sweetie little jean | stranger things

005 ━ breaking the law, pt 2.

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005

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So much for the golden future, I can't even start
I've had every promise broken, there's anger in my heart

𝐉𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐒𝐀𝐓 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐔𝐏 𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 of the seats in the bed of the van. It rumbled and rocked and groaned over every bump and crack and crevice, but it was the only thing she could focus on. Eddie didn't turn on any music and it didn't seem like the time.

Chrissy was dead. Abandoned back in the Munson trailer. Broken and bloody and incomplete.

Jean hadn't spoken since he started driving wildly down the road and she didn't think she'd be able to once they got wherever they were going but she needed to call Steve. But how does she contact someone who doesn't have a phone? Hell, she didn't even have a phone.

Would the place they were going have a phone?

She wanted to bring her hands to her face and sob into them but she couldn't bring herself to move. Her face was soaking wet and her eyes felt swollen, her body stiff. Every time she allowed herself a moment to think outside of her rambling thoughts of what she needed to do, how she needed to hide him, and how to keep him safe for as long as possible, the darkness settled in.

Cracking bones. Sunken eyes.

Melting flesh, sizzling bones.

Billy sawing. Billy cutting. Billy slicing flesh.

She saw every trauma, every horror. It made her want to retreat inside of herself but if she allowed that to happen, then Eddie would be left on his own and she didn't think he'd last long without her because it knew now. Whatever had killed Chrissy, it had to know they were there too. The monsters within The Upside Down just knew things, sensed things, hunted things.

They were fucked the second the cursed thing started hunting Chrissy, taking her within the sanctuary of their home.

Jean felt the van slow, rocking more forcefully over grass and rock. Everything outside was dark and she had a feeling they were miles and miles away from Forest Hills and Hawkins High. Eddie put the van in park, turning it off and suddenly, it felt all too quiet.

Inside the van, neither of them spoke. No lights came on, no soft humming of music, just complete silence that felt so deafening that Jean's ears could've easily burst. It was like a pressure was building up and she couldn't stop herself before a whimper fell past her lips and her shoulders were shaking and her whimpers became agonizing sobs and cries that hurt her chest and throat.

Eddie moved quickly, far quicker than she expected, as he crawled into the back with her. She could feel his hands on her like a warm beacon calling her home but she was hiccuping and her eyes were blurry and she felt herself leaving this place and falling into the same mindless darkness she allowed herself to become one with after the Starcourt Mall.

But his hands were on her and he was whispering to her in a shaking voice, begging, "Jean, please, it's okay–it's okay–" His voice was breaking and she still couldn't look at him.

Being involved with her, in any way, had led him to this. This had been her fault. She'd gone to him for drugs, she had to make Chrissy come with her to get them and it all resulted in them together, forcing trauma through their eyes.