CHAPTER 4 ;

THE BARRENS

༺‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙༻

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭, 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐛𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐬.  "where are we going?" ten asks as they stop in front of a house. stan walks over to her and smiles, "i have to go and do something with my dad. the boys will look after you okay?" ten turns towards the three boys and they all smile, their teeth showing.

stan mounts his bike, "i'll meet you at the barrens okay?" they boys nod and he pedals away down the street. "come on, my mom is probably home." eddie says as they follow him inside. "hey mommy, its just us." eddie says as they walk down to the kitchen. "eddie bear? who's this girl?" mrs k calls out from the lounge, looking up from painting her nails.

the boys stop in their tracks. "i'm te-" ten starts when richie cuts her off, "tessa. she's my cousin." 

"2nd cousin!" eddie says with a wink. "oh, didn't know you had a 2nd cousin richie." she asks suspiciously. "where are you from exactly?"

tens lip quivers, "bad place." she mumbles, her eyes open a bit. "s-sweden!" bill cuts in. "yeah, i have a lot of swedish family." richie snorts, pushing up his glasses. "cold. very, cold. she hates it there" he nudges ten and she nods a bit. "oh okay, nice to meet you tessa. welcome to derry." 

"t-thank you" she smiles, combing some hair behind her ear. richie grabs her hand and they all walked into the kitchen, soon raiding the cupboards. ten moved over to where eddie was and stood next to him. "take everything but the delicious deals guys, my mom loved em." he instructs as bill and richie rummage through.

"hey! first you said the barrens, now the sewers. I mean, what if we get caught?" eddie asks. ten shudders at the sound of 'sewer' and 'caught'. "we won't get caught. the sewers are open to the public. we're the public aren't we?" bill smiles, zipping up his backpack. 

"hey, eddie? these your birth control pills?" richie smirks as he opens a shelf full of medication. "yeah and i'm saving them for your swedish cousin. this is private stuff" eddie yells as he shuts the doors. richie's eyes widen and bill laughs, causing ten to smile a bit too. she didn't know what they were talking about, but she felt happy.

"eddie bear, where you kids running off too?" mrs k calls out from the lounge as they start to walk out. "um, j-just my back yard m-m-mrs k." bill smiles. "i got a new..."

"a new croquet set! jeez spit it out b-b-bill." richie covers. ten looks at them confused, as they were supposed to go to the barrens. "okay. oh and sweetie don't go rolling around in the grass especially after its just been cut. you know how bad your allergies can get." mrs k warns, blowing on her nails.

"yes mom." eddie pushes bill a bit and the four start to leave, "aren't you forgetting something?" she asks. eddie blushes and sighs. he walks up to his mom and kisses her on the cheek. richie starts laughing and snorting. "do you want one from me too mrs k?" he giggles. "for fuck's sake richie!" eddie yells and pushes the kids out the door. "sorry mommy!" 

when they get outside, they all jump onto their bikes. "here, y-you can ride with m-me" bill smiles at ten. she nods and hops on, wrapping her arms around his waist. they start biking away, stan pulling out from a street and joining them. 

"SLOW DOWN!" richie calls out. "hi-ho, silver away!!" bill shouts as they bike down a hill, passing the library. "your old lady bikes too fast for us!" richie snorts. ten's hair blows in the wind and she starts to laugh. she feels safe and happy around these kids. 

 ∞༺♥༻✧

"that's poison ivy, that's poison ivy... and that's poison ivy!"

"where?! where's the poison ivy?!" eddie shouts, jumping around to get away from any plant he can see.

"nowhere. not every fucking plant is poison ivy stanley!" richie exclaims walking over rocks. ten stands close to stanley and watched richie and bill wander into the sewers. 

"okay, well i'm starting to get itchy now." eddie complains "why is he angry?" ten asks stan. "its eddie and richie. it's a common thing for them to argue." he smiles.

 "do you use the same bathroom at your mother?" richie asks as bill ventures further into the sewer.

"sometimes yeah," eddie replies.

"then you probably have crabs."

 "that is so not funny." eddie scoffs.

"aren't you guys coming in?" he asks. eddie looks around and back at the kids. "uh-uh, that's grey water"

"what the hell is greywater?" richie asks, rolling his eyes. "its basically... piss and shit so i'm just telling you! you guys are splashing around in millions of gallons of derry pee."

richie picks up a stick and starts smelling it. "ar-are you serious? what are you-"

"doesn't smell like caca to me señor!" he says imitating a spanish accent.

ten smiles and giggles, getting a wink from richie. stan stomach starts to turn as he feels a wave of jealousy wash over him. ten hasn't laughed at stanley. only eddie and richie. why won't she laugh at him? smile at him?

