"Shut up, she left my house over an hour ago!" Richie exclaimed, giving Eddie a light shove.

"Guys, she obviously isn't home." Stan said, rolling his eyes. I walked up my driveway quietly. Their backs were turned so they couldn't see me and I stiffled a laugh at the bickering.

"Beverly sounded like she really needed us. I think we should just go." Ben said. By then, I was close enough to their backs I could easily touch them. I coughed loudly and they spun around in surprise. Eddie let out a yelp.

"What are you losers doing creeping outside my house?" I asked, moving to stand in front of the door.

"Beverly called. She s-said to come to her house as s-soon as we could." Bill replied.

"So you guys decided to just stand in front of my house? Did you even knock?" I asked, amused.

"Well, no, we didn't knock. But that's because you said Henry's dad has been staying with your mum and none of us really want him answering the door." Richie explained and I rolled my eyes.

"Fair enough. Nobody's home anyway. Do you see a car in the driveway?" I pointed to the empty strip I had just walked up. Ben shook his head.

"Well, can we go now? Now that we found Lara." Eddie asked, looking to Bill for an answer.

Bill nodded. "Yeah, let's go."

- - -

We turned our bikes onto a footpath next to the Main Street Bridge. My arms were wrapped tightly around Bill's waist , the rest of the Losers trailing behind us.

Bill pulled to a stop outside an apartment building. I looked up a metal staircase to see Beverly sitting on the third level, a cigarette in her hand. She looked down and saw us, a grim expression on her face. I heard the clanging of the staircase as she hurried her way down, and I disentangled myself from Bill.

Beverly reached the bottom and we all watched as she rushed her way towards us. "I... I need to show you something." she huffed, her breath smelling of smoke.

"What is it?" Ben asked, his eyes trained intently on the girl in front of him.

"More than we saw at the quarry?" Richie joked.

"Shut up! Just shut up, Richie." Eddie snapped. Richie put his hands up in defence, laughter twinkling in his eyes.

"My dad will kill me if he find out I had... boys, in the apartment." Beverly said quietly. "Lara is okay, but the rest of you.."

"W-w-w-we'll leave a lookout." Bill said assertively. "Now Richie, st-stay here."

Everyone dropped their bikes and moved towards Beverly, ignoring Richie's shouts of protest.

"Woah woah woah, what if her dad comes back?" he asked, still holding his bike.

"Do what you always do. Start talking!" Stan snapped before heading up the stairs after Beverly.

"It is a gift!" Richie called in reply.

Beverly's apartment was dark and small. There was a lingering smell of alcohol and cigarettes that reminded me of my own house. We followed her down a corridor until we reached a closed door which Beverly stared at distrustfully.

"In there." she said, pointing towards the door.

"What is it?" Stan asked hesitantly.

"You'll see." was all she said in reply.

"Great, bringing us to the bathroom." Eddie said, panic rising in his voice. "You know that 89% of all the worst accidents occur in the kitchen and bathroom. And that's where all the bacteria and fungi are... Eugh, it's not a hygienic place."

Bill stood in front as we slowly approached the door. I stood at the back beside Stanley, feeling as hesitant as I could tell he was by his tense posture. Bill grabbed the door handle and pushed it open, revealing what I could only describe as the most gruesome bathroom I had ever seen in my life.

Our faces were illuminated with a red light, the result of the blood that coated every surface in the room. I heard Eddie gag and I held back one of my own.

"I knew it." Eddie said, his voice muffled by his shirt which he held over his mouth.

"Do you see it?" Beverly asked, looking at us hopefully.

"Yes." I whispered, unable to tear my eyes away.

"What happened in here?" Stan asked. I could tell the mess unnerved him, even more so than it did to Eddie.

"Last night, I heard voices in the sink. Veronica, Betty Ripsom, and... Patrick Hockstetter's." she paused, looking at me hesitantly. I felt my stomach drop and I tried not to think of what that might mean. "And then hair from the sink shot out and grabbed me, pulling my face closer, and closer, until blood exploded out of it. So much... blood." she shook her head as if to shake away the memory. I felt my stomach churn.

