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“He should’ve been here by now, he’s never late.” Eddie frowns, glancing around for any sign of his friend, as if saying it aloud would magically make him appear. Eddie knew it didn’t work like that, but he still tried, just in case.
“He p-probably forgot the time.” Bill says, not looking at the younger boy and instead focusing on the view. They were all sitting near the edge of the cliff, but not too close for it to be dangerous. Only Eddie, Bill and Stan were there, and Richie was supposed to be here as well, but wasn’t.
Beverly was currently helping her aunt move into her new home, as she had instead chosen to move to Derry so Beverly wouldn’t have to move out, and leave her friends behind, for which Beverly would be eternally grateful. She didn’t think she could handle leaving about everything she had been through.
Ben was home with the flu so he had also called off, and Mike had promised to help his grandfather on the farm today, so that just left the original four members of the Losers club. A name that had stuck with them, even within the group. The events of last summer had only solidified their bond.
“Yeah probably.” Eddie murmurs, glancing at Stan for a moment but he too didn’t seem that concerned. Only Eddie seemed to be. But Bill was right, it wasn’t unusual for Richie to be late, heck, it was more unusual for him to be on time. If he wasn’t late he’d be way too early, there was rarely an in between.
But something seemed off, a feeling Eddie couldn’t quite place.
“You know how Richie gets, Eddie.” Stan shrugs when he notices Eddie wariness, and even Bill seemed to notice it. Eddie just shrugs, watching his shoes as if they were suddenly the most interesting thing. “He’ll probably make another dumb excuse for being late.”
Bill snorts from the other side. “Yeah, how he was busy s-s-sleeping with your mom.” Eddie can’t help but roll his eyes, shoving at Bill’s shoulder.
“Gross, not you too.” He laughs, still a slight frown on his face.
“Your m-mom didn’t think I was gross yesterday.” Bill mimics their resident trashmouth, and Eddie grins at that. Bill seems content with the smile, happy to see his friend happy again. “Now who brought the snacks?”
*
*
*
“I’m going to fucking puke up if I eat more.” Eddie groans, laying on his back on the rocks, his jacket beneath him.
“I t-told you not to eat so much.” Bill scowls, reaching for another cookie himself.
“In my defence, you know how good Stan’s mom’s cooking is.” Eddie retorts.
“Can confirm.” Stan hums, still nibbling on another cookie himself. “Lucky for us Richie isn’t here, he would’ve eaten all of it by now.” He says absently. Eddie slowly sits up again, glancing back at the woods for a second.
“Shouldn’t we like check up on Richie? He’s never this late, and he hasn’t texted either.” Eddie murmurs, and Stan swallows the last remains of the cookie.
“I agree with Eddie, It’s not like R-Richie to be this late.” Bill says, sitting up and glancing at Stan, who sighs at the gaze.
“I guess, we can check the arcade.” He says, the first one to stand up and grab his stuff. Bill was right, Richie was prone to being late, but it wasn’t like him to be this late without at least sending a message or letting someone know he might me late. The last time it happened he had been attacked by Bowers and his goons.
The Losers had hoped the bullying would stop now half of the gang was gone, with Patrick missing, and most probably eaten by Pennywise as well, and Henry being arrested for murder. But the bullying hadn’t stopped, Victor and Belch had continued as if nothing happened in the summer.
The only thing that had really changed was the addition of one boy, Peter Gordon, almost like a replacement for Patrick. Even the name ‘The Bowers gang’ had stuck with them.
“I swear to God, Richie better be at that fucking arcade.” Eddie muttered to himself, scowling as some dirt got onto his hands. Even if he stood up to his mom last summer he was still not okay with germs and stuff. He had gotten better, and he had stopped taking most of his medication.
But of course it wasn’t easy to just unlearn something that was such a big part of his life.
Stan glances at Bill for a moment at the comment, but he could see that Bill was thinking the exact same thing. Eddie was obviously worried for Richie, and was using anger to cover that up, and cursing as well. Bill picked up the pace slightly, walking next to Eddie and looking at him for a moment.
“We will f-find him Eddie. He’s just in the arcade.” Bill said and Eddie flashes him a grateful smile. There was an unspoken message between them, both understanding that Bill was lying because he had no idea either. Eddie could see the obvious worry in his eyes as well, but he appreciated the attempt to cheer him up.
