Chapter Text
ROUTINE WAS A BIG PART OF KAILYN CHANDRAN'S DAY. Every morning, she'd wake up at the exact same time. Following that, she'd go through her very strict morning routine of going to the bathroom, washing her face, brushing her teeth, brushing her hair, tying her hair up, returning to her room, getting dressed for her day, restocking her books into her backpack, sharpen her pencils, put on her socks, go downstairs, eat breakfast (which is usually a bowl of oatmeal with a glass of strawberry milk, and sometimes a cut up fruit of her choosing), put on her shoes, and then head to school. She never strayed from routine, not when it is so important and detrimental to her mindset for the rest of the day. Aside from her morning routine, she also had an afternoon routine. Right after the last school bell, she'd meet up with her next door neighbor, Stanley Uris, or her book club buddies, and she'd ride home with them. Most days it was just her and Stanley, riding home with as little as two words, but it was routine. And Kailyn liked routine.
She liked the familiarity of it. She liked the fact that she could account for every second of her morning and make sure it was productive rather than having to rush through it without a sense of direction. Despite that, and the strictness of it all, she could be impulsive. She could throw caution to the wind and do something completely random. Like this book she's writing. The idea had come to her in the dead of night, masked as a nerdy boy in her dreams with a taste for lollipops and the vocabulary of a Marine sailor. It was random, and she liked it. If only she could continue past the introduction of her character.
The last bell rang, signaling the end of the monstrous school year. Kai's brown eyes flitted toward the clock hanging on the wall in surprise. Had she been daydreaming the entirety of her last period? She could last remember sitting down and Ms. Daley began her lesson on summer vacation. Like any of them wanted to know when or who had invented the vacation time. She hurried to her feet, packing her school books back into her backpack along with her pencil case and whatever else was sitting on her desk. She tucked her small notepad into her back pocket last, following by tossing the shoulder strap of her bag over her shoulder.
The wave of students wasn't a surprise. The moment the bell rang, they were essentially free. The teachers and the school no longer had a hold on their persons. They could walk out without the heavy reminder of homework or assignments, or tests most barely studied for. She pushed through the scatter of students, heading straight for the front doors. She had already cleaned out her locker that morning after she had arrived fifteen minutes earlier. She'd much rather get a head start home to think of refreshments and appetizers for the first ever meeting of the Derry Book Club, summer edition.
The sweltering summer air embraced her once she was out of the doors. She breathed in a deep sigh, hands wrapped tight around her backpack straps. She took the steps two at a time, smiling at people who wished her a happy summer or waved her off. Just like her, they were excited to start the summer and get away from the suffocating halls of their school. No more cliques, no more teachers, no more detention for the dumbest things, and no more yuck cafeteria food. Now she had time for popsicles and ice cream, and movie theater popcorn!
It didn't take long for Kailyn to locate Stanley. He was with his little friend group, a few of the boys emptying their bags into the trash cans. She approached with a small smile. "Stanley," she hummed, tapping the boy on the shoulder. "And friends," she added once their heads turned toward her. Richie snorted an ugly sound, sliding his backpack back over his arms. "Hey, Kai," Stanley replied, smiling softly – if not shyly – over at the girl. "Are we riding home together today?"
His smile fell just as fast as it had appeared. She noticed Bill shuffle his weight between his feet from behind Stanley, along with Eddie's pinched brows and 'o' shaped mouth. Though that was enough to answer her question, she waited for his own verbal response. "S–Sorry, Kai. Not today," he replied with hesitance. "You're not stealing our friend this summer. Not again," Richie declared, pointing an accusatory finger toward the girl. She rolled her eyes with a slight shrug of her shoulders. "No problem. Have fun doing... whatever it is you'll be doing."
"Wouldn't you like to know." She brushed the stray hairs from her face, ignoring Richie's final remark. Stan offered her a kind smile as she brushed through their little circle of conspiracies. Not long after she escaped their ring of boyish charm, she brushed past Henry Bowers and his pack of goons. There was the low, demeaning whistle from Belch Huggins, and the common nickname, "bindi" from Patrick Hockstetter.
When the catcalling and the tormenting ended, she hesitated to glance over her shoulder back to where the Losers club was. She didn't want to get into the middle of another immature spat between teenage boys. The last time she had done that, Henry had shoved a whole wad of gum into her hair. She cried the whole day after, especially when she had to explain to her mother what happened without actually telling her what happened. It was the last time she had cut her hair, being that the event was so traumatic for her.
