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Henry falls in love.
It's never part of the plan.
It's so unexpected that when he realizes it, he's sure it has to be a trick. A fluke. A fleeting feeling that will disappear.
But it doesn't.
It stays— lingers in his mind along with the thoughts of the one who stole what's left of his rotten heart.
Eddie .
He's never met him. Not truly.
But he's visited so many times in his dreams. More times than he can count now.
Henry had simply been listening the first time, moving from person to person with barely a thought. Searching through their misery and guilt.
But then he heard the voice— Eddie's voice— and it called to him— beckoned him in. He was singing softly as he strummed his guitar, and Henry found himself lingering there.
That night was the first night he visited him in his dream. Not as the creature he is now, but as he was.
If Eddie had been surprised to see a stranger in his dream, he hadn't said anything. At least not then.
No, he'd told Henry all about his dreams to get out of Hawkins and travel the world, sharing his music with anyone who would listen and even those who wouldn't.
He'd smiled at him with a mischievous glint in his eye, and Henry couldn't help but smile back.
And Henry had kept going back.
There was something about Eddie that pulled him there. He wasn’t like the others in this town. There was something wild and free about him— something that resisted the rules and structure set in place. And that fascinated Henry.
That was all it was.
At least, at first.
He’s not sure when it changed. But it did.
With the frequent visits and talks. Every night he spent with Eddie pulled him closer toward something he never knew he wanted but knew he could never truly have. Not like this.
He swore to himself that Eddie would never get dragged down by this town or anything in it.
But, of course, the universe had never been on his side.
Eddie lands smack in the middle of it all. And Henry, despite how much he tries, is helpless to keep him safe. This world is alive and with a mind of its own. And what it wants now is to destroy everything, including Eddie. Especially Eddie.
And Henry, too.
He can feel himself burning, what’s left of him melting away, and he knows this is it. He feels relieved for a moment that maybe he’ll finally escape the hold this place has over him. That he’ll be free. And maybe, if he’s lucky, he’ll see Eddie again one day.
But then Henry wakes up.
And when he does, he’s different. He doesn’t feel as connected to this place as he had, and he’s not sure why. Not until he looks down and sees his hands, with his flesh somehow pristine and unmarred.
“What?” he whispers, surprised at how his voice sounds when it leaves his lips. Almost like it used to.
He reaches up, feeling his face and neck. The skin is smooth under his palms.
He’d think maybe he truly was dead if not for the thrumming of his pulse under his fingers. And the fact that he’s still here. Still in this horrible place.
He needs to get out.
That’s his first thought as he stumbles to his feet. He stops, resting his hand against the house as a wave of dizziness hits him. It’s only when the world stops spinning that he pushes forward. One of the gates still has to be open. There has to be a way out, and he will find it.
He walks as quickly as possible, careful not to step on any of the vines still crawling on the ground. The last thing he needs is to be dragged away before he can escape. No. He finally has a chance to be free, and he’s not going to let it slip away.
His steps falter when he sees a figure standing in the distance.
It’s not a creature from this place.
Whoever it is, they’re human.
Henry walks quietly, not wanting to alert whoever it is to his presence. At least, not yet. Not until he can be sure they won’t kill him on the spot.
But then their head turns and Henry catches site of their profile. His heart speeds up as he quickens his steps. The person turns and Henry has no doubt in his mind who is standing before him. He’d know that face anywhere.
“Eddie!” Henry says, relieved to see him still alive. But he’s also scared. Eddie shouldn’t still be here. Not now.
Eddie tilts his head, studying him. “Henry?”
Henry nods, stopping just a few feet away. “You do recognize me then.”
“I’ve dreamt of you,” Eddie says. “You came to me.”
“I did,” Henry says. “I can explain it all later. But we need to go.”
“And why would I do that?” Eddie asks him.
“It’s not safe here,” Henry says. “For either of us.”
But especially not him. Not now that he’s human again.
“You mean you,” Eddie says as if reading his thoughts. “Since you turned your back on this place.”
“I did what I had to do,” Henry says. “To protect you.”
“Is that what you think you did?” Eddie asks him. “Protected me?”
Henry frown. “Eddie, what? What are you talking about?”
“You’re not leaving, Henry,” Eddie tells him. “We’re not done with you yet.”
