The air was suffocating as Eddie slowly started to put things together and swallowed the idea that there was something supernatural out there easier than most really should. Vecna, a dungeons and dragons fictional character, was a real threat to everyone in the shitty small town of Hawkins, Indiana where the population was too fucking small for most major maps to display.
"This is fucked." Eddie nearly wheezed out breathlessly and leaned into his hands. "I can't believe..." his voice trailed off because he could believe. He was there and he had seen Chrissy become... horrendously broken in midair.
"For the first time, I think we agree on something. It's super fucked up." Steve agreed and ignored the incredulous looks sent his way for the slight quip. Dustin let out an aggravated eye roll as his best friend disrupted the atmosphere and turned back to the processing metal head with every intention of diving deeper into their experiences.
"Listen, Eddie-"
Chills ran up Dustin's spine at the sound of his sister's voice shouting in panic in the distance and everyone's head snapped towards the entrance. Without even thinking, Dustin clambered up and followed an already running Steve slamming the door open. "Oh, shit."
Steve ran over to the young teen lying on her back in the sand with her head towards the lake, eyes wide as her pupils darted back and forth, seeing invisible movement, and lips twitching in a silent conversation as small waves splashed over her face.
"Ags?!" Steve demanded, grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her onto the grass out of the water where Dustin joined him in trying to shake the girl awake. Robin and Max ran outside of the house with towels in their arms, throwing them over the girl in a panic. "Joan Agatha Henderson, stop the bullshit right now before I tell the entire cheer team about how you and Jim T made out behind the bleachers your freshman year!"
"Oh, ew." Robin's nose scrunched up and gagged despite the situation. "Jesus freak Jim? The one who played tuba?"
"Now is not the time Rob."
"Right, right." Robin nodded her head quickly and frowned at the scene before her. Joan wasn't the best of characters from her time at school and although for some mysterious reason she had a major attitude adjustment, the cheerleader still turned a blind eye when Missy tripped a band kid in the hallway or made nasty comments about their appearances. It was like she changed but instead of being active she watched from the sidelines as the high school caste system continued its torturous ways.
But there was this look that was almost haunting on Eddie Munson as he stared helplessly from a few feet away, Joan remained unresponsive, and that face drew Robin's attention. His ring laden hands gripped across his cheeks as he stared down at the body with wide terrified eyes.
"Oh god it's happening again." He moaned out in despair as he turned away and walked back and forth frantically. "It had to be her?!"
"We don't have time for panicking, Munson!" Steve hollered out as he watched Joan start to spasm out violently. Her legs kicked out like she shaking off boiling water and her arms went to attempting to scratch her body where ever she could as if she was covered in ant bites from head to toe. "Shit shit shit, hold her down!"
"I thought that was a bad idea?!" Robin cried out but still grabbed onto her left leg while Max clutched a wildly swinging left arm. Dustin sat on his sisters right arm while Steve kept the thrashing right leg pinned down.
"I-I don't know what to do!" Steve admitted frantically as Joan continued to writhe and twist as if she was in the worst pain imaginable, eyes still blanking looking left and right almost frantically. "I don't think this is a seizure!"
"Well then what else is it?!"
"Tremors? Possession?"
"It's Vecna! Vecna's curse!"
"Will all of you just shut up! Maybe she's just annoyed with all of your voices!" Max snapped out to three next to her as the panic continued to rise amongst them.
Suddenly Joan froze as if all the blood in her body became ice in her veins and her muscles were taught with use.
And the four on top of Joan took deep breaths as they watched the teen for the slightest hint of a break down. It was quiet and still as Eddie had even froze from his spot feet away from the incident and held his breath with his thumb in his mouth, biting from the stress.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Joan started to smack her head against the dirt with loud thumps in the dirt and Steve snapped at Dustin to put his hand under head, but every time anyone moved to help Joan, her appendages would flail to be freed from their hold.
"Joan?! Joan! It's me, Dusty!" Dustin cried out as the eldest Henderson sibling continued to smack her head against the ground violently, eyes staring blankly at nothing. Her irises no longer moved, but she still didn't blink as her head continued it's heavy descent to the earth where a small divot started to form. A sob left his lips as a feeling of hopelessness washed over him. "Joan, please stop. Please!"
Thump.
"Munson! Hold her head!" Steve both demanded and begged, but it came out with a small crack at the end as the metalhead stared back wide eyed at his friend and... old friend. "Eddie!"
Cautiously, Eddie stepped closer to the scene and swallowed at the way Joan looked so similar to Chrissy from last night. If only they had listened to Joan, maybe... maybe none of this would happen.
And the only common occurrence from the two events was.. him.
What if he was the curse that Hawkins suffered from? The freak that inadvertently killed cheerleaders and fuck!
Why did it have to be her?!
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Eddie was teetering on the edge of running away again, leaving Indiana for good this time, and sitting the familiar brunette head on his lap like they had done a few times before. He looked down at his open hands as they shook fearfully and his throat caught.
Thump.
If he hadn't touched Chrissy... maybe she would be alive.
"Munson, I swear to God-!"