“He better be, because I swear if IT is back I’m hurling myself off that cliff right now.” Stan deadpanned, and Bill shot him a glare, slapping his arm.
They quickly reached their bikes, picking them up to quietly walk further away from the quarry. It wasn’t the best idea to cycle through these parts of the woods, and Stan still had the scars on his knees to prove that. Of course he’d argue it was Richie’s fault for distracting him but that didn’t take away from it being unsafe.
Eventually they got closer to the main road, still not there, but close enough so they could cycle again. Stan and Bill were almost gone when Eddie suddenly stops.
“Guys!” He shouts, and Stan and Bill turn their heads, stopping in the tracks. Eddie was looking at them with wide eyes, pointing at something. Bill followed his arm, until they landed on a bike that was lying there, near a tree. Bill swallowed thickly.
“That’s R-R-Richie’s.” He stutters, getting off his bike and hurrying over to it, his own bike forgotten. Stan also quickly put his bike against a tree, rushing after Bill.
“What if he fell off the bike guys?” Eddie spews, eyes still wide.
“Then he would’ve been here Eddie, but he isn’t.” Stan mutters, frowning.
“Oh shit, it’s the Bowers gang, it has to be.” Eddie quickly continues. “What if they got him? What if they like followed him and then jumped-”
“Eddie!” Bill snaps. “Calm down.” He adds, but he made no effort to go against Eddie, because right now that seemed like the most plausible explanation for why Richie’s bike was here, but not Richie.
“We have to find him Bill, what if he’s hurt?” Eddie whimpers softly, staring at Bill with big pleading eyes. Bill nods, turning to Stan, but before the curly haired boy could respond, Eddie heard something. He tenses, head snapping around.
“Eddie what’s-” Stan couldn’t finish that sentence before Eddie was already on his feet. “Shit, seriously?” Stan yelled after him, but Eddie didn’t care, sprinting around the next tree before suddenly just freezing. There, hidden from the view because of the tree, hung Richie, just inches above the ground.
His wrists were bound together, strung up on a branch to keep him floating in the air.
Eddie could feel his stomach turn violently, and he had to force himself to swallow back the bile threatening to come up. Richie’s glasses were gone from his face, instead hanging around his shirt, probably to mock him with his inability to see and be so close to reaching his glasses.
Richie’s head was thrown back, eyes closed, fluttering occasionally and head leaning slightly against his right arm. There was duct tape covering his mouth and dried tear tracks trailing down his face. Blood had leaked from his nose, staining both the duct tape and his shirt, but it had already dried.
“Shit Richie.” Stan curses only seconds after Eddie sees him. “Bill lift him up!” He yells the orders and Bill doesn’t hesitate, sprinting over to Richie and grabbing his legs to lift him up. Richie moans behind the tape, eyes fluttering open slightly but immediately closing again, tears trailing down his face again.
Eddie immediately rushed over to the three of them, reaching for his fanny pack to grab a knife from it. Right now he was just so glad he had returned for the fanny pack again, not for medicine anymore but for other stuff like this, a knife, med kit, and something he wasn’t as proud of; his inhaler.
Stan took the knife without a word, reaching up and just barely able to put the blade against the rope. It took longer that Eddie would’ve liked, way too long, to cut the rope holding Richie up. But the rope was thick, and the knife admittedly wasn’t the best one to use, but it was all they had right now.
The knot was too high up for them, and they needed to get Richie down now.
“Richie calm down.” Bill snaps, a slight waver in his voice. Richie was starting to wake up, or at least, start to move around more. He was thrashing, pulling at his arms and letting out moans of pain, muffled by the tape. The sobs just grew louder and louder with each passing second that he hung there.
“Richie!” Eddie yells, trying to get his attention. Richie’s eyes snapped open, moving his head forwards so he could look down at Eddie instead. The younger of the two could feel his heart break at the sight. Big tears were falling down Richie’s eyes, and they were filled with so much pain and panic.
He was utterly terrified, and Eddie could see how desperate he was to get down.
It only lasted a few seconds, when Richie just kind of froze for a moment as Eddie caught his attention before he started pulling at his wrists again. Uncoordinated and probably not even fully registering what was happening around him. Just registering the pain that he was in right now.
