Hello again. Sorry for the long wait for this chapter but I've been completely lost in uni work. Anyways so that you aren't waiting any longer, here's the chapter 7. Enjoy!

Chapter 7:

"Nice house Harrington" Eddie complimented Steve's house as they walked inside through the back door, "It completely beats my old trailer. How the other half live..."

"Yeah thanks" Steve huffed, still not happy that his house had been selected as the hiding spot and that someone else was driving his car. Being handcuffed to Eddie wasn't helping his mood either, "Please don't touch anything"

"Does that include the floor?" Eddie asked sarcastically.

"Don't be a smart arse" Steve sighed, "But if you can float, please do"

"So what do we do now?" El asked from where she stood playing with a glass vase.

"I don't know" Steve answered her before taking notice of what she was doing, "You don't touch anything either"

El stepped away from the vase with her hands up in surrender, "Sorry"

"Hey, that's cool!" Eddie gasped excitedly as he carelessly yanked an unsuspecting Steve across the room towards a grand piano.

"Hey idiot! Watch what your doing!" Steve scolded him as he almost fell over in Eddies haste, "No! don't touch that! My mom will kill me if anything happens to it..."

Eddie had already opened the lid that protected the keys and was gently pushing each key down releasing some sweet sounding notes as he did so.

"Do you know how to play this?" Eddie asked as he carried on pushing down random keys.

"Maybe twinkle twinkle little star, but that's about it" Steve admitted, "Now leave it alone before you break it! Your nails are going to scratch it up..."

"Can I have a go?" El asked as she appeared beside them amazed by this giant musical instrument.

"I'd rather you didn't..." Steve began to protest but it was to late, El had already began hitting random keys. The noise was atrocious, but she was immensely enjoying herself. Eddie couldn't help but laugh at the noise she was creating and the growing annoyance of Steve, who had tried to cover his ears with his own hands but Eddie had fought to keep his own wrist away so that Steve had no choice but to listen.

"Seriously? Can't you act your age?" Steve snapped at him.

"Hey, even covering my ears doesn't help me. I'm suffering worse!" Eddie argued back amused.

"Why do I always get stuck babysitting?" Steve groaned as he began to walk away pulling an unwilling Eddie behind him as he walked towards his front window. El was to busy making noise to care they had moved away, "How long is Nancy going to be with my car?"

"Hey Steve?" Eddie spoke to him with a grin.

"What?" Steve turned around annoyed.

"So did you and Nancy ever use these handcuffs?" he lifted up their wrists to show him.

"Why the hell would you ask that?" Steve asked disgusted.

"Did you?" Eddie asked unfazed.

"No!"

"Ah, so that must mean she bought them for her and Jonathan to use then..." Eddie concluded, "That must really be bugging you, right?"

"What is your point man?" Steve turned back to him angrily.

"I'm just saying, I wonder if she'll let me show her a good time once she gets bored of him. I mean, she did get bored of you so it's only a matter of time..." Eddie smirked.

Steve had had enough. He grabbed Eddie by the collar threateningly and got close to his face.

"Don't you ever talk about Nancy like that! She would never go for a guy like you. She is way better than that!" He warned.

"Is that a challenge Harrington?" Eddie grinned wider, not showing the slightest hint of fear.

However, that grin was far to unnerving to Steve, those teeth were to damn sharp. Trying not to show that they bothered him, Steve let Eddie go and shoved him away slightly.

"You have issues..." He finished as he went back to staring out of the window.

"So I've been told" Eddie also finished. If Steve had been watching, he would have seen the slight hint of regret that was etched onto Eddies face.

After Eddie and Steve's falling out, they both sat in awkward silence for about an hour as El continued to make a racket with the piano, apparently to transfixed to take notice of the others. Steve had continued to sit on the window seat as he stared down his driveway with his arms folded to his chest. Eddie had taken to slouching on the floor with his back leaning on the window seat, his arm dangling in the air as it was still attached to Steve's wrist. Steve was refusing to relax his arms or put them down so that Eddie could have a bit of relief from holding his up, so Eddie had relaxed his arm to make it a dead weight ensuring that it would cause strain on Steve, just to hold it up. Neither of them were going to complain about it first though, they didn't want to give the other any satisfaction. Suddenly, a noise came sailing to Eddies ears over the sound of the piano, he quickly sat up straight, completely alert. Feeling a hard tug at his wrist, Steve was about to berate Eddie for annoying him. That is, until he noticed Eddie was listening to something intently.

