IT ⇢ ONESHOTS

it's over - [reddie]

[angst!reddie]

IN WHICH RICHIE DIES INSTEAD OF EDDIE

⇢

Eddie had never seen so much blood in his entire life. More importantly, he had never been so enthralled by the sight of blood in his entire life, and likely never would be again.

Bill Denbrough wasn't the tallest out of the group of his friends, nor the strongest, but as his hands slid out from beneath IT's skin with IT's heart clutched tightly in his hands, he sure seemed like he was. He had sunk his fingers deep into the tender flesh of the struggling organ, tearing it open before Eddie could open his mouth to protest (like he would, anyhow. He knew how badly, if any of them, that Bill needed to do this for himself), and that was when it had all came rushing out.

Blood seeped down past Bill's calloused fingers, dripping down to the piques of his elbows and splashing against the dirt below their feet. It drenched the shirt he was wearing equally, and as much as it was positive that Bill hadn't worn anything light coloured that day, Eddie could see the fine crimson glint of the liquid as his childhood best friend turned back to face him. Eddie had expected to see something like an expression of victory on his face, or triumph. He was sure that Bill had expected the noises that escaped his throat to sound positive, but they rang through Eddie's ears like a hurricane siren.

It was over.

It took the smaller man a moment to realize, as he reached out and put a solid grip on Bill's forearms, where exactly this sound was coming from, but he pinpointed it. Anguish, Eddie thought to himself. Eddie hadn't been with Billy when his brother had been found all those years ago: but he imagined, with a sick knot deep inside of his stomach, that this was a lot similar to the noise Bill must have made when he realized Georgie was dead.

"Bill" Eddie whispered kindly, his grip loosening on his friend as tears began to flow down Bill's cheeks. They sprung from his tear ducts like somebody had turned on a faucet inside of him, and the taller man let out several well deserved, choked sobs before he began to quiet once more, the adrenaline of the situation beginning to dissipate.

It was over. It was all over.

"Come on" he spoke, though his voice had come out almost inaudible. "Come on, everyone else is still back there" Eddie tried once more in a subtly soothing tone, looping an arm around Bill's shoulder as he began to lead him back out through the opening of the tunnel they had traversed in order to corner the now dead entity that laid sprawled across the cobblestone beneath it. Nothing gave him more satisfaction than to see how lifeless the previously erratic and violent being had become, and as Eddie turned back to the opening of the tunnel, he gave his throat a sharp clear and spat forcefully at the ground. Fuck you, he thought to himself. We won. Fuck you.

As they escaped out the other end of the tunnel and back into the line of sight of the rest of the group, Eddie exhaled smoothly and shut his eyes just briefly, and for the first time in a long time, he could do so without fearing what was going to be in front of him when he opened them. He continued walking, his grip on Bill's shoulder dismissive and gentle: just enough to lead the boy along next to him.

When Bill halted, however, Eddie's eyes shot open once more as he was almost pulled back off his feet by his own hold on the man.

"Wha---"

As Eddie's arm slipped away from Bill's shoulder, he turned and craned his neck only slightly to look at him. Eddie felt, for that moment, like /his/ heart had been yanked out of his chest. Bill's face was one of shock, an expression that seemed to change with every passing second that Eddie stared at him. It began with what appeared to be disbelief, which was quickly followed by fear. Eddie's brows furrowed involuntarily as he watched his old best friend's expression's morph like this. But it was the shift in his eyes, from fear to sorrow, that really struck something inside of Eddie's chest. That, and a subtle realization that would haunt him quite possibly for the rest of his life. Bill was looking away from him, unusual, as he was---