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CORDELIA'S SMALL FINGERS GRIPPED TIGHTLY onto Stan's green and white polo shirt as the two of them and the others raced after Bill. He was pedaling faster than she was used to so she buried her face into his back to prevent herself from panicking. Stan's heart started beating faster, and he was unsure if it was because of him exerting his energy onto riding his bike or if it was because of Lia holding onto him.
He decided it was both.
When the mass neared the dark and abandoned house on Neibolt Street, Cordelia noticed Bill walking up to the door. His bike was laying haphazardly in the street which the young girl worried about.
"Bill!" Beverly shouted as her bike came to a halt. She hopped off her bike and walked towards the Denbrough boy, with everyone following in suit. "Bill, you can't go in there. This is crazy."
"Look, you don't have to come in with me. But what happens when another Georgie goes missing? Or another Betty? Or another Ed Corcoran? Or one of us." Lia stared at Bill with sympathetic eyes as she heard his voice waver with nearly every word. "Are you just gonna pretend it isn't happening like everyone else in this town?
"Because 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." Bill turned around and wiped a tear off his cheek. Lia's hand gripped onto Stan's. She never knew Georgie, but she considered Bill one of her close friends. She hated seeing him upset.
"Wow," Richie hummed.
"What?" Beverly asked him, turning her body to face him.
"He didn't stutter once," he commented. He started making his way over to Bill, being the first person to start following after him. Cordelia let go of Stanley's hand and took a few steps towards the house before she heard a "Wait!" She turned around to see Stan's terrified expression. His hands were brushing his pants nervously as he spoke.
"Shouldn't we have some people keep watch?" Bill stared down at the Uris boy as he played with the front door handle. "You know, just in case something bad happens?" He looked around at the others, seeing if anyone was going to second his idea.
"Who w-w-wants to stay out here?" Bill asked. Everyone raised their hand simultaneously, excluding Beverly. They all looked around at each other before Richie frowned. He dropped his hand down by his side.
"Fuck," he sighed with frustration.
The Losers' Club decided to find sticks on the ground, and whoever had the shortest ones had to go inside the house. Because there were eight of them, they decided to have four go inside and the other four stay outside.
Cordelia stared at the stick in her hand. She pursed her lips at how small it was, but threw it on the ground. She walked up the steps and stood next to Bill. She was nervous, yes, but she thought that it would be better if she decided to not show how scared she was on her face. Stan watched her go in behind Richie with a frown and wide eyes. He didn't mean for her to go inside, and he just hoped that nothing bad would happen to her.
The door made a loud and prolonged creak as Bill opened it. Richie was beside him with Lia and Eddie walking very close behind them. Lia's hand reached out to find Eddie's as she took the first step inside the house.
"I can't believe I pulled the short straw. You guys are lucky you're not measuring dicks," Richie commented, earning a look of disgust from Cordelia.
"Shut up, Richie," demanded Eddie as Lia groaned, "Really, Richard? Do you have to make that comment now?"
One of the first things that Cordelia noticed when she walked into the house was the dim light. The only way that they could see where they were going was from the sunlight pouring into the house from the front door and the windows.
The next thing she noticed was the stench. She brought her hand up to her nose and held a finger underneath it. However, she realized that she had to breathe and let her hand fall to her side. She decided it would be better to get used to the smell instead of passing out from insufficient air-flow to her lungs.
"I can smell IT," Eddie whimpered as his brown eyes travelled across the room, taking in the wretched appearance of the house.
"Don't breathe through your mouth," advised Richie. Lia furrowed her eyebrows at him, but nonetheless kept her mouth shut tight.
"How come?"
"Because then you're eating it." Eddie gagged on air before quickly unzipping his fanny pack and reached for his inhaler. Richie glanced around the room, and he noticed how a tree had fallen through a part of the house. Its branches were growing inside the house, but it wasn't the actual tree that caught his attention. It was the paper that was stuck in the branches.
He made his way over towards it, and Cordelia followed him like a lost puppy. While Eddie went to unzip his fanny pack, he had let go of her hand. She immediately walked towards Richie as a subconscious safety mechanism to be beside, or physically touch, someone that she trusted in times of terror.
Richie grabbed the paper, and his eyes widened in fear at the words that were printed on it. He slowly looked up from the paper to Cordelia. He then glanced over in the direction of Eddie and Bill, who were making their way over in the Tozier boy's direction.
