It was 10pm when there was a knock at Eddie Kaspbrak's window. With tired eyes he rolled over in his bed and stared at it, not knowing quite whether he'd heard it or not, but then the noise sounded again.
Back in autumn, when there had been no curfew, and there had been nothing to worry about, a knock at his window was something Eddie would've been used to, it would've been one of his friends messing around, but since the curfew was issued the sound had grown unfamiliar to him.
The short boy climbed out of bed and made his way towards the window, cautiously he pulled back the curtains only to be met with astonishing blue eyes on the other side of the glass.
"Lyds?" He pushes it open, "What are you doing here? There's a curfew!"
"I had to see you."
"W-What? How did you avoid the patrol cars?"
"You live two streets over Eddie. It wasn't difficult." She shrugged
"What are you even doing here?"
"I couldn't sleep Eds." The brunette spoke with a sigh, before she lay herself down at the end of Eddie's bed, "I couldn't get that fucking clown's face out of my head!"
"Me neither, my Mom sent me to bed early and it's all I've been able to think about."
"I had to come here E." She mumbled, "I just knew that if I came here and I saw you that I'd feel safe again..."
"Really?"
"Really. You're the only one I trust right now."
Slowly, the brunette boy lay down beside his friend, they were barely touching but he could both feel the warmth radiating from her pale skin.
"We can't tell anyone Eddie."
"I know. Everyone's going to think that we're making it up."
With tears in her eyes and a pleading look on her face, Lyds rolled onto her front and grabbed Eddie's hand. She began to softly trace patterns into his palm, and the younger boy immediately leaned up on his elbows and watched her with wonder in his eyes.
"What are you doing?" He spoke barely above a whisper
"Nothing."
He took a breath, "Are you scared?"
"Terrified."
"Of the clown?"
It was in that moment that Lyds found herself questioning what she was really scared of, was it the clown? Or was it how close her and Eddie were in those fleeting moments?
"Yeah... the clown."
After that the two friends lay together in complete silence and soon enough, they fell asleep side by side.
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"Shit, Lyds! You gotta get up! We fell asleep!"
"What?"
"It's 9am, your Aunt's gonna be worried sick!"
And even in her groggy and tired stupor, Lyds immediately froze where she lay. Her Aunt. If she wasn't there when the older woman woke up then she was dead, quite literally. She'd end up receiving he beating of her life.
"Eddie, you don't understand, I need to get home right now! You gotta give me a ride on your bike-"
"I left it at Ben's!"
"What about your Mom I'm sure she would give me a ride if we asked?"
"Are you kidding me L? You've met my Mom! If she finds out I had a girl sleepover then I'll be grounded for the rest of my life!"
"Oh god, I'm dead! I'm dead!"
"Quit worrying, everything's going to be fine. We'll get you home before your Aunt wakes up and-"
"You don't understand what she'll do Eds." The brunette mumbled as she quickly scooped her backpack up from the ground and pulled the straps over her shoulders.
"Then help me understand." He grabbed her hand, stopping the scared girl from leaving altogether.
"I gotta go. I'll see you later."
With a sad smile painted on her lips, Lyds wrapped her arms tight around Eddie and the two held each other. It was obvious that in all of the moments they'd spend together after being attacked by the clown that they'd become closer, they just never knew how close they'd become.
And then, she opened the window, climbed out, and like a whisper in the wind, she was gone.
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Later that day, Lyds found herself sat up on the fire escape of Beverly's apartment building. After receiving a call from Bev, telling her to get over there as soon as possible, Lyds had climbed out of her bedroom window and ran as quickly as she could.
Earlier, when the young brunette had arrived home after secretly spending the night at Eddie's house, her Aunt Kim was already sat at the kitchen island, waiting for her with a cigarette in hand.
"Where have you been?"
"I got up early, and I went to-"
"That's a lie. You've been gone the entire night. I checked up on you last night, the bed was made and your window was open. So tell me, where the fuck have you been Lydia Greystone?"
"I went to Eddie's house, a-and I fell asleep by accident I'm sorry."
"You're such a liar, I bet you went over there to have sex with that waste of space! I bet that's the only thing he's good for, huh?"
"Don't talk about him like that! Eddie hasn't done anything wrong!"
"You know, your mother used to be the exact same way before she met my brother."
"Don't you talk about her. You don't get to do that." Lyds glared
"This is my house, and you'll listen to whatever I say. And I will do whatever I want."
So you could say she was glad to have an excuse to leave her house that day.
