"No, I love being your personal doorman!"
"Shut up, Richie!"
"Yeah, shut up Richie."
"Oh okay, trash the trash-mouth, I get it. Hey, I wasn't the one scrubbing the bathroom floor and imagining that her sink went all Eddie's mom's vagina on Halloween." Richie said to us as he was circling around us on his bike while we were walking them down the street. We just left Beverly's apartment and we were still reeling from what we saw. I wasn't in the mood to just let them know what I saw just yet, but I had some kind of weird sense that it was connected to what happened with Beverly and how she felt she was the only one seeing it.
Ever since I blew off Richie from telling him what I saw and what happened to me the day before, he could tell something else was wrong with me. It was killing him that I wasn't telling him, but how could I? Richie was more a realist, making jokes left and right. No matter how sincere he was with me I knew he would think I had some kind of crazy in me if I told him about the room with the dead bodies, the water rising to my legs and the clown.
"She didn't imagine it," Bill said to us, all of us stopping now as we were looking at Bill who was at the back of the group. He seemed as though he was shaking too now as he was finally telling us what was in his head, "I saw something too."
"You saw blood, too?" Stan asked.
"Not blood," Bill replied, taking in a shaky breath, "I saw G-G-G-Georgie," We all were quiet know since he spoke of his younger brother. I was looked from Bill over to Richie, seeing he got serious too now as Bill kept going, "It seemed so real. I meant it seemed like him, but there was this…" He trailed off, not finding the right word now as Eddie finally let down the bomb.
"A clown," We all looked at him as he was clutching his own handlebars of his bars. He gave a quick look to Bill as he nodded his head, "Yeah, I saw him too."
Did he see a clown too? Both Bill and Eddie? How was that possible, I was feeling as though the imagination that I had with that clown was slowly expanding and I was no longer the loner there. Stan nodded his head at Bill and Ben nodded his head slowly as well, looking grim and I realized they saw the clown too. I closed my eyes for a brief moment, seeing the clown in my head in the morgue and I opened my eyes one more time. Richie was looking at me, seeing me almost break there holding my bike. I swallowed, looking at Bill.
"I saw the clown too, Bill." I replied to him, seeing his eyes go wide now as the others were looking too, "At the hospital…in the morgue. He was there," It felt some kind of release that I was saying this to the group since it was no longer myself being the only one who looked crazy. Were we all living the same nightmare? Was the same clown someone who was pulling a prank on us and making us feel terrible about ourselves now? Who was behind all of this? But Richie, of course in his nature, asked the wrong question.
"Wait, can virgins only see this stuff? Is that why I'm not seeing this shit?" Richie asked, almost in irrationally since he clearly was the only one who wasn't seeing this clown just yet. No one had the heart to tell him to shut up, but Eddie looked from him over to the side of the road away from us along the grass.
"Oh shit that's Belch Huggin's car," Eddie asked in fear. It was the same blue tooth car from the last day of school. I could hear some commotion below the cliff where the car was parked, "We, we should probably get out of here."
"Wait isn't that the homeschooled kid's bike?" He asked, having us all see the bike that was thrown t the floor against the car. I saw the packet in the front of the bike and some of the things sprawled out in front. They were wrapped in meat. I cringed, knowing who it was and who Bill was talking about. I would see this boy ride to from the farm where he lived to deliver the meat that his family produced.
"Yeah, that's Mike's…." I cringed.
"We have to help him," Beverly said to the group now, looking a bit concerned as I was thinking the same thing. Mike was a nice person that shouldn't be at the mercy of Henry. Henry would see him as a huge target, bigger than the Losers. I then knew it was going to be in a world of hurt now if he was down there and alone with the boys.
"We should?" Richie asked, almost oblivious. I sighed, Beverly and I getting off our bikes and throwing them to the floor.
