𝐌𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐋𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐒 [R.Tozier]

XV. Fourth Of July

"Hey, Parker." Alisa hears a whisper as the sun beats through her closed eyes. "Pippi! Hey, Longstocking!" She feels herself being shaken by someone, then slowly blinks her eyes open. "What is it, Richie. It's too early." She whines, closing her eyes once again. "No, no. You're not going back to sleep again." the boy argues, trying to pull away her blanket, but then attacked by her flailing arms.

He grabs her wrists, stopping the flailing and pulling her up. She groans in annoyance. "What time is it?" The red head asks in a low voice, rubbing her eyes. "10 o'clock. We're going to the Fourth of July parade with the others. Bill is waiting for us so I suggest you hurry up." Richie states, placing a strand of hair behind Alisa's ear and heading out of the room, leaving her to get changed.

Alisa sighs, getting up from the bed and walking over to her closet, throwing on the first dress she finds and heading out the door, her hair hanging loose for once, not in its usual braids.

The door creaks as she makes her way out, getting Richie's attention as he watches her walk out. He stares in awe as she walks over to him with a tired, but happy smile. "There's a monster across from me and it's really ugly." Richie jokes, looking to her blue eyes, that still find a way to glow, even in the darkness of the Parker household.

"Shut up!" Alisa shrieks, slapping his arm. "Honestly though, how do I look?" She asks, twirling around in excitement. "With your eyes, duh." Richie simply responds, walking up to the girl and taking her hand. "You look great, Pip- shit I can't call you that without the braids." Richie says, looking to her hair that hung loosely around he shoulders. The girl rolls her eyes, then speaks up.

"I like your Hawaiian button up today." She compliments as they walk down the creaky steps. "Thanks, it's boyfriend material."

"I'm pretty sure that's made of cotton, rich." Alisa sasses, then let's go of his hand, winking as she walks out the front door to find Bill, waiting by his bike. "Hey, Bill. Ready to go?" She smiles kindly at the blue eyed boy, who nods and gets onto his bike.

•••••

Bill, Alisa, Beverly, Stanley, Ben, and Mike stand along the brick wall, staring at a newly added missing poster of Edward Corcoran. He had just gone missing three days ago. "They say they found his hand all chewed up near the Standpipe." Stanley says.

"He asked to borrow a pencil once."
Ben shrugs, his face full of sorrow. Bill walks closer to the poster, noticing something peculiar. There was another paper underneath. As he lifted the paper, it revealed another missing poster of Betty Ripsom. Those have seemingly been disappearing all around town these days.

"It's like she's been f-f-forgotten because Corcoran's missing." Bill says, putting the poster back and down and straightening it out. Looking to her right, Alisa notices Richie playing one of the baritone horns, clearly annoying the band member. "Hold on, guys. I'll be right back." She says, heading towards the four-eyed boy.

"Hey, Glasses! Leave the poor dude alone!" She calls out, distracting Richie, giving the band member a chance to snatch back his instrument. "What the fuck, dude?" Richie shouts as it is taken out of his grasp, quite aggressively.

"Come on, you're an embarrassment." Alisa says through gritted teeth, placing her hand on Richie's back, leading him towards the others.

"What are you guys talking about?" The two hear their short friend say as he approaches with two fresh ice cream cones in his hands. "What they always talk about." Richie replies, grabbing the ice cream cone and devouring the top of it. "I actually think it will end." Ben says, looking to Stanley.

"For a little while, at least." He finishes. "What do you mean?" Beverly asks, scrunching up her face in confusion. "So, I was going over all my Derry research and I charted our all of the big events. The Ironworks explosion in 1908, The Bradley Gang in'35, and The Black Spot un '62. And now kids being.." Ben trails off.

"I realized this stuff seems to happen.." Ben begins. "Every 27 years." Bill joins in as the two speak in unison. The kids all go silent, looking around at each other's worried faces.

"Hey, maybe we should go sit down at the park nearby. It'd be more comfortable." Alisa suggests, earning a nod from everyone else as they all begin following the marching band down towards the park.

"Hey, want some?" Richie asks, holding up his ice cream cone to the red-head. "Sure." She smiles, leaning her head forward, only for the cone to be smacked against her forehead. "Holy- Fuck you, Glasses!" She shouts, causing the entire group to advert their attention to them as she wipes the cold, sticky, ice cream off of her pale forehead. "You're an asshole."

They all sit down, Alisa chuckling while Richie helps her wipe off the ice cream with a napkin. "Do you ever look at two people and wonder why they haven't kissed yet?" Eddie whispers to Bill, who nods and turns to look at Richie and Alisa. "Yeah." He says.

Alisa and Richie stop laughing, quickly noticing all the eyes glued onto them. "Why are you guys looking at us?" They ask, yet earning no answer and simply shrugging it off. Little did the others know.

"Okay, So, let me get this straight." Eddie speaks up as all heads turn to look at the small boy. "It comes out from wherever to eat kids for, like, a year? And then what? It just goes into hibernation?"

"Maybe it's like.. what do you call it?" Stanley asks, the word on the tip of his tongue. "Cicadas. You know, the bugs that come out every 17 years."

"My grandfather thinks this town is cursed. He says that all the bad things that happen in this town are because of one thing. An evil thing that feeds off the people of Derry." Mike speaks up.

"But it cant be one thing." Stanley says, his voice cracking. "Yeah, we all saw something different." Alisa adds, looking to Mike. "Maybe. Or maybe It knows what scares us most and that's what we see."

"I-I saw a leper. He was like a walking infection." Eddie chokes out, looking to the green grass beneath his feet. "But you didn't. Because it isn't real." Stanley seems to tense up on the bench as he holds his posture. "None of this is. Not Eddie's leper, o-or Bill seeing Georgie, o-o-or the woman I keep seeing."

"She hot?" Alisa rolls her eyes and slaps his arm. "You dumb fuck. Honestly." She mutters under her breath placing her hand on her forehead in disapproval. Stanley looks up, clearly not amused. "No, Richie. She's not hot. Her face is all messed up. None of this makes any sense. They're all like bad dreams." Stanley shouts, ruining the mood even more so than before.

"I don't think so. I know the difference between a bad dream and real life, okay?" Mike argues. "What'd you see? You saw something too?"'Eddie asks. "Yes."

Mike takes in a long, deep, breath. Then, speaks. "Do you guys know that burned-down house on Harris Avenue?" The group nods, Alisa leaning in closer to Richie, grabbing onto his arm. "I was inside when it burned down. Before I was rescued, my mom and dad were trapped in the next room over from me. They were pushing and pounding on the door, trying to get to me. But it was too hot. When the firemen finally found them," Mike pauses, trying to keep himself calm.

"...the skin on their hands was melted down to the bone. We're all afraid of something." Mike says, forcing his tears in. "Got that right." Richie replies, turning back to look at the stage behind him. "Why, Rich? What are you afraid of?" Eddie asks.

"Clowns."