IT - REVISITED AND REDONE

By Jules

CHAPTER FIVE - THE LOSER'S CLUB

Author Notes: I have always wanted to do a IT and SEAQUEST crossover. However, for my story, Lucas Wolenczak is for all intensive purposes BILL DENBROUGH at any age.

I always like the idea of using Jonathan Brandis for the younger part in the movie and wanted to continue that theme on in my story. I always wanted the SeaQuest crew to see what happened to Lucas's character in the movie. (Yeah I know I am totally nuts right?)

The next day in Derry was Saturday. Bill Denbrough loved Saturdays, in fact the whole weekend. Because Saturday meant no school. He didn't have to go to school and face the prospect of making a complete and utter fool of himself in front of everyone.

Bill usually found himself playing outside on the weekend's. He would either go to the movies with one of his friends, or ride his bike all over town. Anything that kept him from having to go back to the coldness of home until he had no other choice.

Eddie on the other hand hated Saturdays. While Bill loved school but tried to avoid it because of his stuttering, Eddie used school as his source of escape.

Escape from an overbearing mother who was constantly walking up behind him and checking him over and asking him if he was feeling alright. None of his friends did that at school unless they were genuinely worried about him.

Beverley Marsh hated Saturdays too, but mostly for a different reason than Eddie. Whilst Eddie was always worried that his mother was going to smother him, with Beverley and her father it was completely the opposite. Beverley didn't even need to do the wrong thing and she would often find herself on the wrong end of her father's short temper for no reason at all.

The fact that her father Alvin Marsh often left bruises on Beverley's pale skin didn't go unnoticed at school despite the girl's avid attempts to hide them underneath her clothing. There were all sorts of stories going around the school and town about what went on at the Marsh residence behind closed doors.

On Saturdays Alvin Marsh didn't have to work. He didn't make much money at the school as the janitor and whatever was left by the weekend was normally consumed in alcohol. That's were the problems started for Beverley. Her father would be okay to talk to up until about 4.00 in the afternoon after he had just enough to make him argumentative.

With no mother figure in her life to speak of, Beverley was expected to take on all the womanly chores that went with a household. She did almost all of the cooking, cleaning and laundry. There was often very little money left for food or the necessities and she had learned from a very early age how to make things go just that bit further and how to mend things so they would do until next time.

By the time Bill Denbrough was leaving his house on his bicycle "Silver", Beverley was hanging out the first load of washing on the string line at the back of their house.

Eddie on the other hand had begged and pleaded with his mother to let him go outside. After all the reasons why he couldn't go out and all of the illnesses he might catch by walking down the street and other people, she finally compromised that he could go out in the sunshine for a few minutes.

Eddie didn't both arguing about the time. There were times in his young life that Eddie looked back on and smiled. They were the times when he would give his mother a little lie like where he was going only to do the opposite, like head down to the "Barrens" with his friend Bill.

Eddie usually didn't stand up for himself very much especially when it came to bully's like Henry Bowers. If he had told his mother about the plans he and Bill had made with the new boy Ben the day before, she would never have allowed him to leave the house.

So when his mother agreed for him to go outside in their yard where she could come and check on him, once out of ear shot and eye sight of his mother, Eddie took off down the street as fast as his legs would carry him towards Jackson Street and some fun with his friends.

Ben Hanscom was also on his way down to the Barrens by now. He was so excited about having met two new friends and actually been invited to play with them today that he was on top of the world. He had packed an extra large lunch in a bag, partly to share with the others, but if they didn't take up the offer, he would no doubt finish it all off.

He was rather glad to get out of the house he and his mother were sharing with his aunt Sylvia. When they had arrived after his father's death in Korea, Sylvia had gone to great lengths to remind her sister that she and her son had been given a roof over their head through generosity and Christianity.

Ben didn't really get on with his cousin and often found himself fighting with Miles only to get into trouble and being named the cause. The fights were only making it harder for his mother and he felt guilty about her having to worry about him as well as what they were going to do for the future.

By the time Eddie made it to the Barrens, Bill Denbrough was already sitting on the bank in front of the small stream they had made the day before, tossing in small stones and seeing how loud a "plop" they made each time.

