𝗖𝗥𝗨𝗘𝗟 𝗦𝗨𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗥

⁀➷ CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

TASTE OF FEAR

BEVERLY COULDN'T REMEMBER what had happened after Pennywise had grabbed her by the neck back in her bathroom. Everything had gone blank.

That was until flashes of black and white pictures began playing in her mind.

Flashes of who she could only think to be herself and the others when they're older. Her in a house with an unfamiliar man, kissing, and then Annabeth with two other women at a party. But she looked lonely as they giggled, playing with her hair ditzily.

Then a brunette who looked almost exactly like Elaine was sitting in a director's chair, a scowl on her face as she reprimanded an actress. They had tears streaming down their face, messily repeating the same word over and over again like a broken record "sorry."

She was almost unrecognizable without the same grin on her face that never seemed to slip, but now she had frown lines between her eyebrows and her eyes didn't hold the same light they have.

Elaine yelled at another actress as the person in front of her changed over and over again, from a ginger-haired man to a tall brunette woman. And then the most unusual girl stood in front of her, her blonde hair matching the same woman's from the previous vision, a glare battling Elaine's as the two shouted at each other.

And then, Annabeth stomped off and left the woman behind her in a frustrated heap. 

She held her head in her hands, clear guilt glinting in her eyes before it vanished and she wiped the single tear away.

And with that, the scene changed to a house, crumpling paper echoing as the man sitting on the floor threw yet another idea in the trash. His notebook lay open, a pencil between his teeth as he groaned.

Bill rubbed a tired hand down his face and his eyes flickered to the old yellow note on his desk, never really having known why he had kept it, but he felt like it had some sort of attachment to him. He had forgotten.

But then again, they all had.

A large flash took over her sight as she seemed to speed through a plethora of visions, only seeing small parts of them before it all came to a stop.

The people she had seen in the future memories were sitting together at a table, laughing together, and then her own hands were cracking open a fortune cookie, the word "Stan" written across it.

They all put their papers together, forming the sentence "Guess Stanley Could Not Cut It," and then she was calling his wife, receiving the devastating news that he had committed suicide after Mike had called him.

That was the last thing Beverly saw before she felt something soft press against her lip, her eyes focusing as a wide-eyed Annabeth stared at her. She blinked at her before a smile tugged at the corner of the redhead's lips "Beth?"

"I thought I told you to stop calling me that?" Annabeth laughed, leaning forward to kiss her again.

Richie stood wide-eyed, his mouth gaping open as he grinned "now, that's hot."

He looked over to a proud Elaine, nudging her in the side and gesturing to the two. She rolled her eyes and stepped away from his elbow "don't even think about it."

"What?" he groaned "come on."

"How many dirty thoughts do you have swimming up in that big head of yours?"

"A couple hundred." Richie shrugged before he smirked "why? Wanna test them out?"

"Not in the slightest."

🍄🌿

"WHERE'S BILL?" ELAINE Young scanned the dark room, the hazy air making it hard to breathe as discomfort settled into her bones. When no one answered her, she hit Richie in the stomach making him let out a loud 'ouch'.

Everyone turned to them, confused at the boy's loud cry. Noticing that she had gotten their attention, she asked again "where's Bill?"

They shared worried glances before slowly making their way towards the piled of junk in the middle, squeezed together in their own kind of "kill circle." 

Elaine briefly looked up at the kids floating around the top, some missing limbs while others appeared unharmed. But her guess was that they were all dead, and maybe...just maybe, Georgie was amongst them.

She shook that thought off, gripping tightly onto Annabeth's hand as they rounded the gigantic broken jack in the box that began to play creepy, eery music. Her and the blonde shared a look, hurrying to keep up with the others as they ignored the sound.

When Elaine had spotted the back of Bill Denbrough, she wanted nothing more than to run forward. But the only thing that stopped her was the small boy standing in front of him, his arm torn off as well as the sleeve of his dirtied yellow raincoat.

"I couldn't find my way out of here." Georgie had tears in her eyes, the most emotion that Elaine had seen the clown show while in someone else's body "He said I could have my boat back, Billy."

Bill's hand trembled behind him, and through the darkness, she could see the glint of something metal. He sucked in a deep breath, releasing it shakily "Was she fast?"

