Mesmerizing Mute ~ Richie Tozier

Epilogue ~ Dead or Alive

"What happened to you?" Greta Keene sneered at the newly obtained scars on Tate's back.  They were changing for gym class and Tate had somehow gotten through three days of school without having an encounter with Greta.  How Tate wished Beverly was there in the moment. 

"Holy shit those are huge!" somebody else threw out. 

"Was it your dad?" Greta begged.  Tate furrowed her eyebrows immediately and shook her head.  "That big-eyed losers?"

Tate opened her mouth in partial shock at the sudden interrogation, but shook her head once again.  How could they think someone as sweet as Richie would do something so harmful? 

"I bet it was Henry.  He probably does that to all his sluts," she finally stated as a few girls around snickered. 

"I'm not- I don't like Bowers," Tate whispered so quiet Greta, even if she could hear, didn't listen.

"Sad," Greta stated before walking out to their seventh period. 

The rest of the school day was long and drug-out as Tate couldn't stop thinking about what Greta had said.  Richie or her father were never to hurt anyone.  Henry Bowers on the other hand, that story was a bit more believable.

Richie greeted the girl after eighth period to hang out after school. He, as per usual, slide an arm across her shoulders as they made their way down the halls.

"Hey Tater Tot," Rich said giggly. Tate gave him a partially questioning and partially joy-filled face. "Is it not cute?" Richie asked as he looked at the girl with his charm.

'Nope,' she stated as they continued their trod. That's when Richie realized the huge bumps and cool feeling underneath Tate's neck.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he questioned as Richie motioned to Tate's back.

'Nothing,' she lied as the scars continuously grew bigger.  Richie hadn't spoken a word to her.  He only gave her 'the look'.  You know, the look that every mother had given her child saying 'Don't lie to me.'

"Greta," she whispered before hesitating her string out answer.  "Later."

Richie had lasted for about two hours before asking Tate about Greta.  They had gone to the arcade for over an hour and had been sipping their milkshakes in the diner like they hadn't killed a demon-clown less than a week ago. 

"What did Greta say?"

Tate's face fell as she quit drinking her milkshake to let Richie in on what had happened.

'She saw my back. She thinks someone is beating me,' Tate started as a tear fell down her cheek. 'She thinks Bowers or my dad or you-' Tate stopped herself knowing that Richie would never intentionally physically hurt someone, nor would he be able to.

"I'll beat her," Richie muttered before going back to his milkshake.

'She also said I was Bowers'- s- l- u- t?' Tate questioned at the new vocabulary. She had known most bad words- most of which from Richie but there were some that the mouths of Bowers' gang or Greta's friends had said around school.

The thought of Greta saying such a thing to Tate made Richie infuriated. His nails imprinted his palms as he sighed for relief.

"You're not," Richie reassured before grabbing Tate's hand and brushing his thumb over it before kissing it once. They both shared a smile and continued on with their day as normal as possible.

That night Tate couldn't stop thinking about Richie's reaction to that word.  What was a slut? Would the scars on her back always be a giveaway to Richie? The warmth of her bed felt nice though, which eventually led her to drift off.

IT had looked like Richie.

"It's okay Tate. I'm here," IT lied as it's still clawed fingers ran up and down her back drawing blood. Tate's weakness gave in and her head fell partially into her knees and partially into the shoulder of the so-called Richie.  She couldn't carry on.  IT had vanished in a flash, and so had her pain.

Tate woke up with tears in her eyes, instantly grabbing for the phone on her night-table. She dialed the number she had thought to remember to be Richie's. Tate hadn't ever called him before because, we'll, you know. 

"Hello?" a chirpy voice questioned from the other end of the line.

"R- Rich," Tate croaked, forcing herself to be loud enough so that Richie could hear.

"Tate?  What's wrong?" Richie questioned at the sudden phone call.

"IT," she pressed out.

"I'm coming over," he said without question. Tate sat on her bed, waiting the arrival of Richie as she drowned in her thoughts. IT's not gone. Her back puffed. IT's gonna get all of us. All the Losers, me- Richie. By now her back was rose red with scars the size of snakes all over.  That's when she heard the tapping on her window. 

"Hey Babydoll," Richie started in a whisper after the girl let him in. He immediately went towards Tate to comfort her after whatever it was that happened. By now Tate was completely freaked out. She had refused to cry though, as though that would've completely defeated her.

Richie grabbed the girl's waist in order to pull her into a much needed hug.  Richie, being Richie, picked her up and flopped the both of them onto bed.  "What happened?"

"I had a nightmare is all," she whispered ever so delicately.  Her cool breath caused by the nightly temperature drop brushed over Richie's face. 

"About IT?" Richie questioned, but Tate didn't have to answer.  He already knew.  "It's okay.  It's dead.  I'm never going to let anything happen to you," Richie stated which he planned to keep that statement true.  His fingers brushed over Tate's cheek in a motion of love. 

"What if IT's not dead?" she questioned back in fear. 

"Then I'll just have to keep protecting you until we kill IT again," Richie stated briefly before the both of them were able to drift into sleep.  It wasn't deep sleep.  In fact, both of them had woken up a few times that night just to make sure they were still pressed against the other. 

"Goodnight Beautiful."

Word Count = 1025

A/N - 130 Reads!! What!? Thank you guys so much for reading; it means a lot! Hope you enjoyed this book because I loved writing it and I feel so accomplished now that I've finished. I think I'm going to take a bit of a break from writing for about a week just to get through school stuff and to read all of the books in my library, but I have multiple drafts to work on so keep an eye out! 💛💛 -J