THEY ALL WERE PRACTICALLY RUNNING OUT OF THE RESTAURANT. Their gaze was locked on the door, focused on getting the hell out of that place that had been infected by PennywiseHayley could feel that something was wrong, and Eddie was trying to convince himself that everything was completely fine. "That's what Pennywise does, though, right? He fucks with us, so Stan's probably fine."

"Hey, Mike." Mike turned at the sound of his name, and Beverley asked, "Do you have Stan's number?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, Richie!" They all turned at the sound of an unfamiliar voice calling their friend's name. From what he had said at dinner, he had not been home in decades, so it didn't make any sense for him to have any friends or anything here.

Especially any friends that were children. A little blonde boy peered up at him with a smile, but Richie was not having it. He snapped, "How'd you know my name?"

"The fun's just beginning, right?" the kid questioned, and everyone turned to each other in confusion and fear. That sounded exactly like something the stupid fucking clown would say to them.

"Listen, you think this is funny? Think this is some sort of game, huh?" Richie asked, his voice aggressive as he crouched down to look the kid in the eye. Hayley stepped back in shock. The kid could definitely be possessed, but he could also just be a normal kid. "Well, fuck you, all right? I'm not afraid of you."

Hayley's fears were confirmed when the young boy looked really weirded out and repeated, "'The fun's just beginning.' The line from your act, dude. I'm a fan."

"Jesus, Richie. You don't remember a line from your own show?" Bill asked after the kid had successfully been scared back to his parents. To be fair to Richie, none of them were in their right minds after everything they had seen in that room.

He just muttered, "I don't write my own material."

"I fucking knew it!" Eddie exclaimed excitedly, repeating it as they walked out of the restaurant and into the parking lot. Beverley dialled Stan's number, and a woman picked up.

"Hello, Mrs. Uris. My name's Beverley Marsh," she introduced, and she spoke to her while they all berated Mike for inviting them there until false pretences. "I apologize for calling, but I'm an old friend of your husband's."

Bill shook his head. "You lied to us. That's not okay."

"Yeah, first words out of your mouth should have been, like, 'Hey, man. You wanna come to Derry and get murdered?'" Richie added in agreement before yelling, "'Cause then, I would have said no."

"Oh... He passed." The words from the phone made them all shut up. Hayley's heart dropped, and she felt like throwing up.

Stan.

If she had heard that information two days ago, she would have been sad but not entirely heartbroken. She would have vaguely remembered knowing a kid named Stanley Uris growing up. But now that she was back, and she remembered being so close with all of them, she felt like she had lost a piece of her soul.

None of them said a word for a moment. And then Beverley asked, "When did it happen?"

"Yesterday. It was horrible, the way he died," Mrs. Uris uttered, her voice breaking as she spoke. "His wrists. In the bathtub."

EVERYONE HAD LEFT. Well, almost everyone. After the news about Stanley, everything kind of melted into a blur. Everyone jumped into their cars and drove back to the hotel. Hayley would have asked for a ride, but she was so in shock that she forgot. So, she had to sit there and wait for a taxi to come pick her up.

Mike took her presence as a chance that she was going to hear him out. He started toward her, "Hayley—"

"I'm getting a taxi," she interrupted, shaking her head. She could not relive that summer. She could barely remember it, and even trying to made her want to walk straight off a bridge out of fear of dying a slow, painful death.

Bill stepped forward then, and she begged him with her eyes to not say anything. "Hayley, Let's hear him out," he said, and her heart ached. She had never been able to say no to him, not that she could remember. She looked away, hoping that not looking him in the eye would help her.

But she somehow ended up in the passenger's seat of his car as they followed Mike home. The ride was silent for a while, neither of them sure what to say. How did you speak to your childhood boyfriend that you hadn't seen in almost thirty years?

"So, how'd you and your fiancee meet?" She was surprised at the question, and she looked at him with raised eyebrows. Honestly, she had wanted to avoid all talk of Evan whatsoever. In fact, she even considered taking off her engagement ring, but she felt guilty.

She cleared her throat and looked out the window. Hayley knew that if she looked over at him, he would know — know that she was unhappy, that she wasn't in love. 'Through my dad. You know, all of his business connections and everything."

"Your engagement was a business connection?" he asked, and there was an aggressiveness in his voice that wasn't there before, like he was ready to fight someone for her.

She shrugged. She really did not want to make a big deal out of it. She wished that she had said they met at a coffee shop or through work, but she couldn't lie to Bill. "Pretty much."

"Do you love him?" he questioned.

That made her freeze. She knew that he would be curious, but she had hoped that he would ask around the topic, not directly. What was she supposed to say? She knew that she didn't love Evan, but it wasn't impossible either. She avoided answering by saying, "I might."

"What did he say when you told him about all this?" Bill quizzed because that answer was enough for him. He knew what she meant.

"He didn't care," she replied honestly, clearly remembering how Evan had barely even glanced her way upon the news that she would be leaving without a return date a month before their wedding. "He was probably ready to get rid of me, if I'm being honest."

His eyes studied her from the driver's seat, and it was clear that he was holding back so many things that he wanted to say. It was almost physically painful for him, but things between them were too complicated, even now. "Why?"

"I don't know. We don't talk much," she replied.

He sighed, and she prayed that he did not say anything. But part of her, way deep down, wanted him to come save her, to take her away from her fiancee and her job and her life and make everything better. "Hayley..."

"I think we're here," she cut him off before he could say anything, and she pointed to where Mike was pulling over in front of them.

Mike came over and knocked on their door, and just as the Forbes woman was about to climb out of the car, he cut in, "Hayley, uh, you should stay here."

"What?" she asked, confused. "You begged me to come, and now, you're making me wait in the car."

"I'm sorry, but...this is for Bill," he explained, but it wasn't a very good explanation. Bill and Hayley shared a look of confusion, but she had had such a long day of travelling that she did not even put up that much of a fight.

She moved to lie down in the back seat. The jet lag was killing her, and it was late enough that she was allowed to sleep without getting too messed up. It felt like she had just drifted into a peaceful slumber when the door opened. Bill climbed in, a determined look on his face. She didn't even sit up, lazily asking, "What happened?"

"He drugged me," the Denbrough man revealed.

That made her shoot up, her head knocking against the top of the car. She winced and furrowed her eyebrows at him in shock and confusion. "What?"

"But I saw what he was talking about, and we have to tell the others."