My Own Private Paradise

Author: hell's lil angel13

Summary:Before and after the journey to find Ray Brower, there was another one there. After their journey, what happens next? How did they change, how did they stay?

Disclaimer: see chapter one

A/N: Sorry this took a while to update, but I've had baseball practice everyday this week and its been taking its toll om me. But, here's the 5th chappie, enjoy!

Leeches and the Second Showdown

We all stopped on the tracks, staring down at the woods that were in front of us. "Gentlemen," Chris said and I cleared my throat loudly at him and he sighed exasperated, "and lady," he finished. "The Royal." We looked over at the river that was in front of us.

"Wow, the tracks go way out of the way," Teddy said looking over and seeing the tracks going all the way around the woods.

"Yeah, if we cut through the woods we'll be there in an hour," Chris said.

"Then let's go," I said at the same time as Vern said that we should stick to the tracks. Teddy agreed with me that we should cut through the woods. Yeah, I guess you could say I was just about as crazy as Teddy. Everyone else in town thought so, too.

"Gordie?"

"Yeah, let's go," he said and we started walking off the tracks to the woods. There was no worn path and we had to choose our steps carefully so we wouldn't get whacked in the face with prickery branches.

Vern started throwing another hissy fit. "I hate this short cut."

"I hate this shortcut," Teddy mocked and Vern fake punched him and he flinched.

"You flinched! Haha, two for flinching!" Vern said, happy that he finally got one over on Teddy. But, Teddy gave him two rabbit punches in the arm. "But, you flinched."

"I know, two for flinching." Teddy and me both laughed as we stopped in front of a swamp. It didn't look as swampy as others, it looked like we could swim in it, if it wasn't that deep.

Chris poked the ground with a stick and said, "Hey it's not that deep, we can walk across." So we all stepped into the water and we only walked a few steps before as one, we all fell under the water. I swear, it's scary how we can do the exact same thing at the same time. We don't practice it either!

Our heads broke the surface of the water and Vern complained, "Told you we should've stuck to the tracks." Then, he and Teddy had to start arguing, which led to them dunking each other, which Chris and I joined in on, too.

Gordie started to the other side of the shore, probably thinking that he could get away, yeah right. We dog piled on him, Vern trying to get him in a sleeper hold. "Hey Vern, there's something on your neck!"

"It's a leech!" Teddy said quickly and we jumped in surprise. Bloodsuckers, oh shit! "Leeches!" We jumped out of the water and started stripping off all our clothes, so yeah, I was standing there, in just my bra and under, in front of the quadruplet testosterites who were just standing there in their jockeys.

"Get 'em off, hurry!" we were all yelling and trying to get all of them off. Teddy had to get the ones on my back off me that I couldn't reach. There was even one crawling towards my nose, where it burst and my own blood started to run down to my mouth.

Just as we thought they were all gone, Gordie got a weird look on his face and looked into his underwear, where he found the big mother of them all, hanging right from his balls.

It burst in his hands and he fainted right there, which made us all jump over to see if he was okay. "Gordie! Gordie?" we were all saying and he started to stir. "You okay?" he nodded in answer to Chris' question and we moved away from the pond.

We were quiet the rest of the way until Gordie stopped and asked Teddy, "Is this the Back Harlow Road?"

"Yeah," Teddy said seriously.

"Alright, Teddy and Vern, you take the left side, we'll take the right," Chris said, his breath coming up short from the excitement we were all feeling. So, we walked on, keeping our eyes peeled for the kid's body.

"I see him, there he is, look, I see him, I see him!" Vern yelled excitedly at us and we rushed over to stand behind him. Chris was the first one to get there and pushed the branches away from his face and we saw his entire, dead, body.

Teddy, Vern, and I went to get some long branches while I knew Chris would talk to Gordie about Denny. Seeing Ray Brower's body shook Gordie a little. We were picking up some sticks when we heard the hard voice of Ace Merrill saying, "What the fuck do you know about this."

Eyeball followed with, "Son of a bitch! My little brother!" The three of us went back to Chris and Gordie to stand by them. Vern was the first to be scared away when his brother and the rest of the Cobras joined Ace and Eyeball. Teddy started smart-assing Billy and Charlie, and that was when Ace pulled the knife.

Teddy, for once in his life, knew that we needed to get out of here before we got seriously injured. "Okay Chamber you little faggot," Ace said, advancing on the remaining three of us. "You got two choices: you leave quietly and we take the body, or you stay, we beat the shit outta you, and we take the body. What do you say?"

"Why don't you go and fuck your mother some more?" Chris said boldly. Ace wasn't too happy about that comment and was about to bring his knife at Chris when I stepped forward.

"You know you wanna," I said, continuing Chris' thought. "And you know she wants you to, too."

"Alright, she gets to die first, then." Ace said and had his switchblade against my neck. Just as he was cutting into my skin, the most wonderful noise met my ears of Gordie shooting off Chris' father's gun into the air, which made Ace jump and give me a good cut on my collarbone.

"You're not taking him, no one is," Gordie said. I think it would have gone better had Ace not brought Denny into this. Gordie cocked the gun and said, "Suck my fat one, you cheap dime store hood." You know, looking back, if we hadn't been scared of that knife in Ace's hand, I would've laughed myself silly right there.

The Cobras retreated, promising they'd get us later, though. "Suck my fat one? Whoever told you, you had a fat one, Lachance?" Chris asked him. He smiled at the two of us and said, "Shawn would know. Biggest one in four counties." I would've loved nothing more than to feed him a knuckle sandwich right there, but I didn't. I let it slide, but just this once.

Teddy and Vern came back and we draped Chris' blanket over Ray's broken, lifeless body. We'd make an anonymous phone call to report Ray's body.

We walked back in silence until we made it back to Castle Rock just before five on Sunday. Twice, we had to scramble down embankment because of stupid freights driving by in the early morning!

While we were now older, mentally at least, we were still kids at the same time. Does that make any sense? No, didn't think so. We had just taken a fall from innocence, and once you jump, there's no rope to pull you back up.

We had seen a body of a dead kid. While we were never innocent before, we were even less innocent now. We had seen death with our own eyes, the last adventure and the final destroyer.