She'll Float Towards Us

0.4

Previously on 'She'll Float Towards Us'

"I get why you are wanting to do this, but I am not going in there, Bill. I don't want to end up like Geo- '' Eddie stops when he sees Bill's heartbroken expression and rewords his sentence, " I don't wanna go missing either."

Stan agrees, "Yea Bill, it's summer, we should be out having fun! I know you want to do this, but you should let them go. Give them the peace they deserve!"

Bill goes to respond but is cut off by the sound of splashing water outside. The three turned and rushed outside to see what was happening. They make it  to the entrance when they hear Richie yell.

"Holy Shit! What happened to you?!"

Now

The young teen just gives Richie a desperate look, and tries to get up and start running again. He fails and falls back into the water, too weak to get upon his own anymore. Eddie and Stan push past Richie and go help the wounded kid. While they walk him to their bikes, the boy introduces himself as Ben Hanscom.

"Yea it's nice to meet you Ben, but are you not going to tell us why you are covered in blood, mud, and shit who knows what else?!" Richie demands. Ben takes a nervous gulp before wincing at his movements.

"Henry Bowers did this by the kissing bridge. He had two of his goons hold me down while he started to carve his name into my stomach." He manages out weakly. "I kicked his face and flipped over the wooden railing to escape before he could write past the first letter. I lost them running down the stream."

"Fuck man! Where was Laycey?" Eddie asks, amazed that the kid got away with just the stab wound.

"He had Patrick take her on a date right before grabbing me. She didn't see a thing." He said, eyes watering at the pain in his stomach.

Stanley must have been right about Laycey not being in on the Bowers Gang's bullshit.

Once they get Ben on Bill's bike, they pedal their bikes to the alleyway beside Mr. Keene's Pharmacy. And the entire way there, Eddie is rambling on and on about the consequences of helping him.

"We really need to think about our own safety here guys.", He panics, "I mean first off, there is the fact that Henry and his gang could find out we helped and then we would get targeted more. And-and he is bleeding everywhere, you-you know there is the not-so-small fact that we are in the middle of an AIDS epidemic. I-I mean haven't you heard the rumors about Freddie Mercury?!?! There's a huge theory going around that he has it. They say he got it from an open hangnail at a bus station. AIDS FROM A HANGNAIL! AT A BUS STATION! They'll have to cut his arm off! Because you know, you can amputate an arm or leg, but you can't amputate a wai-HOW THE FUCK DO YOU AMPUTATE A WAIST!??!" His frantic rambling screeches at the end.

They get to the alleyway and Stan helps Bill get Ben on a wooden crate. They make sure he is settled okay before Bill turns to follow Eddie to get supplies, while Stan quickly tells Richie to stay with Ben before running after the other two. The two sat outside in silence for a little while before Richie awkwardly blurted "Well I'm glad I got to meet you before you died dude."

Ben tried to give Richie a smile, but it turned out to be a grimace before looking down to play with his fingers as a distraction for his pain.

"Well fuck me then." Richie mutters so quietly Ben can't hear him. After an awkward moment of silence, he takes a deep breath and sits down beside Ben.

"So, what's your story man? How did you wind up in a shitty place like Derry?" He interrogates lightly.

"There's not much to it." Ben sharply inhales. "Dad was cheating, mom found out, got tired of his crap and left, taking me with her. We had to go somewhere small, because my dad is this huge corporate CEO for some architect company. We don't really want to be noticed."