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"No, we gotta go through the alleyway."
"The alley takes way too long." Eddie snapped at Stan.
"Uh, no, the alley is so much faster." he insisted, growing increasingly annoyed.
"You just don't wanna take the alley 'cause you think it's gross." Chris muttered as she passed them up.
"It is gross! And dangerous, and disgusting."
"How is it more dangerous?" Richie chimed in.
"It smells like piss and it's gross. Just take the side streets for once."
"Oh. My. God. The side streets are the same - they smell like piss and shit." Stan said with a raised voice.
She had met up with the boys not long after leaving, nearly running Eddie over after taking a sharp turn through a side street. They were all as worried as she had been (some showing it more than others), and all of them were just as clueless. As they drew closer to the apartment complex, the bad feeling she had left with had only increased.
"Okay, okay, can you just tell me what she said exactly? It must've been important enough to call all of us here." Eddie derailed.
"She didn't say anything. She just said that you guys need to hurry over." Stan answered.
"She didn't say anything. Okay, okay great."
As they threw their bikes on the patchy grass in the back of the building, Beverly met them, bounding off the stairs out of breath and looking like she had just seen a ghost.
"You made it. I -" she paused, catching her breath as she skidded to a stop. "I need to show you something."
"What is it?" Ben asked in a gentle tone.
"More than we saw at the quarry?" Richie chimed in.
"Beep beep, Richie!" Eddie shouted.
"Where is it?" Chris asked.
Beverly nervously rubbed at her arms.
"My dad will kill me if he finds out I had boys in the apartment."
"Then we-we'll-we'll leave a l-lookout." he turned to Richie. "Richie, ss-st-sta-stay here."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa - what if her dad comes back?!"
Stan stopped before walking up the stairs. "Do what you always do - start talking."
Richie sighed. "It is a gift."
Chris was the first to enter the apartment after Beverly, with Bill and Ben following on her heels. As soon as she passed behind the back door she had gotten the feeling something was wrong. She didn't blame Stan and Eddie for straggling behind. It was more than a little suffocating. Something bad happened here, but her morbid curiosity was nagging at her the further she was led inside the apartment.
