IT31 || 31 days of IT

12 - The Costume

"Hey losers! Look what I bought!" Richie yelled from the front door. The rest of the group walked into the living room to look at the bag that Richie carried in. With raised eyebrows, they glanced at each other before looking at Richie again.

"What is it?" Ben asked. Richie grinned at him and held up his index finger. 

"Give me a second! Damn, Benny" Richie kicked the door shut behind him. With a swift movement of his hand, he tugged the plastic bag downward. An off-silver costume appeared. Large red pom-poms were sewed into the front to represent buttons. The neck of the costume came out into frills, along with the cuffs of the sleeves and pant legs.  

The group just stared at the costume before looking at Richie with confusion covering their faces.

"The hell is that?" Eddie asked. 

"A clown costume!" Richie smirked. The others rolled their eyes and walked away to head back to do what they were doing before. "Oh come on! You don't think this is cool!?"

"What are you going to use it for?" Mike asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I'll think of something" Richie shrugged. Mike chuckled.

"Guess it'll be a cool Halloween costume then," Mike responded. Richie nodded then shrugged and walked upstairs to his bedroom to hang the costume up in his closet. He then went back downstairs and joined his friends.

A few days later, later in the evening, Stan walked into one of the upstairs bathrooms with a towel draped over his arm. He walked in, shut the door behind him, then turned to the shower to turn the water on. His body jumped back as he looked at the clown costume hanging perfectly in the shower to look like someone was standing there.

Stan took a few deep breaths to pull himself together then rolled his eyes and opened the door again.

"Richie!" He yelled throughout the house. Richie peeked his head out from his bedroom down the hall and looked over at him.

"Sup, Stanny?" Richie opened the door more and walked out into the hall. Dressed only in boxers.

"Why the hell is your ugly clown costume in the shower?" Stan sighed at him. Richie raised an eyebrow, readjusted his glasses on his nose, then walked over to the bathroom. Stan stepped back to let him enter. Richie looked at the costume.

"Uhh, no clue" Richie muttered. 

"It was a great scare, alright?" Stan sighed and squeezed Richie's shoulder. "But please, get that ugly thing out of here" he offered a smile. Richie just nodded and grabbed the costume. He walked back to his bedroom, opened his closet, and hung the costume back up.

"What are you doing with that thing?" Eddie asked. Richie turned around to look at him.

"Someone hung it up in the shower" Richie shrugged and climbed into bed. "Probably Bill being a loser that he is"

"Why would he-"

"Well it sure wasn't me!" they dropped the conversation.

The next night, Ben woke to heavy breathing over him. He slowly opened his eyes, looked up into the darkness, and could only see a silhouette of the costume that Richie had bought. Ben sighed, rolled his eyes, and rolled over.

"Go to bed, Richie" he mumbled as he snaked his arm around Beverly's sleeping body. "Your scares are getting weak"

The next morning, Ben walked into the kitchen to see Richie eating cereal. He half grinned at him.

"Morning Benny" Richie waved with his spoon, some milk falling free from the metal and onto Richie's cheek. He wiped it off with his sleeve and slurped up some milk from the bowl.

"Morning. Weak scare last night" Ben replied, opening the cupboard to check out what cereal they had.

"What are you talking about?" Richie asked. His bushy eyebrow raised and his lips curled down on one side.

"Don't play dumb with me. Mr. Clownman" Ben chuckled.

"Seriously have no idea what you're talking about" 

"You didn't come into our room last night in that costume of yours?" Ben looked over his shoulder at Richie.

"No? I didn't even leave my bed last night"

"Well, someone did" Ben added.

Bill walked into the kitchen, holding the clown costume.

"Richie, w-why is your c-c-costume in my room?" he held it out toward Richie. Richie set his bowl of cereal down and took the costume from him.

"I don't know, maybe because you were busy using it to scare Stan and Ben?" Richie rolled his eyes and headed for the stairs to put the costume away again.

"Th-That's the first t-t-time I've touched it!" Bill looked at Richie and then at Ben. Ben explained the night before while Richie brought the costume to his room. Instead of hiding it in his closet, he shoved it under his bed. He'll catch who's been messing with it. Easily.

That night, Richie woke to the sound of movement from the bed. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at the figure standing up beside the bed, wearing the costume. From the way the bed moved, it had to of been Eddie.

"Eds? It was you?" Richie sat up, reaching for the nightstand.

"What are you talking about?" Eddie mumbled from behind him, still in bed. Richie's eyes widened. Two pairs of golden glowing eyes stared at him. 

As soon as Richie turned the light on, the costume fell freely to the floor. Richie's heart raced. 

"E-Eds...did you see that?" 

"Richie, go back to bed" Eddie sighed.

Richie didn't go back to bed that night. Instead, he stuffed the costume back into the plastic bag that it came in and stared at it until the sun came up. All he could see in his mind were those glowing eyes staring back at him.

He had to get rid of that costume.