Chapter Text

I.

A chill creeps into Ben’s bone marrow. He shivers and rolls over except mud is squeezing its way into his coat and making it all a whole lot worse for him. Finally, he sits up rubbing his hands along his arms and looks at what was a fire once upon a time. Now it's more ash than glowing embers, abandoning them to the cold. That thick scent of snow hangs around them but none of the clouds look full of any sort of precipitation. It’s clear blue out with the sun rising on up.

Ben looks around noticing how alone he is. Richie’s frog is partially curled up underneath some mud and Bill is sleeping on all his feet. There’s no Mike, no Stan, no Richie and Eddie, and no Bev. Everybody else is gone leaving them to the chills of their campsite.

Ben gets up looking around hoping for some sort of sign like maybe everybody had to pee all at the same time. “Bill?” he disturbs the guy’s sleep. Bill sighs and opens his eyes. “Did you see where the others went?”

By the way, Bill scans the area, it’s pretty obvious he has no answer for Ben, which is good because Ben doesn’t want to hear it. Bill will take forever to find some sort of response and Ben is feeling a little too irritable to be patient or a decent human being. Instead, he gets up scooping the frog out of the mud. He spots a set of footprints as he hoists the frog right on up to sit on his shoulder.

Each footprint makes its way towards the trees. Both Ben and Bill follow the path with their eyes, no comment is needed because they both know something is out there. More than just their friends. The two exchange a look and carry on.

The trees aren’t too far from where they stand, The majority of leaves are gone and broken on the ground, they crunch underneath both Ben and Bill. The frog sits on Ben’s shoulder making the occasional ribbit. There’s voices up ahead causing them to slow down because one is so low and deep, it sends a tremor through the world.

Ben signals for Bill to hide and he crouches into some bushes while some trees block Bill from sight. The two creep forward a bit staring out into an opening. Leaves are gliding towards the ground. A single lantern sits in the middle as if it’s placed directly in the middle of a circle. Then on one side stands Mike and on the other side where the trees are denser where shadow shifts somewhat in view.

Leaves spiral up in the air and the shadow dissipates leaving Mike alone with his lantern, not that he needs it. The sun is up but then again, the woods are dark.

“Mike!” Ben whispers.

As if following his lead, Bill speaks up to, “M-M-Mike!”

Mike whips around, the lantern almost flying from his hand. He grows all tense but holds the lantern as still as possible. “Where-Where are the others?”

“Gone,” replies Ben. “We don’t know where.” Ben and Bill leave their hiding spots. “You didn’t see them?”

“They didn’t come back?” replies Mike, which is pretty weird because that doesn’t answer the question. When neither Ben nor Bill comments, Mike is forced to keep talking. “I saw Eddie get up last night, I think. Him and Richie left with Bev or Bev left before them and they followed.”

“Ok, but what about Stan then?” asks Ben.

“Where d-d-d-did B-Bev go?” asks Bill.

While that’s the main question on Ben’s mind, he almost wants to snap at Bill that three other of their friends are missing, it’s not just Bev. “He’s not around either. Stan that is.”

Mike gradually looks at the dense trees, it’s hard to make out if anything is on the other side there. Ben looks swearing; he spots eyes staring at them, big round eyes, glowing bright white. But it’s just a trick. Everybody’s afraid of the dark in some sort of way. Silence runs too deep between them and is about as bitter as the cold burrowing into all of their bones.

Snow is coming.

“You should leave,” Mike says while he stares at the trees. “Forget about them. You have to get out of here.” And he snaps his attention back to Ben and Bill. “It knows your presence. . .”

“Y-Y-You told it?” retorts Bill, his words are pretty sharp.

Ben makes no comment and it appears that Mike has no comment to make either. His grip tightens on the lantern and he pulls it a little closer. Some of the branches behind him start to tremble.

“It’s ready to claim any of you. . .” Mike ends up speaking again. Those tree branches continue to tremble, what leaves left start to whisper to them, We all float down here. None of those leaves fall to the ground but instead, they float upwards. “Keep hearty in both body and spirit and you shall be safe from It. Fall ill or lose hope and your life shall pass into its crooked hands.”

Ben starts to back away from them, he makes sure the frog is safe on his shoulder. “Come on, Bill, let’s go. I bet they went to Adelaide’s.”

Mike yells after them as they leave him behind to the leaves falling up. “Just! Please listen to me! I’m sorry! Really! I’m sorry. . .!”

Soon Mike’s yelling and the leaves whispering are left far behind them. Bill nor Ben know the way. There are worn paths in the ground, which seem like a good starting point rather than the road less taken. After what might’ve been an hour or several, it’s hard to tell without fully seeing the sun. The two sure are hungry though, it’s the main sign of the hours changing. Hunger, hunger, hunger, and more hunger.

Ben stops and Bill almost crashes into him. His one hoof clips Ben’s heel sending shooting pain up his leg. He moves out of the way glaring at Bill. “Look!” Ben points out a lonely cottage waiting in the woods. “You think it’s Adelaide’s?” Smoke is billowing from the chimney. Bill nods. “Guess we’ll find out.”

“Why d-d-do you th-th-think they l-l-left without us?” asks Bill.

“I don’t want to know,” Ben replies as they make their way to the cottage. Even though there's a fire brewing inside, it doesn’t look like any of the windows are lit. Ben rests his ear against the door and Bill waits with him listening. There’s nothing at all on the other side. Ben is careful as he pushes open the door to find nobody on the inside. He goes to step back but Bill walks straight inside. “Bill?”

“H-H-H-Hello?” Bill yells.

“What are you doing?” snaps Ben as he chases after him.

“H-Hello? An-Anybody?!” Bill continues to be as loud as possible.

Ben catches up to him but something catches his eye. There’s little black turtles wriggling inside a barrel. Ben wrinkles his nose at them, they’re disgusting. He turns to tell Bill they need to leave when a scream breaks through the room. In the doorway stands a frail girl, she had a water bucket that spilled across the ground.

“Who are you?!” the girl screams. She grabs the bucket and looks as if she’ll swing it in battle.

“W-We-We’re b-burglars!” Bill says looking over at the girl.

“What?! No! Why would you even say that?! We’re not-We’re not burglars!” yelps Ben. “What the hell, Bill?”

“I-I really h-have no idea why-why I-I-I s-s-said that.”

“Your horse! Talks!” the frail girl looks as if she may pass out at any second.

“He’s not really a horse,” Ben attempts to explain but it’s a bad one.

“Oh? If he’s not a horse then I’m a ghost?”

“I-I-I w-was turned into a-a-a h-h-horse.”

“Oh, ok, then I am a normal girl. I’m Betty Ripsom.” She walks inside getting something to wipe down the water she spilled. Ben comes over to help her. She’s using a rag to wipe it all up. It’s not like Ben has anything to help but he uses his hands as if that’ll help soak up the water. Betty looks at him. “Um, thanks, I guess.” She stands up wringing the rag out in her bucket. “So who are you really?”