We ? What is he talking about?
“What?”
Before Henry can question it further, vines wrap around his legs, and he’s pulled down onto his knees. He looks up at Eddie, who’s watching him, face blank. “Eddie?”
“I told you,” Eddie says.
Henry tries to stand, but the vines hold him tighter. “Help me.”
“There is no helping you,” Eddie says. “Not now.”
“Eddie. Please.”
“You can beg all you want, Henry,” Eddie says. “But it’s not going to do you any good.”
This feels wrong. Everything about it. Eddie’s voice and his expression are off. There’s none of the light that usually shines in his eyes, which are staring dully down at where Henry kneels before him.
It’s almost like—
Henry gasps.
No.
Not Eddie.
This place can’t have Eddie.
“This isn't you, Eddie,” Henry says.
“Isn't it?” Eddie questions. “Isn't this what you wanted, Henry?”
“No,” Henry says. “Not for you.”
“Why?” Eddie asks, stalking closer. “Why not me?”
“Because you're different,” Henry says. “You always have been.”
Eddie smirks and cups his cheek. “Is that why you kept coming to me every night? You have some twisted feelings for me? Is that it?”
Henry swallows. No. That’s not right. Whatever feelings he has for Eddie aren’t wrong. “No.”
“Don’t lie to me,” Eddie says. His hand moves from Henry’s cheek down to his throat. “Why else would you visit so often?”
“I already told you…”
“That I’m different,” Eddie sneers. “I know. And aren’t I truly different now?”
Henry shakes his head. “No. This isn’t you.”
“It is now,” Eddie says. His hand wraps around Henry’s throat and squeezes. “You’ll see how different I can be.”
“Please, Eddie,” Henry begs. “I know you're still in there. You have to fight this.”
Eddie's smile twists into something dark, and he tightens his grip on Henry's throat. “No.”
Henry coughs, clawing at Eddie’s hands. He wants to beg. To push him away. But his words aren’t getting through to him. Not now. Not with the hold this place has on him. But there has to be some way.
His eyes widen when it hits him.
He doesn’t know why he didn’t see it sooner. The one way to get through to Eddie. The one thing Eddie said he truly understood. That was always there when he needed it the most.
Music.
Whenever we dream
That’s when we fly
The words come out hoarse at first. But he pushes through. Eddie’s hand loosens a bit as he stares at him, his brow furrowing, and that’s all the encouragement Henry needs to keep going. Singing the first song Eddie ever played for him.
So here is a dream
For just you and I
We’ll find the sacred heart
Somewhere bleeding in the night, yeah
Look for the light
And find the sacred heart
Eddie blinks and shakes his head, and Henry keeps singing, louder and louder, until Eddie’s hand falls away. He falls to his knees with a gasp and looks up at Henry.
“Henry?”
“Yes, Eddie,” Henry says. “I’m here.”
“But how?” Eddie says. “I thought— God, I thought I’d made you up.”
“I’m real,” Henry says. “I don’t have time to explain it right now, but you need to run. Get out of here while you can.”
“What about you?” Eddie asks him.
“What?”
“Aren’t you coming?”
Henry looks down at the vines still wrapped around his legs and sighs. He’d love nothing more than to run out of here with Eddie, but he’s sure this place isn’t going to let him go. Not without a fight. “I’m afraid I’m a bit tied up right now.”
Eddie’s eyes move to his legs, and he frowns. “I’ll get you out.”
“There’s no time,” Henry tells him. “You need to go.”
“I’m not leaving you here,” Eddie tells him. “Not when I finally got to meet you for real after all this time.”
“If you stay here, you’ll die,” Henry says.
“And you will if I leave you,” Eddie says. “So, let me help you. We can both get out of here.”
“Eddie…”
“Stop arguing, and let me help you,” Eddie says. He looks around them with a frown. “I just need…” He snaps his fingers and turns to Henry. “I’ll be right back.”
Henry watches him as he runs down the road and then disappears from view. Part of Henry hopes he doesn’t come back. That he wises up and gets the hell out of here. It’d be the safest option for him.
Instead, a few minutes later, Eddie comes running back down the road, and he’s wielding an ax. Henry eyes it warily. “What exactly are you going to do with that?”
“I’m going to chop the vines off,” Eddie says.
