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excited chatter brought a smile to eleanors face as the marching band performed down the street. richie had stolen some guys tuba and his horrible rendition of tuba playing caused soft laughter spill from her lips.
the giggly girl turns around to stanley, who stares at another missing poster.
"edward corcoran, thirteen years old and last seen july first," she read aloud.
"they say they found part of his hand all chewed up near the standpipe," the curly haired boy follows up. beverly turns to bill and then to ben who began to speak sadly.
"he asked to borrow a pencil once."
meanwhile, bill flipped the poster up revealing betty ripsom's one. "it's like she's been forgotten because corcoran's missing."
"that's what happens bill when more than one person goes missing. they have to follow the freshly abducted one to catch the killer as morbid as that sounds," eleanor smiled weakly.
"is it ever gonna end?" stanley questioned. the rest remained silent, unknowing of the future.
"what are you guys talking about?" eddie asked as he came around the corner with two ice cream cones in hand. richie is quick to come over after the guy with the tuba yanked it back.
"what they always talk about," richie replied.
"i actually think it will end. for a little while, at least," ben states and eleanor hummed in agreement. her dark hair pulled back into two little braids her mother had done that morning for the july fourth celebration and she can tell stanley has been staring at her all morning.
"what do you mean?" bev queried.
"do you want to explain?" eleanor suggests and ben nodded, ready to take the lead.
"when we were going over our derry reseach combined and charted out all the big events. the ironworks explosion in 1908, the bradley gang in '35 and the black spot in '62. and now kids being..." he paused.
"we realised everything seems to happen..." eleanor continued for him. "every twenty-seven years," she and bill say in unison.
•••
"okay, so let me get this straight," eddie started. "it comes out from wherever to eat kids for, like, a year? and then what? just goes back into hibernation?" he inquired.
"maybe it's like... what do you call it?" stanley tries to explain as they all circled around a bench in the park.
"cicadas. you know, the bugs that come out once every seventeen years," ben shared.
"my grandfather thinks this town is cursed," mike said, a deep frown set upon his face. "he says that all the bad things that happen in this town are because of one thing. an evil thing that feeds off the people of derry."
"but it can't be one thing," stanley states. "we all saw something different."
"it feeds off of fear, that's why we all saw something different," eleanor pieced together. "it knows our deepest, darkest fears and so that's what we see."
"i saw a leper," eddie stammered out, "he was like a walking infection."
the dark haired girls face twists in disgust, she can only imagine what he saw. the rotting flesh, and stench of bacteria.
"but you didn't. because it isn't real," stanley says from beside her. "none of this is, not eddie's leper, or bill seeing georgie or the woman i keep seeing."
"she hot?" richie asked and eleanor can't help but choke back a laugh, she hated to admit that richie amused her.
"no, richie," stan croaked. "she's not hot. her face is all messed up. none of this makes any sense, they're all like bad dreams."
"i don't think so. i know the difference between a bad dream and real life, okay?" mike argues.
"what'd you see? you saw something, too?" eddie questions, panicked.
"yes. you guys know that burnt down house on harris avenue? i was inside when it burned down. my mum and dad were trapped in the next room over from me. they were pushing and pounding on the door, trying to get to me. but it was too hot and when the firemen finally found them, the skin on their hands had melted down to the bone. we're all afraid of something."
eleanor can feel the emotions running off of mike and she places a hand on his shoulder and squeezes it in comfort before giving him a tight lipped smile. "you got that right," richie said, turning to the clown show on stage behind him.
she could't feel the way stan is staring at her, silently willing her to remove her hand from mike's shoulder. she didn't know that's he was a little jealous of the new member of the losers club.
"why, rich? what are you afraid of?" eddie asked.
"clowns."
"what about you eleanor?" bill stammered out and she snaps out of her daze, unprepared to answer.
"that's a story for another time," she laughed nervously, realising her behaviour she crosses her arms. she didn't want to share the truth yet.
"we're not going to laugh if that's what you're worried about," the red-haired girl smiled softly to try and convince her new friend to tell them.
"i'm not worried about you laughing at me, i just don't want to tell you and it's not like you all care anyways," she puffed out.
"of course we care about you el, you're our friend."
"no i'm not, i'm just that girl who you all thought was depressed and lonely for the first three months i moved here. i'm just the girl who wanted to find out what killed her sister and managed to end up with a group of losers." eleanor pulled herself from the chair, standing in the centre of the group. she turned to richie sharply.
"and it's eleanor, how many times do i have to tell you?" with that she was gone, they watched her mutter to herself in anger as she walked away, throwing her hands out in frustration. she knew it was her bottled up rage talking at that point, but she really wished they knew when to stop prying.
"stanley, spill," beverly demanded and his cheeks flushed red with conflict.
there's one thing eleanor learnt that day. don't trust the first cute boy that comes into your life and claims to be your friend.
🎈
yikes, i haven't updated in forever and tbh not even gunna apologise. i'm bad at staying on schedule, but oh frickin well. here's some trash for y'all to read. sincerely, -trashytacos.
