Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
・❥・chapter thirteen, maneater
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
RICHIE TOZIER WATCHED ROSALINA HASALINE, who was currently leaning on an alleyway wall. Her eyes found his as they started a sort of staring contest. Richie broke first as he heard a marching band behind him. He chuckled as an idea formed in his head. Rose watched as Richie took an instrument and began to play it, badly.
Her laughter increased as he began to move his body in time with his bad tune. Richie glared at Eddie as he passed the second one to Rose.
"Here." They smiled at each other. "Thanks Eddie." It wasn't long before the person came back to retrieve their instrument from the trashmouth. It was snatched out of his hands and he flipped the man off.
"What the fuck, dude?" He shouted, Rosalina once again, laughed at him and dragged him over to the wall she was leaning on. The two finally tuned into what the other losers were talking about.
"They said they found part of his hand, all chewed up near the standpipe." Rose grimaced as she looked at the poster of Corcoran. "He asked to borrow a pencil once." Stan's voice came out a little shaky.
Bill lifted up the poster to reveal Betty Ripsom's infamous face. "It's like she's been f-forgotten because Corcoran is m-missing,." A sad silence occurred over the group. What if one of them was next?
"Is it ever gonna end?" Rosalina's voice came out low and quiet. "I actually think it will." She nodded at ben's reply. "For a little while, at least." Her hand reached out to grab Richie's. The fear seemed to build up in the young girl.
"What do you mean?" Beverly glanced at Rose's and Richie's hand before looking at Ben. "So I was going over all my data research and I charted out all the big events." Everyone's eyes shifted to him as he lifted up the posters, more than 40 missing kids were on that wall.
"The ironworks explosion in 1908, the bradley gang in '35 and the black spot in '62." Rose watched mike as he shivered, the boy remembered reading up about that.
"And now kids being..." Ben stopped himself as he saw Bill's face drop. He shook his head and carried on. "I realised this stuff seems to happen every 27 years." Rosalina and Bill both said '27 years' with Ben, they figured it out.
The group all walked over to benches in an busy, open area. "It hibernates." Rose stated blankly. Ben nodded. "Maybe it's like... what do you call it?" Stan stopped and thought about the name of the bug.
"Cicadas! You know, the bugs that come out every 17 years." Richie sighed as he leaned on the handles of his bike, watching Rosalina's reactions.
"My grandfather thinks this town is cursed." Everyone turned to look at Mike, he'd been quiet the whole time. "He says that all the bad things happen in this town because of one thing.
Rosalina's mind went back to the photograph she'd stumbled across in Ben's room. There was a lot of people, but there was one thing that threw her off. A clown. In the middle of it all.
"An evil thing that feeds off the people of derry." Richie glanced at the group, everything sounded like bullshit to him. He hadn't seen anything!
What if the group was just playing a big prank on him? "But it can't be one thing." Stan looked like he was loosing his mind. But little did the group know, he was.
"We all saw something different." Rose spoke up, she knew it was the clown. "But it uses our fears to scare us." Her eyes shifted at her best friend, Beverly. She must have some type of fear of blood.
"I-I saw a leper." Eddie added on to what Rose had said, he has a fear of germs but Rosalina had no idea what her own fear was. "But you didn't because it isn't real!" Stan held his head, gripping his hair tightly. Seeing him like this reminded Rosalina of herself the day she seen it.
"None of this is! Not Eddie's leper, not Bill seeing Georgie and not the woman I keep seeing!" Richie smirked at Stan. "Is she hot?" Rosalina groaned at Richie, she gave him a look which a mother would give her child as if they messed up bad.
"No Richie! She's not hot. Her face is all messed up." His face turned to disappointment, Richie really just wanted to lighten the mood but he fucked up again.
"None of this makes sense, they're like bad dreams." Rosalina shook her head and fiddled with her thumbs. "I know the difference between a bad dream and real life." Mike nodded at her comment.
The group looked at Mike, he hadn't said he'd seen something. "What did you see?" Ben spoke up. Mike glanced behind him before sighing. "You guys know that house that burnt down on Harris Avenue?" They all nodded slowly.
"I was inside when it burned down before I was rescued." Rosalina rubbed his back as he looked down, it must of been painful talking about the loss of his parents. Rose held Mike's hand as tears nearly spilled from his eyes.
"My mom and dad were trapped in the next room over from me. they tried to get to me." His voiced cracked which made everyone's heart fall. "It was too hot, when they found them the skin on their hands melted down to the bone. Mike sighed.
"We are all afraid of something." Richie nodded. "Got that right." Rosalina looked over at the boy, she called her crush. "What are you afraid of Rich?" The boy glanced behind him and shivered. He turned back and fiddled with his glasses. "Clowns."
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
NOTES: this chapter seems repeated and super boring it's an important chapter but it bored me writing it, hence why it took me months to write it. I'll make it up to you guys soon!
