HEAD OVER HEELS // E. MUNSON

003. DAZED AND CONFUSED

MY MOM had made me call off for my shift at Radio Shack after watching the news. An unnamed teenager was found murdered just last night, and being the paranoid woman she was, Mom didn't want Dustin or I going anywhere. Luckily, Max Mayfield came to us.

"Chrissy Cunningham? You're sure it was Chrissy?" I questioned.

Max, Dustin, and I stood in his room as the redhead went over the events of last night that she'd seen from her own home.

"Yes, in her cheerleader outfit," Max replied. "Same things she was in when I saw her with Eddie."

"Wait, Eddie?" I asked. "Why would she be with Eddie?"

Dustin interrupted, "Did you tell all this to the cops?"

"No. No, but I can't be the only one who saw them together. I mean, they stood out."

I raised an eyebrow, "Eddie with Chrissy the cheerleader? No way."

"Exactly," replied Max. "You know, his name's not in the news yet or anything but I guarantee you Eddie is suspect one now."

"That's crazy!" Dustin exclaimed. "Eddie didn't do this. No way."

"Well, we can't rule it out," Max retorted.

"Yes, we can," I added. "You don't know him like I—like me and Dustin do."

"When we got to high school, Lucas made all his sports friends. Mike and me? I mean, no one was nice to us. No one except Eddie."

"Okay. Well, they said the same thing about Ted Bundy," began Max. "Yeah he's a super nice guy but then he's murdering women on the weekend."

"So you're saying Eddie is like Ted Bundy?" I questioned, trying not to laugh.

"No, I'm not saying—I'm saying that we can't presume anything, okay? But it doesn't look good for Eddie."

Dustin sighed a plopped down on his bed.

"Why haven't you told the cops this?" I asked Max, sitting next to him.

She sighed, "After I saw Eddie and Chrissy go in the trailer, my lights and tv went all weird. So I looked out the window and he got in his van and drove away. Which, we always drives like a maniac and the power goes off at my place all the time. It's a piece of shit but, this morning, I started to think back and...I don't know. The look on his face...he was scared. Really scared. Maybe he was scared because he just killed someone or...maybe because something else killed her."

We all exchanged worried looks. We thought everything with the Upside Down ended when Hopper and Billy died, but maybe some monsters were still around.

"But that's impossible, right?" I questioned.

"I don't know," said Dustin. "It should be, but..."

"There's only one person who actually knows what happened and that's Eddie," I rose from the bed. "We need to find him. Now."

I left Dustin's room to go to my own and collect what we liked to call "spy supplies." I shoved a flashlight, a walkie talkie, a couple bottles of water, and some snacks inside a book bag. With my car keys in hand, I met Max and Dustin in the living room. They were stalling Mom.