“B-B-B-Bill D-Denborough.”

“Ben.” The way Betty stares at him, he adds, “Hanscom. I’m Benjamin Hanscom. That’s me.”

He gets a genuine laugh from Betty as she comes further into the cottage. “What are you even doing here?”

“Looking for Adelaide’s,” says Ben at the same time Bill jokes, “N-N-Not r-robbing y-you.”

“Adelaide?” Betty looks as if she is about to add a lot more to this conversation, but all the color drains from her already very pale face. “Oh no! Hide! You must hide! Auntie Whispers is coming!”

“Who?” both Ben and Bill retort at the same time.

Betty starts to pace, her hands are flailing a bit and she keeps whispering to herself. “Oh! Oh no! This can’t be good. You-You need to hide before Auntie Whispers gets here. Hide! Before-Before it’s too late!” Rather than flail around, Betty runs forward, looking around unsure how to hide a horse. She snatches a tablecloth from the table and tosses it over Bill’s head before she looks over at Ben and the frog. “Hide! In the barrel!”

Ben climbs into it. All the little black turtles are crawling around at his feet but he ducks down close to them realizing there’s a small hole letting him see out into the main room. Betty continues to flail as she picks at her dress and the door swings open.

A massive shadow moves into the room. It sways back and forth all while Betty doesn’t look up but instead, she stares at her feet. This Auntie Whispers say, “Betty, my sweet child!”

She is almost in the shape of a giant bell wearing clothes that almost remind Ben of a nun. Her eyes are so huge, they take up more than half her face as she waddles inside with the door snapping shut behind her. Betty still stares at the ground while Auntie Whispers wobbles around, she starts to sniff real loud. Ben sinks a little deeper into the barrel, as much as possible. Auntie Whispers comes closer and closer while sniffing the whole time.

“Hmmm, Betty? Has anyone. . .come here today?”

Still staring at the ground, Betty moves a bit to watch the barrel but not enough to give further notice to it. “No, not at all.”

Auntie Whispers turns and smiles at Betty. She reaches out touching her cheek even though Betty flinches at her touch. “Then no one shall be devoured alive tonight?”

Chapter Text

II.

It’s all thanks to Stanley Uris that Richie and Eddie are probably heading home. Well, according to Richie, they’re heading home, but according to Eddie, they’re about to die because Stan fashioned an outhouse into a boat for them to row away in. The oral-fecal route is a great way to get cholera, dysentery, typhoid fever, giardia, polio, hepatitis, e-coli, and tapeworms. There has to be more diseases than just that. Eddie sits there with his hands in the air gagging at the thought of this over and over again as he lists all the ways they can die if some poop gets on their hands.

After the fifth time of Eddie cycling through his complaints, Richie lifts his makeshift paddle from the water, sniffs it, and brings it towards Eddie who attempts to lean away. “Doesn’t smell like caca to me!”

“Rich-Richie! Don’t you fucking dare,” snaps Eddie. “Don’t you fucking dare!”

“Please! Shut up!” snaps Stan, at last. Richie opens his mouth to say something. “No! Especially you! Shut up!”

“Jees,” grumbles Richie returning to rowing and Eddie gags as some water droplets hit his knee.

Richie and Stan continue rowing, they pass a fish sitting up in a boat of his own as he fishes. Only Eddie really stares at the fish who doesn’t even acknowledge their existence. He’s too busy fishing.

Somewhere out between the trees, there’s a lot of singing happening by a single person. Their tra-la-las are deep and sound better for an opera house then the outdoors.

“What is that?” Eddie asks.

Only Stan has an answer, “It.”

Eddie has no comment, there’s nothing he can really say to that. He understands but doesn’t all at once. Whatever’s out there does want them dead or something.

Richie rows while looking over his shoulder at Eddie who looks about as crestfallen as a person could be. Instead, he cradles his broken arm, sinking into their little outhouse boat despite all his earlier comments on fecal matter and the diseases they cause.

“Hey,” Richie says to just Eddie. His oar pauses over the water forcing Stan to do most of the work. Eddie harrumphs as a response while he slides into the outhouse. “Did you know that dinosaurs had big ears but everyone forgot ‘cause ears don’t have bones?”

It gets a little rise out of Eddie and a dirty look from Stan. “Wait. . .what? No, really?”

“Yeah, really?” Stan pipes up.

“No, I made it up. But it really has got to get you thinking about dinosaur dick because while people call it a boner, it’s not really a bone.” Richie returns to rowing and Eddie rolls his eyes. “Bet all those t-rexes died off cause they couldn’t reach their dicks to jerk off. Because like I’d die, too.”

“Could you just shut up for once!” Eddie snaps.

It’s still Stan who’s left to do most of the work as they glide towards the shore. The outhouse lands on the little rocky beach. “Onwards! We have home to find!”

“You, too! Just shut the fuck up! Both of you!” Eddie keeps on yelling. He doesn’t even get out of the outhouse, not as Richie pulls it forward and Stan helps with the rear. He swivels his attention from Richie to focus on just Stan. “You! Who even are you?! You’re just some random, fucking stranger we found so just leave us alone because the last stranger we found is a fucking traitor.”

“Eds. . .” Richie opens his mouth about to say something else.

But Eddie jabs a finger into Richie’s chest, over and over again with each word he says. “STOP! CALLING! ME! EDS! My name is Eddie! It’s Eddie! It’s Eddie fucking Kaspbrak and you fucking know that but instead, you are some cunt who acts like he can just go around calling people by whatever you decide in that moment! Also! You! You’re the reason why we’re never going to get home and if we do get home. . .my mom is going to be furious! I bet I never leave the house again and it’s all your fucking fault!”

Richie releases the boat they made gawking at Eddie. “Hey! Ok! I’m sorry. . .Eddie. . .”

“No! Stop! I don’t even-I don’t even want to hear it! You can’t even take anything seriously, you’re just-just telling bad jokes that don’t even make sense about t-rexes jerking off when we’re the ones who are going to die out here!”

Richie’s pretty stunned. No joke comes to mind other than maybe him just saying once again Eds or Eddie Spaghetti, but instead, his jaw hangs ajar as he stares at Eddie. Even though his glasses are just fine, he fixes them, pushing them back up his nose. “Look Eddie. . .I’m sure. . .”

“No, Rich! NO!” Eddie clambers out of the makeshift boat and shoves Richie out of his way to walk all the way up the rocky shore. “I just. . .I just need a break. Ok?! I’m tired and I’m scared and I’m sad and I need some sleep and I need a break from all of you because-because-because. . .” Again he whirls back looking at the two who are at such a loss for words by his outburst. “. . .Because of you! If you hadn’t been goofing off and acting all fucking weird, we wouldn’t even be lost here, Rich, so now-now I’m going to just sleep because-because I’m tired and we’ve been walking and rowing and busy all night long because you decided we should be friends with a bird!”

