RICHIE HURRIEDLY dropped his bike onto Ash's front driveway, hearing the rest of them do the same to theirs, clatters ringing down the sidewalk.
He thundered up her porch steps and flung open her door, ignoring the once again sharp stab of pain from his wrist as he skidded into the front foyer.
"Allen!" He shouted, and slowly squinted in confusion as his voice echoed throughout the empty house.
He hesitated, and then stormed into the living room, looking wildly around as he searched the house.
When he finally ended up back in the kitchen, where the Losers and Mike were watching him with nervous glances, Bill said, "Ruh-Richie, I don't th-think she's here."
Richie raked his hands through his hair, his voice starting to slightly tremble. "I don't understand. I was sure this was were he would have brought her. She always needed me, and I always needed her."
He sank down at her dining room table, swallowing hard and trying to think.
"Where the hell could she be?" He asked, his tone ringing as he looked up at them.
As he strained his mind to think, they all nearly jumped out of their skins as the telephone let out a loud, piercing ring.
His eyes connected with it, and he was out of his seat and grabbing the receiver, jamming it to his ear.
"Hello?" He said, his voice slicing through the air.
"Richie Tozier." A foreboding voice slipped through the speaker, and Richie's words became so quiet with rage it was scary.
"What did you do with her?" He said, and Spencer laughed silkily, making the hairs on the back of Richie's neck stand up.
"We're playing a game." Spencer replied. "We're playing hide and seek. Except she couldn't hide very well. And I found her. Do you want to play, Richie? It's not very enjoyable with only two people."
"You sick son of a-"
"Ah, careful!" Spencer said lightly. "You wouldn't want to ruin the game, Tozier. It's no fun when someone ruins it for everyone playing."
Richie was so angry he was seeing white, and said in that same, scarily calm voice, "Where are you?"
"If I tell you, you have to promise to come alone. We don't want your friends getting any ideas, Richie. This has to be fair. No cheating. And if you are stupid enough to bring them along. . ."
The threat hung empty in the air, but Richie shakily swallowed. He had a good idea of what would happen, and the thought made him want to vomit.
"Fine." He said sharply, and Spencer continued, "Good. We're at your high school. We had to turn off all the lights, because it's more fun playing in the dark. And Richie? Don't get any ideas. Because if you do, there's a bullet waiting to go straight into her head."
Richie's blood went icy, and Spencer said, "See you soon."
And the connection went dead.
~
Ash's eyes snapped open, her breath coming short and ragged.
She blinked, her vision adjusting the darkness, and she could make out shapes and the only light was the faint almost pitch black dusk coming though the windows.
She winced as she felt the bump on the back of her head where Spencer had hit her, and she looked anxiously around for any sign of him, seeing none.
This could be her only chance.
Shakily she managed to get to her feet and stumbled towards the. . .library doors?
She stopped cold, her eyebrows knitting together. Library doors. That could only mean. . .they were at her high school.
Ash closed her eyes briefly, and then continued towards them, heaving a short sigh of relief as she found them unlocked and found herself in the dark, disquieting hallways.
The shadows seemed to close in around her as she made her way towards where she knew the nearest exit was- by the main office, which was two short turns away from the library.
Her footsteps became quicker at the scary thought of Spencer lurking anywhere, and she turned down the first hallway, the rows of red lockers sharply glinting as the setting sun went further behind the clouds.
Then out of nowhere, a fist drove into her side, knocking the wind out of her.
Before Ash could catch her breath however, another shove sent her back against the lockers, her head smashing into them leaving her dazed. She saw a hand slam into the metal beside her face, the other one following suit, trapping her there.
"Did you think I was gone?" She could hear the gloating, icy smile in his voice. "Who did you think the bad guy was? Mike? Or did you even think that your boyfriend could be capable of doing this? I'm getting warmer, aren't I? The things fear does to us."
Two black eyes glittered behind a ski mask in front of her, and Ash's voice rattled. "It's you."
Spencer ripped off the ski mask, throwing it to the ground. "In the flesh."
