Two weeks later

"I'll be back soon!" I said as I pushed through the front door.

"Be back before three!" I heard my mum call back. I stepped around the pile of boxes in front of our house, smiling awkwardly at one of the movers who was loading our furniture into the truck.

Today was the day that I was finally leaving Derry. Ever since I had gotten out of hospital two weeks ago, I'd been begging my mum to let us stay. She was set on leaving though, and there was nothing I could do to buy me any more time with my friends.

I hopped on the new bike she had bought to shut me up and I pushed off down the road. The Losers had all planned to meet at the Barrens today to say goodbye, and not just to me. Beverly was leaving to move in with her aunt in Portland tomorrow morning and Ben was leaving before school started as well.

We hadn't been able to catch up all together since I had last seen them. With my being in hospital, Stan's dad forcing Stan to study, Mike having to catch up on chores on the farm, Richie being away on holiday with his parents and Eddie's mum forcing Eddie to get scans at the hospital, we haven't had the chance to talk properly about everything that had happened.

There were things that I had started to remember that I needed to tell them. I wasn't looking forward to that, and I wasn't looking forward to saying goodbye to them either.

I'd already said goodbye to Patrick. He spent the night at mine last night, but I wasn't sad when he had to leave. My feelings for him had dissipated over the last few days and I suspected it to be due to his lack of feelings towards me. I didn't think he ever felt anything.

I leaned my bike against a tree and ran towards my friends who were sitting in a circle in the grass. Everyone but Bill was there, I noticed.

"Hey." I said with a smile as I took a seat between Stan, who had a bandage around his face, and Mike.

"Hey! Wow, you're only thirteen minutes late." Richie said, looking down at his watch that wasn't there.

"Ha, you're funny. I'm right on time, which is an achievement considering the chaos that was going on at my place this morning. Can't believe you bailed on helping me with the boxes." I said, shaking my head.

"I'm sorry that I didn't want to spend my morning carrying boxes full of shoes and tampons." Richie said and Stan choked.

"Seriously? That's all that comes to mind when you think of a girl?" Beverly exclaimed in disbelief. Richie shrugged.

"I can't believe this is going to be the last time we'll all be together again." Eddie said quietly. I noticed the word LOSER written on his cast, but a red V had been drawn over the S to change it. I wished he'd kept it as it was.

"Aw Eds, don't be said. I'll come visit next year!" I said, trying to conceal my own despair. If I was being honest with myself, I'd been avoiding thinking about what it would be like without the Losers. Now, as we sat together and shared laughs, I couldn't imagine life without them.

"Hey, it's Bill!" Mike exclaimed, looking behind us. Immediately we all stood up, watching Bill drop his bike and jog towards us.

"Big Bill!" Richie patted him on the back as he came to a stop between him and Beverly. "Long time no see, eh?"

Bill let out a soft laugh. "How's everyone been?" A chorus of short sentences replied and he smiled. "That's good to hear, even though I didn't understand a word you guys just said."

"Your stutter." I said suddenly and everyone turned to look at me. "It's... It's not there."

Bill scratched his head, looking embarrassed. "Yeah, it's g-gotten a lot better after everything that's happened. Not perfect though."

"Good for you, Bill." Beverly said with a lovely smile. Bill returned it with one of his own.

After a moment of silence as the two had their exchange, I opened my mouth. "So, I have something to tell you guys. I just remembered it yesterday while I was packing up some of my art stuff and found the picture that we did together for school." I looked at Bill as I said this and he nodded, letting me know he knew what I was talking about.

"Well I don't know if I told any of you this, but before you guys came into the sewer the same thing that happened to Beverly happened to me. I was dead, but not really." I said. I heard a couple of gasps and noticed everybody staring at me with wide eyes. I looked back down at my hands as I fiddled with them out of nerves.

"And while I was in that state, I saw things."

"What? What kind of things?" Eddie asked, cutting me off.

