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He hadn’t known where else to go.
Steve knew he shouldn’t be here, knew the risks and the danger - but something had propelled him from his makeshift cot and into his car, sent him crossing back into Hawkins, following the long-abandoned roads with practiced ease.
And as each familiar landmark had risen around him, he’d felt the tension in his chest unravel and fall away, until finally, finally, he could breathe again.
But Steve hadn’t wanted to just keep circling the same places, observing the bleak emptiness of the town he’d grown up in, the town he’d fought and bled and nearly died to protect – it almost felt like Vecna had already won.
He’d resolved to find a place to stop for a moment, to take a breath, and yet the trailer park hadn’t even been a conscious decision; he seemed to just arrive, tires crunching over gravel as he came to an abrupt stop before Eddie’s trailer.
Eddie’s trailer.
Steve really shouldn’t be here.
It was one of the first places that’d been abandoned, after the earth had split open and begun belching darkness through the streets. Eddie’s uncle had been quick to leave Hawkins, unable to bare the town’s hatred for his dead nephew, and of course none of the Party had wanted to visit.
Steve had tried once, feeling as though he ought to at least attempt to salvage some of Eddie’s things – but he’d taken one look at the trailer and promptly vomited into the nearest bush.
Now, however, he steeled himself against the sight of the abandoned trailer, its exterior a patchwork of chipped paint and derogatory graffiti. Steve’s stomach clenched at the sight of them, words like ‘FREAK’ and ‘SINNER’ and ‘REPENT’ written in bright red paint, unmistakable even in the darkness.
Steeling himself, Steve slipped from the front seat and pocketed his car keys.
The porch steps creaked beneath his boots as he reached the trailer door, which bore the obvious marks of a break-in, and as Steve pushed his way in, a scene of destruction lay spread out before him. Couches were turned on their side, glass scattered across the carpet, piles of ash lay where posters and tablecloths had been set alight.
The people of Hawkins had been relentless in their determination to hate, to blame – and the Munsons had been an easy target.
That familiar nausea rose within him again, and Steve braced a hand against his stomach, the other holding him up against the nearest wall. Keep it together, Harrington. Don’t lose your shit now.
And yet, though it was extremely foolish of Steve to be out here all alone, away from the military base those soldiers had established along the edge of Hawkins, the thought of returning was even more sickening than the sight before him.
Everything had been so tense at camp since El had sensed Vecna’s return, as though a noose had been looped around Steve’s neck, tightening inch by terrifying inch with each passing minute.
They’d been glad of the forewarning, of course, so goddamned fucking glad after that first disastrous battle – I’msofuckingsorryEddieI’msosorrysorrysorry – but that didn’t stop Steve from wrenching awake every night, bile rising up his throat as screams echoed in his ears.
Of course, the return of Vecna meant much more than just the continuous loss of Steve’s lunch.
It meant plunging the kids into immeasurable danger once again.
It meant asking too much of El for the fuckteenth time.
It meant returning.
Steve exhaled a harsh breath and ran his fingers through his hair. They’d spent a month planning and strategizing and scouting, but tomorrow…
Tomorrow they’d finally re-enter the Upside Down.
Tomorrow it’d finally be real.
Outside, a sudden breeze rattled the shattered windows, dislodging several loose shards and sending them flying across the room.
Steve flinched violently, heart beating heavy fists against his ribcage as he struggled to catch his breath.
Just breathe, Harrington. Breathe.
When his pulse had finally slowed, Steve picked his way across the ruined living room and down a small, cramped hall, stretching out his hand to run a finger along the walls. It was grounding, a reminder that he was solid and whole and here.
The hall turned off into a bedroom – which, from the complete destruction of the door, seemed to have received the same treatment as the living room. The walls had clearly once been plastered with posters, but now very few remained, and instead several gut-churning slurs had been carved into the plaster and sprayed above the bed.
Steve paused in the doorway with his hand braced against the doorframe and his heart in his throat.
It had so clearly been Eddie’s room.
He’d slept here, played guitar here, perhaps had sat at that broken desk and written up those ‘D&D campaigns’ Dustin had tried to explain to him.
In this very room, Eddie had woken each morning to face a town that had openly loathed him.
Steve crossed into the room and surveyed the destruction with a mixture of fury and dismay. The people of Hawkins had done this to him, had driven Eddie to sacrifice himself, and it’d all been for nothing.
