▌Chapter 10 ─ We'll Come Back, Too ▌

      ━━━━━ HOLLY FOLLOWED BEHIND Eddie, moving down to the next tunnel that she hoped Bill was in.

"Bill!" She shouted, waiting for him to answer. Nothing came.

They moved down another tunnel passing a door that was open. Eddie and Holly seemed to lead the way with the others following behind them.

"Bill!" Eddie yelled. "Bill!" Eddie said once again. Soon he tripped on something falling into the grey water and gagging.

"Come on." Richie said. "Get out of there, dude. That's greywater."

"Wait, wait, wait. Oh, my god, my fucking flashlight?"

Holly watched a head pop out of the water causing Eddie to scream while the rest gasped. "Eddie!" Holly and Richie shouted, as more heads popped out of the water. They all proceeded to run past the heads in pure fear.

They eventually came upon another tunnel. This time Mike and Violet had been leading the group, both of them seeing Beverly before the others.

"Bev? Bev?" Mike called out.

"Holy shit." Richie said.

"Bev."

Holly looked to see Beverly floating in the air, shock crossed her face and in that moment she didn't understand how something like that could even be possible. They all walked into the water still looking up at Beverly.

"How is she in the air?" Richie asked.

"Guys." Eddie said, pointing his flashlight towards something. "Are those..." Holly looked up to see other children floating in the air just like Beverly was.

"The missing kids." Stanley said. "Floating."

"Just let me grab her." Ben said, pulling everyone's attention.

"Shit." Richie breathed out.

Mike and Richie lifted Ben up so he could reach out and grab a hold of Beverly. "I'm slipping." Ben told them. But he was able to get Beverly down. "Bev. Beverly. Why isn't she waking up?" Ben yelled. "What is wrong with her? Beverly, please! Come on!"

Ben proceeded to hug her, even though she couldn't quite hug him back. He then pulled back and looked at her, seconds later he kissed her.

"Whoa." Shock fell onto all their faces.

"Wow."

Ben pulled back, they all waited for something to happen and it did. Beverly gasped coming back to life and pulling back from Ben.

"Bev?" Ben questioned.

"'January embers'." Beverly said looking back at Ben.

"'My heart burns there too'."

"What?" Holly questioned, not quite understanding what had happened between the two.

"Jesus, fuck." Richie said.

Then he wrapped his arms around Ben and Beverly and proceeded to hug them. Mike soon joined in the hug, as did Stanley, Prudence and Violet. Eddie and Holly went to walk away from the group. Holly walked forward more, soon the others followed behind her. She came to a stop, and saw Georgie.

He held onto the boat that his brother had made for him the day he disappeared. Only half of his one arm had been missing. Holly then started to put it together that it wasn't Georgie. There was just no way he could've survived something like that.

"I wanna go home." Georgie said, which caused Bill to whimper and start crying over the loss of his brother. "I miss you. I wanna be with Mom and Dad."

"I want more than anything for you to be home. With Mom and Dad." Bill said, slowly starting to walk towards Georgie. "I miss you so much."

"I love you, Billy."

"I love you, too." Bill lifted the air pressure gun to Georgie's head, which caused him to start crying. "But you're not Georgie." He pressed on the trigger, everyone watched Georgie fall back to the ground. Holly waited for something else to happen, and just when she thought it wouldn't happen it did.

Georgie's body started to shake, then he started to scream. His feet turned into clown feet, indicating that it was in fact Pennywise. Then his arm started to change, he wiggled it around until his hand appeared. Pennywise roared but eventually stopped, he stopped shaking his body as well.

Holly jumped back slightly, not entirely sure she was ready for whatever was coming next. Then his body started to grow to its proper size. He gasped lifting himself up, his orange hair prominent. He then stood up and picked his head up freaking everyone out.

"Kill It, Bill! Kill It!" Eddie shouted.

"Shit." Richie breathed out.

"Kill It, Bill! Kill it!"

"Kill It! Bill, Kill It!"

"Kill It!"

"Kill It, Bill!"

"It's not loaded."

"Do it now, Bill!"

"Kill It! Kill It!"

Bill pulled the trigger back on the compressor gun and held it up to Pennywise.

"Hey! It's not loaded!"

Bill pressed down on the trigger, but nothing came out. Pennywise, instead decided to mess with the kids and started to grunt, changing his head to make it seem like Bill had done something.

"Holy fuck." Richie said.

Pennywise grunted again throwing himself backwards, his chest raised in the air. "Oh, shit." He started to roar, shaking his body and then throwing himself forward jumping towards them. Holly screamed and jumped out of the way as Pennywise moved towards Bill, causing him to fall to the ground and use the compressor gun to stop his attack.

"Bill, watch out!"

Pennywise of course bit down on it and started to move closer towards Bill who really tried to fight him off. Pennywise took the gun out of Bill's hands and threw it to the side with his mouth.

