Part 4 –

"Follow me, it's better if I show you. We don't have much time." he said, and we all followed him down the street to wherever he was referring to

"Urm so did you mean what you said back there?" Eddie said

"About Mike talking horse shit?" I joked, but he didn't laugh like he normally would

"About leaving the love of your life."

I sighed "Eddie of course I did. Not that it matters, I know you're happily married and that's fine. Don't worry I won't go all psycho on you." I said

"But y/n.."

"Come on guys hurry up." Richie said from afar

I sighed and we walked faster to catch up with the rest

We walked down the grass, under a tunnel, past the sewers and ended up in the middle of the forest

"So, this is where you kill us?" I asked

Mike looked at me, without saying anything I knew he wasn't finding this funny

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

"The clubhouse..." Richie said

Then just like a light switch the memory popped back into my head. The clubhouse Ben made for us so we could hang out without anyone else interfering. Like our own little safe zone.

"The hatch has got to be around here some place." Richie said

Beverly tripped up on a branch, luckily Bill managed to catch her. I noticed that ben saw it too as the jealousy became obvious in his face.

"You know what? I actually think the door was more like around- " he kept tapping his foot on the ground before he fell through, making a big thud sound

"Found it!" he shouted form below

We all ran over to the newly found hole, him laying down face first

"You okay?" I shouted

He put his thumb up "I'm okay! Come on down."

One by one we all went down the little ladder he placed in here for us to get down easily and gathered round. It seemed a lot smaller than it did back then. but I guess we grew up a lot since then too

*flashback*

I walked down the ladder, looking around the new place Ben made for us

"what the dick is this? How did you build it?" Richie said

Everyone came down one by one, to investigate the new Losers club meeting spot

"This is pretty cool Ben." I smiled

"When did you build this?' Bill asked

"Here and there I guess... it was already dug out for something, so I just had to reinforce the walls and get some wood for the door. Not bad for my first time huh?" He said and lent on one of the wooden poles. The sudden weight on the pole made a bit of the ceiling fall through, right behind Beverly

"Now that's a cool feature, what happens when you put your hand on the other wall professor?" Richie said

"Okay this is exactly why there are safety codes, why we have permits! This place is a death trap do you understand that." Eddie said walking closer

"Well it's a working progress, okay." Ben mumbled

"Okay well I hold you reliable. Also, what's this?" He said pointing to the plastic thing sticking down from above. He gave it a little hit, making it swing side to side "Iron maiden?"

"That's a flash light..." Ben said

"What's that a horse hitch?" He asked, he got distracted by the object on the floor

He picked it up and investigated

"Eddie..." I said watching the boy walk around investigating practically every risk there was.

"That was 3 dollars so be careful with that please." Ben said

"I had one of these." He said and started to hit the ball off the bat, right into Stanley's face who didn't look amused one bit

"Okay stop." Stanley said

"Stop what? Stop being awesome and have fun? And celebrate the magic of the power ballllll!" he said making the ball bounce faster off the bat. Knowing this was just going to end in disaster I shook my head and watched. The ball hit Stanley in the face making Eddie drop the bat, the ball rolling down into the hole in the ground

"Wow... good going you broke his thing!" he said

"I broke it?" Stanley frowned

"Yeah you broke it with your face." Eddie said

"What?" Stanley said

"I'm not putting my Fucking hand down there." Eddie said

"Well Eddie you did break it." I said

He looked at me "Why you sticking up for him?"

"Because we all just witnessed you hitting that ball and breaking it yourself."

He sighed "Fine whatever. Still not getting the ball." He said and walked past me, avoiding me for the rest of the day

*end of flashback*

Eddie crouched down to the hole in the ground and picked up the ball he refused to touch 27 years ago and held it up. He blew all the dirt and dust off it and smiled

"Remember you went funny with me because I stuck up for Stanley?" I laughed

He nodded "Yeah... sorry about that. I guess I was just jealous you took his side over mine."

"You were jealous?" I asked

He nodded "I always was of Stanley, I felt over the summer you both got closer until we got together that is." He said, his face looked sad remembering the times we were together. Even if it was short lived

I nodded and decided to drop the subject

We all searched around and picked dup all the old stuff we kept down there, old magazines, old tapes and even some posters that had started to go crusty around the edges

"Hey losers, time to float." We heard coming from the dark corner of the room. The voice sounding like Pennywise, which none of us were ready to face him again yet.

I slowly backed up, Eddie grabbed my hand and pushed me slightly behind him protecting me

We all got ourselves positioned ready to fight off the demon clown that still to this day wants to haunt us, but Richie popped out and laughed

"Fuck Richie." Eddie mumbled, letting go of my hand instantly.

"That wasn't funny." I mumbled letting out a big breath that I didn't know I was even holding

"Remember when he used to say that? Then do that dance." He said and started to impersonate his dancing, laughing to himself. His face dropped when he saw no one else was laughing along with me "Am I the only one who remembers this shit?"

"Are you going to be like this the entire time we're home?" Eddie asked

"Alright just trying to add some liberty to this shit... I'll go fuck myself." He said and walked off to the other side of the room

"Urm thank you." I said to Eddie

"For?"

"You protected me, from what you thought was Pennywise. I know it wasn't but thank you."

