.: Friday I'm In Love :|: Reddie :.

Still Soft

It was pitch black, and Eddie didn't have a flashlight. He stayed propped up against the wall for a long time, and he lost track of how many days he had been gone. He knew when Henry had thrown him he'd only been away for two, but he was unsure of how long he had slept and he had been sitting awake for what felt like days, passing in and out of consciousness.

If his new injury had any influence on his assumption, it was that the blood had dried and it already felt like it was becoming a scab. Something like that usually took four or five days, and that had been how it felt the day he finally got up. Now Eddie had been walking around in the dark for longer than he had ever walked before.

Every time he took a step, he was afraid of what he was stepping in. At least ten times now he had stepped in something squishy, and he didn't want to know what. The smell was horrid, and he had to stop every few minutes to empty his stomach of whatever was there. At this point it was just bile. Sometimes he just dry heaved for hours.

Nausea made it nearly impossible to move sometimes, and he would fall asleep sitting against the wall just like he had the first time. He had done everything in his power to keep the sweatshirt intact. It was the only item left in his possession that he cherished and it smelled like piss and shit, even though it remained relatively dry. He had bled all over it, as well. His legs were cut up and stinging and he was pretty sure one of the scratches was now infected.

He leaned against the wall for a moment. Unbeknownst to him, it had been just over a week since he left his home in search of Richie. The boy he had given up his life searching for was standing outside a broken down building, waiting for him to come outside, and in a panicked rush.

How he was supposed to get out of a place where he couldn't see his own hand in front of his face, Eddie had no clue. He couldn't even find a place where the sewers empties out into the woods or anything. He had realized after a few days that just staying at the place he had fallen would have been his best bet. He could have heard voices if someone came to look. Even if they couldn't hear him, they would find his fanny pack or something.

Eddie lifted Richie's sweatshirt over his nose. It was still soft, even if it smelled like shit. He hugged himself lightly, imagining for a moment with his eyes closed that Richie was there, and Richie was the one hugging him. Richie would give his a kiss on the tip of the nose and tell him how much he had missed him.

Eddie missed Richie so much that it hurt. His heart throbbed at the thought of his best friend, and he knew he shouldn't cry, because if he did then he could dehydrate himself, so he held back the tears as best as he could, sliding down the wall and hugging his knees instead.

Hours later, he was asleep again.