( stuck inside of your cage, i play your game to lose over and over )

chapter five

SOMETHING WAS WRONG WITH MICKEY, IT SEEMED. More now than ever. Truly, his head was swarming with the worst of thoughts and he just couldn't jam them out of his brain no matter how hard he tried. Surely he could rid them eventually, surely they'd die off with time.

But they weren't fucking dead now, and that was mattered most to Mickey.

He shouldn't have gone to the Quarry with the others. Really, he should have told them he was sick or created a fake excuse that they wouldn't question. He should have thought it through rather than be a complete idiot. He should have known this would have happened.

He shouldn't have been such a fool because now Bill, Stanley, Ben, Eddie and Richie were undressed down to their underwear. Everyone in the group except for Mickey, who they were all staring at expectantly.

Mickey burned red, averting his gaze from the other boys and staring down at the ground, fingers fidgeting with his button up shirt nervously. He gulped, keeping his eyes low as he pulled the button up off his shoulders and placed it aside, shutting his eyes tight when Richie cursed out loud.

"Fuck man, what the fuck happened to you?" Richies voice rang out, followed by the sound of someone, probably Eddie, smacking his arm.

Mickey knew exactly what he was talking about. The bruise on his shoulder, dark purple and gruesome, so large and eye-catching it made Mickey sick to his stomach. "Fell off my bike," He muttered simply with a shrug, sighing in relief when the others seemed to believe it. He tugged off his shoes and pants, left just as exposed as the other boys.

He glanced up anxiously, hating himself for staring too long. He shouldn't have come. This would be awkward for the others; to have someone like Mickey here with them, looking at them like this, thinking of them as a normal boy does a girl. Mickey is not much of a normal boy.

Mickey stiffened a bit when he heard a noise behind him that sounded an awful lot like Patrick Hockstetter. He turned around quickly, biting the inside of his cheek hard when there was no one to be seen. The other boys didn't seem to hear anything, caught up in their own conversations.

"And then your mom spread her legs and goddamn, Hanscom, I almost passed out! I swear to you. Perfection! A plus plus plus plus! Please tell her I'm in love with her," Mickey heard Richie exclaim to a blushing and embarrassed Ben as Eddie and Bill laughed beside him, Stanley looking almost pissed off. Mickey was the only one straying from the group for now because he still heard that fucking noise.

"Girly boy," A whisper in Mickey's ear this time, one that made him jump in the air and turn around again. No one was there. No one at all. "Little girly boy looking at the other boys! Little girly boy likes cock!" More whispers, the voice of Patrick Hockstetter with something more demented to it, laughing and taunting in ways Patrick normally did. The way he does when he corners Mickey in the locker room and hits him so hard he can't feel his face.

Mickey swallowed hard, continuing to look around quickly, his hand shaking by his side almost violently. What the fuck? Was Patrick here?

"Fairy boy," The voice continued to muse, sounding so close to his ear. So close it was infuriating. "Fairy boy should spread his wings and fly down that cliff, shouldn't he? Shouldn't he?!" The voice of Patrick laughed maniacally. "What would the other boys say, Mickey? What would they do if they saw the way you look? The way you stare! Dead meat! Dead meat! Dead meat!" The voice chanted in amusement.

Mickey took in a harsh breath, blinking quickly when he felt tears come to his eyes. He couldn't cry here around the others. They'd think he's weak. They'd not want to be his friend anymore. He'd have to stop being such a fucking girly boy.

The voice continued to taunt mercilessly until suddenly a hand landed on Mickeys shoulder, - the uninjured one- cold and unexpected. Mickey jumped and let out a yelp, eyes widening before they locked onto Richies, staring back at him with confusion. Richies lips were chapped. Mickey shouldn't have noticed that. "Uh... you alright?" Richie spoke slowly, raising his brow.

Mickey bit his lip, nodding his head quickly and keeping his eyes on Richie's face, forcing himself with all his might to not look down at his chest or his stomach or anything remotely like that. He'd be normal. It's what that voice in his head wants. Mickey is very afraid of that voice in his head. "I-I'm fine. It's okay." He mumbled back before pulling away from Richies touch, turning his gaze to the trees for a moment, swearing he saw a face for a moment, staring right back at him with the biggest grin on its face.

He turned quickly, nearly tripping but catching himself, standing with the other boys at the edge of the cliff. He glanced down and his eyes widened, looking at the others quickly. "You want us to jump down there?!" He exclaimed. Fairy boy should spread his wings and fly down that cliff, shouldn't he?

"Wuh- well people ha-have done it before and been fuh-fuh-fine," Bill spoke back softly, sheepishly shrugging.

"You're fucking crazy, Bill! Mickey is right. You're a dumbfuck," Richie laughed out before shaking his head.

