The Love Is Still There |Richie Tozier (2)

~11~ Grey Water

We made it to the well, and stared at it.

"A lot of memories here.... all bad." Ben said. 

Everyone started going down the well. I was about to go down, but Richie and Eddie stopped me.

"How are you gonna get down there?" asked Richie.

I looked at my leg. "Oh fuck. I'll manage."

Eddie shook his head. "What if you fall?"

"The others can catch me." I replied.

"No, here." Richie bent down slightly. "Get on my back and hold tight, I'll carry you."

I glanced at Eddie, who shrugged and nodded his head. "Let's hope this works."

I climbed onto Richie's back with the help of Eddie, and I held on to him tightly. Richie started making his way down the well. 

"Luckily the rope is really strong." Richie said.

I tightened my grip on his shoulders. "Yeah, be careful."

We managed to make it down and I got off Richie's back. 

"Come on down Ed's!" Richie called up.

Eddie came down, and then we noticed we were standing in.......

"Ugh, grey water." Eddie gagged. 

"More conformation that nothing's changed." Richie muttered to me. 

I couldn't help but giggle, remembering the day when Richie and Eddie were arguing about grey water back in the sewers when we were kids. 

We walked deeper into the sewers, following Mike. Mike finally stopped walking, and I looked around. This was the place. The place where we had come to save Beverly all those years ago.

"Shit, this is it." Ben said. "This is where it all happened."

Mike stepped into the water, Beverly following after. 

"Fuck, I don't think I can swim." I said.

"Nope, nope nope nope." Eddie said, pointing at something floating in the water.

"Bev, what is it?" Ben asked Beverly. 

"I thought I heard something." she replied. 

An old lady submerged in front of Beverly. She cackled and said "Time to sink!"

She grabbed Beverly and dragged her into the water.

"NO BEVERLY!" I yelled. 

The other men jumped into the water, leaving me and Eddie behind, waiting nervously. After a few moments, they all rose up again, Ben holding onto Beverly. They crawled back to Eddie and I and we helped up get out of the water. 

"Oh thank the heavens." I breathed out.

"I don't feel like crying today." Eddie said.

Richie looked at Mike. "Mike, where do we go from here?"

Mike started walking around a sewer cover, muttering something over and over under his breath. 

"Is he okay?" asked Ben.

"I think at this point, it's a relative question." Richie replied.

"What's on the other side?" I asked. 

"I don't know, no one does." Mike said to me.

Mike took off the cover, and sat at the edge.

"Mike....." I said warningly. 

"See you down there." Mike jumped into the sewer, and started climbing down.

"This fucker." I muttered to Richie, who chuckled slightly. 

"Just s-stick together." Bill said, following Mike. 

Beverly and went in too, leaving me, Richie and Eddie.

"I can't do it." Eddie shook his head. "You saw what happened up there, I was going to let you die."

"Eddie no." I pleaded. "We can't split up now."

"No, I just fucking froze. You let me go down there with you, and I'm going to get you all killed." He tried to inhale his inhaler, but Richie tried garbing it from him. 

"No, give me that." Richie pulled. 

The two men started fighting over it. Eddie kept opening his mouth like a fish to try and suck in the inhaler. Richie put his flashlight close to Eddie's eyes, causing him to blink and let go of the inhaler.

I walked up to them.

"Who killed the psychotic clown before he was fourteen?" asked Richie.

"Me." Eddie replied.

"Who stabbed Bowers with the knife he pulled out of his own face?"

"Me."

"And who married a woman ten times his own body mass." I butt in.

Eddie glared at me. "Me."

"You're braver than you think." Richie said, patting Eddie's injured cheek.

"Ow! Both of you have got to stop doing that!"

Richie and I smiled sheepishly at him.

We started going down the sewer, following the other Loser's. I was having a hard time, but Ben caught me as my bad leg slipped and I fell down.

"Thanks." I grunted, letting go of his neck.

He set me down as Richie and Eddie came down. Richie hooked his arm through mine. 

"Is everyone good?" asked Bill.

I nodded. 

Mike started going through a tight entry between some rocks. "Over here. It's the only way."

"Eddie will be able to fit just fine." I teased. 

"Fuck you." he replied. 

I started going through, feeling uncomfortable as I shimmied through.

"This is so fucking tight." I said. 

"Like a virgins-" began Richie.

"Shut up Tozier!" I yelled.

Mike and Bill took my arms and started to pull. I finally went through the other side. I rubbed my bad leg, as it was stinging with pain.

Once everyone arrived, Mike spoke. "This is where IT hid."

We flashed our flashlights, looking around. 

"So all of this has been under Derry forever?" asked Eddie.

"Not forever, just a few billion years."

Beverly pointed her flashlight on something sharp, where blood was floating up from it. There were a bunch of spikes, making a circle. Mike went to the middle and pulled out of his bag the Shokopiwah artifact. He put it down in the middle and looked up at us. "IT can only be attacked in it's true form. The ritual shows it."

"What's IT's true form?" asked Ben, as we all crowded around the artifact.

"I hope it's a puppy, like a Pomeranian." Richie grinned.

No one laughed and I pinched his arm. Hard. 

"Okay, I'll shut up now." he said sheepishly.

"It's light. Light that must be stuffed out by darkness." Mike continued, pouring lighter fluid in the artifact. He lit up a match and threw it in too. He stepped back a bit as the flames grew. "You're artifacts. Place them into the fire. The past must burn with the present."

It was time to officially start the ritual.