HAYLEY TRIED TO STALL AS MUCH AS SHE COULD. She had texted Beverley on their way, letting her know everything. They all had to be there if they wanted to kill It, and Bill was too emotional to see that at that moment. So, she drove somewhat slowly and calmed him down as much as she could.

Finally, as they were walking up the steps of the house, she heard the redheaded woman yelling, "Bill! Hayley!"

"No, no, you guys, no! Hayley, you told them?" Bill asked, looking at the blonde woman with a betrayed expression. He turned around, knowing exactly what was happening as soon as he heard the voice. "I started all of this. It's m-my fault that you're all here. This curse, this fucking thing that's inside you all. It started growing that day that I m-made you go down to the Barrens because all I cared about was finding G-Georgie. Now, I'm gonna go in there, and I don't know what's gonna happen, but I can't ask you to do this."

Beverley crouched down and dug something out from beneath the grass. It was one of the spikes Bill had used when they were there the first time. "We're not asking you either."

"We're with you, Billy. To the bitter end," Hayley reminded him.

Mike said, "We didn't do it alone then, Bill, so we're not gonna do this alone now."

"Losers stick together," Ben added.

They all stood there for a short moment, looking around at each other. Finally, Eddie asked, "So, does someone wanna say something?"

"Richie said it best when we were here last," Bill replied, and they all turned to the Tozier man, waiting for him to repeat his greatest line. Hayley smiled when she realized what Bill was talking about.

"I did? 'I don't wanna die'?" Bill shook his head. "'You're lucky we're not measuring dicks'?" Hayley rolled her eyes. "'Let's kill this fucking clown'?" They all smiled, and he said it again, firmer. "Let's kill this fucking clown."

As they stepped determinedly into the house, they still proceeded with caution. Anything could happen in there. They were in It's territory now. Black goo dripped down the stairs, making Hayley shudder. Richie commented, "Well, I love what he's done with the place."

"Beep-beep, Richie," Bev replied.

Hayley followed Bill into one of the other rooms with Eddie and Richie behind her. The others were a a little bit back, examining another room. Hayley's eyes widened when she spotted a familiar staircase. "Hey, that's the basement, right?" she asked, pointing to it.

Just as Bill went to check, there was a pained yell, and Beverley shouted, "Ben?" Hayley whipped around, and so did everyone else in the room, just in time to see the door behind them slam shut, blocking them off from the others.

"Ben! Ben! Ben!" the screamed, rushing over to the door and banging on it, desperately trying to get it to open. Hayley got flashbacks to when she was locked in a room in that house the last time. At least now she wasn't alone.

There was a loud thud, and they turned, pressing their backs up against the door and the wall. In front of them was what appeared to be a mini fridge that hadn't been there before.

"Okay, that can't be good, right?" Richie breathed out as the door of the fridge slowly swung open, revealing a boy, twisted in ways that weren't right, stuffed into the small space. Hayley let out a gasp as the head of the boy snapped toward them. "It's Stan."

"Oh, my God," the Forbes girl breathed out when Stanley's head fell clean off his body and rolled across the floor, stopping a few feet in front of them.

"I'd still be alive if it wasn't for you, Bill," he said, looking over at the Denbrough man. Bill's eyes filled with pain, and he shook his head slowly. This was It trying to get into their heads, and it couldn't work. "Richie, what's happening to me?"

They all watched in pure horror as long, hairy legs broke through the skin on Stan's face, stretching out around him like a spider and lifting him up. Finally, he reached his complete form, and Richie muttered, "You gotta be fucking kidding me."

Then, it jumped. The four friends dispersed, diving out of the way of the creature. Bill grabbed Hayley by the waist and tugged her toward him just as the creature dove at them. He quickly punched it, knocking it through a large whole in the wall that led into another room.

Hayley slowly climbed to her feet, and the only sound she could hear was Eddie's heavy breathing. He was stood in a corner, completely still and looking absolutely terrified.

"Eddie. Hey, you okay?" Richie asked, rushing over to check on his friend, who did not look okay. But before he could reach for the Kaspbrak man, a large, disgusting dollop of slobber dropped in between them. Hayley slowly lifted her head to see Spider Stan in between the rafters, staring down at Richie. "Oh, there he is."

It jumped on his face, knocking him to the ground. "Richie!" Hayley cried out, and she and Bill jumped into action, grabbing the creature by the head and tugging its mouth away from their friend's face.

"Get the knife," Bill muttered, but if either he or Hayley stopped pulling, Richie's face could be done for. He looked over at Eddie, who was still frozen in place. "Goddamn it, Eddie, get the knife!"

Realizing that he was not going to move, Hayley stuck her foot out and kicked the knife toward her. Once she knew she had a strong enough hold with her left hand, she used to right hand to pick it up and slam it into Stanley's skull. The creature went somewhat limp, but she did not stop stabbing it until half of its face was gone, and it scrambled away.

"He could've fucking died, man," Bill said, his voice shaking as Bill, Bev, and Mike ran into the room, finally able to enter. Hayley looked up and realized that he was yelling at Eddie. "You know that? Georgie's dead. The kid's dead. Stanley's dead. You want Richie too?"

