HAYLEY RAN A HAND THROUGH HER HAIR AS SHE LEFT. Her uniform was tucked safely into her purse, and she just has to make it back to the hotel without any more encounters with the ghosts of her past. She was still shaking from whatever the hell happened in that basement when she noticed someone standing at the end of her driveway.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" she asked, a smile making its way onto her face at the sight of Bill.

He put his hands into the pockets of his jeans and shrugged. He always used to do that whenever he was trying to act cool or like something wasn't that big of a deal. He answered, "I just came to m-make sure you made it back alright."

"Thanks," she replied, not questioning it. In all truthfulness, she wanted to be alone as little as possible. Having someone else there, especially Bill, was comforting. As they began to walk, she turned to him, "So, you've heard my whole story. What about you? Got a girl?"

He shook his head immediately, almost as if he was assuring her of something. "No, no, no. I've just been writing and working on movies."

"You've found love in your work," she pointed out, and she was glad that he did. Sometimes, loving what you do was more comforting than loving a person. It was motivation to get up every day.

Bill chuckled, "It sounds sad when you put it like that."

"No, I wish I loved what I did as much as you do," Hayley responded. Getting up every day and going into work as an accountant was never how she pictured her life. It worked for some people, but she was itching to do something more.

"You could," he said, and she knew what he was suggesting. He had always been supportive of her following her dreams, even when she doubted herself. "It's not too late."

She looked down at the ground just as they approached the hotel. "Being an actress was an unrealistic dream. I've gotten to see the world. That's what matters."

"Hey, Bev, how are you doing? Where's everybody else?" Bill asked when they walked into the hotel and saw the redheaded woman standing in front of the stairs.

She whipped around and looked at them with an anxious expression on her face, which was really not a good sign. She answered, "Richie wants to leave. Ben's upstairs trying to get him to stay." Hayley had a feeling that she was not the only one who had been attacked while looking for her token.

"Eddie's just scared," Bill replied.

"We all are," Hayley cut in, and she stepped toward Bev to give her a hug. God knows that they both needed it. They were both practically shaking from fear. "I mean, if you're not, I am very very concerned."

Beverley nodded as she embraced the blonde woman back, muttering, "That's what worries me because that's what It wants."

"We can do this. We just have to stick together," Bill assured them both. Everything was always more terrifying when they were alone, and It was able to pick them apart faster as well.

Their moment was interrupted by a loud thumping, and they all turned to see something sliding down the stairs. "What the hell is that?" Hayley asked, and it wasn't until he rolled across the rug at the bottom that she realized it was a skateboard. Bill stepped forward slowly, grabbing the coatrack as a weapon. "Bill, wait."

He continued anyway, tapping the skateboard lightly with the metal post. Blood floated off of it, droplets flying across the rug. Then, he gently flipped it on to its side to reveal writing in blood on the bottom. 'WON'T BE THERE FOR HIM EITHER.'

Hayley furrowed her eyebrows in concern and confusion, and Beverley's voice shook as she questioned, "What does that mean?"

"Shit, it's the kid," Bill cursed, and he started pacing back and forth in front of them.

Now even more confused at the mention of a kid when she was pretty sure that nothing they had encountered so far had had anything to do with a child, Hayley asked, "What kid?"

"It's the kid from the place. The Chinese place. I saw him on the way here. He lives in my old house. He was going to the fair, and..." he trailed off like he had just realized something. "He's going to the fair. I'm gonna help him."

He started toward the door, but the two women stepped into his path to stop him. Hayley placed her hands on his chest and pushed him back, trying to prevent him from doing anything he might regret. Bev spoke softly, "Hey, listen to me. We'll go together. I'm gonna get Riche and Ben, and we'll go."

"There's no time. I can't let it happen again." His voice broke as he spoke, and Hayley could tell he was getting flashbacks to Georgie.

"What happened before wasn't your fault," Beverley sighed. "None of it was."

"I wish that were true, Bev," he said, looking her in the eye before pushing past both of them and out the door. Hayley turned and ran after him, despite Beverley's protests.

As she made it out the door, she saw him jumping onto a bike — his old one — and he was off. She ran to the road and called after him, "Bill, wait!" But it was too late. He was already halfway down the street.

BY THE TIME HAYLEY SPOTTED BILL, NIGHT WAS FALLING. She hadn't realized it, but she had spent over an hour running around the fair and looking for him. Her feet hurt, but her determination was strong. There was no way that she was leaving Bill alone, not after everything they knew could happen.

"Bill," she breathed out when she finally saw him stumbling out of the funhouse. She ran over to him and grabbed his shoulder, causing his head to whip up to look at her. She repeated, "Bill."

"It got him," he muttered, and her heart dropped. She vaguely remembered the young boy from the restaurant. It was so little and so full of life before Richie yelled at him. He looked like Georgie, and he lived in Bill's old house. That couldn't be a coincidence.

He started storming off, and she ran beside him. "Bill, where are you going?"

"He look a little kid, Hayley. He took a little kid right in fucking front of me," he rambled, stammering as he led them back toward the parking lot. Hayley did not like where this was headed, and she was starting to get nervous.

She knew he wanted to go after him, to the house. But he couldn't. Not alone. Going alone was a death sentence. "Bill, just come back with me. Everyone's at the library. We can come up with a plan there."

"I'm gonna go kill it," he said firmly, and she shook her head. He was running now, and she was desperately trying to keep up. He wasn't in his right mind, that was obvious. Who would be, after what he had been through? "And I don't want any of you to get killed with me."

"Bill, listen to me. Going alone to Neibolt is quite literally a death wish. Remember, we need everyone. You can't kill it by yourself," Hayley insisted, stepping in front of him once they reached the parking lot.

He finally stopped and looked her in the eye. He could never focus on anything else when he looked her in the eye. He had been trying to avoid her gaze because he knew that he was done for the second he saw those eyes. The rest of her had aged, but those eyes would haunt him forever.

He stepped closer to her, so close that it surprised her. The hand on his chest slid up to his shoulder, stabilizing herself as he caught her waist. His fingers gripped the fabric of her shirt tightly, like he was scared that she would slip away at any moment. At this rate, it wasn't impossible.

Neither of them spoke for a long moment, with Bill being so out of it and with Hayley being so confused. She couldn't think with him that close. Her brain got fuzzy. She almost gasped when he spoke, his voice barely above a whisper, "I can't lose you, Hayley Forbes, not again."

"You never lost me," she replied honestly, her voice shaky as she did so. The truth was that a piece of her heart would always belong to Bill Denbrough, no matter how far away she got from that godforsaken town. She was connected to him on another wavelength.

Time stilled for a moment, and she was taken back to that moment in the field, after they had defeated It the first time. The look on Bill's face then strongly resembled the look on Bill's face now — only now, there was more maturity, more pain, more desperation. She felt everything she felt then, only ten times more.

He wished she would kiss him, make the whole world fade away and everything bad with it, but he knew that she wouldn't. She knew that he couldn't. He had to save the kid. It would destroy him if he didn't.

So, as he slowly reached for his bike, she grabbed his hand to stop him. He looked up at her with an expression that begged her to let him do this, but that was replaced by realization when she opened the passenger door of Bev's car for him.

She looked up at him expectantly. "You coming?"