012. ALONE AGAIN
▌THE GROUP OF KIDS WATCHED AS BILL LEFT, not making any sudden moves. Without even thinking, Bailey grabbed her bike off from the floor and swiftly got on it, off to follow Bill. "What are you doing?" Stan called out.
"Im going with Bill. I'm not letting him do this alone." She responded waiting for their response, and when they didn't reply, she spoke again. "He's my best friend— he's our best friend, we can't leave him alone with this."
"Geez, here I thought I was your best friend" Richie rolled his eyes, slightly offended.
"Not the time Rich." She sat on her bike, and rode away from the remaining losers, slightly angered.
If they were the 'losers' they always had each other's back, but to see them all terrified, not wanting to go after Bill, what were they?
"Baileys right. We can't let him do this alone." Beverly spoke out, causing all of the remaining group to look at her.
"Since when were you ever on her side?" Richie shaded her, knowing about all of Bailey's problems which mostly centred around her family.
Beverly's eyes hit the floor, she wasn't trying to cause anything.
"I agree with them," Mike said, stepping onto his bike. The rest of the group copied and followed.
—
The long redheaded girl planted her bike down near the entrance of the house. Bailey does not get scared easily, but with this house, it always gave her the creeps. Maybe it had something to do with the wood-covered windows or the grown-out dead grass, or how the house was slowly disintegrating, but it was something.
She opened the gate carefully, noticing Billy at the top of the steps.
"Bill?" She screamed out, catching his attention. Her voice could stop Bill anytime.
Bill turned, looking at Bailey's face which was filled with horror due to the previous events. Bill's eyes were drowning with tears as he tried choking them down. He didn't want to seem weak in front of her.
"I can't do this anymore B-B-Bailey" He shook his head. "It was my fault he died, I should've been there Bailey, i-i-it was my fault" The tears came out as he shook his head. The young boy had so much emotion in him that he could no longer hold it.
Bailey's eyes began to form a tear which trickled down her cheek. She wasn't the type to get emotional easily, but when it came to Bill, it seemed like everything was different. "It wasn't your fault Bill" She walked closer to him.
"But it was!" He yelled.
Bailey jumped back a bit. She was now on the first step leading to the door where Bill was. "It wasn't your fault." She repeated. Her blue eyes trailed to the floor.
She couldn't keep the guilt in her anymore.
"It was my fault, Bill. I-i was the one who wanted to play that day. I was the one that told you to fake being sick, just to play with me. It was my fault he died."
"He's not dead. But you're right. And wrong. It was my fault for listening to you. For faking being sick. I shouldn't have gone with you. I regret ever meeting you. If I just never listened to you he would've been alive." He admitted.
Bailey felt as if her heart just dropped. Before she could speak, Beverly came barging in.
"Bill! you can't go in there!" She shouted. "This is crazy!" She and the rest of the losers got off their bikes and entered through the gate.
Bill's eyes left Bailey's and looked at Beverly. "Look you don't have to come in with me. Look what happens if another Georgie goes missing?" He looked at Bails when mentioning Georgie. "Or another Betty? Or one of us?" He continued. "Are you just going to pretend it doesn't happen like everyone else in this town? I guess... I can't. 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."
And so it was for Bailey. That house was easier to walk into than her own.
Bill turned, taking the rest of the steps which led to the house, leaving Bailey on the first.
"Wow," Richie muttered.
"What?" Beverly looked at him.
"He didn't stutter once." He said, making his way to the door.
"Wait-" Stan shouted. "Shouldn't we have, some people to keep watch" He looked amongst the group uncomfortably. "Just in case something goes wrong.." He looked around again.
Bailey stepped down, walking to Stan. She put his arm around her and smiled at him. "It's okay Stan, don't be scared" She looked around, thinking of an idea. "We'll just pull straws to see who goes in" She reassured him, shrugging at her own idea.
Although she was still upset about Bill, that didn't stop her from helping her friends.
Once the straws were pulled, the losers with the longest straws were able to stay back, on watch. And the ones with the shortest would go inside. To Bailey's luck, those losers were herself, Eddie, Richie and Bill.
