―thirteen
Emily Winchester entered the sewers through the barrens. She knew that trying to go down the well in the Neibolt house would be too difficult and decided that going through the barrens was her best option.
So now here she was, trekking through dirty sewage water trying not to vomit at the smell of shit and piss. She had never been gladder of how thick her hunting boots were than at this minute. Her hand rested on her gun which she kept down but at the ready, her eyes darting around the dark tunnels of the sewers.
Her flashlight was tucked safely within her pockets, but Emily did not want to use it unless she truly had to. The light would attract the attention of the clown and Emily wanted to sneak up on it. Taking it off guard was a better option than trying to face it head-on.
As Emily turned the corner of the dark tunnel, she was met with a gaping mouth of a large entrance.
"What in the actual hell..." Emily muttered as she slowly walked through it, the nasty water splashing as she did so.
When Emily entered the huge area of the sewer her breath was knocked away from the terrifying sight she faced. Floating above her were hundreds of kids, all of whom were the missing children.
Bringing her hand up to her mouth, Emily gasped in shock. The second thing she noticed was Beverly floating in the center of the room, her irises a milky white color. With shaky hands, Emily pulled out her flashlight, turning the light to Beverly.
"Bev..." Emily trailed off in a whimper, her bottom lip quivering.
Emily could tell Beverly was not dead, but she was not sure how to save her. Not to mention she was not even sure how she was supposed to get the younger girl down.
Just next to Beverly was a huge pile of junk ranging from children's toys to trash found on the streets. Perhaps she could climb on it and pull Beverly down.
Before Emily could act on her plan, a gloved hand suddenly wrapped around her mouth preventing any noise from coming out and her body was pulled against an immensely tall figure. She could feel the pom poms of the clown's suit against her back, her body tightly fit against his. Looking up, Emily was met with the sight of bright orange eyes peering down at her.
The clown was so tall that when Emily tilted her head up and the clown tilted his down, they were nearly nose-to-nose.
Narrowing her eyes, Emily growled trying to reach for her machete, but the clown only held her tighter against him so she could not get her weapon.
The clown clicked his tongue, shaking his head. "Naughty, naughty hunter. I think I will keep you for later... after I eat those friends of yours."
Emily let out a scream of rage at the threat, but suddenly she felt the clown lean down until his mouth was in line with her ear. She cringed in disgust as the clown licked her ear lobe, sniffing her for a second.
The clown coughed, making a noise of disdain. "Nasty tasting, but fun for entertainment." He muttered, Emily, wriggling it its grasp again.
"The fuck?" Was all she got out before the clown grasped her and suddenly her mind went numb and her vision turned black.
"Sleep..." The clown mumbled in her ear as Emily was forced into the land of dreams and nightmares.
□□□□
"Emily..."
"Wake up..."
"Emily, wake up, please. We need you..."
She could hear the voice stirring her from her deep sleep, the teenage girl slowly waking up. It was damp all around her body and whatever she was lying on was extremely hard, like concrete.
'Am I wearing my hunting gear? What the hell?' Emily thought to herself as she woke up, a small yawn leaving her lips.
"Emily?" She recognized this young feminine voice, it was Beverly.
At the thought of Beverly, Emily's eyes snapped open, the girl coming face to face with Beverly Marsh who looked down at her with relief.
"Beverly," Emily stated, sitting up and grasping the younger girl's face in her hands. "You're alright." She exhaled before pulling the girl in a tight hug.
Beverly had been kneeling before her, Emily and her both on the damp filthy grounds of the sewer. "Yeah, Ben saved me--" Beverly's explanation got short by the familiar sound of Bill's voice.
Looking past Beverly, Emily for the first time noticed that Mike, Richie, Stan, Eddie, and Ben stood in front of the two of them protectively, blocking them off from Bill who stood up front with a captive bolt gun pointed straight at a little boy's head. The little boy had an arm missing and his face was rather dirty, despite the tears falling down his cheeks Emily recognized him for what he was.
A monster.
That was no little boy standing there and Emily knew it, Emily knew that she was staring at it.
