*ೃ༄𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐎𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒
Ninth grade was the absolute pits for Magdalena May.
She watched her mutual friends turn into drastically different versions of themselves—they all became unbearable, conceited, and vengeful. Except for Lulu. She remained the same throughout all the years she spent with Magdalena. And had it not been for volleyball coming into her life as a last-minute rescue, Magdalena knew she would've gone insane rather quickly due to the hierarchical nature of high school. Back in '83, Magdalena viewed her high school as a jungle—it was either kill or be killed and the brunette chose the former without second guessing. However, that didn't mean she was a bully. Magdalena never purposefully attacked anybody. A provocative reason was needed for the girl to explode and rip them to shreds.
Similarly, volleyball erased those urges to cave someone's face in if they uttered any harmful words. Magdalena stood out from the rest of her teammates. First and foremost, the May girl was one of the few freshmen to make it onto the team that year, and Magdalena played the sport better than all of the other ninth graders combined. The yearbook picture of the team displayed the girl vividly considering she stood in the front row with a black bandana tied securely around her thigh. That was a good luck charm from her uncle sent to her by mail. That bandana remained fastened to her leg during every game religiously for the rest of the school year and the next...and the next one after that.
Even during her current senior year, Magdalena wore the treasured bandana to her volleyball tournaments before winter break. But now, as the brunette was once again climbing up the "rope" made from bedsheets to reach the portal on the ceiling, Magdalena missed her lucky charm. Continuing her ascent, by the time Magdalena poked her head through the hole into the Upside Down, she already felt lightheaded. The dimension despised her. It wanted the young witch to perish in the most agonizing way, but Magdalena had other plans. Her arms ached with each of her movements, plus her bitten wrist was still killing her even though she dumped a half bottle of peroxide on the wound before she left her house.
Although Magdalena's focus was more so on the grimoire tucked into the waistband of her now raggedy bell bottoms so the book wouldn't fall out during her painstaking climb. A bag filled with matches and tea lights was yet again stuck down her pants. Once the Upside Down took its hold on her body, Magdalena fell back first into Eddie's mattress with a troubling groan. She'd never get used to that massive fall. Especially not when all her muscles were aching and crying out for Magdalena to stop exerting herself. But of course, she didn't listen to her body. Without the universe giving Magdalena a chance to relax on the uncomfortable mattress, Lulu pulled her up which gave the poor girl a head rush, leaving her seeing those little black dots in her vision. The young witch drew in deep breaths as she closed her eyes and waited for her brain to catch up.
She felt that feeling again. The way her senses were at maximum power, the way her insides felt like they were slowly melting inside an industrial oven, and the way she had that metallic taste of blood in the back of her throat again. Most importantly, the brunette was wishing Max was with her. But the headstrong freshman chose what she wanted to do and followed her own thinking. The final embrace Magdalena and Max shared in the RV was more memorable and loving than any of their other ones and for good reason. Magdalena heard all those groans and sighs as her friends dropped into the Upside Down one by one, but she only opened her eyes when she felt fingers embellished by chilled rings graze her hand.
After her green eyes were on display again, it wasn't necessary for Magdalena to turn to her right. She saw Eddie just fine from her peripheral and also witnessed him smile when she took the initiative to interlock their fingers securely. Everyone stood around the mattress, giving each other one last glance and a couple of head nods that were meant as a confidence boost of sorts. All of them were suited up for the most part. Even Magdalena sported a hideous camo jacket that she couldn't wait to take off after this ordeal. Other than that, she was physically defenseless—left without tactical weapons meant for destruction. All she needed was the grimoire though. Magdalena May had been preparing for this. She studied every word from her grandmother's spellbook. Just for this tense make-or-break moment.