"What is it?" he asked him a little more sharply then he was supposed to. His recent distaste for the male hadn't helped, but it was El's noisy music playing that was driving him mad more. He had only let her carry on as it was a distraction from the silence, "El please! Can you stop?" he asked her irritated.

"Sorry..." El apologised as she slammed the key cover back down.

"God please don't be broken..." Steve whined to himself as he thought over the worst punishment his mother could possibly give him for breaking it.

"Sorry" El apologised again as she caught sight of his disheartened face and instantly knew what she had done. She slowly walked over to them both.

"Don't worry about it..." Steve sighed thinking that if it was broken, there wasn't really anything he could do. He didn't have a clue how to fix them things. Hopefully it was fine and his mom wouldn't know it had been touched. Sighing once more, he turned back towards Eddie who was still sat on alert, "What's got into you all of a sudden?" he asked sharply again.

"Your car is on the way back..." Eddie answered him flatly, "You can stop crying about it now"

"Really?" Steve asked, failing to hide his excitement as he turned back to look out of the window watching for it.

"Yeah, though there is another car that I don't recognise following it..." Eddie trailed, then sounding a little more alarmed asked, "You don't think it's the cops do you?"

"I doubt it" Steve snort laughed, "Nancy wouldn't tell the cops anything about you. Dustin especially wouldn't. Your safe there. But, how do you even know its my car?"

"It has a distinctive rattle to it" Eddie shrugged as he stood up and began looking out of the window as well, "You may want to get that looked at..."

"There's nothing wrong with my car!" Steve argued.

"What ever" Eddie rolled his eyes as he waited to see who else was coming to Steve's house with Nancy and the others.

He didn't have to wait long. No sooner had he arrived at the window, Steve's car came into view with Nancy at the wheel and Robin sat beside her. Behind them was a station wagon, it had people in that Eddie had never seen before.

"Who are they?" he asked.

"It's Jonathan, Will and Mike" Steve answered as he began to walk towards the front door pulling Eddie along behind him, "Their in Nancy and Mike's family car. Looks like they borrowed it"

"Mike?" Eddie asked himself quietly. Why did that name sound familiar? Once they had reached the front door, Eddie looked through the side window as Steve unlocked the door. And the reason he recognised Mike's name was because it was the very same Mike from the Hellfire club. To be fair Eddie should have known better, he was one Dustin's closest friends after all, and Nancy's younger brother, "Why are they even here?"

"Why do you think?" Steve raised an eyebrow as he opened the door.

"I don't know them and they have nothing to do with this" Eddie answered flatly.

"Be that as it may, their part of the group and we've all been through shit together. So suck it up..." Steve answered as the group from outside started walking towards the house.

Once again the house had settled into some sort of awkward silence as everyone stared at Eddie who was refusing to speak to anyone. Steve sat quietly beside him with some kind of unreadable expression on his face. Finally with the silence getting to much for everyone, Jonathan spoke up first.

"Soooo your Eddie?" he began and Eddie looked directly at him, not saying a word. They stared at each other for what seemed like a lifetime to Jonathan, before he gave in and spoke again, "I'm Jonathan, we haven't met yet"

"No shit" Eddie answered him sarcastically.

"There's no need to be rude" Nancy tried to stick up for her boyfriend, "He was just being polite"

"Just being polite?" Eddie snapped at her, "You can all pretend to be as polite as you want, but having me stuck here, chained up to this guy!" He indicated Steve as he lifted up their chained wrists to show them all, "Staring at me like I'm some kind of wild animal! I think politeness has gone out of the window!"

"There's no need to speak to her like that" Jonathan tried again sounding a little worked up now, "If you hadn't been going around attacking people, you wouldn't be trapped like this..."

"You know nothing of why I've done what I have... Jonathan!" Eddie turned back to him as he cut him off, "In fact, you know nothing about me at all! So why are you even here?!"

"That may be so" Jonathan argued back, "And right now, I don't understand why they even want to help you. If it was up to me, you'd be dead already!"

"Is that right?" Eddie tried to get closer to Jonathan but Steve held him back the best as he could with their wrists so Eddie couldn't get as close as he would have liked. Jonathan would have gotten closer to, but Nancy stood at his side, holding onto his arm.

"You guys need to cool it" Steve warned them.

"We won't get anywhere if you carry on like this" Nancy added.