The four kids walked towards the door. Bill was at the front, and it was clear to Bailey that he didn't want anything to do with her anymore, so Bailey being in the back was a good idea.
As the door opened, it gave out a loud creek. The sunlight from outside illuminated the inside. The first two in were Richie and Bill.
From behind Bailey, she heard a slight "Stay safe Bails." From who she thought was Beverly. But she could've been wrong.
"Can't believe I pulled the short straw," Richie said. "You guys are lucky we're not measuring dicks."
"Shut up Richie," Eddie said. At this point, Eddie had learnt to instinctively tell Richie to shut up after he said anything. And most of the time his words needed to hear that.
The floor creaked under their breath as they looked around.
"I can smell that" Eddie gagged.
"Don't breathe through your mouth," Richie said.
"Why not"
"Because then you'll be eating it."
"That's not how it works Rich- wait- is that how it works?" Bailey questioned.
Eddie gagged again, opening his fanny pack to get an inhaler out.
Richie walked towards one of the windows which had a ball of leaves and cobwebs before it. Richie reached in, causing Bailey to quickly come next to him. Richie pulled out a missing poster.
A Richie Tozier missing poster.
Eddie and Bill suddenly came to the two once they noticed they weren't right where they left them.
"It says I'm missing." Richie's voice began going quiet.
"Y-You're not missing Rich." Bill stuttered.
"That's my shirt, that's my hair that's my face, that's my name that's my name!" He began panicking. They'd never seen him this scared before.
Bill began trying to take the paper off him but he fought back.
"BUT IT SAYS IT. IT SAYS IT. What the fuck! I'm missing" His voice squeaked.
"Calm down! Calm down! Look at me," Richie looked at Bill, trying to calm down.
"That isn't real. It's playing tricks on you."
"Yeah rich, you're not missing, you're right here." Bailey put her hands on his shoulders trying to prove he was right in front of them.
"Hello?" A voice. Not them. Not from that room. The voice echoed. It came from upstairs. "Hello?" It repeated. "Help me please!" It sounded as if it had been crying.
The four kids walked towards the set of stairs cautiously. Before anyone could say anything, Bill began walking up to them. The three followed.
They reached the first floor, and the voice became louder. Slowly, they took small steps to a hallway. At the end of the hallway stood an opened door. Light on. Suddenly a young girl around their age popped up crawling for help.
Bailey let out a small scream, quickly shutting it off by putting her two hands on her mouth.
"Betty," Bill muttered.
"Ripsom?"
The young girl coughed, turning her head to the kids. Her mouth was covered in blood. "We need to help her," Bailey said, preparing to walk towards her.
Then she got pulled. Pulled down. A scream escaped the poor girl's mouth. They all stared at the now-empty doorway in disbelief.
In sync, the four walked towards it not making sudden moves.
They opened the door and it creaked like everything else in the beaten-up house.
Once they opened the door, nothing. No sign of the young girl.
"Where did she go?"
"GUYS GUYS" Eddies voice trailed from behind the three. They didn't realise he had disappeared from them. As they went to look behind, the door shut. A loud bang echoed.
"EDDIE" Bill began hitting the door, wanting it to open.
"Holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit what do we do?" Bailey panicked, looking around the room. While Bailey looked around, trying to find something to escape with, Bill continued to call for Eddie behind the door.
Bailey looked over at Richie, noticing he'd gone into a room. Her face filled with confusion and then realisation. He needed to get out of there. She began picking up her pace but so did the door. It closed right before she got to him.
"RICH RICH!" She aggressively banged on the door.
"BAILS OPEN UP THE DOOR"
"IT WON'T OPEN"
Bill turned, rushing over to help them. A scream came from inside, and Bailey and Bill looked at each other. Both were too scared, yet still trying to open the door which held their friend.
Billy successfully opened the door, pulling Richie out. "Oh my god, Rich are you okay" Bailey caught her breath.
Out of nowhere, a noise which caused the three to turn their heads occurred.