"Fuh-fine! Luh-luh-loogie then." Bill replied with a wide smirk.

Mickey furrowed his eyebrows. "What the hell is loogie?" He asked.

Richie laughed. "You have much to learn, Mick." He grinned. "We see who can spat the best loogie." He spoke, laughing when Mickey recoiled in disgust at just the thought before Richie began to gather his spit, spitting out a loogie while Eddie giggled from the side. Next went Stanley, then Bill, then Ben and then Mickey rolled his eyes when his turn came, spitting out something sad and small in his disinterest with this game. Eddie went last.

"So easy!" Richie grinned. "Oh my god, that was terrible! I win!" He laughed.

"You won?!" Eddie chuckled out, raising his eyebrow when Richie responded with a quick 'yeah!' "Did you see my loogie?!" He pointed out.

"Mine went the farthest! It's distance!" Richie exclaimed.

"It's mass! It's always been mass!" Eddie retorted.

"What the- what is mass?!" Richie questioned.

"Who cares how far it goes? You look at how cool it looks like if it's green or white or it's just juicy and fat!" Eddie rambled on.

"Alright-" Bill stepped in, finally. Mickey chuckled in amusement. "Who-whos first?" He asked, pointing to the water below the cliff.

Everyone stared at the water below, taking in sharp breaths or looking away. It was a far way down. "I'll go!" A voice behind them exclaimed, a voice that nearly made Mickey jump for a moment. Although it was only Beverly, smiling. "Sissies," She shook her head before running over between them, jumping down to the water below while Richie exclaimed a loud "what the fuck?!"

Mickey laughed at the sight, grinning. "Aw, holy shit, we just got shown up by a girl!" Richie huffed.

"Do we have to do that now?" Stanley rolled his eyes.

Mickey watched as Bill jumped down next, followed by Ben and then followed by Stanley. Richie, Eddie and Mickey were left, outcasts to the others it seemed. Different, maybe. Maybe a little.

Mickey bit the inside of his cheek. "Do we have to jump down to get there?" He sighed.

"'Fraid so, Mickster. But don't you worry! You could only die like one of three ways." Richie laughed.

"And what are those?" Mickey asked, chuckling and crossing his arms over his chest.

"Decapitation by water, falling on one of those assholes down there or completely missing the water. Though I think all those are slim except the second one. Make it Stanley you fall on top of." Richie joked with a laugh.

"Don't fucking say that, asshole!" Eddie exclaimed, suddenly looking even more nervous, almost stressed out.

"Well, shit. Guess I've gotta grow bigger balls at some point. Although they're already 10 miles wide each." He sighed dramatically before running, jumping off the edge. Eddie sighed heavily, looking at Mickey for a moment with a small sympathetic shrug before jumping down into the water as well.

And then there was one. Mickey, standing alone at the top of the cliff staring down at the others. He was afraid. Of what, he didn't quite know. Of them not liking him, maybe.

Mickey glanced back at the trees again, sighing in relief when he didn't see a face again. He went to turn around, hoping desperately that he could force himself to just do what he needs to do.

Though it didn't work out. Suddenly Mickey was falling off the edge, letting out a pathetically high-pitched scream when he was pulled off the cliff, down all the way to the water. The others cheered when Mickey surfaced, but the only thought on his mind was, who the fuck had pulled him down?

He looked up, ignoring the onslaught of splashes on him and excited yells, freezing in place when he saw another face looking down over the cliff. A clown, white faced with red paint on, grinning sickeningly down at Mickey. He wiggled his fingers and his smile widened gruesomely, the painted skin stretching at the corners. Mickey thought maybe the guys lips would split from the width of the smile. "The show's only just begun for you, sissy boy!" The clown yelled down with a laugh, waving at him with his white gloved hand.

Mickey breathed shakily, looking at the others around him, not understanding how they hadn't heard it. How they hadn't seen it. He looked back up, just to find the clown gone.

Maybe he was going crazy. Maybe he was hallucinating. But it hadn't felt fake. It hadn't felt fake at all.

He bit his tongue as to not say anything. He didn't want to ruin everything. He didn't want them all to hate him like everyone else did.

Mickey blinked quickly, shaking off his thoughts; or at least trying to. He bit his lip, eyes widening when Richie splashed him with water, cold and unforgiving. He glanced over, glaring. "What's your problem, Tozier? Beep fucking beep."

Richie pouted comically at the same time Beverly laughed loudly from the side, gently shouldering beside Mickey. "You're both just going to team up on me for the rest of my life, aren't you?" He sighed dramatically. "As long as it's just Bev doing the double teaming. Sorry Mick." He grinned, winking at Beverly, who blushed beet red, but rolled her eyes.

