Reddie II: Eddie Kaspbrak

Chapter 6: You'll Float Too

Eddie quietly watched as the others began to lower themselves deeper beneath the sewers, he felt sick to the stomach just thinking about what they would have to face down there. The hole they had to climb down looked like a tight fit, and Eddie had already begun to feel claustrophobic just thinking about climbing into it.
"I don't think I can do this you guys" he finally announced. Richie stopped in front of him as Ben lowered himself down the dark hole. "Hey, you'll be okay" he responded as he smiled reassuringly at Eddie. "I almost let you die though Rich, I'll get us all killed" Eddie replied, and he tried to fight back tears "I'm so scared Rich" he added.

Richie aggressively reassured Eddie that he would be okay down there, and that actually he was a lot braver than he thought of himself. After having thought about it properly, Eddie realised that Richie was right. He watched anxiously as Richie climbed down into the hole and began to dread the moment his turn came up. 
Beverly handed him a spike she'd found from outside the house, "Here" she said softly, "It kills monsters", Eddie quietly took the spike from her hand and looked at her with fear in his eyes.
"Does it?" he asked nervously. Beverly smiled warmly at him.
"If you believe it does" she replied, and she began to climb down into the deep dark hole.
Eddie didn't want to climb down, but he somehow managed to talk himself into doing it anyway. The passage down into Pennywise's lair was tight and it was hard for Eddie to focus, he gagged a little as he became more and more claustrophobic.
Finally as Eddie joined them, each of the Losers found themselves faced with a large cave, and began the Ritual of Chüd.

i: Come Play With The Clown...

The Losers found themselves horrified to learn that Mike had lied about the ritual, and found themselves faced with Pennywise once again. It had grown to an intimidating size and ridiculed them for their blind mistake. Eddie once again felt his chest tighten and his stomach beginning to tie itself in knots as Pennywise began to chase them around the cave. He hated that fucking clown. His chest was tightening again as they ran, and he began to struggle to breathe. It wasn't long before The Losers had been split up in their attempt to confuse the giant clown, and Eddie and Richie found themselves hiding alone in a dark corner of the cave together. 

They both panted heavily as they hid down a crack in the walls of the cave, and Eddie tried his best to hold it together. He was terrified. Pennywise was busy racing after the other Losers as they tried to find their own hiding places in the giant cave, leaving Eddie and Richie in a moment of peace. 
Eddie slumped heavily onto the floor and sunk his head into his hands as he continued to wheeze and pant. He fumbled about in the pockets of his jacket, trying to find his inhaler with his shaky hands, and he dropped it onto the floor as his wheezing gradually became heavier. 
Richie quietly picked up the inhaler from the ground and knelt down in front of Eddie. Seeing just how shaken Eddie was, Richie gently placed the inhaler in his friends mouth and gave it a puff. "Thanks, Rich" Eddie said as he exhaled heavily "I can't stop shaking" he said as he looked down to the ground. He was visibly upset. 

"Eds..." Richie sighed "About earlier... Back at the Inn..." 
"It's okay Rich, really" Eddie panted, he was slowly catching his breath now. Richie sat down beside Eddie and leaned heavily against the cave wall "It's not okay" he said "You have a fuckin' wife man" he added.
"Rich, seriously" Eddie responded, "I'm not sure we'll be together much longer if I'm honest" he said sadly, and looked out into the opening of the smaller cave they were hiding in. "Myra and I... haven't really been all that happy for a while" he sighed.
"Well yeah I gathered that, she's a fuckin walrus Eddie" Richie replied as he elbowed his friend softly in an attempt to lighten the mood again. 
"You've always been such an asshole" Eddie chuckled, and he quietly looked up at Richie. His glasses had a crack spreading across one of his lenses now and his forehead was beginning to show faint bruises. "I didn't really get a chance to say it properly earlier Rich" Eddie began again. Richie quietly turned to him with curious eyes "....say what? That your wife's a walrus?" 
Eddie screwed his face up in amused frustration "No you fuckhead" he laughed "When we were talking earlier in your room... when we... y'know..." Eddie gazed up to find Richie was already looking at him with a small sparkle in his eyes.

Before he could say anything more, Richie screwed his eyes shut and leaned in quickly to press his lips onto Eddie's. Eddie's eyes widened in slight surprise, but he quickly found himself relaxing, and they embraced one another warmly. Eddie felt his stomach tie itself in knots again, but it was different this time. The last few times he felt that, it had been out of fear and anxiety. But this was something different. It felt warm and overwhelmingly good to him as they shared a tender kiss. It felt right. 
They quietly came away from one another and looked into each other's eyes for a moment. "I really hope that's what you were gonna say" Richie remarked with a nervous laugh. He quickly found himself being pulled in by his collar and Eddie reciprocated the kiss with another, more passionate kiss. Before either of them had any time to begin enjoying themselves too much, they were quickly disturbed by Mike yelling out in fear. "Oh shit!" Richie exclaimed as he quickly rose to his feet and ran over to the entrance of their hiding place. "Mike's in trouble... Stay here!" he demanded, and before Eddie could respond, Richie was gone. 

ii: Sloppy Bitch

Eddie watched in a dazed fashion as Richie disappeared out into the cave. He touched his bottom lip softly in slight amazement at what had just happened between the two of them, and for the first time in years he felt his heart feel full and warm. 
His soft daydream about their kiss was then rudely interrupted by more shouting, and Eddie watched in horror as Richie gained Pennywise's full attention. "Oh you dickhead" he whispered to himself, both in shock and also in exasperation. 

"Yeah that's right, you're a sloppy bitch!" he heard Richie yell. "Yipee-ki-yay motherfu-" he suddenly stopped in his tracks and went limp as Pennywise entranced him in the blinding deadlights. Eddie felt his stomach drop as he watched Richie beginning to float into the air, completely paralysed and powerless "Oh fucking hell Rich, just when I thought it was me that was gonna get us all killed" he exclaimed to himself. 
He quietly stood up with the spike in his hands, and he looked down at it with a growing confidence. "This kills monsters..." he reminded himself as he thought of Beverly's reassurance, "If you believe it does!" he exclaimed to himself. He felt his confidence suddenly exceed his expectations and a deep anger burning inside him as he watched Pennywise capture his friend. 
He let out a loud yell and launched the spike forward into the air.
Sure enough, the spike flew swiftly into the air and lodged itself into Pennywise's opened face. He watched in slight horror as the giant spidery creature fell backwards and impaled itself onto one of the large spikes that rose up from the ground. Richie fell heavily to the floor and landed with a heart-wrenching thud. 

Without thinking twice about the danger he was about to put himself in, Eddie ran over and knelt over Richie to wake him up. "Richie!" he called as he frantically patted at Richie's face "Richie wake up man!" he called again. Richie's eyes slowly opened and he screwed his face up as they adjusted to the dim light of the cave. "Richie! Wake up! I got him man! I think I got him!" Eddie cried proudly. 
Richie slowly looked up towards Eddie and saw how proud of himself he looked, and it made his heart jump slightly in his chest. "I got the monster for real!" Eddie cried proudly again as Richie found himself lost in his friend's eyes. Just as Richie began to smile and realise where he was, he watched in horror as Eddie was swiftly swiped off of his feet by a giant spider leg, and he went flying helplessly across the cave. "Eddie!" Richie screamed in horror, and immediately leapt up to run over to his friend.