Eventually Stan managed to cut through the rope, and Eddie was just in time to catch Richie as his weight caused Bill to fall over. Eddie didn’t even think about the fact that he could get blood on himself, or that he was now sitting on a forest floor, none of that mattered anymore in this moment.
“Fucking hell.” Eddie muttered, immediately reaching for the duct tape around his mouth and gently pulling it off. Eddie grimaces just slightly as the tape was wet from the saliva and barely sticking anymore. Richie had probably tried to get it off already. Eddie carelessly threw it aside.
Immediately Richie took a huge, panicky breath, causing him to start coughing.
“Shit, on your side Rich.” Eddie panics slightly, and Bill helps him roll on his side, bringing his arms down for the first time since… they had no idea how long Richie had been there to begin with. Richie coughed, almost choking on thin air as he tried to suck in as much air as possible through his now abused lungs.
He must’ve had so much difficulty with breathing Eddie mutters in his head, and he could almost cry at that thought. Being suspended by your wrists wasn’t just super painful, it also made breathing so much harder. Ben had once told them about how people who were crucified years ago if they didn’t die from their wounds.
It was most likely that they died because they essentially suffocated from the lack of air.
Richie could’ve died.
“Easy Richie, we g-got you.” Bill whispers, carefully helping Richie sit up. The moment the coughing stopped, Richie burst into tears. Bill gently wrapped his arms around Richie’s form and the latter just buried his face in Bill’s collarbone, letting himself cry. His whole body shook as Bill just held him.
Eddie finally couldn’t hold the tears back, and he hated how they burned on his cheek. And yet, he couldn’t find the energy to wipe them away. He watches in silence as Richie cries his heart out, bound hands held awkwardly in front of him. Eddie crouches down, knees softly hitting the ground.
He reaches out, taking Richie’s hands gently to tug at the knots still holding them together. Richie whimpers in Bill’s hold, lifting his head hesitantly. Eddie can’t get himself to look up at his friend, tugging at the binds to free Richie’s arms. The younger boy swallows thickly at the sight of Richie’s wrists.
They were bleeding heavily, and dark red rings were already decorating them.
Richie only burst out in tears again at the sight of them, and Eddie gently grabs his hands between his. He could feel them shaking but Richie didn’t pull away, he just cried silently, and Eddie squeezed his hands softly as a way to tell him he was there, and neither of them were leaving.
“We should go home.” Stan was the first one to speak up, and Bill and Eddie glance at him. They knew Stan was right, they needed to get Richie home, instead of keeping him out here. Richie didn’t look up, shaking softly from both the sobs and probably also the shock that he was experiencing.
“Can you stand up?” Eddie asks softly, already preparing himself to (somehow) carry Richie to one of their homes, but Richie nodded.
“Yeah.” He whispers, voice raspy and Richie winced at the sound. Eddie stilled unwillingly, almost waiting for another snarky comment, because that’s what Richie always did, but it never came.
“Okay, up you go Trashmouth.” Eddie mutters, climbing to his feet and helping Richie up.
“I should at least get a free pass from your bullying Eds.” Richie tries to lighten the mood, but he quickly realised the joke fell flat, and he swallowed thickly. Eddie grabbed Richie’s glasses, putting them on Richie’s face again.
“Like you stopped calling me Eds after I fell out of that tree a few months back.” Eddie shot back. “Deal with it asshole.” A bit of tension left Richie’s body, and he gave a grateful smile to Eddie. Banter was something they were familiar with, it was something Richie was familiar with and felt comfortable with.
Bill walked over to the two, carefully slinging Richie’s arm over his shoulder to help him stand. Richie hisses slightly at his arms being manhandled like that, but he didn’t say a word, which was probably worse than him being his annoying self. But neither of the Losers commented on it luckily.
Richie was still surprisingly steady on his legs, but Bill still didn’t let go of him. It was obvious Richie was exhausted, unwillingly leaning a lot of weight against him as they walked over to the bikes. And the rest of the Losers didn’t even need to look at one another before Eddie grabbed Bill’s bike as the latter held Richie up.
“Fuck me, my ass is gonna be so sore after this.” Richie complained as he was helped onto the back of Bill’s bike Silver. They would come back for Richie’s bike later. Eddie walks back to his own bike.
“Better than falling off your bike.” Stan shoots back, and Richie shrugs, wrapping his arms around Bill to keep him steady.
