#devildungeondm

It was a bad look and the worst part is it didn’t even help. Billy knew it wouldn’t but he did it anyway because he’s weak. Always so fucking weak. He’d been taking a short nap - not something he usually allowed himself but the pain had been really kicking his ass that day - and he’d had a terrible nightmare. One where he swore he could smell the putrid flesh of that thing again.

He’d gone to Eddie’s trailer seeking comfort only to find an empty house and old vices. Told himself once was fine. That the high would take the pain away even if only for a moment. He had the cash in his lockbox he could give Eddie later. But he forgot just how much the low after the high could suck him dry. It’s why he got addicted in the first place.

Billy was sprawled out on Eddie’s bed after a second hit, partly enjoying the high and partly fucking disgusted with himself. Three years off the shit and here he is again.

continued from here [X] || @devildungeondm

It's over. It's finally over. They defeated Vecna, most of them are alive and the town is none the wiser. The party may have walked away with physical and mental scars that will follow them forever but they can also say they saved the world -- literally. It's a surreal feeling. Being a hero but no one really knowing. If you asked him when he was a senior how he pictured his life, it sure as shit wasn't like this but maybe this was for the better. He's been changed for the better, in his opinion and if you asked Dustin.

Everyone went home after the battles, trying to go on as normal. Thing is....Steve had nothing to go home to. His parents had been gone before the 'earthquake' had rocked their small town. They couldn't get back for the last two years basically. Steve tried to look at positively though. He learned how to cook and fend for himself.

Winters always started out the same in Hawkins. Everyone still had some of their fall decorations out, like cornucopias, silly turkeys or pumpkins, just as a bit of snow fell down, making light blankes over every surface. Already, people were outside shoveling the snow off of Main Street where April had been walking with her headphones covering her ears and her Walkman strapped to the waistline of her jeans as music rung in her head. A wonderful distraction from the thoughts of people passing by.

April always heard people complain about the cold, even when claiming they loved winter. How people dreaded the seasons changing, finding it depressing. She herself embraced the change in the season, finding joy from her surroundings. Until her tape skipped.

"No..." April started to fiddle around with her cassette player. She opened it up and when her tape popped up, ribbons were spilling out, "Oh, come on! This is the best one too..." She took out the tape, flipping it around to see the band's name on it with a devilish pentagram next to it.

❝ I wish I was sometimes - someone’s imagination . Eddie , they’re prowling Hawkins left and right looking for you , ❞ she looked around , looking him over head to toe . He would be in danger here . ❝ Jason said they were going to hunt you down . Have they been by this way ? ❞

Bella paced in front of him , arms wrapped around her middle . ❝ I told my dad you didn’t do anything . I mean he thinks you’re harmless , but the guys on the force . They think it’s satanic . ❞

❝ He knows what dungeons and dragons is and metal . We’re from a small town , but it’s not that small . Is Henderson here ? ❞

He had been on edge since last night, when he had received the aforementioned, somewhat swollen bruise on his face. It was better than getting the belt — that was saved for when Neil was on his real power trips. However, it was enough to make him leave the house and sleep in the Camaro near some trailer park, where Munson had found him. Thankfully, Eddie didn't seem to be the type to ask questions.

Billy's jaw was set, fists clenched tightly at his sides, and piercing ocean-blue eyes locked onto the metal head before him. Jesus Christ, this guy was an idiot. It took everything in him not to step forward and knock some sense into Munson. Too kind to the boy who was full of rage, too naive and altruistic and laid back and —

The complete opposite of everything Billy Hargrove was. Maybe what he could have been, had circumstances been different... He took a long pull from his cigarette, nodding ever so slightly, the end of it glowing a vivid orange-red against his palm. For a minute, the air was still and tense around them, as if Hawkins itself was holding its breath and waiting.

"Oh come off it, Henderson, you know that the fresh air is so much more enjoyable than being stuck in the palace." Steve had shot at who he considered his best friend, who also just happened to work for him and be the one to keep tabs on him, but Steve hardly cared about that. Dustin had been complaining that he needed to focus more on not being such a 'rebellious little shit' - his words, not Steves - but Steve knew that he was tired of all that palace life. Everything his father wanted for him, to form him into this perfect Prince. No, Steve wanted freedom to be himself.

"Besides, it's just one day at sea. One. It isn't like I'm kidnapping you for a week or anything. I just was tired of having to listen to my dad bitch and moan about how I needed to start taking more responsibility, settling down, all that shit. I'm still young. I should be able to find love when it's ready to find me." He knew, in all actuality, that Dustin agreed with him. He could see it from the way that his eyes glimmered in his own mischief - he just needed to do what King Harrington said in terms of keeping tabs on Prince Steven.

Steve was practically leaning over the railing at this point, allowing the salty air of the open sea to hit all his senses, eyes closed as he took it all in. "None of this changes the fact that a storm is very clearly coming, Steve. We should get home before it hits." Dustin had been eye-ing the weather nervously, the way the dark clouds were rolling over the horizon, competing with the blue of the ocean. Steve, ever ignorant in his bliss, simply shook his head. "It will be fine, man. We'll be home long before it reaches us."

All his life, Billy had been no stranger to pain. More than once he’d wondered about bruises on his skin, thinking that those weren’t his. He hadn’t recalled any blows landing to that part, right? But in the end, Billy had never been certain and had come to a point where he’d believed that he didn’t have a soulmate. He’d heard the stories of course, of the soulmate’s pain being reflected in bruises on one’s skin. But how was he supposed to know which were his own bruises and which weren’t? Quite frankly, ... he’d just figured he was going to be alone in the world. He’d always been alone, right?

What he didn’t know was that after almost dying from the Mind Flayer’s attack, the nurses in the hospital had more than once seen bruises form on the comatose body of the blonde and it had made them smile. The unfortunate young man clearly had someone out there for him. It’d do him good for sure if he woke, to know that even his dad had left and he’d almost died, at least he had someone that he was destined to be with.

Little had they expected that one day soon, the bruising would be forming so quickly that it’d actually worry them. They were present in his room as the bruising worsened and Billy, despite his unconscious state, began to stir restlessly. His vital functions spiking and dropping quickly until at one point, he’d opened his eyes, a scream leaving his lips.

Now was weeks later, or months? Honestly, time kinda blurred together for Billy these days. His life existing out of sleeping, eating, doctor visits and exercises to recover muscle strength. It was only the third time he got to visit Max actually and it broke him each time again. He had hoped that without him there, perhaps she’d be better off. She’d be safe ... Oh how wrong he had been.

Sitting by her bed, having been helped to the room by the nurses, he was reading one of her books. It helped keep his mind busy, because everything was better than thinking back to ... almost anything really. And that’s how Billy was so drawn into his book, he didn’t even realise that someone had opened the door. It wasn’t until he heard a voice that he looked up, spotting a somewhat familiar mop of hair.

“Munson? What are you doing swearing in my sister’s room?”