video memory share and text message

[germhating_hypochondriac]

[You're cradling a broken arm and panicking, running out of a dilapidated house with your friends.  Richie and Bill never leave your side, even though you know they can run faster. You get to your bikes and before you can even ask how you're going to ride - Mike lifts you up and gently places you in his bike basket.  You can hear Richie cursing the entire way.  All of you are terrified as you escape.  Once you reach safety, your friends call your mom.  They keep you company until she arrives, each comforting you in their own way.  You're in pain and scared, but you also feel loved.

Your mother arrives and grabs you by your good arm, pulling you away from your friends.  She points to your friends with her free hand and yells at them, blaming them for you being hurt. She then moves that hand to the back of your neck, tightly enough to hurt and talks about how delicate you are. Bill tries to explain what happened.  You mom shoves you into her car and continues blaming your friends. In her rage, she drops her keys.  Bev moves to pick them up for her.  Your mom yells at her, saying horrible things, calling her a dirty girl.  Bill tries to explain again and your mother yells out more angry words.  She calls your friends monsters and tells them that you're done with them.

Your mom gets in the car and drives, taking you away from your friends.   She talks the whole way to the hospital, reminding you that your're weak, scaring you with the idea that your arm might need surgery - which could lead to infection and amputation.  She claims that happened to a friend of hers.  She sets new rules too.  She tells you that you'll need more sleep and will need a dark room to rest in.  That's horrible. You've always been afraid of the dark and with the clown still out there, the dark is even scarier. She says you're only to leave the house to go to the pharmacy when you need more pills.  And worst of all, that you are never to see you friends again.   You feel so helpless, all you do is cry.]




[Your arm is set in a cast and healing.  You've been following your mother's new rules and feeling sorry for yourself.  You get a phone call that changes that. Bev has been kidnapped by Pennywise.   Your friends need you.  You're about to leave when your mother blocks your way, telling you that you can't go because of your sickness.

"My sickness? Okay, what sickness, Ma?"  You ask and show her your bottle of pills.  "You know what these are? They're gazebos!"  You yell angrily and throw the bottle onto the floor.  "They're bullshit!"

Your mother looks down at the pills and back at you.  "They help you, Eddie. I had to protect you."  She claims.

You realize in that moment that everything your mother has taught you is bullshit.  "Protect me? By lying to me? By keeping me locked inside this hellhole?! I'm sorry, but the only people that were actually trying to protect me were my friends. And you made me turn my back on them when I really needed them. So I'm going."   You tell her and run right past her, out the door.

She follows you, ordering you to come back, then begging and pleading.

You look back at her only long enough to say "Sorry, mom, I gotta go save my friends!"  In that moment, you don't feel weak at all.  You feel strong enough to kill a clown-monster.  Because your friends are worth it.




[There is a single text message from Eddie.]

I know the word is placebos now.