Breathe ⭐️ Reddie

25

Richie had never been so terrified. He felt his blood run cold, and the pain in his heart was worse than the bullet that cut through his side.

Eddie. His Eddie, was gone. Captured.

Richie shook the thoughts from his head and marched toward the superiors conference room. The others were terrified as well and followed without question.

Richie didn't knock. He slammed the door open. Only Sharon and Zack sat in the room, filing papers and talking. They looked up as soon as the teenagers entered.

"What are you all doing in here? We didn't call a meeting," Zack said, eyes narrowed.

Richie handed him the note. "Sir, I don't mean to be forceful but you better call a fucking meeting. We narrowed some shit down and Eddie's been captured. We need to save him," Richie said urgently, eyes trained on Zack's.

Zack looked to Sharon, both sharing confused looks.

"What do you mean Eddie's been captured?" Sharon asked, trying to sound calm, but her voice was laced with panic.

"I mean what I just said! We have, well, we had a traitor among us and he took Eddie! We know who the leader of that group is and Henry Bowers is part of it!" Richie was entering a a full fledged panic, while Stan and Bill gently put their hands on his shoulders in attempt to calm him down.

"D-dad, mom, he's r-right," Bill said.

Sharon and Zack were unsure how to go about it. They had seen the note but didn't know how best to address the situation. At that moment, Donald Uris burst through the door.

"Donald?" Sharon asked, eyes narrowed.

"We have a situation. The entrance, we had it guarded so the kids didn't try to leave," he said, gasping. He had obviously sprinted to the conference room. "The guards that were there are knocked out cold. No one of our teens could have done that."

"Except for Henry Bowers," Bev said, her jaw clenched.

Donald looked confused, but shrugged. "I mean, I suppose he could. We have to figure out who did it."

"Go get the other leaders, now," Zack said. "There's been a kidnapping."

Donald was in shock but vanished, returning ten minutes later with the other two members who sat in their seats, both confused.

Richie had been on the verge of tears, not feeling any reassurance from the gentle touches of his friends. He needed to find Eddie, and if given the choice he would've already ran off to track down Bowers. However, that's not how things work in the Hive.

"What's the meeting for?" Leroy asked, glancing at the teens before making eye contact with Zack.

Zack quickly explained the knocked out guards and tried to keep Frank calm when he told him they believed Eddie had been taken.

"What?! How could my son have been taken?! This is a secret base!" Frank yelled in a booming voice, panic in his eyes.

"We believe there was a mole in the Hive. According to their findings," Zack said calmly, gesturing toward the teens, "the mole has been here for eighteen years, biding his time."

Richie nodded solemnly, not able to look at Frank. He was terrified for Eddie, but couldn't imagine how it must feel for a father to lose their son.

"Who is the mole?" Frank asked, his fear turning to anger.

Zack nodded for the teenagers to tell what they found.

"Henry Bowers. He said Eddie had a meeting today with you, and took him. We continued our research and managed to narrow down who shot the bullet. The person is the same one who approached Eddie in the club, and he shares the same DNA as Henry, so we narrowed down that it's his father. We assume that Henry knew the whole time, and was waiting for his dad's signal," Stan explained.

"Bring in Desiree Bowers," Zack said, glaring at the group. (a/n idk her real name and I couldn't find it anywhere so yay made up names)

•••

Bev and Mike left to get Henry's mother, hoping she had been oblivious to the situation. They knocked on the door to her room, but she didn't answer.

"Kick the door open," Bev said to Mike, who was the strongest of the three.

Mike obeyed and slammed his foot next to the handle, and the door broke open. They all ran inside and stopped, eyes widened in horror.

Desiree Bowers was hanging, dead, from the ceiling. Her body was cold, meaning she must've been there for a while.

"Look," Bev whispered, grabbing a wadded up note on the bed.

Anyone who's not with us is against us.

-H. B.

"She must've known but not wanted to join Henry," Mike murmured, turning the note over, hoping for some kind of clue.

"He killed her. He killed his own mother," Bev whispered in shock, tears in her eyes. Mike pulled her into a hug, seeing how upset she was.

"We have to get back to the superiors. Now. Eddie is in danger and we need to figure out where he is before he's taken too far away or killed," Mike said, hugging Bev tighter.

The two ran back to the conference room with the note and retold what they had found. Richie couldn't hold in his tears any longer, and Frank angrily slammed his fist into the desk he sat behind.

"We need to find him," Frank said, standing up.

"Send us. We can do it," Stan said. He was so worried, and knew that their determination to find their friend would be more beneficial than the adults who always followed protocol.

"No. You are still on probation," Sharon said, although she wanted them to be able to go.

"They should go. They're the best we have!" Frank snapped.

"No. We, the superiors and leaders, will go out. I'm not letting any more of ours get captured," Zack said in a tone that scared them all to silence.

Richie was pissed. He needed to find Eddie. Even Frank wanted him to find Eddie! Yet, he stayed quiet. He knew that if he wanted to find Eddie, he'd have to do it without permission.