"My dad couldn't see it." Beverly continued. "So I thought I might be crazy."

'Well if you're crazy, then we're all crazy." Ben said, his eyes wide.

"We c-c-can't leave it like this." Bill said, stepping into the room.

As if we had all made a silent agreement, everyone sprung into action. I went into the kitchen and laundry to grab buckets and rags with Ben and Stanley.

"I guess we're doing this then." I muttered as Stan passed me and Ben a bucket each. I grabbed a bunch of already dirty rags from under the sink and put them in the bucket with a frown. "This is gonna take us hours."

"Yeah, I don't think Richie's gonna last that long." Stan replied with a slight smirk. We walked back into the blood-coated room and handed out everything we'd collected. Eddie took a bucket from me, his inhaler already trapped between his lips.

So we washed, wiped, mopped, and scrubbed the bathroom for ages. I was in and out of the room, constantly searching the house for more cleaning supplies.

At one point, Ben slipped on the wet floor and Eddie and Stan went falling after him. Beverly and I had burst into laughter at the pile of arms and legs. Bill had smiled sheepishly as it was him who had spilt the bucket of water that had led to the disaster.

After a chorus of groans and grumbles, the boys managed to get off of each other. Eddie had a stripe of blood on his shirt and looked so green I was scared he was going to puke and we'd have more to clean. Stan came out spotless as he managed to fall on top of the others, but looked extremely disgruntled. Poor Ben had been on the bottom of the human stack. A mixture of water and blood down the front of his body which Beverly had given him one of her dad's old shirts to replace.

After the bathroom was relatively spotless, it took us another half an hour to rinse out all the cloths and buckets. I stood in the bathroom with Bill and Beverly, the rest of the Losers somewhere else in the house.

"So you never went to the Derry Summer Fair?" Bill asked Beverly.

"No, not once." Beverly replied with a blush.

"I go every year, last time was with Richie." Bill continued. I looked at the two before walking out of the room with a knowing smile. For once, the familiar ache in my chest wasn't there.

I stepped into the kitchen and did a double take at the sight I saw. Eddie was on the kitchen counter in a position that made him look as if he was in the middle of doing push-ups over the sink. Stan was pulling on the smaller boy's bloodstained shirt and was splashing water on it in an attempt to rid it of its uncleanliness. Ben had his hands on Eddie's lower abdomen to stop him from falling.

"Oh my god, what are you guys doing?" I asked, placing my hands over my mouth to stop the bubble of laughter I felt rising.

Ben turned towards me in surprise, setting off again another chain of disastrous events. Eddie, missing the support of Ben's hands, fell into the sink with a scream, splashing Stan with water.

"I'm done." Stan threw his hands up in the air and walked out of the room. By then I couldn't hold back the laughter in my throat and burst into a fit of giggles. Ben watched me embarrassedly as Eddie was struggled to turn off the tap.

"What... were you guys... doing?" I managed to gasp, struggling to breathe from laughing so hard.

"I have to get my shirt clean or else my mum will literally explode if she sees the blood on my clothes!" Eddie said from in the sink, finally managing to stop the flow of water.

"Why were you on the kitchen counter then?" I asked incredulously.

"How else was I supposed to wash it?" Eddie snapped, staring down disappointedly at his now drenched body.

I placed my hand on my forehead and shook my head. "You could have just taken your shirt off." I huffed, wondering how I'd ended up with this group of friends.

"Oh, I guess we didn't think of that." Ben replied, his face now bright red.

I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see Bill and Beverly enter the kitchen, their eyes wide as they took in the sight before them.

"I love you guys, but sometimes I think those heads of yours are hollow." I walked up to Ben and Eddie, giving each of them two knocks on the forehead while making clicking noises with my tongue. I left the house with a laugh, my spirits high.