"But you're not Georgie," Bill said bravely before firing the gun causing the metal to fly out and hit 'Georgie' in the center of the head.
A large hole was punctured in his brain as he fell down hitting the ground with a hard 'thud'. All of the losers held their breath at the sight of the little boy beginning to twitch and shake on the ground as if he were having a seizure.
Emily was not sure how long she was out for, but she knew it must have been a while as it appeared that she missed a lot. With no hesitation, she reached for both of her guns, holding them both in each hand.
The little boy screamed, but his yell soon became warped and overcome with that of a monster's raging howl. In a matter of seconds, a familiar terrifying clown lay in the spot where little Georgie Denbrough once was. The clown seemed to almost float up, his head slowly lulling up to face Bill who had the captive bolt gun pointed directly at its big forehead.
"Kill it!"
"Bill, fucking kill the monster!"
"Shoot it!"
"Kill it, Billy!"
"Kill it!"
All the losers began screaming at Bill to kill it including Emily. Mike was the only one to not, his mind reeling when he realized the gun was not loaded.
"Guys, it's not loaded!" Mike tried to warn them but it went unheard by everyone except Emily who picked up on his words. "It's not loaded!"
Emily understanding what this meant quickly stood up, her hands on both of the triggers of her guns.
The clown wore a grin on his face knowing the gun was not loaded; however, he entirely missed Emily waking up. This clown knew Emily posed an issue as in his mind she was currently his only threat. He underestimated the others, but definitely not Emily. Especially after the mantra she had said while shooting at him yesterday.
When Bill shot the gun, nothing came out of it, but the clown made a face while releasing odd noises pretending as if he had been shot. His mockery only lasted moments as it quickly began shaking while screaming at the top of its lungs. Everyone jumped back in fear, Mike turning to face Beverly and what he thought was the unconscious Emily. He was pleasantly surprised to find Emily very much conscious and standing with two guns in her grasp.
The clown was suddenly up and charging toward the children knocking Bill to the ground while the others screamed. Beverly picked up a discarded shower pole attempting to do what she had last time and impale the clown's head. Unfortunately for her, the clown anticipated this, using his hand to grasp the pole before Beverly had a chance at plunging it in its head.
"Beverly no!" Eddie yelled as Beverly stood petrified as the clown held the pole, his gaze drilling holes into her.
Mike darted forward, attempting to catch the clown off guard but was only thrown against the wall harshly. Beverly quickly released the pole going to Mike's side.
"Oh, that does it!" Emily screeched firing her guns at the monster who cried in pain.
The teenager walked forward with her guns. Once she was close enough, she quickly put them away before bringing her machete out and wielding it as if it were a sword. Bending down, Emily let out a war cry, swinging the machete at the clown's neck trying to decapitate it.
Foreseeing this, the clown ducked successfully avoiding the blow but in turn, allowing Bill to jump on his back. Emily no longer swung the machete at the clown, too afraid that she would hit Bill instead.
"Help him!" Richie bellowed as he jumped on the clown's back right next to Bill.
Ben and Stanley hung on its arms as the clown spun around trying to get the children off of it. Emily stood in front of Beverly, Eddie, and Mike, blocking them from any surprise attack the clown might give.
With a roar, the clown flung both Stanley and Ben off it, reaching up and pulling Richie away from its back. Richie screamed he went barreling toward the ground, hitting the concrete hard but not hard enough to cause any lasting damage.
"Richie!" Emily cried, kneeling down in front of him, her eyes worried.
Richie gazed up at her through his thick glasses, giving a shaky smile. "Hey, good looking." He slowly sat up with the help of Emily, everything that happened in the past now forgotten at that moment.
"BILL!" Eddie exclaimed as the clown had gotten Bill off of his back and was now holding him in a chokehold close to his body.
"Let him go!" Beverly ordered while Emily brought her gun out once again, the barrel trained on it.
But she did not fire in fear of accidentally hitting Bill.
