Eddie carefully turned Richie onto his back, causing him to hiss in pain and lean forwards, his hand holding his side. "W-Who did this to you?! Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit…" Eddie was panicking as he rummaged through his fanny pack to grab his inhaler. He pressed the button on the inhaler and took a deep breath in as the medicine entered his lungs, not sure why he continued to use it.
Richie coughed and slowly opened his eyes. "H-h...hey." He said softly. "Hey? HEY?! Are you fucking kidding me?! What the fuck happened to you?!" Eddie anxiously ran his hands through his hair.
"B-Bowers…" Richie's voice was dry and weak. He was pale and his bruises had turned a painful dark purple. "H-His gang… jumped me… Henry… st-stabbed me." Richie told him and Eddie carefully lifted the sheets. The scarlet blood from his wound was seeping through the bandage wrapped around his side; leaking down his shirt and into the sheets. There was a slight whistle in Eddie's breathing as he tried to think.
"I-I need to call an ambulance! If that was from last night then you could bleed out or-or have tetanus from the dirt on the ground!" Eddie quickly tried to grab the phone but Richie grabbed his arm. "Y-You can't call an ambulance.." He licked his dry lips as he tried to stop his friend.
"Richie, you're bleeding out! You could die! I'm calli-" Eddie was cut off by Richie. "If you call an ambulance… My p-parents will kill me… T-The police will find out… Officer Bowers will find out… H-Henry will kill me.." Richie looked at him with pleading eyes. "I'll be okay... I-I just need someone to help stitch me up." He told him and Eddie looked him in the eyes.
"Shit…" He muttered. "Fuck, I can't believe I'm listening to you. You're not allowed to die on me." Eddie went to the phone and called Beverly's home phone. "Come on Bev…. pick up.." Eddie paced back and forth as he impatiently waited for her to pick up.
Eddie soon heard Beverly's voice on the phone. "Hello?" She answered. "Bev! I need you to come over to Richie's house as soon as possible. Bowers beat the shit out of him and he needs stitches." Eddie said quickly.
"Oh my god, I'll be right over." She said and hung up the phone. Richie leaned back into the pillow as his eyes started to close. Eddie saw him and grabbed his face, "Hey, I need you to stay awake." He told him.
Richie nodded and opened his eyes as wide as he could, which wasn't much. His left eye was starting to swell up from one of Henry's punches. It wasn't enough to close fully but it was bruised badly. "Eddie… I'm sorry about last… last night." Richie mumbled.
"You shouldn't be the one apologizing. I fucked up and…" With everything that had happened, Eddie forgot the speech he was rehearsing earlier. "I'm sorry… let's… let's talk about it later when you're not bleeding out," Eddie told him and Richie let out a soft chuckle but it quickly turned into a groan in pain. "Fuck…" He clenched his teeth, every move he made caused the pain to increase.
Eddie waited for Beverly to come up through the window and when she did, she gasped at how bad he looked. "Holy shit." Beverly went to Richie and saw all the blood and the wound on his side.
"Well, a simple hello would do," Richie said sarcastically as Beverly walked over to his bed. She carefully lifted Richie's shirt and saw the bandage. She persisted that Richie needed to go to the hospital, just like Eddie had. Richie once again explained what Henry would do if his dad found out.
Beverly sighed. "Eddie, I need a bowl with cold water, a cloth, hydrogen peroxide, a needle, and some thread." Eddie ran into the bathroom to gather all of the items Bev had listed. She carefully got Richie onto his side and removed the now red-stained bandage, exposing the horrifying wound coated with crimson.
She tried to hold back her urge to vomit when she saw the wound as Eddie brought all of the supplies to her. He saw the wound and gagged, hurrying back into the bathroom. "I'm not going to lie to you, this is going to hurt," Beverly told him and Richie nodded. "D-do it.." He told her, bracing himself.
Beverly used the cloth and water to try and clean up the blood, each stroke of the cloth against the wound feeling like hot needles in Richie's side. He gripped the mattress, his knuckles white as he tried to hold in a scream of agony.