People were still likely to die tomorrow. Hawkins might still fall.
After a moment’s deliberation, Steve squatted by the overturned frame of Eddie’s bed and hooked his fingers beneath the wooden slats, flipping it back onto its legs. He replaced the mattress, too, grunting and sweating with the effort, then collected the sheets he found scattered across the room, smoothing them hastily over the bed.
There. It was almost as though Eddie still slept there; Steve could imagine him sprawled haphazardly across the sheets.
Lowering himself carefully, Steve settled on the edge of the bed. Outside, branches creaked in the wind, and the trailer seemed almost to shudder, shrinking in and expanding outward like a huge metal lung.
Steve thought of Eddie’s long hair, his Hellfire shirt, his guitar and his rings and the ripped holes in the knees of his jeans.
He thought about the warm undulation of Nancy Wheeler’s body beneath his own, about droves of anonymous women, about ‘Harrington’s got her, don’t you big boy?’
He thought until it all hurt so much it felt as though his chest might crack open.
Finally, he gave a single shuddering breath and pulled himself to his feet, padding back across the room and down the hall. He’d allowed himself this, these few hours of melancholy, this chance to wallow and despair – and now he had to pull himself together.
He had a job to do, he had people to protect.
He had a town to save.
Steve wove through the ruinous living room and had his fist curled around the knob of the front door when a sudden bang echoed through the trailer; shards of glass sprayed outward as a violent gust of wind ripped through the room. Steve winced and ducked, throwing his hands up to protect himself, but one of the shards managed to slice open his cheek.
Blood, warm and wet, slid down his face and dripped onto the carpet at his feet.
Behind him, someone tsked loudly.
“It’s not nice to bleed all over someone else’s floor, Stevie.”
Steve whirled on his heel, heart pounding against his chest. He knew that voice.
Glass crunched as a figure stepped out from the shadows, stepping into a pool of fractured moonlight spilling in through the broken windows.
Steve sucked in a sharp breath.
Long curly hair, ringed fingers, ripped jeans, glowing red eyes –
Glowing red eyes?!
The thing wearing Eddie’s face smiled, lips parting to reveal a row of sharp, gleaming fangs. The point of one dug into the skin about his mouth, drawing a trickle of ink-black blood.
“Hello, Pretty Boy.”
-
“E…Eddie?!”
It wasn’t possible, it just wasn’t possible.
Eddie Munson was dead. Steve had seen his body, had made the heart-wrenching decision to leave it behind in the Upside Down.
And yet there he stood, all dark curls and a torn band t-shirt, as real and tangible as the blood sliding down Steve’s face.
“W-What are you doing here?” Steve choked out, swallowing past the lump in his throat.
The creature’s smile broadened, its scarlet gaze seeming to blaze brighter. “Ah, so you do remember me. I wasn’t sure if you would.”
“What?” Steve’s mouth fell open in an involuntary gape. “Of course I remember you, Eddie. How could I not?”
Eddie shrugged, lifting a pale hand to inspect his cuticles. Steve noticed that each finger ended in a long, wicked talon, moonlight glancing off their deadly points. “Well I don’t know, Stevie. You did leave me in the Upside Down to rot, after all.”
Bile clawed up Steve’s throat, and for a moment, he felt as though he’d be sick right there on the floor of Eddie’s trailer.
It wasn’t as though he hadn’t had nightmares similar to this, in which Eddie stood before him smeared in his own blood, blaming Steve for leaving him behind.
“I was still alive!” Dream Eddie would scream, beating his fists against Steve’s chest, eyes wild and furious. In those dreams, Steve just let him, just stood there and took it like he deserved. “I was still alive, and you killed me!”
But this felt…real. Too real.
“I thought you were dead,” Steve whispered, just as he did in those nightmares. “I would never have left you behind if I’d thought…even for a second…”
Eddie made a dismissive noise and waved a clawed hand. He seemed too amused by the entire thing, eyes crinkled with laughter, as though enjoying a joke Steve wasn’t privy to. “Don’t sweat it, darlin’. I was dead, after all.”
This is definitely a dream, Steve thought, a tad hysterically. “B-But then…how are you – ”
“Alive?” Eddie broke in, grinning that terrible fanged grin. “Oh, but that’s the best part, Stevie.”
