perfect | it 2017

xii. CLEANING UP

"What happened in here?" Stanley asked in a quiet voice from the back as Eddie retched loudly. Elena nudged Eddie to shut him up.

"My dad couldn't see it," Beverly explained, scanning the room. "I thought I might be crazy,".

"Well if you're crazy, then we're all crazy," Ben breathed, shocked by the messy bathroom. Elena stepped into the bathroom, creating a footprint on the stained floor.

"What are you doing?!" Eddie gasped as Elena walked around the bathroom, a trail of bloody footprints behind her. The blonde girl ignored him and looked around. She stepped over to the sink and rubbed her index finger on it.

"How..did your dad not see this?" She questioned in a shaky voice. Looking at all this blood reminded her of the sink incident she had a couple days ago.

"I-I don't know," Beverly sighed. The group watched Elena walk freely around the bathroom, taking in everything. They watched her from the entrance.

"We can't l-leave it like th-this," Bill spoke and stepped into the bathroom. The others looked around at each other, confusion written all over their faces.

"What do you mean?" Elena asked him. 

"We c-c-c-clean it," He stuttered. Eddie's eyes widened.

Boy, this was gonna be fun.

★ ★ ★

A squeaky sound was heard from Beverly rubbing the mirror with a cloth. Ben was scrubbing the walls, glancing at Beverly every now and then.

Bill cleaned the floors, scrunching up his nose. Eddie squeezed a cloth over a bucket, causing blood to sprout from it. He groaned in disgust, holding his nose. Stanley, being the perfectionist he is, cleaned the windows very carefully.

Elena was kneeling down in the bath, cleaning it. She had yellow gloves on. The sight of all this blood made her feel queasy. Blood had always been one of her major phobias. Once the bath was clean, she hopped out and helped Bev scrub the sink clean. 

Ben was now on his hands and knees washing up the floor. Elena sighed when she spotted Eddie pouring a bucket of blood into the bath. That took her ages to clean. Eddie heard this sigh and shrugged at her, a look of disgust still on his face.

Elena grabbed a black garbage bag full of blood and followed Stan, Eddie and Ben to throw them out. As they entered the kitchen, Elena looked behind her and noticed Ben was no longer there. She shook it off and followed them outside to the dumpster which was around the side of Bev's apartment. She threw the garbage bag in, squinting form the sun in her eyes.

"This isn't how I planned to spend my summer," She mumbled. Stan and Eddie nodded in agreement, Eddie nodding the fastest. 

"Have you guys...seen anything weird lately? Other than the sight in that bathroom today," Eddie asked the other two children. Yes, Elena thought. Yes, I saw a sink that poured blood and a deadly clown in my kitchen the other day, But she didn't say anything.

Strangely enough, Stan didn't answer. Elena didn't either. They both just looked at the ground, unsure whether they should tell each other the things happening to them. Eddie raised his eyebrows at both of them.

"No," Elena lied, shaking her head. Stan slowly shook his head too. "Why? Have you?".

"N-No. I was just..checking, I guess," Eddie answered. The three friends all awkwardly made their way back outside to Richie. When they got there, Richie was stood crossing his arms.

"Took you long enough!" He retorted once he saw us. Ben eventually came out of the apartment, along with Beverly and Bill behind them.

"Oh, Lena," Beverly approached the blonde girl. "I found your bike in the bushes earlier when I was walking home from the pharmacy,".

Elena smiled at her. "Really?".

"Yeah, it's around the side. I thought you might've forgotten it or something," She nodded and ran around the side of her apartment again. She came back balancing two bikes on either side of her. Elena walked over and took her bike.

"Thanks, Bev," She smiled at her again. Beverly winked in a friendly manner in return.

They climbed on to the bikes and started cycling down the street.

"You know, I love being your personal doorman, really!" Richie said sarcastically, cycling his bike in circles around the group. "Can you idiots have taken any longer?!".

Elena rolled her eyes. "Shut up, Richie,".

"Yeah, shut up Richie!" Stan agreed, clearly annoyed.

"Yeah, okay. Trash the trashmouth, I get it!" Richie argued. "Hey, I wasn't the one scrubbing the bathroom floor and imagining that her bathroom went all Eddie's moms vagina on Halloween!".

Eddie frowned harshly, trying so hard not to answer back to this.

"She didn't i-imagine it," Bill said quietly. He pause while the rest of the group slowed down and stood still, leaning against their bikes. "I s-s-saw something too,".

Elena quickly looked up at Bill. She was hoping he saw something similar to what she saw. She was hoping she wasn't the only one who's going insane.

"You saw blood too?" Stan quizzed. Bill shook his head. The rest of the group were now fully interested and intrigued.

"Not bl-blood. I saw G-G-Georgie," He replied, looking firmly at his shoes. "It seemed so real. I mean, it seemed like him but there was this-".

"-Clown," Elena finished his sentence. Bill looked up at her. She nodded. The others turned their heads at her. "It was in my house,".

"Yeah..I saw him too," Eddie nodded. Elena was filled with relief. She wasn't the only one. They all looked at each other. Ben nodded and Stan nodded too. They had all seen something..

All except for Richie. Elena couldn't blame the clown. I mean, who would want to haunt Richie? She smiled to herself at the thought.

"Wait, can only virgins see this stuff?" Richie spoke, confused. "Is that why I'm not seeing this shit?".

Elena slapped his arm. "Zip it,".

Suddenly, a loud yell was heard from the distance. It was an angry yell.

"Aw shit, that's Belch Huggins car," Eddie sighed. Elena gulped. The last people she wanted to see was Bowers' gang.

"We should probably get outta here," Elena gestured her head towards the opposite end of the road. Beverly nodded in agreement.

"Wait, isn't that t-the homeschooled kids bike?" Bill pointed at a bike dumped in the weeds. 

"Yeah that's Mikes.." Eddie nodded. 

"We have to help him," Beverly looked around at the others. Elena dropped her bike.

"We should?" Richie groaned. Elena glared at him.

"Yes!" She argued back. They all followed Elena's actions and dropped their bikes. Stan of course, being the only one to put his on a stand. 

With that, they ran in the direction of the yells.