"W-what?" Bill asked him. Richie gripped tighter onto the page as he swallowed thickly.
"It... It says I'm missing," he informed the others with shaking hands. Bill walked over towards Richie and stood by his side as he read the paper.
"Y-y-you're not missing, Richie."
"'Police department, City of Derry'," he read from the paper in a fearful tone of voice. "That's my shirt. That's my hair. That's my face. That's my name. That's my age! That's the date!" he screamed as Lia quickly grabbed hold of his arms while Bill tried to pull the paper from his hands.
"It's not real!" Bill tried to tell him, but Richie was in hysterics. It started Cordelia because she had never seen him in that way before. He was usually smiling with some sort of joke prepared to fire at any moment. Her heart broke at the sight of him. "It can't be real, Richie!"
"No, it says it! What the fuck?!" Eddie's hands covered his mouth as Bill threw the paper to the side. "Am I missing? Am I gonna go missing?" Lia moved her hands from Richie's arm to his hands.
"Calm down," she tried to coax him as he squirmed in her grasp. "Look at me, Richard. Look at me." His breathing was still irregular, but he stopped screaming as his brown eyes met her blue ones. "That isn't real. IT's playing tricks on you. You're not going to go missing. I promise."
Richie chin quivered as he fought back his fear and went to hug Lia, but was interrupted by a small girl calling out, "Hello?" that echoed throughout the house. Eddie's hand dropped from his mouth as the four of them looked around.
Bill took a few steps to the main entryway as she called out again. Cordelia's right hand was still intertwined with Richie's as the two of them and Eddie followed after Bill. They deduced that the sound was coming from the upstairs and made their way towards the steps.
"Help me, please!" the voice cried out again. Cordelia could feel her heartbeat increase dramatically and her mouth went dry as they walked up the stairs. Each board creaked under their weight which only added to her anxiety. One of the boards was more worn out than the others and split when Lia stepped on it.
She let out a shrill scream as her body dropped suddenly. Her hand slipped from Richie, but she was quick to turn and place her forearms on the step below. Her two legs dangled from the broken step, pieces of wood lodged in her skin. It stung very badly, and blood dripped down to her socks, staining the white material.
Eddie and Richie were quick to pull her from the step. She let out a small sob before embracing the two boys. The Kaspbrak boy stared at her gashed legs with wide and panicked eyes. While she knew that they could get infected and she was losing a lot of blood, she gently patted his hand.
"It's alright, Eds," she whispered. "It's just... a scratch."
"What the fuck? No, it's not!" Richie denied as he, too, stared at her bleeding limbs. She pulled a small piece of wood from her left leg and carefully stood up. Her arms rested on Richie and Eddie's shoulders as the three made their way up the stairs. Bill was at the top already, and he gave Lia a worried glance.
"Don't worry, William. It's not fatal." He nodded his head, unsure of whether or not she should continue with them, but turned around nonetheless. Lia jumped slightly in her boys' arms at the sight of a rat running across the floor.
The four of them made their way across the second floor of the house; Lia's left leg was throbbing with every step she took. It took a lot of her energy to not cry from walking. They made their way in the direction of the sound of coughing which led them to a long and dark hallway. Cordelia's arm fell from Eddie's shoulders as he held back from the group.
She gave him a confused look before the sound of coughing grew even worse, with the added gasping for breath and gagging. Lia turned her head and saw a young girl, around her age, on the floor in the room at the end of the hall.
"Betty?" Bill questioned before Richie added, "Ripsom?"
Betty let out a scream as she was suddenly pulled back, and the four of them gasped in shock. Cordelia wrapped her arms around Richie and buried her head into him. He gently rubbed her shoulder before she let go, and they started moving in the direction of where Betty disappeared. However, they didn't notice Eddie stopping behind them at the sound of a voice calling his name.
Bill opened the door at the end of the hallway a little wider, but only found dirt, leaves, and glass from the broken window on the ground. Lia let out a whimper as she put pressure on her left leg. Richie's grip tightened around her as he looked around.
"She was just here. Where the fuck did she go?" The three stood there, looking around the room, unaware of the door slowly closing behind them. It made a loud slam as it shut all the way, and Richie let go of Lia in fright.
"Eddie?" she whispered, glancing around and noticing that he was gone.
"Guys! Guys!" he screamed from the other side of the door. Bill rushed over towards the door, but it was locked shut. Lia's heart dropped when she heard him separated from them. She was furious with herself for not noticing that he wasn't with them. He let out a scream before there was deafening silence on the other side of the door.
