To Eddie Munson: My Knight in Shining Leather

In hiding ⚠️

***trigger warning: domestic abuse is described at the end.***

You woke up from the nightmare sweating and breathing hard. You wiped sweat away from your forehead and checked the time: 10:17 a.m.. After calming down, you climbed out of bed and showered the anxiety off. It wasn't until after you brushed your teeth that you realized Eddie never called you after his meeting with Chrissy. A wave of nausea rolled through your stomach, and you began to worry. After getting dressed, you walked over to your phone and dialed his number. You waited, listening to it ring for what felt like minutes before hanging up. It's strange that Wayne didn't answer, either. He's usually home by this time. You tried not to panic, coming up with different normal scenarios where this might happen. You came up with one.

You looked at the clock on the wall, and dialed the number to Family Video. It rang three times before you heard Steve on the other line.

"Thank you for calling Family Video, this is Steve. How can I-"

"It's me," you interrupted. "I can't get ahold of Eddie."

"Let me get Robin." There was a brief shuffling sound before she said:

"Hello?"

"Hey, I need you to help me."

"What's going on?"

"I can't get ahold of Eddie. He was supposed to call me after school, but he never did. And now he's not answering his phone, and neither is Wayne and I-"

"Okay, okay. Just come down to the store and we'll come up with a plan. I-I'm sure he's fine."

"Yeah, you're probably right. I'll see you soon." You hung up and ran to the living room. Thankfully, your mom wasn't home so you didn't have to explain where you were off to in such a hurry. You scribbled a note and left it on the table where she'd find it before slipping into your sneakers, locking the door, and taking off down the street on your bike.

When you arrived, you walked through the doors and went straight to the counter, waiting for one of your friends to show up. Steve walked out of a back room and yelled for Robin to come out as well. She had a VHS tape in her hand, and walked to the tv to put it in.

"Okay," you started, leaning against the counter. "Here's what I've come up with so far: he's been in an accident, or he ran off with Chrissy."

Robin raised her eyebrows. "That's it? Why would he run off with Chrissy?" She asked, turning on the tv. You nodded in response, trying to think of what to tell her to make Chrissy make sense. Just before you could reply, a terrifying news story blared on the TV.

The reporter informed everyone watching that the body of a Hawkins High student had been found in the Forest Hills trailer park. The three of you looked at each other, a sense of knowing passing over you. "That's Eddie's trailer park," you whispered, then you looked closer, "That's Eddie's trailer." You listened to more of the story, frozen in fear, but they didn't release a name, saying they were still notifying the family. The reporter mentioned suspicions of foul play, but couldn't confirm anything until the investigation was over. When the reporter started repeating the same thing over and over, Robin shut off the television and looked at you.

"Call Eddie again," she said, her voice shaking. Before you could move around to the back of the counter, Dustin and Max barged in, demanding to know how many phones were in the store. They jumped the counter, knocking over Steve's neat pile of tapes and sitting in front of the computer. Steve and Robin bent over to pick them up, grumbling the whole time.

"What are you doing, man?!" Steve complained.

"Setting up a base of operations." Dustin and Max stood by the computer, Dustin's fingers typing away on the keys. Steve and Dustin briefly argued about the importance of their agenda while fighting over the computer, and you tuned them out until Eddie's name was mentioned.