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🅟🅐🅘🅡🅘🅝🅖🅢: Vamp!Eddie Munson X Reader

🅦🅞🅡🅓🅢: 32k

🅡🅐🅣🅘🅝🅖🅢: Everyone

🅣🅐🅖🅢: Angsty, Blood drinking, Same timeline in a sense but alternate ending to Season 5

🅢🅤🅜🅜🅐🅡🅨: Hawkins, 1989. The monsters are dead, the gates are closed, and the town has moved on. But you haven't.

Three years after the sky bled red and the earth cracked open, you are still anchored to the memory of Eddie Munson. To the rest of the world, he was a cult leader who died a fugitive. To you, he was the boy who loved you like you were the only solid thing in a shifting universe.

Then, the haunting begins.

It starts with a heavy, suffocating awareness. A phantom touch on your shoulder. The gravelly whisper of your nickname. When impossible, familiar doodles are found carved deep into the solid brick of Hawkins High, you realize you are being watched—but the eyes don't belong to a monster.

Eddie is back.

Dragged into the deepest abyss by Vecna, Eddie didn't die—he was reshaped. Now a shadow-warped creature with lethal claws, fangs, and a desperate, terrifying hunger, he hides in the woods, terrified of hurting the only person he ever loved. But you refuse to lose him twice. To bring the King of the Freaks back into the light, you must become his anchor once again, risking everything to prove that some bonds are stronger than the curse of the Upside Down.

Some ghosts don't just haunt you. They wait for you.

🅐🅤🅣🅗🅞🅡🅢 🅝🅞🅣🅔: Hi everyone was gonna break this up in a series but I feel like I've been a little slow because of my health stuff so I decided to put it in completion. Depending on the traction i'll do a part two

The humidity of July 1989 hung over Hawkins like a heavy, wet blanket, the kind of heat that made the air feel like it was made of wool. It had been three years since the sky had bled red and the earth had cracked open, and three years since the world had fundamentally broken. But now, as the radio played the synth-heavy notes of "Sowing the Seeds of Love" and the neon signs of the revamped downtown flickered steadily, Hawkins looked... normal.

That was the hardest part for you. The normalcy was a lie told by a town that had scrubbed the blood from its sidewalks and pretended the "earthquake" was just a natural disaster.

You sat at your desk at the Hawkins Police Station, the rhythmic thwack-clack of a typewriter filling the room. After the dust settled and the military cleared out, Jim Hopper had regained his mantle as Chief. He’d seen the hollow, haunted look in your eyes and offered you a job as a dispatcher and administrative assistant. It kept you busy. It kept you in the loop. Most importantly, it kept you close to the people who knew the truth—the ones who didn't look at you with pity when you mentioned a name that the rest of the town had dragged through the dirt.

To the rest of Hawkins, Eddie Munson was still the cult leader who died a fugitive. To you, he was the boy who loved Metallica, played D&D with the intensity of a theater lead, and held you in the backseat of his van like you were the only solid thing in a shifting universe.

You felt it again. That prickle at the base of your skull.

You stopped typing, your fingers hovering over the keys. The station was quiet—Powell was in the breakroom and the afternoon sun was casting long, distorted shadows across the linoleum. You turned slowly, scanning the lobby. Through the glass doors, the street was empty. No one was there. Yet, the sensation was so physical it felt like a finger tracing the line of your shoulder blade. It was a heavy, suffocating awareness, a feeling of eyes boring into your back, watching with an intensity that felt like a physical weight.

"Get it together," you whispered, pushing your glasses up the bridge of your nose.

The door to the inner office creaked open, and Hopper stepped out, adjusting his belt. He looked better these days—healthier, his face filled out since the ordeal in Russia, though the lines around his eyes were permanent maps of the stress he'd endured. He paused, his sharp eyes landing on you. He didn't miss the way you were looking at the empty corner of the room.

"You okay?" he asked, his voice a low rumble.

"Fine, Chief. Just... the heat. Makes everything feel a bit sluggish," you lied, turning back to your typewriter.

Hopper didn't move. He walked over, leaning a hip against the edge of your desk. He sighed, a sound that usually preceded a lecture or a moment of rare vulnerability. "You've been jumping at shadows for three weeks. Joyce mentioned it, too. Said you seemed 'untethered' when you came by for dinner."

The mention of Joyce brought a small smile to your face. She was staying in Hawkins now, finally engaged to Hopper, turning his cabin into a real home. It was the one piece of happiness that felt earned. "I’m just tired, Jim. With all the kids leaving... it’s just quiet."

"Will and El heading off to the city with Mike is a big change," Hopper admitted, his expression softening at the mention of his daughter. "But don't let the silence play tricks on you. This town... it has a way of staying under your skin. If you need a few days off, take 'em. Joyce would love to have you out at the cabin to help her with the garden. She’s convinced she can grow tomatoes in this soil."

"I'm okay," you insisted, though your hand trembled slightly as you reached for a manila folder. "Really."

Hopper watched you for a moment longer, his silence heavy with the things he wasn't saying. He knew what it was like to lose someone the world wanted you to forget. He knew the weight of a ghost. "Just don't let it swallow you," he said finally, patting the desk before heading toward the exit.

The town was emptying out. It was the end of an era, and the silence it left behind was deafening. This week alone, you’d said goodbye to the "kids." Dustin and Lucas were heading off to various universities, their cars packed with dorm supplies instead of spiked bats.

Will Byers and El had been the hardest to see go. They were heading off with Mike, chasing a fresh start that seemed impossible in a town built on top of a graveyard. Will had hugged you longer than usual at the station yesterday, his eyes still holding that old, familiar shadow even as he talked about his art program. He’d leaned in and whispered, “It feels different now, doesn’t it? Like the air is waiting for something.” You hadn't known how to answer.

Then there was Steve Harrington.

Steve hadn’t left. He’d gotten his teaching credentials, trading the polo shirts for slightly more professional attire. He was now Mr. Harrington, the Sex ED teacher at Hawkins High and baseball coach for the local team.

When your shift ended at 8:00 PM, you found him leaning against his BMW in the parking lot. "Rough day at the office, Officer?" he joked.

"Just paperwork, Steve. Let’s just go."

Steve’s apartment was a safe haven. By 11:00 PM, the coffee table was littered with empty cans and pizza crusts. The ceiling fan whirred overhead. You were sprawled on one end of the sofa, and Steve was on the other.

"I feel like I’m losing my mind, Steve," you said, your voice cracking. "The 'eyes' again. Everywhere. It doesn't feel like a monster. It feels... familiar."

Steve sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Look, we spent years looking over our shoulders. Now that the world is normal, your heart is finally catching up to what your head already knows."

He looked at you then, his expression becoming uncharacteristically serious. "You know, I used to be jealous of him. Not because of the hair or the music or whatever. But because of the way he looked at you. Even when we were in the middle of the woods, literally fighting for our lives, if he caught your eye, he just... he changed. He loved you more than anything I've ever seen anyone love anyone. It was like you were his anchor."

He paused, a sad smile touching his lips. "Maybe you're feeling that love. Or maybe you're just finally letting yourself miss him. Both are okay. But you've got to breathe, alright?"

"I'm trying," you whispered.

"Stay here tonight," Steve said. "Crash on the couch. I’ve got plenty of blankets."

By 1:00 AM, Steve had retreated to his bedroom, leaving you tucked under a heavy handmade quilt on the sofa. The apartment was dark, save for the blue-ish moonlight filtering through the slats of the blinds.

You had taken your glasses off, setting them carefully on the coffee table. Without them, the world blurred into soft, indistinct shapes. You felt heavy, the alcohol and the emotional exhaustion finally dragging you toward sleep.

Clink.

The sound was tiny. The sound a familiar melody of metal rings hitting a glass bottle.

Your eyes snapped open. You remained perfectly still. The "watched" feeling was back, stronger than it had ever been. It was thick, suffocating, and strangely... warm.

You sat up slowly. You squinted into the darkness of the kitchen doorway, your vision a hazy mess of gray and black.

There, leaning against the doorframe, was a shadow.

It wasn't a monster. It was the silhouette of a man. A man with wild, unruly hair that reached his shoulders. He was wearing what looked like a bulky vest over a denim jacket, his posture relaxed, one leg crossed over the other in a pose so specific—so effortlessly Eddie—that your breath hitched.

"Eddie?" you whispered.

The shadow didn't move, but the air in the room seemed to vibrate. Panic and hope fought a violent war in your chest. You reached out blindly for the coffee table, your fingers fumbling for your glasses. Your hand knocked over an empty beer can, the clatter sounding like a thunderclap.

"Wait, please," you gasped, finally catching the frames of your glasses and shoving them onto your face.

You looked back at the kitchen door.

Empty.

The moonlight hit the linoleum floor, showing nothing but the clean sweep of the wood. There was no man. No denim jacket. No Eddie.

You stood up, your legs shaking, and walked to the doorway. The air there was normal—warm and still. There was no scent of tobacco or cheap hairspray. There was only the low hum of the fridge.

You stood there in the dark, your heart slowly settling, wondering if the ghosts of Hawkins were truly gone, or if they were just waiting for you to find the right way to look at them.

The transition from July into August 1989 brought no relief from the heat, only a thickening of the air that made every movement feel like wading through deep water. Two weeks had passed since that night at Steve’s apartment, and the "watched" sensation hadn't just persisted—it had intensified, weaving itself into the very fabric of your daily routine.

At the Hawkins Police Station, the walls seemed to be closing in. You had become a master of the peripheral glance. You would be filing reports on petty thefts or noise complaints, and your eyes would involuntarily dart to the dark hallway leading to the holding cells. You weren’t looking for a monster; you were looking for a shape. A silhouette. A ghost that refused to fully manifest but refused to leave you alone.

The stress was starting to manifest in physical ways. There were dark circles under your eyes that no amount of coffee could mask, and your hands had developed a fine, persistent tremor that made typing a chore.

The first incident happened on a Tuesday. You were in the evidence room, organizing old files that had been water-damaged during the "earthquake."

The room was windowless, lit by a single, buzzing fluorescent fixture. You were reaching for a box on a high shelf when you felt a sudden, distinct pressure on your lower back—like someone was standing right behind you, their chest nearly brushing your spine.

The heat of a body was unmistakable. You could almost hear the faint, rhythmic sound of breathing.

"Steve, if that's you, it's not funny," you snapped, spinning around.

The room was empty. The heavy steel door was still closed and locked from the inside. There was no one there, yet the air in the spot where you’d felt the pressure remained unnervingly warm for a few seconds before fading back into the damp chill of the basement. You stood there, heart hammering against your ribs, clutching a manila folder until the edges crumpled.

The second incident was more public. You were at the local diner, picking up lunch for Hopper and yourself. The place was crowded with construction workers and a few lingering tourists. As you waited by the counter, you heard a voice. It wasn't loud, just a low, melodic murmur that cut through the clatter of silverware and the hum of the air conditioner.

“Hey, bunny.”

The nickname—his nickname for you—sent a jolt of electricity through your nervous system. It was his voice. The specific, gravelly lilt of Eddie Munson. You spun around so quickly you nearly knocked over a display of homemade pies.

“Eddie?” you called out, your voice cracking with a desperate, sharp hope.

The diner went silent. A dozen strangers stared at you. A waitress paused with a coffee pot in mid-air. There was no Eddie. There was only a teenager in a booth nearby wearing a faded rock band tee, looking at you like you’d lost your mind. You grabbed the brown paper bag of food and bolted out the door, the bell jingling behind you like a mocking laugh.

When you returned to the station, you tried to bury yourself in work, but you could feel Hopper’s eyes on you from his glass-walled office. He wasn’t looking at you with the sternness of a boss; he was looking at you with the profound, quiet worry of a man who had seen too many people break.

“In my office. Now,” Hopper called out, not unkindly.

You walked in, clutching your notepad as if it were a shield. Hopper was sitting behind his desk, a cigarette unlit between his fingers—a habit he was trying to quit for Joyce. He gestured for you to sit.

“I’m fine, Jim. Really. The diner was just... I thought I saw someone I knew. It’s the heat,” you started, the words tumbling out in a practiced rush.

Hopper held up a hand to silence you. “I talked to Harrington last night. He stopped by the cabin to drop off some stuff for Joyce.”

Your heart sank. Steve was a terrible liar, and his loyalty to you often overrode his ability to keep a secret.

“He told me his theory,” Hopper continued, leaning forward, his elbows creaking on the desk. “About the grieving. About how you’re not sleeping. He’s worried. I’m worried. And Joyce? She’s ready to come down here and drag you to the cabin by your hair.”

“I don’t need a vacation, Chief. I need to stay busy,” you argued, though your voice lacked conviction.

“No, what you need is to breathe,” Hopper said firmly. “You’ve spent three years being a soldier. You’ve been the anchor for those kids, and you’ve been the one holding this front desk together while the rest of the world moved on. But you’re running on fumes, and those fumes are starting to hallucinate.”

“I’m not hallucinating,” you whispered, though the memory of the shadow at Steve’s kitchen door flickered in your mind.

“Grief does strange things to the brain,” Hopper said, his voice softening. He walked around the desk and put a heavy hand on your shoulder. It was the same hand that had comforted El, the same hand that had fought through hell. “I’m putting you on mandatory leave. Two weeks. Starting right now.”

“Jim, please—”

“It’s not a punishment. You’re not in trouble. Think of it as a tactical retreat. Go home. Sleep. Go out to the cabin and let Joyce feed you until you can’t move. Just... stop looking for him in the corners of the room, okay?”

You looked down at your lap, the weight of his words finally breaking through your defenses. You felt a tear track down your cheek, and you quickly wiped it away. “Okay,” you whispered. “Two weeks.”

“Good. Now get out of here before I make it three,” Hopper said, giving your shoulder a gentle squeeze.

The sun was beginning to set as you walked to your car. The sky was a bruised purple, the kind of color that always reminded you of the world beneath this one. The parking lot was mostly empty.

As you reached for your keys, the sensation hit you with the force of a physical blow.

It wasn't just the feeling of being watched anymore. It was the feeling of a presence so close you could almost feel the static electricity of another person’s skin. The air around you seemed to thicken, turning heavy and sweet, like the smell of the woods after a rainstorm.

You froze, your hand hovering over the car door handle.

You didn't turn around. You were too afraid of what you would—or wouldn't—see.

"I know you're there," you whispered into the humid air.

There was no response, only the distant sound of a dog barking three streets over and the low hum of the streetlights flickering to life. The sensation lingered, a warm, protective weight that seemed to wrap around your shoulders, shielding you from the cooling evening air. It felt like a goodbye. Or perhaps, a promise.

You stood there for a long time, eyes closed, letting the feeling wash over you. When you finally opened them and looked around, the parking lot was empty. The shadows were just shadows. The wind was just the wind.

You got into your car, the engine turning over with a familiar roar. As you backed out and began the drive home, the "eyes" remained on you, steady and unwavering, following you through the winding streets of Hawkins. You didn't feel afraid anymore. You just felt... followed.

The town was quiet. The kids were gone. The monsters were dead. But as you drove past the edge of the woods, you could have sworn you saw a flash of denim through the trees, gone in the blink of an eye.

The drive out to the cabin was a blur of gravel dust and the oppressive greenery of the Indiana woods. Two days into your mandatory leave, the silence of your own apartment had become an enemy. Every creak of the floorboards sounded like a footstep; every shift of light through the blinds looked like a silhouette. You had spent forty-eight hours pacing the small confines of your living room, clutching a cold mug of coffee, waiting for a ghost to speak.

By the second afternoon, the walls were screaming with memories of Eddie—the way he’d draped himself over your threadbare armchair, the way his rings had clattered against your nightstand. You couldn't be there anymore.

The cabin was a sanctuary of sorts. It sat deep in the woods, far from the prying eyes of the town and the tainted soil of the trailer park. As you pulled your car up the dirt path, you saw the flickering glow of porch lights and heard the muffled sounds of classic rock playing from an indoor radio.

Joyce was on the porch, wearing an oversized flannel shirt and holding a trowel. She looked up as you killed the engine, and the immediate, motherly concern that softened her features made your throat tighten. She didn't ask why you were there. She just set down her tool and opened her arms.

Inside, the cabin smelled of cedar, roasted coffee, and the faint, sweet scent of the floral perfume Joyce had worn for years. It was a lived-in space, cluttered with Hopper’s various police manuals and Joyce’s gardening books. It felt permanent. It felt safe.

"Jim told me he sent you home for a bit," Joyce said softly, handing you a mug of herbal tea as you sat at the small wooden kitchen table. "He’s worried, you know. He’s not very good at expressing it without sounding like he’s giving an order, but he cares."

"I know," you murmured, staring into the dark amber liquid of your tea. "I think everyone is worried. Steve looks at me like I’m made of glass, and even Will... when he said goodbye, he looked at me like he was seeing a reflection of his younger self. The version of him that was still stuck in the cold."

Joyce sat across from you, her hands wrapped around her own mug. She didn't look away. She had a way of leaning into a conversation, making you feel like your words were the only thing in the world that mattered.

"How do you do it, Joyce?" you asked, your voice barely a whisper. "How do you just... live? After everything you saw. After the lights, the tunnels, the things that shouldn't exist. How did you go back to buying groceries and worrying about the electric bill?"

Joyce looked out the window toward the darkening woods. "It’s not a switch you flip. For a long time, I thought I was losing my mind. I saw things in the static of the TV; I heard voices in the wind. I was terrified that the world I had fought so hard to protect was just a thin veil, and that at any moment, it would tear again."

She paused, a shadow crossing her face—a memory of a different kind of pain. "And then there was the grief. Before you were part of this mess, there was someone else. His name was Bob. Bob Newby."

You had heard the name whispered in passing by the kids, usually with a tone of reverence, but you hadn't known the details.

"He was... he was a 'superhero,'" Joyce said with a sad, wistful smile. "He didn't know anything about monsters or government conspiracies. He was just a kind man who worked at RadioShack and wanted to take us to Maine. He died right in front of me. A demodog... it got him in the lobby of the lab while we were trying to escape."

She reached across the table, covering your hand with hers. Her skin was warm and calloused from the garden, a grounding contrast to the cold dread you’d been carrying.

"I thought that was it for me," Joyce confessed. "I thought I would spend the rest of my life looking at the spot where he fell. I felt guilty every time I laughed. I felt like moving on was a betrayal, like if I stopped mourning him for even a second, he would truly be gone forever."

"That's exactly it," you choked out, the tears finally beginning to spill over. "With Eddie... he wasn't just my boyfriend, Joyce. He was the plan. We were going to get out of this town. He was going to play his music, and I was going to find something—anything—that didn't feel like Hawkins. We were soulmates. I can't look at a map without seeing the places we were supposed to go. I can't listen to the radio without hearing the songs he was going to teach me on guitar."

