The losers club all walked through the empty streets of Derry, following Mike as he led them somewhere.
Lyd's looked up to the sky. It wasn't fully light out yet, but it was still a bit dark, so the sun would probably be coming up soon.
She looked around slowly at each person around her. She stood at the back, in between Richie and Ben, Eddie standing beside Richie and Stanley standing up front beside Beverly and Bill with Mike leading everyone.
She didn't know whether or not to tell everyone what she had seen. Or even to just tell Stan that she saw what was meant to happen. What he was going to do. But what good would it bring everyone? She can just magically see their deaths now? Or the past? How things were meant to happen? It didn't make sense.
"Hey, you okay?" Richie spoke, lightly tapping her arm to get her attention
Lydia looked at him and nodded, "yeah I'm fine, was just thinking"
Richie looked at her suspiciously "about what?"
"Nothing really... just- somewhat normal stuff"
"Mhm, what's 'somewhat normal stuff'"
"Well, look where I'm standing right now. Look where we are. Derry. Obviously what we're going through isn't exactly normal. So, I'm just thinking about that." She lied, looking back ahead of her to hopefully end the conversation.
She didn't exactly want to lie, but it felt like she had to. She didn't know whether what she saw would be a one time thing, or if it would happen again. And she knew that if she told the losers, they would have a lot of questions. Ones she wouldn't be able to answer.
Richie stared at his sister for a moment and squinted his eyes, clearly trying to decide whether he felt she was lying or not, that was until Eddie tapped his shoulder to get his attention and whispered
"why are you looking at her like that?"
Richie glanced over at Lydia, who was too distracted looking down at her feet, occasionally looking up towards the rest of the group, before looking back at Eddie "She's lying."
"What? About what?" Eddie asked
"Something. I just know she is."
Eddie scoffed quietly "Rich, you cant just decide someone is lying about 'something'. You don't know she is. She has nothing to lie about."
"I haven't just decided... I know her. I met her before all you guys, I've known her my whole life, and she's my sister. I know she's like- the worst liar to exist. Not only that, but she had no reaction when finding out about what Stan almost did. I mean, come on... I know they barely speak anymore, but they're still married. They still love- or loved each other. She would have had a reaction. She somehow knew what he was going to do, but Stan didn't tell her... so.. who did... because there's only one person I can think of who would do that." Rich ranted, waving his hands around as he explained himself and Eddie listened carefully.
"Okay... you sorta have a point, but, Lydia would have told us if she had an interaction with the clown. And we don't know if the clown is powerful enough to even show something like that, to show the past- or the future- or death, whatever. Also, when could it have even happened? She's been with us ever since finding out about the clown being back, and it definitely didn't happen the night before she came here, or else she would have said when we asked about him at the table. I think you're a bit off.." Eddie told him, looking over at Lydia.
"not all the time." Richie spoke quietly
"what?"
"She wasn't with us all the time, she was at that house- with Stan. She stayed there overnight, that's plenty of time. She has been really quiet since coming back from there, and its not just because he's here now. There is something. I'm telling you."
Eddie sighed and stopped walking for a bit, Richie doing the same, and turned to look at Richie "Look, man, I think you're just paranoid. Lyds would tell you if something was truly bothering her, and even if it did happen-which I really don't think it did- she seems okay, she knows it didn't actually happen, he's fine. Anyway, why would only she see it? Why not the rest of us? It just doesn't make sense. You're just worried about her because of Stan being here, I get she's your sister and best friend, but she's okay."
Richie sighed, looking away from him, trying to think of a reply, but before he could, Mike spoke up
"Guys, hurry! We're almost there."
The two of them turned around to see the rest of the group standing way ahead of them, standing near the entrance of a little lane between a bunch of trees that led to a open field beside the train tracks, all waiting for the two.
Richie and Eddie quickly ran up to the rest and followed as they walked down the lane and into the field, watching as a train went by.
At this point it was light outside- probably at least seven in the morning, which Richie absolutely hated.
They continued their walk, all following Mike as he brought them wherever he wanted to.
Lydia had somehow ended up walking at the back of the group, too focused on her thoughts to keep up a fast enough pace to stay near the front, and Ben was now at the front as Mike guided him.
The group all slowed down, noticing where they were.
"The barrens..." Lydia spoke up first, looking at all the trees surrounding her.
Ben smiled and looked around "this is where we came... after the rock fight"
Lydia let out a small laugh "oh my god, the rock fight. With uhm- Henry! Henry and his goons. That was when we first met Mike.." she spoke, smiling at the memory
Richie looked around a bit, thinking "the clubhouse."
Everyone, but Stan and Bill who had walked away to look around, turned to Ben.
"Oh yeah, you built that for us!" Beverly spoke, laughing a bit
Richie walked towards the front of the group "yeah, yeah, the hatch has got to be around he somewhere" He spoke, walking forward as Stan and Bill walked back to the group
Lydia began looking down at the floor, kicking some of the leaves around to try find the hatch, everyone else doing the same
Ben stood in front of them all, stomping his foot around to see if he could find it "you know what, I actually think the door was more like around-" he began, only to be cut off with the sound of wood breaking and leaves flying up in the air as Ben fell through the door to the clubhouse
"Guess he found it..." Lydia spoke, causing Richie to let out a loud snort
"I'm okay! Come down!" Ben shouted from inside
Slowly the group all climbed down, Lydia being the last one to go in
As Lydia looked around her and into the darkness, she thought back to the first time Ben had ever brought them there.