"But-" Ash sputtered, her heart pounding. "But you were gone. I haven't even heard of you for three-three years-"
He slapped her cheek, leaving behind a sharp sting. "You had to have figured this out by now, Ashes. You're a smart girl. Don't tell me you're this stupid."
Ash stared at him, and then in one swift movement, Spencer had jerked on her arm, dragging her after him.
She struggled, trying to rip free, and scratched her fingernails down his arm, making his grip loosen as he kicked her in the side.
Ash choked on a ribbon of air sliding down her throat as Spencer touched the tracks her nails had left on his forearm. "That's going to cost you."
"You're sup-supposed to be gone." She wheezed, and his tongue flicked against his teeth as he replied, "Wrong again, Ashes."
Once again, he grabbed her arm, jerking her towards the nearest classroom.
He kicked open the door and thrust her inside the classroom, making her palms knock against the floor as she slammed into it.
Spencer shut the classroom door with a bang and drug two chairs into the center of the room as Ash noticed the broken shard of a beaker- so they were in the chemistry classroom- lying beside her.
She clutched her fingers around it, jamming it into her pocket just as Spencer pulled her to her feet, motioning to the chairs. "Have a seat."
Ash's eyes flew to the nearest windows. Maybe she could make it there in time before he caught up to her. She tried to remember everything Richie had once taught her about lying- act confident, remain eye contact.
Spencer pushed down on her shoulders, forcing her into the chair.
He held out a hand, his eyebrows arched. "Give me that glass you picked up on our way in here."
Ash swallowed. "I don't know what you're talking about."
He breathed a laugh. "Do you really want to play games with me? I could do so much more to you before I get what I really want. All I need is you alive. That doesn't mean I can't rub in a little hurt to get what I want."
Ash bit her lip, which was cracked and chapped from the coldness of the weather, and dug the weapon out of her pocket, passing it to him.
Spencer broke it neatly in half with superhuman strength, throwing the pieces to the back of the room with a clatter.
"Now it's just you and me, angel." He sank down into the chair in front of her and stretched his legs out luxuriously. One arm dangled off the seat back. "Let's talk, Ashes."
Ash bolted from the chair. Spencer hooked her around the waist before she had made it four steps and shoved her back into it.
"The kids in class used to always think they could outsmart me for some reason." He tilted his head at her and smiled, but there was no humor in it. "Do you know what I did to them if they tried?"
Ash shuddered in response, and Spencer said, "Cooperate, and you have nothing to fear."
She didn't for one second believe him. The gleam in his eyes wasn't sincere.
"What am I doing here?" She asked, and he raised his eyebrows at her.
"I would've thought you'd have figured that out by now."
"Color me confused." She spat at him.
"Alright," Spencer said. "In September before you started at Derry High, you and your freak friends got my cousin sent to jail. Obviously I couldn't have that. We were planning to kill you. That's how these things work. So I decided I would continue at the high school without him, because I knew his ex-girlfriend that we had tried to burn had a pretty little friend."
Ash felt a twinge shoot through her as Spencer grinned, his teeth like gleaming white razor blades. "And you didn't disappoint me."
"It seemed too easy. All I had to do was get you to fall for me." Spencer snapped his fingers, the sound ringing in the empty air. "There was just one problem. Do you know what that problem was?"
Ash's head felt leaden, and blackness twinged at her eyes as the room slid in and out of focus. Ash had felt this way enough times to know she was on the verge of a panic attack, and was brought out of it by Spencer slapping her hard across the face.
"Focus. Who am I talking about?" He snapped, and Ash couldn't bring her voice above a whisper. "I don't know."
"He never seemed to like me. Always saw something that wasn't there, something that made him distrust me. I thought to myself, 'How am I supposed to get her alone?' But thankfully, you took care of that all on your own. You kept getting angry at him, kept telling him that I was a nice guy, that he just had to trust you."
Ash winced. "I was wrong."
"You were." Spencer wrapped his foot around the leg of Ash's chair and dragged it towards him, leaning forward so that he was inches from her. "And I was so close to getting rid of you too. And then, he shows up again, taking you away from me by inches and the next thing I knew, you were gone, and I was in juvie."
