IT Imagines & Preferences

Ben

XAnnie-ChanX

The tape rewound until you clicked a button. "Hey, it's Ben. You're not home, obviously. That's why you're not.... answering. Gah." He face-palmed over the line. "Anyway, I was just wondering if you, wanted to come over tomorrow so we can hang out. Uh, we could meet at the park or something." You nodded, listening.

"Or we could meet somewhere else if you want, just um, let me know. Okay, bye," and the line cut, the machine beeping. When the red light went off, you stood up, getting ready to leave. Second day of summer and these kids were already up and at it. The club has already been to the quarry yesterday to go swimming. Not that it wasn't fun, but it did seen a bit early in the vacation to be going places.

Besdies the doubt, you went anyway, cycling to the park on your bike, trying not to get winded. You arrived to see the park close to empty. Maybe a few people walked around the grassy field or sat on benches watching the birds, but that was it. You found an empty bench under a large feather-leaved tree and say down, propping your bike up next to you. You sat your chin on your fist and waited.

You'd checked your watch every five minutes three times already. You were wondering if you'd just gotten stood up and sighed heavily. You pursed your lips and rested your arms on the back of the bench, and looked behind you. There was the rest of the park, and the buildings, no one else. Not even a bird.

"Hey."

You whipped around, startled half to death. Ben was standing next to his bike, his hands still on the handles. "Are you ready to go?" You looked behind him. "Where did you come from?" you asked in disbelief. He frowned. "My house. Why?" You shook your head. "No reason. Let's go."

The both of you sped off towards Ben's house after a small quarrel deciding where you wanted to go. After remembering neither one of you had money to go someplace, you settled with Ben's house. Tossing your bikes on the lawn, you headed into the empty house. It was dead quiet and eerie if anything, but Ben being there made it less creepy. Especially since he was showing you around.

He got you some pink lemonade and a tuna sandwich that somehow happened to be on hand. He led you to his room and you eyed the posters on the walls. Or lack thereof. Instead of posters he had small maps, black and white street shots of Derry, newspaper article clippings, and the posters of some missing kids covering the walls. It kind of irked you. "What's this?" He saw you looking at the stuff. "These are um, things on Derry." You raised an eyebrow. "What for?"

"I'm really interested. Almost the second I moved here, it's past caught my interest. I've been buying and borrowing books on its history ever since. They're all real page turners." You raised an eyebrow. "What kind of past? I haven't really paid all that much attention to it."
He seized his chance to nerd out. "Well, this right here," he pointed at a picture of a paper with signatures covering it. "This is the charter for Derry township. Derry started as a beaver trapping camp. Ninety-one people signed the charter thst made Derry, but later that winter they all disappeared without a trace." Your mouth opened. "The entire camp!?"

He shrugged, shaking his head. "There were rumors of Indians, but no sign of an attack. Everyone just thought it was a plague or something, but it's like one day everybody just woke up and left. The only clue was a trail of bloody clothes leading to the wellhouse."

Your brows shot up. "This whole town is one big conspiracy theory." You walked on, looking at more pictures. "Where was the wellhouse?" He shrugged again. "I don't know, somewhere in town I'm guessing. Maybe in the forests somewhere." You pointed at another picture. "What's this?"

He sat on his bed. "That was a fire that happened in the mid 30s at a place called the Black Spot. A group of racists didn't like the fact that blacks wanted to party and dance like them, you know how it goes, and one night they set it on fire with people still inside." You nodded, listening intently. "
Most of them made it out, but not everyone. Most of them suffocated or burned to death. When they identified the bodies later, the skin had melted down to the bone. It was really a tragedy, but if course police didn't care."

"But wait, what about the settlement? What do you think happened to those people? Do you think the same thing happened to the Black Spot?"
He shook his head. "Probably not. They're not really related. There were no clues with the settlement. Everyone knew what caused the fire."

"Oh."

"But I see where you're coming from. I think there's something wrong with this town." You scoffed in disbelief. "How so?" "How could you not?" he gestured at all the papers. All of this happened in the span of maybe two centuries. I mean look at that one." He pointed to a picture with an article and you stood up to look at it.

"That was an Easter egg hunt back in 1916. All the adults hid the eggs in a field and had the children look for them, you know, the usual. But instead of it being a fun day for kids, half of them ended up getting killed because they'd hid the eggs in an abandoned minefield." You grimaced. "Yeesh." He nodded. "Yeah. One kid got blown up and they found his head in lady's apple tree a few days later."

"Oh my god." You sat on the bed with him. "I read up on this stuff at the library. I'm in there all the time. And it never bored me for a second. You should come with me sometime." You shrugged. "We could go right now." He stood up. "Really?" You smiled and stood up.

"What can I say? You've peaked my interest. Let's go."

"Let's."