The Town of Derry

IT

Eventually everyone fell asleep, after what felt like hours of talking and laughing.

I have to admit, seeing Richie so happy with Eddie, Billy and Beverly closer than before, And Ben and Stanley's faces light up at the sight of our friends, made me feel amazingly warm inside.

I was the only one still awake, per usual.
I watched as they all slept, peacefully with IT not in their mind..

As for me; I couldn't sleep, because I knew us getting back together would bring IT out.

~ 9am ~

The next morning I sat, still in the same place I've been awake all night, I mostly thought about Mike, he was the only one not with us, and making him the possible one IT would go for first.

"Laur?" Ben said as he looked over to me, "you look like you havnt slept" he said as I looked down at him, I shrugged and nodded "I havnt" I said, I moved Stanley's arm off of my lap and sat up more.

"Why not?" I heard Billy ask as he came in from the bathroom, everyone started to wake up. "Couldn't stop thinking about Mike, how he could be.. like in danger" I explained, I felt Stanley hug me then get up.

"Then it's settled, today we find Mike, just to make sure he's safe" Stanley said as he walked out of his room and down the hall.

I watched as everyone woke up more and more, "so you really didn't sleep at all?" Beverly said while she brushed my hair as I yawned.

"No, but it's fine, I'll get extra sleep tonight once I know Mikes okay" I smiled to her as she switched spots, where it was now me brushing her hair.

I was glad to see everyone come together to find Mike, and to make sure he's okay... but at the same time, I was worried for everyone's safety from IT.

We all haven't had anything happen for a month, but it's weird, because IT wanted us to separate? But we did, and nothing happened?

I grabbed my jean shorts, and my Black tank top, slipped on my Converse and waited downstairs for the others.

"Good morning" Stanley's mom said to me as she sat down at the table with her coffee, "morning" I smiled, I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bottled water from the fridge. "What are you guys up to today?" She asked flipping through the morning paper, I shrugged "oh just stuff, riding around town seeing what we can get in trouble for" I chuckled slightly and sat with her at the table.

Bill came followed by Ben, Eddie and Richie. "Morning Miss, Uris" Bill said as he stood at the doorway for the kitchen. She smiled and greeted them.

"Where's my son?" She asked, she got up and put her empty cup back under the kettle, "right here" he yelled as he ran down the stairs, "we're going to see Mike and then probably down to our old club house" Stanley said as she kissed his cheek.

"Be safe" she smiled, as the kettle whistled she poured her second cup of coffee, the rest of us waited for Beverly.

"Ready" she said coming into the kitchen, "let's get going then" Eddie said running outside behind Stanley and Richie.

We jumped on our bikes and headed out.

Mikes Pov:

I watched as my old friends walked by me at the library, I don't know wether to wave, go over or just ignore them..

I saw Ben wave and smile at me, panicking I turned around and walked the other direction. My grandpa said I'm an outcast, and he was right, it has to stay that way.

~ 12 am ~

I couldn't sleep, something didn't feel right. "Hey grandpa" I said as I sat in the living room with him. He was reading the paper, "another kid went missing, I am glad you chose to stay away from that group" my grandpa spoke, he reached for his tea cup. "What are you doing up?" I asked as I put the kettle on the stove.

"I always stay up till you fall asleep" he said, I watched as he looked at me with a worried face. "I saw them today, but I turned the other way" I made him another tea, stirring the sugar in he walked over to me. He never said anything after that for the rest of the night.

~ 10 am ~

I decided I was gonna go for my morning run, although it was boiling hot out.
July is always a bad month for heat in Derry, never a cold day in July.

They're probably going to the quarry to cool down, that's what we did in May and June.

I tied my shoes and grabbed a water.
"I'll be back later" I said to my grandpa as he sat on the front porch. "Be safe" he spoke as I left the driveway.

Laura's pov:

I walked behind everyone, Carrying my board.

Would Mike be mad at us? I mean he did invite us the other day for a reason.. right? But then again, we're just going to check on him, make sure he's safe.

"𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒐" 𝒊 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒂 𝒗𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒔. 𝑰 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒅, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈.

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒌𝒚 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒘 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌, 𝒂 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒖𝒓, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒏, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒅𝒓𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒊𝒓, 𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒚 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒂 𝒓𝒖𝒏.

"𝑩𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒚" 𝒊 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔, 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆.

"𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕" 𝒊 𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒊 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒂 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒏, 𝑰𝑻 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓. "𝑰 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍" 𝒊 𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒌𝒆 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒂 𝒃𝒊𝒕 𝒍𝒐𝒖𝒅𝒆𝒓.

"𝑮𝒆𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒊 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍, 𝒊 𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒅𝒓𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒓, 𝒔𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓. 𝑰 𝒘𝒊𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒂𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒆𝒚𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅.

"𝑮𝒆𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒆" 𝒊 𝒚𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒕 𝒂 𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒐𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒏. "𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒖𝒓𝒂" 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒚 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒆𝒕𝒍𝒚

"𝒀𝑶𝑼𝑹𝑬 𝑵𝑶𝑻 𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑳" 𝑰 𝒚𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒑𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒆 𝒖𝒑.

"Laura come on" Ben said as he rode towards me. "Holy shit?" He said as I wiped blood off of my hands.

"Guys!" He turned and yelled to the others who were waiting at the stop sign.

"What happened?" He asked as he kneeled down to me, I had my hands facing upwards on my lap as the blood still soaked my face, hair and clothing.

I felt him and Beverly lift me up off the ground, I stood facing everyone as Eddie grabbed wipes from his fanny pack.

Stanley wiped the blood off of my face and eyes so I could see, while Eddie passed him the wet wipes.

"Your okay" Bev said as she patted my shirt to stop the blood from staining.
I shook my head no.

I knew IT was going through my mind, I think they knew it too, but no one was saying anything.

Stanley grabbed myself face to wipe it clean.

"IT" i said looking straight at Stan, Thats all I could get out.