Seventeen

A few days after the Fourth of July I was walking the lonely streets on the outskirts of Derry, I could feel the cold evening breeze blowing through my hair.

I heard the soft purr of an engine pull up behind me. It was a red T-Bird and there were two guys in the car.

"Hey, Prim," one of them asked.

"Oh, hey Soda," I greeted. "Hi, Steve."

Soda and Steve were part of Dally's gang. Soda was a generically handsome guy, he had golden brown eyes and hair. Steve was rather muscly and had dark hair and eyes.

"We haven't seen Dally in ages," Steve said.

I looked at them.

"He's missing," I told them.

"What?" Sodapop shrieked. "Since when?"

"Since you last saw him I guess. But there's something terrible going on here," I admitted.

"Like what?" Steve asked.

"The same thing that took all the other kids. It's pretty much haunting us," I explained.

"How? Who's it been haunting?" Sodapop questioned.

"Me and my friends, I think it's a shapeshifter. It changes itself into the thing we fear the most," I said.

"So... any idea how we can get rid of it?" Steve asked.

"We're trying to figure it out," I told him.

"Thanks, Prim," Sodapop said. "Keep in touch."

They said goodbye and I continued my walk to the library.

When I got there I noticed that the others were already there since Belch's car was parked out the front. I walked in, over to them and saw them looking at a computer.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Lookin' at porn," joked Patrick.

"Just looking at some old newspapers," Henry said, pulling a chair up next to him.

I sat down.

"Have you found anything useful yet?" I asked.

"No, just everything that Ben's already told us about," Vic answered.

"But we do know this, every twenty-seven years something terrible happens here. Every time it's something different, this time it's a shape-shifting clown. So even if it comes back it'll be back in a different form and we'll all be out of this little town anyway," Belch explained.

"Not all of us," Henry complained. "I have no future."

"That's not true," I argued.

"How not?" Henry argued.

"Well, you're a very intelligent person. You're also very good at your school work when you want to be. Just keep doing your best all through high school and you'll get into some great college," I told him.

"Thanks, Prim," Henry said sadly.

"I mean look at Patrick. A guy who keeps animal corpses in a refrigerator doesn't have much of a future," I laughed, earning snickers from the other boys and a scowl from Patrick.

"Don't need to be a bitch," he muttered.

"I was kidding. Who cares if you're freaky," I winked.

Patrick slapped me in a comedic way and I gave him an evil smile and went to get him back before Belch broke it up and told us to stop being immature.

"What about you, Prim?" Henry asked.

"What about me?" I said.

"Are you ever gonna leave Derry?" Henry asked.

"If I can, of course," I told them.

"Ever wanna get married?" Patrick asked.

"Sure. I mean, if I ever find the right person," I said.

"Same here. I want to find the love of my life and marry them and just have a perfect life with them," Henry said.

"Aw," teased Belch.

"Shut the fuck up," Henry snapped.

"I'll drop you," warned Belch.

Belch and Henry stood up and went for each other. The librarian, Mrs. Cumming, gave us a dirty look.

"Okay!" I protested. "No one is going to shut the fuck up and no one is dropping anyone."

The backed away and sat down with a sign.

"Good luck trying to fight testosterone," Mrs. Cumming laughed from the front desk.

"Oh trust me, I'm doing very well," I said.

She winked at me and went back to work.

As I said this I felt large hands moving down my back. I moved away.

"Any further and I'll kick you in the dick," I snapped.

Patrick looked shocked. "Geez, someone's on their period, I forgot women could be so sensitive sometimes."

"Patrick nooooo..." Vic said quietly, trailing off.

"So now I'm sensitive?" I asked.

I scowled at him and the other boys quickly shook their heads at him indicating that he made a big mistake. Out of defense, I lunged at him but Henry pulled me back before I could reach up.

"Okay, both of you calm down so we can continue the research," Henry said.

"I think we have all the information that we need," Vic said. "There won't really be much else in here."

"Look!" I said, pointing to the screen. It was a picture of the Well House, and most of the incidents happened there or stemmed from there.

"The Well House is gone now," Vic said.

"Yeah," Henry agreed. "It's that old house now."

"The one where all the hobos and druggies live?" Patrick asked.

"Yep," Vic told him.

"I hate that place," I shivered.

"Me too," agreed Henry.

"We should go tell the others this. Any idea where they are, Prim?" Henry asked.

"Yeah, when I left them this morning they were at Bill's house," I said.

"Well, let's go then," Belch said.

We got into Belch's car and drove over to Bill's house.

They were hanging out in the garage.

"Did you guys find anything?" Eddie asked.

Vic explained all about the action in the Well House, the house on top of it and the extra information he found out about the terrible events that occur every twenty-seven years.

"I bought over some more maps and slides and stuff. Maybe we could have a look at them?" Suggested Ben.

"That s-sounds good," Bill agreed.

Ben pulled out his bag and Eddie helped set the projector up.

"Mike? Close the garage door will you," Bill asked.

We sat down in the darkness and all we could see was the connected film.

"What's this?" Asked Mike.

"The red lines indicate where all the sewers run," Ben said.

"Why don't we put up a map of Derry in the background, we then we can line it up and see if any connect or something like that?" I suggested.

"G-good idea," Bill said, pulling a large map out and sticking it up behind the projector.

"T-that's where G-Georgie disappeared," Bill said quickly, pointing to a spot near a sewer drain. "There's the ironworks and the black spot. Everywhere it happens, all the spots are connected by the sewers."

"And they all meet up at the Well House!" Exclaimed Ben.

"That's the house on Neibolt street," Stan said.

"You mean that creepy ass house where all the junkies and hobos like to sleep?" Asked Richie.

Patrick gave him a nod and Eddie took a breath from his inhaler.

"That's where I saw the clown," said Eddie sounding terrified.

"That's where It lives," Bill added.

"I can't imagine anything ever wanting to live there," Stan complained.

Eddie stood up. "Can we stop talking about this? Can we stop scaring ourselves! I-I-I can bearly breathe! This is Summer! We're kids! I CAN BEARLY BREATHE AND I'M GONNA HAVE A FUCKING ASTHMA ATTACK! I'M NOT DOING THIS!"

Eddie then proceeded to rip the map off the wall.

"What the hell?" Snapped Bill. "Put the map back!"

Eddie shook his head.

The slide projector then began to make weird noises, then it turned off, then back on. A picture of Georgie and his dad was projected onto the wall, then some more of Georgie, then some of Bill and George together.

"What's going on?" Stan asked.

Mike attempted to turn off the projector but it didn't turn off.

There was a picture of Bill's family at church, then it gradually zoomed in on his mothers face, then her face was replaced with a clown face.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" I screamed.

I grabbed Henry's hand quickly, then we made eye contact and I swiftly let go of his hand as awkwardly looked away from each other.

"What the fuck IS THAT?" Eddie cried.

We all screamed and backed away.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?" Richie cried.

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

We all huddled together, backed away, and that's when the clown burst out of the wall and I quickly reached for the lights and it was gone.

Mike quickly ran over and opened the garage door.

"It saw us," Eddie panted. "It saw us and it knows where we are!"

"So, w-what do we do now?" Richie asked.

"We go to that house on Neibolt street," I said. "Tonight."

so you might have noticed or will notice that I have changed some of the facts around revolving IT and some of the rules, it just works better for the story.

- e