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Eddie hated walking past the house on Neibolt street. It had creeped him out even before he’d seen the Leper, vile and sick and lumbering towards him, but since then he’d been doing his best to avoid it. Problem was, Neibolt was the easiest and quickest way to get home. He’d tried alternate routes, but there was no way to get home without taking a lot of time to avoid the creepy old house. So, he’d stayed on the opposite sidewalk and refused to look at the rickety place every time he passed it.
No Clown or Leper jumped out at him again and he'd ignore the beeping of his wristwatch alarm until he was clear of the place. Eddie would rather take his pill five minutes late than invite the same scenario to happen again.
He'd had nightmares about it, about being chased by the Leper and just not being fast enough, waking up as the brush of his cold, necrotic fingers touched his face…
This day was no different, Eddie pressed as far into the wire fence of the opposite side of the road as he could as he walked. His fists were clenched and he kept wanting to hold his breath, like exhaling meant that thing would know he was here. It was almost peaceful today, a gentle breeze stirring his hair as the sun was still high in the sky; he had to leave his friends early for his doctor's appointment.
He focused on that, on his impending trip to the doctor's office with his worried mother sitting in the too-small chair and waiting to hear if Eddie had cancer or pneumonia or worms or something. Then she'd doubt the man when he said Eddie was fine, harass him until he wrote a prescription and sent them off. He went through this almost monthly now.
Movement distracted him from his determined thoughts, head whipping towards it and brows narrowed distrustfully. In the yard of the rickety old house, he saw someone on all fours like they were trying to get into the crawlspace. Why anyone would want that was beyond Eddie; it had to be as disgusting and unpleasant as the outside of the house looked. Maybe it was a hobo, or a crackhead, looking for a dark place to sleep.
But the hunched-over figure was small, too small to be an adult - though Eddie guessed kids could be hobos, too. Before he could decide to yell or keep walking, the person turned their head, shaggy dark hair and bespectacled and wearing a teasing grin.
Richie? But why would Richie be at the Neibolt house? He hadn’t told anyone about the Leper, or the clown, least of all Richie who would’ve laughed at him over it. Maybe he was trying to play some joke on Eddie, knowing this was his route home.
“Richie!” Eddie hissed before he could catch himself, pursing his lips tight and looking around in case the disgusting, hobbling Leper was about, just waiting for a kid to reveal himself. No one was there, Neibolt street as empty as it always seemed to be. Across the street, Eddie could see the familiar pair of legs as they disappeared beneath the shitty house.
He scoffed, throwing up his arms dramatically and looking around again. No one walking or biking, not even a car rolling through the intersection. He could just ignore him, let Richie scrape his knees on rocks and broken beer bottles, and crawl back out with cobwebs in his stupid hair for trying to prank him… But Eddie also didn’t want Richie to scrape his knees on rocks, and definitely not on broken beer bottles, or rusted metal, or dirty needles-
Eddie crossed the street, stopping at the open gate. If he went after Richie, that meant he’d have to deal with all that garbage, too. Pursing his lips again and making a small noise of impatience, he glanced at his watch. Then, he checked his fanny pack to feel for his inhaler. Taking a deep breath, Eddie walked towards the hole in the base of the house where Richie had disappeared into.
“Richie? Get out of there, numbnuts, you’re gonna get tetanus,” Eddie called. No answer, not even the sound of anyone shuffling down in there. “You can’t scare me anyway, I saw you get in there, and you’re just gonna end up hurting yourself.”
Still no reply. Eddie stood by the hole for a minute. Two minutes. He half expected Richie to pop his head out and yell ‘BOO! Gotcha!’ but it never came. Maybe he’d crawled too far in and couldn’t hear Eddie. Maybe in the brief time it took Eddie to cross the street and get to the hole in the house, he’d hurt himself enough that he couldn’t even move.
The idea scared him, Eddie's tongue darting out to lick his lips as he threw a look over his shoulder. Of course, there was still no one. There never seemed to be adults around when they were needed…
With a huff, Eddie got down on his knees, peering cautiously into the dark of the crawlspace. He couldn’t make out much of anything, just musty darkness and thin slits of light from holes in the ancient building. Certainly nothing moving towards him, or moving at all. From the bit of light spilling in from the perfectly kid-sized hole, he couldn’t even see any discarded needles or broken glass or rusted nails. Just dry, brownish soil beneath dry, brownish wood.
