I have no idea where this is going-
-
"Well, are you going to say anything?" The silence, after having lasted at least ten minutes, was finally broken. Richie's eyes snapped up from being trained on the floor. Eddie seemed to be agitated and annoyed.
The silence lasted for another minute or two before Richie finally spoke up.
"Uhm- what am I supposed to say exactly?" Eddie glared at the man from his chair.
"Oh I don't know, how about, 'Congratulations on not being dead', or 'Hey, what are you doing here?', The list goes on. Say anything, really." He snaps back, still glaring. Richie squints at him, almost convincing himself that his friend was glowing, like glowing. It could just be the salty tears starting to fill his eyes though.
"I don't know Eds, I'm still having the internal struggle of thinking you don't exist." He said, chuckling lamely at the almost-joke.
"We're fucking adults and you haven't seen me in months, do not call me Eds." He stares for a second and swallows. "And, do I look fake to you?" Before Richie could get out the 'Yeah Kinda-' He started talking again.
"You want to know how I got here? I honestly wish I died down in" He looks at the ground before continuing.
"I crawled through the fucking sewers In Derry, alone, in the dark, with a gaping hole through my chest. I don't honestly know how I survived the whole ordeal, but look, I even have the scar." He pulls up his shirt to reveal that yes, he did indeed have a nasty looking scar through his chest. How a wound like that could heal, Richie wasn't sure, but Eddie still wasn't giving him any time to ask questions.
"Then, after I finally found a way out, someone saw me sitting up against a wall in a back-alley, bleeding out, and called the police. I still don't know how I made it that long, the hospital said it was a 'Miracle'. Yeah, some fucking miracle. Yeah, and of course they had to record they cause for the 'incident'. I just told them I was in an abandoned house when it collapsed, not very believable but they seemed to buy it, you know how Derry is." He didn't even stop to take a breath, droning on.
"After I got out of there, which, by the way, lasted months, half of which I was unconscious for, I had no where to go. I mean, I had been missing for months, there would be too many questions to answer if I went back to my wife, I did send the hospital bill back to our bank account though, so it'll be interesting when she sees that. Anyway, this was the only place I could think to go." He finally let up, panting slightly when he finished. Richie blinked and looked at the floor.
"So you... came to me," He then looked back up at Eddie, raising his eyebrows. "Wait, how did you find out where I live?" Eddie rolled his eyes.
"Okay one, you're basically on billboards, I can google your name and get information, and second, you left basically everything at the townhouse in Derry, and security in Derry isn't exactly tight. It wasn't hard to get in and find business papers, and quite a bit of money, which I used to pay for a plane ticket over here, sorry about that by the way." Disregarding the fact that his address could be easily found online, he couldn't believe any of this.
"Eddie, there isn't any way... I... I watched you die, Eddie." Eddie looked confused for a second.
"I never... I blacked out but I didn't..." He trailed off but the image flashed though Richie's mind again. The whole scene cursing his mind over and over again in a matter of seconds.
He had seen it happen before it did. He saw it in the deadlights. It flashed by the first few milliseconds, then it replayed again, slower, with more detail, and then one last time before he was broken out of the deadlights. And then Eddie was there.
He had become hopeful for a few seconds but the feeling of dread pooled in his stomach in the few seconds of reaction time he had before Eddie's blood had splattered across his face. He had the time, he knew what would happen. He could have pushed Eddie out of the way, but he didn't. He doesn't know why, but his mind was racing a mile a minute but his body wasn't moving at all, by the time he had scrounged up the sense to reach to Eddie, it was already too late.
If it had happened again, he wouldn't hesitate, he told himself. But he still doesn't know if he could. He would gladly take a bullet for Eddie, or a space-clown claw. He would, but he couldn't. He was afraid, and that was quite possibly his greatest struggle. He had the courage to go up against Pennywise, had enough courage to try and defeat it, and had enough courage to kill it, but when it came down to in the moment, life or death situations, he froze up too long.
He may have survived it all, but Richie knows that out of all of the losers, he himself is the weakest. He never forgave himself for what he could have done to save Eddie, but didn't.
"Eddie. You died, I saw it." He shakes his head. "There's just... there's no way..." He narrowed his eyes. "It's been months Eddie, Months. There's no way." Eddie glared right on at Richie.
"I was in the hospital Richie. They don't exactly let you go very quickly after you're carried in with a huge hole through your body." Then a thought struck Richie.
"Don't they ask for information, I mean, they can't just keep an unidentified person in a hospital, can they?" Eddie shakes his head.
"The woman that found me and drove me to the hospital had no idea who I was, just told the nurses she found me in an alley. Then, after a few days, when I was awake enough to get my shit together and speak, I told them I had no surviving relatives, they prodded, a lot, but I told them nothing. It worked out well because my mom was my only surviving family that I know of, and they have her death records, so it proved my story." Richie nodded, pretending he was processing anything that was just said. Finally letting himself believe that Eddie was really there, the tears finally fell.
"I... Eddie-" The only thing her could gasp out before throwing himself at Eddie. He was a grown man, this was pathetic, and probably not safe for Eddie's healing body, but he couldn't stop himself.
"Ah-" Eddie froze when Richie wrapped his arms around him, burying his face into his shoulder. He awkwardly stood sat there for a few seconds without hugging back. After a while, he gives up and lightly rests his arms around Richie as well.
"Eddie- I... I lost you..." Eddie patted Richie on the back. "Eddie I was a mess... It never got better... I kind of wish I forgot, like before." Eddie shakes his head and tears start to fall from his eyes as well.
"You can't lose me... Not that easily."
