Behind the Clouds ✔️

006

"I don't know. I guess." Eddie Kaspbrak answered Richie Tozier, as they all stopped the bikes by the barrens.

Bill Denbrough led the group toward a giant sewer, Richie, Eddie, and Stanley Uris arguing behind them. Bill seemed to have no qualms entering the sewer and neither did Richie, but Stan and Eddie stayed outside.

"That's poison ivy," Stanley stated, pointing at a plant, "And that's poison ivy. And that's poison ivy." His pointed finger went to plants surrounding the sewer, as though he was an expert.

"Where? Where's the poison ivy?" A germaphobic Eddie jumped each time Stanley pointed one out. Richie, looking pretty fed up from the two, turned toward them.

"Nowhere. Not every fucking plant is poison ivy, Stanley," Richie responded, Stanley shutting up. As Richie headed back in, the germaphobe began to rant.

"Okay, well I'm starting to get itchy now and I'm pretty sure this is not good for my..."

"Do you use the same bathroom as your mother?" Richie interrupted.

"Sometimes, yeah," Eddie hesitated. Richie kept going, his back turned.

"Then you probably have crabs," he retorted. He began to chuckle at his own joke, as Eddie and Stanley groaned behind him.

"That's so not funny," Eddie stood there, gobsmacked at Richie's poor comment. Richie, not hearing any small splashes behind him, turned around.

"Aren't you guys coming in?" Richie tried a little dance to encourage them to get in.

"Uh-uh," Eddie said, looking pretty disgusted, "It's greywater."

"What the hell's greywater?" Richie asked, looking pretty fed up with Eddie. Not that Eddie could tell.

"It's basically, piss and shit. So I'm just telling you, you guys are splashing around in millions of gallons of Derry pee. So," Eddie trailed off, looking even more disgusted with Richie, as said boy picked up a stick from the water and sniffed it, "Are you- Are you serious? What are you?"

"Doesn't smell like caca to me, señor," Richie said, in a ridiculous Spanish accent, almost making a laugh come out of Stanley.

"Okay, I can smell that from here," Eddie said, covering his face with his arm.

"It's probably just your breath wafting back into your face," Richie made another retort, pretending to waft toward his own face.

"Have you ever heard of a staph infection?" Eddie started. Richie moves the stick toward his groin, pretending to be funny.

"Oh, I'll show you a staph infection," At this point, Bill can hardly pay attention to the two boys' bickering. He begins to trail deeper into the sewer, until his foot hits something similar to it.

Unbeknownst to Eddie stating his knowledge on greywater, Bill reaches into the water and pulls out a sneaker, in real bad condition. "Guys!"

The other three boys stopped and looked at what Bill was holding up. They were immediately filled with remorse for his younger brother.

"S-shit. Don't tell me that's..." Stanley started, unsure of how to say things in front of Bill right now.

"No," Bill responded, knowing what he meant, "Georgie wore galoshes."

"Whose sneaker is it?" Eddie asks aloud, all of them nearly holding their breath, bracing themselves. Bill shines his flashlight over the shoe for any sign of whose it is, and sees the words 'B. Ripsom' on it.

"It's Betty Ripsom's," Bill said, loud enough for them all to hear. Richie comes splashing over and snatches the shoe out of Bill's hand.

"Oh, shit. Oh, God. Oh, fuck! I don't like this," Eddie rambled, not wanting to be there.

"How do you think Betty feels? Or Derry's Princess? Betty's probably running around these tunnels with one frickin' shoe, and Princess would probably feel some kind of solace for her only friend, knowing she's out there now." Richie started laughing as though it was amusing to him.

"What if she's still here?" Stanley asked, getting Richie to shut up. Richie and Bill begin to go further into the tunnel.

"Eddie, come on!" Eddie shakes his head so hard, his neck begins to hurt.

"My mom will have an aneurysm, okay? If she finds out we're playing down here. I'm serious. Bill?" Eddie questioned. Bill stopped and turned back around toward his friends.

"If I was Betty Ripsom, I would want us to find me," Bill started, thinking of Violet and Ashton, "Georgie too." The other boys stayed quiet for a moment.

"What if I don't want to find them?" Eddie voiced his opinion, "I mean, no offense, Bill, but I don't want to end up like," Bill's shoulders immediately tensed up, "I don't want to go missing, either."

"He has a point," Stanley finally said something, truly believing it.

"You too?" Bill questioned. Stanley looked quite hurt that Bill didn't see the facts.

"It's summer! We're supposed to be having fun!" Richie begins to agree with Stanley, "This isn't fun. This is scary and disgusting and just plain rude to Princess. We shouldn't be here and we certainly shouldn't have found her best friend's shoe here of all places."

At that moment, Ben collapsed from exhaustion in the water behind them. Eddie and Stanley jumped and turned at the sound of splashing water. Ben attempted to stand up and keep going, Violet's screams running through his head, but he lost his balance and fell to his knees again.

All four boys begin to run toward a bleeding Ben, Richie being his usual self.

"Holy shit. What happened to you?" Ben finally noticed the four boys.

"Help Violet," he said, in a weak voice.