- Chapter Twenty-Five - "All she's looking for is a little bit of charity."
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EDDIE KASPBRAK'S HOUSE was as quaint and as mundane as the rest of the buildings within the suburban Derry side streets. If someone were to place Eddie's house beside Ben's, Amanda would not have been able to distinguish any differences between the both of them, it was though every house had just been cloned and deposited next to the last. A testament to the odd monotony of Derry that almost felt unnatural.
It was crafted of red brick, closed off by fences that lined the porch, shrouding the porch itself in an evil shadow created by the overhang of black roof. One wide window was situated within the centre of the wall, facing outwards, almost completely covered by the trees that made the house look overgrown. It didn't even look like someone could traipse up the stairs to the porch without being hit by the branches of some of the trees.
There was a path made of singular concrete squares that trailed from the porch steps towards the sidewalk, splitting a patch of lawn into halves. The green grass was clean cut, prim and proper, presumably hired by a professional gardener to make it much easier for Eddie's hay fever. It had been freshly raked, it seemed, as no leaves littered the floor and the grass stood up straight and sharp.
Though patches of it were now dented by the group of ragtag teenagers that were bloodied, dirty and some of them smelled like sick. Mainly Amanda, who had been sick over herself multiple times in the room on Neibolt, and Stanley who had not let go of her since. After they had haphazardly snapped Eddie's arm back into place and Stanley had done his best to wrap Amanda's leg up, they had taken Eddie home.
By that they meant they had hauled the boy into Mike's bike basket and cycled to the Kaspbrak house to deliver the news to his mother. Amanda had been forced onto the back of Stanley's bike, her arms clutching him as he rode with her since she couldn't ride her own; Princess Sparkles lay in front of the house on Neibolt Street.
Now, the eight of them stood on the lawn, facing the red-faced and angry Mrs. Kaspbrak as she looked down at them with the rage of a thousand suns. Her brown curly hair was swiped up into some sort of ponytail, hair ties as pink as her sweaty cheeks keeping it up. There was a pink co-ordinated outfit adorning her body, car keys in one hand and her bag in the other; Amanda had never met her and she was quite thankful for that fact.
Amanda thought she must've looked a state, though, especially compared to such a pristine house and front garden. Her hair ratty, tugged and tangled and damp from the water that had filled that room. Red face from her tears. Her shirt still a little bit wet, a stain of vomit upon her collar. Her shorts the same. And a bandage wrapped around her calf that was already soaked in blood again.
Ben looked similar, shirt ripped and blood slowly seeping out of his three cuts the group had done their best to treat. The rest of them were simply dirty, Amanda, Eddie and Ben having received the brunt of it. Stanley had an arm loosely around her waist, her arm just as loose around his shoulders as he kept her stood up, both of them holding back from tugging one another tighter just for a little bit of comfort.
