Nobody Said It Was Easy - An IT (2017) Oneshot

Nobody Said It Was Easy

A/N: This takes place after the ending of IT so major spoilers for IT: Chapter 2. If you haven't seen the movies/miniseries or read the book, please go do that first. 

This oneshot might not be suitable for some people because it contains themes and references of suicide that might not be suitable for everybody. If you or anybody you know is struggling with suicide, please click on the link to find suicide hotlines available in your country. Suicide is not the way out and there's always help out there.

In an absolute emergency, please seek immediate help by calling either the emergency number or going straight to a hospital.

Please stay safe,

- Lila

Richie woke up in a flurry of tears and swearing. He had been dreaming of a boy with soft, brown curls that gleamed in the sun. A conversation echoing in his head as his body flung itself upright:

Is she hot?

No, Richie, she's not hot!

He didn't know why these two sentences had stuck in his head, but he knew that they were important somehow. They reminded him of those summer days, where his armpits and the bridge of his nose were sticky with sweat and the ice cream he had shared previously (with who?) wasn't able to cool down his heating body.

Another memory came back to him, this time it was of the same boy, but it was somewhere different. It stank of shit, piss and blood... but that wasn't what his mind focused on.

With the flashlight he was holding, he could see that the boy was sobbing now, blood, snot and tears ran down his face. But where had it come from?

The more he remembered, the more he realised where it had come from. Wounds from the result of a deadly painting poured the red substance down his face, starting at his temples and ending at either his chin or jawline.

Richie suddenly remembered who it was. Stan. Stanley Uris. 

And they weren't alone then.

There was Beverly Marsh; the girl who was abused by her father but hid the bruises with a smile. Ben Hanscom; the boy who was overweight when they were younger but eventually lost the fat when Richie last saw him, but what didn't change was that he always had his head in a book, no matter what. 

Bill Denbrough; the boy who stuttered, but was as free as a bird in the night sky when he put pen to paper. There was Mike Hanlon; the boy absolutely fascinated by history so much that it was almost an addiction to him.

And then there was Eddie Kaspbrak and Stanley Uris, the boys that were no longer with them. One of them, now rotting in the sewers where they had fought that fucking clown and the other with his body in a coffin, his skin broken and pale from the razor he had used to slit his wrists.

But why were these memories coming up now? And why had they left his mind in the first place, just six months after the tragedy? He didn't have an answer to either of these questions and knew he wouldn't for a while.

He couldn't go back to sleep now, not with them fresh on his mind. He reached over to the hotel bedside table and grabbed his phone off of it. He pressed the home button, the time read 12:07 am and a quote from The Mask, starring Jim Carrey, popped up as his wallpaper. The quote read: Did you miss me? I guess not! Richie sniffed at this, thinking, But I do, Stanley. Oh, I miss you so much. Whether that was to Ipkiss or Uris, he didn't know.

Fresh tears rolled down his cheeks at this thought. He didn't know why, but he let it happen. He sobbed for what felt like hours, his mouth going dry in the process and snot running down to mix with the tears that rolled down his cheeks.