“And hopefully not my legs,” Henry says. “Or else you’ll be carrying me out of here.”
Eddie rolls his eyes. “Trust me, alright?”
“I do,” Henry says. “I’m just not sure about that ax.”
“Then don’t look down,” Eddie says. “Keep your eyes on me.”
Henry nods. “Okay. Do it.”
Eddie raises the ax, and Henry keeps his gaze averted towards Eddie’s face as he swings it down, once, then twice. The veins loosen on his legs, and with Eddie’s help, he pulls them off and jumps to his feet. He backs away and pushes Eddie behind in case they decide to attack again.
“Now would probably be a good time to run, right?” Eddie asks him.
“Yes, it would,” Henry says.
Eddie holds out his hand with a manic grin, and Henry takes it. Together, they run down the road back towards the Munson’s trailer. Eddie slams the door behind him.
“Hopefully, that will hold them off while we figure out how to get through,” Eddie says.
“How did the others get back?” Henry asks him.
“I’m not sure,” Eddie says. “Maybe a different gate? Or they took the sheet with them this time.”
“Do we have something we can use?” Henry asks.
“I’m sure we do,” Eddie says. “Wayne always liked to have extra blankets. So there has to be something.”
They move through the trailer, grabbing all the blankets and sheets they can find and tie them tightly together.
Once finished, they stand there, looking up at the gate. “This is going to be the tricky part.”
“You’re sure it will hold?” Henry asks him.
“It did before,” Eddie says. “Henderson kind of just tossed it through, and it stayed. Just have to hope it will this time.”
“Well, only one way to find out,” Henry says.
Eddie nods. He grabs the end of their makeshift rope and throws it up towards the gate. It makes it through by some miracle and falls through to the other side.
“Huh.”
“You really gotta have more faith in me,” Eddie says.
“Yes,” Henry says. “You are full of surprises.”
“I’m not the only one,” Eddie says, grinning over his shoulder at him. “You ready?”
Henry nods. “You first.”
“What? Shouldn’t you…”
“You first,” Henry insists.
Eddie shakes his head. “And you think I’m stubborn.”
“We both are,” Henry says. “And we can deal with that later. Just go.”
“Bossy,” Eddie mutters. He grabs the robe and then glances over his shoulder at Henry with a smirk. “But we both know you just like the view.”
Henry’s eyes widen for a moment before they narrow. “Careful, Eddie.”
“Why?” Eddie asks him. “What are you going to do?”
“Just climb the damn rope,” Henry says. “And if you’re lucky, we’ll both survive, and you can find out.”
“Right,” Eddie says, nodding his head. “Not the time or place.”
“Exactly.”
Henry watches as Eddie climbs the rope through the gate and lands on the other side. He gives Henry a thumbs-up and then rolls away. Henry takes a deep breath, grabs the blankets, and starts to climb. He goes quickly, half expecting something to grab him and pull him back. But it never comes. He falls onto the mattress and looks at Eddie, who’s grinning down at him.
“We made it,” Eddie says.
“Yes, we did,” Henry says. He takes the hand Eddie offers him and gets to his feet. “I’ll still feel better when we’re away from here.”
“Me too,” Eddie says. “I’m not sure where we can go. I am still a fugitive.”
“For now,” Henry says.
Eddie shrugs. “Hopefully. Let me just— I guess I’ll call Steve? Maybe we could crash there tonight.”
“And how are you going to explain me?” Henry asks him.
“Good point,” Eddie says. He rubs the back of his neck. “He still may know where Wayne is staying. He’d have questions, but not as many as Steve. And I’d like— I’d like to see him.”
“Whatever you think is safest,” Henry says.
Eddie grabs the phone and dials a number. He rests his head on the wall as it rings. “Steve? Yeah. Yeah. Man. It’s me. Yeah, I thought I was done for too. Uhh… I’m actually not sure. It’s a long story. Listen, do you know where my uncle is staying now? Uh-huh. Hopper? Wait, seriously? He’s alive? Huh. Yeah, yeah. Hopefully. Of course. I’ll check in tomorrow. Thanks, man.”
“Any luck?” Henry asks him once he hangs up.
“Yeah, my uncle is staying at a house on Fifth,” Eddie says. “I guess the government felt guilty and put him up there but didn’t explain why. And Steve said Chief Hopper is apparently alive and trying to clear my name. So there’s that.”
