"This is exhausting."
"Hmm?" Richie hummed as he took a slow drag, glancing over at her. She looked like she was somewhere else.
"All of this, ya know." Bev said after a moment. "It's exhausting. I thought we were done."
"Me too." Richie sighed, smoke following his words out.
Apparently she didn't have anything else to say, because things fell silent. They were just standing against the wall outside the store, waiting for the others. Stan and Ben were getting snacks for everyone, meanwhile Bill was trying to buy three bottles of chocolate milk, all for himself—Mike was desperately trying to talk him down to two.
Richie's chest twisted—it was unfair. It was unfair that all this was threatened once again. He would do anything to just enjoy a normal life with his friends.
Anything. He thought, amused. Like kill monsters, I guess.
Speaking of monsters, he was starting to get tired of not having Eddie there.
Ben and Stan came out first, a bag of carefully picked snacks in Stan's hand. Mike and Bill came out next; Bill was already drinking one of the three bottles of his chocolate milk.
"When he gets sick, we're leaving him." Richie said, tossing his cigarette on the ground and stepping on it. "Now let's go find my favorite little monster."
They only took two steps before Bill suddenly choked, dropping the bottle. Richie busted out laughing. "Bill, what the hell, you can't even drink your damn chocolate milk—" he stopped short when he saw that Bill didn't look so amused.
He looked like someone had just smacked him in the face as he frantically looked around. Mike suddenly looked ill.
"What's going on?" Stan asked, looking a bit on-edge himself.
"There's one here somewhere," Bill said quietly, looking at Mike.
"I think we should find Eddie," Mike choked out.
Richie's heart went still in his chest, threatening to drop like a stone. "Let's hurry," he said, already rushing away before he'd even gotten the words out. "Any of you know where he is?"
"He's the navigator," Ben said regretfully.
"I think I can find him," Mike said quietly, "I can feel his distress."
Richie felt his heart finally plummet into his stomach. "Well can you pinpoint him with that?" he asked, the weight in his stomach making him feel sick.
"Not exactly, but we'll get close."
"Can't you feel memories or whatever?" Stan asked, his voice coming out shrill.
Mike hesitated. "I don't know if I can do it yet."
"You can," Bill assured, not the slightest hint of doubt in his eyes. "When we get c-closer, try it. You can do it."
Mike didn't say anything, but he looked straight ahead, which Richie supposed was as good a sign as any.
Once they had gotten to the point where Mike could feel Eddie more and more, he suddenly stopped. "Okay," he said, squeezing his eyes shut, "Okay, let me try. Everyone just be quiet for a second."
Richie bounced on his heels impatiently. Every little second felt like an hour. And they were adding up quick. All Richie could think about was that Eddie was so distressed, Mike had felt it despite the distance between them, and once again Richie was sure he'd throw up.
Realistically, it had probably only been maybe one full minute, but Richie was just about to speak up when Mike opened his eyes. "Okay."
"Okay?" Bev asked. "Okay what?!"
"H-He's got it." Bill said confidently.
"I do," Mike said, and maybe if the situation had been different, he would've smiled. For now though, he just took a breath and stared straight down at the asphalt as he walked. He was going as quickly as he could without losing his concentration.
"Guys, shouldn't we be worried about what we're going to find?" Ben asked hesitantly as he walked. "What if it's not as easy as the first one?"
"Who cares?" Richie snapped; a bit harsher than he meant to. "We focus on finding Eddie, and we deal with whatever else."
No one else said anything after that.
Every step Mike took, he got stronger—each step was more confident than the last, and his pace only grew. They all realized where they were headed pretty quickly, and not one of them was happy about it.
The moment the house came into view, so did Eddie, and Richie hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath until he saw him.
Richie was also almost entirely positive he saw something else—a shadow behind him, but it was gone as soon as Richie noticed it. He definitely should've been more concerned, but there was only one thing on his mind at the moment. And that one thing was stumbling around like a drunk in the middle of the street.
"Eds!" Richie called, surprised at the franticness in his voice. He didn't slow down as he reached him, crashing into him and pulling him into his arms. "Oh thank God," he breathed against the top of Eddie's head.
The others were there in seconds, all throwing their arms around him and muttering various curses of relief.