You let out a jagged breath, the physical ache in your chest feeling like an open wound. "Every time I feel those eyes on me at the station, or see that shadow in the corner of my eye... a part of me wants it to be him. I want to be haunted. Because if he’s a ghost, at least he’s still here. If I move on, if I stop feeling him watching me, then he’s just... dead. And I’m just alone."

Joyce squeezed your hand, her eyes shining with shared understanding. "You aren't alone. That’s the secret Jim and I finally figured out. You don't move on from people like Eddie or Bob. You move with them."

She gestured around the cabin, toward the hallway where Hopper’s boots were kicked off near the door. "Jim was there for me when I couldn't stand up. He didn't try to fix it, and he didn't tell me to forget Bob. He just stood in the gap so the world couldn't swallow me whole. Steve is doing that for you. Hopper is doing that for you. We’re your anchors."

"But it feels like I'm failing him," you argued. "By staying here. By working at the station. By being 'normal.'"

"Eddie Munson died so you could have a 'normal,'" Joyce said firmly, her voice gaining a rare edge of steel. "He didn't run. He stayed and fought because he wanted you to have a life where you didn't have to look over your shoulder. If you spend that life drowning in the 'what ifs,' you aren't honoring him. You honor him by living the life he bought for you."

She leaned in closer, her gaze intense. "The feeling of being watched... maybe it’s not your mind playing tricks. Or maybe it is. But whatever it is, don't let it become a cage. Grieve him. Scream about him. Keep his jacket until it falls apart. But don't let your life end because his did. You were his anchor, but now you have to be your own."

You sat in silence for a long time, the only sound being the rhythmic ticking of the clock on the wall and the distant hoot of an owl. The weight in your chest hadn't disappeared—you doubted it ever would—but it felt slightly less like lead and more like a stone you could learn to carry.

"I don't know how to start," you admitted.

"You already started," Joyce replied softly. "You came here. You talked. You’re breathing. That’s the first step of the rest of your life."

As the night grew deeper, the conversation turned to lighter things—Will’s sketches, El’s adjustment to life with Mike in the city, the absurdity of Steve Harrington becoming a teacher. Joyce fed you a bowl of stew that tasted like home, and for the first time in weeks, the "watched" sensation felt less like a threat and more like a lingering warmth.

When it was finally time to leave, the woods were pitch black. Hopper had returned while you were eating, giving you a silent, supportive nod and a brief, awkward pat on the shoulder that spoke volumes.

As you walked down the porch steps toward your car, the air was cool and crisp. You reached the driver's side door and paused, looking back toward the dense tree line.

There it was again. That prickle. That absolute certainty that someone was standing just beyond the reach of the porch light, tucked between the oaks.

You didn't fumble for your glasses this time. You didn't panic. You just stood there in the dark, the humid Indiana night wrapping around you.

"I'm trying, Eddie," you whispered into the trees. "I'm trying."

There was no voice in return, no shadow that moved. But as you pulled out of the driveway, the sensation followed you all the way to the main road—not as a hunter, but as a passenger, a silent witness to the life you were finally, painfully, beginning to reclaim or so you thought.

The transition from August to September brought a crispness to the Indiana air that felt like a betrayal. The heat of the summer had been a shield, a thick haze that made the ghosts feel like heat hallucinations. But the autumn was sharp and clear, and it brought with it the one thing you had been dreading: the first day of school.

Hawkins High was a place of jagged memories. It was the site of the final stand, the place where the halls had once echoed with the screams of students who had no idea what was beneath their feet. Now, it was just a building again.

You pulled into the student parking lot, though you were no longer a student. Your two-week leave had turned into three, and while you were back at the station, Hopper had encouraged you to "get out and see people" during your lunch breaks. That was how you found yourself walking toward the gymnasium, the sound of your boots echoing against the lockers.

The smell of the school—floor wax, old paper, and stale cafeteria food—hit you like a physical weight. It was the smell of 1986. It was the smell of the last time you saw Eddie in his natural habitat, standing on a cafeteria table and declaring war on the social norms of Hawkins.

You found Steve in the old gym, the one the school used for overflow PE classes and storage. He was blowing a whistle, trying to organize a group of scrawny freshmen into something resembling a volleyball team. He looked remarkably in his element, a whistle around his neck and a clipboard in hand as he subbed PE again.

"Harrington!" you called out, leaning against the heavy double doors.

Steve turned, his face lighting up with that familiar, crooked grin. He blew the whistle one more time. "Take five! And if I see anyone touching the net, you’re doing laps!"

He jogged over to you, wiping sweat from his forehead with the hem of his shirt. "Look at you. Out in the world, interacting with the public. Hopper’s going to give me a medal for being a good influence."

"Don't push it, Steve," you laughed, though the sound felt a bit thin. "I just wanted to see if you’d actually survived the first morning."

"Barely," he groaned. "They’re faster than they look. And they have zero respect for the hair. One of them asked if I used a whole can of Farrah Fawcett spray this morning. I almost gave him detention on principle."

You walked with him toward the back of the gym, where the equipment was stored. The air back here was cooler, smelling of dust and heavy canvas mats.

"You okay being here?" Steve asked, his voice dropping to a more serious tone. "I know this place... it’s got a lot of baggage."

"I'm okay," you said, and for the first time, you almost meant it. "It just feels smaller than I remember. Like the world got bigger, and this place stayed the same."

As Steve went to grab a basket of volleyballs, you stepped further into the shadows of the storage corner. The walls here were old red brick, scarred with decades of graffiti—initials of couples long since broken up, graduation years from the seventies, and scratches from moving equipment.

Something caught your eye. A brick near the corner of the equipment cage, about waist-high. It looked cleaner than the others, as if the dust had been wiped away recently.

You stepped closer, pushing your glasses up your nose.

There, carved into the hard red surface, was a drawing. It was small—no bigger than a silver dollar—but the lines were precise. It was a cartoonish, slightly lopsided bunny with one ear flopped over and a tiny, mischievous X for an eye.

Your heart didn't just skip a beat; it seemed to stop entirely.

"Bunny," you whispered.

It was the nickname Eddie had given you during your first month of dating. He’d seen you startled by a loud noise in the woods and laughed, saying you looked like a rabbit ready to bolt. From then on, he’d doodle that specific little bunny on the margins of your notebooks, on the napkins at diners, and once, memorably, on the back of your hand in permanent marker.

You reached out, your trembling fingers tracing the grooves in the brick.

The lines weren't jagged like they’d been made with a pocketknife or a key. They were smooth, almost scooped out, as if a claw—or something equally sharp and organic—had pressed into the stone as if it were soft clay.

"Steve," you breathed, your voice failing you.

"Yeah? You find a stray basketball?" Steve called out, walking back toward you.

You didn't answer. You couldn't. You were staring at the carving, and then you noticed something else. At the bottom of the brick, barely visible in the dim light, was a tiny smudge of something dark. You touched it. It wasn't ink. It wasn't paint. It was a fleck of dried, dark substance that looked like old blood—or perhaps, the dark, viscous ichor of the place you thought was gone.

"What is it?" Steve asked, finally seeing your face. He dropped the basket of balls, and they clattered across the floor, echoing like thunder.

He followed your gaze to the brick. He went silent. Steve knew that drawing. He’d seen it on the back of your hand a dozen times during those long nights in the woods.

"That... that wasn't there yesterday," Steve whispered, his face going pale. "I was back here checking the inventory. That brick was definitely blank. I mean it had to be. I would've noticed that!"

The sensation of eyes on you returned, but this time, it wasn't coming from the corners of the room. It felt like it was coming from everywhere—from the walls, from the floor, from the very air you were breathing.

You looked at the little bunny, the flopped-over ear seeming to mock the idea of a normal life. The Upside Down was gone. The gates were closed. But as you stood in the quiet gym of Hawkins High, you realized that some things—and some people—don't stay buried.

"He's here," you whispered, more to yourself than to Steve. "He has to still be here."

Steve didn't argue. He didn't offer a theory about grief or stress. He just stood beside you, staring at the small, carved promise on the wall, as the first bell of the school year rang, sounding like a warning.

The afternoon sun bled through the high, narrow windows of Steve’s office, casting long, slanted bars of amber light across the linoleum floor. It was a small, cramped space tucked just off the main gym, smelling of old rubber, floor wax, and the faint, citrusy scent of Steve’s hairspray.

You had been sitting in his swivel chair for nearly an hour, your legs bouncing with a nervous energy that made the metal frame creak rhythmically. Your glasses felt heavy on your face, and every time you blinked, you saw the image of that carved bunny on the brick. It was burned into your retinas—a signature from a dead man, etched into stone with impossible precision.

You weren't just stressed. You weren't just grieving. You were being beckoned.

The sounds of the school day filtered through the heavy door: the distant thud of basketballs, the shrill chirps of whistles, and the muffled roar of teenagers changing classes. To anyone else, it was the sound of a Tuesday in September. To you, it was a ticking clock.

Every few minutes, that familiar prickle would return to the base of your skull. You would whip your head around, staring at the empty corner of the office where a rack of mesh jerseys hung, or glancing at the small window in the door. There was never anyone there, yet the air felt crowded. The office was barely ten feet square, but it felt like you were sharing it with something—or someone—who was standing just out of your line of sight.

Finally, the bell for the end of the final period rang, a harsh, metallic sound that made you jump nearly out of your skin. A few minutes later, the door swung open, and Steve trudged in, looking more disheveled than usual. His whistle was tucked into his pocket, and his shirt was damp with sweat.

He closed the door behind him and leaned back against it, his eyes immediately finding yours. He didn't ask why you were still there. He knew.

"I went back," he said, his voice low and raspy. "In between fifth and sixth period. I went back to the storage corner."

"And?" you asked, your voice barely a thread.

"It’s still there. I even tried to rub it off, thinking maybe someone just used a very convincing crayon or something." Steve walked over to his desk, sinking into the guest chair opposite you. He looked aged, the boyish charm of "King Steve" replaced by the weary lines of a man who had seen the sky split open. "It’s deep. It’s carved at least half an inch into the brick. Whatever did that... it didn't use a tool. It used force."

You leaned forward, slamming your hands onto the desk. "So? Do you believe me now? Is this still just 'the grief settling in'? Am I still just overworked and imagining things because I miss him?"

Steve held up his hands, a gesture of surrender. "No. No, I don't think you're crazy. I don't think it's just the stress. That drawing... nobody in this school knows that nickname. Nobody knows he called you that except for us and maybe the kids. And even they didn't know the doodle."

He ran a hand through his hair, a nervous habit that had persisted since 1983. "I believe you. Something is happening. Again."

The silence that followed was heavy. For three years, you had all lived under the fragile peace of a closed gate. The Upside Down was a scar that had finally stopped itching, and now, it felt like the wound was being picked at from the inside.

"We have to tell Dustin," Steve said suddenly, his eyes bright with a sudden, desperate logic. "He’s the one who stays in touch with all the weird theories. He’s at the university library half the time anyway; he could look into—"

"No," you cut him off, your voice sharp. "Absolutely not. Dustin is finally being a kid. He’s at college. He’s making friends who don't have to carry bear traps in their backpacks. We are not dragging him back into this. Not yet."

Steve bit his lip, nodding slowly. "Okay. Okay, fine. No Dustin. But Hopper, then. We have to tell the Chief. If there's a breach, or if someone—something—is back in Hawkins, he needs to know. He’s the one with the guns and the authority."

"And what am I going to tell him, Steve?" you countered, leaning over the desk until you were inches from his face. "That I saw a ghost in his kitchen? That there’s a cartoon bunny on a brick in the gym? Jim is finally happy. He’s with Joyce. He’s trying to believe the world is safe so he can sleep at night. If I tell him this without proof, he’s either going to think I’ve completely lost it and put me on permanent leave, or he’s going to spiral back into that dark place. I won't do that to him. Not until we know what the hell is going on."

Steve sighed, the sound echoing in the small room. "So what's the plan? We just sit here and wait for more graffiti?"

"No. We investigate," you said, your mind finally clicking into a cold, analytical gear. "If it's happening here, it's happening elsewhere. The 'eyes'... I’ve felt them at the station, at the diner, and here. But there are places where the veil was thinner. Places that mattered to him."

You stood up, grabbing your jacket from the back of the chair. You felt a strange surge of adrenaline, the kind you hadn't felt since the nights spent in the tunnels. It was terrifying, yes, but it was also a relief. The mystery was better than the hollow silence of grief.

"You stay here," you told Steve, your tone leaving no room for argument. "You’re in charge of the school. Keep your ears open. Watch the kids—see if any of them are acting strange, or if they’re talking about seeing things in the halls. Check the rest of the gym, the locker rooms, even the basement if you can get the keys."

Steve stood up, looking worried. "Where are you going? You shouldn't be alone if... if whatever did that to the brick is still lurking around."

"I'm not alone," you said, glancing toward the empty corner of the office where the sensation of a presence was strongest. "I haven't been alone for weeks."

You headed for the door, pausing with your hand on the knob. You looked back at Steve, who looked like he wanted to stop you and follow you at the same time.

"I'm going to Skull Rock," you said.

Steve’s face went even paler. Skull Rock was where Eddie had hidden for sometime when the whole town was hunting him. It was the place where you had brought him food, where you had held him while he shook with fear and adrenaline, and where he had promised you that once this was over, he’d take you to see the ocean.

"Be careful," Steve warned, his voice barely a whisper.

"Careful doesn't live in Hawkins anymore, Steve," you replied.

You walked out of the office, the heavy gym door swinging shut behind you with a final, echoing thud. As you marched down the hallway toward the exit, the late afternoon shadows seemed to stretch toward you from the lockers, and the feeling of eyes on your back was so intense it felt like a hand resting firmly between your shoulder blades, guiding you toward the woods.

The school was empty now, the silence of the hallways vibrating with an unspoken secret. You didn't look back. You had a date with a ghost, and the sun was setting fast.

The sun dipped below the horizon, casting the halls of Hawkins High into a deep, bruised purple. Steve stood in the center of the old gym, the silence of the building pressing against his eardrums. He was a man who had faced down monsters from other dimensions, but the quiet of an empty school had never felt this heavy.

He didn't leave immediately after you drove off toward Skull Rock. He couldn't. He felt a strange, magnetic pull toward the places where the "freaks" used to hang out—the corners of the school that had been Eddie’s territory long before the world turned upside down.

Steve began a slow, methodical circuit of the building. He told himself he was just doing his job as a teacher, checking that the doors were locked and the lights were off. But in his hand, he gripped a heavy-duty screwdriver he’d pulled from the maintenance closet, his knuckles white.

He headed toward the back of the auditorium, a place where the drama kids and the rockers used to hide during pep rallies. The air here was stagnant, smelling of old velvet curtains and dust. He clicked on his flashlight, the beam sweeping over the wooden wainscoting.

Near the floor, tucked behind a stack of folded chairs, he found the first "bit."

It was a small, crude carving of a d20—the twenty-sided die that Eddie used to roll with such theatrical flair. It wasn't drawn with a pen; it was gouged into the dark wood. The edges were sharp and clean, looking as though they had been made by a narrow, triangular blade—the kind of tool a woodworker might use for fine detail, or perhaps something more primitive.

Steve knelt, running his thumb over the grooves. The wood was cold, unnervingly so. It didn't feel like a prank. It felt like an anchor.

He moved on to the cafeteria, the site of Eddie’s most famous "performances." He walked to the back corner, toward the table where the Hellfire Club used to sit. He crawled underneath the heavy laminate tabletop, his flashlight illuminating the underside.

Among the years of dried chewing gum and "Class of '84" scribbles, he found another mark. It was a tiny, perfect replica of the Hellfire Club logo—the grinning demon head. It was carved deep into the particle board, the tool marks showing a repetitive, obsessive digging. It was as if someone had spent hours in the dark, meticulously scratching at the wood until the image emerged.

There was no blood. No pulsing vines. Just the cold, hard evidence of a presence that refused to be forgotten.

By the time Steve reached the basement, the temperature had dropped so significantly he could see his own breath misting in the flashlight's beam. He pushed open the heavy steel door to the boiler room, the hinges screaming in the silence.

He moved toward the main support pillar of the building. He didn't know why he was looking there; he just felt a tug, a sense of direction that didn't belong to him.

On the concrete surface of the pillar, etched into the stone with what must have been immense physical strength, was a series of tallies. Four marks, then a diagonal line through them. Seven sets of tallies. Thirty-five days.

Thirty-five days since the "watched" feeling had started for you.

Next to the tallies was a final carving, smaller than the rest but more detailed. It was a silhouette of a van—the "Warhog." It was carved into the concrete with such force that the edges of the stone were crumbled and jagged. Whatever tool had been used—be it a blade or a something—it had treated the concrete like soft pine.

Steve stood back, his heart hammering a frantic rhythm. He felt the eyes then. Not the malevolent, hungry eyes of a Mind Flayer, but a gaze that felt heavy with a desperate, crushing loneliness. The air around him vibrated with a low, sub-harmonic hum, like the feedback of a guitar amp turned up to ten but with no one playing the strings.

"I see you," Steve whispered, his voice cracking in the freezing basement air. "I see what you're doing."

He didn't wait for a response. He turned and ran, the sound of his own footsteps echoing like a chase through the empty school.

Steve didn't stop until he was back in the safety of his BMW, the engine roaring to life as he peeled out of the parking lot. He drove home with the heater on full blast, but the chill in his bones wouldn't lift.

When he arrived at his house, the lights were all on, but the place felt cavernous and cold. He walked into the kitchen, his hands shaking as he poured himself a glass of water. He stared at the phone on the wall, wanting to call Hopper, wanting to call Dustin, wanting to call you—but he remembered your warning. Not until we know what the hell is going on.

He went into the living room and slumped onto the sofa, the same sofa where you had crashed just weeks before. He closed his eyes, trying to convince himself that the markings were just a sick joke by some kid who had heard the legends of Eddie Munson.

But then he felt it.

The temperature in the living room plummeted. The pilot light on the fireplace flickered and died.

Steve opened his eyes. He reached for the coffee table, fumbling for the lamp switch. As the light hummed to life, he saw it.

On the polished mahogany surface of his coffee table—the expensive one his mother had sent from their new house in Chicago—there was a fresh mark.

It was a small, carved signature. It wasn't a bunny. It wasn't a die. It was a single word, etched into the wood with a sharp, triangular precision that looked exactly like the work of a wood-carving tool.

STEVIE.

Only one person had ever called him that with that specific, mocking affection.

Steve stared at the word, his breath hitching. He looked up, scanning the dark corners of his living room. The "eyes" were there, watching from the hallway, watching from the kitchen, watching from the shadows of his own home.

