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Chapter Text

- Derry Maine - 1983 - October ?? -

Georgie Denbrough loved his brother, Bill, like his best-friend. They were either having brotherly banter with each other or trying to cheer-up one another if they're feeling down. So when, on one fateful night, Georgie asked Bill to make him a paper boat to play with, he, of course, said yes. Unfortunately, there was one problem, Bill was sick, and it was raining heavily outside. These events lead them to where they are now; Bill on his bed, lying around millions dirty tissues, and Georgie watching him eagerly for the boat to be finished.

"Are you sure you won't get in trouble, Bill?" Asked Georgie with worry.

"Don't be a w-w-wuss, I'd come with you if I weren't *cough* *cough* dying." He answers.

"You're not dying!" The smaller boy exclaims.

"You didn't see the v-v-vomit coming out my nose this morning?"

"That's disgusting!" Georgie says, walking up to the stuttering boy.

Bill ignores his comment. "Okay, go get the wax."

"In the cellar?"

"You want it to f-f-float, don't you?"

"Fine!"

Georgie grabbed the walkie-talkie on top of Bill's dressing table and walked downstairs, past his mother playing the piano, to the cellar door. Georgie always liked his mother's music taste. It was nice and soothing, but also loud and scary at the same time.

He opened the door with a loud creak, walked in nervously, and stopped at where the basement steps started. They were old and jagged and just scary in general. Oh how the small boy wished he lived in a house without a basement. Now THAT would of been the dream.

…creak...

"Georgie, hurry up!" Bill shouted through the other end of the walkie-talkie.

Georgie finally grew the courage to walk down the steps of the dark and damp cellar with only a few jagged breathes. Each step he took was louder than the last. He walked to the other side of the room, unable to see where the last 'ingredient' for the boat was.

"Where's the wax?" He asked himself, unable to contain the fright in his voice.

As soon as he found it, he turned around, only to see a pair of silver eyes watching him in the dark. With little thought, he reached the nearest thing around him. A flashlight. He shone it at the eyes, just to find, two round balls on a paint-filled cupboard. He ran to Bill's room as fast as he could.

Bill took the brush, dipped it in the wax, and glossed S.S Georgie 'the boat' as gracefully as he could. As soon as he finished, he gave the boat to a smiling Georgie.

"Here you go. She's all ready, captain."

"She?" Georgie questioned.

"You always call a b-b-boat she."

"She." It sounded right on Georgie's tongue. He promises to himself that he'll try and remember that fact for later. "Thanks Billy." He smiled, before giving a warm hug to his brother. "See you later Billy." Georgie's last words in the house were, before he ran outside.

Bill looked out of his bedroom window, watching the younger brother in a yellow slicker nervously, as he really wanted Georgie to be safe and remember not to talk to strangers. Georgie looked up from the ground and waved at Bill.

…creak...

"Be careful Georgie, and remember to come home as soon as you see Richie, okay?"

Richie was one of Bill's best-friends. He was always said to be described as 'a loud boy who doesn't seem to have control over most of the things he says.' and everyone knew it. In fact, he was nicknamed, by the bullies in school, Trashmouth.

"I will Bill, don't worry."

-

Georgie carefully placed his paper boat in the tiny stream by the pavement. The boat was going faster and faster, so fast that Georgie had to do everything in his power to avoid the road work signs. He ducked under one of them skillfully, before running head-first into one with a loud thud. What Georgie didn't know, was that the walkie-talkie he was holding, fell out of his pocket and on to the road.
When Georgie finally got up, he realised that, to his utter horror, S.S Georgie had sped too fast, and before he knew it, headed straight into the storm drain.

"No! NO!" He screamed, got down on his knees and looked into the drain. It was pitch black; he couldn't see a single thing.

"Bill's gonna kill me."

The, he started to hear loud shuffling sounds in the hole. He looked further down until he saw two eyes staring at him. He screamed and crawled backwards. He wanted to get further and further away from the eyes as possible. Until the eyes weren't just eyes, they were a whole, pale, odd-looking face that was staring right at him. Georgie decided against running away and shuffled closer to the strange man.

"Hiya Georgie." The unknown man smiled after lifting up S.S Georgie, the one that was just said to be missing. "What a nice boat. Do you want it back?"

"Um, yes please." Georgie never forgot his manners.

"What a nice boy. I bet you have a lot of friends."

Georgie took a look at the strange man. Before noticing that he looked like a clown, and not one from the circus. He was wearing a big, white costume with bright-orange hair, his eyes were the part that Georgie liked the least. They were a menacing-yellow that seemed to look deep into your soul as if they were seeking for something.

"Three. But my brother's my best-best."

"Where is he?" The clown asked innocently.

"In bed. Sick."

"I bet I could cheer him up, I'll give him a ballon. Do you want a ballon too, Georgie?"

"I'm not supposed to take stuff from strangers."

"Oh. Well I'm Pennywise, the dancing clown. Pennywise, meet Georgie. Georgie, meet Pennywise. Now we aren't strangers, are we?"

"What are you doing in the sewers?" Asked the boy in the yellow raincoat.

"A storm blew me away, blew the whole circus away. Can you smell the circus, Georgie?" Pennywise asked, "The peanuts? Cotton candy? Hotdogs? And..."

"...Popcorn?" Georgie finished.

"Popcorn! Is that your favourite?"

"mhm." The boy replied with a giggle.

"Mine too! Because they pop! Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop."

Pennywise seemed to realise that Georgie wasn't as scared as he was in the first place. He generally thought that Pennywise was his friend. Well, the clown can change that, couldn't he? His smile turned into a frown, he needed fear... and fast!

"I should get going now." Georgie said with discomfort.

"Without your boat? You don't want to lose it Georgie." When that didn't seem to work, he added, "Bill's gonna kill you." And that is when he knew that he was going to have a delicious meal tonight. "Here, take it." He reached the boat out a tiny bit further so Georgie thinks that he can grab it. When the boy didn't move, IT repeated the same thing, "Take it, Georgie!" Pennywise sneered.

Georgie didn't really trust this clown-guy but he really needed that boat back. Pennywise was right! Bill would kill him if he lost S.S Georgie. So, he decided to reach further and further until half of his arm was in the drain. The clown moved the boat back slightly so Georgie would reach further, and he did, further and further and further until-

"Georgie?" A tall-lanky boy shouted. But he had reason to. He was witnessing a boy, who he actually knows, shove his whole arm down a storm-drain. "What are you doing?"

Georgie turned his head around so that he was facing the boy. "Richie?" He asked. He soon realised that turning around was a bad idea. He felt sharp teeth sink into his flesh. When he tried to pull his arm back, he got a real fright when he realised that he didn't have one. He scrambled over the pavement to where Richie was.

Richie knelt over Georgie's body, examining the injury. It looked horrible, his whole arm got eaten by whatever was in the drain. There was blood, everywhere! And Georgie was trying to hold all the blood in him by keeping hold of the hole on his side.

"It's okay Georgie! Shit. We're gonna go to the hospital, okay?"

"No, you aren't." A voice from the sewer echoed.

"You." Richie screamed while pointing at the clown, "You did this to him! I'm taking him to hospital right now!"

"No, you aren't, because if you do, I'll eat Bill too."

"W-what?"

"To keep your friends alive, make sure that Georgie won't survive! Or let Georgie live and all your friends will die!"

Richie was torn. He wanted to keep his friends safe, of course he did! But if that meant killing Georgie, he wouldn't do it! But if he doesn't, his friends will die instead. But what if the, supposedly cannibal, clown was just bluffing?

"Oh, Richie! It seems you're a bit confused. YOU WILL KILL HIM!" The clown screamed.

He suddenly felt the urge to kill the small boy. He didn't WANT to, he felt like he HAD to. "I'm so sorry Georgie." Richie hated that this is what he had to do! He needed his friends safe. And by the looks of it, Georgie was losing too much blood anyway. He grabbed a pocket knife out of one of his pockets.

"'Chee?" Georgie squeaked. He knew that Richie won't change his mind. They were both crying now. "Tell Billy I loved him."

Richie closed his eyes, rose the knife high in the air... "I will kid, I will." And stabbed him right in the chest, almost exactly where his heart was.

Pennywise loved the scene that was going on before him, and as soon as the knife was pulled out Georgie's chest, he extended his arm and pulled the dead boy into the sewers. He couldn't wait to eat the boy! He was so scared. But then he remembered, that he couldn't eat four other children. Then he had an idea.

"Richie..."

Richie looked up from his blood-covered hands and into the eyes of the monster.

"If you anyone finds out about this, Richie, then the deal is off." Richie's eyes went wide at this. He couldn't tell Bill how Georgie really died. That would break his heart as he knew what Bill was like, he would probably go on this long ass journey, looking for his dead brother. And he couldn't do anything about it!

-

Richie was nervous and scared. He started telling more disgusting jokes to his friends over the years, and made sure that no-one would suspect a thing. It was the perfect cover story.
For, how could the Trashmouth keep a secret if his mouth is always open? But he did, he kept his secret for three more years. Until one curious girl gets the best of herself and takes a glimpse into the past... and that, changes everything.

Chapter Text

- Derry Maine - 1986 - September 12th -

Richie didn't arrive for first period today at school, and that wasn't unusual for the local Trashmouth. But what was strange, was that he didn't show up for 2nd, 3rd or even 4th either. So of course, all the losers were worried. Especially Stan, he new Richie the longest. Ever since they were two to be exact.

"Are you absolutely sure that he didn't show up? I mean, you just might not have-"

"Stan. He is always making loud jokes in class, how could we not have seen him?" Eddie interrupted. Sure, he and Richie argued all the time, but they would always be best-friends no matter what. He could be a killer and Eddie wouldn't care. Well... maybe a little bit.

"G-g-guys! Stop arguing. Y-y-you are all giving me a headache!" Bill demanded. "H-he could just be s-s-sick for all we know."

"Sick? It's probably impossible for Richie to be ill. It's like he's immune." Beverly butted in. She knew that Bill was trying to calm down everyone, but someone has to think logically here.

"Why don't we just go and see for ourselves?"

"Ben, are you suggesting that we just... leave?" Mike asked. Yep, Mike goes to school now. Ever since he made friends with the other six, he realised that he could spend more time with them at school instead of killing sheep at the farm. He didn't want to be a farmer anyways.

"Good idea Ben! We'll just sneak right past the hall monitor who could easily give us detention so we have to wait even longer to see Richie, shall we?" Stan said sarcastically.

…riiing…

"Well I'm going to class, see you later."

"Oh no you don't" Bev protested. She reached out to Stan and started dragging him down the hallways, with the other losers, to escape the school.

As it turns out, the monitor wasn't even standing in front of the entrance doors. So the children easily walked out. They all picked up their new bikes and rode them all the way to Richie's.

-

When they arrived at their destination, they all heard screaming from inside the expensive house. It was strange, everyone thought that the Tozier's were the (almost) perfect family; a rich dentist who made more money than anyone could imagine, a beautiful woman who never dared ask for anything but a child, and a son who got A's in all of his classes.

"G-g-guys, follow me." Bill ordered.

So, they all followed Bill to the back of the house, where a window stood, showing Wentworth, Maggie and Richie standing in the middle of the living room, arguing.

-

Richie was scared- no, he was terrified. Apparently, his parents had found out that he was sneaking out at night to go to his friend's houses for sleepovers. Without telling them.

"Do you have any respect boy?" His father screamed as he threw a beer bottle at his son's face. Completely missing, due to his drunken-out state. "You are a complete and utter disgrace to this family. You f-!" He threw another beer bottle. This time, smashing against Richie's chest and getting glass stuck in his bruised flesh.

"S-sorry sir." Richie whimpered. He was bleeding out, blood getting all over the stained-red carpet.

"Now look what you've done, Richard! You've made a mess on my new rug!" His mother screeched. She started to scratch his face with her long-painted nails.

Richie was hurting all over. His face burned, his arms felt like falling off, his chest heaving and his legs trembling. When he started to hear loud gasping coming from outside, he turned his face around... and saw his very shocked friends through the window. They were watching... staring. Then, he quickly escaped his mother's crutches and ran to the back door which leads out of the kitchen. But his mother ran after him and grabbed before he could even reach the handle.

As soon as Richie was getting pulled back, he reacted instantly and grabbed one of the draws, opened it, and pulled out a butcher's knife. He turned around and stabbed her in the nearest place possible, which so happened to be her forehead. She fell backwards, landing on the kitchen tile, clutching her head, she soon realised that she wasn't putting enough pressure on her forehead due to her drained strength and let go.

Richie stared in horror at what he just did, he dropped the bloodied knife and froze. His father ran to his lifeless mother, sobbing. He killed his mother. It was finally sinking in. I killed her like I killed Georgie. He was a murderer.

After a couple of minutes of realisation, he finally heard the sirens of a cop car and an ambulance. He was going to jail. He killed his mother. His friends saw what he just did. He felt like the monster who was currently lying beneath the sewers.

-

As it turned out, a couple of weeks later, he learned that:

1) His mother was dead

2) His father was going to prison (for child abuse)

3) It was self defence

4) His social worker's name was Tammy, not Tanya

And 5) He had to leave Derry, he had to leave his friends

Let's just say that, - September 12 1986 - was NOT a good day for Richie.

Chapter Text

- Derry Maine - 1986 - November 6th -

Richie couldn't stay in Derry; his parents were unable to care for him due to obvious reasons. Now, Richie isn't one for getting angry, but he was furious! He thought he would never even say or think this, but he actually wants to stay in Derry. He WANTS to stay. It just wasn't fair. He doesn't want to stay with his Aunt and Uncle, he had only me them twice; the first time was because he was born in Hawkins and lived there until the family house couldn't hold 7 people, including the new baby, Mike, and the second was when it was his mother's birthday. He ponders for a second, 'I wonder what Mike looks like now? I bet he is still a cry-baby. Does he have a girlfriend?' He breaks out of his wonders by The Losers Club engulfing him in a group hug.

"You better call me as soon as you get home okay!" Beverly insists. Home. Hawkins was never his home. It just happened to be where he was born. Home was Derry, home was Maine, home was The Losers. And he was leaving them. He was leaving his real family. He was leaving his home. 'Oh god, I think I'm going to cry!'.

"Don't forget us!" Ben jokes. Oh right, he forgot that there was the possibility of him forgetting them. No-one laughed.

"We all got you g-g-going away p-presents. We hope you l-like them." Bill stuttered. All the Losers gathered around Richie in a circle and gave him his going away gifts. Each gift had a certain wrapping paper according to who they're from; Bill's was blue, Stan's was green, Mike's was yellow, Ben's was orange, Bev's was red and Eddie's was pink.

"Thank you!" Richie whimpered. This was all too much for him! His dad was in prison, rotting away, his mom was dead, hopefully in hell and now he was getting gifts like it was his birthday.

"It's okay Richie. Believe it or not, I love you too." Eddie teased. Richie really was going to cry soon.

"Me too."

"Me three!

"Don't forget about me"

"We all love you, Rich."

"N-no-one has told me that they loved me before." Richie told the others. "You're the first ones to ever tell me that."

"Oh, Richie."

And before the friends new it, it was time for Richie to go. Eddie, Mike, Ben, Beverly and Bill had to go home, leaving Stan and Richie together.

"Richie before you go, I need to tell you something important."

"What is it Stan the Man?" Richie smiled. It wasn't a real smile. Even Stan new this, he was just acting. A tiny voice in the back of Richie's head kept echoing the words;

(Lying! You're lying Richie! Tell the truth. Don't keep secrets, Oh, how many secrets are you keeping, Richie? How many? I know one for sure! It's your own dirty little-)

"Don't be someone else, Richie." Now what was that supposed to mean? "Be yourself, be proud." Richie's smile faltered. Did Stan know? Of course, he knew! He observes birds for a living! He probably observed Richie too.

"Thanks for the motivation, Stan. But I don't need it." Richie responded whilst getting on the train.

"I'm serious, Richie!"

And then, he was off on a new journey. A new journey- to Hawkins. And if anyone said that he cried on the first 3 hours of travelling, he would deny it.

-

After around 8 hours on the train, Richie realised that he hadn't even opened his friend's gifts yet. He opened the red one first, it was a packet of cigarettes and a picture of The Losers. He'll thank her for the stolen goods later. The yellow one was next, inside was a pair of sheep shears and a note that said- 'So you don't forget me.'.

After opening all the presents, all together he ended up getting:

. A lighter
. Pictures of The Losers
. Hand Sanitiser
. A notebook
. Cigarettes
. Candy, LOTS of it!
. A few notes which read; 'Hope you like my gift.' 'Hope you like it there more than Derry!' 'So, you don't forget me.' and an extra one from Stan, 'Be proud!'
. Shears
. Phone numbers
. A 50-dollar bill.
. Pens and Pencils

He wondered what he was going to do with the notebook, until he had an idea in mind. He grabbed one of the thick marker pens and wrote 'Nightmares' on the front of it. He loved all of them, especially Mike's wacky shears. He already missed the losers and he wasn't even halfway there yet.

'Yep' he thinks, 'I'm screwed.'

'Well at least I won't have to fight any monsters.'

Oh, how wrong he was.

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 6th -

Richie awoke from a horrible slumber; it was filled with clowns and red balloons. He took his 'dream journal' out of his bag and rested it on his lap and started to write every single detail about his nightmare in it.

When he realised that this was his stop, he grabbed all of his bags and carried them of the train. He walked onto the platform with tired eyes filled with much needed sleep. He looked around, wondering where the Wheelers were, until he heard the familiar-sounding, kind voice, his Aunt.

"Richie! Is that you?"

"Karen?"

As soon as he saw the beautiful women, known as Aunt Karen, he ran into a bear hug with her. It was warm and comforting. He never really hugged his friends, or his parents for that matter, so this was a rare experience for him.

Eventually, he pulled back, looked at the man standing next to his Aunt, and identified him as his Uncle.

"Ted?" He smiled; he always loved his Uncle. Ever since Richie was little, Ted would play board games with him and teach him some funny jokes, but this Ted looked worn out, he didn't even look happy. His eyes looked worn out and grey, a bit like he was

(floating)

dead. When Ted didn't seem to care or even notice his presence, his smile started to falter. 'What had happened to him? Did parenting really bore him out this much? Or was it something else?' Then a horrible thought came to Richie's mind, 'What if it was-'

"Mommy, 'o is this?" A small voice interrupted. When he looked back to Karen, she seemed to have a small child in her arms. She had two pigtails in her hair bright, blonde hair, and wore a cute, denim dress (cute, cute, cute!). She reminded Richie of his mother, don't take that the wrong way, his mom was very pretty. Everyone says so.

"This is your cousin, Richie, Holly."

"Hi, Wrichie!" His cousin, Holly, said to him.

"Well 'ello Princess Holly. You look abso-lutely bedazzling on this fine mornin'. Nice to meetcha." Richie conversed in a British accent. He shook her left hand with his right, as if they were having a business meeting. She giggled.

"Well come on. We better start be getting back for lunch." Ted announced with tiredness in his words. They all started to walk to the car before getting in and driving to Richie's new home for the time being.

-

When they finally walked into their destination, Richie took a big look at the first few rooms he could spot. They looked so... clean. It was the complete opposite of his old house, which was full of empty beer bottles, shattered glass and vomit... everywhere.

Karen put Holly in her high-chair and started to make many different types of sandwiches, egg, ham and cheese and tomato, whilst Ted was grumpily setting out the table with cutlery and plates.

Once they had finished what they were doing, ending up stacking all the sandwiches on top of each other in the middle of the table, Ted and Karen sat down on their seats, Richie decided that if he wanted to fit in with this family, he would have to follow their rules and instructions, so he sat down on a seat next to Holly.

Their was a consistent 'Stanley' voice in the back of his head echoing,

(Be yourself, Richie. Be proud. Be yourself, be proud. Yourself, proud. Proud, yourself. Be proud of yourself! Proud! Proud! PROUD!)

But he decided to ignore it.

"Nancy, Michael! Come down, lunch is ready!" Karen shouted.

Two loud footsteps were heard coming from the flight stairs... which came with a pair of two arguing siblings. But what were they arguing about? Well, you'll see.

"At least try and be kind to him!"

"No! We don't know if we can trust him!"

"Trust him? You trusted a girl you found in the woods, but you're not going to trust your own family!"

"W-well that's different!"

"How? How is it different?"

"Um, well, ugh."

"Exactly!"

"You don't have to be such a-"

"Um, hello." Richie waved. "What are you arguing about?" He interrupted. Personally, he didn't want to be involved in the quarrel, but he had a feeling he WAS their argument, 'I am, I am, I am." He thought. 'I've barely even spoke to them and I've already caused a problem.'.

"NANCY, MICHAEL! STOP ARGUING THIS INSTANT." Richie flinched at Ted's outburst. Back in his old house, that was the sort of attitude Richie's father gave him before, well, let's just say... pain.

When Richie heard a whimper coming from beside him, he turned around until he was face-to-face with a crying Holly. 'She mustn't like the arguing.' Richie concluded in his head.

"Shh, calm down and never fear, princess Holly. Your Lord and Saviour, Trashmouth Tozier, is here!" He whispered quietly, so that only Holly could hear, successfully making the younger girl stop crying.
and start to giggle.

After the arguing died down, the other two wheelers sat at the table too. Mike eyeing Richie carefully, whilst Nancy just rolled her eyes. Richie was already starting to think of nicknames for the poor unfortunate souls, apart from Holly, she liked her nickname.

"Hi, I'm-"

"Richie. We already know that!" Bowl Cut-Boy interfered. 'Rude, much?'

"Michael!"

"Sorry, dad."

Everybody sat in silence for a couple of minutes, leaving Richie to deal with his intrusive thoughts by himself, until the mini-Karen cleared her throat.

"Well, I'm Nancy, if you don't remember me."

'Finally. At least someone accepts my presence.' "Oh, I remember you, Nancy. How could I forget?"

(Forget, forget, forget. Oh, how could you forget, Richie? I bet you've forgotten a lot of things, haven't you? Like your dirty, little secret. Did you forget about that? Cause I remember, and I'd love to remind you!) A clown-like imitation of Pennywise echoed, (I can do many, many things, Richie. I'll make you remember things you've forgotten. I'll give as many diseases as I can. I'll haunt you forever, forever, forever. But I can't make you forget. Little Mikey-boy was wrong about that fact.) It sent shivers down Richie's spine.

-

Mike Wheeler was thinking of a plan to lure Richie into meeting his friends. He really didn't trust the taller boy, and wanted to confirm and confide about his suspicions with El.

"Richie do you want to meet my friends tomorrow? They might like you."

"Sure." Richie smiled.

And that's when Mike began plotting, 'I might be able to squeeze some secrets out of him if he felt more comfortable. Or maybe I could let him and El meet, and afterward, I'll make her use some of her powers to find out about his past. Yes! That's what I'll do.'

After a few months of losing her powers, Eleven finally found them again after hopelessly trying to crush a coke can. Her powers were really weak at first, she hadn't used them in a while, but they eventually got stronger. She can now find and look at people's pasts, can lift heavier objects, but not like before. She can't lift vans or cars, and the heaviest thing she can pick up is a table. But it's better then coke so she's happy.

