#dropdeadmunson

𝐨𝐧𝐞  .  𝐭𝐰𝐨  .  𝐭𝐰𝐨 & 𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐟  .  𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞  .  𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫  .  𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫 & 𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐟  .  𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞

𝐬𝐢𝐱

coming september 1st, kst

𝐭𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭:  18, 835

                                                       🦇

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                                          𝐄𝐃𝐃𝐈𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐍                                                𝟏𝟗𝟔𝟓-𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟔                                                         🪦

The paint smears upon your sleeves, bleeding the guilt onto your hands you deemed rightfully red. Eddie was gone. He was dead. The very thing you wished him to be the last time you spoke had come true. Your shaking hands grip the stone as the grief overwhelms your very core. A guttural scream scratching and clawing its way out of your chest: a release that would never bring comfort. You hadn’t meant what you said and now he will never know. 

                      “Jesus Christ, Eddie! ”

The remnants of that fight echoing in your ears. Your memory replaying it like a tidal wave, stealing your breath and dragging you under. 

                     “ I don’t know what else I can do to help you forgive me. ”

Don’t say it. Please, don’t say it. You plead with your own past. Your words lost in the sea and brine of memory. Stop, please. STOP! 

                     “ You can drop dead, Munson. ”

In agony, your eyes force themselves open. The word before you welcoming you back to what could only be hell. Cruel, mocking, and brutal. Yet not nearly as painful as the slack of his jaw, the sorrow in his eyes, and the sound of his heart shattering within his chest that last day. Your fingernails drag against stone as the will in your body depletes. A nose meeting dirt and your hands tangling in your hair as sobs rattle out. This was worse than death and hell, because what could be worse than knowing it should’ve been you?  “ I’m so sorry, ”  you confess, a single fist lightly rapping against the ground. The thought of him down there, stuck and frozen at only twenty an excruciating image you couldn’t cry away. 

The knowledge that people believed---  actually believed he was capable of... “ NO! ”   It radiates from within you: the pain, the loathing, and the prayer that God would take you in his place. You explode up onto your knees, desperately pushing and wiping the paint away. Crimson smearing across the surface of the headstone and staining your hands. Panicked breaths escape quickly and fills the air with your sorrow. 

“ Hey, hey! Get away from there! ”  Footsteps, multiple, descend on you in a flurry. Adrenaline and hatred for whoever did this to his grave leading you to act drastically. 

Your eyes search for anything in sight that could help you defend him. Alongside the defacing spray paint was an array of trash littered around his plot. Reaching out, you grasp the neck of a broken beer bottle and with a spin, hold it out to what you can only describe as a blur of hair. 

“ Woah, woah, shit! ”  Dirt kicks up as converse skid to a halt, the man stumbling back onto the ground with the smell of rotting beer searing his nose. A look of panic turning him pale. “ Just take it easy, Jesus. ”

You see his hand reach up in surrender as yours begin to shake. The glimmer of the bottle the only thing keeping him away from you and the ruined memorial. 

“ Holy shit, Steve! ”  A shorter male runs up beside him, reaching down and grasping onto the other’s shoulders for what seemed like dear life. 

“ Steve! ”   A girl this time, their voice just as frantic. Slowly, recollection began to return to you with every flicker of your hues between her and him and back again. “ Why is it every time time I turn around for one second someone is pointing something sharp at you? ”  Their voice was like lightning. 

“ I uh --- am  kinda asking myself that same question Robin. I’m seriously beginning to doubt it’s not just shit luck! ”  Steve can’t help but reply, exasperation carrying beneath his heightened tone. He falls back against the ground, taking in a deep sigh. The younger male then stepping forward with his hands raised. 

“ Listen, we aren’t here to cause any trouble. We just want you to stop messing with Eddie’s grave. ”

The shock was palpable upon your features. The bottle slowly slips from your fingertips, the crackle of the glass causing a shared cringe among the others as tension still hung high. 

“ I didn’t... I didn’t do this, ”  you whisper, motioning to the vandalism behind you while your eyes lock on Steve as he rises from the ground; dusting himself off.

 “ Well, not to say we literally caught you red handed but --- ”  a  hand pretty much slaps against Steve’s mouth, muffling his words and nearly knocking him down once again.

“ I know you, ”  Robin said, pulling her hand away. A look of awe meshes with a proud smile upon her lips. Like she couldn’t believe she figured it out before the others. Though as she looks further, concern seeps in. Their eyes just now realizing the puffy, red mess that were your own. 

“ What? You know this person? ”

“ Yeah, Dustin and I’m surprised you don’t. ”

Silence hangs once more in the air. Only a concoction of staggered breath and confusion lingers as Dustin looks you up and down, trying to place you but failing. Steve recalls first. Eyes and features softening, an expression of self doubt crinkled between his nose like he was wondering how he didn’t realize sooner. 

“ Y/N, ”  he whispers it in airless chuckle, a hand raising to scratch his head. “ I didn’t recognize you... I haven’t seen you since... shit, since graduation. You --- you changed your hair. ”

“ You haven’t... ”  For a brief moment, the three of you relax in a shared silence. A smile can’t come to your face, but relief settles within you. 

                                                       🥀

Steve Harrington. A name that always sat across from you in every class since kindergarten, and one you haven’t thought much of since leaving Hawkins the day after graduation. When you were a kid, everyone was your friend. Your background, clothes, or hobbies didn’t matter much when everyone was three feet tall. But middle school and high school were different. Cliches in the form of cliques form quickly and don’t budge. The two of you were gravitated to two different crowds, and it might as well been in two different star systems.

Robin Buckley on the other hand was never your friend. A year younger than you meant age was the clique that kept your orbits from every colliding. But their face was kind and you couldn’t help but wonder how the hell this trio came to be and how exactly they knew Eddie.

Because you didn’t know the younger one and he didn’t know you. And given the intense determination that hung between his thick eyebrows, he was pretty pissed to be the only one out of the loop. 

“ Am I left to read your minds or is someone gonna let me know who the hell this is? ”  The cadence of his voice unique, and given the reaction on Steve’s face, was one of recurring annoyance for the older male. 

“ God, do you really have to be a know-it-all at all times? Dustin, this is Y/N. She is... ”  Steve hesitates, the name they were all thinking not wanting to leave his tongue in it’s new tense. He sighs, steadying himself.  “ was Eddie’s gir--- ”

“ I was his friend. Eddie’s friend. We went to high school together. ”  You cut him off, not wanting that word hung in the air. The memories were already hard to hold back. Your fingernails digging into the palms of your hands the only thing keeping them at bay. 

Immediately upon your introduction a lightbulb somewhere went off. 

“  BOOM! I know who you are. ”  You brace yourself, not knowing what to expect. If this kid somehow knew Eddie, then your sins would no doubt come spilling out to crucify. “ You were in Hellfire. I remember seeing you on the original roster. ”  The remembrance spilling from his lips without any hint of a glitch, as if he had known all along who you were.  “ Lady Hope: a level eighteen cleric who gave her last bit of life to save the rogue and defeat Fate. ”

Stunned silence this time held the air hostage, your eyes blinking quickly and the others offering no guidance in navigating such waters.

Dustin continued, “ I know it’s you and you were friends with Eddie, but why are you... ”  his large eyes flicker from the broken bottle upon the ground to your red hands. 

Your fingers unfurl with three pairs of eyes reading them for answers. There was so much going on in your head and in your heart. Exhaustion carried heavily in your eyes as you struggled to meet their gazes. “ I was... ”  you turn, facing his headstone once more. The only proof that Eddie Munson was once here. “... just trying to clean it. ” 

Robin steps forward and with a gentle voice, “ I understand. Did you think we were coming to vandalize it? Is that why you nearly shanked Steve? ”

Yes, you struggle to verbalize. Your body leaning forward with a shudder and resting on top the cold, hard, and unforgiving stone. “ Eddie didn’t kill those people. He was...  good and gentle. All he ever did was play his guitar and --- ”  your breath rasps, his phantom kisses felt against your temple in harrowing muscle memory.  “ The real killer... ”

“ We know, we know. ”  Robin’s hands rest on your shoulders, offering you as much comfort as they could. You can feel a shift that carries between the three, until Steve finally steps forward.

“ We came to clean it too. We can do it together. Just as soon as Erica gets here with the supplies... she’s -- forget it, you’ll meet her later. ”  Robin rubs your back and helps you stand up tall. Wiping your eyes, you turn to look at the others, and nearly jump out of your skin.

Behind Steve and Dustin was, who you assumed, was Erica. With a look of pure rage, the sound of two heavy buckets and a fist full of rags thud against the ground causing the two to jump like characters from a cartoon.

“  I don’t know when and I don’t know yet how, but you doofuses will regret leaving me to carry all this shit. ”

                                                       ❤️‍🔥

please let me know if you enjoyed this HERE or if you have any suggestions, questions, or things you want to see !  follow the tag  #dropdeadmunson for updates !  and use it to share your thoughts too <3 

Apparently this Mike was the younger brother of Nancy Wheeler. Someone you knew, though granted, not well. Preppy girl, you recalled, who always seemed to get what she wanted. It never bothered you when you shared the close knit halls of Hawkins High  (  you  even  felt  pity  when  Barb  had  come  and  gone  ) , but again you can’t help but wonder how any of them knew Eddie. While Steve, notably and rather drastically, had a personality makeover the year you both graduated, serious reparations would be needed to ever get them in a good place. Eddie “the freak” Munson wasn’t a self given title. Though he would wear it like a badge of honor when Tommy H. or Jason would get in his face, because Eddie happened to be a little too boisterous that day. But you knew what it did to him, and you knew those who wiped away red stains from his headstone must have called him that behind his back. 