“She's not-She's not a bird, Eddie. . .I don’t think. . .” Richie attempts to get some more words in. Bev was about human as any of them, her dad just turned her into a bird.

“I said, no! It’s not even like you can lie! It’s all your fault we trusted Bev!” Eddie doesn’t look back as he scrambles his way from the outhouse. He ends up leaning into the tree, curling up beside him attempting to not look at them. “It’s your fault we’re here! It’s your fault we’re lost! It’s your fault we trusted Bev! It’s your fault. . .that-that I’m going to die out here! And I’m sure there’s something else you did wrong so just. . .go away. . .”

Eddie continues to lie there. The oar falls from Richie’s hands while he’s stuck gawking at Eddie. Stan ends up going over to one of the trees by Eddie, he sits there like he’s choosing to be a peacekeeper over helping out with the whole situation of Eddie flipping the fuck out.

When Richie looks over to Eddie thinking of some smart ass comment to say, Eddie breaks the growing silence. “Rich, please, stop! I need a moment without you! Ok?!”

“Ok,” whispers Richie. He sits down beside Eddie, fixing his glasses again. “Hey, Eddie. . .”

“What?” snaps Eddie. He’s curled up beside him without looking up, giving Richie a pretty cold shoulder. “What could it possibly be?”

“Stop calling me, Rich.”

Nothing, but he gets a quick glance from Eddie. They lock eyes, but Eddie says nothing as he curls back up away from Richie. This leaves Richie to sit there, but he sinks down beside Eddie about to fall asleep too because that sounds pretty nice. Napping seems like a great way to escape the moment, escape the shouting, escape the blame, and maybe ignore the whole fact, Eddie has a point. . .this is his fault.

Chapter Text

III.

Auntie Whispers goes to walk past Betty to go upstairs but she can’t stop sniffing the air around them. She returns her full attention to Betty and shakes her head. “You’re a good girl, Betty, but you deceive me.”

Right away Betty panics, she tries to hide this by not looking up at Auntie Whispers. A dead give away not that this occurs to her. “I swear, I’m telling the truth, Auntie. Promise.”

But Auntie Whispers continues smelling the air not ready to accept any of this. “I can smell children in this house or-or a child and a. . .is that a horse?”

“What? What are you even talking about, Auntie?”

Only Auntie Whispers shakes her head not accepting this as an answer. It leaves Bill and Ben to hold their breaths for as long as possible. Auntie Whispers reaches out touching Betty’s cheek before she pulls out a bell from her pocket. Betty stands stock still, her lower lip quivers while she eyes that bell. “Precious one, tell me where you are hiding them.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Betty retorts, some fear quivers into her vowels as she says it.

“The ringing of the bell commands you.” With this, Auntie Whispers rings the bell, it glows and so does Betty’s eyes. Her eyes widen, taking it in as she turns to face the barrel. “Look. . .in there.”

Auntie Whispers hangs tight to the bell as she gradually turns to face the barrel. “You have entered the house of doom, child. You’re doom. . .” But she trails off the moment she looks straight into the barrell finding black turtles wriggling all around on the inside. She plucks one out. “Oh my dear, I am sorry, precious one. All along you meant to surprise me with turtles. They smell so ripe.” Auntie Whispers pops the whole turtle into her mouth munching on it.

Betty continues to stare at her doing her best not to gawk, and it’s not really working out. “For-For always helping me,” she ends up whispering out loud.

Again, Auntie Whispers touches Betty’s face again as she clutches the bell in her other hand. “I am off to bed, and you, Betty, you shall sort the bones of those who have been eaten here before.”

Her hand falls away and Betty touches her cheek. “I finished already.”

This gets Auntie Whispers to smile real big. “Then clean this floor until it shines.”

Instead, Betty grimaces and looks at the barrel again. There’s other things that need to be done and not pointless chores. “What if instead. . .”

But Auntie Whispers rings the bell, it glows and Betty’s eyes widen as she stares. Auntie Whispers says, "The Ringing of the bell commands you.”

Betty moves to pick up a bucket with such old and soapy suds. She has a mop in hand already about to get working on her pointless chores. “Yes, Auntie Whispers.” She’s mopping the floor as Auntie Whispers moves up some steps toward her room. “This floor will shine.”

Before Auntie Whispers disappears into her room, she looks over her shoulder with one, long forlorn sigh. “You know I do this for you, precious one. Keeping you busy is the only way to keep evil spirits from driving you to wickedness.” It’s a good thing she disappears straight into her room because it’s not like Betty has a comment. She grinds her teeth together and continues to mop up the floor all furious about how she has to do this, her muscles won’t relax and she can’t look over at the others even when the door is closed.

Betty’s still stuck, cleaning the floors but the bell never commanded Ben or Bill. First, Ben climbs out of the barrel hugging Richie’s frog while Bill moves from his creative hiding spot. Of course, it’s Ben who talks first because he feels the need to help out Betty. There’s something half-familiar about her. He vaguely remembers a girl who once went missing at school. The idea sneaks up on him and it’s not even the school he left for this.

“Are you alright?” Ben asks right away. “What was that? Betty? What’s going on here?”

“L-L-Leave with us?” Bill pipes up. He looks up at the door Auntie Whispers went through. “Y-You don’t d-d-deserve this.”

Betty continues to mop. Some tears shine in her eyes as she gives them both such a fake smile. “It’s fine, it’s my illness. Auntie Whispers is hard on me because of it.”

“Wait?!” snaps Ben. “You’re sick and she makes you do CHORES!” He didn’t mean to scream the last word, it sort of just happened. The unfairness of it. Betty tenses up trying not to mop, but she can’t stop. It leans Ben and Bill to see if Auntie Whispers comes out. She doesn’t so Ben lowers her voice for just them. He puts the frog down to focus on the situation. “You should see a doctor or-or a doctor should come see you.”

But Betty shakes her head. “Auntie Whispers does not allow visitors here because she says outsiders will lead me to become wicked.” She dips the mop back into the water and stops. “You should go, too, before it’s too late. Please leave.”

Richie’s frog starts to move, he ribbits as he approaches the steps to Auntie Whispers' room peeling Ben away from the conversation at hand. He whispers, “Don’t you dare! I’m gonna get you!”

“P-P-P-Please l-l-leave w-with us,” Bill comes close to begging her as Ben tries not to cause the steps to creak underneath him.

“I can’t. “ Betty returns to mopping. “Sorry.”

“C-Can I-I help you?”

“By leaving before it’s too late. Trust me, there’s nothing you can do as long as she has that bell. It makes me do whatever she wants.” Betty scrubs the floor a little harder. “Please. . .” she trails away because Ben and the frog are gone with the door to Auntie Whispers’ room open. There’s a frog croak up there. And the mop plummets from her hands. “Oh no. . .”

