Alexithymia | STRANGER THINGS [ON HOLD UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE]

twenty seven | the monster and the superhero

Then Eddie opened the bag to see Matthew's backup walkman and a couple of cassette tapes lying inside of it before he looked back up at Matthew and asked him, "What's this for?"

Matthew replied, "Like I said, Eddie. You look about ready to go out of your fucking mind from everything we told you. I mean, I know that you can't smoke weed or anything else right now to help you, but I've found that music helps a lot when you're dealing with shit like this. It's certainly helped me, so I didn't see the problem with giving them to you."

It was then that Dustin said with furrowed eyebrows, "But, Matt, you told me yourself that those are your favorite tapes. You never go anywhere without them. You said that they're the only things that kept you from losing your mind from our past encounters with the Upside Down."

With a shrug of his shoulders, Matthew replied, "It doesn't matter. Eddie needs 'em a hell of a lot more than I do, anyway."

Then Dustin said, "And another thing. Since when do you call him 'Eddie'? For the longest time, you've done nothing but call him 'Munson', so why are you calling him 'Eddie' now?"

With a scoff, Matthew asked him, "Seriously, Henderson? That's your biggest problem right now? Me calling him 'Eddie' instead of 'Munson'? Are you fucking serious right now, Henderson?" When Dustin didn't respond, Matthew told him, "In case you forgot, Henderson, Eddie's still wanted for some murder that he didn't even fucking do and is hiding out by Lover's Lake just so that he doesn't fucking get arrested for Chrissy Cunningham's death. So, how about instead of worrying more about what I'm calling him, you worry more about how the fuck we're supposed to be killing Vecna, who is– according to you and Eddie– an undead and dark wizard with a shit-ton of power. Okay?"

Yet again, the boathouse was quiet once more as nearly everyone inside of the boathouse silently eyed Matthew.

The only thing that broke the moment of silence was the sound of some sirens wailing in the distance.

While Matthew was quick to pull his crowbar out of his backpack, much to the surprise of Eddie as he stumbled back from the weapon-wielding member of the Wheeler family, Steve said in a whisper, "Shit."

Then Robin said to Eddie, "Tarp. Tarp. Tarp."

While the others in the group quickly went over towards the window to the boathouse, Matthew only remained behind and over by the boat that Eddie was once again lying inside of.

And while Matthew kept a tight grip onto his own crowbar, the others in the group watched as several emergency vehicles drove past them.

It wouldn't be until after all of the emergency vehicles had driven past them that Dustin looked over at Matthew and said to him, "Matt, c'mon. We've got to go."

With a sigh, Matthew repeatedly looked between his group of friends and the tarp-covered boat that Eddie was lying in before he took out one of his unopened cigarette packs and put it on the floor beside the boat.

Then, after patting on the side of the boat, Matthew said, "Stay safe, Eddie."

Then he quickly ran after the others and out of the boathouse, leaving Eddie to pull the tarp off of himself and hurry over towards the window to the boathouse and watch as Steve drove away from him and in the direction that the emergency vehicles had gone in.

It wasn't until the car was gone that Eddie had looked back at the beer that Matthew and Valerie had gotten him before looking over at the unopened pack of cigarettes that Matthew had left for him.

With a sigh, Eddie hurried over towards one of the packs of beer and grabbed one of the bottles of beer before he opened it and started to down it in an attempt to calm himself down.