(no subject)

[stillinsists]

Darrow’s bay reminds Bill of life before. Not just life before Darrow, but life before that awful day when everything changed. When he’d been caught at home by a cough and let his little brother wander down and off.

He often wonders if the cold had been something the clown had conjured up or just pure bad luck. It doesn’t seem to him that something as terrible as the loss of a brother could simply come down to bad luck but, well, he’s come to learn that most things aren’t what they seem.

No matter how badly you want them to be.

But other things, he’s discovered, are more than they seem, like the friendships he’s gained with Eddie and Beverly. The others, too, although they haven’t made their way (whatever way that may be) to Darrow yet. Every day Bill wonders if maybe this will be the day they’ll see Mike or Ben or Richie or Stan, but so far it’s only been them. The Losers Club, but incomplete.

Today’s colder than most of Darrow apparently like and he and Bev are alone by the edge of the water, kicking seaweed and stones and whatever else back into the surf. He’s a few steps ahead when he spots it, a moment later hears its call.

It’s like nothing he’s seen before and he’s seen a lot for a kid his age.

Half penguin, half something with big eyes that are filled with terror as he approaches. He’s no vet, but something’s wrong. Its wing is bent, or maybe its claw.

“B-Bev! Come here!"

Comments

[runtowardsomething]

It helps, having Bill here. Even when it was just her and Eddie, that made all the difference in the world, too, but Beverly can't deny that she's missed the rest of the Losers Club, or that she thought a lot about Bill in particular before he showed up here, too. Sometimes she feels like she's so close to forgetting, and she doesn't want to forget. Not any of what happened, and not any of the people, ones with whom she felt like she had a place she belonged for maybe the first time in her life. Maybe now that it's the three of them, she'll stand an even better chance of being able to hold onto that than she would have otherwise.

Leaning over to pick up a shell that's in the sand, dusting it off with the tips of her fingers, left uncovered by her fingerless gloves, she turns immediately in Bill's direction when she hears him call out to her, her eyes going wide in turn. They have nothing on whatever the bird-type thing is, but then, it would be difficult for anything to. "Whoa," she says, walking carefully in its direction. "What is that?"