The beaten-up mattress which had previously been laying began to shake. Out of it came the head of Eddie. All beaten up. It looked like a zombie Eds, Bailey thought.
"You wanna play loogie" Black goo began to ooze out of the kid's beheaded mouth, and onto the floor surrounding the mattress. The head began to laugh uncontrollably before it formed back into where it came from.
The black ooze began to spread more, burning whatever it touched. It crept closer and closer. The three losers were too stunned to move. As it almost touched their feet, Richie turned, making Bill and Bailey turn as well.
In front of them stood, what previously was only one door, three doors. All with writing on them. One written 'not scary at all', one 'scary' and one 'very scary' all in blood.
The three looked at each other and then ran to the doors. Richie and Bill ran towards 'not scary at all' and Bailey ran to 'very scary'.
"What are you doing?" Richie shouted.
"It's trying to trick us, why would it give us something not scary?" She quickly said. Before she could further defend her choice, Bill had already opened the door. She quickly hurried along to join the two.
Nothing. Pitch black.
"Where is my shoe" A chilling voice whispered. Bill reached for the light and once it was turned the three losers, and Betty's upper half body began screaming.
Richie swung the door closed, screaming "WHERE THE FUCK WERE HER LEGS?"
The black ooze now had made its way through, causing Richie to scream even more.
"Holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit" Bailey said, panicking once again.
"T-This isn't real! Remember the missing kid poster, that wasn't real, so this isn't real." Bill reassured the panicked teens.
The three reopened the door and behind it was the hallway they came from. Back to normal, well as normal as the house can get.
Richie exhaled "Oh thank fuck"
"wheres Eddie?" Bailey and Bill questioned.
"HELP" Eddie's voice yelled, echoing through the whole house.
The three rushed down the stairs, Bailey nearly falling down them all.
They reached the door and slammed it open. They screamed watching the clown with Eddie.
Then it turned to them.
"This isn't real enough for you Billy?" It smiled. "I'm not real enough for you?" It tilted its ginormous head.
"Holy shit," Bailey whispered.
"It was real enough for Georgie." It smiled again. Then suddenly jumped towards the three, mouth wide open, revealing several teeth of it's.
They all screamed, shielding themselves with their arms, thinking they were about to do right there. By it, until suddenly Beverly stabbed the creature in its eye. Mike, Stan and Ben rushed in through the door the redhead had run through.
"EDDIE, GET EDDIE!" Richie yelled, concerned for his friend. All the losers rushed over to help their friend.
They all cornered up towards Eddie, as they all screamed different things. Bailey began tapping everyone aggressively to look at IT.
The clown creature looked even more terrifying with a metal stick through its head while still alive. It crept closer, and the horror in the kids screaming voices grew. The glove which had once been on the clown's hand had now been ripped and was no longer a hand. A claw.
It was three steps away from the innocent kids as it started laughing like a maniac. It turned violently slashing Ben's stomach. Ben yelled in agony falling into Mike's arms.
Bailey gasped, her mouth wide open, as she watched the clown creep back into the dark hallway.
"Don't let him get away!" Bill called, leaving Eddie's side.
He followed the clown.
"BILL?" Bailey screamed, her voice echoing through everyone screaming voices.
As the young boy walked down, the screaming voices grew, well, screaming voices from Eddie. He held his own hand which was extremely broken.
"IM- IM GONNA SNAP YOUR ARM BACK" Richie screamed panicking.
"DON'T FUCKING TOUCH ME" He yelled back.
They continued to say those sentences back in forth until Richie snapped his hand. Eddie screamed, mouth refusing to close.
"OKAY OKAY LET'S GO" Bailey screamed, wanting to be out of that traumatising house as soon as she could.
They all ran out the front door, Stan in the lead, Richie and Eddie in the back. Richie helping Eddie who's still yelling in pain. The group rushed down the stairs.
—
"You- you did this!" Eddie's mum aggressively pointed at the kids, grabbing Eddie by the neck. The losers had taken the injured boy to his house, in order to get help for him. "You know how delicate he is" The obese woman spat out.
"We were attacked m-m-mrs k" Bill chimed in.
