#wentworthless is a piece of shit and he deserves to die anyway

[katecarteir]

BLOOD IN THE WATER

summary: “I think we’re all going to have do some pretty terrible things,” Eddie said quietly. His hand came to wrap in Richie’s shirt, trying to burn out the violent grip of his father’s from earlier. “None of us have a choice in anything anymore. Whatever happened at Greta’s tonight-“ Eddie’s voice broke and he felt Richie press a kiss into his hair. “There isn’t a good and a bad anymore. There’s just die or don’t.”

[or: after the gruesome murder of his younger brother, Bill Denbrough is determined to bring about the end of the string of crimes in Derry no matter the cost. As stories unwind and fall apart, there’s only more questions as everybody’s lives hang in the balance.]

chapter count: 13/21

chapter warnings: graphic depictions of violence, mentions of past rape, mentions of past character death, implications of sexual situations

Taglist: @honkhonkrichard @hufflepuffkaspbrak @emmieliabedelia @reddie-for-anything @wowdidiask @reddiesetrichie @beepbeepbitchard @lemonandeandrice  @mirandosky @vanilluna @mqlvaa @fivxharmony

[Prologue] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [Read Full Story on AO3] [Playlist]

Richie was wiping blood from his mouth as Patty lead him out of the elusive back room of the Deep Float. The moment they had arrived at the bar, Eddie had been separated from Richie, left to sit along side Beverly and Stan while the Devils all had a meeting in the back room. Stan had told him in a cold tone that it was Wentworth’s meeting office and both he and Beverly had refused to meet his eye. As though he were the one who’d been hauled into the sheriff’s station in questioning of kidnapping and murder.

Patricia Blum was a specimen of great interest for Eddie. She looked rather like a young child standing next to Richie, she herself barely gazing five feet tall with her hair pushed to the sides of her head in two ponytails. There was an hint of innocence in that air around her, with her Devils jacket looking two sizes too large for her small figure, but the blood red lipstick on her lips seemed to drip with poison. Patty’s father was currently serving two life sentences up at the Shank, and her mother may be a bit of a black widow if any of the whispers around Derry were to be believed.

Eddie had once believed the whispers about Derry without even a consideration of questioning them. Best friends with the mayor’s son and a girl who had cheerleading and prom queen ingrained in her blood, Eddie had always known his place. But now, the mayor’s son was faces murder charges and the prom queen was dead before she could be crowned, and feeling himself falling rapidly in love with the son of a monster, Eddie felt as though every whisper in Derry were equally lies and the truth.  

Richie and Patty took their seats, Richie’s hands clasped together tightly. Eddie’s whole soul yearned to reach out and grasp them, hold Richie and make him forget about whatever just happened with his father, but deep in his soul he knew that this was hardly the place. That the bad things were only just about to begin.  

Wentworth and Maggie stepped out the room, Patrick Hockstetter just behind them with that terrifying grin. Richie’s parents didn’t look at each other, simply walking to the front of the large room. As he passed, Wentworth tossed a Devils jacket in Richie’s direction, whacking the boy in the face with it. Richie didn’t make a sound, but Eddie could see the way his eyes watered as more blood began to drip from the bust his bottom lip. Eddie reached out and squeezed Richie’s wrist. Richie set him a soft smile before pulling away to shrug the jacket around himself. Patty wrapped an hand as much around Richie’s wrist as she could and rested her head against his shoulder.

Maggie stood tall in the front of the crowd, maybe not a physically large person, but a strong enough persona to overshadow her husband and son within the room. Her face was pinched in obvious distaste as her eyes fell to where Stanley and Beverly were seated just beside Eddie himself. “Mr Uris, we respect your family’s decision to remain sideless in this town,” Maggie began. “Perhaps a foolish decision, and one we do not find you have held true to, but you wear no jacket and we must acknowledge we have no true right to your loyalty. Whatever platonic obligations you have to my son, will remain between yourself and Richard.”

