Blood Rose (Completed)

Epilogue

Epilogue

Katherine survived the hash knock on her head by the falling beam in Neibolt house. She had no idea how or when, but when she woke, two concerned faces stared down at her. The sunlight of a new day hurt Katherine's eyes and she squinted.

"Did it work?" Her voice hoarse and when she tried to get up, Katherine decided it would be better to just keep laying down a bit more. Her body hurt and felt stiff when she tried to move her legs or arms. And there was this burning hole in her ribcage that felt empty.

"Yes," Bill's voice reached her ears and Katherine realised he was one of the two who stared down at her. "IT's gone. Neibolt is gone. Half of Derry is gone for that matter."

"What?"

Her face confused and Katherine turned her head to see the second pair of eyes that glanced down at her.

"Sinkhole," Beverly told her and offered her hand.

Katherine took it and let them pull her up. Bill offered her extra support by waving his arm around her. Katherine took in the chaotic mess that revealed itself before her ; Neibolt's house was indeed gone, a large, black sinkhole in the middle of the street with firetrucks and people standing around it. One of them, being the neighbour of Robert.

She hissed when the burning in her chest grew when thinking about him. Katherine never wanted to think of Robert or Pennywise again. Or about Derry. She made herself pull away from Bevv and Bill, standing on her own feet. Her hair clung to her face, jeans and shirt drenched with both black, sticky water as blood.

The sunshine seemed so out of place, making the chaos in her head even worse. It was supposed to be dark because of the horrors that happened to her and Derry. And bile rose in her throat when Katherine realised that she hated Derry.

"I'm going," she muttered and turned to face the others, still wobbly on her feet. "I need to leave."

Over Bill's shoulder she could see Richie and Ben. A small nod towards them was Katherine's goodbye and she turned on her heels, trying to remember which way to go home too. A home she couldn't wait to leave behind.

"Katherine," Bill's gentle voice coaxed her to face him again. "Thank you for your help."

There wasn't a stutter anymore and Katherine could muster up a sad smile.

"You're welcome," she mumbled, but there was a deep sadness in her voice. "It turned out IT wasn't all...a monster. A small part of IT wasn't."

Bill frowned, but said nothing.

"Still, you killed him," he said, using him instead of IT.

"I had too," Katherine said and nodded one more time. "Take care, Loser's."

Bill laughed sincerely. "You too, Kath."

Katherine went on her way. Her mind was a bit a blur when she got home and took her belongings into a suitcase. She threw the cases into the back of her old pick up truck and never looked back when Katherine saw the sign "You're leaving Derry".

She went back to Portland and sold the house in Derry through a Real Estate office. When the money came, Katherine left Portland two years later for a job offer in a small, rural town to the East.

Two years passed. Two years filled with nightmares about a clown that came to kill her. Two years filled with a deep sadness and a hole in her ribcage that she couldn't seem to fill. It didn't matter how many pills her psychiatrist told her to take ; they didn't work.

Yet, when she drove through the small streets that led her through forests and alongside a beautiful cliff that had a lake, Katherine did smile. Her window was turned down, the cool September wind in her hair and on her face. It would be a new start for her. Maybe one where she could finally forget about Robert and Derry.