Chapter Ten:
"What Are You Afraid Of?"
・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

"So, what are you afraid of?" Eddie asked as Jack searched through his fridge.

Jack stayed silent momentarily as he focused on the carton of milk. "It's fucking stupid, dude."

Eddie furrowed his eyebrows, pushing himself off of the counter and crossing his arms. "It's not."

"I'm scared of sleeping, sounds pretty dumb to me. Scared of sleeping and going crazy." Jack scoffed and laughed bitterly. "How fucking stupid, right?"

Eddie shook his head, "No, it's not."

"My mom doesn't know, I don't wanna stress her out more than she already is." Jack turned around and shut the fridge, he tossed the apple he held in the air before catching it. "Wow, I'm pathetic."

Eddie frowned, tilting his head. "No, you're not."

Jack shook his head, taking a bite out of the apple. "Whatever you say, dude."

"What do you mean by the crazy thing?"

"I don't wanna go crazy. Even if I probably already am." Jack closed his eyes, inhaling sharply. The sunlight from the open window shined against Jack's skin, giving him a glow.

Eddie furrowed his eyebrows as his heart skipped a beat when Jack opened his eyes, catching Eddie's gaze on him. "Staring at me again?"

Eddie silently shook his head before stumbling over his words. "No! N-No, no, no. No, I wouldn't."

Jack smiled sadly, looking down at his apple before speaking. "Yeah.. Yeah, yeah I know. I know."

Silence fell over them, the only sound being the quiet buzzing from the fridge beside Jack. He sighed sadly as he looked up at the shorter boy. "You don't think I'm crazy, do you?"

Eddie smiled gently, walking forward so that he was closer to Jack, "I don't think you're crazy."

~~

Jack yawned, stretching out his arms as he sat down beside Eddie in Bill's garage.

"Sleep at all?" He asked quietly, causing Jack to scoff and shake his head.

"Of course not. Sleep is for pussies."

Beverly giggled from behind him, covering her mouth with her hands. Jack gave her a warning look, causing Eddie to furrow his eyebrows and look in between them.

"Why's that so funny?"

"Because Jack's gay." Richie smirked, licking his teeth. "Right?"

"Not this again." Ben sighed, covering his face with his hands.

"I know you are but what am I?" Jack's lips curved into a smirk.

"Wha-" Richie shook his head.

Stan rolled his eyes, "You need to stop calling Jack gay."

Bill nodded in agreement as he continued to fiddle with the projector. "Y-Ye-Yeah."

Richie crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"G-Go-Got it." Bill said as bright white light filled the room.

Jack blinked rapidly as his eyes adjusted to the light. "Bright.."

"L-Look." Jack followed where Bill was pointing to. "That's where G-Ge-Georgie disappeared. Theres the i-ir-ironworks and the blacks-spot.. Everywhere It happens.. is all c-co-connected by the sewers, and they all me-me-meet up at the-"

"The wellhouse!" Ben said, sitting up straight.

"It's that house on Neibolt street." Stan said slowly, titling his head.

"You mean that creepy ass house where all the hobos and junkies like to sleep? I'm sure Jack's shacked it up there once or twice." Richie winked, reaching over and shoving Jack over gently.

"Fuck off, man." Jack shook his head.

"I hate that place.. It always feels like it's watching me." Beverly said, rubbing her arms as she stared ahead.

"That's where I saw It! That's where I saw the clown.." Eddie gasped, taking a puff of his inhaler. "That's where I saw the clown."

"T-Th-That's where It lives." Bill shook his head, his brown hair bouncing as he did so.

"I can't imagine anything ever wanting to live there."

"Can we stop talking about this?" Eddie said suddenly, standing up and turning around to face the group. "I-I can.. I can barely breathe! It's summer! We're kids.. I can barely-barely breathe! It's summer! I'm having a fucking asthma attack! And I'm not doing this!"

Jack watched worriedly as Eddie ripped down the map, clasping his inhaler in the other hand.

"What the hell? Put the map back!" Bill glared, pointing at the wall.

Eddie frantically shook his head. "No!"

The projector began flipping rapidly through slides, causing Eddie to whip around and gasp in horror at what he saw.

"Bill! Quit it, you're freaking him out!" Jack scolded, standing up.

"I-I'm n-n-not.." Bill shook his head quickly.

Pictures of a little boy, he knew it was Georgie because he recognized him from the missing person's posters.

It zoomed in on Georgie's face before flipping to a picture of Bill and his family standing in front of a church.

The woman's red hair covered her face as it stopped on the photo. Her red hair began moving out of her face, slowly revealing a clown.

"Ah, shit!" Jack choked on his words, stumbling back and pulling Eddie with him.

Jack could see the blood drain from Eddie's face beside him as Beverly shouted at Bill to turn it off.

Mike pushed past Jack and suddenly pushed over the projector. Jack cringed as it slammed against the ground, pieces of it flying off.

The room fell dark and Jack's chest rose and fell heavily as he closed his eyes, his hand still gripping Eddie's tightly.

Eddie's heart was racing, but he wasn't sure why. He didn't know if it was because of the clown, or because of how tightly Jack held his hand.

A loud yell from Jack brought him out of his thoughts as the clown suddenly jumped from the wall. Hundreds upon hundreds of rows of teeth showed when It grinned at them.

Jack could feel his knees weaken as Richie's screams filled the room. His back hit the garage wall as he choked on his air. He felt Eddie's hand seperate from his as he squeezed his eyes shut.

"Jack!" It's voice taunted him. The blond boy opened his eyes, only to see the clown with a sinister smile plastered on It's face. Drool dripped down It's chin as It tilted It's head to the side.

"I'm gonna get your pretty little boy."

The clown was gone in a blink of an eye as It set It's sights on Beverly.

Jack slid down the wall, his heart beating so loudly in his ears that he was sure everyone could hear it, despite the screaming.

Jack covered his face with his hands, blocking out the familiar sound of the garage door opening filled his ears.

He slowly peeled his eyes open, squinting as the bright sun burned his eyes.

"You okay, Jack?" Mike asked, helping the boy up. Jack nodded his head, thanking the taller boy.

"I-It saw us! And It knows where we are!" Eddie rambled, clapping his hands together.

"It always did." Bill said, walking our of the garage. "S-So let's g-go."

"Go? Go where?"

"T-To Neibolt."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Jack scoffed. "Look at Eddie! He's barely fucking breathing!"

"After that?" Stan shook his head in disbelief, "Are you serious?"

"Yeah! It's summer. We should be outside, having fun-" Richie shook his head.

"And not cooped up in some.. some.. fucking crazy clown house!" Jack agreed, nodding his head.

"If you say it's summer one more f-f-fu-fucking time." Bill warned, pointing at Richie and Jack.

Jack stayed silent as he watched Bill mount his bike and leave. Followed shortly by Beverly.

"Are you okay?" Jack asked silently but quickly. Eddie looked up at him briefly.

"Yeah, I am."

Jack let the corner of his lips turn up into a smirk, "Good."

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

{ Word Count: 1310 }

{ A/n: someone tell me to stop being insecure about this book }

{ Edited: No }