{COMPLETED} cherry cola 🍒 reddie

011

"it may sound crazy, but we think eddie might be in another dimension."

richie and bev sat in silence.

"let me explain," ben began. "a boy named will byers disappeared, too. now, that sounds completely unrelated, but, not when i tell you this: he disappeared on the same day as eddie, and was last seen just less than a mile away from where eddie was last seen."

richie was listening intently, but bev seemed less convinced.

"now where does the 'other dimension' idea come from?" bev asked the shorter boy in front of her.

"will byers's mother claims that she's been able to contact her son through lights. she asked him to tell her where he was or if he was with anybody, and she said that after she asked this, the lights flashed over the letters she'd painted on her wall, spelling out the name eddie."

richie's eyes widened and his heart raced.

mike took over the speaking. "she said that neither of them knew an eddie, and we told her that a boy from our town who also went missing was named eddie. we're going tomorrow to try to test out our theory about where will and eddie might be."

"i have to—"

"come with us," ben finished. "you can. meet us outside the library at noon."

richie nodded quickly. "thank you, oh god, thank you!" he exclaimed.

**

richie had gotten to the library thirty minutes early.

he knew that eddie being in another dimension seemed impossible, but he had a gut feeling that they were right, that eddie was there, but not there.

richie imagined eddie standing right in front of him, staring back into his eyes. a sudden fluttering of hope arose in his chest as he teared up, looking to where he imagined eddie to be, and whispering,"i miss ya, eds.." he smiled softly, sadly, sniffling quietly. "i miss you so damn much... i'm gonna help you, baby, i promise. i'm gonna get you outta there, and i'm gonna get you home.." rich waited a bit, then hung his head and laughed sadly. "stupid," he whispered.

**

about 45 minutes later, mike, ben, richie, and beverly (who had decided to tag along) arrived at the small house, which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, towels and blankets hung up on a clothesline outside.

richie was the first person to the door, seconded by ben, then beverly and mike. ben knocked, and a slightly short woman with messy, shoulder length, reddish-brown hair answered the door, a look of almost-relief in her eyes as she saw the two familiar boys. "oh, hello boys," she looked at beverly,"and girl." she gave a soft smile. "come in, come in."

the woman stepped aside to let the four teens into her house.

"this is richie and beverly. richie was.. close to eddie," mike informed joyce byers.

"is," richie said.

"what?"

"'richie is close to eddie.' not was. i am close to him."

"right. sorry."

there was a short silence, before joyce led the teens to the wall, multicolored christmas lights strung up in a zig-zag type fashion, a letter of the alphabet painted under each bulb.

"so, how did you talk to will, mrs. byers?"

"i just... spoke." she had already told mike and ben, but was happy to repeat for rich and bev. "i spoke to will, and he lit up the lights and spelled things out for me. it couldn't have lasted more than ten minutes."