Dæmon (Bill Denbrough x Reader) [An IT & IT: Chapter 2 Reader-Insert]

Chapter 8 - Answer the Calling

A/N: Another wonderful image belonging to AL Standford in ArtStation (www.artstation.com/artwork/w8NQOO) And yes I know, a very long wait (a little more than a month) but believe me when I tell you that this chapter is worth all the wait of the world. It's one of my favorite chapters and it was the most difficult to write so far. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do~

It was pretty obvious that your neck pain was going to magically reappear when, instinctively, you stretched your entire body out of bed. But was it really necessary for it to be accompanied by fever and headache? You hated having that hot feeling on the surface of your skin, that suffocating rise in the body temperature only made you more pissed off than you already were from the headache. You snorted in frustration at your bad luck, sitting on one of the corners of your bed and not really wanting to get up again the moment you heard your mother calling you from the dining room. You didn't think you were strong enough to go down the stairs and go to breakfast, you couldn't even answer your mother out loud; you felt hot, achy and dizzy, extremely tired as if you hadn't slept at all. So there you stayed, sitting on your bed, trying not to move your head as much as possible and waiting patiently for your mother, or your stepfather, to come to your rescue.

Fortunately, you didn't have to wait long because, within a few minutes, your mother's figure appeared in the doorway of your room, one hand on her hip and the other on the knob of the open door. The instant her motherly eyes fell on you, she immediately knew that something was wrong with you: you were silent —and with no apparent intention to speak or explain what was happening to you—, your shoulders looked too tense, your posture was unusually straight and your whole body was shaking slightly as if you were cold (even though you felt the opposite). From one second to the next, her face contorted in a sign of utter concern and she didn't hesitate to hurriedly walk towards you to place the back of her left hand on your forehead, confirming her suspicions.

"Yes, you are definitely ill. That explains why you didn't answer me and didn't come down to eat, you have a fairly high fever", she said, changing the back to the palm of her hand to be doubly sure what she was talking about and then looking at you more closely. "Do you feel something else? Does any part of your body hurt? You know you can tell me, right?"

You thought about lying to her, you really did. You could tell her that you had nothing else other than the intense fever, maybe talk about the neck pain as a product of a bad sleeping position, but never mention the headache. Your mother had already had more than enough with you and your aftermath of the accident, mentioning the headache would only make her worry increase even more than necessary. You didn't want her to continue to worry more than necessary about your physical and mental health. However, you also knew that she, like your mother, should worry about you and take care of you when you aren't feeling well, and you, as her daughter, shouldn't refuse her help. Understanding that, it was then that you decided to give up the idea of lying to her face... at least partially.

You swallowed heavily and nodded your head slightly, complaining almost immediately in annoyance at the pain you felt returning to your neck. Like an alarm, your mother's eyes widened in concern and she was about to ask you something, but you stopped her before she did. "Yes, ma, my neck hurts. I think I twisted it a bit while sleeping. My head hurts too, but I guess it's from the fever".

Your mother was silent for a brief moment, as if she was analyzing what you had just confessed to her, and you became nervous under her gaze; you bit the inside of one of your cheeks. Maybe she already discovered your half-lie, maybe no, you couldn't be sure of anything until she said something about it. "Hm. It's okay. I'm going to prepare a cold water bath for you, it will help you lower that fever and relax your muscles. If the fever goes down, the headache should decrease as well. Is that okay with you?"