Killing Me Softly ✔ •Eddie Munson X OC•

𝑿𝑿𝑰𝑰𝑰. 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆

Harper cringed slightly. She did hate spiders. A gust of air brushed behind her, she quickly turned around to see who was there. It was the boy again and she quickly followed.

"Like me, they are solitary creatures. And deeply misunderstood. They are gods of our world." She followed the boy into an attic, seeing a few candles lit and the boy was sitting holding a jar with spiders in it. The table in front of him was covered in spiders, "The most important of all predators. They immobilize and feed on the weak, bringing balance and order to an unstable ecosystem." The boy was drawing a black widow in his notebook, "But the human world was disrupting this harmony. You see, humans are a unique type of pest, multiplying and poisoning our world, all while enforcing a structure of their own. A deeply unnatural structure."

Harper turned around and found herself walking down the stairs, the boy stood in front of the clock staring up at it.

"Where others saw order, I saw a straitjacket. A cruel, oppressive world dictated by made-up rules. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades. Each life a faded, lesser copy of the one before. Wake up, eat, work, sleep, reproduce, and die. Everyone is just waiting. Waiting for it all to be over." The voice growled as the boy stared up at the clock, "All while performing in a silly, terrible play, day after day. I could not do that. I could not close off my mind and join in on the madness. I could not pretend. And I realized I didn't have to."

The clock chimed before the hands started spinning quicker and quicker, the boy had closed his eyes and his eyelids were fluttering back and forth.

"I could make my own rules. I could restore balance to a broken world. A predator... but for good." Harper heard a shriek behind her and turned around to see herself now outside, in front of her a rabbit tried to run but it seem to be stuck in place, "As I practiced, I realized I could do more than I possibly imagined." The boy held his hand out and over the rabbit as it stumbled to the ground, writhing in pain, "I could reach into others, into their minds, their memories." The bones of the rabbit snapped and its eyeballs were pulled into its head. Harper let out a gasp and covered her mouth and turned away, "I became an explorer. I saw my parents as they truly were. To the world, they presented themselves as good normal people." Harper looked up and saw the family standing together, smiling and looking up at the house, "But like everything else in this world, it was all a lie. A terrible lie." Harper turned around and ran towards the door of the house. She opened it and ran inside before quickly closing it behind her, pressing her back against the door and panting. The sound of a baby wailing caught her attention and she turned towards the living room and looked inside, "I showed them who they really were." The father was sitting in a chair in the living room as he looked towards the fire, seeing a baby in a cradle crying out as the baby was on fire.

Harper turned away seeing the attic once more, "My nieve father believed it was a demon cursing them for their sins." The boy sat in front of the candles sitting on the table, "But my mother somehow knew. Knew it was I who was holding up that mirror, and she despised me for it." Some music played and Harper turned around seeing a doorway that led into the kitchen, "She called a doctor, an expert." Harper wandered into the kitchen, seeing the family sitting around a table while the music started fading in and out. The father stood up and walked over to it confused, "She wanted him to lock me away, to fix me, even though it wasn't I who was broken. It was them." The boy looked at his family angrily before closing his eyes, "And so she left me with no choice. No choice but to act. To break free."

The lights started flickering and suddenly the mother was lifted into the air. Her bones snapped and her jaw cracked before her eyes were sucked back into their sockets before she fell onto the table.

"With each life I took, I grew stronger." The boy wiped his bloody nose before his father grabbed him and his daughter, "More powerful. They were becoming a part of me." Harper turned around and saw them all standing at the door, the little girl was on the ground, her bones snapped while the boy stood facing the door his father in front of him, "But I was still a child. And I did not yet know my limits. And it nearly killed me." The boy fell to the ground. His father broke out of his trance and turned around picking his son up. He cried as he held the boy, "He was arrested, blamed for the death of my sister and mother, just as I had planned." The father was pushed against the wall by the police, "I woke up from my coma to find myself placed in the care of a doctor, the very doctor I had hoped to escape." Harper turned once more to see herself in a hospital room the boy was lying on a bed while a man walked forward, "Doctor Martin Brenner. But the truth... the truth is he did not just want to study me. He wanted more. He wanted to control." The scene changed to Brenner tattooing the boy's arm, "When papa finally realized he could not control me, he tried to recreate me. He began a program. And soon, others were born." Harper watched as the boy winced at the contact of the needle.

Harper watched as Brenner put down the needle and wiped the boy's arm revealing the number 001.

"All done." Brenner said, "Not so bad, was it? See? There's nothing to be afraid of. Is there, Harper?" The man said, quickly turning toward Harper. Her eyes widened as she caught a glimpse of his face, his eyes were foggy white as he stared at her, "Why don't you take a seat?" His voice twisted into something lower.

Harper quickly turned and ran, the lights flickered as she ran into the hall, stopping as she caught sight of bodies sprawled on the floor. She turned around and ran towards the door she avoided tripping over the bodies of dead children.

On the other side, Steve and the others were trying to wake her up, "Harper, just stay with me here!" He exclaimed, placing his hands on her cheeks, trying to wake her up, "Stay with me, okay?" He turned to look up at the gate, "Whatever you guys are doing, hurry up!" Erica ran down the hall to Eddie's room.

"Steve says you need to hurry!" She called out as the group frantically looked through Eddie's pile of music.

Dustin nodded, "Yeah? No sh*t!" He growled.

"We're trying! We can't find anything!" Max turned to Nancy, Robin, and Eddie.

Robin was holding a ton of cassette tapes, "Seriously what is all this sh*t?"

"What are we even looking for?" Nancy spoke up.

"Kansas!" Eddie growled, passing them a ton of cassettes.

"Kansas, Bowie, Talking Heads? Talk Talk? Music! We need music!" Robin looked at Eddie pointedly.

Eddie ripped one of the cassettes out of her hand, "THIS IS MUSIC!"

Harper continued to run, a door stood in front of her. it was covered in wooden planks. She struggled to pull them off one by one slowly ripping them out of the door, "Son of a-"

"Harper." A choice called from behind her, Harper slowly turned around to see Vecna walking towards her, "What are you doing? It's not time for you to leave." Harper turned back around and continued ripping the boards away from the door, "Now that you've seen where I've been... I would like very much to show you where I am going." Harper pulled off the last plank and ran through the door, finding herself in the same room as before. She turned to find herself looking at Doctor Brenner, "Take a seat, Harper." He said before the lights flickered out.

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