Eddie soon entered the room, seeing Beverly cleaning Richie's wound. His gaze wandered to Richie's pained face and his heart ached to see his best friend in so much pain. Guilt washed over him as he watched Richie continue to writhe in pain.
"Okay...I'm going to need to disinfect the wound." Beverly grabbed a washcloth and poured some hydrogen peroxide onto it. "This is going to hurt a lot." She told him and Richie only nodded in response. Eddie moved to Richie's side and held his hand.
"I'm right here." Eddie tried to comfort him. Richie opened his eyes to look at Eddie but the excruciating pain of the hydrogen peroxide caused him to squeeze his eyes shut again. He yelled in pain, unable to hold back how much it hurt and he squeezed Eddie's hand as hard as he could. Beverly knew the peroxide was helping him but she couldn't bear to stand the sound of him screaming.
The corners of his vision darkened again as he held his breath through the intense pain. He tried to control his breathing and take deep breaths, but the pain flared up again, his grip on Eddie's hand easing up as he suddenly went limp.
"Richie?" Eddie carefully shook Richie but got no response. "Richie?!" Eddie shook him harder but Beverly stopped him. "It's probably best if he stays unconscious while I do the stitches." She grabbed her lighter and the needle, carefully heating the needle.
Eddie watched as Beverly thread the needle and took a deep breath. "You can do this Beverly," Beverly mumbled to herself, breathing deeply to stop her hands from shaking then sticking the needle in his skin and carefully stitching up his wound. Eddie kept his eyes on Richie's face, making sure he wasn't feeling any pain, he kept his hand in Richie's as Beverly continued to stitch up his wound.
After five minutes, Beverly managed to get seven stitches done and closed up Richie's wound. She wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead and carefully bandaged Richie's side. "It's stitched up but he's still going to be in a lot of pain when he's up." Beverly looked up at Eddie, who was worriedly moving Richie's hair out of his face.
They both carefully moved Richie enough to remove the bloody sheets and Eddie went downstairs to throw them in the washing machine. Beverly went over to the phone and called Bill's house number.
"Denbrough Residence." Beverly assumed Bill's father had answered based on the man's deep voice and sophisticated tone. "Uh, hi… This is Beverly Marsh, is Bill home?" She asked calmly.
"Beverly Marsh?" He scoffed slightly but then sighed. "Hold on." She heard the rustling of the phone as it was handed over to Bill and then she heard his voice.
"Bev… w-what's up?" Bill asked her. Beverly took a deep breath and tried to think of a calm way to explain what was going on. "Richie… He's hurt. Can you meet us at his house? Eddie's with me so can you pick up the others too?"
"H-h-hurt? What do you m-mean? W-what happened?" Bill asked, concern evident in his voice. Beverly kept her voice calm and collected.
"I'll explain later, just be here with the others soon." Beverly hung up the phone as Eddie came back upstairs. He brought a chair up so they could both sit down, placing his next to Richie.
Beverly grabbed a clean washcloth and started cleaning up the blood on his face, then bandaging up the cuts. "His sheets should be done in about an hour," Eddie told her, his eyes staying on Richie and the light rising and falling of his chest. "Are you sure we shouldn't call a hospital?"
"Richie's right…" Beverly continued to clean up the small cuts on his knees from the fall and looked up at Eddie. "If we call a hospital, Henry will put a target on all of our backs." Eddie stood up and started pacing back and forth.
"And what are we supposed to do now that we know what Henry did?! If he suspects we know something, he could try to single one of us out and do the same thing he did to Richie." Eddie ran his hand through his hair.
"That's why we stay in a group, his and his goons can't hurt us if it's six against four." She explained, putting the bloody washcloth in the trash and grabbing a blanket from Richie's closet, covering him up.
"What about Richie? H-His parents are going to find out, and even if they don't they'll send him back to school eventually!" Eddie felt his chest becoming constricted and reached into his fanny pack to grab his inhaler. He took a puff and heard knocking at the door, running downstairs to let the rest of the Losers inside.