‘87 was my year,baby! To be born, not graduate, I’m not THAT old. AuDHD. Very Tired™️ millennial and full of brain squirrels I’m not your mom. 🔞 MINORS DNI 🔞 seriously. I’m on the internet to get away from my kids.
Lets get the nitty gritty details out of the way, ok?
AAA threat (Ace, Autistic, ADHD). I am a salty salty bitch. Pretty sure it’s the ‘tism, but I will hold a grudge forever. I am a millennial. Yeah, I’m worried about me too.
I have, for some reason made the decision to start writing fanfiction. Results TBD.
writing tag: #cici writes
Stranger Things / Steddie
A Door, Closed - Complete, G
They'd done it. All of them had survived Vecna and closed the door on the terrible Spring Break of '86.
Yet, not all of them had made it through unscathed, and you know what they say about life closing doors...
P1 / P2 / P3 / P4 / P5 / P6 / P7-End / A03
Of Monsters & Men - WIP, T (currently)
There have always been monsters; some have just been more suited to handling them than others.
Steve was a Witcher. He'd suffered and bled for a world that spat upon him. Walking the Path he'd chosen, he soon finds himself with new company and challenges never before seen.
Ch1 / Ch2 / Ch3 / Ch4 / Ch5 / Ch6 / Ch7 / Ch8 /Ch9 / Ch10 / Ch11 / Ao3
In the Morning - Complete, T
Steve “serves” Kas!Eddie in lieu of being eaten/killed upon capture.
based off the Westly/Dread Pirate Roberts story in Princess Bride.
Prologue / P1 / P2 / P3 / P4 / P5 / P6 / P7 / P8 / P9/ P10 / P11 / Epilogue / Ao3
Life After You - Complete, T
Songfic. Or inspired by a songfic?
Eddie needs to get home and tell the man he left behind that there would never be anything better; fame would never match the joy he experienced at his side. He learned the hard way that there was no life without Steve.
P1 / P2 / P3 / P4 / Ao3
The Nanny AU
Successful. Handsome. Widowed. Steve Harrington has it all, except a nanny who lasts more than three days.
Enter Eddie Munson: recently dumped, extremely unemployed, and definitely not here for a childcare interview.
Look, he's got questionable style, a strange flair, and he's there.
That's how he becomes..
"Pilot Episode" - G, Complete P1 / P2 / AO3
"Episode Two" - G, Complete Here / AO3
"Episode Three" - G, Complete Here / AO3
The Bloom Cycle
Growth is never clean.
Before the greenhouse, there were matches. Before the roots, there was fire.
A collection of interwoven stories tracing the fractured paths of Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley, and how they came to intersect.
Some things survived, and others grew anyway.
This series includes:
Bloom & Break - Complete, T
Hard to believe that when Eddie set a couch on fire (allegedly) and got dumped on the doorstep of the hottest antisocial plant man he's ever seen, it would grow into something he'd rather die without.
Steve never wanted a roommate (one that breathed, anyway), especially one who insists on giving him increasingly annoying nicknames and leaves a trail of glitter everywhere, like a snail at a rave.
He excelled with all kinds of things that grew, but love turned out to be a new kind of invasive species.
P1 / P2 / P3 / P3.5 / P4/ P5 / P6 / P7 / P8 / P9/ P10 / P11 / P12 / P13 / Epilogue / Ao3
The Couch Knew What It Did, T, Complete Here / AO3
Eddie wasn't trying to get evicted, he swears.
After The Fire, During The Burn - T, Complete --P1 / P2 / AO3
Steve didn’t ask her to stay.
Robin didn’t wait for permission.
In the aftermath of fire and silence, something began to grow.
There Goes the Neighborhood- G, Complete Here / A03
The greenhouse has rules. Boundaries. Bite reflexes.
Then the boy arrived, loud, chaotic, snack-laden, and completely unaware that every living thing in the greenhouse wanted him gone.
So naturally, he stayed.
And now the plants are having a crisis about it.
The Charmer and the Fool, T, Complete Here / AO3
Before the greenhouse. Before Steve. Before any of it.
Eddie meets Honey when he’s young, half-wild, and already burning too hot. What starts as praise curdles into control, and he's not the only one who likes to start fires.
Root Rot, T, Complete Here / AO3
Before the greenhouse, before the wild boy with too many opinions and nowhere else to be, there was a lab. A name. A man who said he was hollow and tried to fill him.
This is the part of the story no one talks about—the root system beneath the bloom.
The rot he had to burn through to survive it.
Background Noise, G, Complete Here / AO3
Before the vines and the headlines, there’s Robin: little-genius ears, a hardware-store oracle, a bench that gossips in silence, and a microwave that taps out. She doesn’t chase rumors—she hunts weird sounds
Brainworms
De-aged Party, Tunnels, Injured Steve
The Nanny AU- P1 /P2 / P3 No style, no class, a certain flair. How the heck did Eddie become the nanny?!
Poison Ivy / Harley Quinn Steddie - It just works too well,y’know?
headers, dividers, all by the amazing @saradika-graphics
tumblr header by /@eddywoww, isn’t it just soooo pretty?
Hey all! I am loving the response to this fic! Dustin is starting to ramp things up and Prince Steve is intrigued.
Part 1 | Part 2 |
~
Eddie started to feel the life returning to his face and body. He had been a mere skeleton when his mother died, because they hadn’t been able to go and get food, only relying on the charity of strangers. But now with constant food, he was starting to return to health.
“I have a question,” he asked Dustin one cozy evening after the delicious brace of rabbits they had had for dinner.
Dustin sighed and sat up. “I’ve been expecting this for awhile, but go ahead.”
“Why didn’t you help my mom when she was dying?” he whispered, barely to be heard over the crackling fire.
Dustin sighed, slumping his shoulders. “I should have been able to. But I would have been helping you, but after your father died, it was like a fog came over me and during those five years, I was but your average house cat with no magic or powers at all.”
Eddie’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh! Has that happened before?”
Dustin’s ears flatten on his head and his tail swished back and forth. “Not at all.”
“Do you think it was because I hadn’t come of age yet?” Eddie asked, now more curious then upset.
Dustin’s tail abruptly stopped and his flashed forward. “That is an interesting thought and as good an idea as any, because honestly? I don’t know.”
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Eddie murmured.
“Because your mother died?” Dustin asked, bowing his head.
Eddie reached over and scratched him between the ears. “Maybe a little but more that your agency was taken from you without warning or recourse.”
Dustin leaned into the touch and began to purr. He would do whatever it took to make sure this master was well taken care of indeed.
~
It was time to instigate phase two of his plan.
There was a beautiful river that ran into a lake in front of the ogre’s castle. The river teemed with fish of all kinds.
There in a house at the mouth of the river where it ran into the lake were the Byers brothers. They were in charge of fishing for all of the ogre’s needs.
He walked up to their house and called out, “Brothers Byers! Come out!” Then he sat down to wait.
The elder brother, Jonathan came out first. He was rough looking fellow with blond hair and dead eyes. Then following close behind was the younger brother, William. He had dark hair and darker eyes, but he hadn’t lost that youthful shine the way his brother had.
“Good evening, fair gentlemen,” Dustin said with a deep bow. “I am Dustin the Master cat. I am to understand you fish for the terrible ogre Vecna, yes?”
The brothers looked at each other skeptically, but Will nodded anyway.
“I don’t know if we should trust a talking cat, Will...” Jonathan said, glaring at Dustin.
“I’m only here to talk,” Dustin said simply. “And then maybe we can make a deal.”
“What kind of deal?” Will asked, raising an eyebrow. “The last time we made a deal it was literally with the devil and the price was our lives.”
Dustin nodded solemnly. “I have come to ask about your devil in fact. What can you tell me about what he has you do here?”
“Well, we don’t actually fish for a start,” Jonathan huffed, sitting down on a nearby log. “He likes crab our ogre. The only fishing we do is for our dinner.”
“But there are so many beautiful fish just leaping out of the river begging to be caught,” Dustin huffed.
“I think he just likes the joy of tearing an animal to pieces for his dinner...” Will muttered.
Jonathan scoffed. “There might be some truth to that, but I think it’s also that he puts on airs. Thinks that he’s better than all the inhabitants of the county. So it’s always the biggest game, the best mead, the purest honey, the finest silks. So to him fish is what us peasants eat. Not what some high lord would eat.”
Dustin nodded and sat down, regarding them with interest. “How much could you fish in a week?”
“Like proper, full net fishing?” Will asked, looking over at Jonathan.
“Easily a hundred, at least,” Jonathan said with a frown. “Why do you ask?”
“I am willing to make a deal,” Dustin said with light purr in his voice. “All I ask is one favor for when I have need of it. And maybe, you’ll never have to catch another crab again.”
Jonathan and Will looked at each other for a moment. Then to Dustin’s surprise, it was Jonathan who stuck out his hand.
Dustin trotted up to them and they “shook” on it. “I promise you won’t be disappointed.”
“It’ll be nice to properly fish again,” Will said with a wistful sigh. “To cast out nets and not just cages.”
Jonathan nodded. “It would be good to be of proper use again, for sure.”
Dustin grinned.
~
“You return, Master cat,” King Richard said with a hint of amusement in his tone. “What is in your bag this time? More meat for my table?”
“More than that, your majesty,” Dustin said with a flourish of his hat and deep bow. “Meat is good, but one must have variety.” And out of his bag he pulled out several feasts worth of fish and laid them before the king and prince.
“That is a beautiful bounty to be sure,” Prince Steven agreed eyeing the many kinds of fish in front of them.
“This is just the start, your royal highnesses,” Dustin said grandly. “A third of all my lord fishes as tribute to you and your greatness.”
“That is generous indeed,” King Richard said, leaning forward to admire the multitudes of fresh fish.
“My master is nothing but generous,” Dustin said bowing low again.
“And what is your master’s name, Master Cat?” Prince Steven asked with a smirk.
“The Marquess of Hawkins, your highness,” Dustin said, ears twitching and tail swishing.
“A marquess?” King Richard said approvingly. “That is very good indeed. Send the Marquess our gratitude, Master Cat.”
Dustin bowed a third time and then turned, running out of the palace on all fours.
When he returned to the cottage with his sack slung over his shoulder, Eddie shook his head fondly. “I do wonder where you go, my friend.”
“I merely seek out your happiness, Master Eddie,” Dustin huffed with a little hissing laugh. He began to pull out the fish. “Once these are cleaned and dried, we’ll have even more to trade with as well as fill our bellies.”
Eddie bent down to pick up one of the fish and gasped. “Oh it’s cold!”
Dustin grinned. “That is but one of the many mysteries of my bag. But I am not done with you yet.”
“There is already so much you have given me,” Eddie murmured as he grabbed a knife and began to fillet the fish. “What more could you possibly give me?”
Dustin looked up at Eddie with adoration. “The whole world.”
~
Once Dustin was sure that fish supply line was secure, he went in search of his next target. The Hoppers.
The father and daughter duo who took care of beehives for the ogre, Vecna and with their bounty provided the monster with honey and mead for his table.
For a couple of afternoons, Dustin would curl up on a large rock in front of their house watching them go about their business and waited for them to come to him.
This was going to be the hardest sell. From what Dustin could tell, unlike the Sinclairs and Byers, they were well looked after by the ogre. Probably because you don’t mess with the man who makes your beer.
On the evening of the third day the girl came up to him with a little bit of dried meat. “Here, kitty.”
It took Dustin all he had not to laugh, but she was so adorable. He sniffed at the meat and licked it, before taking the whole thing into his mouth. So sue him, he was a sucker for dried venison.
“Good kitty,” she said brightly. “Such a pretty thing.”
He sighed, he knew the moment he spoke he was going to frighten her, but it was no use, it had to be done. “Thank you, kind lady.”
She gasped, but not in fear, in delight. “A magical cat! How strange!”
Dustin smiled at her, immediately fond of her for that. “Indeed I am. A rather strange magical cat. Dustin, the Master Cat, at your service!” He stood up and bowed to her.
“What fine manners you have, Mr. Cat,” Eleanor muttered. “May I pet you?”
Dustin nodded and bowed his head for her to scratch. It served two purposes. One to garner her trust and the other? Like the venison he had a fondness for a good ear scratch. And then he began to purr.
She giggled. “Such a pretty cat. What brings you to our corner of the forest?”
She would ask the one question that would put a damper on their budding friendship, but he chose to be far more forward and honest with her than he been the others.
“I seek to kill the ogre, Vecna,” he said matter-of-factly. “And I need yours and your father’s help to do so.”
“That is a tremendously brave thing to do,” she said solemnly. “But you’re so small and he is so big...”
“But it must be done, my lady,” Dustin murmured gently. “Would you bring your father out so that I may speak to you both?”
Eleanor shook her head. “He’s sleeping off his drinking again. I’m usually the one who takes care of the bees these days. It was easier when it was the two of us, but now that it’s just me it’s harder to keep with everything.”
Dustin licked his paw as he thought it through. “How much liquor does the ogre want from you each week?”
“Only two cases,” she said cocking her head to the side. “He knows that mead can’t been rushed and he doesn’t take any of the honey we make. Come, let me show you.”
Dustin hopped off the stone and followed her to a stone shed off from the house. She opened the door and picked up a lamp.
She lit the lamp and the light shone on all the liquid gold. Rows and rows of honey. Dustin licked his chops.
“The wax gets melted down for Lord Vecna’s candles,” Eleanor explained. “But even using a vast amount in the mead, we just have too much to consume on our own.”
“And the ogre doesn’t like the honey?” he purred, an idea forming in his head.
Eleanor shook her head. “No. So it sits here gathering dust.”
“What if I were to take the excess off your hands in exchange for a favor in the future?” Dustin mused examining his claws.
Eleanor crossed her arms and regarded him thoughtfully. “I believe we have a bargain, Master Kitty.”
“So it would seem,” Dustin said softly. “So it would seem.”
~
Dustin made his third appearance in the court of King Richard, magic bag in hand.
“Your royal majesties,” he purred. “I bring yet another tribute from my master the Marquess of Hawkins.”
“Is that so, Master Cat?” Prince Steven asked with a huff of laughter. “And what does your lordship offer us today?”
Dustin produced a single, glistening jar of honey. It was as golden as the prince’s hair and eyes. “The purest of honey from my masters many hives.”
“That is but one bottle, Master Cat,” King Richard pointed out. “Where is the dozens of fish, the multitudes game? This is nothing in comparison.”
“This is just a sample,” Dustin purred, holding the bottle neatly in his claws. “A taste if you will.”
A guard came and took it from him and brought it up to the thrones. King Richard opened the lid and scooped out a large finger full. And then passed it to Prince Steven, who more politely dipped the tip of his pinkie finger into the jar.
He put the drop into his mouth and moaned. “That is marvelous.”
King Richard put the whole glob in his mouth and then his expression changed. “Master Cat! That is liquid gold.”
“It really is,” Dustin said, smugly pulling jar after jar out of his bag and setting them on the floor in front of the thrones.
“A third of all my master has, to you your majesty,” Dustin said, with a bow and then he was gone.
~
Eddie eyed him warily when Dustin bounded through the window of the cottage, smile on his small face.
“I know that look,” he murmured. “That is the same look you had on your face when you announced the game and the fish. What do you have this time?”
Dustin reached into the bag and pulled out a jar of honey and some honeycomb.
“Oh, Dustin...” Eddie whispered. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“I heard honeycomb was a favorite treat of yours,” Dustin responded, smug.
Eddie picked up the piece and bit into it, moaning as the rush of honey hit his mouth. “That is sublime. Where do you get these things? You aren’t stealing them, are you?”
Dustin laughed. “No, my friend, I have come by them honestly.”
Once his conscious was clear, Eddie devoured every bit of the honeycomb, Dustin watching like a cat caught in the cream.
Sorry guys, I really fucked up. I posted the last three chapters with the wrong numbering and only just noticed it.
But because Tumblr hates change, you will probably still see the wrong chapter numbers even after I fixed it. Especially if you reblogged it with the wrong number.
But going forward it should be the right numbering.
So the ending is done, I'm just working on the final battle. It's been giving me trouble. I really don't do large fights like that well, so my husband @mjwproductionsandfilm has been helping me whack it out. But there should be no need to pause this to get it done. I just don't know if that means it will be 24 or 25 chapters when it's done.
But here is the beginning of the end.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 |
~
Vickie, who was now cleaned up and wearing her girlfriend’s clothes, and Erica had taken the kids and piled them into military van that Nancy and Murray had arrived in. Nancy and Titus joined in to protect the kids as Venca had proven he would do whatever it took to get them back.
Robin and Steve made a quick makeshift grave, Eddie carefully lowering the body of Murray Bauman into the shallow hole that was then covered with loose dirt and leaves.
Steve watched as the van drove off, a guilty feeling in the pit of his stomach. The depth of which he hadn’t felt since that fateful Spring Break.
Robin touched his shoulder. “Are you okay?”
“I just have a feeling like I’m not going to see them again...” Steve muttered darkly.
She squeezed his shoulder and said, “You can’t think like that. You’ve got to be positive, because that’s how he gets inside our heads.”
He shook her off. “I know. It’s just a feeling.”
