A/N: Hey, everybody! I know it's been a little while since my last chapter, and I do apologize for taking so long. I've just been a bit busy with school. But here's the next chapter for you! I hope you all enjoy it!
"Vrrrrrrm," Georgie said, imitating the sound of an engine as he played with his toy cars on the floor. "Vrrm, vrrm."
The door to his room swung open, scattering the cars all around. Georgie looked up to see who the perpetrator was. "Billy!" he whined. "Look what you did."
"Sorry," Bill said, but he didn't seem very sorry. "Hey, I wanted to ask you s-s-something."
"What?" Georgie asked as he collected all the cars around the room.
Bill sat on Georgie's bed. "So, me and the Losers were gonna g-g-go to the old house on Neibolt Street tomorrow to pull a p-prank on Richie. Wanna come along and help us w-w-with it?"
Georgie finished gathering all the toy cars and placed them on his desk. "Why d'you wanna pull a prank on Richie?"
"'Cause he's been p-p-pulling pranks on all of us lately. On Monday, he stole my lunch, ate it f-for himself, and replaced it w-with a rotten egg salad sandwich. And I d-d-didn't realize he did it until lunchtime. That thing made my backpack stink all w-week. Then on Tuesday, he t-took all of Ben's s-schoolbooks when none of us were looking… j-just to be a jerk. Ben didn't notice until he was in class—it was t-too late by then. On Wednesday, he pantsed Eddie in the b-b-boys' locker room… He actually does that pretty often, but combined w-with everything else he did this week, it made it w-worse. Then on Thursday, he brought a huge s-s-spider in a jar to school, and he unleashed it into Stan's hair. Stan started freaking out like crazy w-when he noticed the spider. It… was actually a little funny. But still! And today in English class, he slipped a w-w-whoopie cushion underneath Bev's jacket on her s-seat when she was up, so she sat on it when sh-sh-she came back."
Georgie snickered.
"Georgie. It's not funny. Bev was embarrassed."
"It is a little funny."
Bill rolled his eyes. "Well, anyways, we wanna get b-b-back at him. All of us. Even Mike, even though Richie didn't p-prank him this week. And we wanna get him good. And I know you always like b-bugging Richie, so you wanna join us?"
"But didn't you say you were going to the house on Neibolt Street?"
"Yeah?"
"I don't like it there. It's scary."
"Well, yeah, but that's the point. We're gonna s-s-scare Richie there. That sounds like fun, right?"
Georgie shrugged as he gazed at the floor.
"Come on, we'll all be there with you, Georgie. It's n-n-not like you're going to be there by yourself. And we'll be there d-during the daytime. It won't be scary; trust me. The only person who's g-gonna be scared there is Richie."
Georgie laughed softly. "Okay, I guess I can go."
Bill and Georgie rode on their bikes toward Neibolt Street to join the rest of the Losers barring Richie at the old house at the end.
"What's the plan again, Bill?" Georgie asked. "Something about clowns?"
"Yeah, we're all gonna dr-dr-dress up as clowns, then Eddie will c-call Richie from his house to get him t-to come to the old Neibolt house, then when he arrives, we're all g-gonna scare Richie with our clown c-costumes."
Georgie laughed. "This is gonna be so much fun!"
The Denbrough brothers arrived at the end of Neibolt Street, and at the sight of the creepy, decrepit house, Georgie began to have second thoughts. Bill led Georgie around to the side of the house to set down their bikes in a spot where Richie wouldn't see them. Four other bikes were resting there, too, telling Bill that more of the Losers were already there. Bill then walked back around to the front and up the porch of the house. Georgie hesitantly followed along.
"The other Losers m-must be inside," Bill said as he opened the front door and began to walk in. He turned around and saw that Georgie was still standing before the porch steps. "What's wrong, Georgie? Aren't y-y-you coming in?"
"I forgot how scary this place is," Georgie muttered.
"Georgie, there's n-n-nothing wrong with this house; it's just old, that's all."
"Oh, Bill, there you are!" Beverly said from within the house. She, Ben, Stan, and Mike all went to join Bill at the front doorway. "There something wrong?" she asked.
"Oh, hey, Bev. Georgie's j-j-just scared to come into the house. Hey, Georgie, look—everyone else is ins-s-side. Come on, it's okay."
"It's alright, Georgie, there's nothing to be scared of in here," Beverly said.
"Okay, fine," Georgie said as he walked up the porch steps and entered the house along with his older brother.
The interior of the house was just as run-down as its exterior. It was laid with cobwebs at every corner and a thick coat of dust on every surface. Georgie could've sworn he saw a rat scurrying away into the cellar. "This place is scary, Billy," Georgie whimpered.
"It is a bit creepy, Georgie, but it's just a v-v-very old house that no one has taken care of in m-many years. There's no ghosts or m-monsters here; that's just s-stuff you see in movies. But Richie is even m-more scared of this house than y-you are, which is w-why we're luring him over here. We want to scare him as m-much as possible."
"Okay," Georgie giggled. He was always entertained by the thought of Richie being humiliated.
"D-d-does everyone have their c-clown costumes with them?" Bill asked.
"Yep, I got mine," Stan said, holding a bundle of brightly colored clothes.
"Yeah, right here," Bev said, showing her costume in her hands.
"Me, too," Ben said.
"Right here," Mike said, pulling his out.
