Nyctophilia 🌪 Reddie

xiv

"Eds?" Richie said in a whispering voice, trying to get Eddie to wake up. He ran the pad of his thumb over Eddie's cheek. "Come on, Eds."

Eddie's eyes fluttered open as he struggled to take in his surroundings. "Are we in prison?" he asked groggily, everything out of focus.

"You're comparing my jet to prison? Really Kaspbrack?" came an annoyed voice that made Eddie instinctively roll his eyes.

Richie helped Eddie to sit up and he saw the rest of the losers (as Richie kept calling them) sitting with Henry Bowers at a table. He tried to stand up, only to trip in the process and have Richie basically carry him to the table.

"What happened?" Eddie asked, realizing they were no longer in custody and he wasn't separated from Richie.

"What happened was you fuckers left us behind in a government base and Bowers broke us out," Bev said bitterly, obviously annoyed with the two.

"Why'd you break them out?" Richie asked.

They had been waiting to talk about what happened until Eddie woke up. Henry explained the situation and how El was taken, along with the survival of the Hive and the corruption of the government.

"And now we need you, Tozier, since El contacted you. We need you to tell us everything about what happened in your head. It might give us some kind of clue," Henry said, his arms cross.

"Where are we even going?" Richie asked.

He really didn't want to recount and relive everything he had seen. It was terrifying and confusing, and Richie could tell Eddie knew he was panicking, since he was holding tightly onto Richie's hand, attempting to calm him down.

"France. Leroy Hanlon is the only surviving member of the Hive that was trying to help us," Stan said. "Rich, we know you don't want to talk about what you saw because it clearly was scary, but we need to know."

Richie sighed and asked Henry for a sheet of paper, who gave it to him without saying anything. Richie began to scribble down the same list he had days before.

1. Zack in pain
2. "Traitor"
3. Shrieking
4. Hawkins kids on the couch
5. El in pain, cut arm
6. It's not safe
7. Hive alive?

"What does it mean?" Henry asked impatiently.

Richie shrugged. "I can only guess. I saw Zack Denbrough in pain, and he looked like he was running away from something. Then the scene shifted and I didn't see anything, but I heard someone yell 'traitor' then there was a loud, high pitched shrieking."

Henry was scribbling everything Richie said on a lined piece of paper in the binder. "Who's voice was it that yelled 'traitor?'" he asked.

"I don't know. It was familiar, but I don't know for sure. After the shrieking, I saw the Hawkins kids all on a couch. I don't know if I'm supposed to go to them or if El was showing me that they were safe. Then El showed up and she kept saying to run, saying that nothing is safe and that the Hive is alive." Richie stopped talking and looked around the group.

Henry sighed and nodded. "Okay," he said, standing up and beckoning for Richie and Eddie to follow. He led them to the back of the plane where four closed sections sat. "You two can have the one on the right," he said, pointing.

"How's you guys manage to get a jet that has beds?" Eddie asked, opening the door to a small but surprisingly comfortable looking bed. Comfortable for a plane, at least.

"We've always had a jet," Henry said, rolling his eyes. "We've just never had a reason to use it. We'll be there in nine hours. And, for the love of god, do not fuck on my plane."

Richie smirked and wrapped an arm around Eddie's waist. "No promises," he said with a wink.

Henry glared at them. "I will shove you two out a window while we're thirty five thousand feet up without hesitation," he snarled, walking away.

Richie laughed and closed the door, pulling Eddie against his chest. "You know, if Henry wasn't such a dick, I think he and Stan would get along. They both seem to hate me," Richie said, looking out the window of the plane with Eddie in his lap.

"He can't hate you that much. I mean, he did save us," Eddie said, peering down at the wisps of cloud and the green from the land below.

"Yeah, but he only did it to save El. If he could've left me behind he would." Richie sighed and laid back on the bed, with Eddie still sitting up and staring out the window.

It took Richie a second to realize that Eddie hadn't really ever gotten the chance to look out a window and see the world. Even when he believed in the Hive, he was almost always underground, and even on mission he didn't get to sit and stare. Even Richie had been in a plane once to visit family when his grandmother died and his dad decided to take a few days off drinking to fly them an hour away to visit family.

The fact that Eddie was so fascinated by the world since he had never been allowed to see it broke Richie's heart.

"Eds?" Richie asked, admiring the way Eddie's eyes lit up every few seconds and how he was smiling as he looked out the window.

"Yeah?" Eddie responded without looking away from the window.

"When this is all over, we should go on a trip. I want you to see the world as it is. Not from a TV in an underground base."

Eddie smiled brightly at the idea. "Okay," he said, fighting against the desire to tell Richie that the chance of them being free was small, dwindling into nothing. Especially since the rest of the country wanted them dead.

It was a nice thought, anyway. One to keep them going. The idea of being free, of being able to venture around the world without any regrets was so captivating and tempting.

Eddie wanted that experience more than anything.

Richie continued to watch Eddie stare out the window in awe, smiling at how cute it was. He would've never guessed that Eddie would admire the world so much. He always had some kind of reservation and a hard shell, so it amazed Richie that he could ever be so appreciative of it.

It was the thought of giving Eddie the life of safety he deserved that eventually lulled Richie into a calm state of sleep.