CHAPTER SEVEN
the one with a lot of blood
warnings: blood, mentions of sexual activities (no they don't actually have sex it's just henry being dumb)

ASHLEY HARP WAS quick to be on her feet when Beverly called her. To be fair, all Beverly had said was 'Can you come over? I need to show you something, it's important.' And when Ashley said yes, she was hung up on. So yeah, it worried her a bit.

Her father was already at work by the time she got the call, so she was able to leave the house immediately. Ish. She had to get dressed first, considering she'd been planning to stay in her pajamas all day and wander mindlessly around her house. It was summer, let her live.

She was quick to do that though. She changed out of her pajamas, and threw on a white t-shirt and a pair of overalls. And then she was able to leave.

Ashley made her way downstairs, opened the door, and exited the house. She locked the door behind her, and walked over to where her bike was parked. Right next to her porch, as the usual.

She moved the bike, but didn't notice the cockroach that was crawling on the ground. Thankfully, she was on her bike and ran it over before she could notice it.

Ashley hummed a bit to herself as she pedaled her bike. She let her thoughts wander as well, wondering if Beverly had called the boys to come over either. Bev hadn't mentioned that in the phone call, but that didn't mean she wasn't right.

Ash shook her thoughts away, pedaling the bike faster. She wanted to get there quickly, considering that's what Beverly asked of her.

And thankfully, she did. She got to Bev's apartment ten minutes quicker than it took to get to her house from Beverly's yesterday.

She parked her bike in silence as she reached the apartment complex, leaning it on the brick wall. Her eyes wandered around the apartment, wondering if she should just walk upstairs or wait for Bev.

The sound of chattering interrupted her thoughts, and she was able to quickly recognize the voices. Her theory on Beverly inviting the boys as well had been right.

She glanced back, and sure enough, there they were. She smiled at them, went to speak, before the sound of footsteps caught her attention. She looked back around, and there was Beverly Marsh.

"You made it. I- I have to show you something," Bev stammered out. She seemed out of breath, and Ashley raised an eyebrow at that.

"What is it?"

"More than you showed us at the quarry?" Richie Tozier. Ashley sighed, probably overdramaticly.

"Richie, you absolute piece of-" Ashley began, but Eddie interrupted her.

"Shut up! Just shut up Richie."

"My dad will kill me if he finds out I had boys in the apartment..." Beverly told them, glancing over at Ashley in the process.

"Then w-w-we'll leave a look out," Bill spoke up for the first time, "Ruh-Ruh-Richie stay here." He added, before the boys all threw their bikes on the ground, walking over to the staircase, Ashley tagging along.

"Woah, woah, woah. What if her dad comes back?" Richie exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air. Stan stopped in his tracks, turning to him, while the others continued walking.

"Do what you always do! Start talking!"

Ashley snorted at the remark, beginning to walk upstairs.

"It is a gift..." Richie huffed.

♡

THE PAIR OF six were soon stood in Beverly's hallway, as she led them towards a room.

"In there..." Beverly spoke quietly, gesturing at the door that was at the end of the hallway.

Her bathroom. Ashley knew this, she was here yesterday and had to ask twice where it was.

"What is it?" Stan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You'll see..." Bev responded, moving forward and motioning for the group to follow her.

"Are you taking us to your bathroom? I just want you to know that 89 percent of the worst accidents that happen in homes are caused in bathrooms-" Eddie told them, "And- And- And, I mean, that's where all the bacteria and fungi are. And it's not a sanitary place, really."

Ashley let out a sigh, and Bill slowly creaked open the bathroom door.

It was red, blood red. Every thing in the bathroom was covered in what looked to be blood.

"Holy shit." Ash whispered to herself.

"I knew it." Eddie said, gagging.

"You see it?" Beverly asked. She sounded slightly shocked.

"Yes.." Eddie replied, and Ashley nodded.

"What..." Stanley trailed off for a second, "What happened in here?"

"My dad couldn't see it, I thought I might be crazy." Beverly told them.

"Well if you're crazy, then we're all crazy." Ben responded, and Ashley physically shuddered.

