PAPERCUT ━━ IT 2017

? Chapter 17: The Circle Closes ?

"Am I still handsome as an adult?" Richie asked brusquely, framing his face in the most un-handsome way he could (which wasn't hard in Chris' opinion).

Everyone chuckled.

"You grow into your looks." Beverly said with a grin.

"What the fuck does that mean?" Richie giggled.

"What about me?" Stan perked up.

Something changed in Beverly's expression, but it was so minuscule that Chris paid it no mind.

"Like now, but..taller." she said with a certain wistfulness.

Suddenly, Bill stood, picking up something shiny off the ground.

"Swear it." he said.

Chris realized that it was a broken piece of glass from a coke bottle.

"S-S-Swear," he continued, considering his words. "If It isn't dead, if It ever comes back..we'll come back too."

A silence fell upon them all, and somewhere in the distance a bird began to sing. All of us are here, Chris thought. And in that moment, she sees them - really sees them. As though it were the last time she'd ever see them, because in some somber way she understood that things will never be the same again. That they will never be the same again. That voice in the back of her mind, the one she could never quite place, seemed to think so too.

No one talked as Beverly rose, or when Chris followed suit. When Richie and Eddie stood in unison, or when Mike, Ben and Stan all joined the circle, they were all consumed by an incomprehensible silence.

And then Bill sliced his own palm, hissing slightly in pain.

Starting with Richie, he went around the circle. Richie gripped Eddie's arm in support, and after passing them both, the shorter boy's med watch began to beep. One by one they took their oath, and when it was Chris' turn she bit her lip, fighting back the instinct to tug her hand away at the sight of the glass digging into her flesh. When it was Beverly's, she barely flinched.

A breeze washed over them, shaking the weeds and the trees and the bushes that hid them from the rest of Derry, and as she felt the blood trickle down her fingers Chris felt as though she had become a part of it all. Like she could sing along with the birds in the Barrens, that she could fly away right then and there. She longed to take the others with her.

Holding out her hands, Beverly reached for Bill and Chris. She took it, feeling the warmth of their blood tying them together like glue. The others joined in, and they stood in a circle, all of their hands now sealed in way that felt beyond permanent. Something a little more akin to fate.

And that was it. It was so simple.

Though the oath had already been completed the moment they locked hands, they stood there for a while longer, feeling the power that flowed through their circle. Chris watched how the late morning sun painted their faces in shades of gold, and how it made Beverly's hair burn like the brightest fire. This place is nice, she thought simply, letting the Barrens fill her senses. This place is nice and I don't think I ever want to be down here again. The thought was sudden and startling all at once, but in a way that she found that the thought wasn't entirely terrible, but instead tremendously liberating.

At last they dropped their hands.

"I gotta go," Stan said, and with the slightest hesitation he looked directly at Bill. "I hate you."

Bill looked solemn, until a mischievous grin grew on Stan's face, and they all broke out in giggles.

"I'll..see you later." he said before turning away.