"Ouch! That stings Lyds!"
Eddie Kaspbrak let out a yell and fell back in the car seat. He was surrounded by gauze and bloodied tissues and his wife's not so tender touch, and for a moment he found himself wanting to cry. The man hadn't felt such a physical pain since he broke his arm when he was child, or when Lyds nearly broke his hand squeezing it during their son's birth but he could let that one slide.
"I can do it myself."
"Eds you can barely stand up without getting lightheaded, and that's when you're not bleeding out." Lyds shook her head, forcing Eddie further back into his seat, "Let me help you."
"You help me enough." The Kaspbrak man grumbled and lightly took the antiseptic wipe from his lover's fingertips and pressed it against his own face. "Fuck!"
"See, it still stings even when you do it."
"Well I still need your help to put the bandage on it - if you can do that without injuring me."
"You guys are like an old married couple." Ben spoke from the drivers seat of Lydia's car.
"That's because we are an old married couple." Eddie rolled his eyes
"Shut up unless you want your face to bleed some more."
"See what did I say?" Ben turned to Bev with a soft laugh
"Guys now isn't the time." Lyds suddenly snapped, and her arms collapsed at her sides, she felt truly and utterly hopeless, "We have to get to the library to find Bill and the others, they're not safe there, none of us are until we fix Bowers and the clown is dead."
"There's no fixing him Lyds." Eddie mumbled his non-injured cheek pressed against her shoulder, "We have to kill him, y-you have to kill him. He got me but you got away, you were the one who shot him, he's going to come after you."
"I can't kill him again, I-I thought I did it last time and the guilt I've felt for years is-"
"We're a team right Lyds?" The brunette pressed a gentle kiss to her lips, "So you don't have to do this alone. Any of this. I'm with you, until the end."
"Okay." she nodded, her hand enveloped by his much larger one, "Now... Lets put a bandage on that pretty face of yours."
The rest of the drive was spent in complete silence as Eds slept peacefully in the back with a bandage on his face and his head in his wife's lap, and Ben and Bev held hands across the centre console. The entire journey had been filled with nothing but love, of course not everyone realised that, they wouldn't until much later.
Lydia Kaspbrak would never realise how much she really loved her husband until it was almost too late.
And Beverly Marsh and Ben Hanscom would never realise their feelings until they were almost dead.
That car ride was the few final moments of bliss that the loved up losers would share. The beginning of the end.
"L?" Eds whispered softly, "You okay?"
Lyds couldn't help but fall into a trance and stare out the window as they drove, growing closer and closer to the library. She couldn't stop thinking about him, Stanley that is.
"He should be here."
"Lyds?"
Lydia Greystone was sat on the floor of the clubhouse smoking a cigarette when Stanley Uris called her name. They were the only two losers left after everybody else had gone home, and the pair had opted to stay and clean the place together, however they'd spent most of their time in silence, reading comic books.
"Yeah Stan?"
"You know you're my best friend right?"
"Of course, you're mine too." She told him with a smile on her lips, "What's this all about?"
"When college comes around I want to go to New York, to get away from everything here you know?"
"And?"
"And I don't want to be alone again."
"Yes."
"What?"'
"I'll come with you." She moved across the room to where Stanley sat in the hammock and found her place beside him, "You know me better than anyone Stan, so you know I'm telling the truth when I say that I need to get out of this place more than anyone... I have to get away from my Aunt."
"I just want to be somewhere that doesn't have killer clowns." Stan smiled and the pair burst into a fit of laughter, the type of laughter that had them grabbing ahold of one another and clutching their stomachs until they were both lay back in the hammock, muted.
"I'm going to get you out of here Lyds." His hand brushed hers, but he couldn't find the courage to take it in his own, "I won't let your Aunt or anyone hurt you ever again."
"You know, I don't think I could live in a world without you Stan the Man."
"Promise?"
"The fuck does that mean?" The Greystone girl began to laugh, before she leaned over and snapped Stan's shower cap over his head.
"Hey! Leave me alone!"
"I am never leaving you Stan Uris." She beamed
"I lied to him..." Lyds mumbled so nobody but herself could hear.
"Lets do this thing losers." Ben half smiled as the four of them climbed from the car.
The man threw an arm around Lyds as they walked and instantly she leaned closer into his touch. The pair had never been especially close as kids but with the void of Stanley and them being forced together by an evil clown once more, you could say they'd become almost like siblings.
"Ben stop trying to steal my wife." Eddie laughed softly, before he took Lyds hand and pulled her into his own warm embrace.
"I don't think I could if I tried." He beamed down on the pair
"Hey what was that back there?" The Kaspbrak man spoke in a low voice, his eyes fell upon the woman he loved like the plague. Instantly, Lyds felt uncomfortable under his gaze and remorse filled her soul, it was her fault Stanley was missing.
"I was just thinking about Stan."
