He awoke alone and sore. Daylight streamed through the window, but it was a weak sort of light, obscured by the heavy storm clouds that had steadily been blocking out all natural weather to douse Hawkins in darkness. Every inch of skin from his neck down to his butt still felt raw and it took him more than a few minutes to muster the courage to roll off the mattress and stand up. Trying not to feel hurt that neither Isaac nor Chrissy had stayed with him until he woke up, Eddie shook off the feeling of self-pity. After hearing the things that had come out of his mouth last night, intentionally or not, he wouldn't have wanted to be around himself this morning either.
Someone had set out his Colt and a plain white t-shirt for him that was two sizes too big on purpose to not be constantly rubbing against his back. He delicately slipped the shirt on, tucked the pistol into its usual spot at the back of his belt, and then let himself out into the hall. He didn't know if any of the other party members shared this floor with him but judging by the silence, he guessed that they all were at breakfast. Food didn't sound appetizing at all, but he knew he needed to get something in his system, so he supposed he might as well get it over with. He was going to have to face the others sometime.
"Eddie."
He jumped, having thought he had the floor to himself, but at the other end of the hallway stood what appeared to be a hospital orderly dressed from head to toe in white with his hands clasped behind him. He had wavy blond hair and a warm, kind smile on his angular face.
"How's your back this morning?"
"How do you know about that?" asked Eddie, instantly on alert.
"Your brother asked for the supplies last night, so I assumed it was to treat your injuries after what Jason Carver did to you. And before you ask, those of us working directly under Doctors Owens and Brenner know about what Eleven sees in the void. I was in the room while she was directing your brother to find you. And I'm sorry that happened to you."
"Okay, thanks," said Eddie warily. There was something off about this orderly and Eddie carefully lifted his right hand to rest against his hip only to give him quicker access to his firearm if he needed it. As a long-standing rule, Eddie distrusted anyone who could look at him without having met him before and maintain a smile. It was the norm to get odd looks from almost everyone nowadays and anything not meeting those standards was instant cause to be suspicipus about. People were not usually this nice to him and this guy was trying too hard to be approachable.
The man began to walk forward, moving in a very non threatening manner with a casual gait, but Eddie took half a step back, pivoting his back foot in case he needed to run.
"I'm sorry for everything that's been happening to you lately. I don't expect that it's easy, knowing that at any second, you could potentially kill your loved ones without having any say in it or even recollection of it. I'm sorry you had to watch your brother kill Jason Carver because I wasn't there to feed you the fuel you needed to kill him yourself."
What the hell.
The overhead light reflected off of the orderly's nametag and Eddie read the bold capital print: HENRY.
His first instinct was to run, but his legs wouldn't move or rather, couldn't. They were locked into the floor, held by vines that were squeezing painfully into his shins and reminding him of the scars he still had the last time he had come into close contact with tendrils from the Upside Down. Wobbling on unsteady feet to try and keep his balance, Eddie went for his Colt and trained it on Henry who was still ambling forward at a glacial pace.
"I didn't give you the strength you needed to kill Jason because I wanted you to do it on your own. I wanted you to want to kill him without any interference from me. You did want to kill him, didn't you?"
It was maddening, listening to this human incarnation of Vecna speaking so pleasantly to Eddie about murder. Was this how the real Henry Creel had been before Eleven banished him to the other world? Had he been charismatic, charming, even persuasive–because a small part of Eddie almost believed what Henry was telling him to believe.
"Didn't you?" said Henry again.
"No, I didn't," said Eddie defiantly.
"You wanted him to hurt for humiliating you. Don't lie to me, Eddie, I could sense the hatred in you."
"But I didn't want him dead."
"Not by your hands, no. You're too good for that, aren't you? But your brother isn't. He's always had it in him to do what he did and you're just now finding out how terrifying that makes him, how little you actually know about the man you thought was your brother. Would you be interested to know that I had almost no part in Jason's murder? Would it scare you to know that Isaac killed that boy all on his own?"
"Fat fucking chance," said Eddie in a braver voice than he felt.
"The man you thought you knew never came back from my world and you've been blissfully ignoring that fact because you're too cowardly to accept the truth. You're so blindly devoted to him and your friends and that blindness is what will ultimately lead to their deaths. Knowing you hasn't been a benefit to their health, I'm afraid. I could tell you who will be first, but that would ruin the surprise."