"Leave him alone!" Beverly shouted, attempting to bring a spike down on him. Pennywise however stopped her, and then placed his attention on her, and pulled the spike away from her and also threw it somewhere else.

"Beverly, no!" Eddie shouted.

"Mike!" Stanley shouted as he jumped in front of Beverly to protect her with the bat he had picked up. Holly looked around for some kind of weapon that she could use, eventually she found a stick of some kind sticking out of the pile.

As she held it in her hands, Pennywise threw Mike back into the pile. "No!" Bill shouted, jumping onto Pennywise and holding a bar in his mouth so he couldn't attack them.

"Help him!" Beverly shouted, as Pennywise swung Bill around. Richie then jumped on top of Bill to help him stop Pennywise.

"Fuck!" Richie said.

Pennywise reached out and grabbed a hold of both Ben and Stanley swinging them around with himself and the others. Pennywise then threw Stanley back causing him to roll away from them to which Prudence ran over to him. Pennywise then lifted his hand and threw Richie off of him. Holly went to move forward but stopped when Bill was swung to the ground.

She watched Pennywise hold onto Bill tightly while he looked back at his friends. Beverly and Violet helped Mike from the ground. While Prudence helped Stanley stand up as well. Everyone moved back but Holly stood her ground. She couldn't lose someone that met so much to get. So she tightened her grip on the stick and looked at Pennywise.

"Bill!" Eddie shouted, as Pennywise released a low growl.

"No, don't." Beverly said, trying to reason with the clown. "Let him go."

"No. I'll take him. I'll take all of you. And I'll feast on your flesh as I feed on your fear. Or, you'll just leave us be. I will take him, only him and then I will have my long rest and you will all love to grow and thrive and lead happy lives until old age takes you back to the weeds." Pennywise told them.

Holly looked back at her friends, she couldn't leave Bill behind. She couldn't lose someone else. "Leave..." Bill told them. "I'm the one who dragged you all into this. I-I-I'm so sorry."

"S-Sorry." Pennywise said, imitating Bill; soon after he laughed.

"Go!" Pennywise laughed some more, but none of them left.

"Guys, we can't!" Beverly said, looking around at everyone.

"I-I'm sorry."

Holly looked over at Prudence who looked back at her. The two then looked over at Richie as he slowly started to stand up from the ground.

"I told you, Bill. I fucking told you. I don't want to 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..." Richie paused and pulled a bat from the same pile that Holly had gotten her stick from. "I'm gonna have to kill this fucking clown."

They all watched Pennywise throw Bill to the ground and stand up ready to attack Richie but he wouldn't be able to do so.

"Welcome to the Losers' Club, asshole!" Richie yelled swinging the bat at his head as he stepped forward.

Mike went to step forward and swing the rod at him but burned arms came out and stopped him from doing so. Voices could be heard, they were calling out Mike's name. Stanley went down to pick another rod from the ground and swung at the arms letting Mike's weapon free. Richie hit Pennywise, he moved towards Stanley changing into the painted lady.

He ran towards Stanley, but Stanley swung his weapon hitting the clown backwards. Mike proceeded to hit him, but Pennywise moved slightly and he fell to the ground. Pennywise changed his arms to crab like features and brought them down on Mike who rolled out of the way dodging them.

"Mike!" Eddie shouted.

But he continued to bring his arms down to the ground and Mike continued to roll out of the way deflecting them. But Pennywise still went after him and Mike continued to roll out of the way. Ben pulled a spike from Bill's backpack and ran full force into Pennywise. Blood erupted out of him and floated up in the air.

The clown screamed out in agony, but soon shifted into a mummy and wrapped it's cloth around Ben's head. Bill ran away from Holly and picked up a chain, he then turned back towards Ben and Pennywise and hit the clown causing him to lose grip of Ben. Bill hit him again, and this time Holly came up and swung at his legs causing him to fall down.

Richie came up behind Holly and swung the bat into Pennywise. Bill swung the chain again hitting the clown in the face. Pennywise started coughing heavily, and crawled towards Eddie. He lifted his head up shifting into something else, seconds later he threw up on Eddie. Eddie stood up and threw up a little himself.

"I'm gonna kill you!" Eddie shouted back at the clown.

He lifted his foot up and proceeded to kick him in the head sending him backwards. Then he shifted into something else, this time it was Beverly's father. Holly looked over at her friend as she walked towards him.

"Hey, Bevvie. Are you still my little─"

Beverly lifted up the rod, screaming she shoved it into Pennywise's throat. He started to choke and change back to his normal clown like form. Beverly backed up towards her friends as Pennywise spit the rod out.

"Oh, shit."

