Strange as IT Seems

Chapter 76: Horror Show

No one speaks in Ben's living room. The TV hasn't been turned on, and barely any of the snacks have been touched. What they'd heard was almost cliché in its retelling, but it was real... very real.

None of the group wants to speak or even acknowledge what happened.

After the surprise of extra passengers, both the Denbrough and Wheeler parents drove the kids to Ben's house and dropped them off, despite all of them being in a catatonic state. When Ben opens the door, Will and Lucas are already there, excited for the marathon, and they freeze, not only seeing Richie and Stanley with them, but the colour having drained from their faces.

"What happened?" Lucas asks.

"Are you guys taking Halloween too seriously?" Ben adds.

Will gazes at their faces and swallows. He hadn't said anything earlier, but even at Ben's house, he'd felt the hairs go up on the back of his neck, and he lost his appetite for the gummy worms he'd been scarfing down. That only happened when something was near... the Mind Flayer.

Now, everyone sits amongst the blankets and pillows Ben had set up in anticipation of their movie night; horror movies were no longer the scariest thing in the room.

"And you're sure it wasn't something else?" Lucas asks.

"Wh-what else could it be?" Bill asks, the first of the group to say something since telling the story.

"Awfully quiet down there," Mrs. Hanscom calls out from upstairs. "Are you kids okay?" She was delighted to see Ben having such a nice gathering of friends. She'd been afraid that he would struggle to make new friends like he did when they'd moved to Derry, but she was glad that such fears had been put to rest.

"We're fine, Mom," Ben calls back. "Just having a hard time deciding on what to watch first."

"Okay, well, you better start something soon," she says before her bedroom door shuts to go back to her book club book.

The room is plunged into silence for another brief moment.

"What the f*ck was that?!" Richie finally blurts out.

"Shut up, you want my mom to hear?" Ben hisses.

"I'll say whatever I damn well want, Hanscom," he snaps back. "I didn't ask to be here. I can't stand being near any one of you. In fact, why the hell am I even here?"

"Good question," Max sneers. "Because we can't stand you either."

Richie flips her off, but Max does the same.

"One of these days you're going to lose teeth the way you run your mouth," she sneers.

"That's it, I'm f*cking out..." Richie says, standing up to leave.

"Richie, for God's sake," Bev stands up. She steps in front of him to block his path. When he tries to move around her, she mirrors it to keep him in one place.

"Get out of the way, Bev," he growls.

She faces both Stan and Richie. "No. No, I'm not because you're all idiots. Complete idiots."

Max looks at Beverly in complete surprise, having seen this kind of passion from her. She immediately grabs the popcorn because this is going to be really good. Putting all these boys in their place. She even offers some to El, knowing the show is about to occur.

"F*ck you," Richie swears.

"No, f*ck you, Richie Toizer, and f*ck you, Stanley Uris. Both of you have been complete morons, and all because your feelings were hurt. Well, guess what? Everyone gets their feelings hurt, and they don't hold grudges like this and rip friendships apart!"