MATILDA, eddie munson.

044.

"haven't we all?"

— 📻🪐🏹 —

MARCH 26TH, 1986
📍skull rock
15:29 PM

"when we reached the shore, we tried calling you guys, but, uh," eddie paused to take a sip on a bottle of water. "we'd dropped the walkie in the lake. it was drenched and completely busted, man. so, uh, we did the thing that we do now, apparently. we ran," he chuckled.

"do you know what time this was? the attack?" nancy questioned them.

"yeah, no, i.. i know exactly what time it was," he began taking off his watch and throwing it towards nancy. "my walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked."

"9:27," the girl read from his watch.

"same time our flashlights went kablooey," robin added.

"which means what, exactly?" steve questioned.

eddie offered his blonde friend some of the water, and she took it was a smile, before taking a few sips as she listened to nancy.

"that that surge of energy was vecna attacking myles," nancy concluded.

the mention of the name made tillie's eyes divert to the floor. of course, none of the others, excluding eddie, knew about what happened with myles.

she didn't know how to feel about his death. in a way, she was thankful that he was gone. happy, even. now, there was no was he could ever hurt her or make a shitty comment to her again. but despite his actions, she still felt wrong for the happiness she felt about his demise.

noticing the girl zoning out, eddie  used his elbow to poke her side gently, making her attention move from the ground to him. "you good?" he mouthed.

the blonde nodded, and eddie saw steve watching them curiously. he opened his hand for the girl, and she realized what he was signaling at and wove her fingers through his. the boy squeezed her hand reassuringly, smirking as he saw steve turn away.

"well, we're one step closer," robin announced. "we know how vecna attacks."

"and where he attacks from," lucas added. the boy had had to introduce himself to tillie, but she was already familiar with his name from his connection to the basketball team.

"and who he likes to attack," max stated, making the others turn to her. "me and lucas kind of figured that everyone he attacks has something in their life that's hurting them in some way. haunting them. some kind of trauma.."

"don't say that," tillie mumbled. "that makes me sound like the perfect target."

"is that true?" nancy asked, her eyes on tillie. "i know fred was in a car accident last year, and max has billy, but what about chrissy and myles? did they have any issues you knew about, matilda?"

tillie swallowed. "well, er, yeah, i mean, i know chrissy was certainly struggling, and uh.. she told me that myles had some issues in his childhood.."

"doesn't excuse his actions whatsoever," eddie commented, loud enough for the others to hear.

"what do you mean by that?" lucas wondered.

"nothing," eddie smiled. "forget i said anything."

"so, now we just need to sneak into his lair in the upside down and drive a stake through his heart," max said, bringing the focus back to their main issue: vecna.

"if he even has a heart," robin scoffed.

"a stake?" steve asked, his eyebrows furrowed harshly. "is he like a vamp? is he a vampire?"