Wednesday June 18, 1997
Henry stood in the cloudy, yet warm, school parking lot with Victor and Belch. It was so warm that he wished he wasn't wearing the leather jacket his friends gave him, but as the days had went on at school while he wore the jacket, he felt more and more less like himself. Each new day in the brown vintage jacket, he felt like he was losing more control of Henry and gaining more control of an anger control hungry monster. In the jacket, he lived in a world that was only black and white, there was no room for grey. He either loved something or he hated it. The only thing he loved was Winter and he hated anything else, and he loathed those losers.
Henry, Victor and Belch found every opportunity to taunt the losers as much as they could, but they always traveled together, and Henry wanted to tear them apart individually.
There was one day last week when Henry saw Eddie standing outside by the bike racks, waiting for the rest of the losers. Henry, Victor and Belch went up to him quietly and surprised him by pushing him over the bike rack.
"Aww, look at the little pussy!" Henry laughed at him as Eddie was on the ground with a bleeding knee. His asthma inhaler had rolled out of his pocket, right at Henry's feet. Henry picked it up, "You need this, you little girl?"
Eddie got up from the ground in pain, "I need that, Henry..." He said nervously, "What would Winter think if she saw you treating her friends like this?"
Henry turned his head to the side and frowned at him, "Is that how you think you're going to get out of this? By bringing my girl up? Trying to guilt trip me, pussy?"
Henry threw the inhaler at Eddie's face, knocking him in his forehead.
Victor and Belch laughed as they watched Eddie struggle to grab onto his inhaler before it fell to the ground. He caught it.
"You wanna be the first to die, loser?" Henry began walking over to Eddie, taking out his knife and revealing the blade.
Eddie began to back away and took a puff of his inhaler, "This is not you, Henry! Those guys hanging with you aren't your friends!"
"Thanks, Dr. Phil!" Henry snarked at him grabbing a hold of the scruff of his shirt and threw him up against a tree, keeping him pinned. "I guess you will be the first," Henry laughed.
Eddie panicked and did the first thing he could think of; He sprayed the medicine from his inhaler into Henry's eyes.
Henry let go of Eddie and put his hand to his eyes, "ARGH!" he yelled in pain.
Eddie ran towards the school without looking back.
"YOU LITTLE PIECE OF DOG SHIT!" Henry yelled.
It was a few minutes before classes started and Victor wanted to show his friends his new car. It was a red 1958 Plymouth Fury.
"My old man let me buy her last weekend. Finally got the keys today. She runs like a beauty..." Victor said as he ran his hand against the smooth exterior.
Henry was examining the car, thinking about how he would love to borrow Victor's car one day and take Winter to the drive-in when she was feeling better. She would have been so impressed to see him driving such a vintage car.
"Can I borrow it to take my girl somewhere nice sometime this summer?" Henry asked as he looked at the details.
"Yeah, man! She will love it. It's a real pussy magnet!" Victor laughed; Henry let out a tiny laugh.
Bill, Ben, Eddie, Stan and Richie were walking up towards the school when they saw Henry, Victor and Belch admiring the car. The three guys were looking at the car admiringly, but all the losers saw was a forty-one year old car that was rusted and was just a hunk of junk. They had no idea that Henry, Victor and Belch were seeing this car as brand new like it was straight from the conveyer belt.
"They're looking at the car like it's the most beautiful thing they've ever seen..." Ben said confused, "I don't even know how they drove it here."
"W-Well, H-Henry loves c-cars. He h-helps his dad at his me-mechanic sh-shop every su-su-summer," Bill said, trying to understand anyway possible why the three guys were so in love with the car.
"Henry tried to kill me the other day. I don't think he's seeing what the whole world is seeing," Eddie said seriously.
"Yeah, well, look how he's dressing! He's dressed like a greaser. His style went from grunge and laid-back to looking like a dude from the 1950's," Bev mentioned, "And it happened over night."
"But why does he want to kill us?" Stan asked, his eye still shinning from Henry punching him the week before.
"I-I don't kn-know..." Bill tried to think of an answer as hard as he could, but all he could think of was Winter. "W-Winter?"
"There's no way in Hell that Winter would be cool with how he's being around us. I really don't think she wants us dead, guys!" Eddie said.