"When did this happen?" Ashley asked quietly.

"Last night. An hour or two after you left." Beverly informed.

"We...cah-can't leave it like this." Bill stuttered out, Ashley giving a nod of agreement.

Bill stepped inside the bathroom, and Ashley turned to Beverly, "You got any cleaning supplies, Marsh?"

♡

ASHLEY SNAPPED THE yellow gloves on her hands, glancing at Eddie who stood next to her in Beverly's small kitchen.

"You wanna put on a hazmat suit too, Shortstack?" Ashley asked sarcastically, eyeing all the gear he had on and Eddie scoffed.

"Are you aware of how many diseases we could come in contact with? Because I promise, it's a lot and-" Eddie began, but Ashley just shoved a bucket filled with soapy water into his hands.

"Shut it." She rolled her eyes, picking up the other buckets of supplies in one hand and three mops in her other, Eddie rolled his eyes.

"Don't be fucking rude."

"My bad. Shut it, babe." Ashley said, pressed a kiss to Eddie's cheek, who all but screeched.

"That is disgusting, Ash, oh my God." He said, wiping his cheek.

Ashley threw her head back and laughed.

♡

Ashley walked inside the blood covered room, wrinkling her nose at the metallic smell. She sat the bucket down, before grabbing a sponge out of it. The others all grabbed some supplies themselves, and the group got to work.

Ashley slowly got down on her knees near the bathtub, and began wiping it down with the soapy rag. She ignored the terrible scent and the fact the her legs were getting covered with blood. A stranger sentence, maybe, but it was completely true. She regretted wearing overalls.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." She whispered to herself, before eventually giving up on going slow. Instead, the female began scrubbing violently. Slowly but surely, the red began fading. The usual white color of the tub returned, the green of the tiles, and the windows weren't covered in blood.

Ashley held multiple trash bags in her hands as she stared at the bathroom, standing in the doorway. Beverly, Bill, and Ben were still in the bathroom, while the rest weren't. They were talking about something, but Ashley didn't hear. Instead, she turned on her heels and began walking away to throw the trash out, as did Ben.

"That was an experience, wasn't it, Hanscom?" Ashley murmured as the two walked side by side. Ben stopped in his tracks and nodded, glancing around the room.

Ash watched as he walked toward Bev's room, scanning over it. When his eyes landed on the piano, she spoke up quietly, "Bev plays. She pretty good."

Ben smiled and nodded, "I'd believe it. I don't think there's not one thing she's bad at."

"Oh?" Ashley smirked, "And what does that mean?"

"Nothing, nothing." Ben replied quickly, blushing lightly. He stepped put of the room, before looking back at the bathroom, where Bev and Bill still stood. Ashley clicked her tongue as she watched the two with Ben. They were laughing, smiling, talking about some fair. Seeing the sight made Ashley's heart sting, though she didn't understand why.

Ashley looked back at Ben, who's face seemed to have fell, "Ah, damn, Ben. Come on, let's get your mind on something else, yeah?" She suggested, and Ben just shrugged and nodded.

Ashley frowned, before the two walked off.

♡

"NO, I LOVE being your personal doorman, really!" Richie exclaimed, cycling around the group of six. The others were all walking, holding their bikes next to them, "Could you idiots have taken any longer?"

"Can you stop cycling around us, Richie? It's annoying." Ash snapped, rolling her eyes.

"Alright, shut up, Richie." Eddie spoke, annoyance in his tone.

"Yeah, shut up, Richie!" Stanley added.

"Oh, okay, trash the trashmouth, I get it!" Richie exclaimed, and also didn't stop cycling the group, which was still stressing Ashley out, "Hey, I wasn't the one scrubbing the bathroom floor and imagining the her sink went all Eddie's moms vagina on Halloween."

"Richie! Shut it! And stop cycling, it's fucking stressing me out!" Ashley snapped, coming to a stop and rubbing her temples.

Thankfully, the rest of the group stopped too and so did Richie. "She didn't imagine it.." Bill said, "I... s-s-saw something too."

When Bill said that, Ashley's mind went back to her short encounter with that... clown. She shuddered, and Stanley spoke up again.

