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It was strange to visit the grave of someone who was dead because of you. This wasn’t the first time that Cal had visited Bode’s grave, of course. The entire group went when it was first created, and he and Merrin had taken Kata on what would have been his birthday. But today was entirely different. For one, he was alone; his wife and adopted daughter were waiting at the car with Hunter and Echo. For another, he knew this would be his last time here.
Slowly, he sat down on the grass and unfolded the letter he had brought. The final one to give out.
“Dear Bode,” Cal read aloud to the stone. “I’m not entirely certain you can hear this, but after three years of monsters, supernatural children, and other dimensions, I’ve just started assuming that anything’s possible.
“You haven’t missed much. Kata’s been doing well enough. She’s part of the Hawkins High basketball team, and on Friday she scored the winning goal of the championship game while her friends cheered on from the stands.” His voice quieted further. “I swear she looks more like you now than she did a year ago. I can’t bring myself to think of her as anything but your daughter, even though she’s legally my daughter now too. Merrin and I adopted her, like you asked. We’re all still living in my house, with Kata turning our guest bedroom into hers. She says we’re doing a great job at being parents.” A defeated sigh escaped his lips. “I can only say that we’re trying our best.
“That’s kind of how my whole life feels. Between you and Kanan dying, and Hera moving with her kids to California, it’s kind of just Mer and I out here. She’s pretty much all I have now. The only person who knows what really happened.” He swallowed into the tightness in his chest. “The only person who knows what I did. I play that moment back in my head all the time. I keep on trying to find a way to save you while keeping everyone else safe, and that if I had, you’d be here. I know you never got to be part of our adventures, but I’d like to think you would have joined us on this one.”
He took in a shaky breath, glancing once again at the stone in front of him. “But that’s not what happened. I pulled the trigger to keep Kata and Merrin alive. There isn’t a day that goes by where it doesn’t haunt me. I tried to move on, to be happy. But I think killing you killed a part of me too. And you’re the only person, besides Merrin, that I’ve told that. But I just had to let you know. And I really hope you can hear this. I’m so sorry Bode.” His voice cracked. “So, so sorry.
“Sincerely, your friend and neighbor, Cal.”
With a final wipe of his face and a quick shoving of the letter back, he went to stand up. But, as he fully got on his feet, he noticed the clouds moving too fast. His heart began racing faster in sync with the sky getting darker. So, this is what death looks like.
From behind him, there was the sound of footsteps against dead grass. He turned to face Darth, wanting to go down brave. Instead, he found himself face to face with a person he was convinced he would never see again.
Merrin tapped her nails along the roof of her husband’s car for what must have been the millionth time in the last two minutes. Her eyes still had yet to leave him, continuously watching as he sat alone. She knew that he needed this, of course. But it still killed her to not be next to him.
“He’s been up there for a while,” Kata pointed out nervously. “Should we go get him?”
That was the last straw for Merrin. “Yes. I’ll go up there with him. You all stay here.”
“He said he wanted to be alone?” Hunter questioned.
“I’m his wife. He might want to be alone right now, but…” she glanced back up at Cal, still sitting in front of the grave, “I know him well enough to know he shouldn’t.” She turned to go to him, but paused and added, “Kata, if we’re still up there in five minutes, join us.”
Her daughter replied with a thumbs up, and Merrin was walking up the hill a moment later. She was quiet as she approached him, softly sitting down on the grass next to him. The silence sat between them, and she slowly reached out a hand to grasp his.
“Hey,” she whispered. “You okay?”
It took a moment for him to respond, and then another. Quickly, he was too quiet for too long. Her head whipped over to look at him, only to find his eyes rolled back and the rest of his limbs slack.
“Cal?” Panic slipped into her voice and she shifted to sit in front of him, snapping her fingers in his face. “Cal wake up. Cal!”
“Cal.” Bode, with two distinct bullet wounds bleeding out from his heart, strode closer to his own grave. “I hoped you’d say those words. But you were lying. Your intentions were far from the selflessness you claim. I think it was a little more…personal.”
“No,” he choked. “There was no other way.”
The ghost tilted his head. “No other time you could have finished me off than after your wife cried out? No other look on your face than anger? Was one shot not enough?”
“Police training,” he reasoned, taking an unsteady step back. “A double tap.”
“Do officers normally wait so long between shots, looking at the woman they love before hitting the second time?” His voice raised to a shout. “Do they all kill fathers in front of their daughters?”
“I’m sorry!” Cal yelled.
“You’re not!” Bode’s voice began sounding less like his own. “You did it for revenge. You can be honest here. No more lies. No more hiding.”
“No.” He backed up as the dead encroached on him.