The group soon made their way over to the door of the trailer, Magdalena and Eddie being the last ones out the door. It didn't really matter though. What awaited them wasn't pretty. From Magdalena's heavy prognosis, the Upside Down still sucked. The brunette stared off into the distant sky which occasionally glowed red and then shifted her eyes to the surroundings near her. Everything in the trailer park seemed dead and gloomy—not much of a pretty sight. Magdalena softly squeezed down on Eddie's hand without even sparing a glance at him. The girl's heart did even out when he mimicked the squeeze to reassure her.
"This place definitely didn't get any better the last time we were here. Kinda was hoping for a 'Welcome Back' parade or something."
Magdalena sardonically remarked more so to herself just to ease her own nerves as she felt her body shudder slightly. She eyed Lulu who was ahead of everyone else along with Nancy and Robin. Magdalena noted how her friend appeared smiley and optimistic—she almost always was. Lulu was a walking, talking ray of sunshine, but Magdalena feared that the Upside Down wouldn't take kindly to those types of people.
Obviously, Lulu Hayashi felt like an action movie star, but Magdalena knew how her best friend functioned. The slightest cruelty would break her and the young witch couldn't help but worry about Lulu's safety. Everyone stopped moving in an instant when Steve turned around to address Dustin, Eddie, and Magdalena as the brunette in question almost knocked into Dustin because of the abrupt stop. Magdalena couldn't recall when Steve Harrington gained such a commanding presence and it seemed to surprise her each time. Especially his equally direct instructions:
"Hey, guys, listen. If things here start to go south, I mean, at all, you abort. Okay? Draw the attention of the bats. Keep 'em busy for a minute or two. We'll take care of Vecna. Don't try to be cute or be a hero or something. Okay? You guys are just..."
"Decoys."
Dustin finished the sentence easily before Steve ever had the chance. With her eyebrows raised in intrigue, Magdalena had her eyes on Dustin as he and Steve had this moment of agreement. The brunette had to stop herself from talking back and confessing that she'd go against the plan if there was a need for it, but she remained silent. Her dad's voice rang inside her head, reminding the girl to not do anything impulsive. Magdalena's free hand clenched as she swallowed that urge to voice her opinions. Her conscience also reminded her that she couldn't jeopardize anything because lives were at stake.
"Don't worry. You can be the hero, Steve."
Dustin assured his older friend with a bit of a smile that Magdalena couldn't exactly pinpoint. The brunette attempted to figure out if it was just a little sarcastic or one hundred percent genuine. Again, Magdalena chose to just go along with it and keep her mouth shut even if it was a totally difficult feat to accomplish. She had a lot on her mind. Many of those things included alternative plans if their highly anticipated and well-thought-out "A Plan" fell through. Magdalena had a catalog of plans in her head going from B all the way to at least F. What broke the girl free of her thinking was how Eddie draped his arm across her shoulders and finally offered a couple of words that acted as a response to Steve's:
"Absolutely. I mean, look at us. We are not heroes."
Again, Magdalena begged to differ, but there was simply no time to argue about anything now. The brunette's green irises connected with Steve's brown ones—it was her turn to receive directions. As Steve glanced over Magdalena's face he saw nothing but an exhausted girl begging for all this torment to finally come to an end. Still, the Harrington kid trusted her immensely after he witnessed that whole performance in the Upside Down when Magdalena performed her second protection spell for Eddie. Steve felt it in his bones that Magdalena May could do some serious damage, especially after having had the opportunity to take a peek into her grandmother's spell book.
"And you. If you feel your insides turning to mush or you feel like you don't have enough...witchy juice to keep going then you climb back through the gate. You got all that, May?"
"Heard you loud and clear. Oh, and bring my girl back in one piece. Take care of her. You know well enough that she's not the violent type. And for fuck's sake, get rid of that demonic creep for good. Make him regret all the pain he's caused."
Magdalena responded calmly—a stark contrast from what was going on inside internally. The brunette felt frustration and concerns building with each second Steve just stood there, addressing her, Eddie, and Dustin. Though Magdalena's nonexistent prayers seemed to be answered when Steve nodded his head at her, reassuring Magdalena with the fact that he would make sure to look out for Lulu and stop the supernatural evil from continuing to spread. Steve turned around, heading over to his group comprised of girls, and let them know that it was time for them to get on with their mission.
