YOUR SONG | steve harrington

049

The group had left Eddie in the boathouse to get him some food, returning the next morning only to scare the absolute crap out of him.

He was standing near the window, holding the same glass shard to protect himself before he realized that it was only them. "Delivery service," Dustin smiled, holding up some bags.

Eddie let out a breath, dropping his hand that was wrapped around the broken glass. "We didn't scare you, did we?" Chris asked, noticing the boy's tense frame.

"Oh, no, definitely not. Definitely didn't just shit my pants," he replied sarcastically and Carmen let out a laugh before she grabbed the bags from Dustin's hands, walking over to give them to Eddie. He took them hesitantly from her, slowly looking inside.

"They're not poisoned, if that's what you're thinking," she spoke up, raising her eyebrows.

"No, no, it's not that. It's just..." he trailed off, shaking his head. "Thank you," he finally said, nodding.

Carmen gave him a genuine smile, "You're welcome." Chris watched the two, resisting to urge to slam his head against the wall. Beverly, however, arched a brow at the interaction, glancing over at Alicia, who was wearing the same expression. They always knew when Carmen was eyeing a guy up.

Eddie sat down and began to basically rip open the bags, realizing how hungry he truly was. He opened up the cereal and began chomping on it, opening up a drink as well and downing it.

"So we got, uh, some good news and some bad news. How do you prefer it?" Dustin said after a moment.

"Bad news first, always," Eddie replied with his mouth full, making Alicia resist the urge to roll her eyes since she hated when people did that.

"All right. Bad news. We tapped into the Hawkins PD dispatch with our Cerebro, and they're definitely looking for you. Also, they're, uh, pretty convinced you killed Chrissy," Dustin told him and Eddie's face fell.

"Like, 100% kind of convinced," Max said slowly, her arms crossed.

"And the good news?" Eddie asked.

"Your name hasn't gone public yet, fortunately," Beverly said, shrugging a bit since even though it was good news, it was small compared to the bad news.

"But if we found out about you, it's only a matter of time before others do, too. And once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother is gonna be gunning for you," Robin explained.

"Hunt the freak, right?" Eddie voiced, glancing up at Robin.

"Exactly," she said, looking down.

"Shit," Eddie breathed out.

"So, before that happens, we need to find Vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence," Dustin listed quickly.

"That's all, Dustin? That's all?" Eddie said sardonically, giving the younger boy a look.

"Yeah, no, that's pretty much it," Dustin confirmed and Eddie looked away, his jaw clenching.

"Listen, Eddie, I know everything Dustin is saying sounds totally delusional, but we've actually been through this kind of thing before. I mean, they have a-a few times, and — and I have once," Robin continued.

"Yeah, me too," Carmen said, raising her hand a bit.

Robin nodded. "Ours was more human-flesh-based, and theirs was more smoke-related, but bottom line is, collectively, I really feel like we got this."

"Yeah, see, we usually rely on this girl who has super powers," Steve began.

"Her name's Eleven," Chris added and Steve nodded, making Eddie's brows furrow even more than they already were as he listened.