"Tell me Jonathan..." Eddie spoke again ignoring the others as a smirk played at his lips, "Does Nancy know about your little habit?"

"What are you talking about?" Jonathan asked, though a clear look of panic was on his face.

"Tell me...do you usually wear such herbal cologne?" Eddies smirk spread further.

"What's he on about?" Nancy asked as everyone began to stare at Jonathan confused. He was visibly shaken now, like a deer caught in the headlights.

"I don't know what your talking about..." Jonathan tried to deflect.

"What's it called?" Eddie continued, "Eau de weed?"

"Shut up!" Jonathan got defensive, but it was to late. Nancy let her hand drop from his arm as she stepped away looking at him full of disappointment and hurt.

"Please tell me you don't smoke that stuff?" she asked quietly.

"Nancy I..."

"Jonathan?"

"Are you really going to believe him over me?!"

"Hey, my sense of smell doesn't lie" Eddie cut in amused, "You all have a certain scent about you. Some more mouth watering than the others" he winked at Nancy who looked away disgusted before storming out of the room away from Jonathan who quickly followed her.

"Why the hell would you do that?" Steve asked once they were gone.

"Hey you should be happy" Eddie laughed, "I might have opened her back up for you"

"Arsehole" Steve finished.

"Eddie?" Dustin now spoke quietly from where he had been sat watching, "Please, tell us what happened to you and how we can fix this? We just want to help you..."

Eddie turned to face Dustin and he almost let his guard drop when he saw how upset his former friend was. He had to admit to himself that he hated what he was doing, but his new plan was to drive a rift into the whole group. Once they were all broken apart, it would be easier for him to get to Eleven. She was going to be the hardest part of his plan, he had to get her to trust him. Right now though, Dustin had asked him a question and he had to figure out how to answer it. After all, he could tell them the truth about what Vecna had done to him, but he couldn't tell them why he had done this to him, well, not the whole truth about it anyways.

"Please, just tell us..." Dustin pleaded again.

"Ok, fine!" Eddie sighed heavily, giving in, "Just to get you off my back. And I guess, that because I'm going to be attached to Stevie boy here for I don't know how long, there's some stuff your going to need to know"

"What stuff?" Robin asked intrigued and a little nervous.

"I'll get there" Eddie answered rolling his eyes, "I'm going to give you the quick version and I'm not repeating myself"

Everyone sat forward as they were all ready to hear his explanation.

"Well I guess I should begin at when I first woke up like this" Eddie began. And so he explained to them all that he could. Of course he left out the whole Vecna plan to capture El and take over Hawkins and probably the world thing, but he did add in a few lies to get around that, "So yeah, after Vecna turned me into this and showed me a few things, he tried to twist me into working for him. I played along long enough to get back here, and now that I'm back, I've been hiding from him the best I could ever since" he finished.

"How are you managing to hide from him when he can enter your mind?" Mike asked confused.

"I just sing my favourite song to myself in my head constantly" Eddie was pleasantly surprised that he had managed to lie so quickly and without missing a beat.

"Wait...that works?" Will now asked just as confused as the others.

"I guess so, because he hasn't found me yet" Eddie smirked.

"So let me get this right..." Steve began, "You definitely died, right?"

"Yep"

"And then Vecna merged a demobat into you?"

"Yep"

"And that's the reason you look the way you do and why your skin is deathly cold?"

"Er...I'm guessing so..."

"So if your not working for Vecna, why are you attacking innocent people?" Dustin now asked.

"It's not me...Well it is...but its not..." Eddie stumbled over his words as he tried to explain, "It's the Demobat that's inside of me. It craves blood. Just like it would if it was still out there flying around. So it has adapted my body, so that it can get its fill that way..."

"So you are drinking blood!?" Robin asked alarmed, confirming what they already knew.

"You saw it for yourself" Steve answered her with a sigh, "We caught him in the act when we drove up that road and he was lent over that lady"

"Actually!" Eddie interrupted them loudly, "I was trying to save her life. I was...I was giving her CPR..." He trailed off quietly.

"I saw you attacking her" El now cut in and Eddie turned to her confused.

"How?" he asked and then realisation set in, "Oh yeah, your the magic girl. You were obviously spying on me with that mind travel thing or what ever it is you do..."

"I saw you attack her and drink her blood" El continued.

"I'm not denying that I did because, shock horror, I did" Eddie answered her truthfully, "That being said, I never completely drained any of my victims of blood. I never wanted to kill any of them... the first one was an accident...that's why I tried to save that lady in the end. Did... did she make it?"

