The familiar hostess you'd remembered from earlier walked steadily into the room, holding a bowl of fortune cookies in her hands. You eyed the treats, before turning to Ben, who you'd been in conversation with for the past few minutes. The lady placed the bowl in the centre of the table before leaving the room quietly.

"I just find it so crazy, you know?" Ben commented, looking around the room at your childhood friends in adoration, his eyes landing on Bev for a little longer then the others.

"I d-do to. Have you spoken to her yet?" you asked politely, watching as his ears turned lightly red, and you knew he knew exactly who you were talking about. The familiar redhead sitting across the table from you, engrossed in a conversation with Bill. 

"No. Should I?" he asked. 

"Of course you should. You and her used to be... A thing, right?"

He looked at you for a second, smiling thoughtfully to himself. "Ok. I will, sometime."

That was a well enough answer for him, because he looked back up at the redhead, and seemed to notice the way she was staring into Bill's eyes, with a caring expression. You could not no longer hear the duo talking, and the way they were looking at each other made you uneasy. You felt jealous, and the thought made you rub at your eyes with annoyance. You knew he was a childhood friend- that's all you truly remembered. It was highly inappropriate to feel anything other then friendship towards him. 

"I mean, it's weird, right?" You heard Ben ask out loud as the table went quiet. You took your hands away from your eyes, looking up at everyone. "Now that we're all here, everything just comes back faster and faster. I mean, all of it."

You found yourself smiling slightly. He was right. The thought made you feel light and fuzzy, despite your jealousy still sitting in the bottom of your gut. Various people around the table made sounds of agreement at Ben's words.

"When Mike called me, I threw up." Richie randomly spoke up. "Isn't that weird? Like, I got nervous. I got sick, and I threw up. I feel fine now. I feel relieved to be here with all of you." He paused for a moment, eyes running over all of your faces. "Why is everybody looking at me weird?"

You found your memory pulling you back, and you remembered the way you'd practically fainted, smashing your best friend's door and cutting your arm open. Your thoughts were interrupted when Eddie spoke. 

"When Mike called me, I crashed my car."

You had to stop yourself from gasping from his words. His experience had obviously been far more dramatic then yours. 

"Seriously?" Bill asked the brunette man, and he simply murmured a "Yes."

"Shit, man, I hear you. My heart was like... Beating, so fast." Ben said, and you nodded in understanding. 

"I th-thought it was only me." You spoke up, and sighed. "I f-fell through my best friend's glass door- it was like, I-I could barely stand anymore. I felt so much adrenaline and... Fear." You shrugged, watching as the people around you nodded in understanding. You answered a few questions of "are you okay?" nonchalantly. You were far more interested with how the vibe of the table had suddenly changed from light and happy, to dark and brooding.

"You're right, (Y/n). It's fear. That's what you all felt." Mike suddenly spoke up softly.

"Why did we all feel like that, Mike?" Bill asked from next to him, and the dark-skinned man turned to him with an uncomfortable expression. "You remember something we don't, don't you?"

Suddenly, you felt an uncomfortable shiver run down your spine, and anxiety settled in your gut. You sat up straighter in your chair, watching as Mike took in a breath, before turning to the table to explain whatever was on his mind.

"Something happens to you when you leave this town. The farther away, the hazier it gets. But me... I never left. So, yeah. I remember." He hesitated. "I remember all of it."

You were still confused by what he was saying, and you didn't dare take a breath as the whole table went silent. Despite not fully understanding his words, you still felt ice cold- so, so cold. 

"Pennywise."

The moment Bev's soft voice broke through the air, everything snapped. 

Your chest began constricting as bucket-load of memories came pouring down on you- memories of fire, fear, and the clown. The fucking clown. The clown that gave you nightmares every night from when you were as young as 12 years old. The clown that, you now realized, was the one who cursed you with the big burn scar across your stomach. The clown that you had somehow, miraculously slipped from your memory the moment you'd left town. 

"Oh, the fucking clown." Eddie breathed, and you felt your fingertips prickle over with anxiety. "Oh shit."

"Pennywise." Richie's frightened voice spoke. The name drained the colour from your cheeks, and sent shock-waves of fear all the way to your core.

"S-stop saying it." you stuttered softly, and you felt Ben's shaky fingers reach over to rub your back comfortingly. 

"Mike, you said you wanted our help with something." Bill stuttered, and when you looked up, he had his eyes trained on where Ben was holding you. He quickly turned when he saw you watching him with frightened eyes. "What was that?"

"You see, there's an echo here in Derry, that bounces back every 27 years." He explained, and Eddie cut him off. 

"What the fuck are you talking about?" His voice was almost a warning.

"Hold on, hold on. Listen to me. We thought we stopped It back then. We thought It was done, but..."

You audibly whimpered in fear as your voice got caught up in your throat. You barely had time to register the way Mike began flipping through an open journal that he'd pulled from nowhere- you didn't remember him even having it in the first place.

When Bill noticed your state, he looked at Mike warningly, saying his name. The man ignored him, and continued talking. 

"A week ago, a man, Adrian Mellon, slaughtered." He shoved the book gently towards Bill, who began examining at the handwritten scrawl. "A girl, Lisa Albrecht, the other night, went missing."

There were various sounds of terrified voices around the room, and you examined the way each of your old friend's faces were etched with anxiety and terror. Mike continued.

"There have already been others, and there will be more-"

"I don't want to hear about this shit." Richie suddenly snapped from the other side of you. Ben was still shakily rubbing a hand across your back.

Despite Richie's protests, Mike was still on a roll. "-more death, more pain-" Bill patted his shoulder, urging him to calm down.

"Let's get him another drink," Bill suggested, but Ben sent him a look, removing his hand from your back. 