Richie spoke up, "But maybe the stupid clown thing is Henry's puppet master right now."
"Maybe that's why the clown let Winter live... so It could get Henry to do whatever It wants?" questioned Stan.
"To kill us? Why us?" Richie asked.
"M-Maybe I-It k-k-knows that I wa-wa-want to k-k-kill It 'cause of G-G-Georgie," Bill said vengefully.
"But then what do we do about Henry? What do we do about Winter?" Eddie asked.
"Hey, I got an idea!" Richie said before shouting, "HEY! ASSHOLES!"
"RICHIE!" the five of them exclaimed.
Henry, Victor and Belch looked up from the car at Richie, waiting for him to say to them whatever he was going to say. They all knew he would pay for it later.
"This car is automatic! It's systematic! It's hydromatic!"
Richie jumped closer towards them with the beat of drums going off in his head from the song.
"WHY IT'S GREASE LIGHTNING!"
He extended his right arm out and slowly glided it towards his side...
"Go, greased lightnin', you're burnin' up the quarter mile...
Greased lightnin', go, greased lightnin'!"
He pumped his right fist up above his head, alternating from extending his arm to the sky and to the side.
Henry, Victor and Belch just stared at him with no expressions in their faces. They looked a little amused as they thought about how he was digging his own grave as he continued to sing and dance at them.
He extended his other arm out and slowly glided it the the side of his body...
"Go, greased lightnin', you're coasting through the heat lap trials...
You are supreme, the chicks'll cream, for greased lightnin'!"
Bill grabbed Richie by the back of his hoodie and pulled him away towards the school.
"Richie, are you trying to get us killed?" Stan asked him.
"Yeah, what's wrong with you?" Bev groaned.
Later on that day, Richie had to leave early to go to his eye appointment at the mall, where his eye doctor, Ruth Bowers, would be seeing if he needed a stronger prescription.
As Richie walked through the parking lot, he didn't realize that Henry, Victor and Belch were standing by the 1958 Plymouth Fury on their lunch as they had a smoke.
When they saw Richie walking through the parking lot, they put out their smokes to talk to him.
Henry was walking up towards Richie as Belch and Victor were coming up behind him.
"Hey, you four-eyed freakshow!" Henry smiled at him maliciously. "Where you think you're going?"
Richie stopped and looked at Henry, nervous of what he was planning to do. Before he could turn around and try to run, Victor and Belch grabbed either side of his arms and lifted him off the ground, taking him to the rotted car that they were admiring so much.
Henry pushed him against the side of the car as Victor sat down in the drivers seat and Belch stood to Richie's side, making sure he wouldn't run.
"What do you want, Henry?" Richie gulped.
Henry continued to smile at him as he kept his index finger on Richie's chest and would poke him hard with it, "I really liked your song and dance you did earlier. Winter always said that you're the jokester of the group. Did you do it because you like Victor's new ride?" He asked.
Richie looked to the sides of the car and then looked at Henry nervously, "Yeah... It's nice..." he lied, not seeing the car the same way the three guys were seeing it.
All three of them laughed, "See? Everyone likes your car, Victor!" Henry said. He turned to look back at Richie, "I'm really glad you like this car, because me, Victor, Belch and you are going to play a game with this car."
Richie blinked, wondering what he had planned, "What is it?"
Henry smiled more, "I'm glad you asked!" He began poking his chest hard again, acting like he was planning a friendly game that was in Richie's favour, but Richie knew that he was only playing him as a fool; "So! I heard from a little pussy last week that he watched my girl and I having sex in the Barrens... And you know what? I get it! We were in public, and maybe people could have seen us having sex. But, you know... Most people would go about their business and leave us be. Isn't that right, Richie?" He stared him intensely in the eyes.
'Oh, fuck!'Richie thought. He nodded quickly.
"See! I knew you would get it!" Henry laughed. Victor and Belch were laughing, waiting for the fun to start. "Anyway, this pussy friend of yours decided he would stay there and watch us, and then take his junk and jack it off in the woods..." he changed his smile into a frown as he stared deeper into Richie's eyes. "But he didn't say he had any friends with him, that it was just him. Is that the truth, Richie?" Henry continued on slowly, "It...was...just...him?"
