the shire is burning [eddie munson x OC]

chapter three

Willow hadn't heard from Robin or Steve in nearly a week. Which was fine, considering it gave her the peace and quiet she needed to finish her summer reading.

On the other hand, on this particular evening, Willow was mentally cursing Robin.

With her summer reading done, the short assignment paired with it completed with ease, Willow finally had time to think. There was no longer any distraction in front of her to stop her mind from ricocheting thoughts of Steve, of Nancy, of Steve with Nancy, and most peculiarly, Eddie Munson , around. Robin had planted this ridiculous idea into Willow's head, and it didn't matter how many times she mentally reprimanded herself, she couldn't stop entertaining it. Maybe if that day at Scoops, Steve hadn't spoken up once Eddie left, this wouldn't be plaguing her. If she stopped having to see the clench of Steve's jaw as he lectured her on why she shouldn't date Eddie Munson every time she closed her eyes, stopped having to hear the echo of his words in her mind.

You're just too good for all of them.

Did Steve Harrington really believe that? More importantly, was there a slim chance he also believed Willow was too good for him?

She couldn't take the overthinking anymore. Within mere seconds, Willow had leapt up from her bed (rather ungracefully) and gone sliding down the hallway to her house phone. Her fingers almost couldn't move fast enough as she shakily started to turn Robin's phone number into the phone. The soft clicking with each number only added to her annoyance.

"Come on, come on, come on," she mumbles to herself as she hastily plugs in the final number to her best friend. She waits with bated breath for a few beats of silence when she hears ringing from the phone, " finally ."

One ring.

Two rings.

Willow pinches her eyes shut, anxiously awaiting for her best friend to pick up. It honestly wasn't just her insane need to ramble about her situation with Steve, she just missed Robin. She missed her stupid jokes and teasing, and even her hugs she'd force Willow into at any given chance. It had only been a week, but for Willow, it had been a week too long.

While lost in thought, Willow hadn't even heard the soft whine of the power outage. It took her a second to realize that the third ring wasn't coming, and the soft hum of her AC was nowhere to be found.

"What the..." her eyes flash open immediately, glancing around her now dark kitchen, "What the hell?"

Willow immediately moves to the small window above the kitchen sink, using the counter as leverage to lift herself onto her tippy toes and peek outside. She could see storm clouds in the distance of the quickly fading evening sky. But even more than that, she noticed the darkness. Not the sky's darkness. The town's darkness. She immediately fell back onto her bare heels and carefully navigated to her garage. Was the entire town's power out? Chills ran down her spine as she let the darkness of the carport encapture her. Her mom was working a night shift at the hospital, leaving her completely alone.

"Okay, focus. Flashlight," she says out loud, trying to break the silence of being alone with her own voice. The concrete is cold on her feet as she pads over to the small toolbox they kept out here. It was bright red, still looking as new as the day they moved here and bought it. Her mom said they needed it, needed a few basic tools so if anything ever came up, they could fix it.

" See? We've got these. We can fix just about anything now, who needs your dad? "

Willow still doesn't know who her mother was trying to convince of that to this day.

"Aha!" she shouts as she finds the metal flashlight right on top of the tools. Power outages were fairly normal in Hawkins, especially in the last few years. The flashlight has gotten its fair use.