tag, you're it. r.tozier. act l.

eight | huge terrors and small kisses!

TAG, YOU'RE IT

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"OKAY, SO LEMME get this straight - It comes out from wherever to eat kids? And then what? It goes back to hibernation?" Arianna asked, sitting on the bench with her back propped up against the arm, next to Richie. They all sat in the heart of the Derry, trying to figure out what was going on.

Last night, Arianna and Richie had ended up cuddling and comforting each other on the cliff at the quarry. The two had sat; Richie sitting against a rock as Arianna sat next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder as they talked about anything. It was as if it were the chapter of a romance novel where the two star-crossed lovers got to know each other more. They fiddled with each other's fingers as they talked and giggled together.

They went home, not forgetting to give each other a tight hug, like they never wanted to let go, like they never wanted each other to have to go back to the horrible life they experienced every single day. Of course, they didn't tell the others, and they promised to not to tell anybody until they were ready.

"Maybe it's like - what do you call it? Cicadas. You know, the bugs that come out once every seventeen years." Stanley suggested, nervously rubbed his sweaty but rough hands together.

"My grandfather thinks this town is cursed. He says that all the bad things that happened in this town are caused by one thing. An evil thing, that feeds off the people of Derry." Mike piped up.

"But it can't be one thing, we all saw something different." Stanley pointed out.

"Maybe. Or maybe It knows what's scares us most and that's what we see." Beverly spoke quietly, nervously fiddling with her bracelets.

"I - I saw a leper. It was like a walking infection." Eddie said, staring at the ground in fright as he remembered exactly how it looked.

"But you didn't, because it wasn't real. None of this is." Stanley shook his head, not wanting to believe anything that was happening. "Not Eddie's leper, or Bill seeing Georgie, or Sydney seeing the clown in the dark and the flashes, o - or the woman I keep seeing -"

"Is she hot?" Richie asked with a smirk, earning an eye roll from Arianna.

Stanley looked at him, trying to figure out if he was actually serious. "No, Richie! She's not hot! Her face is all - messed up!"

"But the flashes, I - I feel like I'm seeing them for a reason." Sydney said, thinking about what Stanley had said. "I'm not seeing them just for fun." She was right. There had to be a reason.

"Maybe you're sensitive to the clown, or maybe connected or something." Beverly suggested.

"Or m - maybe you know when It's going to strike, or what's g - g - going to happen next." Bill also suggested.

"Maybe. Like I said yesterday, it's unexplainable." Sydney shrugged, looking down at the ground in thought.

Arianna looked at Mike, noticing how he suddenly looked uncomfortable, and she placed a hand on his shoulder. "You okay, Mikey?"

Mike looked up at the brunette and nodded. "You guys know that burned down house on Harris Avenue? I was inside when it burned down. Before I was rescued, my parents were in the room right over me. They were pushing and pounding on the door trying to get to me. But it was too hot. When the firefighters found them, the skin on their hands were burned to the bone. We're all afraid of something."

"Got that right."

They all looked over at Richie, who looked at a stage with clowns on it who were handing out balloons to all of the little children there.