Again, Richie nodded, trying his best not to look guilty as Henry tried to read every look in his face.
Henry grinned again, "That's good, Richie! I'm glad my friend, Stan, was telling the truth!"
Richie knew he was still playing him.
"But... I still don't believe him... I mean, I don't know if I believe you, but I definitely don't believe him!" Henry's face frowned again. He looked over at Belch, "Take off his shirt," he directed him.
Richie's eyes went wide, "WHAT?"
Belch quickly pulled Richie's t-shirt above his head. Richie stood in only his jeans, scared of what was coming.
"This is why I'm on your side, Richie..." Henry began smiling again, "I don't think you would have stayed and fantasized about my girl as you jacked yourself off in the woods, because... Well... You don't swing that way, right? You're gay?"
Richie froze still, "What? I'm not gay!" he said defending himself. He could feel his heart racing.
"Okay... Okay..." Henry nodded, "I just have one thing for you to do, and it's up to you if you want to do it the easy way or the hard way..." He frowned at him again, "Winter has a birthmark on her body that would be seen from even a few steps away. Show me on your body where that birthmark is..."
Richie stared at him. He didn't understand why he wouldn't just let him go. He pinky promised the guys that he would never speak about that day.
Richie pointed his finger to his left ribcage, trying to play dumb, "I don't know... Here, maybe?"
"Is that your final answer?" Henry asked.
Richie nodded quickly. As he continued to look Henry in the eyes, he could sense Victor handing him something, but he didn't look down to see what it was.
"Wrong!" Henry pressed the cigarette lighter from the car into his skin on the left ribcage.
Richie screamed as he felt the small circular object burn into his skin.
When Henry took the lighter away from him and passed it back to Victor to put back in the engine so it could heat up again, he noticed the new red burn mark on Richie's skin.
"She doesn't have one there, but now you do!" Henry laughed. "Now! Lets try this again but a little differently..." He stared Richie in the eyes as he was starting to tear up from the pain, "If you don't tell me the truth, not only will you get another burn mark, but I will also tell the whole school and the whole town that you're a faggot... But you ain't no fag, right, Richie? You can't be a fag if you were looking at my girlfriends body, right?"
Richie didn't answer, he just shook in his spot.
"Now..." Henry said quietly, "Lets try this again... Where is Winter's birthmark?"
Richie blinked away the tears and slowly pointed down to his right hip. He looked away from Henry as he pointed in the spot.
Henry looked from where he was pointing towards Richie's face, "Well, look at that... There's another pervert in the group."
Richie looked back up as he cried. Henry quickly grabbed Richie's glasses off his face and threw them to the ground. Belch threw the shirt into Richie's arms. The three boys laughed and walked away.
As Richie cried, he put his shirt back on and looked for his glasses on the ground. One of the lens was shattered. He put them back on anyway and continued to walk towards the Barrens to cross over to the mall. He could feel the pain from the burn just underneath his ribcage and the material from his shirt rubbing against it made it hurt even more.
As he continued to walk through the trees and paths, he had his head down. Once he bumped into something, he looked up with his teary eyes.
"Why so sad, Richie? Would a balloon cheer you up?" The clown that came out of nowhere was standing in front of him.
Richie inhaled deeply with fear as he backed away from the monster clown.
"Oh, come on! I just want to offer you a balloon!" It walked up closer to Richie as he continued to back away.
He tripped over a rock and landed on his bottom; "GET AWAY FROM ME!" Richie yelled.
"But, Richie, you looked like you really needed to talk!" It smiled maliciously at him with blood on It's teeth, "You wanna show me your burn? I can heal it, and wouldn't a balloon cheer you right up?"
Richie quickly got up and ran the opposite direction.
"COME ON! PLAY WITH THE CLOWN!" It yelled as It watched the boy run away.
Later that day in the hospital, Winter was laying up in her bed as she watched a re-run of Seinfeld on the little television her parents had brought her. She was finally able to breathe on her own during the day. They only hooked her up to the breathing machines when she was sleeping. During the day, she had an inhaler at her side.
There was a knock at the door and Eddie walked into the room. Winter was happy to see one of her friends coming to see her. She noticed he had a cast on his arm.
