Chapter Text
Eddie sighed heavily, looking out of the car window.
"Don't be upset, Eddie bear. It's going to be an amazing summer for both of us" Sonia said, holding the steering wheel tightly with both his hands, eyes never leaving the road. She was always quite nervous when driving, but today it was different. Today she was happy. Today she won.
The week prior Eddie had been playing at the Quarry with his best friend Bill, they were playing Peter Pan, climbing trees and jumping from one branch to another. His mother hated when he was outside playing, she always said it was dangerous, that he could get hurt and he would leave her like his father did. That's why when Eddie came back home crying with a broken arm and the doctors said he had to wear a cast for one month, she finally lost it.
She had come to the Denbrough's house and yelled at Bill's parents for hours. That evening she started looking for a place to move in for the summer, he didn't want his precious son to hang out with such dangerous people ever again. Two weeks later, here they were, in a car in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles away from Derry and everything Eddie had ever known.
"It's going to be hell ma, you know it. I had only one friend and you took it away from me" the kid complained, even if he knew it was useless. They've had this argument countless times in the past two weeks and his mother replied always in the same way.
"He hurted you, honey. He wasn't a true friend"
"He didn't hurt me! I fell! From a tree! I was being stupid and I fell! That's all!"
"Yes, and why were you on a tree, Eddie bear? Why were you? You were playing on a tree because that gross kid forced you to-"
"Bill is not gross! And he didn't forc-"
"Enough, Eddie! You don't need anyone in your life that isn't me. You'll be with your mommy, safe and sound, in the countryside far from all the people that can hurt you, and everybody is gonna be great"
The boy groaned loudly but decided to shut up, he didn't want to piss his mother off and make the day go even worse.
"We should be almost there" Sonia muttered under her breath, when finally the big great gate that was on the announcement appeared on the left.
"Here we are!" the woman cheered, "exciting, isn't it?" she asked, but Eddie didn't reply.
The gate was there, on the side of this lonely road, woods was the only thing they had seen for miles, and inside the gate there were woods, too. Eddie found it a bit creepy to be honest, as he watched the road with concern.
Sonia asked him to go out of the car and open the gate for her and he obliged. The air was cool, way cooler than Maine's weather was. It was foggy and quite dark, even in the middle of the day. The trees made long lingering shadows on the path covered in dead leaves. He held the keys the house owner sent them one week before, and slowly opened the gate. It was heavy and he had to trigger his aspirator to prevent an asthma attack he could sense was coming in his lungs.
He quickly went back to his car and closed the door shut behind him, buckling up again. He imagined for a moment to be with Bill at the Quarry. To jump down in the lake, the lake he knew her mother would've hated if she knew he was bathing in such dirty water. When he was swimming and playing and fighting and building dams to try stop the stream he felt like he didn't need his aspirator, his medicines and all the drugs his mother fed him with.
"I'm really going to hate this" he thought, as they entered in the mansions' territory. The path after the gate wasn't very long. They passed by what it seemed like an old well, then the woods shifted to a quite nice yet a bit gloomy countryside.
There were three houses partially covered by the trees.
The one in the middle was quite lovely and looked like someone took care of it daily. It was freshly painted, there were nice flowers in the vases at the windows, and clothes were hanging down the drying rack.
The one on the right looked less cared of, but it wasn't so bad. A muffled noise came from inside, it seemed something like band music. All the windows were closed shut, but there was a nice mat in front of the door, and at last there wasn't mole on the walls.
The one on the left was the worst looking house Eddie had ever put his eyes on. It looked more than old, it looked ancient. Most of the windows were unhinged and hanged lazily towards the ground. A big stail of mold covered the upper half of the front wall, and two of the glass windows on the second floor were shattered down.
With Eddie's great dismay, Sonia pulled over and parked in front of this one.
"Oh my God ma, seriously?" Eddie whined, getting off the car. He felt like something was moving behind his back, he heard a muffled sound coming from the woods, but when he turned his back he didn't see anything suspicious.
"It surely needs some good work, I won't deny it, but at least it would be safe" the woman said, staring at the house in disbelief. It was clear she wasn't expecting something like that, but he had to keep going to prove her point.