-

What Mike didn't realise, were the consequences of looking at the past, as it changed the course of the future as well. Demo-Dogs and Demogorgons were never as powerful as this. Well, maybe the Mind-Flayer, but a lot of things have changed over the past 3 years. People have died, Buildings have been burnt and an old enemy, has gotten stronger.

And if you'd have asked, "Why did Richie have to make that promise to Pennywise?" He would've answered with, "I wanted to protect my friends." But what if that was IT's plan all along? Make The Losers club feel strong and special, when really, he was playing with them... like a puppet master and his dolls?

And nobody, not even Richie. Suspected THAT would've happened.

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 7th -

Richie, Mike and Nancy were at the front of the Byers house. Nancy was there to see her boyfriend, Jonathan, whilst the other two boys were here to see The Party.

It was day two of Richie coming to Hawkins after what happened to his parents, which he still hasn't told anyone about, and so far, he hated it. Everything was much cooler in Maine, here in Indiana, it was just so boring! There was practically nothing to do, and don't get him wrong, he knows that his old town is full of peodophiles and homophobes, but he actually had friends there, not here. Then he realised what was this feeling was inside of him,

He was lonely.

-

'This house looks... strange. To say the least.' Richie thought. It had a huge hole at the front of the home and long, uncut grass in the garden. He had least hoped that the inside looked better than the out.
Nancy knocked on the door a couple of times until someone would answer. As it turned out, the 'someone' was a nice-looking, pretty women.

"Nancy, Mike? You must be here for Will, right?" She asked. "Another Dungeons And Dragons campaign?"

"Actually, no. I'd like Richie to meet my friends. He's staying here for a little while." Mike responds.

"Richie? Who is he?"

"Oh! I forgot that you didn't know who he was. He's-"

"Right here, m'lady. Nice to meet ya." Richie spoke in a very bad British voice.

"Oh. Come in, come in." She insists. "And by the way, my name is Joyce. Joyce Hopper.

The woman, Joyce, moved beside of the doorframe, gesturing to the younger people to come in. As soon as they did, Nancy went to the kitchen, doing god knows what, whilst Mike dragged Richie through the long hallway, to, what Richie thought, was one of his friend's rooms.

-

As it turns out, Richie was right, it was one of Mike's friend's room. Apparently, his name is Will. No-one else had arrived yet. But, from what Will had told him, there were around four more people coming; Dustin, Lucas, Jane and Max. Each of them were losers, a bit like The Losers Club, it was what they were known for; Lucas was black, Dustin had a rare disease, Mike has a frog-face, Will was called a fairy- he could relate to that but he just frowned-, Max hung out with all of them, and Jane didn't go to public school.

It was silent in Will's room, until five loud voices rung throughout the halls and walked right into the room.

"Oh, you must be Richie."

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 7th -

"Oh, you must be Richie."

When Richie turned to look at the kids in the doorway. What he wasn't expecting, were 5 children AND an adult which actually looked he could've been their friend. Seriously! Richie never thought of the possibility that grown-ups could be friends with fucking fifteen-year-olds.

"Little Mikey-moo didn't tell me there was more of you."

"Mikey-moo?" Mike scoffed, "Is that the best you can do?"

"Oh!" Richie faked surprise, "So you want something better?"

"No! That is NOT what I meant!" Mike denied

"Hmm. Maybe Frog-face?"

"You can do MUCH better than THAT garbage!" A red-head scolded. He is pretty sure her name was Maxine, or some shit like that.

"Oh really? We'll see about that!" Richie challenged.

"You're on!"

Then they both turned to the side to face Mike and started screaming ridiculous nicknames and insults at him.

"Emo bitch!"

"Cricket head!"

"Shit stick!"

"Dick nose!"

"Hey! Do I get a say in this?" Mike interrupted.

"No!"

"No!"

-

After the endless bickering stopped, the man with great hair made them sit around Wills room and introduce themselves. Richie was already thinking about what new nicknames he could give them all. So many possibilities but so little time.

"-Derry Maine?"

"Huh?" Richie responds.

"I said, aren't you from Derry Maine?" Dustin asks annoyedly.

"Oh! Yes. Real shithole there, zero out of ten would not recommend."

"Why?" Lucas questions, "It can't be as bad as here, right?"

"Ha!" Richie laughs. "That is even funnier then ME joking about Eddie's mom!"

"I bet you won't think that when you meet Troy!"

"Troy? Who's that?"

"Troy is the one who bullies us." Will explained.

"You want me to beat him up for you?" Steve interjects.

"No! That would make you just as bad as him."

"I still don't think it's as bad as Derry."

"Have I not told you the time that he and his friend, James, was gonna rip out my teeth with a knife unless Mike jumped off a cliff?"

"Eh."

"Still? How? Was there a child-murderer on the loose or what?"

"You could say that."

"Wait, you're being serious?" Dustin questions.

"His name was Henry Bowers. He tried to cut his initials into my friend's, Ben's, stomach but-" He got cut off by all of the others asking questions.

"Is he alright now?"

“That would’ve make a killer scar!"

"Where is Henry now?"

"Why would he do that?"

"When was this?"

"Did he die?"

"When did you meet him?"

And of course, the creepy look that Jane was giving him. She hadn't talked to him since she first walked in. It was like she was analysing Richie.

"Are you just going to keep staring at me like you're a hawk and I'm your prey?"

"Huh?" Mike glanced across the room. "Hey! Don't talk to my girlfriend like that!"

Whoa! Girlfriend? How did that cabbage-looking boy, known as his cousin, get a girlfriend with HIS personality? Now that was strange! But Richie had seen Stranger things, like the sad, pitiful look that Will was looking at Mike with. Did he have a crush on Jane or something? Wait- That would be incest. Then why-

"Okay. Okay, take a chill-pill." Richie intercepted himself. "Well to answer some of your questions, Ben and I met when we were crossing the kissing bridge (lie), and me and my friends saw Bowers cutting him with his knife (lie), then the Bowers gang heard a cop nearby and ran away (lie), but it was really just me and friends (Another lie!) and we brought him to the pharmacy to help him."

"Teeth!" Dustin pointed at Richie whilst making a big hand gesture about his mouth.

"We know Dustin. Some bullies tried to cut out your precious pearls, but please, stop with the gestures! It looks like demonstrating a blow-job!"

"Eww"

"And as you rudely interrupted me, I wasn't finished." Richie continued, " Bowers was a suspect of killing over 20 children, some of his friends, and his dad. Oh! He tried to kill us too. But my friend, Mike, pushed him down a well." The others urged him to go on with wide eyes.

"AND, almost every adult supports homophobia, racism And pedophilism. Is that a word? Well they're all peodophiles anyway."

"Wow. You talk a lot!" Lucas mumbles.

"Tozier's the name, Trashmouth's the'"

He was interrupted, yet again, by Nancy poking her head through the door.

"C'mon Richie. We've got to go now."

"Well, see ya later ladies and gentlemen. I've got to be off." Richie waved whilst doing his British accent.

-

After Richie, Nancy, Jonathan and the rest, apart from Mike, Will and El, left, It was silence until Mike asked,

"Is he safe, El?"

"He's hiding something. Lying. Especially the meeting ben part."

"Well, can you... find him in the past?"

"Guys, I don't think this is a good idea-" Will whispered.

"Come on Will, don't you want to find out if he's lying? He could be dangerous!"

"Okay, fine." Will gave up. Usually he wouldn't, but he couldn't be bothered to have another heated argument with Mike. He can do whatever he wants.

Jane/El took out a piece of cloth she was hiding behind her back, and tied it around her head.

-

It was dark and wet in the void like always. She hated it. It reminded her of the upside-down and she didn't want to live through that again. She tried to focus on Richie. Just Richie. Nothing but Richie. Until two figures pop up in front of her. She couldn't see them properly but one looked like a young boy in a yellow slicker whilst the other one looked like a younger version of Richie. She couldn't really figure out what was being said, but they looked sad.

"'m so s'rry G'or'gy" Is the first part of what she could make out. She figured that the reason it looked very glitchy was because it was such an old memory. She wondered if Richie told anyone about this day which she was seeing.

"'ee?" A tiny voice asked. She assumed it was the boy known as G'or'gy, as Richie called him.

"'Te' Bi'ly I l'v'd h'm."

"I wi' k'd, I 'il."

The next part is what completely shocked Eleven. Richie stabbed him in the chest. In the HEART! Then the next part of what she was watching became easier to listen to.

"Richie..." A loud voice echoed through the void. It sounded demonic. Evil.

"If you tell anyone about this, Richie, then the deal is off."

Deal? What Deal?

Then, it felt like the void was crumbling. It was a strange feeling. It was like a weird earthquake, just without the earth. It was quaking.

-

Eleven pulled of the mask and out came the tears. What was happening? She knew one thing for sure, she wasn't telling anyone about what she saw. If what the loud voice was saying was true, then she 'the deal' is off. Whatever that means. She just hopes it wasn't an important one. But you can't take any chances.

-

Unbeknown to El, Richie felt the same quake surrounding him. Apparently Stan had too, Richie was calling him on the telephone. When Richie turned around after the shaking was over, he couldn't believe his eyes. It was a big, fat, red balloon which read the words,

Beep Beep Richie

And then, Stanley announced that he needed to take a bath.

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 7th -

After Nancy brought Richie home, he knew exactly what he was about to do. Call his friends! He forgot to phone them when he first got to the Wheeler residence as he was helping sort his (Nancy's) room out. He was going to go shopping with Mrs Wheeler tomorrow to find things to decorate it with.

He walked into his new home and went straight to the kitchen. "Hey, Aunty Karen, I'm going to go and call my friends, if that's alright?"

Mrs Wheeler put her coffee mug down on one of the counters and turned around to face him. She looked like she was calculating a big equation in her head, before she said, "Sure. But only two phone calls! We need to keep the line open in case of emergencies. I'll be upstairs if you need me."

'Which friends should I call?' Richie asked himself. 'Maybe Bev, she must be so lonely without her local Trashmouth there, and Stan. I've known in him ever since I was two.'

He reached his hand down to his pants pocket and took out the list of phone numbers. He typed in all the right numbers and waited for Beverly to pick up.

"Hello? Marsh residence." A familiar, calming voice stated.

"Hey Molly Ringwald. How's life been without little old me?"

"TRASHMOUTH! I've been waiting for your call ever since you abandoned us!"

"I didn't abandon you! I left you."

"Same difference. Anyway, life's been shit without you. Now I have to listen to Eddie complaining about me smoking without you." The red-head joked.

"That reminds me. I haven't smoked ever since I got on that train. It's time to relieve some stress." Richie told. "I almost forgot to ask but, how's your little crush going"

"RICHIE! Ben asked me out a few hours after you departed!"

"BEVERLY! That's great news! I'm so happy for you! How did it happen?"

"Well, I have to give you all the credit."

"Me?"

"Yes, you! Are deaf or somethin' now?"

"No. I'm not deaf. I just don't get how it was me. I didn't do anything!"

"You moved away."

"Huh?"

"After you moved away, Ben realised how easy it is to lose someone close, so he told me that it didn't matter if I loved him back or not. He wouldn't lose me, not ever!"

"Wait. If I back track a little bit- LOVED?"

"Oh, heh." Beverly felt embarrassed. She forgot to tell Richie that she moved past the 'like' stage. "Yes, I love him. I know we're young and dumb teenagers but I know what it feels like to love someone in that way."

Richie let the information sink in. Honestly, he wasn't that surprised. What he was surprised about, was the last thing Bev said was. It kept replaying in his mind. 'I know what it feels like to love someone in that way.' Richie always thought that he was on the same page with Bev, he though that she was a cooler and badass girl version of him. So if she loves Ben, that means that he loves-

"Oh shit."

"What? Hey! Don't ignore me! Richie fucking Tozier, don't think I won't-" He cut her off by putting the phone down.

"Well that was-" He says to himself, "-new information."

-

After a couple of minutes, and a few deep breaths, he worked up the courage to call Stan, or Stan-The-Man as Richie like to call him.

When Stanley did pick up, neither boy spoke after two beats, before,

"Um. Who's this?" The bid-obsessed boy asked.

"It is I, Richard Wentworth Tozier the first. Are you forgetting me already Staniel?"

Stan decided to ignore the nickname, "Richie! It's you! Also, I don't think that we will forget. Why? Are you?"

"Nope! Didn't forget about you guys one bit! In fact, I don't think I can."

"You're turning soft Richie."

"Yeah, like my big dick after I fucked your mom!"

"Richie. I swear to God-"

"You're Jewish."

"-that I'll chop your manhood off of your body."

"Well that was rude Staniel."

(Beep Beep Richie.) Richie heard Pennywise say in his head. Ever since they killed that awful clown, Richie had been sure he heard the clown talking to him.... through his mind, he hadn't told the other about it, he didn't want to worry them. But that's not possible, the clown was dead, wasn't it?

"No, Richie, I'm not." A frightening voice came from behind him. Richie turned around ever so slowly until he could clearly see the figure of his worst nightmare in the doorway. He dropped the phone so it was hanging on the cord. The lights started flickering, each time the lights came back on, it seemed as though the clown was coming closer.

"For three years-" Richie froze on the spot unable to move. "-I dreamt of you-" When did his breath start short-circuiting? "-I craved you-" A big shiver ran through his back. "I've missed you!" His legs were shaking. His fingers were twitching.

"Did you miss me, Richie?" He was now face-to-face with the monster, he let out a big gasp before shutting his eyes as tightly as possible.

"It's not real. It's not real. It's not-" The boy with glasses repeated.

"I'm not real enough for you, Richie? It was real enough for Georgie! But you know that don't you." Pennywise took a red balloon out from behind his back. "Remember, Richie, You wanted to keep your friends alive. Georgie didn't survive, we made a deal, someone found out and it's time to eat my meal."

Richie finally mustered up the will to speak, "B-but I didn't t-tell anyone! When will this end?!"

"Oh, Richie, Richie, Richie, you didn't have to tell anyone. And I'll eat you last. I'll watch you suffer until you can't take it anymore. I'll wait until you ask to die. Then it will be over!"

And with the flash of a few more lights, and what sounded like an earthquake, Pennywise was gone.

-

Stan heard everything. The clown was back. They didn't kill it last time! He didn't want to go and face pennywise or that scary lady again. He was still scarred. He needed to find a way of getting out of this mess. He was afraid, he was a coward, he was-

"Stan? Stan! You're there! Is everything okay?"

"Richie. The clown is back! I'm NOT OKAY!"

"Stan... I'm so so sorry. But please don't tell the others!"

Stan didn't know what to do. If he tells the others, he would have to go too. If he didn't, Richie is most likely to die, then again, the clown said he wanted Richie to die last. He didn't want to decide! Not now!

-

"Stan?" Richie asked again. What was Stan doing? He wasn't telling the others, was he? "Stan?" He repeated.

"I'm just going to t-take a bath."

And just like that, the line went dead.

- - - -

Pennywise was hungry. IT needed to eat. IT need to eat NOW! IT searched around Hawkins for children who could be put to good use, until he found one. His name was,

Troy Walsh

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 8th -

Richie had the weirdest dream last night. It was about a boy with brown hair that curled round the edges and a blue and white striped coat. If Richie were to be honest, the boy looked like an uglier version of Eddie. Because - well - Eddie was beautiful and no-one is prettier than him.

In said dream, Richie followed the boy, he didn't know why, and cornered him at, what looked like, Hawkins Middle School. That's when the dream becomes scary. Frightening. Eventful. In other words, it turns into a nightmare. 'Dream Richie' took a knife from... where did he get it from again? He forgot. Well, anyways, he gets out a knife and slices a strip through his neck. Eventually, the boy bled out and died.

That's when Richie woke up. He was still in his T-shirt from yesterday and... was that.... blood? Nah. It was probably the jam from the sandwiches he the other day. Wait. Did they have jam sandwiches? Richie doesn't know and frankly, he doesn't care either. He wrote it all down in his new journal.

Richie got dressed and tried, key word: TRIED, to comb his hair. Why? May you ask. Because he has to go shopping for things to decorate his room with with Karen. As soon as he walked downstairs, he was face to face with an angry Mrs Wheeler.

"Richard-"

"It's Richie."

"Why are you up NOW?" She asked fiercely. Honestly, Richie found her kind of intimidating. She reminded him of a nicer, kinder, better, sober Maggie.

"Um. Nobody woke me up?" He sounded unsure. His Aunt didn't seem to like that. She let out a long sigh.

"We're going now, anyway. You look... decent."

"Hey. What's wrong with my shirt?"

"I didn't say anything about your shirt."

"Yeah, well, you thought it." He snaps back.

-

Richie and Karen had been in the car for around 25 minutes. He was exhausted. Karen looked bored. And they both wanted to go back home.

"Are we there yet?" He asks for about the 7th time this minute. Karen doesn't usually like swearing but... Richie was getting on her fucking nerves.

"No. If we were, we'd be there!"

"I was just asking!" he shrugs and slumps down in his chair. "Where are we even going anyway?"

"The mall just opened up again. They have lots of different varieties of stores to look in."

"Yeah. I know what a mall is. Wait- did you say again? What happened to the last one?" Okay, so this town was finally getting interesting.

"Oh. Did I not tell you? The mall closed around a year ago due to a fire." She explains.

"I don't believe it."

"Why not? A couple of people died in it. You can read it in the newspapers in the library if you want proof."

"There are a lot of reasons why. I bet the mall was big-"

"What does that have to do with anything. And yes. It was big."

"-Then how did a fire spread that quickly without anyone noticing."

"No-one was there to call."

"I thought that you said a couple people died-"

"They did." She cuts him off.

"Well they can't have died straight away. They would've seen the fire. Run away. Called the fire brigade and be safe. Easy as pie. My friend, Mike,'s parents died in a fire. He told me that you can die within thirty seconds to four minutes whilst near the fire. They could've used that time to get away!"

"Well not really."

"Whatever you say, Aunty." He mutters. "Whatever you say."

-

Bill had told the other members of the Losers Club, besides Richie, to meet him at the Aladdin. They were going to watch 'Back to the Future'. None of them really had the money for it so they all made a plan to sneak in. When Bill says 'they' he really means 'Stan'. Much to the blondes misfortune, they all knew he was the most logical and could form a fool-proof plan. But of course, he was the only one who didn't want to come due to the trouble they can cause.

All of the Losers got here on time. Apart from the one they actually needed. Stan.

"Stan is never late. He should be here right now." The small hypochondriac squeals. "He is never late!"

"He didn't want to come. Maybe he's just chickening out." But not even Beverly sounded sure.

"Okay, let's go to his house. I'm sure he's fine. Probably reading interesting bird-facts." Ben suggests.

"Come on."

-

As it turns out. It was NOT fine. Bill wasn't sure he could feel anything. It felt like time stopped. Ben was crying. Bev was silently whimpering. Eddie was wheezing. hard. Mike was balling his fists in anger, not at Stan, but at himself. Bill was silent. Too silent.

But most of all. They were grieving, hard.

They lost two of their friends in approximately 4 days. In two completely different ways.

Stanley Uris was found dead on the 8th of November.

-

For the most part, the shopping was fun. Richie got to buy fresh posters for his walls, new bedding, new curtains and the worst of it.... new school supplies. He was supposed to be going into 12th grade soon. Well, he already had. In Maine. But his first time in Hawkins. Yay, I guess.

"Hey, Richard - Richie - if you want to stop now, we can go and get ice-cream from Scoops Ahoy." Karen asked.

"Scoops Ahoy? What's that?"

"It's an ice-cream store where Steve Harrington, Mike's babysitter, works." She explained.

"Wait. One) You mean big hair guy is Mike's babysitter? two) Mike has a babysitter? And three) Why the fuck are we getting ice cream in December?"

Long story short. She doesn't answer any of his questions.

-

A grumpy-looking Steve was standing by the ice-cream chiller (I don't know what to call it.) with a scoop in his hands. Richie thought he looked ridiculous in that sailor suit. It must be hard getting all the ladies wearing that! And he was arguing..... with, what looked like, a kindergartener?

"You said free ice-cream. For. Life!"

"I know I did! I'm not stupid."

"You say you know you did. I agree with you. You say you're not stupid. Might have to rethink that." She sasses.

And of course, when Richie sees and argument, he knows he has to but in and make someone's life much harder.

"So, What's going on here?" He asks.

"Richie? Well. Erica here, was promised free ice-cream from me and Dustin. NOT her friends."

And, seriously. That is the one of the most stupid arguments he's heard of. Well beside ones from the Losers club. But they don't really count.

"Well I think that you should give the poor children some ice-cream, Steve, don't be a shithead."

Steve looked wounded. Deeply. Richie can't say he didn't chuckle. "Wha- fine! You can get your free ice-cream."

-

"So, how come you work here, Stevie-Weevie?" Richie asked. "Work someplace cooler!"

"Well. Before the mall fire, I worked here because my dad wanted me to be responsible, whatever that means, and get a job. After the fire, I did actually work at Family Video but then it went out of business so I came back here."

"Nice life story, Man."

-

"Something's up with Richie, right?" Mike says to the other members of The Party. "The air feels weird around him. It feels-"

"-Unnatural." Lucas finishes.

"Yes. It's like he's keeping secrets from us!"

"Mike! He can keep secrets if he wants to. He isn't our friend, the 'friends don't lie' rule doesn't apply to him."

"He made Eleven cry!"

"She could've just seen something sad!"

"But... Richie."

(Hello, Party.)

"What the fuck was that?" Dustin asks.

(Oh! You want to know who I am?)

A tall, orange-haired clown come out of a dark corner of the room. "Well hello! It's nice to see you all for the first time."

Max was creeped out. A lot. "Who are you?"

"I'm Pennywise, the dancing clown! Nice to meet you... Maxine. "

Everyone seemed to still at this. A clown was in the room. He knew who they were. They were gonna die. All of these thoughts ran through their heads. Suddenly, the clown turned into a flower-looking creature. The Demogorgon. Almost every night, Will gets nightmares about that damn creature. So of course, naturally, Will cowers in fear. Dustin finds a bat next to the wall he was standing near. He grabs it and whacks it hard on the head. Eleven quickly used her powers while IT was distracted, to break one of it's arms. Normally, Pennywise can't get hurt... that much. But due to the weird-looking thing that he shapeshifted into, that rule didn't apply to him anymore. It stung like a bitch the way blood ran down into Eleven's mouth. Luckily for The Party, no-one seemed to be damaged when the clown decided to leave and vanish into thin air.

That voice, it sounded so much like the one which Eleven heard talking to Richie in her head. So that's what ITs name was.

Pennywise.

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 8th -

Richie liked Starcourt mall. It was fun. Richie had a really good time there. He even made Aunty Karen laugh.... THRICE! He was kinda upset that he already had to go back home. But he couldn't wait until his room felt like... him.

They had just arrived back at the Wheeler house. Richie remembers what happened last night. Frankly, he was still in shock after all. He keeps telling himself that it's not real. Not real. Not real. But maybe it was. That would mean someone found out what happened with Georgie.

That isn't good.

He decided to look through all the rooms in the house before he would go up to decorate. He didn't want his family to discover a demon clown in one of the cupboards or draws. Something which doesn't make sense though, is how Karen hadn't heard all the ruckus which was happening downstairs. Probably Pennywise- IT using ITs weird powers.

-

He was finishing up doing the poster on the wall when he heard...