“Come on,” she said gently. “Let’s catch up to the rest. We need to get to Vecna before he finds us.”
Steve nodded and followed her back into the Upside Down.
~
Max took El’s hand. “I’m sorry it has to be you. That it couldn’t be Titus or...” she looked over at Joyce and then shook her head.
She didn’t want to say it out loud, but if Vecna wanted Will so bad, why not just give him to him? Why sacrifice a little girl, her best friend no less who hadn’t had a chance for a life?
“We’re not sacrificing anyone today,” Hopper growled. “We’re all making it out of this shit alive do you here me?”
Max scoffed and rolled her eyes. She had actually experienced loss. They hadn’t. Joyce got Hopper back. Dustin got Eddie back. But there was no bringing Billy back. He was dead. A rotting corpse with a hole the size of his beloved basketballs in his chest. She knew all too well she never was going to get her happy ending.
People were going to die. It was a matter time and probability that at least one of them was going to die. “Just because you made it out okay does mean we’re all gonna be hunky-dory.”
“Max!” Joyce admonished. “You don’t know that, we have to have hope we all make it out of here alive.
“Yeah?” Max snapped. “Tell that Bob Newby, Barb Holland, Chrissy Cunningham, Fred Benson, Patrick McKinney, or hell, Billy fucking Hargrove. People have died. More are going to die, maybe even all of us. But don’t you dare stand there and say everything is going to be okay. Because it’s not! We fight not to live but to make sure the rest of the world doesn’t feel the same loss we do.”
Joyce’s head snapped back as though she had been slapped.
Kali snorted. “I like her. She tells it like it is. Your unbridled optimism is unearned and frankly could get someone killed who would have otherwise lived. Not everyone can be saved. Not everyone needs to be saved. And most importantly, not everyone deserves to be saved.”
El silently watched the argument going on in front of her. It made her sad. She knew that Kali and Max were right. That no matter how hard they tried, people were going to die. Had already died.
She kept a small bit of her conscious attached to each of their group. She knew Murray had passed before Nancy, before Steve even. She hadn’t told her parents yet. She needed their mind on defeating One.
The earth shook beneath their feet, but she stayed standing. He could move the earth all he wanted, but he would never be able to move her. Not ever again.
When it stopped, everyone else got to their feet, dusting themselves off as they waited for the signal.
Kali kept a deft hand on her illusions, barely holding them like a loose rope in her palm. Not even that little dust up could shake her hold on the terrain.
Some of their number wavered and sputtered out, Nancy and Murray specifically.
“Shit,” she muttered darkly. “He’s seen Nancy and Murray elsewhere!”
Joyce and Hopper rounded on her, quick as a snake.
“What?!” Joyce shrieked. “I thought she was with Jonathan!”
El tilted her head to the side. “They split up. Dr. Kay is dead and the army is leaving. They will most likely carpet bomb the town by the end of the week unless we stop One today.”
Hopper closed his eyes. Yeah. He should have expected that. Just napalm the whole town to the ground and come in every once in awhile to make sure the place stays super-heated. No more monsters that way.
Just then Vecna landed before them and instantly vines raced to hold him up.
“Doesn’t look like you’re doing so well,” Kali snarked. “This place is no longer protecting you, is it?”
He snarled, “I am more powerful then you could dream of!” He outstretched his arms and then brought them together hard, sending out vines toward them in a gigantic wave.
El instantly put up both hands to block the vines. Her hands shook and blood raced down her nose.
“Why aren’t the other powered children helping you, Eleven?” Vecna asked tilting his head to the side. “Is because they aren’t really here?”
Just then a jeep carrying Jonathan, Dr. Owens, and Ollie came bursting through into the Upside Down, flipping over just in the nick of time as fell through a newly open gate.
“Will!” Jonathan called out as he spotted his brother and the rest of the Mind Flayer team coming up from behind Vecna.
Will had been the one who had opened the gate to let them in and to right the jeep as barreled into the Upside Down. But unlike El, there was no blood coming from his nose. He was able to control his powers much easily then his adopted sister, having had the power of the Mind Flayer running through him.
“It’s no matter what you do,” Vecna sneered, “I will have my sacrifices and the world above will be mine. Because it doesn’t matter how they die. Only that they do.”
“So you’re willing to leave yourself vulnerable to kill a bunch of kids?” Steve snarled. “How stupid are you?”
“Who said I was vulnerable?” Vecna said with a smile. “I have all the creatures of this world at my beck and call!”
A large amount of demobats, demodogs, and demogorgons came to his aid. But not a lot. Not the amount he clearly thought he would have.
“Aw...” Dustin said, with a shit eating grin, “do you not have enough monsters to take out a bunch of children?”
Vecna whirled around and spotted D’art. “You will obey me, I made you!” He crooked his finger, but the demogorgon stayed at Dustin’s side.
Then Eddie landed in front Steve and the Mind Flayer team. “The Mind Flayer has broken your hold on this place, Creel. You can’t command us anymore.”
“Munson?” Hopper asked in shock. “I heard you might not be as dead as reported.”
“Right back ‘atcha, Chief,” Eddie said with a huff. “It appears that accounts of our demise have been grossly exaggerated.”
“You’re looking worse for wear though,” Hopper said shaking his head.
“Attack!” Henry yelled over their banter, clearly done.
The swarm of monsters descended.
~
“I don’t like this,” Titus said, pushing the gas pedal down as hard as he could. “I know we need to protect these kids from Vecna, but how can we? His monsters are dimension hopping. Like sure he can’t open gates, but they don’t appear to need them!”
Nancy was in the stairwell of the bus, shot gun at the ready while Vickie was in the back trying to comfort the kids and keep their mind off of... well everything he supposed.
“I want my mommy!” one of the kids cried.
Which only set off the other children. Suddenly they were all calling for their parents.
Vickie fought the urge to put her hands over her ears. It wasn’t their fault they were scared, hungry and tired.
“I should have gone with Eleven and Kali, and Ollie should have gone with you guys,” Titus huffed. “She’s better at dealing with kids then I am.”
Nancy looked back at the crying kids and then in front. “We need to get them somewhere the Upside Down can’t reach.”
“Only every time we think we have a place,” Vickie snapped, “he finds the kids anyway!”
The kids started to really wail then.
“We just need more time to let the other teams defeat Vecna and this will all be over!” Nancy assured them.
Titus gritted his teeth. “We head out of town. We grab some uniforms and sneak past the blockade. The further we get from Hawkins the safer they will be!”
Nancy looked back at the kids and then started cursing. Because he was right. There was no safe place in Hawkins. Not anymore.
“Vickie,” she said calmly. “I need you to take the wheel, I think we’re going to need Titus’s abilities to keep the road clear.”
Vickie looked down at the crying children and knew there wasn’t anything more she could do for them except keep them safe.
She nodded and Titus pulled over so that the could swap places. Once back on the road, Titus moved to the back of the bus to keep an eye on behind them.
“How much further do you think Vecna is going to go to hurt this kids?” Vickie asked, white knuckle grip on the wheel.
Titus looked up and swore. “Apparently, a shit ton. Incoming!”
Nancy cocked her shotgun and shot at a demodog that came flying at the doors to the bus.
The kids screamed at the sound, quickly covering their ears. Titus ripped the demodog apart and moved onto the next.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! As three of the creatures landed on top of the bus.
“We need to lead them away from the bus!” Vickie cried. “With them on top of us, they’re slowing us down!”
“Shit!” Nancy hissed.
“I’ve got a plan,” Titus said. “I need Nancy to come with me. You just keep driving, Avonlea. We’ll get them off of the bus. Get them to safety. Bloomington or Indy. Just. Keep driving.”
Vickie nodded grimly.
Nancy knelt in front of Holly. “I’ve got to go, sweetheart. I’ve got to keep you safe. Be brave for me, okay?”
Holly burst out into tears and held her tightly. “I don’t want you to go!”
Titus gently pried her off of Nancy and then the two of them moved to the back door, opening it wide.
“Holly, close the door behind us, okay?”
Holly nodded.
Nancy and Titus leapt from the back of the bus, Titus controlling their landing to be a soft one.
The kids stopped crying and let out a gasp in awe, watching real magic for the first time.
Even better the trick worked, the demodogs stopped pawing at the bus and chased after the moving targets, just like Titus thought they would.
“Keep them off me,” he hissed. “I need to get back about a half mile. I saw something that will make this fight a walk in the park.”
“How do you plan on getting us there in one piece?!” Nancy cried as she emptied both barrels into one of the demodogs.
He smiled and pointed to a small three-wheeler parked outside someone’s house. She let out a strangled scream but got on the back of it as he used his powers to turn the thing on and off the went.
“Just keep them from catching up!” he called over his shoulder. “I’ll take care of the rest!”
“Fine!” she snapped back, raising her shotgun after reloading it.
All of the demodogs raced along the road behind them, but the off-road vehicle was just fast enough to keep them from catching up.
“Yes!” Titus cried. “I knew it! Dr. Kay has a lot to answer for! Number one is not using the fucking napalm she had brought in to protect the people of Hawkins.”
Nancy whirled around. “I’m sorry, did you just say ‘napalm’?!”
Titus laughed and revved the engine, really putting it to its limits. They were able to easily outstrip the demodogs, giving them the time the needed to get a couple of small barrels of the stuff.
“What do you plan to do with this stuff?” she asked, finding a machine gun and the ammo for it, trading her shotgun for it.
“It’s really sticky,” Titus said, opening one of the barrels. “It’ll stick to just about anything, so be careful it doesn’t stick to you. We spray the demodogs and let them on fire...”
“And since they won’t be able to get it off them...” she continued.
“They burn like moths in a fire,” Titus confirmed.
“But you can’t control fire,” Nancy protested, “how do you intend to light them?”
He pulled out a lighter from his pocket and grinned. “Like this!”
She rolled her eyes and let out a huff. “What is it and boys having a lighter on them at all times?”
“Because it’s cool!” Titus said brightly. “Get ready because here they come!”
We are back with this fun little story. In this we have Dustin making his first of many bargains.
Part 1 |
~
Dustin in Boots, as Eddie had started calling him in his head, would leave every night at dusk and come back every morning at a dawn. Then he would sleep during the day.
In between all this, Eddie got the money from the sale of his mother’s property and went to her funeral. People had come out far and wide to pay their respects. Even his uncles were there.
Teddy and his family stood off to the side as if the very roof they lived under wasn’t because this great lady died. But Wayne had his arm over Eddie’s shoulder as they both cried, watching Elizabeth be lowered into the ground next to Alan.
“I’m sorry for you loss, son,” Wayne murmured.
Eddie let out a shuddering breath. “Thanks, Uncle Wayne. I miss her so much more every day.”
“I know you do, Ed,” Wayne muttered. “I wish I could take you in, but I’ll be busy for next couple of years, wresting control from the men who had nearly run the mill into the ground.”
Eddie nodded. “I know and I wouldn’t want to be under foot anyway. Running a mill is not how I want to spend the rest of my life.”
Wayne huffed out a small laugh. “There is that, yes. You were always meant for grander things, Ed. I’m just sorry, your mother will never see it.”
“Thank you.”
Uncle Teddy and his family gave no condolences and Eddie didn’t want any. They had been acting so cold to him the entire funeral and interment that he decided he didn’t want anything to do with them.
They all lined up and threw a handful of dirt on her coffin and they all left, leaving Eddie alone with the priest.
The priest passed him and gave his shoulder a squeeze. “God be with you, my son.” And then he too was gone.
Eddie pulled out a rose from his lapel that Dustin in Boots had given him for today. “Hey, Mama. I’m sorry I couldn’t save you. That the medicine didn’t work. That you had suffer all these years being the wife of a wastrel. I don’t know if you knew the cat you left was magical, but he is. He claims he’s going to find me fortune and fame.”
He let out a shuddering breath. “I don’t know what he bases his criteria on when helping a Munson. He said he helped Dad get rich but that he wasted it gambling. I know he helped Grandpa build up the mill but I’m not like either of them. I have no desire to waste my life in pursuit of wine, women, and excess the way Papa did but neither do I have head for industry.”
He started to cry as storm clouds rumbled overhead. “I don’t know what to do, Mama. I wish you were here to tell me which direction to take.”
Just then lightning flashed and it showed Dustin sitting on the tombstone, sans hat and boots, looking for all the world like a long-haired tuxedo cat.
Eddie let the rose fall from his fingers to land on Elizabeth’s coffin. “Goodbye, Mama.”
He walked over to the tombstone and scooped up the cat, tucking him in his jacket to keep him safe and warm.
Dustin began to purr and Eddie felt his loneliness drop away with each step he took in the pouring rain toward their new home.
~
Dustin was had never had a master as kind as Eddie before. All of them before him once they learned he could talk and walk on his hind legs, treated him like a servant, but Eddie genuinely cared for him.
So he decided to go all out for his new master. He would give him everything. But first there was something he had to learn first.
“Your Uncle Teddy’s eldest daughter was quite pretty,” he said Eddie set about slicing cheese for his dinner. “Christine, wasn’t her name was?”
Eddie snorted. “Not really my type, but yeah, Christine was pretty.”
Dustin tilted his head. “What would be your type?” He listed off a bunch of girls in town, but Eddie would say no each time as he got redder.
“I like men okay?!” Eddie finally shouted when Dustin had pretty much ran the gamut of all the girls his age in town.
“I see,” Dustin said with a purr. He licked his paw and then admired his claws. “That makes it all that much easier.”
“What does?”
Dustin just smiled and began to purr.
Eddie eyed him for a moment and then just shook his head. Cats were mysterious in their ways and this one in particular.
Then at dusk, the cat pawed at the door to be let out and Eddie stood up, walking over to the door. “What would you do if I didn’t let you out?” he asked, cocking his head to the side.
“Jump through the window,” Dustin said with a grin. “This is just easier.”
Eddie looked at the open window and then back down at the cat. “Right.”
“Any other questions, my lord?” the cat said with a smirk.
Eddie shook his head. He had asked where Dustin went pretty early on in their relationship, but the cat refused to say. Only that he was searching for the perfect place. The perfect place for what, he would never elaborate.
Dustin slipped out into the night and Eddie closed the door after him.
~
Dustin’s first port of call was into the woods that lead into ogre country. There was a county that bordered King Richard’s kingdom but far from the main orcish territories. The county was very beautiful.
A river ran into a tranquil lake surrounded by woods teaming with deer, rabbits, and birds perfect for trapping. There were hives tended by one of the ogre’s servants, who also made the ogre’s mead. Everything a wealthy landowner could want.
There on the outskirts of the forest lived a brother and sister who hunted for the ogre and provided him with their game.
Their names were Lucas and Erica Sinclair and they were the best hunters in this or any other kingdom.
Dustin triggered one of their traps and waited for them to come running.
“Damn it!” Erica huffed when she saw that their prize was a cat and not a rabbit. “He won’t eat cat!”
Dustin chuckled and deftly freed himself from the trap to land neatly on his hind legs. He bowed deeply. “I am Dustin, the Master cat, at your service. Do I have the pleasure of speaking to the Sinclair siblings?”
Erica and Lucas shared a glance and then both screamed. But Dustin merely sat down and waited them out.
It took a moment or two for them to calm down.
“Shit, dude,” Lucas huffed. “You can’t do that. The ogre Vecna has been known to just show up in animal form to make sure we aren’t slacking off.”
“My apologies, dear hunters,” Dustin said, bowing his head. “I have a need for information about this ogre. If you’re not busy, would you be willing to impart you wisdom to this humble cat?”
Erica snorted. “You talk funny, Master Cat, but sure what do you want to know?”
Dustin asked about how long they had been hunting for the ogre, how often he demanded payment, what types of animals he accepted, and the like.
They answered each one to the best of their ability. The ogre mainly ate the deer and larger game birds like goose and peafowl.
“What do you do with the animals the ogre doesn’t want?” Dustin asked primly licking his paw.
Erica shrugged. “We don’t usually hunt those, except occasional rabbit or pheasant for our stew pots.”
“You aren’t allowed to keep any of the meat you hunt, skin, clean, and butcher?” Dustin asked cocking his head to the side thoughtfully.
Lucas scoffed, folding his arms over his chest and throwing himself back against his chair. “Oh hell no. He barely leaves us enough to eat.”
“But you supplement with duck or pheasant yes?” Dustin purred. “How would he know how many rabbits or other small game you kill?”
The siblings glanced at each other.
“He doesn’t know...” Erica said, her eyes wide. “Holy shit, we could have been eating well all this time?”
Dustin examined his claws, nonchalantly. “I have a proposition for you. I aim to rid this county of the ogre but do so, I will need a lot of game to do it.”
Lucas raised a skeptical eyebrow. “How do you intend to do that?”
“And what do we get out of it?” Erica huffed, crossing her arms to mirror her brother’s pose.
“The how is none of your concern, but as for the compensation?” Dustin drawled, “You will keep a third of all you catch.”
“A third?” Lucas asked, nearly falling off his chair. “That’s more than we would need for the whole year? Why be so generous?”
“Because some day I will come to you and ask you for a favor and I want you readily agree in the moment,” Dustin said, his tail swishing back and forth.
Erica and Lucas stared at him a moment before they nodded together.
