The Love Is Still There |Richie Tozier (2)

~8~ October's Token

We all climbed out of the clubhouse. Richie went before me, and reached a hand down to pull me up. 

"Thanks." I said.

"So, how do we find our tokens?" asked Eddie, when we all got out of the club house.

"With all due respect man," Richie said to Mike. "This is fucking stupid. Why do we need tokens? We already remember everything."

"That's not everything." Mike replied. "We fought IT, but what happened after that? Before the house of Neibolt? Think."

We all stood still, trying to rack our brains. Nothing came to my mind.

"W-we can't remember." Bill stuttered. 

"There's more to our story." Mike said. " We have to split up. Find each of your artifacts. Alone. When you're done, meet me in the library tonight." 

"I gotta say, statistically speaking, we're going to do so much better as a group." Eddie piped up.

"Yeah," I nodded. "Splitting up would be hella stupid."

"I mean," Richie continued. "We were together that summer."

"No. N-not the whole summer." Bill spoke.

I suddenly remembered the moment Richie and Bill fought outside of Neibolt, after Eddie's mother said he couldn't hangout with us anymore. And then Richie yelled at me. And after that, for weeks the only person I talked to was..... Stan.

Tears sprang in my eyes. I wiped them away as we started walking out of the woods.

"Does anyone know where they're going?" asked Mike, as we reached town.

"Yes." I said first.

Everyone looked at me. 

"That was fast." Eddie raised an eyebrow. 

I glanced at Richie, before looking away. I shrugged and blushed slightly. "Yeah, I uh. Yeah..... I just hope no one is living in my house. I'll feel to awkward to go."

Mike shook his head. "It's fine. Just tell them you want to look for your old stuff."

And so, we all went on our way. I started remembering the streets as I walked towards my house. When I arrived there, I looked around. It looked the exact same. Twenty-seven years later, and nothing changed. The lights were turned off, and there wasn't a car in the driveway. I knocked on the door. When no one answered, I tried the bell. Still no one answered. I turned the doorknob, and saw that it was unlocked. 

I tiptoed in, and looked around. No one lived here. There wasn't any furniture at all. The whole place was dusty. I just hoped what I was looking for was still here. I went up the attic ladder, and looked in. 

"Oh thank God." I whispered. 

There were boxes everywhere, and most of them had my parents names on them. I started looking though them all. There were so many memories here. Old clothes, old decorations. But they weren't artifacts that I needed. I finally spotted a box that read October.

I walked over and opened it slowly and gently. Peeking in, I saw some of my childhood favorite books that I used to practice my reading. There was a few fancy seashells I liked to collect. And finally, I spotted it. A small stuffed penguin. I gingerly picked it up and smiled to myself. 

"Hey Richie look! Let's play that game." A younger me said, pulling Richie by his sleeve. 

"Okay fine." Richie smiled, following me to the game booth.

We were at the annual  Derry summer festival. We had already gone on a couple of rides, and had eaten a ton of popcorn. So now we were going around playing a bunch of games. For this one, we had to shoot a water gun at the target. I played, but I didn't get it. 

"Your aim sucks ass." Richie laughed. 

I pushed him. "You do it then, if you're so good at it."

Richie picked up his water gun, and surprisingly managed to get it. 

"Okay, pick your prize." said the bored looking teenager running the stand.

"Which one should I pick?" Richie asked me.

I looked around and spotted an adorable penguin. "That one."

The teenager gave the penguin to Richie. He held it up like Simba. "I have wonnnnn!"

I crossed my arms. "Good for you."

After that, we decided to leave the carnival. As we were walking, Richie handed me the stuffed penguin. 

"Why are you giving this to me?" I asked.

"It's for you." Richie smiled. 

I took the stuffy and hugged him tightly. 

Present time, I hugged the stuffy close to my chest, smiling at the old memory. I stood up and put the stuffy in my bag. Just as I was leaving, the attic door shut.

"What the-" I whispered. Did someone live here? "Hello?"

"Did you miss me October?" 

I turned around to see Richie. But he was dead.

"FUCK THIS! FUCK YOU! YOU'RE NOT REAL YOU FUCKER!" I screamed angrily. 

Richie turned into Pennywise and I gasped, backing away and trying to open the attic door.

"Back off you stupid clown!" I yelled.

Pennywise grinned. "Are you having fun back here?"

"LET ME OUT. WE DEFEATED YOU ONCE, WE CAN DO IT AGAIN."

Suddenly, the rest of the Loser's popped out. Some were bloodied, some had messed up limbs, or missing eyes.  Then, a man I didn't recognize moved to the front, his wrists slashed and dripping with blood.

"Stan." I whispered. "Stop! This isn't real!

Pennywise's face turned to anger. "Not real? This isn't real enough to you?" he jumped at me, his hands turning into sharp claws.

I punched him in the face. His head shook but he slashed his claws across my leg. Deep.

I screamed out and kicked him off. The attic door opened and I fell though. Groaning and gasping, I ran as fast as could throughout the house. I flung open the door and stumbled out, as I could hear Pennywise cackling and laughing. "Come visit me soon Octoberrrrr!"

I kept running and I didn't look back.