Gone Girl // IT Fanfiction

Two: Eurydice

When Cathy came to, she found herself lying on a patch of grass and surrounded by worried and curious eyes. The one closest to her, kneeling with her hand on her forehead, was Tess. The teenager's face relaxed when she saw her mother's eyes on hers, and she let out a dead breathe before turning and looking around her. She said some words in Italian that Cathy noticed, ones that - after a moment - eventually led the crowd to dissipate and leave the duo alone. Tess turned back to Cathy, helping her mother sit up. 

"What happened?" Cathy asked, rubbing the side of her head and wincing when she felt a large bump. Pulling her hand away she found flakes of dried blood beneath her fingernails.

"You fainted," Tess said simply. "A passerby caught you, but you still got a little graze. It's fine, though. Superficial bleeding."

"Oh," Cathy murmured, eyebrows pulled together. She had been doing something, hadn't she? Talking to Tess, or the waiter, or...

Wordlessly, Tess held her hand out. Lying in her palm was Cathy's phone. Suddenly the memory hit Cathy hard, a searing pain racing up her arm from the palm of her right hand. Stretching her hand out Cathy saw the cause of it. There, as though it had always been there, was a long, thin scar. Gently Cathy traced the line with one finger, a wave of nausea washing through her.

"Swear..." 

The voice was faint, pushing through a fog in her mind that she had never noticed before. She hadn't heard that voice in so long, and yet now it was running through her mind on repeat, making up for lost time.

"Swear... Swear... Swear..."

"Mom?"

"Hmm?" Cathy lifted her head quickly, only just now hearing the echo of her daughter's voice. Tess stared at her mother, grey eyes narrowed with concern, and gently she placed her phone in her open palm.

"That guy you were talking to, Mike someone, he was still on the phone when you fainted," Tess told Cathy. "He wanted me to tell you that you have to come home. That you have to go back to Derry."

"Derry..." Cathy whispered the word, her stomach clenching. Tess didn't know why, but the word had made her mother's complexion run three shades too pale. She stood up, looking down at her mother who continued to stay where she was, as though glued to the grass beneath her. Licking her dry lips Cathy lifted her face up towards her daughter.

"Did he say anything else?" she asked. 

"He said you have to come home now," Tess told her. "He said you swore to come back if.... if it returned."

"Swear!"

The word was so loud in her ears it sent her stumbling to her feet, eyes wide as she stumbled backwards. Cathy felt Tess' hands on her arm, steadying her as she stared in confusion. Once again Cathy felt the sharp pain in her hand, her arm, her fingernails -

"Mom!" Tess was yelling at her, pulling her from the pain she had once felt when she lost her fingernails. When did I lose my fingernails?! Cathy couldn't help thinking even as Tess dragged her out of her thoughts. Her daughter's fingernails were digging into her arms.

"Ouch, Tess!"

"Well, sorry, but you were zoning out!" Tess argued, letting go of her mother when Cathy pulled her arm away. She stared at Cathy, arms outstretched to the side. "I don't understand? Why are you acting so weird?"

"I just..." Cathy swallowed, lips thin. "I just don't want to go home."

"That Mike guy sounded serious, though. Mom? What's going on in Derry? What's happening again that you have to go back for?" Tess asked. Cathy looked at her daughter. Fifteen and almost the spitting image of her when she was young. There were some differences, though. Her long brown hair was curlier, strong ringlets flowing down her back and exploding out of the bun that sat at the nape of her neck. She was tall, would probably go on to grow taller than her. While Cathy had once worn a multitude of long sleeve dresses in the summer, Tess preferred denim shorts and layered shirts and necklaces. "It's alternative, mom. You wouldn't get it," she would say, playing with her flannel button shirt and sheer patterned tops. She was right, Cathy didn't get it. But she loved it if it made Tess happy, and she was. Another difference. Tess was always content, almost always happy.