Part 9 –

All of us followed where the Stanley head ran off to and I noticed it was leading us to the well that we went to all those years ago the first time we fought 'IT'

"A lot of bad memories down there." Ben said

"I-I can't." Eddie whispered to me

"You can I'm right here." I said

He shook his head and froze in place, dropping my hand

"Hey Eds, you can."

He shook his head again

"Y/n I'm not as strong as I was back then, I-I have a bad feeling."

I sighed and put my hands on his face making him look at me

"Listen Eddie, we are all in this together. I'm not letting you stay here, you need to come with us. So, we can all work together, we can't split up, we know how to get him and with what Mike is saying, it sounds like we have a really good chance of getting rid of him for good. Please Eddie, I can't do this without you. You're the reason I came back to this place."

He let out a little sigh and nodded

"Ok." His voice was low, but it was a good enough ok for me

"Great." I smiled and grabbed his hand once again as we went down one by one

We walked down deeper and deeper into the sewers, following the same path as we did as kids

The water was still as dirty, if not dirtier. A gross smell taking over the air, getting thicker the more we walked in

Eddie gagged "Grey water."

I rolled my eyes and carried on following them

Bill and mike stopped in their tracks, flashing their torches

"What is it- "I stopped when I saw what they were all looking at

This is where it was before, where all the kids were floating. An instant chill went down my spine, Eddie wasn't the only one with a bad feeling anymore

"Shit... this is it, this is where it happened." Ben said

Mike and Bill took the first step closer, all of us following closely behind

"No. no... No no ew!" Eddie said and watched an object float past him

I rolled my eyes

"It's a teddy bear." I said

"Still gross, could be riddled with all kinds of germs."

I hit it away and carried on walking

I felt Ben stop next to me and turn his attention on Beverly

"Bev what is it?" he asked

"I thought I hear something- "she was cut off as something jumped out the water

My initial reaction was to scream, and Eddie grabbed onto me

The thing that jumped out the water grabbed Beverly and looked at us, her face was all sunken in, like an old lady that had been stretched and mangled all over the place

"Bev!" Ben ran over but the woman grinned

"Time to sink!" She said and dragged Beverly under

All the guys jumped in after her and I was about to follow before someone grabbed me back

"P-please don't leave me." Eddie said, his voice was soft, scared almost. He sounded like a boy who just lost his mum in a supermarket

"Eddie... we need to help."

He shook his head "I can't y/n. I-I can't." He said

I looked down and sighed, hoping that the guys were going to come up any moment

"Y/n look I- "he was cut off when everyone came back up to the surface

"Thank god! Here take my hand." I said and helped each one of them up

"Mike where do we go from here?" Richie asked

We all turned our attention onto mike

"Come on." he said, and they all joined me and Eddie

Mike started to chant things as we all gathered around this circle in the ground

"Is he okay?" Ben asked

"At this point I think that's a difficult question." Richie said

"what's on the other side?" Beverly asked

"I don't know, no one knows." Mike said didn't hesitate to open it

"Woah woah woah!" Everyone took a step back as he lifted the lid

I tried to take a look down, but it was too dark to see where it leads to

Mike sat down, and went to get in

'Wait we're going down?" I asked

Mike nodded "Alright see you down there."

"Wait mike!" Bill said but it was too late mike already started climbing down

I took a look and saw mike slowly working his way down

'I guess we just follow?" I asked

"But we don't know what down there." Eddie said

"Whatever it is, it's got to be better than here." I said

"Stay together." Bill said

"Okay." Ben said

Bill followed mike down, slowly climbing down after him

"You guys, I can't do it." Eddie said

I looked over to him to see he was shaking his head "I can't. you saw what happened up there. I was going to let you die." He said looking to Richie "I just fucking froze up, if I go down there with you, I'm going to get us all killed." He grabbed his inhaler

"Eddie." I started but Richie grabbed Eddie

"Give me that." He said and tried to get the inhaler off Eddie, who still refused to give it up trying to use it again

'Give me that." Richie said "Let go you little turd."

He flashed his light in eddies face, making him stop

"Listen to me, you want to give up? Fine. but Who killed a psychotic clown before he was 14?" he asked

"Me" Eddie mumbled

"Who stabbed Bowers with a knife he pulled out of his own face."

"Also, me."

"Who married a woman 10 times his own body mass even though he was still madly in love with someone else." He asked

Eddie looked over to me briefly, my heart racing at the thought he never stopped loving me all this time.

"Me." he said and looked away from me

"Yeah." Richie smiled at him "You're braver than you think."

"Alright, thanks rich" he said and hugged him

Richie slapped his face

"Ow!" he said, because of his previous wound that was caused by bowers

"Sorry." Richie said and gathered back round

"Here, take it. It kills monsters." Beverly said and passed him a spear

"Does it?" he asked

"Yeah, if you believe he does."