Those same people you watched now. Five bodies huddled together in a disarray of theatrical gestures and furrowed expressions. Their voices coming through to you in muffled nothingness. A variety of tone overlaying on top of each other as they all appeared to have something to share and say. When Nancy happened to look over with a pointed indication they were now clearly discussing your presence, you looked away. Still seated in the backseat, Robin’s choppy short strands came into your view from the front passenger side. Somehow you didn’t realize she had not exited the vehicle, and your anger has not dissipated in the slightest towards them. 

You couldn’t look out the window, couldn’t look towards the front seat, so you decided to view the black coolness behind shut eyelids. A deep breath harshly whipping through your nose as your composure still needed grasping. There was obviously so much more to the story not yet unfolded to you, and it left you feeling antsy... discombobulated. A concussion from a two hundred and fifty pound linebacker would have felt better than this right now.  Your feet kick slightly in torment --- the only word close enough to the way your insides twist and knot when Eddie’s features flash across your eyelids in a hellish drive in theater private showing. 

Those eyes, large and round, were not meant to be that color. Red. Haunted and chilling; humanity completely lacking from each iris. You wished to wipe that image away before it could completely taint the other thousand memories of you spent staring into his October eyes. The perfect shade of brown that glowed like sunlight through satin curtains in the early, autumn mornings; reflecting it’s shade upon you in rich, heavy waves of molasses. With every stare Eddie had you frozen, stuck within his gaze and a desire to never leave it. Until finally you had nearly drowned and clawed yourself out, his remnants sticking to you like tar while your words branded him in scars. 

                                   “ Drop dead, ---- ” 

A crinkle on the already low playing radio.                 

                                     ---- legs, pretty smile                                      hurts my head, gets me wild.                                       dig that steam, giant butt                                      makes me scream                                      i get nuh-nuh nothing but the shakes over you                                      and nothing else could ever do !

Tears fall once more from your tired eyes, but they meet on top two rounded hills of a smile. To cry over a silly Van Halen song such an odd sentiment, but the memory it carried too precious. It occurring only months before your love went to hell. 

                                                         🥀

“ God, I hate this song. ”  You lied, partly. While the tune didn’t match your level of taste  ( you finding i’ll wait from the same 1984 album more to your liking ), the expressions that carried upon his theatrical features made your body fill with adrenaline spiked excitement whenever it came on. 

“ Oooh, that’s strike one, L/N. ”  An unserious grin carrying his words as calloused torn fingers wrap around your ankle, pulling you across and closer to the edge of the bed. The pads of Eddie’s fingertips then crawling up your leg and thigh, lifting it high to his lips as the lyrics continued to spill in addicting melody alongside cupid bow pressings against your skin. 

                                        dig those moves, vampire                                         set me loose, get it higher                                         throw my rope, loop-de-loop                                         nice white teeth, betty boop

Each stanza interrupted from a kiss pressed higher and higher, until his body completely came to lay over your own. His arms dropping your leg to prop himself above you in a comfortable hover; shoulder length hair spilling around you in a brown, tousled waterfall. Eddie’s lips millimeters from your own. 

“ You want me to kiss you so bad, dontcha? ”  The playfulness doesn’t waver from his tone, but it deters towards distraction. Eddie knew damn well you didn’t come over for that, though with the way he was staring; eyes eating you up in desire --- you couldn’t deny the temptation. But Wayne was in the next room over and Eddie needed to pass Ms. O’Donnell’s upcoming exam. 

“ I want you to do your homework. ”  And with a hand and a light shove, you push him towards the side. Eddie flopping dramatically ( as always ) against the sheets before giving a slight yelp. A dungeon and dragons book lodged between his shoulders blades that he reaches under and pushes to the floor. 

“ That, love, is strike two. ”  Eddie mewls, hands locked behind his head and feet crossed at the ankles. 

“ And when did you give a shit about baseball? ”  You roll off the bed, putting distance between the friction that never sizzled between the two of you. He needed to focus, as impossible as a task that was.

“ When I saw all the cute guys in their tight, sexy baseball pants. ”  Laughter echoes beneath the continued sounds of Van Halen, Eddie’s hands muffling every other chuckle as he fends off your attacks with the pillow.  “ How many of them you think I could get to third base with? ”  Another comment met with a pillow. “ Hargrove, definitely! Right? ”  Pillow. 

“ Be serious, Munson. I want us to graduate together, alright? If you make me walk that stage alone, forgiveness will not come easy. ” Remnants of a laugh from his comments linger on your lips, but your tone and the words behind them carry significant weight. 

You were a freshman and Eddie was a sophomore when you stumbled upon one another. One of the first pep rallies of that year and you hid away beneath the bleachers where Eddie had already perched himself with a brown paper bag wrapped tightly in a fist. A shared sip led to a shared story that became an endless amount of memories spawned over years. Memories you wanted to build upon throughout your future. 

“ You’ll find more cheer in a graveyard... ”  He sarcastically quoted in a silly voice, refusing to take anything seriously. Eddie knew the seriousness of his situation, however he believed that he was a lost cause destined for failure thanks to the likes of his father. He desperately wanted to care for you and make true the desires you held, but he was ( truthfully ) frightened and didn’t see any hope of it ever coming true. 

“ Keep silly voices and Tolkien out of this, Eddie ! ”  You walk towards the edge of the room, digging through a mostly abandoned backpack. Inside, a complete lack of organization as you de-crumbled papers that were the math homework assigned earlier that day. Stuffing the paper ( hoping they’d flattened ) into the heavy math textbook that was already on his dresser, you tossed it to the empty indention you left upon the sheets next to him.  “ Study, now. Or you shall not pass ! ”

Regret immediately fills your senses as whatever focus Eddie could’ve possessed was thrown quickly out the window. Long limbs flipped and crawled off the bed, carrying him throughout the small space between your two frames. One of his hands then pressed against your stomach, guiding you back against and up onto the dresser. While his other took your chin, lifting it up to meet the eagerness of his own.

You were strong willed, but not that strong. Your every inch giving in to the passion Eddie always carried. When his lips move against your neck, a sigh is drawn out  --- gasping for breath against the brush of his teeth on your smooth skin. 

Though the song is long finished, the tape sizzling out into a heavy silence, Eddie’s rendition of the lyrics breath heavy against your neck. His legs pushing apart your thighs as he settled closer against your frame.

                                       baby, you know that you want it                                        i know what it is                                        you know that you want it, baby                                        when the night is through,                                         will I still be loving you?

It took every ounce of your strength to not let it continue, or else Eddie and walking the stage to receive his long overdue diploma would really just be a fantasy. Your hands press firmly against his chest. The motion raising his eyes to meet your own, amber hues darkened with teenage lust. Pushing him back, Eddie obliged, taking a couple of steps backwards, and your eyes remaining locked as you slowly slid off the dresser. 

Without any words, you turn towards the cassette player, popping out the tape and feeling his gaze wash over your every motion. While Eddie had expected you to change it to the other side, disappointment carried through his body as he fell back onto the mattress with a defeated sigh when you instead put the tape back into it’s case and left the cassette player shut and empty. 

“ Study, now. ”  Your breath revealing you wanted to do everything but. 

Eddie’s lips part to reply. 

                                                         🥀

“ Strike three. ”

Your eyes fling open, completely startled. The response from the memory that played over the song coming from within the car. From Robin. They looking back at you with intense, harboring red tinted views. Your entire body shifts within the seat, eyes blinking rapidly. 

As soon as you did, Robin was no longer looking at you. It appeared as if she had never even turned around. Their head instead leaning against the glass plane window, staring out towards the quiet, mundane suburb.

“ What did you just say? ”

Robin shifts, confused by the question before slowly turning around. Their eyes not red, but their natural oceanic blue. Hues shift between you and the rest of the car --- she had no idea what you are talking about.

“ Me? I -- I didn’t say anything. ”

BOM!BOM!BOM!

The sound of a flat palm against the car window startles the both of you. A lump sent immediately down your throat as anxiety and adrenaline rush your blood stream once more. Steve, either not realizing or caring that the shit was just effectively scared out of you and Robin, waves the both of you out of the vehicle. Almost immediately, you both tumble out through the opposite doors, shaking the stiffness out of your limbs as you cross into the yard. The strangeness you just experienced, you chalking up to a tired, exhausted mind riddle by too many questions. And a deep longing for the boy you loved, pushed away, and effectively lost. 

Dustin and Mike appeared to have gone off on either side of the yard, their mouths pressed near the walkie-talkies in their hands. Erica stayed near Nancy, arms crossed and shoulders pulled back in an attempt to appear taller. Robin came up next to you, and you realized just as much as you were trying not to look at her; she was also trying not to look at you.

“ Robin, your neck... ”  Nancy rushes forward, pulling the small, light blue and silk scarf she was adorning off of her neck. Your eyes just catching two small trickled steams of blood before it’s soaked into the pastel accessory. 

“ I... must have gotten bit by a mosquito or something. ” Robin offers an unsure explanation, tilting their head as Nancy began dabbing the two small wounds. 

“ Mosquito bites don’t look like this... it must have been a spider. ”

“ We were at the cemetery for hours, it’s entirely possible it happened there. ” Steve stepped towards them, hovering just behind Nancy to get a good look at whatever was going on.

Once the bleeding had seemed to stop, Nancy nonchalantly stuffs the scarf into her pocket; taking you a little by surprise. For a girl who looked like she’d faint at the sight of blood, she appeared to have no problem with it. Just as she did, she took notice of you --- Nancy reaching out a hand in introduction.

“ I’m Nancy. Erica said you dated Eddie? ”  Straight to the point, she was. A journalist through and through. 

Your eyes hover to her hand to Erica, who shrugged, then to Steve and Robin, who cringed at the realization that Nancy had no idea who you were.