"No, don't!" The woman argued, putting his son into the car. She dramatically reached for her keys, accidentally dropping them.
"Here let me-" Bev said, bending down to help her.
"No step back!" The women shouted. "Oh I've heard of you miss marsh" She looked into her eyes. "And I don't want a dirty girl like you touching my son"
"Fuck you" Bailey stepped in front of her sister, defending her. Yes, she still wasn't okay with everything, but she wasn't going to let a grown women disrespect her thirteen-year-old sister like that.
Mrs k looked at her in disbelief walking towards her car. "Mrs k i s-s-swe-"
"NO! You are all monsters all of you. Oh and especially you" She looked at Bailey, "Making your own mother kill herself."
Bailey looked down at her feet, not being able to form any words.
"Eddie is done will all of you. Do you hear? Done." She rushed over to the driver's side of the car, got in and drove off.
The group of friends watched as the car left. They surrounded each other in the middle of the road.
"I saw the well." Bill turned to them. "W-w-we know where it is and next time we'll be better prepared" He smiled.
"NO!" Stan yelled out. "NO NEXT TIME BILL" Everyone turned to him. "You're insane!"
"Why? We all know no one else is going to do anything" Beverly said.
"What? And you want us-" Bailey gestured to the group, "you want us to do something about it? we're just kids Bev. We can't be here fighting that- that thing."
"Eddie was nearly killed!" Richie backed Bailey's point up. "And look at this motherfucker!" He pointed at Ben's gory stomach. "He's leaking hamburger helper!"
"We can't pretend it's going away, ben you said it yourself it comes back every twenty-seven years!" Bailey stated.
"Fine, I'll be forty and far away from here" He shrugged. "I thought you said you wanted to get out of this town too"
"Because I want to run towards something, not away!"
"I'm sorry who invited Molly Ringwald in here?" Beverly stuck her middle finger at Rich once he said this.
"Richie-" Stan began.
"I'm just saying! Let's face facts, real world, Georgie is dead, stop trying to get us killed too."
"Georgies not dead!" Bill went up closer to him.
"You couldn't save him, but you can still save yourself." He said trying to step away, getting stopped by Bill.
"No! T-t-take that back! You scared but we all are- take it back!" He yelled, pushing Richie.
Richie pushed back, and before anything could be stopped Bill punched him, causing the glasses-eyed boy to fall to the concrete ground.
"Bill!" Bailey yelled. All he did was look at her with the same eyes filled with hatred.
Richie got back up, muttering words under his breath, trying to attack Bill. The two boys were held off by their friends. Bailey and Bev just stood and watched. There wasn't anything they possibly could do.
"Stop!" Beverly suddenly yelled. "This is what it wants! it wants to divide us! we were all together when we heard it, that's why we're still alive!"
"Yeah? well, I plan to keep it that way." The glasses boy walked towards his bike, driving off.
"Rich?" Bailey yelled.
Then Stan followed. Then Ben. Then mike.
"Mike-" Bailey murmured.
"Guys- I can't do this" A look of genuine sorrow filled his face. "My grandad was right, I'm an outsider. Gotta stay that way." He shrugged, picking up his bike and driving off.
Bailey went to follow, getting stopped by Bev pulling her arm. "Bails? you can't give up!" She looked at her.
As Bailey went to reply, Bill shook his head and spoke "No. Let her go. She's no help." The words sunk into her. She'd never heard Bill speak to her like that. He was always the sweetest to her. Maybe he had finally stopped blaming only himself, but now Bailey too for Georgie.
Bailey shook Beverly's hand off her and swiftly got up on her bike, driving away. She couldn't bare to let them watch her cry. The breeze wiped away her tears. The young girl was sick and tired of always keeping her emotions held in her, it felt as if she was always on the urge of popping. But now all those emotions were spilling out. Both tears of anger and sadness filled her eyes.
With the losers now split up, she was alone again.
author speaks!!
i think this is the longest chapter ive ever written
I THINK SROUND 3-4 MORE CHAPTERS TILL THE END OF RWYLM OMG
okay bye guys!!
love — el