"Thanks Bev" he said

Beverly was next to go down, then ben and us 3 shortly followed

It was like a huge cave, climbing down it got tighter and tighter too move

You okay Eds?" I asked

He looked up and nodded

We both finally got to the ground and looked around

"Where is this?" I asked, the smell was gross, but familiar. It smelt just like the sewers did earlier

"This place is disgusting" Eddie said

"You guys good?" Bill shouted

"Yeah." I shouted and followed him over to see mike crawling through a tight gap

"Oh Jesus." I mumbled

"You can do it y/n." Bill said

I nodded, ever since I was a kid, I had a fear of tight spaces, it wasn't so bad coming down here but seeing mike struggle to get through just made me feel anxious

"Just close your eyes and I will pull you through." He said

I nodded and bill went first, going through quickly

"Now you." He said and held his hand out

I took a deep breath and got on the floor, sliding over to the gap, pushing through

I felt him grab my hand and pull me through slowly

"There" he said

I sighed a relief and hugged him

"Thank you Bill."

I looked up to see where we were, it was similar to where we had the first showdown with pennywise but not as big

"This is. crazy" I said

Mike nodded

Everyone got through the gap and joined in at looking around the place

"This is where it hid." Mike said, the chills going through me at the thought he could be here right now

"So, all this has been under Derry for like... ever?" Eddie asked

"Not forever, just a few billion years." Mike said

There were spikes coming out the floor all over the place, and then there was a bunch of spikey objects in the middle that created a circle.

Mike headed towards it and stood inside

We all followed him in, and he grabbed his bag. He unzipped it and pulled out the tribal object, sticking it in the middle

"It can only be attacked in its true form." He said, "The ritual will show us that."

"What is his true form?" Ben asked

"I hope it's a puppy, a Pomeranian. ill shut up." Richie said

I gave him a little smile, if there's something I've grown to know about Richie is when he's scared, he talks more, to help get rid of the scared feeling he has inside. I guess that's his way of coping

"It's light, like there must be struck out by darkness." He said and grabbed a bottle

He started squirting the liquid inside and grabbed a match setting the tribal object on fire

"The artefacts, place it in the fire." He said

I grabbed my artefact in my hand, playing with it. Instantly regretting choosing this to go in the fire and be gone forever

I let out a sigh and let someone else go first

"The past must run with the present." Mike said

"Err, this is the boat that I build for G-georgie." His voice cracked at the end and he placed it in the fire

I grabbed his hand giving him a small smile

"It's uh, my inhaler." He said and took one last breath from it

"Come on dude." Richie said and Eddie through it in

Beverly held hers up, I recognised it instantly. We all knew that Ben loved Beverly and I remember that summer he told me that he wrote her a poem on a postcard that still to this day she had no idea who it was

"Something I wish I held onto." she said and held it to her chest for a second before placing it in the fire

I looked over to ben to see his eyes were on her the whole time

"Err this is a page from my year book. only one person signed." he said

Beverly looked over to him surprised. Whether she was surprised because she was the only one who signed it or surprised because he kept it with him, I don't know, but I think in that moment she started to realise the torch Ben held for her

"I probably should've forgotten it but... I couldn't because I kept it in my wallet for 27 years." He said and placed it in the fire

"This is a token from the capital theatre" Richie said breaking the tension and threw the token in the fire

"Burn like an actual token?" Eddie asked

"Yeah that's what you're supposed to do asshole." Richie said

'Do you have any idea how long that's going to take to burn?"

"Yeah but so is your inhaler dude" Richie said

'Guys come on." Ben said

"After the toxic fumes and the plastic and shit, so." Richie said

"Okay guys we get it. Y/n you're up." Mike said

I sighed, looking down at the object in my hand

"I wish I didn't have to give this up. but I didnt really have anything else from the past. It's something I should've never took off. It's the necklace Eddie gave me on our first date." I said and held it up, his eyes widening

"I remember" he mumbled

"Weirdly enough, this whole Pennywise bullshit brought me closer to you guys when we were kids, especially one person and I'm grateful for that. So, in order to end all of this I'm going to give it up." I sighed and kissed the necklace for good luck an threw it in

"That was the best day of my life." Eddie said

I gave him a little smile

"I'm pretty sure your wedding should be the best day of your- " Richie got cut off when Eddie hit his arm

"Fine." he rolled his eyes

Mike held up his artefact

"Look closely Bev." he said "You see it? Its where you hit Bowers."

She smiled "Rock fight."

We all remembered that day and laughed

"That was pretty hardcore." Richie said

I nodded

"That's not going to burn either." Eddie whispered

I let out a little laugh and shook my head at him

"Oh wait." Eddie said and reached into his pocket, grabbing the shower cap of Stanley's

I felt the tears gather in my eyes and he threw that into the fire too

"Grab hands." Mike said

We all listened and grabbed the hands of the people next to us, for me it was bill and Eddie

I felt Eddie give my hand and extra squeeze making me look at him

He gave me a little smile

"We've got this." I whispered to him and he nodded

All of us ready for what was about to come.