"Let him explain. Let him explain." He tried to convince you all. "Explain it to us, Mike."

Mike nodded appreciatively, before continuing. "That echo. We might have changed It, just like It changed us- but we didn't stop It. Because It just bounced back."

You let out a breath you didn't realise you had been holding.

"We made an oath. That's why I brought you back. That's why you're here. To finish It. For good."

The room went quiet after his finishing remark. You found yourself staring solemnly at the table, avoiding anyone's eyes.

"Well, that shit got dark fast." You heard Richie murmur, a lame attempt at lightening the mood. "Thanks Mike."

You heard a rustle, and you averted your attention towards Eddie, who was holding a small slip of paper in his hands. "My fortune cookie just says "Could."

At his words, you were inspired to grab your own cookie from the bowl. You found yourself cracking the thing open- with much difficulty, due to your still shaking hands. You heard various sounds around you of voices and people opening their own cookies, attempting to change the subject from the horror Mike had revealed just moments ago. 

You heard your old friends begin chatting tensely about their collectively strange answers. You were able to collect information- Bev had gotten the word I, and Richie had gotten Guess. You already knew Eddie had gotten Could.

You fumbled with your cookie a bit longer, before finally prying it open. You could hear faint arguing as you blocked out all outside noise. 

Your heart stopped when you read your small slip of paper. 

Stanley

You could swear you could hear your blood pumping through your ears as a lump rose in your throat. What the fuck did this mean? Did Mike fuck with the fortune cookies? This wasn't funny. 

You didn't realise tears were pouring down your face until you let out a small breath, and saw a teardrop land on the small slip of paper.

"(Y/n)." Bill suddenly murmured, stepping around the table to arrive at your side. He placed a reassuring hand on your shoulder, mumbling questions that you couldn't find it in you to reply to. 

The whole table was silent as you wordlessly handed the slip of paper to Bill. He placed the slip in front of Richie, who wordlessly rearranged the papers into a sentence that made sense. A sentence that made your heart drop to the bottom of your stomach. 

I Guess Stanley Could Not Cut It

Beverly audibly gasped from the other side of the room, and let out a small sob. You noticed the tears that fell down her cheeks, as well. 

Turns out your suspicions about Stan had been right. There was definitely something wrong here.

Eddie was freaking out. "Why does it say Stanley? Someone fucking answer me!" He yelled, turning his fright to anger. He stood from his chair, as most of the men in the room were doing.

You didn't have time to answer, because before you knew it, the sound of something rattling sounded from the centre of the table. 

You heard everyone let out various gasps, and you slid your chair back as you watched the fortune cookies inside white porcelain bowl begin shaking and moving on it's own- as if something was trapped inside. You began breathing heavily with fright as Bill pulled you into a standing position beside him.

You gasped again when a cookie threw itself from the bowl- before it hatched. It was as if it was an egg. 
A small, spider-like creature popped out. You hid yourself behind Bill's arm. 

"What- What the fuck is that, man?" Richie asked, sounding halfway between exasperated and terrified.

"Whoa, whoa!" One of your friends yelled. You couldn't tell who, because your whole attention was faced with the strange little creature. When you got a better look at it, you audibly gasped again. 

It had a baby's face- a fucking baby. You let out a sob of terror when it began wailing just like one.

It began zooming around the table on it's spider legs, towards Mike. He stood up defensively. 

The whole table was yelling remarks of fear at the creatures, and you watched in fright as more fortune cookies began throwing themselves from the bowl. They began hatching other creatures- you noticed an eyeball emerge from one, all slimy, dragging itself around on octopus-like legs.

You were too overtaken with terror to even speak, let alone register what your friends around you were yelling.

Bill practically dragged you towards a nearby fish tank when the little baby-spider began trailing to your side of the table. You noticed more creatures pop out from the fortune cookies, but you were too wrapped up in the way the baby was crying and looking at you and Bill to really examine them. You yelped, attempting to hide yourself behind Bill's arm again.

You barely noticed the way hot tar had begun leaking from the bowl, spreading around the table. It burnt the slips of paper and a little chicken-creature as it made its way across the whole circular table.

You frightfully looked around, trying to find the exit- but when you turned to look into the fish tank, you came face-to-face with a floating corpse's head. You screamed, your voice cracking, as you leapt away from Bill, who quickly followed you with a gasp of his own when he saw. 

You covered your eyes with your hands, murmuring quietly to yourself, trying to block-out the screams and yells from outside. "This isn't real. This is just a bad dream. Any minute now, I'll wake up, and everything will be okay-"

You heard Mike begin screaming. "It's not real! It's not real! This isn't real!"

You looked up in time to see him pick up the chair he had only just been sitting on, and begin smashing at the little baby-spider, who was crawling wildly around the table. You gripped onto Bill's arm again, shoving your face into his shoulder, doing your best to block out the screams and the bangs of the chair hitting the table over and over.

"It's not real!" Mike was chanting like a prayer as he smashed the chair against the table over and over.

Suddenly, the noise stopped.

You looked up from Bill's shoulder, fearing the worst- but your eyes immediately landed on the familiar employee from before. 

She was staring at you like you were all crazy. Mostly Mike, who had frozen the chair midway in the air, before quickly placing it back down. 

You realised shortly after that everything had disappeared- the baby-spider, the other various creatures, the black tar- it was all gone. So it really hadn't been real.

"Is everything alright?" The waitress asked as politely as she could, despite her horrified expression. 

You couldn't find it in yourself to answer- you simply thanked whatever god up there that it was over. You barely listened to Richie's words, terror still pumping through your veins and in your ears.

"Yeah, yeah. Could we get the check?"

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