▌Chapter 13 ─ Tormented ▌

━━━━━ HOLLY TALKED TO Richie and Eddie catching them up on life after leaving Derry. The entire time she had been talking to them, her eyes had wandered over to Bill a few times.

"I mean, it's weird, right?" Ben asked, pulling everyone's attention. "Now that we're all here, everything just comes back faster and faster. I mean, all of it."

"Yeah. Yeah, you know, when Mike called me, I threw up. Isn't that weird? Like, I got nervous. I got, like, sick and I threw up. I feel fine now. I feel very relieved to be here with you guys. Why is everybody looking at me like this?" Richie asked, looking around at everyone.

"I had a panic attack." Holly breathed out, looking around at everyone. Prudence nodded in agreement.

"When Mike called me, I crashed my car." Eddie admitted. Holly looked at her friend, concern etched to her face.

"Seriously?" Bill asked him.

"Yeah."

"Shit, man, I hear you. I mean, my heat was literally pounding right out of my chest." Ben said.

"I thought it was only me." Beverly said.

"It was like pure... f-f-f."

"Fear." Mike said, looking over at Bill. "It's fear. What you felt."

"Why did we all feel like that, Mike?" Mike proceeded to look at Violet, and the two then lowered their heads. "You both remember something we don't, don't you, Mike?"

Holly switched eye contact between Violet and Mike, while Mike looked at Bill and Violet looked at Holly.

"Something happens to you when you leave this town. The farther away, the hazier it all gets. But me, and Vi, we never left. So, yeah. We remember. We remember all of it."

"Pennywise." Beverly whispered. Mike then looked at her. Holly looked to Prudence who looked back at her.

"Oh, the fucking clown." Eddie started to breath heavily. "Oh, shit."

"Pennywise." Richie said.

"Mike, you said you wanted our help with something. What was that?" Bill asked, looking over at his old friend.

"There's an echo here in Derry that bounces back every 27 years."

"What are you talking about?" Eddie asked, cutting Mike off.

"Hold on. Listen, listen. We thought we stopped It back then. We thought It was done, but..." Mike opened his book and started to flip through the pages.

"Mike." Richie called out to him. Beverly whimpered while Holly reached for Prudence's hand.

"A week ago, a man, Adrian Mellon, slaughtered."

"Mike."

"Shit."

"A girl, Lisa Albrecht, the other night, went missing."

"All right." Bill said, looking at Mike.

"There've already been others, and there will be more."

"I don't want to hear about this shit."

"More death. More pain."

"Calm down."

"Let's get another drink."

"Please." Holly mumbled, feeling anxious once again.

"Let him explain. Let him explain. Explain it to us, Mike." Ben said.

"That echo, we might have changed It, just like It changed us. But we didn't stop It. Because It just bounced back. We made an oath. That's why I brought you back. That's why you're here. To finish It. For good." Mike explained to them.

"Well, that shit got dark fast. Thanks, Mike." Richie said.

"My fortune cookie just says 'Could.'" Eddie said, holding the piece of paper up.

"They don't know how to do fortune cookies here. Mine just says 'Guess.'" Richie added, showing everyone. Both Holly and Beverly opened one up but didn't have anything in theirs.

"You wanna throw that over here?" Bill asked him. Bill then stood up and placed his paper down on the table. Mike handed him over to Bill. "What you got, Mikey?" Bill asked, taking the small paper from him. Everyone stood up and looked at the words as Bill moved them around.

Prudence however had been the only one who didn't move. "Wait, what?" Eddie questioned.

"This is what I'm talking about."

"'Guess. Cut. Not. Could. It.'" Richie said.

"It's a message." Violet spoke, looking at Mike.

"Np, 'Guess it could not cut.'"

"Why would it guess it could not cut?" Eddie asked, looking at Richie.

"Cut what?" Ben asked. Holly looked back at Prudence as everyone tried to figure it out. The brunette lifted her eyes from the paper and stared back at Holly. Beverly also looked at Prudence, she could see the tear falling down her face as the others continued to move the papers around.

"That's what I'm talking about." Mike told them.

"It... It could..."

"I don't know what it fucking means!" Richie yelled. "You fuck with the fortune cookies, Mike? Violet?" Richie went on to ask them.

"No."

"Whoa."

"Let him speak, man."

"This is not us. This is what It does." Mike told them.

"I need my fucking inhaler!" Eddie yelled out.

"What is wrong with you, man? Why'd you call us? This is not fucking funny!"

"This is so not funny!" Eddie added.

"Prudence?" Bill called out, finally seeing that Holly and Beverly had been looking at her. Prudence placed the piece of paper down on the table for everyone to look at. Holly looked at it to see Stanley's name resting on it.

"Oh, my god." She breathed out, as everyone gasped. Bill rearranged the words and when he did it now said 'Guess Stanley could not cut it.'

"Why does it say Stanley?" Eddie asked them. "Someone else fucking answer me!"

After he had said those words the table moved causing the fortune cookies to start to move as well. Holly backed up lightly looking at the cookies.

"Oh, shit!"

"Holy shit."

They rattled back and forth until eventually one jumped out of the bowel. Beverly gasped at the noise it made. Holly stood up from her chair and moved close to Richie as Ben, Eddie, and Prudence moved back from the table. Richie lifted his hand to his head, watching the cookie.

"What the fuck is that, man?" Richie asked them.

"Oh, my god."

"Whoa! Whoa!"

They watched as a bug-like creature came out of the cookie with a baby's head on it's body. Shortly after it started crying. Holly moved further away from the table as it moved towards Mike and Bill. Three more cookies popped out of the bowel and onto the table.

"Shit." Richie said, backing up and pulling Holly with him. It popped open and an eyeball with tentacles came out, and raced towards Richie and Holly.

"Hey! Hey! That fortune cookie's looking at me! Shit!" Richie yelled. More creatures started to come out of the cookies and Beverly stood up from her chair backing away.

"I don't want to be here. I can't fucking do this."

Holly felt panicked as she watched the creatures move around the table. Eddie continued to express how he didn't want to be there.

"Holy shit!"

"Hey! God damn it." Holly and Richie watched as the bat-like creature picked itself up and flew towards Eddie and Ben. "Hey, Eddie!"

Then a black goo started to come out of the bowel and move around the table, killing the creatures that were trying to get away from it. Holly looked over at the aquariums, and saw heads appear, and started singing.

"Whoa! Fuck!"

"It's not real!" Mike told them, he then walked away from Violet and picked up a chair and started mashing the table and everything on it. "This isn't real! It's not real! It's not real! It's not real!" Holly stayed close to Richie but held her arms in front of her. The waitress then walked into looking at them.

"Is everything all right?" She asked.

Richie slowly turned his head to look at her. "Yeah, yeah. Could we get the check?" He asked her. She turned around and walked away from them.