“ Eddie had a girlfriend? ”  The tall, figure you knew now as Mike interjected, slicing through awkwardness that came as Nancy’s hand lingered untaken in the air before she finally dropped it to her side. “ He never mentioned that. ”

“ We broke up last summer... ”

“ She’s Lady Hope. ”  Dustin quickly joins from the other side of the yard, pushing the antenna of the hand held radio down.

“ Holy shit, you’re Lady Hope? ”  It took a brief pause for Mike to connect the name, but the name then quickly resonated in his mind. A clear signal to you that he must’ve been apart of HELLFIRE as well.  “ Lady Hope is an absolute legend.  Eddie dated Lady Hope? ”

The question just exhausts you further. 

“ Who the hell is Lady Hope? ” Nancy inquires, though the question lingers on the tongue of all the older teenagers.

“ She is... Y/N... original member of HELLFIRE... it’s the character she played... you play a character in D&D... ”  Dustin drawls out an explanation to blank faces. “ I’ve explained this to you so many times... ”  Words directed to Steve who only pouted out his bottom lip in confusion with a shake of his voluptuous locks and a shrug. 

Shaking palms meet your eyes, “ I’m sorry  --- what... what is this? What are we doing here? We just--- Eddie’s alive and we’re talking about D&D? ”

“ No --- we, we feel it too. It’s just we’ve kind of experienced a lot of... things that are similar so our ability to... bounce back, for a lack of better words, is... ”  Robin starts and falls off, realizing too late that if something lacked the words then maybe it was better left unsaid. 

“ What does that even mean? Do people just sprout out of the damned ground on the regular for you all? ”

“ No, this is admittedly new — we should really just go inside. Figure things out when the others get here... ” Nancy trails, looking towards Dustin and Mike who were meant to rally the others. More unknown people… how did Eddie get caught up in any of this?

“ Byers crew will be here as soon as they can. Lucas is staying with Max. ”

“ Not surprising. ”  Erica retorted to the information Dustin relayed, a brief sadness flitting her features she so desperately wanted to appear adult.

“ El and Hop can’t come until tomorrow — ”

“ Why? ” Steve interjected, a look upon his face that screamed what could be more important than the shit that happened this evening? 

“ — and ” Mike continued, drawling out the single syllable “ gave no reason as to why. I tried to get it out of El, but she wouldn’t budge. ” Scrawny shoulders shrug with a shake of midnight colored hair, though it clearly bothered him not having an answer.

“ We should just wait until tomorrow then and get some rest tonight... together. It’s getting late... and I have a bad feeling things are just going to continue to get worse. Who knows how many restful nights we have left... ”

Robin’s comment drives you further over the edge. Cold palms from the cool spring, night digging into your eye sockets. Your brain completely rattled into a new direction every minute you spent around the others. Steve quickly rushed forward, placing hands upon your shoulders.

“ Hey... hey, we know. Believe me, I’ve been trying not to vomit for the past hour. It’s just --- with Hawkins, everything gets worse. ”

Puffy, desolated hues meet a matching pair you realized hid it better than you did. Gazing upon the others, tired face by tired face --- Dustin, Mike, Erica, Nancy, Robin --- the same glimmer of exhaustion lingered behind statuesque features; ghosts hiding among the living. 

“ Eddie didn’t die in the earthquake, did he? ”

Steve shakes his head. Dread descends upon you like a cold, winter chill. 

“ And it wasn’t an earthquake. ” Dustin says.

“ You’re gonna need to sit down for this. ”  Erica sighs, being the first to turn and head towards the Wheeler house while everyone slowly follows her steps --- each of them sharing knowing glances while yours grasped for any kind of sane, logical answer amidst an impossible sounding scenario. 

Eddie, what happened to you? What has happened to them?         

                                                      🦇  

please let me know if you enjoyed this HERE or if you have any suggestions, questions, or things you want to see !  follow the tag  #dropdeadmunson for updates !  and use it to share your thoughts too <3  also please like and reblog <3 this helps me a lot !

𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 !

There was no way. Robin couldn’t believe it. She had checked his pulse. Steve had tried and failed CPR. Eddie was dead. A hundred percent dead. This was Vecna’s doing. A trick or a vision, as the others had seen before... right ?

“ I’m no vision, Buckley... ”

The whisper against their ear forcing their glossy eyes open in a panic. A yelp ripping through their throat as those cold, red eyes stared only inches from their face. That same scream silenced by a fist around their throat before the tips of their toes lost solid footing and the air flowed beneath their body until slamming back onto the ground. 

Soft, wet grass of the cemetery was replaced with hard dirt. Brush strokes of blues and oranges in the sky, washed away with black ink and splatters of red. The Upside Down. Robin clambers to their elbows in a fit of clumsy fright. Whimpers spilling from their lips as they search for Steve, Y/N --- anyone to stop this sudden nightmare. Something comes into view, and her eyes squint briefly, before widening at the horror. 

“ Eddie ! ”  She cries, as demobat after demobat descends upon his flailing frame. An endless sea of wings circling him in a hellish, dark spiral --- the only sprays of color being his blood... the only sound filling the space being his dying screams.

Robin cries out once more, fumbling to their hands and knees, pushing away dirt as she begins to crawl near. A heavy boot stomping in the middle of their back pinning them to the ground.

“ Watch. ”

And she did with quiet sobs and a hand out stretched. Demobats continued tearing at his flesh; chewing and digging into his sides --- stealing the life of the young Eddie Munson. Scream after scream of the young man panging their ears in chilling chords,  far different from the melody Robin had once heard him play...  the night this had happened... the night he had died. 

“ Stop... please, stop it ! ”  Eyes squeeze shut once more as Robin cannot dare to watch him die. Seeing him there, Dusting huddled over his body while Steve and Nancy carried him away as the Earth shattered beneath them, had been hard enough. The blood upon his face and his eyes... those eyes, empty and lifeless already haunted her sleep. Seeing it how it happened --- Robin cries again. 

“ But it’s my favorite part. ”  A fist decorated with cold metal grips their short strands, dragging them up to watch the finale. 

Robin this time seeing herself, hunched over Eddie’s frame with slumped shoulders and wet eyes. They remembered every detail.  

                                                    🦇

They first remembered the frantic rush of Steve running, already distraught with belief that Max was dead, and needing --- more than anything, to know that Dustin was not. Nancy was just behind him while Robin had to focus on keeping up, their throat and limbs sore from the vines that had nearly crushed the life out of all of them. She remembered Steve slamming into Dustin, his arms wrapped firmly around the younger boy as his sobs explained what had happened. 

The four of them slide onto the dirt, surrounding the freak who wasn’t as everyone had believed. Steve had  pressed against his chest in rhythmic pounding, giving puffs of air into his mouth, hoping to revive. Minutes that felt like hours passing before Nancy has placed a hand upon his shoulder, whispering to let him go. Robin, remembering the wetness upon her shoulder, as she held Dustin, eyes frantically keeping watch on the gaping orange cliff that sprung though Eddie’s, now destroyed, trailer. 

Then the fight, that nearly severed the bond between her best friend and who was pretty much his younger brother, ensuing --- the decision to leave Eddie’s body causing a rift between the group. Robin didn’t want to leave Eddie behind, but had finally agreed with Steve and Nancy that it’d be too difficult and dangerous to return it back to Hawkins. Robin still believed that Dustin hasn’t yet forgiven any of them, as she watched Nancy and Steve forcefully drag him out of the Upside Down. 

Robin had fallen down once more next to Eddie, his eyes haunting her as they bore into her own but couldn’t see. Before finally, trembling and gentle fingertips, reach and shutter his brown hues from the horrors they endured. Robin closing his eyes with a whimper before running after and away --- leaving the Upside Down, Vecna, and the body that had been Eddie Munson, behind. 

                                                      🦇

“ Do you know what it feels like... to be left like road kill? Used and forgotten? ”   Eddie’s harsh whisper tutting against their ear. 

“ N-n-no, we... we didn’t have a choice. ”

“ No... choice? And if it had been her? Or Wheeler? Or him? ”

Glinting blue eyes were forced to watch as Eddie’s lifeless body shifted. Demobats falling once more from the sky to attack and kill the new face that laid upon the ground... one with bright, reddish-orange hair. 

“ No ! ” Robin scream as blood and flesh sprayed onto Vicki’s face, before shifting once more. Nancy’s face now screaming in pain, tearing at the bats, helpless as they devoured her alive. Before finally, it shifted to Steve. 

Eddie’s fist in their hair the only thing keeping them standing as another gravelly, scream left Robin’s throat burning raw. Steve thrashing upon the ground, chest bearing open in gashes of crimson, before a tail wrapped firmly around his neck and lifted Steve into the air.

“ Eddie, please ! Stop this, stop !  I’m sorry, please. ”

A beat hung in the air. Everything seeming to freeze until,  “ No. ”  A crack resounding in the air, Steve’s lifeless body falling with a thud to the ground. 

A breathless scream couldn’t force itself this time. Robin nearly collapsing to the ground before hard, freezing hands grip their shoulders and throw them across the ground. Robin rolling onto their back with the realization that they could not move, nor blink, or even breathe. 

“ And if it had been you ? ”

Searing, unimaginable pain dug into their sides. A demobat perching on  top  of Robin’s chest before plunging it’s fangs deep into her neck. Draining both the blood and life straight from their veins. 

Just as it had begun, it ceased though the pain lingered burning red on her every inch. Silence emitting throughout this purgatory Vecna must have created as her throat felt swollen shut. 

“ I never would have left you, ”  Eddie spoke above the crunching of his boots in the dirt, stepping closer and closer to Robin’s unmoving frame. Slowly he came into view, Robin finally, without choice, staring into the eyes she had once closed. 

His once soft features were hardened with shadows hanging deeply under his eyes, contrasting significantly against his now pale complexion.

Why are you doing this? Robin’s mind raced, unable to speak or move her lips.