"No..." The clown shook his head, the sound of jingling bells filling the room. "I'll take him. I'll take all of you and I'll feast on your flesh as I feed on your fear." He hissed in a demonic tone. "Or..." He held up a shaking finger, deciding that it would offer the children a deal that he probably wouldn't honor. "You just leave us be, I will take him, only him...." He creepily caressed Bill's hair. "Then I will have my long rest and you will all grow and thrive and live happy lives... until old age takes you back to the weeds."
"Bitch, I did not come from the weeds." Emily scoffed, finding the creature's words so bizarre that she had to say something to break the tension.
With that, she shot the clown, landing the bullet in his shoulder. The clown growled in annoyance, hissing at Emily and clutching Bill tighter. Richie surprised not only Emily but himself as well by bravely stepping in front of her as if he were her knight in shining armor. However, everyone knew the reality of it.
Emily was Richie's knight in shining armor, not the other way around.
"Go," Bill cried. "Leave, I'm the one who dragged you all into this, I'm s-s-sorry." He whimpered as the clown only held him tighter.
The clown snickered shaking his head. "S-s-sorry." He mocked as if that were the funniest word in the world.
Richie, surprising himself for a second time, sucked up all the courage he could. "I told you, Bill. I don't want to fucking die, this is your fault. You punched me in the face, you made me walk through shitty water, you brought me to a fucking crackhead house..." The clown scowled at the insult on what he considered was his home. "And now, I'm going to have to kill this fucking clown." He grabbed a bat that was lying on the floor, holding it up as if he were about to hit a home run.
The clown threw Bill out of his grasp, standing up and walking toward Richie.
"WELCOME TO THE LOSER'S CLUB ASSHOLE!" Richie shouted while swinging the bat and hitting the clown directly across the face.
Mike swung a pole at the clown, only for dozens of hands to begin clawing out of its mouth, the sounds of screaming coming from within the depths of it.
"Mike, Mike, MIKE!" They all screamed.
Stanley in an act of braveness grabbed another pole, slicing through the arms. The arms quickly retreated, the clown hissing while facing Stan. The clown's face morphed into a woman of complete horror, the thing charging at Stan only for him to swing the pole hitting it away from him.
The Losers all began surrounding it, taking turns of beating with weapons of their own. Richie and Emily stood next to each other, Richie swinging his bat while Emily threw around her machete. The clown decided to try and play with Eddie's fears by throwing up on the boy, and Eddie immediately kicked it in the face as payback.
"I'm fucking going to kill you!" The Kasbrak boy hollered.
Turning around, the clown swapped his head into Alvin Marsh, smirking at Beverly.
"Bevy, are you still my little girl--" The clown never got to finish his sentence as Beverly yelled, impaling it with a pole.
The clown cried, pulling the pole out of its chest only to catch Emily within its sight. Hissing at the hunter, the clown knew it was a long shot, but he decided to try and play with her fears. With a harsh twitch and tug of its body, the clown was no longer a clown.
Instead, John Winchester stood in front of the Losers, his brown eyes trained on Emily.
Emily's mouth fell open in shock, not knowing where this clown was going with this. She was definitely not afraid of her father, so why would this clown change into him?
With a sneer, the phony John Winchester clenched his fists, his eyes narrowing.
"You failed, Emily." He spat, taking a daunting step toward her. "Why can't you be more like your brother? You are a failure. Do you hear? A FAILURE!" John roared, Emily, feeling burning anger within her.
The Losers all shared glances, none of them knowing for sure, but all of them able to guess that this was Emily's infamous hunter of a father. Richie was about to grab Emily's hand, but before he could Emily had already moved.
With a smirk, Emily pointed her gun directly at her 'father'.
"I do not aim with my hand; she who aims with her hand has forgotten the face of her father. I aim with my eye." She started saying the motto that affected Pennywise last time, changing the "he" to "she" once more.
The clown hissed, screaming in pain as the bullet lodged directly in its chest. Immediately it swiveled back into its clown form. The Losers all stood, their eyes darting back and forth between Emily and the clown.
The roles between Emily and it had changed, Emily and the Losers were now closing in on the clown who scurried back in fear.