"You go to hell."
"That's where I've been; it's what I brought back to Hawkins and it's where we are now. It's been easier for me to access what I need this time, thanks to your brother. And to think that you've wasted so much energy on worrying about him when he was never the problem, never the one you needed to protect."
Henry was less than three feet away from Eddie now and all this time, he hadn't fired his pistol, having actually forgotten that he was holding it. Now, when he tried to squeeze the trigger, his finger wouldn't budge. He was immobilized, completely at Henry's mercy. Henry's hand came up to touch Eddie's cheek in a lover's caress and Eddie flinched at the feeling of not skin, but something slimy and wet. "There is so much you do not understand, Eddie. Not like your brother. He may fight it at times, but he accepts that this is what he is now and he has let me in much more willingly than you have. He's been compliant, and will be rewarded. But you've resisted me, and for that, you must be punished."
He was no longer in the lab corridor. The entire concept of manmade structures dissolved as he found himself standing in an overcast, thunderous world overlooking shapeless cliffsides with nothing but barren rock as far as the eye could see. The air was putrid and should have killed him, but he felt no great urge to try and breathe in fresh air.
Standing beside him was Isaac, surveying the wasteland before him and looking dead behind the eyes. He stood above a mound of freshly turned earth and his hands were filthy. He had just buried Eddie in his version of the Upside Down after the portal had transported him elsewhere. Alone, abandoned, and lost in every sense of the word, he sat down beside the grave, bowed his head, and wept.
Eddie tried to touch him, but his hand passed through Isaac's body as if it were made of smoke. He didn't exist here and could offer no comfort to his brother. He could only watch as time passed in seconds but he felt the impact of months drag by and Isaac wandered aimlessly, never eating, never resting, never stopping. Until the world tilted on its head and Isaac was sucked through a black hole in the sky that had become a bottomless pit and was wrenched from his body as an excruciating substance latched onto him, delved deep, and began to piece him back together.
Then Eddie was in a pristine bathroom, standing in the shower with a vantage point to look down on Chrissy who was puking into the toilet with her mother standing above her and shoving her head down closer to the swirling sullied water at the bottom of the bowl. Chrissy looked much younger, probably thirteen or fourteen years old, and her face was wet with tears as her mother yanked on her ponytail and cursed her for overeating, for being too fat to fit into her cheer uniform.
Then he was watching Billy Hargrove scream and swear at a younger Max before ripping her skateboard from her hands and snapping it in half across his knee, tossing the broken pieces onto the floor.
A hand on his shoulder brought him hurtling back into the the dingy lab hallway and Henry was now leering at him through eyes that both glistened maliciously and held no emotion at all. It was incredible how his eyes alone could completely change his entire demeanor and take him from a friendly orderly to a psychotic serial killer.
"Such meaningless lives without Eddie Munson in them, it would seem. But if Eddie Munson had never come into their lives, they would never suffer as greatly as they are about to."
"Eddie!"
No, not now.
Henry released just enough of his hold on Eddie to allow him to look back over his shoulder and see Chrissy standing at the top of the staircase with her Model 19 pointed in their direction. Eddie was in her line of fire if she was aiming for Henry.
"She's absolutely beautiful, isn't she?" said Henry. "And you stole her from me. My mark is on her and you've been keeping her from me all this time. But I've found her now because you can't hide anything from me, not when I'm inside you."
The world was beginning to crumble and Henry was going to make Eddie stand there and watch it happen, starting with Chrissy.
"Leave her," Eddie begged. "Just let her walk away."
"Tell her goodbye, Eddie. Tell her that you love her."
"Eddie, get out of the way!" Chrissy hollered.
"Chrissy, run! Get to the others and run!" His words were his only weapon now and he prayed, good God, how he prayed that she would listen to them.
"Tell her, Eddie."
He wasn't going to let it happen like this. Henry had no say over what came out of Eddie's mouth and Eddie was not about to give a premature valediction to his girlfriend when he expected to still have years during which he could tell her all the things he felt for her. But he had only said it to her once, and that was in the wake of listening to her berate Jason. He had felt emboldened then by his position as man of the house, by that testosterone-pumping organ that he had ridiculed other men for, telling him that he was finally in charge of the situation and glad of it. He had never felt more like a man than he had then, and therefore, his words hadn't been as meaningful as they could have been.
