Dare Me (Henry Bowers x Reader)

Tokens

In the bright light of the morning sun, we all make our adventure to the Barrens. Pass the tall grass from the hometown brings back so many memories. Jules and Calry... I wonder what they got into after we parted ways. We pass the opening to the swears, making out way into the woods. Everyone gathers around, the memory coming to light. Ben smiles, "This is where we came after the rock fight." Richie stops in realization, "The clubhouse." I look at the ground smiling, "I remember! I searched for hours looking for you guys!" Bev laughs, "Ben build us the best hideaway possible!"

Richie pushes through making his way to the middle, "The hatch has got to be around here someplace." "You know what? I actually think the door was more like around... "Ben searches for the door, but before any entrance is revealed, he falls right through the roof of the clubhouse. "Found it. I'm okay! Come down!"

~

Richie looks around shocked as he sees the clubhouse, "What the dick is this? How'd you build it?" Bill looks around amazed, "When did you build it?"

"Here and there, I guess. It was already dug out from something, so I just had to reinforce the walls and get some wood for the roof door, and that's pretty much it. Pretty good for my first time, huh?" Ben leans against a beam only for a panel of the roof to collapse. Richie scoffs, "Now, that's a cool feature. What happens when you put your hand on the other pillar, professor?"

Eddie scurries around examing everything, "Okay, you see, this is exactly why there are safety codes, why we have permits. This place is a death trap. You understand that?" "Well, it's a work in progress. Okay, Eddie?" "Just so you know, I get hurt, you are liable." Eddie hits a chain hanging on the wall, "And, also, what is this? The switch of an iron maiden?" "That's a flashlight."

Eddie reaches down retrieving a wooden pad with a ball attached, the best toy around. "Oh, this is cool." "Let me try!" Richie pulls at Eddie's hands. "Stop it!" "Give it!" "I had it first!" "No! You just wanted it first!" "You can't even do it right!"

"What the fuck knuckle is this?" The club gasps as (Y/n) Tozier enters the clubhouse. "Our clubhouse!" Ben smiles cheerfully. She nods her head thinking, how She and Henry could ditch school and hide out here.

She looks to Richie and Eddie fighting over the toy, "Boys, straighten up. Rich, let Ed's have it." Richie huffs and releases the toy, only for the ball to fall right off the elastic string. Ben looks at the ground, where the ball had disappeared between the floor panels,  "That was like, three dollars," (Y/n) leans on Ben's shoulder, "I got your back, Ben."

~

I shake my head continuing to look around, "How do we all not remember that this was here?" Bev asks looking around in wonder.

The wooden posts creak loudly, "Hey, Losers." A voice creeps from the dark. I back up against the dirt, ready to claw my way out. "Time to float!"

"AHHH!" I swing a board hitting Richie in the face. "Ah! FUCK!" He falls to his ass in the dirt, "What the fuck, Richie?" He holds his head, as he rolls on the dirt. "FUCK! I was being funny! Remember when he used to say that shit? And he'd do that little dance. Am I the only one who remembers this shit?" Eddie glares at him, "Are you gonna be like this the entire time we're home?"

"All right. Just trying to add some levity to this shit. I'll go fuck myself." I look to my left right beside my head on the wall, a shelf with a coffee container, labeled Stan. I pick it up, passing it to Bill. "This says, Stan." Bill looks over the words, "For the use of Losers only."

~

Riche flicks the shower cap away. "The fuck is this?" Stan smiles at his friend, "So you don't get spiders stuck in your hair when you're down here." I snatch a shower cap, throwing my hair up into the cap. "I think it's a great idea!" I smile at Stan.

Richie rolls his eyes, "Stanley, we're not afraid of fucking spiders." Looking past Stand and me Richie sees every single one of us with a shower cap on, "I stand corrected."

"That's a first." "Touche." Eddie walks up to Richie, swinging his arms, "Hey, Rich, your ten minutes are up." "What are you talking about?" "The hammock. Ten minutes each was the rule. (Y/n) even said so." I nodded taking a seat on a box, "I did say that."

"Hmm. Well, I don't see any sign." Richie searches the clubhouse looking for the set of rules, "Are you being this way right now? Why would there be a sign if it was a verbal agreement?" Eddie argues with Richie. I try to pull Richie out of the hammock, but he fights me off. "Stop it! RAPE! RAPE!" I push him over, "Shut up, Richie! Give him the hammock!" "NO!" by the end both boys are situated in the hammock on opposite ends.

Bev leans against a post, smoking, and watching Ben stable the roof, "You're awfully good at this, new kid." He blushes as red as a cherry, "You really think so? There's actually a summer program in Bar Harbor. Teaches you, like, everything about architecture. I was thinking about applying." Richie nods looking at his comic, "I'll do that. I'll do anything to get the hell out of Derry." I roll my eyes, "Have the graduate first."

Mike smiles in his own dreamland, "Man, when I graduate, I'm going to Florida." "What's in Florida, Mike?" His smile shows the unknown, but his attraction to go, "I don't know. I guess it's just a place I always wanted to go."

"Stan, you should go with Mike to Florida. You already act 80." I swipe Stan's hair across his face, "Oh yeah. You'd clean up with all the grandmas." He blushes looking down as we joke.

He looks up again, a heartfelt smile on his lips, "Do you guys think we'll still be friends? When we're older?"

"Why wouldn't we be?"

"Do any of your parents still hang out with their friends from middle school? I mean, things might be different then. We all might be different." Bill shakes his head at Stan's speech, "We'll always still be friends. I don't think that just, you know, goes away because we get older."

~

Tears brim my eyes. "He was such a nice kid." "I wonder what he was like all grown up." "Probably the same as he was." A beat of silence fills the clubhouse, reminiscing in the memory of our friend, Stanley.

"The best."

"All right, Mike. What are we doing here?" "The ritual. To perform it requires a sacrifice." Richie raises his hand, "Sacrifice? I nominate Eddie." Eddie panics, "Wait, what?" "Because you're little. You'll fit on a barbeque." "I'm 5'9". It's, like, average height in most of the world."

I wave my hands shutting the argument off, "I'm sure tt's not that kind of a sacrifice, guys." I look to Mike allowing him to take the floor once again, "The past is buried. But you're gonna have to dig it up. Piece by piece. And these pieces, these artifacts, that's why we're here. They are what you'll sacrifice. And since Stan isn't here to find his... I figured we should all be here together to find his artifact." I look to the coffee container, "I think we did that."

"Mike, so where do we find our tokens?" "Yeah, I gotta be honest, man. All due respect. This is fucking stupid, all right?" I elbow Richie in the side.

"Why do we need tokens? All right? We already remember everything."

Mike shakes his head in disagrement.

Richie lays out the timeline, "Saving Bev, defeating IT, I mean, we're caught up!" "It's not everything. We fought. But what happened after that? Before the house on Neibolt. Think." I search my mind in every endless cell, but I can't remember it all. "I'm out." "Your brain was fried then anyways, sister." Richie chuckles as he sits next to me.

"See, there's more to our story. What happened that summer. And those blank spaces, like pages torn out of a book. That's what you need to find. We need to split up. You each need to find your artifact. Alone. That's important. When you do, meet me at the library tonight." I narrow my eyes, "Alone?" Eddie stands, "Yeah, I gotta say, statistically speaking, you look at survival scenarios, we're gonna do much better as a group." Richie nods, "Yeah, splitting up would be dumb, man."

"Okay, we gotta go together. All right? We were together that summer, right?"

"No." Bill shakes his head, "Not that whole summer."