"It needs some good work? Some good work? I will get tetanus only by sleeping in my bed! Tetanus, ma!" he said, taking a breath from his loyal inhaler, always in his hand. His breath was fastening and that wasn't good.
"Don't be silly Eddie bear, I brought your hypoallergenic sheets, you'll sleep fine. I heard there's one boy that must be your age that lives in one of the other houses, I'll ask him if he'll do some cleaning for a bunch of bucks"
That made Eddie tense, filled with hope for the first time since they left Derry, hours ago. "Really? There's another boy? Like me? In one of the other houses?" he asked, smiling in excitement. Maybe that wasn't going to suck that much, after all.
"You won't be able to talk to him, of course. I didn't bring you here far away from such bad company to make you meet another fool like that Bill"
"Bill's not a fool. He's my best friend" Eddie pointed out, as Sonia opened the door. The shrieking sound it made brought goosebumps on Eddie's skin.
"Great. There's only one possible friend here and I can't even talk to him. Well, probably he wouldn't like me anyway, so... what if he is like Bowers? That would be a real nightmare" he thought, remembering his middle school bully with a frown.
The boy heard a suspicious sound behind his back again, and he turned quicker this time. Ha almost got a glimpse of what it seemed somebody looking at him from behind the trees, but he couldn't be sure. Eddie gulped and went inside, following his mom.
The house at least was slightly better inside than outside. It was dark, and old, and dusty, and spider nets covered the ceiling, but at least no mole was in sight and the furniture was quite nice. Maybe he wouldn't get tetanus, after all.
"See? Amazing?" Sonia said, thrilled. "Make yourself at home honey, I'm going to the nearest town to get a phone line and call someone to bring all the boxes inside. I can't do it and you can't either, with that broken arm of yours!"
"Wait, you are going? And I'm gonna stay here? Alone?" Eddie asked in terror, looking anxiously towards the door as anything dangerous could burst inside at any given moment.
"Of course, honey. After a long car trip like that is not safe for you to go back in the car, you could feel nauseous. Choose the bedroom you like the most and start settling in, I'll bring you your personal box, okay?"
The boy triggered his inhaler again and breathed in, scared. His mother came back to the car and then home, handing him a small box with the personal belongings he cared the most.
Most of the stuff like clothes, medicines, and school books remained in the car, waiting for someone to help.
"Don't open the door to anyone, dear. We don't know these people. Anyone, do you hear me?" his mother said, and the kid nodded furiously. "I'll be back soon, you won't even notice my absence"
"Okay, ma" he replied, weakly.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" she asked, furrowing one of her brows. The boy sighed and stepped closer, standing on his tiptoes to stamp a kiss on his mother's cheek.
"Good boy. See you later Eddie. Take an antiemetic, you could feel sick after the car trip"
"I'm not sick, ma"
"Take it anyway. Bye Eddie bear, I love you!"
"I love you" he sighed in response, watching as she was going away.
When the woman started the car and finally left the park in front of the house, Eddie started to panic. He watched in horror at the windows, knowing too well that anything could easily come inside even if he didn't open the door. He triggered for the billionth time his asthma aspirator, trying to feel better. He carefully took his small box with his sane hand and slowly took a look at he house.
Eddie soon noticed most of the lights had to be replaced. The kitchen wasn't so bad, and it was the less dusty room in the house, and the fridge apparently worked. The bathrooms were the worst, wet and dirty, and he knew his mother would have cleaned up for days to let him have a shower in there. The living room was huge, and the furniture looked fine, despite being old, or "vintage", since he was trying to make things sound better than they were.
There was one door on the first floor that was locked closed. He tried to open it many times, but he did not succeed, and soon gave up, no keys in sight. He was quite happy to be honest, because when he grabbed the hand hold the first time he felt a weird sensation in his stomach, something scary, something wrong, like hearing dogs barking before an earthquake. He shook his head and kept going, soon forgetting about the door.
He stepped up the stairs, being careful, even if they didn't look damaged. Upstairs there was the third and last bathroom of the house, a bit better than the other two, at least he didn't spot cockroaches and the light worked; and three double bedrooms. Two of them had their windows broken, so Eddie opted for the third one.