Lucas greeted Eddie with a grin and a cheery hello. Bill could see his friend looking behind him and with a slightly guilty look on his face about the deception he had told his mother. Eddie went on and confessed what he had done to Bill, knowing his friend would understand and wouldn't dob him in.

Bill listened to Eddie's story and then smiled and went back to throwing rocks into the puddle to show him that it didn't matter that he had told such a small lie. Eddie was there to talk to and that's all that really matter to Bill.

The SeaQuest crew had followed Lucas down to the "Barrens" and watched for quite a while before Eddie showed up, the varying expressions on the boy's face. He had a lot of thoughts on his mind at the moment, both good and bad. Some he was willing to share with others, some he hoped would go away and never come back.

He had more dreams about monsters and George last night. Some of the dreams even had George turning into the monsters. He didn't know what it all meant, he just wanted it all to go away so he could forget.

Just as Eddie sat down beside Bill, Ben could be seen hollering to the two of them from on top of the slope leading down to the Barrens. Both of them waved back to Ben signalling for him it was okay to come and join them.

Ben now joined his two new friends, sitting on the grass covered area around the Barrens. They had come here to build a dam together, but right at the moment, all three were just content to sit there in total silence not doing to saying anything.

Eddie was a little bit worried about Bill's sudden silence today. Normally on the weekend's Bill was the best person to be with. But today each time he looked at his quiet friend, Eddie could see the slight changes in Bill's facial expressions that the crew could see. He too knew that Bill had something on his mind.

"Boy you sure brought enough food there, Ben," Bill said to the new kid, trying to break the silence. He looked at the size of the bag Ben had brought and wondered just how much he thought they were all going to eat today.

Right now Bill didn't have much of an appetite. He hadn't been eating very much at all lately, both at home and at school. It wasn't doing any good for his already thin frame, but he just couldn't bear sitting down at the dinner table at his house at the moment and pretend having a "family dinner" together. The falseness of it all was just too much to handle.

"So what did you tell your mother yesterday, Ben," Eddie asked. He knew how afraid he would have been if he had shown up to his mother all bruised up the way Ben had been after fighting with Henry Bowers yesterday. It made Eddie sick just to think of what he would have to explain to his mother. For starters she would never let him out of the house ever again.

For the first hour, the three friends sat talking, well Ben did most of the talking. Telling Eddie and Ben about his life back in Texas and about his dad as a pilot in the air force in Korea.

For Ben and Eddie, Korea seemed an awful long way across the other side of the world to think about. For them there were a lot more scarier things too close to home to worry and think about.

Eddie could still tell that Bill had something on his mind. He wish he had the courage to come right out and ask his friend to talk about what was troubling him. He doubted that Bill would open up just like that though.

Bill was a complicated person who kept his feelings very well hidden from everyone else. He just had to hope that Bill confided in him at some stage like he often did with his own problems.

Across the other side of the little stream amongst the trees, a shrill whistle call came towards them. Bill recognised the whistle as a bird call. He didn't know exactly what type of bird made that particular whistle, but there was only one person he knew in Derry who knew about birds and how to imitate their calls: Stan Uris.

And wherever Stan Uris was, you could just about bet that there would be another boy with him who thrived on imitations of a different kind: Richie Tozier. Richie tried to do voice impressions. Not always succeeding and often getting ridiculed by his fellow classmates. But no matter how much bad publicity he got in return, Richie never gave up his passion and Bill had to admire somebody for that.

The SeaQuest crew were fascinated each time these young people got together. When the teenage friends had first come aboard the boat as Lucas's guests, they were thought to be the most unorthodox group of friends.

Looking at the four of them now, when they were much younger, and once they understood a little about each of their backgrounds, it was easier to see how they had come to be such good friends.

They were worlds apart in appearance, but their troubles and dark secrets brought them together in uncertain times.

"Hi Richie," Eddie greeted the red-headed boy cheerfully. "Hi Stan," he added nodding towards the taller, dark haired boy.

