Chapter Text
Eddie’s wings are cut when he’s thirteen years old. Puberty creeps up on him before he even knows it, growing taller seemingly overnight, with his voice cracking whenever he risks talking in class. There are sniggers, from the other boys, until the same thing happens to them, and the classroom is a silent pit of boys who dare not open their mouths, for fear of what comes out. The girls are much the same, with spots on their faces to rival the boys, and the shyness in which they shift in their seats at the mention of unmentionables.
When Eddie is ten, his neighbour, a girl named Betty Ripson, goes missing. People go missing a lot in Derry, but Eddie hasn’t paid any mind to it before. It’s just a fact of life, that cows moo, sheep baa, and people in Derry vanish suddenly without a trace. When Betty doesn’t turn up at Eddie’s front door to walk him to school one morning, and doesn’t show up the next morning, or the morning after that, nobody pays any much attention. She’s just vanished, like everyone else.
Eddie misses her, however. Betty is three years older than him, and she’s everything that Eddie wants to be. She’s cool, with long brown scraggly hair, and eyes that look rather like a cat’s. They walk to school every day together, talking about anything and everything, and Eddie thinks that she might just be the best friend he’s ever had.
He doesn’t tell this to anyone however. People tend not to like it when you bring up the missing people in Derry, they get antsy, uncomfortable. They fall silent when asked, or come up with some excuse to change the subject. Eddie realises that nobody will ever talk about Betty Ripson to him again, and for the first time in his life, feels completely alone in the world.
Except there’s something else. Eddie is in the bathtub when his mother forces herself into the room, her presence making the room seem heavy and dark. Eddie shivers in the water, from where he was reading a comic, and peeks up over the line of the bathtub to look at her.
“I’m washing behind my ears!” He says, before she can say anything. “And I’m scrubbing my back!”
“Huh.” His mother says, and fills up a beaker with warm water and sluices him down with it. Her fingers run over his back, feeling around the sharp jutting bone of his shoulder blades. Eddie shivers, and she prods some more.
“If Ripson’s mother had done this more often, maybe she wouldn’t be in this predicament of hers.” His mother says suddenly.
“What?” Eddie says, turning his head a little to look at her. She jerks his head back to where it was, her nails digging into his skin as she manoeuvres him back into place.
“Betty Ripson.” Eddie’s mother repeats, “I doubt she’ll come back. Girl’s as light as a feather, if you don’t mind the pun. She won’t survive the operation.”
Eddie blinks. “What are you talking about?”
There’s silence, before Eddie’s mother pours another beaker of water over Eddie’s head. Eddie jerks, gasping out as the water rushes in his eyes and nose and open mouth. His mother gives a growl of frustration, massaging his curls to get all the soap out, and then moves to the sink to wash her hands.
“Just talking to myself.” She says, and Eddie can feel her watching him, staring at his bare back. “Don’t you worry Eddie-bear.”
The nickname is enough to tell Eddie that the conversation is over. He turns back to his comic and continues reading, but his mother doesn’t leave, still watching him. Eddie turns the page, eyes scanning quickly as he reads about Superman rescuing Lois Lane. He wonders what it would be like to fly.
It’s almost a month later when Eddie leaves the house for school, and finds Betty Ripson leaning against his front gate. His mouth still tastes acidic from where he swallowed all his pills that morning, and for a second he thinks that she is a hallucination, that he’s finally experiencing those dreaded side effects the doctor warned him about.
“Hey Wheezy.” Betty calls to him, and she looks rough. She’s having to lean against the front gate to keep herself upright, her white face slick with sweat. She’s wearing a light blue shirt, and Eddie can see that she has bandages on underneath.
“Holy hell.” Eddie says, and doesn’t move. “Betty?”
Betty raises her hand to wave at him, and then quickly has to grab hold of the fence to stop herself falling over. “That’s me!” Her voice sounds sore. “Miss me?”
“Obviously!” Eddie leaves the safety of his front porch to race up to her, fanny pack hitting against his hip as he moves. “What happened to you? Where did you go?!”
“I had an operation.” Betty says. Her knuckles are pale from where she’s gripping the fence. “Sorry. I would have told you but…. It was really sudden.”
“You don’t have to apologise.” Eddie says, and then takes a step back. “Woah. Are you contagious?”
Betty laughs. “No threat short stuff.” She says. “I’m fine. It was just a routine thing.”
“You look like shit.”
“I feel like shit.” Betty says, and offers him a lopsided grin. “Does your mother know you swear?”
“Shut up.” Eddie says, cheeks heating up. “Don’t tell her!”
“I promise I won’t.” Betty says, “Your mom scares me too much.”
Eddie laughs. “She scares you?!”
“Yeah!” Betty says, “She’s terrifying.”
They grin at one another for a moment, until Betty looks away, seemingly unable to hold Eddie’s gaze anymore. She takes several deep breaths, before looking back up at him, and nodding at Eddie’s backpack.
“You ready for school?” She says, and Eddie blinks at her.
“You’re going to school? In your condition?” He asks, and Betty shrugs.
“Why not?” She says. “I might as well.”
Betty turns, and Eddie gasps out. She’s bled through her bandages, bled through her shirt, leaving a wine dark imprint of-
“Wings.” Eddie breathes, staring at the blossoming stain across Betty’s back. He reaches out, he can’t stop himself, and lightly touches them with her finger tips.
Betty winces, turning around to look at him. There are dark circles underneath her eyes, and her bottom lip is bitten straight through. They stare at one another, and Betty blinks, eyelashes fanning out across her face.
“What happened?” Eddie asks, his voice low.
“I-“ Betty runs a tongue over her bruised mouth, and then leans in. “Promise not to tell?”
“I promise.” Eddie says, and Betty opens her mouth to speak, just as two front doors swing open at once.
“Eddie!” Eddie’s mother cries. “Get inside! Get away from her!”
“Betty!” Betty’s mother comes running from her front porch, skirts billowing up in the sudden wind. “Betty, it’s too dangerous for you to be out here!”
Both mother’s are coming for the two of them at once, and Betty grabs hold of Eddie by his shoulders, pulls him closer to her. Her breath stinks of vomit, and the sweat is running down her forward in tear sized drops.
“They cut off my wings.” Betty says, her voice high pitched. “They took me away in the night- and they cut off my wings, and-“
Her mother grabs hold of Betty from the back, and Betty gives a howl of agony, squirming in her mother’s grasp. Her mother doesn’t let go however, dragging Betty backwards with her, just as Eddie’s mother catches up to him as well.
“Your daughter should be locked up!” Eddie’s mother snaps, “She shouldn’t be allowed out!”
“It’s not her fault!” Betty’s mother is almost in tears as she drags Betty up the front path towards her house. “It’s not her fault!”
“Betty!” Eddie cries out, as Betty gives another wail of pain, her mother scrabbling for purchase on her back.
“They broke them and they tore them and they cut them off!” Betty screams, and the sound of it echoes around the neighbourhood. “They hurt me!”
Eddie finds himself being dragged backwards by his mother towards his house. She has one heavy arm wrapped around his waist, and she’s pulling him so forcefully that Eddie’s feet are lifting off the ground.
The last time that Eddie sees Betty, she’s being carried back into the house, her shoes falling off her feet, her fists uselessly pummelling her mother to put her down. It’s an image that will haunt Eddie for months, the screaming, the crying, and the blood dripping from her back and staining everything red.
That is, of course, until the same thing happens to him.