The four of them began disappearing into the dim, menacing distance as Lulu turned around for a second to blow one final kiss to Magdalena before jogging after the rest of her group. The brunette caught the imaginary kiss in her hand, placing it where her heart resided. She was counting on Steve to keep Lulu safe. Magdalena chose to focus her attention on someone else other than how Lulu would do in the world of supernatural bullshit and so, the brunette slipped out from beneath Eddie's arm, stepping over to Dustin who was still staring off into the distance. The freshman was also coming to the realization that he only had two other people with him, meaning they were severely outnumbered.
"Don't look so scared, Henderson. At least this dimension isn't digesting your body as we speak. The three of us got this. We can totally stand our ground. No big deal."
Magdalena's boldness was truly overpowering as she playfully punched Dustin's upper arm in an encouraging manner. The ninth grader still felt a slight pinch go through his nerves because of the impact of Magdalena's fist which left Dustin rubbing his upper arm while taking in the brunette's words. Although it seemed like not even Magdalena May was believing her own words. Deep inside, the girl couldn't even confirm all the things that came from her mouth to be true. Her impulsiveness acted up again—speaking before thinking and all that. At least no one could blame her for being negative like during many other instances.
"Says the girl who's had experience with witchcraft. I bet you could cast spells in your dreams if you tried hard enough."
Dustin countered as he crossed his arms over his chest and provided Magdalena with a teasing grin. The brunette rolled her eyes with a rare smile resting on her lips before she shoved Dustin just a bit. Not daring to do the same, the ninth grader chose to instead poke Magdalena's arm rather sharply.
The girl's eyes fixed on Dustin in the most chilling way and he was starting to regret poking Magdalena, but before Dustin could repeatedly apologize to her, she poked him back in the same spot and then ran over to Eddie to hide behind him. It didn't take long before Magdalena and Dustin were playing an impromptu rendition of "Tag" in the Upside Down for a few minutes. Eddie could only watch the scene, his lips turning upwards while he took in the lighthearted image.
For a couple of short minutes, everything seemed to be normal.
It was a type of normal that wasn't soulless repetition for once.
✧･ﾟ:
Seeing Eddie Munson metaphorically drool at the sight of his guitar was the only cause for Magdalena's hidden smirk when the three of them went to retrieve the instrument. The brunette had to admit, it did look particularly badass with the Upside Down's minimal lighting reflecting off it. Their plan was going to be a good one—at least that's what Magdalena was continuously telling herself as she kneeled on the floor of Eddie's trailer and remained focused on arranging her tea lights in the shape of a half triangle. This was her grandmother's patented "Rigorous Revenge" spell. In simplified terms, it was just a moving spell that gave any skilled witch the ability to physically harm if they so chose. Magdalena recalled how her grandmother detailed in her writing that when or if the spell was used for defense then extreme fatigue would most likely become a side effect.
The brunette continued fixing the tea lights, sometimes peering over to the mattress and rope leading back into the Hawkins which wasn't so fucked up. That was her escape route if shit got messed up. Steve made it clear for her to leave if she wasn't feeling well, but Magdalena wasn't too sure if she'd listen.
Approaching footsteps made the girl look up and she was glad to see Eddie holding his guitar by the neck, ready to do his part. The guy was giving her a longing look, silently asking her if she was doing okay. Magdalena could only nod. She didn't really feel like speaking about emotions. In return, Magdalena offered a sweet smile as she stood up from the ground and walked over to where Eddie was standing.
"Go on, rock star. I'd love to hear your badass concert, but I gotta take care of witchy shit. How else am I gonna keep you two safe? Someone's gonna have to do the spells."
Magdalena dotingly assured her lover boy, putting her hands on his chest and staring deep into his mystical eyes that lit up her lonely world. Eddie's irises were like an undiscovered universe—all dark and perplexing. Getting lost in his eyes, Magdalena felt high and drunk all at the same time. Those were the effects of pure devotion. Magdalena had barely any time to react when Eddie reached up to cup her face with one hand and kissed her.