He then fell backwards and proceeded to move away from them. Holly held the stick up next to her, she then walked forward Prudence following behind her. And soon the rest were following behind them. Pennywise groaned as he came to a stop leaning up against the rock. He then started laughing as Bill and Holly walked closer to him.

"That's why you didn't kill Beverly. Cause s-s-she wasn't afraid. And we aren't either. Not anymore. Now you're the one who's afraid. Because you're gonna starve." Bill explained to the clown.

Pennywise groaned, and proceeded to flip himself into the large tunnel but he still held on looking at the Losers. His head started to rip apart.

"'He thrust his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.'" Stanley handed the pole over to Bill who took it in his hand. "'He thrust his fist against the p-p-p-p-post." Bill lifted the pole up and Pennywise dropped some more. The white paint on his head started to come off and fly into the air, eventually only one of his eyes was left. "Fear..."

With that final word Pennywise fell down into the tunnel, Bill and Holly leaned forward looking down only seeing what had come off of Pennywise. Holly lowered her head, happy that it was finally over.

"I know what I'm doing for my summer experience essay." Richie said.

Bill proceeded to hug Beverly who of course hugged him back. Holly pulled Prudence and Violet both into side hugs.

"Guys. Guys." Eddie called out. Holly looked over at Eddie. "The kids are floating down."

Holly lifted her head and watched the kids slowly float down, she then noticed that Bill was walking away from them. Holly watched Bill drop the pole and pick up a yellow raincoat. Richie moved forward walking towards their friend and of course Holly followed behind him.

She and Richie kneeled down next to him while Richie placed his hand on Bill's shoulder. Everyone moved closer and they all started to comfort him as he started to cry over the loss of his brother. Eventually it turned into a large group hug.

───── ☾☾☾ ─────

It was now September, almost everything had gone back to normal. Except that Beverly, Holly, and Prudence would be leaving Derry Maine. Holly's dad and Prudence's parents thought that it was best but also thought that it was best to keep them together since it was hard to separate them.

The truth was neither of them wanted to leave their friends behind but they knew moving somewhere else would be a good start. Holly sat next to Prudence and Eddie, and they were near the river, with the rest of their friends. Beverly was explaining what had happened to her after seeing the deadlights.

"I can only remember parts, I thought I was dead. That's what it felt like. I saw us, all of us together back in the cistern, but we were older, like our parents' ages." Beverly explained to them.

"W-W-What were we all doing there?" Bill asked her.

"I just remember how we felt. How scared we were. I don't think I can ever forget that."

Bill picked up a piece for glass and stood up looking at his friends. "Swear it. Swear if It isn't dead, if It ever comes back, we'll come back, too."

Both Holly and Beverly stood up at the same time, both looking at Bill. Then everyone else stood up with them. Holly watched Bill take the piece of glass and cut into his skin. Then after that, he moved over to Richie, cutting his hand. Eventually Bill made it to Holly, the two stared at each other constantly as Bill cut into her hand.

He walked over to Prudence while Holly looked down at her hand seeing the blood that had started to escape out. Eventually he made it the rest of the way around, when he was done he dropped the piece of glass and grabbed a hold of Beverly's hand and Richie's hand. Holly looked over at Eddie and held her hand out.

He placed his hand in hers, she then looked over at Prudence and watched her place her hand in hers. They all stood there for a brief moment looking at each other. Eventually they pulled their hands away from each other.

"I gotta go. I hate you." Stanley said. They all cracked up laughing. "I'll see you later."

"Bye, Stan." Bill said, as he started to walk away.

Stanley started to walk away from them, Prudence left Holly's side and ran after him pulling him into a hug. Eddie then turned to hug Richie, after hugging Richie he proceeded to hug Holly.

"I'm gonna miss you." Holly said, hugging him tightly.

"I'll miss you too." Eddie replied.

They pulled apart from the hug, and Eddie started to walk away. "Bye, guys."

Shortly after Mike and Violet left together. "See you later, losers." Mike said. Eventually Richie left, and shortly after Ben left leaving only Bill, Holly, Prudence and Beverly.

Holly looked over at Beverly and Bill. "Well, I guess we should get going. Our parents probably want to leave now." Holly said, looking over at Prudence.

"Where are you guys going?" Beverly asked her.

"New York." Prudence answered.

"Yeah, there's a fashion program that I'll be taking. And Prudence is going to be taking an acting program." Holly informed them.

"Yeah, her dad got hired there so he'll have a better job."

"That's good." Bill said, looking between the two.

"We'll miss you guys." Prudence and Holly said as they both stood up.

The two proceeded to follow behind Ben eventually disappearing into the woods. Prudence looked over at Holly.

"You should've told him when you had the chance." Prudence told her friend.

"I could've but he loves Beverly it's so clear. Maybe they'll be another chance for us. But right now we're moving to New York, that's something to be excited for."

"Yes it is."