He wasn't alone. He hadn't been alone since he left the school. He sat back, the weight of the discovery pressing him into the cushions, realizing that while you were out at Skull Rock looking for Eddie, Eddie—or whatever was left of him—had already followed Steve home.

The drive to the outskirts of town was silent, the hum of the engine the only thing keeping the crushing weight of the woods at bay. By the time you reached the trailhead, the sun had long since dipped below the horizon, leaving the forest in a state of deep, ink-black shadow.

Skull Rock had once been the premier hangout for the outcasts and the rebels of Hawkins. It was where cheap beer was chugged and secrets were traded under the cover of the canopy. But after the "earthquake" and the subsequent military lockdown, the hype had curdled. It was a place of bad omens now. The kids stayed away, preferring the neon safety of the downtown strip, leaving the rock to be reclaimed by the moss and the silence.

As you stepped out of the car, the air hit you—heavy, humid, and thick with the scent of decaying leaves. You gripped your heavy-duty flashlight, the beam cutting a lonely path through the gnarled oaks. Your boots crunched on the gravel, a sound that felt deafeningly loud in the stillness.

You hiked with a purpose, though you didn't truly know what you were looking for. You just knew that if Eddie was trying to reach out, he would start here. This was his sanctuary. This was where you had brought him ham sandwiches and stolen beers while the rest of the world called him a murderer.

When the massive, skull-shaped limestone formation finally loomed out of the darkness, it looked more like a tombstone than a rock. The "eyes" were on you instantly. The sensation was so overwhelming that you nearly stumbled, a prickle of heat blooming at the base of your skull. It didn't feel like a threat; it felt like an invitation.

"I'm here," you whispered, your voice swallowed by the trees.

You began to circle the base of the rock, your flashlight beam dancing over the gray stone. At first, there was nothing but old graffiti—faded spray paint from the late seventies and initials carved by couples who had probably already divorced.

You moved toward the small, sheltered alcove where Eddie used to hide his stash. You knelt down, the damp earth soaking into the knees of your jeans. You pushed aside a pile of dead leaves, expecting to find nothing but dirt.

Instead, your light caught on a flash of something.

You reached out, your fingers trembling as you pulled an object from the crevice. It was a guitar pick—black, heavy-duty, and worn down on one side from the aggressive way he used to shred. You held it to your palm, the plastic still holding a strange, lingering warmth that shouldn't have been possible in the cool night air.

You stood up, turning your attention to the face of the rock itself. You moved the light slowly, inch by inch, until it hit a section of stone that looked... different.

There, carved into the hard limestone about chest-high, was a series of symbols. They weren't scratched with a key or a pocketknife. They were deep, precise, and narrow, as if a master woodworker had used a fine-tipped chisel to gouge the stone.

The first was a perfect replica of a d20, the twenty-sided die showing a '1'.

A critical miss, you thought, a sob catching in your throat.

Below it was a small, unmistakable drawing of a guitar—his Warlock. The detail was haunting; you could even see the tiny, carved lines representing the strings.

But it was the final mark that broke you. It was a tiny, lopsided bunny with one ear flopped over, etched into the rock with a frantic, repetitive force that had left the stone around it slightly pulverized.

It was your nickname. It was his signature.

You leaned in closer, your nose nearly touching the stone. You examined the grooves. These weren't the jagged marks of a frantic person. They were clean, V-shaped channels. It looked like the work of a professional carving tool—a V-gouge or a parting tool used for intricate relief work.

But who would bring woodcarving tools out to Skull Rock in the middle of the night? And how could they carve into limestone with such ease?

You reached out to touch the bunny, and as your fingertip entered the groove, the "eyes" sensation peaked. The air around you didn't grow cold like it had for Steve; it grew charged. The hair on your arms stood up as static electricity crackled in the air.

Clack.

A small stone tumbled from the top of Skull Rock, bouncing off the ledge and landing at your feet.

You whipped the flashlight upward, the beam slicing through the dark. For a fleeting second, the light caught a reflection—two amber glints, like eyes reflecting in the dark, situated way too high up the rock to be a person standing on the ground.

"Eddie?" you cried out, the name tearing from your lungs.

There was no answer. Only the sound of the wind sighing through the trees and the heavy, rhythmic thrumming in your own ears. You looked back at the carvings. They were real. They were physical. They were a breadcrumb trail leading away from the world of the living.

You didn't find a person. You didn't find a monster. You found a message. And as you stood there in the dark, clutching the guitar pick, you realized that the "normal" life Hopper and Joyce wanted for you was officially over.

The investigation had moved from your mind to the physical world, and the carvings were the map.

The darkness at Skull Rock wasn't just an absence of light; it was a physical weight, a thick curtain that seemed to separate this patch of woods from the rest of the living world. After finding the carvings, the frantic, investigative energy that had pushed you up the trail began to bleed away, replaced by a hollow, aching exhaustion that settled deep into your marrow.

You clicked off your flashlight. The world vanished for a moment before your eyes adjusted to the pale, filtered starlight. The silence here was different than the silence at the police station. It wasn't empty; it was expectant. Moving like someone in a dream, you climbed up onto the flat shelf of the rock—the very spot where the bunny was etched into the stone—and sat down, pulling your knees to your chest.

"You wouldn't stop shaking," you whispered, your voice sounding small and fragile against the vastness of the trees.

A ghost of a smile touched your lips as the memory rose up, vivid and bright, cutting through the gloom of 1989. It was the summer of '85, a lifetime ago. This had been your third date. Eddie had acted like the king of the world all through dinner at the diner, regaling you with a play-by-play of his latest D&D campaign, but the moment he’d put the van in park up here, the bravado had vanished.

"You sat right there," you said, gesturing to the empty space on the ledge beside you. "You wouldn't stop fidgeting. You were wearing that rings-on-every-finger setup, and you kept clinking them together. Clink, clink, clink. It was driving me crazy. You kept starting sentences like you had this big, poetic speech prepared, and then you’d just... trail off and look at your boots."

You let out a soft, wet laugh, the sound catching in your throat.

"I remember thinking, 'Is he going to break up with me?' I thought I’d done something wrong, or maybe I wasn't 'metal' enough because I didn't know the lyrics to that Metallica song you liked. We sat here for two hours, Eddie. Two hours in the humidity, swatting mosquitoes, and you were too terrified to even brush your arm against mine."

You closed your eyes, and for a second, the cool September breeze felt like the phantom sensation of his hair brushing your cheek.

"I finally got so tired of the waiting," you choked out, a tear finally breaking free and trekking down your cheek. "I reached out and grabbed your vest—that ridiculous, patched-up denim vest—and I pulled you toward me. I didn't even give you a chance to finish whatever sentence you were mangling. I just kissed you."

A sob broke through your whisper. "And you were so shocked you actually let out this little squeak. Your eyes were wide, and you looked at me like I’d just performed a miracle. When you finally found your voice, you leaned your forehead against mine, breathless and grinning that crooked, beautiful grin, and you said, 'Well, Bunny... I think we are doing that again and again.'"

The memory felt so real it hurt. "We did it everywhere after that. In the hallways at school, in the back of the van, in the middle of the woods while everyone else was looking for monsters. You made me feel like the only person who mattered in a world that was falling apart."

You sat there for a long time, the tears flowing freely now, dripping onto the cold limestone, landing right on the carved bunny. You told the empty woods about the plans you’d made—how you were going to move to the coast, how he was going to buy you a house with a porch where you could sit and watch the sunset without fear. You talked until your throat was raw, until the grief felt like it had been laid bare on the altar of the rock

"I have to go," you whispered, wiping your eyes with the back of your hand. "Steve is waiting. And I... I don't know how to be here without you anymore. It hurts too much to talk to the air."

You stood up, your legs stiff and trembling. You reached into your pocket, your fingers brushing against the black guitar pick one last time for luck.

You stepped off the ledge, landing on the soft, pine-needle floor of the clearing. You reached for the flashlight on your belt, intent on finding the path back to the car before the darkness swallowed your resolve.

But you never turned the light on.

The "watched" sensation didn't just return; it surged with the force of a tidal wave. The air in the clearing became impossibly still, the wind dying instantly as if the forest itself had held its breath.

From the deep, impenetrable shadows of the tree line—not from the rock, but from the darkness of the woods—a figure began to emerge. It didn't walk; it drifted, the movements jerky and unnatural, yet hauntingly familiar.

As it stepped into the faint, silvery moonlight, you saw the gleam of long, blackened claws—sharp, organic points that looked like they had been forged from the very stone of the Upside Down. These were the tools that had carved the brick; these were the points that had etched your name into the earth.

The figure was draped in tattered denim, the fabric hanging in shreds over a frame that was far too thin. A shock of matted, dark hair fell across a face that was a pale, hollowed-out echo of the man you loved. But as he tilted his head, the moonlight caught his eyes. They weren't the cold, empty eyes of a monster. They were glowing with a faint, amber light, filled with a desperate, agonizing recognition.

He raised one hand—those terrifying, sharp claws glinting—and reached toward you, his fingers trembling with the same nervousness he'd had on your third date.

"Bunny?"

The voice wasn't a human sound; it was a rasping, distorted vibration that seemed to come from the ground itself, but the inflection—the way the word pitched up at the end—was unmistakably, heartbreakingly Eddie.

The world narrowed until it was nothing but the space between you and the figure standing at the edge of the moonlight. You didn't run. You didn't scream. You couldn't even breathe. Your heart felt like it had been seized by a cold hand, stuttering in your chest as your brain tried to reconcile the impossible image before you.

It was him.

Despite the tattered remains of his denim vest, despite the way his skin looked like pale marble under the stars, it was unmistakably Eddie. His hair was a wild, matted halo around his face, and his features were sharper, more sunken, as if the very essence of him had been carved away by the place he’d been trapped in. But the curve of his jaw, the slope of his nose—it was all there.

Then he opened his mouth to speak again, and you saw them. Fangs. Sharp, translucent points that caught the moonlight, looking less like a monster’s weapon and more like a cruel curse. His hands, hanging at his sides, ended in those long, dark claws—the tools that had been leaving you messages in the brick and wood of your life.

"Eddie?" you whispered.

The name felt heavy, like a stone dropping into a deep well. You didn't move. You stood frozen, your boots rooted into the pine needles, your eyes wide behind your glasses. You were terrified, yes, but the terror was being drowned out by a wave of recognition so powerful it made your knees weak.

He flinched when you said his name, a small, jerky movement that sent a shock of matted curls over his shoulder. He didn't look like a predator. He looked like a stray animal that had forgotten what it was like to be touched.

He stayed there for a moment, just watching you, his brown eyes glowing with a soft, pulsing amber light that seemed to beat in time with your own heart.

Slowly, tentatively, he began to move.

He didn't walk with the confident, theatrical stride he used to have. His movements were cautious, his weight shifting unevenly as he crossed the threshold of the clearing. Each step made the dry leaves crunch, a sound that felt like a heartbeat. As he got closer, the air around him grew colder, a localized frost that seemed to follow him like a shroud.

"You..." his voice came again, a broken, rasping sound that vibrated in your teeth. It was the sound of a voice that hadn't been used for anything but screaming for three years, yet the cadence was the same. The way he dragged out the vowel, the slight lilt of his "theatrical" tone—it was still Eddie. "You... stayed."

He stopped just a few feet away. Up close, you could see the scars on his neck from the bats, jagged silver lines that broke the pale smooth surface of his skin. The smell of him had changed, too; he no longer smelled of tobacco and cheap cologne. He smelled of ozone, damp earth, and a lingering, metallic scent of the woods after a storm.

He reached out one of those clawed hands. The movement was slow, agonizingly careful, as if he were afraid that if he moved too fast, you would vanish like the ghosts he’d clearly been chasing. His claws trembled in the air between you, the dark points glinting.

You stared at his hand, then up into his eyes. There was so much pain there, so much longing, that it eclipsed the fangs and the claws. This wasn't a monster that had replaced your boyfriend. This was your boyfriend, broken and reshaped by a nightmare, but still looking at you like you were the only solid thing in a world made of shadows.

He leaned in, his face entering the circle of your personal space. The cold radiating from him made you shiver, but you didn't pull back.

"Bunny," he breathed again, the word vibrating with a desperate, shaky relief. He moved his hand closer, his long, dark claws hovering just inches from your cheek, waiting for you to scream, waiting for you to run, waiting for the moment he would be alone again.

But you stayed. You stayed exactly where you were, your breath hitching as you looked into the amber glow of his eyes, waiting for the touch you had spent three years mourning.

The silence of the woods was no longer empty; it was vibrating with the presence of a man who had been a ghost in your heart for three long years. Your brain was screaming a thousand warnings—about the fangs, the cold, the claws that could open a person up with a flick of the wrist—but your heart was louder. It was a roar in your ears, a singular command to bridge the gap that death had created.

You took a step forward. Then another.

The movement was slow, deliberate. You watched as Eddie’s amber eyes widened, the pupils contracting as he tracked your every move. When you reached out, your hand trembling so violently it was a wonder you could aim, he flinched. It was a sharp, animalistic jerk of his head, his shoulders hunching as if he expected a blow. It was the reaction of someone who had spent an eternity being hunted, or perhaps being the hunter.

"It's me," you whispered, your voice thick with tears. "It's just me, Eddie."

You didn't let his flinch stop you. You reached through the localized chill that surrounded him and finally, finally, cupped his face.

His skin was deathly cold, like marble left out in a winter storm, but underneath the frost, there was a faint, rhythmic thrum—a heartbeat that was slow and heavy. Eddie’s eyes fluttered shut at the touch. He didn't settle immediately; he leaned into your palm with a desperate, shaky sigh, his own clawed hands hovering near your waist as if he wanted to hold you but was terrified of his own strength.

"How?" you breathed, your thumb tracing the sharp line of his cheekbone. "Eddie, how are you here?"

He opened his eyes, and for a moment, the amber glow dimmed, replaced by a deep, hollow sorrow. He began to speak, the words coming in fits and starts, his voice sounding like dry leaves skittering over pavement.

"The bats..." he started, his gaze flickering toward the dark canopy. "I remember the pain. God, the pain was everywhere. And then... the dark. I thought I was dead. I was dead, Bunny. But the dark in that place... it doesn't let things go."

He shivered, a violent tremor that shook his entire frame. "I woke up in the abyss. It wasn't the Upside Down you saw. It was deeper. Empty. He was there. The one with the vines... Vecna. He found me. He didn't want a general. He wanted a ghost. Someone who knew the town. Someone who could move through the shadows without being sensed."

His claws twitched, scraping against the denim of his vest. "He changed me. Fed me things I don't want to remember. For a long time, I wasn't... I wasn't Eddie. I was a pair of eyes in the dark. I watched the station. I watched the school. He used me to spy, to see if the gates were really closed, to see if the girl with the powers was still a threat."

You listened in horrified silence, your hands still cradling his face as if you could hold his soul together.

"But then," he whispered, a spark of the old Eddie flickering in his eyes. "Something happened. A massive surge of light. It felt like the world was screaming. Vecna... he vanished. The tether just... snapped. It was like waking up from a fever that lasted a hundred years. I was me again. But I wasn't the same. Look at me."

He gestured to his fangs, his claws, the tattered remains of the boy he used to be. "I was terrified. I spent weeks in the woods, hiding. I watched you from the trees, Bunny. I watched you at the station, looking so tired... so sad. I wanted to run to you, but look at me. I'm a freak. A real one this time. I thought you’d moved on. I thought you’d seen the news, called me a murderer, and found someone... someone normal. Like Harrington."

A small, sad huff of a laugh escaped him. "So I just watched. I stayed in the corners. I carved those things because I couldn't help it. I needed you to know I was there, even if I was too much of a coward to let you see what I'd become. I just wanted to protect you from the things that might still be lurking. Until tonight."

He leaned his forehead against yours, the cold of his skin meeting the heat of your tears. "You came here. You talked to the air. You remembered the date. I couldn't stay in the dark anymore. Not after that."

You pulled him closer, ignoring the sharp edges of his new reality. "I never moved on, Eddie. I never even tried."

The woods around you seemed to grow stiller, the "eyes" sensation finally fading into a feeling of absolute, singular focus. You were standing at Skull Rock with a man who had returned from the grave, and as the moon climbed higher, you realized that the story hadn't ended in the trailer park—it was just beginning a new, darker chapter.

While you were standing in the eye of a supernatural storm at Skull Rock, the rest of the world was still ticking away in a frantic, neon-lit panic.

In his small apartment, Steve Harrington was pacing a literal trench into his carpet. He had the phone cord stretched to its absolute limit, the receiver pressed so hard against his ear that it was leaving a red mark. He had called your place ten times in the last hour. Each time, it went straight to the rhythmic, mechanical drone of the busy signal—or worse, just rang and rang into the empty air of your apartment.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up," he muttered, his thumb twitching over the hook.

He didn't know your phone was sitting on your kitchen counter, stone-dead, the battery drained by a day of frantic coordination and the strange, localized static that seemed to follow the "eyes." To Steve, the silence was a death sentence. In Hawkins, silence never meant someone was sleeping; it meant they were gone.

He grabbed his denim jacket and his keys, not even bothering to lock the door behind him. He took the stairs three at a time, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird.

His BMW screamed as he pulled out of the complex, the tires smoking on the asphalt. He drove to your apartment first, his mind racing through every worst-case scenario. He imagined the front door kicked in; he imagined the "eyes" finally becoming teeth; he imagined finding another carving, one that signaled the end.

When he arrived, he didn't even park properly, leaving the car idling at the curb. He pounded on your door, his shouts echoing through the quiet hallway. "Hey! It’s Steve! Open up!"

Nothing.

He tried the handle. Locked. He peered through the window, seeing your phone lying lifeless on the counter. The apartment looked exactly as you’d left it—normal, quiet, and terrifyingly empty. There were no signs of a struggle, but there was no sign of life either.

"Skull Rock," he breathed, the realization hitting him like a physical blow. "She actually went to Skull Rock."

The drive to the outskirts of town was a blur of black trees and silver moonlight. Steve drove like a madman, his knuckles white on the steering wheel. He kept thinking about the carving in the gym—the way the brick had been scooped out like soft clay. He thought about the cold in the basement. Whatever was out there wasn't just a ghost; it was physical, and it was strong.

As he reached the trailhead, he saw your car parked haphazardly on the shoulder. It was empty, the hood still warm to the touch.

"Dammit," he hissed, grabbing the heavy wooden bat from his backseat—the one he’d kept since the tunnels, the one that felt right in his hand. He didn't have a high-powered flashlight, just a small, flickering plastic one he kept in the glove box.

