"What are you smiling about?" Stanley stared at him. "She called you a dumbass."
Eddie's smile only grew bigger. "I know. Ali Sumner called me a dumbass."
***
in which ali sumner befriends a group of outcasts and finds herself harassed by ronald mcd...
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NINETEEN: Fear
Words: 788 (including non-story related words such as these)
Author's Note: ok but mike is soo underrated i cantt ***
"Ok, so lemme get this straight."
The losers had walked over to the park and gathered around a bench.
"It comes out from..." Eddie continued. "...wherever, to eat kids for, like a year? And then what? It just goes into hibernation?"
Stanley shrugged. "Maybe it's just like...what do 'ya call it...? Cicadas. You know those bugs that come out every seventeen years?"
Ali nodded. "Yeah. I used to keep one as a pet until some kid ate it."
"My grandfather thinks this town is cursed." Mike said nervously. "He says that...that all the bad things that happen in this town are all because of one thing. An evil thing that feeds off the people in Derry."
Ali shuddered thinking about those balloons that had lead her to Eddie which lead them to that disgusting creature. "I ❤️ Derry" was what had been written on those balloons.
Derry.
"But it can't be one thing." Stanley pointed out. "We all saw something different."
"Maybe." Ben said quietly. "Or maybe it knows what scares us most and that's what we see."
"I saw a leper." Eddie shuddered. "Ali and I did. It was like a walking infection."
Eddie then turned to look at Ali. "Wait, Ali. What are you afraid of then? You saw the same thing I did. But that can't be right..."
Ali froze when they all turned to look at her.
She wasn't scared of infections or lepers. Sure she was terrified that day they saw the leper, but that leper had the face of her dead dad and was lunging at them, trying to kill them. Anyone would be out of their minds not to be scared of that shit.
But it was the second thing she saw.
No, not clowns. Though that clown was terrifying.
It was her seeing Eddie and Richie on that roof. What she did and what she couldn't do.
She knew exactly what her worst fear was but she never wanted to say it out loud. Never.
"Yeah, uh, I'm scared of skin diseases." Ali thought quickly. "The leper's skin, it was...peeling and ugh..."
She put on a good enough act of someone being scared of skin diseases and they all turned back to each other.
"But you didn't." Stanley shook his head. "Because it isn't real. Not Eddie and Ali's leper. Or-or Bill seeing Georgie. Or...the woman I keep seeing."
"She hot?" Richie smirked sarcastically
Everyone turned to glare at him and he shrunk back. Bad timing. Now was not the time for his jokes.
"No, Richie!" Stan said, sounding a little angry and upset. "She's not hot!"
Richie shrugged apologetically.
"Her face..." Stanley looked terrified as he reimagined his encounter with it. Whatever it was. "It's all messed up. None of this makes sense! They're all like bad dreams."
"I don't think so." Mike shook his head gravely. "I know the difference between a bad dream and real life, okay?"
"What did you see?" Ali asked.
Mike sighed a bit, looking a little hesitant to tell them but they all gave him a look of assurance and he nodded.
"You guys know that burned down house on Harris avenue?"
Everyone nodded. They had heard of it.
"I was inside it when it burned down." Mike looked sadder than they'd ever seen him in the few hours they had known him. "Before I was rescued, my parents were trapped in the next room. They were pushing and pounding on the door, trying to get to me."
The way Mike's voice sounded sent shivers down Ali's spine.
It was like she could imagine what had happened. She could hear the screams of the people as they burned to death in that trapped room. The desperate pounding on the door and pleas for help.
She looked over at Mike. That poor, poor boy.
"But it was too hot." Mike looked down at his lap. "And when they finally found then, the skin on their hands had melted down to the bone."
The group went quiet.
"Everyone's scared of something." Mike said sadly.
"You got that right." Richie sighed.
"Why, Richie?" Ali shifted her attention to him, not wanting to look at Mike anymore. He looked so sad and she didn't want to be depressed the whole day. She had enough things on her mind. Very unpleasant and terrifying things.
"What are you afraid of?"
Richie paused a bit.
He looked behind him at the stage. The stage was there thanks to the upcoming festivals. Some clowns and dancers were up there, performing to cheesy love music.
