▌Chapter 4 ─ Afraid ▌

━━━━━ HOLLY HAD CAUGHT up with Beverly the two smiled at each other riding their bikes up the hill. Holly assumed that Prudence was already with the boys. But she wouldn't know for sure until her and Beverly got there.

They two finally made it up to where the boys and Prudence were. She climbed off her bike, taking her shows off as she was already in her swimsuit.

"All right. Who's first?" Bill questioned his friends, all of them completely oblivious to the fact that Holly and Beverly had joined them.

"We'll go." Beverly said, dropping her bike. Holly soon let her bike fall to the ground, as the boys and Prudence turned back to look at them. "Sissies."

Both Holly and Beverly took off running jumping off the edge of the cliff towards the water down below.

"What the fuck!" Richie shouted loud enough for the two to hear. They splashed down into the water.

Holly moved her hands swimming back up to the top just as Beverly did the same thing. Holly lifted her head looking up at her friends.

"Come on."

Prudence was the next to jump not caring what the boys were talking about. She landed in the water soon swimming back up just in time to watch Bill do the same thing. Soon after the rest of the boys followed behind Bill.

Once they had all made it into the water they began playing splashing the water around at each other. Holly and Prudence watched as Ben and Bill picked up Beverly and Richie on their shoulders.

The two attempted to push each other off, however Richie seemed to be successful when it came to that. Afterwards they continued to move through the water, and eventually they even saw a turtle.

After playing in the water, the group went back to the spot where all their bikes and bags were. The music was playing and Beverly was tanning, while Holly and Prudence looked at a comic book that she had brought with her.

They lifted their eyes up noticing that the boys had been staring at Beverly, she eventually turned towards them causing them to look away. After that Richie proceeded to go through Ben's bookbag.

"News flash, Ben. School's out for summa!" Richie said, holding his hand up like a microphone. Soon it disappeared as he shoved his other hand in the book bag to pull everything out.

"Oh, that? That's not school stuff." Ben told him.

Holly looked to see a card resting in Richie's hand. "Who sent you this?"

"No one. Give it... No one." He shoved it back in his bag. But Richie pulled a folder out, opening it up and looking at it.

"What's with the history packet?"

"Oh... Well, when I first moved here, I didn't have anyone to hang out with, so I just started spending time in the library."

"You went to the library? On purpose?"

"Oh, I wanna see." Beverly said, picking herself up from the tail and walking over to Bill.

"What's The Black Spot?" Stanley asked, looking between Eddie and Holly.

"The Black Spot was a nightclub that was burned down years ago by that racist cult." Eddie explained.

"The what?"

"Don't you watch Geraldo?"

"Here, pass it." Bill closed the folder and handed it over to Richie who opened it backup to look at it. Prudence and Holly stood up from their spot and walked over to Richie to look at what he had been looking at.

"Why is it all murders and missing kids?" Richie asked Ben.

"Derry's not like any town I've ever been in before. They did a study once, and it turns out people die or disappear six times the national average." Ben told them.

"You read that?" Beverly asked him.

"And that's just grown-ups. Kids are worse. Way, way worse. I've got more stuff if you wanna see it."

"No, no." Eddie said, clearly the one person who didn't want to see it.

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They followed Ben back to his house. He was the first to get off his bike and run into the house. Holly dropped her bike catching up with Prudence and Beverly as they walked up the stairs into the house.

Holly entered Ben's room looking around at the paper's that had been tapped to his wall. She continued to walk around the room, Prudence following behind her. The two looked at the pictures and the words that rested on the paper.

"Wow." Richie exclaimed looking around Ben's room.

"Cool, huh?" Ben asked them.

"No. No, nothing cool. There's nothing cool."

"Don't be bothered by Richie's answers, he's just not that interested in learning. I think it's cool though." Holly said, sending Ben a smile. Richie turned towards Holly giving her a nasty look.

"What's that?" Stanley questioned pointing at the picture in the center.

