superstitious, bill denbrough

CHAPTER THREE

Tripping over the branch, my hands met the ground first. My bike slammed to the ground next to me, my palms burning with the contact. Heavily sighing, I slowly get up as I dust the small first smudges from the ground off of my jeans. Grasping my bike, faint voices could be heard in the distance. Stopping my actions, I closed my eyes as I listened quite carefully. No words were to be from ears length, but someone was here. People were here.

Looking around, I dragged my bike along as I slowly got closer and closer to the sound of voices. From one, came two, then from two, came three. Than from three, came to four. To me, more than two voices were heard in the distance. As I got closer and closer, their words more able to read. Going down the slight hill, I started to see movement within the trees. I hadn't even realized the river of water that flowed from my left.

The sound of the water hitting up against the rocks were soft against the murmurs of people that took place feet away from me. Quietly leaning my bike against a tree, I slowly come closer to the unknown strangers. With the soft footsteps I tried to achieve, I hid behind a fairly big tree. Looking over the big stump, a clear vision was able to be seen. Four figures had headed down near the water, walking over to a big sewer drain.

"Well would you look at that! Hey, Eddie. I dare you to touch it." One of the boys pointed over to a small pouch of grey in the tall grass, sitting quietly against the rocks as its tail swung side to side. My heart nearly leaped out my chest as I already recognized it to be Frankie. If the presence of the boys were no where to be found, my feet would already be running to my friend. But there bickering towards each other made me watch intently.

"Hell no! You don't know where thats been. It could be a stray. If it's been out this long it could have ticks. No way am I coming home to my mother screaming in my face cause I have Lyme Disease." The boy, who was a bit shorter than the others, shook his head, giving the boy with the rimmed glasses a hard glare.

A memory popped inside my mind as I realized the face. He seems very familiar to me.

"Don't be such a pussy. Here, I have a dollar."

"Richie, since when have you earned money?" The boy with a mop of curly brown hair remarked towards him, earning a snicker from the both.

"You know what, Stan. I have my ways. One in which you shouldn't be worried about."

"You guys, p-please stop. W-W-We need to get going."

I nearly fell from my stance as I quickly hid behind the trees once again. I could feel the slight tremble of my hands I tried to calm down the nerves of my stomach. Butterflies flew in the pit of my stomach, forcing my eyes to close as I reassured myself with small words. All you need to do is get your cat and that's it. No one needs to see you. No one needs to know you're here. As the friends began to make their way through, Stan and Eddie seemed to be having doubts within their friends.

As they all seemed to bicker with which plants were poison ivy, I finally found the chance to sneak through without a glimpse caught. Closer and closer I stepped, I should've known what was bound to happen. As if my eyes were only trained to the boys of the sewers, I didn't catch the planted rock in front. With a slight jump, the rock tumbled down the small hill, hitting up against the ground hard as mumbled curses escaped my mouth.

Not only did the rock do damage, but the high stick near scratched the side of my ankle. With small winces, I looked down to slightly bloodied cut. Great, just great. But as I pleaded in my mind for the sound to not cause any attention, the looks of the two boys had caught me off guard. With no extent to even worry about the sizzling pain on my ankle, or the throbbing pound of what my now bruised toe was, I felt the heat rise to my cheeks, as all I did was stand still.