Nightmare:
"BILLY!" Ben screamed at the top of his lungs. He could hear his vocal cords shatter and blood dripping from the corners of his mouth as he screamed out for his brother.
"Benny." Billy gasped, staring at Ben with tears in his eyes and blood coming out from his mouth.
"Billy. You're gonna be fine, ok? Someone help! Nancy!" Ben screamed as heavy sobs escaped his mouth.
"I was with you till the end of the line." Billy whispered as the life faded from his eyes.
Ben screamed and cried as Nancy took him in her arms and allowed him to sob all of his pain out.
"Come back Billy! Please come back!"
Ben sat up gasping for air, his hair sticking to his forehead from all of the sweat. Dry tears were on Bens cheeks from the night before where he cried himself to sleep per usual. Another nightmare about Billy.
What a shocker.
Ben tried to move on with his life. He tried to be normal again, and act like a normal teenager who was going to college.
But how can you be normal when you lost your brother?
After Billy died, Ben moved in with Max and Susan. and Susan tried to be emotional support, she really did. But Ben just pushed her away like he pushed everyone else away, especially his own family. Max and Ben hardly ever even talked anymore. It was like Ben was living in a house with a stranger. And he wanted to speak out, tell Max about his feelings and help her work out hers, but every time he opened his mouth he couldn't help but close it again because of all the feelings that were rushing past him. People could say what they want, but Billy was Bens brother and that would never change. He was a prick, but in his last moments he showed the old billy.
Ben stared up at the ceiling for about five minutes, wondering if he should even get out of bed. It was spring break after all, and no one would care if he slept in or just not get out of bed in general. Suddenly the phone started ringing and he just let it ring. Ben didn't wanna get out of bed. But when the phone rang again and again he groaned loudly before getting up and stomping over to the phone.
"What?"
"Ben!"
"Max? What the hell?"
"A-Are you doing anything right now?"
"Yeah, staring up at my stained ceiling. I'd like to go back to doing that so if you could tell me what this is about that'll be appreciated."
"Turn on the news."
"What?"
"Just do it!"
Ben rolled his eyes before turning on the tv that was in their house. However his eyes widened when he saw the breaking news.
Someone was murdered.
Ben snapped his head over to the window and sure enough cops were swarming Eddie Munsons trailer along with news reporters.
"The fuck is going on?"
"We'll explain everything. Just come to Family Video."
"Max-"
"This is serious, Ben. People could get hurt. Hurry your ass up."
And with that the line went dead.
*******
Ben should've said no. Should've told Max to stay out of problems that didn't involve her. But here Ben was, walking inside family video with a hoodie pulled over his head along with jeans that used to belong to Billy.
"You fuckers better have a good reason for waking me up before noon?" Ben asked once he stormed inside and removed his hoodie from his head.
"Morning to you too Ben. Apple sauce?" Nora offered holding out apple sauce. Ben simply shrugged and took the apple sauce from her hands.
"You've watched the news, so you know what's going on. But—" Max started but was rudely cut off by Steve.
"Eddie Munson is being accused of killing someone at his trailer and now he's on the run and we have to find him." Steve explained throwing his hands up in the air.
"Jesus fuck. No way you woke me up for this shit!" Ben exclaimed shooting a sharp glare at Max who just rolled his eyes.
"Thought you were staring at your stained ceiling."
"Better than being here on a Saturday morning."
"Alright, enough. Steve explained what was going on perfectly. Max said she saw Chrissy Cunningham go into Eddie's trailer last night for like, drugs or something. But that morning there was a body in his trailer that was most likely hers. Eddie ran off, and we're trying to find him by calling all of his friends." Nora said.
Ben didn't even know how to process any of this. And so all he could do was eat his apple sauce and let out a deep sigh.
"Well what the fuck are we waiting for? Let's call."
While, Ben, Nora, and Robin were calling Eddie's friends Max and Dustin were trying to find any more clues of Eddie's whereabouts on the computer.
"Are you sure he didn't just like, knock or something?" Ben asked as he leaned against the wall. The person on the other line claimed they haven't seen Eddie in days causing Ben to bite his bottom lip and hang up the phone.
"Any luck?" Nora questioned.
"None. You?" Ben replied.
"Same."
"This is fucking ridiculous."
Max hung up her phone and turned to face the two teens. "Hey guys, I might have a lead?"
"Seriously?" Dustin asked, a grin on his face.
"Yeah. Apparently, Eddie gets drugs from some guy named Reefer Rick, and sometimes Eddie crashes there."
"Sounds promising. Where does Reefer Rick live?" Robin questioned.
"See, that's the thing. No one knows. He's more of a....a legend than someone that people actually know."
"True. Eddie has mentioned him to me a few times." Nora mentioned as she moved to stand beside Ben.
"Bet the cops know the last name." Steve said as he turned back around.
"What?" Ben asked as he took his sunglasses off. He didn't even know why he was wearing them indoors in the first place.
"Cops. I mean, listen, if this Reefer Rick is actually a drug dealer, I guarantee you he's been busted at some point. Means he's in the system." Steve explained.
"The cops? Really, steve? That's your suggestion?" Dustin exclaimed.
"I think they should be filled in on what we know, what's going on."
"So that's your way of saying Eddie's guilty?" Nora scoffed as she leaned forward.
"Whoa. I believe in innocent until proven guilty all that constitutional shit. I just, you know, don't think we can rule it out." Steve argued causing Ben to roll his eyes. He was so privileged it was insane.
