Two trashouths | Richie Tozier (1)

~9~ Projector

The next day, I went over to Bill's garage bright an early. He had asked all of us to come, and I went early to help him set up.

Soon, the rest of the kids arrived.

Richie grinned when he saw me. "Hello Spooky October."

"Never heard that one before." I replied, nonchalant.

We all sat on the ground. Stan had sat next to me, but Richie moved him away from me, and sat next to me instead. Bill stood behind the projector and put up the map of Derry.

"Look," Bill pointed. "That's where G-G-Georgie disappeared." There was an X marked Storm drain. "There's the Ironworks and the Black Spot. Everything IT happens, it's all connected by the sewers.

"Betty Ripsom's shoe." I remembered out loud.

"They all meet at the-" Bill started.

"The wellhouse!" Ben finished.

"It's the house on Neibolt street." Stanley spoke up.

"Isn't that the house where the hobos and junkies like to sleep?" Richie asked, scrunching up his face.

"I bet that's your favorite place to sleep." I whispered to him, causing him to push me. But I caught him smiling slightly.

Eddie reached for his inhaler, gasping a bit. I leaned over and rubbed his shoulder. "You okay?"

He nodded frantically.

"I hate that place." Beverly said slowly. "It always feels like it's watching me."

"That's where I saw IT," Eddie breathed. "That's where I saw the clown."

"T-t-that's where IT lives." Bill said.

Eddie used his inhaler again.

"I can't imagine anything wanting to live there." Stanley said softly.

I shivered. "It's so creepy. I hate walking by there."

"Can we stop talking about this?" Eddie shot up and stood in front of the screen, looking upset. "I- I- I can barely breath! T-this is summer, we're kids! I'm having a fucking asthma attack!"

I ran up to Eddie and held him, my hand on his head. "Eddie relax, we're right here."

Normally my motherly tactics work when the guys get stressed. But not this time.

Eddie pushed me away. "I'm not doing this!" He ripped the screen off the wall.

"What the hell!" Bill said angrily. "But the map back!"

Eddie shook his head.

The projector clicked. It started bringing old pictures of Bill with his family.

"W-what happened?" asked Bill. "What's going on?"

We looked at the projector.

"I don't know." I said.

It suddenly stopped on a picture of Bill and Georgie smiling and holding hands, with their parents on either side of them. The projector kept clicking, zooming closer to Georgie's face each time.

"Bill?" I asked, backing away slightly.

It suddenly moved to Bill's mother. Her red hair covering her face. After a few more clicks, his mother turned to be the clown.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?" Richie grabbed my arm.

"I DON'T FUCKING KNOW!" I yelled back, frightened.

"Turn it off!" Beverly said sternly to Bill. "TURN IT OFF!"

"BILL TURN IT OFF!" Stanley cried.

"TURN IT OFF!" we all started taking turns yelling at him to turn it the fuck off.

Mike kicked the projector, sending it knocking down to the floor. It clicked slowly, until IT was gone. We breathed heavily.

Then from the screen, IT popped out, grinning wildly and laughing.

I screamed and ran backwards. Everyone started running as the creature crawled out and came at us. I cowered against the wall. IT reached out for me as I screamed and covered my face.

"NO!"

I felt someone wrap their arms around me, and then light flooded around. I opened my eyes to see Bill and Eddie opening the garage door. I looked next to me, where Richie was holding on to me. I stood up and looked wildly around. "Where is it?" Where the fuck is it?"

"It's gone, it's gone." Richie said soothingly, placing his hands on my shoulder.

I breathed out and hugged him tightly, never wanting to let go. I oddly felt safe when I was in Richie's arms.

"It knows where we are!" Eddie cried out.

"It always k-k-knew." Bill stuttered. "So let's go."

We stared at him.

"Go?" asked Ben. "Go where?"

"Neibolt." Bill said. "That's where G-G-Georgie is."

"After that?" Stan looked confused.

"Yeah it's summer." Richie pulled away from me to look at Bill. "We should be outside.

"If you say it's summer one more f-f-fucking time-" Bill was angry. He looked straight at me.
I didn't move. He turned around and grabbed his bike, and rode off. We knew where he was going.

"Bill wait!" Beverly yelled, but he kept going.

"We should go after him." I said, wiping my eyes.

So we did. We grabbed our bikes and quickly tried to catch up with him.