Bill looks up, his jaw hangs ajar not able to comprehend the stupidity of Ben. Richie’s frog makes sense but not Ben who’s seemed so level headed up until this point. Except as quiet as can be, Ben hugs the frog about to make an escape. Neither Betty nor Bill move as they watch his descent. His one foot crushes a loose board and it makes a squealing sound. Ben doesn’t move anymore but looks up at them.

Nothing happens and Ben takes a whole other step only to slip off the edge of the step, he collapses forward, steps attack him and he hits the floor almost losing Richie’s frog. Wood squeals as he falls down towards them. Betty covers her mouth so close to sobbing and hoping there’s nothing bad that will happen with this.

“WHY HAVE YOU COME HERE?” Auntie Whispers shouts as she stands in the doorway looking at Ben who lies there. Richie’s frog sits to the side ribbiting. Betty manages to spring forward grabbing onto his arm. It’s time to escape. “You cannot remain alive for long in this house! I’m warning you. . .”

Betty tears Ben off the ground about to run. Bill collides into them signaling at a door, it’s not the main door to the cottage but the three disappear into a pitch-black room. Ben slams the door shut leaving his weight into it. He can hear the boards squealing under Auntie Whispers who runs after them. Her fits hit the door over and over again but Ben shifts his weight into it. Bill does the same, too. The frog is with them, which is good, one last thing to worry about.

“I’m warning you, children! Keep away from my precious one or you shall be gobbled up!”

Ben turns around, he leans his back into the door as it shudders with her hitting it. Bill tries to take the lead. “We d-d-don’t w-w-want trouble!”

“BETTY!” Auntie Whispers shouts. “The ringing of the bell comman. . .where? Where?” The force of Auntie Whispers’ pounding ends up increasing along with its speed. “Come out! Come out before it’s too late! She will devour you?”

Ben continues to lean his back into the door. “What is she even talking. . .” But he loses his words, Bill doesn’t see it at first but the quiet of Ben attracts his attention. Rising from the darkness is what they can only describe as a white shadow. It rises up from bones that surround them. Skulls are doing their best to stare at them. It's not like they have eyeballs to be whole again. Long nails of their new enemy scrapes across the stone floor as she opens her mouth, it's full of teeth, too many, way too many. It's like her jaw dislocates allowing her to open wider to gobble them up whole as it was once said to them.

Chapter Text

IV.

The clouds look so heavy with snow. At any moment, sharp flakes would rip them all open and fall down on the world. Already the cold wind picks up knocking Bev from the sky, it forces her to land on a creaking branch. She sits there and sighs. There’s been no sign of any of the boys since Adelaide’s. They’re gone. The ones they left behind are gone. Adelaide and her dad are gone, but they’re the dead kind of gone.

Nobody is moving in the woods, which leaves Bev there to sit and watch as nothing moves around underneath her feet.

“RICHIE!” Bev shouts, she doesn’t even expect an answer but she wishes she had one. “RICHIE?! EDDIE?! PLEASE!”

The only response is someone singing out between the trees. Booming tra-la-las escape past falling leaves. It is out there. She doesn’t flinch from where she stays perched on a tree branch. Chances are, It won’t spot her up there. A tall shadow moves down below, approaching Mike looking crestfallen. It’s as if sadness can knock him off his feet, too much weight for him to bare. He stands alone in a clearing with a single lantern in hand but the flame inside looks close to gone.

Mike plucks small sticks from the ground muttering something to himself but the tra-la-las put whatever he has to say to a stop. Mike clutches a single stick as he straightens his back. It’s only Bev who faces It or what she can make of the creature. Shrouded in almost complete darkness, It is nothing but glowing eyes in the near night watching Mike and his wavering flame.

“I only wish to help you,” It says to Mike who doesn’t turn around. Instead, Mike is stuck looking at the lantern, unable to move and face any true terrors. “You need oil or else your father will. . .”

“Hold your tongue or I’ll remove it from your mouth!” grumbles Mike, it’s loud enough for Bev to make out but not as loud as a shout. His grip tightens on the lantern and at last, he turns to face It.

But Bev flees. She leaves the tra-la-las behind in search of the others. “RICHIE! RICHIE?!” Another gust of line almost lands her in a patch of thorns. She ends up landing on another branch looking at a river where a fish sits in a boat fishing. “RI. . .I’M SORRY!” None of them are around to hear her sob. She hides her face behind her feathers close to choking on some of her words. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Sorry.” Nobody’s around to accept her apology and chances are if Richie or Eddie were around, they wouldn’t anyhow.

###

Quite a few breaking branches stir Richie from sleep. Figures, none of them are gonna catch a casual break. He peeks at the world only to realize clouds are on the ground, which is probably a huge problem. Richie reaches for Eddie thinking about waking him up, but he’s all curled up and so fast asleep. Rather than force Eddie to get up again, Richie gets up on his own to instead wake up Stan. Sleep is supposed to help out a lot or something, right? But as soon as Richie stands somebody moves out from behind a tree by them. It looks as if the kid climbed from the water, he’s soaking wet with some plants caught in his hair.

“Um, can I help you or something?” Richie considers fetching a fallen branch up as a weapon.

“I can help you,” the kid tells him.

Richie sizes him up. He’s a lot shorter making Richie wonder if he can punt the kid back into the river where he came from. But the kid points at the clouds which raise up a bit as if they’re waiting for them to come along. “Nah, I’m good. I don’t need. . .” He waves at all of the kid. “. . .whatever you are.”

“Eddie.”

“Shut the fuck up!” Richie doesn’t even mean to blurt this. He hesitates because Stan and Eddie are still asleep. His Eddie moves a bit, burying his face into the ground even though leaves scratch up his face. “Are you for real?”

The kid nods. “Eddie Cocroan.”

Some reason the name almost knocks Richie off his feet, the utter disbelief of it all. “Wait! I know you! I mean, I don’t know you-know you but I’ve heard of you. You’re that missing kid.”

“Which is why. . .! I need you to follow me.” And the kid climbs up onto one of the clouds, he even puts a hand out to get Richie to follow him along. Richie looks back again at Eddie who’s still fast asleep even as he itches his nose. Even Stan sleeps, it’s not like there’s a lot of commotion going on. “C’mon.”

Even though the kid is still holding his hand out to help Richie on up to the cloud, Richie hops up without his help. “What? That’d be weird.” He stands there having instant, second thoughts about this whole thing. Standing on some cloud, leaving the other two behind, it’s pretty fucking stupid. Look at where he got them by trusting a bird thinking she could somehow be his best friend. “Where are we even going?”

“Cloud City,” Eddie Cocoran says it all nonchalant like it means something.

“Oh, yeah, right. That’s about twenty minutes from what-the-fuck-are-you-talking-about, right?”

