The Years After (IT Chapter Two fanfic)(Sequel to Summer of '89)

9.

Charlie ran inside the inn and headed straight to the bar. She was never much of an alcoholic, but with all that was going on, a drink made her feel a bit better.

She grabbed a beer and uncapped it. She chugged half of it and breathed out, relaxing a bit. She dropped on the couch that was next to the stairs and the door and lowered her head. She closed her eyes and tried to regain her breathing.

The door opened suddenly and Richie came rushing inside.

"Woah Jesus!" he exclaimed.

Charlie raised her head. He probably didn't notice her with her baseball cap over her face.

"What happened?" she asked him. He looked terrified.

"I'm leaving" he walked up the stairs.

"What?" she left the empty beer bottle on the table and ran after Richie.

When she entered his room he was already packing his bag.

"Woah woah Rich, come on, let's talk about this" she said getting near him, but he jumped back.

"No Charlie! Look, I should've never come here okay. This fucking town messed me up and I can't stay here anymore" he told her.

"Look Richie, I dunno what happened but you can't leave alright. It's just going to keep haunting you and it won't stop till we kill IT"

He stopped and sat on the bed.

"We need you Rich" she told him.

He put his hands over his face and Charlie could tell he was tearing up. She wondered what he encountered when he went to find his artifact.

"I just ... I fucking hate clowns" he said.

Charlie knew that was his childhood fear, but she knew he wasn't telling her something, the clown wasn't the only thing that happened when he went to the arcade.

But she didn't mention it. She sat down next to him and put an arm around on his shoulder.

"I know Rich" she said, leaning her head on his shoulder. He had been her best friend since they met from that first fight. They always understood each other's jokes and laughed at them.

Richie looked at Charlie, "Thank you Ms. Thing"

She smiled at him and left his room to give him some space. But little did she know when she closed the door, he was jumping out from the window and heading to his car.

When she was going down the stairs, Eddie was going up and he looked terrified. He was covered in muck and she wondered what happened to him.

"Eddie?" she asked him.

"I'm fine, I'm good" he said, not making any eye contact with her. He was definitely not fine.

She met Beverly and Bill at the bottom.

"What's up with Ed's?"

"We don't know he wouldn't talk to us either" Beverly told her.

Charlie went to the bar to get another beer and when she walked back into the other room, she saw Bill and Bev kissing.

She leaned against the door frame and drank her beer as they did. They stopped kissing and looked embarrassed when they saw her watching them.

"Nah, continue, I was only watching" she smirked as she took another drink.

Suddenly, a skateboard was moving down the stairs all by itself. When it met them at the bottom, it flipped over and it had writing on it with blood. They knew it was the work of Pennywise, but Beverly and Charlie couldn't understand what it meant.

"I gotta go" Bill said as he rushed through the door right when Ben came through it.

Beverly and Charlie looked at each other confused. They tried to reason with him but he walked out the door.

"What's up with Bill?" Ben asked.

But they then heard a scream from upstairs.

"Eddie?"

They all ran upstairs and crashed through Eddie's room.

"Eddie?!" Charlie called out. He wasn't in the room.

They went inside the bathroom and saw the shower curtain on the floor with blood splattered everywhere.

"Holy shit" Charlie said with widened eyes

She then turned and saw Eddie in the bathtub with a cut on his cheek.

"Holy shit Eddie!" she ran into the bathtub and gripped his arms.

"Is it bad?" he asked with blood spilling from his mouth.

Charlie didn't answer right away. She grabbed towels and pressed them on the cut.

"What happened?"

"Bowers is back" he said with more blood spilling out.

Ben looked out the window and saw a grown up Henry, pulling out a bloody knife from his chest.

"Look Eddie, I'm going to return you the favor of stitching you up okay, like you did to the rest of us when we got in fights" Charlie said.

And heaven knows how many fights and injuries Charlie has gotten when she was a kid. From sports to physical fights, Eddie always bandaged her and took care of her wounds. He was like the mom of the group, but cooler.

She looked through his bags and found the aid kit he had and started to bandage his cut. It wasn't as perfect as he would do for them, but from the experience she had, she did pretty good.

"Guys, Richie isn't here" Ben said. He went to go get him at his room but he wasn't there.

"Fuck Richie" Charlie put her hands on top of her head.

"Yeah and where's Mike?" Beverly asked.

Charlie looked up at them, "I know where he is"