The Trashmouth [Richie Tozier x Reader]

15: The Projector

Richie and I walk in to Bill's garage where the other losers are waiting. Bill is pinning up a map on the wall of the sewer system, Eddie is setting up the projector, and Mike closes the garage door.

Bill puts a map of old Derry into the projector aimed at the map, and we all sit on stuff piled around the room.

"Look, that's wear G-g-georgie disappeared. That's the Ironworks and the black spot," Bill says, pointing to each location on the map, "Everywhere It happens, i-it's all connected by the sewers. And they all meet up at--"

"The well house," Ben interrupts.

"The house on Niebolt Street," Stan adds.

"You mean that creepy ass house where all the junkies and hobos like to sleep?" Richie asks.

Eddie takes a puff from his inhaler. I can tell this is freaking him out.

"I hate that place; it always feels like it's watching me," I say.

"That's where I saw it. that's where I saw the clown," Eddie says breathless.

"Th-th-that's where It lives," Bill says. Eddie takes another puff from his inhaler.

"I can't imagine anything ever wanting to live there," Stan adds.

"Can we stop talking about this," Eddie says, standing up in front of us, "I-I can barely breathe...this is summer...we're kids...I can barely breathe...I'm about to have a fucking asthma attack! I'm not doing this!" Eddie tears the map off the wall.

"What the hell! Put the map back!" Bill yells.

Eddie shakes his head no. Then the projector starts switching slides on its own, and going through pictures of Bill's family.

"What happened?" Bill asks.

"What's going on?" Stan asks as Eddie slowly backs away from the wall.

Mike examines the projector. "Guys," he says.

The projector stops on a picture of Bill's family outside a house, and zooms in on Georgie.

"Bill?" Stan asks. We all look at each other scared and unsure of what was happening.

The projector spins faster and zooms in on Bill's mom with her hair in her face. It keeps switching slides, and her hair is moving around until it moves out of her face and reveals a scary ass clown. We all jump up and back away from the wall frantically.

"What the fuck is that?!" Richie yells repeatedly.

"I don't fucking know!" I yell back scared.

"Turn it off!" Beverly yells. "Turn it off!"

Mike kicks the projector off of our makeshift stand and onto the ground, but it's still aimed at a different wall. The clown disappears from the screen, but pops out a few seconds later triple the size it was before. It's smiling evilly, showing off it's many rows of pointed teeth. It jumps out of the screen and begins crawling towards me. I back away slowly and hold my hands over my eyes terrified as it's hand reaches out for me. I've never been more scared in my life.

I hear someone open the garage door and light floods the garage, making the clown disappear. I stand there too shocked and scared to move. Richie runs over and wraps his arms around me and I hug him back tightly, too scared to let go of him. I try to slow my breathing and calm down and everyone else does the same.

"It saw us. It saw us," Eddie repeats frantically, "It saw us and It knows where we are!"

"It always did," Bill replies, running over to his bike, "so let's go."

"Go? Go where?" I ask, letting go of Richie and turning to Bill, and hold Richie's hand instead.

"Niebolt," Bill answers, "That's where G-g-georgie is."

"After that?!" Richie asks. "Are fucking crazy?"

"Yeah, it's summer. We should be outside," Stan adds.

"If you say it's summer one more f-f-fucking time..." Bill responds. Instead of finishing, he hops on his bike and rides away.

"Bill!" Beverly shouts. "Wait!" The others start getting on their bikes, and take off after Bill.

"Are you okay?" Richie asks me worried.

"I'm better now," I reply, still gripping his hand tightly.

"Are you sure? Because I can't feel my hand."

"I'll be fine, let's go."

We get on Richie's bike and follow the others and my grip around Richie is tighter than it's ever been. We get to the creepy house and see Bill about to walk inside by himself.

"Bill!" Beverly shouts. "Bill, you can't go in there, this is crazy."

We all get off our bikes and stand in the front yard while Bill is in front of the door.

"Look, you don't have to come in with me, but what happens when another Georgie goes missing, or another Betty, or another Ed, or one of us?! Are you just gonna pretend it isn't happening like everyone else in this town? Because I can't," Bill says to us, "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, is easier than walking into my own."

"Wow," Richie says.

"What?" I ask.

"He didn't stutter once."

We all go to follow Bill into the house.

"Wait!" Stan exclaims. "Shouldn't we have some people keep watch? You know, just in case something bad happens."

He's definitely looking for an excuse not to go in that house.

"W-who wants to stay out here?" Bill asks and we all raise our hands except for Beverly.

"Fuck," Richie mutters as we all drop our hands.

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~word count: 890~