"I couldn't keep up with it," he said innocently, Annabeth tightening her hold on Elaine's hand when she winced after the little boy said "it." It all seemed so real, with her smashing the mirror that held herself, a way of destroying her past self. And then Georgie clutching tight onto the paper boat in his hands. There was a thin line between reality and fantasy, and Elaine didn't know when they had crossed it.

"'She', Georgie." he faltered "We call boats 'she'."

A flash of something passed across Georgie's face. But before Elaine could decipher it, it was gone "Take me home, Billy." he started to cry...damn that clown is a great actor "I wanna go home. I miss you, I wanna be with mom and dad."

"I want more than anything for you to be home with Mom and Dad. I miss you so much." He was tempted to hug his brother one more time as he took a step forward, but Bill shut his eyes, the next words ripping his heart to shreds.

"I love you, Billy."

"I love you too..." he whispered, and a part of him always would. But unlike Elaine, Bill could see the line that separated what was real and what was fake. And maybe he always knew that Georgie was dead, but he wanted nothing more than it to be fake. So, as he slowly took his arm out from behind him, his lower lip trembled "but you're not Georgie."

The gun in his hands made a loud bang as he pressed on the trigger, a bullet lodging itself in Georgie's forehead after let out a loud whimper. His body fell back onto the floor, wriggling in pain like as if he was having a seizure.

His small form began to grow, an arm beginning to occupy the missing space on his left. But it had ruffles and soon stretched out over to the other side where his one arm morphed into the clown's own. He bounced back onto his feet, the face of Pennywise smiling widely back at them as they began to panic.

"KILL IT, BILL, GOD DAMN IT!" Annabeth yelled out, cowering behind Elaine who had clear fear on her face. But not because of the clown, but because of what he would do to Bill who still stood directly in front of him.

She watched as Bill's hands shook, his finger hovering over the trigger, but he could only stare wide-eyed at the clown. Ripping her hand from Annabeth's hand, Elaine ran forward, breaking the gun from his grasp as she held her hands up, pulling the trigger just as Mike yelled out "HEY, IT'S NOT LOADED."

The click of an unloaded gun echoed through the group, petrified looks on their faces as Elaine tried to pull the trigger again. Pennywise let out a giggle and the girl, in a moment of quick thinking, threw the gun at his head before quickly pulling Bill back with her to the group.

Pennywise rushed forward, sharp teeth bared as he jumped on top of Elaine. She had managed to wrap her hands around his neck, keeping him as far away as she could from her. A metal object crashed into his head making him snap his head over to where Mike had attacked him and as Mike went to hit him again, the clown tossed him off to the side.

Elaine rolled out of the way, clambering to her feet as she picked up a discarded pipe from the floor. She then ran to jump on his back, forcing the pipe between his teeth as he struggled to shake her off.

The others began to grab at his flailing limbs, holding onto his arms and legs as Elaine tightened her legs around Pennywises waist. He started spinning and one by one, the others couldn't hold on any longer and slipped off.

The brunette still held on tightly, a bit disorientated when the spinning started to speed up. And when he came to a complete stop, she felt her eyes struggle to see straight. Taking her tiny moment of weakness as an opening, Pennywise reached behind him and grabbed both of her arms, throwing her forward and off of him.

He coughed out a laugh and glared down at her, his hand growing the same talons from the Well House as he went to strike her again. But before he could, Bill had grabbed onto his arm, pulling on it as hard as he could.

"NO!" she tried to grab onto him, but Annabeth held her back as Pennywise wrapped his arms around Bill from behind. He stared straight into her eyes as if he knew that was a growing fear of hers. You lose one fear, you gain another. "Let him go, you psycho!"

The clown's red-painted lips stretched apart into a maniacal grin, his head shaking from side to side "no, I'll take him. I'll take all of you. And I'll feast on your flesh as I feed on your fear..." he looked off to the side "oooorrrrrr, you'll just leave us be. I'm taking him, only him. And then I'll have my long rest and you will and live to grow old and drive and lead happy lives until old age takes you back to the weeds."

Bill and her made eye contact, the latter's eyes so blurry that she couldn't even tell if he was looking at her. But she could see him strop struggling, accepting his fate as he croaked out "leave...I'm the one who dragged you all into this. I'm s-s-s-s, I'm s-s-sorry." 

"S-s-s-s-sorry." Pennywise mocked him, letting out a short laugh.

When they continued to stare at him, standing frozen at his words, he frowned "go!"

