Chapter Text
Lilly Bainbridge hiked up the stairs of the Standpipe, her lips pulled tightly together. Her friends, Will Hanlon, Rich Santos and Ronnie Grogan trailed behind her. The four kids were deep in conversation about the event that had taken place in the woodshop classroom.
“Lilly, you’ll be fine! Didn’t you say Marge was telling people you didn’t do it?” Rich asked, his footsteps thumping quickly against the old wooden steps.
Rich was much shorter than the rest of the group so he had to take faster steps to keep up with everyone.
“Yeah but everyone saw me hunched over her with that tool!” Lilly protested, hanging her head. “The police probably think I attacked her and that she's covering for me.”
“Everyone thinks that,” Rich said.
Lilly tensed up a bit for a split second before continuing her trek up the steps, moving a lot faster than she was before.
“Dude!” Will whispered behind her.
“Lilly! Wait, that's not what I meant!” Richie exclaimed, his footsteps rushing faster up the stairs to keep up with her.
Lilly got to the top of the staircase at last and sped over to the balcony. She sighed and looked out over Derry. The afternoon sunlight was licking at the bright green tree tops and stretching over the roof shingles of all the shops and homes she could see.
“I mean we don’t think that but everyone else does! Like the people at school, the post office, my barber!” Rich yapped, moving to stand next to her.
“Whatever Rich. I didn’t need to know your barber thinks I stabbed my friend in the eye,” Lilly retorted, not looking at her friend.
“I’m sorry!” Rich yelped, putting one of his small hands on her forearm. “I didn’t mean it like that I promise!”
“I know you didn’t,” Lilly assured him, putting her hand on top of his. “I’m just having a horrible day.”
“Oh thank god!” Rich exclaimed.
Lilly looked down at her arms and examined the white paint job of the Standpipe that was chipped and peeling away with age.
Will and Ronnie sat next to each other in two of the wooden chairs near the old crate they used as a table. Lilly was about to join them when she heard a cough from the corner of the room. The corner in particular was the corner where there was a very crappy old tent set up from when Phil and Teddy were the only occupants of the Standpipe.
“Did you hear that?” Lilly asked softly, her eyes moving back and forth between Will, Ronnie, Rich and the ominous, dirty orange tent.
Will nodded, dropping the magazine he was holding and scrambling to his feet. Will snatched up a baseball bat from the floor. He ran the polished wood under his fingers and swung his arms back, poised to hit whatever came out of that tent if it posed a threat to them.
Rich grabbed his own weapon, a strange item that looked similar to a bowling pin and brandished it in front of his body.
“This is a private club!” Rich called to whatever was in the tent. “Announce yourself!”
There was complete silence after Rich spoke, except for the loud beating of Lilly’s heart and the shaky breathing of the other three kids. LIlly could feel her heartbeat in her ears and she was starting to feel extremely uneasy.
What if the thing in the tent was dangerous? What if they were all about to meet their demise to the creature that had taken Matty and Phil and murdered Teddy and Susie?
Lilly heard soft rustling coming from inside the tent. Then another cough. Her breath caught in her throat as a dirty grimy hand gripped the edge of the tent flap like a lifeline. The hand shook as the body it was connected to struggled to lift itself up. Lilly heard the sound of knees hitting the hard stone floor and the person in the tent coughed loudly. Lilly took a step forward towards the tent, but Will noticed and aggressively shook his head.
Another second passed. Then another. And then, a face popped out. Lilly let out a loud gasp of shock and horror. The face belonged to Matthew Clements, a boy who had been missing for four months. A boy she’d known personally and considered one of her closest friends. She hadn’t seen him since New Years Day of 1962. He had disappeared from the Capitol Theatre on January fourth and nobody had seen him since. The town had presumed him dead, but it appears that they were wrong. Matty wasn’t dead like everyone thought he was. He was alive and in the Standpipe trembling in front of her like a wet cat.
His hair had grown since she’d last seen him. Now his dark brown hair was almost touching his shoulders. It was greasy and dirty and some bits were stuck together in clumps. His chocolate eyes looked tired and he had dark circles under his eyes. His skin, which used to be bright and healthy, was abnormally pale as though he hadn’t been eating properly for a long time.
“Matty,” Lilly breathed, her heart thumping heavy as ever in her chest. “You’re alive.”
“Help… me,” Matty choked out weakly, gazing helplessly at the group of kids before him.
Lilly acted immediately, rushing to his side and slipping one of his arms over her shoulders.
“Help me get him to a chair!” Lilly urged.
