Flying leeches

The flying leeches are one of the many monstrous forms assumed by It during the summer of 1958, a manifestation that emerges from a discarded Amana refrigerator near the Derry dump. The refrigerator has been used by Patrick Hockstetter, a deeply disturbed boy, as a killing-bottle for small animals he captures and traps inside to die. When Patrick opens the refrigerator on a hot July afternoon, he finds not the corpse of a pigeon he had placed there days before, but a swarm of flesh-colored, shell-like parasites that unfurl insectile wings and fly at him. They attach themselves to his skin with a tubular proboscis, turning from pale to rose-red as they drink his blood, swelling to the size of tennis balls before bursting. Patrick is overwhelmed, screaming and beating at the creatures as they cover his arms, neck, face, and even enter his mouth. He staggers into the Barrens, where It, in another form, drags him away to feed. Beverly Marsh, who has been hiding nearby after witnessing the boys' earlier activities, sees Patrick's thrashing and hears his screams. She approaches cautiously and finds blood on the path. One of the leeches lands on her arm and begins to bite. She strikes it off, but its head remains embedded, its proboscis still buried in her flesh. Acting on instinct, she loads a steel ball-bearing into Bill Denbrough's Bullseye slingshot and fires at a second leech that buzzes toward her. The ball-bearing curves in flight, striking the creature and splattering it. Beverly then follows the trail of blood and the grooves left by Patrick's dragged body to a concrete pumping-station cylinder, its iron cover ajar, from which a thick, monstrous chuckle issues. She flees in panic. The leeches are a manifestation of It's ability to draw on the specific fears and circumstances of its victims: Patrick's obsession with trapping and killing animals in the refrigerator is turned against him, while Beverly's fear of blood and parasites is realized in the leech's bite. The creatures also demonstrate It's use of the town's discarded objects and hidden spaces as hunting grounds, and the way It can drive a victim toward a final, more terrible confrontation. The leeches are ultimately a part of It's arsenal of terror, a form that preys on the vulnerability and isolation of its targets, and their appearance marks a turning point in the Losers' Club's understanding of the enemy they face.