There was a blur of movement, and suddenly Eddie was directly before him, those hell-bright eyes burning through Steve, searing into his skin.
He reached out a single taloned finger and swiped the blood from Steve’s cheek, something distinctly hungry entering his face – and as Steve watched, frozen in terror, his long pink tongue unfurled and lapped reverently at the pad of his finger, licking up every last remnant of blood.
Then he pressed his lips to Steve’s ear, and his breath wafted across Steve’s cheek as he whispered those two damning words. “I’m not.”
Something cold and foreboding and distinctly wrong trickled down Steve’s spine. He felt frozen in place, feet rooted to the floor, unable to run even if he’d wanted to.
And he really kind of fucking wanted to.
“Vecna,” Steve gasped out in a sudden moment of clarity. “Vecna did this to you.”
“Ding ding ding,” Eddie sang, whirling backward with a theatrical sweep of his arms. “You’re smarter than you look, Harrington.”
“Okay,” Steve gritted out, clenching his teeth, “So you’re, what, working for him now?”
“Hmmm,” Eddie mused, still sounding so goddamned fucking amused, “working is a strong word…But I suppose so?”
He turned back to face Steve and propped a hand on his hip, the other gesturing to himself from head to toe. “You’re looking at his General, Kas the Betrayer.” He raised his arm and flexed his bicep, grinning broadly. “Pretty neat, huh?”
“No!” Steve burst out, an entanglement of disbelief and anger coursing through him, heating his veins – and beyond that, a profound ache, resounding through him every time he met those frighteningly red eyes. This was wrong, all wrong. “No, it’s not neat at all! Eddie, how could you – how could you do this to us? To Dustin?”
For the first time since his appearance, the smile dropped from Eddie’s face, and the fire of his eyes dulled. “Don’t bring Henderson into this.”
“He loved you,” Steve pressed, unsticking his feet and taking a determined step forward. “He’s been a wreck since you’ve been gone, and you’re just gonna turn on him like this – ”
“He left me down there!” Eddie burst out, glowering. “You all did – You didn’t take me back to Hawkins, you didn’t give me so much as a fucking burial! Hell, does my uncle even know what happened to me?”
Steve fell silent, that ache increasing with every inhale, until the mere act of breathing was almost agony.
“I didn’t think so,” Eddie sneered, though if Steve didn’t know any better, he’d say there was almost a touch of disappointment in his voice. “Guess it doesn’t matter what happens to the freak, huh?”
“It wasn’t like that!” Steve protested, “we didn’t have a choice, Eddie; we had to leave, and as far as we knew – ”
He broke off, drew in a shaky breath, and whispered, “As far as we knew, you were dead.”
Silence hung thickly in the air between them. When Steve dared meet his gaze, Eddie’s lips were twitching at the corners, curling into a mocking pout.
“Aw, have you been missing me, Stevie?”
Steve flushed, his entire face filling with warmth.
Eddie chuckled, and when he came to stand directly before Steve, fingers cupping his chin, Steve didn’t move away. “I’ve been missing you, too, Big Boy. It’s why I came back.”
The points of his talons pressed against Steve’s skin – not enough to draw blood, but enough for Steve to feel the bite of them, the potential carnage.
“Please, Eddie,” Steve rasped, “leave Vecna’s side. Help us defeat him, and once it’s over, we’ll try everything we can to find a cure for…well…”
He gestured ineffectually at Eddie, at his talons and fangs and burning red eyes. “This.”
Eddie chucked again, but he was already shaking his head, that old amusement firmly back in place. “Sorry, Stevie, no can do. I made a promise…and unlike some, I’m loyal.”
Despair washed over Steve in waves, and that stinging behind his eyes returned. It’s no use, he thought miserably, trying to steel himself against the immeasurable disappointment, he’s lost to you now. He’s Vecna’s.
Steve made to wrench himself from Eddie’s grip, to create space between them – but found, to his alarm, that he couldn’t move. Whereas before it was as though his feet had been glued to the carpet, now he couldn’t so much as lift a finger.
Eddie cast him a condescending look, fingers still curled around Steve’s chin. “You didn’t really think I’d let you go, did you?”
Steve felt the blood drain from his face, and Eddie laughed. “C’mon now, Harrington, I knew there must not be much going through that pretty head, but honestly…”
“Please,” Steve rasped again. At least he could still speak; a small mercy, considering his situation. “Don’t…Don’t do this.”
