"Make sure these files go in correctly this time,"

"You got it, Commander Harper." I walked from once office space where I talked to one of the lieutenants over to where my office was, seeing the business of the station there on the 3rd floor. Some of the other were working away on getting their paperwork done before they were done for the night. I could see the sun going down on the bay area, glistening the Golden Gate bridge as more calls were being brought it and I heard some footsteps behind me.

"Ma'am, you have a call on hold," The sergeant explained to me. One of my favorites: Inspector Gibbs. He was a older than me and yet he showed me a good amount of respect when I got my recent promotion as the new Commander of our branch. He had a clean shave face with a smirk always etched on his face.

"You make it sound as if I have nothing to do at the moment," I replied to him as I was walking through the crowded area. I moved my short hair from my eyes, feeling it brush over the device attached to my ear.

"If that were the case I would have wined. But apparently this is important," He replied calmly to me, having me chuckle now as I finally made my way over to my office which was right in the corner of the floor. It was the one place that I could find some peace and quiet, plenty of it compared to the hustle and bustle of the main floor.

"Every call or me nowadays is important," I replied over my shoulder, "Just let whoever it is know that I'm busy at the moment trying to make sure at least three cases won't go south, if you don't mind, Inspector."

"You can tell them yourself on line 3," He snorted at me. having me look at him from the corer of my eye and see him roll his eyes at me and walk away back to his own desk. I had to chuckle, our banter was always light and never one to be dark.

Once I reached my office, I closed the door and infamy breathed a sigh of relief. My office was nice and quiet, plenty of soothing colors in both my pictures and in my memorabilia. I had some of my rewards there along the wall, a reminder of my own worth and need in the community there in the busy city of San Francisco. A small love seat sofa in the corner was a deep shade of blue with two brown chairs in front of my desk. My laptop was already open as my phone was blinking at me from the call that was waiting or me. I walked over to where my own chair was, sitting and sinking in for a moment or two before I finally picked up my phone. I clicked the blinking button, finally getting on the line with whoever needed to talk to me.

"This is Commander Harper with the San Francisco Police Department, how can I help you?"

"Molly Harper?" I shifted a bit now I heard the deep voice on the other end of the line. I felt uneasiness already there.

"This is she. Who is this?" I asked, not wanting to sound crude about it and yet I wanted to know who I was talking to. It almost seemed, from the back of my mind, that I knew that voice. That I heard it before long ago.

"This is Mike Hanlon." I froze there in my spot, having em ow hand clutch the phone in a life grip and my blood go intently cold. I was instantly rethinking back to some moments long ago, when I was younger and when I thought I was going to die.

"Molly!"

"No, no please! Don't hurt them!"

"Molly? Are you there?" I gulped, trying to find my voice now as I was feeling like I was on the edge of a cliff and about to jump off without a second thought. That sinking stomach of a feeling was under my skin. I haven't felt this way in years, almost a decade or so now as I took in one more shaky breath.

"I'm sorry… I think my cochlear implant is lost it's batteries. You're….Mike Hanlon?" I asked now in a shaky tone, now longer sounding like the commander that I was and that I worked years for and almost bled my own blood for. No, I was back to being that small girl…back to being timid and trying to find me own strength.

"Hello Molly. Good to hear from you," He replied on the other end, having me close my eyes for a brief moment. I knew him, I could picture him within my own memory and my own brain now. He was a kind soul, someone that could reach within you and protect you if he could, Those brown eyes, that kind smile he had though he was from a rough side of town. I remembered all of him,

I instantly turned the call on speaker, rushing up from the chair and walking over to lock the door to my office with a click. I felt a rush hitting my hard, the need to not have other ear in on this now made it even more intense now as I took a moment to just breath and collect my own thoughts.

"Molly? Did I lose you again?" Mike asked over the speaker phone. I had to smile, although I haven't heard his voice in two decades, it was still soothing to hear.

"Yeah, I'm here," I replied walking over to the chair slowly now as I was trying to picture an adult Mike in my head.

"I didn't think I would be calling you at the Police Department," Mike confessed with a light chuckle, "Then again I didn't picture you as someone who would grow up to be a commander."

"A lot of people thought the same thing," I admitted him, a small smile tugged at my lips now. But the next three words that came out of his mouth as enough to make me both want to vomit and want to scream out at the same time. My heart dropped to my feet and my hair soot on end at the back of my neck now as Mike told me something in such a serious tone. Nothing prepared me for this, not those three words.