No, it was now, knowing that Henry was about to kill one of them that would make the words as true and deep as they ever could be.
"Tell her!" Henry's voice had mutated into that throaty growl Eddie knew to be Vecna's.
And like the slave to the infection that he was, Eddie obeyed.
"I love you, Chrissy."
"Now, go to her."
The hold on him released and Eddie ran, only the distance to Chrissy had doubled from what it was just moments ago. The overhead lights went out, bursting one by one in a line headed for Chrissy. As glass pelted him from above, he saw Chrissy raising her gun to her head but her movements were jarring as if she were fighting against herself. Her eyes widened in complete and utter terror as the cold metal nozzle settled against her temple. He could hear her small intake of breath as an echo, the only sound in this vacuum of space and time.
Eddie screamed for her, saw her lips form his name, and watched the lights leave her eyes as the bullet carved a path through her brain. Her blood shot out farther than should have been possible, splashing over Eddie's face as he reached her just as her body crumpled in front of him. As he skidded to a full halt over her, the ceiling began to rain debris down on him, the walls exploded, and the floor erupted, splitting in two between his legs and swallowing Chrissy's body whole.
"And she won't be the last," Vecna promised.
There was pressure against Eddie's cheekbones, something hard digging into his skin, pinching him, hurting him. A voice right next to his ear called his name and he was delusional in thinking it was her…
"Eddie!"
His head slammed down against his mattress and he felt froth at the back of his throat. Chrissy's face was inches from his as she perched on top of him and his left cheek stung where she evidently had hit him. His back burned, his body ached, and he couldn't breathe, but he sat up so suddenly that the blood rushed to his head. He reached for Chrissy's face, running his fingers over every inch of it, feeling the warmth of her skin and the pulsing of her heartbeat. Touching the spot at her temple where he had seen the bullet go in, he found flawless, unmarked skin. He brushed his thumb over one of her eyebrows, gazing into those brilliant, bright green irises that he had last seen fogging over in death.
With a shuddering sob, he put his forehead down against her collarbone and drew her in as tightly to him as she could fit with the intention to never let her go and never let her anywhere near a gun again.
If Chrissy was confused by this behavior, she didn't show it, for she stroked the back of his scalp and set a soothing rocking rhythm as she sat atop his thighs.
"Was it Vecna?" she asked after a time.
Eddie nodded, face still pressed against her in his reluctance to emerge from this nurturing embrace. "He was human. I thought I was awake and I went into the hall and he was there…" Eddie recounted his dream but knew better than to imagine that it was just a dream. The actions, the consequences hadn't been real–yet–but the dire warnings were there. Vecna was coming back for Chrissy and Max.
"You started shaking in your sleep," Chrissy explained once Eddie had finished his portion of the story. "Like you did the night Eleven saw you die. I tried to wake you up and I had to hit you–I'm sorry."
"Don't be. The pain means I'm still alive."
"That's a very metal thing to say."
Eddie appreciated her attempt at humor. He placed a gentle hand across the side of her back untouched by her injury and flipped her over until he was straddling her. He had no intention of arousing her or allowing himself to be aroused because this absolutely was not the time, but he wanted to use his body to cocoon her and protect her, if only for a few minutes. So he lowered himself to her and held her against him, inhaling the living, breathing scent of her.
"He's gonna come back for you and Max," he said with his lips against her jaw. "I know he's coming and I know how he'll try to kill you."
"Well, unless your solution to keep me from killing myself is to keep me chained up from now until you deal with Vecna, that's not something we can avoid."
"He's not taking you from me," said Eddie fiercely. "He can't have you. If he wants a girlfriend he can fuck off and go find one, but he can't have you because you're mine."
Chrissy beamed at him. "I've been waiting to hear you say something like that."
"Well, get used to it. I'm not letting you go anywhere."
Sitting up on her elbows, Chrissy stroked her forefinger across his lower lip. "Eddie, last night…I shouldn't have asked you to tell me what happened."
"If I was gonna tell anyone about what happened to me besides Isaac, it was gonna be you. And you didn't wanna know just for the sake of knowing; you wanted to help. I could–I could feel you trying to take some of the pain away even though you didn't know how and that's one of the many selfless things you've done for me that makes me feel that I don't deserve you sometimes. But I want you still, if you'll have me."
