Chapter Text
“It doesn’t make sense,” Mike said for what must’ve been the hundredth time. Will barely managed to not roll his eyes, though when he caught El’s eye, she had the same exasperated look on her face that he knew was on his own. At least he wasn’t the only one getting tired of hearing Mike repeat the same argument.
“I’m just telling you what I saw,” El said again. Will could easily tell from her tone that she meant it to be the end of the conversation, but Mike had never been great at picking up on subtleties.
“Ok, but how do you know you were actually seeing it?” Mike asked. “It was a dream.”
“A very real dream,” El said.
“Just drop it, Mike,” Max snapped at him. Will saw Lucas reach out for her hand out of the corner of his eye. For his part, Will just kept his mouth shut and continued on towards the diner they were heading to for lunch. A milkshake would make this entire conversation much more bearable.
“I know, I know,” Mike said. He didn’t. “I’m just saying, El’s never been able to see into the Upside-Down in just a dream without being connected to someone there, right? And you said you didn’t see Vecna, right?”
“Right,” El said. “Maybe I was connected to him. Whoever it was I saw.”
“But you said you’d never seen him before?” Mike asked. “Do you even know who it was?”
Will was getting scary close to just knocking Mike around the back of his head to make him shut up. Except that he knew it wouldn’t make Mike shut up, so he shoved his hands into his pockets instead. Dustin groaned from a few feet behind them.
“Can we just stop talking about it already?” Dustin asked loudly. “Does it even matter?” Will was of the same opinion. Yes, they needed to know as much as they could about the Upside-Down to figure out how to stop Vecna, but El’s dream had been vague and unhelpful, if he was being honest.
A man she didn’t recognize, suspended in the air, with ghostly pale skin, glaring at her with bright red eyes. He hadn’t even said anything in El’s dream, and she hadn’t been able to find him again when she tried to search for him.
“Wait,” El said suddenly. Dustin ran into El’s back when she stopped walking, and Mike and Will both reached out to grab her arms to keep her from falling forward. Her eyes hadn’t moved from where she’d been staring when she stopped. “That’s him!” She cried. She wrenched her arms from Will and Mike’s grips and ran towards a bus stop with flyers taped to the side of it.
Will ran with the rest of the group to where El was tearing down one of the flyers and staring at it.
“This is him! This is who I saw,” El said, showing them the flyer. Will didn’t recognize him either. He had long curly hair, and wore a bandana. The flyer looked new, and when Will looked around, he saw similar flyers on the ground, torn and showing the man with devil horns drawn on top of his head. Everyone else spoke all at once.
“You saw Eddie?!”
“Was he okay?”
“You’re sure it was him?”
“Where’s Eddie now?”
“You have to try and find him again!”
“Where’s Eddie? El!”
El’s eyes went wide, and she looked to Will, who could only shrug helplessly. He hadn’t met Eddie either. He only knew the name from what the others had told him about the man. And Mike had to admit, he’d tuned out a lot of it. He wasn’t jealous. He didn’t want to say that. He was glad to hear Mike get excited about playing D&D again. He couldn’t be blamed for being upset that Mike sounded so much more excited about playing with Eddie as their DM than he’d ever been when Will DM’d their campaigns.
Other than that, all he knew was that their friends all loved the guy, and Dustin had been with him when he died in the Upside-Down. He’d sacrificed himself to give the rest of the group time to find Vecna and kill him. It hadn’t worked, but Eddie had been willing to sacrifice himself to keep everyone else safe. After that had happened, Will had felt guilty about his anger towards the unknown senior, but he couldn’t do anything about it.
“Are you sure?” Will asked quietly after their friends had finally calmed down enough to wait for El’s answer.
El nodded at him and turned the flyer back towards her to look at the picture. “I’m sure,” she said. “He was floating in the air, and his eyes were red, and he was white like a ghost. He looked angry, but like he was possessed, and—“
“Damn people of this town are all the fucking same!” The flyer was snatched out of El’s hands by an angry boy, maybe a year or two older than them, but he looked younger than the photo of Eddie on the flyer. Actually, he looked like a younger version of the photo on the flyer. He had the same curly hair, though Will couldn’t tell if it was the same color as Eddie’s, with the photo being in black and white. The boy wore dark clothes, with the logo of some band Will didn’t recognize on his t-shirt, a chain hanging from his belt, and dulled silver spikes on a couple rings on his right hand. “He was a good guy, and all your shit lies about him being a devil-worshipper are why no one in this damn town gives a shit that he’s gone.”
“I’m sorry, no I didn’t mean—“ El started.
“We were his friends,” Dustin said quickly. The boy’s glare turned to Dustin, and Will resolved to not say a word. He was pretty sure that stare could burn any of them alive.
“Yeah? You always tell stories about your friends being possessed by demons?”
