Us Against the World ★ Eddie Munson

Chapter 58

Walking through the doors of the cafe, I could see that Steve was trying to use the phone they had on the wall. He looked frustrated, and hung it up. The worker apologized to him. 

"I don't know what's wrong with the phone. It's been working fine all day." The cashier told him. 

"It's fine. I'll go find another phone." Steve told him, and looked to the door as he was about to leave. He paused seeing the three of us standing there. 

"So that payphone, it works now." Eddie said pointing his thumb towards the door. 

"You called Hopper?" Steve asked as we left the cafe. 

"Uh, no..." Eddie said, "I wasn't sure if you had or not." 

"Phone was busted inside the cafe too." Steve said as we walked back to the payphone. Steve put in some quarters, and dialed the number like he had earlier. "God dammit! You said this was working?" 

"Yeah, I called Dustin to check it." Eddie told Steve as he hung up the phone. 

"You try calling the station then." Steve said, and let Eddie use the phone. He put in the change, and raised the phone to his ear as he dialed the number. 

"Ah, shit!" Eddie hissed out jumping away from the phone a second later. It began to spark, and smoke. Robin, and I backed away as Steve put himself between the phone, and us. "Son of a bitch shocked me." Eddie muttered. 

"I think it exploded." Robin said as the phone caught fire. 

"Yeah I think we're dealing with Vecna..." Steve said.

"Fucking told you so." Eddie said looking at Steve. I walked over to Eddie, and checked his face for any burns, "How's my hair?" 

"A mess." I told him as I fluffed it out, "So it's normal." 

"Now that we know this is Vecna related, we should get out of here, and go find Hopper." Robin told us. 

"I agree." I said, and with that said the four of us walked back to Steve's car quickly. We got inside, and Steve tried to start the car, but it wouldn't come to life. 

"What the hell?" Steve muttered, and got out of the car. Eddie followed after him leaving just Robin, and I alone in the car. I watched Steve raise the front hood with Eddie. They spoke about the battery, and then the spark plugs. 

"I just changed them last month. My car has had no issues." I could hear Steve tell Eddie. 

"Maybe it's a dead battery? Did you leave a light on?" Eddie asked, and Steve shook his head. 

"You know." Robin began looking at me from the rear view mirror, "If Vecna can mess with eletricity, wouldn't he be able to mess with a car?" 

"That is a good theory."I told her, and I began to not feel safe in the car, "We should get out." 

I got out of the back seat as Robin did the same in the front. Was Vecna wanting to trap us here? Is this why he let me see the flickering light? He knew I would get the others to come check it out? Did we really fall into a trap? 

"I think this is a trap." I said walking to the front of the car. Steve, Eddie, and Robin looked at me, "Vecna doesn't want us to leave." 

"How do you know?" Eddie asked me. 

"Well the phones won't work, and the car is dead for no reason." I said, "It feels like he doesn't want us to call for help, or to leave this place. Maybe that's why he let me see the flickering lights? He knew we would all come here." 

"That is a nice theory, and all, but we could just walk home." Robin said, "We can catch a ride to town even." 

"Well I do have some pretty legs for a hitch hiker." Eddie joked trying to lighten the mood. I laughed a little, and glanced at his legs. He did have pretty nice legs. 

"Uh yeah, we should get walking before sun down." Steve said as he placed his hands on his hips, "I'll get a tow truck to come get my car when we can find a working phone." 

The four of us began to make our way towards the main road when all of a sudden we froze in our tracks hearing the god awful roar of a demogorgon near by. 

"That isn't what I think it is, right?" Robin asked with her voice shaking lightly. 

"Trunk, get the bat." Steve said tossing me the car keys. I ran to Steve's car, and unlocked the trunk. I pushed it open, and grabbed the nail ridden baseball bat. I slammed the trunk shut, and ran over to the group as we all looked around. 

"Standing around like this is not a good idea." Eddie spoke up, "We need to find somewhere to hide." 

"Where? You can't exactly hide from these things. They go through walls." Steve told him, and paused. We all listened to our surroundings. I could hear some leaves rustling from the forest floor near the parking lot. 

"We should run." I said. 

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Robin said, and began to run towards the school courtyard. The three of us began to follow after her quickly. The courtyard wasn't very packed with people as we reached it. It still wasn't good for them to be here if the demogorgon appeared. 