"Of course I will." She kissed him, just a brush of her lips over his to not tempt fate, and then suggested that they head down to breakfast together even though Eddie had about as much of an appetite now as he did when he originally thought he woke up in his dream.
The waiting lounge had been converted into a cafeteria of sorts with mismatched chairs and tables and several of these had been pushed together to accommodate the party who were all hunched over their meal of dry cereal and toast, conversing quietly or else watching updates on missing persons on the one television the room provided.
Dustin was the first one to notice Eddie and raised a hand for a high-five since evidently someone had spilled the beans that Eddie wasn't in a position to be giving hugs right now. Eddie clapped his hand against Dustin's and reached over him to the center of the table where there were styrofoam cups and a pitcher of orange juice. As he poured himself a serving, he was aware of everyone's eyes on him, scrutinizing him and trying to guess what his injuries were as well as where they were, for Eddie had put his leather jacket back on and only his knees, hands, and neck were showing any bare skin.
"Okay, you all can stop looking at me like you're waiting for me to explode. And please don't treat me like I'm delicate," Eddie said at last. "It's not something I wanna talk about, so can we all just pretend like it never happened?"
"I think we're all adult enough here to not pester you for details," said Hopper in his best impression of a dad voice. "But we did hear you last night. The whole building heard you, so you can't dismiss that."
"Was it one of those seizures?" asked Mike with concern. "Because I was there when Will made sounds like that when the Mind Flayer was triggered and you sounded exactly like that."
"His defenses were low and emotions were running high and that's the breeding ground for Vecna's bidding," said Isaac curtly in a warning to everyone to not overstep their boundaries when interrogating Eddie. "More or less, the same thing that happened to me when I saw Brenner, just more extreme, given the circumstances"
"If it's gotten to the point where Eddie can scream like that, time's running out to get it out of him," said Will who for some reason was giving Isaac a glowering look. "The Mind Flayer almost completely took over me in less than twenty-four hours once I felt that strong of a connection to him."
"But this is Vecna and it's different this time," said Nancy. "Vecna has a different goal in mind in how he's using Eddie and Isaac and Owens even said that Vecna doesn't even necessarily need Eddie."
"That doesn't mean he can't use him," Lucas pointed out. "Eddie's still connected to the Upside Down and is part of the hive mind. Him, the vines, the UDC's, they're all a part of Vecna, so Vecna can use him to spy just like the Mind Flayer did with Will."
"But Vecna already has Isaac to spy for him. He used Isaac to call all those UDC's together at the house and to try and attack Brenner," said Max. "He wouldn't need Eddie to do those things for him."
"Okay, but guys, I'm right here. I can hear everything you're saying so maybe you'd like to include me in this conversation instead of talking about me in the third person," Eddie suggested somewhat testily. "All of what you're saying is just guesswork based off of what's already happened to Will but we agreed that our cases are similar, not the same. I'm not a part of this hive mind, at least, not to the extent that Will was. It doesn't hurt me when something from the Upside Down is attacked. I've killed a couple UDC's and seen other people kill them and I never felt anything. But I can't deny that this–this feeling inside me is getting worse and it's getting harder to stay in control if something sets me off, so I agree that we need a quick fix-it before we get to the 'clap him in irons and sedate him' phase."
"When you say the feeling is getting worse, do you mean you can feel it growing?" asked Mrs. Byers.
"I don't know. I feel like–like my grip on reality is fading. I feel like I'm someone else in Eddie Munson's body. Like I'm–"
"Henry," said Eleven, fixing Eddie with that all-knowing look that only she could give. "You saw him, didn't you? In a dream."
"Yeah, but how would you know that?"
"He comes to me, too. He makes me see things that I'm afraid of. He shows me what he plans to do. Is that what he showed you?"
Eddie nodded vigorously, so glad to have someone else who knew of the effect Henry could have on a person where Vecna could not. "He said he was coming back for the people I stole from him last time and he showed me…he showed me Chrissy shooting herself in the head." Even as he said it, his voice teetered on the edge of breaking with the memory still fresh in his mind. Beside him, Chrissy took his hand.
"He could just be trying to scare you because your mind's a bit vulnerable right now," suggested Nancy softly.
