𝐬𝐡𝐞||eddie kaspbrak

fears

Chapter 5
"T-T-That's where It lives."

Rebecca walked over to her group of friends away from Richie who was 'trying' to play the tuba. He obviously had no clue how to use it so the girl had to get away from the terrible noise.

The others were looking at a poster of a boy called Edward Corcoran who Rebecca was interested in. He had gone missing a couple days ago.

"They say they found part of his hand all chewed up near the Standpipe." "He asked to borrow a pencil once." Ben says while Bill goes over to the poster to find Betty Ripsons missing sheet underneath.

"Its such a shame, Betty Ripson I mean. Its like she's just been forgotten." Rebecca says glancing sadly over to Bill, "Is it ever gonna end?"

Eddie comes out behind the corned with 3 ice creams in his hand, he passes one to Richie who had obviously failed at trying to get the tuba back and to Rebecca who thanks him. "What you guys talking about?" "What they always talk about."

"I actually think it will end. For a little while at least." "What do you mean?" Rebecca starts to lick her ice cream feeling eyes burning into the back of her head. She turns round and raises her eyebrow to Richie and Eddie.

"I've had enough of that now," She said walking over and throwing it into the trash, "Well done Eddie you idiot. You ruined it." Richie says sarcastically, "ME???! IT WAS JUST AS MUCH YOU AS ME."

"Anyway." Ben says sighing, getting back to the important subject, "So i was going over my Derry research and I charted out all the big events. The Iornworks explosions in 1908, the Bradley gang in '35 and the Black Spot in '62 and now kids being... I realised this stuff seems to happen-"

"Every 27 years" Ben, Rebecca and Bill all say at the same time.

✦ ✦ ✦

"Okay so lemme get this straight" The group were sitting on a park bench talking about what they had just worked out, "It comes out from wherever to eat kids for like a year. And then what? It just goes into hibernation?"

"Maybe its like...what'd you call it? Ciadas. You know the bugs that come out once every 17 years." "My grandfather thinks this town is cursed." Mike starts, "He says that all the bad things that happen in this town are because of one thing. An evil thing that feeds off the people of Derry."

"But it cant be one thing. We all saw something different." "Maybe." says Mike to cause Rebecca to work out, "Maybe it knows what scares us the most and thats what we see. Maybe it forms to appear like our biggest fears."

"I saw a leper." Says Eddie, "He was like a walking infection." "But you didnt. Because it isnt real. None of this is. Not Eddie's leper, or Bill seing Georgie or the women I keep seeing."

"She hot?" Richie askes Stan, "No Richie! She's not hot! Her face is all messed up. None of this makes any sense. They're all like bad dreams." "I dont think so. I know the difference between a bad dream and real life, okay?"

"What did you see? You saw something too?" "Yes. Do you guys know that burned down house on Harris Avenue? I was inside when it burnt down." Mike pauses, "Before I was rescued my mom and dad were trapped in the next room over from me. They were pushing and pounding on the door trying to get to me...but it was too hot. When the fireman finally found them, the skin on their hands had melted down to the bone. We're all afraid of something."

"Got that right." says Richie looking over to a group of clowns on the big Derry stage, "Why, Rich? What are you afraid of?" Eddie asks, "Clowns."

✦ ✦ ✦

The friends had cycled over to Bill's garage to look at a map of Derry on a projector screen. The kids all gathered round sitting down next to eachother. Rebecca was between Richie and Eddie.

"Look. That's where G-G-Georgie disappeared." Bill says pointing to a mark on the screen, "There's the Iorn works. And the Black Spot. Everywhere IT happens, its all connected by the sewers. And they all meet up by the-"

Ben cuts him off, "The Well House." "It's in the house on Neibolt Street." Stan says, worry in his voice, "You mean that creepy-ass house where all the junkies and hobos like to sleep?" Richie asks causing Eddie to take a big puff of his inhaler.

Rebecca put her hand on his when he placed it down and she felt him relax a tiny bit.

"I hate that place." Beverly says, "It always feels like it's watching me." "That's where I saw It." Eddie says with a shaky voice, "Thats where I saw the clown."

"T-T-That's where It lives." "I can't imagine anything ever wanting to live in there."

Suddenly, Eddie stands up, "Can we stop talking about this. I can barley breathe. This is summer. We're kids. I can barley breathe. I'm up here having a fucking asthma attack. Im not doing this."

The boy rips the map off the wall out of stress and anger, "What the hell? Put the map back." Bill says angrily, "Mmm Mmm."

Eddie cant say much more before the projector starts to click. Everyone looks round to see the screen clickinh through pictures, "What's going on?"

It stops at a certain picture of Bill and his family and starts to click towards Georgie's face, "Georgie?" The clicking gets faster and faster although it starts to move away from Georgie and towards Bill's mother.

In this picture Bill's mom had her ginger her across her face but the projector started to click some more and a clown, the exact one they had all been seeing, opened up from behind the hair.

"What the fuck?" Everything in the room was chaotic, "What the fuck is that?" Richie repeated over and over again, "Its the fucking clown." Eddie screams running over screaming to Rebecca and Richie who were shaking from fear.

"Turn it off! Turn it off!" Beverly shouts, causing Eddie to kick over the cheap projector.

At the flash of their eyes a clown had appeared in the room. It had come so close to Rebecca's face that she was screaming hysterically. She put her hands on her face. She had never been so scared in her life.

Before anything else could happen, the rest of the group had pulled open the garage door causing Rebecca to stop screaming.

Shaking in fear, the girl stood up and ran over to the rest of the group and going over to hug Eddie.

Her heart was thumping out of her body. "Thanks guys. Thanks Ed."

"It saw us." Eddie says after Rebecca had pulled away from the hug, "It saw us and it knows where we are."

"It always did." Bill said, "So-So lets go." The boy said walking over to his bike.

"Go?" "Neibolt. Thats where G-G-Georgie is."