ii. the one with a lot of regret

CHAPTER TWO
the one with a lot of regret
tws: sexuality assumption, cursing, lots of bugs, p*nnywsie 😔, implied death

WHEN SHE THOUGHT ABOUT IT, ASHLEY HARP did not know why she agreed to pretend to be this Eddie kid's girlfriend. She knew pretty much nothing about him. Her first thought had been this'll stop the rumors! and then she remembered she was out of school now, rumors didn't really matter (a lie and she knew it. Greta would fuck with her whenever she got the chance). Also, she'd only be pretending to be his girlfriend for like, a day. That probably wouldn't stop anything. She was pretty sure of that, at least.

"Hello?" A hand was in front of her face, and Ashley blinked, her train of thought disappearing. She glanced down at the Eddie boy, who looked annoyed. Ash wondered if that was just his permanent expression. "I asked what your name was. Also, I'm not short, screw off."

A smile replaced Ashley's confused expression, "I'm Ashley, but Ash works. And you're kinda short."

Eddie scoffed and rolled his eyes, "Whatever, Ashley. I'm gonna introduce you to my friends, okay? I told them I had a girlfriend- a blatant lie- so they'd shut up, and now they wanna meet her- or you. Whatever."

Ashley blinked and nodded as Eddie spoke, "Right... Just, let's go, Shortstack. I've got places to be."

A lie. She didn't.

Eddie shook his head, before leading her over to his group of three friends. Ash stayed silent when they reached, and so did the rest of them. It was awkward as hell, with no one speaking, but the silence was quickly broken by none other than Trashmouth Tozier.

"You're dating the schools lesbian, Eddie?" Richie questioned, and eyebrow raised.

One of the boys- with curly hair- kicked Rich in the shin and Eddie scoffed, rolling his eyes. That made Ash smile.

"She's obviously not a lesbian, you idiot." Eddie huffed.

"Those are just rumors," Ashley spoke, her voice quiet, "They're not true. My name's Ashley." She smiled, "Ash works, though."

More silence.

"Well, god damn, Eds. Didn't think you had it in ya," Richie grinned, "Always thought you were too afraid of being touched 'n shit. 'nd that when you did get the guts to ask someone out, that it would probably be a gu-"

"Shut up, shut up, and don't call me that. I hate it when you call me that." Eddie said with an eyeroll.

Ashley stood there, watching the two bicker, before a different boy sighed and turned to face Ash.

"Since it seems like Eddie's too busy to introduce us, Hi, I'm Stanley. Don't call me that though, call me Stan instead," The kid spoke, before gesturing towards someone next to him, "That's Bill."

Ash waved at Bill, who gave what seemed to be a forced smile in return.

"It was nice meeting you all, but I need to get goi-" Ashley began to speak, but was quick to be interrupted by Richie.

"Hey! We're going to the barrens tomorrow, and I'm sure Eddie over here would loooovvee if you came with us." Richie said, purposefully dragging out the love, making Eddie scoff.

"Oh, I don't...wanna intrude." Ashley spoke, to which Richie waved his hand.

"Nah, impossible. You should come, right, Big Bill?"

Ash glanced at Bill, who shrugged, "If she wuh-wants too, I guess.." was his muttered reply.

Ashley felt all four boys eyes on her and she sighed, "I'll come." She said, and a grin fell on the lips of Trashmouth Tozier.

"W-We're meeting at Eddie's house. I'd ah-assume you know where th-that is?" Bill raised an eyebrow, and Ashley blinked for a moment, not saying anything. She wondered if he knew.

"She does." Eddie replied for her after ten seconds of silence, "Right, Ashley?"

"Uh- right. Listen, I've gotta get home. Shortst- Eddie, come with me." Ashley grabbed Eddie's arm, dragging him with her as she walked.

When she decided they were out of earshot, Ash turned to Eddie, "Where do you live and when do I need to be there? I have to be home by six, family rules." Ashley spoke, before she stopped herself from rambling and waited for her answer.

"Do you have paper by any chance? I'll write my everything on that if you do." Eddie replied, to which Ashley nodded and slipped her backpack off.

It took another ten minutes, but soon enough, Ashley Harp was on her way to her house. Finally. This should be fun explaining to her dad.

A huff exited Ashley's lips as she held the now folded paper in her hands that information Eddie had given her was written on. She had to think of a lie to tell her father too! That's two lies in two days, and one lie was gonna be continued on for God knows how long!

Ashley Harp was not a liar, not after what happened.

Ashley sighed and glanced up. She had almost reached her house, when she noticed something standing by her window. A balloon, a red one at that.