Stan glanced towards Richie in the corner of his eye, Richie giving him a small dry smile before turning his attention back towards his mother as she continued. “But you… Beverly Marsh…” There was deep anger in Maggie’s voice, emotion seeping out beyond her well-trained control. “You have been one of us since you could walk, we had a child sized jacket custom-made for you at the age of five. We allowed you into our house, raised as though you were our own, let you in on decisions that only blood born leaders should have been allowed an opinion on. This is treason and betrayal in the highest extent. You know what you face if found guilty. You may approach.”

To her benefit, Beverly Marsh did not flinch, do not blink, do not show even the smallest hint of weakness. Maggie Tozier wasn’t even directing those words of distaste and rage at him and Eddie felt he was going to throw up from nerves. Stan and Patty’s eyes were both glued bitterly to the ground, while Richie was looking at his mother with his lip curled up just slightly in disgust.

Beverly’s Devil jacket was draped across her lap, the first time Eddie had seen her without in on in nearly all of his memory. There may have been a few fuzzy moments from early youth before Alvin Marsh’s death, but they were all but completely faded now. She gathered the jacket in her arms as she moved to the front of the room, handing it off the waiting hands of Patrick Hockstetter. Wentworth shoved her slightly down into a wooden chair, forcing her hands around the back and tying her wrists together with what looked like an old fayed piece of rope.

Eddie looked towards Richie, mouth opening slightly in horror. Richie gaze didn’t moved away from the scene before them, and Eddie suddenly remembered the words Richie had given him on their way here. It’s not going to be pretty, Eds. Nothing like this has ever happened before, that I can remember. I just… you may never see me the same way again, after this. This is going to be the fire I warned you about.

“Beverly Marsh,” Wentworth began speaking then, dragging Eddie’s eyes away from the side of Richie’s face. “You stand accused of taking part of the organization of kidnapping and murder of our daughter, Jane Tozier. You may take this time to explain your side of these events.”

“I…” Beverly swallowed hard, a moment of fear dancing across her usually stoic expression.  “Everybody here knows that I killed my father. That he was both sexually and physically abusive to me most of my life, and one day when I was eleven things escalated and I hit him over the head with the lid to the back of our toilet, and that he died. You’ve all been so supportive of me since then, especially Went and Maggie, but there’s something about that nobody knows. Somebody else was there that day, somebody who helped me get away with it long before Went and Maggie were involved or anybody even knew my father was dead.”

There was deep silence throughout the room, Maggie raising one brow while Wentworth apparent as though they might be only seconds away from foaming at the mouth. “Before I called Mr Tozier and got him to call Sheriff Bowers and take control of the situation, I called… I called Stan. He came over and helped me gather up all the evidence of the assaults my father used to force on me and hide them. I knew that if the Sheriff saw any of those pictures or ruined things, that there was no way he wouldn’t be able to convince a jury of the truth. Even at eleven, I knew I had to get rid of everything. So, Stan helped me get it all and I buried in the backyard of Neibolt. The night Janie was murdered, I went back to get it and I burned everything in it. That’s why Stan was there with me.”

Eddie heard Richie let out a deep exhale of shaky breath, hands reaching up to rub at his cheeks. He could notice Stan trying to catch Richie’s eyes, but Richie was stubborningly avoiding Stan’s gaze as much as he was Eddie’s. In this moment, Richie Tozier seemed to have eyes only for his mother.

“I did not ask you to defend Mr Uris’ reputation, Marsh,” Wentworth said heavily. “I asked you to explain yourself, and it would appear you are unable to so.”

“I just…” Beverly shook her head. “I wanted you to know that Stan had nothing to do with it.”

“So you admit that you did?” Maggie cut in, words sharp as a knife and dripping with venom. Eddie’s heart leapt into his throat and he could feel as stiff Richie was beside him. Stan’s leg was jittering quickly and he was fiddling with his knuckles, Patty’s eyes were wide and glued to the Toziers while Patrick was watching it all unfold, grinning like maniac and clutching Beverly’s jacket.

“I…” Beverly said, voice cracking roughly. “I didn’t…” Beverly’s incoherent train of thought was cut off by the sickening crack of the back of Wentworth’s hand racking against her cheek. Beverly’s head jerked wildly to the side, the girl letting out a single surprised shout.

