love ; bill denbrough

33

Cass

"We need to get our stories straight before the morning paper is out!" I called to the guys as Bill and I ran upstairs. They were all huddled in the upstairs hallway, lying on eachother with tired eyes, waiting for Bill and I.

"I'm sorry guys," I stated as they all stood, trying to act like they weren't tired. I held Eddie's wrist for a moment looking at his calculator watch. "But it's 1am and if we're gonna do this it has to be now." 

"No s-stone unturned." Bill added, closing the bedroom door on Georgie and Teddy, and my mothers door next to it. They all followed Bill and I downstairs into my kitchen, making their places at the table. I closed the kitchen door. "Firstly we need to all swear that this doesn't leave this room. We tell the officers, and then we're done. No word of it after that. If we get caught, we're in the deepest shit you could imagine."

"I'm gonna end up in prison somehow so it doesn't really matter to me." Richie shrugged and Eddie slapped him up the side of the head.

"Swear."

"Scouts honour."

"Promise."

"Of course."

"Tell us what we need to know. What's the plan?" Bev asked.

"Henry is b-being pinned with every s-s-single murder. It's not looking g-good. He had bloody c-clothes, the murder weapon he used on his f-f-father."

"Not to mention they found him with me in his car, all beat up." I stated. I messed around with the coffee machine, trying to make a large pot for me and the guys to help us out with our fatigue a bit.

"So if Cass says he didn't do anything wrong, he was helping her?" Richie asked.

"That's one charge out the window but he still doesn't have an alibi for the other kids." Mike shook his head.

"Well, we're gonna give him one." I stated confidently and Stan got up from his seat to help me take the cups of coffee to everyone. "We're gonna blame Henry's father, and in turn we have to account for every minute of the day his father was murdered. This has to be perfect."

"I have something." Bill got up and left the room, and then the house. He returned in no time with a huge whiteboard that we'd used during the whole summer to fill with conspiracies about the missing kids.

"Okay so Henry's father killed all of the children. He's a cop, he knows Cop tricks that makes sense. But how did Henry not spot his father's weird behaviour, late nights coming home, blood covered clothes. As his son, he'd have definitely have seen something." Mike asked, staring off into space as if it would make him think clearer.

"Unless he was never home?" Ben asked. 

"Unless his father abused Henry, and Henry avoided home at all costs! Who would he have stayed with in this scenario?" Richie asked. For every question answered there was another proposed. We'd probably be here a long time.

"Me." I stated. "He stayed with me, that's why he has a crush on me, because I was an escape from his broken home."

"He bullied us all the time, what if they don't buy it?" Stan wondered.

"He bullied us because he was insecure. We knew all about big bad Henry getting abused, he bullied us so he wouldn't lose anymore respect at school. He wanted to be everything he wasn't at home." Bev suggested.

"Good one." I heard the pen squeak as bill wrote down the idea, 'Henry bullied'.

"Richie." I grabbed some glass bottles from the recycling bin. "We need you right now. Ride to Henry's house and smash some of these around the place. His father was a drinker, this will make it look he got a little too drunk sometimes, maybe did some target practice with his son?" I suggested. 

"Oh you're good." Richie grabbed my backpack that i'd dumped in the hallway and dropped the bottles in. 

"Don't let anyone see you!" I warned.

"Are you kidding? I'm stealthy," He popped the collar on his Hawaiian shirt. "Like a ninja."

I think everyone cringed a little as he slammed the door behind him, despite his supposed ninja skills. Henry didn't live too far, so we decided to wait for Richie to return, still all brainstorming ideas. 

:::

Eventually, Richie did return, having smashed the bottles I had given and some milk bottles that he'd collected from people's porches on the journey. It was 4am, but we were wired. We could hardly sit down, as the plan was coming to a close.

"Saturday morning, Henry would've been at Saturday school because he was failing maths. That same day, you losers told Henry that I had disappeared whilst exploring Neibolt House, and you didn't report to the police because you were scared about getting pinned for trespassing. Henry has a crush on me, so he went down into the sewers under Neibolt, that's why his DNA is down there. He went home to report what he'd seen to his father, the officer, but found me there instead waiting to see him, maybe to tell him we couldn't be around eachother since he had a crush on me? Henry's father had too much to drink, and having been confronted about the child murders Henry had seen, he got aggressive. Henry, having lived through his fathers abuse for years tried to stand up for me, knowing he wasn't gonna quit. Henry's father pulled a knife on me, and in a struggle to stop him paired with his delirious drunken state, he stabbed me."

"What if the wounds aren't consistent?" Stan poked holes in the story. 

"We pray that they don't do some crazy testing shit." Richie answered, we were in way over our heads.

"Henry stabs his father, and takes me to the hospital in his car. Then, we're here." 

"This is not gonna work." Eddie huffed.

"Well don't testify, but I am. I'm gonna try my hardest to make sure Henry doesn't have to go down for what happened. Our brothers are sleeping peacefully up there because of him and i'll be damned if I don't put up a fight for him."

A/N: Hi guys, i've been gone for absolutely ages so i'm very sorry for that and very sorry for this little filler chapter but I'll try and give another update soon!