If the situation had been less serious, Will might’ve laughed. Yes, actually. They did. More than the boy could’ve guessed.
“No, I’m serious,” Dustin said. “Hellfire Club?”
“Yeah, I know what people say about it. Why don’t you kids just get lost?”
“It’s a D&D group,” Lucas yelled at the boy as he started to turn away. The boy stopped and turned back around, his glare holding less vitriol, only by a minuscule amount. “We were part of it. The Hellfire Club.”
Dustin started digging through his backpack, and after a moment he produced the infamous shirt, and held it out to the boy. Will looked from the shirt to Dustin, but Dustin didn’t look at him. Something twisted in Will’s chest, and he felt a shot of guilt again at having any ill will towards this Eddie guy. He knew Dustin had been the closest to him, and had the hardest time with his death. How could he not? He’d been the one with Eddie when he died. Something about knowing Dustin still carried the shirt in his backpack made it all hit harder, though.
“You’re the kid, right?” The boy asked after a moment. No one answered him. “My uncle said he met a kid at the shelter after the earthquake. Described someone looks like you. You were with Eddie when he died?”
“Yeah,” Dustin said. His arm dropped as his voice did, and the shirt dangled by his side. “Wait, your uncle? I didn’t know Eddie had a brother.”
The book shook his head. “No, I’m his cousin.” His gaze was still distrustful as he turned to look at El again.
“It wasn’t Eddie,” Max cut in quickly. She practically appeared out of thin air at El’s side, and Will didn’t miss the way she subtly hip-checked Mike out of her way as she threw at arm around El’s shoulders. “My friend had a nightmare last night, but this wasn’t who she saw. He just kinda looked like Eddie, right?”
“Right,” El said quickly. “It was a nightmare. He had, curly hair. That’s all.”
“Ok-ay,” the boy said slowly, making it sound like two words. “Well, it’s good to meet some of Eddie’s friends, I guess. The whole damn town seems to hate him.”
“They didn’t get to know him like we did,” Mike said. “He was a good guy.”
“Yeah, he saved my life,” Dustin said. “When it all went down. Hell, he saved the whole town.” Will felt more than saw El tense beside him.
“It was nice meeting you,” Will said. For the first time, the boy’s eyes met his, and all the breath left his lungs for a second. “S-Sorry for your loss. We didn’t mean to—to interrupt you,” he added, tearing his eyes away from the boy’s and gesturing to the stack of flyers in his arm.
Will grabbed El’s arm and started to lead them off the way they’d been heading, when the boy’s voice stopped them.
“Hang on,” he called out. The group stopped, and Will turned to look at him against his better judgment, but the boy’s narrowed eyes were set on Dustin. “My uncle told me that, and I thought the old man was just losing his hearing. You said my cousin saved the whole damn town?”
“Yeah,” Dustin said. Will’s hand that wasn’t clutching El itched to reach out and grab Dustin and drag him away. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he had the feeling this boy was starting to understand more than he should. “Even though this whole town hates him, he sacrificed himself to keep everyone safe.”
“But everyone wasn’t safe,” the boy said. “It was an earthquake.” The boy stalked closer towards them, seeming to tower over them despite only being an inch or two taller than Dustin. “You want to explain to me how the hell someone sacrifices themself to save a town from an earthquake?” No one answered. This was exactly what Will had been afraid of. Dustin talked too much, and this boy wasn’t going to give in as easily as his uncle apparently had. “What the hell actually happened to my cousin?”
“Well, it wasn’t—” Will started, not even sure what he was going to say, just that he needed to get them out of this, but the boy cut him off.
“Not you,” he snapped, turning his glare towards Will, who felt like he physically shrank under the boy’s stare. “You weren’t with him when he died, were you?”
“No,” Will said quietly.
“How did my cousin die?” The boy asked, his voice deathly quiet as his eyes turned back to Dustin.
Dustin visibly fumbled over his answer, and Will had to close his eyes against watching the scene play out in front of him. He wished he could cover his ears, but that would probably look a little too weird.
“He—Uh, he—The alarm! He sounded the alarm, to let everyone know, that there was an earthquake. Then he—he pushed me out of the way, when it was happening, and things were falling, and I would’ve gotten crushed, but he—he pushed me out of the way. But he didn’t make it. It—the tree that fell, it crushed him instead,” Dustin rambled on, and Will finally opened his eyes to see if the boy believed his story. Will couldn’t read his expression.
“Where?” The boy asked. “They haven’t been able to find his body. Where were you?”
“Look, this is getting ridiculous,” Max cut in. Will watched as Lucas tried to grab her wrist, but she shook him off and marched forward, getting into the boy’s face until he fell back a step away from her. “We were his friends, ok? We’re sorry you lost your cousin, but stop treating us like the rest of the town that hated him. We lost him that day too. Come on, guys,” her last words were directed at the rest of the group and she turned, walking between their stunned faces to lead the way towards the diner they’d been heading towards.
