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Steve followed Nancy up (down?) the knotted sheets, finally falling through to land safely on the unpleasantly stained mattress. Groaning from the renewed pain in his gored side, Steve rolled off the mattress onto the floor.
“Alright, one more!” Dustin shouted, much louder now that they were in the same dimension. “C’mon Eddie, hurry up!
Steve blinked blearily up at the gate. It was an abominable thing, its disgusting wrongness creeping into the very air around it. Hopefully the super kid showed up soon, ‘cause Steve had no fucking clue how they were supposed to close these things without her.
Through the distorted opening, Steve could see Eddie reach up and grasp the makeshift rope. He looked at it thoughtfully, a considering expression on his face.
“Dude, come on!” Sinclair’s little sister shrieked commandingly. “What the heck is taking him so long?”
Steve wondered the same. It wasn’t exactly pleasant in the Upside Down. He could still feel the dry particles that filled the air coating his mouth and throat, choking him with every breath. It tasted like death.
Finally Eddie lifted his second hand and grabbed the rope more firmly. But something was strange - Eddie braced his feet on the dark ground below him, muscles in his shoulders and arms tensing.
“Eddie…” Dustin started warningly.
Eddie pulled.
“Eddie! Eddie, no!” Dustin screamed, and Nancy gasped, and Robin cursed loudly. And Steve… Steve didn’t understand.
What the fuck was Eddie thinking?!
Using what must have been the entirety of the wiry man’s strength, his face screwed up with effort, Eddie yanked on the knotted sheets hard enough to pull them from their interdimensional bearing. Everyone who was in the room, everyone still standing - not Steve, he was clutching his injured side and mouthing silent words of concussion level confusion - lunged as one for the quickly disappearing length on their end.
Too late.
The sheets pooled at Eddie’s feet, who looked down (up?) at them with a haunted smile.
“It’s Vecna.” Someone cried out, and it took Steve a full second to realize the speaker was himself. Robin offers him a hand and he takes it, pulling himself shakily to his feet. “Quick, someone run to his room, his favorite song is Heaven and Hell, Black Sabbath - he must have the cassette-”
“How do you know his favorite song?” Robin asked, forever the master of asking the wrong question at the wrong moment. Steve ignored her.
“It’s not Vecna, man,” Eddie said, voice sounding far further away than the eighteen feet between them.
“Then why?” Nancy shouted back, as frustrated as Steve’s ever heard her. “You have to come with us, it’s not safe there!”
Eddie laughed. “Not safe, huh? Not safe?!” He shook his head and paced in a tight circle, dirty ringlets flying about him. That was the thing about Eddie, Steve had always thought. He moved more than any single body ought to, like he was full of too much all the time. Too much feeling, or, or energy, or whatever it takes to drive a boy to lead a group of misfits and laugh at anyone who scorns them, slinging twice back for anything they throw at him.
Then Eddie gestured wildly at them all. “Listen guys, I might be new to this whole Ghostbuster operation you’re running, but I’ve had a crash course in not safe this week, okay? Do you even know what it feels like to have an entire town that watched you grow up, that fuckin’, fucking raised you, ‘cause it takes a village and all that jazz - Do you know what it feels like to have them baying for your blood? They think I’m a killer. What’s waiting for me on the other side, huh?”
“But we can show them!” Nancy argued back. “I mean, look at this gate! And there’s two more! We’ll tell them about Victor Creel, and what really happened to the victims. They’ll have to believe us! The evidence is right here!”
“‘They’ll have to believe us’,” Eddie repeated mockingly. “That’s just it, sweetheart - they don’t. They’re gonna believe what they want to believe, and nothing can change that. Not even a pack of daring, do-gooder kids.”
Eddie twisted his hands in his own greasy hair, pulling it painfully. “You poor idiots. You’re used to being heroes, aren’t you? You really thought you were gonna save me. Well, thanks. I appreciate the thought, truly-” and here Eddie performed a magnificent bow of mock gratitude, hands twirling and arms flung wide and his head just about touching his own toes, hair sweeping the floor before him - “but you can’t save everyone.”
“We can save you, ” Steve insisted, voice hoarse. He stretched out a useless hand towards the gate, as though he could simply pull Eddie through himself. Behind him, he could hear the kids scrambling around the trailer in search of anything else that could be used as a rope.
“Can you?” Eddie challenged. “I’m a dead man, Steve. Here or there. At least here has the advantage of not being dragged in front of the entire town. The entire country, probably. All those tragic deaths, lives full of potential cut short just like that. ” Eddie snaps his fingers for emphasis, and Steve sees the glimmer of tears rolling down his face.
“But we’ll prove it wasn’t you and-”
“ENOUGH!” Eddie roared suddenly, shocking them all into silence. His tears were flowing freely now, and for a wild moment Steve thought some had dripped through the gate to wet his own face before understanding that he was crying, too.
“Enough, okay? You told me what that El chick of yours had to deal with. Secret labs and government agents and Russian commies, yeah? You think the glorious U-S-of-A is going to let this get out? They’re gonna need a scapegoat, and Hawkins has already designed the perfect one for them.
“So, no. I’m not going to go with you and end up trotted around like the crazy little psychopath serial killer they’ll want me to be. I have more useful things to do with the end of my life, okay?” Eddie’s voice broke, and Steve’s heart with it.
No.
“I’ll give Vecna your regards, yeah? Who knows,” Eddie added, shooting a shaky wink at the Sinclair girl. “Maybe I’ll roll a crit.”
“Eddie…” Steve pleaded, and for the first time since he’d fallen through the gate in Eddie’s living room ceiling, their eyes met.
“Sorry, man,” Eddie said ruefully. “I would have wanted to give it a shot. But you’ll be okay, right?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Robin whispered.
Vision blurred with helpless tears, Steve watched Eddie turn and walk away.
“Fuck this,” Dustin said. “We’ll stack the furniture. Come on guys, quick!”
But that was when the front door burst inwards.
“POLICE! EVERYBODY FREEZE! GET DOWN, HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD!”
“So do we freeze or get down- ack!” Robin sputtered as Nancy grabbed her and bore them down to the floor together.
More police than Steve knew existed in the entire county, let alone Hawkins, piled into the small trailer, guns pointed and ready to fire. The police chief lowered his slightly as he gazed up at the wound in reality above their heads.
“What on God’s green earth…” the police chief murmured weakly.
“God has nothin’ to do with it,” Dustin muttered. Lucas kicked him.
Steve didn’t take his eyes off the spot where Eddie had disappeared.
Just you wait, damn it. Just you wait.
I’m coming, Eddie. I’m coming for you and I’m going to drag you back even if you’re kicking and screaming.
So stay alive until then.
Please.