"Yes," We both said at the same time, Bill joining us as we started to jog over to the edge and make our way down. The others were following us slowly as we were hearing more and more of the commotion near the Barrens. I was worried about Mike now, wondering if he was dead yet or if he was about to be since he was alone with Henry and his goons. I was weaving through the trees with Bill and Beverly, the others behind us now as we were getting lower and closer to the Barrens.
"Take that, Bitch!"
"Fucking idiot!"
"Oh God!"
I got down there first since I was a bit faster now, seeing that on the otherwise of the small creek there was Henry and his goons, but Henry was Hunched over Mike now and holding him down in a death grip. His two goons were watching from the side and egging him one, but the one who wasn't there was Patrick. I could see Mike struggling as he was trying to get up but Henry still had a firm grip on him, not letting him go and having some anger in his eyes. Finally, Henry reached down and grabbed a rock in his hand, about to slam it on Mike's head.
He rose the rock above his head and my instinct kicked in once again like it did when I was 12. I didn't want someone to be hurt by Henry. Some kind of force inside me was yelling at me to protect him. This wasn't like it was with Eddie, I knew Eddie. I didn't know Mike as much, but I knew enough to know that he was far too innocent and kind to be hurt by Henry. Hell, anyone would.
Without blinking twice, I reached down and grabbed the first rock that was near my foot, reeling back and throwing it on instinct.
"No!" Beverly gasped out as it slammed into Henry and he fell back and off of Mike. Mike was shocked, as well as Henry's other two goons as the others who were running behind me finally caught up. I was fuming a bit still when I saw Henry holding the rock over his head to aim at Mike. But now that it wasn't the case anymore, I sighed inwardly as Mike was making his way over to us in the water, stammering on the way.
"Nice throw," Stan said to me in a smile with the others behind me.
"Thanks," I replied, seeing that Mike was close enough now and I grabbed him, "Here. Come on,"
"You Losers are trying too hard," Henry said to the group as I was helping Mike to the back of the group and away from the group, "She'll do you, you just have to ask nicely. Like I did."
I looked behind me, having me see that he aimed that remark at Beverly now as he grabbed his crotch in front of her. She said nothing now as he then finally turned his attention over to me in the back of the group, his look was a bit more severe and sinister saw as I was shielding Mike with my body at him. I still wasn't afraid of him, not compared to seeing that Clown the day before. Henry was still nothing to me now as he pointed a shaky finger at me, seeing the anger there on his face.
"You," He said to me now. Richie instinctively stood near, as did Stan as Henry sneered at me before he spoke to the rest of the group, "You guys are even luckier since you have resident gimp there to please ya."
That did it, at least in Richie and Ben's mind. Richie moved down in a flash as Ben gave out some kind of roar from his own belly, throwing the rock in his head and hitting Henry hard in the head. Richie threw next, seeing Belch grabbing his own rock ad Henry doing it too. Before I could figure out what was happening, I grabbed another rock in my hand and threw it at the goons, seeing rocks behind thrown back and forth
"ROCK WAR!"
There was no real place I was aiming, only to get the goons to back off as I was also trying to dodge a rock thrown in my direction. I was having left and right, still standing in front of Mike as they were throwing right back at us. Even Eddie jumped in the water in the front, throwing rock after rock with a fierce look on his face. even though they were bigger than us, we had more on our side of the creek as we were pelting them left and right now.
Mike finally got up and threw next to me, aiming right at Henry now and barely missing close to him. Beverly got a good throw in at Belch and got him hard in the head. Finally, after Bill got him hard in the stomach and Henry doubled over, Belch and the other goon ran off since they knew they weren't going to win this rock war we created with them.
No more rocks were thrown since Henry fell to the floor and was clearly defeated. The others that were with him were long gone and left him to be on his own, No one else threw another rock as we all watched to see what he would do. Was he going to throw more? Was he going to charge? I was thinking he was going to do one of those things, but he did nothing. Henry looked more shook than anything as Eddie and Stan helped Mike to go on the trail that would take us back to our bikes. Bill and Beverly followed, Ben right after them as I was walking over to Richie. He was still watching Henry now, fuming behind his coke-bottle glasses and his hands were making fists at his sides.
