♔ princess | eddie munson

CHAPTER FOUR | PRINCESS BADASSERY

"It's just us," the girl stated cautiously as silence fell upon the boathouse and she met eyes with Eddie. The nausea was back in full force, but she had to ignore it this time due to the complete chaos of the situation. It seemed to be a pattern that whenever she and Eddie were together, hell itself unraveled: first with Chrissy's death and now with Steve's face-off with death - again.

"This is Steve," Dustin added carefully as the long haired boy, "Steve isn't going to hurt you. Right, Steve?" Steve nodded and agreed quietly.

"Steve, let's drop the oar, yeah?" Sloane carefully added, and Steve threw the oar down, nervously smiling at his sister.

"What are you doing here?" Eddie defensively tightened the grip on Steve's throat, and Sloane puffed her chest up at Eddie, about to make a beeline for Steve's car to get his infamous nailed bat. She would've, too, had Steve not practically read her mind and given her a look as if he was begging her to specifically not do that.

"These are my friends. Steve is cool, right Steve? and you know Robin from band," Robin added a little trumpet noise to lighten the mood, "and this is Max! The one who never wants to play D&D! Last but not least, this is Sloane, m'lady." He purred, causing Steve and Sloane to roll their eyes, but neither of them could help but smile, despite the urgency and danger of their current situation.

All it took was one look at Sloane Harrington for all of Eddie's walls to break down. Even when she was yelling his name to put Steve down, he hadn't truly noticed her until now. His body was in pure fight or flight mode until those damned eyes he hated to love. He took note of how pale her face was and how red and puffy her eyes were as she stared at her brother. Her brother whose neck was in Eddie's hand as he struggled to breathe. The guilt rose from his gut to his throat as he remembered Sloane's smile the night prior. Eddie dropped Steve and leaned against the wall, sliding down to the ground. Guilt, shame, and fear washed over his body as he knew the only reason the crew was here was to get all the information they could - to run back to the Sheriff. This was it, he was toast. Little did Eddie know.

Sloane rushed to her brother's aid, making sure he was okay. Needless to say, Steve had nothing to be afraid of. He'd faced demogorgans and demobats and Russian guards head on, he could handle Eddie Munson. Sloane hoped.

"Look, Eddie, we just want to talk." Dustin broke the ice, sitting in front of the boy.

"I told them my side of the story, Eddie. Trust me, they'll believe you. We've seen stranger things," Sloane grabbed his hand as she whispered.

"Wait, you were there, Sloane?" Max asked, confused, earning a nod from Sloane in response. Sloane looked back at Eddie and gave him a soft smile, then took her place and sat next to Steve.

As Eddie recapped the night at his trailer, Sloane squeezed her brother's hand for comfort as flashes of Chrissy flooded her mind. Eddie was crying as he told the story, too. Sloane wiped her tears as fast as they fell; Steve knew in his mind something was wrong, but he didn't think anyone or anything could've prepared him for how wrong things actually were in Hawkins. He focused on his sister's hand, which was sitting in his for her comfort, as he let her cry silently into his shoulder.

But something in Eddie's story caught the Harrington siblings' attention.

The stories didn't add up.

Sloane didn't cover her tracks.

"Wait," Steve paused, the gears turning in that big head of hair, "Sloane said she was at your trailer for a biology project?"

"A biology project?" Eddie furrowed his brows, equally confused. Robin's eyes widened as she completely facepalmed, not being able to drag Sloane out of this one.