A New Beginning

Chapter 7

       [A/N: This chapter goes over IT: Chapter Two through the majority of it. If you don't want characterized reviews of the movie then you can skip after the first few paragraphs if you want to!]

The evening was filled with laughter and teasing. Stan was out of the loop on things, but he didn't mind. It meant that he could pick up on somethings and question them later. He enjoyed learning about their lives, as he was the last to know and they could all fill in details as they went.
They were served their meals and happily ate in quiet with tid bits of banter over their plates. Stanley made sure to get his fill of food as he glanced at the others. The others were noticing the quiet coming from their friend, but knew it was normal for him. Yet, they knew deep in their minds of the questions that were stirring in the man's head.
"So," Stan swallowed and wiped his mouth with a napkin, "How was Derry..?"
He knew the question was loaded, but the curiosity scratched at the back of his mind. His friends looked at each other as if to ask each other if they could talk about it. "Well," Richie started, "You should ask Mike about that because he hasn't left."
"Really?" Stan looked at Mike who cleared his throat at the comment.
"It's not that I don't want to leave, but that I'm still trying to say goodbye and pack up." Mike stated and shrugged.
"There's a lot of memories in that town," Bill noted and the others agreed.
"Not all good," Ben added and Bev gave him a small smile.
"We had good memories though, like uh..." Richie snapped his fingers in thought then pointed as if that thought was a bird in the air, "when we would go to the town fair or hang out in the clubhouse?"
"The clubhouse," Stan mumbled and rubbed his forehead, "how could I forget."
"Jeeze, Stan, how could you forget?" Eddie exclaimed from across the table, "You're the one who brought the showercaps."
Stan looked to the hypochondriac across the table, "Well, I'm not the one that broke Ben's Paddleball!"
The group was surprised as they looked at the man in awe. Mike then leaned against the table, "Stanley, how much do you remember?"
Stanley looked at Mike, concern yet confusion in his eyes. He sighed and looked down to fiddle with his fingers, "Almost all of it."
Another long silence. "How?" Bev finally asked, breaking the silence.
Stan looked to the ginger, "I don't know. Maybe I was more afraid or traumatized..."
His fingertips grazed the inch length scars on his face. His heart started to race and he closed his eyes only to see the monster he once feared. Judith the flute playing painting. He remembered her scampering over to him and lunging for his face. The fangs like shark teeth sinking into his skin. He could see the throat of IT due to him being clamped in his jaw.
He was jolted back to the present as Bev and Bill both held his hand and arm with a tight grip. He glanced around the table as he panted. All his friends seemed to be on edge, as if they all wanted to run and help. "I-I'm fine." Stan mumbled, nodding as Bill and Bev released their grips.
"You sure?" Mike asked, the concern finally showing on his face.
"Yes," Stan nodded once again, "I'm sure."
Mike looked around the table before looking back to the curly-haired fellow. "I called everyone back and they made it the next day. We met at the Jade of the Orient. Bill arrived first, followed by Eddie-"
"Ben, Bev and I met outside before walking into the restaurant where I called this meeting to begin." Richie added then looked at all of his friends, "I thought we'd take turns."
"It doesn't bother me, Richie." Mike stated, "We had a dinner similar to this one. Laughing, drinking, remembering. All fun..."
"Then Mike brought up IT," Eddie added, looking at the table before glancing at the others sitting around it, "Including Bev. Reminding us about IT."
"Tensions rose and emotions brought fear of IT," Bill told aloud before looking to Stan, "He found it funny and we opened our fortune cookies. They only had one word on each, but it was a message for all of us."
Bev broke the silence that the friends feared to break, "They said 'Guess Stanley could not cut it'."
Stan felt his heart sink but Beverly continued on, "I knew what it meant, but I didn't say anything as IT created his latest illusion."
"But we got past that," Richie waved it away as if it was a smell in the air, "and paid for our meal. Then I yelled at a kid. That was fun."
"You yelled at a kid?" Stan scolded, flabbergasted.
"Hey! I thought it was one of IT's illusion shit!"
"Oh my god,"
"Anyways, we parked it in the parking lot. All upset that Mike dragged us into that shit again. Bev called Patty-"
"You called her?" Stan looked to the woman beside him.
"I was calling you, but she answered. She told us you died but I already knew." Beverly looked him in the eyes before looking to her glass instead.
"Wha-" Stan started, But Ben cut him off.
"Richie, Eddie, Bev and I went to the town house that we were staying at since we wanted to get out of Derry. Eddie and Richie went to their rooms to pack but I wanted to figure out why Bev knew you had...passed."
"I came down and heard that she knew about you dying which was some fuckery," Richie stated, swirling his beer bottle, "she told us about her nightmares of seeing all of us dying which was something."
"They haven't happened since, so don't worry," Bev added.
"That's probably for the best," Stan added and Bev giggled in response.
