I sit down sadly as I recall the shower cap incident.
"He was old before his time." Ben smiles sadly next to me.
"He never got to truly grow old." I take a shaky breath. I cover my mouth with my hand as I let the silent sobs rack my body. I lean over so my hair can cover my face. The tears fall onto the floor and a hand goes onto my back to try and comfort me.
"I wonder what he was like all grown up." Eddie wonders aloud.
"He was the same." I look up at them.
"You saw him when he was an adult?" Ben asks. I nod, sniffling to try to stop the crying.
"We saw each other a few years ago. He came to one of my shows and we hung out after. He was still such a good guy. He was so interested in everything I had to say. Occasionally when we would talk over the phone because I needed a friend, he would give such amazing advice. He was positive but realistic, cautious yet told me to be adventurous, everything he was as a kid and more." I swallow the big lump in my throat.
"Hey, Mike, what are we doing here?" Richie asks as he stands next to me.
"The ritual, preforming it requires a sacrifice." Mike stands.
"A sacrifice? I nominate Eddie." Richie points to Edds.
"Wait, what?" He quickly asks fearfully.
"Because you're little. You'll fit on a barbeque." Richie shrugs as he gives his explanation.
"I'm 5'9 it's like average height in most of the world," Eddie defends. He is kind of short but I'm still much smaller than he is, standing at only 5'1. It's great for getting booked because the hype when I go against up a tall person is crazy.
"It's not that kind of a sacrifice, guys," Bill speaks up.
"The past is buried but you're gonna have to dig it up, piece by piece, and these pieces, these artefacts, is why we're here. They are what your sacrifice is, and since Stanley isn't here to find his, I figured we should all be here together to find his artefact.
"I think Bill just did that." I look over to Eddie wearing a shower cap. I shake my head and smile softly.
"Let's head back up, guys," Ben says, gently patting my back. We all go back up and into the bright forest.
"Okay, like, so where do we find our tokens?" Eddie asks
"I gotta be honest, man, all due respect, this is fucking stupid, man. Why do we need tokens? We already remember everything, alright; saving Ben, defeating it. I mean we're caught up." Richie holds his arms out.
"That's not everything. We fought, but what happened after that? Before the house on Neibolt, think." Mike urges us.
"We-we can't remember, can we?" Bill looks between all of us.
"See, there's more to our story, what happened that summer. And those blank pages are like pages torn out of a book. That's what we need to find. We need to split up. We each need to find our artefact... alone. That's important. When you do, meet me at the library." Mike instructs us.
"Yeah, I gotta statistically speaking, you look at survival scenarios, we would do much better as a group," Eddie speaks up, trying to convince us to go together.
"Yeah, splitting up would be dumb man, we gotta go together." Richie agrees. "Alright, we were together that summer right?"
"No, not that w-w-w-whole summer," Bill says, turning around. He's right, after our big fight we all split up for a little bit. Except for me and Stan, we were together even during our break from the losers club.
"Sounds like we gotta split up then." Ben agrees.
"See you guys at the library." Bev leaves. Everyone else goes different directions and we're all alone now.
"Alone... What kind of Scooby-Doo bullshit is that?" I mutter as I walk through the woods by myself. I somehow arrive at the place where we had our rock war and recruited Mike. I smile softly but I remember something else, something I entirely overlooked.
27 Y E A R S A G O
Everything is too much for me right now, I needed to getaway. I needed to escape. I walk through the trees, keeping my eyes down so I don't trip over a root. I finally get to the stream, the perfect place to let everything out. I take a deep breath and let it out by screaming as loud and long as I can. I catch my breath as my scream dies. I huff slightly.
"What the fuck was that for?" A voice says. I turn to my right and see Bowers down the stream from me, shirtless.
"I... I come here to let it out." I decide to tell him. I notice his side has a big purple bruise on it.
"You're hurt, are you okay?" I ask, stepping forward carefully. Bowers' eyes widen slightly and he looks down at his bruised side.
"Don't you dare fucking tell anyone!" He jumps forward, pointing a finger at me.
"Hey, I won't tell anybody, I swear!" I raise my hands up.
"If you tell anybody, even your fucking dog about this, I'll kill you." His face darkens.
"I won't speak so much as a whisper about this. I'm sorry, I just thought you'd want some help." I shake slightly.
"Why would you help me? I beat up all your little fucking boyfriends, don't you hate me like everyone else?" He scoffs.
"Hate is a strong word, I despise you but I don't hate you." I swallow the nervous lump in my throat.
"You should." He sits down in a huff.
"I should." I nod and agree with him. I decide to take a chance and sit down
"What are you doing?" He looks at me like I'm crazy.
"Sitting down? Look, I need someplace quiet to sit and this was my place first." I shrug, trying to swallow that nervous pit in my stomach. Every instinct tells me to run away but I keep myself here, in this spot.
"Well don't sit so close to me." He crosses his arms. I scoot away a little bit. I take a deep breath and let it out.
"Are you sure you don't want me to look at that? Nobody has to know." I turn back to him, unable to leave it alone.
"You really want to?" He looks over.
"I would like to." I nod. He sighs in annoyance and nods. I hurry over and check his ribs. The bruise is bad, it looks as though it hasn't healed in a while.
"How did it happen?" I ask. When he doesn't answer I look up at him. He looks away.
"Don't fucking worry about it. I swear if you say anything I'll fucking cut you." He threatens again.
"Will you just trust me? I know where you're at right now... I'm not gonna tell anyone." I look down.
"Where's yours?" He asks, his tone softening a little but his eyes still squint in suspicion. I roll up my sleeves and lift up my forearms, revealing my defensive scars.
"It was never hands that got me, it would be a glass or a picture, anything that was nearby." I put them down.
"It's worse when it's hands. Then you don't have scars- proof of what happened." He absentmindedly runs his fingers over his bruise.
"That's why I don't hate you. I couldn't have known why you are the way you are." I say. He looks over to me.
"This doesn't mean we're friends." He frowns at me.
"I didn't expect it to." I shake my head. "You're not too bad though, Bowers."
"You're still a loser, Herst." He shrugs. I smile softly.
"Probably." I nod. I hand him his shirt and he pulls it over his head, covering his bruises up.
"See ya around, loser." He nods before he walks away.
YOU ARE READING
All Alone | Stanley Uris
Aventura"That's what adults do. They only think about their problems... And when they don't have any, they make one up. Us kids, we can see the reality of life more than they can, and that's what's truly terrifying. Something they'll never want to come to t...
