Chapter Text
The past week has been a weird week. A really weird week.
And it wasn't just Gareth either,Chrissy, Patrick and Fred's murders had shaken the whole town. Unlike everyone else in this godforsaken town however, Gareth knew that none of this was Eddie's fault.
Eddie was three years older than him and had already been in his first run of senior year when Gareth began high school. To a freshman, he had seemed larger than life and, though Gareth would never admit it out loud on pain of death, a bit intimidating. That view changed immediately once he was adopted into Hellfire.
Eddie wasn't afraid to speak his mind and was very unapologetically a freak but, most of his bravado was really just for show. A front he had learned to put on in order to survive the close mindedness of Hawkins.
Didn’t work so well, seeing as he was the target of a manhunt led by Carver and his basketball goons for the sole crime of hosting a DnD club (well ignoring his drug dealing; not like his main customers were going to persecute him for that).
Gareth also happened to be in that same club. Luckily or unluckily, whichever way you chose to see it, everyone thought of him as a vulnerable brainwashed child rather than a co-demon summoner. His mom had taken him to church for three full days in a row. He hadn’t even known that that many youth gatherings took place on the same day.
Hawkins High must have been really empty.
Throughout the week he had been on the look out for any and all signs of where Eddie was. So far he hadn’t heard anything. He had to keep reminding himself that it was a good thing. If Gareth didn’t know anything it meant that none of the psychopaths hunting him down did either and he felt confident knowing that his friend remained hidden.This confidence was abruptly shattered at the grocery store.
He had just been picking out some bread for his mom as well as some snacks to restock the pantry when he heard a vaguely familiar voice speaking from the next aisle over.
“Come on hurry up! We need to get to Eddie before anyone else finds him.” said the voice.
A horrified expression settled over Gareth’s face. Leaving his shopping cart behind, he crept over to the corner to take a look at the speaker, and low and behold, there stood King Steve in all his glory and accompanied by…Sinclair?
As someone who had been present for Harrington’s reign of terror in high school he had never really bought into Henderson’s hero worship of the man. No one could change that much. It seemed as though his skepticism was well warranted. Despite Dustin’s claims of him being a good person now, Steve looked to be shamelessly participating in the townwide game of Hunt the Freak. And he had corrupted Sinclair as well.
In fact, Gareth felt furious looking at him standing next to Harrington.
Lucas was Eddie’s friend, a kindred spirit. He was one of the sheepies Eddie had so graciously welcomed into Hellfire and provided a place to be safe from the crushing social hierarchies of Hawkins High. And Sinclair repaid that how? By switching sides the moments he got the chance just like a perfect little jock in the making.
“Is anyone with him right now?” Lucas asked.
“Just Dustin, which is why we should get there as fast as possible.” Harrington replied.
The younger boy looked between a scrap of paper and the basket in his arm, “I think we’ve got everything we need from here.”
“Great. Then let’s go.”
Gareth didn’t stick around to see what they said next. He bolted out of that store and straight towards his mom’s car. Once inside, he ducked low and kept his eyes on Harrington’s Beamer.
Soon enough the Beamer began moving and Gareth followed close behind.
____
So.
Following Sinclair and Harrington.
It wasn’t a bad idea per say. It would have been an excellent idea if they hadn’t decided to take a long detour to Loch Nora. And, unless Eddie was hiding somewhere inside that large fancy house the two of them had entered, they were not in as much of a hurry as they had seemed in the store.
Gareth had already been waiting for them for half an hour and was considering calling it a day when Harrington finally came back out. He was alone and Gareth squinted to see what he was carrying in hands. In one hand Steve seemed to be holding a duffel bag and in the other… his blood went cold.
In his other hand, Steve Harrington was carrying a baseball bat studded with NAILS.
A sick feeling began to grow in Gareth’s stomach and his face went pale when he noticed the red stains on the bat. Blood.
The moment he noticed this little detail just so happened to be the moment Harrington noticed him. Their eyes met through his car’s window.
He should have seen this coming. His mom’s scratched up car stood out far too much against this neighborhood, with its identical neat lawns and well trimmed rosebushes.
Steve’s forehead scrunched up. He opened his mouth, presumably to say something to him, but, for the second time this day, Gareth didn’t wait to find out what he was about to say and fled.
Steve Harrinton had a nail studded baseball bat and he really did not want to know where the blood came from.
He needed backup–and perhaps some armour– if he was going to be able to save Eddie from these monsters after him. Hopefully some of the other Hellfire members would be more than willing to help him in his slightly terrifying and very real quest