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Ben found the first book. He spent so much time in the library it was kind of inevitable they supposed. But the book, he said, felt like it was calling him. So he snuck it out — earning him an impressed glance from Bev — and brought it to the clubhouse.
They'd all thought it was a bit of a joke at first. A book about witchcraft, really? But it was summer and they were bored, so they decided to try some spells out. It would be fun.
And it was, but it was also real. The spells worked. They did magic.
After that, the book was infinitely more exciting. They poured over it as a group, huddled on the dirt floor of the clubhouse as they read through hexes and charms and rituals and even a few curses. They learned a lot from those pages, each one of them slowly finding their magical niche as they worked through the spells.
Eddie found the second book at a church sale his mother dragged him to. It was tucked under a stack of hymnals, and he didn't think anyone else had noticed because otherwise it probably would have been burned. He slipped it into his fanny pack when his mother wasn't looking.
This one, they found when he brought it to the clubhouse that night, had spells and everything too, but it also had a section at the beginning about what it all meant. It told them that if they were doing magic that they were witches, that it was innate in many people but only a few were drawn to it as they obviously were. It told them that if they could find a group of other witches they would be stronger, be able to do more.
The fact that their little group of misfits had turned into a coven was a little shocking. They already knew the magic they did was nothing like they saw in the movies, so of course their coven wouldn't be anything like the terrifying, devil worshipping crones there either. Richie said he wouldn't have minded if their coven had more naked women like that movie they watched in the drive in at the beginning of summer, and that earned him a smack from both Eddie and Bev.
Stan found the third book in a garbage can in the alley behind his house, just a week after they finished reading the second one. By then it was less of a surprise to find another one and more of an inevitability.
There was some magical force that wanted them to have these books, wanted them to do magic. They didn't know what it was or why yet, but those questions were less interesting than the question of what new spells they'd find.
Full coven rituals this time, it turned out. The first one in the book was a protection ritual meant to be done on a full moon by, ideally, a group of seven witches. It was too perfect to be coincidence and they all knew immediately that they had to do it.
The next full moon was only a week away, after all.
⁂
Eddie could hear his mother’s footsteps coming down the hallway and he quickly snuffed his candle out, shoving the black pillar of wax into the drawer of his bedside table. He didn’t manage to get the window closed before the door opened, but at least that allowed a little more time for the smell to dissipate in the cool evening air.
“Eddiebear, what are you doing in here?” Sonia asked, frowning. Her eyes went immediately to the open window and the frown deepened.. “And what in the world do you have the window open for? You’re going to catch pneumonia!”
Eddie bit back on the urge to roll his eyes and stepped over to close the window. “Sorry, mommy,” he replied. “It was just a little stuffy in here.”
Sonia sniffed and Eddie stiffened for a moment, thinking she’d been able to smell the candle he’d been burning, but she only shook her head. “With your delicate constitution, a little stuffiness is much preferable to catching pneumonia and dying!”
This time he did roll his eyes, but only after she turned and headed back toward the living room.
⁂
The night after that, Eddie managed to light his candle without his mother interrupting. He was glad because this ritual was important — both because it was the first the Losers would be doing together as a coven and for some more nebulous reason that none of them could quite name — and he wanted it to go well. He didn’t want it to fail because of him. Or his mother.
The third night, the night of the full moon, was going to be the real challenge, Eddie knew. His mother hated the full moon. She was always ranting about how it brought out the crazies and was a danger to everyone, but especially to him. She never let him go out on the full moon unless she was with him.
Well, that certainly wasn’t happening tonight.
The ritual wasn’t supposed to be done until midnight, so at least Eddie knew he had some time. He spent the evening as casually as he could, heading to bed early and hoping that his mother would do the same. He waited, fully dressed under his sheets and almost overflowing with anxiety, until he heard her go to her room and start snoring not long after.
As Richie had proven several times when he came over to fool around while Sonia was home, Eddie’s window was perfectly situated next to the window in the backyard. He climbed down as quietly as he could and within minutes he was off down the dark street, headed for the clubhouse.
“You managed to escape?”
Eddie turned to see Richie coming up behind him, having just emerged from the alleyway he used as a shortcut from his house. He was grinning, glasses reflecting the bright moonlight, and Eddie couldn’t help grinning as well. They both reached out at the same time, intertwining their fingers as they continued down the street.
“Yeah, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be,” Eddie replied. “My mom went to bed early- and don’t you dare say it!”
Richie raised his free hand, laughing. “I didn’t say anything, Eds my love!”
“Yeah, but I could tell you were about to,” he said, making his voice much sterner than he really felt. He might give Richie shit about all the jokes about his mom, but he wouldn’t want Richie to change, really.
