Nyctophilia 🌪 Reddie

xxxi

"Why would you do that?!" Jim yelled, tears in his eyes as his daughter bled out in his arms.

"Sh-she asked me to," Richie responded quietly. He had realized seconds after he pulled the trigger what he had done, and an unbearable wave of guilt crashed over him.

"How?! She was under his control!" Jim yelled, gently placing El on the ground and standing up to scream at Richie.

Eddie stood in the way. "El's been communicating with Richie in his head. That's what just happened and she asked him to kill her to save everyone else. Now we get Brenner and blow this place up," he said, reaching for Richie's hand.

"Brenner?" Richie asked.

"Yeah, Rich. That's part of the plan."

Richie's eyes were wide. "I know that." He looked over to where the doctor had been standing. "Shit."

"What?" Eddie asked, eyes narrow with confusion.

"He may not have those dogs but he's got a whole army. We need to find him and blow this place up before he sends his people after us," Richie said, picking up the gun he had used to shoot El.

Eddie nodded. "Okay. I know this is bad timing, but where the hell is Stan?"

Richie looked at Jim, who was still livid but understood the situation.

"I'll go get him. He got hurt and he's hiding," Jim said, vanishing down a hallway.

Eddie took Richie's hand and they began making their way down the path they assumed Brenner would've taken. They could've split up, but neither was willing to risk losing the other.

As they were walking cautiously down a hallway, they heard a yell and a click. Richie and Eddie opened a door and hid behind it, Richie clutching the gun tightly.

"If we die, I'm glad I'm dying not being controlled by Brenner," Eddie whispered, looking up at Richie.

Richie smiled softly and leaned down to kiss him, when he heard a click from beside him. Both glanced up and saw a figure pointing a gun at them, wearing a mask. The figure then took off their mask and glared at the two when they sighed in relief.

"We're trying to blow this place up and you two take a quick break to have a makeout session?!" Bev snarled, holding her hand out to help Eddie up, the assisting Richie.

There was an ugly cut on Bev's face, and it was still bleeding, but she didn't seem to care whatsoever.

"What happened?" Eddie asked, reaching forward to touch the cut, only for Bev to shake her head and push his hand away.

"We followed the monster but we ended up in the middle of a pack of them. We tried to fight them off, but..." Bev started tearing up. "There were too many. They got Butch and I left Lina hiding somewhere. She's really hurt but I needed to find you guys."

"Butch is dead?" Richie asked, realizing that when he got back, Henry and Mike would probably team up and kill him.

"Yeah. He died to save us. They would've got Lina and myself, but as they were advancing they stopped and it seemed like they all died. I knew you guys had to have something to do with it, so I came after you." She handed Eddie a backpack. "These are the bombs. We need this place blown up."

"We need to get to Stan and Jim first, then capture Brenner," Richie said.

"He's not dead?"

"We were a little preoccupied," Eddie said, ignoring the irritated look Bev gave him.