DELILAH • RICHIE TOZIER

c h a p t e r f o u r

"nerd alert." richie laughed whilst turning to the boys and pushing up his thick framed glasses. delilah just rolled her eyes very obviously at richie and continued to listen to ben.

"no." ben tried to defend himself and then went into explain some more history of the town. "derry started as a beaver trapping camp."

"still is, amirite boys?" richie said, obviously proud of his statement. he put his hand up gesturing for a high five and when none of the boys responded he turned to delilah. delilah high fived richie, not because she agreed with him but out of pity.

"ninety one people signed the original chart that made derry, but, later that winter they all disappeared. without a trace." ben continued as the group stared at him in disbelief. delilah was right, this really would make a great story.

"the whole camp?" eddie asked curiously. none of the group has heard these stories before. even when delilah was searching for ideas to write about she had never come across this.

"there were rumours of indians, but there was no signs of an attack." ben said.

delilah was still listening intently to what ben was saying, but she was also focused on looking at the different pieces of information dotted on ben's wall. as she looked over one piece, which seemed to be a drawing of some sort, she noticed a figure who didn't look like the rest in the image. delilah traced that particular spot before getting a peculiar anxious feeling in her stomach, much like she had earlier, and she subconsciously reached for richie's hand. he stared at delilah in amazement and curiosity as to why she had grabbed his hand, not that he was complaining in the slightest.

"you could hold something else if you'd like." richie whispered in delilah's ear, making her let go of his hand and hit her hand against his arm. richie rubbed his arm because even though delilah hadn't hit it hard, it still hurt.

"everybody just thought that it was a plague or something." ben began once again. "but it's like one day everybody just woke up and left. the only clue was a trail of bloody clothes leading up to the wellhouse."

"jesus, we could get derry on unsolved mysteries." richie chuckled to himself, but he seemed to be the only one who found it funny in any way. delilah sat on the edge of ben's bed having looked at the majority of what was on the walls. she crossed her legs and watched her what beverly was doing.

beverly was no longer paying any attention to the boys and what they were saying. she was looking around ben's room, more interested in that than she was with the mystery of derry. the creaking of his bedroom door brought ben's attention to beverly. on the back of the door was a 'new kids on the block' poster. it seemed a fitting poster for ben to have, seeing as he was the new kid. delilah's eyes flickered between beverly and ben, still trying to work out how beverly felt. ben looked at beverly with a pleading look, desperately trying to fit in with this new group. beverly just laughed to herself and returned the door to its previous position.

"w-w-where was the wellhouse?" bill asked. everyone's attention was brought to bill as this had been the first time he had spoken in the whole time they had been at ben's. delilah wondered why her friend had been so quiet.

for once, ben didn't have an answer for bill. "i dunno. somewhere in town i guess. why?"

bill took one last look at all of the information on ben's wall before looking down. "nothing." he said quietly.

"it's getting late." stanley said looking at his watch.

"i better get home then. i'll see you guys tomorrow." eddie said as he walked back down the stairs and out of ben's house. everyone else soon followed suit. delilah wanted to get home as soon as possible to tell her mother and sister what she experienced and saw earlier on that morning.

richie and delilah rose in their bikes along side each other, enjoying the summer air and the comfortable silence between them. they reached delilah's house and delilah got off her bike and walked towards her house, after dumping her bike near the porch.

"bye, rich!" delilah shouted as she entered her house.

"bye, lilah." richie said to himself as delilah could no longer hear him. richie rode his bike the quick thirty seconds to his house.

neither cassandra or gracie shaw we're home when delilah arrived back at her house, so delilah went up to her room and straight away wrote down everything ben said that she could remember, and began to form some theories and plots for stories. if only she had this when submitting her work to the writing competition. delilah began thinking about whether or not to actually tell her mother or sister about what she saw earlier on in the day. she wasn't even one hundred percent sure that what she saw was actually her father. delilah especially didn't want to trigger any memories for her mother and sister, they had experienced a lot more than what delilah had and she wouldn't want to worry or hurt them in any way.

the large bang of delilah's front door interrupted her from her thoughts.

"dee?" gracie called up the stairs.

"yeah." delilah answered back.

"come downstairs. mom's just bringing dinner in."

delilah made her way down the stairs, deciding not to ruin their evening and bring up memories from the past. delilah pushed her experience to the back of her kind and tried desperately to enjoy spending time with her family.

a/n
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