Chapter Text
Eddie Kaspbrak was envious of kids who left home at age eighteen. The ones who moved out and went off to college or left to travel the world. He was even jealous of the ones who were kicked out without a cent to their names and sent off to fend for themselves in the world. There were times when he wished his mother would simply kick him out of the house, tell him he needed to get a job and learn what it was like to work for a living. There were also times when he thought about applying to a college halfway across the country, one that would be a day or two drive away from his mother and his small hometown of Derry, Maine.
But he knew that would never happen. His mother wouldn’t let it.
Tomorrow was Eddie’s eighteenth birthday. He would legally be an adult, a ‘grown-up’, as one might say. He would legally be allowed to vote, to rent his own apartment, to buy cigarettes or even porn, if he wanted to. Most teenagers countdown the days until they turn eighteen, but Eddie Kaspbrak just didn’t see the point.
Sonia Kaspbrak was a stubborn, controlling woman who loved and cherished nothing more in this world than her son. And despite Eddie’s protests and plea’s for her to allow him to move out and live on his own, she shot him down during every attempt.
“It’s too dangerous for you out there, Eddie-bear,” she would say. “People outside of Derry are mean and cruel and there are far too many germs and diseases.”
“But, mommy, I’ll be careful,” he would reply timidly. “I-I would be sure to wash my hands in public bathrooms, and I would always keep my inhaler on me like you tell me to.”
Sonia would chuckle softly in response, shuffling her obese frame over to him to run her meaty fingers through his hair gently. She was still taller than him, even now, and about 100 pounds heavier.
“Eddikins, am I not enough for you?” She would ask accusingly, eyes darkening. “Have I not done enough for you? I am just trying to keep you safe. And you belong right here at home, where I can make sure that you are.”
“No, mom, that’s not it. I-I just want to know what it’s like out in the world. I want to see other places and meet new people. I would still come home to visit. I-I would call you every night, I promise,” he would tell her, plead with her.
“The only people you need are right here, Eddie-bear. The world is a scary, dreadful place,” she would insist. And a part of him believed her when she said it. A piece of him believed that the world was full of bad people and awful, deadly disease and sickness. But still, he couldn’t help but wonder.
He would often lay awake in his bed at night, gazing out his bedroom window at the stars and wonder if he would ever make it out of his mother’s house. Maybe one day, he would think grimly, when her weight finally got the best of her.
But there was something that seemed to burn inside him on this night, the day before his eighteenth birthday. He had rushed through dinner with his mother and turned her down when she asked if he wanted to watch the latest episode of Cheers. As he scrambled up the stairs to his bedroom he realized that he didn’t know exactly what he was rushing for. He was just going to go to bed, after all.
He made sure to take the three different pills his mother had laid out for him in the bathroom and brush his teeth before changing into a set of clean pajamas and climbing into bed. He wasn’t tired at all, he realized. In fact, Eddie felt like he could run a mile, two even (which was pretty good for an asthmatic). He stared at the clock on his bedside table. 9:30pm. In just two and a half hours he was going to be a grown-up, and the thought of hitting such a big milestone had him buzzing with energy. He just wished his mother could acknowledge it too.
As he lie awake staring at the ceiling something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye, startling him. There was something large and black moving against his bedroom wall. He quickly rolled onto his side to see what it was, but the shape was gone.
Anxiously, he sat up in his bed and glanced around the room. His bedroom door was cracked open and the light from the hallway cast a soft glow on the wall next to it. The large shape, whatever it had been, was nowhere in sight. He took a deep breath and was about to lie back down when he saw something move again out of his peripherals.
Slowly, a large shadow crept onto the wall of his bedroom. A shadow of a person, a boy, it seemed.
“Hello?” he whispered quietly to the shadow, “Is someone there?”
The shadow waved at him.
Eddie yelped and pulled his blanket up over his mouth and nose, leaving only the top of his head peeking out. He turned and glanced behind him, then turned to look out into the hallway. He couldn’t see anyone.
“Who’s there?” he asked.
The shadow moved again, it’s outline clear and distinct. It raised a hand and pointed a finger at itself, as if to say, me, of course. Then, before Eddie could say anything else, the shadow began to dance, moving animatedly along the wall of his bedroom, twirling and leaping, a mess of long, lanky limbs and curly hair.
Eddie smiled slightly, amused, and chuckled to himself.
“Well, I guess you aren’t here to murder me in my sleep then, are you?” he asked the silhouette.
The shadow stopped dancing for a moment and shook its head before launching back into its dance routine. It was in the middle of twirling like a ballerina, arms arched above its head, when Eddie heard something hit his bedroom window.
The shadow froze mid pirouette before rushing along the edge of the wall and disappearing into the light of the hallway.
There was another tap on the window. Eddie hesitated, looking back at where the shadow had been, before getting out of bed and shuffling towards the window. He unlatched the lock and slid the window open, popping his head out to overlook the roof below.
“Hello there!” a voice said happily to his right.
Eddie screamed and fell backwards onto his bottom, hitting the carpeted floor with a soft thud.
