A few weeks later, it was time for the Fourth of July parade. The band from Derry High school were in the streets, citizens were marching with them.

All of the losers except for Richie and Eddie stared at the new missing person's poster. "They said they found part of his hand all chewed up near the standpipe, " Stan stated.

"He asked to borrow a pencil once, " Ben spoke sadly.

Bill lifted the missing poster up to reveal Betty Ripsom's missing poster. "It's like she's been f-f-f-forgotten because Corcoran's missing."

"That's depressing, " Katherine states.

"Is it ever gonna end?" Stan asked as the baritone player pulled his instrument away from Richie.

"What the fuck, dude?" Richie asked him but walked away.

Eddie approached the group with Katherine's ice cream cone and his own. "What are you guys talking about?"

Katherine thanked Eddie for the ice cream as Richie also approached,  saying, "What they always talk about."

"I actually think it will end, for a little while, at least, " Ben spoke.

"What do you mean?" Beverly asked him.

"So I was going over all of my data research and I charted out all of the big events. The Ironworks explosion in 1908. The Bradley Gang in '35 and The Black Spot in '62. And now the kids being..." he trailed off, looking to Bill. "I realized that this stuff seems to happen every..."

"27 years, " Bill finished with Ben.

Shortly, everyone sat near or on a bench close by. "Okay, so let me get this straight, " Eddie began. "IT comes out from wherever to eat kids for, like, a year and then what? IT just goes into hibernation?"

"Sounds like it, pretty much," Katherine answered.

"Maybe it's like...What do you call it? Cicadas," Stan answered, "You know, the bugs that come out once every 17 years."

"My grandfather thinks this town is cursed," Mike says. "He says that all the bad things that happened in this town are because of one thing. An evil thing that feeds off the people of Derry."

"But it can't be one thing," Stan replies. "We all saw something different."

"That's a theory, " Katherine uttered. "Or maybe IT's like a shapeshifter and knows what scares us most which is what we see."

"I-I saw a leper," Eddie says anxiously. "He was like a walking infection."

"I saw the kid Seth sold drugs to only...he was skinny. A tweaker for sure." Katherine rubbed her arms anxiously. "He tried to get me to shoot up heroin because he thinks I will end up like my mom." She took a deep shaky breath causing Bill to look at her in concern. "I really don't want to be him or see him again."

"But you didn't. Because IT isn't real. None of this is. Not Eddie's leper or Bill seeing Georgie or the woman I keep seeing..." Stan trailed off.

"Is she hot?" Richie asked.

Stan looked immediately at the boy. "No, Richie. She's not hot," he snapped, letting Katherine squeeze his hand for comfort. "Her face is all messed up. None of this makes any sense. They're all like bad dreams."

"I don't think so, I know the difference between a bad dream and real life, okay?" Mike says softly.

"What did you see? You saw something too?" Eddie asked Mike.

"Yes," Mike answered with a sigh. "Do you guys know that burnt down house on Harris Avenue? I was inside when it burned down. Before I rescued, my mom and dad were trapped in the next room over from me. They were pushing and pounding on the door trying to get to me. But it was too hot. When firefighters found them, the skin on their hands...melted down to the bone. We're all afraid of something."

"Got that right," Richie says, glancing back.

"Why, Rich? What are you afraid of?" Katherine asked the boy?

Richie pushed his glasses up his nose, looking to the girl. "Clowns," he answered.

***

The next day, the losers met up at the Denbrough home in the garage. Bill had his dad's map up on the wall and one of Ben's projector slides from old Derry.

Katherine sat beside Eddie as Bill pointed out to where it was written 'storm drain'. "Look," Bill began. "That's were G-G-Georgie disappeared, there's the Ironworks and the Black Spot. Everywhere IT happens it's-it's all connected by the sewers and they all meet up at the-"

"The well-house," Ben finished.

"It's in the house on Neibolt Street," Stan stated.

"You mean the creepy-ass house where all the junkies and hobos like to sleep?" Richie added before looking to Katherine. "Shit, sorry, Kitty-Kat."

Katherine waved it off (her mom and Seth no doubt have been there before) as Eddie leaned forward to take a needed puff from his inhaler. Katherine rubbed circles in his back. "Easy, Eds," she soothed. "Big breaths in, slow breaths out."

"I hate that place," Beverly says, adding to what Richie pointed out. "Always feels like it's watching me."

"That's where I saw IT. There I saw a clown," Eddie spoke quietly.