"He could, but he's not," said Isaac. "Every hour that the Upside Down stays open, the stronger he gets and with all the misery laying out and about, it's like a buffet for him. I can sense it when he gets these surges of energy and I catch glimpses of what Hawkins will look like in another thirty, sixty days. I can see his plans for the world and everyone in it and apart from what he has in store for those select few who he wants to give VIP access to hell, what happened to Chrissy in Eddie's dream is what he plans to do to all of you eventually. But he's gonna go after those people closest to his VIP's first."
There were many resigned expressions at these words, mutters of prayers under their breaths, and one or two expletives, but again, Eddie noted how Will was regarding Isaac with something almost akin to antagonism. On the other end of the spectrum, Murray was watching Isaac with intrigue so intensely that Isaac scooted his chair an inch or two away from him with a very defensive, "What?"
"Forgive me for staring, I'm just in awe of how someone supposedly being possessed by a being from an alternate dimension can still speak with such diction and clarity. To have this savagery inside of you but also be capable of critical thought. And to be able to predict death, of all things. It's just fascinating to someone like me who's really only seen the scientific side of all of this. I'm still a new face to the game, all things considered."
"There's nothing supposed about it. You were there in the room with me when I tried to go after Brenner so did you not see the murderous look in my face? I don't know how I know what I'm talking about, but I know what I'm talking about when I say that there's a very specific list of people who now have a target on their backs."
"That's comforting," said Robin. "But it lets us know who he's going after, right? That means we just need to be extra vigilant around Chrissy and Max–"
"And my dad," said Eleven with a meaningful look at Hopper. "And my family." Another look at Will and Mrs. Byers.
"Hey, look, uh, this may not be the right time to say this, but I feel like I owe you big time for saving my ass twice," said Eddie, realizing he had yet to thank Eleven for guiding Isaac to where Jason was tormenting him. "I'm not exactly rolling in the dough but is there something I can do for you or something I can get you like, I dunno, a puppy or a smoothie or something?"
Eleven gave him a bashful smile. "I like strawberry."
"Okay, great, soon as this is all over, one strawberry smoothie coming right up," Eddie promised even though it was not at all a fair trade in anyone's book. Life for blended ice and cut up strawberries sprinkled with sugar. Not fair at all.
"So should I go tell Owens and Brenner that it's time to talk about getting that burn set up?" asked Hopper, bringing Eddie back down to reality with a resounding crash.
"Um…" Eddie had no firm answer.
"Yeah, go get 'em," said Wayne, speaking for the first time since Eddie had last seen him at the house yesterday afternoon. He summoned Eddie to him with a gnarled finger and the two stepped out of the way so as not to be overheard by the rest of the party. "Look, there ain't no easy way for me to say this, so I'm just gonna come out and say it: I'm scared for you, boy. I'm scared for you and your brother. Nothin's makin' no sense to me right now and it's all I can do to try and wrap my head around everythin' but I've been talkin' to all your friends and they've told me stories about what you and Isaac have been through, what they've been through, and how serious all this shit really is. And I've seen things happenin' to you that scare the shit outta me because I don't know how to help you. You ain't under my roof no more, but you're still my nephew and I've had you more years than your dad did, so I still feel responsible for you. So if this–if this burn or whatever it is, is the only way to make sure you don't end up like one've them things, you gotta do it. You've gotta do it."
Eddie was taken aback, not only because this was the most his uncle had ever said to him in a single sitting, but also because he had all but ignored how difficult to process all of this was for a man like Wayne who led one of the most boring lives in existence. He had never considered how Wayne had had to deal with all of this: Isaac's disappearance, Eddie's mental check-out for a month, Eddie moving out, Isaac's sudden return, a mass expulsion of monsters from the pits of hell, Eddie and Isaac both being taken over by hostile beings. If it were any other man who had gotten a crash-course in the history of the Upside Down at the speed Wayne had, their minds would have snapped under the sheer weight of it all, but Wayne had an inkling of that Munson open-mindedness and he was holding on for his nephews' sake.
It was enough to make Eddie's insides writhe with guilt that he had essentially left Wayne to figure things out on his own or be told about them by everyone else except for him. He had been too consumed with his worry over Chrissy and his own skin and hung his uncle out to dry. What a world class dickhead he was.