It was dusty, and that made him wheezy, since he was allergic to dust. He triggered his inhaler and feared he would have choked to death if he ever slept in that queen size bed. There was a huge wardrobe that looked expensive, and a chair stood next to the bed, that probably was meant to be the bedside table. The light didn't work in this one, but it was the less cold of them and during the day he would have had the sun light (even if the place was quite foggy and dark to be the beginning of July), and during the night he wouldn't have needed light anyway.
He slowly put the tiny box he was holding on the bed, that made a shrieking noise like everything in that house. Inside there were his Tom Sawyer book, he had to read it during the holidays for school, two spare aspirators, and a picture of Bill he gave him the day he left, apologizing for what he did. Eddie tried to explain to him that it wasn't his fault and his mother was crazy, but the boy had felt miserable anyway.
Eddie didn't want Bill to feel miserable. He was the best boy he had ever known, and not only because he was the only one that actually cared about him. Bill was surprisingly good at everything. He was creative and invented the best games in the world, he was brave, athletic and adventurous, three things Eddie could never be, and he liked him a lot for that.
Well, not like like, the way he was supposed to like girls, obviously. Even if Eddie never had a crush on a girl, but that was only because Derry's girls were gross, he was sure about that. And maybe sometimes he looked in Bill's green and clear eyes and felt knots in his stomach. But that was because Bill was perfect, it was totally normal, he was sure everyone thought that about Bill, too.
He put the picture on the chair, the book in the wardrobe and the two inhalers in the fanny pack he always wore on his hips. He sighed. Anything could make this room look like home.
He was thinking about how miserable he was feeling, when he heard a knock on the door. The boy frowned and look outside of the window, Sonia's car wasn't in sight. He felt goosebumps on his skin, as he stepped slowly out of the room.
Another knock, louder this time, with muffled words he couldn't quite recognise.
"Don't open the door to anyone, dear. We don't know these people. Anyone, do you hear me?" he remembered his mother saying. He knew two of the upstairs windows were broken, and he asked himself what he should do.
"I know you're inside, come on!" he heard, when he was in the middle of the stairs. The voice sounded of a young boy, perhaps he was the one his mother was talking about when they arrived.
"But what if it's a trick?" Eddie reasoned, and stopped in the kitchen, looking for a knife. As soon as he opened the kitchen drawers, two big spiders ran away scared, in front of his eyes. Eddie flinched. He chose carefully what it looked like the biggest knife, it was dirty and dusty and sticky. He held it anyway, going towards the door. He heard the boy groan behind it, when he decided to slam that open.
"Hey!" a seemingly friendly boy said, grinning, but as soon as he noticed the knife Eddie was holding quickly stepped back, his hands up showing that he meant no harm. One of the hands held something that looked quite familiar. "Woah woah woah, careful with that, bud!"
"Who are you? How do you know I'm here? What do you want?" Eddie asked, so fast he feared the guy didn't understand what he said. He inhaled from his aspirator with the arm in the cast, while the sane one kept holding the knife. The action had to seem way less threatening then his previous flow of words, because the boy relaxed and put down his hands, smiling again.
Eddie thought he looked kind of okay. Not stunning like Bill, of course, no one was stunning like Bill was, but not bad either. Kind of cute, actually. Was he allowed to think guys were cute? Wasn't it a thing girls were?
He had a dumb hawaiian shirt, ripped jeans, and a thick pair of glasses that made his eyes look insanely big. Raven hair long enough to cover his hears but not enough to touch the base of his neck, and he was tall, perhaps taller than Bill too, but he didn't look nearly as athletic.
"Okay, well, were do I start? My name is Richie Tozier and I live next door. I knew you were here because I saw you when you arrived with your mom and I saw her leave immediately after and you weren't with her. I came to say hi and to introduce myself, of course, and because I wanted to give you this. Here, take it" the boy said, and Eddie deepened the frown. It didn't look like the kid meant harm, so he took what he was holding.
Without looking at it he looked up at him and asked, with a perplexed grimace "You were spying on me when I arrived, I heard you. It was you, right? You scared me"
Richie shrugged his shoulder with an half smile. "You got me!"
"Why were you spying on me, exactly?" Eddie asked suspiciously.
"Because of that" he said, pointing at the thing he was now holding. Eddie looked down at it and he flinched.