"Hi Winter," Eddie said cautiously, wondering if Henry had told her about what Stan had confessed to him a week ago
"Edz, what happened?" she asked concerned as he walked over to her and sat on the side of her bed.
Eddie rubbed his cast, "Ben, Bill, Bev, Stan and I went to the sewage building where we found your necklace..." He left out the part when the clown showed up and tried to kill them, "I ended up falling down the stairs at the door."
Winter's eyes went wide, "Why would you guys go there?"
He sighed, "Bill..." He shook his head, "He's determined to find Georgie. He thinks he's in the sewers."
Winter pursed her lips and looked down thinking about Georgie dying in her arms. She remained quiet instead of saying what she really wanted to say.
"I just got spooked and fell down the steps," Eddie said as she remained silent.
Winter looked back up at Eddie with concern in her eyes, "You guys can't go investigating there. It's not safe."
"It's not safe anywhere right now, Winter," Eddie added. "There's something wrong here."
Winter nodded slowly, "I know... I was in the sewers for three days..."
Eddie was nervous to ask, but he asked anyway, "Was the clown there?"
Winter blinked at him, "You know about the clown?"
Eddie nodded, "Bill wants to kill It."
Winter exhaled some air at the thought of her friends going down into the sewers. She compassionately grabbed Eddie's hand into hers and looked very seriously into his eyes. Eddie held her hand back, feeling his stomach fill up with butterflies at her concern and the feeling of her hand in his.
"Edz, I care about all of you very much and I want to kill It too, but you can't just go and kill It. It's a strong force and I spent three days with It. It's not a clown - It's a force. It's smoke and mirrors. I don't even know why It let me go."
Eddie remained silent before he looked back into her eyes, "I'm glad It did let you go. I would have been really sad if something worse happened to you."
Winter weakly smiled at him as she continued to squeeze his hand, "Just don't do it, okay? Promise me you won't go in the sewers..."
Eddie continued to look down at their hands holding and back up to her concerned voice. The feelings made him feel so peaceful, "I promise."
"Thank you!" she let go of his hand. "While you're here do you want to play a board game or something? I'm so bored during the day waiting for Henry to get off of school."
Eddie rubbed the back of his neck nervously at the mention of Henry; "Has he been acting weird to you?"
Winter wondered what he meant. She thought about it and said, "No... I mean, I guess he's a little stressed when he has to go to school instead of staying with me, but he's still Henry."
Eddie stared at her surprised. She had no idea what was going on at school.
"Why do you ask? Is everything okay at school?" Winter asked concerned.
Eddie went silent.
"Edz, is everything okay?"
He decided to keep his mouth shut, "I guess it's just everyone's been weird since you've been kept in here. Oh yeah..." He changed the subject, "We have to take the dance class again after the summer. We obviously can't dance with you recovering from Pneumonia and my broken arm."
Winter smiled softly, "Well, you better be my dance partner. I don't need those other boys staring me up and down like a steak."
Eddie laughed lightly, "Well, I'm glad you don't find me creepy like the other guys."
Winter shook her head, "Nah, I'm comfortable with you." She smiled at him, "My good friend, Edz."
Eddie smiled at her, "Maybe next year, you'll stop looking at me like I'm twelve years old."
Winter laughed lightly, "What do you mean?"
"You always do this eye-roll thing whenever we say something that you think is childish. It's like..." He created his face to look like hers as she rolled her eyes quickly and made a face.
Winter began to laugh out loudly, "I don't do that!"
"You so do!" Eddie laughed with her, "The look is like, 'Oh my, God! I can't believe I'm friends with these little kids!'" He said quickly in a dramatic valley-girl voice and made the same eye-roll face.
Winter laughed more, "I don't sound like that at all! But, okay, okay..." she looked at him seriously with a faint smile, "Maybe I do sometimes make looks. I admit, you're my best friends, so I shouldn't be making looks like that. I'll work on it."
Eddie smiled, "I like making you laugh. It makes me feel like I'm not as much as a kid as you think I am."
Winter weakly smiled at him, "I appreciate it when you do, so thank you." They fell silent momentarily. "So I guess I didn't tell you that I can't sing anymore. Well, I can't sing as good as I use to."