Robin shook her head sadly and Eddie felt even more guilt ripple through him. He sat forward with his forehead resting on his hand.

"Wait" Steve spoke now after a moments thought, "You killed your first victim? That must mean the police haven't found who ever it was yet. Where was this?"

"What do you mean? They must have found her by now. She was on a main road...if it helps, her name was Sarah" Eddie looked at him confused.

"Sarah was your first Victim?" Dustin asked trying his hardest to hold back a smile given what had happened to her.

"Yeah..." Eddie answered, "Why do you sound so excited?"

"That's great!" Dustin celebrated before catching himself and looking around to see everyone's horrified expressions looking back at him, "I mean...it's not because she did die. But, it wasn't you that killed her Eddie"

"What?"

"I mean, unless you have some kind of venom that kills your victims awhile after attacking them or something?"

"Not that I know of..." Eddie continued to look at him confused.

"Sarah was found, and she was still alive" Dustin explained.

"She was taken to the hospital where she eventually woke up" Steve continued, "Only, when she mentioned your name, she died. Exactly like the lady from earlier did and the others before her"

"We were there when it happened" Steve continued, "Her face, the way it looked and how she died it was exactly like..."

"Like Chrissy and the others..." Eddie cut in, "Vecna is the one killing them"

"So our suspicions are true?" Robin wanted to clarify.

"Yes, it's Vecna killing them" Eddie confirmed.

"How are you so certain if you haven't spoken to him?" Steve asked suspiciously.

"Every so often he manages to come through in my mind when I let my guard down" Eddie began to explain. He was telling the truth but at the same time, it wasn't the entire truth. He saw no reason why he should hide what Vecna was doing to the people that he, Eddie, had attacked, "He told me he was killing them, because I refused to"

"Why would he do that?"

Eddie just shrugged in response. He wasn't willing to tell them that Vecna was killing them because he was trying to protect Eddies identity from the authorities and the rest of Hawkins. He didn't want a witch hunt for the one person that could help him carry out his plan after all.

"I know it's no consolation, but at least you haven't actually killed anyone" Dustin offered.

"Your right, it is no consolation. I may not have actually killed anyone, but I'm still responsible for their deaths" Eddie glared at him. It was true, he did feel a slight bit of relief enter him when he heard that he hadn't actually killed Sarah, but the immense guilt was still there. Vecna wouldn't have killed them if it wasn't for him.

"Sorry..." Dustin muttered quietly.

"So why attack them in the first place?" Mike now asked.

"Because I'm really into drinking blood for the hell of it. Its like a kink of mine" Eddie answered him sarcastically.

"W...What?" Mike stuttered not knowing if he was joking or not.

"Idiot!" Eddie huffed, "If I had a choice, I definitely wouldn't be doing it. But right now, its the only thing that I can actually stomach. I tried normal food and drink. It just makes me nauseous and my hunger worse. So on that note. There's something else you should all know"

"I think I know where this is going..." Steve commented.

"I need to drink blood at least once a day" Eddie spoke with some hesitation, "And not just a little either. It has to be enough to satisfy my hunger. If I don't feed or don't get enough, the hunger will keep building until eventually, I lose my mind..."

"You mean you haven't already?" Steve raised an eyebrow with a smirk.

"Joke all you want. The minute I lose my mind, I'll be after everyone. And if I don't get stopped in time, this town will probably become a blood bath" Eddie continued, "It's the reason I attacked as many people as I did...I tried to fight the hunger, but then I almost lost it. Luckily, not enough to actually kill a person..."

"So what do you expect us to do? Throw a person to you everyday?" Will asked from where he sat.

"Of course not" Eddie sighed heavily knowing that what he was about to say next was going to be quickly criticised and dismissed. Either way, he had to try, "I'm suggesting that you let me go out on my own each day...to find my own...well...'food'..."

"No, definitely not" Steve denied him straight away.

"Are you crazy? We can't in good mind let you go out and hunt people that will then be killed by Vecna!" Robin added.

"He...he only kills them if they see him..."Dustin added quietly coming to Eddies defence.

Everyone turned to look at him. Everybody's faces were full of surprise and dismay. Well, all except Eddies who was taken aback that Dustin would actually go against the others and agree with him.

"Really?" Mike asked, "You would sacrifice other humans?"

