Chapter Text
"The rope is cut!" Robin yelled, voice shaking as Nancy and Steve stormed into the trailer behind her.
"What? Fuck! Henderson? Henderson are you in there!?"
"We can jump through, help me move the sofa-" Nancy started, stumbling towards the furniture with Robin rushing to the other side of her, starting to drag the center piece by it's armrests. Steve frantically circled around the portal, trying to look off into the corners of it as if he'd be able to see the kid and Eddie somewhere inside. Another chime echoed from everywhere all at once, the sky rumbling and the roof of the trailer all but starting to crumble from the ceiling.
"He's not there. Fuck!" Steve shouted with panic, turning on his heel and running out of the trailer.
"Henderson! Henderson we gotta go, man! Where are you? Henderson!"
"Steve!" A voice bellowed, strained but familiar, carrying from across the park, somewhere just beyond where he stood. Steve took a barreling start, lungs burning as the ash of the upside down slithered down his throat with each heaving breath. Robin and Nancy called after him, Steve throwing the words out, over his shoulder in a harsh cry. "I've gotta get Henderson!"
His sides ached, each shift of his muscles coaxing a choked back whimper from Steve as he rushed towards Dustin's cries. Just beyond the fence, surrounded by what had to be hundreds of those fucking bats, limp and twitching against the crackling, crumbled pavement. There Dustin sat, slump on the ground with Eddie's body cradled in his arms. Steve's heart dropped at the sight, flooding with dread as he slowed to a jog before crashing to his knees in front of the boy.
"Eddie...Steve we- we have to help Eddie!" Dustin sobbed, lip quivering with each shuddering cry, his arms holding the still body with the utmost tender of care. Steve grasped Dustin's shoulder with his hand firmly, and looked at him with words in his eyes that he hoped said just how sorry and pained he was, but that they didn't have time. Dustin's body wracked with another sob, starting to nod when Nancy came rushing up beside Steve, with Robin in tow.
The two girls were silent upon their arrival, Robin bringing a hand up to her mouth to hold back the flourish of words that wanted to break free and convey her panic. Nancy dug her hand between the huddle of three boys, dragging Eddie's wrist towards her and pressing her fingers to either side of it. With wide eyes, she whipped her head up, turning to look at Steve with a furrow in her brow.
"He's got a pulse."
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Eddie jolted upright, gasping for a breath he couldn't seem to find in the dark, cold air around him. He couldn't seem to find anything, actually, his vision painted with a black fog that he imagined blinking away every few seconds, just to be shrouded on shadows once more. The pain his body was convulsing with seemed to finally register, fear rushing his blood as he began to remember the sensation of small, sharp teeth. A sensation like pricking your finger with the thorn of a rose, before you prick it again, and again, rolling the stem between the pads of your fingers, letting it penetrate with every twirl until the skin is being dragged with each twist. Dragged and pulled and chewed and Eddie was really losing it now, screams tearing from his throat while it tightened and burned. He felt the damn things crawling up his chest and gripping at his shoulders, holding him down while they ravished his sides, shredding through his weight like crows to a corpse. Eddie wailed as he felt his wounds sizzle and bite against the saliva of these wretched creatures feasting on his flesh, their chitters and squeals turning into sweet whispers. Whispers he was starting to understand.
"I said, calm down kid!" A gruff voice heaved out, somewhere from above. It sounded as though whatever spoke had to be bigger than a bat. Eddie would open his eyes to see, if the fear coursing through his veins didn't warn him that he might not want to see what's bigger than a bat and holding him down.
"Don't hurt him, Hopper!" A higher voice echoed, sounding further away than the other. It sounded...familiar. Eddie honed in on the sound. Something some girl he'd met some time had said something about following a voice. A sound. God. Who said something like that. Eddie felt his brain start throbbing with the conscious thought as the voices grew clearer.
"I'm not gonna hurt him. I'm trying to hold him down- look- stop talking and worrying about what I'm doing and get some more morphine! And get Joyce!"
There was a pause, and an exasperated sigh followed with a yelled out, "Hurry up!"
