an evening i will not forget [richie tozier]

chapter six

Emily watched as Mike closed the garage door and Bill turned on the projector. "Did nobody listen to me when I said I was scared of the dark?" The girl says sarcastically sitting next to Richie looking at the poster on the wall.

"Look" Bill says pointing to the poster shakily. The gang looked to were Bill pointed, a circle marked 'STORM DRAIN'. "That's where G-G-Georgie disappeared." Emily looked to the ground overwhelmed with guilt. Richie grabbed her hand and gently squeezed it. She didn't let go of Richie's hand, it made her feel safe and comfortable. It also kept them both smiling like an idiot as they held hands.

"There's the Ironworks. And The Black Spot" Bill speaks as the group look at the map. "Everywhere IT happens it's all connected by the sewers and they all meet up at the-" Bill explains before being interrupted.

"The Well House" Ben says causing the group to flinch at his loud voice.

"IT's in the house on Neibolt Street" Stan says looking at the rest of them.

"You mean that creepy ass house where the drunkies and hobos like to sleep?" Richie asks. The group hear a small gasp of air from an inhaler as Emily sees Eddie trying to catch his breath.

"Eds, you ok?" She asks placing a hand on his shoulder. He flinched away from her, still breathing heavily.

"I hate that house. I always feel like it's watching me" Beverly says feeling uncomfortable about the house.

"That's where I saw it, the clown" Eddie says struggling to breathe. The girl hadn't seen Eddie uses his inhaler that much recently unless it was for sports at school.

"That's where IT lives" Bill says as Eddie takes another puff from his inhaler.

"Great, the clown has a pet name: IT" Emily says earning glares off everyone as Richie smiles proudly.

"I can't imagine anything wanting to live there" Stan says. Eddie takes another breath from his inhaler before standing up.

"Can we stop talk about this?" He says standing in front of his friends. "I-I-i can barely breathe and t-t-t-this is summer. We're kids. I can barley breathe, I'm about to have a fucking asthma attack. I am not doing this" Eddie states ripping the poster off the wall.

"What the hell Eddie. Put the map back" Bill says in a serious tone. Eddie refuses as the projector starts flicking through the slides.

"Bill this isn't funny" Emily states. The slides include pictures of Georgie with his family and there's one with her and the little boy. The projector flicks through many photos and stops at a picture of the family of four outside a church and zooms in on Georgie.

"Georgie" Bill mumbles. The projected rapidly clicks and the same pace as the girls heartbeat as it moved onto Bill's mothers face covered by her hair. Every time it flicked, her hair moved uncovering a face. Uncovering IT's face.

"What the fuck!" Everyone starts screaming mainly Eddie. The group stand against the wall furthest away from the projector.

"Turn it off" Beverly says urging bill to stop it watching the clowns face appear. "Turn it off" she screamed as Mike kicked the projector. The losers try to catch their breath as the projector stops, but not for long. The clown gets closer and closer to the screen like it was looking at Stanley.

Next thing they know is the clown have jumped out of the wall staring at them. "Stanley" they shout as the boy runs to them. The clown grins as he moves closer to Beverly who is backed up against a wall. Emily looks between the clown and the other girl and run in front of her.

"Em!" Richie shouts but he couldn't stop her. Before the clown grabs Emily, Mike and Ben push the garage door open causing the clown to suddenly disappear. Beverly cling to the girl for dear life and hugged her tightly. She let go of Emily and ran over to Bill, hugging him as Richie runs to Emily hugging her.

"Don't. Ever. Do that to me again" he said breathlessly. His heart was pounding with the fear that he was going to lose her. He didn't want to let her go, he couldn't lose her.

"It saw us" Eddie speaks up. "It saw us and now it knows where we are" he shouts panicked and scared for his life. He almost watched his best friend get taken by that clown, they all did.

"It always does" Bill says rather calmly. "S-s-so lets go to Neibolt. That's where G-G-Georgie is." He says optimistic about finding his little brother.

"After that? After Emily putting her life on the line for Beverly" Stan shouts scared for his life. "It's summer"

"If you say it's summer one more f-fucking time" Bill says clearly done with how summer was supposed to be spent messing about and having fun. He wanted to find his brother, no matter what. He grabs his bike and cycle off down the street.

"Bill" Emily shouts after him. "Wait" she shouts again as he carries on cycling down the street. She grabs her bike and follows after him and so does everyone else.

"Bill!" Bev shouts as they all see Bill standing on the steps towards the house.

"Bill, don't do this" Emily pleads ditching her bike and standing at the bottom of the staircase. "It's crazy" she says trying to convince him.

"Look, you don't have to come in with me" Bill says looking from Emily to the rest of group who now stood behind her. "But what happens when another Georgie goes missing? Or another Betty Ripsom? Or one of us?!" He says. Richie's hand find its way to Emily's, he was scared that he could lose her to this clown.

"Are yous just gonna pretend that it didn't happen, just like everyone else in this town because I can't" Bill says fighting through his tears. "I go home and all I see is that Georgie isn't there. His clothes, his toys, his stupid stuffed animals but he isn't. So walking into this house, for me, it's easier than walking into my own" Bill says. Emily hadn't even noticed she was crying till Richie wiped her tears away.

"Wow" she mutters.

"What?" Beverly asks as Stan, Eddie, Richie and Emily stand there in amazement.

"He didn't stutter once" Richie says proudly. Richie steps out and places a foot on the step waiting to feel someone pull him back. But they didn't, instead the person he held hands with was standing next to him.

"Wait!" Stanley shouts causing everyone to stop and look back. "Umm. Shouldn't we have some people keep watch? Just incase something bad happens" Stan looks around the group hoping for someone else to support him.

"Who wants to stay out here?" Bill asks. Everyone but Beverly puts their hand up. Emily winces under Bill's gaze and he nods understandingly at her.

"Fuck" Richie says quietly next to the girl who knowingly knew what was about to happen.