"That's precisely what we're trying to do here, Steve. And maybe we'd have a little bit more luck if you spent less time trying to find a girlfriend and more time trying to find Eddie." Dustin snarked.
"Yeah Steve, not our fault you fell off after high school." Ben added with a scoff.
"Somebody has to attend to the customers!"
"Especially if they're babes, right?"
"Hey, not fair. Okay? I attend to all customers equally, and non-babes alike. We've got a very big selection in here. It can be super overwhelming at some point." Ben just continued to eat his apple sauce as he closed his eyes for a second. He just needed time to take a breath.
"What are you doing?" Nora questioned once she saw Robin sitting down and going on the computer.
"Maybe we don't need a last name. Twelve Ricks have accounts here." Robin explained.
"Lot of Ricks." Max commented.
"So, let's narrow it down. Rick Alderman's latest rentals are Annie and Dumbo. Chances our drug dealer has a family?"
"Hell no." Ben replied as he leaned forward.
"All right. Rick Conroy. Sixteen candles, Teen Wolf, romancing the stone."
"Nah."
Robin continued to look for Rick and eventually found one who watched all the Cheech and Chong movies.
"Bingo." Ben mumbled. The group ran out of the shop as Robin closed down.
"Let's go find him!" Nora cheered causing Ben to cheer as well.
*******
It was late by the time the group arrived at Reefer Ricks place. Ben was taking a nap in the backseat when Steve suddenly hit his arm.
"Hey. We're here." He said before getting out of the car. Ben followed suit along with everyone else. Dustin rang on the doorbell numerous times and eventually Ben pulled him back by the back of his shirt.
"That's not doing shit." Ben commented.
"Eddie! It's Dustin!" Dustin yelled as he knocked on the door once more.
"We uh, we brought Nora if that helps anything! Say hi Nora!" Ben yelled as well as he pushed Nora forward.
"Hi Eddie! It's like dustin said, we only wanna talk. No cops!"
"You know what, maybe this will get your attention! Reefer Rick!" Ben continued to pound on the door until Steve hit his arm once more.
"Don't yell that!" Steve hissed.
"Hey, guys?" Max called. Ben walked over to where his younger step sister was and saw as she pointed her flash light at a shed.
"Eddie." Nora whispered as she walked head of everyone.
"Nora!" Ben hissed as he jogged to catch up with her. The group looked around as Ben had a firm hand placed on Nora's shoulders to protect her in case anything happened.
"What are you doing?" Dustin questioned once he noticed Steve hitting a tarp with his oar.
"He might be in here." Steve replied.
"Yeah, because that'll make him come out and welcome you with open arms." Ben snapped as he hit Steve upside the head.
"Oh my fucking god! Take the tarp off!" Nora yelled as she shoved Steve forward.
"He's your boyfriend! Why don't you take the tarp off?" Steve yelled back.
"We're not together!"
"Yeah, and I'm a billionaire."
"Someone's crabby." Robin told Ben who just grabbed a rock off the floor and threw it at her causing her to shriek and jump back.
"Don't worry. Steve will get him with his oar." Dustin snarked.
"I know you think you're being funny Henderson, but considering everyone in this room has nearly died a hundred times, personally, I don't find it funny in the slightest—" Steve was cut off by Eddie shooting up and slamming him against against the wall with a knife to his throat.
"Eddie!" Ben screamed as he attempted to get him to calm down.
"Eddie! It's me! It's Dustin! And Nora! Look, Nora's here for you. This is Steve. He's not gonna hurt you, right Steve?" Dustin tried to negotiate.
"Right. Yeah."
"Steve, why don't you drop the oar?" Ben suggested. Steve dropped the oar and Ben let out a sharp breath when Eddie placed the knife against Steve's skin harder.
"What do you want?" Eddie questioned.
"We're looking for you."
"We're here to help." Robin added.
"Eddie, these are my friends. You know Robin, from band. This is my friend Max. The one who never wants to play D&D. And Ben! Jonah's best friend. Look, they even got matching tattoos!" Ben held up his arm and sure enough there was a black heart on his wrist.
"Eddie. We're on your side. I swear on your mother. Right guys?"
"Yes. Yes. We swear."
"On Dustin's mother."
"We swear!" Nora exclaimed and Ben nodded in agreement. Eddie had eventually released Steve and Nora ran forward to place her hands on Eddie's face.
"Hi." She whispered as she stroked his cheek with her thumb.
"Hi." Eddie whispered back, on the verge of a meltdown.
"Eddie. We just want to talk. Okay?" Dustin questioned.
"We want to know what happened."
"Everything that happened." Ben added with a nod of his head.
"You won't believe me."
"Try us." Nora shrugged as she rubbed Eddie's shoulders.
"Her body just like, lifted up into the air, and uh.....and she just like, hung there. In the air. And her bones uh.....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."
"After what you described, anyone would've ran away. You can't beat yourself up about it." Nora soothed.
"She's right. How do the cops not realize no human is capable of doing any of that?" Ben added.
"You all think I'm crazy right?" Eddie scoffed.
"No. We don't think you're crazy." Dustin said
"Don't bullshit me. Man! I know how this sounds."
Ben just let out a dry laugh and crossed his arms over his chest. "Trust me, we've seen and heard way crazier shit."
"We believe you." Max added.
"Look, what I'm about to tell you might be......a little.....difficult to take."
"Okay."
And so dustin explained everything. El, the upside down, the mind flayer, everything. And then D&D joined the conversation, causing Ben to just roll his eyes.
"We can't have anything normal I swear."
Word count:2,174
giving my ocs cute relationships only to tear them apart a few chapters later>>>