Routine Eight: I
She wakes in her bed in the morning light, with sweat-soaked skin, and harsh breathing, and she still hears the whispers.
Hears the clock, chiming once.
Twice.
Thrice.
And four times.
Chrissy breathes. She finds Eddie Munson before school even starts, with cold hard cash, finds him and begs for some weed, anything to make her feel calm, just for a little while before Henry kills her again. She doesn't think he'll ever stop.
He makes her slow down.
Just like before seven days ago, seven routines ago, Eddie makes her stop.
Because his dark eyes are looking down at her, confused at seeing perfect Chrissy Cunningham at the ass crack of dawn at his trailer, begging for drugs.
"Whoa there- You good Cunningham?"
"Sorry," she muttered, and apparently she still has tears to shed because she is suddenly blubbering on the steps of Eddie Munson's castle without another word.
Hands pressed gently against her bare shoulders, careful and mindful of the fact that her sweatshirt had fallen nearly all the way off. He doesn't drag her into a hug or anything more than hold onto her shoulders. It's a steady pressure, a cool comfort that contrasts with his calloused and warm skin, and the cool bite of his rings. Another hand goes to her back, and he's breathing in and out really slowly, and at his murmured words, she's copying how he's breathing. Somehow, impossibly, Eddie Munson takes one look at her pale, pale face, and it clicks- His dark eyes, wide and so expressive, are looking at Chrissy in worry.
She can't remember the last time someone was worried for her. Maybe her brother Thomas, who had begged and begged her to run when she turned eighteen, that he would pay for a place for her to stay if she just took that step-
But that was months ago. Only told her when she was ready, he'd be there.
"What's- Shit," he mumbles, he removes a hand to run through his bed-wrangled hair, "Do you want to come in, Cunningham? Just- Nothing creepy just- Just a second to calm down?"
Selfishly, even though she knows how it will end, she goes in. And just- goes with Eddie Munson, like a puppet on a string, powerless to do anything but follow him. Without another word, Eddie brings her inside, puts her on the surprisingly comfortable couch, and Chrissy is collapsing on the sofa with chest heaving sobs and sweet, unknowing Eddie is making jokes and not shoving her off, telling her to take her drugs leave-
He sees her wrists.
The wrists are dark and bruised, without makeup to hide it.
"What's this? How did you-"
"Jason did it," she mumbles, "He's always hurting me to make sure I behave."
Henry is a much bigger monster. The fact that her boyfriend holds her too hard to make sure she's doing the right thing has utterly faded to unimportant to her. She had nearly forgotten.
"I'll fucking kill him, " Eddie Munson vows, voice hard and furious for her instead of at her.
Chrissy smiles. She believes him. No one else would have beat the shit out of Jason like Eddie Munson had for her. Her brother Thomas would, but Thomas only knows about how bad things at home have become. He doesn't know about Jason, doesn't know that she is now vomiting on her own, instead of simply having her mother force her to.
"I'll help you hide the body," she says, brokenly, giggling.
That startles a laugh for him.
"We'll dismember his body," he jokes, his eyes are dark with fury, but they are also focused on her and her brokenness. He stays, does not run off like an errant knight to her broken maiden, he doesn't leave her like Jason would have done. His arm wraps around her, warm and solid, hesitant, but steady, "Make some nice fucking chickenshit fish chum out of that dipshit and dump him in Lover's Lake."
She laughs.
She laughs and curls into his arm. Eddie freezes. His arm around her stiff, before he relaxes and he curls around her, still so warm and solid. He smells like smoke, leather even if he isn't wearing his jacket and something that may be his soap.
"Can we just… Can we just sit here?"
"Yeah," he says, softly, his dark eyes firm on her, "We can just sit here, Chrissy. You don't- You don't need do anything you don't want to… Want to get high and watch movies?"
She's horrible at smoking, coughs, and coughs, and she might not have even gotten high. But she watches The Goonies, Star Wars, and The Neverending Story with Eddie Munson.
She doesn't think she's ever had a nicer day in her entire life.
She dies in Eddie's Castle again, Henry crooning in her ears, as she tries to fight, and poor Eddie sobbing and screaming for her.
Chinadoll Chrissy, Cheerleader Humpty Dumpty, and not even all the King's men can put her together again.