𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐲 | Eddie Munson

- chapter twenty three -

Gently, she placed her hand against the door and pushed. It opened with a soft grunt and Lilith found herself staring at a pitiful attempt of a bedroom.

There was a mattress on the floor, covered by a couple of dusty blankets. The wooden floor was splintering in many places, large holes in the boards and rusted nails that stuck up at odd angles. There was a tape player with an abundance of tapes next to it. Lilith was familiar with many of the names from his constant talks about music. Black Sabbath, Dio, Judas Priest. She noticed that the tapes were one of the only things within the room that wasn't slightly dusty.

Lilith spotted a few figurines on top of a shelf. There were some books beside them, Lord of the Rings. She presumed that the figurines had something to do with Dungeons and Dragons.

There were posters on his walls, only a few, peeling at the corners. One large one depicted a large devil brandishing a chain, the same as his tattoo. She saw it was a Dio album. There was a Black Sabbath poster and what looked like a hand drawn hellfire poster. She smiled at this before looking around more.

His clothes fit into one drawer, band t-shirts and black jeans. A weird selection of socks and a pair of black boots she'd never seen him wear. There was what looked like a dustbin lid in the corner punctured with nails, this confused her somewhat. Eddie had told her many of his possessions had been lost with his house which explained the lack of guitar. He'd told her he'd only managed to retain what had been at a friends house. Then she wondered who that friend had been.

Lilith walked around the other side of the bed to see a cardboard shoe box. She paused staring at it, her heart still quavering from the idea of betrayal even when the opposite shone from his smile.

She nudged the box carefully with her foot, unsure what she expected to be inside. Then, with a careful push, she tipped it onto the floor.

The lid fell haphazardly away from the box as it fell to the side. They spilled out immediately, loads of them. The photographs ran out, sliding over the floor in fast succession.

Lilith paused, heart stopping for what felt like a minute.

Her smiling face was staring right back at her.

She crouched slowly to the floor, picking up the photograph. It looked just like her, standing in what seemed like the Hideout. She had a wide smile on her face, something that was unfamiliar to her then. Mid laugh, thumbs up in some sarcastic expression of happiness. She couldn't remember wearing any colour except black but there she dressed in a bright orange shirt, matching earrings hanging by her neck.

Lilith stared at the photo for a very long time before she scrambled quickly to pick up another.

Her again, ice cream in hand. She was standing by some beach, glasses perched on her head. It seemed as though she was unaware her photo was even being taken, lost in staring at her plain looking ice cream.

A third showed her sat with a guitar in her lap, an expression of deep concentration on her face. She was wearing his shirt, it was too big on her. Beside the black collar she could se a small bruise. Lilith touched her own neck as though expecting to find it there. The guitar was exactly how Eddie had described his to be, red and black jutting against each other in a wild shape of sharp edges.

They weren't all of her. There was one of people lined up against a school wall, all dressed in the same shirt. Lilith saw Eddie there, making devil horns with his fingers, tongue sticking out. He looked the same yet so very different, happy, free.

What surprised her more was the fact that she recognised more of them, standing in a line.

Mike Wheeler, Dustin Henderson, Lucas Sinclair.