Chapter Text
Pete cannot believe his eyes.
His best friend since kindergarten was gone before his eyes. His best friend was replaced in a flash of green light with a horrid-looking green man wearing a gaudy crown and an even uglier-looking green cardigan. Richie was... nowhere to be found. Replaced. Vanished into thin air.
All because Pete and his friends were too late.
The roar of the crowd begins to echo in his ears but it's like he hears it all through a tunnel, something farther away than ever. He doesn't notice as Steph grabs his hand in the wake of this horror happening, doesn't notice as Ruth shuffles closer to him, her headgear knocking against his arm.
Pete's heart hammers in his chest. What can he do?! His best friend was gone. Everything they'd been trying to do, their entire goal for today was dashed to pieces. What now? He barely hears Steph call his name as the crowd starts to surge towards them, Tom Houston protecting them as he starts to hustle them out. Pete feels sick as he stares up at Richie's -- no, that's not Richie you fool -- green, emerald eyes, bright above a horrible smile. Not-Richie raises his hand in a cutesy wave as Mr. Houston finally gets the nerds out of the Hot Topic.
"I'll see you soon, Pe-ter," Richie's voice -- but it's not him it's not him it can't be him anymore -- echoes around the entire store as the doors slam shut. Pete stands out in the night air, just staring in shock. He can't move, can't even think, can't even process -- is his best friend dead?! Should he be in mourning right now?! Richie had slumped over after screaming at something unknowable in the sky, something that had clearly frightened him to... death?
But then he'd raised his head. Twisted his face in a horrible smile. And greenish-yellow light shone out of his formerly hazel eyes.
Pete didn't want to face the worst right now. He let Mr. Houston lead him and the others away to his truck, frantically buckling in as they start to drive away. Slowly, his friends' panicking starts to come alive in his ears again.
"It's all my fault, this is all my fault --" Ruth was crying.
"Okay, what the FUCK happened to Richie?!" Steph was panicking.
"It'll be -- it'll be fine! It's gonna be fine!!" Lex was near-shouting. "Everything's gonna be fine, I swear --"
"Just calm down, everybody calm down!!" Tom Houston was saying, his eyes focused on the road ahead. The red-headed woman in the passenger seat next to him glanced back at Pete, and it was only then that he recognized her -- Nurse Becky Barnes.
"You alright there, kids?"
No one answered suddenly, least of all Pete. He sank in his seat, folding his arms over his chest. Even Steph and Ruth fell quiet until the same question dropped from Steph's lips.
"What happened to Richie?"
Pete sinks even lower. To his surprise, Ruth imitates him. But she's the one who speaks.
"He's gone. Richie's dead."
Those words send a foreboding chill through Pete, almost like he's heard them before. Impossible. And stupid. Richie's never died before. Pete doesn't know how he'd handle it if that had even happened.
If that was happening...
He tightens his hands into fists.
"He isn't dead. He's just transformed into that... that thing. He -- we can get him back. We -- we have to. Right -- right, Steph?"
He turns to look at her. Steph looks pale in the moonlight as it shines in from outside, her eyes downcast. He can't even think about how she looks pretty right now, not now, now is not the time Spankoffski --
"I -- I don't know."
Steph's admittance practically shatters Pete's heart. He straightens up stiffly, turning away from her sharply.
"Well -- I do. I know that I'm going to do whatever it takes to get him back. Mr. Houston, open the car door."
"What?! Kid, we are in a moving vehicle, I am NOT letting you out --"
"Nurse Barnes, open the door for me."
"Peter, that won't work on me you know...."
Ruth shrieks as Pete reaches over her and grapples for the car door. Steph swears and pulls him back, starting to admonish him.
"Seriously, Spankoffski! You are -- you are NOT jumping from a car!"
"I HAVE TO SAVE HIM STEPH!!"
Steph falls into silence as she notices the tears forming in Pete's eyes.
"Pete..."
"I just --" Pete glances away as he wipes his eyes, trying and failing to continue. "I just -- have to save him. He was -- he was my first friend. In all of Hatchetfield. I -- I can't let him go."
"Tom," Becky says softly, tears also shining in her eyes. "Tom, we... we have to go back."
"Becky, we're not going back there," Tom says promptly. Then he softens.
"Not without backup," Tom continues. "And my son. He's stuck at home, all because I got up to buy that damn doll in the first place, I --"
"TOM!" Becky suddenly screams and grabs his arm to yank the wheel to the right. A beat-up pickup truck swerves onto the road, nearly hitting the car. It rumbles down the road and Tom barely registers anything else as he sees it explode in his rearview mirror. The nerds scream, and Becky tightens her grip on Tom's arm as he blinks hard, and then turns the wheel until the car is safely pulled over to the side of the road. He turns it off. The headlights stay on.
"You all okay?" He turns around to face the kids. Steph and Pete and Ruth nod, shaken.
"What -- what happened?" Ruth asks.
"Tom, look." Becky's voice shakes as she points out the window. Tom does as she asks. He looks.
At the gathering clouds heading straight for them from the epicenter of Lakeside Mall...
And their green tint.
He starts the car.
"Everybody buckle up," Tom commands. "I'm not goin' below 90."