#fhchallenge23

play | cw: eddie's (almost) death | steddie | masterlist

Eddie was scared all the time, ever since that fatidical March 22nd.

He faced infinite horrors, saw death fest from the first row, got hunted like a witch. Hell poured over, the sky clouded red, ashy rain and demons swerving and showing left and right. He had death banging on his front door — he held it closed tight, but it almost passed through. A bad hip, a worst leg, half his torso torn open, half his blood lost, half his organs out of his body.

Death tried really hard.

It didn’t win, though, not against him.

And scared he was, ever since it started.

But he never thought he’d find love at the end of the world.

Love had a sharp jaw, fierce but kind eyes and a sewed-off gun in her hands.

It had cocktail molotovs, rings that matched his, a kinship they grew up fearing about themselves and came to adore with one another.

It had a lisp, an attitude, a collection of nerdy hats and the tightest hug in the world.

It made a family grow against all odds through the apocalypse, like a flower powering through the concrete of a cracked sidewalk.

Love accepted him into their world-saving crew as if he’d been there from the start, protected him and received his (sometimes flawed) protection back, reciprocal reliance through homemade weapons and homemade meals.

Love had coiffed hair and honey hazel eyes and a set of moles perfectly placed for a kiss on his neck. Love had scars that matched his.

Eddie was scared of the end of the world, and he was scared about how much he loved Steve. And he knew Steve was just as scared too.

But they held hands and powered through it. Love bloomed and blossomed, the world didn’t end, and death wouldn’t win against them.

play | cw: angst, whump | masterlist

Will's front porch light is off.

Thankfully, the kids in his neighbor have manners and they respect Will's subtle communication through lights.

And, well, he's good at that anyway.

He looks at them through the window, though. Little vampires and goblins and ghosts walking down the street, asking for treats or tricks. He remembers how fun it used to be, him and the boys. The rest of his Party, always in matching costumes from their favorite media from that year, Mike always ahead and Will always following him.

But Halloween hasn't been the same ever since he discovered that monsters were actually real. Since a monster almost killed him. Since he almost became one himself.

Will is twenty four now, in a new house on a new city and he still can’t seem to leave his past behind him. Can’t seem to leave his nightmares under the bed, they follow him wherever he goes to haunt him. Twice the age he was when it all first happened, and he still feels as small as he was, physically and emotionally.

Sometimes he has good dreams instead of the bad ones. Where nothing happened, and he was allowed to be a regular kid. Where he didn’t have to hide from monsters or from people and he thrived to become his best self.

Not what happened, though.

His sister is dead, his brother is happy, his mother doesn’t remember things anymore. He barely talks to his friends, these days. Will remember how big he used to dream, how high he aimed for when he was only twelve. He’s twenty four now, not at all as Wise as he used to be, too coward to end anything — simply settled into his pathetic misery.

So his front porch light is off, and he takes a step back from the window.

play | cw: post-canon, apocalyptic setting | spicy six | masterlist

The sky still falls sometimes.

They can’t do anything about it, like they can’t do much about everything else. They can track and kill the monsters that crawl out of the portals, and they can keep watch over the rifts. They can check in on Max, and they can keep El safe and trained to grow her powers until she’s ready.

But, until she’s ready, there isn’t much else they can do.

So the sky still falls sometimes. It’s cloudy, red, and ashy, and it pours over Hawkins and it makes it harder to breathe and to see through and they can’t do anything about it.

They’ve found a spot. Steve did, during one of his lookouts. An abandoned water tower, the rifts made things weirdly misplaced but they think it used to be the pool’s. Something’s cut through it and it has an open view of Hawkins now, while still being safe enough that the flying monsters don’t see them.

For reasons they don’t understand — like they don’t understand most things — it gets a little better up there when the sky falls. When the fog gets too thick it swims close to the ground, and the monsters don’t like it either so they settle down.

Argyle, Jonathan, Nancy, Steve, Robin and Eddie all catch their bikes and head there once they know a fog’s gonna hit.

They bring things each time they come. Blankets and pillows and candles. It’s almost cozy. If they don’t look through the cut metal, they can almost forget the world is ending outside of their cocoon.

They sit, all close together, limbs all touching, breathing the same air, and it’s like they’re one. Safe even if just for a little while.

They call it The Balcony. For the giggles.

play | cw: kas!eddie, blood, gore, implied mcd | steddie | masterlist

He showed up on Steve’s door one night, blood all over him.

The relief of seeing him again overpowered the part of Steve’s brain that told him something wasn’t right.

Steve let him shower in his en-suite, let him borrow his clothes, let him rest in his bed.

His back was turned, Steve never noticed how his eyes weren’t closed.

The next morning, he was gone.

The next night, he was back.

Blood all over him.

Steve let him shower in his en-suite, let him borrow his clothes, let him rest in his bed.

The next morning, he was gone.

The next night, he was back.

Blood all over him.

The relief of seeing him again every time overpowering the part of Steve’s brain that screamed at him something wasn’t right.

It kept going, that routine.

Steve told no one.

They barely talked. Steve never asked what — or whose — the blood was.

He still looked the same. Wild wavy hair, big brown eyes, skin pale but a tint on his cheeks that made him look so harmless.

The energy around him was something else entirely. Steve’s brain screaming that something wasn’t right.

He kept ignoring them, those warning signs.

Selfishly not sharing him with anyone else.

Unconsciously protecting everyone else from him.

Something wasn’t right.

He didn’t show up on Steve’s door for a whole week.