"I was with Mike who was telling me about IT and how to kill IT, but he drugged the drink he gave me to help me see everything." Bill noted and all the other losers, besides Mike and him, sat up.
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!" Eddie exclaimed, "Mike drugged you??"
"Slightly, it was a micro dose." Mike added nonchalantly.
"Holy shit, Mike," Richie gasped, "maybe if you told us hallucinogens were involved, we would've joined!"
"Beep Beep, Richie," Stan muttered across the table.
"Anyway, we made it back to Bev and the rest of the group as she talked about her nightmares and Mike and I knew it was from the Deadlights. We talked about IT and it's memory alterations before heading to the clubhouse." Bill continued, but Eddie took his turn in talking.
"Ben fell in the clubhouse and we all remembered the first time entering it. We then reminisced before Richie player a dirty prank mimicking IT. Bill then found your shower caps."
Stan smiled softly. He was enjoying his friends telling a story as a group. Talking about remembering and how to fight IT. It was all in sync and collaborative. He missed this. His friends acting as one. Being one with each other, despite being oddballs. It was nostalgic.
"Everyone was coming back to the townhouse from their adventures down memory lane. I watched as Ben made sure Richie stayed, then Eddie came in covered in muck before Bill came in and...and quickly left to save a kid." Beverly told Stan and he nodded along to what she was saying.
"I booked it out of that town house. I couldn't deal with the shitty town anymore. Then I saw they were holding a service for you at the synagogue so I paused and gathered my thoughts." Richie smiled to his friend.
Even if Stan thought Richie was like a mosquito, they were still two good friends. Stan smiled back to the homeless looking comedian. "While Richie took a break. Bowers, who I honestly thought was dead, stabbed me in the face with his knife," Eddie commented, turning his head to show the pink scar, "I then hid in the shower to stab him with his knife before making my way out of the room to tell the others."
"Damn, that's badass, Eds" Stan told the doe eyed man, astonished by what he had told him.
"Heh, thanks," Eddie smiled, looking more embarrassed than proud.
"I made my way to the library and stuck an ax in Bowers head as he attacked mike!" Richie added, trying to get some praise from Stan.
"Then you vomited in the floor beside me and Bower's dead body." Mike stated which made Stan laugh.
"Fuck off, Mike." Richie groaned, crossing his arms.
"Ben patched me up since they arrived right after that before Bill called us. He was heading to the Neibolt house." Mike added, ignoring Richie's comment.
Stan shivered at the word. The Neibolt house. The shabby crack house at the end of the street. He hated that house. It was creepy and they had told him that IT lived there. He never wanted in that house, but he went in to help his friends.
"We got separated," Ben notes, "Bev and Mike were holding me as Pennywise carved into my abdomen-"
"Man, I would've love to been on that side," Richie comments which made the rest of the losers raise their brows in question, "What? You'd get to see Ben's fucking, what do you have there?? Eight pack? Six pack??"
A few of them chuckled and Stan rolled his eyes. "It's a six pack now leave him alone, Richie. Let him continue." Bev added and it made they whole table uproar in laughter while Ben's face flushed red.
"No no, can I tell our part because I lived this." Richie asked.
"Yeah, sure. If it makes you stop talking about my body." Ben muttered, rubbing his face to try to get rid of the blush.
"Alright. Well the rest of us, Bill, Eddie and I, got stuck in the kitchen, Yanno where Eddie broke his arm? And the fridge rumbles and opens and..."
Richie faltered, like he did on stage after he got the call from Mike. He looked at Stan as saw the scene again. The contorted body of Stan in the fridge. His head growing legs and scampering towards them all. It attacking his face.
He looked away from Stan. That wasn't him and he knew that. Just IT playing a prank. He inhaled before finishing, "basically its Young you, Stan, crammed in there and we all scream before your head rolls out and stops upright. Pretty freaky."
Stan's face showed disgust. Sure, he found it somewhat funny, but he had to put himself in his friend's shoes. Bill cleared his throat and tapped his glass, "It spoke to me, saying that you'd still be alive if it weren't for me-"
Stan looked to the man beside him and rested a hand on his shoulder, "Bill."
Bill looked back at the man, even if it was hard to do at that moment. "It wasn't your fault." Stan told him and Bill swallowed sharply, like a pill was in his throat.
"Th-Thanks, Stan." Bill replied and nodded before blinking a bit to remember what was going on, "oh right. Well, your head became a spider and tried to attack us. Eddie cowered in a corner and when Richie checked up on him, the spider head attacked Richie's face. I was trying to pry it off of his face and telling Eddie to grab the knife on the ground to help me, but he was frozen in fear."
Eddie looked down in shame. He just couldn't do it. It was the room. The room Pennywise almost ate him in as a child. He couldn't move. The fear was too great. Eddie just looked down and fidgeted with his ring. Bill started up again, looking back to his glass from looking at Eddie, "Ben came in and logged the knife in the head a few times and we threw it out the room. Th-then it was time for the Well."