A single tear, one of blood, rolled down his cheek. A pale tongue reaching to lick it away, sharp peaks exposing themself from beneath plump lips. 

“ Because you are guilty. ”  Eddie spoke, reaching forward and rubbing calloused fingertips down Robin’s face; closing her eyes. 

                                                           🦇

“ What the hell is going on ?!? ” 

Robin’s eyes flash open, the cemetery back into view. She was alive. Steve was alive. More importantly, Eddie was alive. And he was right. Robin did feel guilty and more so, now than ever, regretted leaving Eddie’s body behind. They had thought about him constantly. It ate her alive day and night... keeping the secret of what happened from the world. That Eddie wasn’t a killer but a hero, who died to save the town that hated him. Nothing hurting worse than having watched his uncle bury an empty grave, never knowing the truth, lost in pain, and Robin knowing she could have relieved him of it. 

“ Robin, I’m kind of busy ! ”  Steve struggled against Dustin, leaving Robin to console you as the vision Eddie had shown her still pounded within her chest.

“ Y/N,  I - I ”  Robin stumbled over her words, a hand reaching up to touch the side of her throat, where two small divots presented in her flesh. 

“ You what !? Huh !? You... you let me believe he was dead ! That he was here, ”  your hands point angrily to the empty grave beneath your feet,  “  rotting and gone ! ”

“ We thought he was dead... we --- he wasn’t breathing --- ”

“ You were with him? ”  Your body shaking in anguish and fury, devastation and confusion. “ You --- he said you left him for dead. ”

Erica interjects, stepping between the two of you. “ There’s a lot you don’t know, okay? It’s very complicated and --- seriously look around. You think any of us expected what just happened? ”

Your hues scatter between the other four individuals. Robin looked as if she had been dragged through hell and back, Dustin and Steve were settled upon the ground, huddled together with whispers quietly muttered back and forth, and Erica, though standing firmly, had hands trembling at her side. 

“ Then explain.”  You demanded, mouth dry and heart heavy.

“ We will. At Mike’s ! ”  Erica said this pointedly, turning to stare at the others. All of whom looked up and nodded in silent agreement. “ Dustin... ”  he sniffled, eyes red in a blurry haze,  “ you should radio everyone. Mike, Hopper, my brother... we need all hands on deck for this shit show. ”

Time moved slowly as everyone gathered their strength and moved towards the car, gathering back in, far more changed than they had been fifteen minutes previously. Robin, coming in last. Their eyes staring heavily at Eddie’s grave through the side mirror.

“ Because you are guilty. ”

They all were. And your reaction, along with the vision, made it more clear to Robin that they had made the wrong choice. And Eddie, unforgiving, was coming after them all.

                                                       🦇  

please let me know if you enjoyed this HERE or if you have any suggestions, questions, or things you want to see !  follow the tag  #dropdeadmunson for updates !  and use it to share your thoughts too <3  also please like and reblog <3 this helps me a lot !

𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 !

“ By the way, where the hell is Byers? ”

“ Argyle was in the middle of making a pizza, they have to wait for him to finish. ”

“ What? Why? ”

“ Why? As if anything with Argyle comes with a logical explanation? ”

“ Yeah, well…”

“ We should check in on her, right? When I first found out about all this shit I thought barf was gonna come out my butt. And no one I loved came back to life like a freaking zombie either. I’m gonna check in on her… I just… can’t stand by and watch people cry without doing something. ”

“ Maybe you shouldn’t… ”

“ So we just let her cry? ”

“ Yeah… no...  maybe? ”

“ I really thought this couldn’t get any worse. ”

“ Are you positive El can’t make it tonight? ”

“ I’ve tried… no chance. No chance. ”

“ Shit… shit ! ”

“ Guys ! ”

Amidst the garble of their conversation, hushed whispers that weren’t really all that hushed, there was a ringing your ears that wouldn’t go away. A high pitched drone you clung to with your exhausted focus. Your brain imagining the sound as a timeline in which you went through the past few years and all that has occurred. Pinning each event in the order in which they relayed it to you... making sense of it the best way you could.

They had told you everything --- everything and it took fifteen minutes for your head to stop reeling. The truth of what happened when the kid --- Will --- went missing, Barb, Hargrove and the mall fire... that wasn’t actually a fire at all, the thing they called the Upside Down that was full of monsters and demons... where Eddie died. And a girl --- Eleven --- who had superpowers. A real Carrie come out of Stephen King’s novel.  

Eddie’s death had been the last event, followed by the opening of these gates by this villain; Vecna slash Henry slash One. It explained what had occurred to Hawkins these past few years so well. The disappearances, the earthquake... a real life curse striking the once safe, mundane town. It was Indiana for heavens sake. How could a fantasy possibly be their reality? And it felt too cruel... that the boy who wished to run off into a fantasy to escape the harsh reality that was his life would finally get it just for it to kill him. Eddie...

When you finally turned to them, their voices hush into a heavy silence. Several pairs of eager, concerned eyes staring into your own. Your hues more than raw; blood shot. Your face had become a stained glass window, created by tears streaking down dirty features in faint shattering lines. One too many rocks having been thrown at you. Robin sucked a breath through gritted teeth upon the sight.

“ Can I take a bath? ”  You finally speak. The question you asked not one of the million they expected you to have. As, during their explanation, you had not talked at all. It felt like you didn’t even breathe. The words and breath from your lungs stolen. It was the same way you would take in and react to Eddie’s campaigns. Whereas then you hung on by excitement, now you held on in hopelessness. 

“ Of course, it’s this way. ”  Nancy took charge while the others only blinked and passed worried glances to one another. 

Following Nancy, she led you up the stairs from the basement all of you had descended within. You had taken notice of the set up when you first went down. Piles of blankets were prepared on the couch, as if the Wheelers were always expecting company to stay over. There were D&D drawings lining the walls, reminding you so much of Eddie’s poorly done sketches of characters and maps he would prepare for Hellfire. What grabbed you the most however was how his picture was even there, taken straight from the yearbook and taped on the wall. Your fingertips had run along his features while no one looked, pausing briefly at the words scrawled crudely at the bottom. 

                                              OUR HERO

Now you know the truth of his death... almost death? It made your body ache, because it was so like Eddie. You loved him... love him --- but you never put him through rose colored glasses. He would’ve hated that. Eddie always having had the strong belief that if a person wasn’t flawed then they weren’t human. Eddie had run away as he always had. He ran away from reality. Ran away from his future. Ran away from his responsibilities. It wasn’t physically running away, but he had gone a thousand miles before running away from the tragedy of Chrissy Cunningham. 

And the one time he chose not to run... 

The flicking on of the bright fluorescent light of the bathroom draws you back. Nancy, watching you anxiously from her peripherals, adjusting the temperature of the water before letting it run and run; slowly filling up the tub. Reaching into one of the cabinets, she pulled out a light yellow bath towel, gently handing it over. 

“ Take all the time you need... ” She says before slipping out the door and closing it shut. 

The silence washes over you. Your heart beat in your ears as you take in the feeling of finally being alone. All of your grief put on such display that now, when alone, there was nothing left to feel. Your only hope being the steaming water will distill you, removing this pain with every droplet. 

Layer after layer, you peel away your sticky and sweat through clothes before stepping slowly into the water. The temperature hot enough to draw a much needed breath from your chest before you slowly let it overtake you. Once clean and pure water becoming slightly darker as the dirt and grime of the day is washed away. You soak in deeper. 

                                                          🥀

“ What do you think our future will be like? ”  Eddie asked, catching you completely by surprise. Eddie Munson, the person who lives purely in the now with little care of the consequences, talking about his future was a sure sign that something was wrong. 

You shift within the bath, head turning against his chest to look him in the eyes. The concern you had from the question was written right between his eyebrows, worrying you. And at your glance, his grip around your waste tightens as if you’d slip right down the drain... into the land of Freddy Kreuger where teenagers don’t ever get a future. Graduation was only a few weeks away. Finals were even closer, and he was scared. It was plain to see. 

“ Probably boring. ”  Naively, you try to joke in a way that he usually would, pressing a kiss to the underneath of his chin.

“ I’m serious. I know, me serious for once, it’s a miracle. But... what if I don’t graduate... again? ”  His voice is heavy in a way that is rare. This tone usually saved for after visitations with his father at the jail, or when his father gets out then inevitably goes back in. 

You use his knees that were locked around you as leverage to lift up and turn. Without the warmth of his chest against your back, your body shivers from how cool the water had become without you noticing. 

“ You’re going to graduate, Eddie. You’ve worked your ass off this past semester. ”

“ And if I don’t? ”

“ Don’t say that.. ”

“ Just trying to be realistic. ”

“ Reality is for the hopeless who are too stupid to create anything better. ”

“ Don’t quote me to me, ”  he sighs, though completely amused. His tattooed arms reach out to wrap around and draw you back. “ I don’t want to disappoint you. ”  His breath presses against your ear, stirring the partly dry baby hairs that strayed there. 

“ That’s not possible. ”  You quickly responded, believing it to be the truth. 

“ Yeah, well... never say never, right? ” 

“ Stop it. ”  The words carry into a silence. Neither of you speaking because both of you knew what this was. Eddie was preparing for the worst case scenario... running away again towards the nearest escape that would cause the least amount of damage. There were no healing potions or magic spells to make everything perfect, so the best option was to get the hell out of dodge. 

Eddie hurting himself, that was fine. Hurting you? That was the worst thing he believed he could do. Because in his eyes, you had a chance at life. Supportive, though overbearing, parents were at your every will with money to spare. You were smart and dedicated to your studies, always getting decent enough grades in school to never have to worry about getting in anywhere. Not to mention your talent. A voice, he has said, that was sculpted by Apollo himself. 