"Eddie. Open the door!" Bill demanded as he continued to pull on the door. He and Cordelia didn't hear the boy whispering Richie's name from the other room. They were too preoccupied with the door to see that Richie was walking away from them and into another room.
"Are you okay, Eddie?" Cordelia called out as Bill slammed his palm on the door. When he didn't answer her, she freaked out. "Eds!"
"We're not playing hide-and-seek, dipshit," her and Bill heard Richie say. Bill walked over towards the doorway of the room and called out his name. Richie sighed in defeat when he realized Eddie wasn't in that room. He started walking towards Lia and Bill, but that door was slammed shut, too.
"Richie!" Lia cried out as she sat down against Eddie's door. She was unable to stand, and she was feeling weak from the amount of blood she was losing. She wanted her adrenaline to kick in so she could help Bill open the door, but she was in too much pain to stand.
"Bill, come on! Open the door! It won't open!"
"Open the door, Richie!" Bill shouted at him before it went quiet on Richie's side. Cordelia's eyes watered, and she covered her mouth as she watched Bill pound on the door. She was terrified for what had happened to her two best friends.
Moments passed of Bill pulling at the door handle before he was finally able to break the door open. Richie ran out of the room, and Bill slammed it shut.
"Richie," Lia cried out. She stood up and tried to run over to him, but it was very slow and very painful for her. He moved over towards her, and she wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace.
"Let's get out of here." There was a grunt from behind them, followed by laughter. Cordelia and Richie let go of each other, and the three of them turned around. They saw a mattress on the floor; it was vibrating fervently. A head popped out in the middle of the rug, and Lia grabbed Richie's hand when she saw what it was.
It was Eddie, but he was paler than normal. His skin was a ghostly white, save for a few patches of dirt on it. His eyes were dark, and Cordelia was terrified.
"Wanna play 'Loogie'?" 'Eddie' had asked them before retching out a black liquid. As it flowed from his mouth, it singed every leaf as it made its way towards the trio. He started laughing maniacally before his head went back into the mattress. Cordelia's breathing sped up as she noticed the black substance burn its way to them.
Turning around, they were faced with three doors with red words on them. Lia hoped it wasn't blood, but she knew better than to get her hopes up. The words in red dripped in an upward direction, defying gravity with every passing second.
Bill, Richie, and Cordelia looked at the doors from the left to the right, reading the doors as they went. The first one read 'NOT SCARY AT ALL' with 'SCARY' next, and finally 'VERY SCARY' at the end. They ran over to the door on the left, or as well as Lia could run by herself. Bill opened the door, but they were faced with a dark abyss.
"Where's my shoe?" they heard Betty whisper in the dark. Bill found a pull chain inside and tugged it downward. Hanging from her wrists was Betty Ripsom, but her bottom half was cut off. She let out a scream as blood dripped from her torso and onto the ground. Cordelia also let out a scream before Bill pulled her back, and Richie slammed the door shut.
"Where the fuck were her legs?" Richie cried out as he pressed his back against the door. Bill and Lia quickly made their way back towards Richie as the black substance grew closer to them, hissing as it did so. "Holy shit, what the fuck was that?"
"This isn't real," Bill quickly told Richie to calm him, and Lia, down. "Remember the missing kid poster. That wasn't real, so this isn't real." Richie moved behind Bill as the latter prepared to open the door. "Come on, ready?"
"No!" Richie yelled, but Bill didn't care as he opened the door. They were looking at the hallway, and Lia never thought she would be grateful to see one. "Oh, thank fuck."
"Where's Eddie?" Cordelia had asked them before they heard Eddie scream for help downstairs. As best as she could, Lia ran down the stairs behind Richie and Bill. They were careful around the broken step before they slammed a door open and ran inside.
"Eddie!" Richie called out as he ran through the doorway after Bill. Cordelia was quick to grab onto Richie's arm at the sight of the clown leaning over Eddie's body. "Holy fuck."
"Eddie," Lia called out. She went to run over towards him—she didn't care about the clown at that point—but Richie wrapped his arms around her. He didn't want her anywhere near the clown, especially because of her injury.
"This isn't real enough for you, Billy? I'm not real enough for you?" he frowned, mocking an upset expression. "It was real enough for Georgie." He let out a shrill laughter as Cordelia stomped on Richie's foot. It hurt her more than it did to Richie, but he let her go like what she wanted. She muttered a quick apology before running over towards Eddie. Pennywise lunged for her and the other two boys, and Lia let out a scream as he came very close to her.
