Work Text
It was a cold snowy day in early January. Eddie Kaspbrak was walking home after a long day of math and English at school,his back hunched over because of his heavy school bag full of work. Nobody thought the weather would get this bad today, if it was this bad in the morning Eddies mom would have made him stay off school
"It's not safe out there Eddie bear."
He imagined his mom saying "I don't want you catching a cold."
Eddie picked up his pace wanting to get home as soon as possible because his shoes were starting to soak through but then immediately slowing down again because he didn't want to end up slipping on the ice, if his mom finds out he slipped on the ice and hurt himself she would have him in the hospital all weekend and that was the last place he wanted to be. Richie and Bill were convinced that they were going to get at least few days off school and they were already planning to meet up with the rest of the losers tomorrow to build snow men and have snow ball fights .Stan had invited him but Eddie knew his mom would never let him go. The losers knew Eddie wanted to be able play out in the snow with them, they knew it wasn't his fault if his mom decided to keep him from coming out with them.That's when he heard it the rough scratchy voice of the leper he had first seen months prior at the Neibolt house. This couldn't be real he thought, we killed IT months ago, "it's just your mind playing tricks on you Eddie calm down." he whispered to him self his voice wobbling. " Why don't you turn around ed's?"The leper said the voice getting nearer "don't you dare call me that only Richie calls me that and I hate it!" he yelled tears filling up in his eyes "you like it when Richie calls you that don't you? I know your secret Eddie." Eddie started to run along the snowy sidewalk losing his footing on a bit of black ice and falling onto his back. "You can't run now can you Eddie? What will your mother say when she finds out her Eddie bear has gone missing, dead down the drain in the sewers covered in grey water and disease." as IT spoke Eddie scrambled backwards gasping for air ,he couldn't get to his inhaler " no NO YOU'RE NOT REAL THIS ISN'T REAL STAY THE FUCK AWAY FRO--" The leper lunged forward towering over Eddie. "Are you sure?" IT clawed forward for Eddie's neck "I don think you are Eddie." Eddie pushed him self back onto his feet his heart racing and his body trembling he started running forward away from the leper away from IT, his back aching from the previous fall, he turned around quickly to see if the leper was still there but there was nothing not even footprints in the snow or an imprint of where he fell." what the fuck!?" he slowly managed to say his voice still trembling in fear, his body still shaking and he began to sob. He started to run it felt like there were weights attached to his feet He didn't realize where he was running to until he was right out side the house, he burst through the front door "RICHIE! HELP! PLEASE RICHIE!" and he collapsed onto the floor of Richie's hallway. Eddie heard a door upstairs being flung open and footsteps running down the stairs and then he blacked out.Richie knew it was Eddie's voice right away he scrambled off his bed and frantically ran down the stairs to see the short boy lying in front of the open door curled up in a ball. Richie quickly moved to shut the door and then crouched down next to Eddie "EDS!!? WHATS GOING ON? PLEASE GET UP! WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED? EDDIE!!" Richie said as he turned the boy over to face him, grabbing his shoulders. Eddie's eyes began to flutter open and closed "shit Ed's come on wake up please." Richie whispered. Eddie's eye slowly opened and tears started streaming down his cheeks "IT I-I-i saw the leper" "Ed's holy sh-" "Don't call me Ed's " Eddie's crying made it impossible to understand most of what he was saying. "I'm so sorry Eddie. You're okay now, we killed that bastard months ago." " I'm not fucking lying It was real Richie I swear it was!" he pulled Eddie into a hug, his tears streaming onto Richie's shoulder "Why us? why did IT choose to terrorize us. I just want to live in a normal town where I don't have to live in fear every time I go outside. When I grow up i'm going to move far away from Derry." "I'll come with you." "I think we need to tell the others what you saw."