One night, he was back.

Clean as he’d never been before.

Something was wrong.

Not on Steve’s front door, but already in Steve’s bedroom, Steve’s clock telling him how past midnight it was.

The air felt thick, and Steve couldn’t move. He hoped it was a nightmare.

“Eddie?” he tried calling, but Eddie hadn’t been there for a long time.

play | cw: mind control, murder, blood | kas!nancy | masterlist

It started with just the vision. Nancy never would’ve thought he’d haunt her until she was his. Taunt her, call for her, look for her. Until she went out to look for him.

Until he had her, and then he gave her everything.

Her strength, her speed, her improved senses. Teeth and fangs and claws and wings.

He gave her divinity.

He gave her monstrosity.

He had her, she was his. Fighter and defender, soldier and strategist, first in line and back-up plan.

All under covers.

Lying through her teeth.

Not able to say no. To resist, to crawl out of her own foggy mind, scream her lungs out, explain, warn, protect them.

She could only hunt them.

They were hers, so they trusted. A wolf in sheep clothing, under his strings she pulled them all into the trap.

Her family. They trusted her.

He wanted them dead. He had her. He made her hunt them.

He gave her everything.

He took everything away from her.

She sat in a pool of crimson, salty water running down her cheeks, thunder and lighting around her and nothing else. No one else.

He sat in his destroyed palace of destroyed souls and grinned, an inhuman thing just like she was; grinned with pride of what she did for him.

Had no idea she had snapped out of it.

She had nothing else to lose.

He took everything away from her.

So she took what he gave her, strength, speed, teeth and fangs and claws and wings, monstrosity and divinity, and she lured him into her own trap, because she was a soldier and a strategist, and she wouldn’t be under his foggy strings anymore.

He gave her everything, he took everything away from her.

She used what he gave her to take it just the same.

play | cw: mentions of drugs, alcohol, and sex, not explicit | hellcheer | masterlist

Her ceiling was a light green.

He turned to the side, her sheets tangled on his bare legs, and faced her profile. She had her eyes closed, chest rising and falling in steady breaths, and she looked like a goddess.

Eddie never would’ve thought Chrissy Cunningham had it in her.

But last night she took his hand, followed him around the block, got onto his motorcycle and wrapped her arms around his waist in a tight grip. Told him, screaming against the wind, that her mother would have a heart attack if she knew where her daughter was. Giggled at the thought.

She danced, her body warm and flush against his, her head draped on his shoulder, her neck an open invitation to his wet mouth.

She drank and accepted the pills he offered her, and she went a little wild and Eddie went a little hypnotized at the sight.

She kissed him first, her hands buried in his curls, her tongue fierce against his, went a little savage with it and Eddie’s grip on her hips tightened more with every move.

She took him home, sneaked him down the corridor, tried to keep quiet as he worshiped her body with her parents in the next room. Wasn’t very successful.

Chrissy Cunningham was a force to be reckoned and Eddie got to watch firsthand as that force was released all night long.

Her eyes snapped open and she looked to her side to spot him staring at her. She just smiled sweetly and searched for his hand, intertwining their fingers once she found it.

“How are you feeling?” Eddie whispered.

Her pupils were still a little dilated. Her eyes had a little light green in them. Maybe that’s what her ceiling matched. Maybe she had a light green view of the whole world around her.

play | cw: hallucinations, blood, murder, el's and kali's powers | masterlist

He never saw them coming.

He supposed it was 008- Kali’s work. He suddenly feared what had been real or not in the last few weeks, as he felt more and more that something was wrong.

They were contrasting, his children. The only two left after his biggest pride and mistake had painted the walls and floors and ceilings of their home in crimson. With the help of 011 and her empathetic soul, 001- Henry had breached through all security walls built specifically around him, to protect him and to protect others.

No one was safe.

They were contrasting, his children, as they came for him. The only two left, and Jane was wearing all white in opposition to Kali’s all black. The only two left, and Jane showed him forgiveness more than one time while Kali showed him hatred. The only two left, and Jane’s heart has always been filled with hope, and love, and kindness despite of it all; and Kali’s heart had been filled with scorn, and disdain, and fury because of it all.

“Jane told me she saw you dying, but I never trusted you to be gone until I was the one to send you to hell personally,” Kali snarled at him, and he felt the invisible force of Jane’s powers keeping him stuck to the ground.

He wasn’t safe.

“Took you long enough.” His words were biting, he could never show he was afraid. He had to be the one feared.

“I’m not afraid of you anymore, Papa,” Kali retorted. “I’ll show you fear.”

He felt immense pain, but he wasn’t sure if the blood around him was real or a product of Kali’s doing. He might have screamed before he mercifully passed out. She showed him pain, and Jane showed no remorse, and he took what he earned.

I've decided to combine my two favorite things and launch an October Challenge!

Forever Halloween is one of the best albums from my favorite band, The Maine.

All throughout October, I will be posting Stranger Things fics based on the songs from the album, and I'm inviting anyone who feels like it to join me. You can post fics, fanart, any kind of fanwork you like from any fandom you're in. There are no rules except that it must be posted in October, but you can do whatever order you want to, you can leave some of the songs out, just have a blast and enjoy yourself!

I'll be using the tag #fhchallenge23 to label everything for this challenge, so it's easier to follow along through my blog.

Bare in mind that some of the works might contain angsty or even darker themes - a new one for me, personally! - because of the themes of the songs itselves. So If you decide to join please don't forget to tag the proper warnings in your entries.