The Town of Derry

Checking up

I left Eddies house not sure if anyone else was coming with me.

I walked down the dark driveway holding my arms to keep me warm, "Laura wait" mike said, catching up to me. "Stan and I are coming" he said as he caught up with me, with Stanley coming out of the front door.

I smiled at both of them, We walked down the dark street, avoiding the darkness of the forest on the other side of the street.

"His lights on" Stan said as we got closer to Bills house. Mike and Stanley both stood on either side of me, "bowers lives around the corner from Bill, I hope bevs okay" mike said, at the fact the bikes were all over bills front yard.

I walked up to the door and knocked lightly.
"Hi Laura, Stan, Mike" bills mom said as she opened the door. "Is Bill here?" Mike asked as she let us in, "upstairs with Beverly and Ben" We took off our shoes, and walked up the stairs "hey guys, don't mention bevs shirt" his mom said quietly as we reached the top, I looked at Stan who was about to open bills door.

"Hi guys" I said walking into Bills room to reveal Bill, Beverly, and Ben sitting on bills bed looking at more of Bens articles.

"Hi" they all replied not making eye contact with us. "Uh, is everyone good here?" I asked, since that was my reason of coming over.

"Well besides Henry trying to Grasp Bevs body sure every things is good" Ben said, clearly upset with us.

"Looks I'm sorry we left, sorry I left" I stepped over to Stanley, mike was looking at the articles now. "Why didn't you tell me Laura" Bev said, looking up at me, I had a confused look on my face. "Tell you what" i fiddled with my frizzy hair from the humidity.

"You and Stan" she said, i felt Bens eyes raise up to me. "It was just to protect Laura, and to fool Henry" Stan explained, Billy was now looking up from the articles.

"Richie threw a rock at bowers car" mike said, I grin grew across everyone's face. I walked over to the side of the bed Beverly was on, "Bev I would one hundred perfect tell you if I ever started dating anyone, and you know about the secret Henry and I had because it was to protect you" I said hugging her, I smiled at Ben over her shoulder.

"I ship it though" she said loud enough for the room to hear, I pushed her and laughed as I turned back to Mike and Stan. "Where are you guys s-staying" billy asked as we were about to leave.

"Eddie Spaghettis house" I said smiling, since he wasn't here to yell at me for using a nickname. "Well can we come?" Ben asked, I knew they were bored here.

"You can come, but you'll need to ask Mrs.K when we get there" Mike said, we all headed downstairs, put our shoes on, and headed back to Eddies.

I walked beside Bev, we took the long way around to make it convince Eddies mom that I took my dog for a short walk.

"Stan the man!" I yelled jumping onto his back as he was down to the ground tying his shoes.
"Mike race" Stan said as Bev climbed into mikes back to hold my hand at the same height.

"Boys no!" Bev yelled as they went to run, "not this way" she said, "bowers lives down here" mike said, I shrugged and motioned for them to keep going this way. "Laura.." Bev whined
"We have to face our fears" I explained still on Stanley's back, she was still on Mikes, I reached for her hand making mike walk closer to us.

"You just wanna fake date Stan" Ben joked, I kicked him as he was beside Stan walking.
"That's not a bad thing" Stanley said laughing,
"He's just joking" Beverly said about Bens comment. She tapped her cheeks to motion that I was blushing, then winked.

"I won a muscle contest today" Mike bragged over to the guys. "That's only because Laura didn't wanna play favourites" Stanley stated, as he jumped to lift me up a bit. "Don't get me wrong mike, your my second favourite" I said reaching down a bit to tap his head.

"Bowers h-house is so creepy at n-night" Bill said as he walked in the middle of Stan and mike, "got that right billy boy" Beverly said as she got down from mikes back.

"Kind of has an eerie feeling" I said picking out the grass from Stanley's hair that mike threw moments before. "Wonder how he sleeps at night knowing what he's trying to do to our girls" Mike said, as we began to speed up to get past this road.

"Do you guys" I said, then stopped talking as I made eye contact with a clown standing in front of us "huh?" I heard Ben question at me.

I tapped Stanley to make him stop walking as we got closer and closer to IT.

"𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒐 𝑳𝒂𝒖𝒓𝒂" 𝑰𝑻 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆, 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒃𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒏

"Stop!" I yelled at everyone "IT" I said as I looked at Bev, she looked around then I saw her lock eye contact with the clown in the distance. "Fuck" billy said under his breath.

"𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒐 𝒃𝒐𝒚𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍𝒔" 𝑰𝑻 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒂𝒔 𝒋𝒕 𝒓𝒂𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒖𝒔.

We all closed our eyes as IT ran to us, fast as lightning, "it's not real, it's not real, it's not real" I heard Stanley say as IT ran through us like a ghost.
"It's not real" Stanley said again as it disappeared.

"That's it guys" Ben said stepping in front of us to speak directly. "If IT knows we don't believe he's real, he will go!" Ben explained, we all looked at each other "Richie and Eddie!" I said forgetting they were alone at Eddies house.