"Hi Eddie-spaghetti," Richie shot bag and grabbed a full hand-full of the younger boy's hair, giving it a good ruffle along the way. It usually came every time Richie said hello to Eddie.

"Stop doing that, I hate it when you do that Richie," Eddie said crossly. But truth be known, this little circle of friends in front of him would be the closest ones he would ever have.

As time drifted by and Eddie looked back ten years or more from know, the one thing he remembered about Richie Tozier apart from his red hair, bad jokes and glasses, was the way he would almost always ruffle Eddie's hair.

"Oh you love it Eddie-spaghetti," Richie retorted in fun. "Hi Bill," he then added, as he looked towards Lucas's thin frame and blond hair.

Just about the time the four boys said hello to each other, another figure appeared from behind Bill, but this was certainly no boy. In fact it was Beverley Marsh.

All four boys knew Beverley, and all of them thought she was much prettier than most of the other snobbish girls at school. Beverley might not have worn expensive clothes or played with dolls like other girls her own age did, but that was okay in their eyes. It made her fit into the group even better.

"Hi," Beverley said in a very sweet voice, but the whole time she was looking at Bill. Lucas was looking at Beverley too and smiling back with a silly grin on his face.

"Ah young love...," came the comment from Tony Piccolo as he watched a younger version of his room mate make eyes at a girl barely eleven years of age.

Boy did he ever get things totally wrong about Lucas. All the time he had spent trying to get girls more interested in him by taking him out to places and it was plain to see that some girls just got all sweet by just looking at that shaggy blond hair and blue eyes. Give them the added touch of sadness mixed with innocence and Lucas had the perfect recipe for catching a girl.

"He certainly doesn't need your help by the look of it, Piccolo," Brodie poked in fun back. The other crew members laughed lightly along with him.

"Want to join us, Beverley?" came the question from Eddie when he thought things were getting a little too uncomfortable between Bill and Beverley. He thought they were great together but didn't think it was right to tell it out loud. He might make Beverley upset and Bill wouldn't like him for telling or making Beverley upset.

"S-sure," Bill said immediately and with no hesitation. He didn't have the slightest problem with Beverley joining in their group. Stan and Richie had no objections and so Beverley sat down with the four boys on the bank of the Barrens. Lord knows what her father would think or do if he caught her anywhere near there let alone in the company of boys.

Beverley sat beside Lucas while the other three boys sat slightly apart from them. Bill and Beverley quietly chatted away to each other for a few minutes, catching up on what had been happening at home and at school with them both.

There were very few secrets between them all including Richie, Ben, Stan and Eddie about their individual lives and problems. They shared so many familiar similarities that it was hard to overlook that they were only childhood friends.

Ben, Eddie, Stan and Richie had been chatting away at how best to tackle the idea of making a larger stream out of the one nearby. Ben was the engineer behind the whole project and had loads of ideas for them to try.

Richie decided to get the whole group together a little more, including Bill and Beverley.

"Hey, I have got some cigarettes I sneaked out from my Dad," he announced proudly to the rest of the group. "Anybody want one?"

Kristin could barely control her frustration at seeing a much too young Lucas once again reach out his hand and take a cigarette from the packet Richie held out in front of him.

Beverley was no shrinking violet either when it came to doing things they were supposed to. As long as they didn't get caught and her father didn't even find out, she was willing to take part just like the rest of them.

"He'll have lung cancer by the time he is sixteen," Kristin said, not really trying to be harsh towards the boy she knew only as Lucas. Back in 1959 there was no literature about the harmful effects of tobacco smoking and children and young people started at a relatively young age.

Bill wouldn't really be aware of the causes and effects of smoking until about 6 years from now when the disease lung cancer would prematurely take the life of his father.

"They are just kids, Kristin," Bridger said trying to defend Lucas and his friends a little. "I did it too," he admitted. "Didn't you?" he then asked.

"Yes... when I was fifteen but...," she stopped halfway through knowing that her own experiences during her teenage years were not all that different from what she was watching in Lucas and his friends now.

Stan and Eddie had all refused the offering. Eddie because he was too afraid of what his mother would say if she smelled such a thing as cigarette smoke on his clothing. He still had to explain about where he had been yet without adding to his list of activities for the day.