Steve's threat was caught mid sentence as a final thump sounded followed by Joan's limbs behaving like cooked spaghetti, her eyes closing and head falling to the side in the little hole her reverse head banging had created. Not trusting that the tremors were over, the four waited with baited breath.
"...do you think-?"
Joan's eyes snapped open and the first thing she saw was curly hair and fearful doe eyes staring down at her. A gasp left her lips as if she had been drowning under water and immediately freed herself from the hold to push herself on all fours as she dissolved into a coughing fit while Dustin rubbed her back comfortingly.
"J-Joan, are you... are you back with us?"
A sob freed itself from her chest and then a sizable amount of water followed onto the grass, a shiver taking over her body from the damp chill of old clothes. Steve joined Dustin on her other side, throwing one of the towels over her side as a grim Max went to stand next to Eddie's side.
"Do you believe us now?"
"...what the fuck is going on." Eddie whispered out and wiped his eyes. "Seriously, this, this, this is just... bullshit!"
"Ags, come on sweetheart." Steve coaxed out, grabbing the brunette between his hands softly and looking into the terrified famous Henderson-brown eyes. "Deep breaths, that's it. Calm down, calm down. You're freakin' us out more than that weird halftime show the Buccaneers did at their homecoming this year."
A miserable attempt at a laugh was all Joan could choke out, but allowed herself to sit on her butt as her breathing slowed to an almost normal pace. Her mouth was dry and memories of what just happened continued to eat away her mental health at an alarming rate.
"Agatha?"
"My name... my name isn't Agatha." Joan heaved out and let out a loud sigh as she closed her eyes. "Fuck, if you need to call me a name... call me Destiny."
"What?"
Her eyes stayed closed for a moment longer before she opened them and provided a weak smile.
"Nothing, just... think I need a nap."
—————
It had started out with darkness before Joan had woken up into a never ending darkness that seemed to suffocate her with its size. The more she tried to look for something in the expanse of nothing the more doubt bloomed in her head of being alive. She could see herself as bright as day, but nothing... nothing else.
"Hello?" The whispered croak echoed around her seemingly infinitely and Joan licked her lips as she moved forward with her head on a swivel. "...hello?"
Annoyed, Joan rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands and let out a loud groan of frustration. When she opened them, she jumped in fright at the sudden appearance of a girl sitting at a desk with a small radio softly playing on top of it.
Carefully Joan walked to the girl and examined the desk in a morbid curiosity. It was her desk, or well Agatha's, with its familiar pristine white paint and random pink stationary organized on top. Slowly Joan stepped to the back of the desk and swallowed at the figure writing delicately in a recognizable leather journal.
The original Joan sat gracefully at her desk humming to Elvis' If I Can Dream with a piece of gum in her mouth, clad in a disgustingly yellow night gown, while scribbling away in her diary. A soft smile sat on her lips and Joan felt a little envious because Agatha-Joan was... beautiful.
Effortlessly so.
There was a small photo framed on the corner of the desk and Joan leaned over to peer at the smiling faces of her aunt and Patrick from the basketball team hugging each other intimately. For a moment she tried to recall that photo, where it could be but was unable to pinpoint ever seeing the romantic print much less it's frame.
A door opening drew both Joans to snap their heads to see Dustin opening a door with his familiar shit-eating grin. Still nothing other than the desk, girl, Dustin, and door.
"Get out of my room, you dork!"
It was like a thousand Dustin's were speaking at once from all directions and Agatha-Joan's reply was just as noisy. It was like they were in a cement room as the sounds bounce off of nothing and everything in an almost disconnected way.
"But you said you'd drive me to Mike's if-!"
"Ugh, I really don't care." Dustin didn't seem to let the disgust and dismissal move him as he tried to glance at what she was writing with that familiar nosey look on his face. His real sister slammed the journal shut and shoved the boy with her arm, Dustin's eyes widening in shock as he fell down from the force. "Get out of my room, before I ruin any chance of your teeth coming in."
There was a silence amongst the two that had Joan's heart shattering for the siblings. In the eldest's heart was a dark rage that Dustin didn't understand and to be fair neither did his future daughter. It was concerning to the highest degree that this was who she was named after.
"I-I just thought that-."
"Dustin, I don't care what you think. You are at the very bottom of my list of concerns." The words dug harshly into Dustin as he scurried himself up and took step after step away from the advancing sister with eyes lit with fire as hot as hell itself. "Why would I want anything to do with a disaster of a nerdy brother who has no chance at anything in life? It's bad enough I have to live with you! The only way a girl would want you is if you make six figures and even then, she'd never love you."
Joan covered her mouth at the hateful words and the heartbroken look on Dustin's face as the tears welled up in his eyes. The usually mouthy Henderson turned on his heel and ran out of the room, the door slamming shut behind him.
A cruel silence seeped into the air along with the particles making up the door.
Agatha-Joan was quiet before she took a deep breath and shoved her head in her hands. Slowly the breaths slowed down and she dredged back over to the desk, plopping down on the chair and stared at the closed journal in a dissociation that sent the hair on the back of Joan's neck up.
"ᵂʰᵃᵗ ᵈᵒ ᴵ ᵈᵒ?"