Will scrambled with the rest of the group to follow her, still waiting for the boy to call out to stop them again. But he didn’t. After they’d gotten halfway down the block, Will turned to look over his shoulder. The boy was still standing there, watching them leave with a guarded expression. He had that same odd, uncomfortable feeling as when the boy met his eyes the first time, his chest tightening and lungs feeling like they couldn’t draw in enough air.
“Will?” He jumped when El’s hand landed on his arm, and turned to look at her.
“Yeah? I’m fine,” he said quickly. It wasn’t like he could say anything else. Something about the boy just made him uneasy, but not in any way he could pinpoint. He turned his attention instead to Dustin, walking ahead of him. Lucas and Mike each had an arm around his shoulders, and he looked like he was shaking. Will reached out to squeeze his shoulder, and Dustin glanced over his shoulder, giving Will a weak smile. A very un-Dustin-like smile that made Will want to do something to fix it. But nothing could, and that was the worst part.
—————
“What do you think it means?” Lucas asked. They’d finally made it to the diner and huddled in a corner booth. No one spoke until the server left to put in their orders. They all leaned close over the table, talking in hushed whispers.
“That Eddie’s alive?” Dustin asked hopefully.
“He can’t be,” Mike said. “You were there, you said it yourself. He died.”
“He died in the Upside-Down though,” Will said. He turned his head to look at El sat beside him. She looked uncertain and just shook her head.
“I don’t know,” she said quietly. “Mike, you said it was just a dream. Maybe you’re right.”
“Okay, but that was before we knew you saw Eddie,” Max pointed out. “You couldn’t have seen him if it wasn’t real. You never even met him.”
“So he somehow survived?” Lucas asked skeptically. “I mean sure, he died in the Upside-Down, but he still died. Dead is still dead, same as if he’d died here, right?”
Will and El fell silent as the others quietly debated whether mortality meant the same in the Upside-Down as it did in their reality. Something just felt off about the whole thing to Will. About Eddie, and his cousin. All of it.
El’s hand covered his under the table, and he looked over to give her a small smile. He saw the way Mike looked at them out of the corner of his eye, and had the irrational urge to scream. Mike didn’t have any right to look at Will sideways. Not after all the shit they’d been through. Not after he and El had been away from the rest of them for so long, and only had each other to rely on. Well, and Jonathan, but El wasn’t as close to him.
But Will just squeezed El’s hand in his and avoided looking at Mike. He could think whatever he wanted. He was wrong. El was like his sister, and they shared something the others wouldn’t understand, no matter how many times they went into the Upside-Down.
“We have to go in,” Dustin finally said, and Will tuned back into the conversation.
“We can’t just go in without a plan,” Max said.
“We’re searching for Eddie, that’s the plan,” Dustin said. “Look, we just have to go to where I left Eddie after he died. If he’s there, then we know, and maybe we can bring his body back. If he’s not, then we know something’s going on, and El’s dream wasn’t just a dream.”
The table fell quiet. It was at the same time the most logical and completely insane plan Will had heard. Sure, it sounded easy in theory.
“What if you run in to Vecna?” Will asked. He pointedly didn’t include himself in the rescue mission, and no one questioned it.
“Then we run,” Dustin said, as if it were simple.
“It wouldn’t be that easy,” Lucas said.
“Maybe it would be,” El finally spoke up. Everyone at the table turned to look at her, but she was looking at Will. “You could feel him, right? He’s probably still weak, recovering from the fight.”
“It’s been a while,” Will pointed out. A few months at least. Or longer. He’d tried to block it out.
“But you haven’t felt him since you knew he was back, right?” Mike asked. Will hesitated, then shook his head. “Ok, then he must still be too weak. Maybe we can just go in—it’s just a recon mission, right? Find out if Eddie is still where Dustin last saw him. And we’ll figure it out from there.”
It was getting harder to breathe the more they spoke, until their voices were just buzzing in Will’s ears. His heart was racing, his thoughts flashes that he wanted to never see again, until he was nudging El, silently asking her to move. She got up, and he stood, drawing the eyes of everyone at the table.
“Sorry, I just—I forgot I—I promised Jonathan I’d help with—something,” Will said hurriedly, not looking at any of them. El’s hand stayed on his arm, but he took a step back until it fell away. “Sorry, I have to go.” He was pretty sure Mike and Dustin were calling his name, but the sounds faded to white noise as he turned to leave, avoiding the eye of the server who was carrying drinks to their table as he left.
