CHAPTER 7;

THE ARTICLE

'༺‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙༻

𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐤𝐢𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 , he jumped off his bike and srpinted inside. stan jumped off and helped ten off, grabbing her waist and lifting her onto the ground.

she was light, too light.

the group of kids start to walk into ben's home, it smelt like freshly baked cookies. ten stood between beverly and stanley, stan walking a bit close to her. when they entered the room, they were greeted by tons of news paper articles hung up all over the walls.

"woah, woah, woah, wow!" richie exclaimed as he entered, readjusting his specs. "cool huh?" ben smiled proudly, leaning against his wardrobe door.

"no, nothing cool. theres nothing cool." richie trailed off when he got a jab in the ribs by bill. richie ignored it and walked over to a collage of articles. "well this is cool, wait no its not."

"what is... that?" ten asked as she pointed to an article next to richie. "that?" ben questioned, looking closer. "ah that's the charter for derry township-"

"heh, nerd alert" richie snorted, pushing his glasses up his nose. "you can litteraly fuck off richie" beverly yelled from across the bedroom, which richie rolled his eyes.

ignoring the situation, ben continued. "actually it's really interesting. derry started as a beaver trapping camp-"

"still is. am i right boys- and girls?" richie chimed in with a teethy grin, rasing his hand. stan glared at him, while ten gave him a puzzled look. he slowly put his hand down and frowned.

ben sighed, again continuing with his conversation. "nintey one people singed the charter that made derry. but later that winter they all disapeared without a trace."

"t-the entire camp?" eddie piped up, turning away from the article he was reading. "there were rumours of indians but no sign of an attack. everyone thought it was a plauge or something. but its like, one day everyone just got up and left."

ben swallowed the hard lump that formed in his throat and continued. "the only clue was a trail of bloody clothes leading to the well-house."

"jesus we can go on 'unsolved mysteries'." richie joked, trying to hide the bit of fear he had. ten looked across the room and walked around, away from stan, eddie and richie to over where bill was.

she looked down and saw some more articles that she was interested in.

"i don't know, maybe hes just trying to make some friends stanley..." richie mumbled.

"w-w-wh-where is the well-house?" bill asks from besides ten. "i don't know, somewhere in town i guess. why?" ben answers.

"n-nothing."

"b-ben? where did you find this?" beverly asks out of the blue. everyones heads pop up and ben rushes over to her. "what?"

ben peers at the article and looks up at beverly puzzled. she then points to ten.

"what is this shit?" richie asks walking over, everyone soon follows. when they look down they see an article with someone familar on the front.

ten looks down shocked. she steps back breathing heavily.

"𝟏𝟑 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥, 𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟎𝟏𝟏 𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐰𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐚 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤 𝐚𝐠𝐨. 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜. '𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐡, 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐬𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐬.' 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬. 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐝, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬, 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐬𝐞." 

the kids slowly turn and look at tens petrified face. "i knew it." eddie whispered. "shes going to murder us like she did to those people!" 

"hey thats not true! she couldn't have done that!" stan defended. "'she couldn't have done that' have you seen what she can do stanley?" richie yelled, backing eddie up.

"you guys don't understand! even if she did kill those scientists she probably did it for survival." stan tried to explain. 

"wait, she was in a lab?" beverly perked up from the corner. "why was she in the lab?" her words were cut off by bill, stan, eddie and richie bickering.

"why was she in a lab!!!" she screamed. it went quiet, everyone slowly turned to ten who was backed up against the wall. "i-i don't know. she didn't say anything." stan whispered.

"can you explain please?" ben asked warmly from behind bill. ten looked at him, her ocean eyes glossy. she let out a long sigh and nodded slowly. she walked over to the window and waved her hand.

the curtains closed by themselves, she turned her head and tilted it slightly and the door slammed shut and locked. 

she started to quietly explain where ten grew up, the story of eleven's escape and her tests. the others did not dare to speak while she talked as they wanted to know as much as possible. ten skimmed over the details of her tests, as she didn't want to remember them.

"well, if you 'papa' is dead. are you free n-now?" bill questioned once she was done. she shook her head. "bad people, will take me to another bad place."

"thats sickening." bev piped up. "keeping a kid locked up for tests. who would do that?" 

she sounded very pissed, her voice caked in venom. ten stood up and opened the curtains and door, wiping the drip of blood from her nose. "w-w-well just know that w-w-we will protect you" bill smiled warmly.

ten smiled, they may be losers. but they were like the family she never had.

"anyways we should head home." stan said, nudgeing ten. she nodded and the losers (except ben) started to leave.

when they arrived outside beverly called out. "stanley! hey stan!"

stan turned around, looking at her. "yeah?"

"ten can stay with me tonight if you want. my dad would probably let you as you're a girl and he hardly reads newspaper. and i would like some company if its okay."

stan looked down at ten, and then back at beverly. "uh sure." he chuckled nervously. "do you wanna stay with me tonight ten?" bev asked. ten smiled and nodded.

"yay!" she squealed with excitement. "see you tomorrow beverly, ten." stan smiled and started walking with eddie and richie. 

∞༺♥༻✧

"dude you are so jelous. chill" richie smiled as he walked with his bike along side stan and eddie. "no i'm not! i'm just hope shes okay with bev."

"they're girls. they should be fine, let ten have some girl time." eddie explained. 

"i hope so"

a/n 

i'm so sorry it says number 011! lmao i must have got confused lmao, sorry about that.