"How would it even be double teaming if it's not both Mickey and I?" Beverly questioned with a grin, raising a brow. Mickey gently smacked Beverlys shoulder, shaking his head.

"I don't like this conversation," Mickey frowned,  rolling his eyes.

Richie faltered for a moment at Beverlys words, and neither Beverly nor Mickey knew quite why. He looked nervous, though Mickey was sure Beverly hadn't noticed. Mickey had, of course. "Guess not." He grinned, shrugging.

Mickey wanted to ask what was wrong, but Richie turned away after that to swim over to Eddie, shoving him harshly only to get his own head pushed underneath the water by Eddie. Beverly chuckled at the sight, turning to glance at Mickey. She nodded at his shoulder, "What happened there?"

Mickey glanced at his own bruised shoulder, shrugging sheepishly. "The usual. I was in the way. My mom watched it happen but she didn't say anything." He spoke softly. He was comfortable talking to Beverly about these types of things. She went through even worse than Mickey did.

Beverly nodded a bit, and smiled sympathetically, similar to the way Eddie did just a few minutes ago up on that cliff. How much did people sympathize with Mickey? The people who didn't hate him or call him cruel names, that is. "Wanna come over to my house after we're all done here? My dad isn't gonna be home tonight." She spoke gently.

Mickey was about to say something, but glanced over at Bill and Ben staring at him and Beverly. He furrowed his eyebrows before turning back to Beverly. "I.. uh.. I can't. Sorry. That's too close to Bowers. It'll be late once I have to leave. I can't walk home alone in the dark. He'd probably kill me." He chuckled lightly, as if it were a joke.

It was very much not a joke.

Beverly nodded in understanding, smiling. "Well, that's fine. I get it. You could come over one day after school and spend the night or something. It would have to be a day my dad is gone though." She smiled.

Mickey nodded, smiling right back at her. "Yeah, sure." He mumbled softly.

Beverly smiled widely before she squeezed Mickeys uninjured shoulder, swimming away from Mickey.

From there it was supposed to be fun. The others played around, splashed each other and sat on each other's shoulders. Mickey joined in once or twice when forced into it, but he really couldn't say it was fantastic. He stared a lot at the other boys. Bills hands under the water, shining with moisture. Eddies legs, outstretched and muscled too much for Mickeys mind to bare. Stanley's hair, wet and dripping down his perfect face. Ben's wide smile, his lips dripping with moisture in a manner that only Mickey would notice, perhaps. And Richies everything. Everything about him was worth staring.

Mickey was so fucked.

All that was on his mind were these stupid fucking boys and that stupid fucking clown. What would Mickey do?

Mickey sighed heavily and glanced over to his right, the only person not playing around being Stanley, taking a quick break. Mickey went over to him, a little taller than Stanley.

"Why aren't you playing at all?" Stanley asked, though he probably didn't care.

Mickey shrugged. "Other stuff on my mind." He spoke simply. "Why aren't you?"

"I'm taking a break," Stanley chuckled. "But there's also other stuff on my mind, I suppose."

"Like what?" Mickey asked gently.

Stanley sighed and looked up to Mickey. "You tell me what's on yours first and then I'll tell you."

Mickey bit the inside of his cheek and looked away for a moment. He decided to go with the safe answer, safer than the other anyway. "I saw a clown. Or something up on that cliff looking down at me. It pushed me down. And it talked to me." He explained, hands shaking so much he shoved them underneath the water.

Stanley stiffened at that, raising his eyebrow. "That's... really odd. Are you sure you weren't just imagining it?"

"Of course I wasn't imagining it. Why would I?" Mickey countered, shaking his head.

"I don't know..." Stanley paused before he lowered his voice. "Something similar happened to me earlier. Before the pharmacy. The painting in the synagogue.... the woman came out of it and she towered over me like she was gonna eat me."

"Holy shit." Mickey spoke simply, softly and disbelieving. "What's going on then?"

"I'm not sure. Though maybe we're both just crazy. That could be the case. I didn't see a clown and you did. So it's probably not the same thing." Stanley tried to reason. Mickey wanted so bad to believe him.

So he nodded and pretended to. "Sure. Yeah, probably separate things. Maybe it's just mass hallucination or some shit. That exists, right?" Mickey spoke quickly.

Stanley shrugged and chuckled gently, beginning to swim away back to the others. "No idea. But it's not good." He spoke gently.

Mickey hoped it wouldn't get worse. When had Mickey even gotten what he wanted, though?

••••••
A/N: hey! sorry for the super long wait but here's chapter five!! I don't know how I feel about this one but it's pretty long lmao. i hope to get to the actual horror soon bc that's the most fun part ajdjdj.