She was silent when the second slap landed. Eddie pressed his hand against his mouth to hold back his own sounds of horror, noting how Stan squeezed his eyes shut harshly and Patty had turned to press her face into Richie’s shoulder. Richie’s eyes barely wavered but Eddie noted the way his bottom lip was trembling just seconds before he pushed himself onto his feet.

Richie’s hand grabbed onto the back of Wentworth’s jacket and he tugged on his father enough that Wentworth stumbled. Maggie’s eyes went momentarily wide before she bit down on her bottom lip, eyes gleaming with something viciously victorious. She wrapped her arms around herself and Wentworth shoved his son away from him.

Richie stepped right back up, face sheet white but eyes burning. “That’s e-fucking-nough.”

“Don’t you fucking talk to me-“ Wentworth hand reached out to grip at Richie’s throat, Eddie noting the moment of fear dripping into Richie’s eyes before Maggie was clearing her throat. Every eye in the building turned to her, seeing her dancing eyes and the smirk settled on her face.

“You heard him,” Maggie said lightly, voice high and perfect like a song-bird. “Sit down.”

There was a long, tense moment where Wentworth’s hand didn’t leave Richie’s throat and Richie’s eyes didn’t leave his father’s face. Wentworth finally shoved Richie away, the boy stumbling but managing to keep his footing. Instead of taking a seat amongst the dozens of people in the room, Wentworth stomped from the room and slammed himself into his office.

Richie’s fingers were twitching as though he wanted to rub at his throat but refused to show the weakness. Instead he held his hand out, Patty rushing to her feet and handing him a knife she tugged from the pocket of her jeans. Richie made quick work of cutting Beverly’s wrist free from her bindings and pushing her towards Patty’s waiting arms. Richie turned to his mother with blazing eyes.

“Make your call, Richard.” Maggie told him coldly. “You stepped up, this is your decision now. Don’t make the wrong one.”

There was an obvious hesitation on Richie’s face, a stiffness in his shoulders before he cleared his throat. “There’s a real killer out there, who’s’ trying to make us look guilty. That should be our concern right now, we can’t be beating the shit out of each other.”

Maggie raised her brow, nodding towards Beverly. “And how do you know that the killer isn’t standing right there?”

Richie looked over his shoulder to Beverly, who was rubbing at her rope burned wrists while Patty rubbed at her rapidly swelling cheek. He sighed. “I just know.”

“So, you’re vouching for her innocent then?” Maggie asked him. “Your name for her name?”

Stan jerked to attention, face showing more emotion than Eddie thinks he’d ever seen from the boy. Beverly and Patty both turned to Richie, faces going pale. Richie clenched his jaw and tightened his hands into fists. “Richie…” Stan started but his eyes found Beverly and he trailed off.

“Yes.” Richie said firmly, though the insincerity showed in his eyes. “I vouch for her, okay? Are we done here?”

“We’re done here.” Maggie agreed, walking past her son without another word. Patrick followed behind, grinning at Beverly as he dropped her jacket at her feet. As quickly as the Devils had assembled, they broke apart and moved back to their own activities. Stan stood up, walking swiftly towards his friends and Eddie scampered after him.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Richie.” Stanley said as he approached, Eddie struggling to keep up with Stan’s frantic pace even just the few steps it took to reach them. Eddie skidded to a stop and looking at the solemn faces around him.

“It won’t be a problem unless Bev killed my sister,” Richie said, voice empty. Eddie wanted to reach for him, but settled for scratching at his own thigh as he stood otherwise completely still. Patty had stepped up to Stan and pressed herself into his side.

“You don’t vouch for people unless you’re completely sure that they’re innocent, you …. you…” Stan pursed his lips, looking almost as though he were moments away from succumbing to tears. “You know what happens if you’re wrong.”

“I want to say that I won’t be wrong,” Richie said coldly, sliding the jacket from his shoulders and tossed it almost aggressively at Stanley’s chest. “But it would seem I’ve never known either of you at all, have I? With the charade you’re pulling off, you’re the one who deserves this jacket.”

With that, Richie was pushing past and out of the smelly bar. Eddie was ready to chase after him, but felt a sick anxiety in his stomach that he couldn’t ignore. “What… what happens if he’s wrong?”

