Who: Stanley Uris and Richie Tozier What: One scare traded for another Where: Center of town When: Today
Mike's call hit him like a ton of bricks, like those old cartoons with the coyote chasing the road runner, and someone pulled the ground out from under him. He didn't realize it at first but the second he did down he went. It was like that for Stan, he didn't remember initially but then it hit him and just like that he was falling.
He'd never be able to go back. He'd promised Bill, god he'd promised all of them but he'd never be able to face It again, just thinking about it paralyzed him and Stan knew he'd only be a liability. There was only one thing he could do for them. One way to make sure they all made it.
Patty. She'd known something was wrong when he'd kissed her that evening and told her he was going to take a bath. It wasn't his usual routine. He didn't take baths this early in the night, but he didn't have a choice any longer. And as much as he wished he could explain it to her he knew he couldn't. She'd never be able to understand, not It and not the promise that drove him to this. He'd written his letters though. One for her as well, he tried at least. To help her understand. And then he'd folded his clothes, set them neatly on the counter top, tried to make things as organized for Patty as he could before he let himself spend just a few minutes remembering that summer. Not all of it, just that highest point, when they thought they'd won. Just a group of kids feeling like they'd saved the world.
Then it was all dark.
And then he was waking up again. He opened his eyes and fear gripped his heart as he realized that something was very very wrong. He was in a town maybe? It looked old, like the sort of set up they had at Renaissance Fairs or something like that, too small to be a real town. But he was there all the same, for all that it didn't make any sense. And without any clothes, like he'd been picked up out of the bath and brought here.
The Bath.
He looked at his wrists but didn't see any evidence of what he'd done, maybe the pink line of what could have been a scar but in the darkening light he couldn't tell. "Hello?" He called out cautiously, hating to bring attention to himself, to bring whatever waited for him right to him by giving out his location but he didn't know what else to do. The phone on a table in the town's center didn't hold any answers, and trying to call Patty didn't do anything at all. He just had to hope that whatever did find him wasn't It.