I was shook awake by someone, causing me to lose balance and fall over to the other side. I caught myself with my hands behind my back before I hit the dirty ground.
"Morning, pookies. Looks like you got along just fine." Dustin smiled wide in my face.
I looked to my right and saw Eddie staring right back at me, just as confused.
"Whatever. I'm hungry." I hopped into the boat, sitting like an angry child.
Eddie hopped in next to me and Dustin put bags of food in the boat with us. It was tight in the boat, making Eddie and I squish together which was uncomfortable. The two of us fought over the cereal while the four of them filled us in.
"So we got uh— some good news and some bad news. How do you prefer it?"
"Bad news first, always."
"But I want good news." I whined. Eddie glared at me.
"K, fine. Jeez." I stole the cereal back from him.
"Alright bad news. We tapped into the Hawkins PD dispatch with our Cerebro, and they're definitely looking for Eddie. Also they're uh— pretty convinced you killed Chrissy."
"Like 100% kind of convinced." Max added.
"Good news?" I ran a hand through my messy hair.
"Eddie's name hasn't gone public yet. But if we found out about you it's only a matter of time before others do too. And once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother is gonna be gunning for you." Robin joined.
"Hunt the freak, right?"
"Exactly."
"Shit."
"So, before that happens, we find Vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence."
"That's all, Dustin? That's all?"
"Yeah, no, that's pretty much it."
"Listen, guys, I know everything Dustin is saying sounds totally delusional, but we've actually been through this kinda thing before. I mean— they have— a few times, and I have once. Mine was mire human-flesh-based, theirs was more smoke-related, but bottom line is, collectively, I really feel like we got this."
"Yeah- see, we usually rely on this girl who has superpowers. But-uh, those went bye bye so.." Steve added.
"So we're technically in more of the..."
"Kinda..."
"Brainstorming phase."
"Brainstorming." Steve snaps.
"There- there's nothing to worry about."
Eddie looks at them in silence.
"Cereal?" I hold the box in front of him but before he could accept or deny it, police sirens came from outside.
"Shit."
"Tarp. Tarp." Robin points at the tarp and Eddie pulls it over both of us before I could protest about me not being the so said "criminal".
We laid under the tarp together, I instinctively took his hand in fear. Shit. Why did I do that? Eddie didn't stop me and I was way too afraid to do anything. The sirens got louder but passed quickly.
We heard the four of them leave and I finally sat up, pulling the tarp off. I jumped out of the boat and shuffled through the bags for a drink. I took a soda and popped the lid off with the side of the boat. I only took one sip before shoving my hands in the pockets of my flannel. I felt something in the right one and pulled it out. It was the weed I got from Eddie.
"Fuck, Jade you're a genius!" Eddie jumped out and took the weed from my hand. He pulled out rolling paper from his pocket and smiled at me.
We smoked for god knows how long until we were both high off our asses. I was laughing uncontrollably and rocking back and forth. I couldn't even remember why I was laughing but Eddie's laugh made me laugh more. I was actually happy. Taken from reality and it was just what I needed. We finally stopped after smoking all that we could with the few of Eddie's papers.
We laid next to eachother, staring at the ceiling. I turned to look at Eddie and we stared into eachother's eyes. Hiding with Eddie wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be. Suddenly Eddie got on top of me and locked his lips with mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him in. The drugs made me feel like I was living in a dream. A dream that was definitely mine. His scent filled the air around me. A scent of heavy weed cheap cologne. I don't remember anything else after that, but we woke up on the ground. The sound of Dustin on the walkie woke us.
"Eddie! Jade! We got something!"
I groaned and picked it up. My head pounded and the room was spinning.
"What, Dustin?"
"Robin said music takes a person out of a trance. Their favorite song. Also, Chrissy and Fred both died 24 hours after their first vision. Max almost did but the music worked."
"Okay? You saying one of us is gonna get pulled into a trance? And.. Fred died?"
"No. Just telling you. And yeah."
"K."
I sat up and rummaged through the bags again. There were 4 bottles of soda, a quarter of cereal left in the box, spaghetti os, and candy. Literally nothing was appetizing. I decided to go into the actual house next to the boat house to look for stuff.
"Where are you going?" Eddie called out.
"To look for food."
"No."
"No?" I turned around.
"No."
"Why?"
"I'm a wanted criminal. You leave this place and someone sees you, were both dead."
"Mm well I'm not the one that currently has a criminal record. I think I'll be just fine."
"No. You're not fucking leaving Jaden." Eddie got up and walked over to me.
"What are you gonna do? Murder me?"
Eddie stood silent for a second and I opened the door, going into the house. I opened cabinets and the fridge but found nothing. The fridge didn't even work and the cabinets were full of cans of weird shit like corn and more spaghetti os.
As I made my way to the door, I suddenly heard glass shatter. I shot around to see my mom and my brother?
"Mom?" I called out. She didn't seem to hear me.
She yelled at my brother and threw things at him. He argued back with her, occasionally sending glances at me. The look in his eyes asked me to do something but I was frozen. In fear and in shock. It was a memory from when I was a kid. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Visions. I was having visions. Fred and Chrissy died less than 24 hours after their first. I was going to die.
"Eddie?" I screamed. I was terrified. I wanted to get out of my head but I couldn't.
"EDDIE!"
I was hopeless. I slid down the door and held my head in my hands. Sobbing. I wanted it to stop. The smashing and yelling triggered me. It was loud and repetitive. It wouldn't stop. Stop.
"Stop. Stop! Stop stop stop stop stop st-"
"Jaden!"
I woke up and Eddie stood in front of me. No one else was in the room. Tears formed and before I could stop them, I was sobbing. Eddie hugged me and my legs were weak. I slowly fell to the ground and he slowly sat down with me. I continued to sob into him.
"I-I saw—the vision." I sniffled.
"It's okay. I got you. I won't let anything happen to you." He pulled me in harder and I wrapped my arms around his neck. I was afraid hed yell at me. Say something like 'I told you so' but he didnt. He just comforted me.
I was dying. Vecna was coming to kill me. And I couldn't stop it. I didn't have my favorite song on me. All I could do was let Vecna kill me.