((So I know in the last post I made it seem like all 7 losers all lived and killed Pennywise but I changed that in this one))
And then Stan sees Eddie die. Physically sees him become a ghost. And Eddie’s so shocked to see Stan that he doesn’t know whether to hit him or hug him. Deciding he might just fall through his friend if he tries either, he just cries. And that’s when he realises that hugs are fine, because Stan is hugging him and apologising endlessly while he attempts to explain. And then, just as the sewers start to come crashing down Eddie realises Stan is fading, fast.
“Unfinished business,” Ghost!Stan tells him, “you have unfinished business!” and Eddie feels a phantom (literally) asthma attack coming on because what unfinished business could he possibly have - Pennywise is dead.
Unsure of what else to do Eddie finds himself back at the townhouse, the remaining living losers preparing to leave. He’s found it too painful to watch them these last few days. He hears one of them sobbing most nights though he can’t tell who and can’t bring himself to check.
The first loser to leave is Richie. The guy looks a wreck as he slips a note onto the checkout desk and heads out to his car. In fact he looks such a mess that Eddie’s instinct is to follow him. He gets into Richie’s car and fully expects him to drive to the airport. But he doesn’t. He stops just before the city limits. Gets out some place Eddie recognises: the Kissing Bridge.
Eddie stays sitting in the car while Richie seems to be recarving something in the wood. Curiosity getting the best of him, though, he gets out to take a look. R+E and right then his heart breaks. If only he had told Richie when he had the chance.
Unfinished business. Richie’s getting up to leave but Eddie understands now what he needs to show him. A carving he did himself 27 years ago, just a little further up the bridge.
He’s talking to Richie, talking to him as if he can hear him, telling him where to look, eventually turning to yelling at him-
Richie couldn’t tell you why, but he felt compelled to turn around. To take one last look at the bridge that connected the hell that was Derry to the rest of the world. And as he took that last look, his eyes caught on something that made his heart stop. There, amongst everything else scratched into the bridge was E+R.
Don’t be stupid, he told himself, there are hundreds of people that could be about. He shook the idea off and turned back to his car. And then, something he’d never forget for as long as he lived.
He could have sworn he saw Eddie, leaning against the side of Richie’s own car, smiling at him, though he seemed almost transparent and was gone so quickly Richie barely had time to catch the words.
“No, you asshole, it was you. Always you.”