"What... what is... is this a joke? How do you...?" in his hands, there was a rag doll that looked exactly like him. It was a mini Eddie perfectly shaped, with the clothes he was wearing at the moment, a pink shirt and red shorts with a tiny rainbow on the side. It had two small eyes made with brown buttons and a red smile.
"It's not a joke. This is one of my mother's doll. Well, her sister's, actually. It's very old. As soon as I saw you I knew you looked familiar, and I immediately came back home to take it to you. Impressive, isn't it?"
Eddie looked closely at the doll, it was really a perfect replica of himself. "Impressive" he agreed.
"It's almost as cute as you are" Richie commented nonchalantly. Eddie tensed at the words.
"I'm not... what are you... I'm not cute! Cute is a thing girls are!" he replied bitterly, and for a moment he thought he just got caught. This boy certainly had to have read his thoughts, and he said it only to annoy him.
"Boys can be cute too, I think. You certainly are" he said, matter of factly. Eddie opened his mouth to reply, but the kid was quicker. "It's probably because of your mom. She's really a dream catch, isn't she? I bet she's good in bed" he smirked.
Eddie became red as he pushed him, with wide eyes. "What? Stop it! It's gross!"
"Why, don't you think your mama is the most beautiful creature in the universe?" Richie joked, he didn't look affected by the push Eddie just gave him.
"Of course I don't! She's my mother! Yuck, you're making me sick" he said, disgust filled his voice. Besides, his mother couldn't be the most beautiful creature in the universe, if not for everything else, even only because Bill was.
Richie shook his head, amused. "Well, what's your name, cute boy? You know mine but I don't know yours, and I would like to, we're going to be neighbors, after all. Plus, I need you to get to your mom"
Eddie looked at him with a frown, but answered nonetheless. "I'm Eddie" he said, finally offering Richie a small smile. He smiled back widely.
"Eddie, dear" the words made Eddie frown again but also something else that he couldn't quite place. "Come with me, I'll show you around!"
The boy looked anxiously around and held the doorframe tightly with the hand that was holding the knife. "I don't know, Richie. My mother will kill me if she finds out, she wants me to stay home. Plus, she asked me not to talk to you ever"
"I know, I've heard that"
"Yes, because you were spying on me"
"I was spying on your mom, actually. I told you, she's a legit snack"
"Please, don't, it's really really gross" Eddie replied weakly.
"Come oooon Eds!"
"It's Eddie, not Eds" he said flatly.
The two boys exchanged an hesitant look for a moment, then Eddie groaned and rolled his eyes. "Okay, but we have to be quick. I don't want my mother to find out"
"Yes!" Richie cheered, and Eddie failed at hiding a smile. He quickly went back to the kitchen to put down the knife, he put his aspirator in his pocket and held his Eddie doll tighter, glancing a curious look at it as they walked outside.
"You can keep it, if you want. I think it's meant to be yours" Richie said.
"What if your mother finds out that you gave it away?"
"She won't. This is her sister's, and she never enters her room, not ever. She disappeared when they were both young, she doesn't like to talk about it. They lived in your house at the time, you know"
"Oh. I'm sorry"
"It doesn't matter, it happened many years ago" the boy shrugged, then offered him his hand. "Are you coming or not?"
After a moment of hesitation, Eddie took it. "Let's go" he said, and found himself fight a smile once again. He wasn't used to hold hands with anyone, and the feeling was weird, but good. He sometimes wondered how holding Bill's hand was like, but he never did it because he thought it was weird. You don't hold hands with other boys, do you? It's not quite normal. Holding Richie's hand did felt weird, indeed, but not in the way he was expecting. He felt the same knot in the stomach he used to feel when he and Bill went swimming togheter at the Quarry. It was one of the best feelings Eddie had ever experienced, and he took it as a good sign.
They started walking towards the other houses, and Richie explained, patiently. "This is my home" he said, gesturing towards the house in the middle, the one that looked well cared of. "You feel free to come here whenever you want. I have a lot of comics, we can read them togheter if you want. I used to have videogames, too, but my parents took them away because they said I was wasting too much time with them. They work a lot and they're not often home, but I don't think they would mind your presence even if they are"
Eddie chose not to explain the kid that his mother would never allow him to go do whatever at someone else's place after what happened with Bill, because he didn't want Richie to feel guilty or awkward for asking. Besides, he could sneak out of the house or spent time with him when his mother wasn't at home.
