an evening i will not forget [richie tozier]

chapter seventeen

The group had split up after about twenty minutes of Richie making sure that Emily was alright with being by herself. She had managed to convince him that she'd be alright and so the group went their separate ways.

Emily found herself walking down the street where she grew up, living a couple houses down from Bill. The houses looked the same and still intact. She stood outside her house as she sighed.

"Everything alright?" A woman's voice says behind her. Emily turns to face a woman younger than her.

"Uh yeah, I used to live here. It's weird, it's not that different from then" Emily says as the woman smiles and walks up the path.

"Come on in" the woman says inviting Emily inside. She smiles and walks in, taking in the surroundings. The woman directs her through the house before turning to the brunette.

"Feel free to have a look around" the woman says walking out of the room. Emily smiles as the woman left and started to look around the house.

She walked up the stairs and towards her old bedroom. As she opened the door, she was hit with a completely different room.

A desk sat in the on one side of the room with a lamp and a computer. She looked to the other side of the room to see a small armchair in the corner. Emily moved closer and noticed that one of the floorboards was slightly lifted.

She kneeled down and lifted the floorboard up to reveal a small box lying underneath. She lifted the box out and opened it revealing photos of the Loser's Club when they were young and some photos of her parents.

Emily smiled softly at the photos as she flicked through them. She stopped when she saw a photo of her and Richie together, sighing softly as she remembered their memories together.

She stares as the memory of her younger self sitting on her bed, looking through a book of the same photos. Her younger self looked through those photos almost every night after the group fell out.

Suddenly the room started getting darker causing Emily to look around the room. The door slammed shut as she grabbed the box and jumped to her feet, making her way towards the door.

Emily tried opening the door but it wouldn't open. Every time she tried to open it, she started to panic even more. The curtains on the window slowly closed as the room became darker.

She moved her hand along the wall until she found the light switch, flicking it on. As she turned around she gasped, staring at the room which now looked like her childhood bedroom.

The light suddenly went out as Emily's sits in the dark. She starts to panic, trying to open the door again when she hears a familiar voice.

"Em? Em are you there?" Younger Richie's voice echoes through the room. The light suddenly switches back on to reveal a young Richie Tozier covered in blood as Emily gasps.

"How could you leave me? How could you let him get me?" Young Richie sobs as tears fall down Emily's face.

"Rich, I'm sorry." Emily sobs quietly, holding the box tightly. Suddenly the young version of Richie runs towards her as she screams, squeezing her eyes shut.

The door opens as Emily feels the sun on her eyes. "Are you okay?" The young woman says as Emily opens her eyes. She breathes heavily, tightly holding the box of photos.

"Yeah. Sorry, the door was stuck." Emily says slowly standing up. "I've got to go. Thank you for letting me in here." Emily says smiling at the woman before leaving the house, shoving the box into her bag.

She walked through the street of Derry as it slowly gets dark. She slowly walks up the path towards the library as she sees Mike looking out the window.

As Emily entered the building, she heard a loud thud as she walked quickly towards the sound. She stopped to see Mike looking at book.

"Mike?" Emily says softly as the man turns to look at her. Before he could speak, a scream erupted as a man ran towards Mike. Emily screams as she sees the knife in his hand, pointing at Mike.

Mike grabs the man by his shirt and slams him into a glass table. Emily quickly makes her way to Mike side to check he was alright as she notices the man. Henry Bowers.

Suddenly Bowers reaches for the knife about to stab Emily. Mike quickly shoves her to side as Bower's slices his arm. Emily falls to the floor, landing her hand on a shard of glass as she winces in pain.

She heard Bowers taunting Mike about his parents until he stopped mid sentence, falling to Mike's side with an axe sticking out his skull. Emily looks to see Richie standing in front of them as Mike breathes a sigh of relief.

"Guess you could say that was long overdue. Get it because we're in a library and nope." Richie says before spewing beside Mike. Emily looks at her hand which had lots of blood seeping from it.

"Mike!" Bev shouts entering the library. She walks closer to the three of them with Ben and Eddie, suddenly screaming when she sees Bower's lying dead.

"Are you alright?" Ben asks looking at Mike and Richie.

"No I'm not alright. I just fucking killed a guy." Richie exclaims breathing heavily.

"Actually I was asking Mike." Ben says as Mike looks at Emily, who is still on the floor. Richie's eyes follow Mike's as he notices the glass in Emily's hand.

"Oh shit Em." Richie says immediately kneeling at her side. "Ben get a first aid kit or something." Richie instructs as Ben runs off to find one.

Once Ben comes back with a first aid kit, Richie and Eddie sort Emily's hand and Bev and Ben clean up Mike's cut as he asks where Bill is.

As Mike calls Bill, Richie sits with Emily who holds her bag closely. Richie watches her hands shake as he slowly places his hand on her thigh. She flinches slightly but calms down when she realises it's Richie's hand.

"He's going to fight it alone." Mike says as the group look at him. "It's about the group. It doesn't work without the group!" Mike says clearly panicking, placing an artefact down. Richie picks it up, examining the side that look to be scratched out before Mike snatches it away from him.

"Mike did he tell you where he was going?" Ben asks looking around the room.

"If he wanted to kill Pennywise, there's only one place he would go." Bev says trembling as the group look at one another nervously.

"Neibolt." Emily mumbles loud enough for the rest of them to hear. Mike nods before they all leave to find Bill, hoping they weren't too late.