He plunged into the woods. The trail was a labyrinth of roots and low-hanging branches that clawed at his face. Every snap of a twig sounded like a footstep. The air grew colder the deeper he went, that bone-deep, unnatural chill that had followed him from the school. It was thicker here, smelling of damp earth and something sharp, like the smell of a storm about to break.

"Please be okay," he whispered, his breath misting in the air. "Please just be sitting there being stubborn."

As he rounded the final bend that led to the clearing of Skull Rock, he slowed down, clicking off his flashlight. He didn't want to announce his presence to whatever was lurking in the dark. He moved with a quietness he’d learned through years of survival, his boots barely making a sound on the pine needles.

The clearing opened up before him, bathed in the eerie, silvery light of the September moon.

He saw you first. You were standing near the base of the rock, your back to the trail. You weren't running. You weren't screaming. You were leaning forward, your hands raised as if you were reaching for something in the air.

And then his eyes adjusted to the shadows.

Steve’s blood turned to ice. He saw the figure standing in front of you. It was tall, draped in tattered dark fabric and shredded denim, its silhouette jagged and wrong. He saw the pale, marble-white skin and the long, dark claws that were hovering dangerously close to your face. He saw the shock of wild hair and the amber glow of eyes that looked like burning embers in the dark.

From Steve’s perspective, it looked like a predator cornering its prey. He didn't see the tenderness in your posture; he saw the monster that had been carving up his school and his house.

He gripped the bat, his vision narrowing with a protective, desperate rage. He didn't think about the physics of it; he didn't think about the fact that the "monster" looked like his dead friend. He only saw you in danger.

"Get away from her!" Steve screamed, his voice shattering the silence of the woods.

He charged out of the tree line, the bat swung back over his shoulder, the heavy wood whistling through the air as he lunged toward the figure that held your heart in its clawed hands.

The moment Steve’s scream tore through the clearing, the air seemed to shatter. Eddie’s reaction wasn't human; it was a blur of instinctual, predatory speed. Before you could even cry out a warning, Eddie had spun around, his body uncoiling like a spring.

Steve lunged, swinging the heavy wooden bat with every ounce of terror and protective rage he had left. The wood whistled through the air, aimed squarely at the side of the figure's head.

Crack.

The sound wasn't the impact of wood on bone. It was the sound of Eddie’s clawed hand snapping shut around the barrel of the bat.

Steve gasped, the momentum of his swing nearly jerking his arms out of their sockets. He stared in absolute horror. Eddie hadn't flinched. He hadn't even moved his feet. He had simply reached out and caught the bat mid-air, his long, dark claws digging deep into the grain of the wood. The force of the grip was so immense that the ash wood began to groan and splinter under his fingers.

Eddie didn't lunge back. He didn't snarl. He just stood there, his amber eyes glowing with a fierce, startled light, holding the bat steady while Steve struggled at the other end of it like a fish on a hook.

"Steve, stop!" you screamed, throwing yourself forward.

You scrambled between them, shoving your body into the narrow space between Steve’s chest and Eddie’s outstretched arm. You pressed your hands flat against Steve’s heaving chest, feeling his heart hammering a frantic, terrified rhythm.

"Steve, look at him! Look at him!" you cried, your voice cracking with desperation.

"Get back! Get away from it!" Steve yelled, his face pale and slick with sweat. He tried to yank the bat back, but it was like trying to pull a mountain. "It’s a monster! It’s the thing from the school!"

"It’s not a thing!" You turned your head, looking back at Eddie. He was staring at Steve, a flicker of that old, sarcastic amusement warring with the hollow sadness in his eyes. He slowly released his grip on the bat, retracting his claws from the mangled wood.

"Harrington," Eddie rasped, the name sounding like grinding stones. "Still swinging... the same old... club. You ever think about... a career change?"

The bat slipped from Steve’s hands, clattering onto the pine needles. Steve stumbled back, his knees hitting the dirt. He stared up at the figure—the tattered denim, the fangs, the marble-white skin, and those unmistakable, wild curls.

"Eddie?" Steve whispered, his voice failing him. "No. No way. You died. I saw you. Dustin saw you. We... we left you there."

"Hard to kill... a Munson," Eddie replied, his knees buckling slightly as the adrenaline of the confrontation faded. He leaned back against the rough surface of Skull Rock, his chest heaving under the shredded vest. "Takes more than... a few bats... to keep me down. Apparently."

You knelt down, grabbing Steve’s shoulders to keep him grounded. "It’s him, Steve. I don't know how, and I don't know what they did to him, but it’s really him. He’s been watching us. He’s been protecting us."

Steve looked from you to the creature leaning against the rock, then down at the deep gouges his claws had left in the baseball bat. The reality of the situation began to settle over him—the carvings, the cold, the feeling of being watched. It wasn't a new war. it was a rescue mission three years in the making.

"Jesus H. Christ," Steve breathed, wiping a hand across his eyes. He looked up at Eddie, a shaky, hysterical laugh escaping his throat. "You look like hell, man."

Eddie’s fangs glinted as his lips curled into a faint, ghostly version of his old grin. "And you... still use... too much... hairspray, Stevie. I could smell you... from the trailhead."

You reached out, taking one of Steve’s hands and one of Eddie’s cold, clawed ones, bringing them together in the moonlight. The "eyes" were gone now, replaced by the heavy, breathing reality of the three of you. The world was still broken, and the future was a terrifying blur of questions, but for the first time in three years, the silence in Hawkins didn't feel like a grave.

"We have to get him out of here," you said, looking at the two men who had defined your life. "Before the sun comes up and people see him."

The drive back from the trailhead was the longest fifteen minutes of your life. The forest seemed to lean in, the trees standing like silent sentinels as you navigated the winding backroads.

In your passenger seat, Eddie sat hunched over, his long limbs folded awkwardly into the cramped space. He kept his clawed hands tucked into the sleeves of his tattered denim vest, staring out the window at the passing landscape with a look of profound disorientation. Every streetlamp you passed made him flinch, the sudden intrusion of artificial light causing his amber eyes to pulse with a low, nervous glow.

Behind you, the familiar twin orbs of Steve’s BMW headlights trailed closely. He was driving with a focus that bordered on manic, his knuckles likely white on the wheel. You could see him in your rearview mirror, his face a mask of disbelief and lingering adrenaline.

Your apartment sat on the very edge of Hawkins, a quiet complex backed up against a dense patch of woods. It was the perfect place for someone who didn't want to be noticed. You pulled into the shadows of the furthest parking spot, killed the engine, and turned to Eddie.

"We have to be fast," you whispered. "The neighbors... they don't stay up late, but we can't take risks."

Eddie looked at you, his chest heaving under the shredded fabric. "My apartment... the trailer... it’s gone, isn't it?"

"It’s gone, Eddie," you said softly, reaching out to squeeze his cold hand. "But this is home now. Come on."

The three of you moved like ghosts. Steve met you at the car, his baseball bat tucked under his arm as if he were still expecting a fight. He took Eddie’s other side, supporting the man’s weight as you navigated the stairs. Eddie moved with a strange, liquid grace, but he was clearly exhausted—the strain of existing in this world after three years in the abyss was taking its toll.

Once inside, you bolted the door and leaned against it, the click of the lock sounding like a finality.

Steve let out a breath he seemed to have been holding since Skull Rock. He paced the small living room, looking at Eddie, then at you, then back at Eddie. "Okay. Okay. He’s here. He’s in the kitchen. Eddie Munson is sitting in your kitchen and he’s... he’s got fangs. We’re doing this. This is happening."

Eddie had slumped into one of your wooden kitchen chairs, his claws scraping softly against the table—the same table where you had sat crying

over his old high school photos just months before. He looked around your apartment, his gaze lingering on a small framed photo of the two of you from the '85 Christmas fair.

"Nice place, Bunny," he rasped, his voice a bit stronger now that he was out of the wind. "Bit more... upscale... than the van."

You moved into the kitchen, grabbing a clean towel and a bowl of warm water. You knelt in front of him, gently taking his hand. Up close, the transformation was even more heartbreaking. His skin wasn't just pale; it was translucent, showing the faint, dark veins beneath.

"Steve, get some water. And maybe that bottle of whiskey from the cabinet," you directed, not looking away from Eddie.

Steve moved to comply, his movements jerky. He poured the drinks with shaking hands, sliding a glass toward Eddie. Eddie picked it up with two fingers, his claws clicking against the glass, and sniffed it. He didn't drink. He just held the scent in his lungs, closing his eyes.

"I can't believe it," Steve whispered, leaning against the counter. "How did you stay hidden? Hopper’s been all over those woods. The military did sweeps for months."

"I wasn't... entirely here," Eddie explained, his eyes still closed. "It was like... the Upside Down was a layer of skin I couldn't shed. I could see the world, but I couldn't touch it. Not until the gate truly died. Then I just... fell through. Into the dirt. I’ve been living in the shadows of the old tunnels. Eating things... I don't want to talk about."

You began to gently wipe the grime from his face, your hand steady despite the chaos in your mind. Eddie leaned into the touch, a low, purring sound vibrating in his chest—a sound that wasn't human but was deeply, purely comforted.

"What do we do now?" Steve asked, looking at the two of you. "We can't keep him here forever. Hopper’s going to notice you're not at work. And if someone sees him..."

"He stays here," you said firmly, looking Steve in the eye. "Until he’s stronger. Until we figure out if there’s a way to... to fix this. Or at least how to live with it."

Eddie looked at you, his amber eyes searching yours. "You don't have to do this, Bunny. I’m a monster. You saw what I did to the bat. I’m not... I’m not the guy who took you to the prom."

"You didn't take me to the prom, Eddie. You took me to a Black Sabbath cover band in a basement," you reminded him with a watery smile. You stood up, cupping his face once more, ignoring the sharp cold of his skin. "And I don't care about the claws. Or the fangs. You’re Eddie. You’re my Eddie. And you’re home."

Eddie let out a shaky breath, his forehead dropping against your shoulder. Steve watched from the counter, his expression a mix of awe and lingering fear, finally setting the bat down on the floor.

The "eyes" were gone. The silence was back. But this time, it was the silence of a house that was no longer empty.

The morning sun filtered through the thin curtains of your apartment, casting a pale, dusty light across the living room. It was a stark contrast to the heavy, supernatural fog of the night before. Steve was sprawled on the couch, his long legs hanging over the armrest, snoring softly with his hand still gripping the handle of the baseball bat.

In the spare room, Eddie had refused to even touch the bed. He’d spent the night curled in the far corner on the hardwood floor, terrified that a restless movement in his sleep would send those obsidian claws through the mattress—or worse, through you.

When the smell of coffee finally began to drift through the hall, the apartment stirred. Steve sat up with a groan, rubbing his neck, while the door to the spare room creaked open just an inch. Eddie’s amber eyes peered through the crack, looking haunted in the daylight.

"Okay," Steve said, leaning over the kitchen table after three cups of black coffee. "We can’t keep him a secret from Hopper. Jim is a bloodhound; if you don't show up for your shift and I’m missing from the school, he’s going to have a search party out by noon. And if he finds Eddie without warning... he's going to pull his service weapon first and ask questions never."

You looked at Eddie, who was sitting on the floor by the radiator, his knees pulled to his chest. He looked so small, despite the lethality of his hands. "He's right, Eddie. We need the Chief. He’s seen enough to know that 'dead' doesn't always mean gone in this town."

"I'll go," Steve volunteered, standing up and grabbing his keys. "I’ll head to the cabin. I can talk to him and Joyce in private. Joyce is the key—she’s got the softest heart for the lost causes. If she’s on board, Hopper will follow. I’ll tell them we found a... 'survivor' from the old days. I won't lead with the fangs."

"Be careful, Steve," you warned.

"Always am," he lied with a quick, reassuring wink. "Keep the door locked. Don't let anyone in. I'll be back as soon as I can."

As the sound of Steve’s BMW faded down the street, the apartment fell into a heavy, suffocating silence.

You turned to the kitchen, intent on making something for Eddie. You didn't know what a displaced, shadow-warped man-turned-creature ate, but your instinct was to provide. You started frying some bacon, the sizzle filling the quiet room.

"Eddie? I’m making food. I don't know if you can eat 'normal' stuff, but we have to try, right?"

There was no answer.

You turned around, a plate in your hand, and froze. Eddie wasn't by the radiator anymore. He was standing in the doorway of the kitchen, his posture low, almost animalistic. His pupils were blown wide, swallowing the amber of his irises until his eyes were two bottomless black pits.

He wasn't looking at the bacon.

The air in the kitchen suddenly turned frigid. You could see your breath misting in front of your face. Eddie’s nose twitched, his nostrils flaring as he took a deep, shuddering breath. To him, the smell of the bacon was distant—a background noise. What he was truly smelling was the thrumming life beneath your skin. He could hear the heavy, rhythmic beat of your heart, the rush of warm blood through your jugular, and the sweet, salt-scented heat of your pulse.

To a man who had spent three years in a starving abyss, you didn't just look like the girl he loved. You smelled like a feast.

"Eddie?" you whispered, your voice trembling. "Hey, look at me. It’s Bunny. It’s me."

He took a step forward, his claws clicking rhythmically against the linoleum. A low, guttural growl vibrated in his chest—a sound of pure, agonizing hunger. His fangs elongated, gleaming white against his pale lips.

He moved with a sudden, blur-like speed, pinning you against the counter before you could even drop the plate. His cold, marble-white hands didn't claw at you, but they gripped your shoulders with terrifying strength, trapping you. He buried his face in the crook of your neck, his breath ice-cold against your skin.

You could feel the sharp points of his fangs brushing against your pulse point. He was shaking, a violent, full-body tremor. He was fighting himself, the man battling the predator, his teeth grazing the skin of your throat as he let out a strangled, whimpering sound.

"Eddie, stop," you gasped, not out of fear, but out of a desperate need to bring him back. You reached up, ignoring the way his claws were digging into your shoulders, and cupped the back of his head, pulling his matted curls into your fingers. "I’m right here. I’ve got you. Don't let it take you, Eddie. Come back to me."

He froze, his fangs mere millimeters from breaking the skin. The kitchen was silent save for your rapid breathing and the sizzle of the forgotten bacon on the stove.

The tremor in Eddie’s body was so violent it felt like he might shatter. His fangs were a cold pressure against your jugular, the sharpest of warnings, but then—with a sound that was half-sob and half-snarl—he tore himself away.

He stumbled back, his boots slipping on the linoleum, until he hit the opposite wall. He slumped down, his head in his clawed hands, the dark points of his fingers digging into his own scalp.

"God," he gasped, the word coming out like a rasp of sandpaper. "God, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Bunny. I didn't—I couldn't—"

"Eddie, breathe," you said, your voice shaking as you set the plate of bacon down with a clatter. Your pulse was still hammering against your skin where his teeth had just been, the heat of your own blood feeling like a beacon in the cold kitchen.

He looked up, and the black had receded from his eyes, leaving the amber clouded with tears of pure shame. "I’ve been... I’ve been hunting in the woods," he confessed, his voice cracking. "Small things. Rabbits, deer... whatever I could catch. It was the only way to make the noise in my head stop. The only way to feel like I wasn't fading away into nothing."

He looked at his hands, at the lethal claws that had just pinned you down. A look of horror crossed his face. "I can't be here. I'm going to hurt you. It’s not a choice, it’s a... it's a hunger. It’s like a bell ringing in my skull and I can’t turn it off. I have to go back to the woods. I have to leave before Steve gets back."

He started to push himself up, his movements frantic and clumsy. "I'll stay in the shadows. I'll watch you from the trees, like before. That was safer. This isn't safe."

"No," you said, stepping forward and blocking his path to the door. "No, Eddie. You are not going back to those woods. You are not going back to being a ghost."

"You don't understand!" he shouted, his fangs flashing again. "I almost killed you just now! I smelled your heart beating and I forgot who I was! I forgot everything but the red!"

"Then take it," you said, your voice suddenly, impossibly calm.

The room went still. Eddie froze, his hand halfway to the doorknob. He stared at you as if you’d just spoken in a forgotten language. "What?"

"Take it," you repeated. You walked toward him, closing the distance until you were standing right in his space. You reached up and pulled the collar of your shirt to the side, exposing the pale, vulnerable line of your throat and the steady, rhythmic thrum of the vein beneath. "I just got you back, Eddie Munson. I spent three years mourning a man the world called a monster. I’m not letting you walk back into the dark because you’re afraid of what you’ve become."

"Bunny, don't," he whispered, his eyes darting to your neck and then back to your face, his resolve crumbling. "I'll hurt you. I don't know how to stop."

"I trust you," you said, and you meant it. You reached out, taking his clawed hands in yours, the sharp points biting slightly into your palms, but you didn't flinch. "You’ve been fighting Vecna for three years. You’ve been fighting the abyss. You can fight this. But you need to be strong enough to do it. Take what you need. Just... stay."

Eddie let out a broken, keening sound—a noise of pure, raw grief and love. He didn't pounce this time. He moved slowly, his hands coming up to cradle your waist with a tenderness that made your heart ache. He leaned in, his nose brushing against your skin, inhaling the scent of you one more time.

"I love you," he murmured against your skin, the words a promise and a prayer.

When he finally leaned in, it wasn't the frantic strike of a predator. It was slow, a sharp, cold sting that made your breath hitch. You felt a strange, lightheaded warmth spread through your chest as he fed, a connection that felt deeper than anything you’d ever known. You ran your fingers through his matted hair, holding him close, anchoring him to the world of the living.

You were his anchor. And as the morning sun climbed higher, you knew that no matter what Hopper or the rest of the world said, you would keep him in the light, claws and all.

The drive to the cabin was a blur of frantic thoughts and the rhythmic thwack-thwack of the windshield wipers clearing the morning dew. Steve gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles looked like white marble.

Every time he closed his eyes, he saw those obsidian claws catching his bat—the sheer, impossible strength of a man who should have been bones and dust in the Upside Down.

The cabin looked peaceful, tucked away in the dense woods, but for Steve, it felt like a fortress he was about to breach with a grenade made of the truth. He parked the BMW, the engine ticking as it cooled, and sat there for a second. He checked his hair in the rearview mirror—a reflex that even a resurrected Eddie Munson couldn't kill—and then grabbed the mangled baseball bat from the passenger seat.

He needed proof. And the deep, V-shaped gouges in the ash wood were the only evidence he had.

Inside, the cabin smelled of woodsmoke and Joyce’s breakfast. Hopper was at the small table, hunched over a plate of eggs, his sheriff’s hat resting on a side chair. Joyce was at the stove, humming to herself, the picture of a woman finally at peace.

The screen door creaked as Steve stepped inside. Both of them looked up, and the peace in the room evaporated instantly.