"RICHIE! Someone's on the phone for you!" Ted called.

The phone. Shivers were already moving down his spinal cord. Trickling down. Down. Down into-

(The sewers)

his feet.

He rushed downstairs and grabbed the phone, angrily, out of Ted's hand. All the fear running through his body had quickly dispersed into anger. That stupid clown had ruined everyone's lives. And now it was back! He couldn't get a break, could he?

Ted didn't even spare him a second glance. He just walked away. Ready for his daily nap. He was tired and couldn't be bothered to deal with teenagers at the moment. He'd probably just lie down with Holly.

"HELLO? Who's this?" Richie asked the unknown caller.

"R-Richie..." Eddie? Why did he seem like he had been crying?

"Eds! Are you okay? You sound upset. I mean, I know you'd miss me, but not-"

"Something happened. Something bad."

"Wait. What? Who do I have to kill?" He obviously meant it as a joke. But if something did, in fact, happen to Eddie... in all seriousness, who WOULD he have to KILL?

"D-Don't joke right now ab-about k-k-killing!"

"What are you talking about, Eddie?"

"S-Stan h-h-he.... he t-tried to-to……"

"Come on, spit it out Eds."

"HE KILLED HIMSELF!" Eddie screamed through the telephone.

WHAT? Stan killed himself. But he wouldn't do that, would he? Oh god. Tears were already threatening to fall down Richie's face. He felt sick. He thought it was his fault. If Stan hadn't heard what happened over the phone. He would probably still be alive.

"E-Eddie."

"H-he wr-wrote to al-ll of us, R-Richie. Y-You'll p-p-p-probably g-get your l-let-ter t-tomorrow."

Richie dropped the telephone, fell on his knees and cried.

-

Mike had arrived home after Richie. Karen was in the kitchen, making food and Ted and Holly were asleep on the couch. When he saw that Richie wasn't anywhere downstairs, he rushed into the basement and read some of his favourite comics. He was half-way through one of the Batman ones when he heard a loud thud echo into the basement. He rolled his eyes, picked himself off the ground and walked over to where the sound was coming from.

When he saw his older cousin kneeling down with his head in his hands, his first thoughts were, 'Ha. Whatever it is. It's what he deserves.' until he realised that Richie was crying. Not once has Richie cried yet. Something BAD must've happened.

"Richie. Tell me what's wrong!" He mentally winced at his harsh words.

"Y-you d-d-d-don't care about m-me. Y-you're not m-my f-f-friend!" He looked up.

Mike sat down next to Richie, crossing his legs, and patted him on the back gently. He wasn't the best at comforting people. Especially people who he doesn't necessarily like.

"Rich. I know I shout at you a lot and stuff." He chewed his lip. "But I do care about you. Kind of."

"M-my friend, he k-k-killed hims-self... a-and it's all m-my fault!" That is when Richie's eyes met Mike's and he burst into a crying fit. He hiccupped so much, it seemed like he couldn't breathe. His initial thought was, 'Is that what Eddie feels like with his asthma.' but then he realised that Eddie didn't have asthma and it was just his mom lying to him.

Mike's eyes widened at the confession so much that it stung. "MOM!" He screeched. "COME HERE QUICK!"

-

Dinner was awkward. Richie wasn't touching his food. Ted wasn't looking at anyone in the eye. Karen was trying to comfort Richie. Mike felt sick. Holly didn't know what was going on, know-one was going to tell her. Nancy was practically living with the Byers and wasn't coming back.

"Richie... shh... it's okay, honey." Karen whispered. Not like it mattered anyways, it was so quiet that if you dropped a pin, you would probably be able to hear it from the next room.

"Everything is going to be alright." But would it? His best-friend, who he'd known since he they were both two, had just died!

"You're so brave." No, he wasn't. He was a coward. Being brave meant to be someone like Eddie or Bill. And he was nothing like them. He was just a stupid, stupid murderer like Henry Bowers. That thought made him angry. He was an asshole. A burden to everyone. His own parents had to hurt him to make him listen. His friends probably hate him. The Wheelers didn't even want him there it was all so frustrating! The band, which kept all of his thought in chronological order right, snapped inside Richie's brain.

He pushed the table away from him, bringing up as much strength as possible, launched out of his chair and ran into the bathroom. Locking the door behind him.

-

Richie stood in front of the mirror, anger visibly shown with the way he clenched his hands and furrowed his brows. He could hear Holly crying from all the way upstairs.

"I killed Georgie." He was stupid.

"I killed my mom." Did the world really hate him that much?

"I killed Stan." It felt like the world was ending.

"I couldn't even kill a fucking clown!" He was overwhelmed.

"I'll kill his friends." It's not safe to be around him.

"I'll kill everyone." And he can't even try to forget those damn words...

"You'll-" He started digging his fingernails into his hands.

"-float-" He tightened his jaw.

"-Too." He closed his eyes.

Then he let out a, clearly frustrated, scream.

"AARRGGHH!"

That's when all hell broke loose...

And the mirror smashed...

But there was still something wrong...

Because he didn't even touch it...

and blood was running out of his nose.

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 8th -

Richie stood in front of the mirror, anger visibly shown with the way he clenched his hands and furrowed his brows. He could hear Holly crying from all the way upstairs.

"I killed Georgie." He was stupid.

"I killed my mom." Did the world really hate him that much?

"I killed Stan." It felt like the world was ending.

"I couldn't even kill a fucking clown!" He was overwhelmed.

"I'll kill my friends." It's not safe to be around him.

"I'll kill everyone." And he can't even try to forget those damn words...

"You'll-" He started digging his fingernails into his hands.

"-float-" He tightened his jaw.

"-Too." He closed his eyes.

Then he let out a, clearly frustrated, scream.

"AARRGGHH!"

Then all hell broke loose.

The mirror in front of him smashed into tiny little pieces, each one getting stuck in his tired, pale skin. He finally felt red liquid dripping down his face. But it wasn't coming from the glass, it was coming from his nose. He opened his eyes, his expression looked shocked and confused. He felt it too. What had happened? It was like he did it with his mind. But that can't have happened! Could it?

When he heard knocking come from the door, 'Oh that's right, I locked it', he quickly grabbed as much toilet roll as possible and rub it all over his face and hands. What he didn't know, was that that he hadn't done a very good job at it because, when he opened the door to his Aunt, she stared in shock before running to go and find a med kit and tweezers.

-

Karen had knocked on the bathroom door a couple of times, she needed to have another talk with Richie. He wasn't acting quite right, but of course, who would react okay after finding out that you're best-friend killed themselves? It was a bit like the situation she was currently in, when she found out that her own sister was killed, nobody told her how or why. IT was stupid, honestly, why couldn't they tell her? Was it Government business like that Eleven girl or something more? She didn't want to delve too deep into things like that, she wasn't some cop like Hopper. She was Karen Wheeler... A loving, caring family women. She had to care for her family. That includes Richie too...

So, when he finally unlocked to door, she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. There was glass all over the floor and sticking in Richie's skin. Blood was still trickling down from the deep cuts. He wasn't smiling like usual. His lips were perched together in a straight line, he was squinting at her through his round, coke-bottle glasses. It looked as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing either. 'Well that makes two of us' she thought.

She ran out the door to the kitchen, where she grabbed the medical kit and came back into the bathroom. she pulled his wrist over to his room. She sat him on his bed and started using the tweezers she found to pull out each piece of broken mirror from him. He didn't utter a word until she asked,

-

"What in the world happened in there, Richie?"

"I was getting so angry with myself for leaving Stan. I should have been there for him when he need me. I'm a shitty friend. Because I wasn't there, he died. It was all my fault." Well. That part was true. He DID feel like a shitty friend. Not because he wasn't in Derry. He always hated it there. Because if he hadn't phoned Stan, he would still be alive now. Apparently, Stan had given each loser their own letter. His was supposed to come in the letter tomorrow. He couldn't wait to read it...

Anyways- he was getting of track- he had to think of an excuse to how the mirror shattered. It's not like he would say, 'I broke it with my magic mind-ability powers which I have no control of. Or even know if I'm just hallucinating and did it with my fist.' that wouldn't work. So he decided to say,

"I'm so sorry about the expensive-looking mirror. I don't know what came over me. I was just suddenly filled with rage and I-I smashed the glass with my hand. I wanted to break something and that was the only option."

"Richie! Please don't ever do that again. If you ever feel those feelings, come to me and I'll help you. You don't need to deal with this by yourself." She responded with.

He didn't know what to say. So instead, he started sob into her dress, silent tears rolling down his face. He had already lost so much already. He wouldn't lose any of the other family he had left.

She started petting his hair, like his own mother used to before she caught her drinking problem and started hitting him instead. The fear in young Richie's eyes when she laid her first-ever slap across his face. She had caught a five-year-old Richie playing in the mud outside her house with Eddie. He was splashing the hypochondriac with the dirt-water until Sonya came and screamed to her about how repulsive and troublesome he was behaving around her son. Oh how Richie hated that day.

And that was the very last thing he thought about before he went into a deep, deep sleep.

Long story short... he dreamt of Stan warning him about something. He couldn't remember what it was.

Little did he know, it had been too late.

Chapter Text

Dear Richie

If you've gotten this letter, it means that I'm gone and I'm not coming back. In other words, it means that I'm dead. I know that this must be hard for you, I was your friend after all. Do you remember the first time we met? In case you forgot, it was when me and my parents came to your house to welcome you to Derry. It was the day you first moved from Hawkins. Your parents seemed nice at the time, but people change. 

As time went on, we made more friends. Eddie, Bill, Mike, Bev and Ben. Some of us got smarter, some of us got Braver. But you, Richie, changed most of all. It wasn't even after the incident of IT when you differed from your usual self. And I know what happened.

Before I took my bath, something felt weird. It wasn't the pre-death feeling. It almost felt like... power. I closed my eyes, sinking the feeling in. But when I opened them again. I wasn't in the bathroom. I was in a dark space with shallow water replacing my tiled foor. That was when I saw something, something bad. It was you and Georgie beside the drain. I don't want to go into detail, in case someone else is reading this. But I know how he really died.

I saw everything. And I want to say that it's not your fault. Because it isn't. What you did was Henry Bowers-awful. If I'm being honest here, I don't think Bill would forgive you if he found out what you did. I think you would feel the same if he killed one of your younger siblings, if you had any.

I have so much more I want to say to you, but unfortunately my time has come. There is one more thing I want to sat to you before I end my life.

~

I've lived my whole life afraid. Afraid of what would come next. Afraid of what I might leave behind. Don't be! Be who you want to be. Be proud. And if you find someone worth holding onto, never, ever let them go! Follow your own path, wherever that takes you.

Think of this letter as a promise. A promise I'm asking you to make. To me. To each other.

An oath.

~

Sincerely, Stanley Uris.

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 9th -

BEEP

BEEP

BEEP

Richie groaned. That beeping sound wouldn't stop.

BEEP

BEEP

BEEP

He got and sat up on his bed. He couldn't drown the noise out even if he tried.

BEEP

BEEP

BE-

Okay! He'd had enough of that. Richie decided to keep slapping around until he found where it was coming from. As it turns out, it was an alarm clock. Why did he have an alarm again? He didn't even remember setting one. He was debating whether or not to go back to bed, until...

"RICHIE? Are you dressed yet? We're going to be late!" A very loud Mike screamed through the other side of his door.

Wait. Why would he need to get dressed. What day was it...

'So if Saturday I met The Party-' Richie thought, 'And Sunday I went to the mall, that means that today is...'

Monday!

He scrambled from out of his bed, getting tangled in his sheets in the process, and yanked open his dresser draw. He needed to get dressed. Quick!

- - - -

"Richie?" Karen asked. "There is post for you on the-"

"Thanks Karen. Can you put it on my bed for when I get back?" The boy requested.

"Oh, sure. I have a surprise for you on the porch."

"Thanks. Bye."

-

"What took you so long?" Mike asked, sitting on his bike.

"I woke up late and didn't realise what time it was. Your mom said that she had a surprise for me. Can you move out the way so I can see it."

Mike rolled his eyes but took a step to the right anyways. Behind him was a shiny, new bike. Richie let out a surprise squeal, full of happiness. Karen and Ted bought him a bike!

"Mom said it was an early Christmas present. She thought that you didn't want to ride in the car anymore then you had to. Now I have to show you where school is, so you better follow me." The glasses less boy told Richie before riding off.

"Lead the way Sir Michael the first. It is time to start our quest to find the Hell-Palace! ONWARD." Richie screamed in a medieval-British voice.

-

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 9th -

Eddie couldn't stop running. He's ran 79 laps around the Barrens. He's ran in circles, squares and almost every other shape there is. He just can't stop! It doesn't help either that literally no-one else is here.
Until, Mike comes out of, almost, no-where and blocks Eddie in his path, the smaller boy stumbling down, flat on his back. The taller boy, unaffected.

"Mike?" Eddie asks, rubbing his head. "Where did you come from? And how did you stop me from running?"

"No time to explain! You need to come with me. Something has happened to the others."

"But what about school? WHAT WILL MY MOMMY SAY?"

"Eddie. This is more important."

-

"WHAT THE FUCK?" Eddie screeched when he and Mike finally made it to the farm. He looked around the attic, it was CHAOS! Bill was sitting on a haybale, different small objects floating around him. He looked shocked out of his mind. Beverly was standing beside one of the walls, a ring of fire surrounding her. Obviously, the fire was fake, it didn't seem to spread and wasn't hurting anyone. 'Ben was- wait. Where was Ben?' That was a question Eddie was asking himself repeatedly before setting eyes on random furniture, seemingly moving by themselves. At least that's what Eddie thought until he hurt the constant whines of Ben. It sounded as if he had stubbed his toe.

"Ben." Eddie asked, "Where are you?"

"Why does everyone keep asking that annoying question? I am right here!" Ben's voice echoed from another part of the room.

Mike looked at Eddie dead in the eyes before telling him, "They've been doing this ever since they woke up, apparently. Bev has been followed by fire, Bill's been floating things, Ben has been invisible, I've been able to push and pull things without ease, not even breaking a sweat, and-"

"I've been running ever since I woke up. Wait. Are you telling me that we've got superpowers?" When Mike doesn't answer, Eddie's breathing picks up. "WE DO! OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY G-"

"EDDIE!" Bill screams. "YOU'RE GIVING ME A HEADACHE AND I DON'T THINK THAT WILL GO WELL WITH WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING!"

Then Ben becomes visible again, "Oh thank god." He states happily before he turns invisible once again. "NOT AGAIN!"

"This is going to be a long day." Eddie says to himself. Then, Ben walks into the wall he's been near. "Yep. Today is going to be-"

-

"-Fucking awful."

It was time for lunch at Hawkins High School. Richie's last teacher had been bitching to him about interrupting her lesson. So when the bell went, Richie went to her desk and gave a fat, sloppy kiss onto her cheek before running outside. He was standing under a tree right now, having a cigarette and talking to himself. He always seems to do that nowadays. He thinks it's because the only company he's been having is himself. 'God. Being sixteen is awful.' Richie thought as some girls passed by him, giggling. He rolled his eyes.

-

He closes his eyes for a few seconds and when he opens them again, he's not at school. He's in a weird shattered looking place. It's like glass. It's like the mirror he had been looking into yesterday. He turns around so he's facing the other way and he sees... a cabin. Why would a cabin be in someplace like this? Richie doesn't care, he just walks up to front door before pushing it open and to his shock, Mike's girlfriend was there. She was sitting n the couch next to, what Richie presumes is, her dad. He tried to listen to their conversation.

"Something's off about him, dad." So he was right, it was her father.

"Why? Have you seen something?"

"Kind of. I forgot." She lies. "I was in the void when I saw him with this boy by the sewer." Richie froze up. She was the one who found out. He wishes he could say it was her fault but deep down, he knows that it's his for making that deal with the stupid clown. "I don't remember anything after that." Jane carries on.

"That doesn't mean somethings off about him. You're being paranoid. Probably from the Mind flayer business but-"

"Paranoid?"

"-If you really have a bad feeling about him, I'll try to do some research on him. Okay?" The man in the sheriff asks. His badge name was Hopper. "Now. I think we should go back to doing school work. Don't you?"

Then, she looks over Hopper's shoulder and looks at Richie dead in the eye, before she turns away.

-

Then he opened his eyes and he was back at school. He felt something dribbling down his face, so when he touches it to investigate, he finds blood running down his nose. Like yesterday. Something feels off. He looks outside the school gate to see a women putting up a missing poster. When Richie decides to read the distanced words, he gets a big jolt of unhappy surprise. Because the boy on the poster's name is Troy Walsh.

He blacks out.

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 10th -

Eleven had been through a lot. Dr Brenner, Billy, Demogorgons, Demodogs, The Mind-Flayer. But they all had something in common, they were all monsters. Some human, some not, all evil. That's why, when she sees Richie sitting on Will's bed, of course she gets paranoid. Or at least that's what Hopper tells her.

So, you could easily guess how surprised she was when she feels his presence in her cabin. It was strange. A couple of days ago, she saw something with Richie at the void. But the problem is, she can't remember what happened, exactly. The only thing she can remember, is being in the void, watching Richie hunch over a small boy, promising to take him to the hospital. That's it. Although she can't remember what happened next, she can still feel how the two boys' felt. They were sad, shocked and scared.

As soon as his presence disperses, she goes back to doing her school work. Hopper likes to give her questions on a big chalk-board and she'll answer them in a notebook he bought. Last night he told her that next year, he'll let her come to public school, she's been excited ever since.

When Hopper walks off in his uniform to go to work, clearly expecting her to do the rest by herself, he waves her a goodbye and that's when Eleven starts investigating.

-

She was walking through the broken void, searching for Mike's cousin. She successfully found him at Hawkins High School. He was wiping his nose for something; she doesn't notice what it was in time though.. And reads the scared look on his face when he turned around to the missing child poster. It read Troy Walsh. She's kind of glad he went missing. She hopes he isn't dead, though. No child should have to suffer through that.

Then, he blacked out. That's when fear started to consume her. She kept asking herself millions of questions.

Was he dead?

Is he okay?

What happened to him?

Did he faint?

The worrying stopped once she saw him twitch.

Then the void shattered just a little bit more.

She left quickly after that.

-

Eddie was nervous and scared. The losers had set up some old glass bottles on one of the farm's fences. After Mike had finally got the others to calm down, they all agreed that they needed to learn how to control them.

Beverly was up first. She moved her hands in front of her, ready for what's about to come, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. A large flame surrounded her once again, before shooting off into the distance, missing every single cup.

"It's okay, Bev." Mike told her. "You won't be able to do it straight away. You only just realised you had powers this morning."

She tried again. And again. And again. She was starting to get frustrated. Why couldn't she knock any of the bottles down? That's when all hell broke loose and fire started spitting and oozing around her. But then, it stopped. Everyone started to get confused. She still looked angry, it couldn't be over now. Until, something poured down from the sky, it wasn't rain. Lights. Beautiful, blue, shiny orbs. They didn't seem to hurt or interact with anyone. It was just... there.

When Eddie turned to look at the others. They each had a different expression. Bill's smile full of pure wonder. Ben's proud eyes glistening at his girlfriend. Mike's hands, covering up his look of glee. Beverly just looked confused, as did he. What was happening? It was like a distraction. 'Strange.' Eddie thought, 'Richie would of-"

Richie.

He missed the other so much. Stan too. They would have loved this. Stan would probably pretend that he didn't find it entertaining whilst Richie would have been making disgusting 'your mama' jokes and weird-sounding accents. Eddie always secretly loved the voices he did. Don't tell Richie that.

Everything was all interrupted when Mike said, "Alright. Who wants to go next?"

-

Richie woke up staring at a white ceiling. When he craned his neck to look around, he realised it was the nurse's office. Why was he lying down? What happened? Then it all came rushing back to him. The missing poster, the dreams, well. Nightmares he's been having, and him blacking out.

There didn't seem to be a single nurse in sight. When he looked out the window, the sky was starting to turn dark and other high schoolers were going home. He jumped out of the hospital bed and ran through the corridors. Something felt off. He turned towards the lockers. That's when he saw it. The clown. IT was wearing ITs usual attire with a red balloon in ITs right hand.

"Hiya, Richie." IT stated. Richie started walking backwards, trying- and failing- to get to the school's front door in time. "Fancy seeing you here."

"Oh shit."

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 10th -

"Oh shit."

ITs gloves disperse into thin air, IT's hand morphing into a hairy paw whilst IT's nails started expanding into long, lengthy claws. He still hadn't gotten over that werewolf movie he watched at the Aladdin with Eddie. It was so scary. He wouldn't tell the others that, of course. Well- he could if he made it out of here alive.

"Richie, Richie, Richie" The dancing clown tutted. "Still haven't gotten over your fears, have you?" IT was coming closer and closer every second.

Richie shut his eyes and covered his hands over his ears. He repeated the words that he never really started believing in two years ago. "IT's not real, not real, not real. NOT. REAL!" When he opened them again, the clown wasn't anywhere to be seen. IT was probably all in his head. It must have been!

-

Mike had waited outside the school for God knows how long. Why was Richie taking so long? His friends had long-ago abandoned him. They wanted to get home as soon as possible.

It felt like Richie was ruining everything for Mike, he was just so difficult to be around with his your mom jokes and voices, which weren't even that good! Why had the world decided to punish him? And why now? He can't help but feel as if it's got something to do with that clown he saw the other day. Maybe he should talk about it with Will. Yep, he probably will.

Then, as soon as he got tired of waiting, Richie finally decided to show up. Before he could utter a single word about the other being late, Richie had already jumped on his bike, speeding onto the distance.

What was going on?

"Hey, wait up!" He called before hopping on his own bike and chasing after his cousin.

As soon as they side-by-side on their bikes, the first thing Mike notices about Richie is that he's covered in blood. The creepiest thing was, Richie didn't seem to have any cuts or scratches on him. It was almost like it was someone else's.

"Why are you so late?" He asked. Richie just shrugged. Okay, he was seriously confused now. And Mike hated being confused!

"I didn't realise what time it was until it was too late." The taller male answered with.

That didn't seem believable at all! He surely would have heard the bell. And he heard rumours of Richie skipping class. He didn't really seem like the bad-boy type, even though he was starting to act like it. The air felt strange. Did it always feel this way?

"Why is there blood on your T-shirt, Richie?"

Richie glanced down for a second, his eyes widening in surprise. Did-did Richie not know about the blood? Maybe he's just pretending? That's probably it! Gosh, he seemed to be thinking that a lot recently,

probably

probably

probably

-he could feel it dancing on the tip of his tongue.

"I-I don't actually know. Maybe I blacked out? I woke up in the nurse's office."

-and WAIT WHAT? He went to the nurse's office? Covered in blood? That didn't make any sense at all! It wasn't tiny speckles of blood, it was like someone through a whole, filled up bucket on him. He looked like if a water fountain had a period!

"I don't really want to talk about it." The curly haired buy mumbled.

-

Mike had spent so much time thinking about Richie that he hadn't known when he had finally arrived at his house. As soon as he saw said-teen walking through the door-frame, he ushered his way inside, running down the stairs of the basement.

He sat on the crumpled, old couch, grabbed his walkie-talkie and turned it onto a random channel. He needed to have a quick rant to Richie about anybody! Immediately. He feels like he's going crazy.