“You have your deal, Master Cat,” Erica agreed.
~
Dustin took the best of the game that Erica and Lucas had trapped for him and divided into thirds. He left one-third for the hunters as promised and took off with the remaining two-thirds.
Then he went straight the king’s castle and presented the king and the prince one-third of the Sinclair’s haul.
“Your royal majesty,” he greeted with a huge bow, removing his hat in a sweeping motion. “I am Dustin, the Master Cat and I serve the Marquess of Hawkins, a beautiful county on the outskirts of your country.”
King Richard nodded. “I am familiar with it, though I thought it was under the control of the ogre Vecna.”
“My master killed the ogre and is now working on cleaning up the mess Vecna left behind,” Dustin purred. “Starting with the game in the forest. You’ll pardon the lack of large game, but the ogre had over-hunted the deer and the like and it will take some time before they come back.”
King Richard leaned forward and eyed the braces of rabbit, pheasant, goose, and duck. “Those are marvelous to be held, to be sure, Master Cat.”
“These are but the first offerings from my master,” the cat promised. “My lordship will give you one third of his hunts to you.”
“That is generous indeed...” Prince Steven said, nodding in approval.
Dustin bowed again and made his leave. Then he went back to Eddie, the one-third of the Sinclair’s haul in his magic bag.
He began emptied his load onto Eddie’s table. Birds and rabbits overflowing from the bag.
“Where did you get all this?” Eddie asked, holding up one of rabbits to admire its size.
“I made a bargain with some local hunters,” Dustin said between licks of his paw. “Once a week they will provide us with meat for our table. And then what we don’t eat can be traded for the other things we need.”
“We can finally start paying back Mrs. Henderson for all the cheese and bread she’s been giving us,” Eddie breathed. “And having meat again will be a dream. Bone broth just isn’t the same.”
Dustin snorted. “There is truth to that, yes.”
“I don’t know how to thank you,” Eddie said softly, starting to tear up.
“Don’t thank me yet,” the cat grinned. “I’m only getting started.”
Hey all! It is that lovely time of the week again, when I give more of this wonderful story of mine.
We have a little bit about Eddie and the band and then the rest is Steve getting the hell out of Hawkins.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 |
~
Eddie couldn’t believe it. It was their song. On the radio. Just randomly in the car on their way to get lunch. It was their song.
“Oh my god, oh my god!” Gareth squealed. “It’s ‘Kill or Be Killed’!”
All three of their singles were doing well, but this one in particular was inching its way up the Rock and Metal charts like it was hitching a ride on a rocket.
“God,” Brian sighed wistfully. “Our album release is in just two weeks and we’re going to have a fucking release party. Us? Can you believe it?”
“I’m really proud of you boys,” Ray said, ruffling Gareth’s hair. “And lunch is my treat as an early graduation gift for the seniors.” She eyed Eddie warily.
“I will be on my best behavior as per the bet,” Eddie intoned. “My dad might have been an ass, but he was also a man of his word and Munsons don’t renege on bets or promises.”
The car sent up a cheer. Eddie, Jeff, and Brian were all graduating in June. Just like she said they would.
“Is Dr. Hughes going to be joining us?” Jeff asked. Gareth’s dad had been splitting time between California and Hawkins with Gethin, Gareth’s twin brother.
“Both Gethin and Rhys will be joining us,” she said brightly.
Gareth started bouncing up and down even more. “Geth is coming? Oh my god, Mom! I can’t believe it!” He leaned over and gave he a huge hug.
“School has already gotten out for Geth,” Ray explained, “so Rhys took the week off and they’ll be spending out here with us.”
“It’s going to be great,” Jeff said. “Even me and Bri’s parents are coming out for the graduation.”
“Wayne can’t make it until the day before graduation,” Eddie said with a grimace, “but he did promise he’d be there.”
“My mom said that Wayne had to threaten to out the shift supervisor’s affair if he didn’t give Wayne at least the weekend off,” Brian said with a sneer. “I told Wayne he should fucking sue the whole plant for trying to pull that bullshit.”
Ray pursed her lips and pulled out a large mobile phone. She dialed a number while the boys talked among themselves.
“Rhys, sweetie,” she murmured. “Would you call your lawyer friend, apparently the plant is refusing to let Wayne Munson have enough time off to see his nephew graduate.”
“Hey, Ray...” Eddie whined, “you don’t have to do that. I’m sure it’ll be fine. I don’t want Wayne in trouble at work.”
Ray smiled back at him and mouthed ‘Don’t worry.’ Then she turned her attention back to the phone in her hand.
“That’s what I was thinking as well,” she said. “Sounds to me like the union is slacking off, too.”
Everyone had stopped talking now. They sat in rapt attention as Gareth’s mom talked on the phone.
“Thank you, darling,” Ray concluded. “I would have called but you know I have a hard enough time remembering our home phone number let alone a dozen others. Love you too. Bye.”
Brian turned to Gareth. “Your mom is scary cool.”
Gareth grinned back. “I know, right?”
They arrived at the restaurant to see Rhys on the phone with ‘Chaz’ and he blew Ray a kiss when he saw her, before turning back to the conversation he was having. They walked inside and Gethin was waiting at the table for them.
Gareth and Gethin greeted it each with big hugs.
“Man,” Geth muttered. “No one believes me that you’re on your way to becoming a rockstar. They all think you dropped out of school or some dumb shit.”
Jeff shook his head as he sat down at the table. “Haters gonna hate, man. It’s bullshit. I bet they’re saying even worst shit about me and Ed.”
Geth winced. “I don’t think I can say what they’re saying about you two in public and not get arrested.”
Eddie stuck out his tongue. “They can talk shit all they want, I’m gonna be laughing all the way to the bank. And ten years down the line when they’re paying for cheap seats at our sold out stadium concerts, I will have beat them at their own fucking game.”
Brian let out a pained sigh. “Like how do words just trip off your tongue like that? I feel like I have to follow him around writing this shit down so we can make songs out of them!”
“That is why they pay him the big bucks,” Jeff said, patting Eddie the back. “He absolutely is the backbone of this band.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Rhys said, coming in from outside. “Let’s get everyone settled in and ordered, shall we?”
~
To say Steve was nervous would be an understatement. He was graduating from high school. He was standing there with all his friends as they laughed and celebrated this achievement. He wanted to celebrate with them, but he was staring down his last summer in Indiana.
His dad was selling the house and the two of them were packing up and moving to California. He hadn’t told anyone that yet. He just wanted to slip quietly away.
Away from his mom’s legacy. Her shadow that hung over him where ever he went. The whispers in the hall about having been left out of her will. How obviously jealous he was of the people who weren’t.
Charles clapped his hand on Steve’s shoulder. “You ready for this?”
Steve let out a shuddering breath. “Yeah. This is just one step on the journey of life, right?”
“That’s right,” he murmured, giving Steve’s shoulder a squeeze. “I’m proud of your achievements, Steve. You’ll do great things, I’m sure of it. No matter the path you take.”
Steve took a deep breath and then looked around before blurting out. “I’m gay!”
Charles looked at him for a moment before bursting out laughing. He stopped when he saw the stricken expression on Steve’s face. He gave him a hug and then pulled back at arms length. “Son, I’ve known for years you liked boys.”
Steve blinked at him in confusion. “I don’t understand. I was a ladies’ man in high school. How could you have known?”
“Look,” Charles said gently. “We’ll talk after the ceremony, but if it will help ease your mind before you go and get your diploma...” He let out a long breath. “You spent more time talking about certain boys then you ever did about your girlfriends. And that included Nancy Wheeler who was your longest girlfriend at about a year.”
Steve’s jaw dropped. “Oops.”
Charles shook his head. “And no, Steven your mother didn’t know. She didn’t cut you off because of your sexuality.”
“How can you be so sure?” Steve whined.
“I found a stash of her diaries after her death,” he explained. “If she knew, she never wrote it down. And considering the amount of other salacious gossip in there, I’m sure you’re safe.” He winked and the turned Steve around, pushing him toward the football field. “Now go.”
Steve nodded and did as he was told.
He graduated with honors. He didn’t have the highest GPA but he did pretty well for himself. Graduating in the top ten percent of his class.
When he shook hands with Prin. Higgins, there was a moment of tension. As if the man debated telling everyone what Steve had done. But the moment slipped away and Steve stepped away to walk off the stage.
He sat there through the rest of his class waiting on pins and needles, just fearing the worst. That the principal or Mr. Miller would out Steve as the criminal he was. But then everyone was filing out of the football field and back to their families.
Steve met up with friends and made promises to hang out over the summer before they all moved on with their lives. The people who’s bridging he thought he had burned in the last year returned in force to support him. Nancy, Carol, Tommy, and even Jonathan Byers reached out afterwards with his condolences.
The promises he had no intention of keeping. He wanted a clean break. He didn’t want the pitying glances, the serious tones as they asked him how he was. He wanted to laugh with them, joke around, but these days all they did was treat him with kid gloves and tiptoe around his feelings.
He took off his cap and gown, shoving the tassel into the front pocket of his dress slacks and returned them to the school.
He got a few last signatures in his year book that he had wanted and then slipped away. He walked out to his dad’s silver Jaguar.
Charles was waiting for him, leaning against the driver side down. “Are you sure you want to do it this way? We can wait until August to move. You could go to Tommy H.’s graduation party tonight, have your birthday party, celebrate the 4th.”
Steve shook his head. “I’ve already mailed the letters this morning.”
Charles nodded. “All right then. The movers arrive tomorrow at 8am and then our flight is at 3:17pm. Our cars will be shipped out with the rest of our things.”
“Got it,” Steve said with a shuddering breath. He looked behind him and then at his dad. He pulled the tassel out of his pocket. “Hey, before we go, can we stop by the cemetery?”
Charles’s breath caught and then with a heavy gulp, he nodded. “Whatever you want, Steve. I’m hear for you.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
~
After Steve and Charles had lunch on paper plates, sitting on the floor of the kitchen, reminiscing about all the times they had in that house, the good and the bad, they took a taxi to the cemetery.
“I’ll wait here in the taxi,” Charles muttered.
Steve nodded. He wanted to do this alone anyway.
He made his way through the tombstones to where his mother lay. He could tell which one was hers before he could even read the name on the slab.
It was the one covered in flowers and other memorobilia.
Perfect.
Steve knelt down on one knee and pulled the tassel of his pocket.
“Hey, Mom,” he began. “Or maybe I should call you Sophia now. Dad let me read some of your diaries. I think he left out the worst ones so that I would have to bare the brunt of your disdain and disinterest in your only child. I’m sorry I wasn’t what you wanted me to be. I’m sorry I didn’t live up to your expectations of me.”
He paused for a moment and then let out a shuddering breath. “I read about my fall down the stairs when I was a baby. I remember it being a scary moment at the time, but that I started crawling forwards instead of back so it was made kinda funny. But now...”
He closed his eyes. “Now I know the truth. I don’t know if Dad picked up on or if it’s in the parts he won’t let me read....”
“Karma is a bitch, Sophia,” Steve said bitterly. “That I lived, that will outshine you in every way I can. Maybe I’ll have kids, maybe I won’t, but I will tell you one thing, as a teacher I will treat those kids better than you ever treated me.”
He tucked his graduation tassel among the other gifts left around the tombstone. He knew something that these idiots didn’t. That in one week, the groundskeepers would come by and throw all of it away.
Which was exactly what he wanted. He want that stupid tassel thrown away with the rest of the garbage, because he was never coming back to Hawkins.
Steve stood up and dusted the dirt off of his knees. He walked back over to the taxi.
He jutted his thumb over his shoulder. “Did you want to say goodbye?”
Charles shook his head. “No, I said my peace with her at the funeral. I hope I can move on once we’ve settled in California.”
Steve nodded and then looked over his shoulder at the grave. He couldn’t see it, but he could feel its presence like a weight on his heart.
“Let’s go.”
Charles nodded back and they got into the taxi. As they got on the plane, Steve felt the weight lift off his chest.
He settled back against the seat in first class and slept well for the first time since his mom died.
So far so good on keeping this train moving, but I am getting down to the wire.
In this we have our first deaths.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 |
~
Jonathan, Ollie, and Dr. Owens stared down Dr. Kay and what looked like to be the rest of the military forces here in Hawkins.
“This isn’t going to go our way, is it?” Jonathan asked, glancing sidelong at Dr. Owens.
“I can take out a lot of them, but if they open fire,” Ollie agreed. “We’re pretty much dead.”
“Such pessimism,” Dr. Owens huffed. “We just need to take out Dr. Kay and the rest of the army will back the fuck off.”
Jonathan and Ollie both turned to him in shock.
“How would you know that?” Ollie asked.
“Let’s just say the army as a whole might be evil,” Dr. Owens huffed, “but it’s also filled with men and unless they’re psychopathic...”
“They don’t want to shoot a bunch of civilians if they could help it,” Jonathan said, rolling his eyes. “Got it.”
“You can’t win,” Dr. Kay called out to them. “You know that we have the superior numbers. You don’t have either of your telekinetics, you just have your fire starter.”
She raised her hand and the soldiers around her opened fire. But before the bullets could even reach them a large wall of flame shot from the ground.
Jonathan felt drenched in sweat at the sudden heat that surrounded them. The sheer strength of the wind that created the wall slowed the bullets considerably and even then the heat made them useless.
The wall died down and the soldiers stared at the trio in amazement. But before Dr. Kay could utter another word, Ollie raised her finger like a gun and mimed shooting her. A stream of flame shot from her finger and hit Dr. Kay right between the eyes.
She dropped like a stone and Ollie stared at each of the soldiers in turn. “You want to test me again or will you go back to your commanders and tell them only death and destruction lies in staying in Hawkins?”
A tall black secured his weapon and then nodded. “Fall out!” And they all got back in their vehicles and drove off.
All but the jeep that would take the black man away. He eyed the ragtag group a moment and then looked down at the body of Dr. Keys. He motioned for his men to carry her away then he turned back to them.
“It never sat right with me what was going on here,” he said dryly. “And if One hadn’t pushed up his time table for world domination, the army would have been out of here by the end of the week.”
“You looking for a fucking cookie?” Ollie spat. “Nasty ass things have been going on in this blood soaked town for decades! Fuck off before I change my mind about not killing you.”
The man nodded and then got into the jeep. He tapped on the roof and off it drove.
“I’m afraid, Sgt. David doesn’t have the authority to pull out, and unless Lt. Colonel Sullivan has changed his mind about Jane being the perpetrator in last years killings, this will have only slowed them down,” Dr. Owens mused as he killed his glasses.
“Then why the fuck did you have Ollie kill Dr. Kay then?” Jonathan hissed.
Dr. Owens put his glasses back on. “Because we just bought your friends the time they needed to take out One once and for all.”
“Won’t killing her have made them, oh I don’t know, more angry?” Jonathan bit out.
“No,” Dr. Owens said. “You heard the sergeant, he doesn’t like what’s being going on so it might be days before he reports Dr. Kay being dead.”
“Plus,” Ollie spat, “she was trying to recreate Dr. Brenner’s research. That’s why she wanted Kali. She deserved to die.”
Jonathan opened his mouth to say something, but he wisely kept his mouth shut. He had spent a lot of time with El and how traumatized she was. He couldn’t imagine what she would have been like if she had been forced to live on the streets to survive. Or maybe he could.
He could see the way Ollie stood, the way she held herself as if she was an abused dog waiting to be struck again. He saw those same mannerisms in El. Ollie is exactly who El would have grown up to be had Mike not found her first.
“Let’s get out of here,” Dr. Owens said primly. “Try meet up with the others. There is a stillness to the air, I do not like.”
Jonathan and Ollie nodded and they all crawled back into the jeep, driving off.
~
Steve and the rest of their team was headed for the meetup point for the final push against Vecna when D’art started swaying back and forth angrily.
“Whoa!” Dustin huffed as the beast nearly knocked him over. “What’s up with him?”
Eddie pointed up ahead. “That looks like a gate and trouble!”
Sure enough there was what Dustin called a mini gate and demogorgons chittering over it. Then without warning, D’art attacked the first one, but the other dropped down into the gate. Then the screaming started.
They all dashed to the gate and Steve skidded to a stop and looked in.
“Shit!” he hissed. “It’s the radio station!”
But before he could do anything, Eddie dropped down the gate, flipping midair with his wings and tearing the remaining demogorgon in literal two.
“Don’t shoot Eddie!” Steve screamed into the Gate before he jumped in after him.
Eddie moved to catch Steve as gravity righted itself and Steve nearly landed on his head. “A little reckless dashing into a gate like that without rope there, darlin’.”
Steve blushed as Eddie set him down on his feet. “Wasn’t thinking about that, was worried about you.”
“Hey, dumbasses,” Dustin yelled through the gate, “knock off the love fest, is everyone okay?”
Everyone looked around and no one seemed hurt, until Nancy spotted Murray slumped against a nearby wall.
She ran over to him and opened his jacket. It was drenched in his blood.
“Shit,” she hissed. “What happened?” She ripped off her own jacket and pressed against his chest where the most of the blood was coming from.
“When talk dark and spooky over here attacked the demogorgon,” Murray said, coughing up blood, “I didn’t move out of the way fast enough and the monster hit me square in the che–” he started coughing again. “Fuck!”
