Nicole felt a tug on her shirt. Another, rougher tug came and she turned right when something gripped the fabric and pulled. Her wrist was wretched free from Bill's grasp and something pulled her away.
...
There was a gasp, air had never tasted so good as Nicole scrambled to stand in the water. Bill was nowhere to be seen, but a spot bubbled with the promise of released air.
Nicole finally caught her breath and became aware of her surroundings enough to see that she was standing in Jackson street, water up to her knees and not even appearing to drain into the sewer. That water just seemed to... sit there, churning and bubbling in the strangest places.
Then Nic spotted it. The item that had started all of this, the coat that had caught her attention that one rainy night, which led to her watching Georgie's death. She had not said anything about it until the secret was out, and Bill forgave her but she never really forgave herself--
That was it.
She had never gotten over that trauma, that survivors guilt which had haunted her childhood dreams often.
