RAPTURE ! ( it )

ten.

RAPTURE !

010. ' their fucked up town '

THE SUN BEAT DOWN ON HER SKIN AS SHE SPRAWLED ACROSS HER TOWEL, DONNED IN AN EXTRA TEE-SHIRT EDDIE HAD CARDED ALONG IN HIS BAG.

She could feel the torrid air with each inhalation she took, and it was so dense someone could slash through it. Then, tiny blasts of wind swept past her, and her skin would softly quiver before reverting to its quiet, warmed state. Billy Joel's Vienna swirled around the thick air from the radio, as she relished in the warmth.

The sun spilled out its sparkling, hot red into the horizon as she gazed through the lenses of her sunglasses. Few trickles of water remained on her as she had remained beneath the sun's rays for nearly an hour with Beverly at her side.

At the corner of her eye, though, she could notice all the boys gawking at Beverly and her as they rested on the massive rocks. For once, none of them even muttered a word between each other. As her eyes trickled over their astounded faces, she found that Eddie was solely gaping down at her and not even sparing a momentary glance away to Beverly.

Amelia's already heated up cheeks swirled with further warmth as she darted her stare away from him. It had to be him that was writing those letters, her thoughts attempted to convince her as she focused her gaze back out on the water, just think of everything that he's done in the previous hour, Lia!

With an exhale, the girl lifted her hands to her flushed face and snagged off her sunglasses, turning her head towards all the boys. They hastily all shifted their heads away, wishing to have not been caught by her as they engaged themselves with the most random of things around them.

"Hey, uh, Ben, you're such a nerd, you know," Richie sputtered out to the boy, who was slouched over a folder on his lap, scouring through the papers, ".....a-all these papers." A postcard fluttered out of the folder as Ben ransacked it through so fast, descending lightly to the pebbles at his feet.

Amelia stretched a hand towards it before it could be forced away by the gusts of wind. Pressing it between her fingers, she scanned her eyes over it as Ben hadn't noted its absence from the pocket of his folder. Your hair is winter fire, January embers. My heart burns there, too is what the postcard read and she tilted her head in wonder.

Rather than not make a remark about it, she planted it upon the top sheet in his folder, drawing his gaze abruptly. She smiled lightly up at him as he sheepishly tucked it away in the pocket, cheeks reddened in humiliation.

"What's with this odd project, anyway, Ben?" Amelia proceeded on with another inquiry, once regarding the piles of paper Ben possessed in the folder and his backpack.

Richie then plucked a few sheets out from the folder and glimpsed down at them, eyebrows furrowed. Ben moved to snatch them away from the inquisitive boy, but then lowered it back to his side hastily.

"What the fuck?" Richie murmured, now in a daze of horror as he fumbled around the papers to show everyone else, "These are all about mysterious murders and missing kids from Derry. What the hell type of history project is this, dude?! This is fucked up!"

With a reel of his eyes, Eddie lurched forward and jerked the papers from Richie, uttering the headlines aloud for all of them to listen in on, "Explosion kills one-hundred and ten people, eighty-eight of whom were identified to be young children - deeming it the worst Easter in Derry's history, or Easter's history in general...." his eyes abruptly swelled in size as he regarded the rest of the paper and seemed visibly disconcerted.

Amelia rose up from the dirt and settled herself alongside him on the ragged surface of the rock, extracting the papers from his trembling hands.

"It happened during the easter egg hunt," she proceeded on with the headline as she flattened the crinkled paper out.

Her eyes then trickled down to the grainy, black and white photograph on the paper and practically got strangled by her own breath. The image was one taken of the devastation the explosion had left in its wake - and before anyone tended to the numerous corpses on the grass.

"What is this?" Amelia strained out, her breath tight in her throat now as she rapidly passed Ben back his papers, "Why are you even researching things of this nature?"

Ben grasped onto the papers while eluding her aghast gaze, "I viewed a-a study at the library the other day about Derry - people die or go missing under m-mysterious circumstances. That's only for adults, though. Kids are horrible, you guys. Kids li-like us."

A tremor tore up her spine at his words, a part of her knowing very well what may be at the root of these disappearances. That clown. It exploited children - and that's why it had flagged Georgie out that October day. Furthermore, that's why it was pursuing Eddie and her. Soon enough, what if their faces soon were issued across those missing posters, replacing those of Betty's and Patrick Hockstetter's?

She didn't like this at all.

Yet, she still bent forward and questioned in an uneasy voice to Ben, "Do you have anything else about this?"

"U-Uh, yeah. A-A majority of it i-is at my house," he stumbled over his words and speedily started lodging his stuff back in his bag, "D-Do you want to s-see it?" The girl nodded with little reluctance and no consideration of her agreement.

She needed to know more before she ended up as a missing poster plastered on an electrical pole.

➯

author's note:

aYYYEEE THIS WAS SHORT AND UNEVENTFUL !!

I APOLOGIZE !!

I MAY BE ABLE TO PUBLISH ANOTHER CHAPTER TONIGHT OR EARLY TOMORROW MORNING.

ANYWAY, THANK YOU FOR OVER 7,000 READS ON THIS STORY !!

YOU ALL ARE SO AMAZING.