He just gets a dirty look from the kid. They’re so far gone by this point, up in the sky among all sorts of clouds that twist into a literal city as Eddie Cocoran said, Cloud City, but it’s no gas mining colony. There’s not going to be a Lando Cassian for him to hang around and pretend to trust. Eddie Cocoran says nothing, but a crowd of smaller clouds await his arrival with other strange creatures.

Good thing a very human looking human parts the crowd of clouds. Whoever it is wears some ridiculous paper hat with an orange flower on it. Whoever this is, smiles at Richie, the side of the hate says: I love Cloud City, but instead of love there’s a heart.

“Oh no, did you bring the mouthy one?” asks the person.

Richie gives him a dirty look. “Yeah, but what’s it to you? He had two other options but look at what happened, you got me.” He hops off the cloud and looks at all the strange residents around him. “Who the fuck are you all supposed to be?” Cloud people aren't really too weird after everything else.

“These are the Cloud City residents, and they’ve come here to welcome you. And I-I am Adrian Mellon. Welcome to Cloud City, what’s your name?”

“Trashmouth.”

Adrian Mellon smiles at him. “I find that hard to believe. You’re mom didn’t really name you that.”

“Ok, but do you know my mom?” It gets Adrian Mellon to not make a comment and Richie laughs. “Don’t worry, don’t worry, save all your applause, I’ll be here all week.” That might not even be a joke at this point because there’s no sign of getting home. Behind a few of the clouds, a giraffe rises up distracting Richie, and that’s almost too weird. The hippo and monkey who also step out into the open. “Alright then. . .why’d you bring me here?”

Adrian Mellon approaches Richie putting a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t know, you brought yourself here. There’s something you’ve been looking for.” Adrian Mellon pulls Richie away. “Looks like we’re going to need to talk about that.”

Chapter Text

V.

Betty Ripsom has one intention and one intention only: Devour the stranger who entered the house. Ben and Bill lean into the door while staring at her, floating there all teeth and ready to eat. Ben tries to keep the frog tucked under his one arm and reaches for the door handle with his free hand.

Of course, for some reason, Bill is the one who ends up making some smart ass comment, “Guess Auntie Wh-Whispers is-isn’t that b-b-b-bad.”

Ben shoots him a glare as he manages to force the door open. They fall back into Auntie Whispers main room with her backing away all while Betty floats out from the door. Bones spill into the main room as she hisses, a deep growl grows in her throat.

“The bell!” Auntie Whispers shouts but the two boys are sprinting out of the cottage. “The ringing of the bell!”

Betty won’t let them go. She rises up, her crooked fingers drag clouds from the sky as she climbs higher into the air. Her eyes widen and are only glowing white. Bill nickers like the horse he is and signals for Ben to climb on so Ben does still holding tight to the frog. Behind them there’s Auntie Whispers still shouting for their attention and help with the bell. But it’s time to run, not listen.

“What do we do? What do we do?” Ben begins shouting at Bill trying to hang tight but Bill comes to an abrupt stop. Some swamp waits in front of them. He hits the mushy ground holding the frog up the whole time in order to not crush the poor creature.

“I-I-I D-DON’T KNOW!” Bill screams back at Ben, he watches as Betty flies toward them still peeling clouds from the sky with her sharp, crooked fingers. They’re more like talons by this point and tear apart treetops.

Ben’s feet and knees are stuck in the mud yet he struggles to climb on up to his feet. The whole time he holds the frog who’s stomach rings, it actually rings as his stomach glows. The bell. The bell. The bell. It’s all Auntie Whispers ever talked about so Ben starts to shake Richie’s frog.

“H-Hey!” he shouts. “Um, the-the ringing of the bell. . .commands you. . .”

Betty hangs in the air, her jaw slackens as she looks at them.

Auntie Whispers continues to yell at them. “There’s a spirit! A spirit possessing her!”

It’s a good thing Ben’s such a quick thinker because this all connects together in his head as he shakes Richie’s frog. Its stomach glows with the bell. “The ringing of the bell commands you. . .”

“T-T-Turn me b-b-back to a h-h-human!” Bill manages to get in before Ben says what actually needs to be said.

“Stop making Betty do bad stuff, Spirit! And-And also go away and never come back!” Ben screams

Light explodes from Betty’s mouth forcing the two to close their eyes, it even burns with their eyes shut as the clouds splinter and Betty hits the ground with such a loud thud. There’s no snapping or breaking of anything, hopefully. When Ben opens his eyes, he sees Betty all crumpled up on the ground and sprints over to her helping her back onto her feet.

“You-You. . .saved me,” Betty whispers. She’s back to normal, just a girl, sitting in some mud. She looks down at her feet seeing one of her shoes is gone but somebody comes up behind Ben handing her lost shoe to her. Betty squints at this new person. “Do I-Do I. . .” Know you is what she is going to say but before any more words are shared, Auntie Whispers appears wailing. Betty pushes on Ben using him for leverage to get onto her feet. “AUNTIE WHISPERS!”

“Oh Betty! Betty!” Auntie Whispers hugs her, she disappears between her sleeves as she rests her chin on top of Betty’s head. “I thought they’d stolen you away.”

It sounds as if Betty’s sobbing because he voice cracks as she goes on, “No! No! Auntie! They saved me, they banished the evil spirit!”

“Oh yeah,” whispers Ben holding up the frog. “Um. . .you can have the bell back but um this frog has to go to the. . .um bathroom first.” Somebody moves behind him, as Ben turns to look he lets out a small, startled shout because there’s some tall skinny kid standing there who is all limbs and not much of anything else. The kid looks at him and Ben still holds the frog up for Auntie Whispers even though she and Betty are talking about something else. “Wait! Don’t I know you?”

The kid nods. “Y-Y-Yeah. It’s B-Bill.”

“Right, but I feel like. . .” Now it’s Ben’s turn to come so close to saying Don’t I know you? He saves the words for later before looking up at the two. Auntie Whispers is holding onto Betty looking happy even though there’s a slight menacing edge to her. “Hey, so we’re gonna go now.”

“Y-Y-Yeah. . .” adds Bill.

Auntie Whispers looks up. “But I am in your debt. There must be something I can do.”

Bill and Ben exchange a look. Ben offers up an answer, “Can you point us out to Adelaide’s?”

“Adelaide?!” the way Auntie Whispers yelps this can’t be good. She keeps an arm wrapped around Betty. “The best I can offer you then is advice, beware of my sister Adelaide. She cannot be trusted. Goodbye now.”

And Betty gets in a “Thank you” before her and Auntie Whispers turn back toward the little cottage.

This leaves Ben to Bill and really Ben with about a million questions bouncing around the tip of his tongue. They continue to look at each other without a lot of shared words or any decisions on where to go next. They’re lost out there in the unknown with no sign of the others friends. Obviously, visiting Adelaide sounds like a bad idea nor do they have any clue to where she lives.