"Hello?" Steve. Why did it have to be fucking Steve of all people! Wait a minute - since when did Steve have his own walkie-talkie and when did Mike agree to let him join the party? The first name that came into his head was Dustin's. Of course, it was.

"Hey Steve." He replied weakly. He did say anyone.

"Mike? What's the matter with you, shithead?"

"Just thinking, can I host a Party meeting at your house tomorrow after school?" He crossed his fingers.

"First, tell me what it's about. I want to know what I'm hosting my house up for!"

Mike thought Steve was really annoying.

Really

Really

REALLY

Annoying.

"I want to talk about what happened at Will's house. Something strange happened."

"Yeah, I know, dipshit. I was there!" Mike could feel the eyeroll Steve was giving him. Honestly, it had happened too many times to care at this point.

"I think it has something to do with my cousin-"

"Hold on, you mean Richie? What has he got anything to do with this?"

"I was explaining it to you! Don't interrupt me!" He huffed, "As I was going to say, -The clown shows up a couple days after Richie comes to stay with us. It can't be coincident! IT probably followed him from Derry."

"You know what. You sound like Murray and his stupid conspiracies!"

"But all of his conspiracies were true! You're technically saying that I'm right!"

"Shut up Wheeler. And I don't care about your meetings!"

"You're the one who asked!"

"And now I wish I didn't."

"Steve, why do you have to be such a-"

-

Richie was standing outside the basement door, listening to every word they said. And - they had seen Pennywise too! - that means it's not just in his head! That makes matters so much worse! Nothing made sense anymore!

He knows what he has to do. Call his friends. He needs to warn them. They may as well get a heads up if a demon clown is coming their way. He tried every house number, nobody answered - except Mike -. He and Mike weren't necessarily best-friends. Sure, they hung out. That didn't mean they were BFF's. Everyone in The Losers Club had a best-friend; Stanley was Richie's, Bill is Eddie's, Mike is Bill's, Ben is Mike's, Richie and Bill are Beverly's and Beverly is Ben's.

Stanley Uris

Richie misses Stan more and more every day. Richie lost his best-friend. It didn't help that he felt guilty. He feels like it's his fault Stanley died. If he hadn't made that deal with IT, none of this would've happened, but if he didn't make this deal, all his friends, and Georgie would be dead. He was so conflicted.

-

"Hello?" Mike asked for what felt like the fifty-first time.

"OH! Mike, it's me, Richie."

"Mike took a quick glance at the others. They seemed distracted enough not to bother this phone call. And he missed Richie. Who wouldn't? Sure, he had a big, fat Trashmouth. But that didn't matter to the others. It's part of him they all hope he will never change. Especially Eddie. They still go into fights but they mean well. Plus, Mike can see the pure glee in Eddie's eyes whenever he talks to the untameable-curled hair boy.

"Richie! It's nice to hear your voice."

"That's what your mom said last night."

"My mom's dead."

"So's mine but here we are." And then it was awkward silence. It felt like an eternity had past before Richie interrupted the quietness.

"Mike. IT's back, I need you to come to Hawkins. Not just you, the others too."

"This has to be a prank, Richie." He was met with silence. "RICHIE! STOP PLAYING CAMES WITH ME!"

"I-I'm not. I'm sorry." The recent outburst made all of The Losers Club come inside to see what all the ruckus was about in the barn. "I wish I was, Mikey."

"IT can't be back." Mike whispered. The others froze in shock. IT. IT was back.

"Muh-muh-Mike, tell me Richie's luh-lying!" Bill choked out.

"It's impossible." Bev Said to herself.

While everyone else was occupied, Eddie let out a long giggle. They all turned to look at him.

"What's so funny, Eddie?"

"You're really believing the Trashmouth! I guess I don't know how gullible you are! It's probably a prank - it has to be!"

"Eddie." Mike spoke softly. "I don't think it's a trick." Eddie stopped laughing, the 'prank' didn't seem so funny anymore.

"What are we going to do?" Bev asked their unspoken leader. Aka Bill.

"We're going to Hawkins."

-

Richie shoved the phone on its stand, cutting the line.

The Losers Club are coming to Hawkins.

Why does everything always seem to be so messed up?

It was just, so-so stupid!

He slid down the wall slowly with his head in his hands.

It was all his fault.

The clown was back.

He was scared.

His breathing started to become heavier.

His friends are going to die.

His family were going to die.

Everyone was going to die.

HE was going to die.

Then, Richie heard a loud crashing noise. He took his head out of his hands, stood up and walked over to the dining table. It was a vase. It was smashed. He turned around. Karen was in the living room. How had they not heard it?

The light started flashing.

He ran upstairs.

-

Richie was even more confused than before. Did-did he have powers? But that can't be it, could it? It would make sense. Maybe they need them to defeat pennywise. The Losers Club didn't do it last time. Wait- if Pennywise was supposed to come back every twenty-seven years but only came back after three, shouldn't IT be exhausted? Something wasn't right here!

He looked at the clock, It was nine pm. How long had passed?

Richie yawned. God, all this thinking is making him tired! How were Mike and Ben so smart when they had to deal with this? It must take lots of practise.

When the tired boy pulled back the covers, ready to go to sleep, he noticed a green envelope sitting against his pillow.

Stanley's letter to him.

He forgot about that.

Richie sat down onto his bed and opened the letter addressed to him. He can't believe what he's doing. Reading his best-friends very last words he wrote. He scanned the letter, some words burning into his head, through his skull and making their way to be attached to his brain.

Gone and not coming back.

People change.

Felt like power.

Dark space.

Shallow water.

Richie stopped reading for a second, he tried to think back to where he's seen something like that before. Wait- was Stanley talking about the void he visited earlier today? So, it wasn't just him! He started to read again.

Saw everything.

Don't think Bill would forgive him.

Before I end my life.

Be yourself, Be proud.

He started to feel long, warm tears make way over his pale skin from out his eyes. His best-friend was dead. He didn't quite believe it before. He gave a long hard sob. That's when, he started to hear footsteps outside of his bedroom door.

"Richie? Is that you?" Gave a very concerned feminine voice. When he didn't answer and his cries became louder, Karen said, "Alright, I'm coming in."

-

Karen was downstairs in the living room when she heard it. Crying. It wasn't Holly. It couldn't have been, she was sleeping on Ted's lap in his seat. It wouldn't have been Mike, he doesn't really cry that much. The only other person left would be Richie.

She walked up the stairs, what was going on with that boy? She knocked on the door loudly.

"Richie? Is that you?" She asked. No-one answered. "Alright, I'm coming in."

When she finally opened the door. She was face-to-face with a crying Richie. He looked so sad. He had the letter, which she was told to put in his room, in his hands. Karen didn't want to read it so she left the envelope closed.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"It's-it's my f-f-f-fault!"

"Oh Richie" She walked towards him. "It's not your fault."

"It fuh-fuh-feels like it is! If I hadn't of left, none of this would've happened!"

She started stroking his cheek. "It's going to be alright. Try and get some sleep."

He pulled back the covers and started to shuffle himself into a comfortable spot and closed his eyes.

-

Richie was too tired to deal with his feelings, so he did what his Aunty asked. He pulled back his covers and started to get in a comfortable spot. When he finally closed his eyes, she kissed his forehead in a lovingly matter.

"Goodnight." She whispered to him in his ear.

He didn't know what came over him, maybe it was the tiredness or the confusion, probably both, he had no control over his words.

"Goodnight, mommy."

Before he fell into a nice, sweet sleep, Karen turned off the lights in his bedroom and said the words he wishes his mother had said to him,

"I love you."

He fell asleep with a single-shed tear rolling down his face.

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 11th -

Karen was at the table, eating breakfast, when Richie came and plopped down on one of the seats in front of her. She recalled the events of last night. He had called her mommy. That was a big deal to her. It was weighing on her like a- a mountain of rocks laying at the top of a mountain, if someone were to cause one simple slip-up, they would lose everything. But the thing is,

She already had.

-

It was one night in a random bar, when she had met him. She can't remember his name. What she does remember though, is that she was caught cheating on her husband that very day. In her own bed. Things had never been the same between her and Ted after that. They both agreed that it happened because she was drunk. But she did it again, again, again, again and again. Until there was no more use of even talking. Initially, they were going to get a divorce, but then Mike and, after few years after, Holly came into the picture. Karen knew that Mike was Ted's child. She wasn't too sure about Holly.

But deep down, Karen knew she loved Ted with all her heart. He was just difficult sometimes.

-

Richie grabbed one of the breakfast bowls filled with cereal, and started eating. He was so lost deep in thought, in fact, that he didn't notice Karen's concerned stares. He was just so upset with everyone and everything. He missed his friends, he missed Stan, he missed his mother. You're probably wondering why, but she used to be nice, loving and caring. He missed her warm hugs whenever he would have started crying. He missed her gentle touch when he would have grazed his knee. But nowadays, those memories are vague. It's all they are.

Mike seemed to have noticed all the awkward glancing and cleared his throat, "I heard that, this year, Mr Clarke has decided to quit his job." Karen was quite shocked by this, she responded with a weak 'oh'. He loved his job! Why would he quit? 

Richie was confused. "Who the fuck is Mr Clarke?" He asked.

"He was my old science teacher." responded Mike. "Apparently, he wants to take a new challenge in his life and teach high schoolers." He turned to Richie with some sympathy, he was trying to start being nice to him, and said, "He's actually really cool. You should probably wish that he's one of your teachers."

"How can a teacher... be cool?"

"You had no cool teachers in your old school?"

Richie snorted. "The teachers in my old school were just like any other ordinary adult in Derry Maine. They were all peodophiles."

"Richard!" Karen scolded.

"What? I'm being serious!" He looked around, as if scanning the room, and put a hand to the side of his mouth like he was whispering something, and said, "I heard that one of my old P.E teachers spied on the girls in their locker room while they were getting changed."

"Ew! Richie, no-one needs to know that!" Mike complained in pure disgust.

"Well it's true, isn't it?" When no-one answered him, he repeated himself, "Isn't it?"

"Oh, just shut up, Richie!"

-

Richie came to class a few minutes late, because of this, he was forced to sit at one of the front desks. The place where all eyes were on him. Nobody wanted to sit there. He guesses that that's why he did. Another fact, was that Mr Clarke was his teacher and if Richie were to be honest, Clarke was not cool. He was too weird, too happy and too... scientific. It was like he was trying too hard to get friends, no matter the age. But to be honest everything, surrounding Richie nowadays, felt too everything.

Every single conversation, every single movement and every single- ugh! Richie felt so confused, so unhappy. The world felt like it was running ten miles a minute while he was still catching up on the very first seconds. Sometimes- sometimes he wishes he could just end it all.

He banged his head on the desk. 

He shouldn't think like that. He shouldn't want to do something like that. But the thing was, he did. He wants to grab the razor and slice open his skin until it bleeds out. like Stan did. He always looked up to Stan; Stan was selfless and brave. He was none of those things. he was selfish, he wanted everything to himself. He wanted his life back in order. He was a coward. He runs away from situations until someone else had sorted it out.

 Richie groaned.

(You wanna float, Richie? Oh, I bet you do! You wanna float like Stan, mommy and... Georgie. Well I could make it easier for you! You could help me make all your friends float. Float. Float. Float.) 

Richie froze on the spot. Pennywise wasn't in school, was IT? What was he thinking? IT could be anywhere! IT could be in fucking Russia for Christ sake!

"And that's why- Richard? Are you okay there?" Richie looked up at the concerned teacher, before running out of the classroom to throw up his breakfast all over the floor. God, he felt so disgusting these days.

-

Dustin was sitting in one of his English classes doing his work, until he looked up to the window he was sitting next to when he saw Richie, running by... and throwing up. He had no time to register what he was doing, until after he sprinted out the room to help Richie with whatever problem he's facing.

He was lying down on the floor when Dustin came up to him, "Hey. Justin. What are you doing here?" He asked drunkenly on vomit.

"My name's Dustin with a D."

"Oh. Sorry." He smiled sheepishly. "I've just been really off recently."

"Hey buddy, are you okay?" asked the 'toothless' boy. "What happened."

"It's-It's fine. It doesn't matter."

"Well it does if you vomited because of it. Wait- you're not pregnant, are you?"

Richie laughed at the joke. Dustin seemed nicer than any of the other friends that Mike had. Apart from Will, but he seemed a bit shy.

"No. I'm not pregnant. It's about my friend, something happened to him and it's kind of sinking in just now."

"Oh." Was all Dustin said before asking gently, "Can- can I ask what happened? If that's okay with you, of course!" 

"It's-it's my friend Stan. He died a couple of days ago. -"

"It's okay Richie, you can cry, you know."

And that is when the dam broke. "H-he k-killed himself- and it was al-l-l my fault-t." Richie cried with a face full of tears.

"Oh, Richie. It's going to get better! I promise!"

"And how would you know that?" he sobbed.

"My dad died when I was little. I can't exactly remember when- I'm pretty sure I was around three years old."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Richie. Is there anything else you need to say?"

"I-I wanted to kill m-" 

Richie didn't need to finish what he was going to say. Dustin knew what he meant. He felt a bit like that too when he was small. when people close to you pass away, it does the most unexplainable things to people.

"Come on, Richie, we can go to the front office to get you home."

"Thanks Dustin. You're a good friend."

friend

Richie has a new friend. 

Maybe- just maybe- today wasn't as terrible as Richie thought it would be.

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 11th -

Richie was at the front office with Dustin, his new friend, trying to get the assistant to let him go home. She believed that just because he was sick once, doesn't give him the right to leave whenever he wanted. Eventually, she gave in to Dustin's rambling and threats and called Karen to pick him up.  
"Richie?" The assistant asked. "Your mother is here to pick you up."

"M-my mom?" Wait-how can his mom of picked him up from school? She's dead, isn't she? Well. He killed her so she must be! The only other person left, is, "OH! You must be talking about Karen!"

The assistant nodded. 
"Yeah, she's not my mom. My mom died in- in a car accident." He lies 'smoothly'. 
"Oh. I'm sorry for your loss." She doesn't sound it. "Come through the door on your right."

-

"So, why did the lovely office-lady call me from home? She only told me about 'an incident' in the hallway. Nothing else." Karen interrogated.

They were both in the car, on their way home, Karen driving and Richie sitting in the right front seat. Karen was questioning Richie about school and other personal things, until she decided to move on to the real subject at hand.

"Do I have to talk about it?" He moaned.

"Yes." She put-it simply.

"Ugh! Fine! I was in class when I... started thinking about Stan."

"Stan? You mean the friend that um- passed away?"

"Mhm."

"Oh. Do you want to talk about it?"

He didn't answer.

"Richard?" She asked.

Again, no answer. 

"RICHARD!"

"FINE! YOU WANT ME TO TALK? I'LL TALK! MY BEST-FRIEND DIED A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO AND I CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT IT! I LOVED STAN LIKE A BROTHER- STILL DO! BUT IT'S THE ONLY THING PEOPLE ARE TALKING TO ME ABOUT. I WISH- I just wish people would treat me normally." He cried.

Karen scolded the younger boy's outburst before stopping the car on the side of the road to give him a quick hug and a kiss on the head. "It's going to be alright!" She said calmly. "Everything will be just fine. Do you want to talk about something else?"

He nodded.

"Well, what about a driver's licence? You must want one of those! You could drive around wherever you wanted too- In Hawkins of course."

"W-well I do l-like that idea. Do you th-think I could?"

"Of course, you can! Maybe we can get you one next year. How would that sound?"

Richie smiled. "That sounds great Aunty. Thanks for being here."

"Of course. Now let's get home. You don't have to tell me anything that you don't want to. Although I would rather you do."

-

After they got home to the wheeler house, Richie went straight into the upstairs bathroom. He didn't do anything but look in the mirror at himself, staring, staring, staring. Not particularly sure what he's doing.

(Richie.) A deep voice said. (Look at me.)

"Who are you?" Richie asked the unseen voice. "Where are you?"

(Look into the mirror, Richie.)

He did what the voice told him to and looked in the mirror to see... himself- but not. His reflection looked like him, except the fact that he had two red lines coming down from each side of his- white-painted skin. He looked like a mixture of himself... and IT. 

(Touch me)

As soon as Richie placed his hand on the mirror, he felt lightning coursing through his veins. Suddenly, his arm felt heavy, so he let it fall down to his side. He grabbed his wrist tightly, wincing at the pain. 

After he opened his eyes, as the pain unmistakably vanished, and looked in the mirror, he saw something which haunted his dreams almost every night,

The yellow eyes.

Except the fact that the eyes weren't on his worst enemy,

They were on him.

-And he couldn't stop feeling...

He felt hungry.

He felt thrilled.

He felt powerful.

He felt... 

Evil.

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 11th -

He felt hungry.

He felt thrilled.

He felt powerful.

 
He felt...  

Evil.

That's when he realised what was happening and gasped in shock. He touched all around his face, feeling the strange substance which was stuck, like glue, on his white-painted face. When he touched the marks, which were leading from the top of his eyes and coming into both sides of the mouth, it stung... a lot.

"Richie!" Karen shouted from downstairs. "I made sandwiches for lunch so you better come down and eat something- it should be around lunch-time in school. Oh. Also, Nancy is coming with Jonathan to eat with us... in around three minutes."

'Three minutes.' The curly-haired boy thought.

He scrambled away from the mirror, scratching and pulling at his skin to try and get the clown-looking mask-thing off. When nothing worked, he started to pull at his long-brown locks in stress. He already felt like a clown- he didn't need to look like one too!

That's when he saw it, the gloved hand coming through the mirror. Richie closed his eyes as tight as they could- completely ignoring the glove stroking his cheek. He whimpered. After a couple of seconds later, he realised that he didn't feel the hand so he opened his eyes slowly... and was fantasised at the sight before him, his reflction didn't look like that turtle-forsaken clown anymore. He let out a breath he didn't realise he was holding in, completely missing his refection waving back at him with a sinister smile.

"Hi aunty." He smiled at Karen who was making the table ready for the guests.

"Who did you say was coming over? I got... distracted." Richie asked the older woman.

"Your cousin, Nancy, and her fiancé, Jonathan. They're going to get married in the summer." She answered.

"But-there is so much food here. I bet it could feed a whole fucking elephant! Why do you need so freaking much." Ah, so he was finally getting back to his old self.

"Well- Ted's in work so he isn't coming, Holly is upstairs and I'm pretty sure that Joyce, Jonathan, Will and Jane's mom, and her husband, Jim Hopper- The chief, might come too." Richie froze up- the last chief of police in Derry abused his own son. Richie hopes that this one is different. Sure, it was his bully, Henry, who got hurt- but that is exactly why he was who he was. Richie thinks that if Butch Bowers left instead of his mom, Henry would have been a different person. But then again, Richie doesn't feel bad that Mike pushed him into the well and died. Shivers ran all over his back.

"I'm going to go and get Holly." Karen's last words were, before going upstairs to retrieve the young girl.

After the footsteps coming from the 2nd floor faded, there was a knock on the front door. Perfect timing to see people you've never seen before. By yourself. Richie opened the door anyway. There was large man wearing a Hawaiian shirt, he looked kind of rough around the edges, a kind woman whose eyes had a warm glow which brought out her joyous smile.

"Woah! What shit have you been eating?" Richie accidentally spoke aloud before clamping one of his hands to his mouth. The other man gave him the stink eye, whist the woman let out a soft giggle.

"And who are-" The other man started before getting interrupted.

"The name's Richie Wentw- Tozier. Richie Tozier. No middle name whatsoever. -But you can call me Richie."

"Well I'm Joyce and that's Jim. Nice to meet you, Richie." Joyce shook his hand politely.

"Vell it'z nice to veetcha." The young boy said in a southern-bell accent. "Come een."

Around seven minutes after the lovely couple had arrived, Nancy and, supposedly, her fiancé, Jonathan came in and sat down. Nancy must've kept the house key even after she moved out to live with the Byers.

"Oh! I didn't know you were all here, if I did, I would've came down much earlier." Karen stated as she walked downstairs holding, a very-happy, Holly's hand.

"Oh no, it's fine." Joyce smiled.

Karen placed Holly in one of the seats next to her and started to place different types of sandwiches and crisps on her place, before she sat down and told everybody to dig into all the easy-made sandwiches.

"So-" Hopper started. "How long is Richie staying with you for?" He said the young boy's name with a mocking tone in it. 

"I'm right here, you can ask me you know- and you don't have to fucking say my name as if I killed your dog or something." 

"Richie!" Karen scolded. "Don't talk to our guests like that!" 

He rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, to answer your question, Richie has been living here for the past couple of days." 

"Oh. If it's okay to ask, how come, Richie?" Joyce asked politely.

Riche smiled; he was finally being talked to. Joyce is probably one of his favourite people here. "Well my mom died." He said bluntly. 

Joyce and Hopper's eyes widened. "What about your dad?" Jonathan questioned.

The boy grabbed one of the peanut butter sandwiches and said, "He got put in jail for child abuse. He liked to push me around. He deserves it." 

"That's horrible- why would he do that?" Nancy gasped.

Richie chuckled sheepishly, "What is this- an interrogation?"

Joyce seemed to have realised what they were doing. "Oh. Sorry, are we prying too much into your personal life?"

"We're just curious, Joyce." She slapped Hopper's arm. "What was that for?" He asked with his mouth full of food.

Karen suddenly stood up and grabbed all the dirty, empty plates. She hated messes. Whilst, she was in the kitchen, washing the dishes, Richie butted-in to Joyce and Hopper's short-lived conversation about him.

"I-I don't mind the questions. It's fine. Ask whatever the fuck you want, I'm an open book." Well that was a lie, he had too many secrets to count. How could he possibly be an open book?

"Oh. Then, how did your mom die?" Asked Nancy.

Shit. Richie wasn't expecting that to happen. "She-um. She got stabbed from-from a murderer." Well that was the closest to the truth he could get.

"OH! I'm so sorry for your loss! D-Do you know who killed her?"

"Henry. His name was Henry Bowers." That was a massive lie, Henry died when he was pushed down the well by Mike. Richie still remembers the shocker when he was at home and his father was watching the news.

Everybody sat down awkwardly, until Karen came back into the room. 

"I-I think it's time to go, don't you, Hopper?" Joyce stood. Richie quickly swiped one of the cigarette packets from the older man's pocket before they went.

-

After everyone had disappeared from the Wheeler household, Richie suddenly remembered that Holly was in the room. He decided to pick her up and take her into the living room. 

"Hey, jolly-Holly." She smiled. "Let's play a game. We could play hide and seek, tag or maybe-"

(Truth or dare. I bet you'd like that, wouldn't you?)

Richie froze and turned his head slowly around. He was face-to-face with Pennywise, the monster who wanted revenge.

"Holy shit." Richie doesn't know why he's scared, to be honest. He knew that IT wasn't going to kill him yet, IT told him that IT was going to wait until all the other Losers are dead. His eyes widened.

"Boo."

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 11th -

"Boo."

Richie did a half-gasp-half-scream. He could, and would, never get used to the sight of Pennywise. He shuddered helplessly; he hates clowns.

"Did you like my gift? Did you, did you?"

The young boy suddenly remembered about Holly; she was only seven years old! He craned his neck to look behind himself- Holly was sitting in a tight ball. She must've hated clowns too. He, as fast as he could without the clown catching him, ran towards the shaking girl and held her in his arms. 