Ronnie hurried to her side and held Matty’s other arm. Together, Lilly and Ronnie carried Matty to one of the empty chairs and helped him sit down. Rich ran over to them with a bottle of orange soda clutched in his hand.
“Here. It’ll up your blood sugar,” Rich said quickly, putting the bottle down in front of Matty.
When Matty didn’t reach for the bottle, Rich’s hazel eyes flashed with panic for a split second before going to the cooler where they kept their drinks.
“Do you not like orange? I can get you another flavor!” Rich offered as he dug through the soda bottles, the glass lightly clinking together every time he moved.
Matty shook his head. “No. Orange is fine. Thank you.”
Rich let out a breath of relief and flashed Matty a smile. He skipped over to stand by Will.
Lilly took a seat in one of the chairs in front of Matty and sat up straight, the rails of the chair pressing into her spine.
“Matty, where have you been?” Lilly asked, her fingers tugging at the edge of her jacket.
Matty brought the bottle of soda to his lips and took a long sip. His entire face seemed to twitch at her question. Lilly realized that he might not be comfortable with talking about what happened to him.
“It's ok. You don’t have to ans–”
“In the sewers. Below Derry. That's where It lives,” Matty blurted out, cutting Lilly off. “The clown.”
“The clown?” Lilly echoed.
Matty nodded (at least, Lilly thought it was a nod) and took a deep breath in before continuing.
“It kept some of us alive. Like- Like it needed–” Matty stammered.
“Fear,” Will finished for him.
“Yeah.”
Lilly looked up at her friends. Will's coffee colored eyes were filled with realization and horror and his bottom lip was trembling slightly.
“How did you get away?” Will asked, his hands fidgeting slightly as he spoke.
“It feeds at night and sleeps during the day,” Matty told him. “I just…waited. And when I got the chance, I ran.”
“What about Teddy? And Phil and Susie?” Lilly questioned, though she knew in her gut what Matty’s answer would be. “Did you see them?”
She had watched Teddy’s head get bitten into like a toddler biting into an ice cream cone. The monster had chowed down easily on his skull like it was made of marshmallow fluff. His blood had sprayed all over her face, showering her in red. Lilly remembered how loudly Teddy had been screeching. She remembered how helpless she’d felt and how badly she wished she’d been able to rescue the boy from the clutches of his killer.
She had tried to save Susie but that thing had sawed the little girl's hand clean off with its teeth. Both kids were dead. Lilly knew that. But, it didn’t hurt to hope.
“Teddy was dead when it dragged him in. His skull was ripped open and it…” Matty trailed off, looking down at his shoes.
“It what?” Ronnie prompted.
Matty looked up at her with a strange look in his eyes. “It ate his brains right in front of me.”
Ronnie whimpered at Matty’s response, her eyes widening slightly.
“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Rich commented, glancing between Ronnie and Will anxiously.
“And Susie,” Matty continued, paying no mind to Rich’s comment. “One of her arms was gone. It just left her there. All night, bleeding out and crying–” Matty paused for a second, chewing at his lip “–Until she stopped.”
Lilly inhaled sharply at the thought. Little Susie Malkin's body, all alone inside of the sewers. Her eyes dead, her clothes covered in splotches of her and Teddy’s blood and her sweet round face stained with tears.
“But Phil, he's still down there,” Matty said.
“Hes alive?” Lilly asked, a small blossom of hope planting itself in her chest.
“He can’t talk or move but he's alive, somehow,” Matty confirmed.
“We have to go to the police,” Ronnie piped up, turning to face the rest of the group.
“No!” Matty yelped, shaking his head. “No police.”
“I have to!” Ronnie protested, stepping towards Matty. “I have to get my dad out and you can tell them that he didn’t take you!”
“And Phil. Matt, we have to help him,” Lilly added, getting to her feet to stand beside Ronnie.
“No cops!” Matty repeated, standing up and slowly moving backwards.
“Matty please!” Ronnie begged, moving to close the gap between her and the other boy.
“No,” Matty declined, putting more space between him and Ronnie.
For every step Ronnie took, he would take one backwards. Matty’s eyes were filled with terror at the idea of taking him to see the police.
“They’d send me back to my dad,” Matty whimpered, putting his hand on the tent behind him.
Lilly’s heart broke at Matty’s despair. She didn’t want to hurt Matty or send him to some place where he could be hurt when he had just escaped a near death situation.
Matty picked his face up off the ground and looked Lilly in the eyes. All the fear was gone now, replaced with something else that Lilly couldn’t put her finger on.