"I mean...what else do you propose?" Dustin asked back with a shrug, "If it's the only way to help him...then I say we try it that way"

"I don't believe you would be saying that if it was someone else" Steve shot at him.

"That's not true, I would do anything to help anyone of my friends"

"What if it was someone you didn't know? Would you still think it was ok?"

"I...I...I don't know"

"Exactly"

"Well I don't hear any of you coming up with an idea!" Dustin defended himself, "Unless any of you are volunteering to let him drink your blood?"

Everyone looked at each other sheepishly.

"No? I didn't think so..." Dustin concluded.

"Would you let him drink from you?" Mike asked.

"Honestly? Probably not" Dustin answered him without hesitation, "But if the situation got desperate, then I might reconsider"

"Why not try an animal?" El spoke up now for the first time in a while.

Everyone looked at her thoughtfully. After a few moments, Robin spoke.

"Have you tried an animal yet?" She asked Eddie.

"Nope, the thought never even crossed my mind to be honest. I just go with whatever this demobat craves" he answered her.

"Well looks like it's that we're trying next" Steve concluded.

"I guess if it doesn't work I will have a free snack attached to my wrist" Eddie grinned.

"Not funny man" Steve fretted.

Just at that moment an unhappy looking Nancy walked into the room followed by a sour looking Jonathan. They stood in separate parts of the room and turned to face the group again.

"What have we missed?" Nancy asked in a voice that sounded quite forced.

"What's the matter Nance? You and Lover boy ok?" Eddie laughed slightly.

"Why can't you just leave it?" Jonathan snapped at him angrily.

"Just ignore him" Steve suggested.

"But just to clarify, are you two still together? Because Steve would like another go with her" Eddie continued.

"Your a pig!" Nancy fumed at him.

"Why are we even trying to help him?" Jonathan asked, "Can't we just kill him already?"

"As much as he would deserve it, we don't want to lower ourselves to his level" Steve added.

"Ouch! As you guys have pointed out, I haven't actually killed anyone" Eddie shrugged, "Though from what I've heard you guys saying about me, I'm surprised you haven't tried to kill me already"

"This again? What are we supposed to have said about you that makes you hate us so much?" Steve finally asked.

"Stop pretending like you don't know!" Eddie snapped back as he got to his feet in frustration, forgetting for a moment that he was still attached to Steve. He ended up pulling Steve out of his seat and almost fell back himself before catching his footing, "Can someone please un attach us now?!"

"Seconded!" Steve agreed as he picked himself up again.

"Just sit back down and tell us what we missed!" Nancy demanded, "We'll discuss everything else after that. Ok?"

Steve and Eddie looked at each other with distaste before finally sitting back down.

"Fine..." they both agreed together.

It was dark out now and everyone minus Nancy and Robin remained behind at Steve's house. Jonathan had driven everyone else home, as it was getting close to their curfews. Dustin of course has wanted to stay, but Steve had put his foot down and told him that he was welcome to come back the next day, but he needed to go home before his mom could worry. To be fair, everyone in Hawkins still thought there was a blood sucking murderer on the loose. Now as they all stood in Steve's kitchen, Nancy and Robin were getting ready to leave. Right now though, they were finalising their plans for the next day that they had managed to come up with when everyone was still there.

"So we're agreed? We'll all take it in turns to watch Eddie?" Nancy wanted to confirm.

"Except from the kids" Steve added quickly, "Well except Dustin who wouldn't take no for an answer..."

"Right, so with Steve watching Eddie today, who is watching him tomorrow?" Robin asked.

"I will" Nancy volunteered, "Of course it'll have to be here. But it will still give Steve a break"

"Of course" Steve agreed sarcastically. He wasn't happy that his house was still going to be used.

"You know I'm not a child right?" Eddie spoke up, "I can look after myself"

"If we let you go, God knows what trouble you will start making for the town" Nancy argued, "I don't trust you, I know there has got to be another reason you are back!"

"Tell me what you really think?" Eddie grinned, "Your a feisty one Wheeler, I like it"

"What ever" Nancy rolled her eyes then went back to speaking to the others, "Tomorrow, you and El" she indicated Steve, "Will go with Eddie as he hunts for an animal to get blood. Then I'll come and take over the watch"

"Right" Steve and Robin agreed.

"Tonight, I'll try and think of a plan for just in case the whole animal blood thing doesn't work. And depending on how tomorrow goes. I might un cuff you completely" She spoke to Eddie again.

