Chapter Text
PROLOGUE:
The last thing Eddie remembered before everything faded to black was Dustin staring down at him, crying and cradling his head. Suddenly he heard a crack of thunder, felt a flash of white heat, and opened his eyes to see dark clouds and long grasses all around him. Rain began to sprinkle down as he slowly sat up, scared, confused as all hell, and...not dead. What the fuck?
He wildly grabbed at his chest and neck where the demobats had literally just choked and clawed the life out of him, finding nothing but intact skin and leather. He whipped his head around, searching for something, anything he actually recognized. The rain began to pick up as strange flashes of lightning crossed the sky, and Eddie slowly made his way to his feet, taking stock of his surroundings. He was still in the trailer park…well, sort of? The burnt out, overgrown remains of weather-worn trailers littered the land around him. Another flash of lightning lit up the sky as he looked over at where his and Wayne's trailer SHOULD have been, only to see the charred skeleton of a trailer, roof caving in and big yellow "CONDEMNED" notices plastering the remaining intact bits of walls.
"What the ABSOLUTE fuck?" He muttered to himself as he made his way over to his former home. "Okay, I'm in hell! I died and I FUCKING went to hell, Jesus H. CHRIST!" He screeched, falling to his knees in the spot where he used to always park his van. Another deep rumble of thunder hit, and Eddie freaked, taking off running in no particular direction, weaving through the decrepit trailers. That was, until, he ran smack into you.
You were on one of your evening smoke-walks, not really wanting to smoke pot ANYWHERE near your grandparents for fear of yet another lecture about "throwing your life away." You took another hit off your joint and rounded a corner around one of the many burnt trailers in the old trailer park. You liked walking around there, it had been abandoned longer than you'd been alive so it was usually pretty quiet and gave you a lot of space to wander and think, plus if it was raining there were at least two or three trailers with intact porches you could hang out under. The sky lit up as lightning snaked across the sky, a deep crack of thunder hitting moments later. The sky went suddenly darker and a drizzle started almost immediately. You pulled your plaid shirt over your head, attempting to take another hit of your joint before the rain unceremoniously put it out for you. You scowled as it fizzled and went out and as the rain pelted you, more lightning and thunder crashing around you, it became abundantly clear you needed to head to the back of the park where the more intact trailers were located if you wanted to smoke the other joint you had. You picked up your pace and made your way towards the most intact trailer, and as you rounded the final corner..
-WHAM-
You collided with...someone, and were subsequently knocked on your ass, hitting the wet ground with enough force to almost knock the wind out of you.
"Ow, what the fuck dude?" You cried out as you looked up to see a tall, slender guy with long curly hair and a sweet leather jacket, standing over you looking wide eyed and surprised.
"Shit, sorry! I'm so sorry, fuck." He said quickly, extending a ring-covered hand to help you up. You glared up at him, but accepted the help, extending your hand and he quickly pulled you to your feet. You brushed yourself off and looked up at the asshole that just ran into you, fully intending to ream him out a bit, before another bolt of lightning cracked across the sky, the rain became torrential and in an instant, you both were drenched. Your eyes met for a moment before you raised your eyebrows and turned on your heel, headed to the little trailer on the end, turning around after a moment when you didn't hear him follow you.
"You coming or are you just gonna stand there and get soaked?"
He jogged after you, a strange, almost confused look on his face. You reached the porch and dragged one of the plastic deck chairs over from the corner for him to sit on, yourself settling on the bench you'd previously fashioned out of two logs and the bench portion of a broken picnic table you dragged from the remains of someone's yard. He settled uneasily in the chair, shaking his hair out a bit before looking at you sheepishly as he cleared his throat.
"I'm Eddie, and I’m uh, really sorry about running into you like that, some weird shit is going on and..." He trailed off as he watched you pull the joint and lighter out of your breast pocket. You brought it to your lips and lit it up before taking a deep toke, holding it in for a second before blowing a big puff of smoke out between the two of you.
"Toke?" You asked as you exhaled the last of the smoke in your lungs, extending the joint towards him. He stared at you like you were handing him a stack of money or something, his face slowly cracking into his first real smile in quiiiite a while as you offered the joint to him. He grabbed it from your fingers and took a hit and settled back in his chair a bit, head dropping back as he exhaled into the night air. This can't be hell, this weed is too good, and she's way too pretty to be in hell. He briefly thought to himself, a smirk momentarily lingering on his lips before he took another hit off the joint. You chuckled as you accepted his apology and introduced yourself, pausing briefly before adding "You look like you needed that even more than I do." You studied his face, illuminated slightly from the joint between his lips. He looked to be around your age, but he looked tired beyond his years, big brown eyes staring a thousand yard stare into the darkness, as if he'd just come home from war. He groaned and passed the joint back.
"You have no fucking idea."