Katherine didn't say anything, just tried to calm Eddie.

"Tha-tha-tha-that's where IT lives," Bill said causing Eddie to take another breath from his inhaler.

"I can't imagine anything ever wanting to live there," Katherine said.

Eddie suddenly stood up in front of the projector. "Can we stop talking about this?" he asked. "I can barely breathe. This is summer. We're kids, I can barely breathe, I'm going to have a fucking asthma attack! I'm not doing this!"

Eddie ripped the map down causing Bill to say, "What the hell?! Put the map back!"

Eddie shook his head as the slides on the projector changed only it was photos of the Denbrough family.

"What happened?" Katherine asked Bill, standing up and looking at the projector. She looked to Bill who shrugged.

"What's going on?" Stan asked.

"I don't know," Katherine answered.

"Guys..." Mike muttered as he too looked over the projector.

The projector changed to a family photo of the Denbrough family at church and Mrs. Denbrough's red hair was covering most of her face.

As the slides changed, it started to slowly zoom in on the smiling face of George Denbrough causing Bill to mutter his name in sadness.

The slides clicked faster.

The slide began to move away from Georgie and towards Mrs. Denbrough as her face under her hair began to shift into the face of a clown.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" Richie exclaimed.

"It's IT," Katherine said, backing away, nearly bumping into Beverly.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" Richie repeated.

"I DON'T FUCKING KNOW!" Eddie screamed back.

"Turn it off!" Beverly yelled. "Turn it off!"

Mike was the one to kick the projector over, making the projector blink occasionally. Katherine gripped Beverly's hand as a blurred image blinked on the wall as if looking at Stanley.

"Stan, back away," Katherine uttered.

The projector blinked and the image was gone.

Only a second later, the horrifying image of the clown popped out of the screen.

"Run, Stanley!" Katherine yelled.

He did as he was told, running to the boys by the garage making them all fall over as the clown approached. Katherine and Beverly were frozen in place, paralyzed by fear.

The clown went for them instead. The girls barely moved, their backs hitting the wall as the clown reached for them.

Katherine covered her face with her hands as did Beverly, both waiting for the end to come.

But it didn't because Bill, Eddie and Ben lifted the garage door, letting sunlight flood in and the clown disappeared.

Both girls lowered their hands. Katherine looked to Bill seeing him still holding onto the garage door. She approached him, hugging him and burying her face in his shoulder as he hugged her back, scared he could've lost her too.

She was happy Bill saved her, she could practically kiss him.

But she didn't.

She pulled back from the hug for a mere moment, looking to the boys. "Thanks, guys."

"IT saw us. IT saw us and It knows where we are," Eddie panicked.

"IT always knew," Bill replied, walking past them and getting onto his bike. "S-So let's go."

"Go? Go where?" Katherine asked, out of breath.

"Neibolt," Bill answered. That's where G-G-G-Georgie is."

"After that?" Stan asked, motioning to inside the garage.

"Yeah, it's summer, we should be outside-" Richie began.

"If you say it's summer one more f-f-f-fucking time..." Bill trailed off before pedaling away.

"Bill? Wait!" Beverly called.

Katherine was next to get on her bike and follow after him. She didn't even look back to see if the others followed. She was concerned about Bill's safety.

"Bill!" She called as she stopped her bike next to his fallen one to see him on the porch of the Neibolt house. "Bill, you can't go in there." She climbed off her bike dropping it as the other losers came. "This is fucking insane."

"Look, you don't have to come in with me," Bill told her before looking to the group. "But what happens when another Georgie goes missing, or another Betty or another Ed Corcoran or one of us? Are you just going to pretend it didn't happen like everyone else in this town? Because I can't. I go home and all I see is that Georgie isn't there, his clothes, his toys, his stupid stuffed animals but he isn't. So walking into this house...for me...it's easier than walking into my own."

"Wow," Richie spoke.

"What?" Beverly asked.

"He didn't stutter once."

Katherine sighed. "Hold on." She walked up the porch steps. "I'm going with you."

Bill looked at her gratefully for being so brave as she slipped her hand into his, giving him a reassuring nod.

"Wait!" Stan exclaimed. "Uh, shouldn't we have some people keep watch, just in case something bad happens?"

Bill paused before asking, "Wh-Wh-Wh-Who wants to stay out here?" 

Everyone but the girls and Bill raised hands. Richie looked around before muttering, "Fuck."

He and Eddie followed Bill and Katherine up into the house and Bill turned the old handle...