un: klapbak

[clussy]

(Eddie had debated on whether or not to share this piece of information. But what the natives had said weighed on him heavily, and he felt like if he didn't and something were to happen...

He wasn't so sure he could live with that guilt.)

I asked one of the natives if bad things from our homes could come to this place. They said it was possible.

maybe some of you will think I'm crazy. Or the adults won't believe it. The adults in our town didn't believe anything and they didn't want to pay attention to what was happening. they didn't care about all the missing kids. I don't care if you believe it or not. some stuff exists whether or not people want to believe it does. me and my friends took care of it before and we'll do it again if we have to. we made that promise.

our town had this fucked up evil in it. and im not talking hellfire church-evil stuff either. I'm talking like...fear. real fear. maybe even the thing that made Fear

IT knew what you were afraid of. no, not your 'kind of' fears like thinking spiders are gross. i mean the kind of fears you dont even tell your best bud about. the kind of fears you don't even tell YOURSELF about cause the shame's so bad. IT knew you and IT fed off those fears. i guess it liked how kids tasted best when they died in terror

IT ate them too. im not saying it like sucked out their soul. no. IT would

(Eddie has to stop here. To breathe. To focus. He touches his own arm, closes his eyes, and counts.)

i cant explain how you'll know when you'll see IT
you'll feel
like you have to go towards something real bad, real scary
you'll know you shouldn't but you HAVE to...and maybe you'll be lucky like we were
like i was. and be able to get away when the fear gets bad enough.

IT takes the shape of a clown the most when ITS just existing normally. IT only changes when its hunting. IT can come through pictures or sinks or anything. i dont know what ITs limits even were

sometimes IT called ITself Pennywise the Dancing Clown. IT told me its name was Bob Gray when IT talked to me. And sometimes you could hear that carnival sorta music.Sometimes it'd lure you in with the smell of popcorn. IT sometimes had balloons. A lot of balloons. I don't know. It lived in the sewers and

I want to say we beat IT for good but we didn't. i'm not sure if IT can BE beaten.

I dont know if IT'll ever show up here
but don't trust things to be what they seem. don't.

and maybe realize the monsters you know might come here too. please be careful.

Comments

[clussy]

(The Jake Chambers Hotline.)

(Eddie tries to make his voice go husky in his head, like those dumb woman phone operators who talked all hours of the night to lonely men. It was a Tozier-style joke that's delivered with a faint echo of Eddie's giggle teetering on his end.)

(I'm at the greenhouse, actually.)

(He was just sitting down, legs wrapped up to his chest, tucked under one of the tables. It was nice and quiet in the greenhouse. Granted, it was quiet everywhere in this place, but the greenhouse felt like a less forced quiet. It just felt like a normal quiet. Plus it smelled nice.)

[waystation]

_{[It comes as a surprise that Eddie even knows about phone sex operators in his time--the 1950s honestly seems like a land before time--and there's an odd, vacant pause in their connection while Jake trips up on the played-up purr and struggles to hold back an actual, physical laugh.]}

( Oh god, definitely not like that. ) _{[Scandalized amusement is a vibration in his mental voice. He doesn't think he could copy it, pretty sure that the "husky voice" gene passed him over.]} ( Then I'll meet you there. )

<sub>[He's not doing anything but getting sand bags ready to move to where he'll be doing maintenance today, and that can wait. He knows how hard this is for Eddie when he's grappling with the fear this thing may come back and kill him when he's grown up.

He doesn't immediately spy Eddie once he enters the greenhouse, and his feet pause in their mismatched shoes while his eyes search.]</sub>

[clussy]

(Eddie doesn't respond with words, but Jake would no doubt hear his laughter trickling into his mind, something hearty and earnest. A nice feeling really, considering the context of the situation. Richie made all kinds of jokes, and Eddie was easily influenced. Phone sex operators weren't really a big thing in the fifties, but they were by the eighties and welp.

He's still laughing a little ways later, but eventually grows quiet.

The greenhouse was a little bit of a sanctuary. It was one place where the silence didn't feel as stifling and pressing as everywhere else. A part of Eddie wondered if it was because it felt like he was surrounded by the noise of plants living- if that even made sense. Plus, the greenhouse smelled earthy and wonderful. He was standing at a table, with his gardening gloves on, and a sunhat sitting atop his head, some overalls, and some dirt on his knees.

He was trimming a tomato bush when he felt the instinct to look up. He saw Jake through leaves and soft petals and for a moment, simply allowed himself to look at Jake. Just a moment though, and then he was moving around the table and knocking his hat off his head so that it dropped to hang from the string around his neck and down his back.)

(Hi, Jake.) (He considers the boy, considers that Jake had come all the way out here to be with him. Eddie reaches out and grabs one of Jake's hands with his own gloved one, and leads him into the deeper parts of the greenhouse.)

(I'll show you where I like sitting the best.)

[waystation]

<sub>[That's better. Eddie can test the mettle of 1950s sex jokes vs. 2017 sex jokes anytime so long as it keeps him laughing and not crying.

Something moves in the artificial jungle. Jake trains his gaze on it and there's Eddie, looking every inch the gardener in his gloves and dirt smears. It's impressive how quickly Eddie's acclimated to his job, but after what he's been through he imagines the tedium of weeding might be a welcome break.]</sub>

( Hi, Eddie. )

_{[Eddie doesn't mind the now near-permanent dirt stains Jake's acquired on the knees and sleeves of his jumpsuit, and he doesn't mind the dirt on Eddie's gloves that transfers to his hand when the other boy takes it. After Eddie had hugged him like his oldest and dearest friend the very first day they met, they'd more or less broken down the wall between propriety and friendly touches with a sledgehammer. Being led by the hand doesn't so much as faze him anymore.]}

( How are you doing? I scrolled through some of the responses on the way over. Lots of people are up for sticking it to a clown--looks like however it made them look the other way isn't working now. )

[clussy]

(Jake you were just too good for this entire world. For Eddie.

It's not an incorrect assumption. Gardening was soothing, and in a very strange way, a little empowering for a boy who had always been told he couldn't play outside. It felt wonderful and freeing to be able to get his hands dirty and be around all these plants. He hadn't worried about allergies once since entering the greenhouse and he held onto that feeling with all he had.

And now he could share that private, empowering feeling with Jake.

Sometimes Eddie forgets that things like holding your friend's hand should be weird. He does it with all the ones he cares about. Though if his fingers slip a bit more invasive between Jake's, that's neither here nor there.

He gives Jake a small look, and doesn't answer right away. Instead he leads him over to some of the fruit trees and winds through them until it was hard to remember that they were in a greenhouse at all and not just a regular forest. He reluctantly lets go of Jake's hand and sits down against the base of one of the trees, looking up at his friend.)

(I dunno about that. IT isn't here yet so these people might be saying they want to help, but adults literally couldn't see IT a lot of the times. Or if they did....I don't know. I'm not holding out on hope though. I can't afford to.)

(There's a soft waver in his voice, but he realizes he hadn't really answered Jake's question.)

(Better.)

(He wasn't alone anymore and that was real nice.)

[waystation]

_{[This deep in, he realizes the greenhouse is quite a bit larger than he thought on the inside. He looks up at the canopy of tree branches and the muted light diffusing through the pool's skylight, confident in Eddie leading him. He looks back when Eddie states he's not putting much stock in the promises of aid. He understands it, but he doesn't agree with it, not when the wear isolation puts on Eddie is just as bad...]}

( It's a start. )

<sub>[On both counts.

He gives Eddie's hand a squeeze. They don't always need words to communicate a point--that he's here for Eddie.]</sub>