He felt like he couldn’t breathe, and he couldn’t think. They were seriously talking about going back there, like it was a stroll through the park. Like was easy, like that place hadn’t taken so much from them, from him, like it wasn’t dangerous, like—
Will ran straight into something solid, and started to fall back, when the something’d ran into grabbed him.
“Sorry, I’m sorry,” he said quickly, his words shaky and difficult to choke out with no air in his lungs.
“Chill, dude. You alright?” When Will looked up, the boy they’d seen earlier was staring back at him, any anger absent from his eyes. Only concern, and maybe confusion, stared back at him through the dark brown eyes of Eddie’s cousin.
“Yeah, sorry,” Will apologized again. He was suddenly conscious of the tight grip the boy had on his upper arm. “I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going. Sorry.”
“Stop apologizing so damn much,” the boy said. His hand dropped from Will’s arm, and it suddenly became simultaneously easier to breathe, and colder where the touch was gone from his arm. “Seriously, what’s got you so freaked out?”
“Nothing,” Will said. The boy just raised an eyebrow, and Will was pretty sure he could see straight through to his soul. “My friends were just being idiots, and I needed some air.” It was almost the truth.
“Uh-huh,” the boy said slowly. “Well, sit down there,” he gestured to a bench. “Take a breather before you get hit by a car or something.”
Will followed the boy’s instructions and sat without thinking about it. He looked up, watching in silence as he went back to taping a flyer to a streetlight pole nearby. He put up a few flyers down the sidewalk, then looked back at Will, catching his eye and jerking his head towards another bench, down the sidewalk where he was making his way with the flyers. Will stood up and moved to the other bench. He just watched in silence for a few more minutes, catching his breath and letting the white noise from the diner fade until the world looked a little more normal.
He focused instead on grounding himself where he was. The bench beneath him, the light wind that smelled like gasoline from the gas station down the block. He watched the boy putting up flyers, noted the way his forehead crinkled in concentration as he worked, his quiet frustration when he found a flyer someone had drawn over Eddie’s face on. He always tore them down. Sometimes he tore them into pieces before tossing them in the nearest trash can, sometimes he just crumbled them up.
Will’s eyes were fixed on the black nail polish on his nails when he finally broke the silence. “Why’re you putting the missing posters up?” Will asked. The boy turned to look at him as if it was a stupid question. “I mean, you know he’s—Eddie’s dead. You know that, right?” He asked carefully.
“Yeah, I know,” the boy snapped, and Will regretted saying anything. He put up another flyer before he looked back at Will, his voice softer when he spoke again. “They never found his body. It’s been months. They’ve found most other people who were missing, but they haven’t found his body. I don’t want people to forget. And I don’t want this damned town thinking he was some devil-worshipper.”
Will let the silence hang for a minute, eyes tracking the boy as he walked past Will to put up another flyer. “You want some help?”
“Sure,” the boy agreed more quickly than Will expected. He split the stack he carried, and handed half to Will. “Jamie, by the way” he said.
“Sorry?” Will asked, looking up from the stack of flyer. The boy offered a lopsided smile, and Will had that distinctly familiar feeling of his lungs suddenly not being able to hold enough air.
“My name,” he said. “I’m Jamie.”
“Oh,” Will said. “Nice to meet you, Jamie. I’m Will.” It was an odd name, if Will thought about it. He hadn’t met anyone named Jamie, but somehow it fit the boy.
“So how’d you meet Eddie, anyway?” Jamie asked as they went down the block, hanging flyers. Will would avoid Jamie’s eyes as he stepped closer to him to grab a few pieces of tape for the flyers, and swore he couldn’t take a full breath of air until he stepped away again.
“I didn’t. Never had the chance to,” Will admitted. “The others were his friends,” he explained quickly, seeing Jamie start to narrow his eyes. “But me and El—she’s the one that had the nightmare—we moved away for a little while. We just moved back. Mike, Dustin and Lucas were all in The Hellfire Club with Eddie. They said he was really cool.”
“Yeah,” Jamie said. Will chanced a glance sideways at him. He was frowning at the flyer he’d just taped up, fingers trailing over the picture of Eddie.
“I’m sorry,” Will said. His voice seems to snap Jamie back, and he wished he hadn’t spoken, as Jamie shook his head a little and moved away from the light post.
“Let’s put some up across the street,” Jamie said. Will followed him, thinking he was leading them to the crosswalk. Of course he wasn’t. Jamie looked both ways, then bolted across the street, far too close to a car coming from their left for comfort. Will hesitated, but when Jamie met his eyes from across the street, he took off, barely glancing around. Jamie laughed, clapping him on the back. “First time jaywalking?” He teased.
“Shut up,” Will said, though he couldn’t help but smile back at Jamie.
“Come on, we’ve got a couple hours of daylight left to put my cousin’s face on every available surface in this godforsaken town.”