Chapter Text
Chrissy Cunningham was fucking levitating.
Eddie let out a scream and fell back against the wall, smacking into the radio. Faintly, he registered the sound of some twangy song coming on, but he couldn’t drag his away from the cheerleader with her eyes rolled up in her head who was approximately three feet off the ground. “Chrissy? Chrissy!” he shouted at her, trying to pull her back toward the ground, but it was like she was suspended in place. “Chrissy, I don’t like this!”
Chrissy’s body twitched in midair, as if something invisible was grabbing her. Eddie swatted around her body at the thin air, feeling stupid as he connected with nothing. Was this the kind of thing he was supposed to call the police for? Was this some kind of medical episode? Stupid, stupid, he cursed himself, people didn’t just float when they had a seizure.
All of a sudden, Chrissy’s body went limp and she collapsed directly on him, taking them both to the ground in a heap. “Chrissy?” Eddie demanded, shaking her and trying to get a look at her face to see if she was conscious. Those eyes – those pale blue eyes – were open and blinking away tears. “What happened? Are you okay?” Chrissy’s face crumpled and she launched herself against his chest and started sobbing. Eddie wrapped his arms awkwardly around her, patting her back gently. “Okay, let it out... You’re okay.”
It took a moment for Chrissy to pull herself together and extract herself from his arms. As soon as she pulled away, Eddie felt the strangest urge to wrap her up in a blanket and cradle her all over again. Chrissy looked small and... vulnerable in a way he was wholly unfamiliar with when it came to the image he had of her in his mind before today in the woods. The Queen Bee of Hawkins was nice to everyone, despite her questionable taste in boyfriends, but she always had that fake veneer on her that had seemed impenetrable. Now, shivering and smearing her mascara with her cheer uniform sleeve, she looked unfamiliar and raw. Eddie cast his eyes about the room and, unable to locate a blanket for her, settled for pulling off his own jacket and draping it around her shoulders. “Can I get you something to drink?” he offered. “I have beer and... water.”
“I’m sorry,” Chrissy sniffled, confusing Eddie. She wiped her eyes again. “You must think I’m a total mental case. I’m sorry for freaking out.”
Eddie glanced at the space where she had been hovering a few minutes before. “Uh... yeah, Chrissy, I wouldn’t really describe witnessing you floating in my living room as ‘mental case’ behavior, unless I’m the mental case in that scenario. Is that, like, normal for you?”
“Floating?” Chrissy blinked at him in confusion, temporarily shocked out of her tears.
“Yeah, you scared the shit out of me,” Eddie told her. “You couldn’t hear me when I was calling you, and your eyes rolled up in your head, and then you started floating in the air. You don’t know any of this? Were you just... unconscious?”
Chrissy shivered and shook her head. “N-no,” she said. “I was... Do you remember when I asked you if you felt like you were losing your mind?” Eddie nodded. “Well, I have been. I think. I don’t know. I’d almost rather be crazy than have it all be true because if what you said isn’t just messing with me...” she glanced at him with almost hopeful eyes.
“I swear on my mother’s grave, not messing with you,” Eddie insisted, holding his hands up. “Not about something like this.”
“Then I think I might be in danger,” she said, her eyes welling up with tears.
Chrissy explained slowly as Eddie made them some coffee, taking breaks to collect herself. It had started about a week ago, apparently. First headaches, then nosebleeds, then nightmares. Then the hallucinations. Eddie listened as she described her experience in the school bathroom. “I was in the bathroom and this thing was trying to get in, rattling the lock over and over until it broke. I could see its feet and they were these... disgusting, burned things. And it was talking to me, it knew me and was saying all these horrible things...” Chrissy pulled his jacket tighter around her. “But tonight was different, it was the first time I’ve been totally somewhere else. I was in your trailer in one second and the next I was home, except everything was wrong. And my dad was there but he was dead, and all the food was rotten, and there were bugs on everything, and then the monster was chasing me around – I thought it was over for me. And then...”
Eddie poured her a mug and pressed it into her hands before sitting down next to her on the sofa. “Then?”
“I could hear the radio. It’s... it’s my favourite song,” Chrissy said, blushing a bit.
Eddie struggled to recall what song had been accidentally turned on. “As someone who bumped the radio in a panic and was paying more attention to the floating cheerleader in the room as opposed to the soundtrack, what song was it?”
“Landslide, Fleetwood Mac,” she said. “I know it’s probably not your taste. Or most of the cheer squad’s. But I like that stuff.”
“Well if it helped you not be killed in the nightmare world, I may have a new respect for the genre,” Eddie said. “So then what?”
“When the music started, I could hear you calling for me, too. It was like the real world came back a little bit. It like, jarred me out of the terror and then I ran – just ran toward your voice – out the front door of my house, and when I threw it open I was just... back here. On top of you. Sorry about that, too.” She took a sip of her coffee and let out a brittle laugh. “It sounds even crazier when I say it out loud.”
“It sounds like something was attacking you, honestly,” Eddie said. “But I’m just glad you were able to break free. I really thought you were going to die.” He shivered at the memory. Eddie didn’t like to look fragile, but the evening had been a whole trip. He didn’t know what would have happened if she’d been in that state a moment longer.
Chrissy’s eyes filled up with tears again and she set down her coffee. “You really believe me?” she asked. “You’re not just being nice?”
“I’m mean and scary, remember?” he teased. “I’d never lie to make you feel better. Look, Chrissy, if you’re in danger, I want to help you figure it out. And I know that going to the cops with ‘the local drug dealer says you were floating’ is not such a hot idea. But we can figure something out, and brainstorm, and make sure whatever was coming for you can’t get you in the morning. Okay?”