Whereas Eddie viewed himself as nothing but autumn leaves crushed in the gutter. Crumpled, broken, and whisked away by the stream of life down the drain into the underworld. Here and then forgotten. His mother was long gone. Eddie never even knowing her name until he was six years old. When his father and uncle were fighting in the kitchen as he was meant to be sleeping on the couch. His father in and out of prison. The reputation he left behind for his son, with the same brown mousy locks and large eyes, setting him up for constant failure and prejudice. All his life Eddie being told he’d be nothing just as his father was nothing. Nothing but white trash. Hearing that enough times, he believed it so much to be true he gave up at school. 

You were the only one to make him feel... better. As if maybe life didn’t have to be shitty. And he knew somehow, in the future, he’d lose you. He’d mess it all up. There was a clock, chiming loudly in his ear, ticking down to the end of it all: graduation. He could feel it so deeply it his core. The end was coming soon and then he’d really have nothing left. And what’s worse is... he believed, with his every fiber, that it’d be for the best. There’d be nothing more loving than letting you go. 

“ I love you, ”  you whisper. Needing him to hear it. But all it does is make him love you more and hate himself just as much. 

“ I love you too, babe. ”

                                                         🥀

A rushing gargle of water flowing down the drain is behind you as you step out into the hallway, the yellow towel wrapped around your frame and wet strands sticking against your neck. You felt exposed, definitely. Though that seemed better than putting filthy clothes back on after finally getting clean.

“ Nancy? ”  You called, walking towards the only other light in your vicinity. The kitchen. Mike and Dustin choking on their sandwiches as you walk in. “ Where’s your sister? ”  You ask Mike, though there isn’t much time for him to answer as Nancy bounds up the stairs after hearing your call. 

“ Is everything okay? ”

“ Do you have any spare clothes? ”  Your eyes glance down her frame and turn to Mike to do the same, taking a deep inhale. “ Or does your Dad? ”

“ Yeah, ”  she smiles timidly, giving a small shake of tightly, curled strands “ just a second. ”

When she left the space in search of clothes, you turned back towards the two boys. Their eyes looking every which way, avoiding you at all costs. Cute. You immediately seeing in them what Eddie must’ve seen. Nobody easily got into Hellfire without having that special something.

It made your chest ache as you recalled Dustin’s story. Eddie’s last moments. In front of you was the last person to see him alive... who saw his pain... who carried a harrowing memory at such a young age. 

“ Thank you... for loving him. ”

Their eyes finally perk up at your surprising words, though nothing else needed to be said. Dustin nodded his head slightly and Mike glanced down, giving his own little nod. Both of them knew what it meant. 

“ No thanks needed. He loved us first, ”  Dustin replied, solemnly. 

“ He was our hero long before the Upside Down, ”  Mike added.

Those words again carried significant weight. Our hero. You knew that it was Mike who scrawled those words beneath his picture. You knew it was Dustin who Eddie died for. He had loved them so much, you saw. And you vowed to do the same. 

“ Here you go. ”  Nancy returned, handing you some college football t-shirt and draw string pajama shorts. 

“ Thanks. ”  Stepping back into the bathroom, you quickly changed. Taking the quick chance, you looked at yourself in the mirror. Eyes were still red, though less so. Your eyes appeared sunken --- so tired after the events of the day and revelation that Hawkins was no longer just a metaphorical hellscape. It was so much to take in. You wondering if Eddie had felt the same when he had learned about the Upside Down and demogorgons and Vecna. 

Then and there you made the choice to stop being distraught. Instead, you were no longer Y/N. You were Lady Hope once more. Immediately upon conjuring this alternative version of yourself did your mind get to work. Eddie’s previous words flooding your mind.

“ This is your last warning, considering your ignoring of the first. Bring him Eleven or things will get very, very ugly. ”

While you now knew who Eleven was ( and equally that the he was in reference to Vecna slash Henry slash One ) there was no mention of the first warning in the breakdown of their situation. And having met Mike and Dustin, two of the more important people in Eddie’s life after you had broken up, the idea of him working for Vecna made no sense... unless. Shit.

It was an explosion within your mind, nearly knocking you backwards. This was bad. Very, very bad. Your hand reaches like a lightning bolt towards the bathroom doorknob. Pausing, only, as frantic voices carried from the other side.

Grabbing the handle, you pull it open and rush to the kitchen. Mike, Dustin, and Nancy were huddled around one of the hand-held radios. Steve, Robin, and Erica bounding up from the basement after hearing the same commotion you did.

“ Argyle, what? What’s going on? Over ! ”  Mike yelled into the radio. 

A Californian accent replied, “ Brochacos this is bad. Domino’s pizza bad, man. It’s like the night of the living dead out here man. Indiana is so not cool. ”  There were tire screeches in the driveway. Everyone rushing towards the door as a giant, pizza van sped up onto the grass. 

“ Good thing, Mom, Dad, and Holly are at move night at the community center, right? ”

“ Right... ”  Nancy choked on a breath, running to the door and opening it. Three bodies then rushing in the door; two falling against the floor in a fumble of limbs while the smaller one was grabbed and taken into Mike’s arms. Mike’s tall frame helping the other catch his footing. As eyes looked up beneath a rounded hair cut, you recognize the features immediately. Posters of his face plastered all around town just years prior. Will Byers. 

“ What happened? ”  Steve says, dreading the answer to his own question. Him and Robin both reaching down and helping the two older boys up. 

“ Bob ! Bob happened. ”  Will revealed. Every breath then catching in their throats except for you and Robin. Both of you looking at each other before finally placing the name in the list of events on the timeline. 

“ What does he mean by Bob happened, Jonathan? ”  Nancy turned to her boyfriend, eyes wide and hands shaking at her sides. 

“ He was in the road on the way here... standing, alive. ”  Tears had also sprung from his eyes. The effects of seeing Bob alive just as strong on him as it had been on Will, who clung to Mike. 

“ That’s not possible. ” She whispers. 

“ It was possible with Eddie. ”  You say. Three new pairs of eyes glance at you, look away, and do a double take. Jonathan is the only one who recognizes you.

“ Now who’s this babe? ”

“ No, Eddie is different. His body was left in the Upside Down. Bob died years ago. ”  Nancy rushes towards the kitchen window, drawing back the curtain and peering outside. “ Did everybody see him or only Will? ” She turns back, hands still clutched around the small, linen curtain. 

Jonathan seems somewhat flustered by this. “ No, we all saw him. Not just Will. It wasn’t Vecna this time. ”

This time? 

Nancy winces as she tries to make sense of this. Turning back towards the window, a hand is pressed against the glass. A scream then ripping from Nancy’s throat as she falls backwards, Robin catching her just before her head could hit the floor. All eyes looking up towards the glass. Just past pressed fingertips were tattered, plaid sleeves, thick rimmed glasses, and a short red mess of hair. 

Barbara. 

A twisted smile upon her ghosted features, black goo spilling from her eyes that were tinted red. A hand reaches back, then quickly and repeatedly pounds against the glass. Nancy screams continue, sending chills down your spine as you felt helpless in the situation. 

“ Get her out of here ! ”  Steve yells towards Robin, a spiked bat suddenly in his hands. Robing immediately complying, pulling the other girl up and wrapping an arm around the now inconsolable Nancy Wheeler before directing her down into the basement. 

The others moved just as quickly. Grabbing whatever they could into their arms and rushing towards the door. Following suit, you rush after them, stepping out into the dark spring night. 

The once, very dead, Barbara had stepped back from the window, crossing the yard to where other figures waited.

A green and gold letterman’s jacket. A skinny frame with scars across his face. A cheerleader’s uniform. A near sea of lab coats and Russian uniforms. Barbara. Bob.

And Eddie.  

“ Dustin ? Dustin ! We have a situation here. It’s Billy ! It’s Billy ! ”  A voice cries over the walkie talkie before crackling out into silence.

Your chest heaves as the scene plays out before you. Your eyes floating figure by figure until meeting Eddie’s crimson hues. They cut against the grass and dig into your skull.

Beats within your chest race faster and it’s as if he can hear it. A pointed, sideways grin floating his lips before they suddenly lean and lock with the lips of the once deceased Chrissy Cunningham. 

Steve, Dustin, Mike, and Erica glancing towards your stunned framed. Your vision unable to move as their lips continued to collide and a metal laded hand grabbed at her thighs. 

You gulp, enraged. 

“ That’s not Eddie. ”  The words force themselves out through gritted teeth.

“ W-what? ”  Dustin stutters.

“ It’s Kas... Kas the Bloody-Handed. ”

“ Shit. ”  Mike curses.

“ Shit. ”  Dustin repeats.

Eddie looks up at the name. Head tilted up and lips drawn apart in an impressed grin. There’s a pause in the air, everyone on edge, waiting for whatever would happen next. Eddie then takes a step forward, the grass dying beneath the heel of his boot.

“ Roll for initiative. ”

                                                     🦇  

please let me know if you enjoyed this HERE or if you have any suggestions, questions, or things you want to see !  follow the tag  #dropdeadmunson for updates !  and use it to share your thoughts too <3  also please like and reblog <3 this helps me a lot !

𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 !

Fingertips, calloused from hours upon hours of playing guitar, once lifted your chin. No words coming from Eddie’s lips, but only a deviant smile before he descended down and down farther. The memory plays back timelessly, as if you were still there in those moments. It had been one of the many nights Uncle Wayne had to work late, leaving the cozy  ( mostly clean )  trailer left for the two of you to enjoy the whims of being young and in love. Either the two of you were tangled up in bedsheets or settling for a scary movie marathon. Both of which you long for while knowing it will never happen again. 

                                                            🥀

You drop the once white rag now pink back into the soapy, matching colored water. The entire time the five of you worked, not many words were passed. The heaviness of Eddie’s absence painful for you all in different ways you didn’t yet understand. What you did learn was that Dustin had been closest with him. The boy didn’t say this directly, but the tears you caught him wiping away carried a deep grief you recognized similar to your own. 

