| It's Always Been You | Reddie Fanfic |

7

TW - GORE/HOMOPHOBIC SLURS/HARASSMENT

Richie ran through bushes, stabbing him with thorns, carving his legs like pumpkin carving on halloween night. He winced, but never stopped running, and never let the small boy slip or look back.

"COME BACK HERE YOU FUCKERS" Henry shouted, continuously letting it echo through the woods.

Eddie whimpered, and began to shake in the arms of the slightly taller boy. Henry's voice was like a reminder that he wasn't normal, and he wasn't safe.

"It's okay Eds," Richie coughed between shuttering breaths. "It'll all be okay," Richie knew that wasn't true. He saw the bloody boy who was chasing him. He saw the knife, and the killer eyes. The eyes that looked like he'd been here before, in the same situation, preparing to kill, running to his victims. Richie knew he couldn't stop running, he knew that if he did, they'd both die. Eddie would die. So, Richie held his knees up, no matter how tired, no matter how sore, he had to stay up. He had to survive.

The chase lasted for over the mile it had taken each of them to walk to the field, so around 13 minutes, until the two leading boys reached Richie's house. It wasn't exactly perfect, with his parents being there, but it was their best bet. The door slammed open, and shut close behind, leaving Henry to crash right into it.

"FUCK YOU" Henry screamed, banging on the door. Richie's parents were out, so they couldn't hear, or stop the noise, but Henry didn't know that. He gave up, but not before plunging his knife into the wooden door just to scare the two, and it worked.

-

"Stanley, please, just wake up!" Donald cried, quite literally, tears were running down his face. Stanley's was buried in his father's, held there, limp. He was being slightly shaken by his dad's shoulders.

Stanley opened his eyes and screamed. He'd lost so much blood, and his vision was fuzzy, but that didn't stop the pain from the freshly opened wounds.

Donald looked at his son, when he heard the sirens carry from down the road. Tears seared his face, still holding his broken son. "It's going to be okay. All okay."

The thin, bloody boy grabbed at his arms, trying to stop the blood. He liked the pain, it felt okay, he felt okay with it.

Just then, the sirens wailed next to the house, and the door opened. Everything was like a blur, and Stanley was at the hospital, in the ER, getting stitches. Donald was talking to the nurse.

"Can you tell me what happened, sir?" The man asked, he had a clipboard and a pen.

"Well..." Donald sighed and held back tears, remembering what had happened to his son. "I heard a knock on my door, which I opened to see a girl. I didn't know her, but she told me to follow her. I did, and around the corner was a boy, one of the Bowers boys. Doesn't matter. He, uh," The father was very disoriented and was rubbing his neck. "He was, um, yelling, and banging on Stanley's" He made a light gesture towards the boy on the ER bed. "Window. I yelled and chased the kid off. When I ran to look through the, um, the window, Stanley was, uh, ripping off scabs, covering, um, c-cuts, I-I think? When I got to him, he was passed out, and now we, um, we- umm we're here."

"Ok, Dr. Lisa Patel will take your son, and she'll be here in a minute." The nurse finished writing some things, and put his pen back atop the cardboard, and walked away. Mr. Denbrough shuffled back to his sleeping son, and sat down.

-

"Eds, are you okay?" Richie put a hand on Eddie's shoulder, who was set on the stairs.

"My fucking ankle kind of FUCKING HURTS!" Eddie wailed, grabbing his swollen leg.