She didn't see the one person she really worried for. Her heart immediately jumped into her throat at the vanishing of Stanley Uris. Without thinking, she turned around, only to come face to face with Harmony Lamb. "Harmony," she blurted out in surprise. "Is Stan..." She stood on her tiptoes to look around the girl. Her words died on her tongue upon seeing Stanley finally standing and Bill facing off with Henry Bowers himself. Stan's okay now. There's no reason for her to step in. "Never mind," she sighed.
Harmony's mousy features scrunched up at the brunette. "Is it okay if I ride with you?" she asked, hugging her books tight against her chest. Her dark, straight hair was tucked behind her ears, decorated with a pretty, lavender headband. Harmony was the type of girl to wear these pretty dresses and tights, pairing them with frilly socks over her tights and a belt that was studded with rhinestones she had glued herself. She had also started to get into her mother's makeup. Her eyes were a light purple shade, paired with a thin line of brown eyeliner and a heap of mascara that made her lashes look just like tiny, thick spider legs.
She also loved the look of lip gloss. Her container remained in the front pocket of her dress, right at her breast. The tube looked purple, which was ironically her favorite color, but went on clear with glitter pieces that she loved to chew on when they landed in her mouth. Harmony was a pretty girl. She was every boy's type in their grade. She was naturally pretty and with makeup, she looked even more mature than she made herself out to be. She was a stone cold fox, Richie says, much like her mother.
Kai blinked. It had taken her a moment to register the question, her mind still reeling from losing sight of Stanley around Henry Bowers and his miscreants. "Yes!" she finally exclaimed. "Yes, you can stand on the back. My dad just replaced my basket so the handlebars are off limits." Harmony's face lit up as a smile cracked across her glossy lips. Her head nodded in agreement with excitement. "Is your mom not picking you up today?" Kai asked, leading the way toward where she had parked her bike for the day. There were several other bikes on either side of it. Kai concluded that they were still there because the owners were either being terrorized or searching for signatures for their yearbooks– another tradition she absolutely hated.
It could stem from the fact that Stanley had been the only person to sign her yearbook every year. Even if she had conjured up the courage to ask other people, she never once got an extra signature. Their excuses would be that they had no pen or that they'd do it later, when they meet up maybe. And then they'd never meet up. But Stanley always made sure to sign his name with a small drawing of a bird he'd been interested in that week. They ranged from slender birds with no color to fat birds with too many colors, but they ended up being the highlight of her day. Until she realized just how much of a loser she was to only have one signature, and that signature being from her next door neighbor didn't exactly help.
"She had to work later today," Harmony replied, her voice featherlight. It matched the elegance of her fashion sense, along with the light and airy feel of her presence. She never felt like she was actually there, much like a ghost wandering the halls of an abandoned building. "I'm hoping to finally get a bike this summer. So I can come to meetings on my own for once." Kai nodded her head as she reached the lemon colored bicycle. She kicked up the kickstand, scuffing the toe of her cherry red sneakers. "Do you have a color in mind?" she asked, wheeling it back and away from the other bikes resting for the day. Harmony nodded as a spark of excitement flashed within her hazel eyes.
"Ma found a blush pink bike at the antique store. It has ribbons on the handlebars," she replied. Kailyn mounted the bike, her purple notebook now sitting in her brand new basket. Her mother had bought it off the old woman down their street. It was a soft brown with white faux flowers braided into the wicker. "Not purple?" she suddenly asked as Harmony dumped her books into the basket. She shook her head, chocolate locks of hair swarming her face. "I could paint it. I'm sure a can isn't too expensive and I've been saving up."
"Do you know how to ride a bike?"
Harmony climbed onto the pegs of Kailyn's bike, her hands coming to grasp her shoulders. "No, but I'm a fast learner," she answered honestly. "It shouldn't be too hard. Everyone does it." Before Kailyn could kick off, a pair of brakes squealed to a halt beside her. On her lime green bike was Rachel Harbour. She was a full three inches shorter than Kailyn, and five inches shorter than Harmony. "What time do we need to be at your house?" Rachel asked in her nasally voice. She pushed the small lensed glasses back up her nose, her finger catching on the strap of her helmet. "Four thirty," Kai answered. "Mom will have the drinks and snacks ready by then, and we'll have enough time for reading and discussions before dinner."
