𝐒𝐀𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 : : 𝐄𝐃𝐃𝐈𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐍

ℙ𝕃𝔸ℕ '𝔸'

"𝑩𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒆,
𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒂𝒊𝒍"

𝐄𝐃𝐃𝐈𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐍

𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟕.

IN ALL THE WORLDS HE HAD ENVISIONED MOMENTARILY, this wasn't the one he was expecting to feel his happiest in. It had nothing to do with what sat inside of it, more about the girl within its walls. It wasn't that he loved her, because how could he?. No, it was that she made him happy. She kept the bubble inside of his chest on the verge of explosion, a rare form of trust and companionship.

However, it was no longer the main focus of the day. They had bigger things to worry about and sitting around, wishing they could do other things wasn't their top priority right now.

Whilst Lori sat affixed to the badly beaten sofa, across the way from Eddie who, not surprisingly, was on his feet moving his body as though music was playing in his ears, they were thinking of a way to escape. To find something that leant towards the possibility of leaving this realm.

"What would your friends do?" She asked him, biting her finger nails and tapping her left foot in the air as her leg crossed over its twin. Eddie stopped his movements to think..think like Dustin.

It wasn't hard to cogigate like Dustin, he thought. You just had to believe you were always right, and pow!, you became somewhat of a genius.

"The gates were Dustin and Steve's idea, but we never got further than that." Eddie mumbled, bringing his legs to a pace that made Lori sick to the stomach.

"Eddie would you stop!?" She exclaimed, squeezing her eyes shut, rubbing her forehead with both palms.

"Your head?" He asked, noticing the symptoms as soon as they came and went. It was what they both called memory invasion. The memories burned her skull, she described to him halfway through a conversation about their families. He remembered the look of pure agony lighting up inside her pupils as they flooded through her, harsh whimpers falling from her lips as they did.

"Uh huh" she nodded, leaning over her knees and holding her self in a foetus position. Her arms draped around her knees and her head lay steadily onto her thighs, allowing her body to take full control. She began to rock back and forth, anything to ease the pain.

Eddie was by her side instantly, without a question. Lori would never admit she knew why this was happening to her, but Eddie knew all too well the reasoning. He kept these details close to him, aware of how it could possibly make her feel hearing them out loud.

"Hey, hey. Just breath, remember? In through the nose, out through the mouth." Eddie whispered gently, rubbing a comforting hand on her back. Lori obeyed his explanatory commands until the pounding in her skull began to turn into a light thumping in her temples.

"I don't like this" she admitted shamefully, slowly looking up to meet Eddie's staring eyes, so full of sorrow and hopefulness. "Don't look at me like that" she grunted at him, standing up and walking towards the kitchen.

"I know you don't want to hear it, but you have to Lori!" He called to her, following behind. "The longer you refuse to let out your emotions, the more pain it'll cause you." Eddie tried to explain to her from the doorway of the kitchen, with sadness leaping through his veins. He couldn't help but feel sorry for her, as always.