Scared; A Richie Tozier Story

04

(Dedicated to @lovelillis and @Iridian_Deadheartfor being QUEENS)

The group of us hop on our bikes and haul on our backpacks. When mom first bought me this bike, I thought I'd never use it, growing up in New York and all. Now, I'm so thankful she got it for me. Without it, I'd probably be stuck on someone's handlebars which is terrifying.

We peddle behind Ben until we arrive at a nice, brown and white house that matches the others on the street. Beverly runs into the house behind Ben, and we closely follow behind. 

Before I shut the door behind me, I see a lady out of the corner of my eye. She's pinning a missing poster to a phone pole, and I look closer to see who it is. A kid, unsurprisingly according to Ben's information. 

I squint at the poster as Stan calls me to hurry up. 

"One sec!" I call upstairs and read the name on the poster. Patrick Hockstetter. I recognize the face as the boy that threw Stans kippah into the bus a few days ago, and I frown. Why would someone like Patrick go missing?

I decide to tell the boys and Beverly about another missing kid and hurry up the stairs. I enter the room slightly out of breath from the stairs and am about to tell everyone about the poster when I see all the news clippings and photos on the wall. 

"Holy shit," I say, gesturing to everything. Ben smiles proudly.

"Cool huh?" Ben says, looking at his walls like one would an old friend.

"No. No, nothing cool" Richie says as he steps closer to the main wall with a look of awe on his face. I see Bill hold up a little map of old Derry meant for a projector as Richie mumbles on about how "not cool" Ben's room is.

"What's that?" Stan asks, pointing at a letter on the wall with certain words circled in red marker.

"Oh, that?" Ben says, coming to join the small group gathered around the aforementioned letter.

"That's the charter for Derry Township," Ben says in a voice that portrays familiarity. 

"Nerd alert!" Richie says and I smack his arm playfully. He grabs my wrist and winks at me before turning back to the letter. I blush madly and put my hands on my face, trying to hide it. Ben goes on to explain why the charter is so interesting and important, but I'm not really listening.

Richie leans over to whisper in my ear, and I sigh. God no.

"I see you blushing, Annalisa," he says, putting his hand on my back. I step forward so it falls away, and luckily he takes the hint and stops whispering to me. We basically just met, and regardless of how I may or may not feel, it's too early.

Richie makes a beaver trapping joke and I watch Beverly look to the ground sadly. I hit his arm again, less playfully this time. The look on his face makes me believe he gets the message.

Ben explains how all the people at the camp disappeared, and I roll this over in my head. Maybe the same thing happened to them as whats happening to everyone here. 

"The entire camp?" Eddie says incredulously and I look at Ben for an answer. He shrugs.

"There were rumors of Indians, but no sign of an attack," Ben says, looking at me and nodding at my expression. 

"That's super weird," I say, drawing everyone's attention, "speaking of weird, did you guys know that Patrick Hocksetter went missing?". Everyone shakes their head, but nobody really looks concerned.

"C'mon guys, I know you hate him, but isn't it fucking weird that a bunch of kids have gone missing in the past few weeks? What if everyone goes missing like at that camp" I say, putting my hands in the air in desperation. Everyone proceeds to ignore me.