“I’m not crawling in there, dipshit, now get out here right now!” Eddie yelled. The darkness seemed to swallow the words, no place to echo back to him. Richie didn’t call back to him, and nothing moved in the black space toward him.
Had he just imagined it all? Was his mind playing tricks on him? He was so sure that he’d seen Richie, clear as day… Maybe he should go, maybe he should take this as a chance to get out of dodge before that walking infection came back, or that stupid, freaky clown-
“Eddie?” The voice was faint, but it made Eddie jump.
“Richie? Are- Are you okay?” Eddie asked, leaning his head closer to the hole. It was definitely Richie’s voice, but he didn’t sound so hot.
“I need… Need help…” came the reply, and this time it absolutely sounded like he was hurt or something.
“Shit… Shit- hang on- I’ll…” Eddie looked around. He should leave to get help, he should get an adult who would know what to do in a situation like this. But a grownup wasn’t going to fit in this tiny hole, and a sudden anxiety of the whole building collapsing on his friend if they tried to make it bigger was enough to push his impulsive choice. “Hang on, I’m coming, Rich.”
Eddie crawled towards the opening, stopped, took a deep puff from his inhaler, then kept shuffling forward.
It smelled like a basement beneath the house, but dry. The damp, mildewy scent was absent, replaced by the rotting wooden floorboards that sat a few inches above his head as he crawled slowly on all fours. Even with the light from the hole behind him and the few bits of light that shone from the crumbling building he couldn’t make out much of the space around him. He figured it couldn’t be much more than a big square of dirt, but he kept finding pillars he had to move around. Every few inches he was worried that his fingers would be sliced on a piece of glass or that he’d happen upon a bone or something, but he hadn’t made out a single piece of trash the whole time.
His eyes started to adjust to the darkness, but not enough to really help.
“Richie? Where are you? I can’t see shit,” Eddie called, not sure where he remembered the direction of his friend’s voice coming from.
Only silence replied to him, and it was more chilling than any weird noise could’ve been.
“Rich? Are you okay? Talk to me!” Eddie tried again, shuffling forward and feeling a solid pit of dread begin to settle in his stomach.
Still no answer. Was Richie that badly hurt? Had he passed out?
…
Had Richie not been here at all?
Eddie felt a cold tremor run through him at the thought. He’d been so sure. He’d been positive that he saw Richie climb in here, knew that it was his voice he heard beckoning for help. But now he was down here beneath a creepy house in a dark crawlspace where he could barely see his own hands in front of him.
It was time to call it quits; either Richie was in here and pulling his leg, or Richie wasn’t in here and Eddie was crawling around in the dirt for nothing.
Shuffling around slowly, Eddie turned himself back towards the hole he’d crawled in from. His face screwed up in confusion; the hole looked so much further away than he thought it would be, almost a pinprick of light in the distance. Fighting to ignore the fear that was tightening around his throat - he’d need his inhaler any minute now - he started towards it.
Sounds came from behind him, sounds that filled him with dread. The slow, scraping sound of something much bigger dragging through the dirt, the gurgling and mucousy cough of someone sick and rotting-
And leprous .
Panic flooded his veins so fast his ears started to ring, Eddie scurrying as fast as he could on all fours for the jagged square of light that was his salvation. With a squeak of panic, he realized it wasn’t getting closer at all, steadily remaining a white cut out in the blackness that was the crawlspace, all while that thing closed in on him. He could hear it snuffling and coughing, air wheezing through its infested lungs as it clawed at the dirt with its blackened fingers.
‘ Just a little further, it just looks far, you can make it, ’ Eddie chanted mentally, but it was hard to keep hopeful. His throat was squeezing shut, air whistling in and out in sharp bursts as he pulled himself onward. He didn’t have time to grab his inhaler, to try and take a puff of medicine to loosen up his tight lungs, but soon he was just going to quit breathing altogether.