He slowly shook his head, and Ash felt something click inside her brain.
"Did you tell everyone about Richie's self-harming?" She asked, and Spencer shrugged. "He was getting a little too cocky. All Michael Wheeler needed, who already hated him for past reasons, was a push."
Ash felt her heart start pounding, and Spencer said airly, "All I need to do now is finish him off."
He noticed Ash's eye fall to the overhead lights, and said in response, "I had to cut the power. You can't play hide and seek in the light. It's more fun in the dark."
Ash's eyes snapped back on his. "You said 'finish him off'. What are you talking about?"
"Do you know what it feels like to have revenge so close, yet have it stolen by a trashmouth who can't keep his hands off of things that don't belong to him? Do you know what that feels like? Do you?" He yelled.
Ash kept her mouth firmly shut, knowing it would be suicide to answer.
Spencer laughed, a rush of air between his teeth. It sounded more sinister than anything she had ever heard.
"I knew I couldn't try to hurt him without you. All his friends would have, whether I liked to admit it or not, overpowered me in seconds. So imagine my delight when you showed up back here in Derry."
He watched her, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "I had so much fun scaring you. I was toying with you, seeing how far you could go before you snapped, and I came to the conclusion. If I hurt you, I hurt Richie."
Ash bit the inside of her cheek. "Richie and I broke up. He hates me."
"No." Spencer said. "No, Ashes, Richie is in love with you. One little fuckup with Mike Wheeler isn't going to make him stop loving you. In fact, he's on his way here right now. And although in the past, things haven't necessarily worked out, they have tonight." His tone relaxed. "Here we are."
"Let me guess what you're thinking," Spencer said, rising to his feet and sauntering to the front of the room. "You're starting to wish you'd never met Richie. Wishing you'd never have fallen in love with him. Go on. Laugh at the position he's put you in."
Hearing him talk about Richie's love for her filled Ash with a rage unlike any she had ever felt before, and she got to her feet, scooping up a lone beaker on the lab table and smashing it, grabbing a glass shard and aiming it at him.
"Don't you dare come near me or I'll kill you!" She exclaimed.
Spencer made a guttural sound that ripped through his vocal chords, flinging his arm across the counter at the front of the room. Glass beakers shattered against the chalkboard, papers fluttering down. He strode towards Ash, his eyes molten with rage.
Seizing her chance, Ash brought the shard down onto his leg, and Spencer let out a snarl, yanking it out and watching the blood drip onto his hands.
Ash backed away, and watched his chest slowly rise and fall as her body lost some of it's tenseness.
And then, he had lunged towards her, causing Ash to let out a shriek as she tried to dodge him, her side clipping a lab table as she tumbled to the ground.
A second later, Spencer had flipped her on her stomach, straddling her from behind. He pressed her face into the floor, crushing her nose and muffling her screams.
"You're going to stay right here." He said, his voice deadly calm. "And we're going to wait for your love to show up so we can watch him die together."
Ash reached her fingers out for anything, and felt them close around a chair leg. Not waiting to see what Spencer would do, she yanked it towards her and hurled it into him, sending the chair crashing into him.
He skidded away from her as the chair cut into his face, and Ash scrambled to her feet, almost tripping to make it to the front door.
She wrenched it open and looked back at Spencer, and saw he hadn't moved to stop her.
Instead, a twisted grin had made its way across his face as he merely said, "Good luck trying to find your way out. I expect we'll be seeing each other soon."
Ash didn't wait to find out what he meant, and forced herself into the hallway, slamming the classroom door shut as darkness shrouded her once again.
2498 WORDS YOU GUYS. HOLY SHIT. but omg, i think this is one of my favorite chapters? richie's coming back to the school to try to save his girl, but instead of being upset, spencer is. . .happy? not getting good vibes, especially with richie being a little weird in terms of current level of health. but we'll get to that next chapter.
leave some predictions in the comments below, vote, and comment for me! see you at chapter nineteen. .