"Come on Richie," I urged as I grabbed his arms and pulled him along with me. Richie walked a few steps before he stopped and faced Henry one more time.
"Go blow your dad you mullet wearing asshole!"
He flipped him off as he kept walking with me, having me look one more time and see that Henry was still on the floor, amongst the water and rocks, and he was still shell-shocked. I didn't want to look at him anymore, but I gave one more thought as we were walking up the hill to get to the others now. Where I hit the rock on his head and where the blood was pouring, it was the same spot where he slammed his head on the floor after I pushed him.
I wounded him again in the same spot. It was some kind of omen.
"Thanks, guys, but you shouldn't have done that. He'll be after you guys too now." Mike said to us as we were all walking in a line along the grass to get back to the street.
"Ah no, Bowers? Yeah, he's always after us," Eddie reassured him as he was walking first in the line.
"I guess that's one t-t-t-thing we all have in common," Bill added to Mike as he was second in line.
"Yeah, Home-school. Welcome to the Loser's Club."
The last to join us was Mike Hanlon.
That night I was looking at the new cuts that I got from the fight, and though they were pretty intense to look at, I was able to hide them from my mother when we got home from getting Mike back to his barn. It was a cooler evening so my window was wide open and I felt the breeze coming through the house and into my room. I had my implant out and it was resting on my nightstand, having me only hear better out of one ear now.
I was still reeling from what we dealt with that afternoon in Beverly's bathroom, helping Mike from almost dying at the hands of a lunatic, and overall talking about how w were all seeing the same thing.
That damn clown.
"Psst, Molly,"
I looked in the mirror behind me to see Richie poking his head into the window now from the darkness of the night. He peered through the window now as he was looking around my room and then locking his eyes on me, "Can I come in?" He signed to me.
I slowly nodded, seeing him grin now as he snuck into the room with ease. I walked over to close my door in case my mom was going to walk over from the stairs, looking at Richie now and see a small welt forming on his head from where he was hit by the rock earlier that day.
"Wanted to check in you," He replied to me, having me walk over to him now as he hopped over to sit on the top of my bed, "We haven't talked in a while you know, just you and me."
"With all that's going on," I added, sitting next to him on the bed, the both of us sitting in the silence between us. I held my fingers in my lap, not knowing what to say and how to say it with him. He was the one that was better with words, compared to me at least.
"What you said earlier today…about the clown at the hospital. What was that about?" He asked me finally.
I stared at him, almost forgetting about it for a moment or so. Richie watched me too, seeing that I was thinking to myself now as to how I was going to tell Richie what I went through. He could see me and he finally took in his own deep breath.
"Look, I know something's wrong with you, and you're scared," He explained, having me give him a questioning look, "I know what your face looks like when you're scared. Usually, you're not a scared person, and you are and it's starting to not only scare Stan, but also Eddie and—"
"Richie, stop," I stopped him from his rambling now as he stopped. He would go off on a tangent from time to time and someone had to get him to calm down. He took a took breath.
"You're scaring me," He explained to me now as I gave him a pondering look, "All I wanna know is what's going on with my friend?"
I felt bad that he was pulling that card on me. I knew where he was coming from though, we both would tell each other everything that was bothering us. He was the one that started that, thinking that if we told things to each other that it would make us better in some way. He would tell me about his feelings about not being funny enough, and I would talk to him about still having those shy moments from time to time.
How was this moment in my life different from then on out?
"You'd think I'm crazy," I tried to remind him, but he shook his head in a fast rate now.
"I don't think you're crazy," He reassured me, having me remind myself that this was my friend. My first friend, someone who would make me so beyond normal compared to the others there in our group. I finally gave in and recapped him with all that happened to me.
I told him everything.