The action contained uncertainty about how this all would end but above all, it was an all-out declaration of love. The brunette's hands began trailing up to the sides of Eddie's neck as their kiss deepened within seconds, however before the two young people lost themselves intimacy, Dustin cleared his throat and told Eddie to stop sucking on Magdalena's face. As Dustin stepped out of the trailer, the two sweethearts once again went back to staring lovingly into each other's eyes.
"You're so beautiful, Magdalena May. Beautiful and selfless. Once this is over we're going on that damn date. It's gonna be the best date in the history of dates."
The brunette took those words and held them close to her heart. She was going to make sure they came true once no one had to deal with any of this dimensional weirdness. Magdalena snickered to herself about how much of an idiot Eddie Munson was as he neared the door of the trailer, audibly cheering and hyping himself up for the sickest distraction ever—like a true rock star. And then he was gone and the door shut. That's when Magdalena's heart dropped partially. It was just her and her magic now. Reluctantly stepping back over to her candle formation, the brunette took a seat on the floor, crossing her legs like a pretzel and picking up the matchbox with a shaky hand.
Obtaining the match stick, Magdalena scraped it over the side of the box and held the flame in front of her face for a second, thinking—pondering if she could do this. People were counting on her. Of course, she wasn't the most important piece of this plan, but her part mattered too. The brunette was a cog in the machine and if she fucked up, the machine would break and there would be serious consequences as a result. In the end, Magdalena went ahead, lighting her tiny candles rather hastily since she had no time to waste. The shrill screech of the amp being turned on was the yellow light for Magdalena because once she pinpointed the suppressed sound of Eddie's guitar right above her on the roof of the trailer, the girl sighed and closed her eyes to start the spell.
Magdalena erased everything that was disturbing her mind and body—even the feeling of getting internally disintegrated by this dimension. She only worried about chanting the Latin text presented to her in the spell book. Over and over again, the words flew from her mouth, and yet her brain was steadily turning static as it did with her previous spells. Magdalena May was in her own world where she heard distant ghostly whispers and howls but felt nothing. No emotion. No physical feeling. The girl even forgot she was a living, breathing human being during her spellcasting. Magdalena was all alone inside of her head, though, it never once frightened her.
The more disembodied voices she picked up, the more Magdalena felt at ease as if those voices were guiding and encouraging her to keep fighting. And she did. The brunette felt like she'd only been in her current state for a few minutes when in reality, it was so much more time than that. Magdalena also never took note of how well her spell was working in killing the stupid bats that were now swarming around the trailer. Dustin and Eddie witnessed many of them drop to the ground with such force that they died on impact. That was all Magdalena's doing. However, as useful as she was, there were just too many creatures for the young witch to deal with all on her own. Still, Magdalena continued chanting all while the flames of the candles rose to unimaginable heights in front of her.
The brunette didn't have a grasp on time or how well she was doing with her spell, but when a shooting pain erupted in her arm. Then another...and another which surprisingly hurt more than the rest, Magdalena snapped her eyes open and tried to take in her surroundings as quickly as she could. She saw Dustin standing next to her in a panic and all her candles were extinguished. The brunette had no clue what happened, but she did know for sure that the freshman punched her on the arm multiple times to bring her back into reality. But the spell was no more. And Magdalena was seriously pissed off.
"What the fuck is wrong with you, Henderson?! I told you to only snap me out of it if there's an emergency! You destroyed the fucking spell!"
"There is an emergency!"
Dustin yelled back at Magdalena with such intensity that it left her utterly speechless all while he gestured towards what was presumably Eddie's door about to be broken down by the freaky bats. Magdalena stood there in horror, ogling at the splintering door and the fact that she could no longer relight her candles either. They were always a one-time thing. The brunette—for lack of better words—was literally backed up into a corner as she just continued standing in place, too freaked out to move an inch. She felt a massive migraine coming on and this time around, Magdalena swore some invisible force was hitting her in the skull repeatedly with a brick. She was also mere seconds away from vomiting up all the bile in her stomach. Now Magdalena could understand that her grandma really wasn't kidding about the supposed fatigue after the spell.