“That’s why you can’t move on. Why you can’t be truly happy. Why you hide from Merrin, from Kata, from the world. And why, sometimes—”
“No.”
“You wish to follow me.” A clock rang a haunting chime. “Into death.”
“No!”
“Join me. End your suffering.”
Backing up another step, Cal tripped and fell hard onto his back. Snapping back up, he was met with not Bode, but a lean figure covered in black and red stripes and adorned with a crown of horns.
Darth.
Cal pushed himself up, and ran.
“Dammit Omega, pick up!” Hunter barked into the walkie talkie. “If you don’t respond right now, you’re going to be grounded until the end of the world, which at this rate–”
“We’re back, we’re back!” Omega crackled through the speaker, causing her older brother to let out a deep sigh of relief. “We figured it out!”
“Well what the hell is it?”
“Music!” Zeb took over, sounding the proper amount of frantic. “He needs music!”
Immediately, Echo dove into the front seat, scrambling to grab the cassette out from the tape deck. They had been listening to it on the way here, and this was Cal’s car, so hopefully it would be a good option. Now, to find…
“Where’s the Walkman?” Hunter yelped up the hill.
“Glovebox!” Kata yelled back, not looking away from her adoptive parents.
The item was quickly grabbed, and the duo booked it. Hunter quietly thanked his JROTC officers for making him run all those laps in high school, because the dormant skill was now incredibly useful at getting to the ginger in danger.
“He needs music!” Echo thrust the items into Merrin’s hands, whose eyes widened before she fumbled to put the headphone on her comatose husband.
Not fifteen seconds after she pressed play, Cal began to float.
Somehow, Cal had traversed far enough to no longer be in the cemetery. Here, he was surrounded by broken pieces of a house under a blood red sky. There were rocky pillars jutting up, vines tying corpses to two of them. One was the reporter who had gone missing during his investigation, and the other he barely recognized as Tup.
And in the center, next to the empty pillar that was likely to be filled very soon, was Darth.
“Would you like to join them?”
Cal turned to run back, only for a vine to catch his ankle. He grasped at the ground for any holds, finding none. He was violently pulled all the way back to the pillar and pinned against it. More vines wrapped around his wrists and neck, choking him as he strained against them. Darth stalked his way closer, and Cal knew this was the end.
Then…he heard familiar guitars. Looking beyond the encroaching villain, he saw a hazy window out. There was Merrin and Kata, surrounding himself in the cemetery. He was wearing his Walkman, which explained the U2. They were trying to get him out.
A crowd is gathered in black and white
“They cannot help you,” Darth spoke, entirely too close. “You belong here, with me.”
Arms entwined, the chosen few
“You’re not really here,” Cal gasped.
The newspaper says, says, say it true, it’s true
“Oh, I am, Cal.” He moved a red hand in front of his face. “I am.”
And we can break through
Cal looked beyond the fingers in front of him, to the glimpse of his family. For a moment, he could feel his wife’s arms wrapped around him like the last time he saw her. The promise that she would always be by his side.
Though torn in two, we can be one
He closed his eyes, letting the memories run freely. Spending last night being held by Merrin. Leaning on her for cases that couldn’t be caused by humans. Watching their daughter come alive on the court. Caring for Kata like she was their own. Protecting her and the rest of the kids at the mall. Leading her into the mess with the tunnels and into the crazy world that was Hawkins.
I, I will begin again
Seeing Hera off when she moved. Talking about their wives with Kanan. Seeing the four kids growing closer. Waking up with Merrin after breaking into the lab, and knowing she was the one. How she looked more beautiful than he thought was humanly possible at their wedding.
Maybe the time is right
Cal’s eyes snapped open, and he moved quickly to yank hard at one of Darth’s horns. This broke his focus just long enough for Cal to slip out from the vines. He pushed himself up from the ground and ran towards the light.
Oh, maybe tonight
Falling obstacles caused him to stumble into the slime at his feet, but he charged ahead. His eyes kept focused on the vision of the outside world, where his body was floating above Merrin and Kata. His family, who needed him as much as he needed them.
I will be with you again
He got closer and closer, more things crashing all around him. He was almost there, he could hear them yelling for him, they were right there—
Without warning, Cal’s body dropped. Merrin rushed to catch him, grasping on to him as he did the same to her. His breathing was quick and uneven as his green eyes flicked all around, only stopping when they locked with hers.
She held him closer, letting her tears fall into his hair and whispering, “I thought I lost you.”
“I’m here,” he gasped, pulling a still crying Kata into their embrace. “I’m still here.”
Hunter slumped in relief and Echo stared at Cal in bewilderment. All in a pile on the grass, Kata buried herself into Cal’s chest while he was held by Merrin. For today at least, they were all together.