"Should we tell Arthur and Mattie?" Harmony asked. Kai shrugged her shoulders while Rachel nodded her head. "I can tell them. I believe they're going home together today." With the plan now set and ready to be put into motion, Kai finally kicked off and began pedaling home. The summer sun beat down on the two with heavy rays. Sweat was already building at her hairline and threatening to fall into her brows. Harmony held onto her tight, leaned when she needed to lean, and overall enjoyed the wind whipping in her face and through her hair.
They skated through town on the breeze, avoiding any disruptions that could set them off track. The town of Derry was memorized enough to be printed behind her closed eyelids. She knew the traffic hours, the delivery times, and the best routes to get to exactly where she wanted to go. It was easy to avoid getting behind the large produce trucks that came by every week at the exact same time and even easier to avoid the prying eyes of the biggest bullies in school when they had their own unconscious routine. Routine, something Kai took pride in. For good reasons.
She took a sharp turn onto Bluebird Lane, narrowly avoiding the very pothole in the road that had resulted in the lifelong scar on her left knee. Harmony released a squeal as the bicycle bounced against the asphalt. "Slow down!" she pleaded with the shorter girl, fingers digging into Kai's shoulders. "We're almost there!" she argued, her voice muffled by the wind in her face. Five houses down and she peeled into her driveway where her mother's robin egg colored SUV was parked. She gave her brakes a tight squeeze, forcing the bike to come to a halt just before she could accidentally plow right into her mother's prized garden gnomes.
Harmony jumped off of the bike pegs and straightened out her tousled hair. "You drive like a maniac," she commented, pulling out her tube of lip gloss with a pout. As she unscrewed the cap, Kai dismounted and kicked the kick stand down. "I'm not used to having a passenger," she sighed. "Sorry." Harmony smacked her lips together while screwing the cap back onto her lip gloss. "I still have to set everything up at the treehouse, but you're welcome to stay inside. My mom's pretty easy to talk to and the house is a lot cooler than outside."
Harmony then began to unpack her things from Kailyn's basket, nodding along with her suggestion. "I can help with the snacks," she offered. "Ma says knowing your way around a kitchen is very important for a woman."
Kai pursed her lips, her eyes narrowing over at the other girl. "Yeah," she said. "I'm sure she did."
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It was four thirty right on the dot when Rachel peeled into Kailyn's driveway. She parked her lime green bike right beside Kai's, and not five minutes later, Mattie's cherry red and Arthur's sunshine orange bikes joined the group. Once everyone had arrived, the group packed her Radio Flyer wagon up with the freshly made lemonade jug, cups, and finger sandwiches that were mostly just cheese, mustard, and mayonnaise, and made their way toward the treehouse.
Sofa pillows were covered in old blankets on the ground for them to sit on. A lantern was hanging from a protruding nail in the tree behind them. Kai swung happily in her hammock, reading the black and white pages of her new book in silence. It had been thirty minutes since they had all begun their reading, snacking on the sandwiches and drinking their lemonades. The only sound in their world being the singing of crickets.
As she turned another page, Kai began to feel this strange sensation. The hair on the back of neck suddenly stood on end and it felt as if a pair of eyes were focused on her. She glanced up from the pages curiously, and yet found nothing there. Arthur was lying against the picnic blanket, his finger tracing the lines he read in his book. Mattie was sitting cross legged on one of the cushions, his eyes slowly drifting closed. Both Rachel and Harmony were reading alertly, entranced by the words being fed to them. But the feeling didn't go away.
She took in the empty space. Stanley's house could be seen vaguely through the tree foliage, but it remained empty. No shadow, no figure, no animal staring back at her. Slowly, she turned in the hammock toward the woodline behind them. Big, yellow eyes stared silently back at her, the body of the owner completely hidden within the brush.
Panic birthed within her, attacking her lungs violently with its vicious claws. Unblinking, she waited for the yellow saucers to vanish. Black and green surrounded the amber eyes. Her throat felt tight. She felt frozen to her spot, unable to tear her eyes away. What was it? What was staring back at her so deeply that she could feel its gaze in her very soul? Why was it staring at her? What the hell is its problem–
"Mattie!"