"You must be crazy to think we're leaving you down here." Elaine's voice cracked "they have no tv, how are we supposed to watch reruns of Sesame Street?"

"Oh, how touching." the clown pouted, cupping his hand around Bill's cheek like a mother would do to their child "I would've enjoyed watching you two grow up, forgetting about each other as soon as you go off to college. So tragic."

Elaine narrowed her eyes, going to bash his head in, when Richie stood to his feet in front of her "I told you, Bill. I fucking told you, I don't wanna die...it's your fault. You punched me in the face, you made me walk through shitty water, you brought me to a fucking crackhead house. And now..." he pulled a bat off of the pile of junk "I'm gonna have to kill this fucking clown. Welcome to the losers club asshole!"

Pennywise ran forward and Richie smashed his bat across the clown's face. 

Mike rushed forward with a pole, going to stab him when 2 pairs of charred hands reached out of his mouth and grabbed onto it. Annabeth picked up another bat from the floor and brought it down between, catching his attention as he morphed into her disgusted mother "you fucking fa**ot."

Richie smashed his bat against his head from behind causing him to turn around, faced with the rest of the losers. He ran at Stan first, taking the form of the creepy lady from the painting he was so afraid of, but Stan rammed a pole across her face.

Once again, Mike went to strike him, but missed and went tumbling to the ground, continuously rolling away as Pennywise's arms morphed into those of cicadas, piercing the ground where he had just been.

Elaine, not having a weapon of her own, grabbed an old wine bottle from the ground, watching it shatter as fragments pierced his head. But he remained unaffected as he ran at her, taking the form of a bloodied Bill. She tripped over another bottle, falling to the floor as her hands reached behind her to grab her pole.

She nailed him across the head and once more when he recovered, shouting over her shoulder "guys, a little help? This is getting really weird!"

A spear pierced through his chest from behind, the tip just about inches from Elaine's face as blood floated around him. Behind Clown/Bill, Ben stood with his hands wrapped around the weapon.

Billy the Clown turned around and morphed into a mummy, the bandages from their face shooting out to wrap around Ben's head. He struggled to push away, but Beverly picked up a chain from the ground struck it down harshly on the clown.

He broke apart from the boy and Richie hit him with the bat, causing him to fall to his knees where Beverly hit him with the chain again. Elaine held her pole up like she was in a baseball game before bashing it into his skull.

Pennywise grunted and she hit him across the head again. He took the form of Annabeth's mom as she smashed a beer bottle over his head. Beverly hit him with the chain and Bill started throwing random shit he found on the ground at him.

Eddie was on the ground on all fours, staring straight into the clown's eyes when Pennywise lurched black goo over his face. The boy scrambled to stand up as the disgust on his features turned to anger "I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"

He kicked as hard as he could, sending the Clown back into the circle of losers. But when he looked back up, he appeared as Beverly's creep of a dad. She slowly walked forward as he smirked "hey Bevy, are you still my little gi-"

She let out a loud scream and pierced the pole she had taken from Elaine's outheld hand into his mouth. He let out a choking yell as white started to creep up from his neck and cracks started to run across his skin.

Annabeth pulled her back when he spat back out the pole, a trail of saliva dripping onto the floor as he fell back onto his hands, trying to shuffle away from them. They backed him up to the well behind him, watching as he forced a smile whole choking on air.

Elaine held up the pole he had spat back out, standing defensively as Bill began to get too close "that's why you didn't kill Beverly, cause s-s-s-s-she wasn't afraid. And we aren't either, not anymore. Now you're the one that's afraid, because you're gonna starve."

Pennywise rolled back over the edge of the well, hanging onto the side as he peeked over, muttering under his breath "He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts. He thrusts his fists against the p-p-p-p-post."

Standing beside Bill, Elaine held out the pole in her hand. He slowly took it from her grasp and held it above his head as he went to bring it down. But Pennywise dropped farther down, the only thing that Elaine could see was his fingers until she leaned slightly forward.

Pennywise's head cracked open, folding open as pieces began to break off and drift away. He looked up at them as the tear widened, spreading to his eye. And with one last breath, he whispered the word "Fear" before disappearing down the rabbit hole. 

And for the first time, Pennywise tasted what fear was.

authors note!

Jesus, we've got one more chapter and then the epilogue after that. Ew, that's weird. Go away.