Stan had also refused but more because of the strict religious beliefs that his parents had instilled in him about putting foreign things into his body that was supposed to act as a temple of some sort.

Ben had taken one just to join in, but he was a little embarrassed to say that they had never taken a puff of a cigarette before. Bill and Richie looked as though they knew exactly what to do. He felt like the new kid in school all over again.

When Ben looked back on these days years from now, it would be the nick name that he was given that would stick with him for the majority of his high school and college years: Haystack. Mostly because of his short spiky blond hair.

Ben liked it and thought it an honour to be given a nick name by any of the group. The name didn't take long to catch on and almost from that day forth, Ben was always known by that name.

Eddie had been given a nick name which he didn't really appreciate as Eddie- spaghetti. Richie usually called Lucas Big-Bill and Stan was just plain old Stan. Somehow a nick name just didn't seem right for the Uris boy. There were just not too many nick names you could come up with from using a name like that. Beverley was often just shortened to Bevvie.

Instead of building the dam that they had come to build, for the majority of the time they remained down in their secret little spot, Bill told them stories. Eddie always loved listening to Bill's stories. He always had the best imagination about things that happened long ago like in the days of King Arthur and when knights went off to fight dragons.

Little did Eddie know that the reason Bill was so good at telling stories was that was his escape world from reality when things got to bad for him at home. Sure he was good at the details and making up the characters.

Often he wished he could just fall into those fantasies and live out the lives of the characters he made up just to keep from seeing all the monsters in his head and stop from seeing the ghostly image of his brother pointing the finger of blame at him each night.

Bill started another one of his stories for the group as they huddled around and listened. By the end of it, the SeaQuest crew where thoroughly amazed by this hidden talent that Lucas seem to have abundance of. He had never shown much interest in an artistic way before.

"No wonder he wrote books for a living," Kristin remarked as she recalled the list of writing achievements and published books that had appeared on the personal history of Bill Denbrough.

"You gotta write that one down, Bill," Eddie now said in praise of his friend at his ability to put words together so perfectly. "That's one of my favourite," he added.

"Yeah really great, Big Bill," Richie agreed. He always tried to make jokes with words not put them into well constructed stories the way Bill did.

Stan and Beverley also voiced their appreciation for Bill's story telling ability.

"Big Bill is going to leave this one horse town one day and be a famous writer one day," Richie now said to the group.

"I don't know about that Richie," Bill said in reply. "I'm not sure I want to grow up at all."

There were too many things that had scared him silly over the last few months and that was when he was a child. He didn't know what was out there in the real world for him when he grew up. There may be no monsters to speak of, but then again there might be new monsters with just different names to try and trick you.

"I want to grow up," Eddie said excitedly, a little saddened by Bill's sombre mood at the moment. "I want to set out and see the world," he added, giving away his childhood dream for some time.

"Oh yeah right Eddie-spaghetti, your mother won't even let you cross the street," Richie joked back.

Eddie's mood soon joined Bill's when he realised that Richie was right. If he wanted to see the world, it would probably be on the T.V. or something because there was no way his mother was going to let him leave Derry on his own.

"What about you, Bev?" Ben asked. He was secretly developing feelings for this girl with the long braids, but he knew so long as Bill was around he didn't stand much of a chance. One look at himself compared to Bill and Ben knew that he was out of the two horse race before it even got started.

"I don't know yet. Maybe drawing or something. My dad has been teaching me how to draw," Bev replied. A few cherished minutes once a month or so when her father could put two words together without anger and the smell of alcohol on his breath.

"I think I want to do something with numbers," Stan said as he plucked up the courage to join in the conversation. It was almost no contest as to who was the most quiet and conservative member of the group.

"I think I want to be a pilot like my, Dad," Ben said with pride. He knew very little about his father before he left to fight a war in Korea. There were a few photos of him his mother had given him dressed in his uniform.

"Or maybe the Navy," he said in hindsight - knowing it was quite difficult to get into the Air Force. Looking down at the bulge around his middle at the moment, he wasn't sure he would meet any fitness tests for any of the armed forces.