“Eddie-bear!” he heard his mother call from downstairs. “Is everything alright?”
He looked back up at the window and a boy, no older than himself, popped his head in and waved at him. Eddie studied him carefully. He was tall, with dark curly hair and black rimmed glasses. He was wearing an absurdly colorful hawaiian print shirt and a pair baggy jeans with a slingshot sticking out of the left pants pocket. He was carrying a small backpack over his shoulders, as if he was going somewhere.
“Eddiekins!” Sonia called again from downstairs.
“I’m fine, mom!” Eddie shouted and got to his feet, “Just saw a spider!” He turned towards the boy outside his window. “Who are you?” he asked.
The boy shoved a hand through the window and held it out for Eddie to shake.
“Richie Tozier,” he said proudly, “nice to meet ya.”
Eddie reached out carefully and shook the boys hand, which seemed to envelope his own smaller one.
“Um, I’m Eddie,” he replied, “What are you doing outside my bedroom window?”
Richie grinned and climbed through the window with a surprising grace given how tall he was. Eddie backed up slightly as the boy moved towards him. He didn’t seem all that scary really, but he was still a stranger. Eddie’s mother had always told him to be wary of strangers.
“Well, Eds,” Richie said. “I seem to have lost my shadow. You haven’t seen it, have you?” He asked the question as if he already knew the answer, eyeing Eddie up and down suspiciously.
“Um, yeah, it was uh, over there,” Eddie answered, gesturing to the wall behind him.
Richie nodded and pushed past him, making his way over to the wall. Eddie watched in confusion as Richie crouched down and began to run his hand along it like he was searching for something.
“Aha!” Richie shouted. “Gotcha!” He raised a closed fist up and Eddie watched in amazement as the shadow that was dancing just minutes ago was projected up onto the wall again, rising up out of seemingly nothing. Richie had it by the collar and it was squirming around in his grasp.
“He always gets away from me, this one,” Richie said as he shrugged his backpack off of his shoulders. He grabbed the zipper in between his teeth and opened the bag. “Back in ya go,” he said and crammed the shadow, which seemed far too large to fit, into the backpack with practised ease. He zipped up the bag and threw it back over his shoulder.
“Your shadow, it...moves?” Eddie asked him. Richie stood and turned to face him.
“Of course it does,” he replied. “Doesn’t yours?” Eddie stared at him helplessly.
“Uh, I...I don’t think so?” he said. Richie shrugged in response and walked to the window.
“Well,” he started, “thanks for all your help, Eds, but I must be on my way.” Richie threw one leg over the window sill and began to climb out, back onto the roof.
“Wait!” Eddie called. “Where are you going?”
Richie turned back to face him and smiled. “To Neverland, of course.”
“Neverland?” Eddie asked. “Where is that?”
“It’s where I live,” Richie said. “There’s pirates and treasure maps and all kinds of adventures.”
“Pirates?” Eddie asked, eyes widening.
“Oh yeah,” Richie replied, pulling his leg back inside. “A real mean one too, named Henry Bowers. My friends and I always try to stay out his way.”
“Friends?” Eddie asked with wonder. He had never had any friends, not real ones anyway, who you hung out with outside of school and had sleepovers with.
“Yeah, there’s Bill, Ben, Stan, Mike, and Bev. I call them the Lost Boys,” he said thoughtfully. “Well...not Bev of course. She’s a girl, or well, a fairy.”
“A fairy?” Eddie replied, shaking his head in disbelief. “There’s no such thing as fairies.”
“Oh,” Richie smirked, raising an eyebrow at him. “But you believe in Pirates, huh?
Eddie blushed and looked down at the floor. He didn’t know why he felt so embarrassed. He wasn’t the one climbing into a stanger’s bedroom rambling on about shadows and pirates and fairies. He looked up at Richie again, who was perched idly in the window, exuding an air of life and confidence that Eddie had never seen before. He seemed wise beyond his years for someone so young. He wasn’t dangerous, like Eddie’s mother seemed to think all strangers were, just...different. New.
“Do you...think I could come with you?” Eddie asked Richie shyly. “To...Neverland?”
Richie broke into a wide grin. “I thought you’d never ask, Eds.”
Eddie smiled and stared back at him. There was a long pause.
“Well, come on then,” Richie said, gesturing outside. “Let’s go.”
Eddie scrambled over to his closet and grabbed a jacket. He quickly slid on his sneakers and stuffed his inhaler in his pocket. He turned back to Richie.
“What about my mom?” he asked, knowing that Sonia would call the police and file a missing person’s report if she woke up and he wasn’t in his bed.
Richie smiled at him softly. “Don’t worry,” he stated. “We’ll be back before she even knows you’re gone.”
Eddie climbed out of the window, steadying himself as his feet hit the slanted roof below. Richie seemed unfazed by the angle, standing tall and proud.
“So, how do we get to this ‘Neverland’?” Eddie asked. Richie grinned down at him and took his hand.
“Oh, Eddie Spaghetti, we fly of course.”