Stars Constant | S. Harrington

58: Spell Caster

"Yeah. Me," Gwen points to herself in amusement. "So calm your horses for a sec. Okay, cowboy? Shine a flashlight so I can see."

Steve does as she says and she closes her eyes before opening them and using her powers to find Eddie. She finds him under what looks like some sort of plastic tarp before she opens her eyes to look at said tarp covering a small metal boat.

When she is about to tell Steve, she sees him using the oar to poke at the boat. "What are you doing?" She grabs his arm to stop him.

"He could be in here," he shrugs.

"So, what? You're just gonna poke him out?"

Steve rolls his eyes, thinking Gwen was being sarcastic. "I know you think you're being funny, Pengwen, but considering the fact that everyone in this room has nearly died a hundred times, personally, I don't find it funny in the slight-"

Steve is cut off when Eddie jumps out of the boat and pushes Steve into a wall. "Wait! Wait! Wait!" Steve shouts as Eddie raises a broken beer bottle to the boys throat.

"Woah, woah, woah! Please, don't!" Gwen starts to approach in a panic, but Steve holds a hand up, silently telling her to stay back.

"Eddie! Eddie! Stop!" Dustin shouts, pushing Gwen behind him to prevent her from using her powers on Eddie. Eddie keeps the bottle pressed to Steve's throat but glances at Dustin. "It's me. It's Dustin. This is Steve. He's not gonna hurt you, right, Steve?"

"Right. Yeah," Steve whispers nervously as Gwen watches with fearful eyes.

"Steve, why don't you drop the oar?" Dustin suggests, and Steve does so, dropping the wooden oar on the ground. As he does so, Eddie applies more pressure with the bottle, making everyone tense. "He's cool! He's cool!" Dustin eases.

"I'm cool, man. I'm cool," Steve says with wide eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Eddie asks lowly.

"We're looking for you," Gwen says with her ands out in front of her, causing Eddie to look at them again.

"We're here to help," Robin adds.

"Eddie, these are my friends, and my sister," Dustin points at Robin. "You know Robin, from band," he says, and Robin imitates playing her trumpet with her flashlight. Dustin points at Max next. "This is my friend Max. The one who never wants to play D&D," he says, and Max waves. "And this is Gwen, who you apparently know already."

"We're on your side, Eddie," Gwen tells him.

Eddie doesn't look convinced, so Dustin speaks again. "I swear on my mother. Right guys?"

"Yes. Yes. We swear," Max says.

"Yeah, on Dustin's mother," Robin nods.

Gwen nods. "My mother, yeah."

"Yeah, Dustin's... Dustin's mother," Steve mutters.

Eddie holds the sharp glass against Steve's throat for a moment longer before pulling away. Gwen steps closer to Steve in relief as he stumbles away, and holds a hand on his back as he leans his body forward.

"Are you okay?" she asks, leaning down to see his face.

"I'm okay," he nods and sits down on a short table on the wall. Gwen stands beside him and keeps a hand on his back in reassurance.

"Eddie," Dustin slowly crouches down next to Eddie, who had slid down the wall to sit on the ground. "We just want to talk," he slowly reaches for the broken bottle in Eddie's hand, but Eddie flinches, causing everyone else to tense once again. Dustin holds a hand out to the others. "Okay?"

Robin crouches down next to them. "We want to know what happened."

"You won't believe me," Eddie sniffs, his eyes glossing over with tears.

"Try us," Max says.

Eddie sighs as everyone goes to stand in front of him. "Chrissy Cunningham," he starts. "She came over. Said she wanted to buy drugs. I only left for a second, and then..." he trails off, trying to calm himself down. "Her body just lifted up into the air, and, uh... And she just, like, hung there. In the air. And her bones... Uh," Eddie pauses again to close his eyes. "Her bones started to snap. Her eyes, man. It... It was like there was something, like, inside her head, pulling. I... I didn't know what to do, so I... I ran away. I left her there," Eddie glances up at everyone and scoffs. "You all think I'm crazy, right?"

"No. We don't think you're crazy," Gwen scoffs lightly. "I mean, if you're crazy, we're all goddamn lunatics."

"No, don't bullshit me, Gwen!" Eddie cries out. "I know how this sounds."

"We're not bullshitting you," Max says.

"We believe you," Robin adds.

"Look," Dustin says after Eddie lets out a breath of disbelief. "What I'm about to tell you might be a little... difficult to take."

Eddie nods slightly. "Okay."

"You know how people say Hawkins is... cursed?" Dustin asks carefully. "They're not way off. There's another world. A world hidden beneath Hawkins. Sometimes it bleeds into ours."

"Like ghosts and shit?" Eddie asks.

"There are some things worse than ghosts," Max tells him as Gwen crosses her arms and sighs.

"These monsters from this other world..." Gwen speaks. "We thought they were gone. But they've come back before. They always come back," she says with a voice laced with bitterness.

"That's why we needed to find you," Dustin says.

"If they're back again, we need to know," Max says.

"That night, did you see anything?" Robin asks.

"Vines? Flickering lights?" Gwen lists off.

"The lights," Eddie nods. "I saw the lights."

"Anything else?" Max asks. "Dark particles maybe?"

"It would almost look like dust, swirling dust," Dustin says.

"No, man, just the lights," Eddie says. "Besides that, there was nothing you could see or, uh... or touch. You know, I tried to wake her, man. She couldn't move. It was like she... she was in a trance or something."

"Or under a spell. A curse. Vecna's curse," Dustin says, confusing everyone else besides Eddie.

"Who's Vecna?" Steve asks.

"An undead creature of great power," Dustin answers with dread flooding through him.

"A spell caster," Eddie adds.

"A dark wizard."

—an

Boring chapter but it picks up from here.

Word Count: 1360