sweet ♡ richie tozier

chapter fourteen

The Losers stare at the couple, having almost completely blank faces. They looked like their souls left their bodies.

"Why does Richie have a girlfriend before me?" Eddie mutters, looking ashamed of himself.

"Because I'm more attractive than you," Richie replies.

Eddie looks up and around at all of the boys in the group. "Can you believe this guy?" he asks rhetorically, looking annoyed.

Meanwhile, Addie is awkwardly standing there, being too embarrassed to meet Richie's eyes as she holds his hand.

As he's looking from boy to boy, his face drops into fear. "Where's Stan?"

Adelaide's heart aches for Stan as their heads whip around in search for him. He was the one who didn't want to come in here, and she couldn't help but feel guilty.

"Come on!" Adelaide instructs the group, taking the lead and running down the tunnel.

As they're running and get to an opening, they begin splashing around in the disgusting water. Adelaide scrunched her face up and gripped Richie's hand tighter.

Since the splashing was kind of loud, Richie decided it was okay for him to lean towards her and say, "You aren't scared?"

She gives him a soft smile and shakes her head. She holds up their intertwined hand and says, "This helps me."

If this were a cartoon, Richie would have stars lit up in his eyes right now. He wondered how, in such a scary situation, it felt like she was still shooting arrows of love into his heart.

"Shit, it's grey water," Eddie says, bringing the two's attention away from each other and to him.

"We aren't pussies, though, Eddie," Adelaide says, a new determination filling her body. She needed to make sure Stan was safe, because they're all in this together.

After hearing a scream that vaguely sounded like Stan, the group immediately starts sprinting towards the metal door at the end of the tunnel. Adelaide was the one who pushed it open, quickly running into the broad room.

She felt like she could finally breathe, in the new large room, but that was irrelevant. Stan is what's more important.

"His flashlight," Eddie comments, picking it up from the ground.

As soon as Eddie moves it, what comes to view made every single one of their hearts feel like they were going to burst. They all gasped and made horrible sounds of fear, standing and not knowing what to do.

The creature pulled back from Stan and hid behind the darkness of the tunnel. When it reappeared, it was no longer the creature, but IT.

Adelaide, feeling awfully brave, made an inhuman scream towards the monster and then went running towards Stan, disconnecting her fingers from Richie. Richie quickly ran after her, not wanting to let her stray far from her.

"Stan—"

When she bent down to check to see if he was okay, he jolted forwards, screaming and crying, "You left me! You took me into Neibolt! You're not my friends!"

"Stanley, I'm sorry!" Eddie says, wrapping his thin arms around him. The rest of them follow, holding onto Stanley.

"We're gonna be okay, guys," Adelaide promises.

They all whip their heads towards Bill as he started running.

"You idiot!" Adelaide groans in aggravation, but worry is still laced in her tone.