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Eddie laid on the murky gravel ground, knocked unconscious–his left cheek adorned with 3 drops of blood.
He then spasmed in his place, gasping awake as he took in his surroundings–still disoriented as ever. He felt the warm touch of blood on his face and frantically grabbed a napkin out of his fanny pack in a panic, wiping it off his face out of hopes he was just a victim of pennywise and not aids too.
He went on all fours to stabilize his reach on the ground. He stared at his reflection in a puddle of what was most definitely grey water, asking himself what did he do to deserve ending up in this situation. As he pulled himself up, he turned around to be met with the last thing he wanted to see.
A grim, retro stage with the words “Pennywise The Dancing Clown” painted on it, paired with a smiling caricature of the ghoulish entity who had haunted them all summer was standing before him. It was shrouded amidst a tower built out of centuries of bicycles, shoes, and skateboards belonging to the children who once frolicked with them–said children forming a satanic halo around the tower, floating a good 50 feet above ground.
Eddie shivered at this, it was unlike anything he had ever seen. His past self was truly in for a surprise if he thought the leper the embodiment of fear.
He looked around trying to get a better grasp of his surroundings. Maybe if he carried a flashlight in his fanny pack instead of a bunch of gazebos he’d have an easier time getting the hell out of this shithole.
Would Richie have noticed that something was wrong when he didn’t show up to the arcade in time? He was always one to be punctual–scolding Richie for being even a minute late. Would he have alerted the losers? God knows they’d be up for a part two of facing near death after what happened last time. Whatever. All he can do is rely on himself now, even if that fucking clowns watching his each and every move.
His eyes darted to a door glimmering in his peripheral, bingo . He dashes toward it, peering at its height and what it could lead to. He grabs the handle and pulls it with all his might, straining every last muscle only to be met with the sound of metal clanking, and something much, much worse.
“Step right up, Eddie! Step right up!”
The voice is much too familiar to go unnoticed, how could it? He knows he’s fucked now, and this door isn’t doing him any favors either. He opts to open his fanny pack to grab his inhaler—this might as well be the last puff he’ll ever take.
“Come change! Come float. You’ll laugh, You’ll cry! You’ll cheer, You’ll die .”
He drops his inhaler upon hearing those last few menacing words from you know who– anxiety simmering in the pit of his stomach. He's on the verge of throwing up right now and his thoughts are racing and his mind can't keep up and-
“Introducing.. Pennywise! The Dancing Clown!”
The once abandoned stage opens up before him, illuminated by vicious red lights blasting the circuits a-buzz. He feels haunted by the distorted circus melody blasting around him, relenting to cease. The stage reveals the one thing that wants nothing more than to see Eddie dead as a rotting corpse–or as one of the many sullen children floating up to nothing. It looks him dead in the eyes as it prances and dances in a vaguely ritualistic manner, summoning nothing but vile trepidation in its purest form.
Eddie, bewildered whilst still holding his ground, notices that IT hasn’t moved any closer. He takes a chance on his life to make a run towards one of the few openings he sees in the corner of his eye. His legs that once felt like they were made of iron get reduced to spaghetti within mere seconds as his attempt falters in the clutches of IT’s malicious grasp. IT’s hands move up to Eddie's neck–choking it so hard his veins could pop any second—bridled with laughs and snickers that could only come out of the mouth of a maniac.
“And just where do you think you’re going?” IT torments, his hold on Eddie only growing tighter by the second.
“I-I'm not afraid of you!”, Eddie strained–gasping for air while he still could.
IT holds him closer–shaking him around as if he was a present wrapped in the most shiny wrapping paper one could find. He then sniffs his hair trying to sense any ounce of fear, being left with a trace he knew he could use to his advantage.
He grins, “Oh, just you see, sweet little eds. You will be. ”
His capacious mouth opens up wide and tall, its shape mimicking that of an upside down triangle. It’s composed of caverns laced with ragged sharp teeth, each layer leading up to its core-beholding three bright, omniscient lights whilst a terrifying wave of screams belonging to all the children who were unlucky enough to have beared witness to it echo like an orchestra from the deepest depths of hell.
Before Eddie knows it, his feet start lifting off the ground–causing him to reach a height he never thought he’d be able to. But he’s not worried about that now–not while every memory from the day he realized he could remember, could question the unquestionable to the day he’d meet his untimely demise flashes in his mind like a heinous rollercoaster. And right before he thinks his ride of doom’s over–he learns that it's just the beginning. He descends further into insanity as horrificly gruesome images of all his friends deaths flash in his mind–Richie spasming and choking for air in a hospital bed as he flatlines, Stanley with his wrists slit–laying unconscious in a bathtub filled with his own blood, all while his eyes are fixated on those yellow orbs of doom.
- - -
“ YOU LEFT ME! YOU TOOK ME INTO NEIBOLT!”
“Stan, no! It’s us! The Losers!”, Richie exclaimed as his voice cracked whilst grasping onto Stanley's blood-soaked shoulders.
“ YOU’RE NOT MY FRIENDS! YOU LEFT ME IN NEIBOLT!”
“Stanley, we would never do that!”, Beverly re-assured while trying to lift him up into an upright position.
Stanley looked around–disoriented and trying to unblur his vision as he cupped his bleeding cheeks and wept.
“It’ll be okay Stan–I know it. We-we’ll find Eddie and then, with all of us together, we’ll be sure to beat up that fuckass clown so hard he’ll regret ever stepping into this town” Richie said as he tried to get stan back to his senses, trying to numb his own fear on eddies whereabouts and what IT might be doing to him.
“ You don't know shit! Did you see what just happened to me? I almost got my entire face bit off by that fucking painting-lady who came to life!”
