Mike Hanlon - Blog Posts

i live in a hologram with you

do you think Ben ever wrote any other poems? or was he just like,,, the first one slayed so hard he didn’t want to risk it

did anybody else watch IT (2017) and have their entire brain chemistry altered or was that just me

His little Mate

Summary: An odd girl, Silver's somehow different than anyone else in Derry, and her life's about to get much more complicated. With children going missing, bullies in every corner and new friends, she'll have to gather enough courage to survive the summer that's coming, and the choice that must be made, if not by her then by another. Rating may change later. Also struggled to pick the genre.

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Chapter 1

Footsteps and laughter echoed in the Denbrough home as seven year old George Denbrough ran into his older brother's room. It was absolutely pouring down and Bill was sick with the flu, but he'd promised to make Georgie a boat he could take outside and play with. Georgie's face had lit up and he nodded with a large grin, staring out of the window and into the distance as Bill made the boat with some paper from his notebook, old newspaper and some tape. He could hear the crinkling of the paper as it was folded again and again until at last, there it was. Bill grabbed a thick black pen and wrote S S Georgie on the side. "Now, g-go t-t-to t-the cellar a-a-and get m-me the p-p-paraffin w-wax."

"What's that?"

"I-it will a-a-allow t-the boat t-to f-float."

"Okay." He rushed obediently to get the wax, eager to get going. He passed his mother in the lounge. She was playing the piano. Georgie was careful not to disturb her, creeping past the doorway and down the cellar. The wax was on the shelf just as Billy said it was, but something was...off. Georgie hated the cellar. It was large and dark - the perfect place for monsters to hide in, which was ridiculous because both his parents and more importantly, Bill and Silver, said there were no such things as monsters. No such thing as monsters. It was something he kept reminding himself of. Yet, as he picked up the wax, there was a noise that made him almost jump out of his skin, his heart racing in his chest. He spun around, his torch shaking in his hand as he tried to find the source - a pair of glowing lights staring at him in the dark. His eyes widened in fear, but he stayed where he was, his free hand going for the light switch. The light turned on, his shoulders slumped in relief at the sight of the "glowing lights", which were nothing but two torches lying side by side on the shelf.

He giggled and ran up the stairs, walkie talkie in one hand and the wax in the other. He had to put one down in order to turn off the light and shut the door, picking it back up after and running back to Bill. It never occurred to Georgie that the two torches couldn't have possibly been responsible for the glowing lights in the Cellar, as they were both off at the time. If it had, his fear would have returned and he probably would have questioned it further. It only took about five more minutes to finish the boat, grab his bright yellow raincoat and green wellies and rush out of the door. Rain pelted down on him as he stopped at the end of the driveway and turned to wave to his brother in the top window. "Bye, Billy!" He didn't bother to respond when he heard Bill's voice on the walkie talkie, warning him to be careful. It was slowly getting dark, it was pouring down and there was not another soul in sight, but Georgie didn't mind as he placed his boat down in the water next to the curb and began chasing after it in glee. If Bill Denbrough knew that was the last thing Georgie would ever say to him, and the last time he ever saw his brother, he would have done something, anything.

But he didn't. And Bill Denbrough never saw his brother again.

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For being October, the weather wasn't as cold as you would have expected. It was just raining. Georgie laughed loudly, jumping in puddles as he ran down his street onto Witcham Street. The boat was yards in front of him. Georgie was so busy keeping an eye on it that he forgot to keep an eye on where he was going. He slammed into one of the road signs with a loud "Oof!", landing on his back. Unfortunately, this allowed the boat to pull even more ahead, something he noticed. He shot to his feet, running faster than before. But the water was running too fast, and his boat ended up going down one of the storm drains. "NO!" He lunged at the boat but missed by a few seconds. "No." He crouched down, uncaring whether he got his clothes soaking wet or not, and peered in despite knowing it was a lost cause. "Bill's gonna kill me."

Georgie switched positions so he was on his hands and knees and ducked his head a little more. But it was dark; too dark too see anything. It didn't help that the water going into the drain sounded almost like a hollow waterfall. He was about to leave when a pair of amber eyes opened suddenly and stared straight at him. He screamed, jerking back.

"Hiya, Georgie."

The voice was sweet, soft and somewhat high pitched, yet he had a feeling it came from a male rather than a female. The voice moved closer to him until he was able to see who - or rather, what, it was. It was a man dressed as a clown. He couldn't make out all of the clown's features but he noticed it was chalk white with rather plump cherry lips and a painted red nose instead of one of those stupid red noses clowns usually used and a ruffled costume.

Hold on, I thought they were amber. I'm sure they were amber a moment ago. 

But who the hell has amber eyes? And yet, the eyes Georgie swore were amber moments ago, were a bright sky blue - the same colour as his mother's. In his white gloved hand, he held up Georgie's paper boat. What was a clown doing in the sewers?

"What a nice boat. Do you want it back?"

"Um, yes please."

"You look like a nice boy," he whispered. "I bet you have a lot of friends."

"Three, but my brother's my best, best."

"Where is he?"

The question revealed the clowns two rabbit like teeth that Georgie thought was kind of adorable.

"In bed, sick."

Good. That makes things easier.

"And I have a sister. She's older than us." 

Well, she's not really my sister, but close enough. 