The two of them bickered the rest of the way to the clubhouse, excitement for the ritual leaving them with plenty of energy to burn. The others probably wouldn’t like it if they were late because they’d stopped to make out on the way, so fond arguing would have to do instead. Maybe they’d have time for making out afterward.
They were the last to make it down into the clubhouse anyway, which got them a few suspicious looks that just made Richie reply with overexaggerated winks and vague but dirty explanations that were just as obviously overexaggerated. Eddie rolled his eyes and went to help Mike with the ritual setup.
It didn’t take long since the ritual was mostly pretty simple, far more about the energy the participants brought than anything else. They had a ring of black candles, all burned down somewhat from the two days of preparation they’d each done at home. A blue circle was drawn in chalk around the candles, wide enough for them to hold hands as they stood just inside it.
“Is everyone r-ready?” Bill asked once Mike and Eddie had finished lighting the candles. They all looked around at each other and nodded. “Th-then let’s go. It’s f-five minutes until midnight.”
The dim space of the clubhouse suddenly became quieter than it usually ever was when anyone, much less all of them, was there. Eddie could feel the tension as they took their places around the blue chalk circle, heels just brushing against the inside edge of it, and clasped hands.
At exactly midnight by Bill’s watch, they started. The book had a chant for them to repeat, and they’d all been working the past week to memorize it. None of them were sure what language it was in. Richie had thought Latin, but Mike had a theory that it was something much older.
Bill began the chant and then it passed one by one around the circle, each of them staggering the beginning by a few seconds until the space was filled with a low, overlapping murmur of the strange words. Eddie could feel the power growing, skin thrumming with energy and the hairs on his arms standing upright. He was pretty sure the others could feel it too, based on the looks he could see reflected on their faces, glowing orange with candle light.
The feeling of power — and of protection, because that was what this spell was all about — continued to spread out from their little circle. They couldn’t see it and certainly couldn’t see anything outside of the clubhouse, but Eddie somehow knew that it was covering the whole of Derry.
The book had said they’d know when to end the ritual without giving any other details, which had made them a little nervous, but it turned out it was right. There came a point where they could all tell that the protective power of the ritual had reached everywhere it needed to, and one by one they stopped chanting. The order reversed as they finished, until Bill was once again chanting alone for a few moments.
Then it was silent, the candles almost burned down to nothing and their flames flickering wildly, unstable with such short wicks. As one, they released each others’ hands and stepped back. The candles all extinguished at once.
“Wow. That was… wow,” Bev said, her voice quiet and full of awe. Eddie felt exactly the same way.
“So that went well, right?” Mike asked, looking around at them. His eyes were wide and bright, and his excitement over their success was palpable. “I feel like it went well.”
“I think that’s kind of underselling it, to be honest,” Stan replied. The others nodded. “I’m still not sure exactly what we did, but we did it really well.”
“We protected Derry.”
Everyone turned to Eddie and he rolled his eyes. “Couldn’t you feel it?” he asked. They shook their heads and he grinned, feeling kind of smug. “We sent out protective energy over Derry.”
“I could feel something, but I couldn’t feel anything as specific as that,” Richie said after a moment. He slung an arm around Eddie’s shoulders, leaning in to press a kiss to his cheek. “Guess you’re special, babe.”
“What were we pr-protecting it for, though?” Bill asked, his face scrunched up in thought. “We g-got the book bec-cause we needed to do the ritual. B-but why?”
They were all quiet. They had agreed that the books were coming to them for a reason, and coming to them at specific times and in a specific order for a reason, but they so far hadn’t figured out what that reason was. It made Eddie a little anxious not to know if he was being honest. There was something bigger and more powerful than them out there, for good or evil, that much was obvious.
“We just have to wait and see and learn everything we can until then,” Stan finally said.
As much as Eddie hated that answer, he knew Stan was right. They all did. And at least it wasn’t like any of them didn’t want to learn more. Being a witch was the best thing that had ever happened to most of them. Eddie, for one, wouldn’t give it up for anything.
“Well, I’m beat,” Richie said, breaking the tension that had built. He pulled Eddie closer, grinning. “Wanna go fuck around before we have to get you home? I know you turn into a pumpkin if you’re not in bed by dawn.”
“Fuck you, I’m not Cinderella,” Eddie bit back, already headed for the ladder. Richie was just behind him, hand still on Eddie’s shoulder like he couldn’t bear to let go yet.
Eddie could hear the others laughing as they followed much more slowly, and he felt his heart warm. He was glad to have found magic, but he was even more glad to find these losers. His friends. His coven. Whatever was going on in Derry, he knew they would figure it out. Together.