Lisp • Richie Tozier (1)

10

"Bill you can't go in there! This is crazy!" Beverly says. "Look, you don't have to come in with me... but what happens when another Georgie goes missing? Or another Betty? Or another Ed Corcoran... or one of us? Are you just gonna pretend it isn't happening like everyone else in this town? Because I can't. I go home and all I see is that Georgie isn't there. His clothes, his toys, his stupid stuffed animals, but he isn't. So walking into this house for me... it's easier than walking into my own." He starts walking away. "Wow." Richie says. "What?" Beverly asks softly. "He didn't stutter once."

Everyone starts walking into the house. "Wait!" Stan yells. "What?"
"Shouldn't we have some people keep watch? In case something bad happens?" Bill turns around. "Who wants to stay out here?" Everyone except Beverly raises their hands. Mike puts his down first, then Richie, then Eddie, then me. "Fuck." Richie mutters. "Tell me about it."

The door creaks when we open it. "I can't believe I drew the short straw. You guys are lucky we aren't measuring dicks." Richie says. "Shut up, Richie." I gag at the smell. "Don't breathe through your mouth." Richie says. "How come?"
"Cause then you're eating it." Eddie gags and takes a puff of his inhaler. I see Richie walk into another room and I follow him. "What's that?" I ask as he holds a paper up. "It says I'm missing." Richie says quietly. "You're not missing." Bill says reassuringly. "That's my shirt, that's my hair, that's my face, that's my name, that's my age, that's the date!" Bill tries to rip to paper out of Richie's hands but Richie's screaming at him. "Stop it! Richie! Calm down."
"What the fuck! Am I missing? Am I gonna go missing?!" Bill takes the paper away from him and crumples it up. "Look at me. It's playing tricks on you. You're not going to go missing."

We stop when we hear soft cries from upstairs. I walk up the stairs behind Richie, who's still very shaken up.

I see a girl coughing on the floor. She's halfway hidden from behind the wall. "Betty?" Bill asks. "Ripsom?" Suddenly, she's being dragged away. We all jump in fear.

I stay behind with Eddie. I hear him call to the others. "What is it Eddie?" I ask. "Don't you hear that?" I shake my head and he keeps walking farther and farther away from the others.

The door slams shut and we start running towards it. Eddie screams loudly for them to open the door but right as we're about to get to the door, the floor in front of us crumbles down. I see Eddie fall forward onto the first floor. A table breaks his fall and his watch beeps. He groans loudly and I jump down, careful not to hit him.

Eddie woke up several minutes after passing out and I see a hand come out of the fridge in front of us. It pushes open the fridge and I see the clown all twisted up in there. "Get the fuck back." I mumble. Eddie's frozen in fear. "I said, get the fuck back." I say, grabbing his good arm and pulling him farther away. The clown got out of the fridge in the most terrifying way possible, then stared down at Eddie and I. "Time to float." It said with a smile.

It starts to march toward us while me and Eddie start crying and scooting away from it.

It finally gets to us and we're holding each other and sobbing while it mocks us. Eddie starts hitting it weakly while I kick it as hard as I can. It grabs Eddie's arm and pretends to bite it while he cries.

Then, it takes Eddie's face in its hands and its teeth start to get bigger and bigger. My eyes widen and I start screaming and punching and kicking it. "Don't fucking touch him!" I shriek in the highest pitch my voice has ever gone. The clown looks over to the other room. Eddie starts screaming as loud as he can. "Help! Help!" The clown covers our faces with its hands. Richie and Bill run in. My face is soaking wet from the tears and my vision is blurry. "Julie! Eddie!" It looks at them. "This isn't real enough for you, Billy? I'm not real enough for you? It was real enough for Georgie." Bill's face goes hard. He looks sad and scared and angry at the time. My lip quivers I'm about to start sobbing again. Richie's eyes flash from me to Eddie to the clown really fast.

They can't do anything to save us. We're going to die.

The clown starts to laugh maniacally and it runs towards Bill and Richie. It's about to get them when Beverly stabs it with a stick, paralyzing it momentarily.

"Get Eddie!" They all run over to us and crouch down towards Eddie. People start grabbing at him and he screams. The clown starts moving again and it stabs Ben in the stomach. I scream loudly as he falls over and induces more panic than there already is. The clown walks off into the other room and Bill follows it. "Bill, we have to help Eddie!" Beverly yells. "Nooooo! Noooo!" Eddie yells as people run over. "Okay I'm gonna snap your arm into place!" Richie says. "No! Do not fucking touch me!" Eddie pleads shaking his head. "One, two, three."

"Don't fucking touch me!"
I hear a snap and my head quickly turns over to them. My eyes widen as I see that Richie has indeed snapped Eddie's arm into place. Eddie starts screaming again and we all run out of the house as fast as we can.

We get Eddie back home and his mother starts lecturing us. "You did this!" She points to all of us. "You know how delicate he is." She opens the car door and Eddie gets in. "But Mrs. K, we were attacked." Bill says. "No, I don't want to hear it." She drops her keys and Beverly goes to pick them up. "No! I know all about you Miss Marsh. And I don't want a dirty girl like you touching my son." She says quietly. Despite our protests, she ignores us and gets into the car.  "Eddie is done with all of you!" And she drives off without another word.