𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬 | 𝐜𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬 ✔️

↞ fifteen

back harlow road
{olivia's pov}

my body felt as if it were completely numb and i could feel the tension rise in the air.

"son of a bitch! my little brother," eyeball said. they began walking closer to us.

"you wasn't planning on taking the body from us, was you, girls?" ace asked.

"you get away, man. we found him. we got dibs," chris said, attempting to get them to let us go.

"you better start runnin', eyeball. they got dibs."

"we earned him, man! you guys came in a car. that's not fair! he's ours." the argument sorta made me feel sick inside. fighting over a dead body wasn't really worth a fight, right?

"that's not fair. he's ours," eyeball mimicked his little brother. "well, not anymore."

"there's five of us, eyeball. you just make your move," teddy said calmly.

"oh, we will. don't you worry," ace said intimidatingly. suddenly, five more boys appeared.

"vern, you little son of a whore!" one boy angrily said. "you was under the porch!" i immediately knew it wasn't vern's brother, since they didn't look alike, so i assumed it was charlie hogan. the only other boy involved in vern's story.

"no, i swear! it wasn't me!" vern said, obviously frightened of what was going to happen to his well being.

"you little keyhole-peeping bung!" vern's older brother started as he stomped towards us. "i ought to beat the living shit out of you!"

vern began running away, probably not wanting to die of course. chris raised his arm in front of me to make sure i wouldn't be touched.

"you guys have two choices. you either leave quietly, and we take the body. or you stay and we beat the shit out of you, and we take the body," ace threatened.

"besides, me and billy found him first," charlie added.

"yeah, vern told us how you found him," teddy began. "oh, billy! i wish we never boosted that car! oh, billy, i think i just turned my fruit of the looms into a fudge factory," teddy mocked in a girly voice.

"that's it. your ass is grass!" charlie pointed to him.

"yeah, you wish," i retorted. before charlie could attempt to beat our asses, ace spoke up.

"hold it. ok, chambers, you little faggot. this is your last chance. what do you say, kid?"

"why don't you go home and fuck your mother some more?" chris replied. ace then pulled out a small pocket knife and pointed it at chris.

"you're dead," ace said menacingly.

"come on, chris. let's split," teddy whispered.

"they're not taking him." ace walked closer and i looked back at gordie. he was holding something behind his back, kneeling on the ground.

"man, this is crazy. he's got a knife, man!" teddy shouted, running away just like vern did not too long ago. and that's when i realized, gordie was holding the gun. i walked backwards and pretended to trip and fall on my backpack. i opened one of the pockets and grabbed my knife, tightening my grip on it.

"ace, come on, man," eyeball said. was he trying to plead his friend not to kill his brother? that was a first. but that's not what mattered. chris stayed in the same spot as ace slowly made his way towards him, knife in hand. chris looked scared, but he wasn't going to let anything happen to his friends or ray brower.

"you're gonna have to kill me, ace," chris said. my heart dropped as the words came out of his mouth. but gordie and i had a plan, even if no words came out. we knew what to do.

"no problem," ace responded nonchalantly.

"now," i whispered to gordie. he stood up and shot the gun in the air, startling ace before he could do any harm to chris. i stood up too, pointing my knife at ace's face.

"you're not taking him. nobody's taking him," gordie said.

"come on. just give me the gun and the knife before you hurt yourselves," ace said. "you guys ain't got the sack to kill a woodchuck." ace took one step forward and gordie pointed the gun at him.

"don't move, ace," i said. "i would regret it if i were you."

"i'll kill you. i swear to god," gordie said in the most serious tone.

"come on, lachance. give me the gun," ace said. gordie didn't move a muscle. neither did i.

"you must have at least some of your brother's good sense. and what about you duchamp? your parents must've been good people before they died. you couldn't kill anyone after that, could you?" anger boiled inside of me at the mention of my parents.

"you son of a bitch." before i could even get a chance to take one step to kill ace, chris stopped me. gordie loaded the gun.

"suck my fat one, you cheap, dime-store hood," gordie said.

"what are you gonna do, kill us all?" ace asked with a slight smirk on his face.

"no, ace. just you."

"we're gonna get you for this," ace said after a few seconds of silence.

"maybe you will, or maybe you won't," chris finally spoke.

"oh, we will."

"we'll see about that, won't we?" i asked. ace's gang started walking off.

"we're not gonna forget this, if that's what your thinking," ace said, wanting to get the last word. "this is big time, baby." then, he was off.

"'suck my fat one'? who ever told you you had a fat one, lachance?" chris asked once ace and his gang were completely out of sight. gordie smirked.

"biggest one in four counties," he replied. chris and i chuckled.

"yeah," chris said. teddy and vern decided to join us once again.

"are we gonna take him?" vern asked. gordie shook his head.

"no," was all he said.

"but we came all this way. we were supposed to be heroes," teddy said softly.

"not this way, teddy," gordie responded.

ray brower's body was found eventually, but neither our gang nor their gang got the credit. in the end, we decided that an anonymous phone call was the best thing to do.

after we had covered up his body with a blanket, we headed home. and although many thoughts raced through our minds, we barely spoke. i held hands with chris some of the way back. well, most of the way back. we exchanged slight smiles when we glanced at each other.

we walked through the night and made it back to castle rock a little past five o'clock on sunday morning, the day before labor day. we'd only been gone two days, but somehow the town seemed different—smaller. and even though i had only lived there for two days, it was the best two days of my entire summer.