Dear Eddie (my love)

<3

"Eddie?" Richie whispered in the dark, desperately hoping for an answer. The silence from his friend was too much for him-too loud for him. He couldn't stand it. "Eddie?" He said again, a broken sob this time. "Eds?" He knew it was the end for him. That short brunette with large doe eyes was now dead, bleeding onto the jagged floor and staring blankly at the ceiling; A ghost of a smile plastered on his too-pale face. Richie stared longingly at the boy and gritted his teeth; he would not cry. Eddie never liked it when he wept; it was sporadic for him to cry in front of Eddie because he never had a reason to. He was always with him, and that was all that mattered at the time.

The distant voices of his friends broke him from thoughts, and he stood up gently. Walking as if in an illusion towards the losers- His losers. Not before glancing back guiltily, though. He couldn't do it. He couldn't turn his back on the person he once knew, not now. Not when they were so close to defeating it. Were they beating it? He could hear Its raging clashes and constant whimpers of pain echoing through the darkness. But at the same time, Richie couldn't listen to it. He could only see that ragged body that lay in the corner of the cave; he could only see his dead best friend. Why did it have to be Eddie? Why couldn't it have been him? These questions ran through his head as he finally understood.

He loved Eddie, and he would continue loving him even through death. Nothing could part them. Even the line between life and death, their love was more powerful. More powerful than anything else. Of course, he had been aware of these romantic feelings since he was young, sharing hammocks with him and comic books. He had wanted much more than that. At the time, he thought of it as just a high-school crush. It was much deeper than that. It had never hit him of how much he loved his best friend, romantically and platonically. He had loved Eddie more than anything in the world, even now. For God's sake, he'd rather burn in the depths of hellfire than let him down. Eddie had died for him, and Richie knew he would've done the same.

And then he knew what Eddie's last words were about to be.

He walked to his losers, not glancing back this time.

-R+E