Out of nowhere, Beverly appeared and shoved a metal bar into the side of his face. It went directly in his eye, and Cordelia watched his blood float upwards. She ran over to Eddie and gasped in shock at the sight of his very broken arm. She sat down next to him as the clown let out a wail that echoed throughout the house.
Bill, Bev, and Richie ran over towards Eddie as Mike, Ben, and Stan entered the house. The Uris boy's eyes trailed over the room for Cordelia, and his heart nearly stopped at the sight of her bloody and scratched up legs.
"Oh, fuck!" Richie screamed. "We gotta get out of here!"
The clown turned around with a growl, and Lia's eyes widened at the sight of his deformed head. Her hands were shaking, and she wanted to cry. Beverly let out a whimper as she pulled on Richie's shirt, but the boy clung on to Eddie.
"Get Eddie, and let's go!" Bill demanded as the clown started walking towards them. Lia hid her face in Bill's flannel shirt, seeing as he was the closest to her, and let out a small sob. The clown's hand slowly morphed into a werewolf claw as he stalked towards the five that were on the ground.
"Eddie, look at me," Richie demanded as he placed his hand on the bottom of Eddie's cheek, near his jawline.
"Guys, he's gonna get us!" Eddie screamed before letting out a loud, "No!" He jumped at them, and Beverly lept backward in fear. She let out a yelp as Cordelia curled further into Bill's chest. His arm wrapped around her to protect her as the clown let out a laugh.
The three by the doorway were watching what was going on. They were unsure of how to help the others with a giant clown in the way. They jumped backward as he turned towards them, slashing Ben's stomach in the process. Ben fell back into Mike as he let out a scream.
"Ben!" Bill shouted. The kids continued to scream and clammer, but the clown started grunting. He was stumbling backward toward another doorway. Stan moved over to help take care of Ben as Beverly covered her mouth in fear. Richie's hand stayed on Eddie's face while Bill unwrapped his arm from around Cordelia. He stood up, leaving her feeling vulnerable. "Don't let him get away!"
They shouted at the Denbrough boy as he followed after the clown. Beverly made her way over towards Lia when the clown was out of view. She wrapped her arms around the brunette who was visibly shaking with fear.
"Bill, we have to help Eddie!" Beverly screamed after Bill. Eddie continuously shouted 'no' as the Denbrough boy walked over towards them. He ran back over to where Cordelia was, but she moved away from him slightly and closer to Eddie. She was furious that he left her.
"I'm gonna—I'm gonna snap your arm into place," Richie informed Eddie with a nervous expression. He had no idea what he was doing, and Lia sat up straighter in Beverly's arms.
"Do not fucking touch me! Do not touch me!" Eddie screamed at Richie. Cordelia let out a 'Richie, wait!' as Richie grabbed Eddie's arm and counted down from the number three. Eddie's bone cracked from Richie as the former let out a scream of pain.
Stanley was the first person to leave the Neibolt house. He bolted out the door and leaped over the steps, not even taking the time to use them. He grabbed his bike and had already started pedaling away as the others left the house. Cordelia watched as Mike and Bill raised Eddie and placed him in the carrier basket on the front of Mike's bike.
Unable to sit on anyone else's bike, Cordelia rode with Bill to the Kaspbrak residence. Mrs. Kaspbrak was fuming with anger as she saw her son's swollen arm. Her large, pink cheeks turned red as she glared down at the children in front of her.
"You! You did this!" she exclaimed, pointing at the group with her keys. "You know how delicate he is." She grabbed Eddie by the back of his neck and forced him over towards her car. She pushed through the group, causing Lia to fall backward onto Stan. He caught her and was kind enough to let her use him to stand up.
"We were attacked, M-M-M-Mrs. K.," Bill tried to explain as she opened Eddie's door and shoved him inside.
"No. Don't. Don't try and blame anyone else." Once Eddie was inside the car, she slammed the door shut and turned to face the kids with a glare on her face. In her anger, she dropped her keys on the ground. Beverly moved forward to help pick her keys up, but Sonia stretched out one of her swollen hands. "Get back!" She leaned over and picked up the fallen keys before moving closer to Beverly with a sneer on her face.