Upon witnessing how unresponsive Magdalena was, Dustin grabbed her wrist and dragged her over to the makeshift rope, instructing her to start climbing. Not having the energy to argue back, the brunette gripped the white material and began to climb upwards, her limbs burning more and more with each shift of her body. Magdalena's lungs struggled with supplying her brain with the correct amount of oxygen which was why she was starting to feel faint, almost losing her hold on the rope completely.
Right as Magdalena dropped back into her normal dimension, that's when she heard Eddie scream at Dustin to start climbing. Magdalena rolled off the mattress to give Dustin a place to safely land and that's when she felt her body returning to its functioning state. Minus the headache. That was still an ongoing issue. The girl struggled to stand from the floor, but once she did Magdalena helped Dustin up off the mattress and the two watched Eddie climb.
The suspense was suffocating. Dustin and Magdalena never took their eyes off Eddie. And just as the guy was halfway up the rope, he dropped back down. Magdalena's jaws tightened together, feeling her vision being blurred by hot tears at Eddie's action while she stared up at the gate. Dustin's hysteria filled the room, even more, when Eddie decided to cut the rope with the homemade spear and soon thereafter started moving the mattress away from the gate just for extra measure. Magdalena's lips quivered as she looked into Eddie's eyes once more. The guy felt guilty for doing something like this, but he was only trying to protect both Magdalena and Dustin. The only noise overpowering every other noise was Dustin's worried screams echoing inside of the brunette's head:
"Stop! Stop! Eddie, what are you doing?"
"I'm buying more time."
Eddie confirmed everything Magdalena had been afraid of. History was repeating itself somehow. The young witch was brought back to the summer of 1985 once more in a trauma-filled flashback of her crying—screaming out for help as Billy Hargrove bled out in her arms. Her previous boyfriend acted heroically as well. Magdalena May didn't need a fucking hero. She needed the love of her life to be safe and sound. Eddie was anything but. He was completely defenseless in the Upside Down all by himself. Fear was replaced by hot, boiling fury which Magdalena had a hard time fully digesting. Nothing could possibly prepare her for Eddie's rash decisions.
"Don't you dare, Eddie Munson! Don't you fucking dare!"
But alas, Magdalena's alarmingly loud and demanding words had no effect on Eddie because, with one last glance at the girl he deemed the prettiest in the world, the guy sprinted away from the opening in the ceiling which left both Dustin and Magdalena a crumbling mess. The freshman was freaking out—about to have an anxiety attack and appropriately so while Magdalena felt like her heart was flatlining. She felt like she had lost her grip on reality altogether when Eddie decided to go against everything he was supposed to do. He was playing hero when he didn't have to. Magdalena was raging—her face had gone way beyond the color of a ripe tomato and her heartbeat reverberated inside of her ears. She felt her body rising in temperature abnormally fast over the betrayal Eddie caused her. Every single memory she made with him started rising to the surface. Some were shitty and others were some of the best—most spur-of-the-moment memories of Magdalena's young life. So having the guy who helped her create these memories disappear from her sight made the girl beyond furious.
"The chair, Magdalena! Get the chair!"
Dustin frantically shouted at the brunette who was still just frozen in place, staring up at the hole in the ceiling and possibly waiting for Eddie to come back. Magdalena had no choice but to pull her attention away from the gate, deciding to instead run over to the nearby chair Dustin was pointing at and put it down where the freshman wanted her to. Since Dustin saw the urgency written across the brunette's face, he told her to go back into the Upside Down first. After all, out of the two of them, Magdalena was the one with witchy powers and Dustin figured she could do something to save Eddie.