"Oh, I see how it is-" IT growled in fury. "You wouldn't let me feast on your friends- eat all of their delicious bones and swallow their toes. Now you're not letting me eat a foolish little girl? Well that decision isn't up to you, is it? I don't let nasty little boys' boss me around."

Richie visibly cringed at the word's IT was saying. He felt like he was going to throw up. That's when he remembered what happened with the mirror... was-was IT sucking up for him? Just trying to get in his head? Well not any more.

That is when Richie thought back to another memory. 'Oh.' He thought as he suddenly let go of the blonde, small child, stood up and turned to face the ugly beast. Immediately after doing said standing, he lifted his arm as if to grab something, only to let it freeze there and start shaking. He could feel power surging through bones, trying to rid itself free of the teen. 

He was trying to break Pennywise like he shattered the glass- if there was a chance, he could use his powers to defeat IT, he would happily take it. Richie started to feel the blood coming out of his nose and drip down onto his perched lips. He decided to put two and two together and conclude that he gets nose bleeds whenever he uses his powers.

When he soon realised that what he was doing wasn't working, his arm almost fell limp against his scrawny side but it didn't- Richie, even though he was getting physically tired, needed to do this... he needed proof, a bit like training, to see what he could do.

IT smirked and started to creep closer to the two cousins which were obviously frightened. Pennywise let out a little giggle, what was that boy doing? 

Richie looked down at his shaking hand and decided he needed to feel more power and pull up his right hand next to it. Then, he saw it- the gold light forcing its way out of them.

It was thrilling.

It was scary.

It was- wait a minute, that didn't happen before. If he wasn't breaking any of IT's limbs, if IT had any, then what was he doing? He shut his eyes tightly, like before with the mirror, but when he opened them again, he was on the other side of the room.

Did he-

Did he-

Teleport?

Okay- He's now decided that this is awesome as fuck! He smiled before remembering what was happening in the scene before him. 

Pennywise was confused, where did that boy go? IT soon decided that IT didn't care, as long as Richie wasn't here, he could feast on that child, she looked absolutely deli-

The clown suddenly fell forward- stood behind IT's - very alive - body was Richie, holding a broken flowerpot he had quickly grabbed from one of the nearby shelves. IT then decided to make a show of moving all of IT's limbs until IT was lying with ITs back on the ground.

"I'll be back!" It hissed before sinking through the floorboards like a ghost.

Richie dropped the flowerpot to the ground once he started to hear crying. The perfect moment, apparently, for Mrs Wheeler to walk into the room. How could she have not heard what was going on in here?

"Oh, fuck! Oh, fuck! Oh, fuck!" He repeated endlessly.

"What happened in here?" She asked curiously before setting her eyes on a sobbing Holly. She stomped over to her before picking her up- scanning the girl to make sure that she wasn't hurt or harmed in any way.

Richie's eyes darted to his Aunt, trying to think of a reasonable excuse before blurting out, "Me and Holly were going to play with her dolls when she accidently walked into that draw- over there." He pointed at the shelf which he had retrieved the pot from.

Luckily for him, Karen believed him and told him to go into another room so she had time to clean up. He was surprised that she wasn't going to make Richie clean up the mess scattered across the floor.

Just as he was walking out of the living room, the phone started ringing so he waltzed over to where it was and picked it up, resting it against his ear.

"Richie fucking Tozier speaking." He cursed.

"Richie, it's Mike- Mike Hanlon- me and the losers are just about to get on the train."

Richie suddenly felt as giddy as a little girl on Christmas day, completely ignoring his earlier mood.

Because, well-

His only friends would be arriving in Hawkins in under twenty-four hours.

But unknown to either of them, it would be nothing like last time, Why? You might ask, well it's because this time they're one loser too short- and that will make a big difference then ever before. Like Bev said a couple of years ago, they were all together when they fought IT, that's how they were still alive. 

Too bad that they're not together anymore-

-And maybe, just maybe, not all of them will stay alive...

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 11th -

Around eight hours later

Mike had seen a lot of monsters; The Demogorgon, Demodogs, The Mind flayer. That's why, if you ask him why he's scouting his cousins' new bedroom, you shouldn't be surprised. It was around ten O'clock at night when Mike woke up because of his endless spree of nightmares when he had an idea. He decided to creep into Richie's room and look around for clues to why that clown-thing is in Hawkins.

After Mike had realised that, after he had looked almost everywhere and had found nothing, there was one more place he needed to check. Richie's bed. The sneaky boy carefully lifted Richie's pillow up when he started to stir slightly and, what Mike thought, whispered a simple 'Stan' as a tear fell down his cheek. Mike decided to wait a little while before diving back to look under the pillow where he found... a diary? As Mike started to flip through the pages, he seemed to realise that Richie dreamt about Pennywise too and that was the final straw! He picked up the book and hid it under his shirt until he made it back to his room, before he fell into a deep sleep.

-

 Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 12th -

Richie woke up at around five O'clock from another 'peaceful night of dreams. This time, it wasn't about Georgie, Bill or Eddie, like usual, it was about Stan. About him not being able to save Stan. How could they defeat IT if there were only six? 

'Great.' Richie thought. 'I'm already having self-doubts.' He rolled his eyes. Then it struck him, these are the things that Stan must have thought about before he died. Stan couldn't cope with the burden of letting The Losers down. He needed to know exactly what Stan did.

The more he thought about Stan the more anxious he became, and before he knew it, he was running to the bathroom and throwing up in the toilet. After he finished barfing, he flushed the chain and washed his hands, he looked up at himself into the mirror.

He shouldn't- he wouldn't. But before he knew it, Richie was opening the cupboard under the sink and grabbed one of the razors, resting it on his arm. He looked down, daring himself to cut deep enough to bleed, he kept urging himself. He needed to do this, take himself of the board. But he wouldn't do it. Suddenly, all of his insides filled up with rage. He threw the razor across the bathroom.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" He cried.

"Richie?" Ted knocked on the door. "Is that you?"

The boy quickly wiped his tears away. and said, "Y-yeah, it's me."

"Well, what are you doing in the bathroom at this time?" 

"I-I just woke up early, I guess."

"Well, tell Karen if you need anything." Ted's last words were, before, supposedly, he walked away.

Then, Richie was grabbing the scissors, which he knew, were under the sink, but instead of cutting himself like before, he pulled some of the - small - mullet that his hair had grown into and started to chop it off.  And he was laughing too- he was doing exactly that Bev did three years ago. Of course Bev's hair had, obiously, grown but she cuts it herself a couple of times every month- a bit like a tradition.

After (almost) all of the bad thoughts had left his body, he decided to go back to bed. After a few hours had past, he twisted and turned in his bed, it just wasn't comfortable enough. So, when he puts his hand underneath his head, finally becoming to relish in dreams, his head shot up.

 Where was his journal?

And then, his alarm clock went off.

Chapter Text

- Derry Maine - 1986 - November 11th -

"What did he say?" 

Mike was using one of the nearby telephone boxes to call Richie. He was supposed to be telling him that they would be coming to Hawkins soon. Eddie and the others were standing nearby so they'd know Rich answered.

Mike stared blankly for a second before answering with, "Nothing. H-He ended the call."

They all stood frozen for a second. "Do you think that he-"

"No!" Eddie interrupted Beverly. "As much as a dipshit he is, he's smart- he knows not to do that."

"S-Stan was sm-smart." Bill grieved. "H-He was th-the sm-smartest of-f us a-all an-nd h-he sti-ll d-d-d-" he choked.

Ben was quick to put an arm on his friend's back. Rubbing up and down with smooth strokes and hushing him as tears tracked down the stuttering boy's face. 

"Come on, our train is about to go." Mike told the others as they quickly rushed onto the long vehicle- Mike grabbing all of Bill's luggage due to the older boy wiping his hand on his face. 

As everyone sat down in the seats of four -Bill and Mike scooting up to the very edge of the chairs so Bev could sit down in between them- Eddie kept scanning everyone else's facial expressions to see what they think of the trip.

Beverly looked scared but determined, Ben looked afraid of the journey ahead, Bill looked upset and angry- hopefully going to use that rage to defeat Pennywise whilst Mike looked unnervingly calm. He had talked about it with the other Losers- Mike was still in shock after murdering Henry. Even he was their bully.

Then, Ben looked at him and asked, "Hey, Eddie-" He looked at the 'fat' boy. "How did you convince your mom to let you come with us?"

Everyone waited for his answer whilst he blushed nervously and squirmed in his seat. "W-well I didn't. I wrote her a note telling her that I would be in Hawkins for the past week."

The Losers looked at him, their mouths agape.

"What?" He questioned them.

"Eddie, are you fucking stupid?" Bev interrogated. "She's going to think that we kidnapped you or some shit!"

"B-Be hon-nest with m-me, do y-y-you know who your mom even is-s? To answer-r you, S-S-Sonia Kaspbrak. The t-o-owns 'crazy' l-lady!"

"Bill's right, Eddie!" Mike scolded the older boy. "You're most-likely gonna have a whole search party out for you!"

"If they even believe her!" Ben giggled. "She's reported Eddie missing too many times to count. There is no-way they're gonna start believing her now!" That made everyone laugh- apart from Eddie.

"Oh my turtle, you guys are so immature and childish." Eddie screeched at the others.

"Really? You're going to call us childish!" Mike sniggered.

"Yeah!" Bill agreed and said in a mock-high voice, "You guys are splashing aroundd in millions of gallons of Derry pee" Everyone looked confused at him- all but Eddie who blushed an even darker shade of red than before.

"What are you talking about?" Asked the red-head.

Bill thought for a couple of moments before remembering that they didn't come for the first time they went in the sewers and decided to give an explanation to what he was talking about. Eddie rolled his eyes at all the parts Bill over-exaggerated with before slumping in his seat- already getting impatient and fidgety. 

He just can't shake off the feeling that this time, IT would be much, much worse.

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 12th -

"Have a great day at school."

Mike wasn't going to go to school, but she doesn't need to know that. Today he and the others would be meeting at Steve's house to talk about Richie. He's bringing the book with him to use as proof in case no-one believes him.

"Bye, mom!" He waved, before he leaves on his bike to go to 'school'.

-

A couple of minutes later, and he feels like someone's him. A strange feeling, he had gotten used to over the years. All the shivers collecting together down his spine to create a whirlwind of prickles and spikes. Ok- he was over-exaggerating just a teeny bit.

As soon as he arrived at Steve's house, he knocked on the door and walked in, where Max, Will, Dustin, Lucas and Steve were sitting down across the couches and the floor. Apparently, Jane couldn't make it because Hopper had the day off and was helping her with all of her learning. Usually it's Joyce who teaches her after deciding to quit her job at the store.

"So, Mike, why did you ask us to skip school for a Party meeting?" Asked Lucas.

"I have a bad feeling about my cousin, Richie."

"Okay, you're starting to sound like Murray!" Told Dustin.

"That's exactly what I said!" Exclaimed Steve, before high fiving the younger boy.

"Are you sure, Mike?" Questioned Will worriedly. Will would say that Mike was his very best friend- maybe even a little bit more. So, of course he'll try to agree with him, especially after the heated argument between the two a year ago. He hates fighting with the older teen, it makes him sick to his stomach.

"See! Will agrees with me!"

"Mike, his mom died! Of course, he's going to act weird!" Argued Dustin. "I saw him in the school the other day, he threw up. -And, don't forget that his friend Killed himself." 

The room fell silent.

"His friend is dead?" Max repeated. "C'mon Mike, you're acting really sick now. And not in a good way!"

Mike looked at everyone, his eyes squinting. "Do you all feel this way?"

"Mike-" Someone tried to say.

Then, the 'liar' ran over to his school back and rooted through it, before picking out the diary and placing it on the floor in front of the party.

"What's this?" Interrogated Steve.

"It's Richie's diary." He said before opening it to the first page. "Read this part, he talks about his nightmares all the way through it."

"So?"

"So- read what the first paragraph says!" He tells them.

Lucas picks up the book and did what Mike told him to, much to his dismay, reading the first sentence aloud. "This doesn't prove anything."

"Oh, really?" Is all Mike says, before grabbing the book and opening it on a different page. "Right here. Right here." The others look at him blankly. He scoffs. He points a finger to one of the words.

"It says clown. Is that it?" Replies Steve.

"Exactly! He knows about IT, he knows!"

Max rolls her eyes. "He might just be afraid of clowns."

Will grabs the book and reads a couple of pages. "Mike's right! Richie wrote that IT wore a big, grey clown suit with orange hair and a wonky eye. That's exactly what we saw. Apparently IT's called Pennywise."

"Pennywise?" Dustin repeats. 

"SEE!" Exclaims Mike.

"Well, if Mike is right- Is there anything else about the freaky clown we need to know?" Mentions Lucas.

Mike takes the Diary back. "Well- it says that IT takes the form of your worst fears and can take you to something called the deadlights."

"What the fuck are deadlights?"

"It doesn't say."

Then, all the lightbulbs started to flicker every few seconds. There was silence again, and whilst the others froze still, Will felt Goosebumps on his neck and rubbed them thoroughly.

(Deadlights. You wanna see them? A lot of children like you, love them! C'mon, come and join the clown. It gets lonely in the sewers. Come and float with me?)

Everyone screamed and stood up in fright. Why did IT have to come now?

"What are you?!" Will asked in complete fright.

(Me? I am the eater of worlds! How dare you not know who I am!)

Then, to the Party's dismay, IT stalked towards them and quickly grabbed Max. He held her up, wrapping his gloved hands around her neck, and just as ITs jaw started to unhinge- the light from outside burst into the room due to the door rushing out from ITs place.

Everyone turned to the side, looking for hope that someone will save them, at the front door- stood their with his arms raised, was a boy who'd they never seen before, standing next to five other teenagers- including Mike's cousin.

The first boy was who was in front of the others had one of his arms raised in front of him with blood dripping down from his nose. He had ginger-brown hair and a Red and White plaid top on with dark Blue jeans. The other four were standing next to him, two to right and two to the left. There was only one girl with them- and as The Party stared at them more and more, they realised that the strange kids they had seen had a matching scar on their right hands.

They all looked badass.

"You were fucking right, Richie." A boy wearing a bright, pink T-shirt muttered. "IT's here!"

Pennywise smiled at them. 

(Welcome to Hawkins, Losers)

-And the boy who was wearing plaid's arm started to grip more and more at the air, as if strangling Pennywise from where he was standing.

(DID YOU MISS ME?) 

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 12th -

Earlier today

Richie had just gotten off of another phone call with The Losers, apparently, they had just arrived in Hawkins and needed a place to stay. So, being the kind-and-welcoming friend he is, told them that he'd skip school to pick them up.  As he was in the kitchen, still packing his lunch, he overheard Mike and Karen from outside-

"Have a great day at school." She had told his younger cousin.

He responded with, "Bye, mom." before he left on his bike. Richie rolled his eyes, frowning. He never had the kind of relationship that Mike and Karen have together- well, he did. But that was a long time ago.

After finishing making some 'lunch' he went outside towards his bike. He doesn't really need it any more with his powers, and he feels a bit sorry for Karen and Ted- they bought him a bike he's most likely not going to use. He's not used his abilities since the night with Pennywise. Or- yesterday.

Whilst he was riding down the path to school with his bike, he wanted to park it at school so he wouldn't seem suspicious, he soon realised that Mike wasn't near him. As Richie looked around, he saw that Mike was going down a different road. He ditched his bike and started following his cousin.

Soon, after a while, Mike seemed to be getting too suspicious and he didn't want to get caught. So, he ran behind the nearest bush, closed his eyes and concentrated. Train station. Train station. Train station.

When he opened his eyes, he soon found that he was still in the same spot as before and groaned, "Why isn't it working." Then, he decided to move his hands up in the same motion as he did yesterday and squeezed his eyes shut again. Train Station, Train Station, Train Sta-

As soon as he thought the last word, He felt a gush of wind blow in his face, blowing his glasses off- making him open his eyes and stare what was coming towards himself. A train. As he looked around, he saw that he was in the middle of the train tracks. He heard the train before he saw it, also hearing a loud "Richie!" in the distance. As the big machine got closer and closer, he froze up more and more- until he wasn't in the tracks anymore. He was on the platform. But he didn't use his powers.

Someone beside him let out a large gasp, "RICHIE! What were you doing in there?" When he turned to his side, he saw his friends, The Losers!

"One question!" He breathed out. "How the FUCK did I come off the tracks?"

They all looked at each other, before Beverly spoke suddenly, "W-We gained powers- abilities. I can make things that aren't really there appear, Bill can move stuff with his mind, Ben can be invisible and-"

"I can move faster than the speed of light" Eddie finished. "Please don't think that we're freaky, c-cause we're not! We were like you once b-but then something happened-"

Richie decided to tune out the rest of the older boys rambling just to stare at him. Eddie was undeniably cute, his tanned skin glowing beautifully with his dark, brown hair which seemed to be getting curlier everyday matching his chocolate doe eyes. God, Richie could stare at him for hours! And don't get him started on the overalls he was wearing- and his height, his tiny, little height.

"-And you don't even want to get me started on the guidelines. Richie- Hey! Rich, snap out of it!" Richie fell out of his trance. "Why were you looking at me like that?"

Richie licked his lips, "How can someone so old be so cute!" He chirps happily before pinching Ed's cheeks.

"I'm not cute!" He frowns, swatting his friend's hands away.

"Sure, you aren't, Ed's!" 

The other chuckled at the two boy's playfulness with each other. Because much to Eddie's dismay, everyone knows that he actually like all the nicknames and jokes- apart from Richie, but he didn't need to know that!

Bev rolled her eyes. "You two-" She directed at Richie and Eddie, "Stop messing around! We didn't come here for a welcome back party; we came to fuck the clown over once again!"

Richie looked at her with wide eyes. Yeesh, that hurt. Good to know she likes the clown more than me!

"So, where are we going to stay?" Asked Ben.

Richie didn't think of that part. "Maybe you can stay at my Aunt's house." He suggested.

Bill stared at him. "Are you telling me, that you didn't find us a place to stay?"

Richie smiled sheepishly.

-

Luckily for them, Karen's house was only a mile (or two) away from the station so Eddie easily sped with the losers there in around two minutes max, you can thank his powers for that one.

As they all walked in to their friend's new home, The Losers looked around the hallways, thankful for no adults being here to question them. Karen took Holly to her school and then went shopping and Ted was at work... like always.

Richie led them up to his room and sit on his bed. "I have no idea where the clown is right now- so we should wait until he comes to us."

"But what if we get eaten?" Asked Ben. "I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to be clown-meat!"

"Ben! We aren't going to be clown-meat! We survived last time- and we have fucking powers now! We pretty much have everything!" Argued Richie.

"W-We d-d-don't h-have e-e-ev-verything." Bill spoke up. "W-We d-d-don't-t h-have S-Stan!"

The Club looked at him with sadness and sorrow.

"Bill's right! We don't have Stan! We never even had funeral for him." Bev agreed.

"Funerals take time- his parents might have scheduled one in a month or something." Ben stated.

"Well- what should we do?" Asked Eddie. "If we wait for IT to come, we can't just Sit here we need to-" And then he blacked out.

"EDDIE!" They screamed.

-

Eddie was scared- scared and lonely. This hadn't happened before! Where was he and how did he get here? But where was here exactly? He was standing in the middle of darkness. There was no light whatsoever- apart from the random cracks scattered around him. 

When he turned around to look for his friends, he saw a house- well, it was more like a mansion. Eddie didn't want to intrude, but he walked in anyway. There were five kids sitting around, what he thought, was the living room and an adult standing nearby. They were looking through a book- they also seemed to be arguing about something.

"He might just be afraid of clowns!" A female red-head said.

Another boy grabbed the book and started reading it before saying, "Mike's right! Richie wrote that IT wore a big, grey clown suit with orange hair and a wonky eye. That's what we saw. Apparently, IT's called Pennywise."

Eddie stumbled back and ran out of the house. They know about Pennywise? And how do they know Richie? This was all too freaky for him.

-

Eddie gasped awake. Bill was thinking of sending him to the hospital, before remembering that he, nor The Losers, had any money to spare- they spent it all on the train ride. But he's awake! He's awake! He's awake!

"E-Eddie! Eds-s a-are y-y-you ok-k-kay?" He asked with worry, shaking the older boys' shoulders.

"Don't call me that, Bill! -And I'm fine- but I know where IT is!"

The others looked at him with shock.

"How?!" Ben questioned.

"I was- I was in a dark room with water running bellow me it-"

"The void!" Richie interrupted. "I've been there too. What did you see?"

"T-There was a house- a big house!"

"Anything else?"

"When I walked inside, there was a girl with red hair- like Bev's. But not- and a boy who looked a bit like you- and, and-"

Richie stood up slowly. That little shit of a cousin stole his diary- JOURNAL! IT IS A JOURNAL, NOT A DIARY! That kid fucked with his life. Now, he needed to fuck with his! Wait- why was he thinking like this? He wasn't going to kill Mike- as much as he wanted to. STOP!

"Do you happen to know where it is?" Ben intercepted his thoughts.

"Yes- Come with me!"

-

Eddie sped, again, with The Losers to where he was sure the house was. Near the woods. When they walked up to the door, Ben realised that they were screaming. Had IT attacked already? They all tried to open the door- it was jammed. Must have been one of ITs tricks. IT must have known they were coming here!

"Stand back!" Ordered Bill before raising his hand and forcing the door out of its place. and running in, the others following behind him.

The kids (and adult) stared at them with their eyes expanding. Ben let out a breath. At least none of them had been hurt or badly injured. Ben looked at Bill's face. There was blood dripping down his nose and his arm was still raised. Pennywise dropped the girl he was holding hostage.

(Welcome to Hawkins, Losers)

Bill decided to try and get a hold of Pennywise through his powers. Trying to strangle IT dead. But They both know that that wasn't going to work! IT was a giant spider. And not one of those tarantulas you'll see. Ben hadn't exactly seen Pennywise in ITs full glory. But it's not hard to put two-and-two together to say that if ITs lair was big- he must've been too.

(DID YOU MISS ME?)

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 12th -

(DID YOU MISS ME?)

Will was astonished. He had so many questions, like; who were these people, besides Richie of course, how did they know that they were in trouble, and did they have powers? He knows for sure that the boy in the middle- probably the others five's leader- was like eleven. And if they did all have special abilities, did Richie have them too?

"Like FUCK we'd miss you!" The ginger girl angrily muttered, surprising The Party. Why was she talking back to IT like that? Did she not know that IT could kill her?

(Cause I missed you...)

"What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck, what the-" Dustin repeated from beside him. 

IT ran towards Dustin, clearly trying to feed of his fear, making the shortest boy run in front of IT, stopping Pennywise in his path. -But holy mother of god, that boy was fast.

"S-Stay aw-w-way from th-them-m!" Who Will thought was the 'leader' demanded? "O-Or w-w-we'll have to k-k-kill y-you... like l-last t-t-t-t-time."

(Bill, Bill, Bill-) IT tutted (-You still haven't learnt you lesson from last time, have you? You should know. Remember what happened to Georgie?)