"Oh, that? That's the charter for Derry Township."

"Nerd alert."

"No, actually, it's really interesting. Derry starting as a beaver trapping camp."

"Still is, am I right, boys?" Richie asked, holding his hand in the air as he looked at Eddie and Stanley. Eddie just stared at him and Stanley shook his head.

"Ninety-one people signed the charter that made Derry. But later that winter, they all disappeared without a trace."

"The entire camp?" Eddie asked him.

"There were rumors of Indians, but no sign of an attack. Everybody just thought it was a plague or something."

Holly walked over to one of the pictures getting a closer look at it. In the crowd she noticed a clown residing in the crowd. She looked away for a brief moment thinking that it was a part of her imagination. When she looked back the clown wasn't there anymore.

"But it's like one day everybody just woke up and left. The only clue was a trail of bloody clothes leading to the well house." Ben continued to explain to them.

"Jesus. We can get Derry on Unsolved Mysteries."

Holly turned away from the wall, walking over to Bill looking to see the film that he had been holding onto. She picked one of them up, holding it up to the light to see if she could see what was on it.

"W-Where was the well house?" Bill asked, turning towards Ben.

"I don't know. Somewhere in town, I guess. Why?" Ben asked him in return after answering his question.

"Nothing."

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Holly walked towards the garage that wasn't far from her house, she placed her bike on the ground and walked over to the front of the door, pulling it up with her hands. She went back to her bike and picked it up from the ground.

Then she proceeded to walk into the garage placing her bike in it's respected spot. Her dad's car was in the garage, which meant that she was right on time. Holly went to turn around to walk out but the flicker of a light seemed to catch her attention.

The brunette turned back around looking to see a night light flickering, she was afraid, it was like fear had suddenly overcome her body and she didn't know what to do. Nonetheless she decided to walk over to the flicking light to turn it off.

When Holly got to the light it stopped, she pulled it out of the plug realizing that it had been the one her mother gave her before she died.

"It's all your fault." The voice of her mother spoke causing her to jump, she dropped the nightlight. Leaning down she picked it up. "You're the reason I'm dead."

Holly picked herself up, she placed the nightlight back on the table and turned back around. But what she didn't expect was to see her deceased, rotting, stinky mother standing not far from her. Suddenly the brunette felt tears wanting to break free.

"No. You got cancer. It wasn't because of me."

Holly went to run to the other side of her dad's car, however as she did she ran into something which caused her to fall back down to the ground landing on her bookbag. The brunette groaned slightly, lifting her head up to see a clown.

It had been the same clown that she had seen in the picture that had been hanging up on Ben's wall. Holly proceeded to lift herself up slightly and scoot back away from the clown. He smiled at her.

His face was white, with red markings from the corner of his lips resting just above his indented eyebrows. His orange hair was prominent, he had a red nose. And his outfit seemed to be worn down.

"Hiya, Holly." He spoke, his voice sending chills down her body.

"No. Please leave me alone." Holly pleaded, as she stared at the clown with a scared look on her face.

"Come join the clown, Holly."

"No, leave me alone." Holly shouted, feeling the tears that were still threatening to come out.

"You'll float down here. We all float down here."

He started laughing, and upon that laughter Holly picked herself up and ran back to the other side, running out of the garage scared for her life. As she made it out, she looked back to see if the clown was still there.

He wasn't there anymore, before she had another chance to react she collided into something, which caused her to fall down to the ground once again. Holly slowly turned her head looking to see what she had run into.

Upon her inspection, she felt relief wash over her when she saw her dad standing there looking down at her. He walked over to her and kneeled down checking to make sure she was okay.

"Whoa, you look like you've seen a ghost." Nicholas said, as he helped his daughter up from the ground.

"Thanks, Dad. You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Let's just go eat dinner." Holly said, deciding to brush it off.

"Okay." With those words they walked away from the garage heading into the house to have dinner.