“You’ll be okay,” she murmured as Vickie rushed to her side, med kit in hand.
Vickie ripped on the shirt to expose the wound then she put her hand over the wound to feel for big it was. She took out the antiseptic and sprayed over the area. Then she pulled out the large swathes of gauze and pressed it on the wound.
“Hold that!” she bit out to Nancy. Nancy did as she was told and pressed the gauze to the wound.
Murray cried out in pain.
Vickie got out the bandages and began to wrap Murray’s torso. There was a small rattle of breath and then Murray slumped over.
“No, no, no!” Nancy cried. “Help me push him over so we can do CPR!”
Vickie stopped her wrapping and followed her instructions. As the two of the struggled with CPR Eddie murmured. “Shit is that what it was like for me when I died?”
Steve and Dustin shared a pained glance and that was all Eddie needed to know.
“He’s gone now,” Will murmured, twisting his hands together.
Nancy just kept doing the compressions, over and over again, until Steve pulled her away as she wailed into his neck.
Eddie’s expression hardened. “It’s not my fault.”
Dustin threw up his hands. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” cried. “No one is suggesting that you’re to blame. Right guys?”
There was a lot of murmuring of assent. No one blamed Eddie. Mike saw the torn expression on Steve face’s and came over and took over comforting Nancy. Steve stood up cupped Eddie’s cheek.
“None of this is your fault,” Steve murmured. “You jumped in to save their lives. It would have gone a lot worse if you hadn’t taken out the demogorgon, okay? Murray knew the risks. We all do.”
Lucas nodded. “With Vecna trying to kill everyone, it was only matter of time before he succeeded with one of us.”
If Steve was honest, he was a little annoyed that this was the person Nancy would break over. The guy who encouraged her and Jonathan to cheat on him. Not Billy who died saving El. Not Eddie who died protecting Dustin. Or even Hopper when it was presumed that he perished in the mall.
He walked over to where Mike and Nancy were sitting, blood on her hands and wailing. He grabbed her arms and looked in her in the eye.
“The gate is still open, Nance!” he said giving her a bit of a shake. “The demogorgons are going to scent the blood and be on us faster than a pack of hyenas scenting a lion’s dinner. If we don’t go now, we’ll all be just like him.”
She looked up at him, eyes glassed over in tears. She let out a shuddering breath and then another. She got her feet under her and then nodded. She reached out with her hand and closed Murray’s eyes.
Steve helped her to her feet.
“We won’t just leave him?” she asked, her voice shaking.
“Of course not,” Dustin huffed, putting his hands on his hips. “We aren’t going to let those monsters savage the body, that would be grotesque!”
Suddenly there was screeching sound like a chair being dragged over linoleum. Vickie was on her feet in an instant but then skidded to a stop and looked down in horror at her hands. She hid her hands behind her back but it was no use, she had blood everywhere.
“The kids!” Titus cried and threw another blanket over top of their corner. “Stay under there until we get this cleaned up! A monster hurt a friend!”
The Mind Flayer crew looked into the corner in abject horror.
Steve snapped his fingers getting everyone’s attention. “Nancy, Vickie, Robin leaves a bunch of clothes here and there’s a bathroom to wash up and get changed. Titus, take Derek and Dustin to get the bucket and mop from the janitor’s closet.
“Mike, Will, and Lucas, wrap Murray up and take him to the station van, he’ll be safest there.” He put his hands on his hips and sighed.
“What will you be doing?” Nancy asked with a sneer.
“Getting the kids out without them seeing a god damn thing,” Steve snapped. “Robin come help me!”
She was by his side in a heartbeat.
“K,” he said a little breathy, “we’re going take the blankets off, one at a time and string up the ones we can blocking their view. Then with the final blanket we’ll put over the kids heads and usher them out into the sound booth. Got it?”
Robin nodded and everyone got to work doing as Steve said. Once he was sure it was safe enough he gently herded them to the sound booth. Robin stayed with the kids as the break room was cleaned.
When Steve came back, Derek asked, “Hey, why did you protect them from seeing the dead guy and not me?”
Steve closed his eyes and knelt down in front of him. “As heartless as it sounds, there was no protecting you because you saw it go down. You could have hid with the other kids, but you chose to stand and fight and once you did that...”
“It was inevitable?” Derek asked, eyes wide.
Erica put her hands on hips and scoffed. “There are definitely worse things to see and believe you me, we’ve seen them.”
Derek’s eyes went wider, something Steve didn’t think was possible. He gulped and then nodded, more than slightly terrified.
“I wish it didn’t have to be this way,” Steve continued. “I think everyone in town will be scarred in someway. By forced to be violent, by having violence done to them or someone they know, or by witnessing it. But in this town where even god has looked away, it’s up to us to soldier on so that it can truly end so everyone can start healing, okay?”
Derek took a deep breath and then nodded again, this time more resolute. Steve ruffled his hair and stood back up.
Everyone had finished the clean up and started shuffling out, so Steve turned to follow them, but Derek grabbed his hand.
“Wait,” he said with a frown. “I think I’ve asked this before. But how old were guys when you started hunting monsters like this?”
Steve turned back to him. “Erica and the older teens were a little older than you, about eleven, though Erica was a couple years later. Me and the younger adults were fifteen-sixteen years old. The weird wolf-bat creature used to be Eddie Munson, he didn’t kill those kids by the way...”
“No shit,” Derek huffed. “I’ve met Mr. Whatsit, remember.”
Steve chuckled. “Well Eddie was only with us for less then a week and he was the oldest at twenty.” He paused for a moment. “I guess he technically still is.”
“Where were all the adults in this?” Derek demanded. “Yeah, sure we had Four-Eyes, the Chief of Police and someone’s mom, but where was the government, the rest of the police? Why are literal children being asked to fight evil? It’s not our job.”
“I don’t know how to tell this to you, kiddo,” Steve said with a sigh, “but those people you just listed? They’re the ones behind all this shit in the first place and the world would have ended at least three times over if it wasn’t for us.”
Derek half shrugged. “Yeah, okay.”
Steve held out his hand. “Come on. I can’t guarantee anything. No one can. But I will do everything in my power to keep you safe.”
Derek looked at his hand for a moment and then took. Steve led him out to join the others.
Hello and welcome to the second part of this wonderful story. I've almost finished it, but it's wrapping up pretty quick.
In this we have Steve showing he's not stupid and Eddie eating it up.
Oh and cliffhanger warning.
Part 1 |
~
Eddie was not having a good day. He had to stop Oliver, the rich business man twice from trying to tackle Steve to the ground. Lily, Oliver’s daughter was egging him on so he could be the hero and they could all go home. And the manager, Karen was on the verge of tears and hysterics was only going to make things worse.
The three of them, Karen, Riley, and himself was joined by the only teller on duty at the moment, Judy, according to her name tag. The other teller, Sandra had gone on her lunch. Lucky bitch.
Steve had been pacing back and forth, muttering to himself about evidence and that it had to be here. Whatever the hell that meant.
But the way his heart nearly escaped through his throat when the phone rang, he was sure had taken at least ten years off his life span.
Thankfully Steve picked up the phone immediately and what followed was clearly enough to stress the poor guy further, it ending with him slamming the phone down on the receiver.
Then he pointed the gun at Karen and Eddie honestly feared the worst, but it seemed more like he was just waving it around as he bit out, “Open the doors and let everyone out but you and smart mouth over here. Now.”
Karen scrambled to her feet and did as she was told. She pressed a button that opened the metal cages that had dropped in front of the entrance.
“Go on!” Steve growled. “Everyone out but Karen and Smart Mouth, now!”
To Dean and Riley’s credit, they did so a tad unwillingly, not wanting to leave Eddie and Karen alone with Steve, but with Steve waving the gun about, they did as he was told.
Almost immediately the alarms stopped their shrieking and Steve seemed to relax a little more.
Eddie raised his hand. “Is there a reason I wasn’t let go?”
Steve looked at him for a moment and then cocked his head like fucking golden retriever. “I like your voice, it’s soothing.”
Eddie blinked at him for a moment. “I–” He closed his mouth again. He really didn’t have an argument for that. Not really. If his presence kept Steve from doing stupid, then he would do it. Because even if the only life he took was his own, that was one life too many.
“Yeah, okay, sweetheart,” he said instead. “And what’s the reason for keeping Karen with us, then?”
“Because I need her keys?” Steve asked more than he said, like he wasn’t sure about that.
“My keys?” Karen asked, frowning down at the keys in her hand. “Why my keys?”
Steve turned to her like she was stupid. “Because I need the manager’s keys to get my locked box? You know the whole fucking reason I’m here?!”
She looked down at the keys in her hand and then back up at Steve. “If I gave you my keys, you’d let me go?”
Eddie stared at her in shock. She was just going to walk out that door and leave him with a crazed lunatic like that? What the hell?
Steve looked at her for a moment as if he was thinking the same thing. “Provided the key to the locked boxes actually is on that key ring.”
Oh. Eddie thought. So he wasn’t so crazy that he would just take her word for it. That meant that at the very least he could be reasoned with.
Eddie reached out for the keys. “Which one is the key to the vault?”
Karen frowned that wasn’t the key Steve was asking for, but she pointed to a small brass key. “It can only be used exactly at 8am every morning.”
Eddie took the keys from her and worked that key off the ring and handed her the key back. “Now which one is to the security boxes?”
She pointed to the middle silver key. He nodded and went over the room that had the rows and rows of locked boxes. He went to put the key in the door when she called out.
“Wait!” Karen cried. “The middle one opens the boxes not to the box vault. You’ll want the round silver key. If you tried any other key, it would have sounded the alarms and I don’t think Steve would have liked that much.”
Just then the phone rang again and all three of them turned to it, staring at it in shock.
~
Hopper was ready to call Callahan to take the shot when a bunch of people came piling out of the bank.
According to one former hostage, a young man named Riley Jones, that the only people left was the manager, Karen Wheeler, the local drug dealer, turned straight, Eddie Munson and the bank robber, Steve Harrington.
“Holy shit,” Hopper growled once Riley was led away. The other witnesses all said the same thing, Steve Harrington was standing in the middle of that bank with a loaded revolver and looking like he was fresh out of the asylum.
He spoke into his walkie talkie on his shoulder. “Get me Harrington’s doctor at Pennhurst, I need to know how unstable he actually is!”
“He’s not in the slightest,” a warm voice said from his elbow and when Hopper turned he saw a well dressed man with a round face and calming demeanor.
“And you are?” Hopper asked, eyeing him up.
“Dr. Sam Owens, psychiatrist and licensed therapist at Pennhurst Hospital and Asylum,” he replied handing Hopper his business card. “And for the last five years, Steve Harrington’s doctor.”
Hopper frowned. “How did you know to come here?” Something just wasn’t adding up.
“Oliver Granger made a statement to the media about his ‘ordeal’ and named Steve directly,” Dr. Owens said dryly.
“That son of a bitch!” Hopper snarled. “Is he trying to get the remaining hostages killed! I’m going to kill him. Fucking hell! I told him! I fucking told him that any and all press needed to come through me!”
Dr. Owens nodded. “And get Steve killed,” he added pointedly. “Which is the last thing I want.”
Hopper rubbed his face in frustration. “All right, Dr. Owens give me everything you’ve got. I came to town the year after this mess, so just know it wasn’t my fuck up.” Then he spoke into his walkie talkie. “Belay that, I’ve got the doc, I need the entire case file for Harrington murders ASAP!”
“First off,” Dr. Owens said sternly, “the thing you must absolutely be clear on, Steve is not insane. Not even a little.”
Hopper raised an eyebrow. “Uh...Doc, I don’t mean to show my ass on this, but doesn’t five years in Pennhurst show evidence contrary to that statement?”
“No it just means that whatever was locked inside Steve’s mind was considered dangerous enough that he needed to be deemed crazy enough that the truth would never come out,” Dr. Owens said coolly.
“I don’t believe in conspiracies, Doc,” Hopper growled. “And you shouldn’t either.”
“Oh?” Dr. Owens said innocently. “Where did he get a gun in the time it took for him to drive from Pennhurst to Hawkins and the bank? Because the timeline doesn’t add up.”
Hopper opened his mouth to refute that, but then he frowned. He been informed enough times when a criminal was being released to know that the release time was at 10am. It was barely noon now. Steve Harrington would have had to have the gun on him or in his car and that didn’t make sense either.
“Did Steve have a gun in his possession when he was admitted to the hospital?” Hopper asked rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Because I was sure that sort of thing was frowned upon.”
Dr. Owens shook his head. “Absolutely not! And even if he had it would have been taken away for evidence!”
Just then an officer came up to them with a small file. “What the fuck is that?”
“The Harrington Murders file?” the officer asked, cocking his head to the side. “It’s what you asked for.”
Hopper looked down at the folder and then back up at the officer. “Where’s the rest of it?”
“That’s all of it,” the officer insisted. “Plus the blood samples, there wasn’t much to the case. It was pretty cut and dried that Steve Harrington did. It was just whether or not he’d go to jail or the nut house.”
Dr. Owens glared at the man and he sputtered, “I mean the mental hospital.” He glanced nervously at the doctor before turning back to Hopper. “Is that all?”
Hopper waved him off and opened the file. There were plenty of pictures of the scene and testimony from Jack Hagan, the male victim’s father, and photos of Steve in the aftermath. But nothing else. He looked up at Dr. Owens. “Have you seen this shit?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Dr. Owens said gravely. “Your predecessor was eager to put someone, anyone away for the murder of those two adolescences and there he was the perfect scapegoat, blood all over him, no memory of what happened. Steve suffered. Unfathomably so.”
Hopper closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Please tell me the clothes Steve is wearing isn’t the clothes that he was arrested in.”
“I honestly have no idea,” Dr. Owens sneered. “I wasn’t allowed to be at his release.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“They told me that because it was my recommendation against the will of the hospital board that I wasn’t allowed to be there at his release.”
Hopper sighed. He picked up the phone and called the bank again. The only way he was going to get the answers he needed was talking to the source.
“Hey, Hop!” Eddie answered gleefully. “Sorry, Stevie can’t come to the phone right now.”
“Munson,” Hopper replied dryly. “Nice to know you’re still alive to annoy the hell out of me. Can you tell me what the situation is right now?”
“Sure thing, Chief,” Eddie continued brightly. “There was a slight misunderstanding and Karen is very, very sorry. Aren’t you, Karen? She says she sorry.”
Hopper pinched his nose. Munson was being deliberately obtuse. Probably to stall for time. Time for what he didn’t know, but he was just going to have to play along.
“Can you tell me what kind of gun Harrington has?” he asked, exasperated.
“Oh goody!” Eddie said. “You do know who you’re dealing with! That’s so good! It’s a hand gun. And no, I’m not blowing smoke up your ass when I tell you I don’t know what kind.”
Hopper shook his head. “That’s fine, son,” he said. “Is it an old fashion gun with a barrel in middle like you see in westerns or is it a modern gun with a clip at the bottom?”
There was silence for a moment before Eddie said, “Uh... it appears to be one of those new fangled things.”
Dr. Owens snorted and Hopper rolled his eyes.
“Right,” Hopper huffed. “Is there any chance of you knowing what Harrington is doing holding up a bank and how we can end this nice and peaceful like?”
“I’m not one hundred percent on that, Chief,” Eddie admitted. “But um... Karen Wheeler is on her way out to you and hopefully she can clear things up for you.”
And then the line hung up again.
But sure enough, a very frazzled Karen Wheeler came rushing out of the bank, hurrying across the street to line of police cars.
“Chief Hopper, Chief Hopper!” she cried. “Oh it’s just dreadful!”
Hi!! Welcome to this fun little idea I had you can read it here and the reason for Dustin being Puss here!
This is a completed work and will have 5 chapters.
Two major things here. This is NOT based on Shrek's Puss in Boots! He is a long haired tuxedo cat. This is very much based on the original tale. And I used the English Marquess instead of the Italian Marquis de Carabas because it made more sense for the story.
Summary: When Eddie's mom dies he is left with three things a silk bag, a rather small pair of boots, and a cat. Thinking he got the raw end of the deal when his uncles get his home and his mother's mill, he sinks into depression. But he soon learns that those three things have the power to change his fate forever. For the cat is a magical cat and the bag is a magical bag, and the boots? They're for the cat.
~
Elizabeth Wayne lay dying. She knew it wouldn’t be long now. Her husband had ran off when their son Edward was but a lad and couple years ago she had been notified that he died in some bar room brawl. By then Eddie was his own man.
Al’s two brothers would get the mill and the other would get this house. The only thing that Eddie would get was a silk bag, a pair of boots much too small for his feet and a large, curly haired tuxedo cat.
She reached out to her son. “I’m sorry I must leave you with nothing. But your Uncle Teddy is a cruel man and will toss you out before I am even cool in my grave. If it had been your Uncle Wayne, you wouldn’t be treated so. But he was wisely given the mill as he will run it well.”
Eddie came forward and knelt at her side. “It’s okay, Mother. I don’t blame Uncle Teddy. He has a wife and young children. I wouldn’t want someone like me living here either.”