"Great. I got mine and G-G-Georgie's, too," Bill said as he pulled out both costumes from his backpack.
"I can't wait to scare Richie!" Georgie laughed. "It's pretty silly how Richie is scared of clowns, huh, Billy?"
"Yeah, I guess it is," Bill lightly laughed in response.
Eddie picked up the phone in his kitchen and dialed Richie's number.
"Hello, Maggie Tozier speaking," a colorless voice on the other line spoke.
"Hi, Mrs. Tozier, this is Eddie Kaspbrak. Can I speak to Richie, please?"
"Sure thing, Eddie. Hold on a minute."
Eddie could hear Maggie on the other end yelling at Richie to come pick up the phone.
"Hello?" Richie answered, sounding out of breath.
"Hey, Richie."
"Hey, Eds, how's it goin'?"
Eddie sighed. He didn't even bother to correct Richie about his name this time. "I'm good. Listen, I need to talk to you. I have something important to tell you."
"What is it?" Richie asked in a serious manner, which he very seldom used.
"I…want to tell you in person. At the old house on Neibolt Street."
"Why do you need to tell me at that old crackhead house?"
"'Cause I don't want there to be anyone around; I need it to be very private. And there's never anyone over there."
"Okay, sure thing, Eds. I'll be on my way now."
"Great, see you there. And don't call me 'Eds', asshole." Eddie hung up the phone.
Richie arrived at the creepy old house at the end of Neibolt Street. He dropped his bike in front of the rusted, old, iron gate and slowly made his way to the front door. This place gave him the creeps, big time. Why did Eddie have to pick this place to talk to him? There must've been some other deserted place they could've gone to that was way less unnerving.
Once he had walked up the porch steps, Richie creaked open the front door ever so timidly. "Eddie?" he called out into the seemingly empty house. "Hello? You in here?"
Then, he heard a faint voice call out. It was so faint, he almost missed it. But the voice was unmistakable—it was Eddie calling out, "Richie?" from what sounded like one of the upstairs rooms.
Richie walked into the house and stepped up to the base of the staircase. "Eddie! You up there? What the fuck are you doing up there?"
There was no response from Eddie.
"This is really starting to freak me out now, Eds," Richie said, climbing up the stairs to the second floor. Richie didn't know exactly which room he heard Eddie calling from, but he suddenly heard a rustling noise coming from behind one of the doors, so Richie went over to check that one.
He pushed open the door. It was a dusty, old room filled with trunks, boxes, and furniture hidden underneath sheets. "You in here, Eddie?" Richie asked. He stepped into the room, over creaky wooden floorboards, investigating between the boxes and the furniture to see if he could spot his friend. Eddie was nowhere to be found.
Richie turned around to exit the room when—he yelped in fear. A clown. A clown stood right in front of him. Red, disheveled hair; ghostly white face; baggy, green suit. It stood there, staring at him. Richie started backing away from the clown when he bumped into something. He turned around and saw it was another clown! He let out another high-pitched scream. The clowns had been wearing masks as opposed to makeup, making them all the more terrifying to Richie. With makeup, at least you could make out the semblance of humanity on their face. With a mask, you had no idea who—or what—was lurking behind it.
A third clown grabbed his right arm, and a fourth clown grabbed his left. "What the fuck is going on here?!" Richie yelled. He tried struggling free, but the clowns had too strong of a grip on him. A fifth clown emerged from behind one of the trunks and made his way toward Richie and the other clowns. A sixth, midget clown crawled out from behind a box and latched onto Richie's ankle. He tried kicking the small clown with his one free leg, causing the clown standing in front of him to lift up his mask, revealing the face of Bill Denbrough.
"Whoa, Richie! Calm down! You were about to kick G-G-Georgie!"
The small clown revealed himself to be Georgie, and the other clowns all took off their masks as well, revealing that they were Stanley, Beverly, Ben, and Mike.
"You've gotta be fucking kidding," Richie said. "This was all just a dumbass prank from all of you?"
"Yep," Eddie said, walking into the room. "Payback for all the shitty pranks you pulled on us throughout this week."
"Wow, I didn't take you guys for a bunch of petty assholes. Guess I can never joke with you ever again."
"It's not petty," Bill said. "Some of those p-p-pranks were real d-dick moves."
"Alright, alright, I'm sorry! Just please never do anything like this again. You guys almost gave me a fucking heart attack."
"Only on the condition that you won't prank us ever again," Beverly said.
"What? Come on, that's not fair! That's like asking Ben to never read a book ever again!"
"You can still make 'your mom' jokes and all your other shitty humor," Stan said. "Just no pranks."
"Fine. But I'm not making any promises."
"Then neither will we," Eddie smirked.
Richie glared at Eddie, then shrugged. "Eh, fair enough, I guess."
"How about we put all this behind us and go get some ice cream?" Mike suggested with a warm smile.
Georgie leapt up from the ground, screaming, "Ice cream! Ice cream! Yeah! Yeah!" Everyone laughed at Georgie's excitement.
"Yeah, I think ice cream s-s-sounds good," Bill said.
"I seriously thought I was about to get gangbanged by a bunch of clowns," Richie said.
The Losers all laughed as they made their way out of the old Neibolt house.
That is, except for Georgie, who asked, "What does 'gangbang' mean?"
Everyone laughed even harder at this. "It's best you don't know that yet," Bill answered.