this is the last of the chapters i have prewritten so ur just gonna have to deal w it🤧🤧

TEN >> LOLITA AND THE CLOWN [PART TWO]

Lola was on house arrest for the rest of July and for the first week of August, only allowed to leave the Green household for church every Sunday, and even then she was closely watched by her mother and not able to be out of the woman's sight.

Needless to say, Lola was miserable. Her friends stopped by every once in a while, but Mrs. Green never let them stay for long. The only person she let stay for more than an hour was Beverly, because Lola had lied and said that she was just a friend from school, not affiliated with Richie or the rest of the Losers Club. Beverly came by every few days, whenever her father would let her out of the house, but the periods between the redhead's visits was agonizing.

One evening, after Beverly had left to go home for dinner, Lola soaked in a tub of water that had once been scalding hot but had turned lukewarm with time, as the bathroom was the only place she could be in private, away from her mother's watchful eye.

The girl's dark hair clung to her shoulders as she sat in the tub, her locks curling as they dried. She closed her eyes, attempting to get even a moment of peace and relaxation, but quickly opened them when she felt as if someone were watching her.

That's stupid, Lola thought. Mom's downstairs. I'm locked in the bathroom. No one's watching me, she chided herself, feeling paranoid and foolish.

However, when she looked around, through the shower curtain, she saw the dark outline of a person sitting just outside the tub. She sucked in a panicked breath, hurrying to stand and grab the towel that hung from the curtain rod. She wrapped herself in it, heart racing, and flung the curtain open, half-expecting her worst nightmare to be sitting there, ready to kill her.

But when she opened the curtain and looked into the bathroom beyond it, there was nothing there. She was alone. Safe.

Lola breathed a sigh of relief and put a hand over her heart, feeling its rapid beat slow to a calm, gentle thumping as she forced herself to relax.

When the wave of anxiety passed, she crossed the bathroom and unlocked the door, stepping into her bedroom. She opened one of her drawers and pulled out a pair of underwear, opened another to grab a nightgown, and went to her closet to gather a sweatshirt.

She opened the closet door, and a scream escaped her lips, only to be cut off when the monstrous clown with the glowing, fluorescent orange-yellow eyes closed its claw-tipped fingers around her throat. It lifted her off the ground and leered cruelly and maliciously at her.

Laughing like a possessed child, it cried, "Well, hello, Lolita!" Its fingers tightened, and she could almost feel her windpipe crushing in as she clawed at the hand. "Your fear—your tasty tasty fear!"

Lola whimpered, which caused the clown to laugh even harder, its face morphing from the demonic, white-painted one into a profile that was infinitely more familiar to her: Charlie's.

"Don't ya miss me, Lola?" The clown said in her brother's voice. Then, its mouth opened, wider and wider, far past the capability of any human jaw, revealing countless rows of sharp, pointed teeth, like a shark's. She could see three tiny lights in the back of the thing's throat, spinning in a hypnotizing circle that pulled Lola's attention in.

She felt herself getting dizzy, dazed, until both her and the clown's focus was broken by a knock at the door.

"Lola? Sweetheart? I heard you scream. Are you okay?" Mrs. Green called, punctuating the question with another knock.

The clown's mouth, still wearing Charlie's face, snapped shut. Its lips spread into a wide grin.

"Mommy's coming, Lolita. See you in your nightmares." It said, before dropping her like a rag doll. It gave her one last chilling, evil smile, then walked backward into the closet and dissolved into darkness.

"Lola, sweetie, open the door!" Mrs. Green shouted, rattling the knob. When Lola found the strength, she stood up and made her way over to the door, wrapping the towel more securely around her/

She forced a smile before opening the door for her mother, who stood just outside the room with a worried expression.

"I heard a scream. I thought you were in trouble." The woman said.

Lola widened her fake smile. "Oh, sorry, I just saw a spider. I'm fine." She lied through her teeth, still reeling from the fear of what had just happened. When her mother looked unconvinced, Lola put on her perfect daughter face. "Seriously, Mom. I'm okay. I just hate spiders." She said with a laugh.

Mrs. Green stared at her daughter for a moment with furrowed eyebrows, for so long that Lola was worried the woman had seen through her lie. Then, when she had almost lost hope of convincing her mother, Mrs. Green sighed and smiled slightly, although it didn't reach her eyes.

"Okay, honey. I was just worried. Dinner will be ready soon. I'll come get you when it's ready." The woman said, then turned and walked out the door without another word.

Once she was gone, Lola collapsed on the floor, back against the door, and let the tears she had been holding back fall down her freckled cheeks. It was like a dam had been opened; once she started to cry, she couldn't stop.

The one thought that crossed her mind, in between spikes of paralyzing fear, was that if Richie were here, he could calm her down. He would be able to convince her that everything was alright, that she was safe and would survive this parasite that was feasting on her.

Richie was her life preserver; he was the one thing keeping her afloat in the sea of terror she felt. And she hadn't seen him in weeks.

Suddenly, the tears stopped, and she was struck with a sudden realization.

Stan Uris had been on to something. She wasn't sure, couldn't be sure, if Richie Tozier loved her, or even liked her as more than a friend.

But Lola was sure of one thing: the feeling she got in the pit of her stomach when he flirted with her, when he so nonchalantly called her his girl, when the doctor at the hospital had called him her boyfriend, wasn't just because it was unusual or unfamiliar.

It was because it felt more than familiar. It felt right. Like it was the way it should have been since the beginning of time.

The realization hit her in the heart like a lightning bolt might hit a tree.

Lolita Green loved Richie Tozier. As more than a friend.

reallyyyyy short chapter oopsies deal w it