Eddie stumbled slightly in his arms, but didn't fall—Richie wouldn't let him. "Rich? Guys?" he muttered, balling Richie's jacket in his hands in some hope of stabilizing himself. "God I hate this fucking jacket."
Richie barked out a surprised laugh. "Would you shut up, you asshole? We were worried sick."
"Yeah, are you okay?!" Ben asked, pulling away from the hug to look at Eddie.
Everyone else pulled away too, except Eddie. He stood there, still clinging onto Richie. Richie had to remind himself it was for balance; he was clearly disoriented. But he'd be lying if he said his ears weren't burning.
"I'm okay," he assured, already sounding more like himself.
"What the hell happened?" Stan asked, looking around—that look on his face suggested that maybe he saw what Richie had seen too.
"I don't know," Eddie murmured, shaking his head. "I was just practicing the whole navigation thing and then... I'm not sure."
"Well you're okay, that's what matters." Bev said with a small smile, rubbing his back comfortingly.
"Yeah, let's get out of here." Ben said quickly.
"No." Bill said after a moment, his eyes distant. "It's still h-here."
You should let him go.
Richie snapped his head around frantically. He couldn't tell where it had come from, and no one else seemed to even notice.
You've been holding onto him too long. He'll figure it out.
"Do you guys hear that?" he whispered.
"No. Do you hear something?" Mike asked, but he clearly could already tell something was going on with Richie; he mirrored his fear and confusion—he felt it.
"Richie?" Eddie asked worriedly. "What do you hear?"
What'll you do when he finds out? He probably already knows. You shouldn't touch him.
Richie let Eddie go like he'd been caught doing something wrong and took a step back, trying to look around everywhere at once. "Shut up," he muttered, fear spiking in his chest.
"Richie?" Eddie asked, more adamant now.
When Richie looked at him again, he was too far away. All of them were. Yet he knew if he reached out, he could still touch him. His head ached the more he looked at them; the more the space between them stretched and warped.
He looked to the ground as he went to take a step forward, but the ground beneath him dipped and sunk. He'd fall in.
"Richie!" Eddie shouted, stealing his attention back. He reached out over the impossible distance—
Don't touch him.
Richie pulled his arm away before he could grab it. But Eddie wasn't having it. He reached out again, this time grabbing Richie's wrist before he could pull away. "Richie!"
Everything snapped back; the earth came rushing back under his feet and suddenly the Losers were right here. The stillness was abrupt and like running into a wall, but he was grateful to have it back. "Jesus Christ," he muttered.
"Are you okay?" Eddie asked worriedly.
"Yeah," Richie said with a small, humorless laugh. "That sucked. A lot. I thought—"
"You guys," Bev whispered fearfully, her eyes locked on something down the street. "What is that thing?"
Richie almost didn't want to look. But he did as the others did; he slowly turned to follow her gaze.
And Richie thought Dandelion was scary.
This one was humanoid, but not enough. Twisted, dark horns from its head like a ram; its skin looked dead, its face was too flat. Its legs were like a goats', and its eyes were nothing but black. A long beard hung off its face, filled with something almost like bugs. But once again, not enough; some had too many legs, too little. Too big or too small. Not the right colors, not the right shapes.
Looking at it was like trying to put together a puzzle with missing pieces. It made his head hurt.
"Bill," Richie said slowly, not taking his eyes off it, like that might hold it in place. "What do we do?"
Bill shook his head, thinking hard, screwing his eyes shut. "I can a-almost—" his eyes flew open. "The cards!" He yanked them out of his pocket, dropping to his knees and haphazardly beginning to place them about. "I think I-I-I can figure it out if I u-use the cards," Bill explained.
Richie watched Bill's shaking fingers quickly align them into an actual, usable formation. "You better hurry up, I don't think that thing is gonna wait—" he looked back to it. It was gone. "—much longer..."
"Bill!" Ben shrieked.
Bill's fingers froze just as he was about to touch a card. It was standing right behind him, and Bill didn't have to turn around to know it was there.
Everyone froze, every single one of them holding their breath. No one had to say a word, but not one of them would risk moving when it was that close to him.
"I see," it spoke, aloud this time. Its voice was just as brain splitting to try and figure out as the rest of it—it sounded like it was echoing in their heads, even as they watched its mouth move. "Your mind is special. You have all the answers."
