INSTANT REPLAY | REDDIE

- 07 | INSTANT REPLAY

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Richie wasn't talking to Eddie anymore. It hurt more than anything in the world, and the others were starting to notice how they acted whenever they were all together. Eddie dreams had progressively gotten more and more violent. Bev's bathroom had exploded with blood, and Eddie had to help clean it. Stan had been chased by dead children in Standpipe, which was known to be the most haunted place in Derry. It was still there, and Eddie used to walk around it when he needed to clear his head or when he just wanted to think about things, but he didn't want to go back anymore.

Richie had come to Eddie very upset, because someone had pushed him, and he broke his glasses, but his mom didn't believe that it wasn't his fault. Eddie had sat down with him that whole day, helping him tape his glasses back together even though the lenses had shattered. He gave Richie a hug and told him that it would be okay, and some day she would see just how much she really ought to pay attention to him, because Richie was gonna be a star. That made the boy very happy.

'This is why I love you, Eddie Spaghetti,' Richie had stated dramatically, planting a sloppy kiss on a very flustered Eddie's cheek. He wished that could happen in real life, but he hated himself for wishing that.

He had found himself questioning reality a lot lately. Sometimes he would start seeing things that were supposed to only be in the 1950's trickle into the waking world, but that only happened when he was really tired. It didn't help that Richie was dressing differently, that just threw Eddie off even more.

Ever since their fight, Richie had kept quiet around him, but Eddie had begun to observe a change in his character. He started wearing his Hawaiian shirts more, and his hair had grown wilder like it used to be when they first met. His glasses had returned, though after a week he complained at the lunch table about how his parents scolded him for wasting their money on the contacts. He even became more of the Trashmouth that he was when Eddie was sleeping. But along with these changes came the drinking, and the smoking. Beverly kept him updated, and although she was the one who introduced the habits to Richie in the first place, she confided in Eddie that she was growing worried about the way it was affecting him.

The illusion that the dreams left Eddie with that kept him refreshed when he woke up had disappeared entirely; he no longer felt like he had slept at all. If Richie had noticed this change at all, if he had noticed how pale and how thin Eddie was getting, he hadn't said anything.

More and more time was spent at the doctor's every month.

"I don't want to talk about it," Eddie insisted every time one of the nurses would ask him about his dreams. His mother would cry sometimes, throwing herself into hysterics if he refused to speak to one of the officials about what was bothering him so much. She had ripped the story of the leper from his chest, but he kept the blowjob part to himself out of fear of what she would say in return. People said it was supposed to feel good to get things like that off of your chest, but if anything, Eddie just felt more strangled.

"You'd better tell them, Eddie Bear, or it's never going to feel better! You hear me?" Sonia would scold him on the car ride home. Eddie stared out the window with a blank look and a soft, 'Yes, Mommy' as he watched the trees go by and imagined what it would be like to bring his friends down there and hang out in 2018. They had built a clubhouse in 1958. Maybe he could make it himself while he was awake, if he got less tired and remembered how Ben had done it.

Standing in front of the Barrens by himself was like standing in front of a black hole. Eddie knew if he didn't go in today that he would go in eventually, so why wait? It's not like there was something down there waiting for him. There was no leper, no hobo, no clown, no—