"I, um, I know I should've been the one to explain things but–"
"You've got enough goin' on that I didn't expect that from you, but you gotta at least let me in on some things now, okay? I may not understand, but that don't mean I can't try. If I can help, you better let me."
"Sure. I mean, yeah, whatever you want."
"I want you and your brother safe."
Safe. The one word in the English vocabulary that had not applied to the Munson Brothers for quite some time. The word that offered a false sense of security, that pulled the wool over their eyes, that left them worse off than they'd ever been.
All at once, Eddie knew it was time to address a very sensitive topic that he had been blissfully ignoring until Henry brought it to light. He went back to the party's collection of tables where Isaac was staring at the black abyss inside his coffee cup with distaste and muttered, "I'm a simple man. I'm not a picky eater and I take pleasure in the small things in life but cold coffee is one of the worst fucking things on the face of the planet."
"A few sugar cubes would clear that right up," offered Dustin.
"I take my coffee black, like my soul, but thanks."
He caught sight of Eddie watching him and his face darkened. "Now, what?"
"Can I talk to you for a minute?"
Resigned as if he expected the worst, Isaac followed Eddie to the other side of the room where a guttering light above them cast questionable shadows across both of their faces in a coincidental form of irony since they were the only ones who could make the lights go haywire without trying.
Eddie told him everything Henry had revealed to him verbatim and when he had finished, Isaac had the decency to look away, chewing on the inside of his lip.
"He told you that I enjoyed killing?"
"No, he just said it was easy for you."
"Well, I wouldn't say that since I've only done it the one time."
"But it was, wasn't it?"
"You asked me something like this before and my answer didn't change, even if I did. You asked me to try not to hurt Jason and his lackeys and I told you I wouldn't if they kept their hands off of you. You asked me if I would have shot them and I told you I would have if they gave me reason to. Going into the Upside Down didn't make me change my mind about that. I could hear them torturing you before I saw it, but once I saw it, my mind was made up."
Eddie recalled how calm, unbothered, almost bored Isaac looked when he had passed in front of the car headlights. It could have been just another dull day at the pharmacy for all the emotion he expressed at the time.
"But I saw the black marks on you when you went to strangle him," Eddie insisted,
"That wasn't Vecna; that was all me. I had a goal to kill him and Vecna only helped me accomplish what I couldn't do if I'd been strictly human. It was only me right up until the end. I needed Vecna's help for that. I swore I'd kill the bastard if he tried to hurt you again and if I hadn't, he would've just kept trying. He was insane and dangerous and you were too soft with him to make him back off. It was gonna happen either way."
"So it's my fault that he's dead, basically," said Eddie, feeling what little heat his body could maintain rise in his face.
"It's your fault that he hated you in the first place, but he's dead because he had it coming. He brought about the circumstances that led to that point, not you. He dug his own grave from the moment he decided to take the law into his own hands even though I gave him every opportunity to quit while he was ahead. I gave him chances, too, and he threw them back in my face and flipped me off. He couldn't see past his own hatred and that's what got him killed. If he'd let it go when you threw him out, that would've been the end of it, but he made a decision to hurt you and he enjoyed it, so I don't let myself feel guilty about killing him."
Eddie knew his silence did not have Isaac convinced that he had said all he could to reassure him.
"Too much shit has happened to you for me to walk away from it when I'm capable of taking care of it. I was prepared to do it, bro. I've been prepared to do whatever I had to since the day you came home from the hospital and that's my right as the oldest. No one gets away with putting their hands on my little brother while I'm still breathing."
It didn't make Eddie feel any better that Isaac's protective nature over him was the only thing that could cause him to commit murder, but Eddie knew that at this point, nothing Isaac could tell him would make those feelings of unease go away. Maybe Henry was right and Isaac was lying, maybe it was all bullshit and Eddie couldn't tell the difference anymore. In any case, he wasn't in any state to try right now.
"How's the arm?" he asked in a wildy transparent attempt to change the subject.
"Had a doctor take the bullet out, but it's not healing at lightning speed like your stomach did," said Isaac with an indifferent shrug. "Flesh wound, though, so it'll be alright."
Someone had turned up the volume on the television which was once again on the local news and at the sound of a name he recognized, Eddie whirled around to watch along with everyone else.