While grief appeared differently on different people, guilt always looked the same. It was on all of their faces, however best they tried to hide it. 

You saw it on Dustin as he grasped at his leg, mumbling beneath his breath of things he was afraid others would hear. You saw it on Robin as they clumsily picked up the litter surrounding his grave, her eyes looking everywhere but his gravestone as if it had eyes of it’s own boring back at her. You saw it in Erica who, despite her initial anger, worked the hardest to scrub the stone. The young girl having something she wanted to prove. And you saw it in Steve, too. Who, after finishing cleaning up, stepped off into the tree line. A letter in hand and shoulders hunched. Their three pairs of eyes following, but feet remaining still. 

“ Robin, can you -- help me pour out the water? ”  You ask. Their eyes immediately rip away from Steve’s back in a nod of overexaggerated motions. Her two hands grabbing the second bucket and with a ( huff ) of exertion, pulling it up and waddling before you to the cement path that ran throughout the cemetery. 

As the water slowly poured, resembling dilated blood, you wonder stupidly how it happened. You didn’t know how he died. And while part of you longed for answers, another part believed it was better not knowing. His uncle had left town before you arrived, or so you heard from your parents --- who relayed you the news that Eddie was gone before it was broadcasted on television. 

                           “ I never trusted that boy. My God, sweetie. It ---”  your mother had spoken through tears, “ it could have been you instead of that other little girl. My God, it could have been you. ”

Her words had carried throughout the gym, drawing eyes from all around. The residents of Hawkins left without much privacy with half the town destroyed; including your childhood home. Those few who knew you had dated him staring at you with an odd mix of disgust and pity. 

Your feet practically flew as you ran out of there. The cries of your mother and father drowned out by the pounding of your boots upon the pavement. Your legs never resting until you saw it for yourself. His last resting place. 

“ Why did you lie earlier? ”  Robin’s voice cut through your remembrance, jolting you awake to the present. “ Sorry, that sounded accusatory. I didn’t mean to say lie. What I actually meant to say was, you cut off Steve earlier when he was going to say you were Eddie’s girlfriend. Which is weird, because from what I remember you two were like all in love or whatever... that said as a third party who didn’t know either of you personally at the time, but merely a spectator because let’s be honest --- you two were not afraid of PDA at times. Like one time I saw you guys leaving Witness at the drive in and wow, but anyways -- that was creepy. Get to the point, Robin. I just wonder why you are you hiding that given you know he didn’t kill Chrissy and the others. ”

While the other was in no short supply of oxygen, you felt it pulled out of your lungs. Your cheeks flashing red hot, undoubtedly flustered. At the sight, to which, Robin apologize profusely at the same speed of their question. 

“ No, it’s okay -- I, ”  you shake your head as you had shaken the last droplets of water out of the bucket; feeling just as drained. “ It just didn’t... end well between us. ”

“ What happened? ”

                                                       🥀

                         “ Y/N, I can explain. ”

                         “ I needed you there. I asked you for this one thing... this one god damned thing ! ”

                          “ I know... I know --- I messed up, I know. Sweetheart just --- ”

                          “ Don’t insult me with sweetheart, Eddie. Not right now. Not today ! ”

                          “ Then let me, explain. If you just let me explain... ”

                           “ Fine. Go ahead. ”

                                                        🥀

The slamming of the car doors kills the echoes, setting you and Robin off back towards the car where you toss the emptied buckets and wet rags into the trunk. An awkward silence hanging around as no one knew what to do next. 

“ How’d you get here, Y/N? ”  Steve asked upon returning, the letter you had seen previously in his hand gone. His features appearing as if nothing had been wrong. 

“ I kinda ran here.”  Exclamations breaking out around you as the words left your lips. 

“ You ran all the way here? ”  Erica asked. “ Why would you do that? ”

“ I didn’t do it on purpose. I just --- couldn’t stop. ”

“ Was something chasing you? ”  Dustin.

“ Did you hear any strange noises? ”  Robin.

“ Like a clock, did you hear anything like a clock? ”  Steve.

All their questions rambled off at once.

“ What are you all going on about? I just... my parents were hounding me about all this shit at the gym so I ran away. And the one person I would always run to is gone, so I went to the only place I knew had a tiny sliver of him left. No one was chasing me... a clock? No -- I just wanted to be here. ”

The others relaxed while you felt  particularly more tense. Questions upon questions of your own raising in your mind. They quieted down once more before Steve pointed at your boots.

“ How are your feet? Running in that kind of footwear would hurt like hell. ”

“ They hurt a little. ”

“ Take them off. ”

“ No. ”

“ C’mon, just take them off. Let me see. ”

Begrudgingly, you bent down and untied the laces. A grimace flitting your features as you pulled one of the boots off. Your sock sticky with blood. 

“ Goddammit, Y/N. ”  Steve sighed. “ Get in. I’ll take you back to the gym and they’ll patch you up there. ”

“ Steve, no. I’m not going back there. I can’t deal with my parents and everyone staring at me because I dated the town murderer. ”

“ You were dating? ”  Dustin interrupted, though you continued on.

“ And I can’t even feel it alright? ”

“ Okay, fine. But where will you go? ”  Robin inquired, concerned at the sight of blood upon your foot. 

“ Mike’s? ” 

“ They have enough problems as it is right now. What about your place? ”

Erica quickly shook her head at Dustin’s question.  “ If I go back with you nerds my parents will know I’m not at the hospital with Lucas. Which means my ass is grounded until I’m thirty. ”

“ We’ll just go to my place, it’s fine. Now everyone get in the car. ”  Steve decided, ushering everyone inside. Before getting in himself, he looked up quickly at the sky. Dust particles were suddenly floating through the trees. An effect of the earthquake destroying Hawkins Lab, as the government officials shared with the town residents. 

Once inside, Steve quickly pressed on the gas. From the back seat, you had just gotten your seatbelt on when the car lurches to a halted. Groans filling the car as sudden clouds block the sun, and the breeze that had kept you cool while cleaning his headstone picked up and shook the trees.

“ What the hell, Steve? ”  Robin started from the front passenger seat. 

Looking up from the back, Steve’s reflection in the review mirror stared past you. His skin pale and eyes wide. His grip upon the steering causing his knuckles to go white. You stare at the reflection perplexed until time suddenly goes slow.

“ Eddie ! ”  Dustin yelled, fumbling out of the car. Your blood suddenly running cold and your feet, bloodied, stuck to the floor of the car. Unmoving.

Steve had reacted quickly, jumping over the hood and grabbing onto Dustin’s shoulders to keep him in place. You watch them, Dustin’s eyes full of tears as his begs to be let go filter through the open car door. Robin joining in holding back the young boy, a look of horror upon their features. Erica shifts next to you, looking through the back window and a deep breath catching between her teeth.

“ What’s wrong, Henderson? See a ghost? ”

Dizziness settles on your vision as you follow the all too familiar voice. Your peripherals blurring with tears as you finally open the car door and see what they saw. 

Eddie.

Alive.

Your arms against the car door is the only thing keeping you standing. Your mouth falling open slightly as breathing becomes near impossible.

One foot resting against his headstone, Eddie, dressed in a severely bloodied and torn Hellfire tee, leaned as clear as day. A black bandana kept his unruly hair at bay, his red and black electric guitar was strung across his back, and a newspaper was gripped tightly in his fist.

Seeing him again brought back every time he touched you, kissed you, and held you. His laughter carried over the hollow ground, but it lacked the warmth you remembered so clearly. How was he aliv?

“ You know, if you are going to leave someone for dead, it’s probably best to ensure they stay that way. ”

“ What the hell? ”

“ Oh come on, Steve. ”  Eddie  drawls, standing up straight and dropping the newspaper before grabbing at his chest. “ Didn’t you miss me? ”

You stumble forward with no one holding you back, longing to see him up close... to make sure this was real and not some rare shared hallucination. 

The slight sound of your movement draws his eyes like a quick blade. What had once been a deep shade of brown illuminated red. A tsk, as if he was almost surprised, cutting through the air.

“ Oh, no sweetheart. I’ll deal with you later. ”  A rush of wind suddenly knocks you back several feet onto your back. Air forced out of your lungs as you gasp for breath. Erica suddenly at your side, gripping your hands while yells from Dustin still filled the air. 

“ Eddie, what did he do to you? ”

Thoughts, questions, confusion all race through your mind as you tried to make sense of the scene playing out before you. Left for dead... he... who was he? What happened to your Eddie? 

“ No, Dustin. What did you do to me? This is your last warning, considering your ignoring of the first. Bring him Eleven or things will get very, very ugly. ” 

With the last bit of your strength, you push yourself up. A hand coming up to shield your face as gusts of winds carrying what appeared to be bats swarmed around Eddie. A smile, pointed and sadistic, fading beneath the blur of wings before it all disappeared. 

Dustin’s sobs filled the quiet cemetery once more as you scrambled to your feet. The pain caused by your boots no where near the pain of seeing the boy you loved acting as something out of pet cemetery. Grasping at the newspaper he had dropped, you read.