The rest of the losers didn’t say a word. It was true, none of them knew if they’d come out of here alive–if they were all sacrificing their lives for nothing. But what they did know was that if they weren’t going to do something about this, no one else would.
Mike broke the festering silence, “Hey, um, guys? Has anyone seen Bill?”
“Oh fucking hell-” Richie murmured under his breath
They all started yelling his name out in unison, looking into every corner and route of the grimy sewers that would possibly lead to him. Much to no avail—they instead found themselves in more murky greywater, haunted by the heads of porcelain dolls drowned in it.
“Fuck– this place just gets more and more creepier the deeper you get into it” Ben muttered under his breath
“Just like Eddies moms vagin-”
“BEEP BEEP RICHIE!” They all yelled at him, some of them groaning while the rest giggled.
It didn’t feel the same though, at least not to Richie. What was the point of making an “Eddie's mom joke” if Eddie himself wasn’t there to hear it?
He got lost in a sea of thoughts and memories, thinking back to all the times he still had his best friend by his side– it was easy to pretend, to act like it wasn’t affecting him as much as it should. But that was only a temporary facade; a fleeting show he put on for all to see, just so that they wouldn’t see through him–so that his true feelings wouldn’t come to light.
After 10 terror-filled minutes of scourging through rust, dust and all things grimy, they finally found themselves at the hub–the place where all the different paths led to. But Richie could care less about that, since his eyes were fixed on the very boy who plagued his thoughts from the moment his eyes first fell on him.
“G-guys look.. It's the missing children, they’re-they’re floating..” Beverly says after catching her breath, utterly bewildered by the horrific sight that was before her very eyes.
Richie couldn’t care less about them, not while the boy he cared about the most looked like he was having his soul sucked out of him. Without further than a doubt he dashed towards him as if it was the last thing he’d ever do. He leaped as he tried to get a hold of Eddie's calves—in most situations his height would be of aid, but this time it was a different story.
“GUYS! A LITTLE HELP HERE!?” Richie yelled under his breath, straining to stretch out his arms and legs.
Mike and Ben followed, Mike carried Richie and tried raising him a bit higher to be of any help. Richie managed to grab Eddie by his legs and used all his strength to pull him down whilst Ben strained to grab Eddie by the foot.
As Eddie got lower and lower, Richie's grasp moved from his legs to his torso. He held him tight as if Eddie were a helium balloon– as if letting go would mean losing Eddie forever.
Once Eddie was settled on the ground, Richie's hands wasted no time travelling frantically from his torso to the back of his head–gripping Eddie's locks to keep himself steady.
“EDS! EDDIE, IT’S ME, RICHIE!” Richie yelled, holding Eddie as tight as he possibly could, he knew Eddie hated being handled like he was fragile, like he’d break any second now.
"WHY ISN’T HE WAKING UP? WHAT'S WRONG WITH HIM!?” Richie yelped—his voice cracking as he let out each word whilst tears welled up in his eyes.
He started shaking Eddie uncontrollably—weeping into his left shoulder as he didn’t cease to speak, “Eddie, PLEASE! I CAN’T LOSE YOU– NOT NOW, NOT LIKE THIS-”
He lifted up his head and stared at Eddie right in his white, sullen eyes, wondering about just what he was witnessing in this moment. He then gripped the nape of his neck and held him closer, leaving their noses just a centimetre apart. Richie thought back to all the fables and fairytales his mom read to him as a kid, how stupid he found those stories to be. “True loves kiss!? That's so gross!” he used to say, to which his mother would giggle and say, “I don’t think you’ll find it gross when you fall in love, Richard” . Richie was desperate now– he couldn’t bear to see Eddie, the boy he loved so dearly in this state. While Eddie was experiencing and witnessing all the horrors of human nature, Richie re-called all his memories of Eddie. All the times Eddie would nag him about the nicknames he’d call him, all the times Eddie would patch him up and kiss his bruises away to which Richie would tease him about relentlessly, all their nonsensical bickering and tangents which would only leave him loving and yearning for the boy more and more. If anything, now was the time to do what he wanted to do the most, the thing that would linger in the back of his mind and torment his sanity for hours on end.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath—willing his tears away. Nothing's gonna stop me now, he thought as he gently tilted his head and closed the gap between their lips. Tingles washed down his back whilst he felt the soft pillow that were Eddie Kaspbrak's lips– the world fell silent and all he could pay attention to was Eddie's presence. His left hand cupped eddies plush cheek as the dance of his lips gained more and more fervour by the second. His left hand was lost in the tangles of Eddie's chestnut brown hair—the same locks of hair he’d admired for years and yearned to touch. The shared touch of their lips was filled with passion and electricity; Richie wished he could hold on to this moment forever, but like all moments, it was fleeting and was out of his grasp before he knew it.
Richie's eyes fluttered open as he slowly pulled away, his hand not letting go of Eddie's cheek. His eyes fell as he scanned for any remainder of life on Eddie's face, only to be left with the same soulless expression he’d started with.
Just as he was about to break into tears, Eddie let out a gasp and fell to the ground as his eyes were bloodshot and his pupils were blown out wide.
Richie fell to his knees and wrapped Eddie in his warm embrace, “Fuck, Eds– I-I thought I lost you…” He said as his head nuzzled into Eddie's shoulder.
“I thought I lost me too” Eddie joked with a smile which released a myriad of giggles and a light kick and a grin from Richie.
The rest of the losers kneeled down to the ground and wrapped their arms around the two, holding them close. Eddie gave Richie a knowing smile and pressed his forehead against Richie's while pulling his body closer. Richie was grinning uncontrollably, to which Eddie smirked and gave him an innocent peck on the lips, unbeknownst to Richie, Eddie knew what he did, and he savoured every last moment.