The 'leader', Bill- Will remembered, 's confidence seemed to falter. Whoever IT was talking about, Georgie, seemed to be Bill's prime weakness. He lowered his hand down.

(That's right. Now come here Billy. Come FLOAT with us! Float with me, Georgie and Stan!)

From the looks of it, the mention of the last name made Bill keep his guard up, with the rest of the teenagers. Stanley must be the reason they're staying strong right now. Whoever he was, The Party should be thankful for him.

(Oh. Did I mention something wrong?) IT mock frowned. (What was his name? Stanley- that's right! He was too afraid to come here. He was weak. Just like these!) IT pointed to the rest of The Party.

"Shut the fuck up, you-you- DUMB BITCH!" Screamed Richie. "Don't you dare talk about Stan like that!"

The others seemed to follow his lead- because before anyone knew it, the other teens started crowding round it, the other black boy ran up to IT, not as fast as the short boy, and jumped on It's back, kicking it over and over again. Bill stood back and used his powers to throw random objects, which were littered around the room, at IT. 

Pennywise suddenly had a great, big smile on IT's face and started to morph into one of Will's fears, The Demogorgon, Again, and roared loudly. IT quickly made a move to try and shake one of the boys off IT's back- failing miserably.  

Then, suddenly, IT vanished, making the black boy fall to the floor- his friends trying to help him stand back up. Whilst the Party was carefully watching the strangers, Will heard some footsteps, so he looked up- to see a very confused Joyce and a shocked-looking Hopper.

"What's going on here?" The broad man asked full of rage- making everyone stop and stare at him. "-And who the Hell are you guys?"

- 

After a couple of minutes of everyone sitting down and getting comfortable- completely disregarding what happened only four minutes ago- Richie stood up to pace around the room.

"Do I have to repeat myself? Who are you?" Hopper requested. "Who are you-"

"-And why aren't you kids in school. I thought you were being responsible, Steve." Joyce interrupted.

"Who are you?"  Bev asked, disgusted- ever since the incident with her dad, she had been on red alert whenever talking to adults in Derry. She didn't want anyone to end up acting like her father had three years ago. Luckily for her, her Aunt wasn't like that- she was nice. So a couple of months after leaving Derry, her Aunt realised that Beverly was getting lonely and more angry without her friends and soon moved back.

His cousin, Mike, rolled his eyes. "Just tell us who you are. -And did you come from the Lab like Eleven?"

"Fine!" Richie stopped pacing. "These are my friends from Derry Maine. Meet Bev, Mike, Bill, Ben and Eddie. You can call us The Losers Club."

"And this is Mike, Lucas, Max, Will, Mrs Byers, Hopper, and Steve." Dustin smiled. "You don't need to act so rude all the time, Mike. I'm Dustin. We're The Party, except that Eleven isn't here."

Everyone looked at each other, every single person, except for Richie and Dustin, wondering if they can trust the others.

"How do you know what IT is?" Asked Lucas wearily. "Did you see IT in your town too?"

"Yes, actually!" Answers Richie.

"See! I told you guys that Richie has something to do with IT." Mike W self promoted. "You all should have listened to me!"

"We did, Mike. I almost got eaten by a cannibal Clown. How do you think I feel?" Max screeched.

"Stop with the arguing!" Boomed Hopper. "-And what was that thing that disappeared?"

"Wait." Ben ordered. "You saw IT?"

The Party looked at each other. "Why wouldn't they?" asked Will.

"And you still haven't answered our main question!" Max snapped. "How and what do you know about IT?"

Eddie huffed. "It started three years ago. Bill's brother Georgie went out to play with a paper boat, but IT was in the storm drain and managed to eat him." The Losers looked at Bill sadly. Sure, Bev, Ben and Mike never met the young boy. But it was the fact that their friend's family member went missing.

Richie looked guiltily at Bill with the pause. If only he hadn't killed George. They never would have known or met the clown if it wasn't for him. Why did he have to make that deal? It was all so messed up!

"Then a couple of months later, me, Bill, Richie and-and Stan went to look through the sewers to find him-but he wasn't there. That's when we met Ben. Ben was running away from some Bullies who tried to carve one of their names into his stomach." Eddie carried on. "Then, at the pharmacy we met Bev- when she helped us shoplift some supplies. After that, we all went to the swim in the Quarry and-"

"Hold on! You jumped of a cliff and swam in the Quarry- without dying?" Asked Mike carefully.

Eddie rolled his eyes and ignored his comment. "We went to swim in the Quarry and Ben showed us some facts about Derry, newsflash- a lot of people die- then, a couple of days after, me, Bill, Stan, Bev and Ben went to Bev's house to clean up some blood." He gagged. "-And left Richie at the lookout. When we finally came out, after like two hours, we explained what happened in the bathroom to Richie. He didn't believe us. That's when we met Mike- he was getting bullied by the bullies who cut up Ben's stomach and we had a rock war."

"Rock war?" Joyce questioned.

"Yeah. We threw rocks at each other until they got injured." Ben answered.

"Is that how you got the scars?"

"No. That's something else."

"So anyways. We had a rock war. Then- sometime after that- we went to one of Derry's festivals and we explained how we met Pennywise. I saw him by twenty-nine Neibolt street, Mike saw him before he met us, Stan saw him after practising for his Bar Mitzvah, Bill saw him in his bedroom, Ben saw him at the library and Bev saw his doing in the bathroom. Richie never saw IT- for some reason."

Richie stared blankly, he actually did see IT, after playing streetfighter with Connor Bowers. Taunting him for what he is- his Dirty, Little, Secret. That clown was just stupid homophobic prick. Fucking Clown.

"Then, we went to Bill's house where we all saw Pennywise together for the first time. After that, Bill went on a rampage and rode to Neibolt where me, Bill and Richie went inside. I broke my arm-"

Bill looked sheepishly at Richie before saying, "Then, me and Rich had a fight after Eddie's mom took him away. For a whole month we weren't together."

Mike W looked at his friends. He can't imagine being without for more than a month. Well, apart from Dustin who went to camp. -And the time Will and Jane went on holiday for two weeks without telling him. He quickly remembers when Eleven didn't see him for a year and starts to get anxious. If IT could split them apart- what could happen to his friends?

"During this time, I went to the pharmacy where a bully called Greta signed my cast with the word Loser and told me that all my pills that my mom gave me where Gazebos."

"Placebos." Ben corrects.

Joyce frowns. "Isn't that child-abuse? You shouldn't give children pills that aren't needed!" Hopper nods.

"One day, after some moths apart, me and Bev were supposed to hangout but when she didn't come, I went to her house where Pennywise sent a message that said, 'You die if you try' in blood, so I told the others and we went to Neibolt to fight the clown." Bill adds.

"We went to the well, where IT's secret passage was, when Henry Bowers- a bully that got possessed by IT came, but Mike pushed him down. Stan then got transported somewhere else, so we went and found him. Bill saw his brother Georgie and chased him. We chased after Bill and helped Bev out the deadlights. After we tried beating IT the first time, It held Bill- I got a baseball bat and wacked it. The others beat him up again. We survive and the clown goes down, what looked like, another well." Richie mentioned

"Then, we went to the Barrens and cut our palms open for a blood oath. If IT ever came back, we'd come back too!" Mike H finished

"Wow." Was all Max said. "You should hear ours!"

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 12th -

"Wow." Was all Max said. "You should here ours!"

"Your what?" Asked Ben.

"Story! You told us about IT. We should tell you about The Mind Flayer- Or the Demogorgons but I wasn't here for that part!"

"You faced Monsters too? This is so fucking weird." Richie expressed.

Bill looked between The Losers and The Party. If two towns had faced a few monsters, what else could be out there? Massive Turtle gods? Well, that's what Richie believed anyway. Apparently, one time his dear friend Rich had a dream about a turtle. Like a tortoise could have ruled the world! His friend truly is full of wonders sometimes.

"Well, what happened in your story?" Questioned Bev.

"Well, around three years ago, like you, me, Will, Dustin and Lucas were having a D and D campaign-"

Richie and Bev snorted.

"You play D and D!" Mike's cousin chuckled. "Man, that's so fucking nerdy."

"Don't be insensitive, Rich." Eddie slapped his arm. 

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever.

"Well, anyway, after my mom came down and told them to leave, Will went home and got caught by a monster called a Demogorgon. A Demogorgon is a monster which looks like a human, except that it's way taller and instead of a face, it's head kind of opens up, like a flower."

"A bit like Pennywise!"

"Sure." Will agreed. "Then, after The Demogorgon got me, I got transported to the Upside-Down."

"What the fuck is The Upside-Down?" Interrogated Richie.

"It's a different dimension that The Demogorgon comes from. It's like this world- but dark and scary with no living plants and animals. It's like a realm of monsters. What are Deadlights?" Will asked.

"The Deadlights are part of IT's true form. Like how a spider has its web. IT takes you there once IT realises that you're not scared anymore. Once you're in the deadlights, you see the future- except worse. I saw all my friends dying." Beverly responds. "The only way to get taken out from the deadlights is if someone kisses you. But it can only be true love."

"Wait- if you were in the Deadlights, then who kissed you?"

Ben smiled happily at his girlfriend. "Me." He said full of shyness.

"Well, anyway- after Will went missing, we came to school the next day where Troy and James called us names." Mike W took the spotlight. 

Richie's eyes widened at the name 'Troy'. He saw that missing poster of the boy at school the other day. At least Pennywise is eating the bullies. Or- that's what Richie tells himself- he can't help but feel as if that boy's death wasn't IT's evil doing. He felt like he was.

"Joyce reported Will missing so we had a search party. I found his bike near the woods by his house." Hopper explains. "So, I go to the school and question Mike, Lucas and Dustin."

"I get a phone-call from Will who was in the upside down and made all the lights in my house start to flicker when either Will or the Demogorgon were near me."

"What we didn't know, was that eleven escaped the night that the monster got Will. She opened the gate and accidentally let it out in the open where it attacked Nancy's friend, Barb- but that happens later on. Anyway- me, Lucas and Dustin decided to make a plan to find him in the woods. Instead we find eleven so we take her to my basement for the night."

"Then, back in my house. I hung up some a lot of lights to determine to find my boy. I got some paint and painted underneath some of the lights on my sofa. He tells me to run. The Demogorgon then chased after me."

"A couple of days after- the police find a fake body of Will in our quarry." Mike W claims.

"I went to Joyce's house and she told me about the lights and Will. I thought she was crazy- but just to make sure, I broke into Hawkins lab and find out that Will's 'body' was just a stuffed puppet."

"Me, Lucas and Mike go to our teacher and ask him about different universes after eleven tries to talk to Will through our walkie-talkie."

"Me and Joyce got to a woman named Terri Ives. She tells us about her sister and her belief that her little girl, which Dr Brenner stole, was still alive. Little did we know that the little girl was eleven."

"Dr Brenner then locates us at Mike's house. Eleven flips over some vans with her mind- it was awesome! After that, we knew that we were in danger and hid in the junk yard where Hopper finds us and takes us to the school. We filled up a big full of salt and emptied in a paddling pool- it helps with eleven's powers. She tried to find Will and Nancy's friend Barb. Barb died and Will was found, again, by the Demogorgon. Joyce and Hopper go to the lab and take him out- with a bit of CPR. The Demogorgon comes to the school and kills Dr Brenner and some scientists, who located us-again! Then Eleven used up most of her power to kill it - only for her to get transported to the upside down too."

The Losers Club stared at The Party wide-eyed.

"What. The. Fuck." Richie mutters under his breath.

"So- let me get this straight. This Eleven girl has powers?" Mike H asks. "Like... us?"

"Yeah! She's also Mike's girlfriend!" Lucas shows off- much to Hopper and Will's disapointment.

"Then how is Eleven still here?" Beverly says out-loud.

"Oh. There are still two more stories!" Will reveals.

"HOLY SHIT!"

Hopper rubs his temple. "Please don't talk any more, Richard. You're giving me a headache!" Hopper complains.

"It's Richie. Only my dad calls me Richard." The teen boy huffs out.

"Anyway- Eleven manages to escape by using her powers and gets lost in the woods. She gets found by me and starts to live in my cabin for the past year- she tried to contact Mike every single day- but you can't talk to someone through the void." Hopper re-joins.

Eddie's face made a look of surprise, he had only recently gone into the void. He didn't know much about it... yet.

"The Party go to the arcade where I got dropped off by my brother, Billy. It was the first time we were in the same place at the same time. Later on, Dustin and Lucas get massive crushes on me. You don't even want to know how obvious they were being. That's when all of the stalking starts to happen." Max chuckles.

"Hey! I didn't get a crush on you! That was only Lucas!"

"Sure, Dusty-Bun. By the way, have you gotten your Never-Ending Story with Suzie yet?"

Everyone but The Losers Club, Joyce, Hopper and Dustin start to crack up.  

"I almost died because of that song." Hopper gazes across the young boys.

"What are you talking about?"

"You'll see. Anyway, to get back on track, my mom starts dating this really cool guy called Bob. He was from Derry Main. Have you ever heard of him?"

"Bob? What was his last name?"

"Newby."

"The Losers all look at each other before giving bone-crushing smiles at each other.

"Bob was the best! He was like- the only adult in Derry who wasn't as shitty as the sewers! He would always come and visit his family for the holidays! He had some relatives living there. I actually haven't seen him in around two years. Do you know where he is?" Richie quizzed excitedly.

"Oh- um. You'll- you'll see."

"Getting back to the story, all of the famers crops were dying at a super natural rate so me and the rest of the cops had to investigate. Sometimes I would accidentally come home late, where Eleven would be waiting. She always got into tantrums once I didn't fulfil my promises. I wouldn't let her out with her friends at all. She only left the cabin once- I think."

"I would always get visions of the upside-down. One of the new scientists kept making me have check-ups and tests to see if it was all PTSD or something else. But each vision after vision it kept getting worse."

"On Halloween, me and Dustin asked Max if she wanted to come trick-or-treating with us. She didn't know anything about what happened last year so she just thought we'd be losers. She changes her mind- probably due to my miraculous charm- and comes with us later."

"I came home after Will had another vision and found out about a small, weird creature living in my garbage can. I put it in my turtle, Yertle's, tank and named it Dart. Days later, I bring him to the school to show The Party, when he goes missing. Will had another episode but this time- it was a lot worse. The Mind Flayer possessed him."

Richie flinched at the phrasing that Dustin used.

"I get in a car with Bob where he tells me about his nightmares about clowns and defeating them by not being afraid anymore- wait. Was he talking about-"

"IT. Bob would've been like forty, right? That means he could've tried to fight it when he was younger!" Ben babbles. "What if he was a part of the original Losers Club? He could've written the sign."

You're probably wondering what the sign is. As well, as the girl's bathroom, the boys toilets were full of markings and scratches too. That's how, when Stanley and Ben went to go and pee one time, it was after the Pennywise massacre when no-one wanted to be alone, when Ben looked up at the ceiling and saw the words 'The Losers'. Underneath the sign were a few people's names. Two to be exact. Funny enough, they told Bev and her automatic response was to tell them that there was the same sign in the girls bathroom but with three names instead of two. Everyone finally put two-and-two together and said that there FIVE originals.

"Oh My GOD! Ben, how could we have not realised this before!" Beverly squeals.

"One down, only four more to go." Eddie sarcastically remarks. "I don't know about you, but I want to hear the rest of their story!" 

"W-well I started to draw some weird drawings which Bev quickly realises is the map of Hawkins. Then, Hopper goes underneath the tunnels."

"Eleven told me that she found a secret box after trying to clean up one of her 'tantrums', read it and new that it was about her real mom. The Ives family. She's really smart... and kind-" Mike W gushes dreamily about Eleven. 

Funnily enough, Lucas and Dustin start to make kissing sounds in the background.

"Eleven telepathically talks to her mother, showing her, her sister, Kali and hitchhikes into New York or Chicago to find her. She then gets a makeover and stays with them around the streets."

"I use my weird connection to the monster to find out Hopper was in the tunnels so mom and Bob find him just as some of the troops from the Lab use their fire to light some things up. I start screaming because of it. Soon, I wake up with amnesia and react to things from the upside-down get put on fire."

"My pet, Dart. Starts to grow and grow- eats my pet cat- and grows until it becomes into a fully-fledged Demodog. A Demodog is technically a Demogorgon with a tail- and can jump, which I'm pretty sure Demogorgons can't do."

"Eleven realises we're in danger and comes back to Hawkins to save us. I realise that the shadow monster- Mind Flayer- is using Will to spy on us and makes Joyce sedate him. The Demodogs start running rampage around the lab after killing some scientists."

"A-as well as Bob."

The Losers all look flabbergasted. Bob was... dead? Why is it that all the good people in Derry DIE! Like, seriously, what is wrong with that town?

"Everyone comes back to Will's house, when Dustin tells everyone that the shadow monster is acting like the mind flayer in D and D. We name most of our monsters from the game. We all try to de-possess Will, which doesn't work. He tells us all, through Morse code that we have to close the gate. Eleven shows up at the door and goes to close the gate. Billy comes to beat up Steve, before we go to the tunnels and set fire to the upside-down. Or- part of it. While Joyce actually succeeds in getting Will back.

Everyone lets out a breath they didn't know they were holding in.

"Do you want to hear the rest?" Will finally asks.

The Losers look at each other, giving a silent agreement, before shouting a loud "No!" at The Party.

Eddie chuckles after their scream had died down, before biting his lips.

"We need a plan. A plan to fight IT! Once and for all-"

"For Stan." Richie looks at the others, helpless.

"For Georgie!" Bill silently whimpers.

"For Bob!" Joyce smiles- giving gratitude to the boy.

"Now, what should we do?" Steve asks, coming in with a plate full of Eggos.

"First thing's first. Who's possessed this time?" Joyce asks, shocking everyone. "Because this isn't IT. It's something- or someone else."

This was the last of the signs to prove that this wasn't just your average monster.

It was something worse.

Much 

Much

Worse

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 12th - 

It had been almost a full hour since Joyce brought up the whole, 'possession' scene. It was all she could talk about. So, Richie, scared of being caught, dismissed the idea-

Every.

Single.

Time.

So, trying to distract the conflict between his mother and his best-friend/crushes' cousin, Will asks, "So, um, do you have any idea how IT could be back in the first place?"

"W-we d-d-don't-t ex-xactly kn-n-n-n-now yet-t." Bill stuttered out.

"Well, hey- why don't we just all agree that IT's using a host? I was the first one to know that something wasn't normal with my boy after he went missing. I was the one who knew that the scientists weren't doing shit! I was the one who hopped in a car with two fucking idiots and a Russian- just to see why my magnets were falling off my damn fridge!"

Hopper backed away from Joyce, raising his arms up in mock-surrender.

"Joyce." Ben starts calmly. "we told you-"

"Wait!" Stops Bev, gaining all attention on her. "That actually make's sense, Ben! What if Pennywise possessed someone and was living inside of them the whole, entire time?"

Richie started to get nervous, gaining cold, musty sweat all over his body. They could never find out. EVER! As much as he would want to tall them the truth about Georgie's death, he just- couldn't. Rich saw all the rage in Bill's face the first time they tried to defeat IT. His stern, piercing glare which should've been aimed at him.

"Okay- so there's the possibility." Mike H butts in.

"Who do you think it might be?" Steve questions, whilst eating a chocolate-covered Eggo- the crumbs falling from his lips like a small child trying to learn how to eat.

The groups started to brainstorm for ideas to each other. Who would Pennywise possess?

That's when Lucas shoots up. "What about Beverly?"

"ME!" 

"Yes, you. Pennywise brought yo to the Deadlights, right?" She nods her head at Lucas's rambling. "He might of flayed- sorry. took over your body in there!"

"Pennywise might be able to possess people- but I don't think he could do it for this long. I mean three years is a long time." Ben says proudly- he knows his girlfriend. And trust him- no matter how many kisses IT wants from him, he'll know the difference between his Gorgeous girl and an ugly clown monster.

Joyce spaces out for a minute before intercepting. "It would have had to be someone who's changed."

"Ch-changed?" Bill repeats.

He started telling more disgusting jokes to his friends over the years, and made sure no-one would suspect a thing.

"Yeah. Maybe they're a little darker. A little more-"

"Evil." Mike finishes.

Then he let out a, clearly frustrated, scream. The mirror in front of him smashed into tiny little pieces, each one getting stuck in his tired, pale skin.

Will winces at the wording choice.

"Exactly!" Dustin agrees. "Someone evil. Oh, don't forget that they'd have to murder little children!"

He suddenly felt the urge to kill the small boy. He didn't WANT to, he felt like he HAD to. Richie hated that this is what he had to do! He needed his friends safe. And by the looks of it, Georgie was losing too much blood anyway. He grabbed a pocket knife out of one of his pockets. Richie closed his eyes, rose the knife high in the air and stabbed him right in the chest, almost exactly where his heart was.

His wrists were bleeding out and bath water was too hot. But he was finally going to know what it felt like to be free. He didn't want to do it anymore. Didn't want to live anymore. Luckily for him, and unluckily for everyone else, Stanley Uris was found dead on the 9th of November in his bathtub.

In said dream, Richie followed the boy, he didn't know why, and cornered him at, what looked like, Hawkins Middle School. That's when the dream becomes scary. Frightening. Eventful. In other words, it turns into a nightmare. 'Dream Richie' took a knife from... where did he get it from again? He forgot. Well, anyways, he gets out a knife and slices a strip through his neck. Eventually, the boy bled out and died.

"How could we forget?" Eddie groans before wondering, "How would they even get possessed in the first place?"

"Well. What if there was a sacrifice?" Max asks.

The pocketknife. Blood. Drain.

"Sacrifice?" Richie repeats, wide-eyed. They were getting closer and closer to the truth then he could of ever gotten comfortable with.

The pocketknife. Blood. Drain.

"Sacrifice. What if the new host had to give Pennywise a sacrifice- like how people used to give gifts to the gods."

"Why would they do that?" Dustin contemplates.

Everyone stops. If Max was right, why would they do that? That's when Bev gets a realisation.

"Because they didn't realise it."

"It's okay Georgie! Shit. We're gonna go to the hospital, okay?"

Richie was torn. He wanted to keep his friends safe, of course he did! But if that meant killing Georgie, he wouldn't do it! But if he doesn't, his friends will die instead. But what if the, supposedly cannibal, clown was just bluffing?

"What are you talking about, Ringwald." Richie smiles sheepishly- like he generally had no-idea.

She stands up and clears her throat, making everyone on the ground glaze up at her. "Well, let's say that Penny-whore did, in fact, possess someone because they gifted him a sacrifice." The others furrowed their eyebrows, clearly still confused. She scoffs. "I mean, what if they didn't realise what they were doing! Like-"

"-IT got into their head." 

"Oh, Richie! It seems you're a bit confused. YOU WILL KILL HIM!"

Everyone cranes their neck, but Bev, at the doorway. It was El, Mike Wheelers girlfriend. The Party don't really look that surprised that she came in uninvited. She must love making an entrance. 

"Uh... Exactly." Bev stops staring at the intruder. 

"Well- then, we have to find them!" 

"Hey, hold your horses, Mike. We might be able to find out who it is if we find out who the sacrifice was first!" Richie tries to distract the older and smarter black boy.

"You know what, Richie. You're right!"

"Aren't I always?"

"No." Eddie simply puts it.

