WOUNDS ♚ henry bowers [it]

t h r e e

I laid awake in bed all night with the same question brewing in my head. Why? Why didn't he do anything? Why did he just walk away? Since when did Henry Bowers just walk away?

With an exhausted sigh, I turned over onto my side and shut my eyes. I knew I wasn't going to get much sleep tonight, but it was worth a try at least.

.  .  .  .  .

"Eddie, are these your birth control pills?" Richie said with a wisecrack smile etched onto his face. He held up a pill bottle in his hand, standing in Eddie's kitchen.

"Yeah, I'm saving it for your sister." Eddie remarked.

I rolled my eyes with a slight grin. When I rolled them, my eyes met Eddie's mom's eyes. Eddie's mom is a big woman, probably sitting at almost 400 pounds or so. She's sat up in her recliner, watching TV while knitting something up. Her eyes narrowed at me, she never has really took a liking to me that much. Probably always thought I'd steal her precious baby boy from her or something.

Her gaze moved from mine to look at Eddie. "Eddie dear," she rung out, "where are you five off to in such a rush?"

"Uhm, just m-m-my backyard, Mrs. K. I got a new..." I could tell Bill's mind was racing for an answer.

Richie quickly chimed in to save us. "A new croquet set. Jeez spit it out, blubber Bill."

Mrs. K didn't look too convinced though, but she didn't protest. "Okay, oh and sweetie? Don't go rolling around in the grass, especially if it's just been cut. You know how bad your allergies can get."

"Yes, mom." Eddie said with an annoyed voice.

We all were about to leave when Eddie's mom's voice stopped us in our tracks. "Aren't you forgetting something?"  She spoke to Eddie with a stern voice, looking him straight in the eyes.

Eddie clenched his jaw and quickly stalked over to his mother, and he placed a quick, chaste kiss on her cheek. We all tried to hold in our laughs.

"Want one from me too, Mrs. K?" Richie joked around, and Eddie came over and pushed him towards the door. Edging us to leave.

"Sorry Mommy." Eddie let out before getting all of us out the door and closing it behind him. We all hopped on our bikes and rode our way down to the Barrens.

.  .  .  .  .

"That's poison ivy. And that's poison ivy. And that's poison ivy." Stan complained from behind me as I walked into the tunnel of dirty water.

"Where? Where's the poison ivy?" Eddie asked, worried about having a reaction.

"No where, not every fucking plant is poison ivy, Stanley." I rolled my eyes at him.

"Okay, well I'm starting to get itchy now and I'm pretty sure this is not good for me." Eddie scratches at his upper arm.

"Do you use the same bathroom as your mother?" Richie asks Eddie, poking around the sewage water.

"Sometimes, yeah."

"Then you probably have crabs."

"That is so not funny."

Bill looks back at Eddie and Stan, "Aren't you guys coming in?"

Eddie shakes his head, "Uh-uh, that's gray water."

"What the hell is gray water?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows.

"It's basically piss and shit." Eddie says with disapproval. "So I'm just telling you... you guys are splashing around in millions of gallons of Derry pee." I wrinkle my nose up in disgust and look down, reconsidering walking around in this.

Richie picks up a stick from in the water and lifts it to his nose, sniffing. "Doesn't smell like caca to me, Señor." He says with a funny accent, making me let out a small laugh.

"Okay, I can smell it from here."

"It's probably just your breath, wafting back into your face. Oh!" Richie holds his hand up for me to high five, and I reach up and high five him.

"Have you ever heard of a staph infection?"

"I'll show you a 'staff' infection." Richie holds out the stick to Eddie.

"Guys!" Bill yells out, making all of us quit our little joking around. Bill's holding a sneaker in his hand and the worst scenario pops up in all of our's heads.

"Don't tell me that's..." I lead off, an image of Georgie coming to my mind.

"No. Georgie was wearing galoshes." Bill dismisses, and I let out a sigh of relief.

"Who's sneaker is it?"

Bill takes his flashlight and him and Richie look down into the inside of the white converse. "It's Betty Ripsom's." Richie announces.

"Shit! Shit, oh god, oh fuck!" Eddie starts freaking out. "I don't like this."

"How do you think Betty feels... going around these tunnels with only one fucking shoe?" Richie tries to lighten the mood, but it doesn't help much. I shake my head at him, and he looks down at the ground, quietening.

"What if she's still here?" Stan asks the question going on in my brain.

Eddie then turns around and starts to walk away, walking toward the creek that the tunnel runs into.

"Eddie, come on!" I called out. "If I were Betty Ripsom, you wouldn't turn away and go back home, would you?"

Eddie looked at me with a torn face. Stan swoops in to save him, "It's summer... We're supposed to be having fun. This isn't funny, this is scary and disgusting."

I was about to say something else, but then we hear a big splash behind us. We all turned around to see the new kid, Ben–I think–, all cut up and bruised. He looked like he was out of breath and he was on all fours down in the water.

It kinda broke me to say this, but the first thought that popped into my head was Henry.

"Holy shit," Richie breaks the silence. "What happened to you?"