It moved like something ancient. Slow and calculated. It brought its hands down, placing one against either side of Bill's head. Slowly, those endless eyes swept across each one of the Losers, something like a smile on its face.
"But I bet it'll still squish like a grape, don't you think?"
"Hey!" Mike shouted, hurling one impressive-sized rock right at its head, chipping off a piece of its horn. It shrieked something horrible before it disappeared into thin air, just like it had done before. But it wasn't gone, even Richie knew that.
Richie gingerly touched his finger to his ringing ear. It was bleeding—so was everybody else's.
"Well that was nostalgic," Richie said, a very noticeable tremor in his voice as he wiped the blood off on his pants. He was scared out of his mind. "Hitting bad guys with rocks is sort of our brand, huh?"
"Richie, not now," Eddie said sharply. "Are you alright, Bill?"
Mike was crouched at his side, but Bill barely paid either of them any mind. "I'm fine, I gotta h-hurry," he muttered, quickly grabbing a card. "Ace of Swords," he whispered, then his pupils dilated and he went completely silent.
"It's like waiting for slow internet, huh?" Richie joked, sounding just as terrified as he was feeling, glancing over his shoulder constantly.
Everyone looked at him disapprovingly. He couldn't help it, he was scared, he needed his shitty jokes.
After a few seconds, Bill's eyes snapped back to normal and he dropped the card. "I know what we n-need to do."
Just as he said that, it reappeared, only twenty feet from them. It wasn't smiling anymore.
"We're gonna need that info real damn quick, Bill." Richie said, fighting the rising hysteria in his voice.
"It won't be k-killed physically," he said, quickly getting to his feet. He looked at Stan. "All we n-need to do is get in its m-mind. Then it's o-over."
Stan frantically glanced between Bill and the very angry monster man-thing staring them down. "Why are you looking at me?" he asked, shifting his weight anxiously between his heels. "I can't do that, I barely know I'm doing, I—"
"You can do it." Eddie said firmly. "Just try. I just tried to navigate for the first time and it brought me here."
"And I followed Eddie's memories here," Mike added as comfortingly as he could. "You can do it, Stanley."
"We can w-weaken it for him," Bill added, this time looking at Richie. "It can't handle b-being confused. Ignorance w-weakens it."
Richie sputtered in shock. "Why are you looking at me?!"
"You know damn well why he's looking at you, Richie." Bev cut in, not a hint of amusement in her voice. "Now do what you do best and annoy it."
Richie shook his head, looking back at it. It turned its head to look right back at him, sending a cold shiver down his spine. "I don't know, I don't think—"
"Richie," Eddie said, softly, just between them. "You can do it. Just pretend it's something else."
Richie stared at him for a moment, searching his eyes. He looked certain—certain in Richie. If Eddie thought he could do it, then he must be able to.
He glanced back at the thing standing there, waiting for him.
"Hey." Richie spoke, trying to keep his voice steady. This was just another person; nothing to be scared of. "Is all you can do mind games? That's kinda lame. Like, we just fought a whole ass lion yesterday."
It growled from somewhere deep in its chest. "Do you know what you speak about, boy? Your mind is helpless to mine."
"Is it, though?" Richie asked, crossing his arms. "Cause sure, you made me a little dizzy, but did anything really happen to me?"
It took a step forward. "I could crush your head in my hands." It whispered, speaking out loud and in Richie's mind at the same time.
"I don't know about that either. We just threw a rock at you and your freaking horn broke. Honestly, what can you actually do that we should be worried about?"
"I am millions of years old." It grumbled, walking in that ancient stride towards Richie. I have lived longer than your entire lineage ever will. Your mind is a toy to me.
The ground warped under him again; he almost stumbled just looking at it. So, he closed his eyes.
"Okay, boomer." He said with a grin. "You're super old, good for you. Just proving my point."
It let out the most animalistic shriek Richie had ever heard; it sent shock waves across his skin. His eyes flashed open and all he saw was blackness—he was face-to-face with it, staring right into its eyes. It was bottomless, he'd drown. He was drowning.
Suddenly, its eyes screwed shut and Richie remembered how to breathe, sucking in a desperate breath and falling back on his ass, eagerly crawling backwards—anything to get away from it.
It slowly brought shaking hands up to its head, snarling. "You," it growled, turning towards Stan.