"The Navy...," Lucas said with a scoff in his voice. "No way Haystack. Not for me. I hate boats. I hate being anywhere near boats. I never want to be on a boat," he said with finality.

"Looks like you just lost a crew member, Captain," Tony jibed back to Bridger. The crew had laughed lightly at the children as they pondered what they would all do later on in life.

The thing that haunted Bridger the most about what they were currently seeing and witnessing. According to Lucas and the clown they had heard talking, these children had already done this part of their lives. They had already lived it but he had made them travel back to do it all over again.

Had any of it changed already from the last time? What if any of it did? How would that alter what would become of Lucas again later in life this time. If the history changed to dramatically so would the future. So much that it might be that the crew would never meet Lucas Wolenczak. Lucas might not exist at all after this was all over - what then?

"Hi everyone," came a small voice from just in front of them. The six of them had been so wrapped up into listening to Bill's stories and telling each other about their future dreams, that they hadn't heard anybody's footsteps approaching.

At first they looked up slightly startled, but then smiled as they recognized the dark figure of Michael Hanlon standing in front of them. He looked to be holding a book of some sort.

"H-Hi, Mike," Lucas greeted the new comer. He didn't have any objections to having a dark-skinned friend in the group. Nobody else voice any objections either. Mike was welcome just as the rest of them were.

When it came to being different from other kids, Michael Hanlon was certainly head of that committee. With his negro background, he often found himself on the receiving end of unsavoury comments and derogatory remarks about how black people were only second class citizens.

Commander Jonathan Ford had been fortunate to grow up almost two decades from now where the gap of equality had become smaller and smaller. He still got some racial bias now and again, but nothing like was the norm up until the early 1990's.

"Can I sit with you guys?" Mike asked, looking about and seeing most of the group were kids that he had never had a problem with at school.

"S-sure, M-Mike," Bill said as he felt the others looking at him to make the final decision. Like it or not, Bill found himself to be leader of this small little band of misfits whether he chose to be or not.

"What have you got there, Mike?" Ben asked as he moved over slightly to let Mike find a bare patch of ground amongst the group.

"Oh this is just the book I brought into school the other day that my father showed me. It's got lots of historical pictures of Derry in it. Right back to when people first came here," he said with a little pride.

His father was good with knowledge about the town from long ago. People chose to think of Derry as just another dirty little backdrop town and tried to ignore that it ever had a past. Most of them certainly saw no future in Derry for themselves.

Mike started turning the pages of the book on his lap one at a time so the rest of them could see them. Whilst they looked at the pictures in silence, there was only one feature in each of them that stood out.

There were photo's of the school house many years ago with a man standing in front of it as it burned - the date was 1932. There was another photo further on of a factory that was destroyed by an explosion - the date on that photo was 1905. Again there was a man off to the side of the photo clearly visible that held all of their attention.

"That's not possible," Bill heard himself saying as he looked from picture to picture and gazed at the image of the man in each of them. "They are the same man each time."

"Can't be Billy-boy your eyes must be playing tricks on you," Richie tried to rationalise and he too found himself looking from picture to picture. He swallowed harshly when he couldn't come up with a better excuse for what Bill was saying.

"It is the same man," Mike agreed but he too couldn't come up with a plausible reason why it was the case. The photo's spanned some 150 years together in total - how was it possible that it was the same man - maybe they were all relatives that just looked very much alike. The group of friends considered that highly unlikely as well.

"It's not a man," Bill summoned the courage to say. He didn't know why, but each time he looked at the photos, the only image he saw was that of a man dressed in a funny clown costume. Like the man who had been invading his dreams every night since Georgie's death.

"IT!" he said to the group, giving the man a title. Just as he said the word though, his nightmares started to become reality as the pages of the photo album began turning over and over on their own at a fast pace. For a few seconds, the children just watched in horror as the pages moved without any assistance from Mike.

Mike had not been in the company of this group many times, but he too had some deep held secrets about monsters he had seen and strange things that had been happening that he couldn't quite explain. This was turning out to be another one of those times.

The episode seemed more real to Bill than any of them. He had seen this exact same thing happen before and that was he voiced to the others now.