"You saw blood, too?" Stan asked, and Bill shook his head.

"Not blood." Bill informed, "I saw... Guh-Guh-Georgie..." He answered. This sent another shudder down Ashley Harp's spine.

"It seemed so real... I mean, it seemed like him, but there was this..." Bill stopped.

"The clown." Eddie ended for him, and a short silence came after that, "Yeah, I saw him too.."

"I-" Ashley started but stopped herself, but by that time, she'd caught the others attention, "I saw It as well." She continued, looking at the ground intensely, "I mean.. I saw my mother at first- and then the clown." A longer silence, before Richie spoke up again.

"Wait, can only virgins see this stuff? Is that why I'm not seeing this shit?" Richie joked, and Ashley couldn't help but crack a small smile. The others weren't as amused though.

The sound of distant chattering could be heard, and the group looked towards the source.

"Oh shit, that's Belch Huggins car..." Eddie told them, "We should- we should probably get outta here."

"Wait, isn't that the homeschooled kids bike?" Bill asked, pointing at a bike that was laying on the ground next to the car.

"Yeah, that's Mikes." Eddie answered.

"We have to help him," Beverly told the group.

"We should?" Richie asked, fixing his glasses and staring at Beverly like she was an alien.

"Yes." Beverly replied, as if the answer was obvious, before she let go of her bike, letting it fall to the ground and then running off, the others soon following (except Stan).

Ashley sighed, threw her bike, and then ran after the five, Stan following behind her.

They ran through the path, Beverly grabbing a rock in the process, and the sight they were greeted with wasn't very pretty.

Mike was pinned on the ground, unable to move thanks to Henry Bowers, who himself also held a rock.

Before Henry could do anymore damage, Bev threw her rock, hitting him directly in the forehead. He fell back and groaned, while Mike crawled away to escape.

"Nice throw." Stan commented, and Beverly nodded.

"Thanks."

Henry's goons helped him up, while the other group all grabbed some rocks, Mike still crawling in the water to get to them.

"You losers are trying to hard, she'll do you, you just gotta ask nicely," Henry smirked, obviously talking about Beverly, "Like I did." He said, grabbing his crotch.

"Maybe if you pay em enough, the two girlies will put on a little show." Belch added.

That really seemed to infuriate Ben, and he threw his rock at Bowers, hitting him near where he'd been hit before.

"What the fuck?" One of them cursed. Ashley couldn't tell, honestly. Beverly grunted, before throwing another rock at the three.

"Come on, get em, fuck!" Henry cussed, getting on his knees and scrambling to pick up rocks.

"Rock war!" Richie yelled, only to be hit directly in the face by one of those rocks.

Ashley cursed more during the five minute period than she probably ever had in her life. She threw rock after rock, and when one hit her in the leg, she ignored it, despite the fact that she could feel the warm blood trickling down her it.

Ben, Stan, Bev, Bill, Mike, Richie, Ash, and Eddie all outnumbered Henry and his friends, who had a total of three people. Their attempts to hit the group of eight were also terrible, despite how hard they tried. Beverly also hit Belch directly in the face at one point, and Ashley almost laughed at that.

"Come on guys!" Eddie said urgently, motioning for them to follow him, "Lets get out of here!"

Belch, Henry, and Victor were all on the ground at this point, and Ashley couldn't help but smile at what'd they'd done to the group. After all the years of torture the eight had gone through, Ashley was pretty positive they deserved it. She panted, out of breath and her leg hurting like hell. She shook her head, before turning around and began walking away.

As she left, climbing up the path, Ashley was able to hear the slightly muffled voice of Tozier.

"Go blow your dad you mullet wearing asshole!"

♡

"THANKS GUYS, BUT you really shouldn't have done that. They'll be after you guys too now." Mike said as the group walked down the path.

"Oh, no, no, no. Bowers? He's always after us." Eddie informed Mike.

"I guess that's one th-th-thing we all have in common." Bill added.

"Yeah, Homeschool. Welcome to the losers club!" Richie finished off, and Ashley Harp couldn't help but smile at that.