"Steve?" Joyce asked, her brow furrowing as she saw his pale face. "What are you doing here? Jim said you were taking the day off."

Hopper didn't say a word at first. He just looked at Steve, then down at the bat in Steve’s hand. His eyes narrowed, the "Chief" persona snapping into place like a loaded holster. "Harrington. You look like you’ve been chased by a ghost. What happened?"

Steve walked over and dropped the bat onto the wooden table with a heavy thud. The eggs on Hopper’s plate rattled.

"I found him," Steve said, his voice cracking. "We found him. At Skull Rock."

Hopper stood up slowly, his chair scraping against the floorboards. "Found who? Be specific, Steve."

"Eddie," Steve whispered. "Eddie Munson. He’s back."

The silence that followed was deafening. Joyce turned off the stove, her hands trembling as she wiped them on her apron. "Steve... honey... Eddie died. We all saw what happened. Dustin... he was there. You can’t just—"

"I’m not crazy, Joyce!" Steve shouted, then immediately winced, lowering his voice. "Look at the bat. Look at the marks. Those aren't from a knife. Those are from claws. He caught my swing mid-air like it was a toy."

Hopper picked up the bat, his large fingers tracing the deep, clean grooves in the wood. He’d seen a lot of things in the last decade—demogorgons, mind flayers, Russian laboratories—but the look on his face now was one of pure, grounded disbelief. "Claws? Steve, if this is some kind of sick joke..."

"It’s not a joke, Jim," Steve insisted, leaning over the table. "He’s at the apartment. With her. He’s... he’s changed. He’s pale as a sheet, he’s got these fangs, and he’s cold. Like, ice-cube cold. But he’s Eddie. He knew my name. He mocked my hair. He’s in there somewhere."

Joyce walked over, her eyes wide with a mix of horror and a strange, maternal hope. "Is he okay? Is she safe with him?"

"She wouldn't leave him," Steve said, shaking his head. "He tried to run. He told us he’s a monster, that Vecna used him as a spy in the abyss for three years. But she wouldn't let him go. She’s protecting him."

Hopper rubbed his jaw, his mind clearly racing through the legal and tactical nightmares this presented. "A spy? You’re telling me Munson has been lurking in the shadows of this town for three years, watching us? Watching the station?"

"He didn't have a choice, Jim," Steve defended, surprising even himself with how quickly he’d moved to Eddie’s side. "The spell broke when El finished Vecna. He’s been hiding ever since because he’s terrified of what he is. He’s been eating what he can in the woods just to survive."

Hopper reached for his hat, his face set in a grim mask. "If he’s what you say he is, Steve... if he’s been 'changed' by that place... he’s a danger. To her, to the town, to himself."

"He loves her," Joyce said suddenly, her voice firm. She looked at Hopper, her eyes fierce. "Jim, think about it. If Bob had come back—if he had come back changed, different, but it was still him—would you have pointed a gun at him?"

Hopper paused, the hat halfway to his head. The tension in the room was thick enough to cut. He looked at the mangled bat, then at Joyce, and finally at Steve.

"Where is he?" Hopper asked, his voice a low rumble.

"At her place," Steve replied. "But you have to promise. No guns. No 'containment.' If you scare him, I don't know what he'll do. He's fast, Jim. Faster than anything I've ever seen."

Hopper sighed, a long, weary sound that signaled his surrender to the weirdness of Hawkins once again. "Fine. No guns. For now. But if he so much as scratches her, Harrington, I don't care if he’s a ghost or a god—I’m putting him down."

"He won't," Steve said, though the image of Eddie’s amber eyes made him shiver. "He’d die for her. Again."

As they moved toward the door, the weight of the new reality settled over them. The war wasn't over; it had just moved into a small apartment on the edge of town, where a girl was holding onto a monster, trying to find the man inside.

The rumble of the Blazer’s engine died just outside your window, followed by the synchronized thud of heavy car doors. The air in the apartment shifted instantly. Eddie didn’t just hear them; he felt them. His head snapped toward the door, his body tensing into a lean, alert crouch that reminded you he wasn't quite the boy who had left Hawkins High.

"They're here," he rasped. His voice was clearer, but the underlying vibration of it made the glassware on your counter hum.

"Stay behind me," you whispered, though you knew how ridiculous that sounded given his strength. "Let me do the talking."

The knock on the door was heavy—the signature authority of Jim Hopper. You took a deep breath, checked that your hair was covering the faint marks on your neck, and turned the deadbolt.

The door swung open to reveal a grim-faced Hopper, his hand hovering near his belt, and a wide-eyed Joyce, who looked as if she were prepared to either scream or faint. Steve was right behind them, clutching his mangled bat like a security blanket.

As they stepped into the entryway, the silence was absolute. Hopper’s eyes swept the room, landing squarely on Eddie, who was standing by the kitchen table.

Eddie didn't look like the shredded, clawed nightmare Steve had described. He looked… coherent. His skin was pale, yes, but the deathly grey was gone. He looked like a man who had finally come in from a long, cold night.

"Jesus," Hopper breathed, his voice dropping an octave. He didn't pull his gun, but he didn't move any closer either. "Munson."

Joyce let out a small, choked sound, her hands flying to her mouth. "Eddie? Is that… is it really you?"

Eddie stood his ground, though his fingers twitched at his sides. He gave a small, jerky nod. "Chief. Mrs. Byers. Long time… no see."

Steve pushed past Hopper, his eyes bugging out as he looked at Eddie’s hands—the claws were gone, replaced by normal, if slightly sharp-looking, fingernails. Steve looked at the plate of bacon on the counter, then back at Eddie.

"Wait," Steve stammered, pointing a finger. "Where are the… the things? The claws? You were literally shredding wood last night, man. How do you look so… human?"

You stepped into the gap, your voice steady. "He’s been eating, Steve. He just needed real food and a roof over his head. He’s had some bacon, some water… it’s amazing what a little bit of care can do."

Steve blinked, looking at the half-empty plate of bacon. "Bacon? You’re telling me Smithfield’s finest is the cure for whatever the hell happened to you in the Upside Down?"

"It helps," Eddie said, his eyes flickering toward you with a silent, profound gratitude. He didn't mention the hunger. He didn't mention the heat of the pulse. He just stood there, looking at his old life reflected in the eyes of the people who had buried him.

Hopper walked forward, his heavy boots thudding on the carpet until he was standing a mere three feet from Eddie. He was nearly a head taller, and the tension between them was palpable. Hopper reached out, not for his handcuffs, but to grab Eddie’s shoulder. He squeezed, hard, as if checking to see if his hand would pass through a ghost.

Eddie winced but didn't pull away. He was solid. He was warm.

"How the hell are you breathing, kid?" Hopper asked, his voice thick with a mix of wonder and the frustration of a man who hated things he couldn't explain. "We saw the body. We saw what those things did to you. There wasn't a heartbeat left in that trailer."

"I don't think I was breathing for a while, Chief," Eddie admitted, his amber eyes locked on Hopper’s. "But I’m breathing now. El… she did something when she ended it. She broke the ceiling of that place. I just crawled out of the rubble."

Joyce moved then, bypassing Hopper entirely. She wrapped her arms around Eddie in a fierce, maternal hug. He froze for a split second—the cold of the abyss meeting the warmth of a mother’s love—and then he slowly, awkwardly, wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm so sorry, Eddie," Joyce sobbed into his tattered vest. "I'm so sorry we left you there."

"It's okay, Joyce," Eddie whispered, his fangs catching the light as he spoke, though no one seemed to want to point them out yet. "Bunny found me. She brought me back."

You looked at the group—the broken, makeshift family that Hawkins had forged in the fire. They weren't questioning the science or the fangs or the impossible recovery. They were simply looking at a boy who had been lost and found.

"He's staying here," you said, your voice leaving no room for debate. "He's safe here."

Hopper looked at you, then at the man who had been a fugitive and a hero. He let out a long, weary sigh and tipped his hat back. "Well. I guess I’d better go figure out how to explain to the county why a dead man is suddenly living in your guest room. This is going to be a hell of a lot of paperwork."

The chaos of the day had finally ebbed away, leaving a ringing silence in its wake. Hopper had spent hours pacing your living room, muttering about "witness protection protocols" and "unexplained survival cases" before finally heading out with a promise to keep the patrols away from your block. Joyce had left a mountain of leftovers in the fridge, and Steve—after one last lingering, bewildered look at Eddie—had finally retreated to his own apartment, exhausted and still clutching his mangled bat.

Now, it was just the two of you.

The apartment was bathed in the soft, warm glow of a single lamp in the corner. The hum of the refrigerator felt loud in the stillness. Eddie was sitting on the edge of the sofa, his elbows on his knees, staring at his hands. They were human hands now—no claws, no jagged points—just the hands of a guitar player, though his skin still possessed that preternatural, marble-like smoothness.

You walked over and sat down beside him, the cushions dipping under your weight. The localized chill that had surrounded him all day had mellowed into something more like a cool breeze on a summer night.

"They're gone," you whispered. "It's just us."

Eddie turned his head toward you. The amber in his eyes was soft, glowing with the steady light of a hearth rather than a wildfire. Without the pressure of being watched by the Chief or questioned by Steve, he looked younger. He looked like the Eddie who used to sneak into your window at two in the morning just to tell you he’d figured out the bridge to a new song.

"I still can't believe it," he said, his voice a low, clear melody. "I spent three years thinking the only people I’d ever see again were the ones screaming in the dark. And now... I’m sitting on a couch. In an apartment. With a girl who didn't forget me."

He reached out, his fingers hesitating for a fraction of a second before he tucked a loose strand of hair behind your ear. His touch was light, but his gaze immediately dropped to your neck. Even with your hair covering the spot, he knew what was there. He knew what you had given him.

"Does it hurt?" he asked, his voice thick with a guilt he couldn't quite shake.

"No," you said truthfully, reaching up to cover his hand with yours. "It’s just... warm. It feels like a connection, Eddie. Like I’m finally sharing the weight of what happened to you."

He let out a shaky breath, leaning forward until his forehead rested against your shoulder. He wasn't the monster that had lunged at you in the kitchen; he was just a man trying to find his footing in a world that had moved on without him.

"I felt it today," he murmured against your shirt. "When you told them I was eating bacon. I saw the way you lied for me. The way you stood in front of me like a shield. You’ve been doing that for three years, haven't you? Defending the memory of a guy everyone else wanted to be the villain."

"I knew who you were," you said, running your fingers through his matted, dark curls. "I never cared what the papers said. I knew my Eddie was still out there somewhere."

Eddie pulled back just enough to look you in the eyes. He reached down and pulled the black guitar pick from his pocket—the one you had found at Skull Rock and given back to him before Steve arrived. He turned it over in his fingers, the plastic clicking against his thumbnail.

"I’m never leaving again," he vowed, his fangs catching the light as he spoke with a fierce, quiet intensity. "I don't know what I am now, or how I’m supposed to live in a town that thinks I’m a ghost, but as long as you're here, I’m not going back to the shadows."

He leaned in, and this time, there was no hunger. There was no cold. There was only the soft, familiar pressure of his lips against yours. It was a kiss that tasted of salt and home, a bridge built across three years of silence and blood.

When he pulled back, he had that crooked, beautiful grin—the one that made his eyes crinkle at the corners. It was the first real smile you’d seen on him since 1986.

"So," he whispered, his thumb tracing the line of your jaw. "Since I'm officially 'not dead'... what are the chances we can find a radio that plays something other than Tears for Fears? I think I’ve missed about three years of decent metal."

You laughed, a bright, genuine sound that seemed to chase the last of the shadows out of the corners of the room. You leaned your head against his chest, listening to the slow, steady rhythm of the heart you had helped restart.

The world outside was still Hawkins. There were still questions to answer, secrets to keep, and a future to build out of the wreckage of the past. But as the moon rose over the edge of the woods, you knew the "eyes" were no longer watching from the dark. They were right here, looking at you with a love that had survived the end of the world.

The legal battle to clear Eddie’s name had been a whirlwind of red tape, clandestine meetings in Hopper’s office, and a fair amount of "creative" paperwork filed by the state. With the Upside Down officially a matter of classified history and the "earthquake" being the official cover, Hopper had pulled every string he had. Between his testimony and the fact that the "fugitive" had been technically dead for three years, the county finally dropped the charges. Eddie Munson was no longer a murderer; he was a survivor of a national tragedy.

But legal exoneration meant nothing compared to the weight of the phone call sitting on your kitchen table.

Eddie had spent the last week slowly reclaiming his humanity. He’d showered until the smell of the abyss was replaced by your shampoo; he’d trimmed his hair just enough to see his eyes clearly again; and he’d spent hours sitting on your balcony at night, watching the moon. He was still pale, and his diet was... unconventional, but he was starting to look like the man who had graduated high school with a defiant middle finger to the world.

"You ready?" you asked, resting your hand on his shoulder.

Eddie stared at the piece of paper where Hopper had scribbled a phone number. It was for a small apartment complex in a town two counties over. Wayne Munson had moved there six months after the "earthquake," unable to bear the sight of the trailer park or the stares of neighbors who thought his nephew was a devil worshipper.

"I don't know," Eddie rasped, his fingers twitching. He looked at his hands—human now, the claws a distant memory of his starving state. "What do I say? 'Hey, Uncle Wayne, sorry I missed the last three years of holidays, I was busy being a shadow-spy for a lich'?"

"You say you're alive," you said softly. "That’s all he’s ever wanted to hear."

Eddie took a deep breath, his chest expanding under a clean Metallica shirt you’d tracked down at a thrift store. He picked up the receiver and dialed the number with a shaking finger. You sat beside him, your heart hammering in your chest, listening to the rhythmic brrrr-ring of the line.

On the fourth ring, a tired, gravelly voice picked up. "Hello?"

Eddie froze. The sound of his uncle’s voice seemed to hit him like a physical blow. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He looked at you, eyes wide and panicked.

"Wayne?" you prompted quietly, nodding for Eddie to continue.

"Wayne?" Eddie finally whispered, his voice cracking.

There was a long, heavy silence on the other end of the line. You could hear the faint sound of a television in the background—a game show or the news. Then, the sound of a chair scraping.

"Who is this?" Wayne asked, his voice guarded, suspicious. "If this is a prank, you've got a cruel streak, kid."

"It's not a prank, Wayne," Eddie said, his voice gaining strength, the familiar lilt returning through the tears. "It’s... it’s the guy who always forgot to take the trash out. It’s the guy who owes you about a thousand bucks in back rent."

The sound that came from the other end of the line wasn't a word. It was a sharp, strangled gasp, followed by the clatter of the phone being dropped and then quickly scrambled for.

"Eddie?" Wayne’s voice was a ragged sob now. "Eddie? Is that... how? They told me... I saw the woods, son. I saw the news."

"I got lost, Wayne," Eddie said, tears streaming down his face, fangs glinting in the light but his expression pure, raw love. "I got really, really lost. But I found my way back. I’m at her place. I’m with the Bunny."

"I'm coming," Wayne choked out. "I don't care if I have to drive through a hurricane. Don't you move. Don't you dare go anywhere, Edward."

"I'm not going anywhere, Uncle Wayne," Eddie promised. "I'm home."

He hung up the phone and slumped against you, his forehead resting on your shoulder. He was shaking, a release of three years of grief and isolation finally pouring out of him. You held him tight, feeling the slow, steady thrum of his heart—a heart that was finally beating for the future instead of just surviving the past.

Wayne arrived three hours later. He didn't even knock; he practically threw himself through the door. The reunion was a blur of tears, crushed denim, and the kind of hugging that made ribs groan. Wayne didn't care about the paleness or the fangs or the weird chill in the air. He just held onto his nephew like he was afraid the universe would try to snatch him back if he let go.

Later that night, after Wayne had finally fallen asleep on your guest bed, exhausted by the emotional upheaval, you and Eddie stood on the balcony. The air was cool, the scent of autumn beginning to settle into the soil.

"He didn't even ask," Eddie whispered, looking out at the lights of Hawkins. "He just saw me."

"Because he loves you," you said, leaning your head on his shoulder. "Just like Steve. Just like Hopper. Just like me."

Eddie turned to you, the amber in his eyes glowing with a peace you hadn't seen since the world broke. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his guitar pick, flipping it between his fingers.

"I think I'm ready to play again," he said. "Nothing loud. Just... something for us."

You smiled, pulling him into a kiss that tasted like a beginning. The "eyes" were long gone, replaced by the gaze of a town that was finally starting to heal, and a man who had finally found his way out of the dark.

The weekend was a quiet, sacred pocket of time. Wayne didn’t ask for explanations about the fangs or why Eddie’s skin felt like it had been kept in a freezer; he spent the two days simply existing in the same room as his nephew. They sat on the balcony, Wayne nursing a beer and Eddie watching the birds, rediscovering the rhythm of a life that didn't involve hiding in the dirt.

When Sunday afternoon rolled around and Wayne finally had to head back to his new place, the goodbye was heavy but no longer a tragedy.

"You keep that phone line open, Edward," Wayne said, gripping Eddie’s shoulder with a hand that still shook slightly. He then turned to you, his eyes brimming with a gratitude that went beyond words. "And you... you take care of him. I think you're the only thing that kept him tethered to this world."

"I will, Wayne. I promise," you said, watching as the old man’s truck pulled out of the parking lot.

Eddie stood in the doorway for a long time after he left, looking a little lost. The house felt too quiet. "Well," Eddie sighed, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Back to being a kept man, I guess. What’s the plan for tonight? More reruns of Magnum P.I.?"

"Actually," you said, picking up the phone, "I have a delivery coming."

Eddie quirked an eyebrow. "Delivery? Please tell me it’s not more bacon. I’m starting to feel like a pig."

"Just wait," you smiled.

You dialed Steve’s number. He picked up on the first ring—he’d been checking in every few hours like a nervous older brother. "Hey, it's me. Wayne’s gone. Is it ready?"

"Yeah," Steve’s voice crackled. "I’ve been keeping it in the back of the BMW. I’ll be there in ten."

Eddie watched you hang up, his head tilted in that bird-like way he had when he was curious. "What the hell are you talking about, Bunny? What’s Harrington dropping off? If it’s a gym membership, tell him I’ll bite him."

"Just trust me," you said, sitting on the sofa and patting the spot next to you.

Ten minutes later, there was a sharp, rhythmic knock at the door. You opened it to find Steve looking winded, holding a heavy, hardshell guitar case. He stepped inside, his eyes darting to Eddie, who was standing warily by the kitchen counter.

"Here," Steve said, thudding the case down on the coffee table. He looked at Eddie and pointed a stern finger. "Don't piss the neighbors off, Munson. I’m the one who has to answer to Hopper if there are noise complaints."

