He observed his sister's shuffling footsteps scuffing the dry dirt. Her fumbling clumsiness was even more prominent today and the orbs of cold sweat trailed down her forehead.
Anger rose in his chest again when he spotted Eddie. Steve wasted no time and charged toward the Munson boy, grabbing a fistful of his shirt and abruptly pressing his back against the rock where nobody could see them.
"I swear to God, Munson, did you give my sister drugs again!?" Steve noticed Eddie's confused and furious visage and continued, not letting the boy speak. "Ressie is literally showing the symptoms of withdrawals, so I swear if you—"
Eddie had enough of Steve's absurd accusations. He forcefully pushed his hands off of his chest and stood as tall as he did, his doe eyes darkening with pure malice.
"Hey man, back off! No way in hell I would give that shit to her after I knew what it did to her. Do you think I would make her go back to rehab? Did you really think I would do that to the girl I love?"
Steve's hardened expression faltered ever so slightly when Eddie confessed to him that he basically loves his sister. He regained his set tone and was about to speak up once again until Eddie interrupted him.
"Look, earlier in the night, Cerise was acting weird. She said this one phrase and I don't know why, but it really irked me." He had Steve's undivided attention now. If something was wrong with Cerise, Steve would go through hell and back if it means he figures out what is wrong with his sister.
"Well, what did she say?" Steve pressed.
Eddie paused and inhaled a deep shaky breath, the aura of anticipation and apprehension filling the chilly air. "She said 'he likes it cold.'"
That was it. That was all it took for Steve to storm from his place and form a beeline to Cerise. His frantic eyes scanned for his sister, ignoring the questions that were muffled in his eardrums. In the sense of Steve's dismay, Eddie's worry was burgeoning by the second.
Eddie and Steve were on the search for Cerise who seemed to disappear without the notice of the other teens. But when Robin spotted Cerise wandering in the middle of the forest several yards away from them, she ran to the girl, gently caressing her elbows as she turned Cerise around.
"You can't walk off like that, Cherry, or else we're gonna have to put a leash on you," Robin joked, expecting a laugh to escape the young Harrington's lips, but when she only saw the befuddled look on her face, Robin looked at her in question.
"Who are you?" Cerise asked with a baffled expression, not knowing this girl who was. Robin snorted, assuming her best friend was playing a cruel joke on her.
Little did Robin know.
"Hah, that's not funny, Cherry," Robin snorted with a nervous laugh. She caught the way Cerise's visage still held the utterly confused look and that's when her heart dropped. Cerise's eyes were filled with nothing, the void she held in her eyes, saddening Robin."W-What? You don't know who I am?"
Everyone walked up to the two girls and they all observed the way Robin's lips quivered as if she were about to cry. Steve put a concerned hand on his friend's shoulder and noticed her blue eyes were dazing at his sister.
"She doesn't know who I am," Robin whispered so only Steve could hear. The boy noticed the tears brimming on the edge of her waterline and he shot her a sympathetic look. The freshman stalked toward Cerise and saw how she was backing away from them.
"Cerise, um, do you know who these people are?" Steve gestured to Nancy, Dustin, Max, and Lucas. Cerise scanned their faces and pointed to each of them.
First, she pointed toward Max. She nodded her head. Next, was Lucas and she nodded her head then.
But when she looked at Nancy and Dustin, her head tilted to the side and she shook her head no.
Nancy and Dustin looked like they were just backslapped in the face with Eddie's rings, their aching shoulders slumping at the sound of their good friend not recognizing them. Nancy felt like she lost one of her closest friends, whereas, Dustin's heart wrenched at the fact he was losing his older sister.
Wanting to diffuse the cumbrous aura, Steve spoke up, attempting to hold up the facade as if there was nothing wrong so Cerise wouldn't get suspicious.
"Ressie, are you up for a walk?" Steve held his composure, silently shooing away the confused glances from the teens behind Cerise.
"I can do this all day," Cerise stated with a vile smirk. It easily shook everyone's nerves, the usually optimistic Cerise, was holding the pretense of a murderous psycho from a sinister thriller movie. She walked away from the group, stalking her way to the rock in the shape of a skull as her brother and the rest of the teens stood behind, not wanting Cerise to hear this conversation.
"There's something wrong with Cerise," Dustin declared as if it was not the most obvious thing in the world. Everyone stared at him incredulously and he scratched the back of his head while diverting his gaze to the sky.
"The Mind Flayer is in her," Steve blurted, not in the mood to ease anyone into the heavyweight situation they were currently in. Everyone held looks of shock, fear, and confusion, except for Eddie and Robin who looked utterly lost.
"Impossible, we killed it last year," Max factually remarked thinking it was the truth.
"Did we though?" Steve blurted in an annoyed tone. "Apparently that little shit, Vecna, has a crush on my sister or something," he sarcastically sneered.
Dustin noticed how Robin and Eddie held looks of perplexity, and he explained to them precisely who and what the Mind Flayer was. Once they were caught up, everyone agreed that they will do whatever it takes to get it out of Cerise, then continue with their mission to take out Vecna.
The teens started to follow Steve, who knew exactly where to take his sister so they can wipe out the monster once and for all. Cerise followed loosely behind them, sticking close to Eddie who seemed to be her only sort of comfort out of all the strangers she was with.
She tightened her grip on his arm and Eddie couldn't help but smile, considering the situation they were in, Cerise found comfort with him by her side. Eddie tugged a dopey smile on his lips and placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head and led them to follow the rest of the kids.
Robin was standing in the front with Steve. She wiped away the dry tears that trailed down her cheeks before and Robin knew Steve would give her sympathy which was something she wasn't in the mood for, so she spoke up, hoping to alter the atmosphere.
"So, where are we going again?"
"We're going to take her to a place where this happened before. To the cabin."
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petition for steve and eddie to get along 🤞
also, i have two steve books in my drafts and i still need to post them omg. one of them has been sitting in my drafts since october and i've been holding them off.
