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"Come on, Richie!" George screamed, a smile on his face as he followed the small paper boat. "We can't loose it!"
"I'm coming!" Richie screamed back. He giggled "That's what Eddie's mom told me last night" Richie whispered to himself and giggled again as he wiped the water from his glasses for what seemed to be the hundredth time that day. He sighed.
It wasn't that Richie didn't enjoy Georgie's company; quite the contrary, really, he loved the boy. However, Richie wasn't called the Trashmouth for nothing. Bill scolded him a lot for saying certain things around his little brother (Richie had already been subjected to an 4 minutes long lecture about what he was defnitely not suppoused to say that day).Georgie didn't seem to mind much but Richie would never want to get on Bill's bad side.
"Come on!" Georgie screamed again. The boy was now nothing but a yellow blur to Richie, a yellow blur getting further and further away.
"Shit" Richie murmured and started picking up his pace. He could already hear Bill's disproving voice in his ears. "Wait up, Georgie!"
"Can't!" The blur answered "She's going too fast!"
Richie cursed again and shoved the glasses on his face. Chasing the kid was easier while seeing, but the wet pavement was still as wet as always and running was still a bad idea.Richie hit the ground with a loud yelp and that was enough to make Georgie stop running.
"Richie!" The little boy ran towards his older friend. Even with blurry glasses, he had just cleaned them up dammit!, Richie could still see the worry in Georgie's eyes " Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah!" Richie sat and waved his hand around. "It takes more than this to get rid of me." He smiled at Georgie and got up, cleaning his hands on his rain coat. "Now come on. We can't let her get away!"
Georgie, who apparently had forgotten about the boat, stared at Richie with wild eyes before turning around and starting running again. Richie didn't follow him this time, still sore from the fall, and settled for just wiping his glasses again.
"Oh no!" Georgie's panicked voice cut through the rain " Richie! Come here!"
Richie ran and all worst case scenarios ran through his head. Had Georgie fallen? Had he broken a bone? Oh God, Bill would kill him and then dance on his grave if he let Georgie get hurt.
"What happened?!" He screamed, coming to an abrupt stop next to the boy. "Are you hurt?"
"She fell in the drain!" Georgie cried, ignoring Richie's question "I lost her! Bills gonna be so mad!"
Richie blinked a couple of times, his brain still trying to process what the hell was Georgie talking about.
"Who fell in the drain?" He asked, head slightly tilted to the left.
"My boat!" Georgie cried again.
"Oh!" Richie nodded "But that's no big deal, my little friend. I'll get her back for ya!"
"What? Ew!" Georgie made a face, disgust clearly stamped on it. "That's gross,Richie!"
I've done worse things, Richie's mind supplied, like Eddie's mom. (Damn Bill and his stupid lectures! Georgie deserved to hear the fine comedy Richie had to offer.)
"Anything for you, my boy. Besides, I will take an one hour long shower as soon as I get home" Richie smiled.
"You better" Georgie smiled back. "Thanks, Rich"
Then, Richie got down and crawled into the drain, his shoes making a loud splash sound when they hit the floor. One more sound was heard, a small gasp, and then silence.
"Richie?" Georgie called " Did you find her?"
Silence.
"Richie?" Georgie called again. He got on his knees so he could look inside the drain. It was dark, wet and Richie-less. The boy frowned.
"If this is some prank I'm not finding it funny !" He screamed to the emptiness. Nothing answered. " Richie! Answer me! Why aren't you answering me?!"
"He can't" a creepy voice whispered from the darkness " He's already floating"
That was enough for Georgie to throw himself away from the drain. He stared at it with wide, scared eyes, mouth opened in horror.
"If you come here" the voice continued " you'll float too"
Bill woke up from his naps with Georgie's screams. He was confused and dizzy, but ready to yell at Richie for probably scarring Georgie or something.
"Bill! Bill!" Georgie, who was now standing next to Bill's bed, shaking his brother, screamed again "Bill!"
"Whu-what is it?!" Bill couldn't contain the anger in his voice.
"It got Richie!" Georgie yelled.
Now that Bill was looking at him, he could see how distraught Georgie seemed to be. The boy was panting, face red and eyes wide. His hands were shaking as he rested then on Bill's arm.
"What?" Bill asked again, calmer this time, but still just as confused.
"The-the thing! In the sewers! The thing in the sewers! It got Richie, Bill!" Tears fell from the boys eyes. "The thing in the sewers got Richie!"
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Eddie turned his face to the ground to avoid looking at Richie's smiling face on yet another Missing Person poster. He refused to look, refused to believe Richie, his Richie, his unstoppable, brave, smart Richie, was missing.