The whole time Ben evaluates Bill’s face because he’s pretty sure, he’s pretty sure he recognizes that guy then it clicks all into place. “Wait! I do-I do know you!” But from where is a better question. Bill doesn’t seem to get it either. Nor does Ben but these foggy memories unravel in his head. “You’re-You’re the kid with the missing brother, aren’t you?”

Bill shakes his head only to end up nodding as he frowns. “Wait. . .how d-d-did y-you know?”

To be honest, Ben doesn’t even have an actual response to this question. Somehow he just knows, he knows Bill’s face from somewhere or someplace or some other time after his kid brother went missing after all the rain.

Chapter Text

VI.

Without the sun around, all sorts of colorful lights bring life to the area before Adrian, Richie, and the other Eddie. There’s a Ferris wheel rising up, it’s not really touching the sky since they’re already in the sky, but it’s close to hitting the stars. A whole festival waits in between cloud puffs that look more like cotton candy hills. The closer they come to the festival, Richie starts to spot some things he doesn’t quite get.

There’s two lions sitting at a picnic table as they eat pasta out of the same bowl, all like the Disney movie with the dogs but they’re both male lines considering the giant manes.

There’s human couples and other animal couples, some people move in groups. Not a single sad creature is in sight. There’s games to play all underneath the super tall Ferris wheel. It looks ready to touch the stars because they’re so high up in the sky. That’s where oxygen fails.

“Welcome!”

“Welcome!”

People and animals all start shouting out to them as they walk on past them.

“Welcome back!”

This gets Richie to stop. The other two keep walking along like he’s still with them but Richie’s a bit too stuck on the word back. He turns, coming so close to asking Adrian or the other Eddie what that could mean because there’s no way he knows a talking hippo. But before he can shout out any sort of question something catches his eye. Richie actually trips over some trash, he puts his hands out to stop his fall. Pain sparks up and when he scrambles up to his feet, it’s gone.

“You ok?” Adrian asks.

Richie stands there looking past the Ferris wheel. In all the twinkling light he was pretty sure he spotted that grotesque Paul Bunyan statue. It rose up above everybody in the center of Derry. Sometimes he’d sit out there with Eddie complaining about Street Fighter or mimicking some Eddie Murphy or George Carlin routine. Once or twice he dreamt of the statue moving to chase him down with its mighty ax.

“Hey! Can I get some fucking answers now?”

“Just up ahead, we can talk there.” Adrian points out a deep-fried oreo booth. There’s not much of a line out front, somebody waves to him. “You want to get home, right?”

Richie just nods. To be honest, he’s way too tired to come up with smart ass comments. He follows the two. Popcorn spills out almost on him, a lion tries to eat it from a regular paper bag with its giant paws. He glances to see the lion feed some kernels to another lion. The food gets all caught up in their manes. Food rains down all around them, the colorful lights are flickering all over the place. Richie glances back to the same spot and there, there it is. The Paul Bunyan statue is standing up over them all. It takes a lot of focus to not trip again. Richie pushes his glasses back.

It doesn’t make sense, but of course, it doesn’t make sense, this is a dream and dreams never make sense.

It’s not like he’s been in Derry this whole time.

Richie speeds up to catch up with Adrian who walks up to a man waiting for some fried oreos. The man gives Adrian a quick hug and kiss, on the lips.

“Get a room,” Richie grumbles.

The person selling fried oreos doesn’t say a word about the kiss. Richie bites his lip. He watches as the one guy picks up some food and they all end up sitting down on a picnic bench. Richie wrinkles his nose and looks at his palm, it’s all stick from what he hopes is melted candy and not something else.

“This is Don,” Adrian says.

Eddie Cocoran rolls his eyes and leans over towards Richie to whisper, “Boyfriends.”

“Boyfriends?”

“Yeah, like K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”

“They probably do more than that.” He doesn’t look at anybody else at the table and instead, makes a valiant attempt at getting the stickiness off his palm. “Ok, but really, why am I here and where is here?”

Don gives him some funny look. “Derry.”

Adrian shrugs. “Derry Canal Days? Pride Fest?"

Richie snaps his attention up, still wrinkling his nose rubbing his palm on his pants a little harder. “Like a lion family?”

“Wait. . .what?” Don looks from Richie to Adrian.

And yet, Adrian continues smiling at Richie, acting like he’s not stupid. “So you’re looking for a way home?”

But what if I really am already home? Richie turns his attention away from these strangers to look at the statue. Gone again. Probably because. . .Richie fixes his glasses though because there’s a few trees surrounding the festival, all the leafy tops wriggle but it’s close to being too dark to see. Just rainbows are shining from all the lights. Screaming cuts through the festival as he rises to his feet because this all has to be a dream, it’s in dreams where Paul Bunyan chases after him. The statue’s mouth is full of sharp teeth, a contrast to his earlier look. Richie makes an attempt to back away, but he falls over the picnic bench and underneath where all the chewed gum waits.

“This-This is my fault!” Richie begins to yelp and finds himself stuck on repeat. “This is my fault! My fault!”

Adrian and Don ignore his words and manage to drag him out from underneath the table. Metal scrapes as Paul Bunyan’s ax strikes the Ferris wheel, he tears it down with people falling out. Others are hanging tight to the bars, as much as they can. Eddie Cocoran cowers behind them. The two are doing their best to move fast. Richie is all panic and puts no thought into moving along with them.

“We need to run! Come on!” Adrian shouts at him.

But Richie gawks at Adrian. “No, this is my fault!”

“Yeah, you should still run!” Don yells in his face.

The Ferris wheel plummets toward them, somehow it seems to move faster as it comes a whole lot closer. Richie shoves Adrian and Don forward, they crash into Eddie Cocoran in a huge scramble for them all to take off. Everybody else is making an attempt to escape and break free and not be crushed by the Ferris wheel. Richie spots one of those carnival fun houses, he runs a little faster hopping up onto the little metal stairway before bursting inside it. The three are behind him. The ground springs underneath his weight before he barrels through a spinning tunnel and straight into a mirror.

It knocks him over, but at least Adrian catches him and sets him upright. They’re lost among a maze of mirrors, it’s as if the end is in sight yet not at all. Rather than four people, there’s hundreds of them all standing with shadows curling around corners.

“There’s still a lot we need to talk about, but not a lot of time,” Adrian Mellon says.

“I’m sorry!” Richie's stuck on repeat all over again. “This is my fault.”

“Stop saying that! This isn’t your fault.”

Eddie Cocoran stands there watching a shadow move across the floor, more spider-like than belonging to any of them. It looks far at the end or maybe that’s close to the beginning. “It’s here.”

Adrian grabs onto Richie’s shoulders, they lock eyes. “You can still go home. You can even bring the others home, but your friend, Eddie, he can’t.”