This creeped her out by itself. Why the fuck was someone standing outside her window? And with a fucking balloon? She slowly approached her house, and stopped. She could now get a close look of the figure. It was dressed in a clown suit, and it's head was tilting back and forth. Something was being hummed by it, which Ashley recognized quickly. Ring Around The Rosie. It didn't sound threatening, but the way the clown was humming it...it was kinda calming, but terrifying. Both at the same time, somehow. Ash didn't know. She never did.

In the clowns hand was the red balloon Ashley had noticed earlier.

"Hey? Clown? What are you doing? This isn't your house and-" Ashley began to speak, and the clown stopped moving. Stopped humming.

The sudden silence sent a chill down her spine.

The clowns head did a 360 turn, and Ashley froze for a split second, stumbling back. It wasn't a clown. She recognized the face. How could she not? It was her mother, only bruises covered her face, blood dripped from her nose. Her hair was a mess, and she was wearing that stupid clown outfit.

The things eyes were yellow. A sadistic grin was on It's face- It. That's what it was. Not a her or a him. Not her mom. An It.

"Ashley..." It's voice. Oh god, It's voice. It was calming, soothing, sounded like someone who you wanted to read you a story when you fell asleep. Sounded like the voice that had read her to sleep so many times before. That's the only way she could describe it. It was like the humming, yet it made Ashley Harp freeze in pure terror and caused tears to form in her eyes. Her mom. No, no, no-

"Do you want a balloon? Come on, Ashy, take a balloon. Come and float.." Hypnotizing. Another word to describe that things voice. That thing that wasn't her mother, but god, it sounded so much like her. Ashy was something only had mom had ever called her. It's voice made her want to say yes, to take a balloon, but Ashley was no idiot.

She watched, frozen with fear, as the balloon expanded, expanded, expanded until.

Pop.

Bugs. Bugs. Bugs. Everywhere. Fucking roaches, beetles, hundreds of them. They all came flying when the balloon popped, falling on the floor, and began crawling

And for the first time in several months, Ashley Harp screamed. Loudly, at that. Before she bolted towards her door, petrified of those stupid insects. The bugs seemed to followed her, and her mothers grin grew.

She scrambled to open the door, before running inside and slamming it shut behind her, along with locking it. She threw her bag across the room and let out a sob that she didn't know she'd been holding in. She curled up in a ball, hiding her face in her knees.

Ashley was terrified. That thing- it wasn't her mother, her mother was gone. Gone, gone, gone. It was such a short encounter, maybe five minutes, But God, it felt like forever.

She sniffed, before standing up and looked out the window.

Her mom was gone now, and in her place, the clown. The clown she thought she had seen. It was holding a balloon, one like she'd seen before, and It was grinning widely. And the bugs, they were there too. All of them, crawling on her front porch, everywhere. God, everywhere.

Footsteps approached her. She turned around quickly, and there stood her father, Alexander, with an eyebrow raised.

"Ash? What's wrong? And where were you, school ended an hour ago- I've been worried sick-" He started, and before he could finish, Ashley stood up and flung herself into his arms, something she didn't remember doing since what happened so long ago. Her father stumbled back, shocked at the sudden action, but hugged her tightly.

"I saw her- I saw her- I swear! She was there, and the bugs, oh God the bugs, Dad. There's so many, hundreds. They're everywhere." Ashley rambled and hiccuped.

"Ashley, calm down. Who'd you see? And what bugs?" Her father asked, concern laced in his voice.

"O-Outside! On the porch! Everywhere! Crawling everywhere!" Ashley cried, and Mr. Harp let go to her to look outside, leaving Ashley to try and steady out her breath.

Her dad looked out the curtain, and Ashley glanced at what she could see. They were still there. Oh god, she could never step foot outside again. Never again. Those things would kill her, some of them had to be poisonous, oh god.

"What do you mean, Ash? There's no bugs. Are you sure you didn't just imagine them?"

What? Did he not see them? How? "I-I- but- I swear I saw them- they're still there! And m-mom! I saw mom! She was there, she was wearing this clown suit, and she had a balloon. A-And it popped and the bugs- they went everywhere! They're still there!" She exclaimed, before voice calmed down into something of pure fear, "You don't see them?"

Ashley looked up at her dad with eyes pleading to tell her 'I see them too. Let's move out immediately and never come back.' Because that was the only thing she was able to think about right now. Instead, her father let out a sigh.

"No, Ashley. I don't. You were just imagining them. Now, go do your chores. Please."

Ashley sniffed, wiped her tears, and nodded. She stood up, thoughts racing in her mind.

Why didn't he see them? She saw them. They were there. She saw her mom, too. Was she just imagining the both of them? Maybe She was...but they seemed so real. So, so real.

Tears kept falling, but Ashley ignored them now as she grabbed the broom so she could start sweeping.

Maybe she was just going crazy, because right now, that's what it really seemed like.

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