“Don’t talk like that,” Elizabeth murmured. “Like you’re some burden. Because you aren’t. You aren’t your father either. But the cat will take care of you. I promise.”
Eddie nodded as tears streamed down his face. He would tell her anything her last moments. “I know, Mother.”
She cupped his cheek in her palm and then was gone.
Eddie cried and cried until he was sure he become sick from it. Just when he reached the darkest despair, he felt a nudge at his elbow. He looked down to see the cat. His mother had always jokingly called him Puss, but he did have a name once upon a time.
“I’ll be okay, little one,” Eddie muttered as he got achingly to his feet.
He walked over to the pantry and opened it up to find that there wasn’t much left as he had been too busy taking care of his mother in her last days to work.
No work meant no money, no money meant no food.
He grabbed the last bit of stale bread and bit of cheese nearing the end of its life and cut a bit off for the cat.
The cat batted at it for a moment before it meowed at him. Only the meow sounded like actual words.
“Save it for yourself, master,” the cat said, “I can catch mice well enough for my own dinner.”
Eddie leapt to his feet. “Holy shit! You can talk!”
The cat laughed. “For a great many a year, yes. You just hadn’t paid attention until now.”
“Just how old are you?” Eddie asked, the question blurting from his lips before he could stop to think about it.
“Older than you would believe,” the cat said with a chuckle. “But I’m afraid we don’t have time for pleasantries. You’ll need to finish that food, and then contact someone to collect your mother. God rest her soul.”
Eddie nodded and hurried to do as he was told.
“The first thing I must do is find you shelter,” the cat said with a heavy sigh. “If you’ll give me the boots and the silk bag, I’ll be as quick as I can.”
A thousand questions ran through Eddie’s head, but the one that came out of his mouth was, “What do I call you? I’m not calling you Puss. Not even the tiniest bit sorry.”
The cat grinned. “I’ve been called many names, I am merely the Master Cat. But if you must call me something, Dustin will do.”
Eddie blinked at him for a moment. “Well Master Cat, Dustin it is.” Then he stood up and got the sack and boots. “I was going to sell them to see if I could get enough money to at least rent a room, but if you think you can do better with them, be my guest.”
Dustin took them silently and pulled the boots on his feet, fitting perfectly. He slung the bag over his shoulder and then stood on his hind legs like a human.
“Uh...” Eddie said dumbly. “How long have you been able to do that?” Then he shook his head. “Never mind, stupid question really. You’re weird. And I like that.”
Dustin smiled up at him and then took a deep bow. “Thank you, my lord. I will be on my way, but will be back tomorrow at dawn.”
Eddie nodded, but as the cat made for the door, he leapt to his feet. “Wait a moment!” he cried.
The cat stopped and turned to him. Eddie picked up a hat from one of his mom’s porcelain dolls and placed it on Dustin’s head.
“There we go!” Eddie said proudly. “You can’t go out without a hat.”
Dustin touched the rim reverently and then nodded, before he slipped out of the door and into the night.
Then Eddie got to work sending out messages to the doctor, the undertaker, and the lawyer.
The first and the last were there as soon as they could. The doctor declared her dead as the lawyer went over all the things that would be sold before his uncle, Teddy took residence.
It didn’t amount to much, but it would buy him lodging and food for awhile. Not a long while, but hopefully long enough to find his own place, and even work.
He had been apprenticed to a luthier before his mother got sick, but he doubted his old master would take him back. Especially with no one to pay for his lodging and food.
The undertaker had arrived shortly after the lawyer left, and the two of them took away the remains of Elizabeth Munson, leaving Eddie alone for the first time in far, far too long.
He laid in his own bed–well, it’s wasn’t really his anymore. But he laid in bed and cried himself to sleep.
~
Come morning, there was a soft scratching noise at the front door, and it took Eddie a moment to realize it must of have been the cat. He got on his feet and staggered to the door in a daze.
Eddie rubbed his eyes wearily and opened the door. Dawn pierced his sleep-addled brain as Dustin scampered in, kicking the door closed behind him.
“I have secured us lodging in a small hut down the way from the woman churns the butter and makes the cream,” Dustin said brightly, taking off his hat and laying down his sack.
He began to pull out fresh bread and cheese and handed it over to Eddie for his breakfast. Then he pulled out a bottle of milk and set it front of him.
“This is quite the breakfast, my friend,” Eddie said, gobbling down the meal with relish, savoring each bite as if it was the ambrosia of the gods. “Thank you.”
Dustin bowed low. “It is my pleasure. I think it is best that we make haste and leave before your brother arrives. The lawyer, will be here to take care of everything. I will see to that once you are settled in your new lodgings.”
Eddie nodded and did as he was told.
As he followed the cat, who was running all fours, boots and all, down the pathway to the diary maid’s house, he was struck by the fact that he should find all this ridiculous. Just doing whatever a cat said.
But Dustin hadn’t steered him wrong yet and it was nice not having to think at the moment. He was distraught with the death of the only parent who had loved him and it was all he could think about it.
Mrs. Henderson was waiting for him at the door of the small cottage he would be renting from her.
It had a bed, a table, a chair, and small kitchen. It was barely large enough for Eddie, but it was shelter and he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
“Thank you,” he muttered, his clothes and small possessions in the Dustin’s bag. “I’ll be able to pay you at the first of the month.”
Mrs. Henderson nodded. “Just whenever you can, sweetie. You’ve got a good cat there, he’ll take care you. Don’t you worry about a thing.”
She bent down and started petting Dustin until he was limp and purring. She kissed his forehead. “You take care of each other, and I’ll be just over there.” And pointed to a nice cottage just across the way.
Eddie and Dustin nodded and they went inside their new home. As Dustin started emptying his sack, Eddie just went slack with relief, falling to his knees sobbing with the grief of everything that had happened.
Dustin came up to him and just sat down beside him, purring. Nothing else, just purring. Eddie put his hand on the cat’s head and just sobbed until every last ounce of grief and pain poured out of him.
When Eddie’s sobs had slackened to dry hiccups, Dustin nudged his head with his head until Eddie got to his feet.
He stumbled over to the chair and sat down with a huff, throwing his head back. “God, Dustin. It hasn’t even been a full day since she died and I can’t imagine my life without her. She was the only person whoever loved me for me.”
Dustin hopped up onto the table and rubbed his head against Eddie’s. “It’ll be all right, Master. I have figured out worst conundrums then this. I cannot bring your mother, back nor can I replace her in your heart. But I will find someone who will love you for you. It will take some time, but have no fear, by the end of this year, you will have everything you every dreamed about having.”
Eddie gulped and shook his head. “How can you do these things? Are you magical cat? A witch or wizard in animal form? Something else that looks like a cat? Why are you doing these things?”
Dustin sat down and looked up at Eddie calculatingly. “Long ago, an ancestor of yours saved my life and I promised that for each of my nine lives I would bring each generation to prosperity. What they do with that prosperity is up to them. Your father squandered all he had so it went to his brothers. But your grandfather made a thriving industry. Your great grandfather was a successful sea merchant. And so on and so forth. As for what I am? I told you. I am merely the Master Cat. I am clever, smart, and wily as a fox.”
Eddie frowned, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “So you just go up to people and trick them into doing what you want them to?”
Dustin laughed. “That is a very succinct way to put it, but yes. I will always look out for you so when I ask you to something, no matter how strange, you’ll do it. Because it will work out. On my honor as a Master Cat.”
Eddie eyed the curly furred, black and white creature and then nodded. “You have a deal.”
Dustin grinned. “Oh trust me, I have a lot more than that.”
Eddie cocked his head to the side in confusion.
“I have a plan,” the cat said wickedly. “And you are in for a very wild ride.”
And we here at the end. This is the last chapter. I hope everyone has enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Starting next week I will be posting Puss in Boots. I hope you'll be there!
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 |
~
Steve and Robin sat across from a sour looking woman. She had her red hair that was starting to grey perfectly styled and her makeup flawlessly applied. She wore a somber grey blazer and matching pencil skirt. Her lips were turned into a permanent sneer as she looked over at the pair of them in disdain.
The name plate on her desk read: Amy Walsh.
“Am I to understand that the girl will being staying a halfway house?” Mrs. Walsh sneered.
“Her name is Max,” Robin offered helpfully. “And no, the Hawkins Hope House is much more than a halfway house.”
Mrs. Walsh looked down at the documents in front of her. “Yes, Maxine Mayfield. Mother currently in prison.”
“Yes,” Steve said through gritted teeth. “She signed away her rights as a parent.”
Mrs. Walsh pursed her lips together. “I also see you two aren’t married, is that correct?”
Steve and Robin shared a glance.
“We were told that wasn’t going to be a problem...” Robin said with deadly calm. “We have completed all the requirements for her adoption, is there something else?”
Mrs. Walsh frowned, a wrinkle appearing on her brow that looked wildly unnatural. “Yes, you have completed all the requirements, and the fee has cleared. But I have heard rumors about that place. That Hope House. How it used to be run by decent folk and is now overrun with homosexuals.” She said the last word as though it was poison on her lips.
“There is nothing that says that a child needs a father and a mother,” Steve said, is voice dripping with venom. “I was raised by my mother. My father was a philandering abuser and my mom raised me on her own.”
Robin crossed her legs and looked the witch straight in the eye. “Plus are you going to tell the chief of police that can’t adopt a little because he isn’t married? Because I understand he is going through the same process right now.”
“That is a private matter,” she snarled. “What would you know about it?”
“I’ve known Jim Hopper since I was eight,” Steve said simply. “Ellie, his foster daughter, was originally sent to Hope House when she was first found. I’m very close to them both.”
Mrs. Walsh’s face soured so much she looked as though she just swallowed a pickled lemon. She picked up the APPROVE stamp and slammed it against the document.
“Will you be changing her name?” she asked dryly, handing them their copy of the documents for hearing.
“No,” Steve said, smiling for the first time. “She wants to keep her name the way it is and I agree.”
Mrs. Walsh nodded, but said nothing.
Steve and Robin got to their feet and walked away without another word.
Eddie and Max were outside in the hallway, waiting. They looked up and Robin turned to the page and showed it to them. That great big ‘APPROVED’ in dark red letters.
Max and Eddie leapt to their feet and gave each other hugs.
“Now all we have to do is have Judge Newby sign off on it,” Steve said with a grin, “and you’ll officially be adopted.”
Max ran over to Steve and gave him a big hug. “Thank you so much, Steve!”
“I’m just glad it all worked out for you, Maxie,” he murmured into her hair.
~
Judge Newby looked out at the gallery with a smile. It was stacked with all of Max’s friends, their parents, and the adults from the Hope House. Directly behind her was Ellie and her new dad, Jim Hopper. Their hearing had been just before Max’s and everyone was thrilled.
Max sat between Robin and Steve, trying not to look as bored as she felt. There was a lot of legal speak and she just wanted it over with.
“It looks like everything is order,” he told the assembled. “Steven Ethan Harrington and Robin Melissa Buckley you are the new parents of Maxine Susan Harrington-Mayfield. Congratulations to you all.”
Max jumped up out of her seat to the cheers of those in gallery cheered as she hugged Robin and then Steve.
She held onto Steve as though he was her lifeline. And Steve supposed he was. She would have a much better chance at life now.
Steve turned to the gallery. “Who’s up for Benny’s?” he yelled. “My treat!”
Everyone cheered back.
~
Later at the diner, Max was tucked up under Steve’s arm. “You’re not mad I kept my mom’s last name?”
Steve shook his head. “I was honored enough to have you hyphenate the two. I would have been super duper okay if you stayed Max Mayfield. Because that’s who you were for most of your life.”
Max nodded. “I just wanted still have a connection to her, you know? Like I get she’s done some pretty fucked up things, but she’s still my mom and I love her.”
Steve kissed the top of her head. “I know you do and she does too. You did good.”
“Plus,” Max said cocking her head to the side, “putting your name in front of Mayfield means I’m in front of Dustin now.”
Steve burst out laughing as Dustin could be heard muttering, “Son of a bitch!”
“You could have gone for Buckley,” Robin said with a grin, “and beat out Will, too.”
Max shook her head. “I like Will.”
Dustin looked scandalized as everyone else burst out laughing.
“That will teach you to steal my socks!” she crowed.
“You stole my hockey puck first!” Dustin growled back.
Max just stuck out her tongue at him, folding her arms.
Eddie leaned on the palm of his hands and batted his eyelashes at Steve. “Are you sure you wanted this? Because you just signed up for a life time of sass.”
Steve looked at Max and then back at Eddie. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
~
It took roughly three weeks to get all the paper work for Eddie to work at Hope House completed, mostly because they were waiting for his year long parole to be over with and him to have his last inspection with Powell.
The parole officer walked through Eddie’s door and saw that it was mostly packed up and put away.
“You piss off these good people enough that they’re gonna kick you out the second you’re off parole?” Powell said, shaking his head and clicking his tongue reproachfully. “I always knew you were rotten to the core, Munson and these good people see it too.”
Eddie glared daggers at him. He just needed to get through this last inspection so he could have this man out of his life for good.
Just then Steve knocked on the door frame. “Hey, Eds, do you know how much longer this is going to take? Chrissy is really chomping at the bit to move onto this side with you and move me over, and she chose this room.”
Eddie grinned up at Steve. “It’ll probably be a bit, just have her help you move over to the kids’ side if she’s got that much energy to burn.”
Steve laughed. “I’ll be sure and tell her that, thanks! Officer Powell,” he greeted curtly.
“Harrington,” Powell greeted back, but he turned back to Eddie with a frown. “What’s all this then?”
Eddie raised his chin. He flopped on the bed and sat up, resting his elbows on his knees, linking his fingers together. “It’s just moving day is all.”
Powell looked over his shoulder in the direction Steve had gone. “I think I’m gonna have to check those boxes then...” he said turning back to Eddie.
“Be my guest.”
Powell tore everything out of the boxes dumping most of it on the floor as Eddie watched on in stoic silence. They had all predicted Powell was going to be like this and had made sure that anything truly valuable or fragile was already moved out to his new room.
Once he was done tearing through all of Eddie’s things and not finding so much as a cigarette, he turned to Eddie.
“Well, it looks like you just squeaked on by,” Powell growled. “But I know your kind. You’ll be back in the slammer before Christmas. You just can’t help it.”
Eddie bit his tongue and got through all the paper work signifying he was a free man. Once the paper work was properly filed and Eddie as standing outside the police station, Powell having shown him the door, he turned to the officer.
“The problem with men like you is that you will always be a small, petty man looking down at poor people like they’re filth, but the truth is Officer Powell all it takes is for one person to give a damn and anyone can make a life for themselves better then it was before. And for me it’s that man right there.” He pointed to Steve who was waiting for Eddie, leaning up against his beat up old pickup truck. “That man is everything you wished you could be but never will because you’re small and petty.”
He patted Powell on the chest and walked over to Steve. “You ready to go home, sweetheart?”
Steve smiled up at him. “Yeah, baby. Max is throwing an ice cream party for you and asked us to pick up some caramel topping on the way back.”
Eddie laughed. “She knows me far too well.”
“She does that,” Steve acknowledged. They got in the truck and drove away.
Over the next few years, Eddie proved to be a valuable member of Hope House and he was among the entire crew as they watched, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, Max, and Ellie all walk across that stage to graduate from high school.
Steve looked over and saw that Eddie was crying. “Are you okay, baby?”
“I never thought that this would be my life,” Eddie whispered. “This is the best thing to ever happen to me and I owe it all to you.”
Steve laughed. “Nah, I’d say it was Dustin and Max’s fault.”
“How did you figure?”
“If Dustin hadn’t thrown Max’s sock into your breakfast,” Steve explained with a grin, “I think you would have continued to brood for waaaay longer.”
Eddie laughed brightly. “Yeah, yeah. Socks for breakfast. God, I love my life.”
“And I love you.”
Eddie peeked around, but it didn’t look like anyone was watching, so he gave Steve a light peck on the lips. “Love you too, darlin’.”
Yeah, yeah. I know it's not a real thing, but it's funny when you get into the story.
Summary: Eddie just wants to cash his first check and go out celebrating with friends, but fate has other plans. A freshly released from Pennhurst Hospital Steve Harrington comes into the bank looking for answers into the deaths of his best friends Tommy Hagan and Carol Perkins he accidentally triggers a series of events that leave Eddie as his hostage. Now it's a race to find out what happened that night because Steve is suddenly on borrowed time.
~
Eddie was having the best day of his life. He had gotten a job at Thacher’s Tires thanks to Brian and had worked enough to get his very first paycheck.
He had promised the guys to meet up with them at Benny’s Diner to celebrate his first check and to treat them all to milk shakes. He knew it was going to take him longer because he had to open an account in his name, so he told them meet him there in an hour.
His van roared to a stop in front of the bank and he slid out, locking the door behind him as he slammed it shut. He walked in and never felt so out place in his entire life. The floors were black marble and walls were stark white. Not off-white, not eggshell. Pure blindingly white. There were sofas and tables in the black and white theme. Hell even the little counter thingy where you filled out deposit and withdraw slips was white.
He was standing there in ripped black jeans and a Megadeath t-shirt that had seen better days. He was so grateful he had pulled on his clean white sneakers this morning otherwise he would look like one hell of a sight.