“I ran away once. I will do it again,” Matty warned. “I’d rather go back to the sewers than be in the same place as him.”
Lilly sat back down in her chair defeatedly.
What am I going to do? Lilly asked herself, cupping her chin with her palm and drumming her fingers against her lower lip.
She couldn’t take Matty to the police. Well, she could but then he’d leave and she needed his help if she wanted to find Phil. She needed to save him. It was her fault Phil had come to the theatre to help her that night. Now it was her turn to help him.
But she didn’t want to lose Matty again either. When he had disappeared, it had hurt her badly. She had cried for a day straight when she had stumbled across his missing posters plastered on the walls outside the butcher shop.
How could she save Phil without losing both her friends?
Then, an idea struck her.
“I’ll be right back,” Lilly said, getting up from her seat. “Wait here ok? It’ll only take me a few minutes!”
“Where are you going?” Rich called after her.
“To look for someone who can help us!”
-o0O0o-
Lilly walked up the stairs with her mystery assistance trailing behind her. She could hear Rich talking to Matty about how he had been throwing Phil's old planes off the side of the Standpipe.
“I’ve been trying to get one onto Main Street but it still hasn’t happened,” Rich complained. “I’ve lost nine of them, man. Nine!”
Lilly got to the top of the stairs and Ronnie turned around to greet her. The other girl's face twisted into a scowl when she saw who Lilly had brought with her.
“What’s she doing here?” Ronnie asked coldly.
“I just want to help,” Marge Truman said, going to stand by Lilly.
“And I’m supposed to trust a Pattycake?” Ronnie questioned, cocking an eyebrow at Marge.
“Ex,” Marge corrected her.
“It came for her too,” Lilly reminded Ronnie calmly.
Ronnie didn’t say anything in response.
“Anyways, I thought about it and Matty's right. We can’t go to the police,” Lilly announced, looking around at the other kids.
Matty looked up at her with what appeared to be shock in his eyes. He had probably thought Lilly was going to turn him in to the police due to her comments about doing so earlier.
“What?” Ronnie exclaimed, her jaw dropping slightly.
“They won’t believe him. And he's right. They’ll just send him right back to his dad and I can’t have that happen,” Lilly explained. “If Phil’s really alive and can prove your dad is innocent, then we have to go save him ourselves.”
“Lilly, I don’t know about this,” Ronnie told her.
“Ronnie please! We can’t leave Phil down there to die alone,” Lilly pleaded.
None of them said anything. Lilly sighed. She had to convince them to help her save Phil. Lilly refused to let the monster in sewers kill him the way it had killed Teddy and Susie. She had the chance to save his life and she had to take it.
“When my dad was still here, he used to tell me that people are like anchors and lifeboats,” Lilly said. “Anchors make you sink while lifeboats help you float. Now what do you want to be? An anchor or a lifeboat?”
“Lifeboat,” Marge replied instantly.
“Lifeboat,” Rich agreed.
Lilly smiled at her friends and looked at Will and Ronnie expectantly.
“Lifeboat,” Will said, his voice housing a new air of confidence.
Ronnie stayed silent. She looked very deep in thought. Her eyebrows were slightly knitted together and her left hand was playing with the hem of her shirt.
“Ronnie?” Lilly asked.
Ronnie swallowed a lump in her throat. “Lifeboat.”
Lilly grinned at all her friends, taking in each one of their faces. Will and Marge looked confident, their eyes were shining with new strength and hope. Ronnie still looked unsure about her choice. Rich’s hazel eyes were nervous but he was trying to cover that up. Matty had a strange expression on his face. He was pulling his lips together and it seemed like he was biting down on them judging by how there was a white line where his lips met the rest of his skin.
That's weird. Lilly thought to herself, not being able to put her finger on why Matty was doing whatever he was doing with his face.
He was probably thinking about something. No matter what, Lilly couldn’t sit on it for too long. She had more important things to focus on right now. They all did; rescuing their missing friend.
“Let's go save Phil!” Lilly cheered. “Everyone get flashlights and meet back here in twenty minutes!”
“Yes ma’am!” Rich answered, standing up on his toes and saluting her.
Marge laughed and Rich grinned at her before skipping over to the steps so he could leave the Standpipe.
“I’ll stay here and wait for you to get back,” Matty said. “I can go look around and see if Teddy and Phil left anything useful up here before they were taken.”
“Ok!” Lilly responded, linking arms with Marge and starting towards the stairs. “See you soon Matt!”