MARCH 22ND, 1986
📍reefer rick's house
10:38 AM
they pulled into reefer rick's house, which had taken them quite a while to find. guess it really was a good place to hide.
stepping out of steve's car, tillie wrapped eddie's hoodie closer around her body to keep out the cold as they walked to the doorstep. dustin pressed the doorbell a few times, receiving no response. he began pressing it aggressively, and started banging on the door as well.
"okay. well, that's settled. i guess he's not here," steve commented.
"eddie! it's dustin!" the boy hollered. "look, we just wanna talk, okay? matilda's here with us. i know she's like your favorite person in the world! don't you want to come and see her?" he tried to convince the boy to come out. "no cops, i swear. we just wanna help. eddie! rick? reefer rick!"
"don't scream that," steve hushed him like a mother would scold their child. "he's not there."
"rick! reefer rick!" dustin carried on yelling. "he could just be really high."
matilda turned her head and began looking in the surroundings for any sign of eddie. she didn't find anything directly relating to him, but she saw a boathouse nearby which she though he could be in.
"hey, guys," she called the group over. "you think he's in there?"
"only one way to find out," steve said, beginning to lead them over there.
they tried peering in the windows as they walked to the door, seeing nobody inside. steve and robin gently opened the door, which made a loud creaking sound.
"hello?" robin asked clearly. "is anyone home?"
the rest of the group entered, their eyes scanning for any clues.
"what a dump," steve commented. he noticed a floating boat in the middle which was covered up, and grabbed an oar and started poking at it.
"what are you doing?" dustin hissed. "what are you doing?"
"he might be in here," steve replied, continuing to prod.
"so take the tarp off," dustin exclaimed quietly.
steve scoffed. "if you're so brave, you take the tarp off."
huffing, matilda reached down and took said tarp off, revealing a boat full of junk. "oh, he's definitely in there," she whispered sarcastically, before moving to continue investigating with max.
"hey, look over here," the redhead said, gaining their attention. she saw a table covered with several different food wrappers and empty beer bottles. "someone was here."
"maybe he heard us," robin suggested. "got spooked and ran."
"don't worry!" dustin remarked. "steve will get him with his oar."
"i know you think you're being funny, henderson, but considering the fact that most people in this room have nearly died about a hundred times, personally, i don't find it funny in the sligh—"
before he could finish, a figure jumped out of his hiding spot and shoved him into a wall. tillie quickly realized from the hair that it was in fact eddie.
"woah, woah, woah, eddie!" dustin hollered, watching the boy hold a knife to steve's throat. "stop! eddie! eddie.. it's me. it's dustin. and look," the young boy said slowly, pointing to the girl behind him. "matilda."
eddie's eyes followed the boy's fingers, landing on tillie. he sighed in relief. "mattie.."
"this is steve," dustin continued, eyeing the knife to his friend's throat. "he's not gonna hurt you, right, steve?"
"right, yeah," steve whispered.
"steve, why don't you drop the oar?" dustin suggested, and the boy did so.
eddie tightened his grip on steve and dustin couldn't seem to loosen it, so tillie realized she needed to step in. she slowly stepped over there, until she was in eddie's eyeline. "hey, eddie.."
she could hear eddie's shaky breath through his words, as he looked towards her. "i-i didn't kill her, mattie. i would never do that to you. you have to believe me."
"i do believe you," she told him softly, watching his hold on steve gradually loosen. "but you have to believe me when i say that we're here to help you. we're not with the
cops, we don't want to hurt you. we just want to help, okay? we're on your side."
nodding, eddie let steve go, and instead lifted his hands up and rubbed his face as he moved and slumped down onto a box. the rest of the group slowly approached him, thankful that matilda had managed to calm him down.
"eddie, we just want to talk," dustin told the older boy gently, kneeling down in front of him.
"we want to know what happened," robin said.
eddie sniffled. "you won't believe me."
"try us," max shrugged.
matilda stayed at the back, her arms crossed over her chest as she listened to eddie recount the story.
"she wanted to buy drugs from me," he started, shocking tillie from the first sentence. "i offered her weed, but she wanted something stronger. so, i told her to come to my place and i'd be able to give her some."