Richie’s getting better at staying commentless. He squeezes his lips together and pushes his glasses up his nose waiting for a better explanation.

“Look. . .” Adrian points at one of the mirrors and Richie does look, but instead of them a hundred times it’s his Eddie and also Stan and him lying by a tree. Hundreds of his Eddie with tree roots rise up, flaying the soil around them as they latch onto Eddie and crawl across him. “The Edelwood grows around him, It already claimed him.”

“Ok! Then make it stop!” Richie snaps. What he doesn’t add, that can’t be my fault.

Adrian smiles, not a friendly one but one full of so many apologies.

“Then how do I make it stop?! There-There has to be a way? Right? It’s my fault so I can stop it from happening and it’s like they say you can do anything if you put your fucking mind to it or whatever bullshit they tell you.”

“Rich, I’m sorry, I can only find a way for you to go home with the rest of your friends. It’ll be alright. I’m sorry, there’s nothing that can be done. It has him.”

Richie jabs his finger into the mirror. “Take the other kid! Stan! He likes birds and birds fucking love trees, they love them so much they live in them!”

“Wow, that’s rude,” whispers the other Eddie.

“Oh shut the fuck up or I’ll give you to the fucking tree.” Richie shoots him a look before looking at Adrian who never lets him go. “Do something! What can I do? There has to be some fucking reason to why I’m here!”

Metal screeches all over again, some tremors race through there and mirrors start to crack. Paul Bunyan is coming. The place will be shredded to pieces or whatever verb best describes an ax striking down a funhouse.

“It can take him. . .” Eddie Cocoran whispers point at Richie.

Richie sneers at him. “I hope it fucking takes you!”

Don offers up no answers but action, he grabs onto Adrian pulling him back before glass rips through him. Another tremor knocks them over, they all clamber up. The world is collapsing or it's the dream that's collapsing. Whatever it is, it’s coming down hard on all of them, and it’s all his fault. Richie looks up making out Paul Bunyan staring down through the severed roof of the funhouse. All four of them are standing there, some of the rainbow lights outside glint off broken glass.

Richie snaps his attention back at Adrian. “I have to do something though! There has to be something I can do! I did this! This is my fault! There has to be something!”

Eddie Cocoran looks at him. “I told you what.”

Somehow Richie manages to dodge an unwelcome ax blade splitting through the fun home. It almost breaks him in two, but he manages to make it free in time and sits up. The other Eddie is buried underneath some glass at this point while Adrian and Don stand as if nothing is hitting them.

“Ok! Ok then!” Richie shouts at them. “Ok!”

Even though glass cuts up his palms, he reaches out trying to get back on up. Silence enters the fun home. No more metal scraping metal, he’s stuck standing there, not even glass falls. Eddie Cocoran remains underneath glass shards and Adrian and Don give him the saddest smile in the world. This whole mess, it’s all his fault. Adrian reaches out touching his shoulder, his smile still too sad. There’s something he and Don understand, but Richie doesn’t.

Chapter Text

VII.

Ben and Bill

It’s easy to lose hope when there’s no ending in sight, and without hope, it’s hard to keep on hoping because what’s really left? You have another boring tree to look at then another tree after that. There’s no interesting buildings to ponder or music to reflect upon. No landmarks to use as guidance.

“P-P-Please stop.” Bill shoots a look at Ben while they’re walking side-by-side away from Auntie Whispers and Betty Ripsom following where the water runs.

“Stop what?” replies Ben.

“Narrating.”

Ben blushes, he didn’t realize he’d been saying any of that out loud. He tucks his fingers into his pockets and continues walking with Bill not apologizing. Up ahead there’s a clear river, but it’s starting to snow. Flurries tumble from fluffy clouds. It looks pretty icy around them, too, but it looks as if somebody is out on the river, they’re maybe fishing in some boat of theirs.

“So. . .how’d you become a horse?”

Bill shrugs.

“I don’t think that’s the real answer.” Ben puts a hand out, it’s already snowing a lot harder. The flurries are gaining size by the second.

Bill kicks some rock loose and knocks it across some ice over the river. It gets further then either of them would’ve guessed, the water doesn’t look that frozen. “M-My brother. . .” He pauses and Ben is sure to stay quiet as long as Bill needs. Ben even stops walking letting Bill think through his next words. “He went m-m-missing. I-I-I tried to find him, it w-w-was during f-f-f-floods and-and b-b-by a sewer drain so-so I-I tried to f-f-followed him and g-got very lost.”

With that, Bill releases one long exhale and starts to walk again. That doesn’t answer the question. Ben gives up and follows him looking at the boat out on the water. Looks as if a fish is sitting upright in it fishing for other fish.

“I-I threw a-a-a rock at a h-h-horse.”

“What? What?! That’s it?” Ben tries not to laugh. “And! That-That’s so dangerous! Why would you do that? Horses can kill people!”

Bill shrugs. “I don’t kn-know! I-I was m-mad and then the h-h-horse turned me into a h-h-horse.”

Ben just nods accepting the story and letting the only sound between them was chubby flurries hitting dead leaves and ice. He does slip in a “Sorry about your brother” after a minute or two and they keep walking in some unknown direction by the river.

Stan

Stan often dreams of birds, but not like this. He’s standing on some twisted iron building as a large bird attempts to dive-bomb him. Right away, he dives towards the ground and covers his head. He squeezes his eyes shut expecting for talons to scrape across his scalp but instead twigs snap. And he opens his eyes remembering, It’s only a dream. Stan watches tree branches gouge the clouds above them. Chubby flurries tickle his nose. He goes to wipe his face when he realizes something isn’t right. There’s more twigs snapping and he pretends instead his eyes are all the way shut.

Somebody’s talking but that somebody-that somebody has to be. . .Richie?

“Sorry, I got us lost.”

Stan turns onto his side closing his eyes for real but it’s too late for any sleep. There’s anxiety fizzling in his chest, feels like his heart is expanding. He lies there looking at tree roots unsure to why little leaves are sprouting from them. Not to mention, they look new? If trees can look new. Of course, they can, that’s a sapling.

“I have to go now. Bye, Eddie.”

Still ignoring Richie, Stan plucks a leaf from one of the stems creeping near him, it’s more stem than root. The plant withers and sinks into the ground. He sits up watching as the plant unfurls from Eddie who’s fast asleep and even though he heard Richie talking, there’s no Richie right there and no Richie where he decided to sleep.

Up ahead, branches move and Stan’s pretty sure he can make out the back of sneakers. Probably Richie moving away. Again. Something isn’t right. Something’s not right. Stan looks noticing two sets of footprints. There’s regular sneaker prints next-next to. . .?

“Richie?” Stan shouts. Eddie’s nose wriggles as if that’s a proper response to any sound. He’s fast asleep. “HEY. . .Richie?” He pauses for an answer. Of course there’s none. “This isn’t funny!” Rather than wait again, Stan takes off following in the footsteps of Richie and. . .deep down, he knows, he knows who he’s also following, It.