"T-t-that's w-w-hat happened i-in G-Georgie's r-room," he stammered out, stumbling over nearly every word out of the fear that he felt rising within him but couldn't stop no matter how hard he tried.

The SeaQuest group couldn't quite see what the other children were seeing, but they could see the pale face of Lucas and the loud audible gasps from the other children at something terrifying in front of them.

They moved from where they were to behind the group - not being able to be seen of course. They could scarcely believe themselves that the pages of the book were turning on their own.

The pages finally stopped turning and the page settled on a photograph from about 1870 when there was a row of shops along Witcham street near where the barrens was now. This time the pages didn't just move - the people inside the photograph began coming to life as well.

Beverley had to put her hand over her mouth to prevent herself screaming at the scene in front of her. The people in the photograph were moving as though they were going about their everyday lives. There was an eerie sounding tune playing that seemed to get louder and louder the more they stared intently at the page.

Kristin and Commander Ford were shaking their heads with disbelief. Out of the group, they were probably the two most to doubt any such thing if they didn't see it first hand for themselves. Problem was they were seeing it first hand right at this very minute but they didn't have any explanation for it.

As the photo continued moving, a man began moving down the street on a pair of stilts. Like a circus performer. He was wearing a clown's funny baggy clothing and juggling some balls whilst walking along.

All of a sudden the clown on the stilts seemed to stop half-way through his routine and look towards the children on the other side of the book. A god-awful roar came from the book.

Bill and the others could no longer hold in their panicked screams at the sound. Lonnie and Tony had also let out screams of fright at the sound - a little embarrassed for themselves, but dreadfully afraid of what this horror was that was haunting Bill and his friends.

Now the clown was running down the street, running and then scaling one of the old-fashioned lamp posts until he was right up close to the group so they could see his garish features and hideous smile.

The picture had been black and white before it started moving, but now the clown was right in front of them in full-living colour. To much colour and life for them.

"I'll kill you all," Pennywise said to the group. Each of the children was sure he was looking directly at each of them as he uttered the deadly threat.

"I'll drive you nuts, I'll drive you crazy and then I will kill you all," the clown repeated.

The children were now attempting to pull back from the photo album and huddling into each other for protection. Their fear was so strong that they were paralysed from just getting up and running away from the clown.

"I am your worse dream come true. I am everything that you ever were afraid of," the clown hissed through yellowed and stained fangs.

"I'LL KILL YOU ALL!" it shouted a third time and in an even more frightening gesture, stuck it's white gloved hand out the page itself towards the children as if to try and grab at one of them and drag them back into his domain.

Mike could take no more after that and threw the book away from the group on the muddy ground so it was closed. Beverley could no longer hold back the sobs she had been holding in from her own fear and buried her head against Ben's ample shoulder to hide her tear stained face.

Eddie was trying in vain to hide behind Richie from the ghoulish clown, reaching instantly for his asthma inhaler to try and calm down his fear before he brought on an attack. His breathing was already sounding a lot harsher.

Stan was sitting on the ground with his hands over his ears in an attempt to ignore what he was seeing and hearing as real. He was a logical person and tried to see the rational side of anything that seemed unusual or abnormal. But what he had just seen defied all the rules as well as scared the hell out of him.

While each of them thought that they might be safer to head for home and deal with what they had seen on their own. They also saw the benefits of sticking together in a group and relying on each other at a time when they all needed it the most.

Lucas found himself being the exception to this rule. The paleness of his face clearly visible to his friends and the SeaQuest crew.

After a while as they talked about just about everything and nothing, Eddie looked over at Bill who seemed to go silent again over the last half an hour. Instead of looking back with the rest of the group and laughing like the others had been, Lucas had moved about 5 meters away from the others and was now sitting on his own, looking back over a different part of the Barrens.

He looked to be lost in thought. Eddie wondered if he should prod his friend into telling them all what was bothering him. He didn't like it when Bill was this quiet. Bill was the one that everyone looked up to.