"i'm sorry, chrissy cunningham wanted drugs?" steve asked, earning looks from the others telling him to shut up. "sorry, just wanted confirmation.."
"she came to my trailer, waited in the living room whilst i tried to find it," eddie continued. "i went to my bedroom to look for it, i found it and when i came back into the living room, she was in a sort of trance. she had her eyes shut and she was just stood there. i tried to wake her up, i tried everything, but she just didn't respond."
matilda felt nauseated as she listened to eddie talk about chrissy's final moments alive. she felt tears piercing the back of her eyes, but tried to blink them away as she didn't want to show emotion to those around her.
her mother always said that emotion showed weakness, which is why she'd warned tillie not to cry in front of the officers earlier that day after the news of chrissy's death. the woman had to keep up her reputation of being a strong and flawless woman.
"her body, just, like, lifted up into the air and, uh," eddie continued with his story, and fear was evident on his face. it was clear he was still traumatized by whatever happened. "and she just, like, hung there. in the air."
he looked up at matilda cautiously before he carried on. "and her bones.. uh, she.." he paused and whimpered as he recalled the memories. "her bones started to snap."
matilda brought a shaky hand up to her face to cover her mouth, feeling more and more sick by the second. it sounded stupid, chrissy levitating and her bones breaking mid air. some would say it was an extravagant story made up by eddie to defend himself, but tillie could tell from his reaction how sincere his story was.
"her eyes, man," eddie said, looking at tillie's saddened and fearful face. he had to look away or wouldn't be able to finish his story. "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," he finished regretfully.
matilda had to turn away, hand covering her mouth as she felt herself begin to gag. the five others looked at her pitifully.
"tillie," max spoke softly, putting a hand on her shoulder. "you alright?"
the blonde halted for a moment, before inhaling shakily and nodding. she removed her hand from her mouth and turned back around, seeing eddie's face had transformed from fear to concern. "i'm fine," she said. "sorry, i didn't want to interrupt you."
"you don't need to apologize, mattie," he told her, before carrying on with his story. "i bet you all think i'm crazy, right?"
"no," dustin shook his head reassuringly. "we don't think you're crazy."
"don't bullshit me, man!" eddie exclaimed. "i know how this sounds."
"we're not bullshitting you," max told him.
"we believe you," robin added.
it was clear to tillie that the rest of the group, excluding her and eddie, knew something that they didn't. they didn't seem at all surprised by what eddie was saying, even though it sounded absolutely ridiculous.
"look," dustin started, his eyes moving between tillie and eddie, both of whom were pale in complexion. "what i'm about to tell you might be a little.. difficult to take."
"okay," eddie croaked.
"you know how people say hawkins is cursed? they're not way off," the curly-haired boy told them. "there's another world. a world hidden beneath hawkins. sometimes, it bleeds into ours.."
"like ghosts and shit?" eddie queried.
"there are some things worse than ghosts," max replied to him. "monsters."
"these monsters from this other world," dustin carried on from his friend, "we though they were gone. but they've come back before. and that's why we needed to find you."
"if they're back again, we need to know," max said, her voice full of honesty. they were telling the whole truth.
"that night, did you see anything?" robin asked eddie.
"dark particles, maybe?" max suggested.
eddie thought for a moment, but ultimately shook his head.
"it would almost look like dust, swirling dust," dustin said, expanding on max's suggestion.
"no, man, there was nothing you could see or, uh, or touch," eddie said, followed by a long pause. "i really tried to wake her, man. she couldn't move. she was just in a trance or something.."
"or under a spell," dustin said, slowly realizing what he hadn't before.
"a curse," eddie agreed.
"vecna's curse.."
— 📻🪐🏹 —
the next chapter is so cute i can't even
also, i know in the ep they go to reefer rick's house at night, but i changed the time bc i wanted to add my own extra scenes which are literally the most adorable things ever so don't attack me
tysm for 75k reads!! lowkey mad because i was asleep when it hit 69k but tysm for growing this book so quickly <3
WORD COUNT — 1672.