Eddie looked around. There were a couple of people in line for a cashier, an old man with a cane and half moon glass, and a mother with her toddler on her hip, there was a young couple getting their first mortgage, and young man speaking with another agent, probably about a cash box. Then he spotted the agent who could help him off to the side. He walked up to the employee’s desk.
“Hey, I would like to open up an account here,” he murmured. He wasn’t sure why, but speaking loud felt worse than shouting in a library.
The man at the desk brightened. “Of course! I’d be happy to help you with that. Please have a seat!”
Eddie sat down and filled out all the paper work and the guy even helped him cash his first check and determined how much Eddie should put away.
As he filled out the paper work, the woman with her kid and the old man had finished their business while the couple argued over whether or not her name should be on the house, and the young man was getting more and more agitated.
Just as Eddie was finishing up a business man in a suit and a young woman came in. He honestly couldn’t tell if she was his daughter or his girlfriend, but he kept one hand on her waist the whole time.
Then as he stood up to leave suddenly there was a loud crash as all the gates to the exits dropped and the alarm overhead started blaring.
There were screams from the wife and one of the tellers and shouts from the mortgage guy and the business man demanding what the hell was going on.
“Shut up!” the young man growled, rubbing his temple with what looked to Eddie like a small pistol. Thankfully the guy was at least keeping his finger off the trigger, but that did nothing lessen the tension in the room. “Shut up! Shut up!”
The room became so stone silent that you could hear the ragged breaths of the scared people around him.
Oh hell no, this was not happening. Not today. Eddie really had places to be and he wasn’t going to be stuck in a bank being held up by some yuppie jock, judging from his clothes and the very expensive swim watch on his wrist.
The sirens continued to wail and Eddie could see that the guy was starting to pace back and forth screaming obscenities at the teller who had obviously been the one to trigger the alarm.
“Everyone just stay where you are and don’t move!” the guy yelled, still rubbing his temple like it pained him.
Eddie just wished it wasn’t with the barrel of a gun.
The screaming from the bank patrons started up again and he was starting to get a headache.
The guy pressed the heels on his palms into his eyes and bellowed. “Everyone fucking shut the hell up!”
That’s when Eddie got it, whatever was going on here, the bank robber had no idea what he was doing and before rational thought entered his head, he was on his feet and loping over to where the guy was standing.
“Hey, darlin' is this your first robbery,” Eddie said cocking his head to his side, “because wow, you sure are riled up. Now, look this little hold up is cute and all but I really have places to be, so can we just call it a day and no one gets hurt?”
“Hold up?” the guy echoed and Eddie was suddenly more confused than before. “Unless you can do something about the fucking alarm get the fuck out of my face!”
Eddie blinked at him for a moment and then he was being pulled away. He was forced to sit down and he noticed his ‘rescuers’ were the mortgage guy and the safety deposit lady who started this whole mess.
“Oh my god,” she whispered. “What do you think you are doing? Don’t you know who that is?”
“Well, no,” he said rearing his head back. “Is there a reason I should know this guy?”
The mortgage guy whose nametag read Riley looked around to make sure the bank robber wasn’t looking their direction.
“That’s Steve Harrington,” he hissed under his breath. “He went crazy and killed his best friend and the guy’s girlfriend.”
“His rich father got him off and sent into Pennhurst Asylum,” the manager whispered, frightened. Eddie could finally see that her nametag read Karen. “My daughter went to school with him.”
Eddie’s whole head snapped over to the bank robber who was shouting for the alarms to stop and the recognition hit.
“Holy shit,” he whispered. “I went to school with him too.”
But this creature before him was not the Steve Harrington, King of Hawkins High Eddie knew back in the day. That boy was athletic, tanned, fitted clothes and a confidence that could only be bought by swaths and swaths of his parents money.
This was not that. The clothes he wore were ill-fitting and stained. It was clear that someone had tried to get the blood stains out but couldn’t. His belt was doing a lot of heavy lifting to keep the man from indecency.
His once beautiful hair hung limp in front of his eyes and he did nothing to push it out of his way. He was pale and more than just a little frail.
It was clear that he had been released from the hospital and came straight here. For whatever reason he was holding up a bank.
Not even Eddie’s dad was stupid enough to go from jail to a bank robbery right out of the clank.
Fuck.
Eddie was lucky to be alive.
~
Chief Jim Hopper was having a bad day. He had stopped drinking, then his ex-wife called and told him she was getting remarried in the fall to a nice guy named Paul of all things, the new rookie on the force had already got in trouble for waving his gun around, and the coffee machine in the office was broken.
Then as he was trying to copy a report, the copy machine ate it. Ate the whole god damned report.
He was so fucking done.
Hopper was grabbing his coat and calling it a day when the call came in.
There was an active robbery at the bank.
His eyes slid shut and he opened them slowly.
“I can take it for ya,” Powell said cocking his head to the side, “if you need to cut out of here.” He jutted his chin at the coat in his hand.
“You got an experience in negotiation?” Hopper growled, almost hoping the guy would say yes and he could in fact go home.
“Sorry, Chief,” Powell replied with a grimace.
Hopper let out a slow breath. “Yeah, I was afraid of that. Find out as much as you can and get at least three cars out there. Call Callahan in and tell him that the apartment building across the street has a clear line of sight to the front doors of the bank. Tell him to grab his rifle and head on up.”
Powell nodded and everyone rushed to do their jobs. Hopper let out a pained sigh and head not to his truck, but to his patrol car.
Once inside he started banging on the steering wheel and cussing and spitting. He threw the car in reverse and peeled out of the parking lot as if the devil himself was gunning for him.
It had taken less than twenty minutes to get everyone into place, but they still had no idea who the were dealing with.
They didn’t even know how many people were in there, let alone anything like demands.
“I want eyes in there!” Hopper growled. “I need to know what we are dealing with here! I need number of unsubs and hostages! I need the phone number of the bank, not the cute one they hand their customers, the real one, the one that gets me to someone in charge. And I need it yesterday!”
All around him people scrambled to do as they were told.
Powell came running up to him. “There is one perp with a what looks to be a pistol and about a half a dozen hostages.”
“God dammit,” Hopper swore. Six hostages was six hostages too many. “Is there a way we get ahold of whoever is in there?”
Powell nodded. “There’s a direct line to the manager’s office and from what the alarm company said, that’s where the distress call originated from.”
“Do you have the numb–?” Hopper began to ask when Powell shoved a boxy mobile phone at him and a piece of paper. “All right let’s do this, let’s see if this guy can be reasoned with.”
He dialed the number and immediately the line picked up, but before he could utter a word, someone screamed into the receiver, “Shut the alarms off! For god’s sake shut them off!”
“Well, hello to you to,” Hopper snarked. “I’ll turn the alarms off, but first you have to work with me. I’m Jim Hopper, chief of police. Who am I speaking to?”
“Oh well, fuck,” the robber hissed. “Yeah, I know who you are. I’m Steve and the alarms are really making my head hurt. I can’t think, I can’t breathe!”
Steve, Steve, Steve... why did that name ring a bell? “I’ll tell you what Steve, let go one of the hostages and you’ll have your peace.”
Then the phone disconnected and Hopper stared at the phone in his hand in horror. “Well shit.”
This is where we start to split off and see what Eddie and Steve are doing with their lives over the next few years.
Part 1 | Part 2 |
~
Eddie and his bandmates were gone by the end of the week and Steve was left deal with the fallout.
Which was next to zero. And not because his dad splashed around money and influence to hush it up, Prin. Higgins, the gutless wonder had announced to the school that the culprit had been caught and punished accordingly but because they were a minor, the school would not be naming names.
It was actually Steve’s dad that insisted that he help clean up the drama room as part of his restitution.
So there was a lot of speculation on who it could have been, most people deciding that it must have been some freshman or sophomore who didn’t get the role they wanted. But when Steve was brought up about cleaning up the mess, everyone just assumed that he had done it for his mom, not because of his mom.
Coaches Olsen and Myers, the basketball and swim coaches respectively, were told it was Steve, but given leeway on if they wanted to kick him off the team or not.
Coach Olsen decided to put Steve on the second string for the most part, except for one particular game. The one the scouts would be at. They were told Steve was put on the bench due to the death of his mother. Something the scouts ate up. They loved a good sob story.
Coach Myers on the other hand merely gave him a co-captain to help Steve balance his grief and captain duties.
Steve felt just such an outpouring of support from both of his coaches, he just wanted to cry. When he asked them why, Coach Myers just smiled and said that sometimes people get dealt a shit hand when it comes to their parents. They don’t get to decide that, so kicking Steve off the team for having shit mom didn’t feel right to him.
Coach Olsen on the other hand steered Steve into his office and sat him down.
“What I’m about to say is to remain between us, okay?” he told Steve once they sat down. Steve nodded. “Right, so my wife, Maria is the dance teacher here and her life long dream was to own her own dance studio. Well, because she would work on the musicals doing the choreography your mom left her $15k to do just that.”
Steve closed his eyes and slumped into his seat in despair. “Oh.”
“We were both there that day,” Coach Olsen continued. “We sat there throughout the whole thing and waited for you to be named for something. Even if it was just a picture of the two of you or some other memento, but it never happened. So we made the decision to help you anyway we could. I understand your dad will only pay for your schooling if you go into law?”
“Yeah,” Steve nodded. “I’m just not good at it. I took debate in middle school and I barely squeaked by with a D in that class.”
“So what do you want to do, Steve?” Coach Olsen asked. “What’s your dream?”
Steve rubbed his nose. “To be a teacher. Not–not like Miller or O’Donnell but someone who inspires. Maybe even coaching too, I just want to help kids, you know.”
“What would you teach?”
Steve straightened up as he realized that the coach was serious about wanting to know. “I was thinking history. Because I was in an AP class this year for it and I really love it. I would focus on American history because that’s what I know best, but I really like world religions too.”
He went on talking about what schools he would want to go to and who had the best programs.
Coach sat back. “Huh. Sounds like you’ve got a plan. All you need is the money and for that you need a scholarship. Let’s help you get that. What I want you to do is meet with me once week after school so we can polish up your applications and see if we can’t get you where you want to go.”
“Thank you, Coach,” he breathed. “This means a lot. Like I know my dad is just trying to look out for me because as a teacher I won’t make a lot, but I just want to make a difference not money.”
“You’ll do just fine, Steve,” Coach Olsen said with a smile. “Just fine indeed.”
~
Eddie’s knee wouldn’t stop bouncing the whole flight over.
“Doug is going to be pissed,” Jeff said with a chuckle. “We replace him and suddenly get a record deal? He must be fuming to hell.”
“I may or may not have called to gloat...” Brian said, batting his eyelashes innocently.
“Ronnie actually called and gave me her blessing to kill it for her,” Gareth said smugly.
“That’s so cool,” Jeff said, giving him a high five. “But not gonna lie, having a female drummer would have been kick ass.”
“Oh for sure,” Gareth said, nodding. “I’m just surprised that my parents are letting me do this.”
The four bandmates turned to where Mrs. Hughes was sitting with a Walkman and headphones, just knitting away.
She lifted her head and cocked it to the side. “Hmm?”
“Thanks, Mom,” Gareth said softly. “For letting me skip school to be a rockstar.”
She smiled at him, tucking the headphones around her neck. “Oh who said I was doing that? I am absolutely ‘home’ schooling you so that you can at least graduate.” She looked at all them. “That goes for the three of you as well. You’ll be grateful for it later, I promise.”
They all looked at her in shock and awe.
“Since you other three are technically adults,” she continued, “I can’t make you graduate, but I assure you, having that diploma will be worth it further down the line.”
“And the record label is just going to let you do that?” Jeff asked, tilting his head to the side.
“They actually fully endorsed it,” she said calmly. “They’ve even offered to hire a tutor while you’re in the studio. Especially since with child labor laws, Gare can only being the studio for six hours a day.”
“Oh!” Eddie cried, blinking at her in shock. “Oh shit! I hadn’t even thought about that. So since he’s got to do school during that time, we might as well join in, is that it?”
“Exactly!” Mrs. Hughes said brightly.
Jeff and Brian looked at each and then shrugged.
“I mean, what’s the harm?” Brian said with another shrug. “Like you said, we might want it for later in life and since Gare has to, it won’t hurt for us to finish high school.”
“I’m game,” Jeff agreed. “Like it might actually be kinda fun, having that one on one experience.”
Eddie on the other hand snorted. “I’ll try but I have burned out three of Hawkins greatest minds trying to teach me, so...” He half shrugged. “It’s going to be fucking pointless.”
Mrs. Hughes cocked her head to the side. “I bet I can you to get all your credits to graduate before Jeff and Brian.”
“Yeah, right,” Eddie sneered. “I bet you fail just like everyone else.”
She put down her knitting and took off her headphones and stood up. She walked over to him and said, “I’ll tell you what. If I win you have show up at whatever little graduation ceremony they have here, cap and gown and behave for once in your life.”
“And if you lose?” Eddie asked, looking up at her.
She laughed. It was a bright happy sound and it made Eddie blush. “If you make it but after Jeff and Brian, then you get to do your little stunt off flipping people off, grabbing the diploma and jumping off the stage. And if it takes until Gare graduates, then I won’t make you walk, I’ll have a small personal party with just us and your Uncle Wayne and hand you your diploma.”
He looked at her skeptically. “You promise that I’ll make it regardless?” His bottom lip quivered. He never had someone believe in him when it came to his schooling. Even Wayne had gotten to the point of despairing that Eddie would ever graduate.
“I promise,” Mrs. Hughes said sticking out her hand.
“Thanks Mrs. H.,” Eddie murmured, shaking her hand.
“Oh call me Rhiannon or Ray for short,” she said with a smile. “You all can call me that. Well all but Gare anyway.”
Gareth snorted and rolled his eyes. “Like I would call you anything but Mom.”
She patted his cheek and went to go sit back down. She put her head phones back on and rewound the tape. Then starting where she left off, went back to her knitting.
“I guess it was too much to hope for that we’d get out of school,” Brian sighed wistfully.
Rhiannon laughed, but wisely said nothing.
Eddie sat back in his seat and laid his head back on the headrest. He laced his fingers together and closed his eyes.
He thought back to the person who made this all possible. Because yeah, everyone in this plane (barring the pilots of course) got them there, but if it wasn’t for Steve he might have not had gotten this chance.
Sure an argument could be said for Steve having causing the problem in the first place. But Eddie knew Hawkins. They weren’t going to let him leave without a fight. But thanks to Steve doing the right thing, he got his chance to escape. He just hoped Steve got that same chance. He deserved it.
~
Steve couldn’t believe he was here. He looked up at the stands and could see his dad as well as a handful of college scouts.
He let out a deep shuddering breath. He could do this. He just had to make sure not to fuck up.
Coach Olsen patted him on the shoulder. “Just relax. This is just a game like any other. There is no one in those stands. Just keep your eye on the ball and we’ll get you through this alive.”
“Thanks, Coach.” He shook out his limbs. He could do this.
Then he went out there and played the best game of his life. He even sunk the game winning shot. The crowd was going wild. His fellow players were going wild. His coach was jumping up and down.
They were going to the championship game!
After he had showered and changed back into his street clothes his dad met him at the doors to the locker room with all the other parents.
He looked around but didn’t see any of the scouts. He frowned and shook his head. They were probably still going over the stats for the game. It was no big deal.
“You did great, Steve!” Charles said excitedly. “You were really on fire out there! I could see that the scouts were pretty impressed.”
Steve grinned from ear to ear. “It was really good of the coach to let me play tonight.”
“It really was,” Charles agreed. “I’ve already thanked him and sent him a nice bottle of Jack Daniels.”
“I thank him every time I see him,” Steve admitted. “He told me I can only thank him again after I get a scholarship.”
Charles laughed. “That sounds about right.” He threw his arm around Steve and started leading him to the car. “I’m taking us out to dinner to celebrate! Hell, I’m taking the whole team and their parents!”
A cheer went up and they all followed the Harringtons to Enzo’s where Charles absolutely foot the bill for everyone’s meal, including champagne for the parents and coaches.
They were laughing and celebrating into the night.
As they drove home, Steve taking the wheel because his dad had been celebrating a tad too much, Charles looked over at him.
“I’m really proud of you,” he said fondly. “I know losing your mother the way you did and finding out she didn’t love you was hard, but I really think you’re doing a good job making the best of it.” He paused for a moment. “Minor lapse in judgment aside.”
Steve snorted. “Just a little one.” He took his hands off the wheel for a brief second to put his finger and thumb really close together. “And thanks, Dad. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you.”
“The state swim meet is in two weeks,” Charles said. “I hope you do as well then as you did tonight.”
“Even if it means not following you in your footsteps?” Steve asked, his hands tightening on the steering wheel until his knuckles went white.
Charles let out a sigh. “I really think you would be a great lawyer, Steve. You’re thinking too narrowly. You could go into family law or even anything that wouldn’t require you to be in front of a courtroom and a judge.”
“I know, Dad,” Steve said softly. “I just really think teaching is where I would really shine.”
“We’ll talk about it after the state swim trials,” he said resigned.
The army was in disarray and Dr. Kay was about to rip her hair out. If it had just been that brat Jane Ives, she would have had the data she needed to continue where Dr. Brenner had left off. Not that Lt. Colonel Sullivan knew that.
