This Town

06

                  "Mike"

"Thanks guys but you shouldn't have done that." Mike said to the group of kids as they walked down a field. "They'll be after you guys too now."

"Oh no no no Bowers? He's always after us. Well except Evelyn for some reason." Eddie said from his place in the front.

"Its because i know how to make him feel like a child being scolded by their mother." Richie snickers at the girls statement.

"I guess thats one t-thing we have in common." Bill stutters from his place like he always does, but he smiles when he heard what Evelyn said.

"Yeah homeschool, welcome to the losers club!" Richie said as him and Evelyn were laughing about something the boy had said.

"Your gonna love it." Evelyn cheered making everyone smile. None of the losers had seen her so care free. When they saw her at school she was always so perfect. Not that she isn't to them but now they get to see the fun and immature side of her. And they weren't complaining.

——

The group had walked down the fair. Richie had taken a band members tube and dragged Evelyn to watch him. "You are a horrible Tube player." Evelyn laughed at the boy.

The band member started fighting Richie for his Tuba and eventually got it back. "What the fuck dude?"

"What are you guys talking about?" Eddie asked icecream in both his hands.

"What they always talk about." Richie said as him and Evelyn walked over. Evelyn standing next to Beverly, leaning her head on the girls shoulder.

"I actually think it will end." Ben spoke up, everyone looked at him. "For a little while at least." Evelyn sighed, she didn't wanna talk about this clown anymore. All it did was scare her. After what happened the other night she was scared to go back home, with the fear of the clown watching her sleep.

"What do you mean?" Beverly laid her head on top of Evelyn's.

"So i was going over all my Derry research and i charted out all the big events. The ironworks explosion in 1908, the Bradley gang in 35, and the black spot in 62. And now kids being...I realised this stuff seems to happen..."

"every 27 years" Ben and Bill both finish.

The group had moved to sit down on some benches upon noticing Evelyn who was pretty much asleep on Beverly's shoulder. "Okay so let me get this straight. It comes out from wherever to eat kids for like a year? And then what? It just goes into hibernation?"

"Maybe its like...what do you call it? Cicadas. You know the bugs that come out every 17 years." The group had been scattered out, Stan sitting on the back of a bench. Beverly, Mike, and Ben sitting next to him on the bench seat. Bill and Eddie on Bill's bike. Richie on his own. Evelyn had been switching between the ground and the bench, she couldn't keep still for too long. The girl was not liking the conversation. When Bill had noticed her discomfort he grabbed her hand and pulled her to sit in-front of him. His hands rubbing her shoulders. Trying to calm her down.

"My grandfather thinks this town is cursed." Mike tells the group. "He says that all the bad things that happen in this town are because of one thing. An evil thing that feeds off the people of Derry."

"But it can't be one thing." Stanley looks at Mike. "We all saw something different."

"Maybe. Or maybe it knows what scares us most and thats what we see."

"I saw a leper." Eddie says. "He was like a walking infection."

"But you didn't. Because it isn't real." Stan says as he looks at his shoes. "Its not real. Not Eddies leper not Bills Georgie. Not the women i keep seeing." Stan insists.

"She hot?"

"Richie!"

"No Richie! She's not hot. Her face is all messed up. None of this makes any sense. They're all like bad dreams."

"I don't think so. I know the difference between a bad dream and real life okay?" Mike says.

"You saw it, you saw something? What was it?" Eddie ask as he watches Evelyn almost fall asleep for the fifth time that day, he was wondering if she didn't get much sleep last night.

"Do you guys know that burnt down house on Harris Avenue?" Mike starts. "I was inside when it burnt down. Before i was rescued, my mom and dad were trapped in the next room over from me. They were pushing and pounding on the door, trying to get to me. But it was too hot. When the fireman finally found them the skin on their hands had been melted down to bone."

"It makes sense." Evelyn adds to the conversation for the first time. "It explains why i saw cameras flashing outside my window last night. Because my biggest fear is for someone to be outside watching me and taking pictures of me through the window."

"We're all afraid of something." Mike says after they all process what the blonde had said. Bill rubbing her shoulders as she let her head fall back onto his leg.

"Got that right." Richie says as he looks behind him.

"Why Rich? What are you afraid of?"

"Clowns."

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Author's Note

I love Richie and Eddie, i also love Stan. If you don't like Stan what is going on with you? No im kidding we all have our own opinions. Who's your favourite member of the losers club? Mines either Stanley or Bill.
-Ella