Confrontation at 29 Neibolt Street (1958)

On July 25th, 1958, the seven members of the Losers' Club—Bill Denbrough, Beverly Marsh, Ben Hanscom, Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak, Stanley Uris, and Mike Hanlon—entered the abandoned house at 29 Neibolt Street, a known access point for the entity they called It. Armed with two silver slugs cast from Ben's silver dollar and Beverly's slingshot, they confronted the creature in its werewolf form. Beverly shot the werewolf in the snout, driving it back into the drainpipe from which it had emerged. The confrontation marked the first time the children successfully wounded It, but they failed to kill it, setting the stage for their final battle weeks later.

Background and Preparation

The decision to confront It at 29 Neibolt Street followed weeks of escalating encounters. Bill Denbrough had seen his dead brother George's photograph move and bleed; Ben Hanscom had witnessed a mummy-like clown on the frozen Canal; Eddie Kaspbrak had been attacked by a leper under the same porch they would now enter; and Richie Tozier had been chased by a werewolf from the house's cellar. After the apocalyptic rockfight in the Barrens, the seven children had formed the Losers' Club, united by their shared experiences and a growing determination to stop the entity that had killed George Denbrough and other children. Bill, Richie, and Ben had researched how to make silver bullets at the Derry Public Library, but after testing Beverly's superior aim with Bill's Bullseye slingshot, they decided to cast two silver slugs from one of Ben's four silver dollars instead. The slugs were made in Zack Denbrough's workshop on the night of July 23rd, with Ben melting the silver in a mortar shell and pouring it into bearing molds.

The Assault on the House

The seven children arrived at 29 Neibolt Street around ten in the morning on July 25th. The day was hot, muggy, and still. Bill carried the silver slugs in a tin Sucrets box. He handed the slingshot to Beverly, who took it with a grimace but accepted the responsibility. They crawled under the porch, through the same broken cellar window Eddie had used weeks before, and entered the cellar. The house felt wrong—the rooms seemed too large, the angles distorted, the perspective crazed. As they moved through the kitchen and hallway, they encountered a series of traps: a rat that nearly caused Beverly to waste a silver slug, a cupboard full of rats with tangled tails, and a buzzing mooseblower that Mike Hanlon recognized as a trick. In the bathroom at the end of the hall, they found the toilet had exploded, revealing a three-foot-wide drainpipe. Bill could hear the pumping machinery from the Barrens echoing up through the pipe. As they peered into the darkness, they sensed It rushing toward them.

The Werewolf Emerges

The creature exploded out of the drainpipe in a shifting, silvery-orange shape. Richie Tozier, who had seen the Teenage Werewolf movie at the Aladdin Theater, screamed that it was the werewolf, and the shape locked into that form for all of them. The werewolf stood poised over the drainpipe, its green eyes glaring, its muzzle wrinkled back, foam seeping through its teeth. It wore a Derry High School letter jacket with orange piping. It lunged at Bill, who was the clear leader of the group. Beverly raised the Bullseye but missed, the silver slug punching a hole in the wallpaper. The werewolf then turned on Ben, who had stepped in front of Beverly to protect her. It slashed Ben's chest and stomach with its claws, nearly disemboweling him, and threw him into the bathtub. As it turned back toward Bill, Beverly loaded the second silver slug. With a clear, cold certainty, she drew the sling back and fired. The slug struck the werewolf high in the snout, creating a perfect round hole that gouted blood. The creature screamed in pain, fear, and rage, then turned and dived back into the drainpipe, its voice fading as it retreated into the darkness.

Aftermath and Significance

The house immediately began to shrink back to its normal size, the magical expansion ceasing with the creature's departure. The seven children escaped through a kitchen window. Ben was badly wounded, his chest and stomach slashed open, but the wound was not mortal. Beverly's blouse had lost all its buttons during the struggle, and Bill gave her his tee-shirt. They retreated to their underground clubhouse in the Barrens, where they sat in silence, processing what had happened. The silver slugs had worked because the seven of them had been unified in their belief that they would, but they had not killed It. The confrontation at 29 Neibolt Street was the first time the Losers' Club successfully wounded the entity, proving that it could be hurt and that their belief in the power of silver was effective. However, it also revealed that It would return in new shapes, and that their victory was only temporary. The event solidified their bond and their commitment to the promise they would make weeks later in the Barrens: to return if It ever started killing again.