"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°•
Silence.
It was the first thing that settled over the cavern after the last of the Deadlights winked out. It wasn't peaceful; it was hollow. A vast, aching emptiness where a monstrous presence had been. The only sound was our ragged breathing and the distant, final drip of water.
Then, a broken whisper cut through the void.
"Eddie. Eddie."
Richie’s voice was a frayed thread of sound. He stumbled forward, the rest of us moving as if in a dream, trailing behind him in a numb procession. He fell to his knees on the cold stone, his hands hovering over our friend.
"Eddie. We did it, man. We got him. Pennywise is gone." Richie’s words were meant for Eddie, a desperate, hopeful report to a soldier who had already left the battlefield.
He reached out, his fingers—usually so quick with a joke or a gesture—trembling as they brushed a strand of hair from Eddie’s forehead. The touch was unbearably gentle.
"Eddie?" His name was a question this time, a plea for an answer we all knew wouldn't come.
The finality of it hit me like a physical blow. The hole in Eddie's chest wasn't just a wound; it was a void. He was gone. The air left my lungs in a silent sob, and hot tears traced clean paths through the grime on my cheeks. Not again. We had won, but the cost was etched in blood on the stone floor.
"Richie." Beverly’s voice was soft, a balm trying to soothe a wound that went too deep. "He's gone."
Richie flinched as if she’d struck him. "He's all right. No, he's just hurt. We gotta get him outta here. He's hurt, Ben. Bill, he's okay. We just gotta get him outta here. Bev. Cori." The words tumbled out, a frantic litany of denial against the crushing truth. He was trying to build a dam with tissue paper, and the reality was a flood.
"Richie." Beverly’s voice was firmer now, laced with a grief that mirrored his own.
"What?" he snapped, his eyes wild and unfocused.
"Honey," she said, her own tears falling freely. "He's dead. We have to go. Come on. Come on, Richie."
"We gotta go," Bill said, his voice rough with unshed tears. It was only then I noticed the world was coming apart at the seams. A deep, groaning shudder ran through the cavern, and dust and pebbles rained down from above. This place was a part of It, and with its heart destroyed, its lair was dying too.
"Come on, buddy. Come on."
Richie didn't want to leave. He gathered Eddie's limp form into his arms, pulling him into a final, crushing hug, his shoulders shaking with silent, heaving sobs. The rumbling intensified, a deafening roar demanding we move.