Stan stood there, shaking all over; his pupils were barely there at all and every trace of color was gone from his skin. He was holding his breath, his chest occasionally spasming with the need to breathe, but he didn't seem to notice.
"There's no way you can get into my mind," it growled, taking a lurching step at him, but it was beginning to shake too.
"I can," Stan strained. And he did.
The moment he pierced its mind, it screamed—the ground underneath it cracked and everyone was knocked off their feet, right to the ground. Stan couldn't hold it, but he didn't need to, that was enough.
Its head began splitting right down the center, slow, like it was being peeled away. Its brain within was black, the same color and depth of its eyes. The monster was desperately trying to hold the splitting sides of its head together, but it didn't matter. Its body was erupting in cracks like the surface of old asphalt. Pieces began to crumble off of it; they disappeared into dust as they hit the ground.
Its eyes turned back up to them one last time. You could never be ready for what's coming.
Then, thankfully, it fell away completely.
Bill gasped and grasped at his chest like he hadn't been breathing at all this entire time. Mike scrambled to his hands and knees, crawling over to him. "Are you alright?!"
Everyone looked at him, terrified of what he would say—Richie didn't know how much more he could take today. Bill panted for a moment before looking around, a hesitant smile finding his face. "We k-killed it."
Everyone let out some kind of sigh of relief. Richie laid back with a loud, dramatic sigh. "Oh my god. Never again, I never want to do this again."
Eddie took a moment to just breathe before smiling over at him. "Weren't you the one suggesting monster hunting this summer?"
"Kaspbrak, shush. No one asked you."
Eddie laughed, and it was so warm and safe, everything all at once suddenly felt okay again. Like the world had never been disturbed in the first place.
Stan was just lying on the ground, staring up at the sky. "I think I'm done with the monster hunting now," he said, tiredly, making everyone laugh. He smiled, but Richie was pretty sure part of him wasn't joking.
"Can we please go home?" Ben practically pleaded; a smile glued to his face.
"Home," Eddie said, looking at Neibolt. Richie was pretty sure he knew what he was going to say before he did. "Guys, I navigated 'home', and this is where it took me..."
The smiles fell from everyone's faces as they turned to look at it—that house—all at the same time. Yet when Richie looked at it now, after all that, it didn't feel like such a threat anymore.
"We have to." Richie said, sitting up. "We can't be alone anymore; we could've lost Eddie. That thing took all of us to beat and we still just managed to stumble through that fight."
"He's right," Bev sighed, glancing over at the house once again. "Home sweet home, I guess."
"Something like that," Stan grumbled.
"It won't be so bad," Mike said optimistically. "We can fix it up. And we'll all be together."
"Yeah, maybe we can turn it into less of a goddamn nightmare," Richie said with a grin. "I mean, if we took out Boomer, there's literally no nightmare we can't get rid of."
They laughed, and everyone took it upon themselves to rest in the middle of the road.
Eddie glanced over at Richie, letting out a breath. "Do you think we should be worried? About what it said; about us not being ready for what's coming?"
"Nah," Richie said without missing a beat. "Sounded to me like an old man-thing's last, stubborn 'fuck you' before getting his ass beat by us." He grinned. "I think we're gonna kick plenty more ass." And yes, he was saying it to make Eddie feel better, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't feeling pretty confident right now.
Eddie shook his head; small, delicate laughs floating out of him. He leaned over and rested his head on Richie's shoulder. "That was exhausting."
Richie smiled, his chest stirring. He put his arm around him. "You're so lucky we came to your rescue, Eduardo."
Eddie just rolled his eyes. "I could've done it without you losers."
Richie laughed, giving Eddie a slight squeeze, effectively pulling him in just a bit closer—just enough to make Richie's head spin.
"You've been holding onto him too long. He'll figure it out."
Yeah, fuck that. Call him crazy, but he decided not to let the decrepit-ass monster get into his head more than it already had. Boomers never knew what they were talking about, anyway.
So instead, he pinched at Eddie's sides. "Yeah? Could've handled that all yourself, huh?"
Eddie laughed and elbowed him, so Richie just took threw himself back, taking them both down.
And maybe there was just something about wrestling in the middle of the street right outside the killer clown house that was about to become their house, all while their friends completely and utterly ignored them; but Richie suddenly had the feeling that maybe this was all going to end just fine.