"okay, i-i can smell that from here!" eddie whines. "its probably just your breath whofting back into your face," richie says with a big smirk, still holding the stick.

"have you ever heard of a staph infection?!" eddie rambles, clapping his hands together.

"oh I'll show you a staff infection!" richie grins an evil grin and uses his stick to poke the water.

stan rolls his eyes and looks like he's completely done with everyone and everything.

"this is so unsanitary! you're swimming inside of a toilet bowl right now, and have you ever heard of listeria?!" eddie gets cut off when richie uses the stick to pick up a piece of cloth and throw it at him.

"no!!" eddie shrieks and almost fall over.

"are you retarded! your the reason why we're in here-"

"guys!" bill yells holding a shoe. "shit don't tell me that's.." stan starts his voice breaking. "no, gerogie wore galoshes." richie arches an eyebrow and walks towards bill, inspecting the shoe.

ten places her hand on a wall, watching the group's argument. "whos sneaker is it?" eddie asks. 

"i-its betty ripson's" richie stutters.

"shit, oh god oh fuck!" eddie screeches. "i don't like this"

"how do you think betty feels? running around in these tunnels with only one frickin, shoe?" he smiles and hops, everyone except ten glares at him. 

"what if she's still here?" stan asks, looking in a bit more. "eddie come on!" richie shouts as they go in deeper.

"what if i don't want to find her?" eddie stutters. "i mean no offence bill but i don't wanna end up like georg-. i don't wanna go missing." eddie says worriedly. "yeah, its summer! we are supposed to be having fun!" stanley yells. "this isn't fun, this is scary and disgusting-"

he then hears some winces, he turns and sees tens body shaking. she starts to breathe heavily and a drop of blood runs from her nose. "ten?" he asks. the boys turn to him and run-up to the girl, their feet splashing in the greywater.

"TEN!"

 ∞༺♥༻✧

it's dark. all dark. how is number ten doing this without a sensory deprivation tank? without a blindfold? without a static noise? she looks around, her eyes beaming a scarlet red. she hears echos. screams. her name. 

she turns and sees a girl. she has short curly hair and a white dress. but shes floating. levitating, with pale white eyes. ten turns around and sees someone.

richie.

he seems normal. the same age, same eyes. normal richie. "you wanna play truth or dare?" he screams at what ten seems to be her. ten turns and sees that the floating girl has disappeared. richie picks up a rock. "here's the truth, you're a sloppy bitch!" 

"richie?" ten whimpers softly. richie lifts his hand with the rock in it.

"yeah, that's right! let's dance! yippee, ki-yay mother fu-" he is about to throw the rock when he stops. he drops the rock and his eyes glow a bright white like the other girl. his mouth is hung ajar.

ten screams and turns to see stanley standing next to a tub. he doesn't look older, or younger. just a normal age. she walks up to him. he peers into the bathwater and a tear flows down his cheek. he turns towards ten and looks into her scarlet red eyes. he grabs her hand and holds it up. she looks at his wrists and sees cuts and blood flowing from them.

"stan?"

"we all float. you will too." he whispers. she tries to get out of his grasp but it gets tighter. "STANLEY?!" she shouts.

"you'll float too." he chants. 

"ten!"

"ten!"

tens eyes jolt open and she jumps away from the sewers into stan's arms. "ten!" the boys yell and rush up to her. her eyes shift from scarlet red back to her original ocean blue. "what happened?" richie asks as he kneels in front of her. she looks at him and peers into his eyes. 

"your... eyes..." she chokes. he raises an eyebrow. "yeah? what about them?" he asks. she touches his cheek, richie twitching at her soft cold hands.

"not white." 

eddie leans over to bill and whispers, "i think she may have a concussion." bill turns to him and smacks his head. 

"you sure you okay?" stan says to ten as he helps her up. "friends don't lie."

"yes." she nods. he looks into her eyes and sees pure terror behind them, she wipes her nose with her hand and sighs.

suddenly there is a loud splash heard from behind them. they all jolt up and spin around. they see a chubby looking kid, falling in the river.

"holy shit what happened to you?" richie asks. eddie and stan run-up to the boy and help him out of the water. 

"here ten, you can ride with me." stan smiles as he hops onto his bike. bill lets the other boy ride with him and they all pedal out of the barrens.