Richie fake pouts.

Richie looked up from his blood-covered hands and into the eyes of the monster.

"You're no fun, Eds spagheds!" He pinches the older boy's cheeks.

"Oh fuck off, Dickwad!"

"Tell Billy I loved him."

Hopper simply scolds them for their behaviour, before listening to some of The Losers Club's suggestions.

"Betty?"

"Where's my shoe?"

"Nah, that must've been the clown. Her legs got ripped of, remember?"

"Oh yeah! Well what about Corcoran?"

Mike had told them about what he saw when he was getting shoved into that raw meat. It was pennywise, holding a lengthy arm- blood smeared around his mouth.

"Nah. I heard he was around his family when he died- like upstairs or something. That would've only worked if Penis-wise disguised as a family member."

"Georgie?"

"'Chee?"

The whole room fell silent. It was a possibility that he was the hosts kill. He was small, week and alone.

Bill's face had turned a sickly shade of white.

His reflection looked like him, except the fact that he had two red lines coming down from each side of his- white-painted skin. He looked like a mixture of himself... and IT.

Richie smirked just as his eyes had turned a glowy yellow-orange. As soon as Eddie turned to face him- is eyes had turned back to the normal shade. The reason for smiling at the mention of Georgie's death caused him to gain a great, bullet of power shower though his thought. It was like, in some twisted way- he liked the taste of weakness coming from the Denbrough boy.

Those eyes.

So when Steve, Hopper and Joyce decided that it was time to take down the clown, Richie could sense the feeling of unease and worry dip across the room, feeding and feeding him-

The yellow eyes.

Until he was full.

(Look into the mirror, Richie.)

And wanted more.

They were on him.

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 12th -

Eddie looked around the room. Everybody looked determined, and very scared, to fight the clown. Apart from Richie- he was.... smiling? What the fuck?

"Do any of you even know where IT's Hawkins lair is?" Steve asked.

The losers each looked at each other.

"yes?" Bev shrugged unconvincingly. 

"I do." Eddie spoke up, surprising everyone. "Well- I don't right now. But, I will! I'm really good at navigating!"

"It's true, he is!" Richie walked over to the older boy, ruffling up his hair like he was praising a dog.

"Well, what should we do then?"

"G-Gear up, grab as m-m-many weapons as you can. This c-c-clown will be the most horrible t-thing that you'd ever have f-f-f-f-faced." Bill ordered.

"Hey, Steve- do you still have that bat?"

"This really is serious- isn't it?"

"STEVE!"

-

After they had finally all gotten ready, Eddie walked out of the Harrington house- the others trailing right after him. 

"Are you really sure that we should trust him?" He had heard one of Richie's cousin's friends whisper, horribly, to each other.

"He's the only chance we have of beating the clown!" The one with a slight lisp had answered.

"But- we have El!" The ginger girl had responded.

"Yeah, I can fight!"

"We know you can! You're the best fighter we have. But your powers haven't been used a lot recently. They all have powers. That's like- you times one hundred!"

"So, they're better?"

"NO! No, El! You're all the same! Okay?"

She eyed him, obviously not believing what Richie's cousin, Mike, had said. Eddie chuckled t them- it was kind of like the banter he had with Richie... WAIT! WHAT? MIKE AND THAT GIRL WERE DATING! HE AND RICHIE WEREN'T! Of course, if Richie did in fact ask them to be together, with all seriousness, he wouldn't be opposed to the idea- BUT IT JUST ISN'T THE SAME!

After a couple of minutes of trying to take deep breaths, he realises that they had arrived at their destination. "We're here!" He told everyone.

The Party + Hopper and Joyce's eyes widened.

"Are you sure it's here?" Mike asked patiently.

"Yeah. C'mon, let's go inside!" He said, but as soon as Eddie was about to go in the building to defeat the clown, Hopper grabbed his arm. "Ow! What was that for?"

"This is Hawkins Lab- the place where Eleven got kidnapped to for experiments." Jim sighed once Eddie tilted his head in question. "The one with powers."

The Losers Club's eyes widened.

"Are you- would you be okay with coming in with us?" Mike H asks the girl.

"I can fight!" She nods enthusiastically.

"Well, come on then."

Hopper uses some of his strength to open the abandoned buildings door, before following Eddie around all the twists and turns- until he cranes his neck and says, "This is where IT is going to be!"

Everyone looks at the two doors expectantly. Nothing happened.

That is, until, corrupted circus music echoed through the hallways. The Losers jump up in fright whilst The Party hold up their fists. Like that is going to anything.

Suddenly, all of the lights blacked out after blinking several times. When they came back on again- they weren't in the corridor. They were in one of the spacey lab rooms. There was smashed glass everywhere- along with broken machinery parts. 

(Well, well, well.) It commented. (What do we have here?)

"L-Leave u-Us al-L-Lone!" Screamed Bill at the top of his lungs. "Y-You already k-K-Killed G-Georgie and S-Stan- why d-Do you n-N-N-Need us too?"

IT appeared out of one of the dark corners in the white room and chuckled.

(I didn't kill Stan. He killed himself. And it wasn't even my fault.) IT pouted and started to put on a very Georgie-like expression, "Come float Billy. Float with me! We can go to the circus and eat as much candy as we want!"

"NO!"

Then, IT turned towards Steve and did an open-mouthed smile- showing rows and rows of teeth- before IT stpped back and dissapeared.

"W-WAIT!" Bill called, but it was too late.

"D-DAMN IT! S-STUPID F-FUCKING CLOWN!"

Ben glanced around the room. "Guys, where's Richie?"

"What? He's right-" Bev pointed to the empty spot next to her. "-here."

A loud scream was heard from the other room.

"Richie!" The Losers said with wide eyes, before running out of the room.

CRASH

"Wait- what was that?"

Will turns around. The door which part of The Losers had previously walked through was slammed shut- leaving Bill and Ben trapped in the room with him.

"Bill! Ben!" They had shouted. "Open the door!"

Ben tried to push the metal door open.

"It won't budge!"

Another scream was heard- this time it was rather familiar.

Ben and Bill looked at each other before shouting,

"BEV!"

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 12th -

Mike, Bev and Eddie had run out of the room. Richie's scream was just too distracting- so distracting that they hadn't realised the door had closed on them until it was too late.

"Bill! Ben! Open the door!" Mike and Eddie had shouted.

Then, the lights blacked out again. The two boys payed no attention to it and kept pushing on the metal boarder between them and their friends. That is, until, they heard a shrilling scream. 

Eddie turned to look behind him and whispered, "Bev."

"Where did she go?" Mike asked back.

"How am I supposed to fucking know? Didn't she run in here with us?"

Mike looked back to make sure, but then he realised he wasn't in front of a metal door anymore. He was in a blank room. Without turning back, he tapped Eddie's shoulder. "Eddie, Ed's, where are we?"

"Don't call me that!" The older boy moaned- craning his neck to look at Mike. His eyes widened. "Mike, where the fuck are we?"

"Eddie..." The black boy's voice broke. "What are they?"

Eddie slowly turned to where he was standing before- and in front of the two boys were three doors. Each door was dripping blood with the words; Not scary, Scary, and Very scary. 

"Holy shit!"

"Didn't Bill and Richie say that they saw these too?" Mike reminded.

"OH! I remember, they said that they were flipped, right?"

Mike turned towards the Very Scary door and opened it carefully- Eddie staying right behind.

"Where's my shoe?"

Mike looked through the strange door, saw a light switch and pulled it. It turned out that the door was a way into a closet. Eddie whimpered behind him. 

Suddenly, a Betty-sounding giggle was heard and her legs were trotting towards the pair. Eddie screamed whilst Mike just stared, breathing heavily.

"It's not flipped! It's not flipped!"

The abandoned legs start getting faster- someone had to do something! So, Eddie quickly shook away his dying screams, ran towards mike and pulled him away from the door- closing it in the process.

"Are you okay Mike?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine- it's just that the legs reminded me of- it doesn't matter."

"Are you sure?" The smaller boy questioned. "Because that sounded a lot like ptsd which is a very serious thing! I mean, my mom's friend's aunt's cousin got it and-"

Mike covered Eddie's mouth with his hand to stop him from talking.

"Hush now! We need to open another one... let's do door Not scary at all!"

This time, Eddie opened the door- after at least five deep breaths. He's pretty sure he could handle it better and didn't want a repeat of last time.

The two teens peaked through the doorway- Mike using the flashlight he was holding to see where they were going. Phew, it was the other end of the corridor- well, that's what they thought, until they heard a shuffling sound, looked down and saw a golden-brown Pomeranian.

"Oh shit!" Swore Eddie. "There's no way I'm falling for this shit again!"

"Yeah." The other agreed. "That thing's a monster."

Eddie looked behind him to make sure that they were still in the corridor.

"Mike, make it sit- I know your moves you little bitch!" Eddie ordered.

"Okay-wait-okay." Mike swallowed a lump in his throat. "Sit!" He demanded.

The dog sat down.

"He did it." Eddie whispered- astonished. 

"He's actually kind of cute."

"Yeah! Who's a good boy!" The immature boy praised happily as the dog started to wag its tail. "You are! You-"

With a very loud bang, the small, cute puppy morphed into an ugly, disgusting beast.

Eddie slammed the door with a loud scream... again and started walking off in the opposite direction to the doors. Mike then trailed after him.

"Next time we'll go with regular scary!" 

"Next time?"

"I mean... hypothetically. Of course, we'll beat IT this time! Hopefully..."

They kept running through the long corridor- when Eddie stopped and realised the doors weren't in sight anymore- Mike copying his movements- they ran into Bill and Ben- making the four teenagers to fall over in the process.

"Holy fucking turtle!"

"ED-DDIE! I t-t-told you to st-top calling w-w-w-whatever god I-is up there a goddamn t-t-t-turtle!"

"How did you escape?" Mike queries, helping Ben up from the ground.

"Well if you really want to know-" 

Earlier Today

They were running- until they weren't. The metal door slammed into both Ben and Bill's faces.

"Bill! Ben!"

Ben kept pushing and pushing. He needed to get to his girlfriend right now!

"It won't budge!"

Then, to add to everybody in the room's shock and wonder, another scream was heard.

Bill and Ben looked at each other and shouted, "Bev!"

"We need to get to her!" The 'fat' boy exclaimed.

"BEVERLY!"

"Why aren't you doing something?" Ben turned towards the others- to find... a clown house door? He jogged inside.

Bill kept bashing on the door. He was ready to give up when he stopped hearing Ben. He spun around and saw the other boy walk into a clown mouth... well- it was a door that LOOKED like a mouth.

"Ben?"

Bill followed the other boy inside- getting stuck on a weird spinning thing. 

He tried getting his attention again. "Ben!"

Bill ran through a bunch of swinging clowns-getting hurt a couple of times at the end. Then, after he finished doing that, Bill saw what looked like- a mirror maze? Soon, he realised that Ben wasn't in his sight anymore- until a couple seconds after.

"Ben! H-Hey, Ben!"

He ran into some glass which separated him and one of his best-friends.

"Hey!"

Annnddd… Ben walked off. Bill tried touching the side of him to follow his shy friend... too occupied to see Pennywise run though part of the maze.

"B-Ben! Hey-"

Why did it start to seem like the walkthrough was getting smaller?

Bill ran into another dead end.

"Ben! Hey-y! BEN!!!"

There was only on glass piece in between them now.

Ben turned around at the loud bang he had finally heard. He let out a loud gasp.

"Bill? What are you doing here?"

"D-D-Don't you remember? We-e need to def-feat IT!"

Ben let out a big whimper "I'm so sorry! I forgot!"

"It's f-f-f-fine. We-we just n-n-need to g-get out of-f here!"

Bill turned away.

"I-I'm g-gonna get y-y-you out of-f...." As soon as Bill started moving away. Pennywise appeared.

Ben seemed to know what was happening and turned around... slowly.

Pennywise's tongue licked all over the glass. Bill shuddered and let out a pathetic "Please."

IT finally took its slimy organ off the mirror.

"T-Take m-me!"

IT banged ITs forehead against the glass and gave a demonic giggle before doing it again.

Eventually, the glass started to break. Ben darted for a way out of there, curling up in the corner of the glass. He turned to see Bill punching. Why wasn't he using his powers? Bill could easily just smash the glass! WHY?

"HELP! Help! Bill, HELP ME!"

IT gave a big smile and a growl before finally smashing the glass piece. But just as IT was about to take a bite out of Ben, the young boy dodges out of the way- blood trickling down his waist. IT kept trying to grab Ben. That's when it clicked. 

Powers.

Bill closed his eyes and concentrated. His forehead softly pushing at the glass with his hands... until, with a loud crash, the mirror fell into small pieces and Bill swiftly took Ben's hand and ran away from the beast. He soon wondered why IT couldn't catch up to them- he looked down at his feet and realised he didn't have any. He was invisible.

Present

"-And then we bumped into you. By the way... where's Bev?"

"We don't exactly have her yet."

"WHAT?"

Chapter Text

- Hawkins Indiana - 1986 - November 12th - 

"What the fuck?" Dustin yelled- because only a second ago, Bill and Ben were trying to open the jammed door. Now, they were gone. "Where the hell did they go?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Mike screamed back.

The boy who had previously been shouting rolled his eyes. "I wasn't even talking to you! Dipshit."

Hopper eyed the two boys before silently asking Joyce what to do. She just shrugged. Well, that helps!

"What if one of the Losers teleported them?" Lucas questioned. "Didn't they say that each of them had powers?"

Mike looked at him, his face scrunched up. "Um, no? There is NO WAY that my cousin has powers!" 

"Mike. You literally told Eleven they were better than her because they have triple the force than she has."

Mike's eyes widened. He did say that. "Oh." He frowned. Out of the corner of his eyes, he didn't miss the disgusted look that Jane was giving him. She still must be angry. "Well- how do we know that all of them have powers?"

"The leader, Bill, came into Steve's house and forced ITs finger apart to drop Max. The small one, Eddie? He ran toward Pennywise. Really. Really. Fast." Will answered.

"So, Richie might not have powers, right?"

"OH. MY. GOD! Why does it matter to you?" Dustin shrieked.

Mike huffed and tried not look towards him- doing this, it meant he had to look behind him. Where, what looked like, Bill, Ben, Mike and Eddie were.

"Guys!" The 'moody' boy tried to get the others' attention. 

"What is it now, Mike?" Max groaned audibly. 

"Look! Isn't that-" 

Apparently, he had gotten the other boys' attentions because they started walking towards them.

"HEY!" Ben screamed. "IS BEV WITH YOU?"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

"IS BEV- you know what, forget it!" The other four boys started running towards them. By the time they had arrived, each of them were out of breath- except Eddie- he used his speediness to dash to the Party within ten seconds of seeing them.

"What were you trying to tell us before?" Joyce queried cautiously.

"I was asking if B-Bev was with you." The chubby boy stated. "Is she?"

The Party all looked at each other.

"Didn't she come through the door with you?"

Mike H gaped worriedly. "Let me get this straight. Bev wasn't with us. She wasn't with the two B's and isn't with you?"

"OH, SHIT!" Eddie swore- obviously realising something that the others didn't.

"W-W-What I-is I-I-I-I-it, Ed-d-die?" Bill asked, scared for the answer.

"We forgot about Richie!"

-

Everyone (Not including Richie) started running through the halls, Eddie desperately wanting to find his crush friend. The smaller stayed ahead of the others, for obvious reasons, until he eventually found a small opening and froze at what he had seen.

A couple of minutes later, everybody else had caught up to him- everyone was wondering why Eddie had stopped, till they finally began to see what he was seeing.

In the middle of the small room was Richie- standing up with his head facing the floor- but, not. Because, it couldn't have been him. Richie was a boy, not a clown! Or at least, that's what his friends had thought.

"'CHEE!" Eddie squealed. 

The other 'boy' twitched at the familiar nickname, lifted his face and did a big, red sinister smile. 

"Richie?" Bill gasped. "Is that you?"

Clown Richie giggled.

"You're forgetting about someone!" He taunted.

The others looked at each other, desperately wanting to know what he was talking about, but Ben seemed to know. 

"WHERE'S BEV? I KNOW YOU HAVE HER! I-I want my girlfriend back." 

"Aww." The clown-boy cooed mockingly. "You want little Bevvy-boo back, don't you? Well come and GET HER!" 

He stepped towards the side, showing a floating Bev. She wasn't as high as she was last time she got caught in the Deadlights, but she was still a couple of metres off the ground.

"Oh my god!" Max and Joyce comprehended immediately.

Mike Wheeler glared at his cousin. Why did he have to join the monsters? Richie was stupid- but- HOLD ON!

"GUYS!" Mike W squawked. "I figured it out!"

"Not now, Michael!" Hopper interrupted, watching The Losers + Jane charge at IT Richie. with rage. They had obviously hated Pennywise for as long as they could remember and wanted this to be their final battle.

Within a few minutes of trying fight Richie-Wise, or whatever they're calling him, The Losers were already shortened of breath because every single time that they had finally gotten close to him, he had teleported to a different side of the small room.

Eventually, Mike Hanlon had given up and, whilst Richie wasn't looking, started rooting through his bag to pull out... a sage, mud stick? The boy lit it and started to sneakily rub and wave it around the room. By the looks of it, it looked like it was working. Clow- you know what, forget it, Richie started to make these weird groaning sounds and eventually stopped trying to teleport away from the others. 

-

Richie needed to get out of the room. And quick! Mike H kept using a weird tool to get rid of the Pennywise deep inside of him. But, the thing is, he didn't want to let go of the demon. IT made him feel strong and powerful.

He wouldn't

He-he couldn't!

I guess that's why he tried to dig his nails into his arms- piercing his pale skin. He could hear the others shouting and coming towards him- he felt kind of jittery- but he wouldn't give Bev to them. Never! And just like that- he heard two voices- the first one was booming like an echo, if that makes sense, the other one unmistakably sounding like Pennywise. They sounded like they were.... arguing?

A couple of seconds later, he couldn't take it anymore. All of the noises buzzing in and out of his ear. He pushed both of his arms out, quickly standing up, scaring everybody around him. They must've though he was dead from how little he was moving!

Behind his closed eyelids, Richie could see three white orbs coming and closer and closer towards him... until he couldn't see them anymore.

That's when the pain started happening.

The big, excruciating pain.

When he finally opened his eyes, he could see the orbs- two of them were floating in front of his palms, whilst the other one shone brightly in front of him- it looked like everybody could see them too due to they wide-eyes they were having. Even some of their mouths were gaped. 

-

Bill quickly shook out all of his confusion and turned away from the sickly, white spheres, shouting to the others, "S-S-STOP ST-TARING AT THE O-O-O-ORBS!" Everyone stopped to stare at the boy with hesitance. He immediately shut his worn-out eyes. "THEY'RE T-T-THE D-D-D-D-DEADLIGHTS" 

"WHAT THE FUCK?" Eddie screeched- covering his eyes with his hands- like everyone else was doing too. 

"B-BUT WHAT ABOUT BEV?" Max and Ben loudly asked.

"S-She's in the d-d-d-d-deadlights, remember?"

Ben let out a breath that he didn't realise she was holding. "I hope she's alright." He whispered to no-one but himself. 

-

Eleven knew exactly what to do- well, she kind of did. The plan was still being made up in her head. She knew that they couldn't stay like this forever. They had to do something! ANYTHING!

That's when the young girl realised what she needed to do. 

But to what was needed to be done, they had to get Bev out the deadlights. And fast.

With both palms on her eyes, Jane asked The Losers what their powers were. They each responded with something different. It was also kind of cool that Bill had the same powers as her- but there was time for discussing that later.

"Ben." She started. "Didn't one of you say that the Deadlights were Pennywise's true form?"

"Yeah. Why? We're kind of busy trying NOT to look at them or we'll start to end up like-. Sorry, that sounded harsh."

She thought for a moment. 

"What if you're wrong."

"About what?" He asked impatiently.

"-About the fact that staring into the Deadlights makes them float."

Ben seemed to realise what she must've been thinking. "It's the Deadlights that look at you!"

"Wha-What is going on?" Hopper groaned interruptingly.

Instead of answering, The 'fat' boy uncovered his eyes and, with a step forward, used part of his energy to covert himself into air- in other words, he went invisible. If the deadlights couldn't see him, they couldn't get to him. And if he got caught by IT, he and Bev would be stuck forever. It did take a lover's kiss to break the curse. Okay, that sounded like a cheesy princess story. 

-

Richie couldn't see anything. His vision was clouded with orange and white spots. And since he couldn't see anything, unbeknownst to Ben, he failed to notice one of his friends sneak past him to get to the other red-headed girl. and give her a big, kiss.

Another thing which he failed to see was a plate crashing towards his pasty-white face. He blinked his eyes open, to see... nothing? The room which he was standing in had no-one but himself and IT. Or at least that's what he thought. Until, another plate came down. Okay. This started to get weird. Where did the Losers and the Party go? He looked up towards the ceiling. No-one was floating. How hadn't they seen the Deadlights? 

Wait a minute. 

Richie took a long glance behind himself.

Where the fuck was Bev?

After around ten seconds, another glass-plate came rushing towards him. Okay. WHAT THE FUCK WAS GOING ON, NOW? 'Well at least im not getting cut.' He thought positively. Up until he had realised that there was a glass shard stuck in his arm. When he pulled it out, the blood coming from his veins started to float upwards. 

Suddenly, out of the corner of his bright-orange, Pennywise-like eye, he saw the outline of a silhouette. As soon as the unknown figure threw a plate at him- this time it was plastic- he caught it in his hands. Well, if they wanted a showdown, they were going to get a showdown!

-

Max was confused when the skinny-fat boy asked her to touch him. At first, she thought it was in a sexual way and declined. He dismissed the idea and told her to touch his arms or something. Not his dick.

She weary of the idea at first, until everyone else crowded around him an put their hand on his shoulder. It was a tight fit, but it worked! Barely. Everybody was squished together and it seemed like personal space just... stopped existing. 

Ben started wiggling his fingers but after a while-really it was just about eighteen seconds- he stopped. Because they weren't there anymore.

Max stared in shock. Where the fuck did his fingers go? When she finally looked down. The screeching in her mind came to a halt. Did Ben turn them invisible? Okay, this was getting weird.

But then, it got weirder.

Everyone seemed to forget about Bev's powers, before she let go of one of her hands connect to Ben's- the other one was still touching him so she was still invisible- and conjured up.... a plate? Everyone stared at her in confusion.

She whispered a little "Watch this!" And threw it at Richie. Okay, despite the situation they were all in, the four girls, including Joyce, giggled at what Bev was doing. 

Beverly kept throwing plates at the clown-version of Richie. Until he looked at her dead In the eye and muttered something under his breath. 

Everyone started to hunch together in fear. 

"Hey now, I'm  not going to hurt you!" The boy lied- nobody fell for it. Richie rolled his eyes and slowly but surely, the Deadlights started shrinking and shrinking and shrinking.... until they were the size of granny Mayfield's marbles.

Something didn't feel right. 

-

 As soon as Richie lowered his guard down, Lucas took his hand of ben to grab his slingshot and rocks and aimed them at Richie. Eddie started to run around the younger boy, trying to make him feel queasy or something. Bev kept throwing plates at him, trying not to hit Eddie in the process. Mike H picked Ben up and threw him at Richie with no effort at all. The Party tried helping in any way possible, whether that throwing plates with Bev or finding as many rocks they could find. Bill and Eleven started to try and get into Richie's head through the void- it wasn't very successful.

