▌Chapter 16 ─ The Past Is Buried ▌

      ━━━━━ HOLLY FOLLOWED BEHIND the other's through the main street of Derry Maine. The sun was starting to rise, and the wind was slow and steady.

"It's better if I show you. We don't have much time. His cycle will end soon. And once it does..."

"We're fucked." Eddie remarked, causing Holly to look over at him.

They continued to walk through Derry, until they finally reached the outskirts. They made it through the stream of water passing by the tunnel that it came out of. Eventually they made it through the trees. Holly looked around remembering this place.

"The Barrens." Beverly called out.

"This is where we came. After the rock fight." Ben said.

Holly came to a stop, next to Richie. "The clubhouse." Richie said.

"You built that for us."

"Yeah, the hatch has got to be around here someplace." Richie said, walking forward.

"You did. I do remember that!'

Beverly walked ahead while Holly looked around. A smile graced her lips as she walked forward however she tripped on a branch. Before she could fall Bill moved forward catching her in his arms. Holly looked at him as he looked at her.

"You okay?" Bill asked her. Holly nodded her head, and chuckled. "What?"

"Nothing, it's just... you haven't changed. It's a good thing."

Holly walked away from Bill, catching up with the others. Meanwhile, Bill kept his eyes on her following behind her.

"You know what? I actually think the door was more like around..." Ben proceeded to push down on the ground until he fell through, crashing to the floor. "Found it. I'm okay! Come down!"

Young Beverly was the first to walk down the ladder, followed by Holly. Then Richie climbed down the ladder, Bill soon coming down after him.

"What the dick is this?" Richie asked him. "How'd you build it?" He proceeded to walk away from Bill and pass Beverly and Holly as the others climbed down the ladder.

"When did you build it?" Bill asked him.

"Here and there, I guess. It was already dug out from something, so I just had to reinforce the walls and get some wood for the roof door, and that's pretty much it. Pretty good for my first time, huh?" Ben asked as Mike jumped down and Violet walked down the ladder. Ben leaned against the pillar causing a pallet to fall down behind to Beverly.

"Now, that's a cool feature. What happens when you put your hand on the other pillar, professor?" Richie asked him.

Eddie came out of the shadows, walking past Mike and Violet. "Okay, you see, this is exactly why there are safety codes, why we have permits. This place is a death trap. You understand that?" Eddie said, walking over to Ben.

"Well, it's a work in progress. Okay, Eddie?"

"Just so you know, I get hurt, you are liable. And, also, what is this? The switch of an iron maiden?"

"That's a flashlight."

"What is that, a horse hitch? When do you have horses down... Oh, this is cool."

"That was like, three dollars, so be careful with that, please."

"I have one of these. Hey, Stan, you see this?" Eddie asked as he started to bounce the ball on the paddle. Holly rolled her eyes and continued to look around.

"Yeah, okay, can you maybe not?" Stanley asked, while Bill, Beverly, Prudence, and Richie stared at him.

"Maybe not what? Yeah, yeah, hold on. Maybe not what? Be awesome and have fun and celebrate the magic of the paddle-ball?" Eddie threw it towards Stanley who pushed it out of his way. "Wow. Oh, good going, fucknut. You broke his thing."

"I broke it?" Stanley asked looking back at Eddie.

"Yeah, you broke it with your face."

"What?"

"I'm not putting my fucking hand down there."

Holly watched Eddie kneel down and reach in between the palate grabbing the ball that was once connected to the paddle. He lifted it up and proceeded to blow on it.

"Oh, man. That's so cool." Eddie said as the others started to wander around looking at everything. "How do we all not remember that this was here?"

"Hey, Losers." The voice of Pennywise called out to them. Holly instinctively grabbed a hold of Bill's arm and held onto it as they all looked into the shadows. "Time to float." Ben fell back into a chair, seconds later Richie walked forward laughing at everyone.

Bill moved back, hitting his head on the pillar. "Ahh! Fuck, Richie." Bill said,

"Dude!" Eddie called out looking at his friend.

"Remember when he used to say that shit? And he'd do the little dance." Richie said, as he started to dance and vocalize some music as well. "Am I the only one who remembers this shit?"

"Are you gonna be like this the entire time we're home?"

"All right. Just trying to add some levity to this shit. I'll go fuck myself." Richie said, he turned around and walked away while whistling.

Bill walked away from Holly while she looked down at the books that rested on the table. "Hey, you guys?" Bill called out, he turned towards them to show them a can. "This says 'S-Stan'. 'For the use of L-L-Losers only.'" He then turned it back towards him.