"What is that?" Eddie asked, his voice barely a whisper. He moved toward the table as Steve made his exit with a quick wave.

"Open it," you urged.

Eddie knelt on the floor. His fingers, now human and nimble again, flicked the metal latches. The sound of the clicks echoed in the room. He slowly lifted the lid, and the breath left his lungs in a sharp, jagged hiss.

Nestled in the velvet lining was the B.C. Rich Warlock. The black finish gleamed under your living room lights, the aggressive, pointed edges looking just as lethal as they had three years ago.

"No," Eddie breathed, his hand hovering over the strings but not yet daring to touch them. "No, this... I lost this. I left it on top of the trailer. In the Upside Down. I watched the bats swarm it. I thought it was gone. Just like everything else."

He looked up at you, his amber eyes shimmering with a sudden, overwhelming emotion. "How? How is it here?"

"The night it happened," you said softly, kneeling beside him. "After the gates closed and the military moved in... they were dragging us all out of the area. But I wouldn't leave. Not without something of yours. I ran back to the trailer before they cordoned it off. I found it lying in the dirt. I think it fell off the roof when the world started shaking."

You reached out, tracing the headstock. "I’ve kept it under my bed for three years, Eddie. I cleaned the red dust off it. I changed the strings every few months because I couldn't stand the thought of them snapping while you were gone. I told myself that if I kept it ready, you’d have to come back to play it."

Eddie reached down and finally touched the wood. He picked up the guitar, the weight of it settling against his chest like a long-lost limb. He ran his fingers over the frets, his sharp nails clicking softly against the neck.

He struck a single chord—a deep, resonant G power chord that vibrated through the floorboards and into your very bones. The sound was clean, loud, and defiant.

Eddie closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the sofa, a tear escaping and trailing down his pale cheek. He didn't look like a monster or a spy or a victim of the abyss anymore. He just looked like Eddie.

"It’s still in tune," he whispered, a broken, beautiful laugh escaping him.

"I told you," you said, leaning your head against his shoulder as the final hum of the chord faded into the room. "I never gave up on you."

Eddie shifted the guitar, his fingers beginning to dance over the strings in a slow, melodic riff—not the heavy thrash of Metallica, but something softer, something new. "Well, Bunny," he murmured, his fangs catching the light as he smiled. "I guess it’s time to show this neighborhood what they’ve been missing."

The late September sun was streaming through the apartment windows, catching the dust motes dancing in the air. Over the last few weeks, this small space had become a world of its own—a sanctuary where the impossible had become the mundane. You had settled into a rhythm that felt both fragile and fiercely precious.

The feeding had evolved into a quiet, almost sacred exchange. It was no longer a moment of panic; it was a deep, shared pulse that left you slightly lightheaded and him looking more vibrant, his skin losing that greyish hue of the abyss. During the day, while you were at the station, Eddie sat at your small kitchen table, surrounded by GED prep books and highlighters. He had replaced his frantic carvings with notes on American history and algebra formulas, his sharpened nails clicking rhythmically against the table as he focused on a future he never thought he'd have.

But today, something was different. Eddie was standing by the door, wearing a clean, oversized black hoodie and his favorite worn jeans. He was staring at the deadbolt, his shoulders tense.

"I think I’m ready," he said, his voice now a clear, resonant baritone. "To go out. Not just to the balcony to watch the cars. To actually... walk on the sidewalk. Like a person."

You stopped mid-movement, your heart fluttering against your ribs. You knew this day was coming, but the reality of it felt like stepping off a cliff.

You walked over to him, gently placing your hand on his arm.

"Eddie, wait," you said softly. "Before we open that door, we need to talk."

Eddie flinched slightly, his amber eyes darting to yours, wide and instantly clouded with a familiar, jagged anxiety. "Talk? Usually, when people say 'we need to talk,' it involves a suitcase and a 'it's not you, it's me' speech. Am I... am I too much, Bunny? Is the fridge-raiding and the weird eyes starting to wear thin?"

"Eddie, breathe," you said, reaching up to cup his jaw, your thumb stroking the pale skin just below his ear. "Just breathe. It’s nothing like that. I’m not going anywhere."

He let out a shaky, rattling breath, leaning his forehead against yours. The localized chill around him softened. "Okay. Talk. I'm breathing. Mostly."

"I haven't told the kids," you whispered, the weight of the secret finally coming to the surface. "I haven't told any of them that you’re back. I wanted you to have this time. I wanted you to find your feet before the whirlwind of the others descended on this place."

Eddie nodded slowly, his fingers nervously tracing the hem of his hoodie. "Yeah. The party is... they're a lot of energy. I don't know if I’m 'Level 20 Paladin' energy yet."

"But," you continued, "Dustin is already at Purdue. He’s been gone for weeks, Eddie. And Mike’s mom is still in town, and rumors are starting to swirl because Hopper can’t hide a 'resurrendered' man forever. People are going to start seeing you. But Dustin... Dustin deserves to know. He deserves to know before anyone else. He was the one who stayed with you. He was the one who held you."

Eddie’s gaze dropped to the floor, his expression crumbling into a look of profound, raw guilt. "He cried. The last thing I heard before the dark took me was that kid’s voice, screaming my name."

"He never stopped loving you," you said firmly. "And he deserves to know his heart was right. He deserves to see that his hero came home."

Eddie looked back up, the amber in his eyes glowing with a mixture of fear and a desperate, hopeful light. He took a shaky breath and gestured toward the phone on the kitchen wall. "Okay. You're right. Let's... let's call him. Let's get the screaming over with. I'll call the dorm."

"No," you said, stepping in front of the door, blocking his path to the phone. "We aren't going to call him, Eddie. He deserves more than a voice on a wire. He deserves to see you're solid. He deserves to see you're real."

Eddie blinked, his fangs catching slightly on his lower lip. "You want our first walk... our first time out in the world... to be a road trip to West Lafayette?"

"I think it's the only way to start," you said, reaching out to take his hand, your fingers interlacing with his. "We aren't hiding anymore. We’re getting in the car, and we’re going to find him. We start with the person who never gave up on you."

Eddie looked at the door, then back at you, a slow, determined nod finally breaking through his fear. The "eyes" of the town didn't matter. Only the eyes of the boy who had loved him like a brother did.

"Okay," he whispered, his grip tightening on your hand. "Let's go find the kid."

The Winnebago hummed as it cut through the endless Indiana flatlands, the interior smelling of stale coffee and the lingering scent of Steve’s expensive cologne. It was a slower, heavier ride than the BMW, but the "War Zone" on wheels felt like a moving fortress. Steve was perched in the captain’s chair, one hand lazy on the massive steering wheel, while you sat at the small kitchenette table, watching Eddie.

Eddie was curled up on one of the benches, his knees pulled to his chest. He looked small against the backdrop of the rugged interior—the very place where they had prepared for a battle that felt like an eternity ago. He ran his fingers over the wood of the table, his amber eyes tracing the scuffs and dents in the laminate.

"So," Steve said, glancing back at the two of you over his shoulder. "I talked to the kid. Told him we were making the trek down to Purdue because we had 'big news.' You should have seen him. He went into a total tailspin."

Eddie shifted, his fingers picking at the hem of his hoodie. "Yeah? What’d he say?"

Steve snorted, a lopsided grin appearing in the rearview mirror. "He was convinced that you and I finally got together. He was like, 'Steve, if you’re coming down here just to tell me you’re dating my sister-figure, you could have used a stamp.' I had to swear to him on my hair that wasn't it. I told him it was something better, but I didn't give him a name. I didn't want him passing out in the middle of a lecture."

Eddie didn't laugh. His gaze drifted to the window, the glow of his eyes dimming as his mind drifted back to the night the world ended.

"He begged me not to go," Eddie whispered, the sound barely audible over the rumble of the Winnebago’s engine. "The night of the attack. We were in the trailer... you were there, Bunny. You were holding the door. I played that set on the roof... it was the best I ever sounded. I felt like a god for ten minutes."

He looked at his hands, the sharp points of his nails digging into his palms.

"And then the bats came. Dustin... he was screaming for me to stay. He was crying, telling me it wasn't my fight. But I couldn't run. Not again. I remember the way he looked at me when I told him to go. It’s the last clear thing I have. His face, covered in soot, just... breaking."

The silence that followed was heavy, filled with the ghosts of '86. Steve cleared his throat, his expression softening as he looked at the road ahead.

"He never stopped loving you, Eddie," Steve said, his voice unusually steady. "He carried that shield around for a year. He talked about you every single day. You weren't just a guy who went to high school with us; you were one of his best friends. You were my friend, even if I was too much of a jock-head to say it back then."

Steve paused, a chuckle bubbling up in his chest. "And man, you should have seen his graduation. He really was your protégé."

Eddie looked up, a spark of curiosity breaking through the gloom. "What do you mean?"

"The kid actually did it," Steve laughed, shaking his head. "He wore your rings under his gown, sure. But when they called his name, he didn't just walk across the stage. He got to the middle, looked the Principal dead in the eye, and gave him the double birds. He did a full-on theatrical bow and ran off the stage before they could even grab the diploma."

Steve glanced back, a grin lighting up his face. "Exactly like you said you were gonna do back in '86. He did it for you, man. The whole class went wild, and then he just disappeared into the parking lot like a legend."

A shocked, breathless laugh escaped Eddie’s throat—a sound of pure, raw relief that seemed to chase away the last of the shadows. He leaned his head back against the cushion, his fangs glinting as he smiled wide for the first time in the trip.

"The double birds?" Eddie murmured, his eyes shimmering with a mix of pride and tears. "Kid always did have a flair for the dramatic. I guess he really was listening."

"He was always listening, Eddie," you said, reaching across the table to squeeze his hand.

The tension in the Winnebago began to melt away, replaced by a quiet, determined hope. The road to West Lafayette was still long, but as the engine roared and the sun dipped lower, Eddie looked less like a ghost and more like a man ready to see his brother.

The massive Winnebago rumbled through the collegiate streets of West Lafayette, looking entirely out of place among the small sedans and bicycles of Purdue’s campus. Steve navigated the beast into the far corner of a dormitory parking lot, tucked away behind a row of towering oaks where the shadows were long and the foot traffic was thin.

As the engine groaned to a halt, the silence that followed was deafening.

"Okay," Steve said, unbuckling his seatbelt and turning around to face the back. "Game plan. Eddie, you stay in the back room—curtains closed, door shut. I will get him in here, ease him into the 'big news' talk, and make sure he doesn't have a literal pulmonary embolism before he sees you."

Eddie gave a shaky nod, his hands disappearing into the sleeves of his hoodie. "Yeah. Ease him in. Don't lead with 'Hey, the guy you saw die in a hell-dimension is currently hiding near your bathroom.' Good plan, Stevie."

Steve grabbed his jacket, giving you a quick, meaningful look. "I’m going to find his dorm. Keep the door locked until you hear my voice. I’ll be back with the kid in ten."

With the click of the heavy door, Steve was gone, leaving you and Eddie alone in the dim, quiet interior of the van. Eddie was vibrating with nerves, his amber eyes darting toward the back bedroom. He looked like he wanted to bolt.

"Eddie, breathe," you said, standing up and moving toward him. "You’re shaking."

"I'm fine," he lied, his fangs clicking against his lower lip. "I'm just... I'm hungry, Bunny. The nerves, the drive... it’s like my system is burning through everything."

You looked at the back door of the Winnebago, then back at him. You knew he needed to be steady for what was coming. You didn't say a word; you simply reached up, swept your hair over your shoulder, and tilted your head, offering yourself to him in the quiet of the shadows.

"A snack," you whispered with a small, encouraging smile. "For luck."

Eddie didn't argue this time. He moved to you with that liquid, silent grace, his hands steady as he pulled you close. It was a brief, controlled exchange—a grounding heat that settled his tremors and cleared the fog of anxiety from his mind. When he pulled back, the amber in his eyes was vivid and focused. He looked strong. He looked real.

Suddenly, the distant sound of Steve’s boisterous voice drifted through the parking lot, followed by the unmistakable, high-pitched chatter of Dustin Henderson.

"I’m telling you, Steve, if this is a prank, I’m changing the locks on my dorm!" Dustin’s voice was getting closer.

Eddie’s eyes went wide. "That's him," he hissed, a mixture of terror and joy lighting up his face.

"Go! Hide!" you urged, giving him a gentle shove toward the back room.

Eddie scrambled into the small bedroom, pulling the curtain shut just as the handle of the Winnebago turned. You smoothed your hair over the marks on your neck, took a deep breath, and stood in the center of the van, waiting for the door to open on the rest of your lives.

The heavy door of the Winnebago clicked shut, sealing the four of you into the cramped, wood-paneled interior. The afternoon sun outside was bright, but inside the "War Zone," the shadows were long and smelled of old upholstery and the iron-scented tension radiating off Steve.

Dustin Henderson didn't just walk into a room; he occupied it. He was practically vibrating, his eyes darting between you and Steve with the frantic energy of a radar dish trying to lock onto a signal.

"Okay! Okay, I’m here! I’m in the van! The top-secret, heavily-fortified, mystery-mobile!" Dustin clapped his hands, hopping onto one of the bench seats. He looked at you, his grin wide and expectant. "Buns! You look... well, you look like you’ve seen a ghost, but you’re here! And Steve—Steve, buddy, the hair is looking surprisingly aerodynamic today despite the obvious stress of whatever 'news' you’re carrying."

Steve leaned against the door, his arms crossed over his chest, his expression caught somewhere between a grimace and a panic attack.

"Dustin, just... take a seat. Sit. Relax."

"I am sitting! I am relaxed! I’m a paragon of chill!" Dustin shouted, his voice jumping an octave. He leaned forward, his analytical brain already whirring at a thousand miles per hour. "So! Let’s break it down. You drive three hours. You don't call. You use the Winnebago instead of the BMW, which means you needed 'stealth' or 'cargo space.' I’ve run the simulations, and honestly? It’s about time. It’s been years of tension. You and Steve? Finally a thing? Because let’s be real, Buns deserves a win, and Steve... well, Steve’s okay for a jock."

"Dustin," you started, your heart hammering against your ribs. "It’s not—"

"Oh, don't 'It’s not' me!" Dustin cut you off, his hands flying through the air. "It’s the only logical conclusion! Unless... oh god. Oh no. Is someone dying? Is it Hopper? Is it the dog? Is there another gate? If there's another gate and you waited until I had a Midterm in Calculus to tell me, I’m going to lose my mind!"

"Nobody is dying!" Steve interjected, his voice rising.

"Then what?!" Dustin was standing up now, pacing the three feet of floor space available. "If nobody is dating and nobody is dying, then why the secrecy? Why the Winnebago? Wait..." He stopped dead, his eyes widening into saucers as he looked at your waist, then back to your face. His voice hit a frequency that probably made every dog on campus howl. "OH MY GOD. YOU’RE PREGNANT! Steve, you absolute moron, you—"

"I AM NOT PREGNANT!" you yelled, your face flushing a deep, hot crimson. "Dustin, shut up for five seconds!"

"BUT THE LOGIC!" Dustin shrieked, his arms flailing. "The secrecy! The face-to-face meeting! If you aren't carrying a Harrington-heir, then why am I here? Is it a cult? Did you join a cult? Is that why you're so pale? Are you guys in 'The Source' now? Do I need to call Murray?!"

"Dustin, please, just listen!" you tried, but he was in a full-blown Henderson-spiral.

"I can't listen! The air is thick with mystery and Steve's anxiety sweat! If you aren't pregnant and you aren't in a cult, then what is so big that you couldn't use a payphone? Is it about 1986? Did they find a body? Are they trying to pin more stuff on Eddie? Because I will go to the Supreme Court! I will—"

In the back bedroom, behind the thin floral curtain, Eddie Munson was reaching his limit. He had been standing in the dark, listening to Dustin’s high-pitched motor-mouth for ten minutes. He could hear the kid’s heart racing—thump-thump, thump-thump—and the pure, chaotic love in every word. But the mention of the "body" and the "Supreme Court" snapped his patience like a dry twig.

The curtain didn't just slide open; it was ripped back with a sharp, violent snap of the rings.

"Henderson! Shut! Up!"

The voice didn't sound like a human one. It was a deep, resonant growl that vibrated through the floorboards and into the very marrow of Dustin’s bones.

Eddie stepped out of the shadows.

He looked like a nightmare and a miracle all at once. The amber in his eyes was glowing with a fierce, pulsing light, and his fangs were fully visible as he snarled at the boy he’d died for. He was pale—marble-white—and the way he stood was different, more predatory, more powerful. But it was him.

Dustin froze. The silence that followed was so absolute it felt like the Winnebago had been dropped into a vacuum.

Dustin’s hands stayed mid-air, frozen in his frantic gesture about the Supreme Court. His mouth remained open, the next word of his rant dying in his throat. He stared up at the figure—at the wild, dark curls, the denim vest that Dustin himself had worn for a year as a shroud, and the face that had haunted every one of his dreams since that night in the trailer.

Eddie didn't move. He stood there, his chest heaving, his eyes locked on Dustin. The anger in his expression softened instantly, replaced by a raw, agonizing vulnerability.

"You always did... talk too much, kid," Eddie rasped, his voice trembling now, the theatrical bite giving way to the man beneath.

Dustin’s knees buckled. He didn't fall; he just sort of sank into the bench seat, his eyes never leaving Eddie’s face. His breath came in a ragged, shallow hitch, a sound that was half-sob and half-gasp. He looked at the fangs, then the eyes, then the hands—the hands that were now reaching out toward him, fingers trembling.

Dustin’s voice was a whisper, a tiny, broken sound that carried the weight of three years of mourning.

"Eddie."

The silence inside the Winnebago was no longer empty; it was pressurized, a heavy, suffocating atmosphere that made the very air feel thick. Dustin remained frozen on the bench, his eyes wide and fixed, reflecting the faint amber glow emanating from Eddie’s pupils. The motor-mouth, the theories, the frantic energy—it had all vanished, replaced by a haunting, hollow stillness.

Dustin wasn't just looking at Eddie; he was looking through him, his mind violently catapulted back to the floor of that trailer in the Upside Down. He could feel it again—the sticky, iron-scent of blood coating his hands, the deafening screech of the demobats, and the way Eddie’s weight had gone from a struggling, fighting force to a terrifying, leaden stillness. He remembered the exact moment the light had left those eyes, leaving behind a version of Eddie that was cold and silent.

"Dustin? Hey, talk to us, buddy," Steve said, his voice tentative. He stepped forward, reaching out a hand toward the boy’s shoulder, but Dustin didn't even flinch. He didn't see Steve. He didn't see you.

"Dustin, it's okay," you whispered, your own throat tight. "He's real. We found him. Just... talk to him."