He assumed that they were trying to stop all the madness with the NINA project. But no, Dr. Kay wanted to perfect it.
She knew that those with these abilities were powerful and they just needed to perfect the device they had used on Henry Creel.
Blocking his abilities worked, but they needed to be able to control them, as well. But as they had learned at Hawkins Lab, that even children raised to soldiers, could still break out of their programming. First with Creel, then with Kali Prasad, Olivia Martinez, and Titus Smith, and then again with Jane Ives.
But it appeared that Olivia Martinez was working with the rebels and literally destroying every military vehicle she could get within strike distance of. Tanks, armored cars and trucks. All gone up in literal smoke as she set them on fire.
Dr. Kay’s records on her stated that she could only control fire, but it seemed the record was severely outdated as Dr. Kay watched Olivia blow things up with her mind, fire streaming from her fingers as torched everything in sight.
She would be impressed if it was someone else’s army, but as it was Dr. Kay’s, she was livid.
She was about to order an air strike when the ground literally was ripped out from under. The earthquakes were getting worse and the sky? She had never seen a red sky before. She wasn’t even sure that a plane could fly over Hawkins anymore.
Fuck.
~
The Vecna strike group stood outside the crater that used to be the Munson’s trailer. The trailer and its contents had been hauled away, barely leaving Wayne a chance to grab what he needed. They had figured the easiest way to open a Gate would be to go to where one had been before and try there.
El felt the ground shudder underneath her feet and Max tightened her grip on her hand.
“Hey, you’ve got this,” Max murmured. “You are tougher than some spider-thing.”
El nodded. She reached out her hand and the earth began to churn. A sickening red blob began to bubble out of the ground, until a Gate formed in front of them.
“Oh!” Joyce gasped. “I don’t know. But I was expecting more of a.. struggle. A battle. But that was even smoother than her previous attempts.”
Hopper’s eyes went from El to the Gate and back. “Does that mean the Mind Flayer is dead?”
El cocked her head to the side. “No, I still feel its presence. But it’s different somehow. Colder. Distant.”
“Well,” Max huffed. “I don’t care why, all I care about is getting in there and kicking One’s stinky ass.” She turned to Kali. “El’s done her job. It’s time to do yours.”
Kali rolled her eyes. As they stepped through the Gate, their numbers tripled. Everyone but the Mind Flayer team, appeared beside them. Like a platoon of soldiers showing up on Vecna’s doorstep.
Just enough to catch his attention and how.
And sure enough, within moments he was standing in front of them. “You can’t stop me, Jane. Not even if you had the whole army on your side. I will win. You just have to choose if you want to live on the winning side, or die on the losing side.”
“I’m just as strong as you are, One,” El bit out. “You and me, asshole. FIGHT ME!!” She screamed the last line, a gauntlet thrown.
Then Henry disappeared.
~
Derek breathed a sigh of relief when Mr. Whatsit up and vanished. Now all he had to do was to convince the other kids to come with him.
He knew the best thing to do would to get close to Holly Wheeler, but as Mr. Wheeler pointed, they hadn’t exactly been friends.
He walked up to her with a big, fake smile. ‘Hey, Holls. Um... can we talk for a minute?’
She turned to him with a glare. ‘Why? So you can bully me about my pigtails again?’
Derek grimace. ‘Yeah, no... like Mr. Whatsit is a bad guy and he’s using us to destroy the world.’
‘Stop lying Derek Turnbow,’ she huffed, putting her hands on her hips and jutting her chin out.
‘Holy shit...’ he breathed. ‘That’s what Nancy did when she said she didn’t believe I had a map back to here.’
‘You’re lying again,’ Holly said with a pout. ‘There is no way you’ve met my sister!’
But before Derek could explain or even so her the necklace, Mr. Whatsit reappeared.
He took one look at Derek and narrowed his eyes.
“Oh shit,” he whispered and turned around to run away. He knew he wasn’t going to get far, but he just hoped it was far enough.
It was not. He had barely ran ten feet before he was tackled to the ground by Mr. Whatsit, to the horror of the other children.
Derek held on to the map, trying to shove it into his coat pocket, but before he could, Mr. Whatsit turned him over and ripped the map from his hands.
He looked at it with dawning horror. ‘Where did you get this map?’
Derek just shook his head.
Mr. Whatsit shook him until his vision blurred and his head swam. “Where. Did. You. Get. This. Map?’
‘From my mind!” Derek screamed. ‘I memorized it!’
‘You’re lying!’ Mr. Whatsit snarled, shaking him again. ‘This is my mind! You can’t map what isn’t yours!’
The other kids stopped, stock still. And then so did Mr. Whatsit when he realized what he had said out loud.
Derek gasped. Mr. Whatsit’s hair was no longer brown, but blond. The glasses had vanished and weird red veins pulsed on his skin.
Mr. Whatsit got to his feet and he began rolling up his sleeves. ‘I will have to deal with you first, then I will take out those meddling rebels next.’
‘Mr. Whatsit?’ Rosie asked, a tremor in her voice. ‘What’s going on?’
Mr. Whatsit smiled at her, every inch of his disguise back in place as if it had never gone.
Almost.
The red veins still continued to crawl up Mr. Whatsit’s arms.
‘I’m just removing the traitor among us,’ he said gently. ‘Derek has become the big bad wolf and we must root out evil wherever we can, mustn’t we, children?’
Holly looked down at Derek and then back at Mr. Whatsit. Derek waited on baited breath. Would she let him kill him or would she finally see Mr. Whatsit for what he was?
Her eyes narrowed when she saw the necklace in Derek’s hand and then she nodded.
Derek leaned back and closed his eyes. This was it. He was going to die here in the Nothing all because he had a crush a crush on a girl who probably didn’t even know his name or that she had been nice to him.
Just then the world shook. Not just the ground, but everything. A crack appeared in the actual sky.
The other children started screaming, but Derek and Holly locked eyes. She knew what was going on.
Music began to fill the air, and Mr. Whatsit changed.
Not to the blond man with the sinister smile, but the monster. The flesh covered, tentacle spouting, Upside Down controlling monster.
Derek scrambled to his feet and grabbed Rosiland’s hand and started running for the new opening in the Nothing.
The other children in their panic blindly followed him to the Gate. He pushed each one through until it was down to him and Holly Wheeler.
‘Come on!’ he snarled. ‘Your sister is waiting for you! Why aren’t you moving?!’
Holly looked over her shoulder. ‘Someone has to stay to make sure he doesn’t follow us!’
‘Well, it’s not going to be you!’ Derek snarled. ‘I think your sister would actually fucking kill me. I think I’d take my chances with Mr. Whatsit. At least with him I know I have a fighting chance!’
Holly blinked at him for a moment and then jumped through to the other side.
~
“Lady Liberty, this is Red Sonja, do you copy?” Nancy called into the walkie talkie.
“This is Lady Liberty, I copy, over,” Erica replied back. She looked over at Titus and shrugged. She wasn’t about explain their call signs to an outsider.
“I’m with Bald Eagle and we’re coming your way,” she said dryly, “and we’re coming in hot. We have all five kids from the Creel House and they’re going to need protection.”
“Roger that,” Erica said. “That should mean that Derek will be coming around any minute, right? Over.”
“He hasn’t yet?” Nancy hissed. “We picked up the kids ten minutes ago. Over.”
Erica looked over at Derek’s sleeping form. “Shit. Over and out!”
She looked over at Titus. “You have to send me to void, now!”
“I don’t know how to do that!” he shrieked. “That was only something that Eleven ever learned. And only because was too young to know limits.”
“Well you best learn,” Erica hissed.
“What’s going on?” Vickie asked, standing up between them. “Where are the kids?”
Erica rolled her eyes. “Nancy and them found them at the Creel house and are on their way here. Only Derek hasn’t woken up and I need asswipe here to send me in the voice so I can kick Vecna’s scaly red ass, for real this time!”
“And I’m telling her,” Titan said waving his arm at her, “that I don’t know how to that!”
“Erica,” Vickie said soothingly. “What does El do when she sends them into the Void?”
She blinked up at her for a moment. “It’s a mind thing. She goes into their mind and sends them to the Void. I think the Void is just the subconscious but for everybody.”
Vickie turned to Titus. “You can read minds, right?”
He let out a shuddering breath. “I mean, yeah. But I’ve never been to the Void before.”
“So read Derek’s mind,” Vickie suggested. “He’s already there, so you should be able to get an idea of what it’s like before sending Erica. Plus, maybe we can figure out what’s going on before Erica goes in guns blazing.”
Erica grinned at her.
Titus rubbed his temples in frustration. “All right. Fine.”
He came up to the side of the sofa by Derek’s head and put his hands on Derek’s temples. Then he let out a gasp.
“Oh shit!” he hissed. “That’s what the Void is?!”
But before either of the girls could answer he was back in Derek’s mind. There was nothing they could do but wait.
A couple minutes pass and Nancy arrived with all the kids in tow, Murray bringing up the rear.
“What’s going on?” she asked when she saw the tableau in front of her.
“Titus is trying to find out what’s going on with Derek not coming out of the Void,” Vickie explained.
Holly let out a cry. “It’s my fault!”
Nancy turned to her and knelt down. “What’s your fault, Hols?”
“What’s going on with Derek,” she said with a sniffle. “We fought over who should stay to make sure Mr. Whatsit didn’t come back and try to hurt us. But we fought for too long. Something drew Mr. Whatsit’s attention away from us, so he must have sent the monsters to bring us back. So when the monsters spotted us, Derek pushed me through portal and ran away.”
“Well, shit.” Erica put her hands on her hips. “This just got more complicated and with Titus still in the Void with Derek and El fighting Vecna, there is no way to get back into the Void and help them.”
“She said a bad word...” Rosie said. “My mom said that people who swear are going to hell.”
Erica leveled her with a glare. “Been there, done that. Got the fucking t-shirt.”
The girl let out a squeak and rushed to hide behind Nancy.
Titus let out a gasp as he came to. “Oh, I’m really going to kill One. That rat bastard. I’m going to shove my fist down his throat and rip out his heart with my bare hands.”
Kay raised his hand. “Who’s Vecna and One and why are we being mean to Mr. Whatsit, he was nice.”
Nancy and Vickie shared a glance over their heads.
Nancy stood up. “They are all the same person and he’s a bad, bad man. He was going to kill all of you to open this world to the evil place and destroy earth.”
The kids made skeptical noises, but really didn’t protest.
Titus took Erica’s hand. “I’m going to need one more person to help me find Derek. Who’s coming with?”
Vickie, Nancy, and Murray all looked at each other.
Then Murray stepped up. “I think it’s down to me. We’re gonna need Nancy and Vickie here in case the radio station gets attacked.”
They all nodded and then Murray took Titus’s other hand.
We are at the penultimate chapter just one more to go!!
More creepy Henry, a bad man comes looking for Ellie, and Dr. Bob is now Dr. Scott Clarke. Ooops!
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 |
~
Robin and Steve were out getting groceries for week and with Henry leaving tomorrow, with Eddie being back to the only one at the Hope House, they weren’t going to be gone long.
So Eddie was hanging out in the reception area with Chrissy tossing M&Ms at each other to see if they could get it in each other’s mouths, when the bell rang out overhead and in walked the most distinguished looking gentleman Eddie had ever seen.
Eddie immediately straightened up and attempted to look busy while Chrissy greeted him brightly.
“Hello!” she said. “Welcome to Hope House! How can I help you?”
The man smiled at her and instantly turned on the charm. “Hello, I’m Dr. Brenner and I’m looking for my adopted daughter, Jane Ives. She ran away from home and I’ve been checking hospitals and halfway houses hoping against hope I can find her alive.”
Chrissy’s smile turned sympathetic. “That’s just awful! But there is no one here by that name.”
“I have a picture, if that would help?” he asked gently, but Eddie bristled as Dr. Brenner worked a photo out of his wallet. “It’s a little worn, but hopefully it will jog your memory.”
Every alarm bell was going off in Eddie’s head at this guy. Maybe it was growing up with a car thief dad, doing his own drug dealing as a teenager, or six years in the joint but every instinct he ever honed was clamoring that something was wrong.
Chrissy took the picture from him and Eddie’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head. It was Ellie, soon to be Ellie Hopper.
This was the asshole who had tattooed the eleven on her wrist and took away her name.
“Sorry,” she was saying when Eddie’s brain came back on. “There is no one like that living here.”
Dr. Brenner nodded and then turned to Eddie. “But perhaps the young man has seen her?”
Eddie looked at him in wide-eyed confusion. “What? Who me? Nah! I was just struck my how much she looked like my cousin at that age. She’s graduating from high school next year, but damn if you hadn’t said that was a Jane Ives I would have for sure thought it was her.” He knocked on the counter. “I’ve got to get ready for work. I’ll catch you later, Christine.”
He turned on his heel and dashed up the stairs. He needed to call Hopper and now.
Dr. Brenner frowned at his retreating back before turning back to Chrissy, taking the picture back from her. “That really is a pity. Would it be all right if I leave you my card in case she does come through here?”
“Of course!” she said and took the card. “I’ll let you know if I have any information I can give you.”
His frown deepened but said nothing, as he turned and left the building.
Chrissy peered out the window and waited until the man had drove off before she dialed up to Eddie’s room, it rang once or twice before she saw Eddie thundering down the steps.
“What the fuck was that all about?” she hissed as he scampered up to her.
“I called Hopper!” he muttered. “I wanted to let him know someone had come sniffing around looking for Ellie.”
“Oh!” she said, her hand coming up to her mouth. “That’s great! I can give Hopper the card and he can track down this guy.”
“Arrest the asshole and throw away the key,” Eddie agreed.
A couple hours later, Hopper called in with the news that Dr. Brenner had been picked up and they were investigating him for child abuse. Hopper was sure they were going to throw the book at him, too.
It wasn’t until Eddie was eating dinner that night that it hit him. The Hope House’s policy of not giving out information to anyone who asked had really come in clutch. Because yeah, it might be a little annoying for people who weren’t trying to hurt their residents, but in this case it protected a little girl from falling back into the hands of her abuser.
And that was always a good thing.
~
That night Eddie got up to go to the bathroom but as he was getting back into bed he thought he heard someone outside of his room.
He paused and tilted his head toward the door, now actively listening.
There!
He tiptoed to the door and opened it up a crack, peering outside into the hall. At first there was nothing there and then he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. A flash of white.
That little fucker, Eddie swore to himself and slipped out into the hall. He saw Henry move down the stairs quickly as if he had practiced it a million times.
He paused by the room next to Henry’s and saw that Dr. Kay was out cold. She wouldn’t had woken even if a bomb went off near her head. He looked over his shoulder at Steve’s room. He knew he should wake him to deal with Henry. It was his job after all, but Eddie couldn’t shake the sense of urgency, so he hurried down the stairs after Henry.
He got the bottom of the stairs and listened again. There! A creak on the step leading up to the kids’ side of the House.
Eddie hurried up the stairs, carefully avoiding the stairs that squeaked. Robin had taught him how to do it, in case he needed Chrissy or her but didn’t want to wake any kids that might be napping during the day.
Traumatized kids tended to sleep a lot, who knew?
Robin’s room was on the far side of the hall and Chrissy’s was on the near side. As Henry was nowhere to be seen, Chrissy’s room was the first port of call.
He paused to open her door, when another door opened behind him. It was Dr. Scott. He had a syringe in his hand and placed a finger to his lips.
Eddie reared back his head in confusion but Scott pointed at the door and held up the syringe, mouthing ‘For Henry’.
Oh. Oh hell yeah, things just got a hell of a lot more interesting. He turned back to his mission and opened the door. There was Henry standing above Chrissy with a pillow in his hand.
“Henry...” Eddie warned low and deep. “You need to put that pillow down and go back to your room.”
“She deserves to die...” Henry said coldly. “Everything she’s done since she ran away from home was for her on self interest. She’s not here to help little kiddies, she’s only here to play house with the other bitch down the hall and after I’m done with this one, she’s next.”
“No, Henry,” Eddie reasoned. “Steve hired her because she had background in eating disorders and nutrition. She didn’t start dating Robin until she’d been here a year.”
Henry frowned. “You lie.”
Eddie took a step forward with his hand out stretched. “I really don’t. Everyone here is here because they want to help people so others don’t leave the life they led. I noticed that Dr. Kay just thinks of you as another psycho that she’s going to study like a bug pinned to a board. But you’re more than that, aren’t you Henry?”
“My father tore me away from everything I’ve ever known to come to this hell hole of a town,” Henry sneered. “And had the audacity to blame me when I acted out!”
Eddie looked over at Chrissy but she didn’t stir at all. Henry caught the movement and smiled, smug.
“I drugged the coffee,” he said with a shrug, “but you were gone all day and Dr. Scott likes his tea, so you two were missed. But I figured that I could get in and out without being seen, clearly I was mistaken.”
“Look, Henry,” Eddie said with a shuddering breath. “Your dad was an asshole. Punishing you for missing your friends and your old house, but these two women don’t deserve your ire.”
“What would you know?” Henry hissed.