“C’mere, Eddie,” the Leper rasped, its voice making him shiver in fear. “I’ll blow you for a quarter…”
The voice lilted towards what he assumed was a laugh, though it sounded more like a wet bark of a cough. Eddie could barely breathe let alone talk, crawling and crawling and seeing the square of light remain firmly in place. If he could talk, the only insane thought that came to his mind was ‘I don’t have a quarter!’ and he doubted that would stop the thing behind him.
“I’ll do it for a dime,” it offered with another wet laugh, as though it was reading his thoughts.
Eddie was crying now, fear sending tears in rivulets down his pale cheeks. He couldn’t stop now, even if it looked hopeless, because that was all it was, right? It just looked hopeless, and any minute he’d burst out of that hole and be safe and the Leper, like some kind of rotting vampire, wouldn’t dare be out in the sunlight.
The ground wasn’t just dirt anymore, Eddie’s fingers finding the smooth, round base of a glass bottle, crinkling up an old candy wrapper, brushing against a plank of wood with bent nails protruding up - it was his worst nightmare, all of it.
Except it wasn’t, not until he felt the clammy necrotic fingers wrap around his ankle and squeeze like a vice grip.
“I’ll even blow you for free!” It was overjoyed now, Eddie screaming out in panic. The Leper was touching him, that meant- that meant he’d get the sick, too. That meant he’d soon be rotting away to nothing, watching in pain as his fingers fell off and his nose caved in on itself and-
“No!! No, no, no, let go of me!” Eddie shrieked, a rage of adrenaline surging through him for one last fight.
He was tugged back easily, like the thing's muscles still held some power. Kicking out with his free foot wasn’t giving him enough force, so Eddie twisted around onto his butt. He regretted it almost as soon as he did, having to now come face to face with the monster that was touching him.
It was like it was before, its face sloughed down on one side like it was in the process of melting, one milky white eye trained on him and the other oozing red and hollow. The place where its nose should be was just a concave scab where pus leaked out instead of snot and its hair, the color of faded straw, stuck out from the stained bandage that wrapped around its head. Its mouth, previously a permanent grimace, was twisted into a cruel smile that said ‘gotcha!’.
Eddie roared in anger, pulling back and shoving his heel into its face. It swayed to one side and took his free foot in its rotting grasp, a gurgling chuckle coming from that horrifying grin. The strength of adrenaline and fear left him, and his bladder emptied. The Leper pulled itself closer, not minding the hot and acrid smell of Eddie's piss as it reached for him.
He couldn’t sit up to try and punch, didn’t even want to think about sinking his nails into the rotting and blistered flesh of its face; would that even stop it?
He could only whimper and say ‘no’ as its long fingers, surprisingly whole despite the clear signs of rot, went for his shorts. It was dragging its weight onto Eddie's legs, pinning them beneath it where Eddie could feel the damp ooze of pus or blood or whatever fluid leaked from the sores that coated it.
“Please, don’t,” he choked out, gagging as the smell of the Leper hit him. The stench of its breath, its rotting gums, the unique smell of decaying flesh, and the smell of sewage. Of filth and shit and piss and everything that ended up way down there in those dank pipes.
The Leper didn’t care, tugging down his shorts and boxers all in one go and drooling over its cracked lips. A bloated tongue licked the spittle that ran down its chin, doing nothing to slow it. Cold fingers wrapped around Eddie’s prick.
He shuddered so hard he felt himself gag again, his dick soft in the hands of something he knew would never ever make him hard. He wanted to throw up, to cry out, to lash out, but he felt frozen and tired and weak and trapped.
The Leper fixed its sightless, milky eye on Eddie and then took his soft cock into its mouth. Eddie sobbed, toes curling beneath the surprising weight of the Leper, hands gripping at the dirt like he might just be able to dig down until he was gone. He hated it, the feeling of slick spittle, the pressure from the bloated tongue, the soft and rotting gums as they mouthed against his dick. But what he hated most was that he was feeling warm down there. What he hated most was the way his tiny body was utterly betraying him in the thing's mouth.