"Lyds you haven't stopped thinking about Stan since we got here, whatever happened to him-"
"Get off of me!"
The closer they got to the library's entrance the more they could hear the yells from inside. The sounds only grew louder as they stepped inside and before anyone could stop her Lyds had broken off into a sprint in search of her friends. Mike was in danger, she knew it, she felt it.
"Lyds! Stop!" Eddie hissed, falling further and further behind his lover as she became lost in the stacks of books. "Lyds? L? Where are you?"
But Lydia Kaspbrak was too far ahead to hear her husband, so far ahead in fact that as she ran to Mike's defence she ran directly into the back of Richie and hit the ground with a thud.
"Fuck." She rubbed her head as the wide eyed man pulled her to her feet
"Would you be quiet?"
That was when Lyds heard Mike's cries for help and her blue eyes fell upon her friend being pinned to the floor by Henry Bowers. Immediately her mind fell back to the day of the rock war and a newfound rage was ignited within her body. This time, she wasn't going to let Henry live.
"Richie let me go!"
"We need a plan!"
"He's going to kill him!"
"No... We are." Richie declared, his hand grasped ahold of an ancient hatchet. It was rusted and dirty but it would be enough to kill Bowers, that was for sure.
"Together." Lyds nodded her head and she too took ahold of the handle.
Together, just like they said, the pair ran at Bowers and before they could even comprehend what was happening, the hatchet had found it's home in Henry's skull. Blood burst from his wound and spattered across Lydia's cheek and in the ground beside Mike, the girl could've sworn she'd never seen anything so disgusting.
"Holy shit!" The blonde's eyes widened as she wrenched the weapon from the dead man's head. "W-We killed him... I really did it this time."
"Well that was long overdue... Get it? Because we're in a library-"
It was in that moment, whilst they were both covered in blood, that Richie leant forwards, with his hands on his knees, and puked all over the floor. Lyds recoiled in disgust before she moved back to her friends side, rubbing his back until he collapsed her arms.
"It's okay Rich, we got him."
Mike too joined them.
"We're okay." She whispered to the both of them, kissing Richie's head.
"The fuck happened in here?" Ben asked with wide eyes as he Bev and Eddie finally made it inside. "Are you alright?"
"No I'm not alright!" Richie outburst, "We just fucking killed a guy!"
"I was talking to Mike."
"You killed him?"
"No one stabs my husband in the face and gets away with it." The woman smiled softly. Before she knew it, she'l was lifted from the ground and swung through the air in Eddie's arms. Despite everything that has just happened, despite being covered in blood, Lyds had never felt so safe.
"It's almost over, okay?" He told her, "It's almost done. No more killing."
"Except clowns."
His cheeks tinted pink, "Except clowns."
"God you guys make me want to puke again!" Richie hissed
"Where's Bill?" Mike spoke up, his arm trickled blood into the floor.
"Com on, sit down Mike."
Silently, Lyds took the Hanlon man's hand and lead him to one of the many tables. Thankfully, she still had some bandages left over from Eddie's face and so with a gentle hand she began to wrap them around her friends arm.
"I'm sorry that this happened to you." She spoke, "We should have done something sooner."
"L, you killed a man for me. You're one of the best friends I could have."
Her lip trembled, "Thank you."
"Here, why don't I take over?" Ben smiled, seeing the tears in the woman's eyes.
Noiselessly, Ben sat down beside Mike and began to tie his bandage, but Lyds didn't move away from the pair. She was worried that if she left Mike alone again she'd lose him. And she wasn't willing to let anyone else go after losing Stanley.
And so, she lay her head upon Ben's shoulder and fought her own twisted thoughts.
"Has anyone called Bill?" Eddie asked
"I will." Mike nodded and with his free hand he dialled their friends number. He picked up in only two rings. "Bill, we're at the library, where are you?"
"He took the little kid Mikey. He took the little kid right in front of me! Right in fucking front of me!" Lydia could hear their whole conversation and her heart squeezed in pain at the sound of Bill so defeated. She couldn't believe it was happening to them.
"No, come to the library! Then we can talk about the plan and we-"
"No! I'm going to kill it, and I don't want any of you to get k-killed with me!"
And with that, Bill hung up the phone, leaving each and every one of his friends speechless.
"What the hell are you guys waiting for?" Lyds was the first on her feet, she always had been when it came to Bill. "We have to go stop him!"
"We have to perform the ritual." Mike spoke, "We have to save Bill."
"Lyds I-" Eddie began but his wife cut him off.
"No Eds. We're the fucking losers club, killing clowns is our specialty..."
"Fuck yeah it is!" Richie cut in
"We're a team." Eddie nodded his head. He didn't need his wife's confirmation to know the answer, Eddie Kaspbrak and Lyds Greystone would always be a team no matter what the case. In life and death.
"Then let's do this thing."