Bill was the one everybody turned to when something started to go wrong. There seemed no better time than now to look towards him as their leader and expect him to tell them what to do. Problem was Lucas didn't know himself what to do. Fear had taken away all the thinking ability he had right now. His thoughts started to drift back over the last few months before Georgie's death and no doubt the beginning to this whole set of nightmares.

"C-c-can I tell you all something?" Lucas finally said, just loud enough for them all to hear.

Bill didn't know how much longer he could hide the monsters and the dreams he had been having from the rest of his friends. Sooner or later it had to start showing on his face didn't it? The boy ran a worried hand down the length of his face as he tried to muster up the courage to continue what he was about to say.

"Sure, Big-Bill, what's on your mind," Richie asked. This time there wasn't the slightest sign of a joke in his voice. He knew that he and all of his friends were well past joking for the rest of today.

"I-I-If y-y-ou g-guy l-laugh, I-I s-sw-wear I-I w-w-will never t-t-alk to any o-of you e-e-ver a-gain," Bill warned.

"We won't laugh, Bill," Ben answered as he looked at the others for their agreement. None of them got too close to Bill just yet. They sensed that whatever it was he had to say was going to be difficult enough without them getting in his personal space.

As his group of friend listened, Bill took the best part of twenty minutes to tell the others about how the photograph album in Georgie's room had done exactly the same as the book laying on the ground right now.

They all silently held their breaths as they heard Bill tell them about the photograph of his younger but dead brother wink at him and then how the photo album had begun to bleed right in front of his eyes after he had thrown it across the other side of the room.

He also told them about the dreams he had been having about Georgie coming back and telling him that it was all his fault that he had died and how at times Georgie appeared to be turning into the clown they had just seen threatening to kill them.

Bridger and the SeaQuest crew had never heard any story so heart felt and sorrowful in their lives. They had seen the photo album bleed like Lucas explained and had seen the clown just now. But they had been unable to see the nightmares in his head at night that he wrestled with or the thoughts of self-retribution and guilt that had obviously been plaguing the boy since his brother's unanswered death.

By the time he was finished, tears were running down his face, both out of grief over his brother as he remembered yet again, and also out of his frustration of not being able to deal with these feelings and images himself. For having to share such horrid memories with others even though they were his friends.

Eddie was also crying slightly after listening to Bill. He hadn't suspected that his friend the mighty Bill had been having such vivid nightmares and horrible thoughts about his brother.

Eddie had to admit that he had never heard Bill stutter so badly at any one time than he had just now telling his story. There were quite a few times were words were attempted and just left out because he would never have gotten over the hurdle. Their omittance didn't detract any from the whole picture Bill was trying to depict.

After seeing the photo album Mike had brought along, not one of them had disbelieved his tale. How could they, they too had seen the same thing happen. Maybe not the blood or the ghost of Little Georgie Denbrough. But all of them had experienced similar nightmares and sights themselves that they still had yet to share.

And over the next few minutes that is exactly what happened. Eddie found himself telling Bill and the others about his experiences at 29 Neibolt Street. Bill and Richie looked at each other before Richie told their tale of he and Bill also visiting 29 Neibolt Street and almost not coming out alive to tell the tale.

Lucas now got up on his feet and walked about twenty feet away from the rest of the group towards the far edge of the puddle. From where he was standing, there was a slight echoing effect when speaking due to the sloping group on either side back up to Jackson street and the main highway on the other side.

The small group had been momentarily lost in their own thoughts when Bill began shouting up towards Jackson street at somebody they couldn't see.

"You killed my brother George you bastard," Bill said out loud.

"I want to kill it," Bill now admitted as he wrapped his arms around himself, letting his tears of frustration freely fall down his face in front of his friends. His emotions and feelings were just to raw to ignore any more. He couldn't do this on his own anymore.

"I swear to God I want to kill it," Bill repeated.

"Help me," he pleaded, looking towards the group.

"Help me."

Beverley was the first one to go to Bill and show her willingness to help by putting a supporting arm around him. It didn't take long for the other five to join the group and seven children stood in a small huddle, with their arms around each other, vowing that they would somehow ward off any monsters.

Trouble was did they really know what the monster was...

to be continued...

JULES