Emily held her gun trained at the clown; Bill and Richie stood on either side of her, the rest of the Losers just behind them as they closed in on the clown who was trapped against a vault leading deeper into the sewers.
"That's why you didn't kill Beverly and Emily because they weren't afraid of you." Bill acknowledged, his fingers turning white from how hard he was grasping the pole. "And we aren't either, not anymore. Now you can be afraid because you are going to starve." Bill said.
Emily wasted no time after he was finished to spit out the rest of the motto from her dream.
"I do not shoot with my hand. She who shoots with her hand has forgotten the face of her father. I shoot with my mind." This time the bullet landed in its throat, and the monster began to choke.
In pure desperation, the clown flipped itself over the sewer vault, holding onto the edge. All the Losers ran forward, their eyes on the clown who was dangling down into the darkness of the vault.
"I do not kill with my gun; she who kills with her gun has forgotten the face of her father." Emily started, the clown giving her one last look.
"Gunslinger." The clown hissed quietly, Emily pausing at the word that she had heard in her dream before completing the mantra.
"I kill with my heart."
Before she could fire her weapon, the clown not wanting to see what would happen when the last bullet hit it, let go of the edge. Everyone gasped as the clown fell into the dark abyss, Emily screaming in rage firing her gun down into the hole. But alas, she hit nothing.
□□□□
"I can only remember parts, but I thought I was dead."
It was a few hours later when they all got out of the sewers, all of them sitting in the field feeling newfound freedom.
The dreary sheet which had previously hung over Derry for the past year and a half was gone, and its place was the happy-go-lucky vibe that all of the Losers remember growing up with. In the short time that they had been out of the sewers, they were also able to sense a change within the adults. They all seemed to be back to normal, the snoopy caring house mothers, the watchful police officers patrolling the town, and the same bratty snot-nosed kids.
"I saw us, all of us together, but we were older. Like our parent's ages." Beverly explained.
Emily had just got done explaining everything in full to the others. She told them she would need to leave at the end of August, and despite all of their sadness (especially Richie), they understood. With the short month that they had left, they all decided that they would make the most of it.
"W-what were we all doing there?" Bill asked Beverly.
The green-eyed girl simply shook her head, biting her lip. "I'm not exactly sure, all I knew is how we felt. We were so scared and I don't think I can ever forget that." Beverly said, her eyes downcast as the horrible visions hit her.
Visions that made Emily remember her own dream. Emily was not sure what her dream was about, but she knew it was no ordinary thing. Whatever the vision was concerned something serious, and Emily intended to find out what it meant.
An idea spiked in Bill's mind, the boy standing up and grabbing a random glass shard from the grounds of the grassy field.
"Swear it," Bill started, all the Losers looking at him expectantly. "Swear that if it isn't dead; if it ever comes back... we'll come back too." He held the glass shard in his hand, the breeze wafting through his hair.
All of the Losers looked around warily, unsure if they would be able to handle another summer like this one. But then again, despite all the bad that had happened, some good came out of it too. The new friends they had made were definitely number one.
Emily was the first to stand up, Richie tilting his head up to look at the crazy-haired brunette. He squinted his eyes against the bright sun, his pupils adjusting to the brightness and focusing on Emily.
He thought that she looked like an assassin from one of the video games at the arcade, albeit an extremely sexy assassin in his modest opinion.
Blowing her fringe out of her face, Emily flashed Bill a lopsided smile. "Hey, if that thing ever comes back, you can expect that I'll be the first one here to kill it. I lost my chance today, but trust me when I say in twenty-seven years that thing will not be so lucky." Emily smirked, making her own promise that even if no one else returned, she would.
It was her job, after all. She was to be a hunter of the supernatural for life.
Beverly was the next to stand, nodding toward Bill. "I'm in." She smiled grabbing his hand while Emily grabbed his other hand.
"Aw, what the hell?" Richie sighed while standing up and grabbing Emily's hand.
A tremor went down his back as he grasped Emily's hand, their fingers intertwining almost lovingly.