"This other one is harder to explain" Richie said, frowning. They were in front of the house on the right, now. "The first floor is Miss Spink's and Miss Forcible's. They're two good friends that never got married and live together to have some company. They're quite nice, but the tea they make is really gross, and they have a problems with dogs, you'll see. They say they can read the future, which is fun but I don't think it's true, actually"
"Is it possible?" Eddie asked, eyes wide with wonder.
"What? Reading the future? I don't think so. But maybe you should ask them if you're interested" Richie said, shrugging his shoulders.
"No, I mean... never get married and live with your best friend. Sounds like a dream to me, but I don't think my mother would be happy if I did"
"Well, I guess it's possible since they did it, but I don't think it's so cool. My mother says that it makes them queers"
"Queers? What does it mean?"
"I don't know, but it must be a bad thing, at least my mom thinks so" Richie explained. "The second floor is Mr Bobo's. He's the weirdest"
"Weirder than the queers?" Eddie asked.
"I guess so, yes. You hear the music, right?" Eddie nodded, the band music played almost inaudible but he could hear it if he payed enough attention. "He's hosting a mice circus. He has a lot of mice, but I don't think they actually can do many tricks. He feeds them with a lot of cheese though, and his flat smells. Like, a lot"
Eddie curled up his nose in a disgusted grimace, and Richie chuckled. "We're not done yet, there's another place I want to show you, then we're done" he said, walking towards the woods.
"Are you sure it is safe?" Eddie asked, looking at the woods in concern, stopping suddenly.
"One hundred percent, I love playing there, I do it every day, trust me" he said, and pulled him forward, still holding his hand.
They started walking again, and Richie looked at his arm with a frown. "You broke your arm" he said, filling the silence.
"Well, obviously" Eddie said flatly, and expected him to ask how it happened. Instead, the thing the boy said immediately after surprised him.
"What does it mean?"
"What?"
"That. Is it a band, or something? I like music but I never heard of it. Sounds neat"
It took a few seconds for Eddie to understand what he was talking about. "Oh" he flushed. On his cast there was only one word, written in black. LOSER. On the S, pretty visible, a bright red V. Eddie had to admit it was kind of aesthetic, he could see how Richie found it neat, somehow.
"It's not... it's not the name of a band. It's just... a girl wrote it after I broke my arm and it was, well, embarrassing. So I tried to change it in something else but it didn't quite work"
"Oh. I'm sorry I asked"
"It's not a big deal"
Richie frowned, than grinned immediately after. "It may not be a big deal, but it certainly is a big di-"
"Okay, stop! It doesn't even make sense!" Eddie laughed, trying to sound at least a bit annoyed.
"For me it does!"
They walked in silence for a while, they followed the main path in the woods, the one Eddie saw from the car when he arrived in the land. The woods didn't look so bad now that he was holding Richie's hand, the other didn't let go of the doll that resembled him.
"Ta da!" Richie almost shouted, when they were near the well Eddie remembered noticing from the car window. "This is my favourite place to play! Come see! It's very cool. It's supposed to be so deep that if you fell to the bottom and looked up," the boy explained, leaning dangerously towards the hole, and Eddie squeezed his hand scared he would really fall down there, "you'd see a sky full of stars in the middle of the day"
"Yes, very cool Richie, now step back please, you're making me anxious. Plus the water under there is surely hideous, it must be grey water. Do you know what it is? It's basically pee and shit, that's what it is. Have you... have you ever heard about staph infections?" he said, nervously pulling him closer.
"What is it Eds? Already scared about lil ol' me?" the boy asked grinning, but he finally came one step back in a safer spot.
"It's Eddie, it's not Eds, I already told you. And I'm not scared for you specifically but what you're doing is really dangerous"
Richie shrugged with a smile and let go of his hand. Eddie felt his palm suddenly very cold and whished the boy didn't do it. "Anyway, the well is pretty good, right? Not nearly long as my wang but pretty cool nonetheless" Richie looked at him with a cocky grin and Eddie rolled his eyes.
"Why are you always so gross?"
"Did you mean charming?"
Eddie shook his head and quickly changed subject. He didn't know why but that conversation was starting to make him feel awkward. "You say this is your favourite place to play, who do you play with?"