“I told you you wouldn’t be a fugitive for long,” Henry says. “So, are we going to your uncle’s?”
“Yeah, I just want to grab some things from my room,” Eddie says. “At least what I can.”
He walks down the hall, and Henry follows him. His room looks the same as all the other times Henry saw it when he visited Eddie. Aside from the crack in the wall and debris scattered around the room. Eddie looks through his dresser and his closet, pulling out clothes and tossing them into a bag on his bed. A few times, he’ll grab a piece of clothing and hold it up towards Henry and either shake his head or toss it in the bag with the other clothes.
“You’ll need something to wear, too,” Eddie tells him. “I mean, you can’t wear that forever. So if you want to change…”
Henry looks down at his tattered white uniform and wrinkles his nose. “No, I think I’d like to change.”
“Thought so,” Eddie says. He grabs a stack of clothes and tosses them to Henry. “Bathroom’s right next door if you want to use it.”
Henry nods and takes the clothes to the bathroom. He takes off his uniform and stands there for a moment with it in his hands before throwing it in the trashcan. He puts on the clothes Eddie gave him— a pair of jeans and a T-shirt with the word Metallica written across it in big blocky letters. He puts his own shoes back on and then walks back to Eddie’s room. He’s standing with his back to Henry, only wearing a pair of jeans and nothing else.
Eddie looks over at him and smirks. “Looks good on you.”
“Thank you,” Henry says. He walks closer and peers down at the bed where Eddie’s looking.
“I can’t decide what to wear,” Eddie says. “Though I guess I could do Metallica, and we could match.”
Henry’s only half listening, his eyes instead trained on Eddie’s side, where red angry marks line his skin. He reaches out without thought and brushes his fingers across the puckered flesh. Eddie gasps but doesn’t pull away.
“Sorry,” Henry whispers.
He goes to drop his hand, but Eddie grabs it, and holds it to his side. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay,” Henry says. “You almost died down there. Because of me.”
“No, I almost died because I was trying to help my friends.”
“Because they were trying to stop me,” Henry says. “Or at least what I was.” Henry sighs. “I did horrible things, Eddie.”
“I know,” Eddie whispers. “You think I didn’t put two and two together? That the Henry everyone was saying was Vecna was the same Henry that had been coming to me in my dreams.”
“But you still helped me,” Henry says. “Why?”
“Because you helped me,” Eddie says. “You fought to get me back. You sang fucking Dio for me. That’s pretty big for me.”
“Because you sang it that first night I met you,” Henry says. “And multiple times since then. I hoped you felt connected to it enough to come back. And you did.”
“It wasn’t just the song,” Eddie says.
“I guess I hoped that too,” Henry says. “Ever since that first night I visited you, I knew you were different.”
“You kept coming back,” Eddie says. “Every night.”
“I did,” Henry says.
“Why?” Eddie asks him.
“At first, I was fascinated by you,” Henry says. “I never met anyone like you. But then it changed. And I guess I…”
“You what?”
“I fell in love,” Henry says. “With you. I know we only ever met in your dreams, Eddie, but it was all real to me. Everything I felt— that I still feel. It’s real.”
“It’s real to me, too,” Eddie says.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Eddie says.
Eddie cups his cheek and slowly leans in, giving Henry the chance to back away if he wants, but he doesn’t. Instead, he tilts his chin up and meets Eddie halfway, kissing him like he’s been wanting to all this time.
“I love you too,” Eddie murmurs against his lips. “And I’m not going to let anyone take you away from me, alright?”
Henry smiles and pulls him in for another kiss. “Then let’s get out of here.”
Eddie grins and throws on his shirt. He throws the rest of the clothes in his bag and grabs it, slinging it over his shoulder. He reaches out with his free hand to Henry, who takes it without hesitation. Eddie pulls him towards the door. He stops, looking outside to make sure their coast is clear before looking back at Henry. “Ready?”
Henry nods and pulls Eddie in for a hard kiss. “More than ready.”
That night, running with Eddie by his side through the dark streets of Hawkins, Henry has never felt freer. He doesn’t know what’s in store for him out here, but he knows one thing: whatever happens, he’s going to have Eddie by his side.