Pennywise is dead. In a physical sense, at least. Mentally, he's still there, haunting the Losers' dreams and emotionally crippling them.
Richie "Trashmouth" Tozier is, surprisingly, the first to crack under the suffocating pressure that the afterma...
Sunlight had already begun to seep into the room through the cracks between Bill's blinds, but a quick glance around the room told Richie that nobody else seemed to be awake.
Sweat rolled off of Richie's brow and he sat up slowly, catching his breath.
For all his macho, tough-guy acting, Richie was really just as scared and broken as the others, and that's what scared him the most.
Not that fucking clown, not the werewolf it constantly turned into to come attack him, not even his own parents that didn't seem to give a shit.
The clown.
That god forsaken, fucking clown.
Pennywise was the reason Richie had woken up in such a panic.
Richie knew Pennywise was dead. He was certain of it.
But something caused him to keep wondering, and fearing that It would come back.
The nightmares were the worst part.
Every time he closed his eyes, he was back in that room in the well house on Neibolt Street. The room with all the clown statues.
Beep Beep, Richie.
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The clown had taunted him, using the joke just between him and his friends to terrify him.
Never had Richie ever felt like he was going to die before that moment.
And now every time he closes his eyes he sees Pennywise jumping down, ready to tear him apart.
His friends had seen a different side of him that day.
They hadn't seen brave, funny Richie. The Richie that was always ready to crack a "your mom" joke or a sexual innuendo involving Eddie's mom.
His bravado had completely disappeared.
And it was Bill who had brought him back down.
Maybe that was why Richie was so intent on saving Bill's life in the sewers, when everyone else was wavering.
"Richie?"
A light voice whispered.
"Ah, fuck."
It was Eddie. The kid must've been awake the whole time.
Quickly gathering his wits, Richie turned to him and grinned, slapping on his glasses.
"Heya Eds. You look like shit. Too tired from bangin' your mom last night? It's a long walk from here to there, must've been real tir-"
He was cut off by Eddie throwing his inhaler at him.
"Shut up! Do you always have to be such an asshole? You're so annoying!" Eddie whisper-shouted, not even cracking a smile.
Eddie was touchy about his mother, but he usually still at least grinned when Richie made one of his jokes.
"Okay, okay... look, I'm sorry..." Richie held out his hands, straightening his face.
"I just wanted to ask how you were holding up, and maybe even thank you for saving our lives yesterday, but clearly you don't care enough." Eddie spat, obviously annoyed.
Richie frowned, guilt coursing through him.
"Eddie. Listen to me, man. I'm really sorry... I just... don't think it's a good idea to dwell on what happened. I mean, nothing good will come from it."
Richie mumbled, doing his best to hide his true feelings about their ordeal.
He always was a good actor.
Eddie sighed and scooted over to be closer to Richie.
"You're probably right... sorry for yelling at you."
"It's okay dude. I kind of did deserve it, I guess."
The two friends grinned tiredly at each other.
They were silent for a while, as the rest of the boys still slept around them, some of them occasionally twitching or mumbling in their sleep.
"Richie...?"
"Yeah, Eddie?"
Eddie was silent for a moment before speaking again. "Were you having a nightmare?" He whispered, as if scared that if he talked to loud then Richie would resort back to being his usual trashmouth self.
Richie barely contained a wry smile at the thought.
"No... I don't have nightmares." He lied smoothly.
Eddie gave him an unconvinced look but shrugged anyways.
"Okay then..."
Then the two sat in pleasant silence for a few more minutes, just them and their own thoughts.
Slowly, the rest of the boys started to wake up, too.
When Bill woke up, he and Ben took it upon themselves to go downstairs and grab some cereal and toasted bread to bring back upstairs for the others.
At some point someone had put a film on, but Richie paid no attention to it, he simply sat and agonized over the mere thought that school would be starting in not even a week.
3 days. He has 3 measly days to make up for everything he missed during summer due to their demon clown hunting.
"Hey who wants to go to the arcade with me today?" He asked leisurely.
Everyone groaned, a frustrating, but welcome sign that they were slowly becoming themselves again.
"Are you serious? You really want to go back to playing games inside of an arcade for the rest of summer?" Stan was shocked.
Richie rolled his eyes.
"Look, I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Being in an arcade beats being in Eddie's mother... or any of your mothers honestly." He laughed.
He was met with everyone chucking a pillow at him.
"Beep beep, Richie!"
(A/N: this was a short chapter since I'm trying to get the hang of writing a fanfic for IT and it'll be fairly slow moving until I reach a certain point, I'm just not sure when that will be... I'll try to update as much as possible, and at least once a day.)