With a cigarette in her hand, just the way her Aunt held it, Lydia rested her newly dyed blonde head of hair against Beverly's shoulder. She'd cried and cried, and she'd spilled everything, Beverly knew everything.
"I understand L." She took the cigarette from the older girl and inhaled
"You do?"
"I do. But what I don't understand is what did dying your hair have to do with your Aunt?"
"Everyone always used to say how much I looked like her, when I was a kid and even now. I always hated it, but this morning when she knocked me out in the kitchen, the moment I woke up I just snapped. I didn't want to be anything like her anymore. So I locked myself in the bathroom and I dyed it all."
Lyds paused for breath and all Beverly could do was stare at her in awe, they were more alike than she could have ever imagined.
"I didn't want to be Lyds who looked like her aunt anymore, I just wanted to be me."
Still Beverly didn't speak. In fact she didn't get the chance, because the next thing the two girls knew Richie, Eddie, Billie, Ben and Stan had all arrived on their bikes.
Faster than lightning, the pair jogged down the fire the escape and out into the yard where the five boys waited for them.
"Woah your hair!" Richie yelled as soon as Lyds was within sight
"Not now Rich." She answered
"I-I need to show you something." Beverly spoke with wide eyes
"What is it?"
"More than what we saw at the Quarry?"
"Shut up Richie! Just shut up!" Eddie hissed
"My dad will kill me if he finds out I had boys in the apartment."
"We'll leave a lookout..." Billie said, "R-Richie stay here."
"Woah, woah, woah! What if her dad comes back?" He called after the others
"Then do what you do best, start talking!" Stan rolled his eyes, before he ran up the fire escape behind his friends.
No one spoke as Beverly guided them through her home, all anyone could do was stare ahead at the red haired girl as she lead them down a dark hallway.
"In there." She motioned at a door.
"What is it?"
"You'll see."
"Are you taking us to your bathroom? Because I just want you to know that 89% of the worse accidents in homes are caused in bathrooms. A-And it's where all the bacteria and fungi are, and it's not really a sanitary place-" Eddie rambled on but the young boy immediately stopped the second Bill pushed the door open and they saw the sight inside.
"I knew it." He mumbled
The bathroom was covered with blood. The walls, the sink, the mirror, every inch has been coated by a sticky red layer. Immediately Eddie began to gag, and unadmittedly so did his friends.
"You can see it?"
"Yes. What happened in here?"
"My dad couldn't see it, I thought I might be crazy."
"Well if you're crazy, then we're all crazy." Ben spoke calmly
"We can't leave it like this." Lyds said a loud.
Minutes passed by and the losers found themselves cleaning Beverly's bathroom from top to bottom. The blood was everywhere, it was pungent and thick, too bright a red to even seem real. But it was real.
"You dyed your hair." Stan spoke, as he cleaned the window and Lydia cleaned the blood from the wall beside it.
"I hadn't noticed."
"Hilarious." Stan smiled, a smile too
broke out on the older girl's face instantly.
"But really Lyds, it suits you. You look more... you."
"That, Stan the man, is exactly what I was going for."
"Please don't call me that."
"Too late." She smirked
It didn't take long for the kids to finish cleaning the bathroom together, it had only taken them an hour before they had finished, but that also meant they were all going to have to face Richie, who they somehow knew would be more obnoxious than usual.
"You know, I love being a personal doorman, really! Could you guys have taken any longer?"
"Shut up Richie." Eddie told him
"Yeah, shut up Richie." Stan added
"Oh, yeah, trash the trash mouth! I get it! Hey, I wasn't the one scrubbing the bathroom floor and imagining the sink went all Eddie's Mom's vagina on Halloween!"
"She didn't imagine it. I saw something too." Billie sighed
"You saw blood too?"
"Not blood. I saw G-Georgie... It seemed so real, it didn't seem like him, but there was this-"
"The clown." Eddie choked out
"You saw the clown didn't you?" Lydia's eyes widened with fear, she instinctively took a step closer to her brown-eyed best friend.
"We saw him too." He reached out and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder
Ben nodded in agreement. He had seen it?
Everyone's eyes fell on Stan and he too nodded, signifying that he'd also seen something.
"Wait, can only virgins see this stuff? Is that why I'm not seeing this shit?"
"Shut the hell up Richie!" Lyds suddenly snapped, "Please, just keep quiet..."
That was the moment everything had fallen into place. They'd all seen the clown. They'd all experienced the same things. That was where their story began.
And where their childhoods ended.