                     ꜱᴀᴛᴀɴɪᴄ ᴄᴜʟᴛ ʟᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ ᴘʀᴇꜱᴜᴍᴇᴅ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ

                                              𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥 𝟐𝐧𝐝, 𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟔    

𝙰𝚜  𝚐𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚗𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝  𝚘𝚏𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚒𝚊𝚕𝚜  𝚊𝚗𝚍  𝚜𝚌𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜  𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚕𝚕  𝚒𝚗𝚟𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚐𝚊𝚝𝚎  𝚝𝚑𝚎  𝚍𝚎𝚟𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐  𝚎𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚜  𝚘𝚏  𝚝𝚑𝚎  𝚕𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚕  𝟾.𝟷  𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚚𝚞𝚊𝚔𝚎  𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝  𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚌𝚔  𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜  𝚚𝚞𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚝  𝚝𝚘𝚠𝚗  𝚗𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚢  𝚘𝚗𝚎  𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚔  𝚊𝚐𝚘,  𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎  𝚙𝚎𝚊𝚌𝚎  𝚖𝚊𝚢  𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢  𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎  𝚝𝚘  𝚝𝚑𝚎  𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚏𝚒𝚎𝚍  𝚌𝚒𝚟𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚜  𝚘𝚏  𝙷𝚊𝚠𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚜,  𝙸𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚊.  𝙴𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚒𝚎𝚛  𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜  𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐,  𝙷𝚊𝚠𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚜  𝙿𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚎  𝙲𝚑𝚒𝚎𝚏  𝙲𝚊𝚕𝚟𝚒𝚗  𝙿𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚕  𝚑𝚊𝚜  𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚍  𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝  𝙴𝚍𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚍  𝙼𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚘𝚗,  𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛  𝚘𝚏  𝚝𝚑𝚎  𝚌𝚞𝚕𝚝  𝙷𝙴𝙻𝙻𝙵𝙸𝚁𝙴,  𝚑𝚊𝚜  𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗  𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚞𝚖𝚎𝚍  𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚍  𝚋𝚢  𝚑𝚒𝚜  𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚟𝚒𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚐  𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚎,  𝚆𝚊𝚢𝚗𝚎  𝙼𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚘𝚗. 

𝙸𝚗  𝚑𝚒𝚜  𝚊𝚍𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚜,  𝙲𝚑𝚒𝚎𝚏  𝙿𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚕  𝚜𝚊𝚒𝚍:  " 𝙼𝚛.  𝙼𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚘𝚗,  𝚠𝚑𝚘  𝚑𝚊𝚜  𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗  𝚊  𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚙𝚏𝚞𝚕  𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚝  𝚍𝚞𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐  𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚜𝚎  𝚙𝚊𝚜𝚝  𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚔,  𝚑𝚊𝚜  𝚒𝚗𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚖𝚎𝚍  𝚞𝚜  𝚘𝚏  𝚝𝚑𝚎  𝚗𝚎𝚠𝚜  𝚘𝚏  𝚑𝚒𝚜  𝚗𝚎𝚙𝚑𝚎𝚠'𝚜  𝚙𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐.  𝚆𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚎  𝚗𝚘  𝚋𝚘𝚍𝚢  𝚑𝚊𝚜  𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗  𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚍,  𝚠𝚎  𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚎𝚟𝚎  𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝  𝙴𝚍𝚍𝚒𝚎  𝙼𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚘𝚗,  𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎  𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚢  𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚜,  𝚜𝚞𝚌𝚌𝚞𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚍  𝚝𝚘  𝚝𝚑𝚎  𝚍𝚎𝚟𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗  𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍  𝚋𝚢  𝚝𝚑𝚎  𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚚𝚞𝚊𝚔𝚎.  𝚆𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚎  𝙴𝚍𝚍𝚒𝚎  𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚜  𝚘𝚞𝚛  𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚢  𝚜𝚞𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚝,  𝚠𝚎  𝚎𝚗𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚎  𝙷𝚊𝚠𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚜’  𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚜  𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚘𝚞𝚛  𝚒𝚗𝚟𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚐𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗  𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕  𝚗𝚘𝚝  𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚙  𝚞𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚕  𝚊𝚕𝚕  𝚊𝚗𝚜𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚜  𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎  𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗  𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚍  𝚊𝚗𝚍  𝚊  𝚋𝚘𝚍𝚢  𝚑𝚊𝚜  𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗  𝚏𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍.  𝚆𝚎  𝚑𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚕𝚢  𝚜𝚞𝚐𝚐𝚎𝚜𝚝  𝚊𝚕𝚕  𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚜  𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚞𝚎  𝚝𝚘  𝚏𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚠  𝚝𝚑𝚎  𝚜𝚎𝚝  𝚌𝚞𝚛𝚏𝚎𝚠,  𝚊𝚗𝚍  𝚛𝚎𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚢  𝚜𝚞𝚜𝚙𝚒𝚌𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜  𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚜  𝚝𝚘  𝚘𝚞𝚛  𝚑𝚘𝚝𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎. "

𝙷𝚊𝚠𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚜  𝙿𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚎  𝚊𝚕𝚜𝚘  𝚞𝚛𝚐𝚎𝚜  𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚜  𝚝𝚘  𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚢  𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑  𝚐𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚗𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝  𝚘𝚏𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚒𝚊𝚕𝚜,  𝚊𝚗𝚍  𝚎𝚗𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚎𝚜  𝚝𝚑𝚎  𝚚𝚞𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚎,  𝚗𝚎𝚠𝚕𝚢  𝚜𝚎𝚝  𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜  𝚙𝚊𝚜𝚝  𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚔𝚎𝚗𝚍,  𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕  𝚋𝚎  𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛  𝚜𝚘𝚘𝚗  𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚎  𝚙𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚊𝚕  𝚑𝚊𝚣𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚘𝚞𝚜  𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐  𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖  𝙷𝚊𝚠𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚜  𝙻𝚊𝚋  𝚑𝚊𝚜  𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗  𝚌𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚗𝚎𝚍  𝚊𝚗𝚍  𝚌𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚍.

𝚆𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚎  𝚝𝚑𝚎  𝚗𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚎  𝚏𝚘𝚛  𝙷𝚊𝚠𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚜  𝚒𝚜𝚗'𝚝  𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚍  𝚢𝚎𝚝,  𝚒𝚝'𝚜  𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚜  𝚌𝚊𝚗  𝚜𝚕𝚎𝚎𝚙  𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎  𝚜𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚕𝚢  𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑  𝚝𝚑𝚎  𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠𝚕𝚎𝚍𝚐𝚎  𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝  𝙴𝚍𝚍𝚒𝚎 𝙼𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚘𝚗,  𝚜𝚊𝚝𝚊𝚗  𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚙𝚎𝚛  𝚊𝚗𝚍  𝚖𝚞𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚛,  𝚒𝚜  𝚘𝚏𝚏  𝚝𝚑𝚎  𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚝𝚜.

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍  𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚕  𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜  𝚊𝚗𝚍  𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐  𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚜  𝚘𝚗  𝚙𝚊𝚐𝚎  𝟽.

His body had never been found, because he was alive. He was here. Eddie was here but he wasn’t the same. Why did they... what was...

“ What the hell is going on?!? ”

                                                        🦇

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As expletives rang from that of Dustin and Mike, Erica’s only focus was yanking the walkie talkie from the back pocket of Dustin. Quick hands making work of lifting the antenna and answering the call. 

“ Lucas, it’s Erica ! Are you okay? Talk to me ! ” For someone so young, her voice is strong and unwavering. Though her heart carried that youth she kept so well hidden among the older crowd she so routinely found herself following. It pounded, ached, and felt ready to explode. 

A crinkle from the radio until finally, “ Erica, help ! ”  

His mouth sounded muffled; full of blood. The cry resembling too much of another memory that had already sprung into daily nightmares. A dark house colored in a blue light. The setting of a plan failed. A friend lost. Spiders and hopelessness and a portal to hell.

“ I’m coming, I’ll be there ! ”  But as much as she meant it, she couldn’t move. Feet that had willed themselves to lift and sprint for her bike were stuck firmly in place upon the front porch of the Wheeler home. Frantic eyes look down yet nothing is there. All she sees are her feet in her favorite white pair of tennis shoes. She tugs again with a grunt. Nothing. 

Another crinkle. Her eyes popping up. “ Erica, please ! Why won’t you help me? ”

“ I’m coming ! Just wai --- ”  Her walls were crumbling. Small hands reach for her ankles, lifting and tugging. Confusion crinkling her eyebrows together and fear slowly settling in.

“ I knew it... ”   

Erica pauses, lungs gasping for a breath. “ What? ”

Lucas answers, voice dark and heavy and uncharacteristic. “ You can’t do anything. ”  Grunts follow the sounds of loud impact. “ What could you do to save me? ”  He sounds more and more tired. “ You’re just a little girl. You can’t save anyone. ”  A heart monitor tone falls flat behind his words. “ I bet you wanted this. You always hated me. ”

Erica’s hands tremble for a brief second, before she wills it back and tightens her grip around the walkie talkie. Had the fear not already sent her heart racing, she would have been annoyed or even angry. But Lucas spoke true to the thoughts she fought back every day. Those same thoughts apparent when she pushed her shoulders out, crossed her arms, or matched the makeup she so often saw Nancy wearing. She was a little girl and she didn’t want to be. But hate him... no, never. He was an annoying older brother, but never would she imagine him any other way. The fact that he was such an annoying, nerd being one of the many reasons why she wanted to be so much like him.

“ Stop ! Stop ! ”  She yells at Billy whose laugh carried from the speaker, and at Lucas too, who she couldn’t understand why he would be saying such things. The words spoken rattling her brain, causing a ringing in her ears. 

“ Why? It’s what you want ! ”  Lucas laughs between the resounding sounds of blows against his face and stomach.

“ No, I don’t ! Steve ! ”  Erica calls for help, not knowing what to do and feeling as young as she was. However upon turning, the big mess of hair that was Steve Harrington was gone. Dustin, Mike, Johnathon, you... all gone. Erica trembles. All that was behind her was the playground. With a gulp she turns back around, the looming --- haunted form of the Creel House meeting dark, now glistening hues. 

She didn’t want to be here. Anywhere but here. 

Eyes follow from the dead grass to the rotting wood boards of the attic. Two shadows within the center, shattered window reflect in her vision. Billy, just as he died. And Lucas, covered in fresh, bright blood.