Mike

It no longer sings. No more tra-la-las crashing through the forest. Mike sits with his lantern back in hand or well sitting across from him on a tree stump. He’s piled up all sorts of twigs and dead leaves as fodder for the flame. Nothing seems to work though. Nothing at all. He’s left alone listening to snow flurries patter around him.

“So dad, I’m sorry that I failed you. . .” he starts talking to the lantern, the light inside is so close to dead. “I tried but I messed up, I think I messed up real bad. It promised me this was a way to keep you alive, you’re soul and all but I think-I think I did something wrong, something you’d be ashamed of.” Mike picks at his pile of dead things, leaves crumble at his touch as he watches the faint flicker of the lantern. “I was just so scared of losing you to cancer and I thought if I did anything to save you, it’d be ok. But what I’m going to do next, well. . .”

Mike pauses half expecting guidance, he receives none.

“That’s ok. I have a feeling you’ll be proud of me. I won’t be able to see you anymore, but you’ll be proud, I promise.” Mike gets up, he plucks the lantern off the stump and looks straight into it even though the light hurts his eyes. A little ember is leaping all around. It’s not like he ever saw his dad inside there. “I-I-I. . .” He chokes on some tears down and makes sure he uses his other arm to wipe them away. “Our t-time was short but I’m still glad you got to be my d-d-dad during that time.”

Mike carries the lantern off in between trees, it feels as if he’s walking straight into the unknown but that’s not true. Well, it is true and not all at the same time. He’s been lost in the unknown for some time but now he knows what needs to be done.

Bev

“RICHIE! I’M SOOOOORRY!” Maybe if she lets the word stretch out, she’ll find any of them faster. There’s a whole bunch of other kids Bev lost but the look on Richie’s face haunts her. She deserved all that shock and hate though. She lied. She lied to them. She lied and they might die. Still, she tries, “RICHIE!”

Only her echo responds, “RICHIE?! RICHIE?!” Her voice bounces back off trees all distorted and-and not hers. Bev perks up where she landed, she tries to shield her eyes with her wings looking out around the river. It looks a bit frozen, a fish in his boat is picking his way through. She can’t remember if she’s already been here before looking for the others. “RICHIE?!”

Bev squints like that’ll help her see through the snow. “EDDIE?” she screams after the voice.

If it’s Eddie, he doesn’t answer back. Again his voice bounces back towards her like an echo, but a ghost of her shouts earlier. “RICHIE?!”

Rather than sit around and wait for the world to come to her, Bev lifts off the branch in search of maybe Eddie. Besides, if she finds Eddie then Richie won’t be too far behind. It’s logic, the two are practically stuck at the hip together. Bev doesn’t consider the frantic spikes of the vowels of Eddie shouting, RICHIE?

Eddie

Everybody’s all gone.

They all abandoned him. Left him behind. Eddie sits up thinking he heard somebody say something to him to find nobody around him. Maybe it’s a ghost of the woods, which doesn’t sit well with him. Eddie hugs his knees to his chest as the cold bites into him. There’s itchy reddish leaves all over his clothes. Probably poison ivy, and probably poison ivy everywhere. He leaps up shaking them off but also shaking because it’s too cold, too fucking cold. All his joints ache and maybe he’s coming down with a case of arthritis at a young age thanks to all this cold. Not to mention, his lungs hurt, they hurt so much and there’s no inhaler in reach to save him. Just nobody around but him in not enough clothes for a snowstorm and a broken arm.

Eddie stands there taking in the emptiness. Already snow piles up high on the ground, it’s all fresh without footprints. Not even bird footprints. Like Bev would return to any of them after what she did. Eddie looks to one side. Richie had been there, but he’s gone. He looks to where Stan was, he’s gone, but Eddie already knew that.

Everybody’s gone and abandoned him to die alone out in the woods, he’d freeze to death in a Halloween costume, not even his real clothes. His ghost would never hear the end of it, too, his mother would shout and shout and shout at him until she died, too. Her ghost would then haunt his ghost.

Eddie sits back down again, muttering tips to himself, “Ok, don’t sleep. Sleep is bad when you’re cold. And pee, make sure you pee when cold because body has to keep urine hot and-and-and-and. . .” No more words. Again he looks over at where Richie had been lying on the ground. “Ok, Richie?! It’s not funny! You can’t be mad at me for being mad at you!”

Just snow answers him and he never really thought of snow having a sound before. Rain, yes.

“Rich? Richie?!” Still, the snow answers him.

Something doesn’t really feel or seem right or something.

Eddie strains his brain thinking of any words, he thought he heard somebody-somebody say something. That something. That something. There was an I have to go now. Bye, Eddie followed by somebody else saying another something, a Richie. Eddie tries to kick the snow off the ground but it’s falling too fast for him to make out if anything is underneath he should be wary about. All the trees are quiet. It has been for a while since they’ve been quiet, too. Earlier they all heard It. They heard It belting out those tra-la-las at the unknown and now there’s no sound but snow falling. There’s no Richie running his motormouth and no Stan being silent but loud all at the same time.

“RICHIE?!” Eddie shouts really expecting to get an answer this time around because he doesn’t want his mind to accept the obvious answer.

Truth is, nobody abandoned him.

“RICHIE?! RICHIE TOZIER!”

Rather than stand and scan the area, Eddie sprints forward in some direction. He punches trees out of his way even though the trees fight back. Something happened. Something bad happened. The only sound other than his heart about to pop inside his chest is the snow. No more It. There’d been so, so, so many warnings, too.

“RICHIE! RICHIE TRASHMOUTH TOZIER?! Where the fuck. . .” He almost comes to a stop because ahead of him he can just make out a shadow. At least, at least that’s either Richie or Stan or both of them. “RICHIE? STAN? RICHIE?!” Eddie sprints forward feeling his feet loose traction. “BEV?”

Eddie looks down realizing he's stuck on ice. There’s cracks spring across it as well. He looks behind him, cracks there, cracks everywhere. The shadow ahead of him moves away in such silence he isn’t sure if it was even anybody or a stupid fish in a boat.

“RICHARD TRASHMOUTH TOZIER?!” Eddie shouts, he needs to scoot back onto firm ground. The shadow keeps on moving along, away from him. “Sorry.” Eddie leans a little bit too much on one side. But the ice’s all louder than his own voice. The world collapses.

Water rips him downward. Two seconds and already he’s too far away from the hole above where oxygen exists. Even with attempting to claw and grab his way out, the water steals him away, tearing him downwards. He has 60 seconds, 60 seconds to get out, that’s one whole minute or he’ll drown. Doesn’t matter. The water’s piercing like he fell into a pit of needles. Even if he got out for a breath or two, he’d die of hypothermia. People died of that all the time.