She nodded hesitantly. “Okay.”
“Excellent. Now, do you want me to drive you home?” Eddie didn’t want to see her leave, as shaken as she was, but he also couldn’t imagine her wanting to stay – the trailer wasn’t exactly fit for royalty like her.
Chrissy didn’t get up. She bit her lip. “Do you... would it be too much trouble if I stayed here?” As hard as it had been for her to ask, she then began to stumble over her words rapidly. “Only if it’s not any inconvenience. I don’t want to impose. I’m just... I usually have the nightmares where he shows up and I’m scared tonight it’ll be like it was earlier. But I can just go home, it’ll be fine, so forget I asked, it was stupid and –”
Eddie gripped her arms and Chrissy fell silent. “Hey, it’s no trouble. Let me, uh, find you something to sleep in. You can use the bathroom to get cleaned up if you need.”
Chrissy fucking Cunningham was in his fucking bathroom. The floating thing had been crazy, but the Queen Bee of Hawkins, getting ready for bed in his bathroom? Maybe he WAS just having a mental break. But on the off chance he wasn’t, there was no way he could let her see his room like this.
Eddie started throwing his dirty laundry into drawers and snatching up the scattered empties he’d left around until now. Why was he such a slob? How was he going to let Chrissy in here? Frantically, he tore the sheets off his bed and started replacing them with the only other set he kept around, then he reached over and cracked the window to let in some fresh night air. He had just thrown the comforter back on the bed when he heard a gentle knock on the door. Chrissy was watching him work from the door, a slight smile on her lips. “I can sleep on the couch, Eddie, you don’t have to go to any trouble,” she said, but he waved his hand.
“I love that couch,” he said. “We go way back. I don’t mind a reunion tour with it. You, on the other hand, would wake up sore in about ten different places. Trust me, the bed’ll get you down to only two.” He grinned at the sound of her laugh. So she was still capable of laughing after everything that had happened tonight. That was a relief. He took her in. She had washed her face in the bathroom, so all of her makeup was gone, leaving only her strawberry blonde hair that she’d let down from that high pony she always wore it in. She was wearing one of his oversized shirts now, a Black Sabbath shirt from one of the first shows he’d gone to. It fit him a little large, but on Chrissy hung down to brush her knees. Something inside Eddie twinged at the sight of it. He liked seeing Chrissy Cunningham wearing his shirt. Maybe it was just the weirdness of it all. Head cheerleader, dressed like a metal head. He couldn’t picture Chrissy headbanging.
“Um, if you really don’t mind, then... okay,” Chrissy said, breaking the silence. Eddie jolted out of his daydream and grabbed his spare pillow off the bed before heading for the living room. She didn’t move out of his way at the door, putting a hand on his chest. “Thanks again, Eddie,” she told him. “For believing me.”
“Hey, of course,” Eddie said. “You’re not alone, Chrissy. I’ll believe you, no matter how loony tunes you sound.” She gave a small laugh and looked down, stepping out of the way. “Just call if you need anything, okay? I’ll be right out there.”
Eddie headed back to the living room. Chrissy had hung his jacket up on a hook by the door – she was quite the polite house guest, he mused, noting that she’d cleared their coffee mugs to the sink as well while he was tidying up. He dropped his armful of empties from the bedroom into the recycling bin by the sink and turned off the radio at last before dropping onto the sofa.
It was unseasonably warm for Indiana in March, so he didn’t mind the lack of a blanket, but Eddie doubted he’d be falling asleep any time soon. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Chrissy lifting off the ground. What if he hadn’t come back in the room? What if she hadn’t escaped from her trance? What if it happened again, only the next time she couldn’t escape? What had gotten her out? And the nightmare she described... it sounded straight out of his D&D campaign. The monster that had been stalking her... was that what was causing all of this? He turned the thoughts over and over in his head.
After about ten minutes, the door to his room creaked open. “Eddie?” Chrissy called softly. “Are you still awake?”
He sprang up. “I don’t think I’ll be falling asleep tonight, to be honest. Is something wrong?” he asked, heading for the bedroom. She was hanging out the doorway, the blanket from the bed wrapped around her shoulders.
“Everything is fine,” she said. “I’m just, um, kind of scared to be alone. Could you stay with me until I fall asleep? If it’s not too much trouble.”
“Of course,” Eddie heard himself saying before his brain could process what he was agreeing to. Watching over Chrissy Cunningham while she slept? He wasn’t what most people pictured when they thought ‘guardian angel’. But it wasn’t like he was on the verge of exhaustion, either. If it made her feel a little less terrified... “It’s no trouble. I’ll just, uh, sit with you?” Why was he so uncomfortable? It was his bed!
Chrissy smiled at him, gratitude written all over her face, before climbing back into the bed. She watched him come around and sit carefully on top of the blankets, folding his arms across his chest to keep them from accidentally touching anything. “Thank you, Eddie,” she said, closing her eyes at last.
Eddie watched her for awhile, trying to decide if she’d fallen asleep yet. Then he would move back to the sofa, leave her peacefully dozing, and try to figure out what the hell would make a monster target sweet, kind Chrissy. A girl like her wasn’t supposed to have nightmares. As her shoulders rose and fell steadily, Eddie felt the day’s events start to catch up with him. It was going to be okay, at least for tonight, he told himself. Chrissy was safe, and certainly not having a possession related nightmare at that moment, anyway. He could allow himself to close his eyes for just a minute, and then he’d get up and go figure out how the hell he was going to keep Chrissy Cunningham from dying.