"No way!" Eddie was surprised, "Can you get your voice back eventually?"
Winter shrugged sadly, "Maybe one day with lots of work... I'm not sure... I can still do backup voice and play guitar, though."
Eddie nodded, "I guess it's something we can help you try to get back next year. With our dance class, me and you can dance and jump around while you sing so it strengthens your lungs."
Winter nodded, "Yeah, that sounds like fun. You've gotten me all excited about dancing now. I haven't even walked for almost a month now. Only to the washroom and back, and I've still lost twenty pounds."
Eddie looked at her slimmer figure quickly, "You still look like you. You just need to get back to your day-to-day style and get out of that hospital gown. I miss your cross between Slim Shady and Stevie Nicks style."
Winter laughed, "What are you talking about? You think I dress like Slim Shady and Stevie Nicks?"
Eddie laughed, "You do! You dress all Stevie-like and then you always wear that black tuck and it gives off that Slim Shady look!"
Winter laughed more, "Oh my, God! You are too much!"
"Eddie! Eddie!" a woman's voice came from the hallway. "Eddie, are you visiting that Callaghan girl?"
"Shit..." Eddie muttered, "It's my mom..." He sighed and then yelled, "I'M HERE!"
A woman who was about three hundred pounds walked in the room and looked relieved to see her son. However, once she looked at Winter, she frowned. Winter didn't like the controlling vibe from his mom. She returned the frown back to her.
"Eddie, we got to get home and you got to rest your arm!" she said to her son.
"Okay..." He got up from the bed sadly and looked at Winter as he walked out with his mom, "I'll see you soon, Winter."
"Bye, Edz..." Winter smiled softly at him.
As they walked down the hall, Winter heard his mom say, "You shouldn't be hanging around dirty girls like her!"
Winter said quietly to herself, "Bitch."
As Eddie and his mom were walking out of the hospital, Henry was walking in. Henry was in his Metallica t-shirt and jeans, leaving his jacket in his locker at school as he usually did.
Eddie tensed up as he saw Henry about to walk right by him. He continued to walk as he kept his eyes on Henry, nervous of what he would do to him if Winter told him that he visited her.
Henry noticed him and stared at him and his arm, but he didn't look at him the same way like he did at school. He just looked at him as if he saw someone that he didn't want to see, not someone that he wanted to torture and kill.
Eddie turned his head around to look at Henry walk away down the hallway towards Winter's room. He couldn't understand what was going on with him. He had turned into Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Henry walked into Winter's hospital room and smiled at his girlfriend. "Hey baby! You're looking so much better." He kissed her lips and hugged her tight. He sighed happily into her hair, "I'm so happy to see you!"
She kissed him a few times, happy to see him, "You know how boring it is here while you're gone?"
Henry laughed as he put his book bag on the chair "How are you feeling? Are you doing better?" he asked concerned as he sat on the side of her bed and cuddled her into him.
"Actually, the nurse earlier said the doctor has good news for me."
Henry smiled at the sounds of that. He just wanted her home in her own bed as it felt more comfortable sleeping there than here.
Doctor Martin walked in the room with a smile, "Winter, I have good news for you!"
Winter and Henry looked over at him.
"You're dismissed as of tomorrow morning. Mr. Bowers is going to be paying for a nurse to go to your house twice a day to look after you..."
"My dad is paying for this?" Henry asked, surprised.
The doctor nodded, "Yeah. He mentioned that it was the least he could do."
Henry looked down at his hands, feeling bad that he hadn't talked to his dad much since Winter disappeared. This must have been him trying to apologize. Henry warmheartedly smiled and thought he should call his dad to thank him.
"The nurse will be over twice a day to make sure your IV is doing fine, that your infections are leaving your body, give you your medications, and to help you start eating again. The calorie-full drinks are helping you from losing more weight, but you'll need some motivation to eat again."
Henry looked up to him as he grabbed Winter's hand, "Is there anything I can do to help? I want to get her back to her old self as quickly as possible."
Doctor Martin smiled at him, "You can take her for small walks to help her get her strength back, and you can encourage her to eat. While the nurse isn't around, you can make sure she is taking all her medications on time."
Henry nodded, listening intently. "I'll do all that. She's taken care of under my hands," he smiled at her.