Everything is going great! Well, it was. 

Because that mother-fucking clown had to mess with things. Again.

-

Dustin, whilst picking up a rock to give to Lucas, sees Pennywise out of the corner of his eye- except that he doesn't exactly see pennywise.

He saw his dad. Waving at him.

"Dad?" He asks to the shadow.

It doesn't answer back. Instead, it just runs away.

Dustin drops the rock and starts chasing after the 'fatherly figure'.

A couple of minutes later, Lucas realises that Dustin had vanished. "Hey! BEN!" He calls after one of the boys who was trying to deposes Richie. 

The fat boy jogs up to him.

"What is it?" He questions.

"Did you use your powers on Dustin?"

Ben looks flabbergasted. "No. Why?"

Lucas's eyes widen. 

"He's gone."

"GUYS!" Ben screams to the others. "GUYS!"

"What is it, Ben? We're kind of fighting Richie right now!" Bev dismisses whilst a very Richie-sounding scream echoes through the building.

"Dustin's gone!"

"WHAT!"

"Mike!" Lucas screams. 

The two Mikes turn towards him.

"Dustin's missing! I think IT might have gotten to him!"

Mike Hanlon rushes up to the Losers and warns them about the 'missing' boy. Bev throws all of the plates in the air. Slowly, they turn into chains. She passes them to Eddie, who wraps it around Richie and before the other boy can escape, Mike H picks up the old sage stick that had been used before, and lights it near Richie's face. 

-

Everyone runs through the halls. Richie thrown over Mike Hanlon's shoulder. They needed to find Dustin... and fast!

Eventually, they came across one of Eleven's testing rooms.

The tank.

She remembers the day in which she released the Demogorgon into the real world. The day Will went missing.

Except, it didn't look like it did three years ago. It was... bigger? In fact, it was massive! Did IT somehow extend the room? It was also filled up with broken machinery and metals. But, there in the middle of the room, was Dustin- he was talking to a random man?

"D-Dustin!" Bill shouted. "I-It's n-n-n-not real-l!"

The fifteen year old boy turned around, tears in his eyes as the man fades away.

Jane runs up to him to engulf him in a big hug.

"Who was that?"

"It was m-my dad. He died." Eleven starts to rub her hand round his back. Eventually, they step away from each other. 

Richie starts laughing crazily.

Mike Hanlon lifts him off his shoulders and puts him in the middle of the giant room. Mike, the Losers and the Party all stand around the possessed boy. 

"W-What d-d-d-do w-we d-do now?"

They all looked around in question.

"I once read this thing in the library. I was planning on what would happen if IT came back in twenty-seven years. It was called the ritual of Chüd. It is possibly one of the only real ways to get rid of Pennywise. But, there is a catch.... if you don't believe in it hard enough, you die."

Everyone glares at him.

"There is a high chance that it won't work because none of us brought any tokens to sacrifice."

Bev stands tall. "I'll do it!"

Hopper gawps at her. "NO-"

Eddie steps forward and whimpers. "I'll do it too." Mike H smiles sincerely at him.

"If Bev is doing it, I am as well! I can't live without her- so I'll die with her!" Ben declares.

Max and Lucas nod before answering with a, "Me three."

Will and Eleven go next. "Me four!" and "Me five!"

"THERE IS NO Way-"

"D-Don't f-f-f-forget me!" Bill stutters. 

Joyce looks at her son and tells them that she will as well. 

"You?" Hopper queries disgustedly.

She shrugs. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!"

Hopper sighs. "I will too... I guess."

"You guys are going to force me to do it whether I like it or not, aren't you?" Steve already knows the answer.

They all look at Mike Wheeler expectantly, who shakes his head. "No! There is no way that I'm gonna kill myself trying to kill a stupid clown!"

"Mike..." Will pleads. "Come on."

Mike's appearance falters. "Fine."

"So, What do we do?" Joyce asks.

"Everyone, stand in a circle and hold the person next to yous hand!"

"WAIT! What about Richie?"

"If we kill IT, it should kill the monster inside of him too!"

They all stand in a circle after Mike H tells Beverly to give him the pot that they needed which she created out of thin air. Richie was lying down on the outside of their circle.

"Okay, now chant the words- turn light into dark repeatedly, okay?"

They all nod their heads and squeeze their eyes shut.

"Turn light into dark. Turn light into dark. Turn light into dark. Turn Light into dark. Turn light into dark. Turn light into dark. Turn light into dark."

"Mike, what's happening?"

"Don't look!"

"Turn light into dark. Turn light into dark! Turn light into dark! Turn light into- wait-why?"

The three Deadlights were floating downwards from the giant ceiling, unbeknownst to the two friend groups.

Beverly opens her eyes and screams.

"BEV! DON'T LOOK! Turn light into dark! Turn light into dark!"

The Deadlights merge together to make a red balloon.

Everyone puts their hands to their sides and let's out a gasp. 

"Turn light into dark- did it work? Did it work, Mike?"

Mike Hanlon rushes to the pot and tries to put the lid on but it doesn't budge. Because there is a red balloon trying to escape.

"MIKE! IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE-" Hopper starts.

"Keep chanting!"

"Wait, what?" Eddie backtracks.

"Turn light into dark. Turn light into dark! Turn light into dark! Turn-" They don't get to finish unluckily because the red balloon was getting bigger and bigger, until it popped.

"SHIT!"

"WHAT THE FUCK, MIKE!" 

"I CAN'T HEAR ANYTHING! I CAN'T HEAR!"

"DID WE DO IT? Did we do it?"

"We did it, right?"

The Losers and The Party each look around the room with their flashlights that Beverly had conjured up and been given to, before.

Suddenly, Bev's flashlight lands on something moving. She steps forward. Then, there's a horrible giggle and the torch lands on a giant Pennywise.

"BOO!"

"OH SHIT!"

"Oh, did it work, Mikey? Did it work?" IT mocks proudly. "Or is it all just a- what's the word, Eds? Gazebo?" 

Eddie blushes at the deliberate use of the wrong word. Not his proudest moment.

"Mike! Why didn't it work!" Screamed Bill!

"MIKEY!"

"Y-YOU DIDN'T BELIEVE! That's why it didn't work!" Mike H scolds.

"Are you serious, Mike?" Steve Screams.

"I KNEW this was a bad idea!" Mike Wheeler cries.

Pennywise jumps over to another side of the room, letting the three lights float upwards. 

"The Deadlights! Don't look at them!" Max howled.

Pennywise keeps moving until he's in front of The two groups once again.

"I craved you!" IT says to the Losers. "I missed you! And waited 'till this very moment!" ITs hand turned into a giant claw.

"MOVE, MIKEY!" Bill yells harshly. "MOVE!"

IT throws ITs claw at Mike H who misses it just by a second. It's a good job that Eddie moved quickly enough to move him out the way in time.

Pennywise starts to chase the Losers and the Party around the lab- making it's walls extend so IT could fit through to try and catch them.

"OH SHIT!" Yells Eddie.

"GO, GO, GO!" Hopper yells.

-

Whilst IT was distracted, Eleven quickly dodges out of the way and runs to Richie. She picks up the sleeping boy and carries him to, what she knows, is one of the safe rooms. 

"Please. Please. Please wake up!" She wishes.

-

Bill slides right into one of the holes in the ground, making Pennywise stop. IT was so big that IT couldn't even see where Bill went! Pennywise was so confused, he missed all of the Party and the Losers split up into twos and threes.

The stuttering boy soon realised that he was lying in old, dirty water from the tank experiment. It must have leaked into one of the big holes after getting filled up too many times! He kept trying to swim to find a way out.

Pennywise looks around- trying to find someone else to eat- and lands ITs eyes on Dustin, Lucas and Ben. IT chased after them until they hid in one of the holes- like Bill. Except that it wasn't filled with water.

-

Eleven finds some blanket which was laying on top of one of the beds, rips it apart and puts it onto her face. She needs to find a way that she can get Richie awake again. Pennywise being a giant must've taken off some of Richie's energy. That's what she guesses anyway. Eleven thinks that Pennywise had possessed Richie during the 'Georgie accident' and when the Losers thought that they defeated IT for the first time, Pennywise was still possessed into Richie's body and feeding off his energy.

After a couple of minutes of putting the blindfold on, she finally sees the void. It's still cracked.

-

Ben and Bev had split up together and found a small, open room. They thought that Pennywise wouldn't have found them. But they were wrong. IT finds them and sends them to some of their most 'memorable' places. AKA. The girl's bathroom and the clubhouse.

-

Bill soon realizes that there wasn't a way out, because he didn't jump in a whole full of water. He was in his house where Georgie and his three-year younger self were.

"I lost it Billy."

The two kept talking until it came to the bit that Bill hated most.

"You lied and I died! You lied and I died!"

Suddenly, Georgie disappeared and reappeared in front of himself. 

"I DIED!" 

Georgie's face was covered in maggots and worms. It was all so horrifying and disgusting to watch. Bill new that it was another fake Georgie since the beginning, so he drowned the younger one in the water he was swimming in.

-

The bathroom stall was shaking and Beverly was in shock. Where did Ben go and how did she get here? The young girl started to put her hands on the walls, trying to keep them steady.

"You little shit, I can smell you!" Greta's snobbish voice boomed through the door.

Then there was Mr. Keene, that pedophile, "You smell just like Lois lane!"

-And the worst of it all, the next thig was Henry. The guy who spread all the rumours about her having sex with him! Like she would ever do that! She was sixteen for crying out loud and Eleven when he proposed the idea.

"Here's HENRY!"

Just like that, blood started flowing in through the bottom of the stall. The walls wouldn't stop shaking!

-

Ben was still lying down in the clubhouse, giving deep breaths. It was going to be fine! Just fine! Fi-

The walls of the wooden hideout started shaking and falling down- sinking to the floor and piling up towards him.

Ben screamed. He knew what It was doing! He hated being in enclosed spaces for too long!

All of the dirt was rushing to the sides of him, trying to wrap him in their wrath.

Ben finally looked up and saw the open latch. He kept trying to jump to reach it, but the dirt was sinking him closer and closer to the ground. Pennywise appeared at the top of the clubhouse, giggled, and shut out the light with a wooden plank.

"NO!"

-

Eleven saw the Georgie death again and again, trying to figure out how he was possessed. She needed to know the exact time that Pennywise took over his body so she could reverse it. Eventually, she made the mistake of playing the memory back too far.

Eleven was standing in Richie's kitchen with him and another woman. She was icing a very-burned cake. She kept trying to figure out who the woman was. Then she realized that it was, what looked like, his mom.

She was beautiful!

"Hey, mom. Could I go to Bill's house in a few minutes?" Richie asked her.

"Isn't he sick? You could catch a cold!"

"Please, mommy?"

"Okay fine." She smiled and flicked his nose with the frosting. "But you have to be back before your father gets home. You know how he gets after work."

He agreed and started to walk to Bill's house after a small taste of the cake.

She took the blindfold off. 

Jane finally realized how to bring Richie back.

-

The bathroom toilet started flooding. The blood kept rising and rising until it was up to her shoulders. She kept trying to reach the top of the stall to climb out. 

She really felt like she was going to die!

Her dad kept peeking through the stall. "Are you still my little girl, Bevvy?"

Bev looked down after realizing that all the blood was draining away. She was facing her fear! As she looked down, the floor off the bathroom stall sunk into the ground and she saw her boyfriend covered neck-to-toe in pure soil.

She reached out towards him with her legs on the sides of the stall- this can't be a trick!

"BEENNN!" She screams

"BEVV!" Ben tries to grab her hand.

She finally pulls him up after, what felt like, an eternity and held him close. mixing together the blood and soil making a sicky smell. They both gasped for air and fell down onto.... the lab floor?

THEY MADE IT BACK!

But a distant giggle was heard.

-

Bill was standing in the water next to a drowned 'Georgie', when his three-year younger-self grabbed a bolt gun and pointed it at future Bill.

"You deserve to die!" He said.

"No!" He said pulling the gun out of Bill's hand- grabbing his wrist and pulled the gun to his head.

"I-I never, Ever. Did. It!" He blasted the bolt gun into Bill's forehead.

Younger Bill's head flung back. But then he smiled with sharp teeth and jumped onto future Bill, dragging him in the water in the process.

Bill kept swimming and shook Bill off of his body until he was out of his basement. He never felt so relieved to be back in the lab before.

He looked around, until he eventually saw Mike- in plain sight? What in hell was he doing?

A snake coming from Pennywise arms slowly wrapped around the black boy and pointed a sharp nail at him. By the looks of it, the arm was bigger and stronger than Mike was.

Pennywise opened ITs mouth, getting ready to swallow Mikey whole. Bill couldn't let that happen! He needed to do something!

-

Eleven stopped going through the memories and just stayed in the void. It took quite a while, but she eventually found Richie. The real, not-possessed one! He was laying down on the lab floor like possessed Richie was. Well, they were the same person after all.

"Richie?" She asked slowly.

He looked up. "ELEVEN!" He smiled. "You need to get me out, okay? I need to help you!"

"I will! I just need you to tell me about your mom!"

"My mom?" He repeated shocked. "W-Well, around four years ago, she was really kind and nice to me. It used to just be my dad who abused me but he convinced her all of these things about me, but when that didn't work, he spiked all of her drinks with alcohol- it wasn't even a tiny drop- it was like he replace the whole thing! She then became addicted and went to bars. She'd cheat on my dad a lot."

"If it's okay with you, can you tell me about Eddie?"

He looked at her as if he had eaten a cat.

"Don't worry, I won't judge you for anything."

He nodded his head and smiled.

"Eds is the best. He's just the cutest, isn't he?"

Eleven giggled.

"I love it when he mocks me and does his little eye-roll. It's nice to know that someone else has the same sense of humor as me. If you ask him, he'll tell you otherwise though. I think- I think I love him?"

Eleven looked at him, shocked. "In a brotherly-way?"

"No. I want to hold his hands and kiss his lips and cuddle him- man, I'm sounding really cheesy!"

"Oh. Like me and Mike? Sometimes he acts like with Will too- not kissing though! He'll hug and hold his hand sometimes."

Richie stopped and stared at Eleven. Did Mike have a crush on Will? Oh Maturin!

She didn't seem to notice his furrowing eyebrows and asked; "Richie, how did your mom die?"

He let out a sob. "I stabbed her- I-I fucking stabbed her in the head and she-she."

She hushed him. "That's all I need to know.

After a couple of minutes, she took the blindfold off and slapped possessed-Richie awake. 

He groaned.

"What do want now? Fucking bitch!"

She ignored the jab and ran to get Eddie.

-

Eddie, Dustin and Lucas were about to come out of the crack in the wall when Jane came over and dragged Eddie off into one of the rooms.

"Where are you taking me. You know that if you tell me where you're going I can there faster?"

She hushed him and pointed her finger at a grumpy Richie.

"Kiss him."

Eddie stared at her. 

"What?"

"KISS HIM!"

"Why would I need to?" Eddie blushed.

"To help him!"

Eddie turned Richie and finally seemed to get what she was talking about. "Oh." 

Eleven wanted Eddie to kiss Richie to de-possess him if that makes sense. Pennywise can't feel love for anyone- that's why it had always worked when Ben kissed Bev when she was in the Deadlights. Oh SHIT, how did Eleven know that he loved Richie? 

She didn't seem to care though. Okay. He took a deep breath and leaned in. Right before he touched the lips of his lover, a thought came to mind- if Richie was possessed by IT- does that mean that Eddie is kissing Pennywise. EWW!

-

Bill was ready to lift his hand up, ready to make Pennywise drop Mike with his powers. But just as he started to feel blood trickle down his nose, a rock came flying towards Pennywise's head. No-one had perfect aim like that- except Richie!

IT flung Mike to one of the walls next to him.

Bill looked over as Richie picked up another rock.

"HEY FUCKFACE!" The boy shouted. "YOU'RE A SLOPPY BITCH! YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT- I SAID IT! LET'S DANCE!" Pennywise seemed to be taken back when the first rock flew in, why would IT make Richie throw a rock at ITs face. Then it clicked. Pennywise wasn't controlling him anymore! "YIPPEE KI YAY MOTHER-FUCKER!" 

Pennywise's jaw unhinged, obviously trying to show the Deadlights to Richie.

Eddie, Dustin, Lucas and Eleven/Jane were standing right behind him and covered their eyes- but Richie did nothing. WAIT- WHY WASN'T RICHIE FLOATING?

Bill glances at Hopper, Max, Will, Joyce and Mike W- who were hiding in the rainbow room. They looked just as confused as he was.

Richie smirked and quickly teleported to his cousin, grabbed a sharp pencil and teleported back.

"OH? Are you wondering why I'm not blinded by your mother-fucking ass yet? It's because of this-" Richie grabbed the pencil and stabbed it right in his arm. The blood was floating upwards! "-I'm still, and always will be, somehow connect to you! You know what that means? The Deadlights can't see me and my blood will always float upwards. But I will never, ever be a clown like you!"

-And just like that- Pennywise claw went straight through Richie's waist, leaving tracks of floating blood behind. He looked behind himself and whispered a quiet, "Eddie..." IT brought its claw towards IT and swung Richie towards one of the rooms.

Beverly screamed, "NOOOO!"

Pennywise let out a giggle. "OH-UH! SEEMS LIKE YOUR TEAM'S DOWN ANOTHER MEMBER!" 

The Losers and The Party ran towards the wrecked room- crowding around Richie's body. Eddie even made Mike Hanlon rip a part off of his jeans to put pressure on his best-friend crushes' open wound.

"Be careful, b-be careful!" Bill gently demanded.

Pennywise seemed to forget that IT could expand the walls and kept trying to fit through the double doors. "Come out and play! Come out and play with the clown! I can smell your fear."

"What should we do now? Asked Mike W worriedly. "As much as I hate to admit it- I love my cousin and don't want him to die! Well- maybe at the start but-"

"Beep Beep, Michael!" Bev whimpered out.

"We need to make IT smaller, right? How are we supposed to fight IT if ITs not small?" Eddie asked.

"Because we aren't going to fight IT! Ben responds. "We need to bully it! Like how The Bowers gang made us feel small, we'll do the same to IT!" The others nodded and left out of some of the extra doors in the room.

-

Eddie stayed.

"Hey, Eddie? Are you alright?"

"Am I alright? You just got stabbed by a giant spider!"

Richie chuckled.

"But you're not really a fan of blood, are you?"

Eddie smiled and cupped Richie's cheek.

"I'm fine! Even though it is kind of disgusting."

"Hey, Eddie. Can I tell you something?" Eddie looked up and nodded. "I fucked your mom!"

Eddie laughed with the familiarity of the joke.

"Me too, Trashmouth. Me too."

- 

Ben looked towards Pennywise and gave a quiet, "Go!" When he knew IT was distracted. Pennywise turned towards them, having obviously of heard what Ben said, and started chasing after them all. Pennywise jumped in front of them.

"Gotcha, you little children!" 

Max stepped back. "Ben, have you got a plan B, what are supposed to do now?"

Pennywise giggled.

"Die- is what you do!"

"MIKE!" Ben tried to get the other boys' attention.

"Make him believe that HE IS!" Will answered. 

"WHAT?" Bill asked.

"Make him believe that he is!" Mike H repeated.

"He's what?" Hopper questioned impatiently.

"Small." Eleven answered.

"Me? Small?" IT giggled. "I'm the eater of worlds!"

Steve breathed in. "Not to us- you aren't!"

"EATER OF WORLDS!" IT insisted.

"No. You're not!" Mike W denied.

"You're just a headless boy!" Ben called out.

"Imposter!" Screamed Bill.

IT roared, walking towards them with eight legs before cowering down.

"You're a fucking Bully!" 

-

Richie knew what was coming for him.

"Eddie-"

"Yes, Rich." 

"Can you give me your hand?" Richie croaked out hoarsely.

Eddie did as he asked and Richie pulled out a pocketknife.

"I want you to go to them."

Eddie looked in shock.

"NO! NOT yet!"

"Please, Eddie. I'll be fine!"

Eddie whimpered. "Fine." And started walking towards the others.

"Oh, and Eddie."

"Yes Rich."

"I love you!"

Eddie smiled. "I love you too!" 

-

"You're just a fucking clown!" roared Jim.

"YEAH! A DUMB FUCKING CLOWN!" Eddie screeched.

"A fucking stupid MUMMY!" Will swore. Joyce looked at him in shock.

"You're a mimic!" Bev screamed. "YOU HEAR ME? A MIMIC!"

IT started to fall backwards into the main testing room. It shrunk almost half of ITs size.

"Clown! Clown! Clown! Clown! Clown! Clown1 Clown! Clown! Clown! Clown!" Everyone insisted.

"EATER OF WORLDS!" 

"Clown!"

The friend groups started walking towards IT, making IT hit the wall behind itself.

"Clown!"

"I'm the eater of worlds!" 

IT was the size of a baby.

"CLOWN! CLOWN!"

Eddie went over to Pennywise and ripped one of ITs claws off.

"Clown!" Ben chanted.

"Clown!" Bev mumbled.

IT started to wiggle around. His head lay flat against the dirty, old wall.

"Clown!" The two Mikes bullied.

Eddie reached down and cut a hole into ITs clothing and through his chest. Mike Hanlon reached down and pulled his beating heart out. Pennywise kept making squawking sounds and grabbing hands at the treasured item.

Everyone held onto the heart and crushed it in one push.

"Look at you now. You're all grown up." ITs final mocking words were at the teens and the three adults, before IT died.

Everybody stood round it for a few minutes, until Eddie's head shot up. 

"RICHIE!"

He ran towards the other boy. Richie's eyes were closed.

Hopper looked down at the boy and gave a sad frown. Joyce started rubbing Eddie's back. The Party stood there, upset about another passing.

"We've got to go. Come on, Eddie." Beverly uttered.

Eddie hugged tightly onto Richie.

"C'mon. We've got to go!" Bill grabbed Eddie's arms.

Ben could hear the place start to fall apart. 

"Eddie." He warned.

"He's still alive!" Eddie insisted, even though not even he could believe it.

"Come on man, Mike H pulled Eddie away from the dead boy. The Party looked at The Losers in shock. 

"GUYS, WE CAN STILL HELP HIM!"

They kept dragging Eddie away until they were out of the building. When Mike and Bill finally let go, Eddie started to run but Hopper stopped him.

"RICHIE!" He cried.

-

After everyone had walked back to Hoppers cabin, they realised how much dirt and blood they were covered in. 

"Hey, could we swim in the lake?" Bill asked Hopper. He agreed and they all stripped into their underwear and swam in.

Everybody crowded around each other and cried.

Cried for the loss of their best-friend.

Cried for the loss of a cousin.

Cried for the loss of friend.

            Richie  

-

Turn to dark, where the monsters hide.

You better be quiet, or you'll have to die.

Monsters have feelings; good, bad and weak.

Get into a fight, make sure you can speak.

Join back now, the future falls.

Get over here, then I'll take you all.

But, I've signed the contract, I'm in debt.

I guess I'll have to forgive, But I'll never forget.

- Naive_Squelch