Eddie's reply came out broken and terrified, and it brought Hayley back to all those years ago, when he was always worried about everything. He had his arm snapped by a clown in that house. He stammered, "I don't want Richie. Please don't be mad, Bill. I was just scared."

"Hey, hey, hey. Calm down. It's not his fault," Hayley defended, standing up and pulling Bill away gently by his bicep. He just scoffed and walked back while she checked on the Kaspbrak man, rubbing his shoulder. "You're okay."

Once everyone regained their breath and composure, they proceeded toward the stairs. It did not take long before they were face-to-face with the well where it all started. Ben breathed out, "A lot of memories, huh?"

"Oh, this is fucking nasty," Hayley grimaced once they were down in the gray water in the well. They had to parkour down the rope again and tread through sewage, but they finally made it to their destination.

"Shit. This is it. This is where it happened," Ben murmured in realization while Eddie made disgusted noises at the trash in the water. The man paused when he noticed that the woman behind him had stopped. "Bev, what is it?"

Everyone stopped and turned to look at her, and she shrugged. "I thought I heard something."

All of a sudden, something shot out of the water and wrapped around Beverley. Hayley's eyes widened, and she stumbled back in shock. Her redheaded friend looked completely terrified as an old woman shrieked, "Time to sink!" And then she drug Beverley down into the water.

Ben was first, ducking down under the surface. Bill jumped in next, and without thinking, the blonde woman dove after him. Despite the water being about waist height when they were wading through it, it felt like an ocean. It was all just darkness, and Hayley grabbed at whatever she could, hoping that it was Beverley or one of her friends.

Finally, when she needed to breathe, she kicked her legs toward what she hoped was the top and dragged whatever she was holding with her. She resurfaced with everyone else, and she turned to see her hand wrapped around Richie's leg, and he was holding her foot.

The important thing was that somehow, Bev was with them, gasping for air. Richie coughed and turned to the man who was the reason they were there. "Mike, where do we go from here?"

After climbing down a hole and squeezing through too many crevices, they finally made it to where Mike was taking them, to where It hid in the darkness for 27 years. Eddie looked around in disbelief. "So, all of this has been under Derry for, like, forever?"

"Not forever. Just a few million years," Mike corrected, like that made much of a difference. There was a circle of giant spikes poking out of the ground in a circle, and they maneuvered through them to the center, whereMike placed his ritual box. "It can only be attacked in its true form. The ritual shows that."

"What's It's true form?" Ben questioned, and Hayley had a feeling that it was a clown, since that was what they had seen the most of.

Richie started, "I hope it's a puppy. Like a Pomeranian, or... " When he realized that no one was having it, he trailed off and shook his head. "I'll shut up."

Mike dumped lighter fluid into the box and dropped a match in so that a fire shot out of the hole in the top.

"It's light. A light that must be snuffed out by darkness. Your artifacts. Place them in the fire. The past must burn with the present," Mike announced. And they all placed their tokens in, one-by-one. Richie had a token from the arcade. Eddie had his inhaler. Bev had a postcard. Ben had a page from his yearbook that only Bev had signed, which he kept in his wallet for 27 years. Bill had the boat he made with Georgie. Mike had the rock that Bev hit Bowers with in the rock fight, and Hayley had her cheerleading uniform. "Okay, grab hands. The Ritual of Chud. It's a battle of wills. The first step was our reunion. The second was the gathering of tokens. This is the final step."

The fire went out all of a sudden, dying quickly. A light came from above them, and Hayley squinted from suddenly being exposed to such brightness.

"The Deadlights," she breathed out when she realized what they were. She quickly closed her eyes, shouting, "Look away!"

"Turn light into dark. Turn light into dark," Mike chanted before snapping at them. "Say it!"

They all grabbed hands and began repeating the phrase over and over again, not looking up. The Deadlights slowly descended from the great height above them until they dropped into Mike's box.

He dove to cover it with the lid, but as soon as he did, a giant red bulb began pushing out of it. Bev furrowed her eyebrows, confused as the rest of them. "What is this? Is this part of it?"

"Mike, what the hell is happening?" Hayley asked, and everyone was starting to freak out. The bulb was growing, pushing the lid off of the box.

He answered, "I don't know. Keep chanting."

"Turn light into dark," they all started again, squeezing each other's hand tighter, but the red kept growing and growing. Finally, it was so big that they were about to get suffocated by it.

Before long, they realized that it was a balloon, inflating and inflating until it would pop at one point. Hayley stumbled back against one of the spikes, and Bill grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her through the gaps. "Go, Hayley, go!"

They fell out just in time as the entire thing exploded. Hayley was thrust forward, and she slammed into the ground a few yards in front of her.

The only thing she could feel was her entire body aching, and her ears were ringing. She could make out muffled noises as someone grabbed her shoulder and sat her up. Bill's face was right in front of hers, his eyes scared and concerned.

"I'm okay," she finally mustered, and she let him help her to her feet.

They went and found everyone, clumping together once again. Hayley looked around at the silent cavern, noticing how still everything seemed. Richie asked, "Did it work?"

"Oh, shit!" someone cursed, and there was a flashlight pointed up. And there, staring at them through the cracks in the rock, was a giant fucking clown.