Rachel's cry was enough to snap Kai back to reality. Her head whipped around to find the boy napping on the blanket and Rachel shaking his arm to wake him up. A second later, she was turning back to where she saw those eyes only to see that they were gone. No more yellow saucers, no more feeling like she was being watched. The anxiety remained in her chest like a tight fist, suffocating the air from her lungs. "He's so lazy," Rachel complained as the boy picked up his head and rubbed the heel of his palm into his tired eye. "I'm not lazy," he snapped back. "I just haven't been sleeping very well."
"Me either," Arthur said. Kailyn turned back to her group of book friends, closing the book in her hand. Her brows furrowed. "Why not?" she asked out of curiosity. She had been sleeping peacefully, without any fail. Maybe that's because of her night routine or maybe it's because she has her trusty night light that sits on her desk, happily blessing her with its soft blue glow. Either way she slept like a baby most nights, only seldomly waking randomly in the middle of the night. Mattie forced himself to sit up, his shoulders shrugging. "Bad dreams," he concluded. "They've been pretty bad ever since Betty Ripsom disappeared."
A silence befell the small group. The topic of Betty Ripsom was still difficult. She was the first familiar face to go missing. There were several other kids. For the past month and a half, missing posters were being plastered along store walls and on telephone poles. Scared parents were stalking their kids' hang outs, harassing other kids with questions that not many people felt comfortable to answer. But with Betty... it was like one of their own had vanished. They were being haunted by her lack of presence not only in school but out in town. All of her regular spots were now empty, only seldomly filled by the shell of her mother.
Harmony cleared her throat, trying to shatter the growing tension that threatened to swallow them all whole. "I keep having this same dream," Arthur began, swallowing nervously. He wrung his hands out before her and it was only then that Kailyn noticed the bandage wrapped around his slender pinky finger. "I.. It sounds stupid, but I keep having this dream of a barber following me around with these large garden shears. And his face is... peeling away like old wallpaper."
His head dropped, fingers flexing. "Last night he got me. I barely got away from the shears in time.. And when I woke up, I was bleeding." Kailyn shuddered. Unconsciously, she turned back to the woodline behind her. Still, there was nothing there. "Are you sure you were dreaming?" Rachel asked. "Maybe you were daydreaming and accidentally hurt yourself." Mattie's brows frowned. He hurriedly shook his head. "It's just dreams," he stated matter-of-factly. Arthur nodded, agreeing with the red-headed boy. He then brushed back his own curly, brown hair now wet with sweat.
"Have you talked to your mom about it?" Harmony asked. Her hands were gripping her book tighter, knuckles white. Her cheeks had grown a pale pink, eyes turning glossy with nervous tears. Arthur shook his head. "You're scared," Kailyn concluded. Silently, his forest eyes flickered toward the book club's president. "It's okay to be scared, Artie." He frowned, a single dimple popping out in his left cheek. His teeth dug into the flesh of his cheek with a painful bite.
"They're just dreams," Rachel blurted out. It was evident that she was starting to grow tired of the conversation's topic. "Dreams can't hurt you. They're just your imagination." Kai sat back in her hammock, the woven seat swinging gently beneath her. She released a heavy exhale, her eyes focusing on the darkening sky. "Your imagination can be your worst enemy sometimes," she said. Mattie agreed with a nod of his head. If there was anything they had learned from the words on their pages was that your imagination can be your downfall. Creativity, though is seen as a gift, could also become a curse.
"You guys haven't had any weird dreams lately?" he asked in disbelief. "With everything that's been going on?" Harmony abruptly stood to her feet, tears now pelting down her face. Surprise etched itself across the rest of their faces. She sniffed, her eyes glued to the patterned blanket beneath her feet. "Harmony?" Mattie called out. Her book fell to her feet, forgotten as she turned back toward the direction of Kailyn's house and bounded away, her sobs floating away on the soft breeze.
No one made a move to follow her. They all looked toward one another in disbelief. "What set her off?" Rachel asked. Her dark hair then disappeared between the foliage, leaving their line of vision. Kai's stomach suddenly dropped. That familiar feeling of being watched once again filled her veins. Quickly, she spun around toward the woodline. She searched the darkness, the expanse of plantlife, and yet found nothing.
"Maybe we should get going," Arthur suggested. Kai nodded her head in agreement. There was a curfew after all. She stood from her hammock, turning back to the Derry Book Club. "I think that's a good idea."