In losing grip

Hawkins, March 25, 1986

Chrissy, Dustin, Max, and Eddie were silent as they drove back to Forest Hills. Dustin's radio sat in his lap, at the ready should the other half of their group have pertinent information to relay. But as they pulled into the Munson trailer driveway, the radio stayed just as silent as everyone else in the car. All was calm in that tense sort of way, when something bad happens, and you have nothing else to do but to sit with it.

The calm shattered when Eddie's headlights swept over the form of Jason Carver sitting on the front steps of the Munson trailer.

"Oh, fuck," Chrissy swore softly under her breath. The passenger side door was open, and she was slipping out of it before Eddie even had the van in park. "Jason! What are you doing here?"

His features were painted golden by the headlights. The hurt and anger in Jason's blue eyes gave her pause. "They found Patrick's body in Lover's Lake."

"Patrick McKinney?" Chrissy stopped short of the porch steps, that all too familiar cold settling over her.

"Some fishermen found him." Jason's voice was small, and understandably so. He had been playing basketball with Patrick since they were kids. "Pulled him out. The authorities have already classified it a murder. Just like Fred Benson."

Jason had clearly been crying. Red rimmed his eyes, shot through the whites. He was usually well-kempt but now his hair was mussed, and a fair shadow of stubble showed on his jaw and cheeks. Chrissy's heart gave a tug. Despite the sharp spike of anxiety at the news of Patrick's death—it was undoubtedly the work of Vecna—she stepped forward, meaning to comfort him.

But then Jason raised his downcast eyes and fixed her with a hard, accusatory gaze. "I called your house after I got the news, and your mom said you hadn't been home all day and she hadn't seen you since yesterday." He turned his icy blue gaze to the upward over her shoulder, settling it over Eddie. "Stacy looks a little different lately, doesn't she?"

"How'd you even know I was with Eddie?" Jason pushed himself to standing instead of answering Chrissy's question. He drew closer, so that she had to tilt her head back to look at him.

"Shane saw you driving across town with him. This morning." Chrissy watched as his mouth settled into a wobbling frown. "There's a murderer making their way through the town, and you go to the most dangerous person you can find, Chrissy?"

"Eddie isn't dangerous." Where is Eddie? Fear kept her from looking away from Jason's face. She had heard the car doors slam after she herself exited the car. The others had to be close.

It was almost as if she hadn't spoken. "Did you stop to consider how worried your folks would be?"

"Get off your high horse, Jason. Did you come looking for me because you were 'worried', or so you could lecture me like I'm a little girl?" After the past two days, Chrissy was at her emotional wits end. She knew she was being rude, and she didn't care.

"Worried that my girlfriend was going to get murdered? Yeah, Chris, I fucking was. And then I heard you were running around town with one of the resident freaks and I was worried and pissed. I told you to stay away from him." Jason waved an accusatory hand to Chrissy's left. So that's where Eddie was.

"Well, obviously I am still alive, so there goes your stupid accusation that Eddie had anything to do with Fred or Patrick." Chrissy threw her own hands up. "Want to know who else I was with today? Dustin, Max, Lucas, Steve, Nancy, and Robin. Guess what? They're all still alive."

"Are we really going to have a fucking fight over this right now, Chrissy? My friend is dead."

"You started this!"

It might have gone on longer, but when the lights in the Munson trailer began to flicker on and off, Jason was no longer looming over her. Eddie knocked him down and back before crouching before Jason, face mere inches from the other boy's. "Stop it," he snapped, the words sharp as a blade. "Now. Before something really fucking bad happens."

Jason was swinging almost immediately. A fist connected with Eddie's eye, sending him falling heavily onto his bottom on the dirt driveway. "Jason!"

Unphased by the pleading tone in his girlfriend's tone, Jason was coming for Eddie as soon as they were each on their feet. The older boy landed a hit, leaving blood blooming from Jason's nose. "I mean it, man, stop. You're making her upset and we really can't afford for her to be right now."

If Jason even heard the words, they had no effect. His cheeks were stained as red as the blood streaming from his nose and into his mouth. When he charged at Eddie, it very nearly sent Chrissy over the edge.

"STOP IT!" Hysteria edged her words. Someone—Max, headphones over her ears and Kate Bush playing faintly from them—gripped her arm so tight, she could feel the press of fingers on her bones. The lights were flickering inside and the night was too dark and there was a ringing in her ears, a hollowness in her chest. Faintly, as if in the great distance, a clock chimed.

Eddie side stepped Jason's advance so that the latter nearly fell face-first to the ground. When he turned toward them, Chrissy saw the beginnings of a bruise spreading like ink around his eye.

"Dustin." The boy's name was hard in Eddie's voice. He had moved, blocking Jason from Chrissy's view with his body. "Go put on 'Abbey Road.' Here Comes the Sun. Play it loud."

Catching the keys tossed to him, Dustin skirted nimbly around Jason to unlock the door and head inside. Less than a minute later, the beginning chords spilled from a hastily opened window.

Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo. Here comes the sun, and I say, it's alright.

"What the hell is going on here?!" Jason shouted, wiping at his nose as if just realizing it was bleeding. Blood smeared across his cheek, toward his ear.

Little darlin', it's been a long, cold, lonely winter. Little darlin', it feels like years since it's been here

Chrissy didn't realize she had backed away from the others until Max gently coaxed her to sit on the hood of the van. "Would you believe it if I told you there was a wizard from another dimension playing mind games with your emotionally vulnerable girlfriend?"

Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo. Here comes the sun, and I say, it's alright.

Dustin's words didn't quite hit the mark, but they were more effective than Eddie's glower and the way he spat in the dirt at Jason's feet. Chrissy held her breath, trying to focus on the words of the song and the expressions that flickered over Jason's features at the same time. Shock, annoyance, disgust, anger. "No, you freak. Is that part of you demonic game?"

Little darlin', the smile's returning to their faces. Little darlin', it seems like years since it's been here.

"He's not my boyfriend." The words tumbled from Chrissy's mouth before she could even think to stop them. Perhaps it was the desperation of knowing Vecna was close, too close. Perhaps she had simply had enough. Whatever it was, it kept Chrissy talking when three sets of shocked eyes settle on her face.

Dustin, from the second to last porch step, snapped his head up in surprise. Eddie's eyes widened, face settling into a carefully blank mask. She could only see Jason over Eddie's shoulder, but his face had gone pale, the blood stark on his cheek and in its trail down his chin. "If you can't understand and you can't help me, then you can't be my boyfriend."

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun, and I say, it's alright.

Dimly, Chrissy knew this should be the lynchpin. Surely, if anything was meant to toss her entirely into Vecna's clutches, it would be breaking up with her boyfriend of two years. Yet she felt free to have said the words, a weight lifting off her shoulders, and that dreadful cold that gripped her heart dissipating and beginning to melt. The clock chiming was fainter by degrees.

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes. Sun, sun, sun, here it comes.

Chrissy raised her chin, clenching her teeth together to keep it from wobbling. Just because its right doesn't mean its easy, her father's voice said in her head. He had always used the saying in the context of encouraging Chrissy and Caleb to be honest, to make good choices even if their friends didn't, but Chrissy thought it fit here, too. She made herself meet Jason's eyes, to look at the hurt and betrayal she saw in the blue depths.

"I can't do this, Jason," she heard herself saying. "You don't listen to me. I can't anymore."

That hurt and betrayal hardened into something that looked dangerously close to hatred. "You always do this, Chrissy. You always make everything about yourself."

In that moment, she was thankful for small miracles. The current one being that Jason didn't feel the need to expand on his accusation. Swallowing hard, Chrissy forced herself to say, "That's not something you have to worry about anymore."

Jason nodded at her, once, and stalked into the night from the glare of the van's headlights. He made sure to shoulder-check Eddie as he went. To her immense relief, Eddie didn't respond, allowing Jason the final blow of their physical dispute.

"Good riddance," Max said softly beside her. The younger girl was still holding her arm, but the hold was no longer tight. Max did give her a small, heartening squeeze before letting go. "Okay, well, now that that's settled, we need to regroup."

Dustin came bounding down the remaining steps and took Max by the arm to draw her into the backseat of the van again. There was the static-y feedback of the radio, Dustin's voice calling for Steve, before the door clicked shut. For all intents and purposed, Eddie and Chrissy were left alone in the quiet, strained aftermath of Jason's departure.

Though she felt on the verge of shattering, Chrissy made herself lift her head to meet Eddie's eye. A shaky, rattling sigh left her lips as she looked at the bruise circling his eye. He raised a hand to his cheek and shrugged, giving her a smile that, for all the world, was not nearly apologetic enough. To her surprise, a laugh bubbled past Chrissy's lips, undercutting the tears that had begun to stream down her face.

She accepted Eddie's hand when he held it out to her. Once dismounted from the hood of the van, Eddie led her inside the trailer. The adrenaline was fading from Chrissy, anxiety—but no fear, no regret—filling its place. She hated herself for the way she couldn't stop the words from leaving her mouth. "Can I use your bathroom?"

"Yeah, of course." He gestured vaguely toward the hallway, moving to the record player in the living room and picking up the needle. Here Comes the Sun started again as she pulled the bathroom door closed behind her. Chrissy hoped, between the music and running water from the sink, Eddie wouldn't hear what she was about to do.

She hated using her fingers. At home, she had a spare toothbrush. And she hadn't eaten much at all that day; nothing since the meager amount of pop tart she had choked down that morning. The stomach acid burning her throat was far from a surprise. Once finished, she flushed the incriminating evidence and rinsed her mouth. Feeling intrusive—but not enough to stop herself—she poked around the bathroom cabinets until she found a bottle of mouthwash and took a healthy swig of it.

Her bangs were slightly damp on her forehead when she left the bathroom after several minutes. On unsteady legs, she rejoined Eddie, who was standing awkwardly in his own living room. Still, he gave her a smile that was uncertain on his lips. She tried her best to return it. "I guess we should go see what our paranormal, alternate dimension tour guides think we need to do now."

"You don't think you need to go home?" Eddie questioned. Jason had said her parents were worried about her, but…

"No!" Even Chrissy was surprised to hear the hardness of the word in her voice. "Um, no, please. I, um…" Words failed her. How was she supposed to make him understand that she, Chrissy Cunningham, would be perilously close to Vecna were she to return home?

A beat passed where the two of them stood regarding the other. Eddie, in his leather jacket and new bruise, dark gaze narrowed as he tried to puzzle her out. Chrissy, head ducked, peeking at him through her lashes, willing him to understand.

"Alright," Eddie agreed. "Let's go see what fuckery Henderson and Max want to drag us into next."

A/N: rao hyuga 18, you're the real MVP here. Thank you for all your reviews!