"Molly….It's back."

I walked back to my apartment, saying nothing and feeling nothing at all within me as I was weaving my way through the crowded streets of people going to bars or clubs. I made the rest of my staff go home early after that phone call, and although I got intense and yet crazy stares from it, they weren't going to argue with me. It was a Friday night, so the whole town was buzzing with activity and people already thinking of making some bad decisions. I didn't think about those people though, I was only thinking of one thing:

IT was back.

I didn't think I would be so terrified in my life, let alone that the sinking feelings hit me lost like bullets. I could remember all of those time, seeing that face of whatever it was, pouring IT's eyes into my own and showing me own my fear. If I was only in those moments, I knew I wouldn't have survived. Hell, if I was alone most of the time in my old town, I knew I wouldn't have survived then either.

But I had the Loser's Club.

They were the only ray fo light in those memories, being able to stick together and defeat that demon once. We were strong together, I knew we were when it came to going down in those sewers. I could already feel my skin crawl from thinking of those dark stinking sewers, the constantly feeling of not being clean ever again or be sane ever again. Those kids were the only ones that accepted me as one of their own. They weren't supposed to, not in my mind at least since they had each other. To me, I was the outsider.

I didn't belong to them. But to them I did.

I turned into my apartment building, walking into the lobby and seeing the same receptionist that has been working there since I moved into the place about a year ago because of the recent promotion. The lobby itself looking a bit modern, it was a newer building no doubt since that tore down the old building that's been around for about 60 years. Someone people were in a uproar about it, but now the new building the housing the new rich and famous. Funny how I was included in that population.

"Hello, Gertie," I said and signed to her in my lower tone, seeing her finally look up from her small TV. I could hear from my good ear she was watching some kind of soap opera. She reminded me of those dark queens that were famous within the clubs of Castro, and yet she was still a woman. Either way, she was fabulous. Thankfully, she was one of those friends that was willing to know some sign for me since I had off days with my implant and that hearing could come and go.

"Hello sweetie," She replied both with her hands and in her drawl of a tone, "Lock up any bad guys tonight?"

"No, but the night is still young," I commented with a swift of my fingers, hearing her chuckle now as she was tapping her finger against the the small TV that she had perched on the countertop.

"You hearing the news lately?" She asked me as I was ascending the stairs on step at a time, "Some small town out in Maine is on the news, something about a mass celebration of a town's anniversary. Aren't you from Main, dear?"

"Sure am," I replied smoothly as looking over at the mirror that was on the wall. I could see what I looked like: in my older thirties and my face showing the small amounts of lines that was clear sign that I was getting old. My hair, though a darker shade of brown and red mixed together, was cut short enough to see my neck but long enough to hide my ears. And there on my left side, my cochlear implant was resting against my head. It was the newest design, top of the along according to my doctor, but I didn't feel that.

"And as a thanks for the continue efforts of the poodle force here in the town of Derry—" I whipped my head around to see the TV still playing on the section on the news, Gertie clearly not listening as I was seeing the small image and the was seemed to be some kind of mass collection of balloons…wait.

Balloons.

Something screeched in my cochleae implant, having me squint and grab the implant now. it's been decades since I've had a problem with my hearing, not since I was a kid and I had a second hand implant after my first surgery. I remember it being too big, almost a bit lopsided on my ear now, but that was when I was a little girl, when I thought I was just a broken human from what happened to me.

When the screeching stopped, I blinked a few times, breathing in and out slowly to make sure that it was real. How was it that I was having something like this happening to me? My new cochlear that I was wearing there was the best of the best, not one problem even slipped through. Yet that screech made me feel like I was testing them out for the first time a long time ago back in Derry.

Derry. If happened when the T.V. mentioned the town, having me snap my eyes there on the screen when were was a massive red balloon there on the screen. Once I saw the balloon, something within me and underneath my skin was threatening to boil over. I sprinted to the top of the stairs, running down the hallway as fast as I could and I finally made it to my room which was at the corner. After a moment of two of unlocking the door, I slammed the door shut and slammed my back against the door, falling to the ground and hugging my knees around me. The dry sobs were coming through my lips now as I was closing my eyes shut and trying to at least breathe.

It was coming back in waves, wave after wave. Something that brought me back to that moment being younger and being more vulnerable was about to make me sick. I thought I forgot all of it, that it all left my memories and stopped haunting me. But now it was all flooding back to me, all because of one being.

Because of IT.