Beverly and Stan ignored him but Patty made a small, sad noise. “If he’s wrong, and Maggie finds out… then Beverly’s punishment will become both of their punishment.”

“So what?” Eddie squeaked, heart hammering angrily. “She’ll kill them both?”

The tense, ringing silence and the way nobody would meet Eddie’s gaze told him all he needed to know.

–

Eddie hadn’t been able to catch up to Richie once he left the Deep Float, and nearly broke down into happy tears when he let himself into his father’s apartment and found Richie sitting on the coffee table with Frank attempting to help the swelling of Richie’s bottom lip.

“Oh my God, Richie,” Eddie rushed over, cupping Richie’s jaw and pulling it away from his father’s touch. There was a rashy-looking red mark on Richie’s neck where his father had grabbed him. Eddie let out a small sound and pressed their foreheads together. “Richie, holy fuck, oh my God. That was crazy, holy shit.”

Richie grinned sheepishly at him. “It was a little stupid, though, wasn’t it?”

“Fuck, it was like… chaotically stupid,” Eddie let out a soft, nervous laugh. “But it was also kind of badass like I don’t think you’ve ever looked hotter than when you grabbed your dad like that, fuck.”

Richie burst out laughing, though it seemed to pull at his lip. Frank made a concerned noise and shooed Eddie back, smiling slightly. “I think we should chalk it up to something stupid and brave. You probably shouldn’t have vouched for that Marsh girl you think you could be guilty… but I’m sure you know that.”

Richie raised his brow and chuckled slightly, fingers dancing forward to tangle into Eddie’s. Eddie glanced between Richie and his father, the chill of fear that had been disappeared at the sight of Richie safe returning. “How… how do you know about the vouch?”

Frank and Richie made eye contact, and Richie nodded slightly. Frank stood, walking from the room and returning to the room with a leather jacket in his hands. It was small, easily the size of a young teen, and he handed it to Eddie. Swallowing hard, Eddie held the jacket out to view the Devils logo on the back. “Oh god…” Eddie said quietly, squeezing it back into a ball and dropping it into his lap. “How… how could I never knew? Why didn’t you or mom ever tell me?”

Frank sighed, pushing his hands through his hair. “I left the Devils when I started dating your mother… it was very shortly after Campbell Denbrough had left the Devils to Went in the face of Zachary’s abandonment. It didn’t go over very well, Wentworth saw it as a betrayal but I couldn’t stay in the Devils and be with Sonia. So I had to make a choice.”

“I don’t understand,” Eddie said, shaking his head and digging his nails into the leather of the jacket. “You loved mom enough to leave the Devils, then why aren’t you together? Why did you abandon us if you’d already abandoned people for us? This that just what you do?”

“I never wanted to lose you, Eddie,” Frank said, voice dripping with such sincerity that Eddie choked up. “I would’ve taken you with me if I could have. Your mother… she is a very sick woman, has been a long time. As much as I loved her, her love for me could never have been true. You may have been the only thing in the world she was capable of loving, and I couldn’t take you away from her. Even if it meant she turned you against me.”

Tears stung at Eddie’s eyes. “I don’t…. I don’t understand, what are you talking about?”

“You remember when I got sick, the cancer,” Frank said softly, and Eddie nodded. “After I got better, your mother was convinced I was still sick. Constantly dragging me from doctor to doctor, desperately wanting somebody to tell her that the cancer wasn’t really gone and that I was still dying. I’m still not sure if she was just afraid the cancer would come back, or if she wished that I had died from it in the first place.”

Eddie started shaking his head, brain rapidly bringing forth its own memories. His mother writing notes to get him out gym class, despite Eddie’s claims of his asthma not bothering him at all, trying to tell her much he loved to run. How he had to hide being on the track team from her for an entire year, how she’d completely lost it when she found out what he’d truly been doing after school. How she tried to keep him inside all spring and summer long, with claims of terrible allergies, though Eddie never once felt as though his eyes burned or that he needed to sneeze around flowers. His stomach churned and he was only dimly aware of Richie squeezing his hands.

