"Tell me that you're still mine, tell me that we'll be just fine, even when I lose my mind."
In which two kids made it out together, though they aren't kids anymore. The pair is reunited with their old childhood friend-group, with the goal to save t...
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Elaine dragged her feet, lazily walking back toward the Inn. She tripped on her heels, hiccuping as she carried her vinyl tightly in her arms. From behind, a car honked loudly. An older-looking man rolled down his window, "What's a pretty lady like you doing out here alone?" He asked creepily. Elaine wiped her nose, "Just heading home," She smiled weakly, trying to lose the car.
However, the man's vehicle kept following her as she walked. "How much do you charge?" He finally asked, a bizarre smiling forming on his face. Elaine turned to him, her mouth slightly parted in shock, "Go fuck yourself!" She shrieked, the man jumping in his seat and driving off. His comment had only made Elaine sob harder, clasping her vinyl as she furiously kicked the curb.
She pushed through the ache in her feet as she finally made it through the front door of the Inn. Richie nervously stood in front of her, trying to move past Beverly and Ben who were blocking the stairs. The adults snapped their heads back toward Elaine, each of them gasping at the sight of her. Her body was covered in soot and ashes, her smudged mascara and red lipstick all over her tear-stained face.
Elaine looked down, dropping the vinyl by her side. She sighed at the sight of red heels, the shoes slightly torn from her long journey. "What the fuck happened?" Richie asked his wife worried, quickly walking over to her side. She flung her arms around, crying dramatically. "An old man thought I was a prostitute!" Richie's eyes widened. That wasn't what he'd been expecting at all. "Oh," He sighed, glad the clown hadn't done anything worse.
But he was wrong, Elaine simply hadn't gotten the chance to tell him the rest yet. Elaine cried, Richie pulling his hysterical wife into his arms. Beverly and Ben both shared a look, trying to ask questions with their eyes. Richie guided Elaine forward, leading her up the stairs, "Where are you going?" Beverly asked looking concerned. "We're leaving." Richie pursed his lips, stomping up the stairs.
"Richie, you can't just leave!" Ben called after the two, "Watch me," Richie snorted, continuing to walk. There was no way he was staying after what he'd witnessed, let alone what Elaine had. Though he didn't necessarily know what'd happened to her yet, her state was enough to communicate it was time to leave Derry. The minute the door shut behind them, Elaine sobbed loudly into his side, still completely traumatized by what she'd just faced.
Richie did his best to shush her without being rude. With everyone being able to hear them from downstairs, things could get tricky. Elaine cried harder, simply unable to calm down no matter how hard she tried. He walked her over to the bed, setting her vinyl beside him. He left her to stand between his legs, wrapping his arms around her small waist as he sat. "What happened, babe?" He cooed, though deeply scared for her.
It disturbed him to see her so agitated like this. Elaine was normally so well presented and calm that it made him jittery to see her shaking like this. "I'm a murderer!" She spoke between cries. Richie shook his head, running a hand through her knotty hair, "What are you talking about, honey?" "I killed our baby and it knows!" She wept clamorously. Richie did his best to soothe her, a lump in his throat, "It was a trick, Lainey. Please, don't say that about yourself,"
"N-No, he's r-right," She bellowed, continuing to cry. "Laine, please stop crying," Richie begged, his eyes filling with tears at the sight of his wife so worked up. "I'm sorry," She sat up, wiping her eyes as she knew how much Richie hated seeing her upset. She chuckled sadly, "It was a lot." "What happened, babe?" He asked her again, keeping himself together. Ashamed, Elaine slowly told her husband how she'd practically broken into her old home.
"So I'm basically a felon!" Elaine cried, gasping to herself as she realized what she'd done. When she hauled herself back together, she continued, explaining how when she entered the home it was empty. But she stayed and wandered, trying to see if she could still be able to find her token in the house. Elaine's heart ached, "I was just looking around and then I-I heard a baby start to cry. That was the first trick." Richie gulped at the thought.
"It came from my old room, but when I went it stopped," "Then what?" Richie asked curiously. "The vinyl," Elaine smiled shyly, remembering how she and Richie used to dance to the song together. Her grin soon faded away when she remembered what happened next. "The music stopped and the crying started again." Richie nodded, listening intently. He wanted to make sure he didn't miss anything important. "I was at home," Elaine inhaled, holding back her cries.
"What do you mean?" "At home, in the nursery." She trailed off, remembering the events all over again. Richie began to feel immense pity for Elaine, he hadn't gone through anything near what she had. She elaborated, describing how the room they had worked so hard on suddenly erupted into flames. "Then, it came." She wretched, remembering the goosebumps she'd gotten. She described how the cry's pitch dropped, the crying sounds turning to the clown's evil laugh.
"He was yelling and throwing things, but I-I couldn't get out," She choked, doing her best to tell him how everything went back to normal when someone interrupted, pounding loudly on the door. "At first, I thought maybe it was you." Richie cursed at himself, knowing that despite their argument, he shouldn't have let her go alone. His worse fear had come true and she'd gotten hurt again. "My parents, they didn't even recognize me," Elaine ranted, tears dripping down her chin.
"They told me, their daughter had died years ago..." She huffed as she began to walk around the room, pacing as she talked. She was doing a Richie thing, he lightly smiled as he watched her pick up his bad habit. "And to top it all off, on my way back, someone took the time to stop me and ask how much I charged!" She cried loudly, "Do I look like a prostitute?!" Richie quickly shook his head, unsure of how to reassure her. "Then why did he think I did?" She continued, her emotions all over the place.
"I don't know honey," Richie sighed, rubbing her back as he went to hold her. "I want to go home." She sobbed, oh how quickly her answer changed. The last time they were in their hotel room, she was begging him to stay. Now, she was begging him to leave. She pleaded, "Please, Rich, I just want to go home." "I know, we're leaving Doll," He reassured, grabbing all of their things still packed up from the other night.
The two quickly scurried out of their room, sneaking off towards the exit door at the other end of the hallway. Elaine made sure both Beverly and Ben didn't see them, going first and doing a hand signal as Richie insisted she did. He quickly ran down the hallways and stuck his head out the exit door, making sure no one was outside. "Coast is clear," He whispered, Elaine running down the steps with one of her bags. Richie carried the rest, quickly unlocking his car. The two scurried to get inside. They both sighed relieved, plopping down on the expensive leather seats.
"Let's get out of here," He clapped, gently kissing Elaine's knuckles. The two drove as Elaine placed her head against the window, looking outside as they passed a number of houses. The two started to feel guilt, regretful on leaving their friends like this. "Should we go back?" Elaine finally asked, breaking the silence. "No, no, we don't owe them anything," Richie tried, though he was also trying to convince himself. "Right?" He asked his wife, not persuaded by his own answer.
Elaine put her head in her hands as Richie came to a stop in front of a nice church. Elaine's eyes widened amazed that it was still standing. "Holy shit," She breathed. This wasn't just any church, this was the church Stanley Uris's dad had founded and owned all those years ago. "Detour," Richie soughed, not being able to resist parking his car in the buildings empty parking lot. "Let's take a quick field trip," He mumbled, the memories the church contained making him want to enter.