"...Patrick McKinney would have been returning as a junior to Hawkins High this fall. His mother remembers him as a devoted son and brother and a dedicated basketball player. Former classmates and teammates of Patrick's all label him as a shining presence in the classroom and an admirable ally on the court. Patrick's body was found by another refugee early this morning in the men's bathroom at the Hawkins High safehouse. His death has been ruled a suicide, no further details at this time."
Patrick, one of Jason's friends, and a would-be victim of Vecna, was now dead by suicide. Vecna had reclaimed a life stolen by Eddie and the others. It was starting. Henry's warning that he would take what was rightfully his was coming to fruition, which meant it was only a matter of time before Chrissy and Max were on the chopping block.
"In other news, we spoke with Chrissy Cunningham's mother, Trisha Cunningham, yesterday evening about her concerns involving her daughter and her daughter's known affiliation with suspected kidnapper, Eddie Munson. Locals have confirmed that Chrissy has been seen out in public with Munson on multiple occasions and former classmates of the two recent graduates have confirmed that Chrissy and Munson appeared to have entered into a relationship following the end of the school year."
The broadcast switched to a clip of Chrissy's mother hiding her face behind a handkerchief as she wailed without tears to the reporter, "I know Eddie Munson did something to my baby. He took her back to his trailer the first night of Spring Break. I don't know if he forced her into his van, but the next day when she came home, I could tell something was different about her. She wouldn't let me into her room and by the end of the day, she was gone. And she hasn't come home since. It's been ugly in court, having to hear her say all these awful things about me when I know that boy's forcing her to say them. I don't want to believe it, but in my heart, I know he hurt her the way that men like to hurt girls. I absolutely believe that he's capable of something like that and after hearing what he did to Chrissy's boyfriend, Jason Carver, I know God will punish him and his brother."
Eddie looked around for something to throw at the TV, but all of the nearby chairs were occupied and he didn't know if he was strong enough to lift the table on his own. He saw Chrissy standing apart from the party, hugging her elbows with her opposite hands and he pulled her back to him, placing his hands protectively across her middle from behind. Her mother had talked about her own daughter's supposed rape to stain her reputation just as much as Eddie's in an act of pure pettiness and revenge. It wasn't enough to taunt her daughter by leaving junk food on the doorstep or fat-shaming her in a public restaurant, no, the hag had to go on live television and express her great fear that her daughter had been influenced, drugged, and raped by Eddie.
"You're gonna have to mark me down for two murders," said Isaac, all joking aside as he glared at the TV screen. "I swear, I'm gonna kill the bitch."
"That's great, now that the whole town thinks I'm a rapist on top of being a kidnapper and a murderer," said Eddie seethingly for only Chrissy and Isaac to hear. "I had Jason fucking Carver shoving a crowbar against my ass, taunting me with the prospect of sodomizing me and I'm the rapist here."
"I don't think people will believe that part," said Chrissy. "My mom's a prominent figure in town and when word got around that I was emancipating myself from her, people wanted to know why. She had enough influence to keep it out of the papers and off the news, but people knew that she was abusive toward me and her name's become mud in the community. I don't know how she managed to get on TV, but I don't think anyone will believe any rape allegations. That's not to say people won't believe what Jason told them about you, though."
"Just wait until they find out what happened to him. Then the lab will be under attack from an angry mob and the UDC's once word gets out that I'm here," said Eddie forebodingly.
Hopper returned at that moment and gestured that all party members should follow him to the staircase where they went not up, but down into the sub-levels where Eddie knew Eleven had once been a prisoner. They met Doctors Owens and Brenner in a spacious room that looked like it had been used for council meetings and everyone pulled up a seat, though Eddie remained perched on the edge of his with sudden anxiety that he couldn't pinpoint the source of.
"I know we're on a time crunch here, so I'll try to be as brief as possible," said Owens at the head of the table. "I know everyone has theories and guesses on the best way to help get this disease out of Eddie and Isaac but I think we all can agree that heat is the only option we have. We know that Henry is growing stronger and that his power over both of these men is getting harder to contain. We know that Isaac is more deeply affected and that Eddie's connection to Henry, while strong, isn't nearly as severe as Isaac's. So it makes sense to try and smoke the connection out of Eddie first. Now, we don't know what effect this may have on Henry, Isaac, or anything else from the Upside Down, so assuming we're successful in our attempts to remove the infection, we may be limiting our time even more to try the same technique on Isaac. There's a very real possibility that Henry could completely take over Isaac or he may send all of his creatures here to the lab or he may come here himself. We don't know because we don't know where he is, but we'll have to be ready, so if we're going to do this, I need a yes from everyone in attendance here to do as you're ordered by the soldiers who are risking their lives to protect this place."
