Pennywise Loves Me?》It (2017)

Four

I couldn't get that stupid clown out of my head. Every time I think about it, there's this terrifying shiver going down my spine that makes my skin crawl. Especially that little girl on her tricycle calling me 'mommy.' Their laughter...it's been on repeat all the way to the sewers. I had to keep looking behind me to make sure that...that...thing wouldn't appear again. If I wasn't looking behind every now and then, then I would be checking my surroundings. I didn't want anything happening to Bill. We've already lost Georgie, I didn't want to lose him, too.

"I don't know. I guess," Eddie said as we continued down the stream towards the entrance of the sewers. Stanley kept pointing at every tree and said that the leaves are poison ivy. Even their little banter couldn't take my thoughts away.

My eyes didn't break away from the eerie darkness as I held my flashlight up. I just wanted to shine it across the tunnel and find Georgie there. That's all I want.

I took a shaky breath before I started making my way inside the tunnel. I held my arm back to block Bill. And if anything decides to pop out then I could push him away and tell him to leave.

"Do you use the same bathroom as your mother?" Richie mocked Eddie when he said he was starting to feel itchy.

"Sometimes, yeah," Eddie responded.

Richie started following me and Bill into the sewers. "Then you probably have crabs."

"That's so not funny."

I flashed the flashlight all around the tunnel. The foul stench of feces filled my nostrils made me want to throw up. The muddy water filling my shoes.

"Aren't you guys coming in?" Richie asked. I looked back to see Stanley and Eddie not moving from their spot at the entrance.

Eddie shook his head. "Uh-uh. It's greywater."

"What the hell's greywater?"

"Another word for piss and shit water," I responded as I went back to scanning the piss water. "We're walking on gallons of Derry pee." I looked at Eddie. "I told you to bring a bag to cover your shoes if you're worried about it."

"I would but I figured you just go in there by yourself while the rest of us wait out here -" he stopped mid-sentence when Richie held up a long stick that was soaked in the greywater. "Are you serious? What are you -"

"Doesn't smell like caca to me, senor," Richie said in a bad Spanish accent. I sighed before I walked further into the tunnel.

"Ok, I can smell that from here."

"It's probably just your breath wafting back into your face."

Eddie scoffed with an eye roll. "Have you ever heard of a staph infection?"

"Oh, I'll show you a staff infection."

"This is so unsanitary. You're literally...This is literally like swimming inside of a toilet bowl right now. Have you ever heard of Listeria?"

I kept moving out of the way of the floating paper as Eddie screamed. Richie probably threw something at him. I walked further into the tunnel and turned a corner to find one of the dead ends. The bars that are ceiling off anyone trying to go any further.

I let out a defeated sigh this time and decided to turn around. That's when the laughter in my head appeared again. The same maniacal laughter that's been haunting me since Georgie's disappearance. I turned back to the end of the tunnel and see two bright yellow eyes looking at me. Shining like fireflies at night as I see a silhouette raising an arm out. Hand outstretched, waiting for me to take it.

Something got caught in my breath as I looked at the hand. The same feeling from my room came back. I was mesmerized by the shiny light, not seeing the sinister smile from the silhouette. My hand twitched at my side before I felt it lifting up.

"Guys!" Bill shouted, breaking my stare. I was snapped out of my daze before rushing back to Bill, who was holding up a shoe.

"What is it?" I asked. "Is it Georgie's?

"It's not Georgie's," Bill studdered before using his flashlight to shine on the shoe. "He wore galoshes."

"Then whose sneaker is it?"

Richie held the shoe so Bill could unfold the shoe flap. The shoe might be dirty from all the shit and leftover residue but we could still make out the B. Ripsom on the side of the shoe.

"It's Betty Ripsom's," Richie answered.

"Oh, shit," Eddie breathed. "Oh, God. Oh, fuck! I don't like this."

"How do you think Betty feels? Running around these tunnels with only one frickin' shoe?" Bill, Eddie, and I gave Richie a look after he chuckled. This isn't the time to be joking right now.

"What if she's still here?" Stanley asked.

"Then we find her, too," I responded before going down the tunnel, making sure I go turn the other way. Bill and Richie followed after me. "Betty's parents must be worried sick about her."

"Eddie, come on!" Richie called out.

"My mom will have an aneurysm, ok, if she finds out that we're playing down here. I'm serious," Eddie argued.

I turned back and looked at Eddie before saying, "Oh, yeah? Imagine what would happen to your mom if you were one of the missing kids? You'd want us to find you, right? Well, imagine Betty's parents crying every night because they can't help but think about their missing child dead in a ditch somewhere. Betty would want someone to find her. Georgie, too. I can't imagine how terrified he must be. All alone crying for me and Bill to come get him."

"Well, what if I don't want to find them?" Eddie looked at me and Bill. "I mean, no offense, but I don't want to end up like..." Like Georgie. That's what he's trying to say. He realized his mistake before he tried to correct himself. "I don't want to go missing either."

"He has a point," Standley said.

"You too?" Bill stuttered.

"It's summer. We're supposed to be having fun. Jenny, you're supposed to be going away to college soon. This isn't fun. This is scary and disgusting."

Just then, we heard the water slash behind us. Stanley and Eddie turned around when we saw some kid grunting as he fell in the water. His face was all dirty, dry blood coming down his nose. He was running away from someone, I mean, who else could he be running from looking like that?

"Holy shit! What happened to you?" Richie asked.

The kid didn't say anything. He was trying to catch his breath. My eyes widened when I saw his shirt starting to stain with blood.

"Shit!" I cursed before running to the kid, unaware of the hand that was about to grab my ankle.