He squeezed his eyes shut as he cried, trying to think about the infections that he was getting, about how his cock was going to fall off after this, about how he would crawl out of here covered in boils and sores that would haunt him to his deathbed. None of it stopped the way his cock ached in the infected thing's mouth.
Whimpering, he reached around in the dirt for the trash that had appeared upon his attempt at exiting, hoping for a broken glass bottle or maybe even a rusty knife, something to fight, something to make it stop.
The Leper pulled off his cock and Eddie whined, biting down hard on his lip as if to punish himself for the involuntary sound. Then he yelped as something jabbed him, recoiling his hand to see a syringe sticking into his flesh. Panic made his vision swim and he quickly pulled the syringe free and tossed it away.
“Be careful, Eddie… You might get AIDS,” the Leper croaked.
As Eddie turned back to it, it chuckled, and Eddie saw his saliva-slick cock was turning black. His face twisted into an expression of sheer horror, his vision tunneling, and his head feeling suddenly heavy before it settled back onto his shoulders. He felt cold and clammy, a sweat breaking out on his forehead as he looked away, squeezing his eyes shut and a wave of nausea swelling.
“Come now, Eds, it’s not that bad…”
Eddie sobbed and shook his head, something he regretted because it made his head spin hard enough to make him heave. Nothing came up, his stomach clenching but not forcing anything up.
“Keep watching, you might just like it,” the Leper said, hands gripping Eddie’s hips and slurping down his cock again.
Eddie cried out, eyes going back to the Leper between his legs and his vision swaying hard as he saw white bone peaking out among the bandaged strands of brittle hair.
The Leper was sucking harder now, its tongue sliding up his shaft and against the slit at its head that always felt good when he ran his thumb over it. He made a choked sound, somewhere between a sob and a moan, and his hips jerked. It gave another gurgled laugh, the vibrations making him shiver with how close he was getting.
He didn’t want to finish in this thing's mouth, he didn’t want to finish at all. He wanted it to stop and let him go and to take a bath in hot water and bleach and scrub himself clean and then never step out of his home ever again. Not for Bill, not for Richie, not for anyone.
But he was going to finish in this thing’s mouth, whether he wanted to or not. Its tongue was dexterous despite the bloat of decay, and he gave a pained cry as it pulled up and sucked hard on the head of his cock. It opened its mouth as Eddie came, strings of white coating the thing's tongue as he did.
Eddie looked at it and his dick with a whimper, eyes sore and red from crying and his prick seeming to decay for his eyes. The Leper chuckled, thumb and forefinger pinching Eddie’s sensitive cock. It didn’t have to tell Eddie to watch, because he could feel it happening, eyes wide in horror as his lips parted in a moan that caught him off guard. Something was inside, something squirming and wriggling its way up his pee hole. It hurt, but it felt good, Eddie’s lip trembling as whatever it was crawled up and up and…
The head of a maggot peaked out of the hole, squirming and dark with a white body following.
That was the limit for Eddie.
He turned away and puked, acidic bile and the juice of several popsicles splashing the dirt. The smell and action made him heave again, stomach clenching as he could feel the maggot squirm out of his dick, the Leper laughing maniacally like this was all just a good show for it. He felt more crawling on him, tunneled vision turning back to the Leper who had hundreds of them crawling from its open mouth onto Eddie.
Eddie passed out.
--
When he woke up, the sun was setting and he was on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street from the Neibolt house. The first thing he did after sitting bolt upright was tug his shorts open enough to peek inside. His dick was as pink as the rest of him, flaccid and tucked away. Eddie looked at the house across the street, seeing no sign of anyone there or further down the street. He couldn’t even see the hole that lead into the crawlspace…
Had it all been a dream?
No, that was a nightmare.
His stomach still twisted and churned, phantom memory of the hands around his ankles and maggots on his dick far too visceral, far too real for his liking. He still tasted throw-up on his tongue and his eyes were sore.
It had to have been real.
But maybe he could just pretend it hadn’t been. Maybe he could try to forget.
As he pulled himself onto shaky legs, Eddie decided he was never going to walk by this house ever again, even if his mom was mad at him for being late. This was the last time he’d walk by Neibolt.