Control // It (2017) // Stanley Uris

Sixteen- "You'll float too."

Bill Denbrough slept peacefully in his bed that night, until a small and annoying sound woke him up. Beside him on his bed was a drawing he'd made that closely resembled Beverly Marsh. He liked her, and he liked her a lot. 

Following the source of the sound, Bill looked over at his drawing and found that it had water droplets all over the page, which had come from his ceiling. Another drop of water poured from his eroding ceiling, and he knew that he needed something to fix the problem.

The Denbrough boy sat up in his bed and slid out from under his covers. His feet then carried him through his door and out down the hallway.

Approaching his hallway closet, Bill opened the door and found a bucket in the bottom cubby. Picking it up in his hand, he began to make his way back to his room. 

As his back was turned, he heard a small clicking noise from behind him. Upon turning around, Bill found that Georgie's bedroom light had been turned on. He couldn't remember if the light had been on when he first entered the hallway, so he made nothing of it. He placed the bucket on the floor and walking into his little brother's room. 

Georgie Denbrough's bedroom was the same as he'd left it. Nothing had been touched since he disappeared, as no one in his family could bring themselves to throw away his things. Bill hadn't given up on his brother being gone, but his parents had. They just didn't want to lose the memories of their youngest boy yet. 

Bill made his way over to Georgie's bed, and noticed his brother's LEGO turtle in tact on his night table.

Bill held the turtle in his hands and sat down on Georgie's bed. The memory of his brother's disappearance danced through his mind, and soon enough, Bill was crying. 

Bill blamed himself for Georgie's disappearance. The day he'd gone missing, Georgie asked Bill to come outside and play with him, but Bill exaggerated his sickness and stayed inside. He wasn't even that sick, he easily could've gone with Georgie, but he didn't. That decision had haunted Bill's every action and every thought since. 

As Bill was crying, he looked up and stared around the room. This is where Georgie had once slept, had once played, had once lived. This was where the two of them had stayed up late on weekends and played with LEGO, and where Bill had read his brother bedtime stories.

Out of the corner of his eye, Bill saw the shadow of a man on the open bedroom door. As he turned towards it, the shadow moved away, and footsteps rang through the desolate hallway.

Bill, with the turtle still in hand, hesitantly approached the open door, and found muddy footprints across the floor, leading down the stairs. He followed them.

The footprints stopped in the middle of the kitchen, and just outside the doorframe, Bill stood, puzzled. How had the footprints just stopped?

His question was answered almost instantaneously, as a small child in a yellow raincoat and galoshes ran across the kitchen and towards the cellar door. The child was wearing exactly what Georgie had been on the day of his disappearance. 

Bill stood wide eyed and dropped the turtle from his grip, watching as it shattered into a hundred pieces. Bill quickly ran after the child, whom he believed was his little brother.

He took a deep breath in and slowly made his way down the cellar stairs. Every step emitted a creaking sound, very unpleasant to the ear. 

Once the cellar came into view, Bill found that the entire floor was flooded. It was strange.

He examined the room, looking for a trace of the child in the yellow rain coat, and found him, hiding behind a shelf in the corner of the room. Bill finally looked at the child's face, and it was, in fact, Georgie Denbrough. 

The two brother stared at each other, neither of them able to say anything. Bill was completely awestruck, and had no idea what to do.

"I lost it Billie, don't be mad." Georgie spoke quietly, in a very monotone voice. 

"I'm not mad at you." Bill smiled lightly as he heard his little brother's voice for the first time in months.

Georgie smiled widely, but not in the way that would be expected from a little brother seeing his big brother after a long period of time away. Georgie looked as if he was consumed with a bloodlust for his brother. Bill gulped in response, subconsciously.

The young boy emerged form behind the shelf and stood face to face with his older brother, around ten feet away.

"It just floated off..." Georgie muttered. "But Bill, if you'll come with me, you'll float too."

"Georgie..." Bill began to cry at his brother's words. Something was wrong with him. The older boy's heart began to race in his chest and suddenly he knew, he was not safe.

"You'll float too, you'll float too, you'll float too, you'll float too..." Georgie began to repeat himself. As he spoke, his face slowly transformed into something of demonic magnitude. "You'll float too, you'll float too." He began to scream at his older brother. He repeated the same phrase seven more times.

As Bill watched this horrific scene, another presence entered the cellar. The demon clown, the same one that had attacked Ben, Mia, and Eddie, emerged from the water and floated with the top of its head at Georgie's boots. The clown lifted an arm up and grabbed the boy's yellow raincoat and pulled him under the water.

With that, the clown emerged fully from the water and began screaming, running towards Bill and shaking vigorously. 

The Denbrough boy sprinted up the cellar stairs, completely terrified. He slammed the door behind him.

The clown landed on the steps as the door was shut and smiled. It could smell the fear lingering from where Bill had stood. It slithered back into the flooded cellar water and disappeared, without a trace.

Upstairs, Bill couldn't stop crying. He didn't know what had just happened, but he knew that it had Georgie. His hands shook and his jaw trembled as the Denbrough boy made his way back to his room, closing the door behind him. 

He'd left the bucket in the hallway, but he didn't care. He wasn't going to sleep anyways.