“How romantic.” Richie mumbles, eyes closed as exhaustion was washing over him. Bill rolls his eyes, taking off after Stan and Eddie.
“Beep beep Richie.” He says, and Richie snickers softly behind him, resting his head on Bill’s back and allowing the unspoken leader of the group to bike them towards Eddie’s home, which luckily did not take long.
“Won’t your mom freak when she sees Richie like this?” Stan asks, but Eddie shook his head.
“She’s not home until tomorrow.” He says absently, allowing his friends into his home. Ever since the incident this summer Eddie had started standing up for himself, defying his mother more and more, and in turn she realised she had to give Eddie more space in order not to lose him completely.
His mom was of course totally reluctant to do so, and still wouldn’t budge on a lot of stuff, but Eddie wasn’t just putting up with everything anymore.
“Probably in the hospital after I made her cu-”
“Beep fucking beep Richie.” Eddie almost sneered, grabbing Richie’s hand and pulling him to the living room. “Stan go get the medical kit, Bill, a bowl of warm water and a clean cloth.” Both boys quickly hurried to get what Eddie had asked them to get, knowing Eddie would handle the situation right now.
“Eds-” Richie starts.
“Shut the fuck up Richie.” Eddie snapped. “And don’t fucking call me Eds, you know I hate it wh-”
“Eds.” Richie says again, more determined this time but still soft and raspy. Eddie snaps his head up, glaring at the boy. “Calm down please.” He whispers, and Eddie is suddenly aware of the ache in his chest, the dizzy feeling and the erratic breathing… he was hyperventilating he realised.
Eddie forced himself to relax, taking a few breaths which luckily worked to calm him down.
“I just.. you really fucking scared me Rich.” Eddie whispers, glancing up as Bill walks back into the living room with a bowl and putting it next to Eddie. The younger boy put the cloth in the water, wringing it out and reaching for Richie’s glasses with his free hand to tug the glasses off his face.
Richie didn’t complain, squinting slightly at the vision loss but he allowed Eddie to do so. That alone made Eddie feel a little bit better, knowing Richie still trusted him like that. All of the losers knew how bad Richie’s eyesight was without those glasses, he couldn’t see shit without them.
Eddie put the glasses on the table next to his couch before starting to clean the blood from Richie’s face. His nose was already discolouring, and Eddie could make a pretty educated guess what had happened, someone had punched him in the face, which also caused the blood to spill from his nose.
Richie just allows Eddie to clean his face and wrists, sitting on the couch and muscles so tense he was afraid they’d eventually snap.
The blood was quickly cleaned, and Bill had gone upstairs in the meantime for a clean shirt, since Richie’s shirt was still covered in blood, and some big sweatpants that would hopefully fit the longer boy. And Stan had also returned with the med kit, which was covered to the brim with all sorts of supplies.
“Put on the clean clothes first.” Stan says as Eddie puts away the now bloody cloth.
“If you wanted to see me naked you could’ve just asked Stan.” Richie jokes but Stan immediately glares at him, and Richie snaps his mouth shut at the gaze. “Fine.” He mumbles, tugging his shirt over his head… or at least, trying to. The moment he tried to tug at his shirt he lets out a loud hiss, whimpering.
His eyes went wide, staring at his hands, or as much as he could see them.
“What happened?” Stan was the first one to yell, obvious concern in his voice.
“My wrists..” Richie stammers, looking up in panic. “They hurt.. shit Eds, why do they hurt?”
“Maybe because you were strung up by rope.” Stan deadpans but neither of them pay attention to the comment.
“You could’ve gotten nerve damage.. I just need to-” Eddie mumbles, extending two fingers. “Can you squeeze my fingers? And I swear to God Richie if you make one sexual joke, I will kill you right now.” Eddie snaps, feeling his heart hammer in his throat but it seemed like even Richie wasn’t in the mood for jokes.
Eddie swallows thickly when he sees tears well up in Richie’s eyes as he painstakingly wraps his hand around Eddie’s fingers, squeezing it softly but immediately stopping at the hiss of pain.
“Thumbs up?” Eddie asks, and Richie silently complied, which would’ve freaked all of them out if they wouldn’t be already. But Richie managed, silent tears streaming down his face. Eddie nods numbly, putting his hand on Richie’s. “That’s good.. that would’ve been bad if you couldn’t.. y’know…”
Eddie trailed off, still focused on Richie’s wrists.