“Your mother has never loved me,” Frank was saying, voice sounding like it was coming to Eddie through water. “She settled for me, and I tried to make it work for you, Eddie. I just couldn’t stay with her while she kept trying to make me believe I was sick when I knew I wasn’t.”

Eddie pulled away from Richie and clutched the jacket to his chest, feeling his bottom lip tremble. He stood, Richie immediately mimicking the action. “I’m sorry, I… I don’t think I can talk about this right now. I’m sorry.. I just want to go to bed.”

Richie’s arm was around him in a moment, saying something to Frank over his shoulder as he lead Eddie towards the spare room that had become theirs in the past few weeks. Eddie immediately crawled into the bed and Richie laid down beside him. They linked their pinkies together and Eddie stared down at where they were joined.

“She does it to you, too, doesn’t she?” Richie said lightly, rubbing his thumb on the back of Eddie’s hands. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but I… I saw it all over your face. What your dad said is true, she does it to you, too.”

“I don’t know…” Eddie said in a small voice. “It’s possible, but I don’t… She’s my mom, she loves me, I don’t want to believe she’s capable of that. She’s always been overprotective of me, but it’s not… she isn’t abusive, Richie. She’s not.”

Richie nudged their noses together. “It might not be true. Your brain could just be putting pieces together, wanting to believe what your dad is saying. You don’t want to believe either of them are capable of bad things. If your dad is right, your mom is toxic and kind of a terrible person but if he’s wrong then he walked out on your family and is a liar.”

Eddie sniffed, and looked up at Richie through his lashes. “I just don’t know what’s the truth anymore.”

Richie’s eyes danced over Eddie’s face, his chest started to heave. He launched forward to close the small amount of distant between them, their lips only touching for a brief moment before Richie let out a soft gasp and pulled back. His face pressed into the pillows and Eddie could feel how heavily he was breathing.

Eddie himself was dazed, despite the amount of time they’d spent together- every moment, in truth- since Janie’s body had been found they hadn’t kissed once since that night. Eddie had managed to come to conclusion that he may very well be falling in love with Richie Tozier, but hadn’t been able to find the courage to kiss him again since his sister’s death.

Richie’s face was pulling out of the pillows, and meeting Eddie’s in a desperate clash of kisses. They came together and broke apart in several frantic, spilt second kisses before Eddie was slipping his tongue against Richie’s lips and Richie’s hands were squeezing Eddie’s hips as he rolled on top of him. Eddie felt himself being pressed against the pillows, running this tongue along the top of Richie’s mouth before Richie pulled back to press soft kisses to Eddie’s jaw.

“Richie… I…” Eddie sighed out. “I think I love you.” Richie pulled back, lips slightly swollen from the kissing and likely the hit they took earlier. His eyes were wide, full of a deep emotion Eddie couldn’t fully ead. “No, I… I know. I’ve known it since the moment I kissed you… maybe even before that. And… scary as it is, I don’t want to deny it anymore. I don’t want to run from it, and I don’t want to let it run from me.”

Richie beamed, leaned down slowly and pressed their lips together again.

–

Ben Hanscom grumbled to himself, trying to figure out exactly where everything went. It was the first time his mother and aunt had let himself close by himself, and he was only freaking out slightly. Since cutting off ties with Aurora and Mike, Ben had thrown himself into the family paper as what he even knew was a distraction. It didn’t stop him from nearly bursting with curiosity over what his former friends had found out at Shawshank and the sick feeling in his stomach at the image of Beverly Marsh being pulled the classroom in handcuffs. The nerves over knowing they’d taken Stanley Uris, too, the distress that Greta Bowie and Audra Phillips were dead, that Bill Denbrough was under house arrest and the uncomfortable feeling the sight of Richie Tozier without his Devils jacket always gave him.

Shifting through the many letters sitting on his Aunt Mary Elise’s desk, most for the advice column, one caught Ben’s eyes. It had his name written out in large red letters and his heart jumped into his chest. Sitting down, Ben ripped the letter open under the dim light from the singular desk lamp he still had on.

You can keep yourself away, but you can’t hide from what must happen. All will be revealed on the night of senior prom. If you wish to guarantee survival, turn away now.