LED ZEPPELIN
" you can see it, right? "
CHAPTER FIVE

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     THE BIKE RIDE to Ben's house was anything but smooth sailing. Mary's leg wound had started to bleed through the freshly applied bandages as they rode down the street. The one thing she had forgotten to supply her backpack of wonders was anything to help her not bleed out everywhere.

"Hey, Eddie." She called out, when they arrived to Ben's house and were parking their bikes. "What do you have in that little nap sack of yours?"

Eddie furrowed his eyebrows and thought over the items that were concealed away in his fanny pack. "Advil, my daily medicine, bandaids, and some other medical stuff. Why?"

"C-Can I get one of those bandages?"

"Do you need a large or a small one?"

Mary glanced down at her wound for a moment. "Biggest one you got."

Eddie nodded, reached into his pack, and pulled out a large bandage, similar to the one she already had on. Bill glanced up from putting his bike in park. "W-What even happened t-to your leg?" He asked.

Eddie nodded in agreement, "I meant to ask you at the quarry, but I forgot."

"Um," Mary stalled while she tried to think of an excuse. By now, she had the attention not just the two boys, but the whole group. "I fell?"

Beverly gave her a disapproving look as Mary removed the bandage. "I think that that's infected." Eddie commented, inspecting her wound as she removed the bandage. "Here, I have peroxide." He then dove back into his fanny pack and grabbed the bottle.

Mary grabbed it, muttered a thank you, and then poured it over her wound. She let out a hiss upon the coldness of the liquid, but soon covered it back up with the new bandage, courtesy of Eddie.

"Come on, let's go see the dirt on Derry."

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BEN'S ROOM WAS just as cluttered as Mary pictured. He had made sure to race in before everyone else, and clean up as best he could in the small constraint of time given. The rest of the group followed suit shortly after.

The walls were littered with dusty, old pictures. Mary could barely see any of his wall color. Nevertheless, she was amazed by the entirety of it all. "Woah." She breathed.

"Cool, huh?" Ben asked, smiling at seeing everyone's shocked expressions.

All the kids took off in their own directions, each drawn to different types of historical content. Eddie looked over a picture next to a newspaper article. "What's that?" He asked.

"That? That's the charter for Derry Township." Ben explained, approaching him.

From beside Eddie, Richie mocked, "Nerd alert."

"Actually, it's really interesting." Ben shot back, making Mary chuckle a little. "Derry started as a beaver trapping camp."

Richie, again, cut the poor boy off. "Still is, am I right boys?" He held his hand up to Stan, calling for a high-five. Sadly for him, Stanley just shook his head and slowly lowered his friend's hand.

"Ninety-one people signed the charter that made Derry." Ben began again. By now, Mary had migrated towards them to listen in on the frightening, yet interesting, conversation. "But later that winter, they all disappeared without a trace."

"The whole camp?" Mary asked, crossing his arms over her chest.

"There are rumors of Indians. . . But no sign of an attack. Everyone thought it was a plague or something. But it's like. . . One day everyone just woke up and left. The only clue was a trail of clothes leading to the well house." Ben explained. Mary shuddered.

Richie muttered, "Jesus, we can go on 'Unsolved Mysteries.'"

Mary pushed past the boys to get a better inspection of the pictures. Her eyes scanned over the black and white drawing, but one thing caught her eye in particular. Near the back of the printed out picture, in the shadows, was a figure that was all too familiar to her.

It was the clown.

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MARY STOOD BESIDE her bike, slowly strolling it towards her house. Bill, who offered to walk her home, was directly next to her. It was pretty awkward between the two at first, but slowly, the conversations began to flow naturally.

However, in that moment, the two were silent. Until Mary spoke up. "H-Have you ever seen something really weird? Like something that scared you so much?"

"W-W-What do you m-mean?" He asked with his eyebrows furrowed.

Mary pondered for a second. She didn't know how to ask, or even tell him, about the encounter with the dog and the clown. "Please don't think I'm crazy." She said turned to face him. Bill was very startled as he gave her a scouts honor symbol. "Okay. So I was biking home one day. And I passed by that really scary house. You know, the one on Neibolt?"

Bill nodded, and she continued. "Well all of a sudden, a rabid dog started to attack me! Like brutally attack me. I've never been so scared in my life. And then, it all stopped. I was so confused and frightened. I heard someone call my name from behind me, so I turned around. It was a clown! A fucking clown. He was drenched in blood. I-I've never been so scared in my life! It haunts me in my sleep at night." By the end of her little speech, Mary had tears welling up in her eyes as the recalled the traumatic events she endured. 

It took Bill a while to reply. "I-I-Is that what h-happened to your leg?"

"Yes. A rabid dog attacked me. But that's not the weirdest part! I went home, and none of my family could see it!" She stopped walking for a second to bend down and reveal her wound to Bill. "You can see it, right?"

He nodded his head frantically with a look of disgust and a hint of shock. "Sorry. I'm sure you didn't want to see that."

"No! It's o-o-okay. Tell me m-m-more about this cl-clown."

Mary smiled before putting the bandage back in place, and walking beside him once again. "He has orange hair. And his skin was white. He had blood dripping from his mouth. And his smile! God it gives me the chills whenever I think about it."

"I hope I never s-s-ee him!"

The two laughed it off, and Mary was glad for it. She was glad that he understood her predicament, and he easily changed her mood for the better.

authors note.
im so sorry for leaving you without
an update for so long!! school has
been kicking my ass, but i don't have
much left. catch me updating this
book a lot as soon as summer starts lmaoo