He nodded and walked away from me

I sighed and looked over to bill who grabbed the old tin that Stanley kept for us

"Hey, you guys." Bill said and showed us the front "T-t-this is Stan's, losers only." He read out

He started to open the top

"Bill." Eddie said

Bill reached in and grabbed out one of the shower caps

*flashback*

"I've brought these." Stanley said and grabbed a tin he brought from home and reached inside

"What are they?" I asked

"Here." He passed me one and I looked down to see it was a shower cap with flowers on it. He passed them around to everyone

"What the fuck is this?" Richie said

"So, you don't get spiders stuck in your hair when your down here." Stanley said, currently wearing his shower cap

"Stanley we are not afraid of fucking spiders." He said and threw the hat back to Stanley, Stanley moved out the way exposing me and the rest already wearing ours

I gave him a sheepish smile, judgement painted all over his face

"I stand corrected." He said and got off the hammock

(changed this bit for my book but I loved this scene in the movie... sorry I changed it!!)

"That's a first." Beverly laughed

I went over to the hammock and lay down

"Uhm hey can I join you?" Eddie stood there smiling

"Sure." I said and made some room for him

He joined me on the hammock and lay down opposite me

He put his foot near me face

"No Eds." I said

He gave me a cheeky smile before putting his foot near my face again

"Stop." I laughed and hit his foot away, but he still put it back right next to my cheek

I grabbed it and started to tickle the bottom of his foot making him squeal

"NO!"

I laughed "Ya big girl."

"I'll do anything to get out of Derry." Richie sighed and sat down in front of us

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

"What's in Florida Mike?" Ben asked

He shrugged, sitting on the swing "I don't know, I guess it's just a place I wanted to go."

"Stan you should join Mike in Florida. I mean you already act 80 you will clean up with all the grandmas."

"I guess Florida sounds nice." I said

Eddie frowned at me "You're going to move?"

"One day, I mean nothing lasts forever and this town... it's not exactly somewhere where I want to bring my future kids up you know?"

Eddies face dropped, almost like he was disappointed

"You don't have to stay here either you know?" I said

He nodded but just carried on sitting there in silence

"Do you guys think we will still be friends? When we're older?" Stanley asked

"What? Why wouldn't we be?" Richie asked

"Well do any of your parents still hang out with any of their friends from middle school?' he asked, he made a valid point. The age we are now it's very slim we will all still be in contact when we get to the age of our parents

"I mean things might be different then. we might be different" Stanley said, the mood of the group instantly dropping.

"W-we will always still be friends. I don't think that just g-g-oes away because we get older." bill said

"Yeah Stan come on, you don't have to be so sad." Beverly said

"Yeah there's no getting rid of us that easily Stan." I smiled

He gave us a weak smile and nodded

*end of flashback*

We all sat there for a minute remembering how the conversation played out. All of us had hope that we wouldn't lose contact when in fact we all did. And if it wasn't for Penny wises return, we probably would've never spoke again

"He was old before his time." Ben said, taking me out my thoughts

I nodded remembering how old he acted sometimes. Like he was a 70-year-old man trapped in a 13-year olds body

"Yeah...I wonder what he was like when he was grown up." Eddie said

"The same as when he was a kid." Richie said "The best."

I smiled "I bet he was an amazing guy."

"Right Mike what are we doing here?" Richie asked

He stood up "The ritual. It requires a sacrifice." Mike said

"A sacrifice? I nominate Eddie." Richie said

Eddies eyes widened and stood up. Even stood up he barely came face to face with Richie. "Wait what?"

"Cause your little you'll fit on the barbeque." Richie joked

"I'm 5"9 that's like average height for most of us." he said

"it's not that kind s-s-sacrifice." Bill said

"The past is buried. But you're going to have to dig it up piece by piece." he said

I sighed, my stomach making a funny turn inside.

"These pieces, these artefacts. That's why we're here." Mike continued "They are what you sacrifice, and as Stan isn't here to find his I think we should all be here to give his artefact."

"Well I think Bill just did that." Eddie said, referring to the shower cap placing it on his head. Even in times like this he was still able to look cute

"We should get out of here and look for them." Mike said and helped himself up the ladder

We all headed back outside one by one, Eddie grabbed my hand and helped me up

"Thanks."

I dusted myself off from the dirt down there and joined the others

"Okay Mike so where do we find ours, cause I got to be honest man. All due respect, I think its fucking stupid alright. Why do we need tokens? We already remember everything, err saving Bev, defeating it, we are all caught up." Richie said

"That's not everything. We fought, but what happened after that. Before the house on Neibolt."

"Well we c-c-can't remember, can we?" Bill said

I frowned trying my hardest to remember what mike was talking about. But nothing came to mind.

"There's more to our story, what happened that summer. All 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 artefact alone." He said

The thought of just being out here on my own with pennywise out there too made me feel sick, scared even. 27 years ago, I wasn't scared of him so how come I am now?

"It's important that you do, then meet me at the library tonight."

"Yeah I got to say statistically speaking you're looking at survival scenarios you're looking at us working better as a group" Eddie said, and for once I agreed

"Yeah splitting up would be dumb man." Richie said

"Yeah for once I kind of agree. I think us splitting up is just asking for us to get killed out there mike." I said

"Yeah, we got to stick together, we were together that summer right?" Richie said

"No. not that whole s-s-ummer." Bill said

I frowned, a memory briefly popping into my head. Eddie broke his arm and got taken away by his mum resulting in bill and Richie fighting. We didn't speak for ages after that, we all went out sperate ways. And a lot happened in that time gap

"Fine I'll go but if I die, I'm going after you mike!" Richie said

We all started to walk away into our own directions, hopefully finding what it is we're looking for.