“Good ol’ Vecna made a request of me, recently,” Eddie mused, gratingly conversational. “He wants a captive – you know, leverage against your side, a bit of emotional strife to weaken El’s spooky mindpowers.”
He shrugged and lifted his free hand to inspect his talons once more. “So he says to me, ‘Hey, go over to Hawkins and nab someone, will ya?’ And of course I’m like, ‘Yeah, sure, whatever you say, boss.’ So he lends me some of his power – he's super powerful now, that’s how I’m here, right – and now I have the go-ahead to take anyone I want, provided they’re important to El.”
Steve’s stomach gave a violent lurch as Eddie smirked at him. “I know, I know, there’s better options if I wanna hurt El. Mike, for example. Or that big police dude. But I guess I’m a bit biased.” He clicked his tongue, smile self-deprecating. “What can I say? I’ve always had a soft spot for you, Stevie.”
For a moment, Steve allowed himself to imagine a different universe, one in which Eddie had never died and turned into this thing, one in which he was merely confessing his feelings. I’ve always had a soft spot for you, Stevie.
Maybe, in that universe, they were in this very trailer, sitting on Eddie’s bed. Maybe Steve was wearing one of Eddie’s band shirts. Maybe they were holding hands, and Eddie still had his fingers braced against Steve’s chin – but it didn’t fill Steve with fear. It filled him with warmth, and affection, and burning, aching desire. Maybe they’d share a passionate kiss, and maybe Eddie would take his time, would be oh so gentle and loving and attentive.
Maybe, maybe, maybe.
The brush of Eddie’s talon against his cheekbone drew Steve back to the present.
“Are you crying, Pretty Boy?”
He was, Steve realized with a jolt. Wet, salty tracks dripped down his face and clung to his bottom lip, soaking the collar of his shirt.
Eddie tsked and cradled Steve’s face between his palms. “It’s okay, it’s okay. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.” He grinned as though he’d just made a terribly funny joke. “Besides, you haven’t even heard the best part yet: His Royal Vecna-ness says I can have you when it’s all over. Isn’t that wonderful? You don’t have to die, Steve. Not like your little friends.”
Steve felt the tears come faster.
“Sshh, calm down for me, Stevie,” Eddie whispered, leaning forward until their foreheads were pressed together. He stroked large, sweeping circles across Steve’s cheek with his thumb, and Steve hated himself a little for how soothing he found it. “It’s all gonna be okay. Nothing’s gonna happen to you, I promise.”
“B-But…my friends,” Steve choked out. He could sense movement in his peripheral, but Eddie kept Steve’s eyes trained on him.
“Don’t worry about your friends,” Eddie insisted, still speaking in that low, intoxicating way. “Just focus on me, okay? Focus on our future together.”
From the corner of his eye, the movement revealed itself to be several dark shapes slithering into view, and Steve immediately recognised those cursed black vines from his time in the Upside Down. They’d tried to strangle him in Henry Creel’s house, alongside Robin and Nancy. They’d nearly died.
And now they were winding around his wrists and ankles, binding his hands together, curling around his neck and cradling his chin much the same way Eddie had been.
Steve gave a grunt as he was forced to his knees, though it didn’t hurt. He wanted to scream, to cry out, but his mind felt sluggish and dull, his thoughts slow and thick and barely discernible.
It was as though he’d awoken mid-nap, and all he wanted was to return to the blissful anonymity of slumber.
“Sleep tight, Stevie,” Eddie cooed, smiling down at him with a soft, indulgent fondness. He ran a hand through Steve’s hair, and the scratch of those talons against his scalp was just so fucking good.
“I…I can’t,” Steve insisted, though he knew it was no use. His eyes were so heavy he could barely keep them open. “They…need me…”
“Always such a white knight,” Eddie sighed. “Why don’t you let someone else take care of you for a change? You don’t have to be the hero this time, Big Boy. Just let yourself rest.”
It was no good; Steve could feel his consciousness slipping away like sand through his fingers, lulling him into a dark, blissful nothingness.
I have to warn them, Steve thought desperately, as the Munson’s ruined trailer and Eddie’s grinning face disappeared behind his eyelids, before it’s too late…
And then, he thought of nothing.