"Wait, if burning this out of Eddie means sending Vecna right to our doorstep, what sort of battle plan do we have in place?" asked Nancy. "There has to be preparations, right?"
"Safety measures are being taken," Brenner assured them. "Since your arrival last night, we've been putting defensive strategies in place. But we can still use your help in identifying weak spots, figuring out the best countermeasures, and informing the soldiers of how to most effectively kill these creatures, should they attack the lab. Mr. Hopper has already been overseeing some of these preparations but for those of you who have fought these things before and know what they are capable of, we could use all the knowledge you have to offer."
"And I'll be ready if it's Henry who comes," said Eleven.
"But last time we had to pin him down with a bear trap, light him on fire, use up close to two hundred rounds of ammunition, and partly take off his head before you got to him," said Steve. "Is that the same plan this time, or do you think he won't fall for that twice?"
"Essentially, yes, but at this time, we cannot disclose the plan with present company," said Brenner carefully with a pointed look at Eddie and Isaac. "It's too much to hope for that Henry won't find out what we have in store for him if either of you were to know, for the time being."
Eddie was about to point out how stupid this was since he and Isaac were the only two people here who had any connection to Vecna to begin with, but Isaac silenced him with a shake of his head.
"So if everyone is in agreement, the only thing left to do is to start the burn," said Owens. "Eddie, are you prepared?"
No, he was not. The truth of the matter was that the burn had seemed a lot more manageable from the other side of last night but now that the doctors were telling him they were ready for him just as soon as he could slip into a hospital gown, Eddie was in full flight mode and he wasn't sure if that was his own fear of possibly dying in the process or the infection warning him to fight his way out.
"Hold him," said Isaac suddenly as if he could sense the part of Vecna in retreat from the very suggestion of fire. "Hold him now!"
Hopper and Steve each grabbed Eddie's arms just as Eddie was preparing to launch himself out of his chair and run for the door. He felt himself brought down to the floor and held there with voices from all directions telling him to calm down, but calm was not an option right now.
"I don't think I'm ready," he told them. "I think I just need a couple hours…or days or–"
"We don't have the time, kid," said Hopper. "You said you were ready for this, now I need you to follow through on that."
"If you cannot go into this calmly by yourself, we will have to physically escort you," said Brenner.
"That's one surefire way to make him absolutely not do this calmly, thanks, doc," said Dustin irritably. "Eddie, don't worry, we're not gonna force you to do anything."
"No, seriously, I'm having a change of heart and I'd rather not do this right now or ever, so let go. Let go of me." He strained between Hopper and Steve and felt something throbbing in his core that definitely was not a normal bodily function. "Let me go! Let go now!"
Eleven knelt on the floor in front of him, put her hands on his shoulders, and touched her forehead to his. The intensity of her tawny brown eyes gazing at him cleared all else from his brain as he went slightly cross-eyed to gaze back. Everything else fell away apart from her and Eddie and he felt himself entering a plane of nothingness, free of fear and doubt and worry. His body was lighter, unmarked, and his once again. The heart beating in his chest was his, the thoughts in his brain were his, and no one else had access to any of it.
This is what is waiting for you, if you can hold on, said Eleven's voice without ever moving her lips. You can be you again, but you have to fight one more time. You can do this. This is you, not Henry. This is your choice.
Vecna would make it difficult, even if he didn't rely on Eddie's continued bend to his will to sustain him. He would make Eddie fight for every breath and he would put everything he had into making sure that the Upside Down retained its hold on him until the last possible second. But there was a hope that Eddie could survive this exodus of evil. He had worked too damn hard to give into this darkness so easily and he deserved to be human again, didn't he? Hadn't he given enough to earn his humanity back?
That was the thousand dollar question, the question that only his admittance to the burn could answer. If he didn't willingly walk into this, he'd never know if he deserved that chance.
Back on the floor of the lab, Eleven was tapping his face, waiting for his response. "Are you ready?"
"Okay."