The boy's smile faltered for a moment. "I only play with Stanley. He's... he's kind of my best friend"
"Is there another boy right here? Or is he one of your school friends?" Eddie asked curiously. He would love to meet some other friends, he was always quite lonely and enjoyed company of the other boys.
"It's not exactly like that... oh, look! He's coming! I'll show you!" he said, pointing somewhere behind Eddie's back.
Eddie turned his back towards the direction Richie gestured, but he didn't see anything. "Where? There's no one there"
"What do you mean? Look! Here he is!" Richie said, and a small golden bird rested on his raised finger.
"I only see this small bird, there isn't anyone else"
"I know! Eddie, meet Stanley. Stanley, Eddie"
"You named your pet bird Stanley? It's kinda odd"
Richie looked outraged. "I didn't name him, and he is not mine! It's just his name"
"If it-"
"He" Richie corrected
"If he's not yours who did tell you his name?"
"No one told me, but I didn't give it to him, either. It's just his name. I just know" the boy replied.
"You know you're weird, right?" Eddie asked, it was intended like a joke, but Richie looked affected by the words.
"I know. Everybody told me that at least once" he sighed, as his face fell istantly.
"It's not a bad thing, at least I hope so. I'm weird, too" Eddie replied, hoping that would make it. It looked like it did.
"Are you?" Richie asked, voiced filled with hope.
But Eddie didn't have time to reply because the bird, Stanley, started chirping furiously and flew in a flash of golden feathers towards Eddie, screeching and pecking his doll like it was some kind of threat. Eddie yelped and held it next to his chest. "Stop! Stop! You're making my fingers bleed!"
Richie carefully grabbed it in his hand, and the bird pecked him too, making him flinch in surprise. "Ouch! Stan! What the hell? I'm sorry, he usually isn't like that"
After a few second Stanley got quiet, but he kept looking at the doll in Eddie's hands, with what would have been rage, if birds were capable to feel something like rage obviously.
"I think your bird doesn't like me"
"It's not my bird. I'm sorry for your hands"
"No big deal" Richie opened his mouth, but Eddie was quicker "Don't talk about your big dick, please. I don't want to hear it" Richie closed his mouth and smiled at him.
Eddie cleared his throat and tipped his foot nervously on the ground. "Well, I think my mom will be home soon and she has to find me home where she left me, so..."
"Oh, yes, right. I think I'll stay here and play for a while, until they call me for dinner. Unless you want me to walk you home"
The offer made Eddie's heart ache in a way he wasn't used to, and that worried him a bit. He furrowed his brows, trying to understand why he was suddenly feeling so weird, then said "That won't be necessary, thank you"
"I'll see you tomorrow, right?" the boy asked hesitantly.
"Only if my mother won't be home, and I think she won't"
"See ya then, Eds! And kiss your mom good night for me" Richie winked. He looked relieved.
"Don't call me Eds" he said, but he was smiling.
The walk in the woods was way scarier than the one before, and he wished he agreed to Richie's offer. He knew it would have felt safer with him. He took his aspirator from his pocket and triggered it. The familiar bittersweet taste of the medicine reassured him somehow.
When he heard a rattle noise in front of him, he flinched. He squeezed his eyes trying to see what was moving on the ground, making the leaves crack and shaking the grass blades.
He looked at the thing with wide eyes, afraid it could be a snake, he knew he would have screamed if it was, but when it was near enough and Eddie was about to jump on the nearest tree despite his broken arm, a small pet mouse with fluffy white fur and a weird marching band hat appeared in front of him.
"Oh. Hi, little one" Eddie said, in a sigh of relief. "You must be one of Mr. Bobo's mice"
The mouse obviously didn't reply, even if it looked like he understood what Eddie was saying. He was holding a crumpled piece of paper in his mouth. He stood on his back paws and looked at Eddie directly in the eyes.
"Do you want me to take that?" Eddie asked. The mouse stayed silent, but the glance he shot him with was pretty eloquent. He kneeled next to him and took it hesitantly. As soon as he stood back up, the mouse disappeared in the woods.
Eddie opened slowly the shred of paper, curious. This was one of the weirdest things that had ever happened to him.
Don't go through the door.
A cold feeling of freezing horror ran down his spine. He held the Eddie Doll tighter and decided to walk back home without turning back.