"I have to go,too," I spoke up, my voice barely above a whisper. "My mom's waiting for me." It was only half the truth.
I went around the circle, giving each of my friends a tight hug, saving Ben for last. I tried desperately to keep the tears from...
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•°Corinne's POV°•
We decided to go for a bike ride after finishing the grim task of cleaning Beverly's bathroom. I could still smell the faint, metallic tang of blood on my skin. We ended up walking slowly, pushing our bikes, the weight of what we'd seen hanging heavy in the air between us.
"No, I love being your personal doorman, really," Richie complained, riding impatient circles around our somber group. "Could you idiots have taken any longer?"
"All right, shut up, Richie," Eddie snapped. "Yeah,shut up, Richie," Stanley agreed wearily. We were all exhausted. Scrubbing blood off walls is no easy feat.
"Oh, okay, trash the Trashmouth, I get it. Hey, I wasn't the one scrubbing the bathroom floor and imagining that her sink went all 'Eddie's mom's vagina on Halloween,'" Richie stated, looking at all of us.
"She didn't imagine it," Bill spoke up, his voice firm. We all came to a stop, our full attention on him. "I... I s-s-saw something too."
"You saw blood too?" Stanley was the first to ask. Bill shook his head."Not blood. I saw G-g-georgie. It seemed so real. I mean, it seemed like him, but there was this..."
"The clown," Eddie said, cutting him off.
The memory of the giant clown-spider flashed through my mind like a lightning strike. The hairs on my arms stood up as a cold shiver shot down my spine, making me tremble with a fear I could still taste.
"Yeah, I saw him, too," Eddie admitted quietly. I looked around at the others as they nodded their heads,one by one, each confessing to their own nightmare. A horrible, shared truth was dawning on us.
"Wait, can only virgins see this stuff?" Richie questioned, his joke cutting through the thick layer of fear that had settled over us. "Is that why I'm not seeing this shit?"
Sudden, angry screams snapped our heads in one direction. "Oh shit," I whispered, my blood running cold as I recognized the car parked just a few feet away.
"That's Belch Huggins' car. We should probably get outta here," Eddie stated, his voice tight with fear. "Yeah!"Richie agreed immediately.
"Wait," Bill said, pointing. "Isn't that the homeschooled kid's bike?" I hadn't noticed the other bicycle before. "Yeah,that's Mike's," Eddie confirmed.
"We have to help him," Beverly said, her voice leaving no room for argument. She was already moving. "We should?"Richie asked, his voice full of uncertainty. "Yes."
Bev let her bike clatter to the ground and started running. We dropped our bikes and followed her without another thought.
We got to the stream just in time to see Bev hurl a rock with perfect aim. It hit Henry Bowers right in the face with a satisfying thwack. "Nice throw,"I said, coming to a stop beside her. "Thanks,"she replied, her eyes never leaving the bullies.
Mike broke free and ran over to us as I started gathering rocks of my own, preparing for the fight I knew was coming.
"You losers are trying too hard," Henry spat, clutching his nose. "They'll both do you, you just gotta ask nicely, like I did." He leered, rubbing his crotch.
I would rather let that clown eat me than let this pervert touch me or my friend.
Ben screamed next to me—a raw, furious sound I’d never heard from him before. He launched a rock. It sailed through the air and hit Bowers square in the head. I stared at Ben in utter shock. The quiet, gentle boy was gone, replaced by a warrior.
"What the fuck?!" Henry roared.
Ben's face was flushed with anger. That was all the signal we needed. The Losers started throwing rocks. It took the other side a moment to recover before they began hurling them back at us.
"Come on, get 'em! Fuck!" Victor yelled.
"Rock war!" Richie yelled, just before a rock smacked him in the face, sending him stumbling backward. "Get'em!"
We threw rocks and did our best to duck and dodge the incoming fire. "Watch out!" Stanley warned, pulling Bev down as a rock whizzed past her head. "Fuck you,motherfuckers!" Richie yelled, blood trickling from his nose as he kept throwing.
I didn't care who I hit on the opposite side; I just kept throwing, my aim fueled by a pent-up fury at Henry, at this town, at the terrifying clown—everything. Eddie waded into the water to gather more ammunition and get a better angle.
"Eddie! Look out!"
"Fuck outta here!"
"Fuck you, bitches!" Belch yelled at me and Bev. We both threw at the same time, our rocks hitting him right in the face. He howled in pain. "Come on,guys! Let's get 'em!" Eddie yelled, rallying us.
"Fuck this!" Victor shouted. "Fuck out of here!"
Belch and Victor finally turned tail and ran, scrambling up the bank and leaving Henry behind, alone and helpless on the ground.
Ben reached out and took my hand, pulling me with him as we followed the rest of the group, cheering and whooping. I intertwined our fingers tightly and gave him a proud, exhilarated smile.
"Thanks, guys," Mike said, catching his breath in the middle of our celebrating group. "But you shouldn't have done that. They'll be after you guys too, now."
"Oh, no, no, no. Bowers? He's always after us," Eddie said from the front, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"I guess that's one t-t-thing we all have in common," Bill told Mike with a small, wry smile.
"Yeah," Richie chimed in, slinging an arm around Mike's shoulders. "Homeschooled. Welcome to the Losers' club."
I looked around at this bunch of misfits—the stutterer, the hypochondriac, the trash-mouth, the new kid, the quiet one, the redhead with the dead eyes, and me, the hot-headed girl with a terrible home life. I squeezed Ben's hand. I liked hanging out with these losers. They had, against all odds, made this the best—and most terrifying—summer I'd ever had. And I’d even gotten a good hit in on Bowers.