Eddie stayed rooted to the spot near the kitchenette. He looked down at the kid, his posture losing its predatory edge, replaced by a deep, aching sadness. He saw the way Dustin’s hands were shaking—not just a tremor, but a violent, rhythmic vibration.

Slowly, as if moving through deep water, Dustin stood up. His movements were jerky, uncoordinated. He walked the two steps across the linoleum, his eyes never leaving Eddie’s. He reached out a hand, his fingers splayed, and touched the denim of Eddie’s vest. His hand slid upward, his palm finally pressing flat against Eddie’s shoulder.

The moment he felt the solid, firm muscle beneath the fabric—the moment he felt the faint, rhythmic hum of a heart that was actually beating—the dam broke.

Dustin didn't just cry; he shattered. He collapsed forward, his forehead thudding against Eddie’s chest, his fingers bunching into the fabric of the hoodie with a desperate, white-knuckled grip. A loud, broken wail tore from his lungs—a sound of three years of repressed agony finally finding an exit.

"I don't understand," Dustin sobbed, the words muffled against Eddie’s chest. "I don't... I don't understand. I held you, Eddie. I held you until you were gone. I waited... I waited for you to breathe, and you didn't. You didn't breathe!"

Eddie didn't hesitate. He wrapped his arms around the boy, his long fingers splayed across Dustin’s back. He pulled him in tight, his chin resting on top of Dustin’s curly hair, closing his eyes as a single, silver tear tracked down his own pale cheek.

"I know, Henderson," Eddie rasped, his voice thick and wavering. "I know. I'm sorry. God, I'm so sorry I left you there."

"You were dead!" Dustin screamed, pulling back just enough to look at him, his face a mess of tears and snot, his expression one of pure, agonizing confusion. "I watched them... I watched the life go out of you! I carried your shield! I gave your rings to Wayne! How are you standing here? How are you warm?"

Eddie tried to find the words. He looked at the fangs, then at the glowing amber in his own reflection in the window, but the explanation felt like ashes in his mouth. "The dark... it didn't want me to stay dead, kid. Vecna... he brought me back for something else. Something bad. I was lost in the abyss for a long time. I was a ghost. I was a spy. I didn't even know who I was until the light came back."

"I don't care!" Dustin choked out, a hysterical, wet laugh bubbling up through his sobs. "I don't care if you're a ghost. I don't care if you're a spy. I don't even care about the fangs, Eddie! You're here. You're actually, physically here."

Dustin reached up, his hands shaking as he cupped Eddie’s face, his thumbs brushing over the marble-white skin. He was looking at Eddie with a mixture of reverence and heartbreak, the joy of the miracle warring with the trauma of the memory. He looked at the fangs again, his scientific brain finally sparking to life through the grief. "You... you're like a vampire? A real-life, D&D-style Strigoi? Is that why you're so pale? Is that why she looks like she's been donating to the Red Cross every daily?"

Eddie let out a short, surprised laugh, the sound bright and clear in the quiet van. "Trust you to jump straight to the stat blocks, Henderson. Yeah. Something like that. A little more 'shadow-warped' than your average Dracula, but the fangs are definitely permanent."

Dustin just nodded, a fresh wave of tears spilling over. He didn't ask about the logistics. He didn't ask about the danger. He just leaned back in, burying his face in Eddie’s shoulder again, his breathing finally beginning to slow into long, hitching sighs.

"Don't go back," Dustin whispered, his voice small and terrified. "Please. Don't go back to the dark. I can't... I can't do it a second time, Eddie. I really can't."

Eddie tightened his grip, his eyes meeting yours over Dustin’s shoulder. The amber was fierce, a vow written in light. "I’m not going anywhere, kid. I promise. I'm never not doing that again."

You and Steve stood back, the weight of the moment pressing down on you both. The secret was out. The family was whole. And as the sun began to set over the Purdue campus, the Winnebago felt less like a hideout and more like a home.

The interior of the Winnebago felt smaller now, crowded with the weight of the story that needed to be told. Dustin eventually pulled away from Eddie, though he kept one hand firmly gripped on the sleeve of Eddie’s hoodie, as if he expected the man to dissolve into smoke the moment he let go.

"Sit," Steve commanded, his voice softer than usual. He gestured to the small dinette set.

The four of you huddled around the cramped table. Eddie sat in the middle, looking like a king in exile, his amber eyes reflecting the dim overhead light of the van. Dustin sat opposite him, his face blotchy and tear-stained, but his eyes were sharp now—the scientist was waking up, looking for data points in the impossible.

"Start from the beginning," Dustin whispered. "From the moment I went through the gate."

Eddie took a deep breath, the sound slightly more hollow than a normal human’s. He told him everything. He spoke about the cold that wasn't just temperature, but a physical absence of life. He described waking up in the "Abyss"—a place deeper and darker than the Upside Down they knew.

"I was a thrall, Henderson," Eddie said, his fingers tracing a scratch in the laminate table. "Vecna... he didn't just want me dead. He wanted a piece of Hawkins he could control. He kept me in a state of 'not-quite.' I was a shadow. I moved through the woods, through the vents of the school... watching. I saw you at the memorial, kid. I saw you leave the shield."

Dustin’s breath hitched. "You were there? You were right there and you didn't say anything?"

"I couldn't," Eddie rasped. "I wasn't me yet. It was like watching a movie of my own life from behind a thick pane of glass. It wasn't until the light hit—until El did whatever she did—that the glass shattered. I crawled out of the woods near Skull Rock."

You filled in the rest—finding the carvings, the night at the rock, the realization that he needed a specific kind of "sustenance" to stay grounded in the physical world. Dustin listened with rapt attention, his eyes darting to your neck occasionally, his brow furrowed in a mix of clinical curiosity and deep, protective concern.

"So the human blood... it’s like a tether?" Dustin asked, his voice regaining its academic clip. "It stabilizes your molecular structure against the shadow-warp? That's... that's incredible. Horrifying, obviously, and very stressful for her iron levels, but incredible."

Eddie laughed, a real, melodic sound. "Always the optimist, Henderson."

By the time the full story was laid out, the sun had vanished completely, leaving the parking lot bathed in the orange glow of the campus streetlights. The heavy atmosphere of the reunion began to shift into a strange, manic hunger—the kind that follows a brush with death.

"Okay," Steve said, clapping his hands together. "Emotions are at a ten, but my stomach is at a zero. We need food. Real, greasy, midwestern college food. And we are not eating it in this van."

"There’s a Triple XXX Family Restaurant not far from here," Dustin said, wiping his face with his sleeve. "It’s famous. Root beer, massive burgers... and they have the 'Duane Purvis'—it’s a burger with peanut butter on it."

Eddie’s nose crinkled. "Peanut butter on a burger? See, this is why I didn't come back for three years. You guys have lost your minds."

"Don't knock it 'til you try it, Munson," Steve challenged, heading for the driver's seat.

The drive was short, and the scene at the restaurant was total chaos. Because it was late, the crowd was thin, allowing the four of you to tuck into a large, corner booth. Steve and Dustin ordered enough food to feed an entire D&D campaign.

When the trays arrived, it was a mess of grease, napkins, and laughter. Dustin was mid-bite into a burger, peanut butter smeared on his cheek, explaining a complex physics theory to Eddie, who was picking at a pile of fries and sipping a thick, dark root beer that mimicked the weight of what he usually craved.

"And then," Dustin muffled through a mouthful of beef, "Professor Miller tried to tell me that the multi-verse theory was 'speculative.' I almost pulled out my notebook from the '86 gate incident just to shut him up!"

"Please tell me you didn't," Eddie chuckled, leaning back, looking more relaxed than you’d ever seen him.

"I didn't! I stayed cool! Mostly!"

You sat next to Eddie, your shoulder pressed against his. Every now and then, he would reach under the table and squeeze your hand, his skin feeling warmer, his presence feeling more permanent with every passing hour.

Watching them—Steve arguing with Dustin about the best way to eat a curly fry, and Eddie actually smiling, his fangs peeking out without fear—you realized that the nightmare hadn't just ended. It had been transformed. You were in a bright, loud restaurant in the middle of Indiana, and for the first time in three years, the ghosts were finally quiet.

"Hey, Henderson," Eddie said, tossing a fry at Dustin’s forehead. "You still got those rings?"

Dustin reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, velvet pouch he’d clearly been carrying everywhere. He set it on the table. Inside were the heavy, silver rings Eddie had worn since he was a teenager.

Eddie picked one up, sliding it onto his finger. It fit perfectly.

"The King is back," Steve muttered with a smirk, raising his frosty mug of root beer.

"The King is back," you echoed, clinking your glass against theirs.

The weekend at Purdue felt like a fever dream in the best possible way. For forty-eight hours, the weight of the world lifted. Dustin was a whirlwind of questions and affection, dragging Eddie into deep, late-night debates about the physics of the Abyss and the ethics of "Vampiric D&D builds." He looked at Eddie not as a miracle to be studied, but as his brother who had finally come home from a war.

Before they left on Sunday, Dustin stood by the door of the Winnebago, looking uncharacteristically solemn. "I won't say a word," he promised, his eyes darting to Eddie and then you. "Not to Mike, not to Nancy. Everyone is coming back for winter break anyway. It’ll be the ultimate campaign reveal. The party will be whole again."

The drive back to Hawkins was quieter, the air filled with the comfortable hum of a plan in motion. You sat in the front with Steve for a while, mapping out the logistics of winter break—how to get everyone in one room without causing a mass panic. Eddie was in the back, sprawled on the bed, staring at the ceiling with a look of profound peace.

As the moon climbed high over the Indiana cornfields, exhaustion finally caught up with you. You leaned back in the passenger seat, letting out a long, bone-deep yawn.

"Go sleep, Bunny," Eddie’s voice drifted from the back, warm and low.

"Stevie’s got the wheel. I’ve got the watch."

You didn't fight it. You crawled into the small bunk, and within minutes, the steady vibration of the Winnebago lulled you into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Up front, the glow of the dashboard was the only light. Steve kept his eyes on the road, the silence between him and Eddie stretching out, no longer tense, but heavy with the history they now shared.

"She was a wreck, you know," Steve said suddenly, his voice quiet so as not to wake you.

Eddie sat up, moving to the edge of the bench seat just behind the driver’s cabin. "I know. I saw her from the woods, Steve. But hearing it... it’s different."

"No, you don't get it," Steve continued, shaking his head. "She didn't just grieve. She stopped. For a year, she was like a ghost in her own life. I tried... I tried to keep her afloat. Dragged her to movies she didn't want to see, made her eat. Just as a friend, obviously. But man, there were nights I thought she was just going to fade away."

Steve glanced in the rearview mirror, meeting Eddie’s amber eyes. "I’m glad you’re back, Munson. I mean it. I don't think she had another year left in her without you."

Eddie looked toward the bunk where you were sleeping, his expression softening into something raw and fiercely protective. "I’m glad I'm back too, Harrington. And for the record? Thanks. For looking out for her when I couldn't."

Eddie reached into the pocket of his denim vest. His fingers brushed against something hard and square. Slowly, he pulled out a small, battered velvet box. The fabric was stained with dirt and age, but the hinge still worked with a soft click.

"What's that?" Steve asked, glancing back.

"I was going to give it to her," Eddie whispered, looking down at the silver band inside. It wasn't fancy—it was a delicate, vintage-looking thing with a small, dark stone he'd found in an antique shop in Indianapolis. "Before everything went to shit in '86. I had it hidden in a hole near Skull Rock. It was my 'lucky spot.' I figured if I survived graduation, I’d ask her to officially be the Queen of the Freak."

He closed the box, the snap echoing in the quiet van. "When I crawled back to the rock that first night... it was the first thing I looked for. I thought for sure someone would have found it, or the earth would have swallowed it. But it was there. Waiting."

Steve let out a low whistle. "You gonna do it?"

"Not yet," Eddie said, a ghost of his old, confident grin appearing. "I think I’ll wait until after winter break. Let the dust settle. Let her realize I'm not going to vanish the second the sun comes up."

He tucked the box back deep into his vest, patting it twice. "But I'm not letting her go, Steve. Not for the abyss, not for Vecna, and definitely not for some 'normal' life. She’s stuck with the monster now."

Steve smirked, turning the wheel as they hit the Hawkins city limits. "Trust me, Munson. I think that’s exactly what she’s counting on."

The months following the move were a blur of golden afternoons and quiet, domestic bliss. With the inheritance and the smart investments you’d made over the years, the financial burden was non-existent, allowing you to focus entirely on building a fortress. The house on the outskirts was everything you had dreamed of: a two-story cedar-and-stone beauty tucked away at the end of a long, private drive. It had four bedrooms, three baths, and a sprawling, finished basement that Eddie had claimed as his "Dungeon," soundproofing the walls so he could shred his Warlock at three in the morning without waking the neighbors—or the birds.

Slowly, the house transformed from a structure of wood and glass into a home. Eddie was obsessive about the details. He spent hours picking out the "perfectly soft" rug for the living room and insisted on a kitchen table large enough to fit "the whole chaotic family."

The man who had crawled out of the woods was gone. In his place was an Eddie Munson who was hopelessly, shamelessly, and quite literally head-over-heels in love. Without the threat of the Upside Down or the weight of being a fugitive, Eddie had leaned entirely into his role as your partner.

He had become a creature of constant affection. He was "fluffy" in the most literal sense, often found draped in oversized, soft sweaters that hid his lean frame. He lived to be near you. If you were in the kitchen, he was leaning against the counter watching you. If you were in the garden, he was sitting on the porch steps, his amber eyes tracking your every move with a devotion that bordered on worship.

One evening in November, as the first real snow began to dust the oaks outside, you found him in the living room, surrounded by a mountain of throw pillows he’d insisted on buying. He was sitting on the floor, leaning back against the sofa, a history textbook for his GED prep forgotten in his lap.

"You're doing it again," you said, walking over with two mugs of cocoa.

"Doing what?" he asked, his voice a warm, clear baritone. He reached up, his hand catching yours and pulling you down onto the pillows beside him.

"Staring at me like I’m the first sunset you’ve seen in a century."

Eddie chuckled, pulling you into his chest. He wrapped his arms around you, tucking his face into the crook of your neck. He was warm now—the cold of the abyss had been chased away by months of safety and care. He pressed a lingering kiss to your shoulder, his lips soft.

"Can't help it, Bunny," he murmured. "I spent three years in a place where the only thing I could see was the memory of your face. Now that the real thing is right here... I’m not wasting a second. I’m a goner. I’m completely, hopelessly obsessed with you. Deal with it."

He pulled back just enough to look at you, his thumb tracing your lower lip. "I used to think being 'The Freak' was my whole identity. But being yours? That’s the only title I want now."

As December rolled in, the plan for the big reveal reached its fever pitch. Steve had been your primary co-conspirator, acting as the bridge between your hidden life and the rest of the group.

"Everyone is coming back," Steve said one afternoon, leaning against your dining room table while Eddie sat nearby, meticulously cleaning his guitar. "Nancy’s back from her internship, Jonathan and Will are coming in from out of state, and El and Mike are already counting down the days. Even Max and Lucas are looking for an excuse to get everyone together."

You looked at Eddie. "It’s time, isn't it?"

Eddie set his guitar down, his expression shifting from playful to serious. He looked around the beautiful, warm home you had built for him. "Yeah. It’s time. No more shadows. I want to sit at that big table with all of them. I want to see the looks on their faces when they realize the 'earthquake' didn't win."

The coordination began. You and Steve decided on a "Housewarming Party" for the weekend before Christmas. It was the perfect cover. You sent out the invites—or rather, Steve made the calls, playing the part of the slightly-stressed babysitter perfectly.

"We have to be strategic," you told them, sitting on the living room floor with a notepad. "Nancy and Jonathan will be the most observant. We need to keep them in the living room while Eddie stays in the dining room shadows for the initial entry."

"And Mike," Steve added, "Mike is definitely going to faint. We should probably clear a space on the rug for him."

You wrote the names down, one by one, feeling the weight of the history each name carried:

Nancy & Jonathan: The investigators.

Robin: The heart (and the one most likely to ramble in shock).

Mike & El: The leaders.

Will: The one who would understand the "shadow-warp" best.

Dustin: Your secret ally, ready to finally drop the act.

Max & Lucas: The ones who needed a win more than anyone.

Eddie watched you write, his hand resting on the small of your back. "That’s a lot of people to surprise, Bunny. You sure the cedar beams can handle that much shock?"

"This house was built for this, Eddie," you said, turning in his arms. "It was built for family. And they’re the only family we have left."

Eddie pulled you into a deep, slow kiss, one that tasted of the future you were about to claim. The "eyes" were no longer watching from the dark; they were right here, glowing with a love that had survived the end of the world.

"Let’s give 'em a show they’ll never forget," Eddie whispered against your lips.

The gravel of the long, winding driveway crunched under the tires of the first arrival, a sound that seemed to echo through the stillness of the woods surrounding the cedar house. Inside, the atmosphere was a strange, vibrating mixture of festive warmth and high-stakes espionage. The scent of pine from the massive Christmas tree in the corner mingled with the rich, savory aroma of the dinner you had spent all day preparing.

Dustin, who had arrived the night before to help with the final logistics, was currently adjusting a bowl of chips on the sideboard with the intensity of a man diffusing a bomb. He had been a whirlwind of energy for twenty-four hours, helping Steve hang the last of the outdoor lights and helping Eddie move his more "sensitive" equipment into the shadows of the basement.

Steve stood by the hearth, looking casual in a sweater but with eyes that constantly flicked toward the basement door. He was the lookout, the coordinator, and the man holding the literal keys to the evening.

"First car’s here," Steve murmured, his voice low.

You looked toward the basement door. Eddie had retreated there an hour ago, a tactical necessity to ensure the surprise remained absolute. You knew he was down there, likely pacing the length of the soundproofed room, his fingers twitching as if he were practicing a riff, his heart—now beating with a steady, rhythmic strength—surely hammering against his ribs.

"Go," you whispered to the air, knowing Eddie could hear you even through the floorboards. "We’ve got this."

The front door swung open, admitting a blast of crisp December air and the familiar, chaotic energy of the Wheeler siblings. Mike led the way, looking taller and more collegiate, followed closely by El, whose presence always seemed to calm the air around her. Nancy brought up the rear, her eyes immediately darting around the foyer with her signature investigative sharp-focus.

"Wow, Buns!" Mike exclaimed, dropping a bottle of sparkling cider on the entryway table. "Steve said the place was nice, but this? This is like something out of a magazine. Where did you even find a house with this much cedar?"