"Bill." He pulled the lid off and placed it in his hand, then he reached into it.

Stan held a shower cap out in front of him, Richie looked up and took it from him. "The fuck is this?" Richie asked him.

"So you don't get spiders stuck in your hair when you're down here." Stanley told him.

"Stanley, we're not afraid of fucking spiders." He handed it back over to him and Stanley walked away. Richie looked up to see everyone wearing shower caps over their hair, they all looked back at him. "I stand corrected."

Eddie pulled his shower cap off, while Beverly laughed at him and pulled her cigarette out of her mouth. "That's a first." She said.

"Touche."

Holly watched Eddie walk up to Richie and start to argue with him, then he climbed into the hammock sitting on the other side. She rolled her eyes and sat down on the ground, while Richie and Eddie continued to argue. Prudence came up and sat next to her while Violet sat on the other side of her.

"I'll do that. I'll do anything to get the hell out of Derry." Richie said, as he pushed Eddie's foot away from his face.

"Man, when I graduate, I'm going to Florida." Mike said.

"What's in Florida, Mike?" Ben asked him.

"I don't know. You know, I guess it's just a place I always wanted to go." Mike answered.

"Stan, you should go with Mike to Florida. You already act 80. You'd clean up with all the grandmas." Richie said, making some kissing sounds.

"Do you guys still think we'll still be friends?" Stan asked, looking around at all of them. "When we're older?"

"What?" Ben asked. "Why wouldn't we be?"

"Do any of your parents still hang out with their friends from middle school? I mean, things might be different then. We all might be different."

"We'll always still be friends. I don't think that just, you know, g-g-goes away because we get older." Bill told him.

"Yeah, Stan. Come on. You don't have to be so..."

"Sad." Beverly said.

"He was old before his time." Ben spoke, a small smile on his lips.

"Yeah. I wonder what he was like all grown up."

"Probably what he was like as a kid. The best." Richie said.

Bill pulled the shower cap off his knee and threw it to Richie. "Here." Richie caught it in his hands.

"All right, Mike, Violet. What are we doing here?" Richie asked, looking between the two.

Mike stood up from the ground. "The ritual. To perform it requires a sacrifice." Mike answered.

"Sacrifice? I nominate Eddie."

"Wait, what?" Eddie asked, looking at Richie.

"Because you're little. You'll fit on a barbeque."

"I'm 5'9". It's, like, average height in most of the world." Eddie said, walking away from Mike.

"It's not that kind of a sacrifice, guys." Bill told them. Eddie walked over to Bill and kneeled down next to him.

"Mike?"

"The past is buried. But you're gonna have to dig it up. Piece by piece. And these pieces, these artifacts, that's why we're here. They are what you'll sacrifice. And since Stan isn't here to find his I figured we should all be here together to find his artifact."

Eddie placed the cap overtop his hair. "I think Bill just did that."

They all started to climb out of the clubhouse. Prudence sat next to Beverly while Holly stood next to Richie. Mike helped Ben up the ladder, Eddie turned to look at him.

"Okay, Mike, so where do we find our tokens?" Eddie asked him.

"Yeah, I gotta be honest, mn. All due respect. This is fucking stupid, all right? Why do we need tokens? All right? We already remember everything. Saving Bev, defeating It... I mean, we're caught up!"

"It's not everything. We fought. But what happened after that? Before the house on Neibolt. Think."

"W-We can't remember, can we?" Bill asked, stuttering.

"See, there's more to our story. What happened that summer. And those blank spaces, like pages torn out of a book. That's what you need to find. We need to split up. You each need to find your artifact. Alone. That's important. When you do, meet me at the library tonight."

"Yeah, I gotta say, statistically speaking, you look at survival scenarios, we're gonna do much better as a group." Eddie told him.

"Yeah, splitting up would be dumb, man. Okay, we gotta go together. All right? We were together that summer, right?"

"No. Not that w-whole summer..."

"Take it back!" Bill said, looking at Richie. He then punched him in the face causing him to fall down. Mike and Stanley helped him from the ground.

"You're just a bunch of losers!" Richie said. Bill went towards Richie however Ben got in the way trying to hold him back. "Fuck off! Fucking..."

"Stop!" Beverly shouted, as Richie pushed Mike and Stanley off of him. "We were all together when we hurt It. That;s why we're still alive." Beverly told them, looking around at her friends.

"Yeah? Well, I plan to keep it that way." One by one they all started to walk away. Holly stood in front of her old house, a for sale sign in front of her. It was different from what she remembered. She exhaled, walking to the front door.