“ Lucas !!! ”  A scream rips from her throat as the sight of her brother’s frame, being thrashed around and hit again and again. Billy had a tight hold upon Lucas’ shoulder as his arm reared back and went forward. Impact. Reared back and went forward. Impact. Impact. Another impact.  “ No... no ! ”  She struggles against nothing, becoming more and more frantic. Eyes flickering down at her still unmoving feet and back up to the beating of her brother.  “ Stop, stop stop. ” 

The walkie talkie crinkles again, Erica’s fingertips vibrating from the intense, loud yelling of Lucas. “ It is what you want ! Don’t lie ! You want my friends ! You want my place in Hellfire !  It’s why you skipped my game ! You have always wanted everything I have ever had ! Without me, who even are you? Just some stupid, little girl ! ”

Erica tosses the walkie talkie aside into the grass, her mind racing with the realization that maybe this wasn’t real. Lucas would never say that. No matter how much she feared it’s what he really thought, Erica knew he would never actually say it. Lucas was annoying but good. He was kind and caring and slow to anger. Lucas didn’t hate her... this was Vecna. And somehow that thought made her less frightened.  

“ Get a grip, Erica... ”  words whisper comfortingly to herself, but shake on top a heavy breath. Grip... her feet. Erica looks down to try and move her feet once more. Immediately, her eyes widen.

Two fist are gripped painfully tight around her ankles, and just as quickly as she notices do the hands pull back forcefully, knocking her onto her back. Her head feels dizzy as the hard ground shakes an ache down her back. Erica’s fingertips gripping for the earth beneath her to crawl back and away. Legs kicking and flailing as they once had... as they do every night when she finally falls asleep and instead of dreams, come nightmares.

“ You’re not real, you’re not real ! ”  Erica struggles against the letterman covered arms that grip at her ankles and calves. Bright red eyes under curly, short length hair and a baseball cap meeting her own.

A twisted smile speaks, “ Yeah, but I was. And I’ll always be with you. ”  

Those words strike deep into the young girl, who wished so badly it wasn’t true... who had prayed on her knees at the foot of her bed, for the first time in her life, just hoping maybe God would hear and give her one good dream one more time. That maybe He would see He put them all through enough shit and would give her once night of peaceful sleep.

A single white tennis shoe lifts and with a cry, crashes forward towards his face. But instead of the satisfying impact she had felt once before, his face breaks apart into a blur of wings that raise, spiral, and fly out into the blue and red painted sky. Lighting striking across clouds, thunder following as the sound of shattering glass. 

Stumbling onto her stomach, her eyes lift once more, following the glimmer of falling glass. “ It’s not real... ”  Erica tells herself once more with a shake of her head. But even if her mind knew it was all a trick, her body didn’t. A tear slowly dripping onto the dirt as Billy, a hand wrapped around the nape of Lucas’ neck, hung him halfway out the broken attic window. 

“ I told you. You can’t save anyone. ” The words come before the fall. Erica’s nose pressing against the dirt to shield her eyes, but her ears she didn’t think to reach. The thud leaving a deafening silence in it’s wake.

Slowly Erica’s eyes lift, but they immediately fall back down. A sob shaking through her ribcage as she repeats over and over again that it wasn't real. She had to get out of there... return back to the others to save her real brother, before Vecna could come and finish her off. Slowly she hums...

                       Lean on me                        When you're not strong                        And I'll be your friend                        I'll help you carry on...

Her favorite song. It was the only way she knew how to escape Vecna. Erica remembering clearly the descriptions Max had given of how the song created some kind of portal she ran through and returned. For a minute, it was only her voice that sent puffs of air into the dead grass, filling the silence aside from one or two crashes of thunder. But was it working?

Erica lifts her head once more, looking in every direction she could for the portal Max had described. There was nothing. Only the playground, the Creel House, and the unmoving, lifeless body of her brother. 

Memories. That’s what Max said. She needed memories too. 

                        For it won't be long                         Till I'm gonna need somebody to lean on                         You just call on me brother                         When you need a hand                         We all need somebody to lean on

Flashes float her vision. Tears in her eight year old eyes. Tina had broken off their friendship, refusing the invitation to her ninth birthday party. Lucas had put this song on the record, grabbed her hand despite many protests, and in the worst Bill Withers impression --- sang along. Erica remembered he had his first zit right in the middle of his forehead, to which he drew a smiley face around... in permanent marker, the nerd. All to make her laugh. And it worked. Before the final chorus had come, their parents had joined them in the living room. They were all dancing, twirling around in socks and pajamas, and she forgot that she was ever sad. 

Please, Lucas. Please don’t think I can live this life without you. 

Opening her eyes one final time, Erica was positive it had worked but nothing had changed. Billy had disappeared from the window... Lucas remained on the ground... it was real. 

Erica’s mind was whirling as she pushed and clawed to her feet, running towards Lucas with tear soaked, brown hues. “ Lucas ? Lucas, no... please ! ” Small, shaking fingers shake his back, trying to will him awake. “ Lucas !!!! ” With a big push, she flips him over. 

“ Boo ! ”  Pointed canines and flashing, crimson hues replace what should’ve been Lucas’ features. Erica falling back onto her hands as Eddie rose, and rose, and rose --- towering over the Creel House with two, giant bat wings extending out from his back against the thundering night sky.  “ Run, run, run as fast as you can. Run little girl, from the boogie man. ” 

“ Piece of shit bastard... ” she shuttered, rising to her feet and running away from the large, heavy and descending boot of the undead Eddie Munson. 

“ Now, is that anyway to talk to your babysitter? ”  His boot sends shockwaves throughout the earth, Erica stumbling and stumbling, dodging step after step as his boots rained down like hellfire. Crossing out of the yard, through the playground, Erica’s only hope was disappearing into the tree line. But every step she got nearer, it only got further away. With one last, resounding stomp of his boot, Erica nearly flew forward until her hands grip around a lone tree for balance. 

“ What do you want, you zombie freak? ”  She screams into the bark, hands fumbling in the dark around the trunk until finding what she was searching for.

“ Now that, Sinclair, is an excellent question. ”  Eddie rounds the tree, meeting Erica face to face at his regular size. As he steps forward, eyes glowing in the dark, Erica steps back. Tears have dried. Only anger flittered her features. " Besides the obvious... Eleven... blah, blah, blah. You know this... ”

“ Get on with it. ”  Dark brown eyes glare up at the brown, messy tendrils of Eddie. Her first tightened fiercely behind her back. 

“ Y/N. ”

Erica pauses, eyes blinking rapidly.  “ Your girlfriend? ”

“ Ex... girlfriend. ”  There’s venom in his tone, blood dripping from his fangs as he elongates the hiss of ex. 

“ You put me...  through this shit... for that? ”  Erica’s voice rattles. While her features may have become stoic and resembled that more adult look she tried to mask daily... she was still only eleven years old. 

“ To be fair, ”  a hand rests upon his chest in a dramatic gesture, “ I thought you would see right through it. Which you did... for a while... cute trick you did with the song, by the way. And you and Lucas dancing in the living room like that? Adorable... Oh, yeah I could see that. ”  Erica nostrils flare at the gleeful, widening of Eddie’s eyes. The reflection of her memories playing in his hues. “  So anyways, you and your much older friends freely hand over Y/N and Lucas lives. Easy peasy. ”

Scrunched eyebrows relieve their tension. Fear, confusion, pure anger are fighting for control inside her chest. Her lip even quivers, as the deal lingers in her brain. What she had just seen... it wasn’t all a vision. It was a warning of what either was happening now or would happen next. The edges of Eddie’s lips slowly lift in a twist, closed mouth grin. He knew she knew.

“ Take your time. I’m sure Lucas can last... a few more minutes... maybe. ”

Hues waver down, considering. It was wrong, Erica knew. But Lucas... the sound of his body hitting the floor... the look of his face bloodied and bruised... she couldn’t live without him. Erica raises her eyes once more. The only thing left playing in her mind being the singular question: What would Lucas choose?

With a quick motion, Erica swings forward the long, jaded tree branch she held behind her back. She can feel the tip brush his undead skin. And like it had when she kicked her once attacker, Eddie swarmed away in a sea of demobats. Erica swinging the stick all around, fending off the demobats until a sting against her neck makes her scream out. 

                                                           🥀

“ What are you doing ??? Come on !!! ”  Erica’s eyes open with the harsh pull of her elbow, Steve’s voice in her ear as one by one, he rushes everyone back inside the house. You push shut the door just behind him.  

“ Now what? ”  Nancy asks. Everyone jumping at the sound of her voice. Her still shaking frame running out of the basement door, Robin on her heels.  While she was still shaken up, something seemed to have calmed her down enough to stop the crying.

“ I don’t know ! ”  Steve shakes, waving his hand and counting each head to make sure no one was missing. You watch, with a breath still stuck in your throat and Eddie’s lips locked onto Chrissy’s still in your vision, as Steve pauses. His hand reaching out and swiping at two small, dripping lines of blood from Erica’s neck.

This seems to knock her out of some stupor. Her voice silencing the room, “ He’s going to kill my brother. He --- he showed me it ! ”  The girl was shaking; catching everyone off guard. No one caught more off guard than Dustin, Mike, and Will --- all three immediately stepping forward and without question, believing the young girl.

“ Go through the back door. We have to get to the hospital quick. ”  Will, who before had no sense of composure, now scarily calm. 

“ The car is in the front yard, dude. How else are we gonna get there without the zombies eating our brains? ”  Argyle seemed fit to remind them of their situation. 

Erica wondered, if God, finally, just maybe, was giving them a break as the sound of a blaring horn cut through the chaos. 

Rushing out the door, a large van and truck plowed through the fence of the Wheeler’s backyard before halting to a screeching stop. 

“ Mom ! Murray ! ”

“ Get ! In ! Now ! ” An older woman with dark hair, yelled, pointedly through the open window. 

Joyce Byers. 

                                                    🦇  

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