“I have my own shit dad,” Eddie confessed, “currently doing time for arson, the piece of shit. So I get it, it’s enough to make you crazy. But those intrusive thoughts? You don’t have to give into them.”
Henry frowned for a moment. “He killed my mother and my sister and then gorged his eyes out.” He looked up at Eddie. “I don’t want to be like him.”
“So don’t, Henry,” Eddie said, and held out his hand. “Just give the pillow and it’ll be just between us, okay?”
Henry nodded and handed the pillow to him. Eddie let out a sigh of relief and took the pillow. He threw it behind him and then reached out to Henry again.
“You are not your father,” he murmured. “You don’t have to give into your impulses. Why don’t we have Dr. Scott give you a nice sedative so you sleep without nightmares, and get some real sleep for a change?”
Henry’s eyes looked down at the outstretched hand and then at the door where there was no doubt, Dr. Scott was waiting. He took Eddie’s hand. Eddie smiled at him and led him out to the hall and into the waiting arms of Dr. Scott who took Henry back to his room and put him to sleep.
Eddie was waiting outside the door when Dr. Scott came back out. “That was really impressive, what you did tonight. I don’t think any of the others would have done as good a job as you did.”
Eddie ducked his head. “He might be rotten to the core and only gave up because he didn’t think he could take me on, or maybe he just needed to hear that he wasn’t to blame for the sins of his father.”
Scott huffed out a laugh. “Sounds like your therapy has been good for something at least.”
“Something like that for sure.”
Come morning, Dr. Kay was sacked, Henry was on his way to Pennhurst with Dr. Scott instead (he’d be back, but he wanted to spend a couple of days making sure Henry got the right care), and everyone had been informed of the incident that happened in the night time.
Steve slapped a piece of paper in front of Eddie. “I know you don’t need a job, but were looking for something anyway, and this is it, Eds. This is what you need. You wanted to something good for ex-cons coming out the pen? Do it here, because Dr. Scott is right. You handled it better than anyone else could’ve.”
They were all gathered around the front desk, Steve, Chrissy, Robin, Wayne, and Eddie.
Eddie picked up the paper and saw that it was an application for the Hope House. “They won’t let you hire me. I’m ex-con. A proper felon.”
Steve shook his head. “Now that we’re 60/40 private/public, I can hire whoever I want. And I want you, sunshine.”
Eddie blushed all the way to the roots of his hair. “Aww, Stevie, I’m starting to think you like me.”
Steve jumped over the counter and slid down the space between Eddie and it. Eddie’s eyes went wide as he took in the heated look that Steve was giving him.
“And what I if I more than liked you?” Steve breathed. “What then?”
“Then, I’d have to do this,” Eddie murmured. He cupped Steve’s cheek and pressed their lips together.
The other three began cheering, causing them to break off the kiss sooner then they wanted.
“Yes, yes,” Chrissy huffed. “Very cute and I’m happy for you both, but we’re all serious about the job, Eddie. Like do you know how long we’ve been looking for someone who could handle this job? All the people with the credentials look down at people like Henry. Like me. Like Max. They would be absolutely terrible for Hope House.”
“She’s right,” Robin agreed, nodding. “Anyone with all the fancy training would have gone in there, tackled Henry to the ground and had Dr. Scott jab him. But not you. You talked him down and he was able to come to the decision by himself he didn’t want to be like his dad.”
“So how about it, Eds?” Steve murmured. “You’ll stay at Hope House? With me?”
Eddie smiled that sweet double dimpled smile and said softly, “Yeah, baby. I’ll stay here at Hope House with you.”
Well, here it is. It's a bit short, but it's finally done. Next week I will start putting out "Stockholm Syndrome is a Bitch" the accidental robbery AU I've been working on.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 |
~
Three Years Later:
Eddie came into the trailer they were sharing on the set of their new movie, Hawkins’ Galaxy Hijinks, phone in hand.
“Hey, babe,” he said gently. “Did you remember to set our anniversary post as private?”
Steve looked up from his script. He was still costume as Capt. Smollett, completely dashing in his navy blues.
The movie they were doing was kinda a Muppets Treasure Island meets a live action “Treasure Planet” meets Pirates of the Caribbean in space. Basically it was a gay space pirate romp with Treasure Island as a backdrop. And it was directed by Robin and written by Dustin. Basically they had gotten the band back together.
“What do you mean?” Steve said cocking his head to the side.
Eddie turned his phone around and let him take it. Steve frowned for a moment as he read article after article about Eddie Munson and Steve Harrington being secretly married for a year and each on had picture of his Instragram post that said:
‘Happy One Year Anniversary, My Love’ and picture of Steve and Eddie cutting a large wedding cake together.
Steve was on his feet in an instant. “Oh no, oh no, oh shit.” He looked up at Eddie stricken. “Shit! Why didn’t Bob call me or Robin or or anyone! The post has been up for six hours!”
Eddie took the phone back from Steve and threw it on the bed. “Take a deep breath, darlin’. We’re okay. They called me first and when I told them it was fine that we came out that way, they let it go. But after awhile I started to wonder if it was intentional...”
Steve let out a shuddering breath. “It’s okay?”
Eddie held Steve’s head in his hands and kissed him on the lips deeply. “It’s more than okay. It’s sweet and kinda perfect actually.”
He blinked up at Eddie in confusion for a moment before he relaxed into Eddie’s embrace. “Okay. Thank god.”
“Chrissy and Bob are working together to put out a joint statement and we’ll probably have to do a couple of morning shows or podcasts, but it’ll be fine.”
Steve laid his head on Eddie’s shoulder. “Definitely the Veronica Stiles Podcast. Her first, even.”
“I think I can agree to that,” Eddie murmured into Steve’s hair.
Suddenly there was a loud, “Everyone on set!” and Steve and Eddie raised their heads.
“Our cruel mistress calls,” Eddie said with a grin.
“I’m going to tell her you said that!” Steve cried and made a dash for the door.
“Like hell you will!” Eddie replied chasing him out the door and then skidded to a stop. He turned around grabbed Steve’s wig (wig stand and all) and then ran after his husband. “Come back here, you forgot your wig!”
He held up the styrofoam head in the air.
Steve froze and laughingly said, “Oops!” He was forced to walk back to Eddie to get his wig back.
As he took the wig from Eddie he murmured, “I’m still gonna tell her.”
“Is there nothing that will spare me from my doom?” Eddie asked with a wink.
Steve looked up at him. “Maybe a kiss might spare you.”
“A kiss huh?” Eddie asked, pulling him in close. “Your wish is my command.”
A cheer went up as they kissed right out there in open for the first time.
“I love you, sunshine,” Steve murmured.
“I love you too, darlin’,” Eddie said softly.
Later they would go on Veronica Stiles’ podcast about becoming friends after such a rocky start and how they fell in love.
They would talk about dating for a year before they got engaged and then another year before they wed. They talked about how hard it was to keep it a secret but also how freeing it was to not have the press hounding their every move.
Steve brought up how them coming out as a couple was an accident.
“A very happy one,” Eddie assured him, bumping their shoulders together, causing Steve to smile back.
“There had been rumors for years,” Veronica said smugly. “How did you manage to fool everyone?”
Eddie grinned. “Because I was always teasing my male friends by doing the ‘Walk of Shame’ coming out of their hotel rooms for years before Steve and I met, so on the times it couldn’t be avoided that we would be seen together, I would do the ‘Walk of Shame’ boots in hand and the rumors would die out for awhile and then I’d do it again.”
“Well,” she said with a smile. “I’m happy for you both.”
I feel like we should be nearing the end but there is way too much plot to happen. And just a heads up, not all of your favorites will survive. I've a few deaths planned and that includes some of the main cast.
In this we have the Mind Flayer and I rescue another character from the Duffers' bad writing.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 |
~
So, yes Eddie did know where the Mind Flayer was, but there was an army of demogorgons between them and it.
Lucas patted the flame thrower they had and said, “That’s what this puppy is for. To mow through those motherfuckers and end this once and for all.”
Eddie nodded. “I think that getting to the Mind Flayer is the important part. I can’t tell you why I feel this way, but I think it can reasoned with.”
Everyone turned and looked at Will.
“Wait why is everyo–” he paused mid breath as his brain caught. “You want me to reason with a being that has tried to kill me on so many occasions, it’s practically a tradition?!”
Steve frowned. “How did you survive down here for seven days?”
“What?” Will asked, frowning in confusion. “I’ve told everyone that story. Multiple times in fact. They couldn’t find me.”
“Couldn’t or wouldn’t, Will,” Mike asked gently. “You even said yourself that the Upside Down needs balance. What if Vecna didn’t choose you, the Mind Flayer did?”
Will blinked at him for a moment. “Holy shit.”
“Uh, guys...” Eddie said looking past the Party. “I don’t want to put a damper on this knowledge fest but um... I think we’re surrounded.”
Sure enough they were four demogorgons and eight demodogs ringed around them.
“Well, shit,” Dustin growled. “We don’t have any Powered folk with us, one flame thrower, and a monster guy who looks like a former friend. I think we’re pretty much fucked.”
“Rude,” Eddie huffed. “I could be real. You don’t know!”
Everyone slowly pulled out their weapons as the monsters stared at them as though they were waiting for orders.
“Robin you take the flame thrower,” Steve said dully. “Dustin and I’ve got the spears and shields.” He dug into his backpack and tossed a package at Lucas. “They’re cherry bombs. Light ‘em and sling shot them directly into their maws. Mike, you protect Will. And Dustin you are so wrong about not having any Powered folk with us. Will tear them to shreds.”
Eddie cocked his head to the side and asked with a grin. “And where do you want me, darlin’?”
“I figured you already had your own plans,” Steve said with a shrug. Then he realized how that sounded. “Not that I thought you were going to run off or anything, just that I’ve never seen you in action!”
Eddie grinned and licked his lips. “I getcha, sweetheart. I didn’t doubt you for an instant.” Then he flew up and all the monsters shrieked at him, the others taking advantage of their inattention to attack.
The battle was short and bloody. There were a few injuries on their side, but nothing major. But as they were tending to the wounds, a demodog they thought had been put down by Steve’s spear, leapt straight for Dustin’s throat.
There was nothing anyone could do, the demodog was too fast. Then out of nowhere, something slammed into the demodog mid air, before it could reach Dustin.
The two creatures wrestled and fought, the Party staring on in shock as this small battle raged.
Then it over, and they could see what had saved Dustin. It was a demogorgon. But it was battle scarred, with burn marks down the left side of its...flower? Face? Whatever it was, that shit had to be painful.
Everyone stared in slack-jawed shock as they watched the thing crawl toward Dustin and pause just out of arms length from the teen.
“Holy shit,” Mike said breathlessly. “I think that’s the demogorgon from the hospital when we rescued Max. Those burns are from Jonathan throwing rubbing alcohol on it and then lighting it on fire.”
Then it did something no one in their right minds would have expected in a million years. The thing whined. Like a dog.
“D’art?” Dustin breathed. It couldn’t be. All the demodogs from the tunnels died. Right?
The demogorgon closed its flower and nudged the tip toward the teen. Dustin reached out carefully oh so carefully and put his hand on the tip of the closed flower and the demogorgon melted into Dustin’s touch.
“Uh...” Lucas said into the deafening silence. “I think Dustin has a pet demogorgon...”
Mike crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. “He would.”
Robin laughed. “Yeah, of all the people involved in this only Dustin would find away to tame a demogorgon.”
“Well!” Eddie said clapping his hands. “I think it’s time we found the Mind Flayer, yes?” He looked around him nervously. “I really don’t like being out in the open like this.”
Everyone scrambled to their feet and hurried along, Eddie at the lead. But the demogorgon hadn’t moved.
Dustin whistled and waved. “Come on, boy. Come on, D’art.”
The demogorgon came bounding up to him like an overexcited puppy, happily trailing at Dustin’s feet.
Robin gave it a side eye and wisely gave the thing a wide berth. “Can we trust that thing?” she asked Steve in a whisper.
Steve looked over his shoulder and then back at her. “Eddie or D’art?”
Ahead of them Eddie snorted.
“Um...” Robin said, eyes wide. “Either? Both? Also what’s up with the name Dart?”
Steve laughed. “I’m pretty sure we can trust both and as for the name, it’s one of the Musketeers. The fourth one or whatever.”
“Steve!” Dustin cried. “He’s named after D’Artagnan from ‘The Three Musketeers’. He’s one of my literary heroes!”
“Yeah,” Steve huffed. “And he’s made the fourth Musketeer in the next book. Like there is a literal book called ‘The Four Musketeers’.”
Dustin rolled his eyes. “That’s a movie. The actual book is called ‘Twenty Years After’. So technically you’re correct, but still very, very wrong.”
Eddie chuckled up ahead. “Not true. You are both wrong. ‘The Four Musketeers’ is actually part two of ‘The Three Musketeers’.”
If you asked Mike later he would absolutely deny the squeak that came out of his mouth when Eddie spoke.
He had forgotten that the beast leading them to the Mind Flayer was in fact, Eddie.
“Still waiting for your voice to crack there, Wheeler?” Eddie cackled.
Mike ducked his head and blushed. “Shut up, man.”
His friends chuckled and even Robin and Steve shared an amused glance.
“Well, we’re here...” Eddie said, looking up.
They all followed his line of sight and sure enough, looming several stories above their heads was the Mind Flayer.
It shrieked at them so loudly that everyone was forced to cover their ears. Will sank to his knees as the beast continued its vocal barrage on their senses.
“Shut up!” Lucas yelled. “God! You can read minds, you fucker! Read ours!”
The shrieking abruptly stopped, the echo ringing in their ears.
Will stood up on shaky legs. He took a step forward and nearly stumbled, but Mike was there, holding him up.
“I’m sorry I haven’t been there for you,” he murmured. “Not the first time, and not every time since. But I’m here now and I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”
Will nodded and together they walked up to the Mind Flayer. “Eddie says that you can be reasoned with. We just want to be left alone. But you’re destroying our world and we will do whatever it takes to stop you.”
He paused a beat.
“Even if it means killing you,” he said coldly. “You have made my life a living hell for years. I want to be free of you. Of all of the Upside Down.”
The Mind Flayer shrieked and Eddie cleaned out one ear. “Like ow. You don’t have to shriek to be heard you know.”
The ground began to shake and everyone lurched from side to side. Eddie managed to catch Robin and Steve before they fell, but Lucas and Dustin fell to the ground.
“Well you don’t,” Eddie insisted. “I can understand you just fine. Will can too. There is no need for histrionics.”
Is this better, you insignificant insect?
“Hey!” Will shouted. “You leave him alone! You’re big and bad, I get it. But if I’m right about Eddie’s hunch, you want Vecna out of your dimension just as much as we do. But to do it we have to work together. And that means letting El open a gate.”
What would that serve? You are all but ants to his power, you can not stop him. If a being such as I cannot stop him, what hope do you have?
Well that was fair enough, he supposed, but they had something Henry didn’t. Each other. “We outnumber him. There are four of us with powers now. We can take him on, but only if you let us. Because if you’re against us, we have the power to take you out at least. And that would suck for you.”
The stories high creature was silent for a moment as it contemplated its odds. What else would you have me do? Now that I have let in the girl and her compatriots.
“That’s a good start,” Will acknowledged. “Do you control the creatures or does he?”
The creatures were not here before he arrived. I as you see me now was not here when he arrived. He created this form because he wanted something he could see, feel, touch.
The Mind Flayer shuddered and the ground shook.
“Holy shit,” Steve breathed. “Vecna is violating this place. You. It’s not supposed to look like this is it?”
The Mind Flayer turn to Steve. You see much. More than they give you credit for. But yes. This... Upside Down as you call it, did not always look like this. I will not insult you and say that it was bright, but it was not this red. This open wound.
“So why do you need Will?” Mike asked, still holding on to Will for dear life.
Because if this world is not returned to its balance it will tear apart and take your world with it.
“If Vecna were to, say be destroyed...” Robin asked with a grimace, “would that also return this world back to normal?”
The Mind Flayer turned its full attention to her and boy could she feel it. It was intense. If this was what Will felt all the time it was no wonder the kid was stressed all time.
I do not know. But I will let you try.
“Do you control the demogorgons and the like?” Dustin asked, his hand on D’art’s shoulder.
I do not. Nor do I know what would happen to the little one should things go back to the way they were.
The demogorgon wrapped his hand around Dustin’s ankle possessively.
“Well, he did survive the tunnels,” Steve said with a shrug. “Maybe he’ll survive...this...” he trailed off. He looked over at Eddie and cocked his head to the side. “Oh.”
Everyone else looked around at each other trying to figure out what Steve was talking about. It was Robin that got him first.
“Oh!” she breathed. “If D’art can survive outside of the tunnels when the others died, then maybe the same could be said for Eddie.”
“Uh...” Eddie said with a grimace. “That’s sweet and all, but I’ve changed too much. I’ve got wings and claws and wolfy feet. I’m more monster than man at this point.”
The Mind Flayer turn its attention to Eddie and it was so consuming that even Steve felt a shiver down his spine.
And there is something else that I can do for you. But not yet. Not when you need the power of your current form. Go! I am done with you for now.
And they all scrambled to get away from the creature. Then the ground began to shake.