"Why can't you do that now?" Steve asked her disheartened.

"Because we still don't know if he's a flight risk"

"But going to the bathroom is so awkward" he complained.

"It really is" Eddie agreed, not wanting to go through that scenario again. It had happened earlier when Steve had had to use the toilet. He had to drag Eddie, with great protest, with him. It had taken a lot of skill to go. Both desperate to keep Eddies hand away from certain areas. They had both came to an unspoken pact of never speaking on the subject again.

"You'll both be fine" Nancy smirked as she grabbed Steve's car keys. He had reluctantly agreed to let her borrow his car again. After all, he may love his car, but he didn't want Nancy and Robin walking home alone in the dark. Especially in this town!

"Please be careful with her" He pleaded as he and Eddie followed her and Robin to the door.

"Yes Steve" Nancy laughed, "Now have fun you two. Don't stay up to late!"

Steve and Eddie watched as the two girls drove away. Once they were out of sight, they both stood in awkward silence. Neither wanting to speak to the other. Eventually, Steve gave in.

"I'm going to make a sandwich. Do you want one?" he asked without thinking.

"Is that a joke?" Eddie scorned as he reluctantly followed the male into the kitchen, "I told you I can't eat normal food"

Steve laid on his bed with his arm that was attached to Eddies, dangling off. Eddie laid on the floor with nothing but a thin pillow and blanket for comfort, with his arm that was attached to Steve's, slightly elevated. They laid in silence as Steve tried desperately to go to sleep. However his uncomfortable situation was not helping. Finally, he gave in.

"I can't sleep with you attached to me like this!" He groaned.

"Imagine how I feel..." Eddie joked, indicating the obvious of his hand being stuck in the air and lying on the floor.

"Funny"

"I guess it doesn't really matter for me. I don't really have to sleep anyways. It just passes the time for me"

"Really?"

"Yep"

"So do you like, never get tired?" Steve asked curiously.

"Nope, just hungry"

"Please don't feed on me during the night"

"I don't know man, you smell like cinnamon. From what I've discovered, people taste exactly as they smell. Might be hard for me to resist" Eddie smirked to himself knowing that this statement would make Steve a nervous wreck.

"Dude, I swear if you try to feed on me, I'll...I'll"

"Kill me?" Eddie asked finishing off his threat, "Pretty sure I'm still technically dead anyways...its this Demobat keeping me alive"

"You really think so?"

"It's the only explanation. I mean, I did die..."

"God, I can't watch Dustin go through that again" Steve mumbled half to himself.

"Go through what?" Eddie asked intrigued.

"Losing you again" Steve admitted, "It was horrible. Well, it was for us all, especially having no choice but to leave you there. But for Dustin it obviously hit him harder. I mean you were best friends"

"From what I saw it obviously wasn't that hard for any of you" Eddie scoffed.

"Again with that shit?!" Steve snapped before leaning over the edge of his bed to stare at Eddie in the face, "What the hell were you supposed to have witnessed to make you hate us so much?"

Eddie sighed before deciding it was probably about time he called them out on it. At least then they may stop denying it. He looked straight at Steve and seeing the males slightly annoyed but inquisitive face, he sighed again.

"Fine I'll tell you"

And so he began his story of everything he had witnessed after his so called 'death'. From Dustin being unaffected by it, to the group not even wanting to take him with them and finally about the demobat entering his body. Finishing, he wanted to hear Steve's excuse. Steve, who had laid back on his bed, stared up at the ceiling, completely taken aback by what he had just heard. Finally, he began to talk.

"And it was Vecna that showed you this?" He asked.

"Yes" Eddie confirmed.

"And you believe that?"

"I have no reason not to..."

"God your a dumb arse" Steve snorted, "He only showed you what he wanted you to see!"

"Why the hell would he do that?"

"You said it yourself" Steve rolled his eyes, "To try and get you to work for him. He wanted to turn you against us! And you being the idiot you are, listened to him! I guess you at least weren't dumb enough to work for him..."

That kind of stung Eddie a bit, because he was in fact, working for him. Still, he believed his own eyes and ears, so he was willing to let Steve try to Spit out a few lies.

"Well then, you explain to me what actually happened" he offered.