So, instead of looking at the posters on the wall, Eddie focused on the ground and counted all cracks he could find on the pavement. He counted eighty seven, one more than the last time he had done that.
"He-hey, Eddie" Bill greeted him and he answered with a small smile.
"Hi, Bill"
Their relationship wasn't the same, that was clear for both of them. Eddie knew it was his fault, but he didn't know how to fix things. Hell, he didn't even know if he wanted to fix things.
Don't say that, the good side of Eddie's mind whispered to him, it wasn't Bill's fault.
Eddie knew that. He knew, of course he knew. It didn't stop the rage, though, it didn't stop the pain.
If Bill hadn't asked Richie to take Georgie out, Richie would still be here with you, the bad side supplied and Eddie clenched his fists.
"Stan is whu-waiting." Bill's voice took Eddie out of his thoughts. He blinked a couple of times. "Come on."
They walked through the corridors easily and the Bowers gang didn't even look their way. Ever since Richie's disappearance they were taking it easy with them, some kind of twisted act of sympathy, Eddie suppoused. Who knew all it would take to get them out of their asses was a kid going missing.
(Eddie would fight Henry Bowers one hundred times if it meant getting Richie back)
"Hey guys" Stan greeted, a biology book opened in his lap displaying some random information about plants.
"Hi, Stan" Eddie and Bill said back in unison.
Then, it would get awkward. Stan would turn his attention to his book, face twisted in discomfort, Bill would pick on his nails and stare at the floor and Eddie would loose himself inside his head, drowning in a sea of regret and sadness.
Richie was the one who started conversations, but now Richie was gone and they were left with nothing but silence.
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Eddie stared at his window, part of him waitng for the familiar knock.
Silence.
Eddie slept with tears in his eyes.
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"Eds? What took you so long?"
Richie was there, broken glasses, messed hair and dirty clothes, his big brown eyes staring into Eddie's own. He looked so sad, so broken, so scared, so different from the loud Richie he knew.
"I thought you would never come" Tears fell from Richie's eyes and Eddie knew he was crying too.
"I'm so so-so-sorry, Richie" It was Bill, Eddie heard his voice from behind him.
"It's okay, Bill" Richie answered with a smile " Is Georgie okay?"
"He misses you" Bill sniffed and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
"We all do" Stan completed.
Beverly, Ben and Mike stared at the scene with wild, surprised eyes. They had heard a lot about Richie, but they had never truly met the boy.
"I'm so glad we're all here" Richie smiled at them. " I missed you guys so much" He turned to Eddie "I missed you so much" He opened his arms, a big smile on his face. "Come here"
And Eddie would have. He didn't want anything more than to ran straight to Richie's arms and stay there forever, to have his cheeks and nose and mouth kissed by the other boy, to look at Richie's eyes and hear him say "I love you, Eddie Spaghetti" just so he could answer "Don't call me that, but I love you too"
But that was not Richie.
"I'm so sorry" Eddie whispered and, with the baseball bat he had taken from the trash pile in his hand, he ran towards the monster.
"Eddie!" Stan screamed, but Eddie paid no mind.
That thing was not his Richie and he wouldn't let it keep pretending it was.
"Stop!" Not Richie screamed, blood running down his face from a gash on his forehead. His panicked eyes looked at Eddie in horror as he raised his shaking hands in a weak attempt to shield himself from the bat. "Eddie, please stop! You're hurting me!"
Eddie didn't stop.
"Stop! Eddie, stop!"
Eddie could feel the tears in the corner of his eyes. The pain in his chest was almost unbearable, almost as if a hand was squeezing his heart and digging its claws on it.
"I'm so sorry" Eddie repeated like a mantra as he hit not Richie again and again and tried to ignore his screams.
Soon, Richie's body transformed. Pennywise, the dancing clown, showed his face again and it was one hundred time easier for Eddie to hit his ugly face with a bat than Richie's.It didn't take long for the others to join him.
Defeating a alien demon clown didn't feel as good as Eddie imagined it was suppoused to feel when he found Richie's broken glasses next to the big pile of trash. Eddie kneeled next to the object and carefully took it in his hands. His fingers traced the tape holding the big black structure together.
"He's dead isn't him" Eddie said and it didn't sound like a question.
No one answered. Instead, Eddie felt a pair of arms hugging his shoulders. Another pair soon followed the action and another and another and another. Soon, Eddie was fully embraced by his friends as he himself hugged Richie's glasses tightly.
"He's dead" Eddie whispered to no one in particular and the waterworks began.
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27 years later, Eddie closed his eyes one last time and wondered if he would see Richie again.