"We need to find a more secluded place." I muttered to the group. 

"How can we even kill it?" Eddie asked in a whisper as we tried to calmly walk through the courtyard. We didn't know if the demogorgon was running after us, or waiting, and lurking for the perfect time to strike. I glanced behind me, and saw nothing. I did notice that people were giving me odd looks due to the bat I held. 

"I don't know." Steve muttered as we followed him. 

"We could burn it." I said knowing Eddie had a lighter on him. All we needed now was something to burn it with. 

"With what? We don't have any weapons except that bat." Robin told me. 

"That bat saved my ass many of times." Steve told her as we left the court yard. We glanced around before making our way to the dorms. Why was Steve leading us there? 

"Steve you're leading us to the dorms." I told him. 

"I know." Steve said, "Maybe your friend has something that we can use to fight the demogorgon." 

"That's also where Vecna is hiding at." Eddie said. 

We walked into the dorm building, and ran to the second floor. Reaching Victoria's door, I knocked on it. The door opened, and I frowned seeing Daniel there. Shit. 

"Oh Julie, hey!" He said with a grin, "Victoria called me a bit ago said you were needing to see me about something. So I came to visit." 

"Can we come in, man?" Steve asked, and Daniel looked at everyone in the hallway. 

"Uh, yeah." Daniel said, and moved out of the way for us all to enter the small dorm room. Victoria was sitting in a chair. She smiled seeing us again. 

"Hey Julie, and others." Victoria said. 

"Right sorry for us all to barge in like that." I said as Steve checked the hallway quickly before shutting the door. Victoria, and Daniel watched him. 

"Everything okay?" Daniel asked looking at me with a concerned look. 

"Yeah. Just, uh, some car issues." I told him. 

"Do you have a phone?" Robin asked all of a sudden. Victoria pointed to a phone that was on a desk near us. Robin walked over to it, and tried to use it. She let out a sigh, and hung it up, "Still not working." 

"It should be. I just got off it not long ago." Victoria said with a frown coming to her lips. 

"Phones must have just died then." I said quickly making an excuse. I didn't want to drag Victoria, and Daniel into this. That's all we need right now to drag more people into this Vecna fight. 

"If the phones are down, and your car isn't working, I can drive you all somewhere." Daniel offered while staring only at me. I felt a little uncomfortable by his gaze, and shifted slightly. That's when he noticed the bat I was holding, "Uh, nice bat. Part of a halloween costume?" 

"Oh, uh, yeah." I said quickly, and handed the bat to Steve, "He's going as a undead baseball player." 

"Maybe. It's not a finalized thing." Steve said, and Daniel nodded his head. 

I took a couple of steps over to Eddie, and felt more comfortable with him beside me. Daniel looked at Eddie, and I glanced at him as well. He was staring Daniel down with his arms crossing over his chest. I could feel the tension between the two. 

I placed my hand on Eddie's arm gently, and relaxed slightly at my touch. He removed his eyes from Daniel, and looked down at me. "So about the offer?" Daniel said, and coughed awkwardly. Eddie, and I looked away from each other. 

"Thanks for the offer man, but we'll find another way home." Steve said, "Don't want to run you all over the place." 

"No it's fine. If it's helping out Julie, I'm there." Daniel said, and glanced at me. 

"It's fine, Daniel." I told him, "We'll find another way home." 

"Julie, please." Daniel said giving me a pleading look, "I know I messed up, and I'm sorry. Please just let me give you all a ride." 

"That's it, I have had it with you being a obessesive creep towards Julie! You've been nothing, but a..." Eddie began, but stopped when the lights began to flicker. The four of us looked at the light worriedly, while Danile, and Victoria were unfazed. "Shit not again..."

Daniel let out a scoff at what Eddie had said. "An obessesive creep? All I've been is a friend to Julie! Yeah I may have overstepped in some boundries, but I am trying to make up for that!" Daniel said while pointing a finger at Eddie.

We didn't have time for this shit. "Both of you shut up." I shouted, "We have to go." 

I walked to the door, and opened it. All of the lights in the hallway were flickering as I stepped out of the dorm room. Steve grabbed Eddie, and dragged him out with Robin following behind them. The four of us made our way to the staircase quickly with Daniel following behind us. He was shouting at me, but I ignored him.