Back In Black (Richie Tozier X Fem!Reader) 3

•Five•

Word Count: 1127

Warnings: The usual.

Song for chapter five - "You Got A Friend In Me" from Toy Story.

***

"Where are we going again?" I asked Mike, trying to keep up as we made our way over a river. I noticed Eddie's pants were rolled up a bit over his ankles. I rolled (ha! Get it?) my eyes at that.

"The clubhouse. Remember the one Ben built?" Mike replied.

***

"You know what? I think the door was somewhere around here." Ben said, stomping his foot around on the ground...then he fell into the floor. He indeed had found the clubhouse by stomping onto the door.

I remember the smoke. How we all sat here, waiting for a vision. I was one of the last to leave, but Mike and Richie had stayed and seen the vision.

"Found it," Ben grumbled.

We all entered the clubhouse. The height was only 5 feet, so some of the losers had to crouch. The whole place was really dusty. It had not been cleaned out for at least...24 years maybe? I guess Mike wasn't really up to visiting this place and cleaning it.

Bill found the box of shower caps from Stanley. I found an old comic book of mine, that I remembered I had lost. Everyone searched around and talked for a bit. I looked around to notice that Richie was missing.

"Hey, losers!" There he was. Everyone looked terrified, while I was just annoyed with Richie.

...and then he came out of the shadows!

"You should have seen your faces! Except you, Y/N. Did you see me sneaking off?" Richie asked.

"No, I just noticed you missing. At least your impressions aren't as shit, as they used to be."

"Hey! My impressions were and are great, thank you very much!" Richie pretended to look offended. Mike cut us off and explained the ritual of Chüd and how we had to go and get artifacts from our childhood.

I never thought I'd had to say this in adulthood, but time to visit kindergarten, I guess.

***

There was a kindergarten not far from the school I went to, where I, Richie and Bill went to. Now that I think about it, it actually had pretty bad service there. Thank God, the other losers were spared from that place.

Ben had dropped me off with his car, because he was going to the school. He left the car here, just in case. I walked over to the wide, but short building. The parking lot was pretty much vacant, except for a few cars here and there.

I walked inside the building and over to the mini room, which had windows so you could communicate with the person, who greeted the people entering. There was an old lady there.

"Hi, I've come to walk down memory lane. I used to go here. Can I take a tour?" I asked her.

"May I have your name?" She asked.

"Y/N L/N." I hesitantly replied.

"Oh, yes! I remember you! I was a substitute teacher for a while and you stood out to me from all the other children! You were my favorite." She rambled.

"That's very nice and all...can I take a tour around now?" I asked, my patience beginning to wear out.

"Yes, of course! Just don't awaken the children. It's nap time." She creepily added. Awaken the children? It's Saturday...

I nodded my head and walked away from the lady, searching for the specific room. Once I had found it, I took a shaky breath and opened the doors. I closed them behind me for whatever reason.

I walked over to the toy box and grabbed a teddy bear out of it. I smiled, looking at it affectionately.

~~

"You have a weird face." A young girl by the name of Y/N said to a boy who approached her. He had huge glasses and two big front teeth.

"What-"

"Let's be friends!" The girl smiled at him. The boy was mildly confused, but accepted the offer anyway.

***

"Leave me alone!" The girl screeched in pain as a boy harshly pulled her hair. The boy, a few years later would be a part of the infamous Bowers gang - Patrick Hockstetter. The creepy, silent guy that targeted mostly girls.

The pain, however, was soon gone as a punch was thrown. The boy from earlier had saved the day. Patrick - being the weirdo that he was, instead of punching back, he just smiled and backed off. Richie turned to Y/N and gave her the teddy bear that he had been holding and offered her to come play with him. Y/N gladly agreed, not wanting to see Patrick's face anywhere near her and just wanting a distraction.

~~

I looked around to see if nobody was looking and snuck the teddy bear into my purse, that I had brought along. They would probably not approve of property being stolen. Now, of course the teddy bear wasn't in perfect condition. It was a bit torn, but seemed like it had been repaired many times.

I opened the door, which I had thankfully closed earlier, and walked out of the room. Immediately, I could sense something was wrong. I had the sudden urge to look left. I slowly turned my head to the left and I almost had a heart attack when I saw hundreds of eyes specifically on me. They were children. Children, who looked like they had gotten straight out of bed.

"Just don't awaken the children."

I was almost frozen in place, but a voice in my head yelled at me to run for my life and I obliged. I heard hundreds of footsteps chasing after me.

"YOU TOOK MY TOY!" The voices yelled, each overlapping the other.

"Technically, it's property of the kindergarten..." I muttered and noticed the lady at the front was gone, so I rushed out of the building.

I tried to get in Ben's car, but the door wouldn't budge. My dumbass realized he had the keys. I turned around to see that nobody was following me anymore. I wanted to sigh out of relief, but I knew I couldn't let my guard down. It was still somewhere here.

"Nobody will be around to protect you anymore." It whispered in my ear and I flinched, turning to my left to see IT there.

As soon, as I faced the clown, it immediately got a look of confusion on it's face. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"You found yours?" I suddenly heard Ben and almost flinched when the clown disappeared like it had never been there.

"Yeah, uh...should we go back to everyone now?" I asked and he nodded, unlocking the car. We both got in and I finally let a breath out and laid my head back against the seat.

***

All of you probably forgot about the first book's chapter two unanswered question. Y/N said to Richie about Ben that that isn't something you say to someone you just meet and Richie retorts, saying that what Y/N said the first time wasn't exactly nice either. The flashback has the answer to that question. It isn't exactly that important, but it's a key element to the main thing that got Y/N to get the artifact :) Also, sorry for not updating for like 1 or 2 weeks (I don't remember the last time that I wrote). I was motivated, I just felt the need to do something useless rather than write - for example, stare at a wall.

Anyway, time for the random question if you got this far. Which character from Spongebob resonates with you the most?