"It’s beautiful," El said softly, walking toward you and pulling you into a warm hug. Her eyes met yours, and for a split second, you wondered if she could sense the hidden life pulsing in the basement. She gave a small, serene smile that told you she felt the "rightness" of the house.

Nancy hugged you next, her gaze lingering on the craftsmanship of the banisters. "It’s a fortress. I love the privacy. You’re practically off the map out here."

"That was the goal," you replied, your voice steady despite the adrenaline.

Before the first round of drinks could even be poured, another set of headlights swept across the living room windows. The second car had arrived. Robin practically tumbled through the door, her scarf trailing behind her, followed by Jonathan and Will.

"Oh my god, oh my god, the porch!" Robin began rambling before she was even fully inside. "The wrap-around porch is a literal dream. I could sit out there and write poetry or, you know, just stare at the trees and contemplate the vast emptiness of the universe. It’s so good to see you! Steve, why are you standing like a bodyguard? You look weird."

"I'm relaxed, Robin! I'm the picture of relaxation!" Steve shot back, though his posture was as stiff as a board.

Jonathan and Will moved through the room with a quieter appreciation. Jonathan shook your hand, a tired but genuine smile on his face. "It’s got a good soul, this house. It feels... safe."

Will stood near the hearth, warming his hands. He looked around, his brow furrowing slightly, his senses—always more tuned to the world than others—vibrating. "It feels full," he whispered to you as you passed him a drink. "Like it’s been waiting for tonight."

Finally, the crunch of a third car announced the arrival of Max and Lucas.

Seeing Max walk in, leaning slightly on Lucas but moving with a fierce, independent grace, brought a lump to your throat. Lucas was right at her side, his hand hovering near the small of her back, his face lit up with the pride of just being there.

"Nice pad, Bunny," Max said, her eyes scanning the high ceilings. "A bit fancy for a bunch of nerds, but I think I can lower the property value if I stay long enough."

"Please do," you laughed, pulling her into a careful embrace.

"The basement," Lucas noted, looking toward the closed door. "Steve said you’ve got a massive setup down there? For movies and stuff?"

"And stuff," Dustin chimed in from the kitchen, his voice a bit too loud, a bit too eager. "It’s a literal dungeon of wonders. But first! Food! I am starving, and she made enough for a small army."

For the next hour, the house was filled with the sounds of a family reunited.

People were making themselves at home, draping jackets over chairs, kicking off boots, and filling the air with stories of college, the city, and the slow healing of the last few years.

You moved through the crowd like a ghost, serving appetizers and nodding in the right places, but your mind was twenty feet below the floorboards. You thought about Eddie—how he was sitting in the dark, listening to the muffled vibrations of his friends’ voices. He was hearing Mike’s laugh for the first time in years; he was hearing Nancy’s sharp, analytical tone; he was hearing the reality of the people he had sacrificed everything for.

He was hopelessly in love with you for giving him this, but you knew he was also terrified. This wasn't just a housewarming; it was a resurrection.

Steve caught your eye from across the room. He was leaning against the dining room archway, his arms crossed. He checked his watch, then looked at you with a solemn, heavy nod. The time for the "easing in" was over. The stage was set.

Dustin, acting as the master of ceremonies, began clapping his hands to get everyone’s attention. "Okay, everyone! Listen up! The feast is prepped, the table is set, and I have it on good authority that if we don't sit down in the next thirty seconds, Steve is going to eat all the rolls."

"Hey!" Steve protested, though he immediately started ushering people toward the large, farmhouse-style table you and Eddie had picked out specifically for this moment.

"Everyone to the dining room!" Dustin shouted, his voice ringing with a manic, joyous edge. "We have a lot to talk about, and the news... well, the news is served hot."

You stood by the kitchen island, your hands trembling slightly as you gripped the edge of the counter. You watched as Nancy, Jonathan, Robin, Mike, El, Will, Max, and Lucas all filed into the dining room, taking their seats around the long table. The room was bathed in the warm, flickering glow of candles and the soft overhead chandelier.

Steve walked over to you, his hand resting briefly on your shoulder. "It's time," he whispered, his voice barely audible over the chatter coming from the other room. "You ready?"

"Ready," you breathed.

In the dining room, Dustin was already standing at the head of the table, his eyes shining with a secret that was about to explode. He looked at the empty seat at the far end of the table—the seat saved for the host who hadn't yet appeared.

"Before we start," Dustin said, his voice dropping into a serious, theatrical tone that made everyone go quiet. "I want to thank Bunny for this house. But more importantly, I want to introduce you to the person who helped her pick it out. The person who’s been waiting three years to have dinner with his friends."

A cold, expectant silence fell over the table. Nancy’s fork paused halfway to her plate. Mike looked at Dustin with a confused, slightly annoyed expression. El tilted her head, her eyes fixing on the basement door that sat just behind the dining area.

"Dustin, what are you talking about?" Mike asked.

Steve looked at you and gave the signal. You reached for the basement door handle, your heart stopping in your chest as you felt the cold metal. You turned the knob and pulled it open, the darkness of the stairs yawning open.

"Eddie," you whispered into the dark. "Come home."

The sound of footsteps on the wooden stairs was slow and deliberate. In the dining room, the air seemed to thicken, the temperature dropping just enough to make the candles flicker. Every head at the table turned toward the open basement door. The chatter died so abruptly it was as if someone had cut a wire.

Then, he stepped into the light.

Eddie didn't slink or hide. He walked into the dining room with his head held high, though his hands were shoved deep into the pockets of his dark burgundy blazer. The firelight caught the wild, familiar mahogany curls that spilled over his shoulders, and the soft amber glow of his eyes seemed to reflect every single candle flame in the room. He stopped at the head of the table, his gaze sweeping over the faces of the people he had died to protect.

The reaction was a violent, silent explosion.

Mike Wheeler’s chair screeched against the hardwood floor as he scrambled backward, his face drained of every drop of color. He looked like he’d been struck by lightning, his mouth hanging open but no sound coming out. Next to him, Nancy’s fork clattered against her china plate with a sharp, piercing ring. Her investigative mind, usually so quick to find a logical path, simply stalled. She gripped the edge of the table so hard her knuckles turned white, her eyes tracing the line of Eddie's jaw as if trying to prove he was a hologram.

"No," Mike finally choked out, his voice cracking. "No way. That’s—that’s not possible."

Robin was the first to make a noise that wasn't a gasp. She let out a high-pitched, strangled sound, half-sob and half-laugh, her hands flying to her mouth. "I’m hallucinating. It’s the cider. Steve, you put something in the cider because I am seeing a very handsome, very dead metalhead in a very nice blazer."

Jonathan and Will were frozen. Jonathan’s protective instincts flared for a second, his hand moving toward Will’s arm, but then he saw Eddie’s face—the unmistakable, crooked smirk that was beginning to form—and he just slumped back, his breath hitching. Will, however, was staring at Eddie with a profound, quiet recognition. He felt the cold, the shadow, and the incredible, vibrant life radiating off Eddie. He didn't look scared; he looked relieved.

But it was El and Max who broke the spell. El stood up slowly, her dark eyes locked onto Eddie’s. She didn't look surprised. She looked like she was seeing a puzzle piece finally clicking into place. "Eddie," she said, her voice a calm, steady anchor in the storm of the room.

Max, sitting next to Lucas, let her cane fall to the floor. Tears began to stream down her face, carving tracks through her makeup. She couldn't see him perfectly, her vision still scarred from her own brush with the dark, but she heard him. She heard the way his boots shifted on the floor, and she felt the presence of the man who had traded his life for her time.

"Eddie?" Max whispered, her voice trembling. "Is that really you, you prick?"

Eddie let out a shaky, jagged breath, his theatrical armor finally cracking. He looked at Max, his amber eyes shimmering with a sudden, overwhelming moisture. "Yeah, Mayfield. It’s really me. And for the record, the blazer was my Bunny’s idea. I wanted to wear the leather."

That was it. The sound of his voice—that clear, resonant, beautiful baritone—shattered the last of the disbelief.

Dustin, unable to contain himself any longer despite having known for months, let out a joyous, war-whoop of a cry. "I TOLD YOU! I TOLD YOU HE WAS A LEGEND!"

The room erupted. Lucas was the first to reach him, rounding the table and throwing his arms around Eddie in a bone-crushing hug. Then Mike, sobbing openly now, joined in, followed by Jonathan. The "Party" was no longer sitting at a table; they were a chaotic, weeping, laughing mass of limbs in the center of the room.

Nancy walked up to him, her eyes searching his. She reached out, her fingers trembling as she touched the velvet of his sleeve, then moved her hand up to his cheek. She felt the solid, marble-like coolness of his skin and the unmistakable warmth of the love he had for all of them. "How?" she whispered, a tear finally falling.

Eddie looked at you, standing by the kitchen archway, and then back at Nancy. He reached out and pulled her and Robin into the huddle.

"It’s a long story, Wheeler," Eddie said, his voice muffled by the hair and shoulders of his friends. "A really long, really weird story. But I think we’ve got all night."

He looked over the sea of faces—the people he had mourned from the shadows, the people you had brought back to him. He was a man of the dark, a creature of the abyss, but in this room, under the roof of the house you had built together, Eddie Munson was the brightest thing in the world. He caught your eye through the crowd, his expression one of such hopeless, profound adoration that it made your heart ache.

The dinner sat forgotten on the table. The "Housewarming" had officially become a homecoming. Under the cedar beams of the fortress on the outskirts, the King of the Freaks was finally sitting at the head of the table, and for the first time in three years, the world was exactly as it was meant to be.

As the night wore on Nancy Wheeler, true to form, was the only one trying to maintain some semblance of order, even as tears streamed down her face. She walked right up to Eddie, pushed Mike aside with a determined shove, and grabbed Eddie’s face in both of her hands. She stared into his amber eyes, her thumbs brushing against the sharp points of his fangs.

"He’s cold," Nancy noted, her voice trembling but sharp. "Eddie... your eyes. And the... the teeth. What happened to you?"

"Abyss stuff, Wheeler," Eddie rasped, his eyes shimmering with tears as he looked at her. He didn't pull away; he leaned into her touch, his fangs catching the light. "Turns out the Upside Down doesn't just kill you; it tries to keep you. But she... she wouldn't let them have me. She pulled me back."

Jonathan was right there behind her, his hand on Eddie’s shoulder, his expression one of pure, quiet awe. "We thought we lost you, man. We all... we all carried it."

"I know," Eddie whispered. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I made you carry it."

Will Byers moved toward the center of the fray, his gaze fixed on the way the shadows seemed to dance just a little differently around Eddie. Will didn't look shocked—he looked seen. He walked up and placed a hand on Eddie’s arm. "It’s different now, isn't it?" Will asked softly. "The cold isn't the same as the Mind Flayer. It’s... yours."

Eddie looked at Will, a profound, silent understanding passing between the two of them. "Yeah, kid. It’s mine now. I’m the one in charge of the dark this time."

The next hour was the loudest, messiest, most joyous chaos the house on the outskirts had ever seen. Everyone was squeezed together; Max had reclaimed her seat but refused to let go of Eddie’s hand, her fingers tracing the silver rings on his fingers. They had shared a traumatic experience in a sense and it helped her cope that he was really here.

"I can't believe you're wearing a blazer," Max teased, her voice thick with emotion. "You look like a dork. A very handsome, resurrected dork."

"Hey, I'm trying to be a respectable homeowner, Mayfield!" Eddie barked back, his old, mischievous spark fully ignited. He looked around the table, his gaze landing on El, who was sitting quietly, a serene smile on her face.

El stood up and walked over to him. She didn't say a word; she just placed her palm over his heart. She closed her eyes for a moment, and then she nodded. "It is strong," she whispered. "The love brought the blood back."

Eddie’s lower lip trembled. He looked over at you, standing by the kitchen archway with Steve. Steve was grinning, a beer in his hand, looking like a proud older brother who had just pulled off the heist of the century.

Eddie stood up, gently disengaging from the huddle, and walked over to you. The room went quiet again as everyone watched him. He didn't care about the audience; he didn't care about the fangs or the secret. He reached out and pulled you into his arms, tucking his face into your neck, his body finally, completely relaxing.

"We did it, Bunny," he murmured, his voice only for you. "We're home. They’re all here."

"They're all here," you echoed, holding him tight.

As the night wore on, the chaos settled into a warm, glowing hum. The group moved to the living room, sprawling out on the plush rug and the oversized furniture. The fire roared in the hearth, casting long, dancing shadows across the cedar walls.

Dustin was sitting on the floor, leaning against Eddie’s legs, finally explaining to the rest of the group exactly how the "Vampire mission" had worked. "And then Steve brings the Winnebago, right? And I'm thinking, 'Great, Steve is finally dating her,' but then the curtain moves, and I swear to god, I thought I was seeing the ghost of Christmas Metal-Past!"

The laughter that followed was a physical thing, a force that seemed to push back the last of the darkness from the corners of the house.

Eddie sat on the sofa, you tucked firmly under his arm. He was hopelessly, shamelessly in love, and he didn't care who saw it. He kept kissing the top of your head, his hand tracing patterns on your arm. He was the host, the hero, and the miracle, all wrapped in a burgundy blazer and a pair of worn-out boots.

Under the roof of the fortress you had built, the Party was finally whole. The war wasn't just over; it had been won in the most impossible way. As the snow continued to fall outside, blanketing the world in white silence, the house on the outskirts was the loudest, brightest, and most alive place in all of Hawkins.

The whirlwind of the night finally began to decelerate as the clock ticked past two in the morning. The house, which had been vibrating with the high-frequency energy of a dozen people, started to settle back into its quiet, cedar-scented rhythm.

One by one, the departures felt like the closing of chapters. Max and Lucas were the first to head out, Max leaning on her cane with a exhausted but radiant smile that hadn't left her face since the basement door opened. Nancy and Jonathan followed, Nancy stopping at the door to give Eddie one last, sharp look—the look of a journalist who still had a thousand questions but was willing to trade them all for the sight of him breathing.

Then came the "kids." Mike and El lingered the longest, Mike still looking at Eddie as if he might turn into a pile of bats at any moment. When they finally left, followed by Will and a still-rambling Robin, the house felt cavernous.

Steve and Dustin were the last ones at the door. Dustin looked completely spent, his voice hoarse from hours of shouting and explaining. He reached out and gave Eddie one last, quick hug, his face buried in the burgundy velvet of the blazer. "See you tomorrow, man," Dustin whispered. "Tomorrow. For real."

"For real, Henderson," Eddie promised, ruffling the kid’s hair.

Steve stepped onto the porch, looking back at the two of you standing in the foyer. He looked tired, but there was a profound sense of peace in his eyes. "We did it," he said, giving a sharp nod. "Don't stay up too late. You’ve got a lot of life to catch up on."

The heavy oak door finally clicked shut, the metallic slide of the deadbolt echoing loudly in the sudden, cavernous quiet of the house. The tail-lights of Steve’s BMW faded into the tree line, leaving the property bathed in nothing but the soft, silver glow of the falling snow.

The silence that rushed in wasn't empty; it was warm, thick with the scent of pine needles, melted candle wax, and the lingering echoes of a dozen different laughs.

You leaned your forehead against the cool wood of the door, letting out a long, exhausted breath.

"Did we actually just pull that off?" you whispered into the quiet foyer.

From behind you came the sound of a heavy, dramatic sigh, followed by the soft thud of two leather boots hitting the floorboards. You turned around to find Eddie. He had completely abandoned the burgundy blazer, tossing it carelessly over the banister. He stood there in his black silk shirt, the top three buttons undone, looking gloriously rumpled and entirely completely spent.

He didn't answer right away. He just walked toward you, his stocking feet padding softly across the wood, and essentially collapsed into your space. He wrapped his long arms around your waist, burying his face directly into the crook of your neck. His weight was heavy, completely entirely relaxed, grounding you to the floor.

"If you ever," he mumbled against your skin, his voice a vibrating, sleepy purr, "make me play host in velvet again, I am moving back into the Upside Down."

"Oh, stop," you laughed softly, wrapping your arms around his shoulders and running your fingers through his wild, mahogany curls. "You loved it. I saw you soaking up the attention when Dustin was comparing you to a Level 20 Paladin."

Eddie lifted his head just enough to look down at you, a shamelessly goofy, love-drunk smile spreading across his face. The amber in his eyes was soft and warm, completely devoid of the sharp, predatory edge of the abyss. Right now, he was just Eddie—your Eddie.

"Maybe a little," he admitted, his nose brushing affectionately against yours. "But mostly, I just loved that I got to show off my house. Our house. And the girl who built it for me."

He scooped you up suddenly, lifting you completely off the ground. You let out a squeal of surprise as he carried you effortlessly into the living room, dodging the debris of empty cider glasses and discarded wrapping paper. He practically fell onto the oversized sofa, pulling you down with him so that you ended up sprawled across his chest.

The fire in the hearth had burned down to deep, pulsing red embers, casting a soft, romantic glow over the cedar walls. Eddie adjusted his hold, wrapping his arms securely around you like you were the most precious thing he had ever held. He was so incredibly warm, his heartbeat a steady, rhythmic thrum against your ear.

"I can't believe they're all here," he whispered, his hand drawing slow, lazy circles on your back. "I kept waiting to wake up. For the last three years, I’d have these dreams where I was sitting with them, and then the bats would come, or the sky would tear open. But tonight..." He pressed a soft, lingering kiss to your forehead. "Tonight was real."

"It's all real," you promised, shifting so you could look at him. You reached up, tracing the line of his cheekbone, feeling the smooth, pale skin. "And it’s never going to go away. We’re safe."

Eddie leaned into your touch, his eyes fluttering shut with a look of pure, unadulterated bliss. He was so hopelessly in love it radiated off him in waves. He shifted slightly, and you felt the faint, hard shape of the velvet box hidden in the pocket of his denim vest, which was draped over the arm of the sofa.

He opened one eye, that familiar, crooked smirk playing on his lips, but he didn't reach for it. Not yet. Tonight was perfect exactly as it was, and he wanted to stretch this feeling out into forever. He had the rest of eternity to put that ring on your finger.

"You know," Eddie murmured, his fangs catching the dim light as he smiled, "Dustin already asked if we have room in the basement for a permanent campaign table. He’s already planning the first session."

"And what did you say?" you asked, resting your chin on his chest.

"I told him he has to ask the lady of the manor," Eddie laughed, a rich, melodic sound that filled the room. "But honestly? I think we’re going to need a bigger table."

He pulled you up for a kiss, slow and impossibly sweet, tasting of cider and the absolute certainty of tomorrow. It wasn't an ending. As the snow continued to blanket the world outside, insulating the fortress you had built together, it felt exactly like the beginning of the best story he’d ever tell.

Help keep the plot twists coming & the coffee brewing!☕

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