"I'm coming for you, Munson, you son of a bitch. I'm not losing you. Not to some lame dimension. Not to anything. Fuck that."
Magdalena carefully went to stand on the chair as she monologued her thoughts. The brunette could see she was way in over her head when she began studying the distance between her and the gate into the Upside Down even while a chair was under her feet. Mumbling a couple of curse words to herself, Magdalena leaped forward and barely caught the edge of the gate. But thankfully she did. Her nails dug into the gooey material, cringing at the texture disturbing her fingertips. And as she hung there, Magdalena steadily started to pull herself up into the dimension which treated her oh so poorly each time.
Lifting her body weight upwards like a gymnast, a subtle screech came from Magdalena as she flipped over into the Upside Down and landed right on her hands and knees—a sting erupting throughout her kneecaps and wrists from colliding with the hard floor. The searing pain inside her limbs was obvious, though Magdalena figured she didn't break anything. Maybe just a minor dislocation somewhere. Even so, the girl got off the ground and sprinted out the front door when she heard Dustin yelling at her to hurry and also promising her that he'd be following after her soon. Almost tripping down the couple of steps that led into the trailer, Magdalena caught herself in time and frantically looked around in search of the guy she cared for dearly.
The dimension was now in peril because as soon as Magdalena caught sight of Eddie being attacked by those loathsome bats, her blood began to boil at a tremendous rate. All the brunette saw was red and the fact that she no longer had any candles with her seemed to become a past issue. Magdalena had other substitutes unbeknownst to her.
With each determined step toward Eddie, Magdalena left behind a trail of fire which obviously captured the attention of some of the creatures. The girl paid no mind to this. She had tunnel vision and Eddie was the center point. Rage mixed with a burning desire to get some well-exacted revenge seemed to be her only fuel. Magdalena's mind was just as static whenever she sat down in front of her candles to cast a spell, so she never even flinched when multiple bats tried to swoop down and get her. When they did, the creatures instantly burst into flames and fell to the ground, shrieking and in pain.
The brunette continued to trudge towards Eddie, ignoring the fact that her limbs were all becoming heavier and her insides were practically melting again. Still, she never once stopped to give up. The closer she got to Eddie, the more bats met their demise though it also meant that Magdalena's power was draining faster than it should've. A light sheen of sweat appeared on her face while she began tripping over her own feet partially. Luck seemed to be on Magdalena's side when every bat dropped to the ground simultaneously. The brunette paid barely any attention to that though she figured it wasn't her doing. She would've felt it within herself if she single-handedly ended more than a hundred creatures all at the same time.
Regardless, Magdalena hurried over to Eddie and dropped herself onto the ground, gazing deeply into those warm brown eyes that provided her with unlimited comfort. Those eyes weren't the same right now. They were losing their warmth. Magdalena took in all the blood and felt her eyes gloss over. Her head was spinning and she could feel her stomach acid crawling up her throat. Her mind presented her with the truth: Eddie was dying. Magdalena shook her head stubbornly, hiccuping out an anguished sob. Her protection spell was a bust and the girl felt like a complete failure.
"Maiden Magdalena the Magical, you saved me. Should've been the other way around. I should've listened. Now look at me."
Eddie's faint, distant words turned Magdalena into a weeping mess. Hot tears streamed down her face while she kept on denying all the things that came from Eddie's mouth in order to comfort him somehow and also make herself believe that everything would turn out great in the end because seeing him in such a state made Magdalena feel like a knife had been driven straight through her heart. Magdalena's trembling hand found Eddie's and gently held it in her own. His fingers were freezing against Magdalena's blazing skin which only made the girl cry harder as even more dizziness set in for her. But the young witch kept on lying to herself.
"No. No. Don't say that. You're—You're f-fine, Eddie. You're gonna be okay. I-I know you are. Everything's going...to be f-fine..."
Her vision became dark in a flash and Magdalena May didn't have a say in the matter. She collapsed right onto the ground as the Upside Down fed off her energy like a blood-sucking little leech.