Eddie tried to focus, to figure out what was happening. Reevaluating the pressure on his shoulders, the brunette started to doubt there were any bats at all. The air around him felt too still, and the movements of whatever was holding him down wasn't very much like a bat. Taking a shaky breath, Eddie tried to coax the words he was thinking from his throat. It croaked painfully, his breath uneven and voice sounding centuries unused and uncomfortably low.
"What's...happening.." Eddie gasped for breath, wincing through the burning sensation that stabbed at his neck when he all but twitched.
"Hey- Hey kid. Glad your with us. Just give yourself a minute. Take it slow." The harsh voice stressed, the hold on his shoulders going just slightly soft. Eddie relished in the comfort of whatever was touching him. It was like he was being cradled. A lot of cradeling happening to him lately.
Dustin.
"H...Hender- son." Eddie whispered. He could hear the figure shifting, as if it were nodding. Like a human. It's a person. It's a person, Eddie felt his body go slack, tension draining before it tightened again when the pain in his waist surged back through him like he was struck by lightning.
"Kid's fine. Can you tell me your name?"
Henderson's fine. Good. Eddie felt the relief drip down his spine like cool water on hot skin. There it danced with the pain, and Eddie wasn't sure who'd win for his attention but he knew for sure he wouldn't be able to focus on both for long. But what mattered was the kid was fine. Thank fuck that kid was fine. What about Lucas? Little Erica. Red, and Wheeler. Steve and Robin. Eddie felt the panic bubble up his throat like bile, burning painfully as he fought against the urge to let out a sob.
"Can you hear me, kid?"
The voice startled Eddie enough to crack open his eyes. His vision was still veiled with a black shadow, but now it dappled with dots of light, not too different from the Wheeler's lite brite. The hands on his shoulders tensed, and Eddie remembered he was asked a question.
"Eddie. Eddie Munson." He rasped. The darkness danced in his eyes as the figure above him nodded.
"Great. Do you know where you are?"
"Probably...not K-Kansas, right Toto?" Eddie replied back, voice shaky despite his efforts to keep it even.
"Save the jokes for when you're not bleeding out, kid. Now relax a minute. We got something for the pain. Mike- pass me the needle."
"Oh uh- Here."
Wheeler.
"Wheeler, that you?" Eddie murmured, closing his eyes as the dotting light started to cause a dull ache in his head, images too cloudy to easily identify, even if they were right beside him.
"Eddie! Yeah it's me! Mike."
"Back from Cali so soon?" The brunette rolled off his tongue, eyes closed but head turning to follow the sensation of something small pricking his skin. He feels it sink in deep, taking a brearh when it slips back out and for a moment he forgets how to think at all. Just as quickly, he feels the effects of immediate relief take place. The pain in his waist and neck start to turn into something with more of a throb and Eddie begins to think that with enough convincing he could've believed the pain was never there to begin with. He's about to ask if the person who was holding him down had given him his pain relief yet when the words get caught in his throat and he chokes back a coughing fit.
"Are you okay?" Mike asks in a panic, sounding closer, as though he stepped forward. Eddie strained to reply, but found no words at his disposal to reply with.
"He's gonna be okay. Let him rest, kid."
"Hop, he needs a real doctor. There has to be somebody we can call." Ooh. That's a new voice. A woman, maybe? Eddie was straining to hear them speak as the white noise filling his head started to filter out every other sound. Whatever was being said, came out muffled as though Eddie were eavesdropping from inside a full fishtank.
The voices that were once distinguishable started to blend, curling and melting together into the white noise that shuddered through his brain like a flurry of wings, fluttering next to his ears.Maybe even bat wings. He was back with the bats, Eddie realized, the sky glowing red with a sickening haze that consumed Eddie's nostrils with an overwhelmingly dead smell. He turned his head down to see wretched, vile bats with glistening skin and tiny sharp teeth dogpiling his torso and shredding through his abdomen. The initial terror he felt was so momentary, as the realization hit that their feasting didn't hurt. And despite himself, Eddie found relief in that. Enough to close his eyes and rest his head back, enduring the numbing pressure of their mouths against his waist. It still hurt. Hurt like a bitch. At least, Eddie thought it should. And he imagined it did. But he couldn't really describe just how bad it was, because in the same moment he thought he felt it, it was as if it'd never happened.