"Oh, I've heard of you, Miss Marsh." Mrs. Kaspbrak's voice became dangerously low as she continued, "And I don't want a dirty girl like you touching my son."
"Mrs. Kaspbrak, I—" Lia started to say, but the older woman turned around once more.
"No! You are all monsters. All of you. And Eddie is done with you. Do you hear?" Her small eyes narrowed at Cordelia who looked as if she were going to cry. "That includes you, Miss Watson. Done."
As Sonia hopped into the car and started to drive away, Cordelia let a few tears slip from her eyes. Eddie was her first friend, and they had been friends since they were little. Now he was gone, and she was devastated.
The group walked out onto the street as they watched the yellow vehicle with their crying friend hit a curb before it drove out of sight. Beverly clung on to her key necklace as Cordelia grabbed onto Stanley's hand. Bill turned around to the group with a determined look on his face.
"I saw the well. W-w-we-we know where it is, and next time we'll be better prepared." Cordelia grew furious with Bill. He wasn't phased by Eddie leaving them, and he still wanted to go after the clown.
"No!" Stanley exploded, letting go of Cordelia's hand. "No next time, Bill. You're insane!"
"Why?" Beverly asked him. "We all know nobody else is going to do anything."
"Eddie and Lia were nearly killed!" Richie shouted at her before gesturing over to Ben. "And look at this motherfucker. He's leaking hamburger helper!"
"We can't pretend it's gonna go away. Ben, you said it yourself, IT comes back every twenty-seven years."
"Fine," he told her. "I'll be forty and far away from here. I thought you said you wanted to get out of this town, too."
"Because I want to run towards something. Not away," she argued back, earning an eye roll from Richie.
"I'm sorry, who invited Molly Ringwald into the group?" Richie asked rhetorically. Beverly glared at Richie before sticking her middle finger up at him.
"Richie," Cordelia murmured to try and stop him from making the situation worse.
"I'm just saying, let's face facts. Real world. Georgie is dead. Stop trying to get us killed, too." Lia noticed that Richie had struck a nerve in Bill. His lip quivered as Richie tried to walk over to his bike. Bill stepped in front of him and shoved his hand onto Richie's shoulder to stop him from walking.
"Georgie's not dead!" Bill spat at the raven-haired boy.
"You couldn't save him, but you can still save yourself." Richie tried to walk around Bill, but the latter grabbed him to stop him from moving. "No, t-t-t-take it back! You're scared, and we all are, but take it back!" He shoved Richie backward, and Lia gasped at the act of violence. A small tear slipped down her cheek as she watched Richie push Bill back. Bill grabbed Richie's shirt and punched him, sending the boy to the ground.
"Bill!" Cordelia shouted, glaring at the brunet through her tears.
"You're just a bunch of losers!" Richie screamed as Mike and Stan held Richie back from doing any more damage. "Fuck off!"
"Bill," Ben called out as he grabbed onto Bill as he made his way to punch Richie again.
"You're just a bunch of losers, and you'll get yourselves killed trying to catch a fucking stupid clown!"
"Stop!" Cordelia screamed. The group turned to her, and they grew guilty at the sight of the girl with red eyes and tear-stained cheeks. Richie, though he cared about Lia a lot, was still angry and shoved Stan and Mike off of him.
"This is what IT wants," Beverly started speaking, looking between the two groups of boys and Cordelia. "IT wants to divide us. We were all together when we hurt IT. That's why we're still alive."
"Yeah? Well, I plan to keep it that way," Richie snarled. He marched off in the direction of his bike, roughly colliding his shoulder with Bill's. Stanley helped Cordelia walk to her front door before she wrapped him in a tight hug. Hot tears soaked his shirt, but he didn't care. He knew how much Cordelia cared about each of them, and they just had the biggest fight they've ever had.
"What'll happen now?" she asked him after lifting her head off his shoulder. She wiped a tear away, and Stanley's face turned melancholy as her chin quivered.
"I'm not exactly sure," he answered honestly with a slight hesitation. They had arguments before, but none quite that big. And he had no idea what was going to happen to their friend group. It terrified him. She paused for a moment before she connected her blue eyes with his brown.
"Will we still be friends?" His heart leapt at her question. He wanted to be upset at her calling him her friend, but after what had just happened, he was grateful for it.
"We'll always be friends, Lia."
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guys... lia is so wholesome and precious and her relationship with everyone just makes me so happy. i hope you all love her as much as i do
don't be a silent reader :)
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