"Her name's Silver because of her silver hair. But some call her the silver dragon because she can be fierce and terrifying sometimes. She says dragons are territorial. They're supposed to be possessive and protective over their things - things they claim as their treasure. That's why my brother and his friends call her the silver dragon. She also said you don't have to be blood family to be family. You may not be able to choose your blood family, but you can damn well pick the family you choose to have around you."

"That's very wise of her. Very wise indeed."

"I know. She very smart."

"And where is she?"

"Um, I don't know. She's probably at home if she hasn't had a craving and gone to the store to fix it. She get's craving all the time. I remember she once said something about them being bad, but if she were pregnant, they'd be a lot worse."

"And is she?"

"Is she what?"

"Pregnant? I could give her a present to welcome the new baby. I could give her a balloon. Do you want a balloon too, Georgie?"

"She's not pregnant. She's only a teenager. She's too young for that stuff. Everyone else says so. And I'm not supposed to take stuff from strangers."

"Oh, well, I'm Pennywise the dancing clown," bells jingled as he jerked his head abruptly at the word 'dancing'. "Pennywise, yes, meet Georgie. Georgie meet Pennywise." His hand pointed between the two of them upon introductions. Georgie let out a soft laugh. "Now we aren't strangers, are we?"

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Georgie knew something was wrong. But he let it go because this clown was funny and friendly, and there was no danger as far as he could see. He barely heard the door of the house in front of him, open. He didn't see the old woman come out, pulling the blinds up. But she noticed him. She pulled her coat tighter around her and ran back inside. "What are you doing in the sewer?"

"The storm blew me away. Blew the whole circus away," he chuckled with a grin. His grin faded as he regarded him with a slightly more series expression. Even more of the clowns face was revealed enough for Georgie to see the two red painted lines going from either side of the end of his top lip to underneath his eyes. His teeth were too large because he was drooling badly. "Can you smell the Circus, Georgie?" Now that he thought about it, he could smell something. And he swore he heard voices of children softly singing. "There's peanuts...cotton candy...hot dogs aaaaand...?"

"Popcorn?"

"Popcorn! Is that your favourite?"

"Uh huh."

"Mine too," Pennywise laughed, his grin returning, "because they pop. Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!"

Georgie laughed joining in until he suddenly stopped. Georgie did too. Pennywise stared at him with such intensity, it made Georgie uncomfortable. He needed to get home anyway; the rain wasn't letting up anytime soon and his family would no doubt be worried about him by now, and he didn't want to get sick like Bill. They'd want him home, and truthfully, Georgie had enough with playing outside. He was cold, tired and soaking wet. All he wanted to do now was go home, get dry and changed and maybe have something to eat. It must be close to dinner time by now anyway. It was the perfect excuse to leave. "I should get going now."

"Oh, without your boat?" 

He once again held up Bill's boat. But this time, Georgie was hesitant. The bad feeling from earlier was back and it was growing stronger every second. Then he remembered what Silver once told him.

Always trust your instincts. They'll never steer you wrong. If you have a bad feeling, it's because something's wrong and your instincts are trying to warn you. Don't ever ignore it.

The clown obviously noticed his uncertainty, because his next words were the reason Georgie made the biggest mistake of his life. A mistake in which he dearly regretted making, having wished in the next few minutes that he had listened to Silver's warning instead. But he didn't.

"You don't wanna lose it, Georgie. Bill's gonna kill you."

He has a point. I don't want Billy to kill me or get angry for losing it.

Pennywise's mouth twitched upwards- something Georgie failed to notice and he stared thoughtfully at his boat. "Here. Take it," Pennywise offered, emphasizing the word 'it'. "When Georgie didn't immediately go for it, he tilted his head and said, "Take it, Georgie." His hand rose a little, and Georgie found himself getting closer. The boat was just inside the drain - close enough to reach out and quickly pluck. But Georgie didn't want to be rude, so he reached in instead. He had almost got it when Pennywise pulled his hand back, forcing him to shuffle forward more so his hand could reach even further.

If Georgie had listened to Silver or if he had been focusing on the clown's face, he would have realised the wrong feeling was because of It. Unfortunately, he was so focused on getting his boat back, he never noticed the clowns eyes turning from blue to amber, indicating his earlier thoughts about It were in fact, correct. Once he was close enough, he grabbed Georgie by the wrist, his buck teeth transforming from something cute and adorable to anyone's worst nightmare. Rows or incredible sharp teeth that reminded Georgie of a Dinosaur or a Dragon, grew, and he opened his mouth wide - wider than possible- and bit down on his arm. Georgie let out a loud scream as he instinctively fought against his attacker. Whether it let him go or not, didn't matter. White hot pain shot through his arm and through the rest of his body. Georgie found himself on his stomach not far from the storm drain. At first, he was relieved, but when he looked down at his arm, it was gone. Blood poured out of the wound, mixing with the rain as he tried crawling away. Shock hadn't yet settle in, his wound and the agony crippled him enough that he couldn't just get up and run, giving that thing the advantage.

Unseen by him, a gloved hand crept out of the drain, stretching to an impossible length and grabbed him by the ankle. Georgie felt himself being pulled and knew it was that thing. Terror gripped him tight as he tried and failed to find anything to hold onto. He gave one final cry of, "SILVER!" before he was pulled down the drain. He missed the woman from before, rushing out after hearing his screams, only to see blood and water but no child. The only thing he knew upon being dragged down was yet more agony then nothing.

Georgie Denbrough's last thought, besides wishing either Silver or Bill were there to save him, was that Silver was wrong; monsters were in fact, real.