RAPTURE ! ( it )

twenty-one.

RAPTURE !

021. ' rated 'e' for everyone, you
know '

AMELIA HAD BEEN IN THE NEIBOLT
HOUSE countless times before now, but had never become accustomed to the revolting scent the small house possessed.

          Then again, there was no accommodating oneself to such a repulsive smell.

Bill could scarcely keep an even clutch on his flashlight while he trained it down the narrow stairway for all of them. He routinely would spare glances back at his five friends, as if guaranteeing himself they were still behind him with each step he took down the stairs. And, of course, they were despite their jittered nerves and fret of the staircase giving way beneath their every step.

"Would you just fucking pay attention before you trip, drop down the stairs, and kill yourself?" Richie groused as he trudged his way down the weakening boards, thumping the heel of his palm at his flickering flashlight.

"Do you have a silence button or anything of that sort, Tozier?" Mike remarked with a glimmer of irritation on his face in the dimness.

"Yeah - you want to try and find it?" Richie suggested with a shrewd smirk and slight wriggle of his eyebrows, "It's rated 'E' for everyone." Mike sneered to himself while proceeding on in a silence.

Amelia tossed a disgusted glance back at Richie as the six of them plodded down the remainder of the creaky steps. The dust was deposited densely like winter's first snow across the wooden floor as they all crossed it. Bill and Ben's flashlight beams poured over the well that was positioned in the precise center of the room, and a few of them emitted shuddered breaths at the uncanny sight.

"Anyone have a wish?" Amelia clicked her tongue and eyed all of them shortly as she took a stride towards the apparently neverending well.

She stretched a flailing hand back towards Bill, gesturing for his flashlight. He dubiously pressed it to her palm while shifting himself behind the girl, gandering at her with apprehension. Amelia secured a firm cinch around the curved handle of the flashlight, evading the boy's perturbed gaze while training the bright beam down the eerie abyss below.

"Eddie!" she clamored down, her voice echoing off the brick walls, "Eds!"

She had a solid grasp on the flashlight now in a frenzy, sucking in a low breath, and eyes scouring the relentless darkness for the boy. No voice came echoing in return, provoking her to gulp audibly and totter back nearly against Bill.

"How the hell are we supposed to get down to wherever those two are?" Mike inquired only after a few stiff moments had trickled by between all of them.

"....the rope," Stan hoarsely muttered, tossing a wave towards the looped rope at the base of the staircase, "It should work. Right?" He peered at them through the musty, dim light.

"Best option," Ben whispered into the stiffness of the air as everyone else provided minimal nods of approval towards Stan.

The curly-haired boy sloshed through the years of accumulated up waste until reaching the discarded rope, solidifying a wobbly grasp around it. He hurled it towards the two that lingered nearest to the well's opening - Amelia and Bill - the girl being the one to seize it from the air with a swell of urgency.

With a rooted grip on the splitting rope, she angled herself towards the brick edge and settled aside Bill's flashlight. He plucked it from the edge hastily, as it had started to rotate towards the tip of the ledge, and flashed it over the rope in the girl's hands. She started to coil it around a few times with the blinding beam over her slightly quavering hands. After binding it firmly around the ledge, she only hoped that it would endure all of them come time to scale down it.