"Well I was just getting to that." I said with a small smile. "I saw all of you guys, in the Barrens. But it was weird, because I was right next to you but it was like you couldn't see me. I tried touching you, Mike, but my hand passed right through. It was the same for everyone else.

"Anyway, there was some sort of room underground and you were all carrying sticks and green leaves down there and making them into a pile. Then you all sat down and shut the trapdoor and set it on fire. I have no idea what you were trying to do, but the smoke was... Well the smoke was pretty intense, to say the least.

Eventually, some of you couldn't stand it and got up and left. It ended up with me, Richie and Mike being the only ones left and by that stage the smoke had gotten so bad I could have sworn I was seeing things. And then..."

"And then what?" Richie asked as I hesitated. I took a deep breath before continuing.

"And then I saw It come." I finished. Everybody was silent as they let it sink it.

"It, as in It It?" Ben asked and I nodded.

"It was like this big ball of fire and electricity, a spaceship maybe, but not really. There are no words to explain what I saw, but I thought I was going to die. Luckily, Patrick woke me up."

"Did he kiss you like Ben smooched Beverly?" Richie asked and immediately Ben and Beverly's faces turned red.

"No, he slapped me." I replied and Stan choked again.

"Yeah I think I'd rather be kissed." Eddie said quietly as he traced the letters on his cast.

"Beverly, d-did you see anything?" Bill asked suddenly and Beverly went still.

"Yeah. Yeah, I did." she said. We all sat silently as we waited for her to continue.

"I can only remember parts, but I thought I was dead." she said quietly, looking down and avoiding all our gazes. "That's what it felt like."

"Is that all you remember?" Richie asked. "Feeling as if you were dead?"

"No, that's not all." she shook her head. "I saw us, all of us together back in the cistern. We were older, like our parents ages."

"W-w-what w-were we all doing there?" Bill asked, his stutter getting worse as our minds wandered back to our time in the sewer.

"I just remember how we all felt, how scared we were. I don't think I can ever forget that." she finished.

We sat in silence as we all thought about what it could mean. Suddenly, Bill stood up. A shard of green glass was clutched in his hand.

"Swear it." he said. We all looked at him, confused. "Swear, if It isn't dead, if It ever comes back, we'll come back too."

Everybody sat stunned in silence as we processed what Bill was asking us to do. But our minds were all spinning the same wheel, because Bill wasn't the only one who had suspicions on whether It was truly dead. We were all unsure.

Beverly sat up, looking determined. Soon, Richie and Eddie stood too, followed by me, Mike, Ben and Stanley. We were standing in the perfect circle; not too big, not too small. We were one, and we were whole.

Bill held the tip of the glass to his palm and I had to look away as he cut through skin. Richie, Eddie and Mike all let out hisses of pain as Bill repeated the process on their hands. I still couldn't look when I felt the pain in my own hand. I kept my eyes on Bill's blue ones, biting my lip as I winced.

Soon, we were all back in our circle and bleeding from our left hands. We watched as Bill grabbed Beverly's hand, and she grabbed Ben's. Soon, I felt Stan's hand brush my own and I tried not to cry out when I felt his pressure stem the flow of blood from my palm. I held onto Mike's as well, feeling warm liquid trickle down our fingers.

I gave the boys' hands who were next to me a little squeeze before letting go, the energy dissipating into the air.

"I gotta go." Stan said, looking Bill up and down. "I hate you." His frown turned into a smirk and he, Eddie and Richie let out a small chuckle. "Well, see you later."

"Bye Stanley." Bill said and I watched sadly as he walked away, his curly hair disappearing into the distance. I turned back to see Eddie giving Richie a one-armed hug. "Bye guys." he said quietly before disappearing in the opposite direction to Stan.

"I should go, too." I said quietly and I felt my friends' sad stares. "I'll miss you." A chorus of "I'll miss you too"s replied.

"Wait, where are you moving to? Just so we can keep in contact, if you want." Beverly said, stopping me as I turned to walk away.

I smiled. "Hawkins, Indiana."