"Well I can only tell you what happened after I arrived on the scene " Steve began, "And it was horrible. I have never seen Dustin so broken. He was crying so much, kept yelling 'No' in a kind of wail. At first me, Robin and Nancy didn't know what had happened. We thought he had been injured, he had, but that had nothing to do with his distress. In fact in that moment, I think he had completely forgot about his broken ankle. Anyways, we ran towards him to find out what the hell had happened. Only the closer we got, the more obvious it became that it was you he was crying over. At first we only saw your legs, then as we got closer your...your face came into view. Your eyes were wide open...staring at, well, nothing. It was obvious what had happened after that. You were dead. Dustin was cradling you in his arms. As soon as we reached you, Nancy managed to persuade Dustin to let you go so that I could see if you could be saved. He stopped crying for awhile as he watched full of hope... Deep down I knew you couldn't be saved, but I still wanted to try. I listened for your heart beat. You didn't have one. I tried CPR for god knows how long...in the end Robin had to pull me away. I tried man...I really tried..." Steve stopped talking for a moment as he tried to push the feelings he had felt in that moment back down. The whole scene was haunting him again.

Eddie was listening silently, not saying a word as he to, stared up at the ceiling from where he lay.

"The cries that came from Dustin after that, honestly, made me feel sick to my stomach. The guilt of not being able to bring you back was unbearable. It was completely heart breaking. Every single one of us were crying. We may not have known you for long, but we still counted you as a friend. We wouldn't have tried to help you clear your name if we didn't or went through half the stuff we did. It took us forever to get Dustin away from your body. And no, we weren't going to leave you behind. Our intentions were to get Dustin back first with his ankle being so bad. So I gave Nancy and Robin a boost through the ceiling of your trailer. Then I helped shove Dustin up as they pulled him through. Once that had been done, I was going to come and get you, only...the gate began to close. I was all set to still get you, but it was closing to fast. It was a horrible decision I had to make, but I just made it through myself when it closed. That still haunts me... as does having to try and hold Dustin together through all of this. So don't you ever say that he isn't your friend! Don't you ever blame him for this happening to you! If your going to blame anyone...blame me" Steve finished solemnly.

Eddie continued to lay in silence not knowing what to say. He had listened to everything and quite frankly, it was hard not to believe Steve. He had always deep down knew he had died long before Vecna had told him he had. He knew it was long before the Demobat merged with him. So now his whole head was in turmoil. If Vecna had lied about that, he could have lied about everything that he claimed had happened with Dustin, Steve and the others. But was it possible for him to have made up these fake memories? Of course it was plausible, he was a monster after all. He would do anything to get his own way. But those memories from the demobat were to far in bedded in Eddie now. They felt so real... What was the truth?! Then there was the whole Chrissy thing. He wanted to bring her back, though he already knew that that, was probably a lie. Of course he also had Max to think about. Even if he did go against Vecna, El would still need to go to the Upside down to save her. Plus he himself, would be killed completely. Thinking over every possibility, he finally spoke.

"I...I can't trust any of you at this point..."

"Seriously man!" Steve groaned frustrated, "It's obvious who is lying..."

"But!" Eddie cut him off, "I'll lay off Dustin"

"Well...I guess that's a start" Steve sighed still a little frustrated.

"And I guess I won't hurt any of you guys physically" Eddie grinned to himself knowing it would wind Steve up a little more.

"Yep, still an arse hole!" Steve grumbled before trying to turn to face the opposite direction in bed, only to be stopped by his and Eddies joined wrists, "This is impossible! I can't get comfortable enough to even try and sleep!"

"Again, have you seen my current situation?" Eddie asked sarcastically.

Seemingly giving up, Steve sat up.

"Just get on the bed!" He demanded as he began to move over to the other side, "Just make sure you stay on your side and no funny business!"

"Well I've already joined you in the bathroom, might as well join you on the bed" Eddie winked at him as he did as he was told.

"Your hilarious, I meant don't try to drink my blood!"

"No shit? I might be a lot of thing's Steve, but I'm into chic's. Sorry to disappoint"

"Just shut up and lie down. The sooner your unattached from me the better" Steve grumbled again as he finally closed his eyes.

"Sweet dreams. Don't let the Vampires bite" Eddie laughed as he sat with his back against the head board, "Don't worry, I'll be sure to watch you sleep...every breath..."

"Arse!" Steve sighed completely fed up now. He knew he was going to have a hard time falling asleep now. He was far to uncomfortable.

Again, I'm sorry for the wait. Hopefully the next chapter won't take near as long. Rest assured though, I will finish the fic. So as always, feel free to review and I'll see you in the next chapter. Bye!