"What the dick is this? How'd you build it?" Richie asked after he climbed down the ladder, pushing his glasses up and walking around to the other side
Bill came down right behind him and looked around closely "When did you build it?"
"Here and there, I guess.." Ben began, "It was already dug out for something so I just had to reinforce the walls, get some wood for the- for the roof door and that's pretty much it. Pretty good for my first time huh?" He spoke, leaning against one of the support beams, jumping back as it caused one of the pieces of wood on the roof to fall down
"now that's a cool feature" Richie scoffed "what happens when you put your hand on the other pillar professor?"
Lydia lightly hit his shoulder "shut up Rich, I think its really cool Ben, it could be a really cool place to hang out" She smiled encouragingly, although she did step a bit away from any of the pillars just to be safe
"Okay, you see, this is exactly why there are safety codes, why we even have permits. This place is a death trap, you understand that? " Eddie, of course, spoke quickly, moving fast to stand in front of Ben.
"Its a work in progress okay Eddie?" Ben answered
Eddie didn't even wait a second before quickly speaking again "just so you know, I get hurt, you're reliable. And also what is this? The switch from iron maiden?" he asked, hitting something that was attached to a chain on the ceiling.
"That- that's a flashlight" Ben stuttered, most likely taken back by how fast Eddie was talking
"And what is that? A horse hitch? " Eddie began, pointing across the room and walking towards what he was talking about "When do you have horses down- oh this is cool" He cut himself off, leaning down to pick up a paddle ball from the floor
Lydia had to stop herself from letting out a loud laugh at him, Stan, who stood beside her, held his hand up to his mouth, trying to cover the fact he was laughing too.
"That was like three dollars so be careful with that please" Ben told him
"I have one of these" He said before beginning to bounce the ball off it, towards Stan's face "hey Stan, you see this?"
Stan flinched back a little, the ball getting really close to his face "Yeah okay can you maybe not-"
"Maybe not what? Huh, Maybe not what, be awesome and have fun and celebrate the magic of the paddle ball?" Eddie interrupted, hitting the ball harder and singing the word 'paddle ball'
He ended up hitting it so fast and hard that he flung the whole thing out of his hand and watched as Lydia stepped back quickly to avoid being hit.
The ball broke off the paddle ball, rolling down onto the floor and in-between one of the pieces of wood sitting on the floor, Ben sighing as he watched it happen.
"Wow. Oh good going fucknut you broke his thing" Eddie spoke
"I broke it?!" Stan asked, looking at Eddie angrily
" Yeah, you broke it with your face."
"What-" Stan replied, pulling a confused face
"Okay, calm down, Eddie just grab the ball, I'm sure it can be fixed." Lydia spoke up
Eddie looked at her as though she was stupid "I'm not putting my fucking hand down there!"
"Eddie you broke it!" Lydia told him
"There could be like- sixty different diseases down there! I am not touching it!"
Lydia lifted a small piece of wood from the floor, holding it up and running towards Eddie "what about this? How many diseases you think would be on this?"
Eddie widened his eyes and quickly turned away, running around the room "Lydia fuck off that's disgusting!"
The losers club all laughed loudly as they watched Eddie scream and shout, running around the room like mad.
Eventually they all had picked up pieces of wood and chased him around, only until he agreed to replacing the paddle ball for Ben.
Lydia came back into reality, smiling a bit as she walked forward, towards the piece of wood and pulled out the old, dirty ball, laughing a bit at the shock it was still there.
Eddie walked behind her and smiled at the ball "Wow, its still there.."
"Well of course it is, you refused to pick it up" Stan answered him, walking over beside him and laughing
"One of you could have picked it up" Eddie retorted
"You broke it." Stan argued
"No you did."
"No, you."
"YOU broke-"
"Eddie do you want to be chased with some wood again? From what I recall it was very fun" Lydia interrupted the two, smiling innocently at Eddie who slightly backed away from her
"no..."
Lydia laughed, shaking her head "Well then I advise you both stop arguing like-"
Lydia, and the rest of the losers who had all spread out across the room, looking at all the memories, were interrupted by a raspy voice coming from the darkest part of the room.
"hey losers."
Lydia quickly stood up from where she was kneeling on the floor, looking into the dark corner of the room.
"Time to float.." The voice continued
Stan grabbed Lydia's arm, pulling her back towards the rest of the group as she was closest to the dark space.
Mike held up a baseball bat he thankfully had next to him, and Ben had backed away so much he had almost stumbled over a chair.
However, all their panic stopped when Richie jumped out from the darkness, laughing loudly
"Fuck, Richie..." Mike mumbled, letting out a breath and putting down the bat
Stan slowly dropped his hand from around Lydia's arms, letting out a sigh of relief
"Dude!" Eddie spoke
"Don't fucking do that you idiot." Lydia continued
"Remember he used to say that shit? And he would do that little dance" Richie laughed before swinging his arms side to slide, singing the tune of circus music.
When no one laughed, or even cracked a smile, he threw his hands down to the side "am I the only one remembering this shit?"
"Are you gonna be like this the entire time we're home?" Eddie spoke, clearly annoyed at Richie already
Richie nodded awkwardly "Alright- just trying to add some levity to this shit. I'll go fuck myself." he spoke before walking away from where he was standing, whistling the circus music to himself
"Smells so fucking terrible in here" Eddie whispered.
Lydia was still standing staring into the dark spot, when Richie had began to sing the circus music, and recreating the dance, it reminded her of something. Of somewhere, with the clown. In a dark and dirty place... but she couldn't remember anything.
And it was starting to really get to her.
She felt useless.
and tired.
already.
how is she going be able to do this?