“Bill can you just get me some more water? Cold.” Eddie orders, reaching for the med kit besides him. “Stan, can you empty the bowl?” He continues, and Stan complies, picking up the bowl of bloody water and returning quickly with an empty one. Blood cleaned off and even dried off, which did not surprise either of them.
Richie just watches silently as Eddie used the cold water to wash out the wound, so careful that Richie almost believed he himself was made out of glass, shattering if handled too roughly. Eddie put some weird creme on it, before wrapping clean gauze around his wrists and securing it.
All four of them eventually ended up sprawled in Eddie’s bed, not caring about the sun still shining through the windows.
“Do you wanna talk about what happened?” Stan was the first one to speak up, glancing up at Richie from his spot on the bed, on the end of Eddie’s bed with his back leaning against it. Richie glances at him, shrugging slightly. He didn’t want to look at the bandages around his wrist, or think about the pain that was slowly spreading across his face.
At least Eddie had given him some ibuprofen for that, and his wrists, to take the edge off.
“I opened my big mouth to those fuckers from the Bowers’ gang at school, I paid the price for that after school.” Richie tries to shrug, as if he wasn’t bothered by it. He looked at his friends, like he was silently asking them if that was enough, but of course, it wasn’t. They were still looking at him.
And Richie knew that he didn’t have to tell them, they wouldn’t pry or force him. But he also knew they weren’t going to let it go if he didn’t talk, that Eddie and Stan would still be worried about him, that Bill was still going to be angry at them, okay him telling wouldn’t undo that but still, it would make it worse.
“I don’t know, they knew about our playdate I guess and they jumped me when I was on my bike. I think I got little Victor-” And they all knew what little Victor was referring to. “But Belch got me in the face pretty hard and my glasses flew off so I couldn’t see jack shit, and they took advantage of that.” Richie muttered the last part, shuddering.
He wasn’t looking at anyone, shaking gently on the spot. And Eddie could see tears jumping in his eyes.
“They p-pushed… pushed me to the ground and Blench put all of his fucking weight on me and Victor tied my h-hands-” Richie stopped, mouth snapping shut at the hiccupping. Nobody said anything, patiently waiting for Richie to continue. “I tried to fight ‘em but they were too fucking strong and then they…-”
The rest of them knew, they knew what Richie meant. But apparently that was too much for him to say, and he cut himself off again when he burst out in tears, sobbing quietly. Eddie quietly crawls over to him, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder and looking at him, just in silence.
Richie looks up with red eyes. “Shit Eddie, it hurt.. it hurt so much and then t-they… they put my glasses on my shirt and … I c-couldn’t reach ‘em but I also couldn’t s-see shit.. and I was just so scared and they l-left me alone. And I-I couldn’t b-b-breathe.. and I p-passed out a couple of- Shit Eds, w-why did they leave? I felt like I was-”
Richie didn’t finish the sentence, but Eddie could make a pretty educated guess; I felt like I was dying.
“But you didn’t, we got there in time.” Stan says, and Bill nods.
“Stan’s right R-Richie, we’ll always be t-there for each other.”
“We’re Losers remember? And Losers stick together.” Eddie nudges Richie’s side slightly. “Even if they’re giant Trashmouths.” That managed to make Richie laugh, even if it was shaky.
“Thanks guys.” He mutters, relaxing a bit on the spot. They settled into a comfortable silence, even if there was still some tension in the air. Not from the silence, but from what had happened. But despite that, none of them really needing to talk or fill the silence around the room.
“Hey Eddie?” Richie asks, because of course he’d be the one to break the silence. Richie rolls onto his side, ignoring Bill’s protest as he accidentally kicked him in the process. Eddie blinks his eyes open, already dozing off. “I just realised something.” Richie says, a serious expression on his face.
“What?” For a moment Eddie could feel a hint of panic creeping up on him but then Richie grins, a soft grin compared to his usual one but a grin nevertheless.
“I’m never trying bondage again.” Immediately Eddie’s face falls and he groans.
“Beep beep Richie.” He mutters, but he smiles softly as Richie grins, easing the tension that was around the room. Because Richie wasn’t okay right now, but that laugh showed them all that he would be.. eventually.