HAUNT✦reddie

e l e v e n

richie could not fathom what was going through his parents' minds when they saw richie slumped on the floor, clutching a large book to his chest in the middle of what looked to be the remains of a natural disaster.

the boy had stop crying a while ago, his heart filled with regret and sadness. the events of what had taken place were replaying in his mind like a broken record.

after eddie had disappeared, he left richie on the ground. he sat there for a while, his brain frantically trying to process what had just happened in those short moments. he briefly thought about calling eddie, begging for forgiveness but he was frozen in fear. eddie was scary. for a moment after richie had seen the clown - that stupid fucking clown - eddie's eyes flashed yellow mixed with something that tore into his heart with terror. he thought eddie was going to murder him.

but then it was gone, replaced with big, brown eyes, pleading for richie's help.

richie's head spun with scenario after scenario of what he should have done. showed eddie the book immediately, comfort eddie, return to normal.

the only good thing about this whole mess was that his parents finally saw that knew nothing about their own son, who was spiralling out of control, and decided to take days off of work to bond with their almost forgotten son.

richie didn't bother to correct them, knowing that it would only stir up more unanswerable questions. and to be honest, richie didnt mind the attention he was getting from his parents, slowly coming with the terms with the fact that he missed his parents dearly. so, ignoring the guilt that was nipping at his stomach, he let himself get dragged to his favourite restaurants, cuddle up on the couch between his parents, who recently couldn't even be in the same room as each other, while watching his favourite movies.

the thought of eddie continued to linger in his mind, his expression filled with anger, hurt, and helplessness. almost as if he was begging richie to help him, free him. richie didn't know from what.

the week passed and his parents continued to smother him affection to which richie happily accepted, not knowing when he would receive this type of parental love again. he knew that it was mostly out of guilt, but he accepted it nonetheless. love was love.

even with all this attention, he had never felt so alone. eddie was nowhere to be seen. at all. and richie couldn't make himself leave the house to hang out with ben, mike, or beverly. he was afraid that eddie would appear and he wouldn't be here.

eventually, his parents had to leave, reluctantly leaving their mentally unstable son alone in their house. despite richie's parents efforts to make richie feel better, it only made him feel worse.

he laid in bed, sighing as he watched his phone slowly die. he rubbed his eyes, placing his phone on his bedside table, not bothering to charge it instead reaching for his glasses.

when he could see, he yawned, stretching his back, sluggishly pulling himself out of bed and headed downstairs. he smiled softly when he saw the breakfast laid out for him. his mom must of woken up early to make it for him.

he dug his fork into the banana pancakes, dragging it against the bottom of the plate to collect any access syrup. he continued this until his pancakes were gone and placed the dirty dish and utensils in the sink when he heard eddie's voice rip through the empty house.