Eddie was next, then Mike, then Ben, and finally Stan, all the Losers standing in a big circle holding the hands of each other. Bill used his broken glass shard to cut into his hand, passing it around.
Emily smiled, making a spur-of-the-moment decision, and instead of making a normal incision into her hand, she cut a large "R" into her palm. Richie watched this with huge eyes, gaping as Emily smiled and passed the glass to him. With little to no hesitation, Richie did the same, cutting a noticeable "E" into his palm, hissing at the stinging sensation.
"You guys are fucking crazy." Eddie shook his head at the two, but took the glass shard and cut into his own hand.
Once everyone had successfully cut themselves, they joined hands in silence. Even though no one said anything, the promise that they made both to themselves and to each other is a promise that would forever stay with them.
As they slowly let go, Stan looked at Bill with a straight face. "I hate you." He spoke before cracking a grin along with the others, everyone falling into a small laughing fit.
"I'll see you later." He smiled turning and walking away.
Eddie was next to go followed by Mike. With a grin, Emily stood up from the grass wiping her hands on her thighs.
"I'm going to go now. I need to shower really bad and this crossbow is starting to hurt my back." Emily sighed at the crossbow, feeling her back beginning to cramp up. "I'll see you guys tomorrow though." Emily nodded, referring to the funeral Bill's parents had finally decided to throw for little Georgie Denbrough.
Bill invited all of the losers, everyone agreeing to go to support their friend.
"Actually, my parents want me home too. I'll see you all later." Richie stood next to Emily, the two leaving Ben, Beverly, and Bill to themselves.
As Richie and Emily walked through the field, Richie looked to Emily. "You know, you don't need to leave. You could always stay with my parents and I, they would love to have you with us, I might even be able to talk them into letting you sleep in my room with me, and—" Richie was cut off by Emily placing a finger on his lips.
A muffled noise of confusion left Richie as he looked up at Emily.
"Woah, slow your roll..." Emily smiled as she took her finger off Richie's lips, the two of them slowing in their pace. "As great as that sounds..." Emily's heart fluttered at the thought of staying in Derry with Richie and the others. "My family needs me. There are other places like Derry, you know being haunted and whatnot, someone needs to help them." She said it kindly, both of them stopping and facing each other.
Richie messed with his glasses. "Well, what if I went with you—" Richie did not even get to finish his sentence before Emily burst into loud laughter.
"My dad would fucking kill you before he let that happen. Besides, your parents would miss you and you have a life here. Trust me, the hunter lifestyle sucks in comparison to this, you got a brain Richie, you're going places." Emily playfully poked Richie's forehead, Richie smirking suggestively.
"Exactly, therefore I can get a good job and take care of you when we're older. Then we can move to California, get married, and have lots of mini us running around." Richie grinned as if he had everything all planned out.
Emily raised a brow in reply.
It was silent for a moment, Richie sighing before looking at Emily. "Emily, I know I always say this, but I love y—" Richie never got to finish his sentence as before he could comprehend what happened, he felt a pair of lips touching his own.
Despite the chapped and dry nature of them, Richie swore he had never felt anything better. She tasted exactly how he envisioned; cinnamon and something sweet.
For Emily, Richie's lips tasted of some kind of candy, something she assumed he had eaten at the arcade earlier that day.
It was both of their first kisses, and it was the best thing either had ever felt. It did not last long, it was short, sweet, and gentle in its wake. As Emily pulled away, she noticed Richie's face was bright red, his eyes wide open. Slowly, a smile bigger than anything Emily had ever seen carved onto Richie's face, the slightly shorter boy taking her hand in his own.
With newfound confidence, Richie began to speak. "Emily, will you be my gi--" Richie was cut off by Emily, the older girl foreseeing what Richie was going to ask her, and decided to flip the question on him.
"Richie, be my boyfriend?" Emily's words were fast, but Richie easily caught them, his mouth dropping open in shock. Never would he have ever guessed that Emily Winchester would be the one to ask him out. "Please?" Her lightning eyes were wide and under it all slightly pleading.
Richie found himself nodding his head vigorously and screaming. "Yes... HELL FUCKING YES!"
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